I have always depended on the kindness of strangers ....
A.K.A. The Road Trip from Hell
Okay. Last ... Wednesday? My brother and I left to go to southern California, to visit some friends. Now, this isn't the first time he's gone, although he had a dramatic tale then, too*. I used to live there, so it shouldn't have been a big deal to me, either. But somehow, some cosmic combination of the two of us or divine influence telling us ... something, turned this into the Worst Road Trip Ever. With Capital Letters. Maybe even THE WORST ROAD TRIP EVER.
First of all, we were *supposed* to leave Tuesday, after I got off work. But my brother wanted to check the brakes on the car before we left, and found out that day that his little brother** had parked his car in the garage where all the tools were - and then left on a date with his wife. They came home about the same time we did, and the exchange was made, but by that point, we just decided to leave the next day, around 7:00 - 8:00am. So I packed my stuff since I hadn't bothered to do it earlier, chatted for awhile before saying my goodbyes to my Phoenix Family, and went to bed.
Lucky me, this turns out to be one of those nights where for some reason, my sleep apnea kicks into overdrive. Basically, I kept waking up feeling like was choking and couldn't breathe, and wanted to throw up. After about four hours of wrestling with this, I finally managed to fall asleep sitting up, which helped. And at 6:00am, my alarm went off.
I checked my e-mail and whatnot first in an effort to wake up better, and finally got up for a shower around 6:45. I poked my head into my brother's room to wake him up. He woke up enough to comment about oversleeping, and we'd just leave at 9:00 instead. I sighed, said fine, and went to get ready. By 8:00am I was in the kitchen eating breakfast and watching the Comedy Central channel. BIG MISTAKE. My brother comes in, and starts watching with me. I start reminding him to get ready, and finally just turn off the damn TV in hopes he'll hurry up. Instead he wandered back to his bedroom *to PACK*, and turned it on in there. Pissed off and annoyed by this time, I told him I'm taking a nap and to wake me when he's ready to go, 'cause I didn't get enough sleep.
About 11:30am he finally calls in to tell me he's about ready to go. >.<
We *FINALLY* get everything packed up and into the car, and head out to get gas and leave. We sent out text messages to the friends we were going to see and my Phoenix family to let them know we were leaving. I also managed to bully him into stopping by Starbucks, 'cause damn it, I wanted coffee if he was expecting me to keep him awake.
Oh, and he forgot the cooler we were going to bring. And the water for the car - just in case. I told him next time I make the Road Trip Checklist.
The actual drive there wasn't exactly horrible. Mostly. We spent 90% of the time talking about sex. Seriously. We even played a non-alcoholic version of I've Never. The car was starting to act up a little, with the battery light coming on every so often. He'd slam on the gas to rev the RPMs, and it'd go away. So we were a little worried, but it didn't seem like a big deal. We stopped in Las Vegas to give it a rest and check out the Adult MegaStore. (Which is strangely cool. Did you know they have body crayons, so you can draw on people? I *so* wanted to get some, but I didn't.) My biggest annoyance was that after my second cup of coffee, he suddenly decided to pull over for a nap. >.< I wanted to drive, and offered, but I can't because of medical reasons, so we napped for about five or six hours. We woke up, made it to SoCal, and ended up taking another nap to avoid morning rush hour which seriously annoyed me, 'cause I was just waking up.
The reason I say my brother and I have some sort of bad cosmic combination is that we have a tendency to get lost together. (Most of which I blame on him, for not listening to me.) While I was still waking up from the second impromptu nap, I muttered something about asking if he was taking the first or second exit for the street he wanted, 'cause I forgot which freeway we were on. As a result, we somehow managed to miss *every single* possible exit we could have taken. We ended up in Redondo Beach - which wasn't anywhere near where we were trying to go. There was a call to my sister*** who had been even more bewildered about how we got there than we were, so when we stopped for a restroom I gave in and bought a map. I directed him back to where we needed to be, got lost once again trying to find my sister's work because I always forget the second street we need, and *FINALLY* found her. We were exhausted, I was sending text messages to her that if I showed up with the car and no brother she knew nothing, and I was about ready to strangle him. But we were there.
After a fucking TWENTY-SIX hour road trip.
