Day One: The Good, the Bad, and the Near Catastrophic

First, I’m still alive, though exhausted.  My last post had seven days to departure.  I would have LOVED to update prior to leaving, but circumstances worked against me.  So, here I am in Gaylord, Michigan (where it is just beautiful), about to fall asleep at the computer and planning to hit the hay after I post this. 

So, what happened?  Well, let me tell you a story….

I finished our schedule through December while in Evansville; thankful to be done, I headed out to the stripper pits for some pictures.  Alas, stripper pits really aren’t that photogenic.  At least the ones I saw.  So, came up with nothing.  To console myself, I went back to the Tin Fish for another salmon taco and waited like 40 minutes.  Kinda ridiculous.

Drove to the campground after finishing clinic Wednesday and worked on stuff Thursday.  Had to head to my house for an early clinic day Friday.  It was a High Risk Asthma clinic, and Cindy and Katy surprised me with yet more gifts!  I got some more snacks, unsweet tea (yeah) and a book Cindy highly recommends.  However, the highlight of it all was the addition of yet another little animal.

His name is Tracker, and I have every hope he’ll keep me from making wrong turns or from getting lost.  Thanks Cindy and Katy!!

Clinic was busy, so I didn’t get home until around 1pm.  I rushed around getting stuff into the truck, then went out the front door, locking it all from outside.  This is an important piece of information, as you’ll see.

I drove to Costco for cheapest diesel, then headed to New Castle with plans for all the projects left to finish before leaving.  I felt at best it was going to be tight.  I was wrong.

It was a disaster.

Because after getting to the trailer and parking, I quickly discovered I couldn’t find my keys.  The key fob for the truck, on the same set as my trailer keys and house keys.

Oh, yes, I managed to lose my freaking keys.  And I know I had them outside the house, because the deadbolt has to be locked outside.

So, I drove back to Indy: an hour each way.  So much for last minute projects.

They were nowhere.  I retraced my steps, called businesses to see if anyone had turned them in, etc.  Nothing.

Drove back to trailer; it was now late.  Went to bed upset.  Woke up in morning, drove back to Indy.  Still nothing.  It was at this moment that I realized I could let this affect everything, or decide to count my blessings and get over it.  I decided on the latter, and started finishing up the trailer.  A lot of things had to be put on hold, but I can do them in Spokane or along the way.  It’ll all work out.

So, after getting about 2 hours of sleep last night–just so excited and nervous, I got up and got hitched up.  It rained–a lot–so everything was wet.  I drove to the dealership parking lot to put on my TPMS on the tires–it’s much easier to do away from my site.  Here is Rory ready to go this morning;

I headed out, picking up I-69 at Anderson.  It was intermittently rainy and pretty overcast.  The road was ok and traffic wasn’t bad.  I left Walnut Ridge around 10:30.  Two hours later, I was ready for a break so pulled into the last Indiana rest stop on I-69.  There were like 2 tractor trailers in the parking lot, which is huge.  But there was a little SUV pulling a teeny tear drop trailer as well.  A young mom and her about 4 year old boy came walking back from the rest stop as I got out of Rory.  The little boy looked at me parked next to their rig and said “You’ve got a huuuge one.”  I just laughed and told him I really liked their cute, little one.

From Indiana, I stayed on I69 and stopped at Charlotte, Michigan’s Walmart.  I had planned to eat lunch there; they have a Subway.  The parking lot was a lot tighter than I’d expected, and I curbed my driver’s side trailer tires.  I also lost a snap pad somewhere, and I’ll be this is where it happened.  It had been raining off and on the entire way, and Charlotte was no exception.  When I finished my sandwich, I got in the trailer and stretched out on the bed for a while.  It felt good to be able to take a break.

Leaving Walmart was almost an issue.  I’d forgotten about “Michigan lefts” and was going to try and turn left at the light where you turn in to Walmart.  Except all the signs say no left turn, though to my observation there shouldn’t be an issue.  But, then I remembered that Michigan is weird, turned right and then turned left at their u turn lane.  So annoying.

Charlotte is just south of Lansing; once I got up to state road 127, the weather finally improved.  It was sunny and beautiful for the rest of the trip.  One funny thing that happened near Grayling; I came around a bend that was forested but gave way to a large grassy area.  Near the tree line I saw a moose!  Then another!  I was ready to pull over and grab the camera until I realized these moose were made of metal.  The only wildlife I saw was a wild turkey and a foolhardy black squirrel who is obviously an adrenaline junky who likes to play Frogger.

I made it to the Gaylord KOA around 6:30 pm.  I had like 50 miles to empty on the diesel, oops.  Averaged 9.6 mpg.  Got unhitched, went and partially filled up the tank–the station only went to $100, so not quite full.  Ate at Qdoba, and now I’m ready to sleep.  Tomorrow it’s across the Mackinac bridge.  Weather forecast not looking great–gonna rain.  Maybe I’ll get some stuff done in the trailer.