Unity of Purpose--What I Saw Wednesday

I start with a quote from Tarzan "This is something to put in your fricken' blog."

It all started when Tarzan decided our son-in-law needed to borrow his tractor. We had no idea how difficult it would be to get it there. After two days of phone calls and being told repeatedly that the cost would be over $800 or that--what we wanted to do was not allowed--he finally made a personal trip to U-Haul and was assured that his pickup would pull the trailer they rented him and that a 1,000 pound tractor added to it would be fine--all for just $90.

Are you getting the picture?

When I got home from work Friday night, Tarzan had our little 6-banger Dodge pickup loaded with the tractor strapped down on the trailer. We packed up some food, drink, ice, and dog (Dottie) and started on the short and familiar 4 1/2 hour trip.

We were not able to go over 45 miles per hour. Each time we approached 45 mph, the trailer started to sway left and right. It was like being on a ride at Disneyland only scarier because we had so little control.

I hope you can picture it in you mind--freeway, large semi's going too fast, impatient fellow drivers in cars, trucks and motorcycles, honking and waving at us inviting us to get off the road. We left home at 6:00 p.m. we arrived at the half way point at 1:00 a.m. 7 hours and we were only half way on a 4 1/2 hour trip.

We stopped and spent the night at a truck stop motel. We took Dottie into the room with us and didn't ask permission. Tarzan went out and hunted for food while I crashed in the room. We were still speaking to each other.

Here is an interesting little tidbit about our weekend. I forgot to bring any hair products including a pick so not only did I have dirty hair, I had tangled hair. Stopping at a drug store was not on the list of possibilities. AND we could not turn on the air conditioning because it took needed power from the engine AND it was over 100 degrees all day and just barely down to 100 after the sun went down. Are you getting a better picture now?

Saturday morning we started out at 5:00 a.m. and another 7 hours later, the pickup decided it could not possibly pull the tractor another inch. I tried praying and repeating "I think I can, I think I can" but the answer to our prayers came in the way so many prayers are answered, someone came to our rescue...

There we were stopped going up hill (only 5 feet from the top) and the clutch started to smoke. The truck was going nowhere but backward down the hill. I called the kids to let them know but lost reception before I could tell them. Tarzan, got out and put rocks behind the wheels of the trailer so it wouldn't roll back down the hill. I got out and directed traffic.

The hill curved right at the bottom and left at the top, there was a double yellow line and people were just whizzing around us with no thought of what was coming over the hill toward them. I saw two near accidents. I began stopping traffic coming up behind us when there were cars coming over the hill toward us and averted any incidents.

I no sooner stepped out to direct traffic then our son-in-law came down the hill. He may as well have been on a white horse wearing a coat of armor. However, if it had not been a Clydesdale it would not have been an answer to our prayers. He has a big, high powered, SUV and they had just put a hitch on the back of it the day before.

The two men unhooked the trailer from our pickup and you could physically see our pickup bounce into position with relief from the load. We were able to move the pickup and hook up the SUV. It easily pulled the tractor over the hill and the final short distance to their home.

Another 7 hours and Tarzan and I were still speaking to each other.

We unloaded the tractor, played with the grand kids, hugged the kids and took off for a faster trip home.

But wait, not so fast--literally.

We still had the trailer connected to our truck to be returned to the dealer that evening. If we were dragging an elephant before, we were now dragging at least a hippopotamus. We never were able to get up to 70 mph and we didn't realize how exhausted we were.

We stopped after less than 100 miles. We decided we needed to get rid of the trailer before we ruined the clutch on the pickup. However, U-Haul had no interest in a return to a location where we did not pick it up and were going to TRIPLE the charges for renting the trailer if we left it there rather than drag it all the way back home. We left in disgust and decided to chance it with the trailer.

We knew we couldn't make it any further that night and got another motel room. We dragged ourselves to dinner and crashed at 8:00 p.m. We slept through the night without moving, even Dottie was worn out but we were still speaking to each other.

We got up and started home at 6:00 a.m. I had washed my hair with the shampoo and creme rinse in the room and combed through it with my fingers. Now, I had clean hair but with windows down, I soon looked like a crazy woman from a silent movie. We started out with, what would normally take us, just over 3 hours left on our trip. It took 6 hours to arrive home and we were still speaking to each other.

When we have a unity of purpose, we both have the ability to put everything else out of the picture and focus on what we have to accomplish and remember our family motto "If we are not having fun, why bother."

We are home safe, still speaking and even laughing at ourselves for making such a dangerous trip. One of Tarzan's fishing buddies called us while we were on the road and after Tarzan explained what we had been through, he asked to speak to me. He said, "I want a woman like you." I can't type the rest of what he said but in his way it was a great compliment to my ability to take what Tarzan dishes out.