We’ll we’ve finally made it to the final destination here in Portland. The house is beautiful and the trip was incredible. Staying at Ray’s was a real treat. Him and Judy were wonderful hosts and it was really great getting to know a part of the family that I’ve never really had the chance to get to know. We’ve invited them to come out to Portland to visit and hope they do. In the mean time though, we’re just trying to get settled and are waiting for the rest of our belongings to arrive.
We were expecting to get the rest of our things shipped and delivered tomorrow (Tuesday), but apparently the truck is “running late” and we won’t be recieving anything until Thursday! We’re both pretty annoyed. The company we’re having move us out is called U-Pack, which for the most part up until now has really been great to work with. They’re far less expensive than renting a U-Haul and the customer service (for the most part) has been great. However… when our crate was being dropped off, it was hours late. They dropped it off late into the afternoon when it had been scheduled to be delivered in morning. Now, after we’ve been given an “estimated” transit time of four days, they’re saying it won’t be delivered until 6 days after it was picked up from our apartment in Minneaolis. I understand this is an estimated delivery time, but you must admit, that when you’re end product is 150% of what your estimate was, that’s a pretty shitty estimate. When I spoke to someone on the phone today, they suggested calling again tomorrow for a mor accurate delivery time. Basically my plan is to call “bull shit” with the intent of getting a discounted rate. After all, if they underdeliver I should be allowed to underpay, right?
Oh, and there’s some lady that works at the Portland office that really sucks. I’m not sure if this was her first day, or if she woke up to wetting the bed this morning or what, but she sucked. Laura called, and the lady she spoke to was immeately annoyed. She was flustered because she was having trouble finding our order record. She then proceed to accuse Laura of not having paid our bill yet. Which we haven’t, because you don’t pay your bill until the shippment is delivered. Why she was having trouble with that, I have no idea. She then proceeded to tell Laura how she needs to be sure there is a 40 ft clearance for the truck to deliver the crate. Why did feel the need to tell Laura this? I have no idea. It was like she kept trying to solve some sort of problem that wasn’t there. She must have voted for Bush. So, one last time, she sucked… and wets the bed.
So, for now, U-Pack sucks. Tomorrow, may change that opinion a little, but they definitely won’t be getting my 100% endorsement, pretty much all because of one useless bedwetter.
Again, I must appologize for a complete lack of pictures. Cords and business for getting stuff from the camera to the computer are currently in the possetion of U-Pack. Upon their arrival I will post pictures immediately.
Well we’re finishing up day 1 of our journey westward right now, and I’ve gotta say, moving is f***ing exhausting. We’ve been up since 8am and we’re only 2 hours from Minneapolis, but today was more full than the past week. The biggest event, of course, being the packing. My entire body is sore as hell. My feet, my knees, my thighs, my elbows, my hands… damn.
Most of the day was spent in packing up the remainder of our things and moving them downstairs and into our “Cube” in the alley. Our “cube” is basically this 6′ x 7′ x 8′ crate that we’re having shipped (I believe by truck) out to Portland with all of our stuff. And I do mean ALL of our stuff… or at least most all of it. We definitely filled the thing pretty damn near full today, excluding some cloths and things like that we packed in the car (which definitely still would have fit in the “cube”. Throughout the day we had a fair amount of help from Kate and Mike, my Mom and Molly, who were all a great deal of help. My mom brought chili over for lunch which was especially fantastic. All in all we worked for a good 8 hours just finishing packing things into boxes and hauling them down to the cube. Around 5:30 I called U-Pack (our movers) to pick up the cube, thinking it wouldn’t get picked up until the next day, and within about 30 minutes it was gone. It was a little unsettling seeing it gone, but relieving to know it was on it’s way.
Finally, we started cleaning up the apartment, which is one of the worst activities to do after you’ve been busting your ass hauling stuff around all day. We eventually got to the point where we just said “fcuk it”, packed the remainder of our things into the car and hit the road. I think we ended up leaving around 8 or 9pm, which was fine. The plan for leaving tonight was just to shave off a few hours of travel for the trip tomorrow. The goal for tomorrow is Bozeman, MT where my Uncle Ray and Cousin Biz live. Bozeman is about 13 hours from Minneapolis, and we’re figuring the difference between 10 and 13 hours is work the night drive. Besides, all of our stuff is packed up so we would have wound up sleeping on the floor of our apartment anyway.
So here we are, in room 133 of the Super 8 Motel in Alexandria, MN, so exhausted it hurts to think that I need stand up again to take my much needed shower. Very excited for bed, and very excited for the remainder of this trip. Can you guess how many times I’ve written “remainder” in this blog entry without looking back? Anyway. I need to shower and I need to sleep. More adventures tomorrow.