Canada Goose to Weather Lady

My sister, Kristin, decided that this was the weekend to move her belongings from a storage unit in Kent to her new apartment in Vancouver, BC. She figured out a way to save thousands of dollars on the move... have her brother and parents help her.

Friday afternoon we picked up the U-Haul truck in Renton. She ordered a 24 footer but all they had were 26 footers which, according to their literature, are large enough to move a four bedroom house. I drove the truck from U-Haul to Public Storage in Kent and the four of us proceeded to load it up. Fortunately, there were only a few bulky and/or heavy items—her mattress and box springs, and her leather sofa. The storage unit was empty and the truck loaded in just under an hour. We barely stacked anything so a 24 foot truck would have been fine; even a 17 footer would have probably been okay. I then drove the truck to my condo complex where it needed to be parked until morning. We really lucked out because there were a string of empty parking spaces near the clubhouse large enough for me to back the truck into.

We woke up at 6:00 AM on Saturday morning and hit the road just after 6:30. Of course, that's about the time the snow started to fall. I drove the truck with our parents following close behind, each of us with a walkie talkie for communication—the Canadian Goose with the Weather Lady on our "tail feathers". Light snow fell on-and-off all the way to Vancouver. We stopped twice for gas, the second time to top off the tank before entering Canada. Getting into Canada was easier than expected. The border agents didn't even want to look inside the truck. Driving the truck in Canada wasn't fun. The streets are more narrow and small cars wouldn't stay in their lanes (bad drivers), but there were no collisions and no parked cars losing their mirrors this time.

It took a little longer to unload the truck and move its contents to my sister's 7th floor apartment because a freight elevator was involved, but we did it. My parents and I left just before noon to drive back to Seattle. That's when the winter weather really showed up. Total carnage between the border and Bellingham—a couple dozen cars slid off the freeway; a few resting on their sides with their windshields smashed and emergency crews attending to the injured. Slow going but we made it through unscathed. The snow picked up again as we neared Everett. The whiteout conditions delayed our return to Kent until about 3:00 PM. Based on the weather forecast my parents decided that the pass conditions were only going to get worse on Sunday so they left almost immediately for Richland. They made it over Snoqualmie Pass before chains became required and arrived back in Richland sometime after 8:00 PM. A really long day for them.

My sister saved thousands of dollars but I hope she learned that moving in the winter months should only be considered under the most dire circumstances. Canada Goose to Weather Lady, out...