Where In The World Is The Cavegirl? 24 HOURS In Whitewater

https://www.angelfire.com/art2/sas/index.html
stonethecavegirl@hotmail.com

The $60 Door Hanger

NO MOLESTE

PRIERE DE NE PAS DERANGER

BITTE NICHT STOREN

ASIAN CHARACTERS

-----------------------

After hugs and kisses, Sand warned me, “People have been arriving since Wednesday. Everyone needs to leave on Sunday. Expect a lot of traffic.” That was an understatement. Six lanes chockfull. It must have been a ballet of trading places. We went north and the northerners went south. Now we were all trying to get home.

Every time we neared an exit all traffic stopped. Mostly the cars traveled at 10-15 M.P.H. Occasionally you could get up to 55 for about 5 minutes. No prob. I have lots of music. I had my bottled water. I had air conditioning…it was 95 degrees. As long as no one got in an accident, we would all get to where we wanted to go...eventually.

At the second Madison exit I ditched the Interstate and headed off on a back road shortcut that I know. Much better, even though this road would take me through many small towns.

I tried to call my cousins that had left before me. My cell was dead. I put it on the charger.

I stopped in Fort Atkinson at the A&W. I just needed to stop driving for a while. I had salad bar and a big frosty-mug root beer.

I was tooling through Whitewater when my car just stopped running. I turned onto a side street. I had to manhandle the steering wheel. It didn’t want to turn. Worse, I had no brakes. It took me a half block to come to a complete stop. I spewed out every single swear word I know.

There I was stuck. No phone. 96 degrees.

After 10 minutes I started walking. I needed a phone. Luckily two dudes came by and asked if they could help. One had a cell phone and I called my service.

Long story short…I ended up staying at a Super 8 directly across from the tow service place. They could install a new alternator in the morning.

I don’t like being stuck and I was talking to the owner of the motel and he said if you feel like you are suffocating just open the window and jump out. Oh, he made me feel so good! I lost my jumpiness. (Ironically the owner had purchased the motel just 6 days earlier. He is from my area in Illinois. No, the spa did not workL)

I showered, dressed and walked to dinner at Randy’s, a 30-year-old supper club…”best in the area” the motel guy said. It was…chicken Alfredo, pinot granche, and rainbow sherbet.

I had the strangest dream that night. I felt like I was supremely safe and secure because I was perfectly snuggled in a box of chocolates. I was in one of those pleated paper cups. Nothing could hurt me. It felt amazing. Still I awoke at 6. (For some reason I have been rising at 6 for about 3 weeks or so. I don’t know exactly why.)

At 8, when the repair shop opened, I learned they were out of alternators (the repair guy said they had had a run on alternators in the past week due to the hot weather) and that they would need to go to Madison to get one. ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

I had to checkout at 11. When I told the manager of my plight he said I was welcome to wait in the foyer with the teevee.

I decided to wait at the repair shop until they let in the junkyard dog. Oh man, I was sooooooo scared. I was reading a review of “The Lovely Bones” in the book section of the Janesville Gazette. I tried to make myself invisible so I could slip out the door. It worked. That was the same German Shepard that had been growling and barking and straining on his chain when we came in the night before. I think he is trained to bite people. He is a guard dog. He needed air conditioning too.

I got out of there around 3. FINALLY. Varoooooooom.

How lucky am I? If my car had clunked out on the Interstate I would still be there waiting for a tow trunk. I might have smashed into the car in front of me too. I could have hurt someone. I could be dead.

I was so happy to finally arrive home. I flung open the gate and whap! My Virginia creeper and my sand cherry shrub had almost knit together. I was nearly sealed out by Mother Nature.

Of all my traveling it was sure to happen sometime. I know I should have taken my car to a Buick dealership for repair under my warranty. The repair guy said an alternator usually doesn’t go with the small amount of mileage I have on my car.

And the sweet part of all of this is that my cousin was waiting at the A&W in Whitewater for 2 hours for me. He called 4 times.

I love you too.

I took this pic at 6 a.m. I thought it was light, it wasn't. GO BACK TO BED!