CABOT – We delivered all the donations given for Hurricane Helene relief to Western North Carolina. It turns out they caused our Toy Hauler to be overloaded, although it didn’t seem that way at first. The wheels on the trailer were straight and true. We had trouble with one of the support jacks before we left, it would not retract. It was indeed a small hint of the issues to come.
We arrived in N.C. after traveling across the Hudson at Nyack, via the Tappan Zee Bridge, (now the Cuomo Sr. Memorial Bridge), Garden State Parkway, New Jersey Turnpike, then down into Delaware and the DelMarVa peninsula, crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel into Virginia Beach and then south into coastal North Carolina, where we stopped at our Inner Banks winter property near Hertford, N.C. for a short break and some personal business. It was there we had a full-on flat as we picked up a nail really close to the sidewall. Pump air, oh boy, it was flat again 20 minutes later, and we were heavy with donations.
No worries, next day, pump again and limp 8.5 miles up to the local tire man behind the Ace Hardware on US-17, Ocean Highway South, the Historic Albemarle Highway, “100 miles of shoreline, 400 years of history” is the local tagline. Quakers arrived here in the 1630s, more than 125 years before the Revolutionary War.
Back to the current problem: take the spare, pump it up and swap for the tire with the nail. Great. Too close to the sidewall to fix, they said.
Our first blowout was on a different tire. Ouchie. We made it into Zebulon, N.C. The tire store was now a convenience store. We found the second store, our trailer going “swappata, swappata” as the shredded tire protected the rim. We got to Jay’s Tire and Service an hour before closing. Bought a new tire (they had our trailer tire in stock) and they repaired the one with the nail. We had a viable plugged spare. Turns out we would need that one soon enough.
A few hours later, out of the passenger rear view mirror, Sheri, my wife and traveling companion, saw a large black chunk fly from the right rear of the trailer. We limped to the side. The front right trailer tire was almost all gone and we were down to the rim on the road. Wire from in-between layers of rubber were everywhere, wrapped around the back of the tire. The fairing stuck out two feet from the side.
We looked beyond the tree line and saw a large Pilot Truck Stop sign right next to where we pulled over. We backed up to the exit and I drove at 15 mph to the Pilot. Amazingly we didn’t dig a trench into the road or the parking lot.
The tire truck came and the guys swapped the shredded tire and rim with our plugged spare. The wires and tire mess just pulled right off. No charge, “you guys are on a mission,” they said. Blessings continued, we kept going, heading west across the state.
Now we knew we were overloaded with incredible donations and had to empty the trailer, and pretty darn quick. Who knew when another blowout would occur. This time we did not have a spare. We drove 50 to 55 mph the whole way as the load would cause us to fishtail if we went faster. Okay, no worries, slower meant cooler tires, we thought.
Three days earlier, as we were preparing to leave on the trip, Sheri had information that the National Guard Chinook helicopters were flying out of Alamance County Airport in Burlington, N.C. to Asheville and Western N.C. Interstate-40 bridges were wiped out, and communities are still isolated with no way in or out.
We got to the airport in Burlington, thinking we might load onto the cargo helicopters. “We are no longer flying out of here,” they said. “Okay where?” “Go to the Chamber of Commerce.” We met Lisa Foster at the Alamance Chamber of Commerce and she was super helpful.
Lisa suggested we start with Burlington, N.C., Animal Services, as they had taken in so many pets abandoned and/or left in the wake of the storm. It seemed right to gift them the animal food and kitty litter we had at the front door of the trailer. We opened the ramp and found more pet food as we had last minute donations just before we left.
Locking the ramp up, we felt somewhat lighter and continued on to Shelby, N.C., the home of Angela Chronister and her daughter River Riley, who was down from Hardwick visiting.
The next day was Saturday. As you can imagine, we were pretty strung out from the crazy blowout journey. We have done the trip several times over the years with RVs or campers and never once experienced blowouts. Never mind two blowouts and a flat.
We soon discovered the larger problem was the state of warehouses in the staging areas in the middle of the state; everyone received so many donations, the warehouses were all full. Chatting with folk, it was understood that in a week or two, once goods were passed out, there would be a huge need for the goods we brought down.
Pallets of bottled water are everywhere. They are asking for gallon and 2.5- or 5-gallon containers. The waste plastic is becoming hard to handle.
Angela, River, her aunt and uncle Ken and Jill Bagby (Bev Mitchell’s younger brother Ken) backed up their vehicles to our Toy Hauler. It had been an admirable conveyance, and had performed well under the circumstances. We emptied the contents onto the lawn and separated all the paper goods into one SUV. River Riley made three donation trips to Baptist Relief Ministries and Jill Bagby made two trips taking clothes to another ministry.
The heaviest boxes with health and beauty aids: shampoos, hair gels, moisturizers, liquid soaps, etc., were packed into the eight-foot-bed of my truck.
The next day, we hunted for a donation spot and could not find one after a number of phone calls. Aunt Jill remembered hearing about Polkville Volunteer Fire Department (VFD). They have a large department as they cover up to the northern border in the middle of the state.
I drove the truck up to the Polkville VFD. They are using a massive bay to store relief supplies. They laid down another pallet and we filled it with the last of our delivery, the most heavy items from Neighbors in Action.
It was not an easy trip, but we can report that all of our donations are prepped at relief agencies and are ready to go in the next support wave this week and next. How amazing and beautiful is that?
Everyone we spoke with was most grateful for the donations from so far away and they paid attention to our bright-green license tags. Our thanks go out to Director Amy and Cindy and everyone at Neighbors in Action.
