Convoy

Last weekend was very busy and crowded. I'll start by explaining a little background: Harry and Heather sold their house and are moving to Indiana. They closed on the Indiana house last week, and everyone was already in Indiana - but their stuff wasn't. WS and Jim had been asked to help drive trucks (2 vans, a dump truck and Harry's truck) back to Indiana. The deal was that Harry would get their bikes to Indiana too, and Jim and WS would ride back (after taking a few detours to see some of the South)

Harry and his two nephews showed up Friday night (having driven straight from Indiana). I was surprised to see them, and even more surprised, as they headed out for dinner, at Harry's "So it's not a problem if we stay here right?"

After telling him that we had no spare mattresses, but plenty of blankets, pillows and one couch, he offered to go to Concord to a motel if it was a problem. After discussions on comfort (or lack there of), but willingness to play host, it was decided that they would stay here.

After they had left to find something to eat, and I started feverishly vacuuming dog hair and clearing out the workout room, WS sheepishly explained that he "thought" he "might have" volunteered to host them during one of their phone conversations. Ah, well, okay then.

On Saturday, Harry, his nephews, WS and Jim went and picked up the two moving vans and loaded them up. As a bonus, the vans were larger than Harry had requested, so they didn't have to get a trainler for the bikes. Saturday night, Harry started working on the dump truck to get it road ready. He needed a battery, alternator and some exhuast work done. It was not clear that he needed an alternator until about 7 - fortunately he found a place in Concord that had the part and was open until 9.

Sunday morning, the work on the dump truck was completed and they loaded the bikes into the back of the neearly empty second van:

They finally got on the road about 11 AM

Jimmy was driving the first van - the ones with the bikes in it. He drives big trucks for a living, so the bikes were trusted to him. Next in line was Harry in the dump truck, then behind that was Harry's regular truck, driven by his nephews.

WS drove the second van, which was loaded to the gills and was the heaviest vehicle - the had a regular convoy going.

They made it out to Indiana about 5 AM Monday morning. After some sleep, WS and Jimmy took off for Tennesse. Tuesday night, WS called and said they were in North Carolina, where they had ridden a road that had 300+ curves in 11 miles - lots of fun (at the speed limit of 30 MPH).

They were supposed to be home last night, but WS called about 7:30 and said that they had been haveing a wonderful time riding some beautiful country, and they had only made it to Pennsylvania. They will be home tonight (perhaps).

Glad they have had good riding weather - it has rained here since Sunday evening (rained all day Saturday too). I did get to ride to work on Tuesday - the bike got a shower while it was waiting for me. Every other day has been rainy when I leave for work, and rainy when I get home. I've had a hard time getting laundry to dry! Next week it is supposed to be dry - and in the 30's when I leave for work - Yeay.

Anyway, WS should have a great tale to tell when he gets home (no pictures since he doesn't have a camera).

Comments

[Cop Car]

Well, WS blew it by not passing along that you were expecting overnighters; but, he redeemed himself by calling in to give you updates along his way home. That must have been some convoy! Obviously, there were no major troubles along the way to Indiana, for which I am glad. Tell WS that your readers (well, at least one of us) want to hear about the trip.

[bogie]

They had no trouble along the way to Indiana except that WS's truck had a governer on it so he couldn't go any better than 71 mph.

For some reason the other truck wasn't governed (or the previous user had found a way to bypass it and the truck company didn't catch it before leasing it out again).