Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Buffalo, New York to Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Weather: Sunny, 24 celsius
Here we are...Day 3 and still in Buffalo.
We skipped breakfast and went straight to figuring out plans.
After making some phone calls and getting transporation quotes, we decided on UPS. The store manager, Eric, was very friendly and extremely helpful. We explained the situation with the hitch and he brought his own truck to pick up the trailer from our hotel. He and his staff helped us unload most of the boxes, leaving just our amps, guitar, bass and suitcases to give the trailer some weight. After finishing up the paperwork, we stopped at Tops for some snacks and then found our way onto the I90 South/West.
About 20 minutes into the drive, the trailer started to sway to the left and right. We pulled over to check things out and realized everything had shifted to the front. Javier suggested we could use rope to tie down the luggage, so we took the next exit and happened to find a Home Depot. As we were parking our car, two guys walking out of the store came over, saying they had never seen a Honda Civic towing a trailer, and asked if they could take a photo. When they took a closer look at our hitch, they were pretty surprised at the set-up. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo before, but it consisted of 3 separate pieces, so the trailer was quite a far distance from the car, and this was contributing hugely to the swaying.
The guys introduced themselves - Merle and Chris - and explained that they were mechanics. They gave us a few suggestions about how to improve the hitch, and suggested a couple parts that would be useful. We all went into Home Depot together and then we headed to Merle's place down the road. It took about an hour to fix everything and they even had to cut off part of the metal connector piece. While they were working on the hitch, they told us about the demolition derby. Merle's two little boys were playing in the yard with their cats and climbing around on one of the huge trucks in the driveway.
When they finished, the hitch looked amazing! and sat about 7 inches off the ground!
It was around 8pm by now, so we grabbed some dinner at Wendy's.
We were served by a very sweet girl named Tatyana. Thanks!
Then back on the I90 towards Cleveland. The sun was setting and somewhere along the highway, a deer decided to cross the road in front of us. Javier had to swerve to the left, but thankfully the deer turned around and went back into the woods, and the trailer straightened itself out. The drive was a little more than 3 hours, and we found a place to stay for the night, just east of Cleveland. At some point during the drive, we all looked at each other and smiled. After three days in Buffalo, we were finally on the way.
This sign was in the hallway of the Kensington Inn.
Javier thought it looked artsy so I took a photo.
Day 4... coming up!
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