"Fuck everybody, we're bigger" (or, How to Go From Pittsburgh To Tucson In 3 Days)
Recap of my moving trip from Pittsburgh, PA to Tucson, AZ. I wasn't aware that the middle of the country was so boring. I thought there was going to be interesting things; that around every corner would be a big ball of twine, or an Elvis museum, or something else equally exciting. Turns out that most of this great land of ours isn't really all that thrilling.
Let's start at the beginning. The last few weeks have been mad packing and making arrangements in general; canceling utilities, setting up forwarding address, yadda yadda.
Friday night Laura was supposed to fly in from Newark, and we'd go out and get some drinks with friends. Turns out her connecting flight from D.C. never got off the ground, so she stayed overnight and came out the following morning. So Friday night was lots of last-minute packing and throwing stuff in the truck. I had promised my friends that were helping me move that it would all just be big stuff: the bed, the TV, etc, and I wanted to stick to that if possible. Caprice and I banged out a whole bunch of boxes and got them loaded. (I had such good moving karma from helping other friends move during my years in PGH that I actually probably didn't have to do anything. I could have just sat and had young nymphs feed me grapes or something while everyone else packed up boxes, but that didn't seem quite fair.)
Saturday morning everyone started showing up at around 9, and I think it all went fairly smoothly. I owe Joshua (and his lovely and talented girl Cynthia), Drew, Brian, Jen and even little Seb (he helped sweep) a huge debt o' gratitude for helping me get everything packed. My sister's flight landed, and I went to pick her up. A quick lunch and some calls to figure out a good course of action to handle the kitties and we were off, at 2:47 p.m. exactly.
The first thing I learned is that if youre "towing a car(a picture of our rig)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040830_TuconTrip/P1010022.JPG you really want to make sure that you turn off the alarm. Otherwise as soon as you start driving youre going to make the car thing its being stolen/moved and itll start howling its head off.
The rental truck wasn't that hard to drive, either. It felt like a van after awhile; granted, a really really BIG van, but just a van. We used the size to our advantage, too. Laura's mantra anytime we were in a weird intersection situation? "Fuck everybody, we're bigger!"
The drive out of Pittsburgh was uneventful. We took the same route as when I would go climbing in WV, so that meant I knew where the hell I was going. Get on 70, and go west, west, west. We cut through about 5 miles of WV, and then get into Ohio (people _live_ there?). We started to get some really good thunderstorms/lightning/heavy rain around Columbus, which cooled everything down enough to let the cats run around free in the car. Indiana was next, and we wound up stopping there for the night, in Terra Haute (hereafter referred to as Terra Hate). I was hoping to make St. Louis that night, but we got off to a later start than I expected. Anyway, we saw a sign for a Motel 6 on the highway, and figured that would be good, cheap place, as well as somewhere that it would be easy to sneak the cats into. Get off the highway, follow the little blue sign with the arrow, and start driving. And driving. And driving. Finally got to the end of the main drag, and no sign of the Motel 6. WTF? Ok, so we start heading back towards the highway, pass the highway, and nothing. Then we loop back around and finally see it; its hidden behind like 3 gas stations. Pull in, and go to the night desk. Nobody there, and no buzzer to call. We look around some more, then get annoyed and leave. At this point weve been driving around Terra Hate for at least 45 minutes just looking for a place to crash. Back out onto the main drag, and start down again. All the big name hotel/motels are booked solid. We finally find a little hole in the wall motel thats relatively cheap. Bonus: pets are ok; just $5 per! Our room was pretty gross pizza on the walls, and strange soap for the shower.
Turns out the reason there were so many people in town is that there was a truck show or something that weekend. Funny, I just figured there was always that amount of rednecks with dick rigs was par for the course in Terra Hate.
