Some days are best not remembered

Ray had already asked my brother John if we could borrow a trailer. John has an older 22 foot car hauler that he uses mostly for storage these days. He said no problem, just give him some notice before we needed it so he could get it cleared out.

Jim called Ray one night and said he could borrow two trailers and go with us to get our stuff. We thought this would probably be a good idea, because it would mean just one trip up and back. Even with paying for the gas for Jim's truck, it would be less because he gets much better gas mileage than the Suburban does. Little did we know what the trip had in store for us.

Half way down Ray noticed that one of the tires on Jim's trailer was flat. Luckily both trailers were double axle so it was still drivable. Ray called Jim and they decided to pull over in Arcola. Gotta love those cell phones! We needed to eat anyway. Jim asked the waitress for the name of the nearest tire place and off we went after lunch to get the tire fixed. That lost us about an hour.

We got up there too late to do the running to the banks and post office we needed to do to close out the bank accounts and post office box. We did manage to take the flat tire my car had off and get it to Farm and Fleet. The guy there said there was nothing wrong with the tire but the rim had rusted. Ray asked him what could be done and he said, I can clean it up and put new bead sealant on it. OK, fine.

The next day we got up and discovered the snow that was supposed to start falling that evening was already falling! We went to Aurora to pick up Ray's recliner that his brother Bob had recovered. It was beautiful and goes with the living room furniture wonderfully. Jim met us there and off we went back to Sandwich. Ray dropped me off to get my car, they went to the storage place and I started running around to the banks and post office. By the time I got to the storage place they had Jim's trailer half loaded. We finished loading his trailer, then I went for a coffee run while they moved that one out of the way and got the 16 footer in place. We loaded that one, tied everthing down, and headed to Shayna's house to get our stuff from there. We managed to cram everything onto the trailers and into the vehicles, and covered the trailers as best we could with tarps and tied every thing down as securely as we could. Destiny gets home from school around 3 so we did get to say goodbye to her, and took off.

The roads were HORRIBLE. Jim wanted to go the way he usually does, avoiding the interstates for the first part of the trip by going south on IL 47 to US 24 in Forest, then getting on I-57 from there. MISTAKE. 47 wasn't too bad but 24 was completely snow covered. We stopped to eat supper at a Subway at the intersection of US 24 and I-57, then got on the interstate.

It was slow going. There were times we were going less than 30 mph, on the interstate! Every time a semi would go by the trailers would shake. Finally, a semi passed Jim just as he was on a slick spot on an overpass and he lost it. Thank God there was so little traffic, he spun out but didn't hit anything but the guard rail. It dented his truck and bent the trailer somewhat but Jim is OK and the truck was drivable. Finally, around 10:30 Jim decided he's had enough and pulled over. We spent the night in a Motel 8 in Matoon.

The next day (Friday) we got up and saw it was still snowing. Luckily it stopped shortly thereafter and we got back on the road. We got home about 1pm that afternoon.

Today Ray went to take the trailers back. The 16 foot one had fallen off it's block, they picked it up and got in on his hitch but forgot to crank the stand up so it got bent. Now we have TWO trailers that we have to pay to fix or replace. Wonderful.