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New York to Kansas City in a moving truck. How many times have I done that with Kelly over the past 4-5 years? Enough to know what the route is - NY to NJ to PA to WV (briefly) to OH to IN to IL to MO. And enough to have a regular stop on the first night. And also enough to know where to stop for provisions (read beer) along the way. Not that the beer is consumed during the drive (how dare you think that!), but just a stock up for the end of the drive and times beyond. This final trip was special(?) in a couple ways. Of course the obvious is that we left NY for good (excluding visits, of course), but more importantly because we experienced a set of disruptions that were not part of any other trip. These hiccups occurred during the first couple days of the trip.
First there was the case of the missing moving truck. The 12' truck we reserved was not at the Penske lot when we arrived. They offered a free upgrade to a 16 footer, but no thanks, too big of a truck, bigger gas guzzler, and bigger tolls too. We ended up waiting about 90 minutes for the 12' to return, but it did get there and we were off for the city. We chose to move on a Sunday - way less traffic everywhere and street parking chances considerably increased. We did find a spot just around the corner from our apartment (the parking gods were with us) and because it really wasn't a valid spot, I engaged the emergency blinkers. Our nephew, Connor, and his (and our) buddy, Drew, helped us get all our stuff in the truck. Much thanks to them - it made the move so much easier. A quick final check of the apartment and we were ready to go. Or so we thought... Turns out our truck battery wasn't the best and the 2 hours of emergency blinker use drained it, rendering our loaded truck unstartable. Call 1 to Penske - only 90 minutes to get someone there to assist. But it being NYC, we started asking cabbies stopped at the light if they had cables. All said no, even with an offer of cash to assist. Connor and Drew went off to check parking garages (what a great idea - wouldn't have thought of it), Kelly went to get us some lunch, and I waited with the truck. I had been watching the traffic go by for 10 minutes or so and saw what looked like an Uber vehicle next to the truck and decided to go ask the guy if he had jumpers since he was stopped at the light. Sure enough he did, but was on his way to a pickup and couldn't help. A snap offer of $20 changed his mind and shortly the truck was running again - woohoo!
So yet one more thing that made this trip different - we were headed to MD to Kelly's mom's house to pickup some dog crates and other things. Needless to say the truck was not shut off until we made it there. All was well (or so we thought). We planned on staying until Tuesday morning, so Monday was when we were planning on loading the crates and other stuff. Only now we couldn't find the keys to the truck. I knew I had them with me when we locked it up the night before, but after searching everywhere they were still missing. Call 2 to Penske - another 90 minutes for service, but this time it's to get a new key made. Our friendly serviceman arrived and we got into the cab to look for them there - no luck. Cut the padlock on the rear compartment - no luck. He prepped to make the new key and all of a sudden Kelly and my Mum are yelling "we found them, we found them." Turns out they were under a cushion at the kitchen table. The keys had been in the pocket of my jacket. My jacket had been moved (looking at you Mum) and the keys had fallen out. No key made, so no charge for that, but our technician informed me we would be charged for the lockout. 45 days later and still no charge (you best not be reading this Penske). Another close call averted.
A pretty uneventful rest of the trip. We left MD around 10am and only drove around 7 hours to get to Zanesville, Ohio. Should have driven further in retrospect but I was stuck on going to a brewpub in Zanesville called Weasel Boy Brewing. A decent spot and would go again if it was convenient, but not worth a special trip. Got on the road the next day around 8am, but here's where we should have gone further than Zanesville - 14 hours later we arrived at our house. Not non-stop driving but still - 14 hours is a long time. A little snow on the way in western Illinois, but nothing bad enough to slow down for. Pulled in the driveway around 9pm Central time - another successful NY to KC trip completed.
J.
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