On the Road to Valdosta—Chapter Five—The Journey I

So now we come to the beginning of the final installation of this little narrative. This chapter talks about the heartaches, problems, joys, and yes, humor of moving.

First must come a shout out. Thanks to Ken and Debbie for all your help in getting us out of town. We will always be appreciative of the hours you spent helping us with the packing, loading, and cleaning. And thanks for ridding us of the pink bed. Wish we had it back now, but hey, that was an entire kid ago. If possible, I think your children have grown more than ours. We love both of you, plus Callie and Kendra, of course.

Where to start? I guess with the moving truck. We quickly found out that moving trucks are not all that big. We got the largest one U-Haul had, and we filled it to capacity. And since we were going so far, we decided to get a trailer to pull my truck. Whole lots easier than dropping the drive shaft, etc.

Then, of course, there was my truck. About a week before we moved, the brakes went out on it, as in, completely. But please don't be too harsh in judging it. It is a '68 model, had sat for a year or two before I got it and rebuilt the motor, and it had obviously been quite a while since the brakes had received any attention. It was a tad bit frightening pulling it up onto that trailer with no brakes, but we got it done. Sort of felt like the Beverly Hillbillies, pulling that old truck behind the U-Haul with it filled with a swing set, a lawn mower, and sundry yard tools. Wish I had a pic of that now.

We left out of Berryville on Monday afternoon (October 22, 2001), if memory serves me correctly, and drove to Thayer. I was a nervous wreck starting out. I love my wife dearly, but she has no sense of direction at all. And for some reason, she could never navigate Harrison, AR. Bear in mind, this was before the days when everyone had their own cell phone. We had one, but didn't use it much. Well, we got separated in Harrison (a beautiful little town, but a little too impressed with its own importance to judge by all the stoplights they have), but eventually got back together and continued on. Driving that truck on those roads didn't bother me—been there, done that before, many times over—but it will wear you out. For those of you unfamiliar with Ozark roads, most of them originated as mule trails. They are hilly, curvy, and far from smooth. Ryan Tuten went up there with us once. Once. He got carsick while driving. No kidding. Like, really, really bad carsick. Glad I don't have a pic of that.

Anyway, we made it to Thayer and parked the U-Haul down by the greenhouse at Stacy's folks. 150 miles down, 750 to go. It was supposed to be sort of a little vacation, but there was too much going on. During the previous month, we had bought a new van. We kept the good old Lumina because: 1) they wouldn't give us much trade-in on an eight-year old car with 190,000 miles on it; and 2) it was paid for. But it was going to have to stay in Thayer. The theory was that Stacy's dad would sell it for us up there and we wouldn't have to worry about bringing it down here. We should have just brought it. Anyway, we had driven it over a week or two before. The day before we were to head on south, we had gone out to my folks. They live about 8 miles east of Thayer and then their driveway is about ¾ mile long. Now again, for those of you unfamiliar with the Ozarks, you've got to understand that we have these things called rocks (should you be unfamiliar with them, these are really, really hard things which lie randomly upon and in the ground). And accordingly, there are no dirt roads, only gravel roads. Well, guess what. Rocks will occasionally puncture a tire. And yes, we ended up with a new van with three new tires and one very abused tire. I drove that tire all the way to West Plains to find a dealer and they refused to replace it. (I haven't bought a Firestone since.) That was Wednesday, October 24.

The plan was to head for my Uncle Charlie's in Oxford, MS on Thursday. This was to include a stop at Israel and Christa's house in Jonesboro, AR. Israel was still preaching at Washington Avenue then and Stacy wanted to stop in and say hey. Israel and Christa sort of picked up in Memphis where Ryan and Michelle left off. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure they moved into the same apartment. Anyway, they are from L.A. (not Los Angeles; the other L.A.). They have since moved back to Fair Hope and we still keep in touch with them, and love them and Laura Jane and Campbell very much. Well, it is fall in the Ozarks, and Stacy's mom and dad have a greenhouse full of mums, so Stacy decides to take some to Christa. And that should (almost) set the stage for the tale of Thursday, October 25 (when I get around to it).