A Story
So I have a story to tell. I’ll try to keep it short, but I’m going to use some pictures and there’s a bit to say, so it might be long. I’d cut it for you, but really, how often do I post? You might miss it all together :P
The great news is, Ben has moved home! He was offered a really exciting job here in Cincy a few weeks ago and starts on Monday. We’re both really happy and enjoying being back home together.
This is the story of moving Ben from Los Angeles to Ohio.
I flew out to California last Thursday, and we packed up the Sentra and started driving Friday morning. Really we have packing that car down to a science at this point, and everything fits perfectly, all nice and snug. We stopped at target to pick up the essentials for our drive - baked Ruffles and gummy bears!
Back in the car we headed north. We had decided to take the opportunity of the drive to visit friends along the way, and so instead of taking the most direct path, we took five days to make our way east. Day One was our trip from Southern California to Northern California where we helped zdefenestrator and trueaeval move into their new place in Mountain View. We also got to meet Caerwyn’s sons, which was a great surprise. We had a great time and I’m glad the timing worked out so well.
Saturday we were back in the car and headed east. Saturday was also the day I remembered we had Ben’s camera and started taking pictures of the stunning countryside. I’d never been in that part of Cali/Nevada before, and it really was incredibly beautiful.
Ben driving through Cali:
Me as we drive into the mountains:
Beautiful:
I couldn’t believe it when I saw one of my favorite characters ever, Ferdinand!
Mountain with rustic waterfall:
While in Nevada I made some quick cash on the video poker machine:
Refueling stop:
We stayed Saturday night at a Residence Inn type place, in the heart of Salt Lake City. It had a kitchen and a fireplace and a big bathroom and was really nice. When we woke up on Sunday morning I looked outside and saw that it was incredibly windy. Weather.com confirmed that there was a big storm on the way, and we hurried to get the car packed as the rain started to come down.
Salt Lake as we drive toward the freeway:
Driving through the mountains:
From Salt Lake, it was a day driving east on I-80 through Wyoming - another part of the country I’d not seen before. The whole day we were rushing to stay in front of the storm that was trying to catch up to us, and fighting the wind and tumbleweeds on the road. Made it into Denver around six I think, and met up with musickris (Viv), cold_as_iceeeee, coloradoholly, thelordduke, sunrithegreat, marlinya, and later enochxarr joined us too. We went to a great Mexican place, downtown, even though it wasn’t the place we were aiming for. Played hold’em afterward, and then valorian and I stayed at Viv’s place for the night.
Woke up Monday morning and pulled the curtains back to see a horrific site - snow. Not just a little, not just a drizzle, but real Denver snow. Ugh. And we were trying to get to Kansas City that day to visit friends and were hoping to arrive decently early. Double Ugh.
We packed up and headed to the highway. I-70 was shut down and we were on the south side of Denver anyway, so the GPS told us to take Highway 86 out of town and join back up with I-70 in a little town called Limon. It was only a small highway, but we were basically the only ones out there, so we figured we were making better time than we would have in bumper-to-bumper on the freeway.
Let me pause the story here to say that Ben and I are both fine. But, well, here are the pictures:
Highway 86 as we start out:
In short, we were almost to the end of 86 (so close! less than 2 miles until I-70) when we came to a bridge that was iced over, and had a bank of snow in our lane due to the guard rails preventing it from blowing across the road. We hit the snow bank, spun into the grass on the side of the road, and when the car hit the field started to roll. We rolled over twice, coming to rest with the wheels in the air. I was hanging upside down in the car, still buckled into the seat. Ben, who you might realize is a bit taller than me, was upside down as well, but the top of his head was resting on the caved-in ceiling of the car, which was covered with snow coming in the broken windows and the glass that had shattered.
I got myself out of my belt after a few seconds of trying, and fell to the roof of the car. I flipped around so I was sitting on the roof. Ben couldn’t reach his buckle, and somehow I ended up behind him, and he asked me to unlatch it for him, which I did. At the same time, he said, "I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I am bleeding." It really wasn’t a bad injury at all, but there were a few cuts on his scalp, and since he’s obviously bald they end up bleeding a lot. I couldn’t see him at the time though, since I was trapped behind him so I was, in fact, "alarmed." I could reach my cell, which had flown around during the crash, and tried to dial 911. No signal. Again. Again no signal. Ben was partially trapped by the caved in roof, and couldn’t reach his phone. I got into his pocket, got his phone, and dialed 911. No signal. Again. No signal.
