The point where you worry if everything you have been planning for the last 5 years was a horrible mistake.  Were your skeptical friends right?  Do you have to go back home with your tail tucked between your legs and try and buy back all your belongings you sold online?  Is it good the house hasn’t sold yet?  A bit of an over reaction but holy Hannah, this is the second trailer incident and we haven’t made it to Canada yet!

We were on our way to visit one of my friends from college, nearest and dearest to my heart, Michael Butterworth and his husband Scott Smithson.  They had graciously agreed to drive from their place over an hour to meet us in Olympia for dinner.  So, the trailer, knowing darn well that we had another friend to meet, decided to go all whompity on us.  Whompity may not be a word, but when Dan felt something funny going on and we pulled over to find this happening it seemed like a good description.

I need to up my blogging game because the place we pulled over was classic.  It was an actual diner off the highway.  Seriously ’60’s , packed with bikers and a group of Mustang enthusiasts which, together with their cars would have made a great photo essay themselves.  It was quite warm and Dan pulled into the only shade available, right next to a large semi.  We just hoped that it would be there as long as we needed it to be, because the sun was intense and there was no other shade.  We called our road service through USAA, which has always been outstanding, and they continued to be great at customer service.  Unfortunately we hadn’t added the trailer to our coverage so we were on the hook for the service call.  They helped us set it up though, which was quite convenient.  So, we were texting Michael and Scott who were out hiking with their adorable dog Jax, letting them know we had no idea what our timeline looked like and waiting.  Our friends actually arrived before the tow truck and we had a great reunion, punctuated by the tow truck

and moving to a Firestone service center that was about to close on Saturday at 5 PM.

They came with us and then even followed us around as we went to hunt for the right tire, since Firestone didn’t have it (ummm?) and we were hoping they could get the trailer operational first thing in the morning so we could make our ferry reservation over to Victoria, BC.  Several  hilarious follow the leader, who’s the leader?, little jaunts around town ensued, tires were found, delivered back to Firestone and then the decision of dinner.  It was getting later, they had a drive back, but they soldiered on and we decided on a little Mexican place for dinner.  Scott had pulled up as couple different restaurant choices and we landed on  Taqueria Uruapani. This humble little eatery in a strip mall is a must do if you are in Lacey, WA.  We had a wonderful meal, full of unique dishes from the Michoacán region of Mexico for a great price.  A lot of eating and catching up and then they had to get on the road back to their home while we found a Motel 6 to crash at.  Non-smoking room really only means you don’t intend to smoke in it.

We were able to get the trailer in the morning, it was fixed up first thing for us, so we could pick it up and take it to a nearby park to repack it and get on our way.

Thank goodness Dan is strong and, having served on a submarine, an expert at putting more stuff into a small space than is physically possible.  Flo kept watch over it all.

Supervisor Flo

I guess I haven’t introduced Flo, we picked her up on our last trip 5 years ago to the Olympic Peninsula.  She is our travel companion, we “go with the Flo”!  You’ll see more of her.  It also gave me a chance to gather my sense of peace again, channel our recent days in Eugene and turn my dog into a reluctant hippy.

Hippy Enzo

We were all very happy to get back on the road only a day behind schedule after all that.  Even dashboard surfing Obama approved.