Friday, June 4, 2010

Foto Friday: Moving to Michigan

The story actually starts last Thursday as I got the hitch put on my car. What should have taken an hour at the U-Haul store took 4. That should've been my first clue that things weren't going to go as expected...
Friday I went back, picked up the trailer, loaded it up, cleaned up my apartment, locked it up and headed over to Kimmy's for my Goodbye Toga Party... but I made a stop at Goodwill first to drop off the last of stuff I wanted to donate. When I got back in the car it wouldn't come out of park. I freaked. I shut it off, turned it back on and tried again. I did this a few times... Nothing. I call Spike, I call Mr. Beaker Luv and consult my owner's manual. By the time Mr. Beaker Luv came to my rescue I had found the shift override button and had moved the car and trailer from behind the alley way to the front of the shopping complex. He had contacted the Toyota dealership on his way and they suggested wiring issues. Spike had Googled it and consulted family members in the auto industry and they confirmed the same. I called U-Haul and spoke with them, they told me there was no way possible that they could be responsible for this, that it must be something with my transmission. I was able to convince them to send out a tech anyway...
3 hours later, complete rewiring of the trailer, one nervous breakdown on my part and replacement of all the lighting fuses in my car that had blown out thanks to faulty wiring on the trailer, they had me fixed up and ready to go... Oh and one more thing, to add insult to injury I managed to step in a pile of Fire Ants (to which I'm highly allergic) that had made its home in the parking lot. FML!
After I had (mostly) collected myself, I finally arrived late to my own Goodbye Party...
After a late night of adult beverages, group hugging and crying it was up and at 'em. Rixy and I were on our way. Peace out O-town!
Lola the Little Engine that Could.


Alligator Heads... still in Florida.
What usually takes just over 2 hours took us 5 thanks to a HUGE traffic jam just outside of Gainesville. At one point we pulled off and took a nap just to eat some time.



Goodbye Florida...



Hello Georgia! Yee Haw!


These are Coon Skin Caps but kinda just look like Russian Fur Hats.


Sign Capture FAIL. Tennessee! We ended up stopping for the night in Knoxville.


Where's this blue grass you speak of?


What a great Navigator! Aren't you supposed to be looking out for falling rocks?!?! LOL!


Florence Y'all! After seeing this, we kept shouting this the rest of the trip.


We had quite the religious experience in Ohio...


O.M.G.


Rixy was SOOO excited to have White Castle. *Barf*



Destination Complete.



21± Hours, 1,231 Miles and numerous bathroom stops later we finally arrived in Spikeville; Safe, Sound and sent straight to get massages courtesy of the best boyfriend ever...
And before I sent her back to the Sunshine State we made a quick stop at Meijer.
The Holy Grail of Grocery.
Have a great weekend everyone! Catch ya'll on the flipside with real running content! :)

39 comments:

Harold said...

Great pics. LOL @ the giant Jesus in the water in Ohio

Tammy said...

Yay! for a safe trip!

I've never seen that giant Jesus, but we did pass Florence, Y'all on our way to the Flying Pig Marathon last month. LOL!

We also said it randomly throughout that weekend. Great minds and all that.

JoannaRuns said...

Meijer IS the holy grail of grocery. I'm moving out of Meijer Territory here in a few weeks and it's one of the things I'm really going to miss! Glad the move went relatively smoothly.

Shannon said...

Wow - Florida was really trying to keep ya! That's a lot of issues with the Uhaul!

LPT said...

Awww... HURRAY! MICHIGAN! (Um also, that religious statue thing is AMAZINGLY HILARIOUS. I don't think that was the intention...)

GOOD LUCK on your interviews! You're going to rock them out. And have fun in Chi-town. Big big virtual hugs.

Riki said...

I was a fantastic co-captain and I don't sleep on the job! We had Poppy! You didn't put up the pictures of pre-corn! Love you. I'm done. xoxo

Staci Dombroski said...

Loved the pictures! I can't believe that about the wiring! Have a great weekend :)

Robin said...

Yay! Safe and sound. Bummer about U-Haul. I bet you REALLY wanted to HAUL that thing away after all that. LOL

Great pics! :-) White Castle - before I gave up meat - good stuff!!

Hugs from Orlando (seems weird to say that to YOU!)...

Marlene said...

Oh man, what a mishap with te Uhaul. I hope they took responsibility in the end!

Awesome road trip pics!!!

Lauren said...

Oh man these pics are making me miss Chicago so much. I miss meijer!!!!

Hope things are going well D:

L.B. said...

