Bringing Home, Our New Home.
January, 17 2009
5:00AM
We left at five, when morning air was still dark and fog hung low on our surroundings. The trip down went smooth with the exception of hitting a deer head on in the first 60 minutes of the drive. The impact dented in the front bumper in on the truck, but no serious harm done.
1:00PM
We arrived in Boise at Camping World at around 1:15, just in time to meet Frank, the current owner of the Airstream. The Airstream was brought to the dealership to get inspected before we bought it.
After closing the deal with Frank we went down to the U-Haul store a few blocks away to pickup the 14’ moving van my dad had reserved, to tow the Airstream back to Montana with. We knew that towing a 31’ trailer 450 miles was probably looked down upon by U-Haul, but, it was our only option, since we could not find someone with a big enough vehicle to pull something this big.
Once back at Camping World, we
examined the hitch of the Airstream and U-Haul. At this moment we discovered a lack of light hookups on both the trailer and the U-Haul. The trailer was old with outdated hookups and the U-Haul was new, with precautionary special hookups, which we guessed were in place to ensure that non-compliant customers such as ourselves didn’t try and pull anything that may compromise the shape of the vehicle.We talked with the service workers at Camping World who, we were dismayed to find out that not only did they look down upon us using the U-Haul services illegally, but that in doing so we might face bigger consequences than we realized if the company found out.
We hooked up the trailer to the U-Haul anyways, without the tail lights or turn signals. We had no other choice, the situation was getting gritty. It was getting late and we had a very large trailer with nowhere to put it and we needed to start the trip home.
We pulled out of the dealership, with Carolyn and I following close behind my dad and the Airstream to try and conceal the fact that we did not have lights on the oversize load. In a couple of blocks we pulled into the parking lot of a Lowe’s. My dad got out and walked to the side of Carolyn and my vehicle. He told us he was having second thoughts about the w
hole idea of towing the trailer with no lights on the interstate in busy city traffic. The hookups to the trailer were old and rickety, held together by bailing wire. He couldn’t get the idea out of his head that if the trailer were to come loose in traffic, what a deadly consequence that may be.Upon hearing this news, my insides plummeted. Now I was feeling very nervous, a bit cornered. We had driven 400 plus miles to a destination for not much reason other than to hand off a check to some guy for a big hunk of metal.
We sat in silence in the lot for some time, none of us having any idea of what to do next. My attention focused on a truck that passed by. After noticing the driver, I recognized him as someone I knew.
“There goes Brandon.” I said to Carolyn and my dad who sat beside me. My dad looked at the truck now exiting the parking lot then at me “You mean your brother’s old friend?”
Brandon had been my brother’s very best friend for years when we first moved to Montana. It had been a good seven years since I saw him last, and I had heard from his mom that he had gotten married a few years ago.
“He has a nice truck, go chase him down,” my dad said to me half jokingly. I watched him as he pulled out of the parking lot.
“Too late. He just pulled out, he’s gone.” I said, kind of relieved I didn’t have to submit myself to the embarrassment of that encounter.
No sooner had we drifted back into silent contemplation, when Brandon came driving by again from the way he left. He parked 100 feet away, and a woman I presumed to be his wife jumped out of the truck and went into the store. I took this opportunity to approach him. He probably wouldn’t be able to do anything, but he was familiar with the city, and having another person to console in would be a comfort.
3:00PM
Brandon walked over to where we were parked. He seemed puzzled by the situation. Soon his wife, Dawn, joined us. After recounting our story, and exploring our different options, Brandon offered his truck to tow the trailer back up to Montana. We were shocked by this offer, and didn’t know how to respond. This seemed to be the easiest and most straight forward way of getting the trailer up to Montana. But it was one enormous favor. In the end we agreed, with no other options, as long as we could take the two of them out to dinner.
9:00pm
The evening with Brandon and Dawn was rejuvenating. They were wonderful company and it was nice to catch up with the past. All of the stress from earlier seemed to fade. At the end of the evening, we exchanged farewells in the U-Haul parking lot where we returned the moving van and agreed to return Brandon’s truck to him the following weekend. We left the U-Haul center re-energized. Though we had been up since 5:00am that morning we did not feel it. We had overcome so much and things were starting to look up. We turned down a side street, which we hoped would bring us back to the main road that would lead us to the interstate. The street turned a corner and became a small residential neighborhood. We drove until the street took another turn that should have led to the main road, instead abruptly ending in a narrow culdesac with apartment complexes packed in on all sides. With a 31ft trailer in tow, it was damn near impossible to turn it around. Fifteen minutes later, after pulling apart a makeshift median to make room and precariously fitting the Airstream between the driveways on opposite sides of the street, we turned the thing around. By this point the whole neighborhood was watching.
10:00PM
By 10:00 we were off the interstate and on the smaller roads that would lead us through Crater of the Moon, up through Salmon, over Lost Trail Pass and back into Montana. Despite our early start that morning we drove until 1:00AM. It felt good to be clear of the congested city traffic and making our way back home.
(Current Resting Place in Hamilton, MT)
