It
all started out great! We picked the van up at noon. Once we were home we put
down the back seats and removed the middle seat and had lots and lots of space!
I
have been getting boxes from work and had estimated we would be able to fit 27
boxes! I am happy to say that estimate was correct (this time was a few less
because I had two large chairs for my den/library. . . but in the future it
will definitely be 30.
We
were off by eight and right on schedule. Schultzy was comfortable behind the
driver's side seat and relaxing on her bed. Meg and I had used bungee cords to
make a net so that in the event I had to
. . .say slam on my brakes. .
.. we would not have a flattened pooch! We were on the jersey turnpike when a large 18 wheeler in front
of me slammed on it’s brakes and twisted (I thought it was going to jack knife)
luckily it did not but it did cause me to slam on my brake. Our netting worked
. . .so that was a good test.
Then we hit the snow in Pennsylvania and Maryland and Virginia and West Virginia . .
. not only was it snow but it was
late night and for a chunk of it we were driving through mountains. The van did
not handle very well in the snow and was slipping and skidding everywhere. The
only good thing is that everyone was behaving (and that tells you how bad the
conditions were). Everyone was driving about 10-15 miles per hour in a single
file line in the right lane. We were using the treads of the car in front as a
guide, especially because we couldn’t see the painted lines. Then the maintenance required light came
on in the van (roughly about 400 miles into what was 2000 mile round trip
drive). Then another light came on. This one was a yellow triangle with an
exclamation point in it. We looked in the glove compartment. . .
.you know where people normally keep the manual . . .nothing! A quick
google search told us that the symbol meant the tires were having traction
issues. . . . .which we already knew! I am now very comfortable in a skid.
Eventually we pulled over to rest and wait for daylight when plows would be out
to start clearing the highways.
As if enough had not gone wrong yet we had a new issue. The
windshield wiper fluid wasn’t working. We guessed that the van (so close to a
3000 mile check up was probably out of fluid) Meg bought a gallon and we filled
it up, it took the whole gallon. Unfortunately that didn’t help. While the
street was still wet I used passing trucks as washer fluid. Every time my windshield
needed to be cleaned off I pulled up to the corner of the truck until the
wheels threw off enough moisture to clean my windshield. Once the street was
dried up I had to pull over to clean my windshield.
I should have gotten to my house in TN around 11 or noon. .
. . we got there around four. We emptied the van and went right to sleep.
As we had been driving to TN we had been checking the
weather to see if it was possible to stop and wait out the storm. We discovered
one very important fact. There was another storm coming on Saturday for almost
our entire route once again. This
meant that we had to leave at midnight. This way we could try and stay ahead
of the storm. We were pretty
successful too! We managed to out run the storm (literally at one point we
could see the threatening clouds to our left, a few times we had light flakes,
and eventually we saw staged plows along the highway) until we got to Dauphin
county in PA. The snow wasn’t as hard as the night before so I didn’t skid as
badly.
We got home around 8pm. The next morning we cleaned the car
and brought it back. At the office I told them about the maintenance light and
the other light. I told the woman at the counter that I looked for the manual
but couldn’t find it. Her response . . . . . “Oh yeah they usually hid it in
the back so people don’t steal it.”
Is that a big issue. . . people stealing manuals. . . . and if you are going to hide it why
even bother putting it there in the first place?
Hopefully next trip will go better . .. timing and weather wise.
No comments:
Post a Comment