He told me it'd be thirteen to sixteen hours to get there. >.<
The actual vacation wasn't bad. I stayed at my sister's, role-playing and goofing off and raiding her manga whenever she was at work. We went out to dinner every night because she has no food in the kitchen (except for cereal). On Sunday we went to meet up with my brother and the sister he was staying with for lunch, which ended up being we ate somewhere, they ate somewhere, and then we all sat outside Ben n' Jerry's with ice cream for us and hot chocolate for them. Eventually we headed back to our place to hang out and have chiropractic needs performed, and that was about it. We were supposed to see a movie at some point, but the timing didn't work out. Sadly, that was all I got to see of my other sister, but at least I got to see her at all.
Now we get to the trip *back* to Idaho.
We were supposed to leave Tuesday morning. Again. My brother called at one point to ask if I minded leaving later, which I was annoyed by, but not being the driver it's not like I have any choice. So I finally told him I'd get ready and see him when he got there. Eventually he sent me a text saying he'd be there 8-10 (no am or pm mentioned, the bastard). He showed up at 11:30. My sister was pissed, because she had to work the next day. At that point she and I wanted to just have us stay there another night, and let him crash on the couch, but he insisted he wanted to get through the Mohave Desert while it was cool. So we left.
I was tired and cranky by that point, so I told him I was going to sleep. He agreed, 'cause I could help keep him up later. A couple hours later I woke up as he was starting to pull over to ask me to drive, but the car did that thing with the battery light again, so he kept going and I went back to sleep. A couple hours after that, he finally gave in and pulled over at an exit in the middle of nowhere to sleep, saying we'd try again after the car had a rest. At that point we were at nearly at Yeremo, the station where they check for fruit and veggies - we hadn't even made it out of California. I was seriously annoyed, and he admitted at that point we probably *should* have just stayed the night with my sister and left the next morning.
We were woken up the next day by a highway patrolman.
Now, I don't like cops. It's nothing personal exactly, it's just that I've had bad experiences with them in the past. So being woken up by one was not on my list of Happy Things for the Day. But this guy was surprisingly nice and helpful, telling us it was just a welfare check, and that we could find an auto store a few miles behind us, in Barstow.
So we headed back. The guy at Kragen couldn't pinpoint anything specific, just that the battery wasn't holding a charge. So my brother bought a little solar cell charger for the battery just in chase, deciding it was cheaper than buying an extra battery 'cause we had limited funds. We stopped for burritos at Del Taco, I got more coffee, and then we headed out again.
The car was still acting up with the battery light. And unfortunately, the jerking from all the accelerating and decelerating was making me car sick, so I spent most of the day asleep. We were finally in Utah when the car battery was so low we *had* to stop. The last twenty miles during sunset we had no headlights, no gages, and were pretty much running on steam. The car died as we hit the stop sign at the exit for some place called Meadow. We had to push it just up the street to the Shell station, which happened to have an open garage. Thankfully, three guys ran over from the Chevron across the street to help about halfway there, so we made it. The guys at the garage charged our battery while I updated my sister and my brother's parents on the situation. After they finished, my brother said he wanted to stay the night there so we wouldn't have to drain the battery any more by using headlights.
This would have been okay except for one serious problem. It hit about forty degrees that night. With us sleeping in the little car, with only a light blanket each. And I get cold *very* easily. At one point I woke up enough to hear my brother ask if I was okay. I sort of managed a "No, I'm fucking *freezing*." And I usually don't specifically say *fucking* freezing unless I'm losing feeling somewhere. So he threw part of his blanket across me, exclaimed about how cold I really was, and spent some time warming me up until I could fall asleep again.
I woke up the next day and found the Shell was open again, so I went to use the bathroom, waking my brother up in the process so we could get moving. We got gas and headed out. We never made it far.
The car died, again, in the middle of nowhere. We got as far as to pull over to the side of the road on an exit, and turned the car off. After that, it was *completely* dead. No power whatsoever. We hooked up the solar charger again, and waited for it to work.
I was getting seriously pissed off by now because I was tired and frustrated, to the point that I actually told my brother I was going to get out and walk a little. I wandered around for a bit of my cell phone going 'We've got signal! - oh wait, no we don't', and fought the urge to throw it onto the highway. Eventually my knees started protesting all the walking, because my brother had accidentally shut the door against one of them earlier, so I wandered back to the car trying not to growl. I think he'd noticed my temper, because he went walking in the other direction when I was on my way back. Apparently he found a cell phone signal a little further ahead and managed to get a hold of his dad to let him know what was going on.
