We were up at 7:30 again yesterday morning and were on the road before 9 o’clock. When we arrived at the Best Western Plus in Madison, Florida the night before, the only place to park was between a couple of 18-wheelers in a back corner of their lot, and the only way Terry could get into it was to pull straight forward, which meant we would have to back out in the morning.
I was a bit apprehensive about that because, as I’ve said before, my trailer towing skills are not great, and my backing up skills are even worse. Whenever we took the pontoon boat down to the water, my buddy Jesse Bolton would back it in for me so we could all go fishing. But we got lucky, and with Terry directing me I was able to back it up a couple of hundred feet through the parking lot until I could get to an exit and pull forward to leave.
Getting on Interstate 10, there wasn’t a lot of traffic and we stayed in the right lane running about 62 to 65 mph until we got to the Interstate 295 loop around the west side of Jacksonville to connect with Interstate 95. Then it was a straight shot south past St. Augustine and Daytona Beach to New Smyrna Beach, and then on to Edgewater. We pulled into our place here about 12:30.
I should not have felt too cocky about how easy it was to back the truck and trailer out of the motel parking lot, because it it took me a lot of backing up and pulling forward and jockeying the steering wheel around to be able to back it up to our garage once we got home. But we finally got it done.
We had not bothered with breakfast, so by then we were both more than hungry. After unhooking the trailer and unloading the truck, we went to Stavros Pizza for a late lunch or early dinner, depending on how you want to look at it. Either way, it was delicious as always.
Back at home, I waded through a big pile of e-mails and dealt with them while Terry did some laundry and caught up on her own e-mails and such. We were both too tired to do much of anything else.
And now the real work begins! We will load the cargo trailer up again, and then move it off to the side, while we pack boxes full of things and get them ready to pack into the U-Haul truck when we pick it up next Friday. We also have some lab work and a couple of doctor appointments to get out of the way while all that is going on. It’s going to be a busy week for us.
And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.
Thought For The Day – Dear middle finger, thank you for always sticking up for me.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Perhaps Terry should try the backing up. She might be better at it. I was better at backing up our 36 ft 5th wheel than my retired truck driver husband because I was better at following the signals and he knew how to ground guide me. We used walkie talkies back then.
Hi Nick:
Just wondering why yudidnt use one of those “pods“?
Florida s loss is Alabama s gain.
Tony
Tony, The cost of the pods is prohibitive. When friends moved, a small one, I think 10×10, was $3500.
Backing is funny. I have to back our 37’ fifth wheel at home up our 500 ft driveway… and I’m terrible at it. Yet, in FL a few years ago, the campground manager walked next to my window for 1500 feet talking me in and it was easy peasy! The only time I ever did a perfect back in, I mean, stop, back up without stopping, turn off the truck… it turned out that the utilities for the site were on the wrong side! Moved a couple of sites down and took a few back and forths as usual LOL. Good job Nick, as long as you get it where it needs to be all is good.
I hope you are having loaders load the UHAUL. We did that and they packed the truck professionally and saved my back. Well worth the couple of hundred bucks it cost. Safe Travels!