We knew there wasn’t much traffic on the road, but there were plows out and it was decently traveled so we hoped someone might stop soon. I was worried because I didn’t know how far off the road we had traveled and how deeply we might be buried in snow. Maybe we looked like we’d been there a while. Plus the snow had come in through the broken windows like I’d said, and though I was fine, Ben was partially in the snow, and it was getting cold. I found some napkins we had in the car for him to hold on the bleeding cuts on his head, and we thought we heard someone stopping near by. In a few seconds we heard a voice call out, "Is anyone alive in there!?" We called out "YES!"
A plow had stopped and used his radio to call the highway patrol. He tried to get the back door open, but of course it was full of all the stuff we were moving, and a few boxes fell out but there was no possibility we were ever going to get out that way. I told him I thought if he could get to my door that it might work. With a little muscle, he got it open far enough for us to climb out.
We really are fine. I have a small line of bruises from where I was hanging by my seat belt, and Ben has the cuts on his head, but it’s nothing significant at all. We were very, very lucky.
We spent about the next 15 minutes or so with the plow driver in his truck. Then I decided to go back and try to salvage what I could before it got buried in snow or thrown when the tow had to reflip the car. It was a mess. A very funny mess. Gummy bears where everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Four pounds of gummies. In the snow. Becoming a frozen, sticky mess. And starting to fuse themselves to just about any surface they could find.
Eventually the Highway Patrolman arrived and took our information and filed the report and all that. An ambulance also came by, because the original call from the plow had reported people trapped in the vehicle, and they hadn’t been able to cancel it before they were already on their way. We told them it was just a couple cuts and nothing major at all. One of the EMT ladies (it was a pair of women) pointed at the side of Ben’s head and said, "What about that bump." I laughed and said, "Oh that’s always there! There’s a matching one on the other side too." :P
About an hour after the crash the "wrecker" arrived and flipped the car right side up again. We didn’t lose too much really. Broken glass and plastic in the snow, but not much else. Then he (his name was Tharin actually), loaded it on the bed of the tow and took us to the town we had been aiming at in the first place, Limon.
We really had almost made it to the freeway. We were *so close.* Tharin asked us where we wanted to go and we were really at a loss. We had been trying to reach AAA but had been on hold, and told that there were no car-rental places in Limon. We eventually ended up at the U-Hall rental center, but they were out of trucks.
We spent the next 30 minutes or so trying to figure out what to do. Eventually we found that there were U-Halls available in a town called Flagler, 30 miles east of Limon. Tharin found a ride for us with a guy from the towing company (we think - that part is a little confusing) named Dick. Dick was a great guy and picked us up and helped us find the U-Hall "rental office."
Why the "" you ask? Well, because the U-Hall "rental office" turned out to be a single-wide trailer inhabited by an elderly couple with a yappy puppy, a lethargic cat, and some fish. They really were very nice, but they struggled to figure out how to use the computer to make a record of the rental. Eventually I asked if I could help and took over at the keyboard. We got back on the road maybe 40 minutes later and headed back to Limon where the Sentra was resting peacefully in the wrecker’s lot.
A 30 minute drive later, we found the Sentra and started loading all the cargo into the truck. Took some pictures and got back on the road heading east toward Kansas City. We knew we wouldn’t be able to meet with al_morgan and jadirablue as we planned, and I sent them texts.
We eventually got into KC around 1AM. And though we had missed our dinner plans, we were still able to meet up with penryn and pylar since we were staying in Lawrence and they are up nights for work and stuff. We grabbed some food at IHOP, though I still wasn’t really feeling calm enough for real food and so had some saltines and a salad. Ben, who you may know has been through this sort of thing before, had pancakes, sausage, and deviled eggs. :P
We had made arrangements to change to a rental car in Lawrence, and so woke up Tuesday morning and started the process of picking up the new car, refueling the U-Hall, moving all the cargo, sweeping the dislodged glass shards out of the truck, and turning it in at the (real) office. We met Penny & Py again for a quick lunch right next to the U-Hall place which happened to be basically within walking distance of their house, and then we were on our way again. East.
There were thunderstorms in the area, but we mostly avoided them. We saw a beautiful sunset reflecting off the storm clouds, but by this time the camera was completely full of accident pictures so we don’t have any images of that. It was a blessedly uneventful drive though.
We arrived home around midnight. We unloaded the car and then dropped it off at the rental place down the street, dropping the keys in the after-hours box.
