Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The route home, part 1

Monday afternoon - 12:57 EST

We just stopped at a side-of-the-road gas / food / scales place to gas up. Dad bought a 1/2 gallon of chocolate milk and I grabbed a moon-pie. Neither was all that satisfying.

Made peanut butter / jelly sandwiches, which dad said was probably the most nutrious thing we've had to eat the whole trip. Last night's dinner was actually pretty good - so there' sthat. But, for the most part, he's probably right.

Let's see: Last night, we stayed at a side-of-the-road motel called (something like) the Branson Lake Lodge. The room was pretty good, but one of the two beds was broken - literally: the box spring was broken in half on one side, making the thing completely unusable. Well, half unusable. I took that one, so dad could have the other. Sleeping on one side of the bed was fine.

The rain we had last night was something -- pretty torrential for much of the night, with moderate to heavy rain the rest of the time. Someo crazy thunder-boomers, too - lighting strikes even into the morning.

We woke at about 6, I showered, and we sat in the hotel room until about 7:30, waiting. It was kinda frustrating to be just cooling our heels when all we wanted to do was hook up to the mill and get rolling. But, we had coffee, watched the weather channel, a little news, and talked a bit.

7:30 or so, we tried to check out. The guy who checked us in wasn't around, so we just left the key inside the room, and closed the door. Off we went, to the bank, and Dan met us there at 8 AM. Even after the bank manager had verified the check, over the phone, with Greenfield Savings, Dan still wasn't entirely satisfied. He wanted to issue a bill of sale with the phrase "pending clearance of funds". Yup. I'm sure Greenfield Savings Bank is going to run out of money before Dan gets paid. Not.

Anyway. we finished there, headed back to Dan's house, and proceeded to hook up the mill. Nothing tough, but several steps. Then, after getting the six blades, the rest of the hardware, and putting the plate on the thing, we were off -- 9:45 Am Departure time.

So far, the truck is getting only about 12 miles to the gallon, compared to the 17.5 - 18 we were getting on the way out. We are hauling 3,500 lbs of hardware behind us, so that's to be expected, I guess.

about an hour in, we passed by our first pretty bad accident for the trip -- single car, into the center-median, and nose first into a guard-rail. Nothing left 'cept what you'd take to Kramer's for shredding. I'm glad we passed by AFTER the ambulance had taken away the driver. Ick.

The rain stopped right aroudn then, but it's since gotten hotter, hazy like crazy, and humid. 81 degrees, and muggy. In spite of the poorer mileage, I'm going to feel a bit less guilty about running the a/c, though. It's just too darned long of a trip home to be uncomfortable.

The truck has been a pretty nice road, all things being equal. Plenty of room, room for all the food / bags / tools, and enogh elbow room for both Finns. So, it's been OK.

We expect to be in Ohio tonight -- and hopefully well into the state before we end out this day. But with the late start, who can be sure? In any case, we still expect on more long day of driving. The mill is slowing us down a bit -- but not too much.

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A quick postscript: at 4:23 EST, we're about 20 minutes away from I-39 and I-80 in Illinois. Going to turn east on I 80 momentarily, and head home from there.

More Later Tonight.