It’s now April 2nd and I’ve mostly settled in. The drive turned out to be mostly anti-climatic. Without having the trailer, we loaded the car to the gills with moving boxes with the cat squeezed up behind the driver/passenger seats. Kate came with me to help with the moving. Steve arranged to get us accommodations from Fri-Mon so we had good sleeping arrangements pending getting moved in. It turns out that all of the shopping is within a half-mile of the intersection of Wyoming Blvd and 2nd Street. But over the weekend we made multiple trips back and forth, to wit:
Walmart 5 trips
Home Depot 4 trips
Sam’s Club 3 trips
Staples 2 trips
Best Buy 2 trips
1. Rented a bed for a month for $90. as a bridge to when my Sleep Number bed arrives. Currently scheduled to arrive April 20th (just in time for my birthday).
2. Got recliner loveseat to provide seating in the living room. And a 55″ Roku enabled TV. I didn’t bother to get cable, but am relying on internet connection.
Loveseat powered Recliner
TCL Roku powered TV
3. Speaking of the internet – it has taken me nearly a week to get a stable internet. I’ve been doing WiFi internet for years and thought I understood most of what was going on. I went through the help line (after wading through several levels of phone ‘help’ to get to a representative) for both Spectrum and Netgear. The end result was trying two versions of the WiFi router and 2 editions of the modem and finally got it up Thursday. Thank God for the iPhone connection via the cellular network.
4. Got the cat a scratching post/climbing tree. Also hung up the Kling Family blanket that I got from Jan. At least I’ll have something up on the walls until the next trip back in early May.
Kling Family
Poppie’s Clock
5. Kate flew out on Monday after having worked mightily to get me unpacked. She was a tremendous help in making the move easier. More info later.
See the previous entry regarding the hitch installation. This morning I received a call from U-Haul stating that the trailer I had arranged to rent from the St Johns location in Portland was unfortunately no longer available, and that no slightly larger trailer was available as a free upgrade. There is however a 4×8 foot trailer available at Don’s Rental in St Helens, OR – about 45 min north.
I discussed by hitch issues and they agreed to move the reservation back to noon to allow me to get up there.
I tried calling the Portland U-Haul to ask about whether or not they had succeeded in getting a hitch to install, but after wading through their automated phone prompts they quoted a 25 minute wait I bailed. I will continue thinking happy thoughts and assume all will go well.
So I will get a delightful hour drive through the Oregon countryside to get the trailer, after the hitch installation. I have actually driven that route before, in the reverse direction go get home after snowstorm closed the Coast Range passes while we were at the coast in Seaside, OR. It was an all day event to successfully get home by driving US-30.
Hopefully the drive on Thursday will be less of an adventure. Fingers crossed.
I got a call from U-Haul today. He apologized but didn’t have the hitch to install on my car on Monday afternoon. He will try calling his vendors on Monday to try expediting the shipment. I explained my schedule, noting I was supposed to pick up the trailer on Thursday at 10:00am and leaving that afternoon.
We discussed the options and he rescheduled the install at 7:00am on Thursday (to ensure I had the spot reserved). He said he would also check around for any U-Haul locations that could overnight him the parts if needed. If it is at all possible he will get the hitch installed in time to pick up the trailer.
The girls happened to be over here to hear so we discussed options. One option would be to pare down what I was taking this trip to essentials that would fit in the car. Since I’m coming back the first of May in conjunction with our trip to Disneyland, I would plan on making another load with trailer then. That would work, and is only a month’s delay.
Along with the issues with ordering the washer/dryer combo (see edit below) it seems like for every two or three steps forward, there’s one step back.
I’m counting down my last week as an Oregon resident. I bought my first major purchase (to be delivered in WY) – a smaller electric washer/dryer sized for a person. In the old days, you would wander into an appliance store, look over what they had and decide on what you wanted. Today I spend most of an evening surveying what was available with the characteristics I wanted. I found the one I wanted – a 2021 Equator EZ-5500CV – that was available from Home Depot and ordered it with expected delivery 31 March-4 April.
