Truck Swap
Well I had a safe journey to Columbus the other day, fairly uneventful. The most exciting part of the trip was when I filled up the tank before returning the rental car and seeing the receipt with less than $50 for a fill up. My guzzler at home is always over that amount from E to F and a big rig, well... lets just say it takes 200 gallons to fill up my rig, between two 100 gallon tanks and most places fuel is over $3 a gallon, so you do the math! haha
When I arrived in Columbus the first thing I did was secure a hotel room and stash what I would need for an overnight stay. Then I headed over to the terminal to take a look at the trucks I was given permission to choose from. I had four on the list which gave me fairly decent odds that one of them at least would be acceptable. Of course I found two of them I wouldn't mind riding around in, one that made me think I'd rather be stung by a million bees and then eaten alive by a pack of wild boars instead and one was completely MIA.
The first truck I checked out was one of the most unacceptable trucks ever. It was also the one that nearly made me vomit when I opened the driver side door. The stench alone was enough to send me across the lot to the next available truck on my list. It was absolutely filthy! Obviously the abandoned rig of a chain smoker who must have been allergic to soap and water, OMG that truck was grrrrrosssss!
After throwing up a little in my mouth, I traipsed across the lot to check out the next candidate. It was a lot cleaner, smelled a whole lot better, and seemed well cared for. I climbed in and did a quick scan of the living space. There was a few items of trash left about but all in all it was nearly clean enough. It would need a little TLC, but it was so far the #1 pick.
On to the next one on the list. It was a year newer than the previous truck but had certainly been driven by a less than skilled driver. There was a lot of body damage, primarily on the hood near the headlights and on the ferring skirts by the drive tires. They were merely cosmetic issues but it made me leery about how the mechanical bits and pieces may or may not have been maintained. I mean if you keep running into things and busting up the body, how often are you checking fluids, oil, overall condition of what's under the hood?
I did climb inside and take a look around, if the driver had spent as much time paying attention to stationary obstacles while driving as he did cleaning the inside of the rig, well... you get the idea. It was spotless and smelled like a dream. But on the outside it was a little "rough around the edges".
Moving along to option number four, well... no not really since I never located the last truck on the list. Apparently it was one of those new invisible trucks I've heard about. Oh, wait no I've never heard anything about invisible trucks... never mind.
So left with really only one acceptable option I decided to swing into the shop to see what was up with preferred choice number one and busted up but delightfully clean number two. Apparently number two was scheduled to be serviced, a LOT, that very day. It apparently had been run ragged and was certainly not going to be ready to roll out the next day. My choice was clearly made for me at that point, and so I asked them to spruce up the number one for me if they had time.
Then it was time to head back to the hotel. My goodness it was a nice hotel! The bed was wonderfully comfortable, the cable plentiful, the shower hot, and the Internet smokin' fast.
After a good night of R & R and peaceful sleep I rose to tackle day two of truck swap.
As I drove back to the terminal I was mentally preparing myself for any possible issues that might arise when I called the boss to tell him which truck I picked. Anything could have gone wrong and I said a little prayer of sorts asking for simplicity and ease of access. haha
Upon my arrival I found the truck in the same place it has been the night before. Untouched, of course. Speed bump number one, they hadn't cleaned it yet. So I swung into the shop again and begged and groveled and flashed a few pearly whites while simultaneously batting my lashes in hopes that they would bring the truck right in and clean 'er up.
It worked. ;o)
While they did what they do, I did what I do... I called the boss man. I informed him of my choice of power unit and asked him for a time extension on the rental car (speed bump #2). It was already 8 am and the cleaning would probably take an hour then I would have to move all my stuff in, which if moving out of Kenny was any indication of how long it would take, I'd need at least 3 hours to install myself in the truck. At best I'd finish up at noon when the car was due to be turned in on the east side of Columbus. It was gonna be too close for comfort. Thankfully he worked it out for me and got it extended til that evening.
After getting that hurdle cleared, I hung around waiting for the shop to finish up with the clean up, which I didn't think it really need much and I probably could have just done it myself, but I figured, hey why not. ;o) Of course it actually turned out that I still needed to do some more thorough scrubbing to feel more comfortable with moving in. So after a trip down to the local grocery store to get some cleaning supplies and stock up on elbow grease, I ended up spending close to two hours cleaning and scrubbing before I finally started really moving stuff in.
What I found crazy was that it actually took me less than two hours to actually put everything into its proper place once the cleaning was done, an hour less than moving out of Kenny took. Strange.
After moving everything in I figured I'd better make my way to the airport rental car return, making a stop at Chipotle for lunch first of course. I enjoyed a nice barbacoa burrito then hit the road to return the car. The fun part was that I had to find a way back to the terminal some 20 miles away. I'd considered checking out a bus schedule but figured it would probably be quicker to take a taxi.
An arm and a leg later... I was back to the terminal staring at my new truck.
The new rig is a 2005, just like Trucky had been, and it has nearly 600K miles on it already. Just broken in really. ;o) It is in dire need of a good truck wash and polish and needs a little bit of maintenance, but all of that will happen when it's due for a PM in two weeks. In the meantime I'll be truckin' around, jammin' gears (again! yay) and enjoying the thrill of being in control of it all.
Some have asked me if I'll miss Kenny (the Ultrashift automatic bastard). The answer is plain and simple. No. He gave me too much grief with all of his breaking down and such nonsense, costing me money for sure. I say good riddance to that redheaded step child (no offense to any redheaded step children reading my blog)
Sure it was a little nice to be able to focus more on the road ahead while the computer told the transmission how to do its' job. But when push comes to shove, I'd rather have that handy dandy gear shifter under my palm.
