Home Again
Lisa surprised everyone by driving down to Sacramento and meeting me at the Westercon 66 staff meeting at the Sacramento Hilton today. She drove the Small Orange Pickup, so we had the idea that possibly I could tow her pickup back home behind my Chevrolet Astro minivan, which we figured would save a little fuel and also allow us to ride home together.
After the meeting, we hooked her pickup behind my van with the tow-bar she has for the pickup. I towed that pickup behind the large moving van we rented for the move from Oregon. My Astro has a theoretical 5,000-pound towing capacity, and her pickup doesn't weigh more than about 2/3 of that. Hitching things up went easily, and there seemed no problem with me starting and stopping with the pickup behind me. However, as soon as I got up to speed to enter the freeway, we had trouble. The pickup was trying to drive my van. We were starting to weave and would not stabilize.
Lisa said, "This isn't going to work." I took the next exit, found a quiet side street, and we decoupled the vehicles. We then got the 2m amateur and CB radios warmed up and started to convoy home instead.
The drive home was relatively uneventful. Snow was just starting to fall as we approached Donner Summit, but not enough to cause concern, and it turned back to rain at Truckee, then faded out completely as we continued east. We stopped in Sparks to have dinner and buy groceries, and then headed home. It took a while to unpack both vehicles: groceries from the pickup and my luggage and additional stuff from my van. Just as we got the last load into the house, a cold rain began to fall. The weather forecast for late Monday: 60% chance of snow. I'm glad we don't have to go anywhere tomorrow.
After the meeting, we hooked her pickup behind my van with the tow-bar she has for the pickup. I towed that pickup behind the large moving van we rented for the move from Oregon. My Astro has a theoretical 5,000-pound towing capacity, and her pickup doesn't weigh more than about 2/3 of that. Hitching things up went easily, and there seemed no problem with me starting and stopping with the pickup behind me. However, as soon as I got up to speed to enter the freeway, we had trouble. The pickup was trying to drive my van. We were starting to weave and would not stabilize.
Lisa said, "This isn't going to work." I took the next exit, found a quiet side street, and we decoupled the vehicles. We then got the 2m amateur and CB radios warmed up and started to convoy home instead.
The drive home was relatively uneventful. Snow was just starting to fall as we approached Donner Summit, but not enough to cause concern, and it turned back to rain at Truckee, then faded out completely as we continued east. We stopped in Sparks to have dinner and buy groceries, and then headed home. It took a while to unpack both vehicles: groceries from the pickup and my luggage and additional stuff from my van. Just as we got the last load into the house, a cold rain began to fall. The weather forecast for late Monday: 60% chance of snow. I'm glad we don't have to go anywhere tomorrow.