When Mike arrived he couldn’t get his larger tractor around my truck, so he used my tractor to clear more snow from the road and we got my truck out easily. I drove it up to the hay barn and walked back to my tractor, which I drove back to my pickup. I loaded the tractor bucket up with a few things and then drove it up to the house, unloaded, and got back to work on the road. Mike thought I would do better with a different angle on the scraper blade, but the heavy snow didn’t care what angle I used. I got a little off with each pass and decided to quit at 3:30 so I could head to the I-81 truck stop and get more diesel for my tractor. Mike had said the roads were much better and my pickup did fine once I got to the outer gate. When I returned, I loaded the tractor bucket with the diesel and was home before dark.
Monday morning was the time to head south, so after doing a few passes with the tractor, I loaded the bucket with a big bag of clothes and then put my computer bag and my saxophone on top. I’m not sure how many times a tractor bucket has held a saxophone and a laptop but it can’t be many. I’m sure I would have provided some wonderful comic relief if anyone was watching, but there were only bovine observers.
I was on my way and the trip was a great success, hiking in the Congaree National Park near Columbia, eating at the Motor Supply Company in the Vista section of town, and strolling the West Columbia Riverwalk. I played some golf each day and then headed back to Charlotte so I could get back early on Thursday when more bad weather was expected.
On Thursday early afternoon, I visited several friends I had expected to see that evening and on Christmas, exchanged gifts and then drove back to the hollow before the bad weather set in. I had hoped that the satellite dish (set up when I was diagnosed with cancer) would be back working, but no luck there so I turned on the DVD player and watched one of my favorites, Remains of the Day.
The bad weather never really came so on Friday I went into town and saw Avatar, the special effects stunning. The weather crisis seemed over for now but it wasn’t even January, the usual start of the snow season.