Being that it's been a while since I last posted some thoughts here, I thought I'd do so today.
It's Sunday, September 27th, 2015 at about 9:30 AM. I'm finishing a cup of coffee from a pot I made at 4:30 AM. With the coffee, a fig newton helps me wash down a fist-full of pills.
I want to update those of you beloved who follow this old heart of mine. There have been some significant changes in my life. For many, many reasons that I won't go into at this time, I have separated myself from wife Rachel. Single-handedly, I loaded most of my considerable belongings into a 20' U-Haul truck I rented from White Mountain Lumber, Berlin, NH. I then drove it three hours to a U-Pack depot in Londonderry, NH and, again, single-handedly, unloaded that truck into a tandem tractor-trailer. That done, I returned the rented 20' U-Haul to White Mountain Lumber in Berlin, NH.
Leaving the truck filled with fuel, I got into my car to find someone, probably Rachel, who'd helped herself to my spare set of keys, had been in my car in my absence. Too exhausted to inventory what was missing, I drove to our house, coupled the loaded utility trailer, and headed south. I was to rendezvous with a dear friend in Newark, NJ and, after resting, to continue the trip south to the Tampa-St Pete area of Florida. I was so angry at Rachel that I was numb. My one desire was to put as much daylight between her and me as possible.
The trip, from 55 miles from the Canadian border, to central Florida would have taken 24+ hours non-stop and we would have travelled 1,435 miles. But we stopped for the night several times. For the most part the trip was uneventful. Exiting the Delaware Memorial Bridge, we were approached and asked for help by a young couple with a nine month old baby girl. They needed to change a tire......but had no jack. The only other Kodak moment happened at a rest area in the Tar Heel state of NC. My co-pilot, having to use the restroom, I remained with the car and trailer. A clearly deranged young woman approached me, leaped into the open utility trailer and tossed a suitcase out and onto the ground......all the while screaming and ranting about a lost/stolen purse. I told her if she didn't get out of my trailer and quit throwing my things out, it was going to be me and her all over that rest area. She left, still deranged and ranting. I picked up my Samsonite suitcase and put it securely back in the trailer. A couple who'd witnessed the whole thing came over to commend me for showing considerable restraint. They speculated that a trucker had picked her up as a hitch-hiker, found her to be a bit much and deposited her there, at the rest area.
The remainder of of the trip was without incident. The 1997 Toyota Camry, which did all of the work towing the utility trailer, didn't burn a drop of oil. The GPS hardly went off at all until we were within 50 miles of Tampa. After a good night's rest and a long, hot shower, I am set to begin a new, better chapter of my life.
