Moving the container contents to Arizona - part 5

We left Texarkana on Monday morning. We made a stop at a county tax office to try to get our registration for Gracie renewed... but found that we need to renew it with the county tax office (Polk County) where we are domiciled.

We had made plans to stop to visit Peggy and Bill in the Dallas area, to drop off some boxes from the container for Dwayne's sister, Sherry, and to have lunch with Peggy and Bill. I forgot to get a picture while we were enjoying lunch, but got this picture of them as we were getting ready to head out.

In addition to leaving the boxes for Sherry, we were able to share some of the pumpkins that we had gleaned in Virginia that Peggy could use for her fall yard decorations.

We had planned a little shorter trip since we knew we'd be stopping for a couple of hours, so we decided to stop in Sweetwater, Texas. 

On our way from Abilene to Sweetwater, the clouds helped to hide the sun from being in our eyes, but also promised some severe weather.

It was pretty as we drove...

... we just barely saw the sun as it was setting.

It was raining pretty hard as we got to Sweetwater. We decided to stop at a local restaurant for their specialty of Chicken Fried Steak -- we had to wait a few minutes in the parking lot until the rain calmed down a little. We enjoyed the dinner, and headed a short distance to our hotel.

I had called the hotel to make sure they would have parking for a large vehicle. The lady I spoke with indicated that wasn't a problem -- maybe it wouldn't have been a problem if we got there by 3pm, but by the time we got there, all the parking was full with cars or other large work trucks. The only place we could find was up near the frontage road in front of the hotel, next to a couple of other work trucks. I walked it to see if the earth felt solid -- it was muddy in the area where the other two work trucks had parked, but next to them, it felt like pretty solid gravel. We got parked, and checked in to the hotel. Total of just over 400 miles for the day.
 

The next morning, the other two trucks (and most of the other big work trucks parked in the spaces of the parking lot) were gone...

"Why did you park there, Carl????"

We headed out and drove across west Texas...

... eventually crossing into New Mexico.

We had planned to spend the night in New Mexico, either in Deming or Lordsburg, but... we were close to Arizona, and decided to continue driving. We were ready to sleep in our own bed! 840+ miles in one day and 16 hours later, we were home! Whew!

Moving the container contents to Arizona - part 4

Our second day of driving, leaving from east of Nashville...

... it was raining as we left the hotel, and for much of the morning's drive across western Tennessee.

Crossing the bridge...

... over the Mississippi River...

... and entering Arkansas.

Looking north up the Mississippi...

... looking south -- Carl is glad to be driving, can't you tell?!?!

We stopped for fuel just as we got into Arkansas. I was looking for a place where we could get lunch. Carl mentioned that he wished he could have gotten Krystal Burger while we were on this trip, and I found a Krystal Burger not far from the fuel stop. We drove over there ...

...and found that there was a pothole in the parking lot that appeared to be pretty deep -- we didn't drive through it, so we don't know exactly how deep it was, but that traffic cone was probably 18-24" tall and only a few inches showed above the water!

Carl got his Krystal Burger, and I got McDonald's from the store next door.

Traveling in the moving truck means that we have to find food pretty much every meal... unlike the motorhome where we have our meals (and our kitchen and our bedroom) with us all the time. 

Eventually, we entered Texas at Texarkana -- do you see the Penske truck in the parking area with other trucks?

Just over 500 miles on our second day of travel.

Moving the container contents to Arizona - part 3

After packing up the truck on Friday, we were ready to head out on Saturday morning...

Since we had not previously gotten a picture with Jimmy and Regina, we took a quick selfie since Regina and Jimmy were on their way to set up their table and wares for the last Farmer's Market of the year, and we were about ready to start our drive.

I tried programming our way all the way to Mesa -- our Garmin could only come up with navigation instructions for the beginning of our trip, but that would be fine for it to figure out the rest of the trip as we went along.

A total of 2377 miles projected for our trip...

... an overview of our route, with an intermediate stop to visit Dwayne's stepmom, Peggy, just outside Dallas.

As we were heading out, the fog over the pastures made a pretty picture.

With the sun behind us traveling west on I-64, we enjoyed the views of fall colors...

... more fall colors

After about 8 hours of driving, we crossed over into Tennessee.

A stop at a rest stop -- without the motorhome in our travels, we have to actually make use of the facilities at rest areas, instead of just making a stop to change drivers.

We had a good first day of driving, stopping for overnight in Lebanon, Tennessee, just east of Nashville, about 600 miles from Jimmy and Regina's farm.

Moving the container contents to Arizona - part 2

We had considered different options for getting the sorted-through contents of the container from Virginia to Arizona -- we compared various "pod-type" moving containers, but we finally settled on renting a Penske truck and driving it to Arizona. 

We had reserved the truck for pickup on Friday at a Pack & Ship store in Williamsburg.

Truck in the lot

It turned out that Regina's folks had items at their house that needed to be taken to the thrift store, so we first headed to their house and Jimmy and Ricky loaded the items onto the truck.

We didn't get pictures of the loading and unloading, but the contents pretty much filled the intake space at the thrift store.

We headed back to the farm to start loading the container contents onto the Penske truck. We loaded most of the items that had been on the flat bed trailer, then went to the container to put some additional items on the truck. Ricky's two older sons were there to help us load the truck and they really helped a lot!

Joseph with my brother, Jimmy, in the truck

A staged picture of Christopher carrying an item out of the container...

... delivering it to his brother, Joseph, in the truck.

Jimmy did the packing of the truck and got everything packed well and secured.

Oh, my, all that to take to Arizona!

So, we were loaded!

Hospitality

Regina was so gracious to have us in their home while we were going through the stuff in the container... just a couple of pictures...

She took time to tell me about the sewing machine that I was getting from her mom...

... one of the amazing meals that she prepared.

 We are so thankful to both Regina and Jimmy for taking care of us while we were there.

Pumpkins!

We were in Virginia at pumpkin gleaning time, so took time out from container sorting to gather some pumpkins...

Pumpkins and gourds in the field

A few that we had gathered

Jimmy was collecting pumpkins to provide the chickens with some interesting food.

Lots and lots of pumpkins!

The farm where we gleaned the pumpkins had hosted a wedding a week or so before so had fall displays around the property.

Back at the Jimmy and Regina's farm, chickens checking out these new pumpkins which they had been gifted.

We had a few boxes of pumpkins and gourds to bring with us in the moving truck!

Cows and chickens

Since we were on the farm for almost a week, and since we were often walking from the house to the container and back, Carl got lots of pictures of the cows and chickens...

The cows would come up from the pasture behind the house each day...

 

Get water from the waterer...

Check out what was going on in the chicken pen ("Chicken TV")...

and lay down behind the house near the fence to chew their cud.

Meanwhile, the chickens were about as entertained by the cows as they were entertaining *to* the cows!

"I've got my eye on you!"

"Some privacy, please!"

Always curious!

It is enjoyable to see the animals as they go about their days (as we were going about our days!).