running: the dawn

I was on the road all day today.  Driving through much of the Great Plains in a perpetual rainstorm.  With lightning.  And walls of water.  I seriously was gripping the steering wheel until my knuckles where white and sweat was pouring down my forehead.  I was sooooo stressed out.  A 8 hour trip ended up taking over 11 hours!

As if that weren’t enough of an adventure for me I ended up losing my gas cap at a gas station.  With the wind and rain whipping around me, I was trying to keep relatively dry, so after I started filling the tank, I jumped in my car to wait.  Once I heard the pump click off I hoped out, quickly returned the thing to its holster (I have no idea what the names of these things actually are…), grabbed the receipt and immediately sought out the safety of the car.  It wasn’t until a few hours later, when the rain had slowed to just a steady down pour (as opposed to a torrential one), I pulled over at a rest stop and noticed that the gas door-thingy was still ajar.  Then it hit me: I never put the cap back on!!!  Silly girl!

I had a mild moment of panic imagining that gas had been pouring out down the highway and that rainwater was flooding the engine and I had just broken the “nicer” of our two cars.  I started texting the Mr. confessing all my sins and asking what I should do.  Too bad he was at work and I knew that he wouldn’t be able to answer me for a couple hours, so I needed to figure out what to do on my own (which I’m horrible at!).  THEN, it hit me–that’s why he bought me a GPS!  I searched along my current route (one of my favorite features) for an auto parts store.  There was one 20 miles ahead, I called them, they had the part I needed.  And done!  An $8 fix.

Mr Dawn called shortly after I got off the phone with Napa and calmed me down.  He explained that all of the horrible things I was imagining weren’t happening.  He did a great job of calming me down and talking me through it.  He’s amazing

Ah, home again!  For at least the next 5 days…such is life…