The great train migration

First off here is a picture of my Dad with his Fire engine, a 1962 Crown with a Waukesha gasoline engine. It is fully decked out with everything a real fire truck would have minus a defibrillator and prescription drugs.

Now to get an idea of the scope of the task involved, remember I have to move an apartment full of stuff that is approximately 20'x15', an 89 Chevy 2500, and a storage unit full of stuff. The fire truck is not going with us. I do not have a pic of my dad's apartment as it was not possible to get one of the whole apartment. Here is the storage unit minus the fire truck. The empty space in the middle is where the fire truck goes, the red lines on the floor and boxes are guides so he can park it himself. Every Apple box in the picture has either books about fire trucks and trains, or pictures of same. Every other box in the picture has trains or toy fire trucks in them. (most everything has been sold now).

Obviously not everything is going with us. So my first job is to figure out what the least expensive method of dragging it all back would be, and which route to take. Through California, and Oregon? (I'd rather suck the snot from a dogs nose than go through CA), or I go through Oregon, Idaho and Nevada? Well this is a tough one because if you remember back in November of 2012 some monster storm was forecast to go through the area and it is winter, and there are road closures and summits to think about. which way??? which way???

First, what method to use? I looked in to several truck rental companies, and against the wishes of my nephew I chose U-haul (he wanted to drive a diesel). There were a multitude of different ways to do it through U-haul, some of which are new. but to save time I will cut to the chase. I found that the least expensive way was to rent a truck and a vehicle hauling trailer to be pulled behind the truck. Even though gas mileage would be 4 MPG this was still cheaper than driving my dad's truck as well as the u-haul. Just to let you know I looked at 5 different scenarios. The truck I chose was a 26 footer since we did not know exactly how much room the stuff would take up, and the real problem was weight. The trucks all had different weight limits. My dad has LOTS of books. Books weight about 30~ pounds per cubic foot. The truck I chose could handle 7000 pounds. The truck hauling trailer was rated at only about 500 or 600 pounds more than the empty weight of my dad's truck. See this stuff is not as simple as you would think.

Now the route. A 26 foot truck hauling a trailer with a truck on it is VERY long, almost as long as a SEMI. Best effort return trip was 3 days for 8 to 12 hours of driving in a truck limited to 55mph (max speed of the trailer). So we have to stay in motels or hotels BUT they have to be able to handle something RV length or Longer. I did not trust the information on hotel websites as to the type of parking they have. I used google earth to scope out hotels with the right type of parking. I also wanted them to have at least one restaurant nearby within walking distance. Once the truck was on the trailer taking it off would be reserved for an emergency (the truck was also a backup in case the U-haul broke down). Being the thorough guy I am, I mapped out 2 routes back to Phoenix, one through OR, CA, and one Through OR, ID, NV. I made sure I had at least 3 choices of hotels at each city we would be stopping in. I tried to pick cities that were about 8 hours apart. I will not bore you with the details. This took about 3 days to plan.

But what to do with a 26' long, 12' tall, 8' wide, who knows how much it weighs antique fire engine? Well That decision came about 3 or 4 days in to my second trip up to Seattle. I would move it to a second storage locker and sell it on ebay.

There was also a lathe and a drill press to think about.

In between all this I was getting calls from the doctor about my dad's condition, and while he was getting better, I was having to contend with the thought that the man I had known for the first 12 years of my life, then had not seen for about 14, and had barely got to know or see again over the last 20 years might not be around much longer or might soon no longer know who I am.



Next Post:

"Securing his release", or "I don't want to go on the cart... I'm getting better!"