Never heard of Meijer :(

Great pics. Glad y'all made it safe and sound :)

runnernic.com said...

meijer is simply amazing! :)

Viper said...

Yeah, that's southern Ohio for you. Glad you made it to your new home in one piece.

Lisa said...

I went to school in Cincinnati and have seen that Florence y'all many times!

Jeri said...

l-o-v-e the green toga. but you probably already knew I was going to say that, right? Sorry for all the shenanigans getting out of FL, geez louise! As if moving isn't stressful enough.... ugh.

Casey said...

Florence Y'all! That's my town! We could have had a run together!

Fun fact: it used to say Florence Mall before the mall was built and everyone would drive out of their way to see it (this is like 30 years ago or more) and there'd be no mall. So, with minimal expense, they could change the Mall to Y'all. And now we have Florence Y'all Festivals. The end.

Casey said...

oh, and the locals call that "The Touchdown Jesus".

Jen @ KUrunner said...

I went on a road trip a few years back and we drove an hour out of our way to find a White Castle. I was so disappointed. :-(

Yay for making it all safe & sound!

Sassy Molassy said...

I'm glad you managed to make it all the way to Michigan! Looks like a fun road trip.

Amanda said...

OMG. That water tower is in the parking lot of the mall where i worked in high school. And River Rd is where I work! you took pics of my back yard. beautiful, eh?

DaphneB said...

Awesome pics, thanks for sharing! Road Trips = <3. LOL @ the giant Jesus I totally would have OMG'ed and posted a pic on Facebook pronto!

J said...

Geez those U-Haul people are not very good at wiring!! Glad you girlies had a nice trip!

Zoë said...

Love the pics! That sucks that your pre-journey experience took a long time. :( Silly UHAUL peeps.

And HOLY Jesus in the water! Hee hee!

Firefly's Running said...

Your hitch experience is the reason why I went with a full-side truck instead of hitch. It was much easier and an one stop experience.

I am glad that you had a safe drive to MI.

Heather said...

LOVE this post! Im glad Im not the only who takes pictures of state line signs

EZEthan said...

What the hell is the deal with White Castle anyway... that stuff is so incredibly nasty and what's worse it tastes like ass... yet there is still a certain segment of the population that LOVES it! There must be some kind of White Castle gene...

Her Name is Rio said...

Used to shop at Meijer when I lived in Detroit all the time! Forgot about the place till now!

Adam said...

FLORENCE Y'ALL!!!!



I could totally see my buddies and I latching onto something like that.


I would be SUPER pissed about uhaul f'ing up my car. hopefully you were able to get a discount or SOMETHING.

Screwing with your friends while they are asleep FLORENCE Y'ALL is possibly the best part about road trips.

lindsay said...

why is there an "!" after kentucky? no ma'am.

i have seen the jesus-piece in ohio. i mean who can forget that?

and for the record the florence y'all used to say florence mall but then they had some sort of issue with labeling rules so they changed it to y'all. you can wiki it if you really want. very interesting i know.

Denise said...

i'm glad you made it! what part of MI? I lived in ann arbor for a few years.

and meijer...oh good lord. i hated that place!

Run Jess Run said...

I have an aunt who lives in Cincinnati and we would take 75 down. When we drove by the giant Jesus statue, we would yell out, "Praise Jesus!"

Meijer just opened where I live, but we had one where I grew up (it was actually where we would hang out in high school because there was nothing to do in our town). I never realized how much I missed Meijer until I had to live without one for 5 years.

Candice @ I Have Run said...

I'm glad you made it safe and sound and are getting settled. Sounds like you've had a crazy month. Here's hoping June is all good!

Bethany + Ryan said...

looks like a fun road trip...that man coming out of the water is CREEEPY!!!!!!!

Jon Gilchrist said...

awesome road trip pics..thanx for bringing us along. Glad U all made it safely, too. The man coming outta the water...WOW

Tricia said...

great pics! good luck with everything!

shellyrm aka jogging stroller mama said...

Playing catch up. Sorry I am so behind. I am still trying to figure out my new Palm. Ugh! It is not blogger friendly!

Anywhooo. Great road trip. Glad the trip to Spikeville was a safe one.

The Horton's said...

WOW! You got to see the Ohio "King of Kings" statue before it burnt to the ground last night. Amazing timing. :o)

Viper said...

Just saw this article and thought you might enjoy it: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jtU2LmnsCiWr7nQtlMQF4X0fyj0QD9GBNBT80

You might have one of the last photos taken of it ...

Casey said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAAj1OiH-WA

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