The third day of our trip was SIP day. We started off bright and early from Culpepper and drove 3 hours across the state of Virginia to the SIPs of America manufacturing facility. I was convinced we'd have trouble loading the SIPs onto the trailer- and had even gone so far as to map out a route from the facility to the nearest Home Depot so that we could go and pick up blocking material if we needed to once we arrived. Fortunately, my concerns were completely unfounded.
When we arrived at the plant, Jimmy, the owner, came out to greet us. He gave us a tour of the facility, including the incredible machine that's used to cut all the panels to the correct dimensions. Then we moved into the warehouse where, amidst other projects, there sat our SIP panels!
Jimmy and the guys were more than helpful when it came to loading the SIPs onto our trailer. We thought we were in for a day of heavy lifting, but it turns out that all we had to do was give one of Jimmy's guys the keys to the U-haul. He drove it right into the warehouse (which was nice since it was raining out- the whole way down I thought we were going to have to load up the SIPs in the rain), and they used a fork lift to pick up the SIPs and load them onto the trailer.
Because we've chosen to build on a drop-axle trailer instead of a deck-over trailer (read more about the difference between the two types of trailers and the implications each one has for Tiny House construction on the Tumbleweed Website) our wheel wells bumped up above the level of the trailer bed. For this reason, the guys loaded the narrower roof panels on first, which served as blocking to get the wider wall panels up above the level of the wheel wells. This gave our load something of an upside down pyramid effect. We had brought a few ratchet straps which had been lent to us by a friend, and the SIP guys augmented our collection with one of their own.
All told, it took just shy of an hour to get the SIPs loaded up onto the trailer, strapped down tight, and ready to leave- they even wrapped it up in some type of house wrap to keep it dry on the way home for us. Sam and I tried to be useful, but the truth was that these guys were way more experienced at this sort of thing, and all we had to do was stand there and watch. It was really amazing. We kept thinking to ourselves how fortunate we had been to have come across such wonderful people on our trip- every time a challenge presented itself, the help we needed to overcome it was there for us. Before too long, we were ready to be on our way.
We were ready to take off, thinking that we had imposed enough of the kind souls at SIPs for America. But we had forgotten that our trip had taken us out of New England all the way south to Virginia, and- as Jimmy reminded us-
"Virginia is the birth place of freedom, and Southern Virginia is the birthplace of Southern Hospitality".
It turns out that Jimmy's family owns the oldest restaurant in Danville, and he was kind enough to invite us over for a bite of lunch before we hit the road. We were so glad that we took him up on his kind offer! Mary's Diner is a simple place, which serves amazing southern home cooking in an inviting cafeteria-style restaurant. The candied yams were to die for.
"You see," Jimmy confided to us, "I don't think I'm smarter than my grandmother was, so we make everything they way she used to".
It was a delicious meal, and we couldn't have asked for a nicer lunch. We got to relax, eat some great food, and talk more with Jimmy, who is a fascinating character and just and all around nice guy. All too quickly we were finished and it was time to get on the road. We thanked Jimmy one last time for all the help, and set off North. We would stay in Culpepper again that night, and in the morning we would start driving back to New England.
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