All done with Delaware

It's been an eventful two weeks. First of all, let me say that Roadmaster called me yesterday to let me know that the part number is ready for the base plate on the Mariner. FINALLY! It has been a rough month trying to jockey around the truck and the motor home. Here's how it went down after my last event:

First, I spent several days scrounging for a driver to help me get my truck down to Lazy Days which is where I planned on leaving the motor home for some warranty work. At the last minute (like within hours) Mendy from LaborReady volunteered to come to Lazy Days to pick me up. She had to take her kids to her in-laws in Winter Haven which is about 23 miles from Lazy Days. So on Monday I drove my truck down to Lazy Days and left it in the Cracker Barrel parking lot. Mendy picked me up about an hour later and drove me back to Mascotte. Then I drove the motor home down on Tuesday morning, walked over to get my truck, loaded it up with dogs and dirty clothes and headed up to Delaware to stay with David for a few days.

So that part wasn't *too* bad. The settlement was fairly uneventful. Only one or two crises but we got everything all done. I opened up my new bank account on Friday and closed the old one. Also tied up a lot of loose ends. I couldn't bear to go out to the house. Tammie showed me pictures of my hydrangea bush and I got all choked up when I saw all the blooms.

I left Delaware around 11 in the morning on Saturday. Driving down I-95 is always a drag and this time was no exception. Between DC and Richmond there were the three morons playing idiot on the interstate. One was in a Camry and the other two were in Mini Coopers. At first I thought they were involved in a case of road rage until I saw one wave to the other. They would speed up to get in front of each other then slow down and block the one in back from changing lanes. It was like playing chicken at 90 miles an hour. Totally insane.

Then in South Carolina I saw a horrible accident. It looked like a Ford Explorer pickup rolled a couple times and then hit a tree. Two semis were blocking both lanes to keep people from running over a couple people laying in the road. One was a heavyset lady and she wasn't moving. The other was a young girl around 9 or 10 and a man was covering her up with a blanket. There was another person hanging out of the truck and that person wasn't moving either. There were parts of the truck scattered all over the place and I had to watch were I was going to miss the pieces. The cops had not gotten there yet and the several cars in my lane were using the grass in the median to get around the wreck. I tried Googling to see if there was any info on the accident but didn't have any luck.

I finally rolled into Jacksonville around 1 in the morning and found where the sale was going to be. Then I found the Budget Rent-a-Car place. After that it took me a while to find a hotel that was pet friendly and got lucky with a Holiday Inn Express. It cost me $120 for 6 hours of sleep. I needed to be at the car rental place by 9 so I could rent a car and make it to Tampa by 1. The game plan was to leave my truck at Budget in JAX then drive to Tampa, drop off the car, hook a ride to Lazy Days, get the motorhome, then drive back to JAX. The girl at the Budget in Tampa gave me a ride to Lazy Days. I get it ready for the road and headed back to JAX. When I got to the K-Mart lot, I had to wait a couple hours for Jim and Rose to bring me the big truck. They gave me a ride back to Budget to get my truck and I finally had both vehicles together again. What a day.

I have one more jockey to deal with next week when I'm supposed to be in a burg called Callahan which is about 60 miles north of JAX. And that should be the last of it. I made an appointment for the 22nd to get the towbar work done so after that I won't be having to do the back and forth routine anymore. I will be SO glad.