Country Roads
“Country roads, take me home.” So after fifty years of grunts and grinds, rants and rage, trials and tribulations, I was on my way to a well-earned retirement. My wife and I did not want to spend our golden years in hot, flat Texas, so we moved to West Virginia. It’s a beautiful state and a great place to retire. My folks met here at a family reunion. — ‘An Einganeer’s Tale’, page 73
So what visions do country roads bring forth for you? Perhaps you see a gently curving two lane road, meandering its way along a babbling brook as it passes through a wooded glen. Birds are chirping, wild flowers are blooming, and bright sunlight is shining through the leafy ceiling overhead, as you happily cruise along in your convertible.
Or, maybe you see a dusty, rocky, single lane road — with hairpin curves and steep hills — skirting along a dangerous drop-off. You’re gripping the wheel with both hands. Your teeth are clenched, and your foot jumps between the gas and break, as you navigate through the next obstacle. Well, our country road to West Virginia was more like this.
My folks inherited a small lot on a river in rural Braxton county, West Virginia. Having no use for it themselves, they asked if my wife and I might be interested. We arranged to meet them there to look it over, and fell in love with it. While there, my father suffered a heart attack, preventing their return to North Carolina for several weeks.
Back in Texas, I applied my engineering talents to get the site prepared for the park-model home I was having custom constructed in Georgia. My plan was to have this park-model home (a fancy single-wide trailer) towed to the site, placed on prepared concrete footers, and connected to newly installed electric, water, and septic systems.
A year later, my plan was ready to commence. The site was ready and the park-model home ready to transport. I drove to Georgia, planning to follow it up on its journey to West Virginia.
Upon arriving at the plant in Georgia, I learned that the park-model home manufacture had gone bankrupt. My home was the last they built. They left it sitting outside their locked gate. No-one was around. After several hours, a driver showed up in his diesel truck, and let me know he was contracted to haul my home to West Virginia.
After stopping for the night at his home (I stayed in the trailer), we were heading north. The driver really preferred that I was not tailing him, but here I was. I managed to keep up with him most of the way.
I expected the trip to be fairly uneventful, except for the last six miles. The route to my site from the main highway would truly be along a country road. I had painstakingly surveyed the route, noting each hairpin curve and overhead wire so that the driver would be aware of all the challenges along the way. He’d never seen my report.
About a mile from my site, we got to a 90 degree turn onto a narrow bridge over the river, with a rock wall on one side and a ditch on the other — and could go no farther. The driver backed my trailer onto some guy’s property, unhooked, waved toot-da-loo and drove off. The trailer sat there for a week, while I found someone who’d finish the trip.
The guy I found used jacks and rollers to maneuver my trailer through the 90 degree turn. Then, when we got to my site, there was so much mud that his truck could not back the trailer into place. So, he parked it on the side of the rode, waved toot-da-loo and drove off.
The next day, some of the locals came out of the woods to investigate the strange shack on the side of the road. I explained my predicament, and was told “hey neighbor, don’t worry, we got this.” From out of nowhere, they produced a bull-dozer. Then they maneuvered its bucket under the trailer’s hitch and lifted. Next they pulled and pushed the trailer (down a hill towards the river!) until it was perfectly place over the footings.
So much for all my planning and engineering. My butt was saved by some good old country boys who just knew how to get things done on the spot.
Fun Fact: John Denver’s 1971 classic “Take Me Home, Country Roads” has posthumously debuted on the Billboard Digital Song Sales chart for the first time ever. Rocket Mortgage is proud to see that their Super Bowl ad helped reintroduce this timeless song to a new generation, and made chart history doing it. Music has the power to unite, just like home does.