...was an interesting one. 2 days before closing on the house we realized that my father in laws truck had a rusted through frame and would not be able to pull the trailer. Earlier that same day, my husband and I had sold my car to Carmax. My poor husband found out hours later that he needed to go back and look for a vehicle... About 7 hours later, my husband and my father in law come back with a truck, I was still packing up the house and we were all up till 3 or 4 am. An early morning Sunday rise rolled around and we were all at it again. My husband gave the new truck a test drive around the block with the trailer hitched to it only to find that the transmission in this "new to us" truck was hosed... it would not make it to Texas with what we needed it to haul. I'm telling you, our patience/endurance, etc was being tested. Mostly husband's in my opinion, poor guy... he had to consistently find me in a matter of a few days to give me bad news.
We decided Monday after we closed on the house, we would take the truck back to Carmax, got our $ refunded and start on another truck hunt. My husband already had a few contacts who were trying to help him find a truck since he'd reached out to every place he could on Saturday when we'd originally went looking to buy a truck. After test driving a few in Leesburg at a wholesale dealer, we found one that would make it to TX! :D The trailer hitch would need to be rewired to work though... we managed to find some shade near our "old house" ;) and my husband set about rewiring and hooking up the lights for the trailer to work with the new truck (see photo :)).
All this set us back some time but we were all pretty optimistic about it. We had no particular place to be and my husband knew how to wire the brake lights for the truck (I'm so blessed). I basically stayed out of the way and was there for morale support as he worked... time and again I wondered to myself if there was anything he couldn't do. I'm telling you, there are many things that you just can't anticipate when you sell a house, pack all your belongings and move halfway across the country. But with the help of some amazing friends we made it happen!
A few hours into the drive, and the guys working their CB's (yes CB's :), they were absolutely necessary ;)) My father in law wasn't responding to his at one point, he then pulled ahead of us and pulled into a truck stop, as we followed him we saw him drive through a deep puddle that rocked the trailer and nearly gave us both a heart attack. My husband got out of the truck and went over to make sure he was okay. Luckily his dad was fine, when he went to gave him a hard time about the puddle his dad didn't seemed puzzled, apparently he hadn't seen the puddle. Turns out he had stopped because his CB went out. At the next truck stop my husband bought a new one and replaced the old(er) one that was being faulty, we needed clear lines of communication!! :D Back on the road!
We ended up hitting the road for Texas around 8PM the night of closing - here is our convoy somewhere between Virginia and Texas! ;)
A few hours into the drive, and the guys working their CB's (yes CB's :), they were absolutely necessary ;)) My father in law wasn't responding to his at one point, he then pulled ahead of us and pulled into a truck stop, as we followed him we saw him drive through a deep puddle that rocked the trailer and nearly gave us both a heart attack. My husband got out of the truck and went over to make sure he was okay. Luckily his dad was fine, when he went to gave him a hard time about the puddle his dad didn't seemed puzzled, apparently he hadn't seen the puddle. Turns out he had stopped because his CB went out. At the next truck stop my husband bought a new one and replaced the old(er) one that was being faulty, we needed clear lines of communication!! :D Back on the road!
We stopped every so often and made sure to stop to rotate tires or change them out when they looked low. Okay, so this was all my husband - the changing of tires, and inspection stuff :). I'm so thankful for him. At one of the tire check stops, my father in law spotted a dragonfly our one of the trucks antennae! :) For him, this held sentimental value... a late girlfriend of his loved dragonflies... naturally I made sure to freeze this moment in time.
The last night of driving we had stopped at a vacant lot to give the tires another look see, I took this time to take a few photos of what was at the road side. A teddy bear that was apparently left behind ( I feel like real photographers would kill for this shot ;)) and some beautiful flowers in the Texas sand!
The husband changed out a low tire and as we let my father in law lead us back onto the road... unfortunately he missed the exit to get back on the highway, as he went to correct this, he jumped a cement median with both the truck and the trailer. Sparks literally flew and the trailer rocked hard from side to side. It was very scary to watch. :( The guys bantered over the CB, basically my father in law didn't know the median was a cemented one... his night vision was not serving him well, but he was okay - he didn't take out any poles or signs as he had done this, so that was something to celebrate. We were fortunate everyone was in one piece.
With about 300 more miles until San Antonio we stopped once more to see if any damage had been done to the under belly of the trailer that jumped the curb... the gas station we stopped at was full of grasshoppers! They were good sized ones too! The weight of them jumping on you hurt! lol I don't' remember the specifics about the trailers here, but we made it to TX without it falling apart and we were able to unload the trailers into a storage unit before long too. A significant part needs to be welded - the trailer is setting until we get a chance to get it to a repair shop, a big piece is broke and will need to be welded. One things for sure though, we were definitely being watched over during our travels! So thankful the guys were able to push through the travels here... many more adventures to come!!
