When I left Ohio yesterday morning, I was determined no matter what, that I'd make it home that day. The trip ahead was a long one, over 900 miles again, but I knew that if I would just stick with it I'd make it. I'd like to say it went smoothly but of course, it didn't.
As I travelled along, I tried to remember the good advice that friends had given me about stopping and resting along the way. Sometimes when you are in a hurry to get home or anywhere else, you find yourself pushing things too hard. That's when accidents happen and I know it. So most every time there was a rest stop ahead, I'd get out and stretch my legs a bit. Walking around really helps to break up the monotony of the road.
I kept the music going pretty loud, I admit. Sammy Johns must have sang "The Chevy Van" song a thousand times but "that's all right with me." My son, Grahame, sent along a few CDs of his own for me to enjoy so I learned to enjoy/appreciate a different kind of music. Between arguing with the woman's voice on the GPS system and talking to myself, it wasn't as lonely as it could have been.
By noontime yesterday, I was getting closer and closer to Kansas City. Having gone through St. Louis traffic, and believe me when I say that was bad, I knew that I needed to be alert and ready to join in line with all of other busy traffic and pay attention to what was going on. I decided that it would be a good time to stop for gas and get something quickly to eat. I was on I70 about 20 miles from the college town of Columbia, Missouri.
Hey, I hope that my niece, Jessica Scott, is reading this post now. Jessica, I checked my FB page (not while I was driving) and found your wall post recalling the time that I had to ask you to drive me to Wichita and around! Oh dear girl, do I ever. Thank you for your words of encouragement. Over the past 2 years, I have gotten brave enough to drive in Wichita fairly well. Darn good thing too! Because it prepared me for driving on this trip through cities like Wilkes-Baar, PA, St. Louis, Mo., Columbus, OH etc. Jessica, your post gave me the courage to finish the journey and I couldn't have read it at a better time.
When I started the car up again, after getting gas, I saw a strange message come across the console of my Honda....."check low tire pressure". What? I couldn't believe it so I got out and looked, fully expecting a flat tire. I went around to each and check and the only one that even felt different than the others was the passenger side rear one. But I couldn't tell. I had no tire gauge and the town I was in had absolutely no place to go to get help.
Now my siblings and other family members will understand what I'm about to say...cover your ears if you are so inclined. When our Mom was living in a nursing home, one of her favorite things to say when things weren't going right was always "Oh, crap!" (love you Mom) Well, her daughter echoed the same sentiments yesterday, kind of sort of...you'd have to change a word. Now what I was going to do?
I knew Columbia, Missouri was only half an hour away. Surely, since they are a college town, there would have to be a Wal Mart around that could fix a tire. I had no choice except to go back on I70 and just hope to goodness that it wouldn't blow out before I got there. Talk about praying your way somewhere....that was a constant for the next 20 minutes. Traffic was horrible and if you weren't going 80 then you could sure get run over without even so much as "hello".
Well, God provided and I arrived finally and not only found one Wal Mart, but two. They took a look at the tire which now had only 20 pounds of pressure in it and said "Lady, we'll fix it." 45 minutes later, I was back on the road again.
You know, I'd like to think that perhaps I've grown up a little bit in this past week...I know, you'd think someone 56 years old would be just about as grown up as you could be. But I have a long ways to go with that. I learned on this nearly 2,000 mile, one-way journey to be ever more reliant on myself. Always before, I would have just picked up the phone and called any of my children and asked them to help me. If I couldn't reach any of them, I'd call a friend. When you are no longer in "helping reach" then the only person that you can count on is yourself. So even though the flat tire wasn't in my own "plan" for the day, it happened anyways.
God took care of me....He knew where I was every step of the way. Whether I was in Owego, NY, Portland, ME, or on some back stretch from the "road from Hell"..He knew. Even as bad as a flat tire could seem, I was still blessed as it happened. It could have been a blow-out as I was travelling down the Interstate at 70 mph with traffic everywhere. It could have even been in some of the remote areas that I drove through along the way. Thank goodness it didn't happen the day I was driving to Owego. I had enough difficulties just staying on the road with the terrible rain and hail that I was driving through. It happened in just the right place and I know it. I had money to fix it and the 45 minutes off of the road were probably just what I needed after having travelled so far in the past 4 days. You find blessings where you least expect them.
Now that it's over and I look back on the journey, there are some things that I would never advise anyone else to do. Even though I felt that this was a trip that I had to make alone, I would never go alone again. There is strength in numbers friends...I could have used an "extra set of eyes" to help me as I went through some of the heaviest traffic that I can imagine. It would have been nice to have someone to visit with along the way or someone to share the driving responsibilities. And although the interstate is indeed the fastest way to travel, if I ever take a journey again I hope that it can be one that is OFF the beaten path. There was no time to take a photo of cool things I saw and I'm sure that off of every one of those exits, there were interesting people and places to see.
Before I close this post, I wanted to tell you about the chance I got to visit a place that I didn't even realize I was close to. When I was finding a location that would have a good spot to stay in for the night, I saw a sign ahead that said "Kent State University-3 Miles". I was shocked not even realizing that I was in that neighborhood. Because the May 4, 1970 Kent State Massacre was a huge part of my growing up years, I wanted to go and see where it happened. I was pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful campus that has a wonderful memorial site for the people who died there that day. If you are reading this and don't know what I am talking about, please learn about it. Just "google" in Kent State and follow the links.
As I stood there at the site where 4 students were killed (all of them around the age of my 21-year old daughter Ursela) chills ran up my spine. I stood there for a long time and looked around trying to imagine what it would have been like that day. The actual monument itself is on the site, the knoll, where the National Guardsmen took their positions from that fateful day. It was a senseless and tragic event that I pray will never happen again.
If you visit the site, and you really should, you'll notice the inscriptions of 3 words that I think anyone would be wise to remember. They are short and simple...and very much to the point.
the knoll on the Kent State campus
Well, journey is done and now on to other things in life. For all of the times that I have quit things in life because I perceived them to be too difficult and unattainable, I finished this 2,000 mile journey. Was it really worth it? You can bet it was.
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