Picking Up the New Trailer

I finally got to go pick up my new trailer. It’s been a very long winter without my van. I’ll give you a tour and show you my plans for the van in another post. This one is about the trip to pick it up.

I left here on Thursday afternoon and drove to Nashville where Julie had some pizza in the oven and ready to chow down when I got there. She is, without a doubt, my best and truest friend. I love her and her husband Michael more than I could express here.

Of course, the drive wasn’t without event. I rushed the packing effort and got on the road too fast. As a result, I forgot to stop at the bank and get a counter check to pay for the trailer. I realized this as I approached Napoleon Ohio… about 30 minutes down the road. No worries, right? I can just stop at a Citizens Bank somewhere along the way, right?

I asked Google Assistant to locate the nearest Citizens Bank and it told me there was one in Defiance, just a few miles down the road. When I pulled in, I noted that this Citizens branch was much nicer than the ones near my house. I walked in and approached the counter where I was greeted by 2 tellers who were chatting. They were really helpful and listened intently to my story of woe. One teller asked me for my ID so she could look up my account and get me a counter check. After a few clicks on the keyboard, she asked if my account was with Citizens National Bank or with Citizens Bank. Turns out, I was at the wrong one. They’re as different as 5/3 and Key bank.

Back on the road, I called Citizens Bank’s toll free number and asked for the nearest location. The lady asked for the zip code of my current location and I informed her that I was driving through and I had no idea what the zip code was. I explained that any branch near defiance or Fort Wayne would be fine. She clicked away on the computer and then reported, “I have found several branches near you. I can give you the phone number and you can call for directions.”

“Excellent!”, I said, “These are branches near Defiance, Ohio?”
She replied, “I have several branches in Ohio that you can visit.”
“Ok, but I need to find one near Defiance. Can you look up one near Defiance?”
Her response sent me over the edge. “Without out zip code, all I can do is give you the locations in Ohio.”

WTF?

I told her that Ohio is several thousand square miles and that I wasn’t going to call a branch unless I knew it was in my area.

With that, I hung up and asked Google Assistant to call my local branch. I was connected and quickly informed that Citizens Bank doesn’t have branches anywhere west of Maumee and that I was out of luck.

I stopped near Defiance anyway so that I could go to the bathroom. When I got out of the truck, I knocked over my skittles onto the ground.

The HUMANITY!

Back on the road, Endo was just as chill as healways is. Lest you think that the arm on the armrest of the van was a fluke, here’s another cute pic of my pup in the truck. You’ll also notice that I’ve fashioned a piece of wood on the armrest. This is so that he can’t push the window-down button as he is wont to do.

My favorite Endo-feature of the new truck is the dual climate controls. I can set an Endo temperature on the passenger’s side and a Pete temperature on the driver’s side. This makes us both super happy as evidenced by the picture of Endo sound asleep with his head on the armrest/center console.

Friday, having rested at Julie’s house overnight (we actually got to bed at a descent time), I hit the road again. Drive-day 2 was completely uneventful. We got to my parents’ house where I was greeted in the driveway by two smiling parents. This visit was too short. I only got to spend 2 days with Mom & Pops before hitting the road again. But, we played some 3-handed cribbage and had a lunch at Crackers. Sunday, I made them lunch or dinner… whatever you want to call it. I cooked my new favorite – poached eggs on toast with avocado and Havarti cheese.

Aside from some new furniture and things being rearranged a bit and a resurrection of the daily cribbage game, nothing much has changed. Mom’s memory seems about the same as it was in Feb and Pops’ health is still a battle. They make-do, though.

Monday morning, I set out for Pearson, GA where I picked up my new 7×16′ trailer from Snapper Trailers. Like I said above, more to come on that in another post. Here’s a couple pics of the new toy, though…

On the way back from Pearson, I visited with Brittney at Stone Ridge Heelers to deliver the sign that I made them. This is the same sign that I was attempting to deliver in February when I crashed the van. Obviously, I never made it there the first time. I spent Monday night at a La Quinta in Columbia, SC.

Try as we might, we were unable to get any good pictures of Endo and Reese (his momma) sitting side-by-side. We did get them close, but not right next to each other. And, Endo wasn’t willing to play with the other dogs. It must be hard for a new dog to integrate with an established pack. And, Frankee and Noli kept trying to herd him. He was having none of it.