Change of plans

[serene]

Yesterday, we loaded the trailer. I kinda blew out my knee, but we got it loaded. Later, I'll show you the picture of all my worldly possessions. Anyway, we got it loaded and hitched to the car (silly to do it in that order, but we did) and hit the road.

It. Was. TERRIFYING. The car was of course a totally different beast. Horribly hard to accelerate, which I could deal with, but going downhill was one of the scariest things I've ever done, and they were pretty tame hills. And then the tire-pressure warning light went on.

Within twenty minutes, I knew two things:

1) I was not going to be able to drive my little car and the trailer for ten to twelve hours without having a panic attack or worse; and

2) There was no fucking way I was going to trust my car on the Grapevine pulling that load.

We were very near stonebender & loracs's place, so we pulled off the highway, went to their place, and regrouped.

I am grateful for my ability to whip out a credit card and pay U-Haul to come pick up all our stuff and deliver it to us in San Diego next week. I am grateful that I have family in whose guest house we could spend the night. And I am grateful that I was able to push past my fear of being seen as a failure and say Hey, I can't handle this.

We're planning to leave tonight, with just a car full of our essential stuff. My knee is out, so james_huber is out there doing the loading, speaking of things for me to be grateful about.

Comments

[jae]

So scary. You made the right call. It sounds awful.

I'm sorry about the knee! Good luck with the rest.

-J

[hitchhiker]

yow! glad you have such a good support structure in place. hope the rest of your move goes a lot more smoothly.

[loracs]

I'm so glad you made the decision to stop here. It was nice hanging around a little last night and this morning. Sorry I missed you, usually I am home earlier, but I stopped at Clever's to drop off some food and well . . . Guy said I only missed you by about 1/2 hour. I doubt you'll see this until tomorrow, but safe travels and a hug to you both!

[serene]

We were sorry to miss you, too, but we counted the hours and decided if we left right away, we might get here by 1 and not have any traffic, and that's exactly how it worked out. Thanks again, a million, for being our support system.

[metaphortunate]

That is truly great. I love people with the ability to switch gears in the face of the unexpected. It's surprisingly hard! I'm glad you had such good resources for a Plan B.

[serene]

Thanks so much for the validation. I did feel brave for quitting, and I'm glad it looks that way from the outside.

[emperor]

Sounds un-fun :-/