Well, today was the day that I finally was able to haul the 73 shoulder pads, 49 helmets, 137 practice jerseys, 41 practice pants and other assorted American football gear/goodies down to beautiful Stanton, CA, for shipping to first, Göteborg, Sweden and then to Hässleholm.
U-Haul Truck Rental
ONLY $19.95/day. . . SUCH A DEAL!!!
The small print does say an additional 79 cents/mile plus refilling the gas tank! It was 162.8 U.S. Miles = 26.2 Swedish Miles round trip so that distance in a gas guzzling truck would rather increase the price quickly.
Rather than taking two or three trips in Debi Murphy's Ford 150 like I did last year and because of the constant rain the last three weeks, the Hurricanes agreed that this was our best overall plan for hauling the gear to Cal Shipping which is run by Swedes!
It didn't rain but I did get caught in a hail storm in East L.A., about the size of BBs but loud nonetheless.
Packing Days
Laurie, Mike and I loaded all of the equipment into 12 cardboard shipping cartons and then used 11 rolls of Duct tape to secure them.
This took a few days.
12 Boxes?
NO PROBLEM!!!
Unloaded at Cal Shipping
Cal Shipping's main business is shipping American muscle cars to the large Hillbilly population in Skåne! The used football gear shipping business is just a side light.
Note the use of blue and yellow duct tape in a semi-Swedish flag design, after a slow start by Mike and I in basic gray. Laurie's artwork showed in these later attempts.
Magnus Karlsson
ex-Göteborg Marvel
Magnus runs the shipping yard at Cal Shipping and made us an offer that we could not refuse, I think because he played American football for the Göteborg Marvels (7-3, second place in the West Division in 2010 and 0-3 in the 2010 pool play playoffs) back in the day.
The only reason any of this is financially possible at all is because Cal Shipping charges by the cubic meter not by weight. Our 12 boxes measured out at three cubic meters.
I should mention that Swedish born, Emelie Allouche, Cal Shipping's shipping clerk, is a HUGE "Suddenly in Vinslöv" fan. When I told her that I had DVD copies of both "Suddenly in Vinslöv" and its sequel plus the fact that the sequel is autographed to me personally by the NorraSkåne reporter who stars in the sequel, she almost fainted.
The boat for Göteborg leaves Los Angeles Harbor on January 25th and should arrive in Sweden 35 days later near the end of February.
Again, THANKS to all of the Ventura County high school football coaches who have supported our effort to enrich the football experience in Hässleholm . . .
GO HURRICANES!!!
2 comments:
Nice work. Although I wonder what is worse: To be one of the 24 players with shoulder pads and no helmet, or one of the eight with a helmet and no pants.
This is way too deep, worthy of a Socrates if you ask me.
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