Reflecting Back on 2005 Part 5

We were all so tired at this point in the journey. It was like a whirlwind.

Reflecting Back on 2005
part 5
by JdyJdyJdy

I last left you as we were standing on the side of the road waiting on a tow truck. The traffic was swift on that two lane road. I guess everyone was pretending to be driving in Los Angeles! Off in the distance we see the tow truck.

The tow truck guy pulls over and looks at the Jeep. He proceeded to try and get it hooked up for the tow. Wow these drivers had no consideration! You think they would get in the other lane. Whooosh they would pass by without a care. The tow truck guy kept having to get up and move because of the traffic. Finally he got it all going. He looked at the dogs and said, " I don't have room for them in the cab of the truck, but I don't think there is a law about towing a car with dogs in it."

Jonathan and I got in the tow truck and he took off. Granny of course following close behind. He took us to a mechanics shop and thankfully they could get us right in. I got the dogs out of the Jeep and onto their leashes and we stood by watching the mechanics make quick of the situation. It was the alternator. Totally froze up! They came and told us it would be 165 dollars.

The owner of the shop came out and seen dogs, a kid, Me and a Granny standing in the shop. He became a tad unglued. (boy was he in for it) He said,"You need to wait outside!" He was not exactly peachy about it and boyyyyyyy Granny piped right up! First she starts in about how we are homeless, she starts crying and says no Man can talk to her like that!

OH SHIT! I thought, you do not and I repeat DO NOT argue and piss off someone that is working on your CAR! Those two had a colorful word exchange, Granny continued to be pissed and cried the guy was a bit overwhelmed and left her standing there. Then Granny had to ask where an ATM was. She had to borrow money against her next months Social Security check.

Meanwhile I am outside sitting on a curb with the dogs and Jon. The parts truck arrives finally! DOH! Wrong part! So about 20 minutes later another parts truck comes. Well come to find out that Jeep did not make their own alternators for that year. It was either a Ford or GM one and either way it had to be rigged. At least that is what they said. I went inside to go to the bathroom and over heard the guy that had words with Granny. He said, to his fellow worker," I hope that lady realizes what kind of day I have had. I feel bad about the situation, but she attacked me. I just got back from a fender bender, not to mention what the rest of the day was like."

I went back outside and told Mom about his day. She started feeling bad about attacking him. It wasn't long before the two of them apologized to each other and the tension was finally broken. The car was fixed now and it was time for the journey to continue.

Let me take this time to fill you in a bit about Granny. Her childhood was not pretty. She was shuffled about in foster homes, abused by step mothers & foster people. Her Dad was an alcoholic. She watched him get her bunny rabbit so drunk it died. One of her Step Mothers used to make her get a rose bush branch and she would proceed to slap her and her sister on the back of legs with it. 

 She is the type of person people either Love or Hate and there is not much grey space. I have been on both sides with her. There have been times in my life I did not even talk to her. When I was growing up she was many things, church lady, alcoholic, divorcee, gay, Indian, cab driver(who wore men's clothes), cross country bike rider, musician, song writer, always sick with something or other. However she is a well educated person with gypsy like tendencies. The woman does not stay put long. She has moved at least 10 times in the past 2 years alone! She is a breast cancer survivor, has fibromyalgia, arthritis, and who knows what other ailment. She was at one point on SSI for mental, ya she drew a crazy check! She loves an adventure, loves reading, hiking and camping. One thing she is not is boring, the woman loves an adventure and just going with her anyplace always turns into just that!

Okay, so now we are back on the road. Driving Driving Driving...now its getting dark and I am almost out of gas once again. Oh there is a Stucky's! YAY maybe some hot food, get gas and drive on. Ya right! Its closed! Not opening until 6 am. 

We sit there and up drives a an old beat up pick up truck. It contains two men with barely a set of teeth between them and they have a cute puppy with them. They start talking to Granny, well flirting actually. They are both about 4 or 5 sheets to the wind, beer in hand and Granny proceeds to tell them about our story. Well these guys are drinking bottled beer in glass wine glasses, the truck is from Georgia and they say they live in New Mexico about 30 miles from the station. They ask Granny if we want to drink with them. OH MY GAWD! I can't believe the next words out of her mouth. "Hey Judy, these two want to know if we want a beer, you want one?" 

Hell NO! I can't believe she is serious, not to mention she is really considering going to their house! To camp in there yard! OMG...I am sitting on empty....looks up and thanks GOD! No I don't think I can make it that far...She looks a bit peeved, I guess its been awhile since anyone has flirted with her. Boy they were really grinning and chatting it up. I just sat in my car waiting for them to leave!

