WriteAway

Here we go! The daily (almost as written) diary of my trip. Some of my notes were “better than nothing” and have been filled out a bit with incidents inserted when I originally typed this up some time ago.

Enjoy!

DAY ONE, September 7, 2006: Covered about 100 miles today. Up at 4:30 a.m., finished some back-up on the PC, backed up the back-ups on DVD, started sealing boxes, trying to get organized! Movers showed up promptly at 08:30 and announced that they could NOT drive the truck to my house! Turns out the driver (Larry) has a rig that is 91’ from the front of the cab to the back of the trailer. The cab is like an apartment, I guess! Shower, bathroom, bed, back door! He promised to give me a look at it in Fresno.

Larry seemed to have an attitude at first, but turned out to be a very nice guy. He tagged everything and did his inventory while Rod, Rob, and a third packer carried out 2-3 boxes of books—without dollies—to the “shuttle” truck.

They had to bring in a smaller truck, load it, then transfer the contents to Larry’s rig. Costing me an extra $250 or so, but I was prepared for that.

I did get a little unhappy when Larry said they don’t pack electronics and that it wasn’t on the work order. It was, and I was getting charged for it!

I called my contact at the van line as soon as they left to get the shuttle truck. They must have called her too, because she was already on the phone with Matt, the salesman. I’d already sent Tim down to the storage place to spend $30 on everything we needed to pack what I expected the movers to pack!

When they left (in way too short a time!), I started to figure out how much I still had left to do. Tim helped a lot. Packed the car—to overflowing, I’m afraid! Way too much weight, and barely room for me!

Finally ready to leave around 4:00-ish in the afternoon.

Tearful goodbyes with Charlie and Miriam. Tim kept hugging me and telling me he loved me—mostly because I let him rent the house until his BWC settlement comes, sometime before the first of the year, at which time he’ll pay off the loan.

And I kept telling him how grateful I was to have him relieve me of the responsibilities of home ownership and let me actually “get outta’ Dodge” on schedule. Everybody says ‘karma’; who knows? But everything has just fallen into place. And I am definitely grateful.

All the truck drivers agreed that I should take Route 33 to 75N, where I could get a room, stop for the night, get a “good meal” at Bob Evans (which I’m doing right now).

I got a room at the TraveLodge. When I first asked, the lady at the desk said they didn’t have any vacancies because of ‘the thing going on at the fairgrounds’. I asked if there was anyplace else close by. She went and talked to the manager and Room 201 was available but only for 1 night.

Got an AARP discount. Room: $39.00. I don’t think I could have driven another 3 feet! Needed food, needed fluid replacement (I’m on my 4th glass of iced tea!), and SLEEP!

Tomorrow: Next town, (maybe Lima) find a UPS store or Staples and ship about half the stuff in my car—hopefully to Marlene’s store. Then… will stop at first Valvoline place I see to get the car checked & an oil change! Then, finally, some serious progress toward the West and my new apartment!

Dream—night one: sitting in skuzzy hotel room; movers have just left and I’m trying to figure out what to do with the remaining stuff. The indicator on the computer tells me the load in the car is into the yellow “caution” zone… all the way into it at really close to the 4.7 gigabyte limit on the DVD.

Plan/determined to stop at the UPS store in Celina, OH and ship a bunch of stuff to Marlene’s house. David assured me I could. Now, after writing down my dream, it’s 5:31 a.m. Still time for a little more beauty rest!

Posted in On The Road