I found this note that I sent off to someone (and edited for here) about
out move from Kansas to Georgia. It probably says more about me than I should
reveal to the world, but here goes:
Chad and I moved from Kansas (after 4 years there) to Georgia in December
of 1999. We moved ourselves (with the help of friends on one end and family on
the other) and took two days to drive it. Chad drove the 20 foot moving van, I
drove a 5-door Escort with a 90lbs dog named Sam and a 35lbs dog named
Canaan.
The disasters started while loading the van...Kansas had a very warm winter that year...until moving day. Freezing rain started before noon and although the rain stopped within a few hours, the freezing did not. Fortunatly we have great friends and they continued the loading and last minute packing decked out in winter coats and gloves, then treated us to chili for dinner.
Next on the list of disasters happened on the road. Chad and I both had CB radios, donated by my mom when we had moved TO Kansas, 4 years earlier. We thought this would be just a long boring drive. When we stopped somewhere just west of Kansas City to fuel up and have lunch, I told my husband that my CB was not working properly and the ice on the roof of the car had kept the attenae from staying in place, so I didn't think it would be any help. And the dogs needed a rest stop to run around at for a bit, so we decided that I would pull over at the next rest stop and just catch up with him, since he was not able to over 65 and the speed limit is 70.
So I pulled over about half an hour later and let the dogs out and gave them water. We spent about 15 minutes walking around before moving on. I pushed ahead, watching for the truck and found it about 45 minutes or so later. I passed to make sure it was him and make sure he saw me, but I couldn't see into the cab of the truck. I could see the yellow sleeve of his pullover, however, so I pulled in front of him and assumed he saw me.
As we approached St. Louis, I slowed down, as we had planned that he would lead into the city in case we were separated in traffic...the truck is much easier for me to see than our little car is for him. He pulled around me and got in front, just as we'd planned.
When I saw the truck taking an exit off I70, I was a little concerened, since we had decided to go straight through on 70, but when I saw him take the next exit and pull into a gas station I assumed he needed a soda or something. Much to my surprise, it was not my husband who stepped out of the truck! I jumped back into the car and frantically checked the map...he must be on 70 way ahead of me. I found 70 and raced ahead but was stopped by a traffic accident...for an hour. Talking it over with my husband later, we realized that the accident must have happened after he got passed that area. So now he was over an hour ahead of me.
I pulled out the CB, praying that he'd left his on and tried to reach him. No luck. No worries...I knew the exact route he would take and our plan was to stop in Nashville. If I didn't find him by then, surely we'd both call relatives and find each other again. I raced ahead (I made great time!) and kept asking the truckers on the CB if they'd seen a Ryder truck moving south. No one said they had. Piecing things together, my husband had stopped for fuel at a place he thought I would see from the interstate and he waited for an hour or so. We don't know if I passed him without seeing him or if I had not quite caught up with him when he hit the road again.
Finally I reached Nashville. By this time I had thought things out pretty thoroughly. I was sure my husband didn't have my families phone numbers with him and would call his mother. He knew I had her number and, even though we were traveling closer to my family and they would be meeting us at our destination, it seemed logical to call his mom. So I checked into a hotel and called her. She hadn't heard from him. We decided that he might be behind me by now, and maybe he hadn't reached Nashville. So I would wait for him to call her and then he would call me.
In the morning I called her again. She still had not heard from him. So I called my sister to let her know I was leaving Nashville so she could time her arrival to our new house accordingly.
She had been up all night. My husband had called her! He had her number and knew I would call her at some point to let her know what time we would arrive at our new house. She told him I was supposed to call when I stopped that night, so they thought we would find each other then. But I thought I was supposed to call in the morning. ARRGGH.
OK. Now I had the number for the hotel he stayed in. I called and found that he had checked out 20 minutes before. I also found that he had stayed about 10 miles from where I stayed! So, another race to the car, thinking there was no way he could cross the mountains around Chatanooga faster than I could. I pushed ahead, searching for him, thinking I would catch up to him in a few hours, still trying the CB to no avail.
By the time I reached Atlanta I had given up and thought I would simply see him when we both reached the house. However, ANOTHER accident kept me an hour! (My first introduction to living near Atlanta, the traffic on my side of the huge divider was stopped for an accident on the OTHER side...we weren't stopped, actually, we were rubber-necking. I spent an HOUR waiting for people to slow down and watch a horrible accident recovery taking place on the other side of a 4-lane sized divider...I was SO frustrated.) When I finally reached the little town we would now call home, I found that the directions to our house were not exactly right (close, though) and I spent an hour asking for directions and almost, but not quite getting there before I finally found someone who could actually tell me the names of the streets I would be turning on to reach mine.
When I arrived the van was half unloaded, again in the rain although at least it was not freezing! We greeted each other and my family fussed over me while we all compared notes and found that we had missed each other probably during fueling times and that, until Atlanta, when my husband missed the accident I came upon, we had been within a few miles of finding each other the whole day, even with my stops to let the dogs out!
