U-Hauls & Truck Stalls...

Well, here it is. The big update on our moving adventures. We have finally had time to unpack, settle in, and let our anger subside that we are (somewhat) laughing while writing this blog post.

As mentioned in our

, we flew down to Toronto at the end of May and did some errands and packed up everything we owned into a 26’ U-Haul truck and headed back out on the road to Yellowknife.

While recruiting some of our amazing friends on the Guelph end to help us pack up the truck, we convinced one of them, Theresa, that a free one-way trip to Yellowknife in a U-Haul was a great way to come see the north for cheap (a one-way flight home is relatively inexpensive). She may have later regretted this decision… So at 4:30AM on a Thursday morning, the 3 of us headed out on the road. We were planning on doing much longer days than we had in the winter and shorten our drive by an entire day! We were supposed to get into Yellowknife in the early afternoon of that Sunday…

We pulled into Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park (near Thunder Bay, ON) around 11PM the first night. Pitched our tents in the dark and managed to run into a park ranger to pay for the campsite. We hit the road the next morning before 5AM, and shortly after Theresa realized she had left her toiletries bag on the wheel well of the truck before we left the campsite. Oops! No toiletries for her for 3 more days…!

We pulled into Campland RV Resort just outside of Saskatoon just before 8PM at the end of day 2 (we were making great time). The RV resort was very open and flat, but the owners were so nice, and the bathrooms were so modern and clean! We had some food and set up our tents, and crawled into the coldest night on the road after warm showers.

We were all in positive moods to start off day 3 and were bopping along just south of Peace River, Alberta when it began… Lights, bells, and whistles went off and the check engine light came on… This was followed by the low engine power light and the engine shutting down. After trying to get going a few more times, we decided it was time to call U-Haul Roadside Assistance… After getting our coordinates, they informed us that the closest U-Haul approved mechanic was in Grand Prairie, Alberta (about 2 hours away). The mechanic pulled up within 3 hours of our initial phone call (not bad!). In that time, a few very kind people stopped to check on us and offered food and water. The mechanic hooked it up to the computer and got nothing. He searched and searched for a problem, but found nothing but some low engine coolant. After a top up and reset, we were on our way. We didn’t have high hopes. When we asked the mechanic if he thought we would make it to Yellowknife, he said “maybe”.

Our hopes of making it to our pre-booked campsite at the NWT border that night were not possible. We made it another 3 hours or so up the road to High Level, Alberta and got a hotel room from the Quality Inn that we had stayed at in January.

The next morning we knew we had a shorter day, with only about 8 hours to Yellowknife, so we only left the hotel at 6AM. As we pulled into the Visitor’s Centre at the NWT border to take photographs at the sign in daylight (woot!), it happened again… We left the truck to “rest” for 30 minutes as we chatted with the kind couple who runs the campground and visitor’s centre at the border. We had coffee and enjoyed a break from the truck. We then headed out on our way again. We got about an hour down the road and it kept happening… again and again. We tried so many different things to try to go farther, but knowing cell phone service cut out just a few kilometres up the road, we pulled over, north of Enterprise, NT and south of Kakisa, NT on highway 1. This was at 10:30AM. And the phone calls to U-Haul Roadside Assistance began again.

We talked to 5 different “agents” who all knew nothing about Canada or the north. “So have you crossed the Canadian border yet?” “Can you drive the truck to the closest town… Edmontown?” (Edmonton was 15 hours behind us!). It took them 2 hours and a very angry Vanessa and Rashaad to even get them to locate us (after sending them GPS coordinates from our phone). They were so obsessed with finding out precisely where we were that they ignored us telling them there is only one highway there in the north and no matter who you send, they cannot miss us!

Six hours after our initial phone call, a tow truck had FINALLY been dispatched, but it would take them 6 hours to reach us. Note: Vanessa Googled and called tow truck drivers in Hay River and Yellowknife (biggest towns around) and only one had a truck big enough to tow a 26’ U-Haul. She told U-Haul to dispatch them but they refused for hours to do so while they searched for their own sourced towing company (which we all knew did not exist in the NWT!). They caved and hired the company we told them about 4 hours earlier. Second note: They would note guarantee to pay the towing if we just hired them ourselves to come and get us initially. So we waited. And waited. And argued. And got angrier. And hungrier (we did have food and water but were just really annoyed).

We called the towing company ourselves after everything had been organized by U-Haul (including the tow truck picking up our car in Yellowknife and bringing it to us because there were not enough seats in the tow truck for all of us) to tell them that we would continue trying to drive towards them to save some time… We knew we would lose cell service for awhile, so we just wanted to make sure someone was coming for us! We managed to make it across the Mackenzie River to just past Fort Providence before giving up completely. It was dying on us every few hundred meters at this point. The tow truck found us at about 8:30PM! It was the best sight we had seen all day!

We were soooo happy to climb into our comfortable car and see the U-Haul hoisted up onto the flatbed. Off we went!

We got into Yellowknife around 11PM that night and our friend Gustavo had a nice warm, home-cooked meal waiting for us on the table – awesome! We still didn’t have our condo until the next day, so had to crash at his place one more night.

The tow truck driver said he would call when he got into town to drop off the truck, but we were so exhausted we went to sleep with our phones on LOUD, just in case. Rashaad had to work the next morning and we still had not received word on where our truck was! Turns out the towing company would not release the truck until they received payment in full… From U-Haul… We FINALLY got the truck released to us at 9:30AM the next morning. Vanessa got the keys to the condo and started unloading the truck and cleaning with Theresa. After work, all the big stuff got unloaded and finally all of our things had made it to Yellowknife!

Now, you’d think that our moving story ends here, but you are incorrect. We still had the truck in our possession. We needed to return it to the U-Haul drop off location in Yellowknife… A few days later, it was time to attempt to take it back. Rashaad had a small window from 5-6PM to return it after work but before they closed. He made it 2 blocks and it died 4 times before he decided driving it on main street at “rush hour” was not the best idea. U-Haul Roadside Assistance it was AGAIN! It’s funny how quickly they got a tow truck this time (because now they know who to use in Yellowknife – you’re welcome everyone in the greater Yellowknife area who has the unfortunate opportunity to rent a U-Haul and it break down on you in the future!). The tow truck dropped it off (as an after hours drop off) at the U-Haul dealer but we still needed to call them to assure they received it and closed the file. We did this the next day only to be told they “weren’t sure if it was there yet” – the next day! Rashaad and Theresa decided to drive out there and find out what was going on. The address for the U-Haul place led them to a very sketchy parking lot of U-Hauls and a trailer that had the address spray painted on it that said “Private - Keep out”. It took 2 days of phone calls to finally get confirmation that the truck was there and the file was closed. They were even ‘nice’ enough to not charge us for the lack of gas in the truck (how could we fill it back up when it was on a tow truck for 2 days?!?).

Now begins the formal complaint to U-Haul on our part (a 2000 word summary written by Rashaad) and hopefully some form of discount for the hassle and inconvenience. We knew U-Haul did not have the best track record for vehicle maintenance, but it’s unfortunate that for do-it-yourself, one-way, long distance moves to Yellowknife, there are very few other options. BUT everything is here, we are finally settled and unpacked, and we are more than ready to have some fun and some visitors!

Follow-up: Theresa has now headed back to humid southern Ontario. I think she enjoyed her time in the north (despite the horrible trip up and our lack of hosting – we were so busy unpacking, getting settled, and working).

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