When the office manager leaves for work, she assures me that she will let me know as soon as the truck is done. So I peek in my food storage and things are getting pretty scarce. Then I notice there’s a mini-van parked at a residence behind the motel and a sign on it says “taxi”. I am getting desperate. I call the number. Yes, she will take me to McDonald’s and back. A lady about my age shows up having just finished a cigarette but I am not judging. I am hungry. I spend $7 on food and $14 on the taxi ride.
At noon the office manager comes back to the motel for lunch. She regrets to inform me that the delivery of parts from El Paso is rather late today. So even if it shows up - there is not enough time in the day for the mechanics to “drop the engine” and replace this set of parts that cost over $400. But it will be done on Monday!
Being prepared for this, I ask her if she could drop me at the U-Haul rental store on her way back to work after lunch. They rent me the only truck available. A very large 26 foot cabover. Very costly. But I am not staying another night in Van Horn. Due to all the items I am hauling back from NY to Arizona, I cannot rent an automobile, even if there was such a business in Van Horn, which there was not. But my few belongings look pitiful in this enormous van.
The final insult is when I check out at 1:00 pm I ask how much is the late check out fee? Normal check out is 11:00 AM. Obviously I had no way of checking out prior to having a vehicle. So here is a 16 unit motel, only 2 rooms are rented. I am checking out 2 hours over the limit. They tell me, oh, so sorry. No late check outs allowed. I must pay for the entire night.
One of the shop employees helps me load my van of my truck bed boxes and such. That was decent of them. I am about to leave and Cruz shows me a box. Look what has finally showed up! My parts. It’ll be done Monday, they will call me…
It wasn’t bad to drive such a big van. Smelled new too as it only had 9000 miles on it. Everyone stayed out of my way through El Paso where construction meant restricted narrow lanes. But if the semi-trucks could handle it, I could. It was such a relief to get out of Texas. Mind you I know lots of Texans. Most are the finest people on earth. But I just had a bad taste in my mouth from some of the people in Van Horn.
I covered the 375 miles/600 km from Van Horn, Texas to Safford, Arizona in a bit more than 6 hours because of the slow big truck. Arrived after dark, which meant no water that night but this was not a big deal. I would have electric lights and I would have natural gas heat and my gas stove. I knew I would appreciate that cook stove after 16 months of enduring a hard to operate electric stove.
Another embarrassing wrinkle was I had asked my neighbor to leave my back door unlocked. I had not been able to locate my house key. (I later found it had fallen and was hiding under things on the floor of my truck - which was of course, still in Texas.) Except he thought I was going to be there on Tuesday and this was Friday night. He didn’t think I’d want to have that door unlocked all that time. So I go to get into my house and everything is locked. I call my neighbor and he is an hour away, out of town, on his way back, and he has the key on his keychain! So he invited me to wait inside his house which was much warmer than outside of course! Temperatures at night can be near freezing in January.
Eventually I get into my house! I’m home! On Jan 6th, at last! But it is cold in the house so I go to turn on the furnace. The batteries are dead in the thermostat! Where are batteries? I can’t remember. So I rob batteries from a wall clock and put it back up. It is 52ºF/11ºC in the house as I hear it fire up. I get my cats and a few things unloaded for the night. Put my food in the refrigerator. My bedroom furniture is all piled into other rooms. The bedroom is totally empty so the remodeling could be done while I was away. It is wonderful! Painted a cheerful blue, the white trim is sparkling, the wood trim is even enhanced. I throw down my camping cushions for the night and my sleeping bag. But… it doesn’t seem to be getting very warm in here? It is now 50º/10ºC!! What? I shut off the furnace and get out my little space heater for the bedroom. At least I’ll warm up one room and figure it out in the morning.
It’s 49ºF/9ºC in the morning. So I call the Heating/AC company for a weekend call. This why I wanted to arrive during the week. You get weekday rates but now I have to get costly after hours service. (I expected to arrive Tuesday or Wednesday.) Technician shows up promptly, takes one look at my furnace room and says, oh, your gas valve isn’t turned on. He turns it on and I got heat. What the heck? The gas company turned on my gas service, checked my gas stove, but turned off my furnace gas supply? What on earth? Why would they do that? I didn’t even know there was a gas valve in there. Live and learn.
The story of my hot water heater is another deal. For 35 years the gas appliance has faithfully heated water on my back porch without setting my house on fire. Now the gas company tech said it cannot be lit due to inadequate ventilation. It does not pass code. It needs an exhaust vent pipe. It is outside on an open porch. But it needs a chimney to pass code. Okay. Whatever. Due to the effort of an angel, a vent pipe was installed and I got hot water after a few days delay. Cold showers are not optimal!
Using a heavy wrench I go turn on my water valve. Find the toilet running but no other leaks. So finally I think, that must be it.
I go to make coffee and part of my coffeemaker is missing. What? Why is this? So I make instant coffee. Oh well. Basic coffeemakers are cheap. Very strange though.
Later I try to heat something up in my really old microwave and it dies mid-operation. Totally dead. Oh well. Microwaves are not terribly expensive.
Not 12 hours later I am sitting in my arm chair relaxing. Except for my truck, which means having no transportation, things aren’t so bad. I’m home. I’m safe. The cats are safe. I can go get food in my big U-Haul truck. I need to return it on Tuesday. (It is Saturday Jan 7.) I’ll figure out something to be able to retrieve my truck from Texas next week. Then I hear the odd gurgling, coming from my refrigerator. After an hour of that music, the refrigerator dies. Totally dead. What?
So, I start to think, is this the last thing? When do I get a break? But really, what do I mean? Things are getting better. I’m learning something new every day. (There’s a gas valve in the furnace room!) I wake up in the morning eager to see what opportunity will present itself that day.
I got hot water. I got central heat. I got delivery of a nice new black refrigerator after I borrowed a dorm frig for a few days. Walmart had coffeemakers cheap and a sale on microwaves. I got wall to wall rug installed in my new bedroom and moved my furniture back in. I feel like a queen every time I walk in the room.
Oh yeah, the U-Haul management messed around with me by telling me it would be impossible for me to drop off the van here in town, I had to take it 40 miles/64 km to Willcox, Arizona. This was so inconvenient to have to ask someone to follow me so far so I could drop it off when my contract said I could drop it in Safford. I call it a rather underhanded business practice. It is not up to me to get furious over how I was treated by U-Haul and the motel in Van Horn. There are ultimate penalties for how we treat others, whether we are a business, or in a personal interaction. I have peace. I know it is not up to me to get justice for being wronged.
But when do I get my truck back? To be continued…
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