Well, a lot has happened since last I wrote. The aforementioned Rossi is resting comfortably at home. I'm resting comfortably at home. The truck is back in its usual spot. No one got hurt, but. . .
I went to the farm on Tuesday, figuring to stay down a couple of days, pester the turkeys and then head back late. Folically Challenged was coming down Thursday. He decided to take me up on turkey hunting. I was planning on taking him out to scout turkeys. I managed to record two decent podcasts and got them published ( genesis9.angzva.com ) out of all this. FC had a great time. He's beginning to see this ain't your ordinary pig hunt.
FC took me to lunch in Brooksville afterward, and we then split up. He went back to Cincinnati; I started toward the farm. On the way back, I started getting some strange noises out of the right/front suspension. About 3 miles from the farm, things got dicey. The truck decided it wanted to randomly veer into ditches and phone poles.
"Lord, if you want me, you can have me," I said. "But if not, I could really use a hand here!"
I would have stopped on the road, but there is a dead spot with no cell service and I was in the middle of it. I knew I'd get a signal back at the farm. I limped back under 20 MPH. I also knew the last guy with a tow truck in this county died about a year. Wherever I stopped, I was going to be staying.
I called the mechanic I knew on the other end of the county and he said to stay put. The wheel would probably fall off if I tried to drive over to him. He'd managed to acquire one of the Roll-ons from our deceased mutual friend who ran the towing service. He'd be over before dark.
I sat down on the front porch and waited. There were storms due. I had a front-row seat. I can see 4 counties from my chair. Along about 4, it got dark. A nasty black cloud showed up over Falmouth and headed my way, just barely missing me by a mile or so. I was glad it did. I saw rotation. There was a distinct wall cloud, and from the radar on my phone, this cloud was the bottom hook on a line of storms stretching all the way up through Northern Ohio. It was the same storm that killed 3 in Indiana. The net result for me was a single 35MPH gust and about 30 seconds of rain.
My buddy came and got the truck about an hour later. He said that SR 22 was covered in ice. He took off and my other buddy, Blacksmith, came over from the next ridge to look in on me. He said the county had gotten pummeled. He picked me up and we drove to Falmouth for dinner and shop for grossities. I was going to be stuck for a few days. That cloud I saw go over had dumped a 1/4 mile wide trail of 1/2-1" hail bracketting SR 22 all the way from Falmouth to Willow and then onto Powersville and beyond to Mount Olivet. In some places there were piles 2" deep, and if you look at a map, that cloud had to take a decent jog to miss me.
There were more storms that night and then it cooled off and stayed foggy all Friday. Saturday, was pea-soup fog, but the turkeys were wound up like I seldom hear them. They were going nuts in the fog. After it burned off, my mechanic called and told me he'd fixed the wheel. His dad drove it over to me. I packed up and drove back him back out and paid all that I had save $8 and some pocket change to get the truck out of hock. I'm mailing him the balance today.
That still left me $800 and 67 miles from my goal. I stopped by the ATM on the way, and finally made Hibberd's Armory in Cleves about 2 days later than expected. The bill came to $808.50. I went home with under a dollar. I used a credit card to pay at KFC.
