Not The Best Of Days

7:58

Well, you might be surprised to see we are at the lake, that I kayaked, and we are not in Philadelphia for a reunion. At least, we are safe and sound, on a beautiful lake morning. It's 9:40 and I made myself go kayaking, hoping it would change my mood. It was a beautiful fall morning, duck boats floating by, gunshots filling the air and I was out for 25 minutes. 

Kayak Morning

A Windy Northern Sky

As I mentioned yesterday was not the best of days. We left for Philadelphia and within the first 30 minutes, we hit a deer and fortunately, the damage did not seem major, just some breakage on the front grill. We stopped at McDonald's and I looked under the car for leaks but did not see any. So we went on our way through the backroads of Pennsylvania, the road rimmed by beautiful mountains, colorful trees, and, unfortunately, lots and lots of Trump signs. We have driven this road in 2016 and 2020 but have never seen so many signs on this drive. Occasionally, we would see a lonely Harris sign, usually in a larger city, not the rural areas. 

Morning Fog

Beginning Of Fall Colors

Just as we were 20 miles beyond State College, home of Penn State, we reached the summit of Seven Mountain, and the don't drive your car, over heated sign, came on. We were lucky to pull over to a parking area and wondered what was wrong. Fortunately, a trucker came over and we pulled up the hood and it was clear the radiator was damaged and we could not drive our car. We were basically in the middle of nowhere and did not know what to do. 

First, we called the Kia dealer in State College, about 25 miles away but he said he could not work on our KIA for a week or two because he was short a mechanic. If we could have dropped off the car there, we would have tried to rent a car and continue our trip. So that was out. So we called AAA and after a hassle, they sent a truck but an hour later, it had not arrived so I called my insurance company and they had a deal which would allow the car to be hauled 200 miles.  We decided to go with their hauler and have the car sent home. We had a terrible time getting in touch with the Erie Insurances truck, mostly because of the incompetence of the person on the phone. They could not figure out where we were located. Finally, we talked with someone who could help us, figured out where we were, and sent a truck. In the meantime, our first AAA truck arrived and we had to tell him we had to cancel. He was great about it and said to give him a call if it didn't work out. We then decided to see if we could get a rental car and called Enterprise, Avis, Hertz, all in State College and none had any cars available. Go figure. We then had no choice but to go home. While this was going on, we were texting with our Turkish friends in Philly who wanted to come and pick us up, a 3 1/2 drive for them but we refused. It would have meant a seven hour drive for them and they would miss the dinner/party. 

Top Of Seven Mountains

Finally,  around 3:30, the Lion's Den truck arrived, pulled our car up on his trailer and we were off. Fortunately, the driver was a good guy but the truck was not made for three people. He was an aggressive driver, and we had no seat belts so Evie was grabbing my knee as we passed various trucks. Also, the roads were crowded,  and we had to take a detour on the backroads to avoid an accident on #80. We stopped for a pulled pork sandwich with cole slaw at Gio's around 5:00, our favorite stop on the way to my daughter Jill's in Virginia. We finally arrived at Jamestown Kia at 7:30, left the car in their lot and Evie called an Uber to take us home. He arrived just as we finished saying goodbye to our driver. We piled our bags in the Uber and drove home through Jamestown when the cops pulled us over and checked to see if our driver was insured. It sounds like he was late on monthly payment but all worked out so he dropped us over at home for thirty-six bucks, inshallah. 

We grabbed our bags, and walked into our house, more than 12 hours after we left it. We were depressed and tired, watched some TV, and went to bed early, happy we were safe but knew we would probably never see my students from Robert College again.