Hmmmm at the time of this writing, this Home Depot only has two and a half stars. But as you can…read moresee, I gave it 5 stars. Why is that? What prompted me to double the stars on my review? Well, read on and let me explain.
My daughter and son-in-law were in the market for some railroad ties. They needed 10 to complete a project. I knew that they would have to make a number of trips with their vehicle to transport, so I offered to help with my vehicle, my Subaru Outback vehicle. I know, I know, lol, but let me continue.
I asked the son-in-law, uh, how long are these railroad ties? Eight feet, he replied. How long?! 8 feet. Hmmm, do you have a tape measure? Yep, here you go. Well, my Outback measures just shy of six feet. The ties will have to stick out the back. I know, the "ties" as in plural. LoL, oh, it gets better.
It seems that the local Home Depot in West Knoxville, was fresh out of railroad ties. But, Oak Ridge was flush with them. We'll just drive out there. So off we went, my daughter and I, in my Outback with an almost 6 foot cargo length, and my son-in-law in his Toyota Sienna van. Oh, did I forget to mention the van? The family van that transports 4 kids as well as the parents? LoL.... but wait, there's more.
Oak Ridge isn't as close as I thought. About halfway there I asked my daughter if we had crossed the border into Kentucky! That got a chuckle out of her. Eventually we arrived at our destination, and into the vast warehouse we ventured. After perusing for awhile and not finding what we were looking for, we found a worker and he told us "you'll find the ties wayyy out on the edge of the property ". Why weren't they inside, we thought. We soon found out.
Off we trekked to the edge of nowhere. Wayyyy out yonder to the farthest edge of the property. Well beyond where any sensible patron would park, or even think to hike. Binoculars would have helped us find these ties. These eight foot ties. Yes, these eight foot sticky ties. These eight foot, sticky, smelly, railroad ties. Boy did these things stink! No wonder they were stored on the south 40 acres. It didn't help that the days temperature prior to our visit reached triple digits. The stickiness and smell were in full bloom that early evening.
So here here we were, thinking that we were going to transport these 8 foot, sticky, smelly railroad ties in our pristinely clean, fresh off the conveyor of Zips carwash vehicles, one of which an essential family vehicle, down the road to West Knoxville. Oh, another small detail that I forgot to add, each one of these suckers weighed 250 pounds! Some detail, huh?
SMH...I was completely and absolutely oblivious as what to expect. Ha!!! All I wanted to do was help. LoL.
So now what. It turns out that you can rent a flatbed and they'll load it. God only knows how it'll get unloaded! I guess, fortunately for me, my help is needed elsewhere. I'll have to leave this task to the son-in-law and his dad. They're troopers. They'll make it happen. I hope my daughter takes a video.
All I wanted to do was help. Instead I learned a lesson, we all learned a lesson.... The ties that bind, are better left behind.
There will be an addendum to this story. One that I'm sure Home Depot will be a major contributor to. Until then, they get my 5 stars, if only because they helped make for a fun story.
Quick Tip: Lofty goals aren't that easy to reach. Especially when you're dealing with railroad ties. Eight foot, sticky, smelly, heavy, too big for passenger vehicle, railroad ties. I guess we should have been clued in if we had considered that these things have to be strong enough to carry the weight of 400,000 POUND LOCOMOTIVES!!! LOL, LOL!!!
Believe me. We're not dumb. We were just too ambitious to the point of being clueless.
I love my family.
