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| Not Even 1/2 Full! |
I decided that since I usually travel with a fairly full truck bed (it is only 5' long in the short bed Tacoma Off Road), and I wanted to bring most of what I carried in my old Escape 17B for the new Escape 21, I'd need a trailer for the trip to Chilliwack, BC (Where I'm picking up the new trailer). I checked with the local U Haul dealer as well as the one in Sumas, WA (the nearest US town to Chilliwack, BC) and reserved the smallest U Haul enclosed trailer (a 4'X8' Cargo Trailer). Another reason for the trailer is I'm bringing a case of local upstate NY wine & 4 six packs of Bear Naked Adirondack beer for rally beer & wine exchanges. This is far too much to bring into Canada, and the Sumas IGA that provided locker rentals has closed.
One way to Sumas from Oswego is $415.00 & I have 12 days to get there. I plan to arrive in Sumas on the 16th, drop the trailer at the U Haul dealer, cross the border with the truck & spend the night at the Best Western motel across the street from Escape Trailer Industries. I have an orientation scheduled for 8:00AM on the 17th.
During the orientation they will install a pneumatic table mount, and a couple of Umbra Hooks that I brought with me, and set up the weight distribution hitch. Unlike with my 17, picked up in 2011, you can no longer import the trailer yourself, so after orientation I'll head back to Sumas. Escape will haul the trailer through customs & I'll pick it up in a parking lot, head to U Haul to transfer my stuff, then head to a campground.
While I was told the trailers don't leak, just in case, and to make it easier to move the stuff from the rental to the new Escape, I've packed as much as possible in plastic bins. I'll give them away after putting everything away in the Escape 21. I've already reserved 5 nights at Silver Lake Park in Maple Falls, WA, a short drive from Sumas, to put stuff away, check out the trailer, and avoid the solar eclipse madness (only 90% where I'll be, so it probably won't be too bad).
While I don't have a trailer to give the starting statistics, when I sold the 17B I had slept in it 1090 nights, and towed it 85,846.6 miles. If interested, here is the page I made up to sell the trailer.
For this trip, all I have is the starting mileage of the Tacoma: 20,208.
I picked up the trailer around 2:00 & spent the rest of Friday packing. Of course it was 85°F and 96% humidity. I think I lost half the trailer weight in sweat! At least the rain held off until I was done packing. The plan is to leave tomorrow morning, heading west & avoiding toll roads. I will probably end up on the interstates since I need to do more miles per day than I usually do. I'll try to start posting daily updates, but that depends on the availability of the internet & how tired I am at the end of the day. There is one more photo (of the truck & U Haul) on today's LakeshoreImages page.
Until Tomorrow -
Safe travels!
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