{"id":22307,"date":"2020-02-28T20:25:37","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T05:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jeffreyhdean.com\/?p=22307"},"modified":"2021-01-21T08:41:46","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T17:41:46","slug":"on-to-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeffreyhdean.com\/on-to-carolina\/","title":{"rendered":"On to Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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?<\/p>\n
This time we traveled by Uhaul truck, the biggest one available. It may also have been the most heavily loaded.<\/p>\n
After a long day of loading, we hit the road about nightfall, headed to Boone from Knoxville.<\/p>\n
We’d left our yurts behind as we’d made them into permanent structures.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Ranja followed in our similarly loaded Ford Ranger, with our two-year-old, 6-month old, and our orange-haired Corgi.<\/p>\n
All seemed fine as we headed east on I-40. And all was fine, for a while.<\/p>\n
Then, Kabaam!!<\/p>\n
Did you notice the two exclamation marks? One for each of the left rear tires?<\/p>\n
We pulled onto the shoulder, assessed the situation,and Ranja drove to the next exit for assistance.<\/p>\n
Our flashing safety lights did nothing to slow the steady onslaught of passing rigs.<\/p>\n
The trailer rocked in their wake, and Grayun stomped to the roar of the engines and flash of headlights.<\/p>\n
It seemed like forever before Ranja returned.<\/p>\n
Grayun, in his terror, had his legs up and over the front divider where he hung trembling.<\/p>\n
Squeezing ourselves in, we tried to calm him and considered our options.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
With the trailer hooked behind our pickup truck, we headed for the nearest motel.<\/p>\n
Morning found us, with tires replaced, driving uneventfully on to North Carolina.<\/p>\n