The Stovebolt Site Forums The Side Lot Old Dominion Stovebolt Society (MD, VA, West VA, DC, DE and PA) HQ Move .... Epic adventure... or fake news???

A Stovebolt Special Report. We'll go indepth as we look back at what some are calling a monumental logistical feat accomplished solely through a bi-partisan Herculian effort that drew in friends from across the wide expanse of the ODSS to pull off a move that was thought impossible. We'll hear from many voices and perspectives, piece together the story from the anecdotes, sift through the claims and wild stories to bring you a complete overview of merely just another move? Or a legend of Homeric proportions detailing a dangerous journey through many perils and lonely miles as John, Peggy and friends seek a new home in a promised land.

Fact? Fiction? Legend? You decide.

We'll start in Late July.

John and Peggy, having recently completed their several jobs (NAVAIR, Guy Excavating, Grandchild development, neighborhood management, water coaching ...), decided that there was nothing further they could contribute (except for criminally high taxes ...) and that it was time to leave the Old Line State to return to their beloved Alabama.

"It was a difficult decision," recalled Peggy recently, while sipping Cumberland Mountain Water perched high atop her new lair in the Alabama highlands and wrapped in a Marine Corps blanket given her by Bread. "Nor one we made lightly or quickly.

"But ..."she went on, "there was nothing more we could do here. Our work was done. We could go."

But why the highlands of North East Alabama?

"The question had always been when to go, not where," Peggy stated with steely eyed determination. "I was living in Alabama when this dashing young Marine Corps aviator to be swooped in and took me to the far side of the world. He had gone to school at Marion (Marion Military Institute in Marion, AL). It was our Home Of Record while we were active duty, we kept a townhouse there and so Alabama has always been home for both of us. And the Alabama Highlands are just a beautiful place to live."

Not all agree, though, that their work in Maryland was "done."

When asked for comment, Pat Guy, owner of Guy Excavating, spat out his Mountain Dew.

"His work was done??? If I loaded all THAT hog manure into the triaxle dump, it would snap the frame in half," he snorted. "He left in the night, left a truck on a job site, a bunch of logs that Big Dale had to carry to the mill... shoot, he even ran the Potomac River Bridge, dodged the toll and now that truck has been impounded. And now I have to go get a couple of trustees from the county lock up just to fix the mess he left behind."

"His work wasn't done, he ran before they collared his [butt]. Maryland probably doesn't have an extradition agreement with Alabama ..." he surmised, clearly not a fan.

Despite detractors, the move actually started a year previously.

"When we began considering the move, we had developed a set of criteria," Peggy explained. "Even though we had Alabama in mind, we wanted to consider alternatives. Our primary requirements were that we wanted to go to a very Red state with a good economy where our retirement dollars went the furthest and our taxes went to things we believed in. We didn't want to follow the herd, necessarily, to places like Texas or Florida, so looked in Tennessee (with Hotrod Lincoln helping), in Mississippi (Southern Truck helping) and even Arkansas."

"After considering everything, we still couldn't find anything we liked better than Sweet Home Alabama."

So John and Peggy turned to Zillow.com in their search and in July, found a piece of property near Scottsboro, Alabama that checked most, if not all, their requirement "boxes."

"John entered our search parameters -- small house, at least 5 acres, garage, barn -- and it came right up first on the list," Peggy said. "We contacted the seller and everything just fell into place. Jerry (Hotrod Lincoln) even came over to meet with the real estate agent and put eyes on the property for us and do an inspection. We closed in October and John left with the first load the next day."

That first trip was an adventure in its own.

John, ever the careful truck driver, packed the van and the trailer full. As in "over weight."

"Being heavy made the 12-hour trip down I-81 rather sporty in places," John recounted. "I spent a lot of time in the slow lane with the 18-wheelers in mountains."

No problems?

"I wish," he said. "The van only has the 5.4 liter V-8, not the diesel or the V-10. So it kept kicking into passing gear. THAT resulted in blowing a coil pack in Bristol TN, and a 3-hour delay to fix that."

John still managed to arrive at 7 pm (CST) to meet with the seller, collect the keys and see the property for the first time...

.....

Next installment .... Trip 2 -- Miss Peggy takes "The Voyage Home!"