Monday rolled along and the movers showed up around 0900. We still didn’t know when the driver would be there to pick the stuff up, but it needed to be packed up first anyway. The “packers” consisted of one actual “packer” and one older lady who would be better described as a “sickly sitter, watcher, and-sometimes-move-stuff-around-er.” The first thing she did was plop herself into our office chain and ask that we turn the heat up. Well, it was February in Georgia, so 50 WAS a bit chilly. I think later on she started packing, but never really finished anything. The actual “packer” did all the work. The “sitter” also managed to mislabel half the boxes with the wrong name. She did make an effort to pack up the scrapbooking stuff, but only found two of the three cabinets (somehow she missed the one in the middle – between the two she DID pack up).
We bought pizza for lunch (Little Cesears $5 Hot-and-Ready pizzas are the best cheap food out there – and faster than McD or any other greasy place). When they were done, we tipped them $20. While they were finishing up the packing, the driver said he had pulled some strings and would be at our apartment first thing in the morning (Tuesday). That was as good as we could expect, so we settled in to pack up the important stuff we were taking with us (all the REAL electronics – computers, PS3, PS3, WII, projector, etc). After much tetris-like manipulation, we managed to get it all into two foot-locker type boxes and even packed up the car-topper for the Jeep (**our undying thanks to Stella back at Fort Carson for providing it to us dirt cheap!). We also managed to get a couple more geocaches in that night!
The driver arrived right on time at 0700 Tuesday morning and proceeded to move stuff to the truck. He brought a couple of good workers (the one good packer from the day before – must have left the sickly lady to her bed rest – and two other workers). By 0900, they were mostly done, and we had even packed up the Jeep and the car with stuff. Both vehicles were cram packed full of stuff – as usual for our trips. First the electronics boxes and laser printer went into the back of the Jeep (priorities!) and then the animals (one gerbil, one rat, and two goldfish) went into the back of the Jeep. There wasn’t a lot of room for the rodent cages and the rat (Raindrop) ended up at a 45 degree angle. Oh well, it was that or nothing! We also couldn’t find a cap for the top of her cage – but, because it was at the top, we weren’t worried about it – what was she going to do, fly out?
As the driver finished packing up, I ran out and dropped off the Comcast box. As it turns out, the people on the online chat have no idea what they are talking about when they say you can drop it off at the nearest pay-station. The poor Party-Dollar store people had no idea what I was talking about. But, they were happy enough to direct me all the way across town to the actual Comcast office. Once I got there, it was a quick and easy drop and go.
When I got back to the apartment, things were just finishing being loaded up. Once they were done, we did a quick sweep of the house, looking for things we might have missed and then jumped in the vehicles to start our trip.
The first stop was back at Fort Gordon so I could turn in my final clearing paperwork and so we could gas up both vehicles (and pick up the last cheap cigarettes!). It was a quick stop and we headed up the road to the weigh station, where, after a few minutes of confusion over what we were doing, we were finally on the road. It was 1200EST.
The seating arrangement was this – in the Taurus, Sarahann rode alone (the car was packed with stuff though). In the Jeep, I drove while Amber navigated (or rather, played the computer, slept, and changed the radio station 4000 times), Carmen and Emily road in the middle row.
I led the first portion of the trip. We used hand-held radios for short range comms and if those we’re too far apart, we had cell phones. The first 20 minutes we spent figuring out how far off our speedometers were. Hers said she was going 75 and (at the same speed), mine said we were going 60. The reason for the difference is because she has bigger tires on her car than she should and so do I. Why they are that far off, I don’t know. We settled into a good speed with the Jeep speedometer reading 66. That’s right about where my V8 drops down into its fuel-saving mode and cruises along on four cylinders – so I was happy – my MPG actually got above 17 for awhile. We hadn’t gone far when I noticed that the Taurus wasn’t right behind me and shortly after that I got a call on the cell phone. Sarahann said one of the tires had gone flat and was shredding. She was pulling over. I told her I would be right there. I found the next turn around (really, just a worn dirt path in the median that cops use to turn around on the interstate) and whipped around. I probably slowed down a little too quickly and the fish sloshed around a bit. Once I saw her on the other side of the interstate, I found the next turn around and eventually came up behind her. I parked the Jeep and went to see what the issue was.
As it turns out, her tires are too big for her car. When she makes a tight turn, loaded down, the inner part of the tire rubs on something in the wheel well and cuts it. The sound of the tire going flat and shredding was a piece of rubber about 2 cm wide and 6 inches long that had pulled loose and was flapping around the wheel-well. Some of the wire threads were showing. The only spare tire we had was a donut and you can’t go across the country on one of those. The tire was still holding air, so I cut off the offending rubber strip and hoped for the best. We also deflated the tire a little bit in order to reduce pressure on it. Yes, I know it wasn’t perfectly safe – but, look, we made it didn’t we?
