I have made it to my "work location" all in one piece! Got here late Friday night...and looking at the spot where I was supposed to park, I didn't think I would be able to get level..in fact, I wasn't sure that I would be able to get up "the hill" to park! But the next morning the world was looking a bit better and I thought I had a chance! So, after driving from Alabama (about a 10+ hour escapade) and then pulling a shift for the rest of the night, once the sun was up things looked a bit better. So after pacing off the wheel base of Europa, I decided to give it a shot!
It was a pretty good pull getting up the slope...as you can tell from the picture above....from the parking lot to the spot where I'm parked, the rise is close to 3 feet in a span of about 22 feet. Pretty steep when you think about it. Plus there is an old R/R siding track there, which I ended up getting on the old timbers...and thought for a few minutes that I had wedged Europa between a couple of them and wouldn't be able to get her loose! But...got out of that tight spot, did a little tweaking of her positioning and with the "help" of about 3 boards under the wheels on the left side of her...level is within a 1/4 bubble in both directions, which is quite close enough to "perfect" that I do believe we will be fine...if there isn't too much settling!
There were a few hours of rain pass thru in the afternoon yesterday...and once it had passed and a little sun came out...there was a beautiful rainbow! I sorta took that as a "good omen" for the next few months that I will be here.
Now, being an "old truck driver", I know better than to try to go thru Atlanta any time other than Midnight to 4am!! Well, on a Friday...and on the beginning of a long weekend holiday...I decided to go across in the middle of the day! DUH!! Guess who spent the better part of THREE hours getting across Atlanta?!?!?!? YUP! You guessed it! Me, Abbie, Snickers & Europa!!! Dumb move on my part! Ended up parked under an overpass for over an hour and a half waiting for traffic to clear! Of course, I did see a few nice old cars come by! And the El Camino above if one of my all time favorite vehicles. The pic below is how the road looked for over 2 hours!
So that brings us up to date with the travels of "The Lilypad" Herd and our "new to us" Europa! She made the trip just fine, and we averaged over 9mpg!! Which is about twice what we were getting with Bertha! So I'm very happy with that. Europa has little things that need fixing and updating...but mechanically she seems to be in better shape than I had hoped for!
Stick with us...I'll be traveling around the area here to see what there is to see and getting it up on here and on our YouTube channel (America, You Need To See It).
Take care & get ready for Summer!!! 😎😁🌈
Even though they are tearing down a lot of the "old Charlotte" to make way for the "new Charlotte"....as you drive around, you will see pieces of the old city still struggling to hang on in the middle of all the "New"....along with green spaces that they are keeping with a lot of the old trees.
