Move Story, part 1

We're here, and despite some hiccups (all minor), we're in the house, all of our stuff accounted for. More on that later.

We took off from CT around 7:45 on Thursday morning, and as expected, sat in traffic almost immediately, which was fine given that I hadn't really gotten used to the truck yet. After we got passed Stamford it was pretty much smooth sailing all the way into Pennsylvania.

We stopped to get gas about 50 miles outside of Harrisburg. Filling up the truck for the first time was a humbling experience. It was a truck stop, and I didn't understand the concept of satellite pumps. Are you confused as well? So, when you pull into a truck stop fueling lane, there are 2 pumps, one on either side. One has the controls for paying, etc., and the other is just a pump. You have to engage the paying pump by pulling out the pump and laying it on the ground. You then have to go to the other side to use the satellite pump and fill up. Additionally, the gas tank on the truck was not like a car's, where you just pop in the pump and away you go, waiting until the pump stops automatically. With this, you had to pump until the pump stopped, and then re-angle the pump and continue until you could actually see the gas at the top of the tank, almost coming out. A little freaky to be sure.

We move on down the road and the check engine light comes on in the truck. Great. I get on the phone with the emergency service folks at Penske while I am trucking down the road. They tell me to get off in Carlisle, and we spend 45 minutes while the techs fumble with their computer diagnostic systems and swap out a bum sensor. An hour later, the light comes back on. I ignore it, and continue to plow down the road, never getting more than 70 miles hr. No pull overs for me!

Virginia is a big state. I never realized how big it was. As you're traveling down 81, you just keep on going and going and going. 300 miles, or so. And its extremely pastoral. Talk about idyllic farm settings. Happy cows on those hills.

We made it to Statesville, NC the first day, traveling 660 miles in 12.5 hours. We would have gotten farther if not for the check engine light, but I'm happy to have stopped and gotten it checked then rather than to have gotten stopped on the road in the middle of nowhere.

The animals did ok, for the most part. Domino (the dog) was great. My one cat, pearl, well, she was great too except for the meowing. My other cat, jasper, however, had a real rough first day. Before we even left, he decided to take a d*^p on the office floor of the house, which was fine because then he wouldn't do it in the truck. But I put him in there and the meowing (read yowling) began big time. he then pissed himself. Awesome! Before we got onto the highway, we stopped for coffee, which gave me the opportunity to swap out the paper towels I had put down on the bottom of his crate. Poor guy. He was a mess to clean when we got to the hotel in Statesville.

End of part 1