(As a side note, when we left a few days later for my mom's house in Alabama, we came upon yet another accident. All three of the accidents were pretty bad and happened only a few minutes before we reached them. I'd had enough traveling for a while. I've had enough moving from state to state to last me a life time!)
The disasters started while loading the van...Kansas had a very warm winter that year...until moving day. Freezing rain started before noon and although the rain stopped within a few hours, the freezing did not. Fortunatly we have great friends and they continued the loading and last minute packing decked out in winter coats and gloves, then treated us to chili for dinner.
Next on the list of disasters happened on the road. Chad and I both had CB radios, donated by my mom when we had moved TO Kansas, 4 years earlier. We thought this would be just a long boring drive. When we stopped somewhere just west of Kansas City to fuel up and have lunch, I told my husband that my CB was not working properly and the ice on the roof of the car had kept the attenae from staying in place, so I didn't think it would be any help. And the dogs needed a rest stop to run around at for a bit, so we decided that I would pull over at the next rest stop and just catch up with him, since he was not able to over 65 and the speed limit is 70.
So I pulled over about half an hour later and let the dogs out and gave them water. We spent about 15 minutes walking around before moving on. I pushed ahead, watching for the truck and found it about 45 minutes or so later. I passed to make sure it was him and make sure he saw me, but I couldn't see into the cab of the truck. I could see the yellow sleeve of his pullover, however, so I pulled in front of him and assumed he saw me.
As we approached St. Louis, I slowed down, as we had planned that he would lead into the city in case we were separated in traffic...the truck is much easier for me to see than our little car is for him. He pulled around me and got in front, just as we'd planned.
When I saw the truck taking an exit off I70, I was a little concerened, since we had decided to go straight through on 70, but when I saw him take the next exit and pull into a gas station I assumed he needed a soda or something. Much to my surprise, it was not my husband who stepped out of the truck! I jumped back into the car and frantically checked the map...he must be on 70 way ahead of me. I found 70 and raced ahead but was stopped by a traffic accident...for an hour. Talking it over with my husband later, we realized that the accident must have happened after he got passed that area. So now he was over an hour ahead of me.
I pulled out the CB, praying that he'd left his on and tried to reach him. No luck. No worries...I knew the exact route he would take and our plan was to stop in Nashville. If I didn't find him by then, surely we'd both call relatives and find each other again. I raced ahead (I made great time!) and kept asking the truckers on the CB if they'd seen a Ryder truck moving south. No one said they had. Piecing things together, my husband had stopped for fuel at a place he thought I would see from the interstate and he waited for an hour or so. We don't know if I passed him without seeing him or if I had not quite caught up with him when he hit the road again.
Finally I reached Nashville. By this time I had thought things out pretty thoroughly. I was sure my husband didn't have my families phone numbers with him and would call his mother. He knew I had her number and, even though we were traveling closer to my family and they would be meeting us at our destination, it seemed logical to call his mom. So I checked into a hotel and called her. She hadn't heard from him. We decided that he might be behind me by now, and maybe he hadn't reached Nashville. So I would wait for him to call her and then he would call me.
In the morning I called her again. She still had not heard from him. So I called my sister to let her know I was leaving Nashville so she could time her arrival to our new house accordingly.
She had been up all night. My husband had called her! He had her number and knew I would call her at some point to let her know what time we would arrive at our new house. She told him I was supposed to call when I stopped that night, so they thought we would find each other then. But I thought I was supposed to call in the morning. ARRGGH.
OK. Now I had the number for the hotel he stayed in. I called and found that he had checked out 20 minutes before. I also found that he had stayed about 10 miles from where I stayed! So, another race to the car, thinking there was no way he could cross the mountains around Chatanooga faster than I could. I pushed ahead, searching for him, thinking I would catch up to him in a few hours, still trying the CB to no avail.
By the time I reached Atlanta I had given up and thought I would simply see him when we both reached the house. However, ANOTHER accident kept me an hour! (My first introduction to living near Atlanta, the traffic on my side of the huge divider was stopped for an accident on the OTHER side...we weren't stopped, actually, we were rubber-necking. I spent an HOUR waiting for people to slow down and watch a horrible accident recovery taking place on the other side of a 4-lane sized divider...I was SO frustrated.) When I finally reached the little town we would now call home, I found that the directions to our house were not exactly right (close, though) and I spent an hour asking for directions and almost, but not quite getting there before I finally found someone who could actually tell me the names of the streets I would be turning on to reach mine.
When I arrived the van was half unloaded, again in the rain although at least it was not freezing! We greeted each other and my family fussed over me while we all compared notes and found that we had missed each other probably during fueling times and that, until Atlanta, when my husband missed the accident I came upon, we had been within a few miles of finding each other the whole day, even with my stops to let the dogs out!
(As a side note, when we left a few days later for my mom's house in Alabama, we came upon yet another accident. All three of the accidents were pretty bad and happened only a few minutes before we reached them. I'd had enough traveling for a while. I've had enough moving from state to state to last me a life time!)
