On March 30th, we left Cave City Kentucky bound for Winton Woods Campground in Cincinnati, Ohio. We were planning to spend about a week here before moving up to the Columbus area and were looking forward to enjoying several area attractions. We had tickets for a baseball game and planned to visit the Cincinnati Zoo and several nearby parks that had been on my list for a while. As our trips through Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana often do, it DID NOT go according to plan. But more on that later.
Just on the Kentucky side of I-71, I called John because I smelled something hot. I had been smelling it off and on for a while and we were in heavy traffic so it was hard to tell for sure but I was really afraid it was coming from the tiny house or the truck.
John got off the highway at the next exit and we found a gas station to pull into and check things out. One of the axles (the same one that almost got us killed the last time we visited Kentucky, actually) was burning hot. John was able to jack up the house and get the tire off and discovered that the brakes were locking up. We were only about 20 minutes from our destination so the plan was for him to disconnect the trailer brakes and rely only on the truck brakes to make the rest of the drive then reassess the situation when we got to the campground. Solid plan.
For some reason, he got the tire off fine but then couldn’t get it back on and the jack was as high as it would go so he had to leave Harley and I with the tiny house and the truck in the gas station parking lot while he took the car and went in search of another jack. It took a while (and two or three different stores) but he finally got what he needed, came back and got the tire back on the house, and we drove to our campground.
After the stress of the day and the threat of severe storms overnight still ahead of us, I demanded to be taken to my favorite restaurant, Pappadeaux’s Seafood Kitchen, which was conveniently just about 15 minutes away from the campground. Thankfully, it was just what I needed and my mood was soon improved. I ate until I thought I would die-stuffing myself with Fondeaux (delicious cheese dip with shrimp, crawfish, onion and mushroom). We had plans for the next night (Monday) but then on Tuesday after John got off work we would figure out the brakes on the house. Perfect.
Sunday evening we were sitting in the house when the tornado sirens started going off. We managed to round up Harley and 5 of the 6 cats and head to the restrooms for shelter. We tried to catch Pallas but she is still practically feral and will not allow us to touch her. She ran under the couch and got up inside of it via the hole she has made in the lining. She was as safe as she could be and we had to think of everyone else so we left her behind. By the time John got the cat carriers loaded into the car there was no room or him or Harley so he sent me ahead with the cats to drive to the bathroom and he and Harley ran to the shelter through the pouring rain. We all arrived and got the cats unloaded into a large stall. We spent about two hours in the restroom that night with John returning to the house once to try again for Pallas but still no luck. Thankfully, we all came through just fine and got back to the tiny house around 1am and passed out. Well, most of us slept. Poe cowered under the blankets between my legs for most of the rest of the night. He doesn’t like move days or storms or being in his carrier so it had been a REALLY bad day for him.
On Monday we were exhausted but also excited because we had purchased tickets for the Red’s game that night. I hadn’t been to a Cincinnati game since I was a teenager and I don’t think John had ever gone before. It was cold and there was a chance of rain so we splurged on parking and parked in the garage right under the ball park. It worked out perfectly because the staircase closest to our car brought us up right outside the gate closest to our seats. We enjoyed hotdogs, and nachos, and Skyline Chili and watched the Reds absolutely dominate. We left in the 7th inning because we were freezing cold (it was around 40 degrees) and went home to rest.
On Tuesday, we decided to head to one of our favorite Cincinnati shops- Jungle Jim’s. This store has two locations in the Cincinnati area although we have only been to the same location each time. It’s a giant international grocery store with pretty much anything you could ever imagine inside. John and I tend to be pretty adventurous eaters and some of the spices and ingredients are hard to come by on the road so we like to stock up at Jungle Jim’s when we can. We had dinner at one of the restaurants in the food court area and then shopped for a few hours picking up several things on our list and a few requests from our nieces before heading home.
On Wednesday, we woke up ready to tackle the problem with the brakes…until we found out that our campground was being evacuated due to heavy rain. We had already had several bad storms and a lot of rainfall and were expecting more over the next week. Our park is located near a Corps of Engineers dam and they planned to open the dam to prevent flooding the surrounding neighborhoods. That was a swell idea except that opening the dam meant flooding the park where our house now stood. The park officials said that no definite decision had been made but it would likely happen that evening or the next morning. Having been through a rapid evacuation amid rising floodwaters already (thanks, Mississippi) we decided to go ahead and prepare to leave immediately and avoid the chaos later.
Luckily, we were able to book a spot for the next few days at our next campground in Plain City so we didn’t really have to go out of the way at all- we were just moving about 5 days early. And we still hadn’t fixed the brake issue.
The only thing to do was to make the drive, once again, without the aid of the trailer brakes and to rely on the truck to stop the house if needed. Disconnecting the brakes also meant that John didn’t have any turn signals or brake lights on the house so we ended up staying on the phone together the entire trip with me following behind. If John needed to change lanes, he told me so I could put on my blinker, get over, then let him get over in front of me. We just prayed that nothing would happen that would cause him to have to slam on the brakes because then our house was in danger of jack-knifing. But the trip went smoothly (good luck for once!).
While it wasn’t under the ideal circumstances or in any way according to our plans, it was nice to be back in the Columbus area and “at home”. And speaking of home, Poe was so traumatized that upon arriving in Ohio he promptly took up residence INSIDE of my shirt for comfort. I think he would have crawled inside my skin if he had been able. At least we would be sitting still for a little while for him to recover.
