"Things are neither good nor bad, t'is thinking that makes it so" - Shakespeare
The intertubes worked for a given day and I got wind of a parts stash out in California near LA. Since LA isn't that far, and the size of the stash was large, and the price was right (free) I figured it was worth the effort. After the arrangements were made with the present owner, a U-Haul was rented and some assistants were lined up (Steve, an LBC guy, and Chip, a ford guy, but he's a good mate) it was time to head out to Cali.
We went out on Sunday the 5th of July. The idea is that it's a one day run, get in, get parts, get out: surgical recovery. We headed out of Phoenix at ~5am. I slept 2 hours, Steve had slept about the same and Chip hadn't been to bed yet. My partners in crime crashed out in the car as I headed out of town. I drive out to LA fairly frequently, so the drive out was mostly uneventful. We were in the Chino area in about 4.5 hours, which is good time for my Ford Explorer.
We got turned around a bit finding the U-Haul place, which was annoying, and the owner of the bits called us as we were verging on late. We found the hardware store that had our reservation for the truck, and were immediately told we had to wait. The people were really nice and polite, but were incompetent. 45 minutes of farting around and they'd finished with the first customer they had for the day (they were returning a pre-paid truck. This takes ~10 minutes at a normal Uhaul store.
I finally made my way to the counter and they starter, and failed, and failed, and failed. While remaining polite, yet being utterly frustrated, I took the keyboard and mouse out of the guy's hands and did the reservation myself. Finally we had the truck!
A little driving and we were at the storage unit. An hour's frenzied filling and the unit was empty. A little driving and we were over at the PO's place picking up more stuff. By the time we were done the Uhaul (a 17 footer) was full waist deep with parts. A stop off at In and Out burgers (a California tradition) we were back on the road.
A number of gas stops and energy drinks later we were back in Phoenix (after a set of standstill traffic coming in to town for no reason and a pile of ridiculous speed cameras in the middle of the desert). Another Hour and a half's worth of unloading and everything was stashed in my sorting area.
Then, we had to rewire the lighting in Steve's JH. By the time we were done with that (so he could drive home) it was near midnight. What an exhausting trip!
Jody
