Update #3 : STRANDED-DAY 1...

The first day of driving started out well. Our lovely brand new, 28ft U-Haul truck had just come off the assembly line with only 92 miles on it. Ahhhh the "New Car" smell!

We left Rhode Island at 4am and entered Mass, as the sun came up.

We bid a fond farewell to the ocean and...

headed north and west toward the Birkshires.

While Stu drove the first leg of the trip, I counted the travel money in our ever-so-fancy money bag.

And I navigated...and zoned out with my MP3 player.

We passed by lovely farm land and serene, slow flowing rivers. Our brand new truck, sailed along smoothly.

Until we pulled off at the Tim Hortons Rest-frikkin-Stop outside of Rochester/Victor New York.

Suddenly our brand new truck hot off the assembly line did not want to go in gear. Oh sure...it would go in reverse, but I have no intention of driving all the rest of the way to Oregon in REVERSE!

Waiting...

Waiting...

....for the tow truck from Rochester to come and fetch us to who-knows-where...

Good thing we had food!

A lovely thunder and lightening storm arrived while we waited...

And...

Waited....

And ate some more yummy healthful foods...

Eventually the tow truck arrived and hauled us to the Managerial training site for Western New Yorks U-Haul employees. Each one bent on making us happy. They dragged the wretched beast off to the GM dealership to deal with it, and they put us up in the local "Microtel".
Unfortunately, LPGA is in town and ALL the motels are booked with the exception of this one SMOKING (!) room. (Was it Divine Providence, More Testing of Patience, or both?)

Anyway...here we sit...wasting valuable driving hours in this tacky motel.

I am CERTAIN, that some of those LPGA women could drag our truck the rest of the way to Oregon if we recompensed them properly.

Anyway, tomorrow is another day.