The main event last week was a trip to Toledo to help the Fosters move into their new house. It turned out to be a bigger adventure than we anticipated, but I’ll get to that later.
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| How things looked here most of the week. |
In case you didn’t know, Sarah has a new job in Toledo and for the past month or so has been commuting from their home in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She and Tosh bought a house in the Toledo area and last weekend they moved in. The Thayns drove up from Pittsburgh and we drove over to help them get settled. Miriam and Hannah left on Friday after work in our Subaru. They arrived in Toledo around the same time the Thayns did, 11:00 that night.
Stacey and I left early on Saturday morning driving a U-Haul truck with a piano and some furniture in it. We left at 5:30, before it was light out, and made our way north into New York and then took Highway 86 west where we connected to Interstate 90, then Interstate 80 across Ohio. Although there was snow on the ground at home and in various places along the way, the roads were clear and we made good time. We arrived in Toledo at 11:30 a.m.
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| Ready to leave. |
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| On the road west. |
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| On the bridge at Lake Chautauqua. |
Once we were there, the main task was to get the U-Haul unloaded so we could return it. The furniture was not a problem and was unloaded quickly. The piano was another story. It took all of the adults, lots of pushing and pulling, and Tosh and Tabor doing the heavy lifting with straps to get it out of the truck, down the sidewalk, through the front door, and into the living room. The legs and lid had been removed for shipping, so we had to reassemble it. It’s a Kawai baby grand and it weighs a ton – really. It has been in storage for 20 years and is out of tune and has a cracked sounding board, but it’s still a pretty nice piano. We’re glad that Sarah has it.
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| At the Foster's house. |
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| Unloading the piano. |
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| Heavy lifting. |
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| The piano assembled and in place. |
After the piano was in place, we spent the rest of the day Saturday unloading boxes. Miriam and Rachel worked on the kitchen, papering cupboards, and finding places to put things. The rest of us moved furniture into place. All the while talking and laughing and enjoying being together. We took a break in the early evening and went to a restaurant for Mexican food. That was a real treat. Later in the evening things got a bit quieter and calmer. Some people even found time for a game before bedtime.
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| Cute helpers. |
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| Out to dinner. |
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| Time for a game. |
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| Bedtime. |
On Sunday we went to church in the Foster’s new ward. They hadn’t been there before. We took up an entire pew. The members were very friendly and were happy to welcome the Fosters into the ward. After church we went back to the Foster’s for lunch. And then it was time to head for home. That’s where the unexpected part of our adventure began.
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| After church. |
We left the Foster’s house at 2:30, Stacey, Miriam, Hannah, and I, in our Subaru. We decided to not take the tollway and made our way via various highways to Interstate 90. In the city of Westlake, just west of Cleveland, the car sputtered and began to rattle. Stacey pulled off the highway onto the shoulder right by an off and on ramp. We got out and checked the engine. There was no oil in it. Stacey and I walked up to a BP gas station and bought three quarts of oil and then went back and put it in the car. It didn’t help. The engine started but ran rough and then stopped. A puddle of oil formed under the car.
We started making phone calls. We called to find a tow truck and after several tries – Sunday is not a good day to have car trouble – found one who could help us. He came and took the car, but couldn’t take us. He told us where he was towing the car to and we set off on foot. We called the Thayns to see where they were. They left after we did, but were already past where we were. They offered to turn around and come back, but we told them to go on. We called Sarah and Tosh and they started out to rescue us. We were almost two hours away from them. So the four us walked three miles down Detroit Road in Westlake to the Monro Service Center where our car was. It was getting late by then and it was closed, so we just sat in the poor dead car and waited for the Fosters. They arrived and took us back to their house.
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| The end of the Subaru. |
We hadn’t planned on an extra night and day away, so phone calls were made to inform employers that we were stuck in Toledo and would not be at work on Monday. We went to bed not knowing what we would do to get home.
On Monday Stacey spent a lot of time on the telephone talking to the Monro people and negotiating with various people, trying to find a way to get a car to get us home. Rental places were not very helpful. We found that living in the boondocks in Pennsylvania complicates things sometimes. Finally Tosh told us to take his car, a rental he has been using to drive to and from our house for the work he’s been doing here. He was planning to come to our house later this week anyway and said he’ll get another one way rental here and then take the car we have back at the end of the week. Our Subaru, it turns out, was not worth repairing. We sold it to a man at Munro for $200.
So we set out for home at last in Tosh’s rental at 2:00 on Monday afternoon. The drive home was uneventful – thankfully. We stopped in Kirtland, as we always do when we travel that route, to use the restrooms and get a drink of water at the Visitors Center there. They are in the process of putting up Christmas decorations there and we took a minute to look at a display of Nativities and talk to the senior missionaries there. Then we headed home again. We arrived at 8:30, happy to be home at last.
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| Driving through Cleveland. |
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| At the Kirtland Visitors Center. |
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| In the Visitors Center. |
This morning I went down to the barn first thing to take care of the chickens. I was gone a day longer than I’d planned and was worried they’d run out of water, but they hadn’t. I collected three day’s worth of eggs – 22 of them. The chickens were happy to see me.
The week ahead will be interesting as we begin the quest for a new car. We had been talking about it anyway, before the old one died. I’m glad we are home again and that the Fosters are in their new house and everything worked out despite a few unforeseen adventures.