Then when I figured they were not going anywhere anytime soon I told Granny I was going to go to the truck lot get something to eat and try to sleep. HA! The winds were picking up and the truck lot was all dust! It was still hot so had to have the windows cracked open. Lots of dust and sand blowing in now. Finally Granny comes and parks by me and wants something to eat. Well not many choices here, so I got out a can of "Treat"...hell it looked like and smelled like dog food! lol 

Then here they come, the pickup truck guys. They had to give one more shot at Granny I guess. The older guy really had the hots for her. He asked again if we wanted to follow them, I said," No thanks, I do not have enough gas." They were nice enough yes, but I am not going to follow two drunk guys in a truck from out of state, out in the middle of nowhere with my boy and dogs in tow!

Anyway the pickup truck guy said,"what is that stuff? Dog Food?" I laughed and said "sure looks like it!" I made Granny a "Treat" sandwich and he took it and handed it to her in her car. The pickup truck guy got back in his truck and off they went. During this time Jonathan had been eating little weenies in a can. I did not realize he had fed most of them to Sammy D. Oh they were the barbecue kind. So we had a little nasty food and then proceeded to try and sleep.

Oh what the hell is that smell? Sammy D is trying to get out of the car. I get him on a leash and let him do his business. The smell is worse in the Jeep now. I asked Jon what happened back there. Oh he said, "I fed Sammy D my wieners and he got diarrhea all over back here!" It stinks Mommy! 
I know! 

Now I have to drive over to the dumpsters.  At least now it's daylight and almost time for the gas station to open back up. I take the blankets Sammy D soiled and threw them away! Screw it , need more room in here anyway!

It looks to be a really nice day for driving and plans were to drive out of New Mexico and back to Nebraska. We get to the fork in the road and stop to see how far we need to go. Granny says no way in hell she is going back over Raton Pass! GREAT! Its like 10 hour drive if we hit I-25 at this point, but NOOOOOOO! We have to go through the rest of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas to get back to Nebraska. I tried to suggest we just go through Raton Pass, it would be cheaper and not so much driving. However Granny wants to stay off the interstates. I have no choice, I do not have the money! So I followed her.

We came upon a cute little town outside of Raton. We went to the store and found a park to have a nice picnic in. We just kicked back a bit and then it was time for the 5 dollar campground hunt once again! They had a great campground about 10 miles outside that town. It was 10 dollars a night and there were no hosts or rangers to be found. Granny said, well she did not want to set up there. UGGG! Back to town we drive, she says she doesn't have enough money for a motel. At this time I am wondering if we have enough money for gas to even get back to Nebraska!

Then Granny decides, since she is Catholic(but doesn't go to church) that she will ask the town Priest if he knows a place we can stay. Of course Jonathan and I have to go with her, we bit the bullet and knocked on the door. Granny cracks me up, but dang she can be sooooo embarrassing at times! The Priest answers the door and gives us a once over, Granny starts in about the situation and how tired she is and that she is old etc. she starts to cry....*I think I rolled my eyes* Anyway the Priest said, just a minute, closed the door and left us standing there.

A couple minutes later he gave us a business card and said to go to this motel, that it was run by a woman in his parish. She would gladly give us each a room for the night. Oh yes! A bed, a shower, TV, air conditioning!!! YAY! 

So we drive the short distance to the Motel. The lady was just really really nice. Then she met Granny! Oh boy! Those two immediately hated each other, Granny did not want to leave her dog in the car. She stormed out of the office and went to sit in her car.

I looked at the woman and thanked her for offering us a room and told her I would go talk to my MOM. I begged Granny to keep the DOG in the car! I wanted to stay in the motel room, we needed the sleep! Especially after the night at Stuckys parking lot. So with crying eyes she agreed, she was actually to tired to argue. I went back in and smoothed things over with the woman. She was really nice to me, but by this time the two rooms had been downsized to one. I did not really care! I thanked her for the room. Granny was rather pissed still, she wanted her Dog and cat in the room. Hey its a free room! Take what you can get!

Oh it was soooo NICE! I got my necessary stuff out of the car, fed watered and walked the dogs. Parked the car under a tree and told the dogs they had to sleep in the car. Heck they were tired too and with Jonathan and me out of the car they had more room to stretch out. What troopers those dogs and Jonathan were this whole time.

I think that was the best shower I have ever had! It had been a few days and whew did I ever smell! Granny and Jonathan both got cleaned up too and we kicked back on the beds and watched some TV, ate some supper and passed out cold. Oh it was such a great nights rest. Even Granny was in a really good mood and she did not even mention anything about her dog. I went to get some free donuts and coffee after I had walked my dogs. They looked like they slept well too. Everyone was ready for another day.

Well part 5 has ended and part 6 will come around shortly...exploding pop and cops next!