So let's recap the last two days adventure for those who need a decent laugh.
I made a 1,053 mile round trip to purchase a 14 year old Honda minivan. Why? Because it has less than 29k miles on it and we were not finding such a low mile van for less than 30 grand. I paid 13k for it. It needs paint, but so does every Honda minivan from 03-14. Interior is flawless. No spare tire though for some reason and they lost the key for the locking lugs. Maybe the one for the van we have will work.
There are a few things about this trip that I can say with near 100% certainty will never happen again:
1. I ain't making a trip like that for a vehicle again unless it is something special.
2. I ain't ever renting a tow dolly again. I decided against a trailer because I was worried about the extra weight and having to go over the mountains of East Tennessee/West NC. The dolly was a piece of crap. The "steering" system, which basically just lets the axle rotate a tad each way to supposedly help it go around turns, would sorta stick when I was in a curve, especially if I was going downhill. It would start to sway and if had a brain cell I would have taken that sucker back right away and gotten a trailer. But I thought it was just something I was doing wrong. Not. This was especially pucker inducing for the very same reason I chose not to get a trailer. I think my maximun speed the whole 553 miles home was 60. Most of the time I was at 55 or slower. The 80's want their speed limit signs back.
3. I ain't ever, I mean EVER, going back to Bucc-ee's off the Sevierville exit. Maybe a boycott of all of them. There were like 200 gas pumps and I still had to wait for one. I was gonna go inside, but the parking lot was also full. Pass. Whoever started the "things I would rather do than go to bucc-ees" thread is a dadgum genius. It was my first and probably last time going.
4. I ain't ever just taking Google's word for it that their decision of the best route is actually the best route. On the trip to NC I was told to exit off of I-26 and meander on 2 lane mountain roads for what seemed like 200 miles. It was probably more like 150, but at night in the rain made it brutal. If I had taken that route coming home, I would have wrecked and probably died. See 2 above.
I have done some crazy stuff in my lifetime. This trip is up there with the all time craziest. Driving through Knoxville was cake. People in Nashville simply cannot drive. And here I was at just after 5 PM, dark, raining, trying to get this van through Nashville. I stopped counting the cars that didn't have headlights on. That number was probably only slightly lower than the number of people driving like it is an F-1 race. Wrecks? Yeah, there were several. Did folks get out of the way of the emergency vehicles? Nope. Google did have the good sense to not send me around by the stadium, but rather using Briley Pkwy, which I prefer anyway. It wasn't too bad once I got back on the interstate after stopping in Oak Grove. I was less grumpy because I had food. There were no longer thousands of cars behind me all kinds of mad that I am cruising in the right lane at 55 MPH or less. Then the fog arrived. And since the DOT in Kentucky just hates fixing roads, and I was doing the right thing and staying in the right hand lane, I feel like I have been beat harder than Joe's wang after the family reunion. Joe knows I am probably kidding.
West NC is still pretty much a disaster. Piles of debris everywhere.
And, I don't understand why the Israelites didn't kill Jeremiah. That dude was doom and gloom from 1:1. Lamentations has to be more cheery, right?
. Dislocated shoulder, busted knee, broke my jaw, nose, sternum, and 2 ribs. Had to have a couple of surgeries, but thankfully it wasn't worse