Ben went in to his new office the next day. His new company seems great, and we’ve started looking for a new car. Things really are going very well. We’re very, very lucky.
The great news is, Ben has moved home! He was offered a really exciting job here in Cincy a few weeks ago and starts on Monday. We’re both really happy and enjoying being back home together.
This is the story of moving Ben from Los Angeles to Ohio.
I flew out to California last Thursday, and we packed up the Sentra and started driving Friday morning. Really we have packing that car down to a science at this point, and everything fits perfectly, all nice and snug. We stopped at target to pick up the essentials for our drive - baked Ruffles and gummy bears!
Back in the car we headed north. We had decided to take the opportunity of the drive to visit friends along the way, and so instead of taking the most direct path, we took five days to make our way east. Day One was our trip from Southern California to Northern California where we helped zdefenestrator and trueaeval move into their new place in Mountain View. We also got to meet Caerwyn’s sons, which was a great surprise. We had a great time and I’m glad the timing worked out so well.
Saturday we were back in the car and headed east. Saturday was also the day I remembered we had Ben’s camera and started taking pictures of the stunning countryside. I’d never been in that part of Cali/Nevada before, and it really was incredibly beautiful.
Ben driving through Cali:
Me as we drive into the mountains:
Beautiful:
I couldn’t believe it when I saw one of my favorite characters ever, Ferdinand!
Mountain with rustic waterfall:
While in Nevada I made some quick cash on the video poker machine:
Refueling stop:
We stayed Saturday night at a Residence Inn type place, in the heart of Salt Lake City. It had a kitchen and a fireplace and a big bathroom and was really nice. When we woke up on Sunday morning I looked outside and saw that it was incredibly windy. Weather.com confirmed that there was a big storm on the way, and we hurried to get the car packed as the rain started to come down.
Salt Lake as we drive toward the freeway:
Driving through the mountains:
From Salt Lake, it was a day driving east on I-80 through Wyoming - another part of the country I’d not seen before. The whole day we were rushing to stay in front of the storm that was trying to catch up to us, and fighting the wind and tumbleweeds on the road. Made it into Denver around six I think, and met up with musickris (Viv), cold_as_iceeeee, coloradoholly, thelordduke, sunrithegreat, marlinya, and later enochxarr joined us too. We went to a great Mexican place, downtown, even though it wasn’t the place we were aiming for. Played hold’em afterward, and then valorian and I stayed at Viv’s place for the night.
Woke up Monday morning and pulled the curtains back to see a horrific site - snow. Not just a little, not just a drizzle, but real Denver snow. Ugh. And we were trying to get to Kansas City that day to visit friends and were hoping to arrive decently early. Double Ugh.
We packed up and headed to the highway. I-70 was shut down and we were on the south side of Denver anyway, so the GPS told us to take Highway 86 out of town and join back up with I-70 in a little town called Limon. It was only a small highway, but we were basically the only ones out there, so we figured we were making better time than we would have in bumper-to-bumper on the freeway.
Let me pause the story here to say that Ben and I are both fine. But, well, here are the pictures:
Highway 86 as we start out:
In short, we were almost to the end of 86 (so close! less than 2 miles until I-70) when we came to a bridge that was iced over, and had a bank of snow in our lane due to the guard rails preventing it from blowing across the road. We hit the snow bank, spun into the grass on the side of the road, and when the car hit the field started to roll. We rolled over twice, coming to rest with the wheels in the air. I was hanging upside down in the car, still buckled into the seat. Ben, who you might realize is a bit taller than me, was upside down as well, but the top of his head was resting on the caved-in ceiling of the car, which was covered with snow coming in the broken windows and the glass that had shattered.
I got myself out of my belt after a few seconds of trying, and fell to the roof of the car. I flipped around so I was sitting on the roof. Ben couldn’t reach his buckle, and somehow I ended up behind him, and he asked me to unlatch it for him, which I did. At the same time, he said, "I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I am bleeding." It really wasn’t a bad injury at all, but there were a few cuts on his scalp, and since he’s obviously bald they end up bleeding a lot. I couldn’t see him at the time though, since I was trapped behind him so I was, in fact, "alarmed." I could reach my cell, which had flown around during the crash, and tried to dial 911. No signal. Again. Again no signal. Ben was partially trapped by the caved in roof, and couldn’t reach his phone. I got into his pocket, got his phone, and dialed 911. No signal. Again. No signal.
