Rick was to bring home the Nissan High-top moving van we rented from Enterprise to carry the belongings of the kids up to Virginia. He got home with it later than I had anticipated. So we had to load it up in the heat and get everything sorted out and stowed while sweating buckets and with me looking at a 4+ hour drive to Knoxville after picking Beth up to be my traveling companion.
I will admit here and now that I am not any kind of logistics genius and could not imagine how all that furniture and all the gifts were going to be fitted into the van, cavernous as it seemed sitting there empty.
My sole purpose on packing this up was simply to hand Rick whatever he said needed to fit into the next space. Someone has to be told where to go and what to do all the time so other people get to be the leaders. Otherwise they are bossing around thin air and that would just look stupid. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!)
The Nissan van was nice. And as an added bonus, it actually handled well and got really good gas mileage, which is something I was praying for and my prayers were indeed answered.
After everything was loaded, secured with straps and prayer and lots of faith and hope, I headed out to Canebrake to pick Beth up for our whirlwind trip.
She was waiting on me at the roundabout down from her house. Wish I'd had my camera out as she was standing there like a hitchhiker. :-D
We got everything stowed, prayed and hit the road. Our destination for Friday night was Knoxville where we had a hotel room waiting for us.
I know where Knoxville is. I've been there several times and even been the driver. But my sense of direction as always is problematic. In my mind, I see it somewhere to the right of Nashville. However, on the map and choosing roads is best left to map readers and GPS units. I had both. I also had a handy little printout of which roads and exits I needed to take.
It is my firm assurance that had I been a pioneer, one of two things would have occurred. After someone else packed my Conestoga wagon, I would have had either divine intervention to guide my path with an infrared trail marked before me only visible to my eyes, or someone who knew the route simply would have told me to follow their wagon. I never would have been more then one wagon length behind.
We drove into the approaching night. Nashville was familiar, we go to the temple in Franklin, Tennessee all the time. However, this time we didn't make the usual turn at that exit, but forged ahead to find the I-40 cutoff to Knoxville. As we were meandering along, Beth informed me that I could take a different route and I panicked thinking I had missed the turn. I am frequently an idiot behind the wheel on long distances... I don't mean to be, and I AM trying to do better, but things don't always make sense to me.
She was merely indicating that there were lots of ways to get to Knoxville. Good thing someone knows where they are going. Should we have a massive power failure in our nation and my ability to download maps and use my GPS unit be compromised, I guess I'll have to depend upon the kindness of strangers (and strange family members - ha ha!) to get me where I need to go.
Wait, that's the game plan already... so never mind.
It was around midnight when we arrived at the hotel after laughing, talking and singing our way to Knoxville. We parked the moving van and extricated our luggage.
Beth got the key cards from the front desk and we proceeded to the elevators after being offered some cold bottles of water by the concierge. We must have looked like we needed them, but I am no fool when cold water is being offered for FREE so we took them. Since my hands were full of luggage items, the only place to stow the bottles was up under my arm by my left boob, which was kind of a stupid thing to do because in short order, my boob was frozen and there wasn't much I could do about it since I lacked a third hand to carry stuff in anyway.
We went to the 2nd floor and hauled our carcasses and our belongings to room 202.
Guess what.
The key card didn't work. We tried it several times, first slowly, then more slowly and then we tried fast and faster and fastest until it finally dawned on us...
We weren't IN room 202.
Since neither of us were wearing glasses and Beth had looked at the little key card pouch in the lobby using the "trombone slide" method of focusing, and, as an added little perk, the envelope was UPSIDE DOWN. Not cool.
Holding the little envelope down again to reach the appropriate visual distance, we discovered the mistake and learned that our room number that had been appearing as 202 was in reality room number 505.
Oops! Yep, happy campers, we were trying to pull a B & E number on someone ELSE'S room!! I do hope that whomever was actually in that room listening to "burglers" tampering with the door wasn't scared so badly they peed their bed... although admittedly that would be funny.
We tramped back down the hallway laughing our heads off and heading toward the elevator that could take us up to the 5th floor. I am, at this point, thoroughly convinced that the two of us can't take a vacation or trip of any kind together like normal people do. Too much crap like this happens to make it normal. Is my lack of direction rubbing off on Beth? She usually is a pretty intelligent sort... until we are together. Nah! That can't be it. We were just TIRED! Yeah, that's the ticket!
Regardless of the idiocy, it is always fun.
Finally arriving at the correct room, the key card miraculously worked just fine. With the exception of catching my elbow on the funny bone with the door (ouch and NOT funny), we were all in good stead for a few hours of blissful sleep, or at least what passes as close to blissful as it is likely to get.
Exhaustion and sweat compelled me to shower before lying down as I am not a fan of being sweaty and trying to sleep. That is just plain nasty and I didn't want to lie down and be uncomfortable already. Beth apparently felt the same way, so once we had both cleaned up, it was time to hit the hay because we had a busy Saturday ahead of us marching onward toward Virginia. The night passed as uneventfully as my nights do here lately.
I sleep when I can and lie there and count my breathing or toss, turn and talk in my sleep. Whomever rooms with me must certainly wish that I'd sleep in the tub. Sadly, our room didn't HAVE a tub... just a shower stall., and I don't like sleeping on the toilet because it leaves a ring around your butt.
Saturday morning arrived with the alarm telling us to get up and get moving. We enjoyed the in-house breakfast offerings and got refueled for the day ahead for both us and the moving van.