We sat parked out there for about four hours. I'm not sure how hot it was, but I was roasting. And hungry. I hadn't eaten more than crackers since the burritos the day before because of feeling car sick, so my body was starting to remind me that I *am* pre-diabetic. We had water and I had a diet soda, but it wasn't enough. I was hot, I was starting to feel weak, and my brother was looking a little worried because the car *still* wouldn't start.
Then, salvation. His dad had called a Uhaul place in Nephi, Utah to order a trailer, because he was coming to get us. He also arranged for someone to come pick us up and take us to Nephi to wait for him at the Trucker's Lounge, so we wouldn't still be sitting out in the sun.
Seeing that little SUV pull up and say they were here to get us was the best news I'd had all day.
I felt bad for the poor kids that came for us, though. We hadn't been able to shower since the night before, and we'd been out in the hot sun for hours ... you get the idea. It sort of hit me when I noticed the air conditioning was on and the girl was rolling down her window. When we pulled into the gas station that had the trucker's lounge, I literally squealed "Showers!"
We thanked them profusely, got out, and I made a bee-line for the lounge to find a shower. I had to buy a set of car washing towels for drying off and there was mold in the corners of the stall, but damn it, that was the best shower I've ever had. I finally felt like a semi-reasonable human being again. Then I kidnapped my brother and dragged him over to the Subway next door to inhale some food.
We waited in the trucker's lounge for about two and half hours before we got word that someone was out front looking for us. My brother's dad, the wonderful man that he is, had taken time off work and borrowed his father, and his father's truck, to come get us and the car. They'd even had the foresight to have someone provide them with patio cushions and sleeping bags to toss in the bed of the truck for us to lay on, since there wasn't enough room in the cab. My brother's grandpa was actually quite amused by the whole adventure, teasing us a little about it. By then I was calmer and *much* happier, so I didn't mind. I sent a text to my Phoenix family to let them know we finally had a ride home, since my sister had let us know they were worried, and we went to rescue the car.
Riding in the bed of the truck was actually kind of interesting. I couldn't see anything more than the sky, so trying to figure out where we were was fun. My brother and I talked a bit, napped a little, and talked some more. The truck was pretty old, so we got woken up by rattling a lot. And a couple times they stopped to check and make sure we were okay. But with all the cushioning and sleeping bags, it wasn't too bad.
Although I never did get an answer from my brother's dad if it's illegal to ride in the bed of the truck in states besides California.
We pretty much flew home just in time to drop my brother off at work, five minutes to midnight, just before his shift started. I'm honestly not sure if we would have made it if anyone but his dad had been driving. The guys brought me home, and I waited around to help them push the car off the trailer. It finally took all three of us, and the thing promptly rolled off the trailer and into a tree. -_-;; But the car was only scratched, and it was better the tree than the backyard fence where the dogs were, so.
I finally came into the house about 12:30am, dragging my laptop, sweatshirt, toiletries, and my brother's bag and jacket. I made it into my room before his mom came to see me. Apparently she had just come home to find his dad gone, and couldn't sleep until she knew we were home and safe. I love her. ♥ So I gave her the whole story, with a few comments from my brother's dad. Then they headed to bed, and I sent out a text message to let everyone know we were home, and that my brother had been repeatedly told the next time he wants to go to SoCal, he's flying. I signed on to the net for a bit to check in with my Phoenix Family and make sure they got the message, and finally crashed about 2:30am.
And so ends The Road Trip from Hell. But not without a parting gift! Because after all that, and all of the extreme temperature changes and lack of nutrition we suffered, I'm now sick. I'm not sure if it's a cold of the flu, but I feel generally miserable.
Yay, me.
*His car's engine blew up in Arizona. Seriously. He had to hitchhike home.
** When I say my brother, we're not actually related. He's been my best friend for almost ten years now, and I love him as a brother, so that's what I call him. So I'm not actually related to his family; they've just been letting me stay here while I sort things out.