Sunday was a perfect day to drive; "overcast(Sunday morning in Terra Hate)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040830_TuconTrip/P1010023.JPG and not very hot. We let the cats "run around in the car loose(a cat's eye view)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040830_TuconTrip/P1010034.JPG all day long. I was really, REALLY worried about them before we started the drive, and Saturday we had them in carriers with the windows way down until we hit the rain in Ohio and it was cool enough for them to be out and about with the windows up enough so they couldnt squeeze their fat bodies out. Sunday was cool enough so not bother with strapping them in, so we were off. We spent a ton of time "on 70(aaah, route 70)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040830_TuconTrip/P1010027.JPG; through Il-annoyed, then St. Louis. Pick up 44 south there, and then Springfield, and then onto 40 in Tulsa, OK. Got "a cool hat":http://moblog.co.uk/view.php?id=21791 at a truck stop in OK, too! Finally stopped at Amarillo, TX at about 4 in the morning, after putting on at least 1000 miles that day. Stayed at a "La Quinta":http://www.lq.com/, which supposedly has free internet, but I was so tired I didnt bother to try and find out anything about it.
As an aside, it seems that people are Way Into Jesus as you make your way west (hence "Bible Belt", right?). It was interesting to see the weird sort of moral fight going on between adult shops and "religious organizations(a big cross silo)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040830_TuconTrip/P1010028.JPG. I first saw it in St. Clair Minnesota; there was a billboard advertising an adult mart at the next exit, and then right behind it one saying "porn ruins lives".
Monday was the big push heading all the way from Amarillo to Tucson. I stumbled out of bed, loaded up the truck, and loaded Laura and the cats in and we were off. We were making great time, until we were about 2 hours east of Albuquerque. We were driving through some construction, when I started to notice the truck seemed to be pulling really hard, and wouldnt kick into overdrive gear. Then on a long uphill, I noticed some smoke coming from the one wheel on the car carrier. Uh, oh. Pull off to the side, and theres smoke everywhere. Brake fluid is "leaking onto the brakes(the naughty wheel)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040830_TuconTrip/P1010036.JPG, which are smoking hot, as are the brakes on the other 3 tires. Just. Fucking. Great. I figured the carriers disc brakes must have gotten stuck or something, so I called Penske service to figure out what we should do. Their roadside assistance was actually great; they called me back within about 10 minutes to let me know a repair truck was on the way, and he was only about "15 minutes later(help arrives)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040830_TuconTrip/P1010035.JPG than they said hed be.
"Ricky(my homeslice Ricky)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040830_TuconTrip/P1010038.JPG got there, "jacked up the trailer(hoist it up)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040830_TuconTrip/P1010040.JPG, and started "poking and prodding(poking and prodding)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040830_TuconTrip/P1010041.JPG around. He said they might have gotten half-stuck just from me pressing the brakes and them not releasing, or from getting jostled hitting the skidplate of the trailer in a dip or something. We all decided that driving the trailer probably wasnt a good idea, so we took the car off, and Laura drove that into Albuquerque where we picked up a new trailer. On the way we hit a "_torrential_(bad rain)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040830_TuconTrip/P1010054.JPG "storm(more bad rain)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040830_TuconTrip/P1010055.JPG; like with sleet and everything. It was fairly un-fun, especially driving the moving truck. Got to Abq, got the trailer, and we were on our way, probably only losing about 2 hours of time (since it was on our way anyway). Oh, just an interesting note, Albuquerque has a "minor-league baseball team":http://www.albuquerquebaseball.com/, the "Isotopes":http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/sports02/090402_sports_isotopes.shtml.
The rest of New Mexico was big, pretty, and funny (e.g. "Elephant Butte(Elephant Butte)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040830_TuconTrip/P1010059.JPG). A few INS(Immigration and Naturalization Services) checkpoints along the way, and one "spectacular sunset(purty)":http://feralboy.com/photoalbum/photos/20040830_TuconTrip/P1010062.JPG, and we were into Arizona.
Finally pulled up at around 11 p.m., where Paul and April were waiting with champagne! Woo! It was a fun drive, but I wish I would have been able to see some stuff along the way, like Carlsbad Caverns or something. Maybe next time.