Drove 700 miles by myself yesterday, unless you count the 5 sheep in the back of the van for the first 5 hours as company.
Woke at 3am, heard banging and went to check on the sheep in the horse trailer, then couldn't go back to sleep before the alarm went off at 4am, so just got up and showered. Moved the sheep from the horse trailer to the prepared van, and slipped down the driveway before 5am in the dark.
The sheep prices in Ohio have been much better than those in Michigan, therefore the trip. Licensed and insured the van the day before in preparation. Put the address in my phone and did the step-by-step directions as it was too dark to read the directions I'd printed. Discovered that no calls or text measage alerts are shown on the phone when in this mode.
Got there around 10:30am and had to wait in the queue to off-load. All trucks with attached livestock trailers, and me in the van. It was an Amish auction, they off-loaded the sheep while I filled in the necessary paperwork, an additional page as I was from out-of-State. Set off immediately back for home as I had cows to milk. I only stopped at the rest areas to pee, and garages for fuel. Then about 2 hours into the return trip, after stopping for fuel, the red battery icon popped up on the dashboard and there was a high pitched squeal from under the bonnet. Called my dad, nope, it wasn't a good thing, meant that the battery wasn't charging and maybe some strap thingy had broken and that I mustn't switch the car off as it would probably not start again. Also, switch off anything that used electricity, radio, heat (awww) and my phone. Did I have power steering, yep think so - the traffic was horrid so I couldn't stop but wiggled the steering wheel. When I could, I pulled off onto the side of the road, and figured out that yep, still had power steering. Called dad back. Meant that the strap thingy wasn't broken, so he said just head for home. Was doing well, when there was a click and I lost my gears. Pulled off at an exit, and discovered that there was one low gear, so got back on to the highway and slowly made my way to the next exit which had shops etc. Pulled into Paneras' parking lot and called Herbie. Discovered that I'd missed a call and text from him. Got his VM so left a message. Called my dad, but not much he could do now that I was stationery. Herb called back and asked me if we had towing on our car insurance policy. Didn't know, called them. Yep, for all of 10 miles. Checked and it'd be $300 to tow me home. So had the tow guy take me to a fixer place after he diagnosed that it was the alternator, he'd called around and found someone we could look at, and fix it, immediately. Thank you, Randy.
2 hours later, I was back on the road, $430 lighter on a credit card. Damn. Need to make at least $600 from those sheep just to cover my expenses ! And the reason for selling them was to get the property tax money.
Arrived home just after 6pm and had to milk the cows. Dolly started bellowing at me as soon as I arrived and she was full ! Eventually sat down with a cup of hot tea after 7pm, exhausted and went to bed shortly thereafter. Long day.
Maybe our year is off to a bad start ! So, I'm struggling with it all, and need a little time to regain my sense of equilibrium and humour.