The Moving Story Part 1

This goes back to the first part of December, and explains, at least in part, why I've been relatively quiet for the past month. When we got the offer on our house, it called for closing by 12/15, but there was a lot of pressure to close earlier than that. So we closed the house on 12/2 and had to be out by midnight. The trailer we purchased to tow behind the Suburban was overloaded, so we limped it over to BIL's house and parked it there for the night and headed for the hotel.

Saturday morning I spent hours on the phone with U-Haul trying to get a truck to haul half our stuff from the trailer across country. Finally got the truck late Saturday afternoon and it was a hunk of junk. By Saturday night we had the U-Haul mechanic out working on it, and he said that he wouldn't trust the vehicle across country. So we're back to the same hotel for Saturday night. Sunday morning I spent hours on the phone with U-Haul until I finally managed to get someone who would swap the truck for one that would work. So when DH returned the old truck he barely made it back to the U-Haul lot when the transmission started to go out....and we were supposed to drive this truck from Phoenix to Florida???! Got the new truck, and off-loaded half of the trailer onto the truck (also I didn't have to tow a trailer, but that's another story!) and decided we would leave on Monday. The plan was BIL would drive the U-Haul towing the Jeep, DH would drive the Suburban with the dogs and the kids and I would have the cat with us, and we'd play our way across the country!

Monday comes and we go to load the Jeep on the tow dolly that's being towed by the U-Haul truck and discover the tire straps (which hold the car on the dolly) are broken. So we're back to waiting for a U-Haul mechanic to come out and fix the tow dolly straps. Finally about 3PM we're ready to get on the road. The kids, cat and I head out to get some lunch and run a quick errand for DH on the way out of town. (For those who aren't familiar with the area: We lived on the north side of Phoenix, and were headed south/east using I-10 for the long journey). About 4-4:30 we're on the southern suburbs of Phoenix when I get a call from BIL. DH is having trouble controlling the trailer above 45 MPH and whenever anyone passes him, he's all over the road. So BIL tells us to sit tight where we are and he'll let us know what to do in a little while (we're traveling together for the first day or so). About 30-45 minutes later, they tell us they're getting a stabilizer installed on the trailer/Suburban and for us to go ahead and head for Tucson (where we're all staying the first night) and they'll be an hour or two behind us. Finally they get done, after spending another $700 for this stabilizer thing!

The kids and I make it to Tucson and we're about a mile or two from our exit to get to the hotel for the night when BIL calls me and greets me with "Are you safe?" I answer Yes. I think *Strange question, but I always talk on the cell phone while driving on the freeway, so I'm not going to worry about it* His next question was "Are you sitting down?" Again, I answer yes, this time thinking *I normally sit down while I'm driving, is there any other way?* Then he says "Your husband just went up in flames!" I said WHAT???? He said, the Suburban just went up in flames on I-10 between Warner and Elliot. (Now this is 5:30 at night on Monday, in one of the worst places to be in evening rush hour). The conversation continued with him passing details and my responding OMG, OMG, OMG. I asked him what they wanted us to do now, and he told me to just sit tight where I was and they'd let us know. So after filling the kids in on what happened, including the fact that DH and dogs were all safe, I called the lady whom I at that point determined would be my contact to keep everyone updated on our trip across country...The Wondering One. She was wonderful and kept me calm while I made my way to the hotel to let them know what was happening and they were very understanding. They even babysat the cat while the kids and I went next door to Denny's and spent $20+ on food we couldn't eat.....more to come, as I have time to type!