 10 May 2006 @ 22:52, by hgoodgame
What may seem to be a message to turn back is often a test to see just how determined one is to take on a particularly difficult challenge.
This happened to me after moving here to my home; a tree fell across the bottom of the driveway, fortunately I knew someone (my ex) who cut it up and took it away, was coming back from visiting our son when we discovered it and so with a saw from the back of his truck, it was soon dismantled and out of there. (If a tree falls on your driveway and no one is there to hear it, did it really fall? hehe, I can tell you from experience, the answer is YES!) Then another fell into the pool where the water system partially originates, fortunately I'd met a young gardener who'd been helping me with clearing out the thickets, so I hired him take it out of there. Like I said, I get by with a little help from my friends. ;) After a few more hurdles, the path smoothed out.
Now, on to more tales about my journey across these United States.
The very first stop I made for gas, I realized I didn’t know how to open the little gas door on the side of Kurt’s truck. In Oregon there is no self-serve, it’s all done by attendants, which I really like! They had to wait until I looked thru the manual to see how to get it to open. No big deal, they were very nice guys and didn’t mind waiting, in fact enjoyed learning the trick of that particular vehicle (a Toyota 4-Runner) themselves.
The first day was a longish drive (about 9 ½ hours) between North Bend and Sparks, Nevada, where my youngest son lives. That night as I was pulling off my sweater to go to bed, my glasses snapped in half right at the bridge! Now, I’d done this countless times before without any problem, but there I was, first night of the journey, with broken glasses. OK, I thought, I’ll get some super glue and fix them as soon as I can and wear my contacts in the meantime. Good idea, right? But in the morning, the glasses had somehow completely disappeared, not to be found no matter how desperately I searched. Plus, I had to leave quickly to follow my son (who leaves for work early in the morning) since he was my 'pilot car' guiding me thru the maze of streets to get to Interstate 80. So, feeling very flustered by the disappearing glasses, I donned the contact lenses, and headed on to the next stop, my oldest son’s home in Grand Junction, Colorado.
Here I met with more resistance, the weather was stormy up ahead on my chosen path, road closed because of an unexpected snowstorm in the Rockies, there were tornadoes in parts of Texas and Oklahoma I’d be driving thru soon. So I waited an extra day. Meanwhile, my daughter-in-law called to tell me she had finally located the glasses and shipped them overnight express. So I waited another day… They didn’t arrive. After tracking the package it turned out they had been in Grand Junction since early that day but for some reason the driver of that particular route flaked out and didn’t deliver. By now I was really becoming discouraged and just about turned around to head home. The signs after all seemed to be saying, don’t continue.
The next day the glasses arrived and with renewed faith I headed out for New Mexico.
Crossed the Rockies somewhere near Durango, deep snow still in the mountains along the way except absolutely none on the road, so I kept on flying. ;)
More to come..
Oh, the picture? He sits on my deck with his constant smile and reminds me that come rain or shine, come hell or high water, there is a possibility of achieving an inner peace that "passeth understanding" and is definitely to be counted among my friends that help me get by.
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