Overnight, Home Depot cancelled the order for reasons unknown. While researching why, I discovered that it was actually coming from from a firm called Builder Depot. So I looked them up and discovered that those washers were backordered from the mfg with no estimate on actual shipping, but they had last year’s model – a 4400N available. Since it only lacks the smart phone connection via WiFi and COVID specific sanitizing I figured I could live without the new features. I ordered it directly from Builder Depot to be delivered in the same time frame.
Update: The next day Builder Depot also cancelled the order. Their email blamed Visa and recommended I contact them before reordering. So I called up the number on the back of the card. They claimed that they did not cancel, but did see the charge and the refund. They suggested I call Visa directly (it turns out they are just a servicing company that handles Visa on behalf of the bank). I called Visa directly and they said the couldn’t help me, they also showed the transaction and refund, but with a strong Indian accent. I researched some more and discovered that the Builder Depot order form now showed a higher shipping amount ($177.00 to $336.00). Hmmm. So I flipped back over to Home Depot’s website and ordered the EZ-4400N with store delivery for $100. less. Third try is the charm.
The rest of the furniture gets a little iffier. I realized last night that this will be the first bedroom set I have ever purchased. Early years the Navy provided most furnishing, or I had a furnished apartment/mobile home. When I got to UW in Seattle I bought half a house and we semi-furnished from an estate auction place down the road.
For a bedroom set I had a waterbed on the floor (hey, it was the 1970’s). When Lindsay’s divorce was finalized, she got the full up bedroom set; king size bed in dark wood with dressers, mirror, bedside cabinets – the works. When we moved from Silverdale Washington, the house buyers wanted to buy the bedroom set (it fit the room perfectly). So when we moved to Oregon we bought the current bedroom set, which will stay in the condo. Which is all a long introduction to my needing to finally have to decide what to buy.
I’m still noodling what I want, but this has the looks that fit the Wyoming vibe for the bedroom set.
The good news is that it is manufactured in Montana and is mostly actually wood. If nothing else during the zombie apocalypse you could burn it for couple of days. That is something I want to actually lay my hands on before purchasing. For a mattress I’m probably going to go with a Sleep Number since I expect this may well be the last one I buy.
After getting a better view of how much cubic footage I wanted to take (roughly 2x of the pile shown previously). I was stumped. One option was to have Kate drive as well, but then she has to get her car home. After noodling through some options, I settled on getting a trailer through U-Haul.
Of course first I needed a trailer hitch installed. Fortunately U-Haul does this as well. After plugging in my car’s specs (2019 Hyundai Santa Fe w/ 2.4 liter engine) it offered a hitch and wiring package for $400.00. Scheduled for 3/22 at 2:00pm. Of course this is permanently installed and will be available for further use as desired.
Hitch
Ball
Ball Mount
Wiring
I found out I could rent a 4×8 closed cargo trailer with drop off in Casper for ~$260.00 including 5 day rental, so I’m scheduled to pick that up on Thursday 3/25 at 10:00am.
4×8 trailer
So I now have 128 cubic foot plus what will fit in the car. This will also give me the option of taking a couple of plants, notably the Christmas Cactus that we budded off the one at our house on Aries Drive in Mira Mesa in 1977.
Son-of-a-Gun! I idly looked up Mira Mesa on Google Maps and found Aries Drive. I remembered that we were on the corner and I found 8414 Aries Drive.
I toggled over to satellite view and it is amazing. The solar panels on the roof are new, but that is the first house we bought together (at a 14% interest rate – thank you Jimmy Carter). If you click on the ground level pictures on the lower left you can even see in the garage. Amazing.
Well now I’m gearing up to actually move. The plan is to leave for WY on Friday 3/26. Kathryn will probably go with me, returning on Monday 3/29. She’s offered to drive, if we need more space, I’m hoping to be able to fit everything in my Santa Fe.
Staged Load Part 1
This is the first eight boxes staged by the front door. I would guess that’s about 50% of what I intended to take.
So the morning after the funeral I packed up and left. Jan & Mike had a flooding casualty that rendered the guest bathroom unavailable and shut off water to the whole house (it was not due to any malfeasance by me, but was a preexisting condition). I stopped by Steve’s new house in Irving to greet the Addie, Andy and Joshua (and of course Irene). It was a masked and socially distanced, but was a great chance to see the kids briefly before they had to go off to Montessori school.
