NC, VA, NC, VA, WV, OH
The first day of our summer “retirement” trip was an interesting one, to say the least. Our goal was to drive from our new home in Gastonia, NC to the Harr Automotive Glass Co. in Columbus, OH. The plan was to leave early enough to arrive before they closed so that we could have a place to park our RV that night.
When we got on I 85 North, we were greeted with a traffic jam! I remember saying to Debbie, “Well, if this is the only traffic jam we get in this summer, we will be doing good!” (Be careful when you say really dumb things like that). That slow-down happened to be because of a car pulled over on the left side of the road by the police and did not take long to get through. About a mile down the road, we hit another slow-down because of pieces of tire in the road and after another 2 miles we hit a third slow-down because of another pulled car! (Again, watch what you say!)
The trip went well after that, and we made good time. Well, as good as you can when driving a 37 foot RV that is about 24,000 pounds, 12½ feet tall and 8½ feet wide – and towing a vehicle that adds another 17 feet! (Be sure to add an hour or two on every trip!) During the first portion of our trip we called the auto glass place and found out that we could not park the RV there that night. Oh well, Michael – here we come (My nephew Michael Miller had agreed to allow us to park in his land but that would require an hour or so drive to his house the next morning and another hour or so back to the auto glass place by 8 a.m.).
On that first leg we also tried to make changes on our West Virginia EZ Pass account. We had purchased a transponder from WV a few years before that allows our car to go through their toll booths as many times as we like with a reasonable yearly fee. However, we knew the RV would cost more than a car and need a special arrangement. So we tried to get on their site (it was broken) and even called them and received a promise of a form emailed to us so we could add the RV (we never got the form!)
Debbie and I kept trying to work on this while at rest stops and when the other one was driving (YES, Debbie drives the RV while towing the car! Aren’t you proud of her?). The website finally came online when we stopped to get gas at a Pilot truck stop in Wytheville, VA. While Debbie was putting the information in for the RV, I decided to go back to the car to get the registration to add it to our account also (We had purchased it in February). That is when the fun began! Debbie noticed that 1) the registration was going to expire that month, and 2) the registration was for our previous vehicle – the one we sold when we bought our car.
Back story
We had a Toyota Sienna van, but we wanted a car that would “flat tow” behind our RV. There are only certain types of vehicles which can be flat towed, and we had settled on a Jeep Grand Cherokee. I called our “car guy” Mike Carper and asked him to be on the lookout for us (Mike is a Free Will Baptist pastor in Shelby, NC and has a car lot as well. He is a FANTASTIC guy, and you can actually believe what he is saying despite being a used car salesman!). Months went by and we never heard from Mike. In February, I told him that we would also be happy with certain “towable” models of the Chevy Equinox or Ford Edge. He responded that he had an Edge on his lot! It was perfect for our needs, so we bought it and hired him to put a towing package on it. When it was ready, we attached to our RV and drove straight to Myrtle Beach, SC for a week’s vacation (we had only stayed in our RV two separate nights and wanted to be sure we would be comfortable with towing a car and living in the RV for multiple nights – we loved it!). When we got back from our Myrtle Beach vacation, we totally forgot about going to the DMV and transferring our tags!!!
Back to our tale.
There we were, in Virginia with illegal tags and our paperwork to get new tags in Gastonia. 140 miles from home and about a 3 hour drive in our RV. We called the DMV to see if we could transfer the tags over the phone, but no deal! We had to be there in person. AND, since the title was in both of our names, we both had to be there unless one had a power of attorney for the other.
We thought though our options which included driving back home with the RV, Debbie driving alone with the car and a power of attorney, driving to Ohio and Debbie flying back the next week. I finally thought of asking the lady at the counter in the truck stop if we could leave the RV parked there and she said yes – for 6-8 hours! So, we unhooked and started home in the car.
We let our family in Gastonia know that we were heading back (in case they saw us at the house) and our daughter, Andrea volunteered to go to our home, get the paperwork and meet us in Statesville, NC. So, instead of driving 140 miles, one-way, we were able to drive about 90 miles which easily saved us 2 ½ hours.
We finally made it back to our RV in Wytheville about 5 p.m. and headed towards Ohio. The transponder worked great at the toll booths (we had to not only register the RV but put money in an account to prepay our tolls). However, we realized that by the time we got to Michael’s to park the RV and then to my sister, Amber’s and nephew, Matthew’s home to stay overnight, it would be very late. So, we looked for a place to stay along the way. We ended up at the Gallia County Jr. Fair Grounds in Gallipolis, OH about 9:30 that evening and got up early to arrive at the Harr Auto Glass company at 8:30 the next morning.
