Wallet Overboard

Day 1:  Homer, GA to Columbia, MO (750 Miles)

At 5:00AM This morning I rolled out of bed, showered, fed Bella, packed a few last minute items, loaded my SUV and headed out the driveway en route to KC's.  By 6:05 AM we had his F150 and trailer pointed west, hoping to make Columbia, MO by 8:00PM.

Our route took us to Cartersville, GA via mostly back roads and the ride was uneventful if somewhat choked with traffic.  We decided to pull into McDonald's for a quick bite to eat.  Minutes later we merged onto I-75 North and aimed the rig at Chattanooga.  My son Nick lives in Chattanooga and we received word from him that his new Ferrari 458 Italia had just arrived.  He describe it as "Spectacular".  I can't wait to see it.

Ferrari 458 being loaded in Ft. Lauderdale

Nick's Ferrari 458 just off the truck

KC's F150 just had a major upgrade...the addition of a Ford supported supercharger.  It boosted the engine's output to 640 HP and over 600 pounds-feet of torque.  As we motored through Chattanooga's mountainous roads the truck and trailer climbed effortlessly, barely downshifting to scale the long, steep inclines.  But on one particularly long climb the truck began to shudder violently.  It felt like we'd run over rumble strips at 70 MPH.  KC backed off on the gas, reapplied the throttle and it shook again, as before.  He repeated this several times with the same result...profound vibration shook the truck.

I thought, "This isn't good", and I privately wondered where we could safely pull off and figure out what the issue was.

But, dear reader, as so often happens, KC was several steps ahead of me and figured out that he'd accidentally shifted the transmission into Manual mode, locking it into 8th gear...which caused the engine to lug badly on the incline we were on.  Shifting back into Auto mode immediately cleared the problem.  Whew...adventure averted.

About a hundred miles later we stopped for gas.  It was KC's turn to buy and seconds after exiting the truck, he announced, "My wallet's gone".  After searching high and low, we concluded that his wallet must have fallen out of his shorts in the McDonalds we'd stopped at two hours earlier.  Three hours into our trip and we have a real problem...KC has no cash, no credit cards, no ID...we're in a pickle.

KC tried calling the McDonalds where we thought it might be and got their VM.  After turning the interior of the truck inside out, we decided that we'd continue on and make the best of things.  As we approached the on ramp for the interstate we were in a very dark place.

Suddenly KC said, "Look" and pointed to the spot where the dashboard meets the windshield.  And there, where I swear we'd both looked before, was his stupid, freaking wallet.  Another adventure averted.  Kind of a prodigal son thing.

Jesus KC, its 10:15 and I'm emotionally spent.  Go easy on me man.

Anyway, things smoothed out considerably after these incidents and by 7:00PM (EST) we pulled into a Hampton Inn in Columbia, MO.  The day had really gone by quickly and we chalked up 750 miles on day one...decent weather, an hours worth of pretty heavy traffic west of St. Louis and minimal construction.   A interesting start to our fifth trip together.  Tomorrow we'll try to make Rapid City, SD.