One good thing that came out of having the truck die in Pennsylvania is that we didn’t have to travel at 45 mph any longer. The tow truck could match speed with us and make it all the way through. Unfortunately there was a traffic jam getting onto the George Washington Bridge. This is normal so we weren’t too upset by this. The unfortunate part was that we were separated from the truck. We felt confident that the driver would find his way with Holly’s expert directions which she copied from our mapping software directions that we were using.
29 hours after we left Michigan, we made it to Port Jefferson at 8:00 pm on July 2nd. Having driven straight through with my Blazer a number of times, I had clocked the mileage at 777 miles, which I was able to drive in exactly 12 hours. This was with minimal stops for the necessities, bathroom, food and gas. We had finally reached our destination. However, we were too late to get into the townhouse. So we stayed at one of the local hotels. In this, the gods smiled down on me and was able to get me a discounted rate. I don’t know if it was the “I’ve been through hell for the past 29 hours please take pitty on me” look that I gave the desk clerk, but no matter we had a nice room.
After checking in we picked up 0Holly’s brother Michael who had originally intended to help us move in earlier in the day. We took a quick trip to the Townhouse and found the tow truck driver unloading the truck from the big rig. He left the truck spanning several parking spaces near our apartment and headed back for Pennsylvania. We tried to peak in the windows of our new place but all was covered and dark. We decided a late dinner of pizza was in order and a local restaurant in our new Home Town fit that need. What made the evening all the better was that the restaurant was playing the live show of Billy Joel from Madison Square Garden over the background speakers. All was good.
The next day started out early once again. This time it was all my fault. I neglected to read the fine print on our lease that stated I was supposed to send the security deposit to the rental office prior to getting a key. Of course a personal check would not do. So we scrambled about and were able to get money orders from the local post office, our NEW post office.
I met up with… let’s call him Rocko, being in New York is affecting me already. He was a stereotypical New Yorker in appearance but very polite and pretty cool which isn’t necessarily commonplace in New York. He gave me a quick tour of our new townhouse, bade us good luck and went on his way.
It felt pretty good being in our new place. It was very open and clean, then the realization sunk in that it was up to Holly and I to move all of the stuff out of the 26 foot truck into our new place. Thankfully we were on the ground floor, yet this didn’t ease my mind.
First things first. Pull the truck into the front of the townhouse. I tried to start the truck. dead battery. Great, luck wasn’t starting out so great… I pulled the Blazer in front of the truck to give it a jump… hmmm I don’t remember this hood release being so difficult. I pulled and pulled. It wouldn’t give. I felt around the hood, of course my fingers wouldn’t’ fit in the cracks… I pulled some more… SNAP! Broken hood release cable, hood still not open. For the love of GOD! After doing a pretty good impersonation of Bill Bixby turning into the Lou Ferrigno, sans the rippling muscles, I decided to use the Avalon to charge the battery of the truck. I let it set for quite a while to charge, but nothing was going to charge that battery.
Holly called U-Haul once again to have someone pull the truck in front of our townhouse. While waiting for that to happen I figured that I would try to move a few things into the new place to get things started. I unlocked the back of the truck and attempted to pull the sliding door up. It wouldn’t budge. Feeling my blood begin to boil along with the 89 degree temperature and 75% humidity I stepped up on the bumper and pulled again. It gave about 2 inches. I was able to peak in under the door to see that everything that was in the truck had shifted backward toward the door. I suppose this made sense considering the truck was hauled a couple hundred miles in a 35 degree angle.
Frustrated, tired and (pardon the expression) pissed off, I had finally had it. I don’t know if my eyes turned white or if any part of me turned green, but I put every ounce of anger, frustration and exerted every muscle to capacity.
The door lurched upward several feet making me envision prying open the open maw of an ancient beast. I felt a little better after this although it wouldn’t be until later when all my leg muscles and back would start reminding me how stupid I was. For now I felt some kind of satisfaction and I moved those items I could from the door to open it the rest of the way.
I was able to move a number of things from the truck before the next tow truck came to drag the carcass of the truck to the front door of the townhouse. For the rest of the day and way into the night Holl and I dragged out box after box, crate after crate bed frame after bed frame from the belly of the beast. We ended around 2:00 am.
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