On to Carolina

If you’re a member of my email community,  you may remember the adventure-filled move to North Carolina I mentioned, and how it rivaled our trip down the Alcan in the old school bus?

This time we traveled by Uhaul truck, the biggest one available. It may also have been the most heavily loaded.

After a long day of loading, we hit the road about nightfall, headed to Boone from Knoxville.

We’d left our yurts behind as we’d made them into permanent structures.

Nonetheless, being the packrat am, the truck was full; furniture, stacks of hardwood lumber, shop and hand tools, Black Alberene soapstone, household goods, and in the borrowed horse trailer behind, our 1800 lb Percheron horse.

Ranja followed in our similarly loaded Ford Ranger, with our two-year-old, 6-month old, and our orange-haired Corgi.

All seemed fine as we headed east on I-40. And all was fine, for a while.

Then, Kabaam!!

Did you notice the two exclamation marks? One for each of the left rear tires?

We pulled onto the shoulder, assessed the situation,and Ranja drove to the next exit for assistance.

Our flashing safety lights did nothing to slow the steady onslaught of passing rigs.

The trailer rocked in their wake, and Grayun stomped to the roar of the engines and flash of headlights.

It seemed like forever before Ranja returned.

Grayun, in his terror, had his legs up and over the front divider where he hung trembling.

Squeezing ourselves in, we tried to calm him and considered our options.

After a frantic five minutes, amidst flashlights and buckets, timbers and sweat, and a dash of impromptu ingenuity, we managed to restored a semblance of order.

With the trailer hooked behind our pickup truck, we headed for the nearest motel.

Morning found us, with tires replaced, driving uneventfully on to North Carolina.

The excitement of the trip didn’t inspire ‘Early Risers,’ a 48″ engraved steel saw blade, however, it’s a nighttime scene, and that magnificent beast was my primary model.