Since we spend an inordinate amount of time on the road in search of storage containers hidden in the woods, I decided to create a puzzle cache based on two fictional episodes of this program. See if you can find some coordinates that will point you to my hidden shipping container in the episode descriptions below.
Bubba, a former motorcycle mechanic turned independent contractor won the biggest bid of the episode. He bid $2700 to haul 12 tons of scrap metal from Fort Worth TX to Des Moines IA. It’s 740 miles between the pickup and the delivery site and he has 10 hours to complete the delivery. He’s got an 18 wheel rig with closed trailer. The scrap metal will easily fit in the trailer, but requires the use of a forklift to get the load in and out of it. The forklift operator is charging him $250.
Jillian is a rodeo cowgirl who is looking for her next adventure. She drives a 15 year old oversized dually pickup truck that can haul her horse trailer with ease. But she also has to use this horse trailer when she wins a bid on something that won’t fit in the truck bed, and it’s awkward to fit some items in it. In this episode she had the winning bit on a collection of vintage arcade games like Asteroids and Galaga. There are 16 games worth an average of $1600 per game. The games are in a closed sports bar in The Woodlands TX and need to be taken to a new bowling alley in Hutchins TX. It’s only 200 miles between the two stops, but she only has 4 hours to complete the job including loading and unloading.
JJ is a former college football player who had tryouts with four different NFL teams, but never got signed to a contract. After working as a bouncer in several night clubs he decided to buy a cargo van and get into the shipping game. This is his first appearance on the show, but he still managed to get the winning bid on a shipment of 124 cartons of books. The books need to be moved from a used book store in Lexington, KY to the new owner’s residence in Marietta, GA. It’s a distance of 364 miles, but he’s only making $660 for this shipment. He’s got to make a difficult decision about where he will spend the night if he wants to make any profit on this run as he lives outside of Jasper, AL nearly 200 miles away from the drop off.
Billy is a night club bartender in Key West. He used to work for a major moving company so when he saw an offer to pick up new sails for a fleet of 12 rental boats at a marina in Marathon he joined the game too. All of the boats need new jibs which cost $450 each and weigh 11 pounds. Nine of them also need new mainsails; those cost $1200 each and weigh 22 pounds. The sails are in Homestead FL. It’s 60 miles from Key West to Marathon, and another 75 miles to the sail makers. Billy lowballs everyone and bids $475 on the job figuring that he’s already on the Keys so his travel expenses will be lower than anyone else and he can do it on his day off.
In the next episode Michael gets the top contract. He has a winning bid of $2295 to move an antique wooden bar with a zinc top from a closed restaurant on Canal Street in New York City to Allentown PA. It’s only a 90 mile trip, but there are a few additional obstacles. The bar is an art deco style beauty valued at over $30,000 and built on site in the original location in the 1920’s. So he has to figure out how to maneuver the 28’ long front bar out of the 12’ wide doors without going out into the street. Then the matching 16’ long back bar has to be put into his 32’ long trailer alongside the front bar. At least the top portion of the 14’ back bar with the antique mirror can be easily removed. Then he has to go through the Holland Tunnel and pay a few tolls along the way as well.
JJ appears in this episode too. He bid $599 to haul two 6’ long purple and blue fiberglass cows from outside of an ice cream shop in Bedford KY to their new pasture in front of another ice cream shop in Prospect KY. It’s only a 30 mile drive, and he is pretty sure that both will fit in his pickup truck at the same time. Even if he has to make two separate trips he expects to make a nice profit on this run. He still has the issue of the distance between the delivery site and his home in Jackson MS almost 600 miles away. But he hasn’t been able to find any business closer to home.
Jillian takes on another unusual delivery contract with a winning bid of $1175. A roller coaster enthusiast in Chattanooga, TN has purchased an 8 seat car and 12’ of wooden tracks from an amusement park in Paducah, KY only 266 miles away. The old coaster was retired and a new steel rail one has replaced it. The park manager auctioned off the old pieces online and made enough to pay for 40% of the construction of the new ride. The load will easily fit into her horse trailer as the track pieces are already completely disassembled and in pieces ranging from 4-12 feet long. The 8 seat car is only 16’ long but weighs almost 1600 pounds so loading that into the trailer won’t be easy.
Sam and Bill twin brothers who are 42 years old have the winning bid of $750 to relocate a section of seats from the original Boston Garden currently at a private residence in Bennington VT to a new sports bar in Burlington VT. It’s only 122 miles between the two, but the seats are quite fragile and weigh over 800 pounds. Their Ford F-250 pickup can handle the weight, but they’re concerned about protecting the cargo as they plan to just use their flatbed trailer that they haul their ATVs around on.