Back from the Trip with Memories lV

Finally I'm at the end of the saga, though the last chapter is not without interest. As we turned onto route 9 toward Washington County and home, we congratulated ourselves on the good time we were making. We saw ourselves arriving in time for a good dinner with the people who waited for us. Then, as we started up a hill in Amherst the car refused to respond to Lisa's foot on the gas pedal and coasted to a stop. We looked at each other with silent resignation. Attempts to coax the car into moving failed and we had to accept the fact that we were stranded, not in the middle of nowhere, but close to it. After raising the hood and looking at the engine as if we could find the problem, we turned our attention to our surroundings and spotted a small house a short distance away. We walked up the driveway and peered into the open door where an older woman and a young boy were going about their routine of TV and housework. The woman let us use her phone and we made several calls to Will, David, and AAA. Many false starts concerning our rescue necessitated the use of the phone until the battery ran down. Details....complicated and a little boring at this point.

Eventually a tow truck arrived and loaded the car. Lisa and I rode in the cab with the driver and we returned to Brewer, which we had left earlier in the afternoon. At the garage we lounged around the office, and then the waiting room, until Will arrived after a two and a half drive from Eastport in his mother's car. Lisa spoke with him en route several times to guide him to our remote location. He communicated by the cell phone he had borrowed from his son.

Around eleven o'clock we finally pulled up in front of my house, where we unloaded my stuff and said cheerful good-byes. I was greeted by Sabrina, who helped carry luggage in, and her mother whom I had never met. The dogs were running and jumping happily, and I was thrilled to see them. Evidence of my absense was everywhere, mostly in the form of pee- and poop- covered newspapers and the paraphenalia of people living temporarily in a strange house that doesn't belong to them. My bedroom, where the dogs had spent a lot of time, was a shambles. My foam rubber mattress pad was torn to shreds and spread throughout the room, along with my sheets and pillows. Again, the room had been used by them as a bathroom. It took me about an hour to clean up enough to crawl into bed and fall gratefuly asleep with my little boys around me. I was glad to be home.