*** Same story for my sisters; they're really friends I've known for years, that I consider to be my family.
Okay. Last ... Wednesday? My brother and I left to go to southern California, to visit some friends. Now, this isn't the first time he's gone, although he had a dramatic tale then, too*. I used to live there, so it shouldn't have been a big deal to me, either. But somehow, some cosmic combination of the two of us or divine influence telling us ... something, turned this into the Worst Road Trip Ever. With Capital Letters. Maybe even THE WORST ROAD TRIP EVER.
First of all, we were *supposed* to leave Tuesday, after I got off work. But my brother wanted to check the brakes on the car before we left, and found out that day that his little brother** had parked his car in the garage where all the tools were - and then left on a date with his wife. They came home about the same time we did, and the exchange was made, but by that point, we just decided to leave the next day, around 7:00 - 8:00am. So I packed my stuff since I hadn't bothered to do it earlier, chatted for awhile before saying my goodbyes to my Phoenix Family, and went to bed.
Lucky me, this turns out to be one of those nights where for some reason, my sleep apnea kicks into overdrive. Basically, I kept waking up feeling like was choking and couldn't breathe, and wanted to throw up. After about four hours of wrestling with this, I finally managed to fall asleep sitting up, which helped. And at 6:00am, my alarm went off.
I checked my e-mail and whatnot first in an effort to wake up better, and finally got up for a shower around 6:45. I poked my head into my brother's room to wake him up. He woke up enough to comment about oversleeping, and we'd just leave at 9:00 instead. I sighed, said fine, and went to get ready. By 8:00am I was in the kitchen eating breakfast and watching the Comedy Central channel. BIG MISTAKE. My brother comes in, and starts watching with me. I start reminding him to get ready, and finally just turn off the damn TV in hopes he'll hurry up. Instead he wandered back to his bedroom *to PACK*, and turned it on in there. Pissed off and annoyed by this time, I told him I'm taking a nap and to wake me when he's ready to go, 'cause I didn't get enough sleep.
About 11:30am he finally calls in to tell me he's about ready to go. >.<
We *FINALLY* get everything packed up and into the car, and head out to get gas and leave. We sent out text messages to the friends we were going to see and my Phoenix family to let them know we were leaving. I also managed to bully him into stopping by Starbucks, 'cause damn it, I wanted coffee if he was expecting me to keep him awake.
Oh, and he forgot the cooler we were going to bring. And the water for the car - just in case. I told him next time I make the Road Trip Checklist.
The actual drive there wasn't exactly horrible. Mostly. We spent 90% of the time talking about sex. Seriously. We even played a non-alcoholic version of I've Never. The car was starting to act up a little, with the battery light coming on every so often. He'd slam on the gas to rev the RPMs, and it'd go away. So we were a little worried, but it didn't seem like a big deal. We stopped in Las Vegas to give it a rest and check out the Adult MegaStore. (Which is strangely cool. Did you know they have body crayons, so you can draw on people? I *so* wanted to get some, but I didn't.) My biggest annoyance was that after my second cup of coffee, he suddenly decided to pull over for a nap. >.< I wanted to drive, and offered, but I can't because of medical reasons, so we napped for about five or six hours. We woke up, made it to SoCal, and ended up taking another nap to avoid morning rush hour which seriously annoyed me, 'cause I was just waking up.
The reason I say my brother and I have some sort of bad cosmic combination is that we have a tendency to get lost together. (Most of which I blame on him, for not listening to me.) While I was still waking up from the second impromptu nap, I muttered something about asking if he was taking the first or second exit for the street he wanted, 'cause I forgot which freeway we were on. As a result, we somehow managed to miss *every single* possible exit we could have taken. We ended up in Redondo Beach - which wasn't anywhere near where we were trying to go. There was a call to my sister*** who had been even more bewildered about how we got there than we were, so when we stopped for a restroom I gave in and bought a map. I directed him back to where we needed to be, got lost once again trying to find my sister's work because I always forget the second street we need, and *FINALLY* found her. We were exhausted, I was sending text messages to her that if I showed up with the car and no brother she knew nothing, and I was about ready to strangle him. But we were there.
After a fucking TWENTY-SIX hour road trip.
