"On The Road Again" But In A Movig Truck

                     Wednesday May 27, 2015

A few days after I got back from my 4 day jet set trip to Gulf Shores, AL for my granddaughters graduation, it was time to get serious and pack up all our stuff we had wished we had sold years ago. Joe had a 26 foot U-Haul rented for the following Wednesday.

We were out at the storage unit by 9AM, which is early for us! We worked hard carrying stuff from storage to truck. I took many breaks because my right foot kept going to sleep. (One of the many problems I have had for years. This happens when I am on my feet for more than hour. No Dr.s seem to know the cause). Joe on the other hand never took a break except for lunch.

We had Mallery with us because I didn't want to leave her all day with Joe's mom. We found her big kennel in the storage and put her in the shade. She really wasn't happy because it was a very long day, and she didn't understand what the heck we were doing. Joe was getting really exhausted from his nonstop packing and lifting, so I finally convinced him he needed to take a 10 minute break. He was worried if he stopped, we wouldn't be done until after dark.

At around 8 PM we finally saw the back wall of the storage unit. By the time we got everything packed into the truck, it was getting dark, and the truck was plum full with no extra room. Our storage unit was 40 minutes from Cedar Rapids, so by the time we got home for dinner it was 10PM. The next morning we were up by 7AM and had to figure out where we were going to put all the stuff that we had packed in the Honda  from the bus we had just sold a month prior.

We left Cedar Rapids, IA by 12PM and
headed east. In an hour and a half we crossed into Illinois.

We hit Chicago around 6PM so it really slowed down our schedule driving time. In Chicago we had a truck driver pull up along side us, pointing at our towed Honda. The U-Haul truck didn't have the right towing system for our Honda, so Joe figured a way around it by having a added tow bar custom made just for our situation. He was saving $50 a day, which was $200 since we had the U-Haul scheduled for 4 days. Joe had told me prior to leaving, he didn't know how the custom towing system was going to work, so we had watched it carefully out our rear view mirrors.  The Honda was wandering from side to side, especially going down hills and breaking, but it seemed to be OK. Joe waved to the trucker and said he knew about the situation and it was OK. We were so glad to cross over into Indiana!

A couple more truckers tried to wave us down as they passed us, to tell us our car was wandering, and Joe just waved and nodded he knew the situation. Oh we were so glad to cross over into Michigan.

In Michigan, we stopped for another potty break and to check the Honda.

The U-Haul had a ball hitch, but we needed a receiver hitch. The towing system that hooks to the Honda is what we had used for 6 1/2 years to tow it behind the bus. The tow bar that is attached to the U-Haul is what Joe had customized for this trip to Michigan

Now you can see why we were having so many people trying to tell us something was wrong.

Mallery was exhausted too, from the long, long day of driving. Before we left Iowa, I had wanted to get Mallery groomed. I normally groom Mallery, but I didn't have all my equipment or the time to groom her. Petsmart told me I needed her records of shots to have her groomed. I had not had Mallery's vaccinated since last summer when she became very ill. I was told, if I could get a Vets permission slip of her being too sick for vaccination, she could be groomed. I called my vet and she said she couldn't give me a note because by law she had to have her vacinations. I said,"Well I won't give her any shots, so I guess she will not be groomed".  Joe had taken Mallery into the vets while I had been in Gulf Shores, AL. to get her fluid treatments. A few days before we left, I made a appointment to pick up some more fluids, medicine, and to have her kidney values rechecked. The tech had taken Mallery back, to get her blood work done, when the Dr. came out and told me by law Mallery had to have her vaccinations. I told the Dr., "no I won't let her have them". The Dr told me 3 times, "By law, she has to have them"! I finally said, "Fine I refuse any treatment then, because she is not getting any shots"! The Dr. abruptly turned around and left, and soon returned with Mallery. My sister's old dog died the same day he had two shots, and since then, I have heard that any old and sick dog should not have shots as it lowers their immune system, and can put them into anaphylactic shock. I looked it up on the internet, and Iowa does not have a medical exemption on vaccinations. My question is why then had my vet and the 24 hour specialty animal service been treating her for the last month while I was in Iowa. Maybe because it profited them at nearly $2000. Since I was leaving, they thought they could get a few more bucks out of me whether, it killed my dog or not!

 We had booked a room at a hotel near Grand Rapids, MI., but because we figured our driving time wrong, due to Chicago traffic, we had to drive an hour and a half in the dark before we arrived. It was 10PM before we got to the hotel. For some reason Mallery woke me up at 3AM and would not go back to sleep. I took her outside several times, but she just would not stay in the bed and then started to whine and bark constantly, so I had to leave the room so Joe could sleep. Unfortunately I only got 4 hours of sleep that night.

The next day we left Grand Rapids, and drove another 5 hours to Boyne City, MI. During that 5 hours we had at least another 5 cars trying to pull us over to tell us something was wrong with our tow car. One guy literally drove ahead of us and got out of his car to wave us down, when Joe didn't stop the first time he tried to wave us down. Because we still didn't stop, he got back into his car and caught up with us (we were only driving 55mph) and tried waving us down again. His wife in the passenger side yelled our tow car look very bad. Joe nodded and said he knew. At about 1 1/2 hours before we arrived in Boyne City, I told Joe I had had enough from  the stress of having at least 10 people trying to wave us down during to entire trip. I told him I wanted him to stop and to unhook the Honda. I would drive the rest on my own. I also told him to pay the extra $200 for a car dolly next time. It would have been well worth the stress less drive. I would have drove earlier that day but I couldn't keep awake, from lack of sleep the night before. Five minutes after we unhooked and were driving separately, a down-pouring rain storm hit, forcing us to pull over for about 10 minutes, after trying to drive for about 30 minutes with very little vision at times, especially while Semi's passed us. We were so glad to finally get home, only to have to unpack at least our bed and some essentials. Needless to say, we both were exhausted from the last two days of nonstop working and driving under very stressful conditions.