Trip 3...
Returning to Maryland, we found out the the critical transportation asset for Trip 3, the bus, was not going to be available. Apparently, critical apparatus from the Leonardtown VFD had come in and bumped Rosebus to the back of the line .... sigh ... Couldn't get too mad over THAT, I suppose ...(Grrrrr stooopid firetruck ....
).
Sortta like when you have a tactical plan that requires a helicopter. At the last minute you get told that the helicopter ain't comin. BUT ... here's a canoe. Good luck!!
Alrighty then. No bus. Okay .... as Pooh Bear would say as he tapped his forehead, "Think... think ... think..."
After more forehead tapping, it suddenly became clear what we had to do -- pile everything in the back yard, douse it with diesel fuel and put a match to it.
As much as Peggy would have loved that option, we ultimately decided not to. Mainly because such a fire on top of the septic tank would probably be a problem .... Also, of some concern ... were all the Stovebolt.com files and computer equipment ... and OLD CHARLIE!!!
So I rented a U-Haul truck!
We had arrived back in Maryland on Thursday. Arranged things on Friday. Pickup up the U-Haul truck Saturday morning. And our plan called for us to be back on the road to Alabama at Oh Dark Thirty Monday morning (which happened to be Veterans' Day ...). Not a whole lot of time to throw together a new "Plan B" packout plan and get it loaded. Fortunately for us, we still have a few friends at this point!
The first to show up were my Marine Corps Brother, Andre and his son, Treshawn. They even showed up with pizza!!
Because this trip was planned as the Main Peggy/HHG trip, we had a lot to load -- the bed room furniture, the Stovebolt Office (computers, table, printer, file cabinets, etc.), tools ... Thank our Good Lord who provided Andre and Treshawn. And then, shortly after, Dan P arrived ("Roverdan" as he is known to the ODSS).
But I get ahead of myself ....
Rewinding back to Friday .... Shortly after I had made the reservation for the U-Haul truck, I got a call from a sales/logistics rep from U-Haul. Would I be willing to also haul one of their trailers to my destination? Apparently, they were short of assets in North East Alabama and they needed trailers. And if I would take one along, they'd let me use the trailer as well as pay me $50. So I said "Sure!"
Wow. A U-Haul truck AND a trailer! Considering how much Blaine and I had packed into the first trailer .... We were going to get a LOT on this trip!! I started a new pack out plan ... I shouldn't have bothered ...
Saturday morning arrives and our waterside neighbors, Sarah and Willie, drive me down to Lexington Park to pick up the rig. Imagine my ... surprise ... when I find out the trailer is actually a car hauler, not a box trailer ... Hmmmm.... Driving back to Leonardtown, my brain was full on mental gymnastics reworking the plan. Plan A -- Put Charlie on the car hauler to free up the flat trailer for other stuff ... Nope -- Charlie's wheelbase is too long for the car hauler. Plan B -- The tractor?? Nope. With the FEL, it's also too long (even backwards). Besides, the rear wheels are too wide.
So we went with Plan M -- The Malibu.
Until this point, the trusty Malibu was not planned to make the move to Alabama. We were just going to sell it in Maryland. But now, it had a reason to go to Alabama, For one thing, we could slap it on the trailer and pack it full of ... whatever we could cram into it. For another thing, it could make a one-way trip back to Maryland for Trip 4 when I was going to return with the bus.
Problem solved!
But heeeeeeeeyyyyyyyy .... wait a minute.... go back a bit .... Why are they so desperate for U-Haul assets in North East Alabama they're willing to PAY ME to relocate a trailer down there???? Hmmmmmm. Something we should know here???? (Note: In retrospect, we've determined that all assets in this part of the South were depleted in the wake of the hurricane that ravaged our neighbors to the East
so it wasn't because we were moving *to* an area that most folks were leaving. )
OK, where were we ... Ah, Saturday pack out with Andre, Treshawn and Dan. Also playing a vital role are our other neighbors, Jimmy and Pam. And then, later in the day, Erik arrived.
Having the U-Haul truck instead of the bus opened up a LOT of possibilities. To begin, the first thing I loaded in the U-haul was Peggy's mower.
Not just *any* mower (lest you be thinkin' that it would be easier just to sell it and get another one in Alabama....), Peggy's mower is the one we got at the Christmas tree farm -- a special ordered John Deere commercial diesel ZTR with no foot controls. A mower so rugged, our great grandchildren will be mowing with it. Leave it behind? After all we've been through??? So it went in first. And it was amazing what we could pack around it. We literally buried it. As back at Friendship Forest, it will be Peggy's outdoor power chair here.
After a while, the plan (staged items of various priorities) just went completely out the window and we were just grabbing whatever fit the next hole we were trying to stuff.
Thanks to the creative thinking and perseverance of Andre, Treshawn, Dan and Erik, we packed the U-haul and the Malibu full, full, full! I doubt even an ant could have crawled aboard the U-Haul. It was well after dark when the Trip 3 Packout crew declared victory and went home. A HUGE thanks to them!!
That was Saturday -- One truck and trailer packed (the main one). For Sunday, we still had to figure out what was going in the van with Peggy, behind the van on the flat trailer, in the back of Mike Roache's truck and on Mike's trailer.
I'll get to THAT next!