He told me it'd be thirteen to sixteen hours to get there. >.<
The actual vacation wasn't bad. I stayed at my sister's, role-playing and goofing off and raiding her manga whenever she was at work. We went out to dinner every night because she has no food in the kitchen (except for cereal). On Sunday we went to meet up with my brother and the sister he was staying with for lunch, which ended up being we ate somewhere, they ate somewhere, and then we all sat outside Ben n' Jerry's with ice cream for us and hot chocolate for them. Eventually we headed back to our place to hang out and have chiropractic needs performed, and that was about it. We were supposed to see a movie at some point, but the timing didn't work out. Sadly, that was all I got to see of my other sister, but at least I got to see her at all.
Now we get to the trip *back* to Idaho.
We were supposed to leave Tuesday morning. Again. My brother called at one point to ask if I minded leaving later, which I was annoyed by, but not being the driver it's not like I have any choice. So I finally told him I'd get ready and see him when he got there. Eventually he sent me a text saying he'd be there 8-10 (no am or pm mentioned, the bastard). He showed up at 11:30. My sister was pissed, because she had to work the next day. At that point she and I wanted to just have us stay there another night, and let him crash on the couch, but he insisted he wanted to get through the Mohave Desert while it was cool. So we left.
I was tired and cranky by that point, so I told him I was going to sleep. He agreed, 'cause I could help keep him up later. A couple hours later I woke up as he was starting to pull over to ask me to drive, but the car did that thing with the battery light again, so he kept going and I went back to sleep. A couple hours after that, he finally gave in and pulled over at an exit in the middle of nowhere to sleep, saying we'd try again after the car had a rest. At that point we were at nearly at Yeremo, the station where they check for fruit and veggies - we hadn't even made it out of California. I was seriously annoyed, and he admitted at that point we probably *should* have just stayed the night with my sister and left the next morning.
We were woken up the next day by a highway patrolman.
Now, I don't like cops. It's nothing personal exactly, it's just that I've had bad experiences with them in the past. So being woken up by one was not on my list of Happy Things for the Day. But this guy was surprisingly nice and helpful, telling us it was just a welfare check, and that we could find an auto store a few miles behind us, in Barstow.
So we headed back. The guy at Kragen couldn't pinpoint anything specific, just that the battery wasn't holding a charge. So my brother bought a little solar cell charger for the battery just in chase, deciding it was cheaper than buying an extra battery 'cause we had limited funds. We stopped for burritos at Del Taco, I got more coffee, and then we headed out again.
The car was still acting up with the battery light. And unfortunately, the jerking from all the accelerating and decelerating was making me car sick, so I spent most of the day asleep. We were finally in Utah when the car battery was so low we *had* to stop. The last twenty miles during sunset we had no headlights, no gages, and were pretty much running on steam. The car died as we hit the stop sign at the exit for some place called Meadow. We had to push it just up the street to the Shell station, which happened to have an open garage. Thankfully, three guys ran over from the Chevron across the street to help about halfway there, so we made it. The guys at the garage charged our battery while I updated my sister and my brother's parents on the situation. After they finished, my brother said he wanted to stay the night there so we wouldn't have to drain the battery any more by using headlights.
This would have been okay except for one serious problem. It hit about forty degrees that night. With us sleeping in the little car, with only a light blanket each. And I get cold *very* easily. At one point I woke up enough to hear my brother ask if I was okay. I sort of managed a "No, I'm fucking *freezing*." And I usually don't specifically say *fucking* freezing unless I'm losing feeling somewhere. So he threw part of his blanket across me, exclaimed about how cold I really was, and spent some time warming me up until I could fall asleep again.
I woke up the next day and found the Shell was open again, so I went to use the bathroom, waking my brother up in the process so we could get moving. We got gas and headed out. We never made it far.
The car died, again, in the middle of nowhere. We got as far as to pull over to the side of the road on an exit, and turned the car off. After that, it was *completely* dead. No power whatsoever. We hooked up the solar charger again, and waited for it to work.
I was getting seriously pissed off by now because I was tired and frustrated, to the point that I actually told my brother I was going to get out and walk a little. I wandered around for a bit of my cell phone going 'We've got signal! - oh wait, no we don't', and fought the urge to throw it onto the highway. Eventually my knees started protesting all the walking, because my brother had accidentally shut the door against one of them earlier, so I wandered back to the car trying not to growl. I think he'd noticed my temper, because he went walking in the other direction when I was on my way back. Apparently he found a cell phone signal a little further ahead and managed to get a hold of his dad to let him know what was going on.
