Journey to A New Life – Part 6

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Our last day in Ohio went well, however, we had an unexpected event: we had to have the brakes fixed on the RV! Jan decided to have them looked at because they started squealing and making noise, even when he had his foot on the gas pedal and not the brake pedal. We called AAA for someone to come out and look at them to see if they could tell us how critical it was to have them fixed (if we could wait until we got to Pittsburgh or had to deal with them then and there). We were advised to have them checked. Also, we were given a recommendation on who could do it locally. We needed a specialist since the RV was too heavy for most garages because of the weight.

We had to unhook the trailer (once again!), leave it where we were, and drive to downtown Columbus to the brake shop, and luckily they were able to take a look right away. Jan and I proceeded to find a coffeeshop to go to while we awaited word. That experience was pretty amazing in itself – that the garage was able to look immediately, especially since it was Friday, and otherwise we would have been “stuck” there until Monday! Another demonstration of the power of the Law of Attraction. My experience was that when another “problem” cropped up (i.e. the brakes), i stopped my internal chatter of worry, surrounded myself and Jan and the whole situation with white light, and visualized the best possible outcome for all involved.

What happened next was also kind of interesting. While we waited, we decided to go somewhere since we had about an hour before we could hear what was needed. Jan said “It would be nice to find a Starbucks to go to close by”, and since we were just a few blocks from downtown Columbus, we drove away. Picture this: right downtown in a busy city we are driving up the busiest street at around noon when many of the work people are walking and driving around looking for a place for lunch, we and are stopped at a traffic light. I look to my left just a few minutes after Jan voiced this thought and what do I see? You guessed it – A Starbucks! The next thing that happened was I then looked to my right, and we were right in front of an empty parking space on the street! We were able to park directly across the street from it! We only  had a couple of quarters for the parking meter though we would have needed more for an hour, and put them in, getting the hour we needed because there must have still been time on the meter from the last person! How great was that?  Coincidences?  I don’t think so.

Well, to shorten this tale, we did have to replace all the brake pads and the brake drums on the rear wheels. In fact, the mechanic declared that he didn’t know how we had made it this far considering how bad the brakes looked! They could fix it (to the tune of $600) and we could pick it up at 6 pm. Oh no!! We had to make the decision of whether to stay another night in Columbus or try to make it to Pittsburgh after that or drive for at least part of the way and stay somewhere else for a night.

We opted for the 3rd choice. We selected a campground about an hour and half away, and didn’t think it would be necessary to book it ahead of time. We hadn’t had to do that at all since the start of our trip, as most campground owners were complaining about how slow their business was because of the high gasoline prices. This place was difficult to find (the directions were bad and/or the road access had changed, but finally we pulled in, only to discover that they were absolutely full!!! This was around 8:00 pm.

 There was another place about 20 miles down the road and this time we called and asked whether they had room. They did! It would have been easy to reach them before the office closed at 9 pm. However, we were out of gas and needed to stop to fill up.  I quickly drove ahead in the car to make sure we got registered before they were closed and the gates locked. I made it there at 10 minutes to 9 and we got set up, slept, and got underway the next morning, arriving in Pittsburgh by 11:30 am on Saturday.

Certainly my lessons this time were about keeping my thoughts positive, visualizing only the best outcome, and trusting that whatever happens is for the best. We didn’t want to have to spend more money making repairs to the RV / trailer. However, it was in good time and it meant that we could drive the rest of the way without worrying about our safety. We found the best possible business to help us (it was a place that ONLY dealt with brakes) and they were able to do the repair before the weekend.

The other lesson was about keeping the mindset of just dealing with whatever comes up in the moment without going into a lot of mental chatter and stress about it – no questions in my mind about “why me?” or “how am I going to deal with this?” or “no! we can’t afford any more extra expenses” or any of the other internal self-talk that had in the past kept me in a state of stress and worry. This time it was only “what do we need to deal with?” and “what’s the next step?” We were thankful we had the money to pay for it (even though we would have preferred to spend it other ways!), and realize that whatever we need, we will have.

This has been a rather long entry – I guess a lot is happening! More about Pittsburgh the next time.