We hit the road looking for the I-81 signs that would lead us northeast into Virginia. It was going to be a long day! I was just thankful that the loaded behemoth had air conditioning and a radio which actually worked. Although my van at home alleges to have both of those features, they sadly do not work under any stretch of the imagination. Since the moving van was loaded to the gills, I was expecting the gas mileage to be pretty shabby. But it was great! Fully loaded, it is better than my van at home gets empty. Sadness.
We got onto the right road, thanks entirely to Beth's navigational skills, and headed down the highway. Again, the time was filled with singing, talking, and lots of laughing. I kinda felt bad because all of this frivolity was keeping Beth from doing ANY of her school work and most assuredly was a waste of the time she could have spent making A's in her assignments. The Lord will bless her for keeping me between the ditches on this long weekend trip, of that I am sure.
Nevertheless, and despite her lost study time, I was most happy for her company and companionship on what could have been a worldwide tour to nowhere had I tried to do it alone. Rick would not have been amused. I'm equally sure our bank balance wouldn't have been amused either.
We called Thomas when we got into Roanoke since that's about an hour out of Buena Vista. I figured he would marshal the troops and get some help with the heavy lifting in the interim. When we finally entered the sleepy hamlet of Buena Vista, we meandered along and Beth found the road we needed to turn on to get to the apartments.
She actually saw Thomas waiting for us and I missed the turn to get into the parking area and had to go one street up and turn around. Thank goodness there was an area at the end of the street to do so!
We pulled up in front of their current abode. He had said the apartment was small. It is. Postage stamp small. But it will do. We got started with hugs and kisses, then Thomas and Tianna had a little gift for me. It was a tiny pen-mated Travel Trouble game, complete with the pop-o-matic cube!! I laughed out loud!
Thomas and Tianna wanted me to have a remembrance of the story I had shared with them of the travel sized Trouble game that I had taken on vacation as a child. I was more interested in making noise with the pop-o-matic cube than in the game itself, so when my Daddy had had enough of the pinging and popping and clicking, he reached back, grabbed the toy, zipped down the window and tossed it out somewhere near where Thomas and Tianna are now living in the Shenandoah Valley. That they gave me the toy was both hilarious and a trip down memory lane.
Beth said I should take it to Kari's salon on my return, hide it beneath the smock or a hairdressing cape and proceed to pop, click and ping away on it until she zips it out the window. I had to laugh at that one.
We took the 15 cent tour. Normally, home tours are 25 cents, but they ran out of rooms long before the 25 cents was expended. It really WAS tiny.
How in the heck are we supposed to get a van load of furnishings in here?!?!? Unless this apartment was deceptively like Snoopy's doghouse, we might well be IN the doghouse.
Thomas recruited the faithful and strong Elders who lived downstairs from them. They happily came up, introductions were made and then Col. Franks took charge of the unloading. First order of business was the bed set up. That made sense because unless we did that first, we'd clutter up our own pathway.
When the bedroom pieces were taken in, the bed frame and headboard were assembled to receive them.
The shipping plastic was cut off the new and beautiful bed set pieces and the happy couple had something much nicer than a camping air mattress upon which to lay their heads.
 |
| We are dead... or at least an unreasonable facsimile of same. |
 | |
| This is their living room. It has been turned into the dumping ground for every single box and package. |
By the time the last giblet was stowed into their apartment, we were starved and coated in sweat. Nothing genteel about it folks, it was pure-D old sweat. All I have to say is that I was so happy to see a familiar dining spot near them! Thank goodness there are Subway restaurants dotting the map!! When you are hungry and hot and butt-sore from sitting in a rumbling moving van for hours and can no longer feel your arms from unpacking said truck, it's nice to see a dining constant where you know the food will be good.
We went, we ate, we conquered.
The newlyweds took food back to their apartment and then we took them shopping for some grocery staple items. Beth and I agreed that we can't let them go hungry while they are still looking for work! Some suffering is good, complete suffering is unconscionable!
When all of the grocery shopping and stowing in the apartment was done, we hugged and kissed and said our goodbyes then hit the road for the trip back to Knoxville. The good news was that we were ahead of the time we'd left Athens by a couple of hours, so we were hoping to get a bit more sleep.
And sleep we did. After cleaning up the sweaty people we had become, we slept like the dead. Or at least Beth did. I slept in snatches as per usual. But sleep was had and that's all that matters. We missed church since the only one in the area with a morning meeting was in the opposite direction of home. We held our own devotional service then had breakfast, hit the road and put a few miles behind us before adding gas to the wonderful moving van.
Once again, our ride was punctuated by laughing, singing and the realization that while we were singing our way through a Boston classic and reminiscing over past lives and past people that I was doing 90 in the moving van. Hauling away to some music and not looking at the speedometer. Not cool on a Memorial Day weekend when the highway patrol were handing out tickets like candy. Fortunately, I managed to slow that buggy down before attracting any unwelcome attention. Sadly, it added to the merriment. Who knew a moving van could have that much get up and go?? Must have been the influence of the dudes on some nice Harley's in front of us... yeah. That was it.
I sang some camp songs and had Beth look at me pretty strangely...then I realized she'd never heard them before. So I "educated" her. I'm quite sure it will not benefit her in any way, shape, or form as she substitute teaches or works as a docent at the Botanical Gardens in future, but the damage was done. Everyone needs to hear "Ghost Chickens" and "Black Socks" at least one time in their lives!
When we finally pulled into Athens and home again, we were beyond tired. I dropped Beth off at her home and then headed toward the Casa Merrill and a shower and my bed.
It was a good trip, a quick trip and I never want to do it again.
No comments:
Post a Comment