Back In The Saddle Again
For regular readers who have written in and wondered what happened to my daily blog last Thursday and Friday, the answer is pretty simple.
I moved my younger daughter back home from North Carolina, where she spent more than three months serving an internship with one of the leading public relations and marketing firms in the Charlotte area, Victory Management Group.
To say my daughter learned a lot is an understatement. She had a very supportive boss, not to mention everyone else that she worked with at VMG, and the internship could not have gone any better.
I want to extend a special thanks to Debbie Robinson for being an outstanding mentor and friend to my daughter, not to mention being a friend to my wife and myself.
But let me tell you, if you ever tried to move a daughter in her early 20s nearly 800 miles in a 16-foot Penske rental truck, I have just three words for you:
It’s NOT easy.
Where did she accumulate all the things she had? I mean, when we moved her down there in May, we had a 12-foot truck that was pretty full, but it seemed to be a pretty easy move.
How much stuff did she buy while she was down there? I know she bought a futon – I actually bought it for her – but geez, I thought we’d have plenty of room left over in the 16-footer.
Wrong.
And then we headed out roughly four hours later than I wanted to (a typical Bonkowski family trait), leaving us to battle rush hour traffic north of Charlotte, and eventually fog in the mountains and then torrential rain.
Instead of going through Knoxville or taking the route we followed coming down to Charlotte that was suggested by a trucker on the Sirius NASCAR Radio show I co-hosted last Sunday, I came up with another shortcut from Mapquest that actually saved me probably close to 75 miles and an hour and a half of time.
Most of the route was interstate roadway, with two lanes in each direction. But there was a short stretch of probably 25 miles or so down a two-lane country road with dozens of semi’s coming at us in the other lane that was pretty unnerving.
After all, it was:
At night. In the mountains. In pitch black darkness, save for the light from headlamps. With strong winds buffeting the truck around constantly.
Trust me, driving in those conditions is NOT easy.
Oh yes, and let’s not forget that due to a bug she picked up, my wife had to yield driving chores after less than 100 miles in our own personal car, which was following behind the truck I was driving, to our oldest daughter, whose experience behind the wheel is fairly limited.
But as it turns out, my oldest drove like a professional. She never wavered, never tired and showed me something that made me very happy and proud of her ability as a driver – especially when she was following me down that two-lane road and with the semi’s bearing down from the opposite direction.
Even when we literally ran into a monsoon about an hour or so from home, we were able to maneuver safely, even when minor flash flooding occurred along the way.
The final totals: 755 miles one-way, covered in 15 ½ hours, including two total hours of stops for fuel and a quick nap. Not bad, if I say so myself.
Unfortunately, one bad thing occurred: we don’t know what the cause or source was, but three of the four of us that made the trip back came down with some kind of bug that has remained in our system since Wednesday, when we shoved off from Charlotte.
We’re still not fully recovered, but we’re slowly getting better. We think it may be due to some bad hamburgers in Charlotte before we left, but we’re not 100 percent sure that’s the source.
But the main thing is we’re back safe and sound and I’m back in my usual corner right here at ARD.
Oh, by the way, I will have a MAJOR announcement on Wednesday that you can’t miss. I’ve accepted a new full-time job that I’m quite excited about starting. When you hear it, some of you will be very surprised, not to mention also excited about what I hope to accomplish there in my new role.
So, hang on for a couple more days and you’ll be rewarded Wednesday.
Oh yes, most importantly, even with the new job I will continue my daily blog here at ARD. So, I’m not going anywhere.
Catch you Tuesday.
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