Leaving VA

Saturday and Sunday found us trying desparately to fit everything onto the truck which needed to go.  Pack a little, load a little, take it off again and move it around.  With temperatures in the hundreds and humidity a nearly Venusian levels, we moved with all due speed.  A snails' pace at best, that is.  Added to that, the trauma of saying goodbye to our friends and loved ones left us exhausted physically, emotionally and spiritually.  With all our good intentions and all of our enormous efforts, Monday arrived and we were not ready.  Putting off our departure until Tuesday, we worked on into the night yet again.  Another night with four or less hours of sleep.  Pressure, stress, heat, exhaustion, a devil's brew of potentially fatal conditions, disrupting our plans.  Finally, at about 12:00 Tuesday morning, we said a teary farewell to the house we had loved so long, fired up the engines and rolled out of Richmond., bound for Ashland, VA to the TA truck stop for fuel for the International.

Arriving in Ashland, I discovered that fueling your truck is not like filling your car at the corner convenience store.  First you see the nice lady at the counter and tell her how much fuel you want her to authorize.  Better to guess a little high and have the bank hold the extra money for a couple of days than to guess low and have to go back and get some more fuel pre-authorized.  All this took about forty-five minutes and, by the time I had walked back to Susan and the pick-up (hauling the Airstream, you understand), I found her sitting in the trailer, cradling Fred the Cat, who was rigid and hyper-ventilating from the experience of riding 30 miles in the trailer.  Fred was in crisis and Susan was weeping and I was beyond my self with frustration and angst.  The level of stress and near despair came close to obscuring the reason we were going.  But as "luck" would have it, this emotional melt-down took place within 2 miles of a very acceptable KOA Campground.  I made the decision to abandon our travel plans for Tuesday and to spend the rest of Tuesday and all of Wednesday resting and recuperating.  We really needed that.  And it was very good, although, as has been typical in Richmond this summer, it was beastly hot.

Tomorrow the saga continues.