Back to Bismarck

Even though I would consider myself a fairly easy-going person, I’m not gonna’ lie, so far this year has pretty much sucked! And it’s only the second day. As most of you know, yesterday was moving day. This meant that I had to finish loading my car and continue packing as much as I could to make the condo ready for the movers. The movers are a huge pain in my ass in that they are not prompt about getting back to me, they are very needy as far as all the information they want, and I feel that as moving is a stressful event, they should be more accommodating. Anyway, I had to leave by late afternoon yesterday in order to make it to my dad’s house in time for dinner last night. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to finish packing everything, so I just had to get as much done as I could and leave the rest. Maybe because I was rushed, or perhaps in spite of it, it was a really weird feeling to walk about of the place I have spent the last eight years living without having more than about 30 seconds to reflect on all the things that happened there. Even weirder to leave half my stuff there, but know that I won’t be returning anytime soon.

Anyway, after I had mostly finished packing the car and was getting close to departure, I shut the back tailgate of my Expedition thinking it was pretty much full. Once I did this, I realized that it wasn’t nearly full, that because of the way the tailgate curves, there was still TONS of room if I loaded things in through the back window area. As I was bringing out one of the last loads and within about 5 minutes of leaving, I opened up the glass only to have it practically fall completely off its hinges. There are two hinges at the top on either side, and the glass lifts up on them. Each hinge has two pins, and then there is a latch at the bottom in about the middle of the tailgate. (If I’m not describing it well, too bad, look at the back on an Expedition next time you are on the highway.) Anyway, three of the four pins on the hinges snapped and the piece of glass was sticking out at a weird angle. This could have been a COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER in that my car was fully loaded already and pretty much every square inch was occupied. No glass on the back window meant the vehicle would basically be undrivable, especially for the move, in that not only was it subzero temperatures, but all of my stuff would have come flying out the back. Now I’m no Torts expert, but I’m guessing there is some kind of negligence liability involved if you drive down the highway with stuff flying out of the back of your car. As you may also know, I have been looking to get rid of some of my possessions and become less of a hoarder, but not that way. Anyway, I managed to get the window piece configured back around to the correct angle and shut it. It seemed to latch okay and I gave a tug on it without it appearing to move. I figured this was the best I could do under the circumstances (i.e. New Years Day and within five minute of leaving to move most of my possessions over 1000 miles to start a new job on Monday morning.) So, I left. When I got to my dad’s, he tied rope tightly across the window in the hopes of minimizing the results of disaster. I am now here safely, without incident from that catastrophe. However, the fun didn’t stop there.

I left this morning at 7 AM EST, which should have out me home by around 8:00 or so. Enough time to unpack a good amount of things, eat some dinner, and relax after a long day of driving. As soon as I got on I-94, I knew things were not going to go as planned. I did manage to make it the 60 miles to the MI/IN border over the course of the next hour and a half. The freeway wasn’t plowed, there was a blinding blizzard in parts, and because the freeway wasn’t plowed, there was really only one driving lane. Unfortunately, there were many drivers on the road without 4WD, and therefore, there were many people driving about 20 mph. Now, yes, the roads were horrible, and if I wouldn’t have had 4WD, I’d have been one of those drivers. But being as I did have 4WD, I felt fairly safe driving about 50. Needless to say, it totally sucked and it was not a good way to start out the trip.

After I got through the storm and into Chicago, I noticed that it was really loud in my car. And then I noticed I was also a little cold. And then I noticed that the rear drivers side window was down about two inches. What’s the big deal, you ask? Well, sometime this summer that window came out of its track and can no longer be put up using the electronic control. I can put it down using the control, but in order to get it back up, I have to basically open the door, grab the glass on both sides, and pull it back up manually. Therefore, I just don’t put the window down in the first place and consider this one of the “quirks” of this particular vehicle… just like I also consider it a quirk that my back windshield wiper hasn’t worked in several years and the heating coils on the back half of the back windshield no longer work. Sure, it’d be great if the car was still in perfect running condition, but after 190,000 miles, I’m happy that quirks are merely minor inconveniences rather than mandatory repair bills. Anyway, back to the window… My dad is the best dad ever and he had warmed my car up for me that morning. I figured that maybe he had accidentally hit the control to roll the window down, didn’t realize it, and that I hadn’t realized it because of the intense driving situation through the storm for the first part of the journey. The problem was, I couldn’t fix the problem without stopping. Finally, I came to a rest area where I could just pull in and right back out, so I stopped and pulled the window back up and continued on my merry way. I was less than five minutes back down the road when the window had fallen back down about quarter of an inch. Another 30 minutes later, and it was down about two inches. Because of the items packed in that location, there was no danger of anything falling out, just I had to listen to the wind and it was a little bit breezy on this balmy day. (As a side note, the low in Bismarck last night was -24… yes, that is a negative sign.) When I stopped for gas, I pulled the window back up and then went inside to buy duct tape in order to attempt to hold it in place. Of course even though I had stopped at a huge truck stop, they were out. I knew that I had some in the glove box of my car, which only necessitated about 10 minutes of unpacking all the items in front of the glove box, taking it out, and then deftly shoving all the items back in their storage areas. Good news is, the duct tape worked just fine for the rest of the trip, and since I taped it on the inside, it doesn’t even look like too much of a redneck ride (besides the rope holding the back windshield in place.)

By this time, I was really crabby, and I decided to grab lunch and use the restroom while I was already off the highway. I ran into the McDonald’s across the street, and was promptly told that I wouldn’t be able to get lunch for another 10-15 minutes because it was still breakfast time. (It was 10:50 local time.) Infuriated, I left and drove for another hour to another McDonalds and went through the drive thru. That only took about 20 minutes to get through, and because they also still were showing the breakfast menu and I just ordered by the number I thought I wanted, I ended up getting the wrong thing. I ate it anyway and carried on, already thinking that this drive totally sucked.

Fast forward several hours… I’m in the middle of nowhere Minnesota… I notice that my gas gauge says 50 miles to empty so I decide to stop at the next gas station I see. Um, yeah… approximately 45 minutes later I decided to take a nap. And by nap, I mean that I put on my coat, gloves, ear warmer, and scarf and tried to stay warm while I sat on the side of I-94 with no heat for 2 hours waiting for AAA to bring me more gas. The “next gas station” was unfortunately 52 miles away from the time I had decided to stop.

I finally made it to the gas station, by this time had to go to the bathroom really badly, and ran inside while my empty tank was refilling. To my relief, I managed not to wet my pants on the run inside, only to figure out that split second too late that the stall was out of toilet paper. God must have decided that he’d had enough fun toying with me for the day, and someone else came into the bathroom less than a minute later. She was thankful because by my asking her for toilet paper, I saved her from the same fate in her stall.

Shortly after I was back on the road, my dad called to check in with me. I told him all about my calamities, and said that I was just waiting for the flat tire or the speeding ticket to round out the day. As he was getting ready to hang up, he told me to hang in there, drive safe, and watch out for deer. Great, the one thing that I hadn’t already thought about. The remainder of the trip was uneventful, I made it back safely, all windows in tact. I have declared Day Bankruptcy, and hope that tomorrow will be better. It’s Sunday… the day of rest (unpacking the car and schlepping boxes). What could be better?

Also, I did my car count between Fargo and Bismarck… I have more accurate data on the mileage… Fargo Mile Marker = 345.5, Bismarck Mile Marker = 159.5, Total Miles = 190. Time of count: Saturday evening, 7-9:30. Cars passed = 38. Must be everyone (i.e. the other 30 people who live here) was just tired from all the hard partying earlier in the weekend and decided to stay in for the evening.