Driving a 16-ft Budget Truck

A few weeks ago my friend, Kim, asked if I would go on a road trip with her to Cleveland, OH to pick up a cabinet for her kitchen. I’m always up for a road trip so I said yes. She asked if I would drive the rental truck, and we could go junkin there, back and in between picking up the cabinet. And I’m always up for junkin. So we hit the road early Saturday morning.

We made two stops on the way down and then realized we had pick up and drop off times wrong, and we had a seller who had a lot of family things going on at her end. So it ended up being a long day trying to get everything right AND pick up the cabinet. When we arrived at the truck rental they only had a 16-foot budget truck left! I’ve never driven anything that large. The guy told me….large corners and no drive throughs….gave me the keys and closed up the shop. Gulp.

I followed Kim (she was driving the rental car) to that return and then we headed nearly an hour away to pick up the cabinet. I should tell you the city we were in had really skinny treats and I’m pretty sure I was driving the biggest vehicle. Finally at 6:30 Saturday night we were in possession of the cabinet, headed to the hotel and a really big glass of wine.

But….the very beautiful Drury Hotel (in downtown) didn’t have parking for a 16-foot truck…so we had to park in the city lots (which were safe AND clean). But at this point I do have to wonder……’Did we not think about a big rental truck in a downtown city hotel!”mWe finally parked the truck, walked to the hotel, washed up and had dinner with a well-deserved glass of wine (ok maybe it was two glasses for me).

Sunday morning we were back on the road….we made several stops where I managed to make a pretty good dent in the rest of the truck (garage is now very full of vintage goodies)…and we made it home safe and sound last night.

So, now i’m starting to think about a second career…UPS, Fed Ex, Brinks Truck…..(Dan thinks I would make a great school-bus driver ;0) Adding large-truck driving skills to my resume! And lots of vintage goodies headed to the store in the next week.

ANNNNDDD…Kim and Chuck are the proud owners of a beautiful new cabinet. <3