We sat parked out there for about four hours. I'm not sure how hot it was, but I was roasting. And hungry. I hadn't eaten more than crackers since the burritos the day before because of feeling car sick, so my body was starting to remind me that I *am* pre-diabetic. We had water and I had a diet soda, but it wasn't enough. I was hot, I was starting to feel weak, and my brother was looking a little worried because the car *still* wouldn't start.
Then, salvation. His dad had called a Uhaul place in Nephi, Utah to order a trailer, because he was coming to get us. He also arranged for someone to come pick us up and take us to Nephi to wait for him at the Trucker's Lounge, so we wouldn't still be sitting out in the sun.
Seeing that little SUV pull up and say they were here to get us was the best news I'd had all day.
I felt bad for the poor kids that came for us, though. We hadn't been able to shower since the night before, and we'd been out in the hot sun for hours ... you get the idea. It sort of hit me when I noticed the air conditioning was on and the girl was rolling down her window. When we pulled into the gas station that had the trucker's lounge, I literally squealed "Showers!"
We thanked them profusely, got out, and I made a bee-line for the lounge to find a shower. I had to buy a set of car washing towels for drying off and there was mold in the corners of the stall, but damn it, that was the best shower I've ever had. I finally felt like a semi-reasonable human being again. Then I kidnapped my brother and dragged him over to the Subway next door to inhale some food.
We waited in the trucker's lounge for about two and half hours before we got word that someone was out front looking for us. My brother's dad, the wonderful man that he is, had taken time off work and borrowed his father, and his father's truck, to come get us and the car. They'd even had the foresight to have someone provide them with patio cushions and sleeping bags to toss in the bed of the truck for us to lay on, since there wasn't enough room in the cab. My brother's grandpa was actually quite amused by the whole adventure, teasing us a little about it. By then I was calmer and *much* happier, so I didn't mind. I sent a text to my Phoenix family to let them know we finally had a ride home, since my sister had let us know they were worried, and we went to rescue the car.
Riding in the bed of the truck was actually kind of interesting. I couldn't see anything more than the sky, so trying to figure out where we were was fun. My brother and I talked a bit, napped a little, and talked some more. The truck was pretty old, so we got woken up by rattling a lot. And a couple times they stopped to check and make sure we were okay. But with all the cushioning and sleeping bags, it wasn't too bad.
Although I never did get an answer from my brother's dad if it's illegal to ride in the bed of the truck in states besides California.
We pretty much flew home just in time to drop my brother off at work, five minutes to midnight, just before his shift started. I'm honestly not sure if we would have made it if anyone but his dad had been driving. The guys brought me home, and I waited around to help them push the car off the trailer. It finally took all three of us, and the thing promptly rolled off the trailer and into a tree. -_-;; But the car was only scratched, and it was better the tree than the backyard fence where the dogs were, so.
I finally came into the house about 12:30am, dragging my laptop, sweatshirt, toiletries, and my brother's bag and jacket. I made it into my room before his mom came to see me. Apparently she had just come home to find his dad gone, and couldn't sleep until she knew we were home and safe. I love her. ♥ So I gave her the whole story, with a few comments from my brother's dad. Then they headed to bed, and I sent out a text message to let everyone know we were home, and that my brother had been repeatedly told the next time he wants to go to SoCal, he's flying. I signed on to the net for a bit to check in with my Phoenix Family and make sure they got the message, and finally crashed about 2:30am.
And so ends The Road Trip from Hell. But not without a parting gift! Because after all that, and all of the extreme temperature changes and lack of nutrition we suffered, I'm now sick. I'm not sure if it's a cold of the flu, but I feel generally miserable.
Yay, me.
*His car's engine blew up in Arizona. Seriously. He had to hitchhike home.
** When I say my brother, we're not actually related. He's been my best friend for almost ten years now, and I love him as a brother, so that's what I call him. So I'm not actually related to his family; they've just been letting me stay here while I sort things out.
*** Same story for my sisters; they're really friends I've known for years, that I consider to be my family.