Misadventures In Moving – Day 4

We woke up in Tucumcari, New Mexico Monday morning full of optimism, knowing we only had about six hours left on our trip back to our hometown of Show Low, Arizona. We were expecting it to be easy-peasy, but we had no idea how wrong we were.

Son-in-law Kenny is a top-rated automotive technician who can take apart and put back together anything on wheels, so it’s second nature for him to check out the vehicles every day before we got on the road. That morning he went around the trucks, trailers, and van, and everything looked fine. We hit the road about 10 o’clock, and after an hour or so of driving on the roughest highway on our trip, which made our run across Oklahoma the day before seem like a walk in the park, we stopped for fuel. Kenny did another vehicle check and told me we had a problem. The tires on the flatbed trailer carrying our Ram pickup that he was towing were completely bald in some areas and looked like they had pieces gouged out of them.

The trailer had less than 500 miles on it before we started the trip, and again, just an hour or so before, they looked good. We could only determine that a combination of the cheap Chinese made tires that came on the trailer when I bought it and the very rough road full of potholes and poorly patched surface must have created the problem. The radial tires on the cargo trailer I was towing, as well as the U-Haul moving trucks and the van Terry was driving were still in fine condition.

We were another 90 minutes or so away from Albuquerque, so as we continued on, all of our fingers were crossed. Tiffany was on the telephone calling every tire shop she could find to see if they had replacement tires. A place called Southern Tire Mart on the west side of town had them in stock, so we all made our way there. They said they would get to us as soon as they could and Kenny suggested that Terry and I keep on going since there was no use in all of us waiting around. So we got back on the road headed towards Arizona.

But not so fast, it’s not like it was going to be easy. As we were coming into Gallup, Terry told me the Check Engine light on the B van came on. That’s not good. We got off Interstate 40 and found an auto parts store right at the exit, but they did not have the equipment to check for the codes on a Mercedes diesel engine. They sent us down the road a few blocks to an AutoZone, and the young man working there figured out how to plug in the tester and printed out the results. Then he told me he had no idea what any of that meant. Okay, now what?

The van was running fine. Terry had scrolled through the messages on the screen and there was no indication of a problem except for the darned Check Engine light. I called Kenny, who told me they were already back on the road with new radial tires all the way around and sent me a picture of the trailer on jack stands with the pickup still on it. He said since the van was not running hot and there was no hesitation with the engine to keep on going the last 110 miles. Then he told me that they had pulled off the road to get fuel just three miles past us, so we met them there, topped off the tank on my U-Haul, and were back at it.

We had expected to get into Show Low about 4:00 in the afternoon, but it was after 8 when we finally pulled up in front of our new home. Our granddaughter Destiny and her boyfriend Vicente, granddaughter Hailey and her husband Toby, grandson Travis and granddaughter Britni were all on hand waiting for us, and after lots of hugs all around, they set to work unloading stuff from the trucks into the garage. It was about 11:00 PM when they finally knocked off and they had already put a big dent in our load, as you can see by how much is in the garage. There was still a lot left to be unloaded, and it would take a couple more days of everybody working hard, but eventually it was done and we took the U-Hauls back and dropped them off, glad to be done with that adventure.

Even though everything was unloaded from the trucks, that doesn’t mean it’s in the house and put away yet and it won’t be for quite a while. But the kids are helping, bringing boxes and furniture in as directed, Terry is busting her butt putting the house together, and I’m just trying to stay out from underfoot. I can’t say enough about how much we appreciate Kenny and Tiffany working so hard to help us get moved, handling every problem that came along, and taking so much of the load off of us.

We are already loving our new home. It’s so nice to open up the doors and let the mountain breeze come through the screens, and to hear the sound of the pine trees swaying in the wind. We know we will be content here.

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 – The hurrier I go the behinder I get.