And before you ask, no SHE doesn't have a name yet. I've been trying out a few and hope to have one picked out soon. When this happens I'll give you all a proper introduction! ;o)
When I arrived in Columbus the first thing I did was secure a hotel room and stash what I would need for an overnight stay. Then I headed over to the terminal to take a look at the trucks I was given permission to choose from. I had four on the list which gave me fairly decent odds that one of them at least would be acceptable. Of course I found two of them I wouldn't mind riding around in, one that made me think I'd rather be stung by a million bees and then eaten alive by a pack of wild boars instead and one was completely MIA.
The first truck I checked out was one of the most unacceptable trucks ever. It was also the one that nearly made me vomit when I opened the driver side door. The stench alone was enough to send me across the lot to the next available truck on my list. It was absolutely filthy! Obviously the abandoned rig of a chain smoker who must have been allergic to soap and water, OMG that truck was grrrrrosssss!
After throwing up a little in my mouth, I traipsed across the lot to check out the next candidate. It was a lot cleaner, smelled a whole lot better, and seemed well cared for. I climbed in and did a quick scan of the living space. There was a few items of trash left about but all in all it was nearly clean enough. It would need a little TLC, but it was so far the #1 pick.
On to the next one on the list. It was a year newer than the previous truck but had certainly been driven by a less than skilled driver. There was a lot of body damage, primarily on the hood near the headlights and on the ferring skirts by the drive tires. They were merely cosmetic issues but it made me leery about how the mechanical bits and pieces may or may not have been maintained. I mean if you keep running into things and busting up the body, how often are you checking fluids, oil, overall condition of what's under the hood?
I did climb inside and take a look around, if the driver had spent as much time paying attention to stationary obstacles while driving as he did cleaning the inside of the rig, well... you get the idea. It was spotless and smelled like a dream. But on the outside it was a little "rough around the edges".
Moving along to option number four, well... no not really since I never located the last truck on the list. Apparently it was one of those new invisible trucks I've heard about. Oh, wait no I've never heard anything about invisible trucks... never mind.
So left with really only one acceptable option I decided to swing into the shop to see what was up with preferred choice number one and busted up but delightfully clean number two. Apparently number two was scheduled to be serviced, a LOT, that very day. It apparently had been run ragged and was certainly not going to be ready to roll out the next day. My choice was clearly made for me at that point, and so I asked them to spruce up the number one for me if they had time.
Then it was time to head back to the hotel. My goodness it was a nice hotel! The bed was wonderfully comfortable, the cable plentiful, the shower hot, and the Internet smokin' fast.
After a good night of R & R and peaceful sleep I rose to tackle day two of truck swap.
As I drove back to the terminal I was mentally preparing myself for any possible issues that might arise when I called the boss to tell him which truck I picked. Anything could have gone wrong and I said a little prayer of sorts asking for simplicity and ease of access. haha
Upon my arrival I found the truck in the same place it has been the night before. Untouched, of course. Speed bump number one, they hadn't cleaned it yet. So I swung into the shop again and begged and groveled and flashed a few pearly whites while simultaneously batting my lashes in hopes that they would bring the truck right in and clean 'er up.
It worked. ;o)
While they did what they do, I did what I do... I called the boss man. I informed him of my choice of power unit and asked him for a time extension on the rental car (speed bump #2). It was already 8 am and the cleaning would probably take an hour then I would have to move all my stuff in, which if moving out of Kenny was any indication of how long it would take, I'd need at least 3 hours to install myself in the truck. At best I'd finish up at noon when the car was due to be turned in on the east side of Columbus. It was gonna be too close for comfort. Thankfully he worked it out for me and got it extended til that evening.
After getting that hurdle cleared, I hung around waiting for the shop to finish up with the clean up, which I didn't think it really need much and I probably could have just done it myself, but I figured, hey why not. ;o) Of course it actually turned out that I still needed to do some more thorough scrubbing to feel more comfortable with moving in. So after a trip down to the local grocery store to get some cleaning supplies and stock up on elbow grease, I ended up spending close to two hours cleaning and scrubbing before I finally started really moving stuff in.
What I found crazy was that it actually took me less than two hours to actually put everything into its proper place once the cleaning was done, an hour less than moving out of Kenny took. Strange.
After moving everything in I figured I'd better make my way to the airport rental car return, making a stop at Chipotle for lunch first of course. I enjoyed a nice barbacoa burrito then hit the road to return the car. The fun part was that I had to find a way back to the terminal some 20 miles away. I'd considered checking out a bus schedule but figured it would probably be quicker to take a taxi.
An arm and a leg later... I was back to the terminal staring at my new truck.
The new rig is a 2005, just like Trucky had been, and it has nearly 600K miles on it already. Just broken in really. ;o) It is in dire need of a good truck wash and polish and needs a little bit of maintenance, but all of that will happen when it's due for a PM in two weeks. In the meantime I'll be truckin' around, jammin' gears (again! yay) and enjoying the thrill of being in control of it all.
Some have asked me if I'll miss Kenny (the Ultrashift automatic bastard). The answer is plain and simple. No. He gave me too much grief with all of his breaking down and such nonsense, costing me money for sure. I say good riddance to that redheaded step child (no offense to any redheaded step children reading my blog)
Sure it was a little nice to be able to focus more on the road ahead while the computer told the transmission how to do its' job. But when push comes to shove, I'd rather have that handy dandy gear shifter under my palm.
And before you ask, no SHE doesn't have a name yet. I've been trying out a few and hope to have one picked out soon. When this happens I'll give you all a proper introduction! ;o)
Comments