Around 6:00PM, Roger, Gretchen and I are planning to heat up the last of the Picnic leftovers for dinner. But soon, we're sitting in Don and Mickie's kitchen merging our leftovers with their leftovers. It's quite the feast.
It's a struggle for everyone to stay awake...don't want to go to bed TOO early. But...it's a losing battle. I can't even make it to 10:00PM.
I don't think the folks here have any idea how much I appreciate the opportunity to come to an event like this. It's something that I look forward to very much. It's a chance for me to experience something that was lacking in my childhood...and my adult life as well, for that matter. I didn't have much of a "family life" growing up. That's not to be critical of my mother and father who, I believe, did the best job of parenting that they were capable of. But there were no big family gatherings when I was a boy. And holidays, like Christmas, were celebrated early in my life, but became just another day by the time my teens rolled around. And then it was off to Military School at age eleven...not to emerge again in the "real world" until college.
Other than my mom, the only relative (out of a tiny handful) that I'm close to is my cousin, Bill. He and I are very much on the same page...he's like the brother that I never had.
So...when I can spend a weekend at a big family gathering, it's a chance for me to experience something vicariously that I missed out on. As I put it...it's a chance to spend four days in a Norman Rockwell painting.
Monday, we're all up early after a good night's sleep. I grab some coffee and a shower...and I'm packed up to leave. I'm heading for the town of Medora on the western side of North Dakota...right next to Teddy Roosevelt National Park. I could take I-94, but it's only a 400 mile drive and I've got plenty of time...so I decide to take Highway 200 across the state.
I start out bey following Don into the town of Thompson, but I realize that I've forgotten to take my frozen water bottles for the cooler...so I have to head back. But...around 10:00AM, I'm on the road.
Highway 200 will take me through the town of Carrington. This is where I stopped in 2008 for blood work and an x-ray when I developed severe abdominal pains. Thanks to the folks at Carrington Health Center, I was quickly diagnosed with acute appendicitis, and I was able to stop in Minot, North Dakota for my surgery. So...today I decide to stop back at the Health Center to say thank you. Around 11:30AM or so, I pull up and go inside. One nurse thinks that she remembers me, but I'm just there to say thank you...something that I think they appreciated.
So...now I'm pulling into a parking lot to turn around and get back on Route 200. And then...it happens. I feel this "lurch" and hear a loud scraping noise. Through my side mirror, I see that that the driver's side wheel on the camper has fallen off and is rolling through the parking lot. For a few minutes, I just sit there...stunned. When I get out to check things, I see that the spindle on my axle has completely broken off.
This being North Dakota, people immediately start stopping to offer help. A guy from a tire store hooks me up with a guy named Jerry Beil (a man who is now my hero). Jerry gets there, takes a look at things, and tells me that he's got a replacement spindle that will work. Soon, he's cutting off the end of the broken spindle and attaching the new ones by bolting together two plates. Then we head over to his shop where he welds the two plates together, attaches the wheel...and I'm good to go...amazing. And...for all of this, the charge is only $300.00. What looked to be a major delay and a costly repair has been completely fixed in under three hours.
And...a little after 3:00PM, I'm back on the road. In another bit of good fortune, I pick up an hour crossing from Central Time to Mountain Time. So...at 6:30PM, I'm parked at my campsite in Medora. I immediately head into town for a well-deserved cocktail and a nice dinner. A little more "bar-hopping" and I'm asleep by 11:00PM. A nice end to a potentially disastrous day.
My initial reaction to the "spindle problem" in Carrington was to think that Carrington was my "bad luck town". But, then I put on my "It's a Wonderful Life" hat and imagined a world without Carrington.
If there is no Carrington in 2008, I don't stop there and get my appendicitis diagnosis. So maybe I don't stop anywhere for awhile. Maybe the pain subsides (as is often the case), and I make it onto the Alaska Highway where my appendix bursts when I'm hundreds of miles from the nearest medical help. Not a pleasant thought.
And...if there's no Carrington in 2012, I don't stop there to thank the people at the Health Center. So I'm not turning around in the parking lot doing five miles an hour when my wheel falls off. Instead, I'm barreling down Route 200 doing seventy miles an hour when it comes off. And the result is catastrophic...camper and contents destroyed...Explorer rolled over or flying off the road. Not a pleasant thought.
So...I'm thinking that Carrington is really my "good luck town". And it's my unique fate to have one tiny town in North Dakota that's responsible for potentially saving my life not once...but twice.
Wow.
w.
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