Back from Up North

Functionally, last week's trip up to da U.P. and back was an out-and-back trip to retrieve stuff from a storage compartment. Officially, due to the quirks of the truck renting company's pricing structure, which charges for mileage if the truck is returned to the originating outlet, but allows unlimited mileage for a "one-way" rental to a different outlet, it was a one-way rental from Ypsi to A-squared, a distance of about five miles. The fact that that one-way rental just happened to go by way of Marquette and run up 1000 miles is apparently of no concern to their computer system.

Since I've been driving a fullsize pickup truck for the past few years, I'm not entirely unfamiliar with trucks. But a 15-foot truck is a different beast, especially when it comes time to belly up to the gas station. By rough calculation, the Great White Whale got about 10-11 mpg empty, and considerably less when loaded down with 3000 lbs of books and assorted junk.

Now if I could only find enough bookshelves to avoid having to pile the books on the floor.