The next day we headed to Miramar Beach, just past Destin. I had found a great little RV park just two blocks from the beach. This worked out perfectly; I was on the road working the next two days, so Molly and the kids were able to walk down to the beach while I was away. I love the Destin area, and the beaches are hard to beat here in the U.S., but the traffic was hideous and any short drive turned into an hour-long ordeal.
On Sunday, we made the considerable drive over to Pensacola to attend service at Bro. Brian Kinsey's church. Aside from knowing the Kinsey's and having been to service there before, I also wanted to see David Geri, my Dean of Music when I attended Bible College. who has been the music director at their church for the past seven years. The service was fantastic - great worship, the presence of God moved, good preaching, and an even better response. We ended up grabbing dinner with the Geri's afterward, followed by yogurt after, and although we stayed far too late (we had a 1.5 hour drive back home), we enjoyed getting to catch up and reminisce. Seeing friends who don't live near us is one of the many reasons we're on this journey.
Fortunately I didn't have to go anywhere Monday or Tuesday, so both days we went to the beach as soon as I finished working. Wednesday morning we packed everything away and headed to Tampa by way of Tallahassee because I needed to make a quick stop there. The trip went fine until we were about twenty miles outside of Tallahassee. I had noticed we were getting low on fuel and would need to get gas soon, but once we started looking, we didn't see any convenient places to fill up. As the gauge hit empty we still weren't to our destination and I still hadn't spotted a gas station that our rig would fit into. At this point, it also started pouring down rain. After running on empty for a few miles, I finally took an exit out of desperation. I knew it had gas stations but I didn't know if we could fit into them. We could not. Unfortunately, after discovering that we couldn't fit into either station we saw, there was also no place for us to turn around and get back on the freeway. I finally spotted a parking lot I could pull into that would allow me to turn back across traffic when I exited. As I carefully made the right and then left turn into the parking lot, up a slight incline, my truck just came to a stop. I was going very slowly, so at first I thought that I had simply butted up against a curb that was causing some resistance. After giving it some gas, I could clearly tell that wasn't the case because we didn't budge. My next thought was that we were high centered, which brought along terrible thoughts of tow trucks, high bills, and a messed up schedule. When I hopped out to observe what was going on, I realized that we weren't high centered, but rather the back bumper of my trailer was sitting on the asphalt. This was caused by the incline of the parking lot and my lack of room to angle my turn. I couldn't back up, so the only thing to do was go forward. Keep in mind that it's pouring down rain, so by this point I'm soaked. I hop back in the truck, throw it in drive, hit the gas, and...nothing. The tires spin. It's wet, I'm on an incline, my 42' trailer behind me is sitting on the ground, and for a moment I had to swallow the panicky flush of thoughts that careened through my mind. After four-wheel high did nothing, I put that bad boy in four-wheel low and around 4500rpm's it lurched and we broke free. Thanking God for my decision to buy a truck with four-wheel drive, I jumped out to inspect the damage. Surprisingly, the bumper was only slightly bent upwards in the back and had a few scratches underneath, but aside from that everything else was fine.
At this point, you might be thinking that it can only get better from here, but you would be wrong. As we get to the other end of the parking lot, I realize that we can't, in fact, turn back toward the direction we had come, so we had to continue going the wrong direction, which was further into the city (not good when your total length is almost 56'), and away from where we needed to be. By the time I was able to turn onto a side street that would allow us to head back toward where we needed to go, the onboard computer told me we had four miles to empty. As we approached the freeway again I was looking expectantly for a gas station, but in addition to not finding one, we also discovered that there was no on-ramp! Wet, frustrated, driving in a downpour, and on empty, we were now having to cut through a subdivision to get back to a point we think will allow us back on the freeway. This area of Florida has many beautiful trees - trees that like to hang across roadways. After dodging myriad branches and praying to not run out of gas, we finally made it back to the freeway, only to find that again, there is no on-ramp. At this point we were only about five miles away from the office I needed to visit, so we circled to the nearest on-ramp and headed there, hoping a gas station would be nearby. Knowing I wouldn't be able to park at the office, I had previously mapped a route to a Hobby Lobby about a block away since they would have a lot I could park in. As we pull up to the intersection just shy of Hobby Lobby, there are three gas stations surrounding us...and we couldn't fit in any of them. Having already wasted a fair amount of time and losing an hour crossing over time zones, I didn't want to miss my meeting so I headed straight for Hobby Lobby and parked. It was still raining hard enough that the parking lot had rivers of water a couple of inches deep running through it. I grabbed my umbrella and made the trek over to my clients office, looking like a wet puppy dog when I walked in. Molly and the kids wandered through Hobby Lobby while waiting for me, which I'm pretty sure was a nice reprieve from the tension-filled truck ride. After leaving the meeting, I walked across the road to a gas station, bought a gas can, filled it up with diesel, and away we went.
Again, you may be thinking that this horrendous travel experience was over, but sadly you would be wrong again. We were finally back on the freeway headed toward Tampa, and typically truck stops or large service stations are in abundance, but on this day, they were not. After traveling for another twenty miles, we were again on empty and needing to find somewhere to stop quickly. I pulled off at an exit that indicated it had gas, still not knowing if it would be large enough to fit us. It was - barely - so we pulled in and straight up to the pump. Only the pump I pulled up to had no computer. It had the pump but was completely unusable. Because of space confinements, I had to pull through and circle the station to get back around to another pump. As I pulled back around, none of the pumps are on the side that I need them, so around we went again, but this time the opposite direction. Just know that this circling business isn't as easy as it sounds in a crowded gas station. Finally filled up, we were again on the road. Thankfully the rest of the drive was fine. It's a fairly long haul from Tallahassee to Tampa, but aside from that, the trip went smoothly. We arrived around 11:30 Wednesday night. Setting up the trailer went quickly, and exhausted, we all climbed into bed.
The RV park we're at is beautiful; it sits right on Bay Bayou, and is covered in large sprawling trees. Thursday and Friday I worked while Molly and the kids hung out and went to the pool. Yesterday I let Molly take the truck and get out of the house for a while. She showed back up a few hours later with Starbucks and Target bags...can't say I was too surprised. :-)
Today we attended service at Victory Tabernacle, just ten minute up the road from us. Their worship service was phenomenal and it felt good to be in the house of God, feeling His presence. We were fortunate to have become acquainted with the pastor, Rashidi Collins, a few years ago when he preached at one of our youth conferences. He preached a fantastic message today and God moved. For the first time since we left it felt a little bit like home.
My in-laws drove in today to visit us (really just to see the grandkids) for a few days, so after quick lunch we headed back to the trailer and I spent an hour detailing my truck since my FIL always gives me grief about it. Our one stipulation of their visit was that they book a room large enough for the kids to stay with them, and that they would be keeping the kids a few nights. They agreed and we were probably far more elated than we should be. They made it in a little while ago and we grabbed dinner before coming back to the RV for some quality time. Molly and I will actually get our first kid-free break since we left home. *Here, hold my computer while I shout*
As I reflected on the tough travel day we had, I made sure to thank God for keeping us and our house safe, and that our "misfortune" was so minimal. In an attempt to make me feel better about the whole ordeal, Molly said, "Maybe it was a test to see how you reacted and how patient you were!" While I'm not sure that's what it was, it did give me pause. Maybe it's days like those that will produce the best results from this journey and not necessarily all of the wonderful days we will experience. Invariably we always learn more - about life and ourselves - when things aren't going the way we planned for them to. Those times stretch us - our understanding, our patience, our strength - and in stretching we grow. And this journey is about growth...
~J
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