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On the Road Again
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On the Road Again
After 8 days in Florida, I am once again on the road. When I look back on the last week, it seems unbelievable that so much could happen in only 1 week and a day.
Vehicle Problems
When I arrived in Jacksonville, the first things I did was put Halleluiah in the shop and pick up the Beach Buggy (the Mazda we leave at our beach place) from the shop.
Still violated from the break in, Halleluiah had needed a hospital. The Beach Buggy was sporting 2 new tires and 2 new rims – all from an accident Bob had the last time we were in Jacksonville. Unfortunately, over the course of the week, the poor Beach Buggy picked up a nail in one of the 2 remaining old tires. I finished ruining that tire by driving it back to the tire store thus causing the need to buy a third new tire. Bill and I had also broken Halleluiah’s cover to the stovetop so I put that in another shop to be repaired, which I picked up today.
My theory about the entire mechanically challenged week was that Halleluiah was deeply wounded by everything that had happened to him. The Beach Buggy got jealous of Hal getting so much attention and acted out. Right at this moment, they are both healthy and soothed.
Speaking Engagements
The real reason I came back to Jacksonville was for two speaking engagements. At the beginning of the week, I spoke for a Navel Air Station Retirement Organization (NARF). That topic was In God We Trust. At the end of the week, I spoke at a library on the topic, So You Want to Travel Across America. Both of these were new topics for me and took hours to prepare.
Family
Sandwiched in between car problems and speaking engagements was a 4 day trip to Orlando, Florida. Chris, Whitney, Noah, Bob, and I had a wonderful and exhausting time at Sea World and The Magic Kingdom. I also managed to visit with my parents and Aunt Ka Ka and Uncle Bobby as well as Kelley, and Erick. Last night Kelley spent the night with me, and this morning, she drove me to the body shop to rescue Halleluiah.
Friends
One of the problems with being on the road is missing friend time. On Friday morning, before the trip to Micky’s city, my friends Sharon and Judy came over to the beach condo for lunch. Last night, I met friends Nancy and Bethany for dinner.
Today
As you can imagine, between preparations for presentations, car emergencies, and so much socializing…, there wasn’t much time left for sleep. I awoke this morning at 6:30 AM, tired before I even got out of bed. I grabbed Belle and went for a quick walk and prayer time on the beach. Kelley got up and after breakfast, we left for the body shop. The plan was to pick Halleluiah up by 8:00 AM, get back to the condo by 9:00 AM to meet the carpet cleaners (did I mention that Belle got sick this week?) and be on the road in time to have lunch with Kelley, Mama, and Aunt Ka Ka.
The first sign of trouble was the carpet cleaners calling to say they can’t clean carpet on the 14th floor. They didn’t know I’d moved from a house to a condo. I was particularly confused by this since I had been clear about that when I called to set up the cleaning. The carpets did not get cleaned.
While I was dealing with carpet aggravation (it really needed cleaning,) a man drove up beside me, rolled down his window, and motioned for me to roll down mine. I wasn’t in a great neighborhood so I pondered my options. I finally decided to stop the car and roll down my window. He said, “Your spare tire just fell down and is sticking out straight behind you.”
Aloud I said, “Thank you,” as I pulled over to the side of the road. Silently I thought, Great, I’m in an unsafe neighborhood and it is pouring rain. I put on water shoes, a bright yellow rain suit, and splashed through the puddles to the back of Hal.
Sure enough, the tire was laying flat. Lifting the heavy tire took all my strength and the leverage of my entire body. I don’t know much about this kind of stuff but it was clear even to me that the tire wasn’t going to stay without a bolt and a pin. I may not be a mechanic but I am creative. I found a yellow highlighter pin, put it through the hole, and duct taped it onto the arm. I stepped back inside Halleluiah, stripped out of my rain suit, shook it off on the now muddy floor, and began driving.
I called the body shop and told them my saga. “Is it possible you guys lowered the spare tire and forgot to put the bolt and pin back?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “But there is a great tire store over by your condo. It’s the Goodyear store. They will have what you need.”