Steve, Addie, Andy, & Joshua
After a brief visit I got back on the road and headed North. I caught a couple of slow spots in LA, but it opened back up and I cruised back up I-5. This was the first time I had taken the newish car up this route and it was much more comfortable that my previous trips.
I rolled back into Beaverton about 11:30pm. I was tired, but glad the trip was over.
The next step is packing up and preparing for the move on March 25th.
Thanks to Kathryn, Nana’s funeral mass and interment is available on YouTube. It is a direct recording of the Zoom session, so production values are iffy and audio discipline is not the best. But in these COVID times it’s like a dancing bear; it’s not the quality of the dancing but the fact that the bear dances at all.
It turns out that Casper is one long day from So Cal, just like Portland. I left Casper about 7am on Fri 2/26 with tentative plans to drive to Las Vegas. I got into Las Vegas about sunset and drove around town for an hour and decided to just push on through to Joshua Tree rather than spend the night. I got into Joshua Tree about 11:30pm.
Spent Saturday with my sister Jill, resting up from the long day driving. After discovering that she hand no coffee on hand (or a coffee maker) I decided to push on to Jan’s house in Oceanside on Sunday Morning after church. I stopped by Dawn Renee’s house in Murietta to pick up Nana (well actually Nana’s box) to take her to Jan’s.
Nana in a box
Spent the time at Jan’s helping rehearse for the funeral on 3/4. Also got the mandatory visit to Chili’s on one night and some BBQ on another. I think we have a good plan for using iPhones for a Zoom meeting for the funeral mass and internment. We will also be recording it with an iPad as a backup. Hopefully the rain will end today and clear up tomorrow (contrary to the popular belief that “It Never Rains in Southern California“)
Unlike what I had planned, I drove straight through from Portland to Jackson WY in one day. I got in a couple of hours after dark, but without major issues. Just a note that the road from Twin Falls, ID is not a major highway, but a rather twisty back way up the mountain.
Jasper was nice, but the downtown was pretty artificial in a touristy sort of way. I found out why the rental prices were twice what the rest of WY is. It turns out that most of the county property is owned by the Federal Government (>95%). With most of the rest devoted to skiing there isn’t a lot left over.
Lexington Inn; where I spent the night
Downtown Jasper
The drive down to the southern parts of the state was fine and well plowed. There are some nice prospects south of Jasper, but the population drops off a bunch. I got down to Rock Creek and that was a definite possibility. a reasonable population with non-flat terrain, although considerably drier.
Driving south from Jasper
Pushing on east there really isn’t anything worthwhile until you get to Laramie. Laramie was a disappointment. It is basically down in the flatlands, although there are trees in town, I didn’t really see any good prospects. I pushed on and spent the next night in Cheyenne. It was pretty much as I expected, flatter than my preference but it did have the advantage of the large AFB just west of town.
Flat part of WY
In the morning I drove up to Casper and I really think this is what I was looking for. Tree covered Mt Casper just south of town with enough local terrain to keep things interesting.
View of Caspar from South
I drove by the Preserve at Greenway Park (the leading contender for rental residence). I’ve got an appointment in a couple of hours to tour a couple of units. I’ve driven around town somewhat and it seems to have everything I was hoping for. I even drove through the local US Bank and used the ATM to check my account balances and everything worked as expected.
The Preserve at Greenway Park from a distance
I got in for a self-directed tour of a couple of units (due to COVID). After talking to Caitlyn, the Leasing Consultant, I settled on a two-bedroom ground floor unit called Goldeneye that will be available on 24 March. I need to fill out the online registration form and that should be it. I’m sticking around until Friday to arrange storage for the load I brought out this trip and look around some more.
Goldeneye – 2 bedroom 2bath 1069 sq ft
If I leave Friday morning I should be in Joshua Tree on Saturday afternoon or early evening. All things being equal I’ll plan on spending a couple of days with Jill and then drive down to Oceanside and stay with Jan for a couple of days.
