On the Road Again: U-Haul Stories

One thing about the Trever-Millers, we're kinda famous for our moves.  Not dance steps, our many moves around the country.  I like to tell people I went to 14 different schools by the time I graduated high school.  We were military brats for a time, but even after my parent's divorce, I liken my mother's notions of moving to that of Juliette Binoche's character in Chocolate.  She felt the wind blow and knew it was time to go.

In her book she dedicated a paragraph to the week-long drive from Rapid City, South Dakota to Tucson, Arizona:

We again "upped the anti" in the gutsiness department.  This time we were taking our U-Haul of possessions cross country to a place none of us had ever been.  My parents flew out to Rapid City and drove our car, Sarah and Weesnick (the one who supposedly couldn't travel in cars), while Andy and I managed the big truck.  We had to struggle mightily because the local office had given us a lemon to palm off on another state.  It broke down, didn't have the power steering and automatic shift that was promised, the emergency brake didn't work, and was basically a huge gangly truck.  I drove and handled the clutch while 10 year old Andy operated the top gear shifts that I couldn't reach, "Going for fourth." (as I put in the clutch but couldn't look at him) and he would respond "Got it," so that I knew I could let go of the clutch.  It took all four of our hands and arms to turn the steering wheel, and he was the look-out since the outside rear view mirror on my side was broken.  The last night as we were driving along the highway the desert was illuminated by yellow reflector lights ahead of us as far as the eye could see.  Both Andy and I commented that it looked like the yellow brick road that we were following to our next adventure.

Originally I wasn't going to include the U-Haul story in the blog, but I found something today that changed my mind.  A drawn caricature of my mom in a U-Haul, and an account written by SOMEONE ELSE of our move from Tucson to Fort Collins a few years later.

Moving was part of mom and who she was.  That essence of the Yellow Brick Road and that the next adventure was always on the horizon haunted and delighted her.

I have no idea who wrote this, but its a wonderful description of our life on the move, and I love the imagery of mom ferreting around in boxes and the purple eye-patch brigade that saw her off.

(excerpt from "The Move")
THE MOVE

This detailed description is not for the faint-hearted, nor for anyone contemplating a move in the near future.  Consider yourself forewarned!

Part The First----Preparation

     Jan became a box fiend, ferreting out every nook and cranny for a month before the actual event.  The professional movers' estimate of $300 for the supply of boxes alone was enough motivation.  She learned to haunt the campus hallways and staircases, the bookstore ramp, the new Mental Health office finishing its move into the old TKE house.  A dear friend, Anne Price, sponsored a Garage Sale at her house for Jan the week before the move, and the $232 she cleared while lightening up on furniture possessions almost covered the $250 car repairs that week to get the old Bobcat trip safe.

     June 10th became a red letter day with a surprise farewell party in the Nugent building.  Imagine a wall full of rogues all wearing purple eye patches with a letter on each..."Goodbye Jan."  An incredible famous first!  There were goodies everywhere to eat, a beautiful pottery dish platter by Marcy Wrenn, and Lisa Stark gleefully videotaping every moment.  What a shock.  What a delight.  What a gift.  (Jan will never again fall for the line about the engineer needing to know where to cut out the door in the CAPS room).

Part The Second----Loading

The professional estimate was for a 14' rental truck which was then reserved and picked up the afternoon of June 12th.  The first omen of the trip came when it was picked up: Jan's 17 year old son Andrew had to spend a while jiggling the key in the ignition before it would turn in order to start.  In the process they noticed the turn signals of the car reflected in the U-Haul window were again not working.  When they got back to the apartment and called the car repair place and were given the green light to bring it in at 5 PM, Vic Zimmerman came to the apartment front door offering moving help; he got swept up in the drama and shuttled Andrew back and forth across town twice with the car.

Meantime, people began arriving for the Pizza-Loading party.  It turned out to be a real "happening" at Skyline BelAire apts.  Anne Price arrived and began building a custom-made box for a tall, skinny Jakarta batik display piece; Dana, this year's CA at Career and Placement Services, was commissioned as the evening's photographer; Marie Cory came in her little sports car convertible with the moving Dolly in the backseat, and she began by fastening down the plastic covers on each mattress and box spring.  Peer Advisor Jennifer Bluestone and friend Joe came to help, then Gavin and Lois Meerdink and City and Bob Johnson arrived and the professional moving of the evening began.  Gavin out-did himself by meticulously figuring out the giant jigsaw puzzle--he put a 16' truck's worth of stuff into a 14' truck because the U-Haul offices had already closed at 6:30 and no truck exchange was possible.
  
Jan had had two recent nightmares: that the truck would be too small at the last minute despite expert advice, and that it would rain.  Sure enough, it went from a drizzle to a good rain, then began to let up as they were loading the piano, anyway.

By 10 pm the deed was almost done...Marie Cory and Tarek Moses (Andrew's friend from Tucson who was going to make the trip to Fort Collins) took two cars to store the unpackable items leftover to Marie's house, Ellen Rosfeld was rearranging the car's hatchback for the trip complete with additions of a Kirby vacuum cleaner, typewriter, kitty litter, aloe vera plant, etc...  All the while Cindy and Lois had totally cleaned the apartment and they polished off the evening with a mini-auction/Give-Away of the contents that wouldn't make the trip or handle storage well.

(goes on for 5 pages! Will post when I get my scanned documents together...)