I went to laughing. “I’m very familiar with that tire store,” I said. I stopped by the tire store and waited for them to find a bolt that fit. They laughed at my duct tape. They didn’t have a bolt with a pin so now my tire has a bolt and a nut. I was told that if I needed the spare tire (God forbid,) I would need a wrench to remove the nut. Since I was pretty sure I had a wrench and knew what it looked like, I left the store happy.
When I got home, I realized that Halleluiah was a mess. I spent the next two hours cleaning him. I think I filled up a trash bag with dog hair alone. The mud had dried and turned to dirt. When I was finally satisfied with Hal, I grabbed a shopping cart from a downstairs closet and drove it onto the elevator to begin moving my stuff into the camper.
What I had failed to take into account was how hard worn our shopping carts overflowing with stuff are to maneuver. To make matters worse, I was also trying to keep up with Belle. As I was walking out of the building, the shopping cart caught on the front door and snapped off the electronic metal locking door handle. It hit the ground with a thud that drew a crowd. The maintenance man and the building manager came running. “You caught it with the cart,” the building manager said angrily.
“You’re right,” I agreed. I looked at the maintenance man who was already digging into his tool belt. “Can you fix it?”
“Of course I can,” he soothed.
I left him working on the door and continued making my way to Halleluiah. When I arrived, I parked the shopping cart beside the vehicle and stepped over to the grass to walk Belle. All of a sudden, I heard shouting, and looked back to see our building construction crew chasing my shopping cart. They didn’t catch it and it hit a car with an even louder thud. I jerked Belle away from the grass to rush over to the car. Unfortunately, for the car owner, the car had been recently wrecked so, luckily for me, any damage done by my errant cart was inconsequential.
Embarrassed, I began babbling, “I had to walk my dog so I left it there.” The 5-person crew looked down at Belle, just in time to see her relieve herself right on the pavement. “Belle,” I screamed. “You’re supposed to use the grass.” The men began laughing and walked away, speaking loudly in Spanish. While I didn’t understand their specific words, it was clear to me what they were saying.
Limp with exhaustion and humiliation, I returned the shopping cart and walked back to Halleluiah. As I was about to pull out, I realized I had left my books, business cards, and projection screen in the Mazda. I felt like I was walking through a slow motion dream as I climbed out of Hal. It was now 2:00 PM and my family was waiting to have lunch with me. I grabbed the stuff out of the Mazda and as I was balancing the cards and the books, I dropped my business cards all over the wet pavement. I looked around and sure enough the construction crew was mesmerized by the continuation of my show.
On the way to lunch, I called and told my publicist about my day. “Let’s pray right now,” she said. Deciding not to close my eyes, I listened as she prayed.
When I arrived at the restaurant, I told my family my story. “Mom,” Kelley said firmly. “You’re getting too worked up. You’ve got to calm down and breathe.” As she blessed the food, she too prayed for me.
Aunt Ka Ka said, “I was already praying for you every day. I think I need to pray for you several times a day.”
Bob called later that day. When he heard my story, he lectured, “At the rate you’re going, you’ll be dead before nightfall. You’ve got to get a grip.”
I let his words wash over me and debated how mad to get. I knew I’d scared him and since I didn’t have the energy for an argument, all I said was, “The only thing that was my fault was the 10 minute shopping cart fiasco. Everything else happened to me. I’m the victim here.”
“I’m pretty sure you dropped the cards too,” he reminded. It was probably a good thing we were 2000 miles apart.
I tried to calm down as I fought the late afternoon traffic driving out of Jacksonville. I had 9 hours to drive in 2 days and knew I had to get some miles behind me. Yes, I’m on the road again. Nightfall has come and I’m still on planet earth. I’m camping beside a lake and God and I had a nice long talk. Belle is asleep on the floor. It’s midnight and I’m going to bed. Tomorrow is another day.
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