Stupid Weather and Stuff

Man, I thought Friday was pretty rough, what with having to finish packing all my stuff, making trips to Goodwill, cleaning my apartment, packing the car, and then driving 670 miles, but today was worse. Last night, the whole midwest got dumped on by ice.

My car was a big block of ice this morning, and it took 20 or 30 minutes of letting it run on high defrost, then borrowing an ice scraper from the lady at the motel desk before I got the windows all clear. Then I got on the freeway and averaged about 15 mph for about an hour and a half. When I finally got up to sort of decent speeds, my windshield wipers gave out on me and it was freezing rain on me and it was like driving without my contacts in and I was pretty much inches from death. Imagine driving on Interstate 40 through Oklahoma City with waxed paper all over your windshield. What a nightmare.

I was able to pull off at an exit and pull over so I could hack at the ice all over the wiper blades. It's funny how nice people in Oklahoma are. I was out there for maybe 15 or 20 minutes and at least four cars stopped to help. I explained to them that I just needed to get the ice off the blades, and I was okay. Finally, two burly young guys with a "must help, don't take no for an answer" attitude pulled up in a big truck beside me (on the right side, too, so they had to jump the curb onto the grass), and didn't ask me if I needed help, just started helping. They reminded me of a couple Pughs, actually. So I ended up spending the rest of the day stopping every couple hours to scrape the ice off the blades, and I bought an ice scraper of my own, too. In the morning I have to find an auto center and replace them.

After all that, I got pulled over in Chandler, OK. It had cleared up, and I was back up to the speed limit because the roads weren't icy anymore, just a little wet in some parts. The cop said I was going 82 in a 75 zone, and why was I driving so fast? Actually, I didn't realize I was going that fast (though significantly slower than I would have been going had it not been bad weather out). Incidentally, 82 was the speed I was going when I got my last (and first) speeding ticket, which incidentally, was during my last cross-country trip. That ticket was from a Massachusetts cop.

So now I have to pay a parking ticket. Strangely, the ticket doesn't seem to have a dollar amount on it. I have to call the number on the envelope when I get to Maine. I hope it's not a lot of money. It's probably a million dollars. Stupid Chandler.

After more delays with stopping to get the ice off the blades, and more crappy slow-down weather, I came to a complete stop only 100 miles before my destination, due to what I assume was a major wreck. It took about 15 minutes before we were able to move again. As I passed the dozen or so police cars and emergency medical vehicles, I actually didn't see any wreckage. I'm not sure if they dragged it off ahead, or if the median was recessed enough to hide the carnage and debris. Two of my favorite words.

It ended up taking 11 1/2 hours to drive about 550 miles. What a nightmare. Yesterday it only took 7 1/2 hours to drive 530 miles. Yesterday was a much better day.

I have to give props to my car, despite having crappy windshield wiper blades even though I only used them like 20 times over the past two and a half years because I lived in LA. I drove through rain, hail, freezing rain, and snow and subjected the car to temperatures way below anything it's ever experienced, and it's doing really well. It handles great on the ice and I never felt like I was losing control of it.

I'm very tired.

Super 8 Motel, Gallup, New Mexico

I notice that there are computers with internet access everywhere now. I went to Jiffy Lube the other day and there was a computer in the waiting room, and now as I'm waiting for my continental breakfast to toast at the Super 8 Motel, I see there's one here in the corner of the lobby, too. Wow.

Day one of travel took a very long time. The TripTik I'm using gave me a total day's distance of 20 miles less than it actually was, so that was a little annoying. I drove about 670 miles, from just before noon to about 10pm PST. Of course, it's Mountain Time here, so I lost an hour, too. The cats did sort of okay. They haven't eaten anything yet, even though I gave them some canned food at the motel, and offered them dry food and water both during rest stops and here in the room. I guess they'll eat eventually. I ended up letting them out of the carriers at the first rest stop, and they promptly scurried into the even more confined spaces under the seats. So I took out the leashes and attached them to the seat heads, so they could roam about while I drove and I wouldn't have to worry about shoving them back in the carriers when I needed to stop for gas and such.

They ended up towards the end squishing into one carrier and cuddling (from fear). So I just locked that one up and brought it to the motel. I'm leaving this place in a couple hours, and only have to do about 530 miles today, so I'm hoping it will be a little easier today.

Travel

Never in the history of packing has there been a trunk more impeccably packed. I might post a picture of it. I'm particularly proud of the fact that since the little nook in the far side of the trunk didn't quite fit my sewing machine, I turned the machine on its side so that the hinge of the trunk lowers into the space in the center when I close it. I was also able to fit all my paintings in the trunk, on top of my suitcase and boxes, which I didn't think I was going to be able to do. Now I just have to pack the inside of the car as well. I hope I don't have to leave anything behind.

I had to delay my trip a day. I was supposed to leave at about 10 this morning, but it took me so long to do everything I had to do lately--sell all my stuff, make three trips to Goodwill to drop off the rest, paint my apartment back to white and clean the whole place, plus picking up my last paycheck and faxing my last set of documents to South Korea. I just couldn't get it done. I didn't even start painting my bedroom until this morning, since I spent all of yesterday doing everything else, and the day before yesterday painting the living room (I think it really took 12 hours).

Luckily, I made reservations at motels that probably don't book up, so it was no problem calling and advancing my reservation a day at each place. Today I'm trying to get my landlady to give me my security deposit back before I go. She was supposed to come by yesterday so I could check out and get the check, but she forgot. She also forgot about the appointment when I signed the lease. It's annoying. She said she could mail it to me if I gave her a forwarding address, but frankly, I don't trust her. I had to call the housing department on her twice since I've been here for negligence, and I wouldn't be surprised if it took months to get the money out of here if I don't get it today. I talked to her husband today, and he said to call her after 4:30, so I'm hoping it'll happen.

At least now I have time to get everything done without stressing too much over it, and I'll be able to do my ten hour drive tomorrow on more than four or five hours of sleep.

My cats are wondering what's going on. There is one piece of furniture left in the apartment, and I have all this junk strewn about. I've been trying to give them attention before I go, but it's been hard with everything I've been doing. I hope I'll have time to relax with them tonight. I gave them new collars with tags last night. They weren't too keen on them when I put them on, since they're used to being naked, but they don't seem to mind them too much now. I haven't seen them trying to get them off.

Anyway, beyond my `trip, I'm pretty much all set for now with South Korea. My friends got my a going away present, which involved a guidebook, so that'll be useful. I've sent all my documents now, too, so I'll just have to go through the visa process when I get to Maine. It's too bad the process didn't start earlier. If I had been able to apply here, I could have walked to the Korean consulate, but now I'll have to mail the application in to Boston.

By the way, thanks for the offers to let me stay in Indiana. The way my trip runs this time, it doesn't work out very well for me to stop there, though. Maybe one of these days I'll do a cross-country trip in which I'm not speeding through without doing anything interesting.