How to delay a moving van?

There's a kind of plot grumbling in the back of my mind that
won't go away. *Sort of* a fantasy romance, sort of. In order
for it to take shape, it needs an initial real-world start that I
haven't been able to justify.

Woman from New York or someplace has a new job, in Los Angeles
(or, in a pinch, the Bay Area). She took a couple weeks' break
for a well-deserved rest, got all her furniture and other
worldly goods packed into a moving van, which then set off
overland toward her destination. She's already arranged for a
new apartment (flew out and back) and arranged for her stuff to
be installed therein before she gets there.

She arrives in LA and is told by the landlady that the moving
company called; something has happened to the van and it won't be
able to arrive till spring. (It's now about November.) I'd
originally thought "excessive snowfall in Donner Pass or
somewhere," but Hal insists that that wouldn't work, that the
Highway Patrol does not allow major routes across the mountains to
be closed all winter (barring avalanches et cetera), and that
anyway there are alternate routes. His initial remark was, "Do
you want the driver to survive?" When I said "Yes," he said,
"Then it can't be done."

Can anyone think of a means whereby this moving van full of the
heroine's stuff can be delayed for several months, without
killing the driver? I don't want the van to just go off the road
and be smashed to flinders with all its contents, either; it must
be merely delayed, so that the heroine doesn't *at once* go out
and buy everything new. She has to be camping out with a cot and
a card table or something, waiting for her stuff to arrive. At
first.

Any ideas?

Dorothy J. Heydt
Albany, California
djheydt@xxxxxxxxxxx
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: How to delay a moving van?
    ... *Sort of* a fantasy romance, ... She arrives in LA and is told by the landlady that the moving ... you want the driver to survive?" ... Can anyone think of a means whereby this moving van full of the ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: How to delay a moving van?
    ... *Sort of* a fantasy romance, ... She arrives in LA and is told by the landlady that the moving ... Can anyone think of a means whereby this moving van full of the ... stuff packed for overseas is packed slightly differently. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: How to delay a moving van?
    ... *Sort of* a fantasy romance, ... She arrives in LA and is told by the landlady that the moving ... Can anyone think of a means whereby this moving van full of the ... stuff packed for overseas is packed slightly differently. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: How to delay a moving van?
    ... Dorothy J Heydt wrote: ... *Sort of* a fantasy romance, ... Can anyone think of a means whereby this moving van full of the ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: Just ordered one of these, to use with my Tele
    ... I'll post some sort of a review after it arrives. ... for classical guitars? ...
    (rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz)