critters

We've encountered all kinds of critters on our trip so far: dogs, cats, birds, toads, a wild turkey (not Riff, although he can get crazier,) holsteins, scottish longhorn cows, buffalo and a chipmunk. Here are a few we manage to get pics of:


Souixzee strikes a noble pose.



little guy



Turbo the Cat



Bailey



girl hummingbird


And by special request:

cassie & bob

After a long drive on Wednesday, we rolled into my Aunt Cassie and Uncle Bob's house. They live just out side of Fargo, on one of the 10,000 lakes boasted by the state of Minnesota.


It was after dark when we arrived so we unpacked our overnight stuff and after a short visit, went to bed. We stuck around the next day, it was a nice break from all day driving.


The lake was beautiful and we went outside with Bailey and Siouxzee (their two very friendly springer spaniels) and Turbo the cat. After Bob came home from work, we went to Zorbaz on the Lake. Zorbaz serves pizza AND mexican food( a brilliant idea), we had pizza and nachos. After dinner we took a nice cruise on the lake.

Pics from the road

No, you haul it.

We got a new rig today.

wire coat hangers - we love 'em

Here's the tale of the final u-haul incident before leaving seattle:

Everything took three times as long to do as we thought it would. Finally, on Saturday night at 10:30 pm Riff and I climbed into our car and prepared to leave the Biltmore (our apartment) with all of our stuff in the u-haul trailer behind us. Marta was in her carrier, our bed was in the free pile and all that remained was to come back in the morning to clean and drop off the keys. We were staying with Riff's sister, Erin, in Redmond that night because everything was packed and the apartment was emptied. Riff asked me to check the lights on the trailer before we headed out and guess what? That's right, nothing! We checked the wiring (done by the Rainier Ave U-haul when they installed the hitch,) but it seemed fine. Riff called the U-haul main number and tried to explain our dilemma to the nincompoops at their call center.
"So you've got a flat tire?" the third person Riff was transferred to asked. "Read me the number off the keytag." Of course there is no keytag since it's a trailer - which we had already told them several times - duh!
"Well, you say it's parked in front of your domicile? We'll send someone over in the morning." Said the next person.
We explained that we had no bed to sleep in that night and the operator assured us that they would call within a half hour to tell us when to expect a mechanic.

Meanwhile, two girls from our apartment building came out to the car that was parked behind us in the load zone. They had locked their keys in the car but the passenger side window was rolled down about an inch.
"Do you guys have a wire hanger?" one of them asked. We did. Wire hangers were actually one of the few items left in our now vacant apartment. So we spent the next half hour killing time by hanging out with them while they tried to catch the lock on the door handle and trigger it to open. Finally, I suggested that they extend the wire hanger to it's full length and hook the keys out of the ignition. A few minutes later they had reeled the keys in and were on their way.

Not long after their departure a mechanic called Riff's cell phone. He told us that he was a 2 hour drive away but that he would try to help us over the phone. He and Riff spent the next 10 or 15 minutes testing the connections from the car to the trailer and ruling out possible causes for the malfunction. Finally he asked Riff, "Do you have any wire?" Riff ran upstairs to get another wire coat hanger. Within minutes he had created a ground for the circuit by attaching one end of the coat hanger to the hitch and the other to the pin under the car. Success! Our lights came on and we were on our way. The next day, Riff's dad got some copper wiring and they rigged up a better connection.



So u-haul still sucks, thanks to the technical support from the far away mechanic (who did not work for u-haul, but saved the day,) and thank goodness for wire hangers!

Wide Turns, Brake Early, Keep Your Distance

Here is a quick update of what has happened so far...

We finally got on the road yesterday (8/29) and are now in Missoula. We spent our first night in Spokane with Melissa's Aunt Willeen and Uncle Ambrose.




Our sweet rig (see pic.) does a kick-ass job of getting us over the mountain passes, but I think we will be going on flat road for a while.

Marta is adjusting well as is Turtle, who was a big hit with Willeen and Ambrose. We have to get back on the road now, more later.....











posted by Riff

u-haul sucks shit

• It took 28 hours for them to install the hitch on my car.
• They "lost" our trailer reservation.
• Minimum wait on hold when calling U-haul Rainer Ave. S.: 20 minutes
Example: U-haul lady: "Thank you for calling U-haul, will you hold please?"
Me: "I'd rather not"
Hold Music: "I'm so tired, tired of waiting, tired of waiting for yoooouuuuu."
• Despite using my credit card once at 2 pm (manually entering the number into their system,) when Riff returned 5 hours later to pick up the trailer they told him they needed the actual credit card so they could swipe it. He had to drive back to our apartment, pick up the card and get back to u-haul with in 45 minutes before they closed.
• The employees argued in the parking lot about who had to help us. The one who wanted to take a smoke break compromised by smoking while hitching up the trailer.
• The lights on the first two didn't work. By the time they found one that worked we realized that our freight elevator would be shut off for the night within 2 hours. We told them to unhitch it. Not realizing it was still attached, the lady who likes to put people on hold told Riff to pull forward with the trailer behind her. So he did. She was relatively unharmed.
• Day 3 of U-hell: We decided a change of venue might prove wise, so we called the 800 number and told them to send our reservation to the Ballard location. In Ballard we discover: Rainier location has installed our hitch upside down. Melissa loses her cool.
• Our trailer is a real beauty. They give you a damage report with a drawing of the trailer and ask you to mark the dings and dents on it. We circled the entire drawing.

***But wait, there's one more exciting u-haul story to come! Stay tuned!!***

still in seattle

Hey everyone,

We are getting down to it! It's Wednesday and we won't be here to see the weekend. Can you believe it? We should be posting regularly to this site over our trip and hopefully on into our new york life. Stay tuned for Riff & Melissa news, weird road sightings and kitty cams.

Here's Marta in her "jacket" or as she thinks of it, her blue torture constriction device.


Oh, come on, marta!