We knew there wasn’t much traffic on the road, but there were plows out and it was decently traveled so we hoped someone might stop soon. I was worried because I didn’t know how far off the road we had traveled and how deeply we might be buried in snow. Maybe we looked like we’d been there a while. Plus the snow had come in through the broken windows like I’d said, and though I was fine, Ben was partially in the snow, and it was getting cold. I found some napkins we had in the car for him to hold on the bleeding cuts on his head, and we thought we heard someone stopping near by. In a few seconds we heard a voice call out, "Is anyone alive in there!?" We called out "YES!"
A plow had stopped and used his radio to call the highway patrol. He tried to get the back door open, but of course it was full of all the stuff we were moving, and a few boxes fell out but there was no possibility we were ever going to get out that way. I told him I thought if he could get to my door that it might work. With a little muscle, he got it open far enough for us to climb out.
We really are fine. I have a small line of bruises from where I was hanging by my seat belt, and Ben has the cuts on his head, but it’s nothing significant at all. We were very, very lucky.
We spent about the next 15 minutes or so with the plow driver in his truck. Then I decided to go back and try to salvage what I could before it got buried in snow or thrown when the tow had to reflip the car. It was a mess. A very funny mess. Gummy bears where everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Four pounds of gummies. In the snow. Becoming a frozen, sticky mess. And starting to fuse themselves to just about any surface they could find.
Eventually the Highway Patrolman arrived and took our information and filed the report and all that. An ambulance also came by, because the original call from the plow had reported people trapped in the vehicle, and they hadn’t been able to cancel it before they were already on their way. We told them it was just a couple cuts and nothing major at all. One of the EMT ladies (it was a pair of women) pointed at the side of Ben’s head and said, "What about that bump." I laughed and said, "Oh that’s always there! There’s a matching one on the other side too." :P
About an hour after the crash the "wrecker" arrived and flipped the car right side up again. We didn’t lose too much really. Broken glass and plastic in the snow, but not much else. Then he (his name was Tharin actually), loaded it on the bed of the tow and took us to the town we had been aiming at in the first place, Limon.
We really had almost made it to the freeway. We were *so close.* Tharin asked us where we wanted to go and we were really at a loss. We had been trying to reach AAA but had been on hold, and told that there were no car-rental places in Limon. We eventually ended up at the U-Hall rental center, but they were out of trucks.
We spent the next 30 minutes or so trying to figure out what to do. Eventually we found that there were U-Halls available in a town called Flagler, 30 miles east of Limon. Tharin found a ride for us with a guy from the towing company (we think - that part is a little confusing) named Dick. Dick was a great guy and picked us up and helped us find the U-Hall "rental office."
Why the "" you ask? Well, because the U-Hall "rental office" turned out to be a single-wide trailer inhabited by an elderly couple with a yappy puppy, a lethargic cat, and some fish. They really were very nice, but they struggled to figure out how to use the computer to make a record of the rental. Eventually I asked if I could help and took over at the keyboard. We got back on the road maybe 40 minutes later and headed back to Limon where the Sentra was resting peacefully in the wrecker’s lot.
A 30 minute drive later, we found the Sentra and started loading all the cargo into the truck. Took some pictures and got back on the road heading east toward Kansas City. We knew we wouldn’t be able to meet with al_morgan and jadirablue as we planned, and I sent them texts.
We eventually got into KC around 1AM. And though we had missed our dinner plans, we were still able to meet up with penryn and pylar since we were staying in Lawrence and they are up nights for work and stuff. We grabbed some food at IHOP, though I still wasn’t really feeling calm enough for real food and so had some saltines and a salad. Ben, who you may know has been through this sort of thing before, had pancakes, sausage, and deviled eggs. :P
We had made arrangements to change to a rental car in Lawrence, and so woke up Tuesday morning and started the process of picking up the new car, refueling the U-Hall, moving all the cargo, sweeping the dislodged glass shards out of the truck, and turning it in at the (real) office. We met Penny & Py again for a quick lunch right next to the U-Hall place which happened to be basically within walking distance of their house, and then we were on our way again. East.
There were thunderstorms in the area, but we mostly avoided them. We saw a beautiful sunset reflecting off the storm clouds, but by this time the camera was completely full of accident pictures so we don’t have any images of that. It was a blessedly uneventful drive though.
We arrived home around midnight. We unloaded the car and then dropped it off at the rental place down the street, dropping the keys in the after-hours box.
Ben went in to his new office the next day. His new company seems great, and we’ve started looking for a new car. Things really are going very well. We’re very, very lucky.