My Trip to NC, Day One (Maggie)

Before I begin, let me just remind you that MOON FEVER goes on sale momentarily. Watch for it! And now, the trip report!


My trip to North Carolina began in an ordinary way. I packed my bags, and then my dogs, and headed out to deliver them to their respective dog-sitters. Wrinkles sat in the passenger seat, looking extremely pleased to be there. Sally had the entire back of the SUV to herself. Sally, being a great Dane and roughly the size of a pony, needs the entire back to herself. And so we were off, right on time. The plan was, drop the dogs, then head to Binghamton where I would pick up my fourthborn, Stacie, at her place, and then on South.

That was before I heard the noise, of course.

It was as I hit the brakes to pull into daughter #1’s driveway, where Sally was to be a weekend guest. When I stepped on the brakes there was a terrible growling sound. Not encouraging. And I thought, gee, it sounds like the brakes might be going bad. Which made me think of getting the car serviced, which made me glance at the little sticker telling you when the oil should be changed, which made me wince. About 100 miles ago, apparently.

I took Sally into her appointed quarters at Jena’s place, gave her food and water and hugged her goodbye. Jena wasn’t home. Then I drove to daughter #2’s place. Katie and my son in law Tony, who’d volunteered to take Wrinkles weren’t home either, but the kids and the sitter were there. I carried Wrinkles into the house, because you can’t get her to walk unless she wants to, and she really preferred to stay in the car. We blocked her into a nifty little room, and I put down her very favorite blanket, gave her food and water and eye drops, hugged Ella and Tanner and Gracie. Ella and I discussed Wrinkles' care. She’s so smart I have no doubt she’ll be in charge. And then I got back into the car, and drove and hit the brakes and heard the noise. It sounded really bad.

I had options. Drive anyway. 658 miles with growly brakes didn’t seem the smartest move, though. Go to the dealer. An hour in the opposite direction from where I had to go, and have them tell me they couldn’t help me without an appointment anyway. Or head to my favorite auto mechanic, the one I trust most in the world, which was sort of on my way toward Binghamton anyway. He, too, likes appointments. But he also likes me, and he’s never let me down yet. (And as I think back over the years, it seems I’ve come to him several times with emergency-I’m-leaving-on-a-trip-tomorrow situations. Never a help-I’m-leaving-on-a-trip-right-now situation, though. Until now.)


As I expected Guy, of Guy’s Auto in Plymouth NY, got me right in. He called for the parts needed. They’ll be here in an hour. Upon inspecting the brakes, his always wise verdict was that it was a damn good thing I came in. Oh, and he’s going to change the oil while he’s at it. All for probably a tenth of what it would have cost me on the road, and half what it would have at the dealership.

So that’s leg one of the journey. A couple of pleasant hours spent at a neat garage with people I like, and extra time to blog and even write a few pages on the novella. I phoned Stacie, told her we’d be leaving just a couple of hours later than planned. She’s calling Lisa, daughter #5, to let her know we’ll be arriving at her place later than expected. And all is well with the world.

Really, this didn’t even faze me. Not a ripple. When life is good and your attitude tuned up and you’re happy, little bumps in the road don’t have any real impact, do they? In fact, I’m grateful for that growling noise. It probably saved me a lot of aggravation, or possibly something far worse.

Part two of the journey, next week!

Maggie