L&K Take America

Stop #32, 34 &…: Well…we ran into a little snafu in Dallas on stop #34. Unfortunately, yes, that is a picture of my bleeding and crumpled Jeep above and below. How did this happen, you ask? Was I texting? No. Was I fiddling with the radio? No. Was I playing with one of my various GPS systems? No. Was Luna distracting me? No. I was simply getting off the ramp from one of the ridiculous highways in Dallas, was attempting to change lanes, turned to check my blind spot and in that very second, the two cars in front of me stopped, and well, I did not.

#1: I am very happy that both Luna and I are fine. #2: Fortunately, I didn’t have the Airstream attached as this was happening. I don’t even want to think about what the damage would have been had I already hooked up. #3: I am so very thankful that the airbags didn’t go off. I am not sure why they did not, but that would have been an even bigger mess, and potential hazard to both of us.

So let’s back the story up a bit to explain why Dallas has so many stops associated with it. I had one of my childhood best friend’s wedding to get to in San Francisco for the weekend. When scheduling the wedding stop, I knew I needed to figure out a plan for Luna in a location that I could fly out and into, and store the camper somewhere in the process. Soon after I started the trip, I reached out to Kevin Carlow and he was so kind to watch her for me. He lives in Dallas, so I booked my flight from Dallas to San Francisco and back. I found a place to store the Airstream in the Dallas area and thought it would be easiest to drive the Jeep to the airport, so everything seemed to fall into place. It went really well and off I went to San Francisco (see Stop #33 for details).

Luna seemed to have a great weekend with Kevin. Thanks SOOOOO much Kevin!!!

When I flew back to Dallas, I picked Luna up and I had booked a hotel for that night so I didn’t have to go get situated at night with the camper, so we headed for the hotel. I figured I would be tired after the weekend’s festivities and boy was I happy when I remembered my foresight. We went to bed early and woke up refreshed for the drive to Arkansas. I talked to my grandmother, Lola, and was ready to make moves. We headed out from the hotel to go pick up the camper. That’s about when all future plans changed.

The highways in Dallas are crazy, but that hasn’t stopped me from going over and over and over what happened in my head and with pretty much anyone who is willing to listen to me lament about the accident and what I could have done differently. Luckily, the guy I hit was extremely nice and understanding. There was virtually only a little scratch on his truck. It was an older Dodge truck and basically my grill met his bumper. His bumper was a little higher than mine, as you can see from where it crushed my (very plastic) front end.

Luckily, I was able to drive the jeep off the road and into a big open lot. I couldn’t open the driver’s side door so I had to climb out of the passenger’s side. The gentleman that I hit also pulled off and we exchanged information and he made sure we were ok and had help on the way.  I called AAA and my insurance company to get a tow truck and figure out where to take it. There was a lot of body damage, but I had definitely done some internal damage too. Apparently transmission fluid is red, so it actually looked like my Jeep was bleeding all over the parking lot.

Once I got off the phone with AAA and the insurance company and the guy I hit had left, that’s about when I started to cry. All of the “now what?!??” thoughts started rushing into my head. How was I going to get myself out of this one??? Panic! I was in Dallas, with a trailer and a dog and now no vehicle to pull the trailer!!! Eeek!!! I made a few “I’m screwed!” Phone calls while I waited.

When the tow truck showed up, I was full on balling with tears streaming down my face. The driver was a large African American woman and she climbed down from the tow truck, walked up to me and said, “Wait, are you crying?? Oh no no no, there will be no crying!” What the?? I guess it was time to stop crying, even though it sure didn’t feel like it. She said, “That’s just a little body damage. No reason to cry. I thought you were sweating when I was walking up to you, but then I realized those are tears. We aren’t going to have any of that.” Yes, I was crying that much that I looked like I was profusely sweating. I mean, it was 100 degrees out, and I was definitely sweating too, but…I was a mess. I responded with, “Just a little body damage?? It’s bleeding!!!” She laughed at me and insisted that Luna and I get in the tow truck cub while she strapped my Jeep to the tow truck bed.

