The Trip

Well on April 21,2012 I started my journey. Got the truck and the trailer at 1030, which actually was supposed to be at 0930, but of course there had to be a delay, such as the truck place not being ready, thanks for the discount!!!! After running around all day, I was able to start loading it at about 1630. So from 1630 till about 0330 I was packing the truck, spent another hour or two packing the cab with some necessities and grabbing whatever was lying around into a miscellaneous box. After a five hour nap, got little dude ready and we were on the road by 1030. For a little bit I seriously was doubting me getting out of Virginia, wit all the delays; I forgot to mention what a pain it was to put my car on the trailer!!! Ugh, I had to take apart the hooks on the trailer chains just to be able to get it hooked up. The stock hooks were to small to hook on to my tow points on the car.

So the route that I took was more or less trouble free. My whole trip I intended to take my time and get to Houston by like Tuesday night, but I kicked it up to high gear and made it to my sisters house Tuesday morning. Sometime about Monday afternoon, just out side Montgomery, Alabama I found trouble. See, in all my travels, I have always, and I mean always broke down in Georgia. So imagine my excitement when I made it through that state with no issues. My excitement didn't last long. I made it 170 miles from Atlanta, GA before some body pulled up beside my to tell me something was wrong with the trailer. Just a few moments before somebody hit the horn and pointed back; I had hit a bump and the trailer felt a little loose. Now I really couldn't see anything wrong, and after it broke loose she went right back straight, no wobbles, or bouncing between the lanes. So I figured it was just the road; but after dude pointed back, I already knew what it was, pulled over on I-85 exit 4, and there it was the starboard, aft tire was gone. I was parked for two an a half hours between a tire change and a dead battery. Tell me why the tire guy didn't have jumper cables. What kind of roadside service truck doesn't have jumper cables?!?! So I spent another hour waiting for a jump, from a different company on contract with the truck rental company!!!!

So with all that being said, I just decided it just as well for me to just keep rolling, forget all the side tracks and extra stops. Total actual drive time was 30 hours, that's how long it took to drive this two and a half tons of crap from VA to Houston, the truck had a 4.6 liter Vortec engine, thought it was going to die with some of the hills that I had to go up, down was great, a few times I reached 75, yea stupid I know, but it happened, cause I knew for a fact that the next hill I was going to be lucky to make it to the top at 50 mph; most of the hills I went up had the engine screaming, in low gear and going as slow as 40 mph. Thought I was going to blow the dang engine.

I made it to my sisters house at 0630 April 23,2012, felt wild, crazy, felt energized, felt exhausted, relieved all at the same time. Wasn't exactly sure how I was supposed to feel, found out what traffic is like out on the 59...five lanes and grid lock traffic for absolutely no reason, not an accident, not a car pulled over...nothing. Thought for a minute that I had accidentally driven to Miami!!!! After being here for a few days I think I'm kinda getting the layout down of the city, thankfully it is built on a grid, unlike the place where I came from, you would have to drive in circles to get anywhere. What is confusing to me this far is the way that the freeways are built, they have like a service road that runs next to the freeways, and then they have some kind of express pre-payed toll system that also runs down certain roads with out lights and a few exits.