Alarms went off at 4am. We had to be in Danbury at 5am to load up the kitties and head over to Denny’s for breakfast. After a late start we hit the road at 7am.
New York went by quick. Craig and I were the follow car; reporting back about any swaying issues with the trailer and acting as guides to when it was safe to switch lanes. All was going pretty well.
Then we entered Pennsylvania. Where do I begin…carnage is a good start. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much road kill consistently along the side. Construction, holy crap they closed a lane every 30 minutes or so.
First, drunken cone placement. They were all over, never actually on the white line. Tractor trailers kept knocking them over and sometimes they’d flip back into traffic. One proceeded to flip right out in front of the Civic with no time to change path and I hit it. Gratefully no damage.
Jersey barriers and one of the scariest part of the trip so far. My family has their SUV on a tow dolly behind their 26′ moving truck. We had to pass through a section of construction with jersey barriers and the moving truck kept swaying back and forth with the two dolly fish tailing behind it. Craig and I watched as this all happened, gasping and trying to figure out to how to say something without making the situation worse. Several times mere inches were between a jersey barrier and the tow dolly.
But wait there’s more…a story could not be complete without some furniture! At a completely random point where the cars on the road had thinned, we came up on what looked like a big piece of rubber from a tire. No, it was a wooden chair frame right in the middle of the lane. I reacted quick and no damage done.
Now the scariest part, a FedEx tandem tractor trailer. He came up in the fast lane, hovered near my Mom and Dan in the moving truck, passed them and proceeded to leave a very strong wake of air which violently rocked their moving truck from side to side. The tow dolly twisted with each severe sway. Balance was recovered and we lived to make it to Ohio.
I can only hope this was the “working the kinks out” start to the trip. We’d really like to make it to Arizona alive and in one piece.
The day finished off nicely though. We all visited with old family friends from Ohio at a nearby restaurant and got treated to a vintage car groups meet at our hotel.
…and now for some much needed sleep.
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