Adventures in Traveling

 The missus and I are out and about.

One of the first trips Mrs Hades and I took together was to her Grammy's 90th birthday party in Ohio. That was seven years ago, and we're going to go up and see her for her 97th birthday tomorrow. 

It's not going to be as big a production as her 90th was, but we had thought maybe she was going to fall short of her goal. More on that in a bit, but she lived in a retirement facility where she had her own apartment and the staff checked in on her several times a day to see if she was still among us.

One of those times they found her slumped over and unconscious, so they called the ambulance and took her to the hospital where she was found to be suffering from malnutrition. She's forgetting to eat, and since she lives alone there is no one to remind her to do so. So she is moving into a nursing home and her apartment will need to be cleaned out.

That's where I come in. You see, there are some items of furniture that Grammy wants Mrs Hades to have, so we hooked the trailer to the Scoobydoo and off we went. But first, we were going to go by Brother In Law's new house in Occupied Virginia to pick up a couple of sets of bunk beds that he no longer needs. For some reason Mom Hades wanted one set, and Mrs Hades wanted the other so that we would have a place to sleep when my parents are here this summer. Another to-do that I'll tell you about later.

So off we went, me in the Scooby with trailer and Mrs Hades in her ride with the furbabies. The trip to BIL's was uneventful, and we started loading. Five mattresses, which alone necessitated the use of my 4x7 utility trailer, but then we started hauling out all of the wooden parts. One set wasn't too bad, standard bunk beds, a pair each of headboards and footboards, four side rails, and two sets of slats. However, the other set has a trundle bed (which explains the fifth of the five mattresses).

There are a lot of parts to a trundle bed. And since, of course, that is the one that Mrs Hades wants, it all went into the bed of the Subaru. At least, the parts that would fit in the bed. The rest went into the back seat.

The trailer got topped off with a rolled up rug, which was just long enough to touch the bed side rails sticking out of the back of the Subaru, but no big deal I thought, and off we went again. That's when I noticed the vibration. Not that I could miss it once we got on the interstate since it was bad enough to blur the mirrors.

Aha, I thought, that damn rug is bouncing against the wooden bed parts, which in turn is hitting the back of the cab and causing vibration So first rest stop I came to I pulled over and redistributed the load. It was better, I thought, but still bad. I did this a couple of times and finally thought maybe I had a bad tire on the trailer. So I pulled over to the side of the road and checked the trailer tires out.

Finding nothing I pulled back out and made it about 150 feet before there was a godawful crash and the trucklet pulled to the right. Back on to the side of the road and I checked the Scooby tires this time, to find the right rear collapsed onto the tire. Upon further investigation what I found was the lug nuts were gone and the brake rotor was riding inside the surface of the wheel.

I unloaded the backseat so I could get to the jack and meager stash of tools I had on hand, jacked the trucklet up and surveyed the damage. What I found was three of the five studs broken off with the other two apparently serviceable. The wheel had come off and the brake rotor shield had deflected enough so that the rotor was riding on the inside surface of the wheel. The wheel had not come out of the wheel well, so there was no other damage at all. Apparently it was overtime day for my guardian angel, which was a good thing for a Monday.

I took a nut off of each front tire and put the wheel back on with only two lug nuts, then drove at 20 miles an hour up to the next exit where I found a nice mall parking lot to pull in to. A quick web search (the modern world is good for some things, like cell phones with 5G internet) showed a parts store right around the corner where I was able to obtain a jack stand, a tool set, and more importantly five studs and lug nuts for a 2003 Subaru Baja. Into M's car we went to obtain the needed supplies.

Fortune started (or perhaps, given how bad it could have been, continued) to smile on me at that point and I was able to pretty quickly replace the studs. There is enough room behind the rear hub of a 2003 Baja to extract and insert new studs without removing the hub, if you ever needed to know. Good thing, too, because removing that staked nut on the propeller shaft to take the hub off might have been more trouble than it was worth. At any rate, all new studs (I went ahead and replaced the two apparently good ones since I was there and didn't want to take any chances), wheel back on and appropriate use of a 4 way tire iron to seat them and we were once again mobile.

Three hours later than our previously scheduled arrival time, since our little side-trip had eaten enough time to bring on the evening and I didn't feel like pulling a loaded trailer over two lane mountain roads in the dark and opted to take the longer interstate route instead, we got to Mrs Hades parents house. We had gotten into a few rain showers when we got close, so I decided to cover the trailer and trucklet bed before turning in for the night.

Before setting out I had bought two brand new tarps, one to cover the trailer and one for the truck bed, so I broke them out and found that I may have slightly overestimated the size of tarps I was going to need...as in, one tarp was enough to cover both Subaru and trailer. Completely cover, that is, from Scooby grill to trailer tailgate. Oh well, I reasoned, if a job is worth doing it's worth overdoing, and the load was indeed covered.

Dad Hades has an awning he sets up for the 4th of July that consists of a steel pole frame and tarp to cover the top. The tarp is getting frayed, so he needs a new one. Looks like I'll be leaving at least one, maybe both, of my excessively sized tarps here for that purpose, they are about the right size.

Later this week we will unload the bed parts for the beds that will stay here and then reload the parts for the beds that are going home with us, along with the rest of the furniture that will be going back down south. Dad Hades has already gone to Ohio and picked it up for us, so it's here in PA and we won't have to take the Scooby and trailer to Ohio to get it, which was greatly appreciated. How long it will take to unload the trailer when we get home is another matter. It's a good thing I have the Jeep to drive to work. 

So why did that wheel fall off? I have no idea. I don't have neighbors that hate me as far as I know, and BIL hasn't been at his new house long enough to make enemies. Safer bet is that I didn't get the lug nuts on that wheel completely tightened the last time I rotated the tires. I had been noticing a slight bit of vibration in it and figured it was a wheel weight that had gotten tossed, but it wasn't bad enough to worry me so I didn't bother with checking it out. I did go around and check all the lug nuts on the other three wheels before setting back out again, I promise you that much.

And now for the explanations I alluded to earlier. We need the bunks because Eldest Daughter is officially tying the knot at the Annual Gathering of Clan Hades in Myrtle Beach, and my folks are flying out from Iowa to attend. They will be staying with us for the few days preceding and following Clan Week, so they will be sleeping in our bed and we needed alternate sleeping arrangements for ourselves.

What about that goal I mentioned before? Well, Grammy had an older sister, Flo, who was two years older than her, and her latter life's goal was to outlive Flo. Flo died a couple of years ago, just shy of her 97th birthday, so as long as the old girl holds on until tomorrow, mission accomplished. She's doing much better now, so that doesn't appear to be an issue. Hell, she might end up out-living us all at this point.