On The Road Again

My blog may be a little different and sporadic over the next week because once agin I'm on the road living out of a suitcase and visiting friends for a couple of nights here and a couple of nights there. I have had some adventures though. On Wednesday of this week I got up at three to take Dana & Jessica into the deeo north woods of Maine to begin their 16 day 100 mile wilderness canoe adventure. We drove for four and a half hours from highway to byway to smooth dirt to narrow smooth dirt to narrow unsmooth dirt to rough even narrower roads. We stopped at the gate of a carry trail to reach Alligash Lake and the start od their adventure. Well the short easy carry turned out to be long and hilly and not so easy, and anything that could go wrong did go wrong but exhausted I managed to help them achieve their goal before I left for home. By this time I was hot and sweaty and tired and I had seen more bugs than I care to mention. The bud spray helped a lot but they still buzzed around your head even if they didn't land to bite.
I started toward home on those same road but while I was helping them a grader had rough up about four miles of one of the dirt roads. which are made for logging trucks. I no sooner got into this graded area where about four inches was loosened rocky soil then one of the famous Maine chisel stones took out the left rear tire. Once again anything that could go wrong did go wrong. I sprained two fingers trying to get the back hatch open on the Jeep Cherokee because I didn't watch close enough when Dana hit the vehicle in various place as he lifted the latch to open it. I gave up in frustration. Now I'm leaning from the back seat to get the spare tire and I hoped a jack, but when I got the tire loose no jack. I went to glove compartment and found out where the jack was located and the started to remove the flat tire placing the jack under the rear axle in the position recommended by the manual. I got the tire off with some difficulty but as I retrieved the spare tire from the back seat the car fell off the jack from the loose soils in which it was sitting, and now the jack won't fit under the axle. The whole time I am being swarmed by bugs and in my frustration they are driving me nuts as I'm trying to figure out what to do. I did survive the bugs but I had to take frequent respites in the car to restore my sanity. I was so far out not a single vehicle past me in the more than an hour it took me to finish the job with a lot of effort, much prayer and God's help. I then got back in the Jeep Cherokee and prayed I wouldn't pop another tire before I got out of that newly graded section, and then the other four hours home with no cruise control and cramping achy legs. So if your one of my facebook friends and read my status you now have some understanding of my day and the hurt that still follows. The worst part I still can't bend my fingers well enough to hold a golf club, oh no, poor me!!! Good thing I'm on the road and wouldn't being playing golf for a week anyway.