Our first fuel point was in Chattanooga, Tennessee – right on the Georgia-Tennessee border. I can go approximately 300 miles on my 20.5 gallon tank, so that’s how we planned out the stops. We just got gassed up and drove on. Once we were just north of the Alabama border we dropped down off the interstate, crossed into Alabama and grabbed a geocache – checking Alabama off the list. 
Our next stop was Paducah, Kentucky for a cache and gas. Our cache there was outside in a hospital parking lot and it was roughly cold as hell. In fact, it was pouring freezing rain and the cache was a small (3/4”) metal cylinder attached a chain link fence. We had to break ½” of ice to get to it. And it was night, so finding it was fun. Kentucky got marked off. 
The roads were mostly clear, a little ice here and there, but nothing really to worry about. We cruised along without incident to our next cache in Vienna, Illinois. It was late and dark when we pulled into town and I think the power was out because there were no lights on at all. I brought up the cache in the GPS and we pulled over into a park and were within 400’ of it. It looked like a nice little park playground, but it was covered in snow and ice. I ran across the ground and was nervous because the ice kept cracking little I was walking on a frozen stream that was going to give way. My flashlight bobbed a little bit of light ahead of me and I ran around in circles, following the cache-seeking arrow on the GPS. First it was here and then there, finally I came to a little rock pile. I am certain the cache was in there, but the rocks were frozen solid together. I left, disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to mark Illinois off our caching list.
We pulled off into a rest area for our first night. Sarahann hopped into the front seat of the Jeep and Amber went into the back seat. In the morning, we woke up and I pulled out the laptop while everyone went potty and I found another Illinois cache outside of St. Louis, just down the interstate a few miles. It was supposed to be quick and easy. Once we got going, I programmed it in and we pulled off and found it no problem. Illinois was saved!
In St. Louis, we transitioned from I-24 to I-70 heading West. Our next cache was in Missouri. It was a Firefighters Memorial virtual and I took the Jeep and the kids off the appropriate exit while Sarahann continued on down the road towards Kansas City. The cache took maybe 5 minutes, and we were back on the Interstate, but now we were 10 minutes behind Sarahann. 
Our next cache was just west of Kansas City, in Kansas. I actually passed Sarahann during the road construction because I happened to pick a lane that moved faster. So, I got into the city serpentines before she did and somehow managed to stay on I-70 even though it wanted to go this way and that way and branch into I-70 alternates. I made the appropriate exit and got into the parking area where the cache was. By this time, Sarahann had gotten into the city and accidently taken an I-70 alternate and was looking for a way to get back to the real I-70. While I was talking to her about that, the kids took the GPS and went and found the cache on their own. We traded travel bugs there (A Recipe Book Bug for a fishing Bobber Bug). By the time the kids had put the cache back away, Sarahann had found a road leading up to us and we decided to meet at a Taco Bell off the interstate. I got back on the Interstate, took the next exit and just about that time, Sarahann’s Taurus pulled right in behind me – perfect timing. We grabbed gas and a potty break and got back on the road. Kansas was geocache complete.
Just north of Pacific City, Iowa we turned off into a rest stop and snatched up a quick cache. We grabbed a Geocaching coin bug to move on its way. Iowa was done.
Next we took the 480 into Omaha, Nebraska and darted out to grab a quick cache in the downtown area by the arena. 
The roads were mostly clear and dry for the whole trip. The only part that wasn’t was the section between Sioux City, Iowa, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I didn’t sense anything wrong with the road, but it was pouring down freezing rain that turned to ice on my windshield until I kicked the defrost up to high – then it was ok. The Jeep is 4x4 All-Wheel Drive all the time, so I didn’t notice any slippage at all, even on the icy road. Sarahann’s Taurus is front wheel drive and pretty good in all weather, but the tires are a little worn and she was feeling some sliding – so we slowed down. There were too many abandoned cars to count in the median. So I knew that it must have been slick – kudos to Jeep for making a vehicle that sticky. I credit a lot of its stickiness to the Bridgestone AT Dueler REVO tires also – I can’t get that thing to slide no matter how hard I try.
Once we hit I-90 in Sioux Falls, we headed east (yeah, I know, wrong way) because we were so close to Minnesota, we could grab a cache and be on our way. We took the first exit into Minnesota, drove a couple miles south and pulled to within 50’ of the next cache. It was cold as a hell outside (roughly 9 degrees according to the onboard thermometer), so out cache hunt was short and furious. We finally found it and got back in the Jeep. Minnesota complete.
