Sunday, July 21, 2019

Another day that started out so nice and calm and lovely and ENDED IN A CRAZY FRENZY OF *%$#&**%& what just happened??

We joined our local and long time friends Lyndel and Carrie Moe at their church then we all went to lunch at a BBQ place called Big Hoffa’s BBQ. And, I’m sorry to say, I was so hungry that I once again forgot to take any pictures. We got a sampler platter that we all shared. Brisket, ribs, rib tips, mac & cheese, garlic rolls (to die for!) and seasoned french fries. All fabulous.

Then we went back to the hotel in a food coma. Dave stretched out on the bed to “study,” but soon fell asleep. I read for a bit. We got an email saying we had a go-ahead to take the trailer to the venue for tomorrow’s event, a city hall in a small town, Beech Grove, surrounded by the greater metropolis of Indianapolis, about 30 minutes away from us.

Dave woke around 4, and we hooked up the trailer and headed out. Except my trusty Google maps app showed an accident on the freeway was causing a significant delay, about 20 minutes. There were two alternate routes. Greater Indianapolis is surrounded by a freeway, the 465. It goes East, West, North and South. I’m not kidding. One of the alternate routes just took the 465 the opposite direction. That was about 10 minutes longer. The other alternate route went straight through Indianapolis and was only about 6 minutes longer. So … I chose that one. The other two routes, I cross-checked with our trucker/RV/annoying-harpy-app. (Remember her from yesterday?) But I neglected to check the through-town route with her. (You see where this is going, right?)

Sure enough. We were 3 miles from our destination (after going through some reeeeaaallly sketchy neighborhoods and narrow residential roads with low hanging branches), Dave looked ahead, and there’s an overpass we have to go under labeled 10′ 7″. The trailer is 13′ 5″. Uh oh. The trucker/RV/annoying-harpy app knows our dimensions. *&^%#&(^@$!!!! Though no one actually swore.

And by God’s grace, Dave saw it in time. So we pulled into a parking lot and I opened the trucker/RV/annoying-harpy app and she was able to get us there without much further incidence. In a bit of poetic justice, we had to stop for seven minutes for a train that if we were three and a half feet lower, we could have avoided by going under the bridge on the original route.

But anyway …

We made it to the venue, only to discover that the parking directions we’d been given were for a one-way street and we’d be facing the wrong way. Sigh. I had a phone number for a local contact to call. Which I did. And she ignored it. Because it was an unfamiliar number at 6 pm on a Sunday. I get it. I left a message. She called me right back. She’s local, so came over right away. We showed her our dilemma. The trailer has doors on one side. The wrong side for the one way street. We decided to pull the trailer around the wrong way.

Our plan had been to set the trailer up completely, do a couple of practice tours with each other. By then, it was almost 7 pm. Rain was predicted for 7 pm. Clouds were gathering. We unhooked the trailer from the truck. We put up cones to save a spot for the truck tomorrow. And so much for any practicing. We left.

We have to be back there at 4 am tomorrow.

The good news is that the accident was on the opposite side of the freeway, so we could use the freeway to go back to our hotel. The bad news is that we could see there will be freeway construction going on in the middle of the night. Just when we need to be coming back. So we’ll be taking the second freeway option in the morning.

As we pulled off the freeway for our hotel, we passed a White Castle. Another non-California (or non-Central Valley?? chain) that we’d planned to visit. We’ve heard good and bad about it, but decided to pick up some sliders and have a quick dinner in our room. We just ate, and now we’re going to bed. We have to be up at 2:30, to leave by 3:00. We want to be on site by 3:30-3:35, because we still have to set up the trailer (which we didn’t do tonight–see above re: parking, one-way street, and rain woes) and be ready to go by 4 am. So no pictures for today’s post. I did take a few, but … good night!!