Whirlwind trip to Maryland and Back
/I left early after only one day in the Missouri house that was now ours…to go back to the Maryland house. It would be a 4-day trip with lots of driving each day. The weather was good for the whole trip although it had been very wet the days before. The early rest stops were soggy. I drove from Springfield MO to Huntington WV the first day…a bit long but I knew I would need time at my Maryland house to load the car on the second day. It rained heavily after I was at the hotel!
The Red Roof Inn in Huntington was a surprise. Perhaps it had been recently renovated because the lighting over the bed and the size/arrangement of the desk area were more functional than most hotel rooms.
I was up early the next morning and heading to my Maryland house. At one of the West Virginia stops, I noticed a dead tree…took a closer look at the fungus growing on the trunk.
The drive was uneventful…arriving early enough to have lunch with my husband on our Maryland house deck…and then start the daunting task of loading the cars. Our plan was to caravan back to Missouri with everything from the Maryland house….but we couldn’t quite fit everything so we’ll return to Maryland for the closing on that house; everything left will easily fit in one car. I took pictures of the house without furniture…with the new carpet…before we headed to a nearby hotel for the night.
We headed out early….saw morning sun on the Sidling Hill road cut.
After another night in a hotel, we got another early start…destination our house in Missouri. The drive took a dramatic turn at mid-morning: the front driver’s side tire blew out on my car just east of the Skeeter Mountain rest stop in Indiana. I was glad my husband was following me. It occurred on a bridge….part of the tire flying off…I managed to control the car well enough to pull onto the shoulder past the bridge. I sat in the car after I got it stopped. My husband came up and asked if I was OK…’not really’ was my response. Fortunately, the trauma was emotional rather than physical. We both stood further off on the shoulder, and he called for a tow (my car does not have a spare). I took pictures of the car…and the vegetation nearby. The tow truck came in about 20 minutes…about 10 AM; the tow to a tire place took about 30 minutes and a new tire was on the car by about noon. We continued toward our Missouri home.
Fortunately, the rest of the drive was uneventful…the blow out episode causing a 3-hour delay…not bad overall. Both of us went to bed early - emotionally exhausted once the drive was over.
