More catching up: Road Trip day 2
Day 2
I left Morgantown early, anxious to get on the road. I had a dinner appointment in Indiana that I wanted to be early for. I said goodbye to everyone then snuck downstairs to say goodbye to aunt Nancy and Uncle Chuck. Every time I say goodbye to them I think its for the last time, which in fact isn’t a bad thing. It means I make sure to tell them that I love them.
I struck out on the road and headed north, picking up 70 outside of Pittsburgh and, after a brief return to West Virginia, I made it across Ohio without incident. In fact, I don’t remember a thing about it. Somehow I skirted Cincinati. I think.
My first stop was Muncie Indiana. A little over two years ago Hanna and I had purchased a house through a wholesaler in Muncie. It was an 1890 frame house, two stories with three bedrooms about a mile from Ball state. Our plan was to fix it up and rent it to Ball State students. Unfortunately we chose the wrong contractor. After we paid him two payments of $8,000 each he disappeared on us. He had gutted the house (taking hard wood fixtures we’d wanted him to leave) knocked down the garage and split. Out around $32,000 for the whole ball of wax we had no money to continue the project, so we tried to give the house away to the city, to the college, but nobody wanted it. Eventually the city condemned it and threatened to knock it down. I stopped by to look and, sure enough, there was a vacant lot where my house had been. Now at least we should be able to get the taxes reduced.
My next stop was Moorseville, where my high school and SCA buddy Marc Robinson/Tor Tracier of the Grey Wastes lives. I hadn’t seen him for about twenty years. He looked older but was just as crazy as always, which in his case is a good thing. He and his wife raise chickens and vegetables. He fishes the lake on his property and harvests deer off his back porch. Though he hasn’t read any of Michael Pollan’s books he’s living the life. We had a great dinner of venison, fresh bread, salad and peas we’d picked from the garden, and home made wine (I just had half a glass). It was fantastic. It was even better to catch up.
St. Louis is the home of liadan_m and I had a warm bed waiting for me there. I had considered staying at Marc's but I realling wanted to push on. I wanted the extra time, since I was planning to hang out in STL on Sunday and didn't want to waste any of it driving. As I left it was starting to rain, then on down the road a bit it started getting dark. Then darker. I checked road conditions and heard that there were tornado warnings way off north near I 80. Nothing for 70. Then somebody opened the faucet and the sky got so black I couldn’t see the road. It was blacker than night black. I drove like it was 3AM in Fresno in November which, if you've done it before, you know is scary. As it started to clear I was scanning the dial and heard a tornado warning for the stretch of road I’d just passed. I’d driven right through the front. Apparently they were touching down all over the place. Marc called me to tell me to get off the road, and I told him it was too late, I was already on the other side. Then he hung up to head for the basement.
That was the biggest thrill of the trip up to that point. I crossed the Mississippi and made it into liadan_m 's house about 11:30 Central Time.
I left Morgantown early, anxious to get on the road. I had a dinner appointment in Indiana that I wanted to be early for. I said goodbye to everyone then snuck downstairs to say goodbye to aunt Nancy and Uncle Chuck. Every time I say goodbye to them I think its for the last time, which in fact isn’t a bad thing. It means I make sure to tell them that I love them.
I struck out on the road and headed north, picking up 70 outside of Pittsburgh and, after a brief return to West Virginia, I made it across Ohio without incident. In fact, I don’t remember a thing about it. Somehow I skirted Cincinati. I think.
My first stop was Muncie Indiana. A little over two years ago Hanna and I had purchased a house through a wholesaler in Muncie. It was an 1890 frame house, two stories with three bedrooms about a mile from Ball state. Our plan was to fix it up and rent it to Ball State students. Unfortunately we chose the wrong contractor. After we paid him two payments of $8,000 each he disappeared on us. He had gutted the house (taking hard wood fixtures we’d wanted him to leave) knocked down the garage and split. Out around $32,000 for the whole ball of wax we had no money to continue the project, so we tried to give the house away to the city, to the college, but nobody wanted it. Eventually the city condemned it and threatened to knock it down. I stopped by to look and, sure enough, there was a vacant lot where my house had been. Now at least we should be able to get the taxes reduced.
My next stop was Moorseville, where my high school and SCA buddy Marc Robinson/Tor Tracier of the Grey Wastes lives. I hadn’t seen him for about twenty years. He looked older but was just as crazy as always, which in his case is a good thing. He and his wife raise chickens and vegetables. He fishes the lake on his property and harvests deer off his back porch. Though he hasn’t read any of Michael Pollan’s books he’s living the life. We had a great dinner of venison, fresh bread, salad and peas we’d picked from the garden, and home made wine (I just had half a glass). It was fantastic. It was even better to catch up.
St. Louis is the home of liadan_m and I had a warm bed waiting for me there. I had considered staying at Marc's but I realling wanted to push on. I wanted the extra time, since I was planning to hang out in STL on Sunday and didn't want to waste any of it driving. As I left it was starting to rain, then on down the road a bit it started getting dark. Then darker. I checked road conditions and heard that there were tornado warnings way off north near I 80. Nothing for 70. Then somebody opened the faucet and the sky got so black I couldn’t see the road. It was blacker than night black. I drove like it was 3AM in Fresno in November which, if you've done it before, you know is scary. As it started to clear I was scanning the dial and heard a tornado warning for the stretch of road I’d just passed. I’d driven right through the front. Apparently they were touching down all over the place. Marc called me to tell me to get off the road, and I told him it was too late, I was already on the other side. Then he hung up to head for the basement.
That was the biggest thrill of the trip up to that point. I crossed the Mississippi and made it into liadan_m 's house about 11:30 Central Time.