Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
Trying again
Good morning, Amarillo! It’s 0500 and I’m wide awake drinking bad hotel coffee. Pretty soon I will have a quick breakfast and then point myself towards the New Mexico border, a mere 100 miles away. I expect to be in Santa Fe, at Sheila and Barrett’s house by mid-afternoon.
Yesterday’s drive was smoother than my escapade in May when I met a flying piece of sheet metal near Miami, Oklahoma. Even so, this drive felt like a slog for much of the day. I had to stop more often than usual because I inadvertently swallowed my diuretic before I left home. Lasix is no respecter of a road trip with miles between rest stops. I will not make that mistake today because there are long stretches of New Mexico where my only option would be unacceptable, if not impossible.
I did not escape unscathed, though. While on the Oklahoma turnpike – it cost me $10 to get through the turnpike toll stations – I got a confusing message on my dashboard. Suddenly there was a warning: “Cruise Control is not available”. I was caught off guard because I’d been using cruise control to moderate my lead foot and it worked all the way through Missouri. There’s something about Oklahoma…Not wanting to believe it, I kept trying to engage the cruise control only to be given the same message.
So I found an exit with a Quik Trip where I could stop and call my Toyota guy in Saint Louis. I mostly wanted to ask whether or not the car would implode if I kept driving. So, the service department guy on call at Seeger Toyota took me on. I explained the situation, to which he responded, “Huh”. I asked him what I was facing and he helpfully told me I had no cruise control. It was his opinion that I could keep driving safely.
There was so much highway construction around the Quik Trip that my GPS lady, Sister Bridget, got very stern, insisting I make turns where there should have been access to Highway 44. Instead there were lanes closed off and under construction and the two of us were temporarily lost. Fortunately I have a good sense of direction so I took streets that were aimed at the highway until I found a way on to the westbound lanes.
To pass the time I chatted with everyone on my dashboard call list: Jan, Ted, Jackie and Rose. Ted was up to his elbows installing a new turbo-whatsit on his old, but completely refurbished Saab. He has learned to be his own mechanic at the University of You Tube. It is good for his philosopher’s mind to have something concrete and useful to do with his hands. Jackie was driving home from Queens to New Jersey, which always offers at least a 45 minute window of time for conversation. The Momoh family spent a productive weekend working on the A-frame they are building in upstate New York. Jan reported on her day, and the questions she will be asking her primary care doc when she sees him today. And Rose was home with a brand new haircut. I figure I passed a couple of hours checking in.
Today I think I’ll call Katie. We are always good for at least a 45 minute conversation, much of which is taken up by laughing at the latest absurdities of life. She also loves New Mexico, so I’ll call her when I’m over the border, leaving Texass behind. By this afternoon my eyes will take in the mountains, the pinon trees, the big blue sky, and best of all, my precious friends.