The Rest of the Story...

Since Nancy asked about the rest of the move:

After my wild ride on Highway 280, I met my parents at TGI Fridays. We ate and my mom and I drove back to Auburn on a spare tire that is not supposed to travel more than 50 miles.

We planned for my mom to drive my car to Florence. I would drive the U-Haul, and Misty would drive her car. Our one-month-old baby would ride in the backseat of Misty’s car. It was not a perfect plan, but it was our plan. We expected to stop often.

My unintended meeting with a concrete curb threw quite a wrench into that imperfect plan. It also added one more thing to my checklist for moving day. The following were already on the schedule: 1) Pick up U-Haul, 2) Load truck, 3) Clean apartment & return keys, 4) Drive to Florence (approx. 4 hours). Now we added tire repair to the list.

Early the next morning I took my car to Sears, hopeful that this would be an easy process. I showed the man the tire and asked if it could be repaired. He laughed. Not only had the impact blown out the tire, it also created quite a dent in the rim. The tire would have to be replaced, as would the wheel. Sears, of course, had neither.

The service attendant was really quite helpful. I’d explained my situation and he promised to do all he could to help. He called a couple of tire places. He called a couple of junkyards. No one had the tire. No one had the wheel.

I returned home and continued calling. I called every tire seller, junkyard, and Honda dealership from Montgomery, AL to Columbus, GA. I found several who had tires that would work. No one had the wheel. And no one was willing to put a tire on the damaged rim. Too dangerous.

I started to think we would never leave Auburn. Or, at the least, my beloved 1992 Civic would never leave Auburn.

At this point it was time to pick up the U-Haul. My mom drove me over to the rental place. As we pulled into the lot I found my solution, my last hope. A car hauler. I rented a tow dolly along with the truck.

We returned to the apartment. Loaded the truck without incident (and with other help besides my mom,) loaded my injured car onto the dolly, turned in our apartment keys, and left for our new home in Florence, AL.

The modified plan actually worked better than our original plan. I drove the truck with my Civic in tow. My mom drove Misty’s car with Misty riding shotgun and The Boy in the backseat. This allowed Misty to tend to the baby as needed without unnecessary stops.

It wasn’t our first move, but it was our most eventful (to that point at least).

This afternoon I’ll head to Birmingham for Annual Conference. The festivities actually start tomorrow. I’m pretty excited about the weekend, especially about hearing Rev. Adam Hamilton.

I’m looking forward to seeing some old friends also. Speaking of… Birmingham readers: Want to go to lunch? Want to have breakfast? Want to … I don’t know, go karaoke? Call me. Don’t have my number? Shoot me an email, but do it before 4-5:00 this (Thursday) afternoon. I’ll be out of email contact while I’m gone.

I will however update my Facebook and Twitter with all of the exciting, mesmerizing events of North Alabama Annual Conference 2010. Many of them will likely be cryptic (and possibly cynical), but you’ll get the gist.

One quick house keeping item, if you’re not following me on Networked Blogs consider it. Just look to the right (maybe scroll down a bit). Click on the “Follow” button and you’re there. Also, if you are a regular reader but do not get email notifications of my updates, you can subscribe to said notifications above.

Now a question: I’m considering buying an actual domain name on which to park this thing. Plus, I need to figure out which URL to buy. Scottcoats.com is taken, as is scoats.com. (My first two choices.) I can get jscottcoats.com or even scottcoats.info, but I’m not sure at this point. Can anyone give me the pros & cons?