A few "bumps" in the road...

Once the closing went through it seemed it was the right time to announce my retirement albeit a little sooner than we had originally planned.  I had been working as a church receptionist for 9 1/2 years and while I loved my job working at our busy church, my 95-year-old mom had been asking to move in with us, which was the plan until we found this house.  It made more sense to go ahead and make the big move with my mom sooner than later, so I gave 3 months notice which meant I would be retiring Labor Day weekend a year and a half earlier than planned.

My husband, Brian,  had made a quick trip down in August with his friend, Dave, to deliver another load along with the wood flooring, (more about that in a separate post) and the two of us had also made a quick trip together right after Labor Day,  but this trip was more intentional.  We were not tied down to any schedule and we hoped to go down and get another load delivered, but more importantly get the septic system installed.  This seemed to be our biggest expense and might be the most challenging since most houses would have had this installed much earlier in the build.  Now we would have to dig under the wrap around porch and under the house into the crawl space to get the lines installed properly.

So on the1st of October, we hit the road by 4:30am fully loaded down for the 700+ mile trip. We had decided to take the longer route to avoid the steep hills through Missouri which made the day feel even longer, but as it was nearing 9pm and it was getting really dark, we finally cleared the steepest portion of the driveway when thud.  The truck and trailer stopped dead in its tracks.  Or should I say ruts.  Yup!  We were stuck in our own driveway...but hey...if you're going to have truck issues, right in front of the front door is the best place for it to happen.  I jumped out to see why we weren't able to pull up any farther or seemingly unable to back up. With a flashlight in hand, it was pretty obvious what had happened.  The front axle on the trailer had snapped in two and was now stuck in a rut,  quite literally with the trailer parked on top of the tire. Pretty sure we did what any weary traveler would do in our situation,  we turned off the truck grabbed the house keys and went inside and straight to bed, after all, it had been a very L O N G day.

Morning came all too soon (need to remember to pick up some window blinds) so we got up, got dressed and decided to just unhook the trailer, drive around the circular driveway and head down into town for breakfast before heading out in search for new axles.  Well, that was the plan anyway, but apparently, the axle wasn't the only thing broken, the truck didn't have any brakes!  Remember that steep hill that curves around the hillside boasting a rugged ditch on one side and a sharp drop off on the other that we call our driveway?  Yeah.  I was a little worried when Brian said leave your seatbelt off until we're at the bottom just in case we need to bail.  Bail?  What do you mean bail? But we made it; low gear and the parking brake helped out a bit.  So new plan, head straight for a car parts store and then we'll go for breakfast.

I have to say, the guys on duty that morning were awesome.  They both came out and climbed under our van to determine what had actually gone wrong and what we'd need to fix it.  Apparently, a brake line had broken on the driver's side, spewing brake fluid everywhere.  The good thing about small towns, everyone seems to be so friendly and helpful, the bad thing, they probably won't have what you need in stock.  That was our luck that day, the parts had to be ordered and wouldn't be in for 3 days.  Mind you we are over 700 miles from home, in need of trailer axles and groceries and we don't have a vehicle with brakes to maneuver our way in a land of hills and valleys.

However, no worries!  One of the guys at the parts store says, this happened to me, I just clamped off the broken hose and you're good to go... you still have 3 brakes.  So he did and we did. We topped off the brake fluid and went on our way!

Next on the agenda, food, cause now I am really hungry and in need of at least 2 pots of coffee!

Once the caffeine fix was met and our hunger pains were satisfied, we headed out in search of trailer axles.