Upbeat and Downstairs: Home of Daryl C. DuLong

In order to make my move last week as smooth as possible, I needed to rent a moving truck. I had planned on getting a 10- or 15-foot truck so that I could do the move all in one shot, and made the reservation accordingly. However, in the words of Jerry Seinfeld, the rental company was able to take the reservation, but they weren’t able to hold the reservation. So, I arrived at the truck rental place and they had no clue who I was or why I was there. (Hint: I wanted a truck.)

Well, after some head scratching and obscenity sharing behind the counter, they came to the conclusion that all of the 10- and 15-foot trucks were rented, and all they had left was a 24-foot truck. Doing some quick math in my head, I realized that the truck was probably two times larger than what I needed, but it should work out. I was not ready for Big Bertha, though.

The woman escorted me out to the truck and started it up. It took two people - armed with flags, mind you - to back the truck out of its holding cell and get it prepped for me. There it was — a 24-foot dock height diesel GMC C7500 truck, complete with two steps to get into the cab, and a GVW of 26,000 pounds. (Apparently, that’s the maximum weight for a class D license. One pound more would require me to attend trucking school.) There is nothing like overkill for moving a small amount of stuff.

Long story short, it was fun to drive around and see the tops of the SUVs, and even more fun to drive a vehicle with air brakes, but I think I’m all set with dock height trucks for the near future.

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