The Adventure Continues

(...this blog continued from yesterday's installment)

It's Emilie now. Well, in response to those of you who did comment on the last blog; Laurene, I think the universe was playing an April Fool's joke on us, but unfortunately, we weren't playing a joke on all of you. Dad, when you hear the end of the story, you will realise that Hales Grove had no internet either.

Well, last you heard, AAA was sending a truck within 45 minutes. Two hours later, we were still waiting. Janet had told me about her niece's true character, quote "she thinks she's hot champagne in a glass, but she's really cold piss in a cup". She has also taken off her logger socks to chow me her cat wounds. It was a long two hours.

We were getting hungry, so we popped the top and made some dinner while we waited. We had somewhat resigned ourselves to the fact that we may be staying the night in the van. Janet had offered to put us up for the night, but I just couldn't do it. It has to be said that she was a very kind and giving woman, despite all of my odoriferous misgivings.

Finally, after another hour had passed, the tow truck finally arrived. Unfortunately, (yes it just gets better and better) AAA had not informed them that there were 4 people waiting to be picked up and that two of them were children, and they were therefore,not equipped to take all of us back to a town. We would have to wait the night. YIKES!!!

While we sat dejectedly waiting for any other news, we had some good news finally. Richard from the Redwood Towing Service came back. Yes, he came back! He had finally managed to get some radio reception from down at Jimbo's place and he had asked his wife Ginger to come with another car to pick us all up. Honestly, we had quite a bit of luck that night...with Jimbo and Janet being so kind to us and then Richard and Ginger being so wonderfully giving, we just felt cared for and safe. It was a good feeling.

We finally made it back to Garberville (big shout outs to Richard and Ginger) to spend the night at the Best Western. It was a great hotel, with free wine and cheese receptions every night from 5:30 to 7:00. We took advantage of that.
The next day, Richard and Ginger's mechanic took a look at our van and fixed it in an hour. It barely cost us any money, and we got to explore a nice little town in California that we otherwise would never have seen. Here's some of the interesting stuff going on in Garberville and area. One-They have a little food stand called NACHO MAMMAS that serves all organic and delicious Cali-Mex Food.
Two-There's a Reggae festival just north of there every year, which is supposed to be alot of fun!
Phew! What a crazy day!
It has to be said that we did experience some moments of panic, as well as some serious doubts about the longevity of this trip. Tink was pretty close to being sold. BUT...we are in San Francisco now and we made it without a hitch.
Some tips that we have learned about adventuring so far are; to be patient and calm throughout any type of ordeal, It really helps.
I have to say that Adam was truly incredible. He took everything in stride and really sorted everything out. Cheesy but true.
I have included some more pictures so that you can see that it truly did happen. There is also a little video of Naomi that I made while we were waiting in Garberville. Just so you can see how much she is growing.
More about San Fran and the great night we just had in our next blog.
Please keep your fingers crossed for us that Tink keeps on keepin' on!


The above picture shows Richard hooking up the van for a 30 mile tow. We all squeezed into the tow truck until we met up with Ginger.

This is one of Adam's favorite pictures so far. The gentleman in the middle is Jimbo and Walter is standing to the far right. Walter is Janet's nephew.

Maia the princess.

Love Emilie