We were already ahead of schedule by about a day – thanks to fantastic road conditions and very cooperative weather. So, we stopped in the rest stop just east of Sioux Falls. That night was the most interesting one we had.
Every night, we checked on all the animals in the back to make sure they were doing ok. They always were. But, that night, I asked Emily to check on them and she exclaimed that, “Raindrop is out of her cage!” I looked back and, sure enough, there the rat was, sitting on top of a pillow, overlooking all that was going on in the truck. I had no idea how long she had been out. But, she seemed pretty comfortable back there. Eventually, I got out and chased her around the back of the Jeep until she finally got tired of running and voluntarily went back into her cage. I put a towel over the hole and hope she wouldn’t eat through it. We went to sleep.
Sometime in the night, Emily exclaimed that Raindrop was out again. Crap. She was apparently trying to play with the fish because she was in the plastic box that we put the fish tanks in. I had a vision of seeing a floating rat in the fish tank and knew we had to find a way to keep her in her cage. This time, Sarahann chased her around the Jeep until the rat got bored and got back in her cage, waiting I’m sure for us to go back to sleep so she could go about her business. We needed to find a way to keep her in. I used my MacGyver-esque powers of ingenuity and eventually came up with the idea of shoving an empty Mountain Dew bottle into the hole. It fit, barely, and we went back to sleep.
In the morning, I had a cache to find. The GPS said it was 300’ away, out towards the back of the rest area. The rest area was covered in snow and ice and the thermometer said it was 1 degree. Cold. After everyone got back from the bathroom, I grabbed some work gloves (not warm), bundled up in my sweatshirts and ran off through the frozen snow field, following the ever-bobbing arrow. I ran about half way and started falling knee-deep into the crusty snow. I couldn’t run anymore and just trudged through the last 150’ feet. The wind was whipping through me, sapping any sense of warmth and my hands were freezing – even with the gloves. Finally I came within 10’ of the cache (according to the GPS) and looked around. Everything was covered in snow. Here and there a tree poked through and I was dismayed, knowing I would have to dig to the base of the trees to find the cache. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the green corner of an ammo can, poking through the snow. Elated, I pried it from the frozen ground and popped it open. I quickly snatched out a travel bug, rescuing it from the cold and signed the log. I replaced the cache and started back towards the vehicles. When I got back, I through the cache bag into the truck and started to warm my hands by the heater. I think I had borderline frostbite on one finger. It was numb. That was my coldest cache, ever. But, South Dakota was complete – and it was our last cache of the trip!
We thought we would be able to drive through to Missoula that day and we almost made it. We drove hard, gassed up in Mitchell, SD and Rapid City, SD. From there, we thought we could make it to Sheridan, Wyoming before gassing up again. It was only 245 miles, but the cold weather and hill terrain was taking a toll on my gas mileage. If we had to, we could get gas in Gillette or Buffalo, Wyoming, but we really wanted to get to Sheridan. Somewhere in South Dakota we saw a car that had fallen off an off or on ramp and had slid down a steep embankment. The police and tow trucks were there trying to get it upright.
When we got to Buffalo, my gauge reading almost empty and the onboard “miles to empty” was reading 6. The fuel light hadn’t come on yet, and I knew that once it did, I only had about two gallons left – which translates to between 20-30 miles. When the sign said we had 21 miles to Sheridan the “miles to empty” said 0 and my fuel light had come on about 4 miles before. We were driving on borrowed fumes. We pushed on, I babied the throttle and coasted when I could. Finally, we were only 6 miles from a gas station and the atmosphere was tense. I read off the miles as we went, letting Sarahann know how we were doing. Finally, we made it to Sheridan and pulled off the interstate. For a small town, there sure was a lot of traffic we had to wait for to get to the station. I was concerned that I might run out of gas, right there in front of the station. And no matter how close you are, a 7000 lb Jeep, loaded with tons of stuff isn’t easy to push. But, we made it to the pump and filled up again – our second to last tank before home.
We drove on through, hoping to get to Missoula that night, but after gassing up in Bozeman, we were pretty certain we would need to rest. We stopped at a rest stop about 200 miles from home. In the morning, we woke up, and drove on into town without incident. We had made it to Missoula and had been on the road for almost exactly three days.
Everyone survived the trip, although one plant is in critical condition. We hope for the best.
I haven’t shaved since Thursday the 7th and am beginning to look scruffy.
More to follow about our new house in the mountains...
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