Episode 2 -- The Peggy Trip
So .... Off loaded the 1st load. Spent a day taking it all in. Hit the rack shortly after sunset. Woke up at 0230, sh*t, showered and shaved and was on the road to Maryland at 0330. No issues on the return trip and got in to to Rosalie Way shortly after sunset.
Then the real work began -- Peggy was going on the next trip.
I had her figured for trip 3 ... But ... SWMBO.
Fortunately, I had about a week to prepare for it. And our "adopted" son and grandson, Blaine (and Landon), signed on to help load and make Trip 2.
Plus ... Mike B offered to go on the trip and haul something. We loaded the '73 IH 1310 dump trip ("Hobbes") on his trailer, along with some misc stuff, and sent them off ahead. We'd see them in Alabama.
The first issue ... I had figured the bus would be making the "Peggy Trip" loaded with the household goods (kitchen and bedroom stuff). And because that was originally programmed for Trip 3, the bus was in line over at Sensenig's garage for a transmission service and general check to make sure it was ready for a 700-mile road trip at max gross weight. So when Trip 3 got bumped up to Trip 2 ...
I had some quick reconfiguration to do to the logistics plan.
One of our dear friends and ATHS brothers, Henry, lent us his enclosed million foot hauler trailer... Cool -- the thing was nearly the size of a semi trailer. The problem was that the trailer's empty weight exceeded the towing capacity of the Quigley. OK ... Blaine's F-250 could handle it.... Only, the trailer's payload was *vastly* less than it's capacity. Meaning that we would max the load in the trailer well before we cubed it out. Meaning ... why pull such a ginormous trailer 1400 miles mostly empty?
So I sheepishly returned Henry's graciously offered trailer and pondered next step.
That turned out to be a U-Haul trailer. Blaine and Landon showed up. We got the prime household goods loaded in the U-Haul trailer. We loaded the VW wagon packed full of stuff and put it on the car hauler trailer with a few other really heavy things (like the HQ Shop main roller tool box and the tiller), got a berth set up for Peggy in the van and off we went to Alabama.
It was a relatively uneventful trip, except for the hateful traffic in Knoxville and Chattanooga.
Arriving again well after dark, Peggy made her triumphal return to Alabama without issue. But not for long ... But that's for next time
