Georgia Gardening: Home Sweet Georgia Home !!!, 0 by DustyDS

DustyDS wrote:
We were supposed to leave OH Monday night the 4th...But it didn't happen that way....Thanks to the first thing being the rental company was 3 hours late in getting the truck ready for me...and then progressive aggravations after that...

We made it home safe and sound finally a little after 8 am on Wednesday the 6th...thanks to the almost all day pouring rain Tuesday so we couldn't load the beds or other things that I didn't want soaked...The 2 man loading crew I had hired turned into 1 man well into the beer by the time I got home with the truck on Monday...By 9pm, there was very little more than the garage things and the furniture from the living room that I had to help load on the truck, so I called a halt to it...I stayed up all night, packing and loading what I could on the truck...

When I looked out the door Tues. morning at 7am, he was in the driveway, already guzzleing beer, so I told Jim to pay him for Monday and tell him to leave...We loaded what we could between the rains, and waited till they stopped long enough to get the beds on board...Not a Good Day...Finally left OH at 11pm that night...

I stopped to fuel up in Knoxville after running in rain through most of KY and the north of TN...It had just quit when I stopped...Apparently they had quite a deluge there, as I was wading in water to fuel up...I checked the load, tires, lights etc., being the old trucker I am, and all was well...Got back on the road and just south of Athens, I got a healthy dose of Blue lights on my rear... Apparently somewhere between there and Knox, I had lost my tail lights..
Trooper was going to write me a fix it ticket for $190, but I talked him out of it, since I had no way to prove a rental truck was fixed to avoid having to pay it...He agreed not to if I would stay there on the shoulder of the road at a closed rest area with my 4 ways on until daylight...It was already close to the end of his shift, and he was out of the post back up the road in Athens, so I sat for a bit, and then ran with my 4 ways on in to Chattanooga, and it was already starting first light...I stopped at the rest area in Ringgold at the GA line, and by the time we got back in the truck, it was light enough to not worry about the lights...I had hit some pretty rough road construction after Knox, and I think it jarred something loose, as when we got here, we couldn't get the door open on the box...Our neighbor came over with a prybar, and we finally got it up...The appliance dolly had shifted back and blocked it...
We walked the fenced yard checking for escape holes, and cut the dogs loose from their crates, grabbed the cat crate and came on in the house...I put the cat in the guest room walkin closet with water and a sand pan, and shut the bedroom door...
Finally got a look around at the house, decided who and what went where, and went back out and got the fish, then started on the plants since it was 94* here already and a metal roof on the truck...Jim tried to get me to grab a pillow and get a couple hours sleep since by that time I had been up 42 hours...and a 7 hour trip that took 9 hours behind the wheel thanks to the Trooper and the lights...
The mobile charger to the cell phone was damaged, so it didn't charge, and I couldn't get to my computer bag to get the house charger and address book...I was saving what charge I had to reach my son...Once I got hold of him, I called a DG friend in KY, whose number I put in my phone last minute because I had nowhere to write it down and let her know we had arrived safe...I guess she posted it somewhere and someone in AZ copied it to a couple other Forums...

Son, Grandson, and DIL came up from Kennesaw after work about 6pm and finally got the last of the unloading done at 1 am on Thursday, and after they left, I crashed and burned after 58 hours with no sleep...They sent a big rig tow truck to get the truck since I refused to drive it down to Kennesaw...Move from He!! is putting it mildly...We are just grateful to have it over with, finally be home and now mostly settled, and already working on projects...

We are removing the wheelchair ramp from the front of the house and moving it to the back where it can be lower and shorter rather than sprawling all over the front yard...It WAS a blessing for getting things moved into the house, as we had no steps to contend with...It is almost completely gone now...I only have 16 more feet of it to remove tomorrow, and then we can restore the walkway from the drive to the front steps...
The house is wonderful...everything I had hoped for and a bit more...We have a brand new HVAC system, the gas is gone, and we are completely electric, which I wanted...We have a new roof, and hot water heater...I got my 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths and a fireplace with a heatalator and .78 acre, completely fenced with 4 foot chain link...Beyond my back fence is a pasture full of Black Angus cattle, and we are the next to last house on a dead end road...20 miles to my son, and 20 miles to the Rome VA clinic...Couldn't be more perfect...Ahhh yessss it could...I have the most wonderful neighbors!!! Only one...nobody but us on this end of the road, and they are terrific!! In their 70's and good ole Down Home people...I am truly back home where I belong!!

This pic was taken last Sunday morning...Hubby Jim and neighbor Bob having coffee in the rockers on the front porch after Bob just finished mowing our yard for us...You can see part of the ramp in this pic...