I left home at the bright and early hour of 8 am on Friday to travel the short 2 hours to Plattsburgh for a day hike with a few dear friends...with my life in my honda civic I said some last minute goodbyes, filled my gas tank, and drove as far as one town over before I realized something was terribly wrong...
I stopped at 2 garages before I found one who had time to look at my car, and he spent 5 minutes in it and told me I needed to replace my wheel bearing, and probably the whole hub assembly on the rear wheel of the passenger side. Sweet. Could he do it? No. He had no openings until the following Thursday, by which point I was supposed to be in Ohio. Cool. Some frantic phone calls to my father and I had a lead, a garage who could get the part and do the work that day! Back home I went, with my car full of my belongings, to sit on the couch and fend off a nervous breakdown for a few hours. I headed to the garage at 2 and was all set by 20 after, it was very quick...and then I was on my merry way. I got in my car, started it up, and drove away, listening carefully for any signs of distress from my vehicle. Blessed be, all I could hear was the normal tire noise, muffler noise, and lifter noise...nothing else. My little car was back in action!
On the road again I sailed right through the town after mine, and almost made it all the way through the next town before disaster struck once again, this time in the form of a yellow flag marker from near by construction...glued to my back tire...with some tar...and...whats this? A nail. Super.
Laughing at the ridiculousness of my life, because there was really nothing else to do at that point, I hauled everything I owned out of my trunk, dragged out my jack and tire iron, and took a knee in the gravel on the side of the road in my sundress and proceeded to loosen my lugs and jack up my car. A friendly stranger stopped to help me and then my pops came along and collected me and the punctured tire and whisked us off to the nearest repair shop to get my tire patched. Reveling in the insanity of my life, I reattached my plugged and patched tire and stuffed all of my crap back into my trunk, and hit the road for the third and final time. I was on my way...for real this time.
I arrived in Plattsburgh that evening and met up with two of my girlfriends for drinks and snacks and bananagrams, then took off again at 8 the next morning for Westport where I met another friend for a beautiful hike of Coon Mountain. After our hike it was back in my little Rambling Rose (thats my pet name for my civic) and on the road for Albany to meet up with some college buddies. I met them at a pool party/BBQ and relaxed a bit. During my stay in Albany I went full moon kayaking, picked berries, baked a pie, went to the drive in, and had a blast.
After Albany I hit the road once again, this time for Buffalo, NY to visit a combination of highschool and college friends, where I had a strange experience at a restaurant bar that begged us to come in and swore it was clean about 30 times in the 15 minutes we were there, went to the zoo, saw some concerts and fireworks for the 4th, and swam in the cloudy brown, but deliciously refreshing, waters of Lake Erie. On the 5th I piled myself back into Rambling Rose (who now seemed to be emitting some new rattle...) and drove to Euclid, OH to visit a friend from wayyyyyyyyyyyy backkkkkk (23 years of friendship...and counting!) where we played with ponies, walked around town, met some new friends, and just had a downright wonderful time.
From there I headed for Chicago, to have a lovely lunch with my darling Peace Corps Sitemate and then it was back on the road and through a crazy downpour lightning storm, to a little campground found for me by a friend just past Davenport, IA. I snuggled up in my tent and contemplated the new terrible noise coming from the underside of my hood while drifting off to sleep. In the morning I gassed up and hit the open road again, pushing my limits and driving to a mall outside of Lincoln, NE for lunch and then on to the little town of Ogalalla, NE for the night. By then I knew something was wrong, there was exhaust coming in through my vents, the rattle was worse than ever, and my car seemed to be putt-putting a lot more than was normal. My father begged me to have it checked out, so at 8 am Nebraska time, on the day I was scheduled to arrive in Laramie, there was Rattleing Rose, up on a lift, in her 5th garage stop of the trip. It took them in hour and a half, but it was a cheap and easy fix (to stop the putting and exhaust leak at least, I still have to deal with the rattle...) and I was back on the road by 10am, hitting Laramie, WY just after 1pm. I realized I had never written down the address of my new workplace and called my mom to google it for me, then I wrote down the address and phone number, parked Rattling Rose, and headed off on foot for the first day of my new adventure. Eyeing the numbers on the buildings as I passed, I finally spotted 215 - this was it! Only...wait...this is a jewelry shop. Fantastic.
Fortunately I had gotten the phone number too, so I called the office and was given instructions to the door...finally, I had arrived! Really arrived! I made it!
So here I am, living temporarily in the basement bedroom of a friendly co-worker until I find a more permanent home, learning the ropes of my new job and slowly recovering from the altitude sickness that I somehow forgot all about, even after experiencing it in Tahoe. So friends and family, I made it, safe and sound, and I'm very excited to share more stories of my very exciting new job, but for now I think I'm going to take a nap...
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