Ready, Set....GO

Here is where we started, a 26 foot truck to pack up excluding furniture. Sounded like plenty of room considering we down sized by 50%. We were taking only the things that meant something to us..HA! I think we just love too many things because the truck was too small!

Unfortunately on day one of the packing my RA decided to flare up taking out my feet and ankles. I did what I could do, some of it with the power chair. But poor Dave had most of the work all alone. First disaster was the stove that we thought we would take along just in case. It took a trip off the side of the ramp so that was one thing we didn't have to pack!

It was dark when we stopped with half a house to still load and some items still in the garage. We were exhausted! Thursday it rained which slowed us up and again by night fall we just couldn't finish. Instead of leaving early Friday morning, we left at half past 3 in the afternoon. Since the electric was shut off we had no choice but to leave, dirty, tired and hungry by this time.

Ohio was only 30 some miles away. Seeing Pennsylvania in the rear view mirror meant we were on the way...good feeling. We spent the night only 50 miles away from home but the shower and food made the short trip well worth it. By now we knew we would be riding out some of the worse storms in the morning.

Day 2 proved to be a monster. Remember, I stopped driving 5 years ago. I was nervous about this trip, never knowing when my diseases would keep me down and hold up the journey. Rain in the amounts that Ohio held for us was not something I was enjoying. Dave kept telling me not to worry since he treated the windows with Rain X. True, I could see through the sheets of water and all the cars and trucks pulled off the road under bridges, but Mr. Rain X was not driving the pick up truck for me and I really struggled with it flying at 65 miles an hour towing a trailer.

I don't think it could have rained any harder by the time we reached Cincinnati. It was so dark it looked like midnight with wind blowing and swirling around the truck. We didn't quite make Bowling Green before I HAD to stop for the night. I don't think I would have made it through another large city in the pouring rain.

By morning it was still cloudy and soon began to rain again. Tennessee was much of the same until 100 miles from Memphis when the sun finally came out! We stopped early when the rain began again, both needing a rest from it.

Day 3 it rained off and on right into Texarkana when finally we saw bright sun! We had intended staying here for the night but by this time had lost many hours with the truck breaking down everytime we stopped.

Up until now we had depended on the Garman to get us home but Texarkana was under road construction and this is where we got a rude awakening that it's only a little machine and does not adopt to construction. When it told us to exit, the exit was no longer there, taking us under the over pass 3 times in heavy traffic. Now we could have stopped and called Sherry who would have put us in the right direction but it was also at this point that I realized the orange folder I had all the contact info in was no longer on the front seat of the pick up. Dave jumped off the interstate and onto a back road that went for miles before leading us back to the interstate.

Shortly before entering Dallas it began to rain! Oh NO, and Dallas was also under road construction. It was a nightmare getting through Dallas! Huge is all I can say! We didn't quite make it to Waco before stopping for the night.

We woke to bright sun and 95 degrees...we were almost home and we had smiles on our faces!

Day 4 & 5 were the hardest, unloading the truck into the house and garage. We soon saw that we needed to down size again it we ever intended to buy furniture! We have a full pick up truck to take to Goodwill. A week has passed and even with working everyday on boxes and totes it won't look much different until we have furniture with drawers and storage.

Everyday Dave & I look at each other and say, "It doesn't matter, we are here"!