This was a necessary trip but one that had lots of worries involved with it. First, the timing was hard - Jim hated to be gone for 5 days in good weather. However, weather is a factor when considering the trip in the truck too - we certainly couldn't make the trip in bad, cold weather. Jim has done an incredible amount of work on the truck to get it in the shape that it is, but it's still an old vehicle that didn't even run when we bought it! Carrying so much weight and being on the road for such long trips is certainly a big stress on the truck.
Thankfully, all went well. The agenda that we figured out in Pope's Pizza went like clockwork.
Thursday was a very long day. We left from Corinth early in the morning and drove to my mom's house. It's over 700 miles - a very long trip in the truck! Plus, we ran into so much construction on Ohio roads, including an hour-long traffic jam around Cleveland. It was after 10:30 when we got in.
Friday morning, with not much sleep, Jim got up and left for Tennessee. It was 350 miles one way - including horrible construction around Cincinnati and lots of off-highway driving to get to his destination. This trip was one of the big risks - the buyer had sent a deposit for the dozer blade but there certainly could have been issues where he wouldn't want it. However, all went well. In fact, the man that bought it is a metal-work artist specializing in copper! So he was anxious to show Jim some of his work - we may be contacting him again in the future. Jim didn't get back to my mom's house until 12:30 in the morning! Way too long of back-to-back driving days with not much sleep in between.
Meanwhile, I stayed and enjoyed a wonderful visit with my mom, even fitting in a lunch with my brother. It was so nice to be able to spend time with her!
Saturday morning dawned way too early for Jim but we loaded up and once again hit the road, heading back up to Cleveland. Our next stop was our old neighbor's house. She has graciously been holding on to some of Jim's tools and his car since we moved. We took her out to eat and had a good time catching up with her, as well as another neighbor. I will say that we avoided looking at our former house across the street! But there is a lot of new construction in the area that we had always worried about - we got out at a good time.
Some friends met us later in the afternoon to help Jim load up the truck. There were some incredibly heavy pieces in the barn, including the log splitter which Jim didn't think he would be able to get on the truck. But again, all was successful.
The only thing that remains there is the car. We peeked into the area where it is being stored and it was a sad sight. Even though it's inside, Jim's poor car is pretty much covered with dirt, water leakage and bird droppings. Very sad. Hopefully we'll be able to bring it home soon and eventually get it back in shape.
After a stay in a hotel, we met Jim's aunt for breakfast on Sunday morning - again, so good to see her and spend a little time. Our next stop was Jim's sister's house...they also have been very gracious to store things for us! Bryan was great and had brought and organized all of Jim's wood in the garage from his barn to make loading up easier. Thanks to his help, we were able to get everything out of their way and on the truck!
We left right after that and headed to Altoona, PA, for the night. This was the first hint of a relaxing night - we got a pizza and took it to the hotel room where we promptly crashed until morning - definitely needed to catch up on some sleep!
Monday morning, we headed about an hour away to pick up the new forks for the Bobcat. Jim had been to this place before but it's really out in the boonies!
After we got the forks, it was time to finally head the truck to New York! We arrived home late Monday night, safe and sound, with a truck load of more stuff!
It was great to see the family and friends that we were able to while we were on our adventure. Sorry that we didn't have more time to see everyone else - hopefully we'll get back that way once things are buttoned up at the carriage house!
But we appreciated everyone's help - from storing our stuff to helping us load it up to sharing a meal with us. Thanks for being our village!
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