Trip down to Dallas.

When I got back to New York from those first few months in Dallas, I picked up the U-Haul truck (largest one they had) and we started loading up all the boxes Joyce had packed while I had frolicked in Big-D for 5 months.  She did a good job, and the loading went well.  I think we left some stuff in the garage, but nothing we couldn’t live without. 

We had mapped out our route to Dallas and semi planned on stopping points along the way. We left Hicksville and planned to follow one another to Harrisburg Pa. for the first leg of the trip. That plan lasted about 3 hours. We got separated in New Jersey, and lost sight of one another.

I had Danielle in the truck with me, and Joyce, Maureen, and the other Kids were in the family car.  Since we were moving to Texas, we had closed out our bank accounts in Hicksville and got Travelers checks for the trip.  Joyce had the checks in her purse, and I didn’t have but a few bucks in my pocket.  Once we got separated, I started panicking. 

Dani and I stopped at a truck stop in New Jersey and called the N.J. and Pennsylvania State Police to report our problem.  Understand that this was way before cell phones became popular (or even existed).  The Pa. police finally located Joyce’s car, pulled them over and told them where Dani and I were located.  Joyce and company turned around and re-traced their route to meet up with Dani and me.

The next day, before we left the truck stop, I bought 2 walkie-talkie CB (Citizen Band,remember “10-4 Good Buddy”) radios, one for each vehicle.

The range was just about a mile on them, so we had to try and keep each other in sight anyway. 

From then on, all of our cars had CB radios in them in case something happened - even the girls, when they started driving. I'm sure it made them feel very cool.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, but the first part was eventful enough to last us for a while.

We arrived in Mesquite and put our furniture and boxes in storage, because our house was not ready for us to close yet.