Friday. Last day of work. It turned out to be a fast-moving day, short projects quickly wrapped up. A coat of water seal on a deck, a second coat of porch paint, a backyard jungle trimmed back into some order, and scraping and the beginning of paint on the side of a house. We asked the homeowner out onto the porch for a group photo. She surprised us all with a bit of dancing that showed she still knew how to shake it! We knocked off a bit early, cleaned up and went downtown for a last meal together. We had great Mexican food in a community called Mexicantown. Ironic, wasn’t it, that we were in a neighborhood festooned with Mexican flags and overrun with Mexican restaurants and souvenir shops, in a northern American city literally within sight of the US/Canadian border. It was terrific food, and a fun time together. Saturday. Up early, out the door by 6:45 (eastern time; an hour earlier than that in Sikeston). With luck, we should be home before 5pm. Lots of construction on the interstate; drove through some very rough roads. The van and trailer was bouncing around, when a particularly big bump hit. The trailer began to weave; then we noticed that the trailer door had popped open. With the help of a trucker behind us, we were able to make it to the right shoulder of the road. Fortunately, none of our luggage was lost. Unfortunately, the owner’s jack and tire iron had fallen out. As the door swung out, it caused some small dents, and cracked the tail light lens. As we were working on securing the back door of the trailer, we noticed a bigger problem; the tread on the right side trailer tire had come off. As it tore away from the tire, it damaged the fender. The tire was still holding air, but it could not be driven far in this shape. Driving slowly along the breakdown lane, we took the next exit from the interstate. GPS located an auto repair shop just a mile away. That turned out to be a semi-retired, ‘shade tree’ mechanic. He was helpful, but did not have any tires that might fit. He helped us disconnect the trailer, took off the wheel, and gave us directions to a tire store in town; about 10 miles away. “Randy” at the Tire Barn was helpful, but did not have a tire in the right size. He even called his competitor next door; but he did not have a tire for us either. On his third call, he found a competitor with a tire the right size. When we reached “Hubcap Express,” the new tire was quickly mounted. On second thought, we bought another new tire for the wheel that looked good. “Tom” the shade tree mechanic mounted that tire on our other wheel, and got us ready to go. We had to insist on giving him something; he had no intention of charging us. Two hours behind schedule, we are off again. As we neared Indianapolis, more road construction; and a massive plume of smoke in the distance. The traffic jam was at walking pace all the way around the city; took over an hour. The smoke plume turned out to be a three-alarm fire in a building housing a recycling center. Our route took us within a couple of blocks of the fire. The blaze was far from controlled; all companies just trying to keep the fire from spreading to the entire neighborhood. Finally back in Sikeston, with no further adventures. 15 ½ hours of travel, but home again we are. Thankful for the grace of God we experienced during our week.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 03:07:58 +0000
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