Moving Day

My first thought this morning was to post some of my "remembrances" of Alaska, but I've decided instead to talk about the "founding" of Laurelledge as I remember it.

I got to miss school the day the movers delivered our new home to its destination. Dad and I left early that morning to follow it up Mertie Road. Things went pretty well for the first couple of miles, and then we reached the infamous "Rutledge curves".

Dad had contacted the DOT, telling them that a large mobile home would be traversing the road and that the movers had concerns about a couple of the curves - namely that they were too sharp, with a dropoff on the interior. By the time that the move actually took place, DOT workers had widened the 'curves of concern' (something that today would never happen, I'm sure).

Our soon to be home moved slowly past the newly widened curves and then reached the next one, which, for those of you who don't remember Mertie, was a sharp right with a high bank on the inside and a steep, tree covered drop on the outside. The mobile home was too long to make it around the curve.

The movers included a wrecker, which had already been used (like the rear steering unit of a hook and ladder fire engine) to pull the back of the home into line as they negotiated the many (many) curves of the narrow mountain dirt road. This wrecker contacted another, who was sent the long way 'round - because the mobile home had the road completely blocked at this point - to be placed at the front of the rig. As we all waited for the new wrecker to arrive, I remember eating the sandwiches that Dad had packed us for lunch.

The other wrecker finally arrived and the movers sprang into action again. First, the driver of the truck that was towing the mobile home pulled slowly forward until the truck was hanging over the drop almost all the way to the rear axles. Then the wrecker in front pulled the tow vehicle around into line with the road as the driver slowly crept forward. All the while, the other wrecker had a 'solid grip' on the rear of the trailer - in case it started to go over the edge, I suppose - and the right side of the trailer was up against the high bank on the inside of the curve, with the wheels riding up the bank a little. (For several years after, the tracks of those wheels could be seen on that bank.)

After several moves forward and back, the movers got the mobile home past the curve and we could finally continue on our way. There were a couple more curves that had to be carefully negotiated, with temporary 'bridges' over the small creek that ran along the road being used, but eventually our new home was situated in its' place at the new homestead.

All in all, the trip from Yadkinville (where the home was purchased) to Laurelledge, which would normally take a little over an hour, took up the entire day.