She climbed into the truck cab and I was sitting there with Luna on my lap. She gave a nervous laugh and made a face, then told me she was terrified of dogs. Ha! Well this would be an interesting drive, seeing how sometimes Luna is a litttllleeee bit racist. (insert embarrassed emoji face here). They both did well on the ride. Luna was on her best behavior and she didn’t seem to bother the driver. We both learned about each other’s life stories on the way to the shop.

She drove us to the collision center in Fort Worth where my insurance company had suggested I take the Jeep. I had also arranged for a rental car with my insurance company and Enterprise was there waiting to take me to get it when I arrived. Seemed to be going a little too smoothly. Then I walked around to where they were taking the Jeep off of the tow truck and asked the guy for a rough estimate on how long he thought it would take to fix it. He walked around to look at the damage and made the, sucking through the teeth grimace face and sound, “hsshhsshhh….2-3 weeks AT BEST! That’s a lot of damage. But I will know more once we take it apart.” Which apparently would be in a couple of days. I thought I was going to vomit. THIS IS GOING TO RUIN EVERYTHING!!!!! Then I took a deep breath, frowned with my entire body and said, “Ok, I’m going to go get a rental car. I’ll be back to grab some stuff out of my car.” I slumped away and headed to Enterprise.

When I walked into the rental car place, I knew I was going to have to start to improvise my situation going forward based on the options they would provide me with:

Me: “Soooo….I’m a special case. What are the chances that I can get a vehicle I can tow a trailer with?”

Enterprise guy: “Yeah, not going to happen.”

Me: “Ok then…what are the chances I can get a vehicle that I can return at another location?”

Enterprise guy: “Yeah, that can happen, but there will be a one way fee.”

Me: “And how much will that be?”

Enterprise guy: “Depends where you want to drop it off and how far it is from here.”

Me: “Boston”

Enterprise guy: “Austin?”

Me: “No, Boston, like in New England.”

Enterprise guy (looking totally perplexed): “Boston?! I would have no idea.”

Me: “Ok then. I will figure that out later.” I honestly didn’t know what my plan was but wanted to understand my options and needed to get out of there, clear my head and then devise a plan.

At this point, Luna had decided that she had had enough of this whole ordeal and was throwing a full on tantrum in the middle of the lobby at my feet. She does this little Ewok noise and shifts her weight from one side to the other. It’s kind of adorable and hilarious if you’re not trying to have an adult conversation in public. Typically she reserves this behavior for home, but I think the trauma had worn off and she was hangry. “Enough fooling around, Ma! Let’s go!” Hang tight, tiny tot.

We got the rental car, headed back to the collision place to get some stuff and then I headed to the camper. I had basically decided that I was going to continue on with my trip as planned and when the car was ready, I would fly back and get it. Hence the “&…” in the “Stop #” title above. I will eventually have to return to Dallas in this adventure to retrieve my assets. This of course would only work IF I could convince the campground where I had left my trailer to allow me to store the camper there for a reasonable price AND not move it from its current location since I didn’t have a vehicle to do it with.

I got to the campground and immediately burst into tears. Thankfully, they were AMAZING and said I could keep the camper there for a month and pay the monthly storage fee which was extremely reasonable. They said it was fine just where it was and I said I would stay in touch. So I went and grabbed some stuff out of the camper and off we went to see Lola and Papa in Arkansas!

Thank you for everyone who listened to me cry, why, sniffle and curse. Thank you everyone for the continued support and help making phone calls and weighing the options as I move through this journey.

Lesson of the Day: Too many lessons today. The biggest one is that accidents happen. I probably won’t stop thinking about what I could have done differently, but I will try to accept that sometimes you just couldn’t have done something differently in the situation.

In hindsight, I do feel like I was rushing this morning. There was absolutely no reason to be rushing. It was self-inflicted pressure. No idea why I felt that way. I think I was just ready to keep moving. I think perhaps this was the universe reminding me to slooooowwww dowwwnnnn. There is no rush, especially on this trip. Expensive reminder and lesson…