Pull Up My Big Girl Panties!

Time to Pull-Up My Big Girl Panties!

Things got moving much quicker than Ed or I ever expected on selling the house.  Then, the question was....what to do with all our stuff.  We both agreed that we wanted to simplify our lives and not keep all the belongings.  But, we hadn't come up with a firm plan.  The house had sold so quickly that we had to empty it out by the 29th of June.  I had asked our two children if they wanted any of the big furniture pieces and both had said yes.  So, we had a problem, do we load the stuff onto a truck and put it all into a storage unit, then take it out in six months and put it all back up a U-Haul truck and drive it up to the kids?  I hated the thought of handling it twice.  It just made sense to me just load it from the house into a U-Haul truck and drive it directly up to Ohio.  The next problem was the timing of this trip, Ed has stuff on his calendar already that needed to be taken care of, so that left me driving up alone.

OK, I have driven a U-Haul truck before, so I figured I could just do it again.  What was not taken into my plan was this would be a much larger truck.  I had driven a 14 foot truck once and then a 17 foot truck once each across country.  The size of truck I needed to carry all this furniture and boxes was the largest one made, 27 feet long and very big compared to the others I had driven.  This came to my attention on June 28th, when I my husband drove me to pick up the U-Haul truck the morning our hired movers were coming.  I took one look at the size and length of the truck and thought I might have bitten off more than I could chew.  But, the plan had been put into motion and I just had to pull up my girl panties and got on with driving this truck from Sun City, Florida to northeast (Warren) Ohio.  By the way, that is a total of 1,200 miles!

It was 3:00 pm when the truck was loaded and I started my journey north.  My plans were just to drive about four hours to Valdosta, GA and spend the night.  Now during the first couple of hours it did cross my mind to turn around and get Ed to help me do this..... But, I knew I had choosen to get the furniture up to the kids at this time.  I got into Valdosta and started searching for a nice hotel.  I went to two and both were sold out, so my search then went to just find a room for the night.  The next hotel had a non-smoking room available and the guy showed me a great place to park the truck so I could get out in the morning.  I was able to walk to a restaurant for a bite of dinner to carry back to the room.  The best of the day was the icy cold beer I enjoyed while waiting for my carry-out. 

The next morning it was back on the road and up to north Atlanta.  I have a cousin that I had arranged to spend the night at her home.  I was able to make it up there by noon and had several boxes I wanted to drop off to her.  I even surprised my cousin by the size of the truck, and that it isn't easy to do.  Parking the truck in her driveway wasn't an option, so it was parked down off the street on the side of her home.  I enjoyed great food, wonderful wine and was treated royally.  But, the next morning I was facing the longest day of my journey.  I needed to make it all the way to Columbus, Ohio about 10 hours away.  They walked me down to the truck and I placed my small suitcase in the passenger's foot space and my purse on the seat.  I then went over to climb into the driver's seat.... You guessed it, I had locked the keys in the cab in my purse!  We called U-Haul and they were NO help and just told me to phone a locksmith to open the door.  It was about two hours before the guy showed up on that Sunday morning but took less than 2 minutes to "pop" open the door.  I was then presented with a bill of $170 and he told me he had taken off $20 because it took him so long to get to me.  Maybe, I should look into this profession .... costs more than going to a doctor!

By noon, I was on the road heading north.  The drive was slow going with so many hills in north Georgia and the truck just couldn't get up them going more than 55 miles per hours.  There were a couple times that day, I had to talk myself into going just another 30 minutes and then take a short break.  The truck's front end was out of alignment and kept pulling to the right, so my left arm was getting quite the work out and was hurting.  The truck was a rough ride and I felt like I was being beaten to death just sitting there.   

After ten hours of driving and I was still 90 minutes from my son's house, I just couldn't go any further.  I found a hotel and called it a day.  The following morning I had an early start to arrive there before 9:00 am.  I had hired three guys to come to my son's house to off load the truck.  There was one very large and heavy china hutch to off load and needed all three of them to lift it.  Now, because this trip of dropping off the furniture came about almost at the last minute, my son and his family weren't at home but up visiting his wife's family.  I had carefully marked each box as to which room it would go into at my son's house.  But that still left a mess for Brian & Donna to deal with when they got home.  I felt bad about that but I had to get up to my daughter's home that same day.

I departed Columbus, Ohio at 3:00 pm right on schedule.  I arrived in Warren at 7:30 and parked the truck in my daughter's driveway and never wanted to see it again, much less drive it.  I was pretty tired and just needed a hot shower and a good night's rest.  After the hot shower, I felt human again but still could feel the bounce of the truck while trying to fall asleep.  The next morning, I had three more hired movers coming and off load my daughter's stuff.  That only took a couple of hours and she followed me to the U-Haul place to turn in the truck. 

I had known I was a little low on the gas amount compared to when I picked it up but I wasn't eager to struggle with another gas station and getting in and out for about three gallons of gas.  The agent told me I would have to pay for that amount of gas and I understood.  BUT what she didn't clearly state was there was also a $30 fee for them pumping the gas plus they filled up the tank.  That little misunderstanding cost me $63.00....  had that all been clear to me - I so would have driven that truck to the nearest gas station and put in the three gallons.

So, from this one experience I have learned.... that 

1)  I can pull up my big girl panties and push through something difficult

2)  I am not a quitter

3)  My husband believes & trusts in me - even when I tackle something really stupid

4)  I love Helen Reddy and the song "I Am Woman" and it can get me to the next rest stop

5)  I am a rotten singer but I don't care - singing got me through the most difficult spots on the drive

6)  I will never be a long haul truck driver - even if it means I starve

7)  Being a locksmith in Atlanta is a good career & you could get rich

8)  Always ask questions about IF there is going to be a fee or how much is it really going to cost me

Have a great day and thank you for taking the time to read me blog.  I hope you come back again....

Peggy