I didn’t get much writing done during the two weeks we were gone on our big drive-to-the-east coast/eat-barbecue/hike-in-the-Blue-Ridge-Mountains/attend-the-Charleston-family-reunion/deliver-Gideon-and-his-car-to-grad-school trip. One big lesson from the trip is, Nothing that you worry about ahead of time is too likely to happen, but something totally unexpected will inevitably crop up. So we had gotten on the road two weeks ago, with Gideon’s Subaru Outback packed to the gills. My big worry was the question of how we’d get him a mattress set for his new digs, something that ended up being supremely simple to do.
But did I worry about someone breaking into the car while we were hiking? Nope. There we were in the middle of nowhere in Maggie Valley NC. We’d hit a second trail, leaving the car in a small parking area right off the road. There were at least half a dozen other cars there, and since the trail dipped down into the trees you couldn’t see who was coming up to the lot. While the road wasn’t terribly busy, there were certainly cars zipping by periodically. Doesn’t sound like a great theft opportunity, does it? You couldn’t be sure about not being seen. I had left my tote bag on the floor of the back seat but had put my wallet/purse thing down behind it. The bag had my laptop, my phone, my Bible study book, an umbrella, and various other small items. When we came back to the car the window was smashed and the bag was gone, but thankfully–thankfully–the wallet was still there. From the roundish mark on the window frame it looked as though someone had used a hammer. I was kind of unhappy with myself at first, thinking that I should have hidden the bag, but then I realized that there was no way to do that as there was no space. The bag itself was a $30 fake ostrich-leather doobie from Target and was several years old. Here’s the funny thing, though: it looked very real. I wonder if someone just happened to look in the window and thought, ‘Wow–that bag looks expensive!’ Guess I’ll never know. We tried to do a trace on the phone and laptop, but both of them were turned off. I’m sure they’re down in a ravine somewhere, along with the cheap plastic tote.
It’s always interesting to me how long-lasting the consequences can be from a small event. This one hardly rose above the inconvenience level, but even so it threw a fairly substantial spanner into the works of the trip. We had to a) figure out how to cover up the broken window so that we could drive above 25 miles per hour without having a wind tunnel effect. We had a fairly large plastic shopping bag and a big roll of painter’s tape that Jim had used to lash some items together in the back and thought might come in handy. Boy, did it ever! We didn’t want to damage the paint, of course, so that tape was perfect. After we had made several stops to repair our repair we pretty much had a solid mass of painter’s tape covering the window. Then we had to b) cut the hiking short and get the car in for, like, real repairs. I was pretty sure that it wasn’t going to be possible to get it done on the spot and that assumption turned out to be correct. So then, unless we wanted to drive a car with a broken window for the rest of the trip, which didn’t seem like a great idea, we had to c) rent another vehicle. This morning d) Gideon returned the rental car and got his own car back, with the coup de grâce of this whole venture being that e) the rental car had mysteriously developed a loose bumper. Jim’s still dealing with that issue. We know we didn’t hit anything, but we’re here in Colorado and the rental office is in Christiansburg, VA, so we’re not in much of a position to argue. Honestly!
I have lots more to write about the trip, but I won’t try your patience by putting everything into one post. This will do for today. As we often say when something unexpected and unwelcome happens, “This will make a great story!”
Do you have a family or personal mantra that you use when an unexpected problem erupts?