The day I met Mr. Horton McClure it involved, a U-Haul trailer, VHS tapes and Booze along with a 6 piece sectional.
Mr. McClure and my husband are longtime friends.
It was June 13th, I remember this date because it was my birthday. It was a beautiful day, sun was out, not too hot nor was it too cool, just a perfect day for a 4 hour drive from Charleston, South Carolina to Wake Forest, North Carolina.
The drive up was uneventful, traffic was lite, great music playing on the stereo, just a beautiful day until we arrived at Mr. McClure's apartment complex. Mr. McClure's complex did not have an elevator and he lived on the third floor. As I walked in his apartment, I met his parents, very nice people, much older than I had expected. I looked at the sectional thinking to myself, how in the world are we going to move this piece by piece down three flights of stairs, thankfully we had a trolley. With the guidance of Mr. McClure's Father the move was completed in an hour or so.
Each time Mr. McClure, my husband and I returned to the apartment for another piece, his Mother had gone through his apartment picking out more items for me to take.The addition of a coffee table that could not fit onto the trolley had to be hand carried down by my husband, Mr. McClure and myself, not fun, I was concern one of us going over the open stairwell as we maneuvered this huge coffee table around the corners, that table was a beast, at one point , the weight of the table shifted and I lost my grip, the table drop and slid down the last of the steps, I thought I heard the table exclaim "DAMN IT, you dropped me" I was hoping it was damaged beyond use but alas it survived.
As we stood outside to talked outside, Mr. McClure's Father went back upstairs and return along with his wife, they had two bags full of VHS Tapes and arms full of bottles of booze.
What were they planning? Why the tapes and opened bottles of booze? I was not in the mood for a movie and a drink....I was tired, sweaty and had a 4 hour drive home.... His Mother said I was to take the tapes and open bottles of booze....AH no...I relented and took the tapes but not the booze.
We said our good-byes and left before anything else could be added to our little U-haul trailer.
On the drive home,an hour or so into the drive home, something weird happened, something I have never ever experienced. Our Jeep with the U-Haul trailer, started slowing down as if the transmission had shifted into low gear, but that was not the problem, the problem was a sensor on the right rear wheel and gone (figured this out after we arrived home).
When a wheel sensor stopped working, the Jeep went into survival mode, a drive that takes no more than 5 hours with heavy traffic took 8 hours.
The dash boards light flashed on and off the headlights would dim and we could not speed above 45mph. Other drivers beeping their horns, giving us the look of " GO home, Get of the road, you idiots" I even saw a few one finger salutes as we were fighting the Jeep and the trailer.
The trailer was slightly swaying as we drove in that condition. After 30 minutes of this, it stopped, all was well until the dash boards lights went out and stayed out for the rest of the drive home. It was late, no one to call, could not abandon the jeep and its contents along side the road and leave, so we drove 45 mph.
When we finally arrived home it was after midnight, I looked at the stuff we had loaded hours before and wonder, was it worth all we went through and the answer I came up with was a big fat maybe......
The meeting of Mr. McClure and his parents were the highlight of the trip, the addition of the sectional, coffee table, VHS Tapes not so much.......
6 piece sectional = Free
Coffee Table = Free
2 bags of VHS Tapes = Free
Bad wheel sensor = Not so free
Memories = Priceless
The lesson I learned about FREE stuff: Hire a moving company!
No comments:
Post a Comment