Saturday May 5th 2012 was the big day for me! The main reason I made this road trip with Billy was to acquire 832 Nelsonville star paver bricks located in Ohio. Each brick weighs in at about 10 pounds which makes this load of bricks total in at over four tons. The bricks were located in a little town north west of Dayton, Ohio. It was imperative I be able to get my U-Haul truck as near to these bricks as possible. There was another problem in the pick up time for the truck. I was picking it up at around 5:00 p.m. on a Saturday. Many U-Haul locations are closed at that time.
The town of Troy, Ohio was the perfect pick up location. Once I made a truck reservation and had a number to deal with, I contacted U-Haul through their website to explain my situation. They do not guarantee you the size truck, or pick up location you request. I was flexible with my pick up location, but I could not vary from a 14ft truck. The maximum weight it could “legally” carry was around 6,000 pounds. The next larger size truck at 17ft was rated to carry even less weight. I did not want to spill the beans I was going to be carrying bricks, but I wanted them to know it was the weight limit as to why I needed the 14ft truck.
I have to give praise to U-Haul. Within a couple hours I had an E-mail reply from their website with a number to call for scheduling truck pick-ups. I spoke with the most competent scheduler. She put me at ease that I would be able to get the needed truck along the route I was travelling. When I learned Friday it would be at the Troy, Ohio location I was ecstatic.
I got to the motel lobby early for breakfast. There was a little set up to make waffles, cereal, bagels and bread. These set-ups drive me crazy. It always seems these people just stand around the counter in a daze trying to figure out how to flip over the waffle baker, or locate some condiment. I was getting set to leave when it was discovered there was no more waffle batter. Then the milk ran out for the cereal. The “kids” in charge at the front were pretty much in “whatever” mode. I was glad to have gotten breakfast in before leaving for the auction.
I picked up some more inexpensive books and bid the price of some very special music box discs way up so a “favourite” collector had to pay double had I not been in the auction! Billy got a cabinet for piano rolls.
I was out bid on a nice little brass blade fan. Later in the auction this fan turned up missing. Billy’s friend Mike had won it. After a big drama it turned out the fan was handed to Mike’s son, who packed it away unknown to his dad.
Billy and I cashed out a little after noon. We had to reload the Honda Element to hold all the purchases. There was one problem… the cabinet was missing. I can’t imagine anyone deliberately taking the thing, but it was no where to be found. One of the auction workers and I went around the parking lot peering into vehicles and trucks to see if this had been loaded up by mistake.
There was a totally different sheet music cabinet on a table all by itself. It turned out the people who owned that cabinet left it behind and packed up Billy’s cabinet! They were en-route to Wisconsin. It took about 45 minutes for them to return and switch out. These are dealers who had bid against Billy on this cabinet. They did not look happy as they loaded up their germy music cabinet. We know these dealers. I really wonder now if what occurred was an honest mistake or not. These people never apologized for the mix up or problems they caused. They are forever on my "shit list" for the aggravation they caused.
We got on the road and headed to Troy, Ohio to pick up the U-Haul. It was a little before six when I was behind the wheel trying to get the feel of driving a box truck for the first time since 1996. I had my Garmin to direct me to Arcanum, Ohio where the bricks were located. Billy was following me. I was driving on narrow country roads. The road I drove out of Troy was called, Horseshoe Bend road. I saw a sign which read “no busses or trucks”. I figured they meant semi trucks. There were hairpin turns where this road dropped to a creek. I had to back up on the worst bend to be able to negotiate the turn. I was a wreck by the time I arrived at the brick pick-up.
The 834 bricks were located on pallets against a far wall of a garage. Billy was able to back up the truck pretty close. We had to transport those damn things by hand. Justin, the guy selling them had two helpers, so there were five of us. We had one person in the truck while two people made up stacks of bricks four high and the others convoyed them to the truck. Ever so slowly the truck got filled. I was so glad to close the door and latch it shut.
Four plus tons of bricks stacked in the U-Haul:
Our destination for the night was the Motel Six in Dayton. I deliberately chose this location as an Outback was just down the road. I tried to call to make the reservation, but the call would not go through. We decided to just take our chances and show up.
It was only about a 25 mile drive to the motel location which was one exit south on I-75 from the interchange of I-70. The Motel Six is now a Best Value Inn. I checked us in. Billy backed the U-haul into a parking spot up front and I put my lock on the latch.
We washed the worst of the dirt off us and headed to the Outback. It was Prime rib tonight after the day we had.
A hot shower did wonders before bed. We slept in and did not get on the road till after 7:00 a.m. Traffic was light through Cincinnati. It took a while to get comfortable driving the truck. It was a few hours into the trip before I got at ease enough to start passing and driving a bit more aggressively. I’m so glad to be driving this load on a Sunday instead of bumper to bumper weekday traffic.
I was telling Billy at the rest stop before Louisville, that it would be shorter to take the Watterson Expressway around the city. One of the state workers overheard this discourse and he recommended we take the longer Gene Snyder Expressway. He explained there was still clean up going on from the Kentucky Derby, and the Snyder was only about four or five miles longer and was easier driving.
This was good advice. We stopped for lunch in Bowling Green at the White Castle. We took a break leaving the truck in the White Castle lot and driving in the Honda to the Flea Market. This is the nasty place I used to frequent back when I lived and worked in Bowling Green. I was cornered and asked if I played the bagpipes because of my Utilikilt! The human interaction that garment brings me!
It is a five hour drive to Tuscaloosa from Bowling Green. Nashville was a nightmare to get through as I-24 was closed down for construction. Once we were able to exit onto 40 west things picked up again. Normally I would have detoured to Trader Joe’s in Nashville. Not this time. I just wanted to get home.
It was about 6:30 p.m. when I parked the truck in the empty parking lot across the street from my house. I was numb and “rubber legged” as I stepped down and out of the cab. We had covered some 600 miles.
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