Truck Loading

Image by Sentrawoods. via Flickr

The day started pretty well. I say this because Katharine stepped outside and commented on how beautiful and bright blue the sky was. Not many cloud in the sky and a bright beautiful day. Perfect start to the moving day or so we thought. Apparently, someone forgot to tell us that Murphy would be visiting on this day, as he does on many days. But today was a bit different. His Law struck quickly and reminded us that he was present. I went to pick up the truck at 8 am and things seemed fine. I drove to a storage unit I have had for awhile to empty it prior to returning home. When we arrived and attempted to lower the loading ramp, we learned that it was off the track and required some to literally crawl underneath the truck to fix. We got it out and tried to get it to go back in, but after 20 minutes of trying I called the service number. They said it could be up to 2 hours before a dispatched driver would come to check out the problem. We decided to load without the ramp since there was not that much. We were done and had arranged for a new dispatch to come to the house, because we were already 45 minutes behind schedule. Just as we were pulling out of the Public Storage, here comes the Penske repair truck. I stopped and he looked at the issue and said, “oh wow they did not tell me this. I can’t fix this here.” Excuse me? So what are our options here? We ended up calling the local hub center for Penske and they told us we had to drive it there and get a new truck. Apparently, they also misunderstood the type of truck I had and after driving 20 minutes to that location was told they put another loading ramp, not in place of the broken one, but left the broken one in place and simply laid a new one in the back. They told me to leave room as I packed to allow it to slide back in the back of the truck. What? It is now 11 am and I have a group of people sitting at my house waiting to start. After a little complaining I ended up getting $300 off. Okay that was a sweet reward for the headache, sort of. When all was said and done the truck was so packed we still had things left. (That’s another story for another post about the packing of the truck). So I had no way of storing this loading ramp in a place not designed to hold this  equipment. I had to call Penske  a gain tell them to pick up the ramp and they will have to deliver another once we get to the new house. They were not pleased, but what could they do. I needed that valuable space to load. 

There were several other blunders and Murphy's law moments, but I  they were overshadowed by the generosity and charity of complete strangers. There were several members from a church that one of Katharine’s relatives attends that came out to help. We even had a few special little helpers that were more than willing to give up a day of summer fun to help. They were adorable and very eager to help. There were many people that came and went through the day to assist. Friends, Family, Strangers all very interested in Elias and helping us on our way. It was very touching and I know I keep saying this, but more than words can say. The woman’s group from the church provided drinks, donuts, coffee, barbecue and veggies. It was a very wonderful gesture and completely unexpected, but wonderfully appreciated.  It was a huge help to have so many helping to load and clean. We could not have done it without them! Tomorrow some of the same crew and a few additions are traveling with us to unload at our new home. All of these amazing people, family and friends made this a reality that would not have been possible without. Thank you all who may be reading. You are all very dear to our hearts and we will always remember your generosity. This includes some very supportive and caring readers as well that reached out and contributed in ways we would have never expected. Thank you Thank you all. We simply can not express this enough to all of you!