July 18: These Things Don't Happen to Other People, Do They?

ow day's post is dedicated to the men in blue who actually do serve and protect.

"The cost of kindness is nothing. It's a simple action that can change the course of a day or even a life."

State Police office who couldn't help me because he was busy looking at the fallen tree and the coveralls guy looking at his cell phone.

service vehicles from the opposite direction

The plow that had no trouble going around me

Always the scenic route

Look how straight Rocky backed up that trailer! WooHoo!

Yeah, I did this because someone stole my spare tire cover.

So at 9:30 I was supposed to hitch up my trailer, go back to the wedding venue and have breakfast with everyone. I got up in plenty of time - hitched up the trailer without any problems. Went to the campgrounds dumping station and flushed out the gray and black water tanks and I was on my way at 9:15. Of course, it's still raining, not hard now - thank goodness - BUT, Have I mentioned? - I AM SO SICK OF THE RAIN! I am tooling along, make a left hand turn that is at the top of a hill that is probably at a 45 degree angle, so I can't see what is beyond. As I make the turn and now am on the 45 degree, I see two state police vehicles and several trucks all with flashing lights to indicate a fallen tree across the road at the bottom of this steep hill. I put my car in park, set the emergency brake, and get out of the car to ask for help in turning around. The officer says to me, "No, we can't do that." I mean they were just standing there looking at the fallen tree - trying to decide if anyone heard it. I had to ask again because I thought it was his job to help people in need. It says so right on the side of his vehicle. My guess is he saw my license plates and made a personal decision. So, I go back to my car. Another man in coveralls came to my window and said I should back up. I said I'd love to do that if someone can help me, but when I put my car in reverse it would not back up, would not go into gear, and made a horrible sound. I was worried that I might have damaged my transmission. So, I tried going forward. I inched forward about a foot. This clearly made the officer upset. He said he wan't, but his body language said the opposite. He said, "Clearly, you don't have control of your trailer and now you're blocking the way for the vehicles coming to clear the road." I said, "What would you suggest that I do? I can't go backwards because my car won't do that." He said, "Fine then, just don't do anything." (Like I had any other options.) So I didn't do anything - I waited for an hour for the tree to be cleared away. By the way - The vehicles that cleared the roadway came from the opposite direction. When I was directed to I completed my trip down the hill and up the other side. When I was able to stop, I tested reverse and all worked fine. I couldn't reverse because the hill was too steep for my car to push the camper uphill. Ya know, while I was waiting the hour for the tree to be removed several cars made that turn and had to turn around. If one of the officers had left his car at the top of the hill blocking the turn - it would have never happened - but of course, I'm just a stupid woman, what do I know?

Now it's too late for breakfast, I haven't had any caffeine and I have a blasting headache. Doesn't make sense to go to the wedding venue - so I head back to the farm. I found a Dunkin Donuts along the way - ordered a Chai latte with almond milk and avocado toast - yep at DD's I got the dogs a grilled cheese and we were off again. We stopped one more time before we got back to the farm. This time at the rest stop in Saratoga Springs where the horse track is. I took the dog's picture with the I heart New York sign and filled up the gas tank. As we were leaving the rest stop there were three cut outs of race horses in metal. Jean-Luc went crazy barking. I think he really doesn't understand the difference between live animals and fake animals.

We arrived back at the farm around 2:30. I was going to park my car and camper and leave it for Terry to back in for me, but then I thought, "What am I going to do for an hour?" So, I first looked up YouTube videos on backing up a trailer, which were not helpful - too much extra info and too much talking - not enough showing. I Googled it - and found: How to Back up a Trailer in 10 Easy Steps. I followed those stops and discovered that I can do hard things. No, it was NOT EASY, but I did it. I unhitched my car, plugged into electric and water, and leveled the trailer before Terry and Jackie got back. Yay me! I felt like Rocky Balboa. I was down, but I came back swinging and conquered my fear of backing up the trailer. That's what this trip is really all about for me. Facing the things that make my blood pressure go up - overcoming - and getting zen with them. Terry and Jackie took me out for dinner at a place called The Barn, which is exactly that, a converted old barn. The food was really good, garlic fries and an angus burger. It's Sunday, so I had a cocktail named The Pain Killer. I don't know the reason for the name, but it was excellent: rum with pineapple juice, coconut milk, and a liqueur that I can't remember. When we got home, we watched the third episode of Wellington Paranormal - Hysterical!