The duo set off on 01.02.21 to get a U-haul trailer, deal with a missing pin, Elizabeth move from storage and trekking into Wyoming through blowing snow and high winds.
Run Time: 6 minutes, 35 seconds.
Soundtrack: Bridges by Daniel Gunnarsson.
Day on Magisto, Youtube, or Vimeo.
Saturday, January 2, 2021 (01.02.21):
Denver – Elizabeth, Colorado – Evanston, Wyoming
A very busy day for Oisin and Cian indeed. Oisin heard the alarm ring, glanced over at the laptop, and saw 8 am. But Cian was insistent that it was time to get up. Oisin looked at the cell phone and indeed it was 9 am. The laptop was still on Pacific time. A jump up out of bed, he quickly packed up the car and bid farewell to his Colorado extended family and roomies. He scarfed down the leftover burrito from last night that Cian refused to eat. Cian had cereal instead. They rushed off to the Arvada Uhaul center off I70.
U-Haul
It was a quick 15-minute drive to a Uhaul operating out of a gas station – the convenience store. There was no official “Uhaul” desk and the clerk juggling convenience store sales couldn’t find him on the computer. Eventually, she did. The mechanic asked him to move his car as it was too close to the garage.
Cian watched over the card and transactions as Oisin ran out to move the car. She got one of the mechanics out to get the trailer ready. He said once checked out to go meet him with the car at the trailer. Oisin couldn’t help thinking how shady and unorganized the business appeared. At least they were friendly he thought.
The missing pin
Backing up his car up to the trailer, the U-haul agent guided him to the hitch. Once parked, the tech hooked the hitch to the tow ball, but then was having the darnedest time trying to wrap up the security chains. Low clearance was forcing the chains to drag too much. Oisin got on his butt and wrapped them around properly. Little did he know that either the tech guy accidentally knocked out the pin to hitch/tow ball, or someone had stolen it.
Obviously, it was there when he left Washington State as it would have fallen out over a cross-country nearly 2,000-mile journey. But neither of them noticed. Oddly this should fall under the security and safety check one would think the tech is obligated to do before allowing the vehicle and trailer off the lot.
Near catastrophe
As Oisin drove off onto the Interstate, the hitch came apart, and luckily the safety chains did what they were supposed to. The trailer dragged and crashed into the back of the car. He pulled over once it was safe, and assessed the situation. Oisin called the Uhaul office and they were clueless as to how that happened. They didn’t offer driving two exits down to bring him a pin. Instead, they stated he needed to unchain the trailer, leave it at the side of the road, hope no one steals it, and drive back to their shop to get a pin from them. So that’s what Oisin did.
He drove back and they presented him with an oversized pin with a locking mechanism stating that would be $20. Not only was it too big, but seemed fishy as the pegs on the wallboard where it was displayed had empty slots for normal pins. Did they actually take his pinout so they could upcharge him a locking one? Risking his and his kid’s life in the process? The incident could have been a catastrophe. Not sure how the pin disappeared. Maybe sometimes tried to steal it last night?
Pins
He told her that won’t fit, he needs the smaller one down. They found a “new” one in the garage and sold it to him for $10. It was thinner and had what was more or less a paperclip to hold it in place. Oisin was not comfortable with this. He figured he would buy it then go hit a Home Depot and get a more sturdy one later.
He sped back to the Uhaul to find the police had already flagged it with flagging tape. Oisin hooked the trailer back onto his car, then drove off to the country town of Elizabeth to clear out storage. En route, they pit stopped at Target so Cian could use his allowance to get the newest Minecraft Dungeons action figures: troublemaker fairy and golem. They tried to find pins at Target, no go as they didn’t seem to carry them. While in Target, Oisin got Cian some new underwear and Fortnite socks as the sock fairy seems to be dependably raiding Cian’s wardrobe as of late.
Elizabeth Move
Cian and Oisin arrived at their storage unit and began packing up the trailer as well as they could. They packed it to its roof and door. Oisin blew up the inflatable rooftop rack for the car and put the Navigator rooftop carrier bag on it, filling it with even more stuff. They ran out of space, no room for the long lumber and display equipment, Cian’s train set, and some toys. They would have to be given away, carted off, Goodwill, etc. A loss was to be had. He needed this $125/month bill gone and could not afford another Uhaul rental. The end of this unit was required. He terminated the storage rental.
Wyoming
They drove on through Denver, out of Colorado, into Wyoming. They contemplated hitting the Arvada house to see Allison, Brandon, and the kids again before departing. Contemplating staying the night, but the GPS looped them around Denver and they needed to be on the road. Oisin did not want to do e-school for Cian again from the road – too difficult sitting in parking lots trying to get a reliable internet signal for the classes. He wanted to be at Techno Tink Headquarters by Monday’s return of classes. So they drove on through the night.
Oisin is haunted by the Uhaul experience and the lack of safety checking. He just couldn’t get it off his mind. The duo drove through the night through blowing snow, high winds of 40-70 mph winds, and lots of rocking. Cian didn’t enjoy the last late-night dip at Hobo Hot Springs, so they bypassed it. Plus with the blowing snow and high winds, wouldn’t be that enjoyable as a detour. Oisin drove as much as he could eventually stopping at a rest area outside of Evanston for the night. Running his portable electric generator for 6 hours – he was able to keep the electric blanket running for 7 hours while the duo nestled under it and plenty of sleeping bags. They watched the Mandalorian as they drifted off to sleep.
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