Let me start with – we’re all fine.

flat!Gibbs is also fine.

My car, not so fine.

So we’re cruising along in the middle of bumfucknowhere, Montana (it’s a place, look it up. Also spelled Whitehall) when the front left tire of a black SUV flew off the car and came right at us. I managed to slow considerably, but there was no way to avoid it without crashing into the median thingy, so it hit the front right bumper.

So the cops came, the medic came, the tow truck came and here we are at a super 8 in Whitehall, no idea on how much work my car needs to be even street legal (likely just fix the oil leak that happened), the rest can be done later. Waiting to hear from my insurance, her insurance and the shop. We might get out of here tomorrow, we might get out of here Wednesday, and if we don’t get to leave until Thursday it’ll be like Christmas Eve as a kid when I changed in the car on the way to church.

I will see Mark Harmon.

 

I’m on my way to being pleasantly buzzed.

Just a few more sleeps until I hit the open road again – it’s not my long awaited extended trip, but it is a two week, 5,000+ mile jaunt with two friends and my well-traveled flat!Gibbs.

The main reason for the trip is Mark Harmon’s charity event for kids (NCIS *happysigh*), but we’ve extended it for a few days in Memphis – a city I spent a few days in during my 2010 trip.

But it just reenforces my need to explore that open road – find out what this country is all about. I love the big cities – Memphis, NYC, Chicago, D.C. etc, but the small towns is where I want to spend some time. The places we’ve never heard of…

 

…On the road again.