Moving from the West Coast to the East Coast was filled with challenges. The new company that had hired my husband to move us to the Carolinas was moving us. They offered to move our vehicles, all of our belongings, and fly us and our nine pound Chihuahua from Ontario, CA to Charlette, NC.
The car transport showed up and Hans and Franz, (that’s what I called them) tried to figure out how to get my husband’s little car, our fourteen year-old boat and my SUV loaded on the car carrier. While my husband hooked the boat up to my SUV, I continued to help the team that was packing up our house box by box.
The Vet had prescribed a sedative for the plane ride for our little dog and suggested that I give half of a pill to see how she would react the day before we left. He wanted to make sure she would not have any adverse reactions. I gave my dog the medication, picked her up, and went out to see how things were going with loading the cars. My husband’s little car was parked next to the carrier, the boat was hooked up to the SUV, and Hans and Franz were grabbing 2 by 4’s from our neighbor’s trash. Hans and Franz tried to make sure all the nails were out of the boards as they were setting up the boards to make a temporary ramp to get the boat that was sitting on the boat trailer onto the carrier. I asked what was happening. Hans and Franz told us the boat trailer was too wide for the carrier, so that were trying to back the trailer onto the carrier and have the trailer with the boat on it rest on the wheel wells of the car carrier. As they tried to back up the trailer, they backed the trailer up onto the wheel well and almost off onto my husband’s little car.
In the meantime, the meds that I had given my dog had kicked in. She was very relaxed. So relaxed that she didn’t realize that she had peed all down my hip and leg. As I stood there covered in dog pee, I asked Hans and Franz to take a minute while I talked to my husband. I told him I didn’t think our boat was going to make it across the United States on this truck. I asked him to let me drive my SUV and boat and the dog… not on drugs to the other coast. We knew people all along the way and the dog and I could take our time on this road trip. My husband was not comfortable with that, so he decided we would all take the road trip, but we needed to drive from coast to coast in less than three days. Hans and Franz loaded up the little car, we called the airline to cancel our flight, and after finishing up our house and signing papers, we took off across the country racing with Hans and Franz. They had about a six-hour head start on us. We fought the rain and the traffic, found a couple of hotels along the way that would take a dog, and had to drop the boat off in a storage facility before meeting the brothers in the middle of Charlotte to get my husband’s car.
As we arrived in Charlotte, my back was really sore. I thought that because I was holding the dog for most of the drive, but we soon found out that I had Shingles. I had stressed out so much over Hans and Franz, over having to get to Charlotte in time for my husband’s first day of work, moving to a place where we didn’t know a single person, I made myself sick. I was stressed, worried, upset, and I had a terrible case of Shingles. I learned the hard way that it doesn’t do any good to worry and stress. I couldn’t change anything, and all I did was make myself sick, miserable, and so uncomfortable. After a few weeks of healing, my husband and I were able to laugh at what an accidental comedy team Hans and Franz were, and how we took a great trip across the lower states, and it all seemed like a blur as we were in such a rush.
“Refuse to worry about tomorrow, but deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself.” Matthew 6:34
