Well we have been back over a month now so I should probably finish off this post. Getting back to reality and not being able to get on the forum for a couple of weeks is my excuse for not doing this earlier.
It was a quick trip down to San Diego from Washington as we were heading back to Australia in less than two weeks and there was the last minute shopping and packing to be done for shipping back home.
We were stopping at the motel 6's on the trip, one was in Weed northern California that we later heard on the news that they had the forest fires go through and burnt a lot of the town. The next night was in Fresno, that was interesting with all the hookers and pimps in the neighbourhood.
The next day we drove up to Kings Canyon NP to see the big Sequoias and the later that afternoon we were invited to stopped buy Charlie Burns's place for a wonderful meal and live music. Charlie's farther inlaw is quite a talented fiddle player. It was a great afternoon and we really appreciated the hospitality.
We stayed at a motel on the I5 that night then headed down to LA the next day. We did look at a couple of cars on the way but they were duds. We stayed in Riverside that Sunday night as it was near buy where I had to pick up my roof from Larry's Thunderbirds the next day.
After stopping in at the shipping warehouse to check on packing options we headed down to San Diego. It was a strange feeling coming to the end of the big trip after two months on the road.
I did lots of ordering the next day as I had to get it packed and up to LA by Friday as we were leaving on the next Monday and it was also the holiday weekend. We packed everything into boxes Thursday night and loaded the Suburban for the drive the next day. I took the 3rd row seat out and the truck was full to the top. Remember my wife had nearly three months of shopping so it was packed full.
We were making good time on the way up on Friday then when we were 2/3rd's of the way there we were involved in a pile up on the I5 and the front of the truck got quite bent. The bumper was pushed back and touching the front tyre and the fan shroud was touching the aircon pump pulley so it couldn't be driven. My biggest concern was I had to get to the warehouse that day followed by the fact that I still had to sell the truck. When we had finished with all the police formalities and the tow truck finally arrived I got him to hook his winch to various points on the front of the truck and pull the front out, much to the amazement of the police officer who seemed quite surprised that I was able to straighten it so that it could be driven again and made the comment that he had never seen anything like that before. Finally we got to the warehouse and built the pallet plastic wrapping it and tying it all down before heading back to San Diego but with the delays earlier we ended up picking up some of the afternoon traffic.
Fortunately someone who rang me the night before was still interested in the truck and came and bought it that night but probably for about a thousand dollars less than I would have got for it before it was bent.
The rest of the trip was not very eventful, just some last minute shopping, packing bags for the long flight home and saying our goodbyes.
