Finally at the end of the day on Wednesday, I was able to pick up my truck. Total bill = $3,400. I wanted to cry...half of me was thinking, "Shit, I should have just bought a new truck or something." Of course this is the bill prior to having my trailer worked on. I brought it in the next morning to have the chains shortened, a new emergency brake cable put on, and to have my brakes and tire pressure checked while they were at it. Total bill = $250. That was what I had originally budgeted for. I did my best to try to stay positive though. I kept telling myself, "At least I got this all taken care of now, and it's not happening while I'm out on the road." Not very comforting, but I'll take what I can get.
Thursday morning and it's time to start the journey back up north. I wake up at 4:30 a.m. to hook up the trailer and head on my way. Horse, dog, and I are on the road by 5:45 a.m. with anywhere from 12-14 hours to drive on day one. This is our route back up...I'm already dreading I-5 in California.
California drivers are the worst I've encountered thus far. They have this thing with passing on the interstate. They all make this massive line on the left to pass the slow vehicle on the right, but there is always some crazy impatient asshole that thinks it's a good idea to speed up on the right and cut into the line. This is not a good idea...especially when they cut in front of a vehicle with a trailer hitched to the back. These idiots apparently don't realize that when you have a trailer behind you it takes twice the distance it normally would for you to stop. I tried my best to not be a pissed-off driver, but I couldn't handle it...there were definitely a few horn honks, and a couple of people got the finger as well. I found myself listening to country music the whole way, if only to try to calm my nerves. I forgot I actually liked the genre and by the end of the trip, knew many of the lyrics by heart.
We had to make one stop in the middle of the day where I let horse out to walk. He does exceptionally well on the road, lucky for me. Very good at eating on the road, but I have to watch out for him because he doesn't always like to drink when traveling. I'm prepared though, and have brought along a few tubes of electrolyte paste, one of which he will get with his dinner just to be on the safe side.
After almost 14 hours of driving, we pull into our stop for the night, a very cozy B&B located just east of Sacramento, California in the gold country. This place was extremely pretty, and the farm house that I stayed in was so comfortable. My room had an old wrought-iron antique bed...needless to say, I showered, checked on the horse and the dog (who was sleeping in his own bed in the back of the Tahoe...no pets in the house), and was out like a rock.
This place is called Enchanted April Farm. Lovely folks there...they even helped me check my tires for the trip out the next morning!
Day two of driving, was alot less stressful. Only seven hours to drive this go around, with an overnight near Sutherlin, Oregon. This part of the drive is always the prettiest, going through Mt. Shasta area. It's also the part of the drive that I have to concentrate the most. Going down steep grades with a trailer isn't always the easiest, and on this trip, for the first time ever I actually had to throw my truck into third gear to slow it down. It was quite a time of it, but I felt accomplished when I was done for the day. My horse was overnighting at a barn called Dodge Creek Stables, with me at a cheap motel about 2 miles away.
After I had gotten settled and showered, I walked across the street to this little diner to grab a bite to eat and read for awhile. I couldn't help but people watch at this little place. Basically in the middle of nowhere, I wondered about the folks that were quietly eating, wondered about their lives...where they were going and where they had been. Most of them were rather old, and I figured they were the regulars that came in every weekend just to get out of the house. I sadly wondered about an old guy that came in by himself, ate, and left. Where is his family? I picture his wife has died, and he comes into the diner not only because he's old-fashioned and probably doesn't know how to cook, but also for social interaction. Most folks his age are just starving for someone to talk to, something to do...it makes me sad. It makes me wish I had spent more time with my grandparents before they had passed away. I hadn't really been close to them, but I appreciated them just the same.
I had a cute little chicken dinner and headed back to my room to distract myself from this deep thinking I had gotten into at the diner. Lucky for me, there was no shortage of crappy made-for-tv movies to watch. They were short-lived, so I headed to bed early once more, with the final drive in ahead of me the next day.
The last part of the drive in was nothing...about 5-6 hours tops. This all went perfectly, until I hit traffic in Tacoma. So fricking close, VERY FRUSTRATING. We made it in though, horse, dog, and me...unscathed, so to speak. When we unloaded at my horse's new home, Paradise Stable, I had another check to write, for the remainder of June's board, totalling $167.
I had the worst part of the trip ahead of me when I got home. Laundry, unpacking, and figuring out the final amount that had been spent on my financial disaster trip. When all was said in done, the trip that was to cost a max of $1000 ended up equalling $4500. Shit. So, now it's on to being thrifty. Making my meals instead of eating out, more staying in, only necessary shopping. Time to try to horde the cash in any means possible. I'm open to ideas...if any of you out there have other cash stashing tips, send them my way!
Song of the day: "Indian Summer" by Brooks & Dunn (since I rediscovered country music along the way)
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