FW: Day 6, DC

 

Well, after going in and out of rain and no rain a least 20 times, we made it back to DC by 6:00 p.m. last night  During the drive home, an incident, which I report below,  occurred that convinced me I made the right decision, not that I was questioning it anyway.

 

We stopped by Donner’s swimming pool on the way to see how he perked up within a couple of hundred feet of it. He has a session tomorrow (Thursday). I am hopeful that will bring him some relief and enjoyment. It certainly will rebuild his spirit and give him some needed exercise. I bet over the last week he hasn’t walked more than 250 feet.

 

Unloading the Defender was the fastest and easiest of the 11 returns-home. In fact, this OTR was headed for the best prepared and best outfitted of all eleven. Experience does pay, I guess. In fact, I rarely referred to my To-Take list in preparing, except at the end as a final check, it was so permanently impressed upon my mind.

 

In a day or so I will start my simulation of what the journey would have been, for the benefit of those who wish to make the journey themselves, and for my own benefit when we resume the journey, which we will at some point.  We turned around only a day’s drive (two weeks in Donner-Party time-distance) from where the Donner Party started its journey in Springfield IL. Ironically, we were in Springfield OH.

 

About that incident, it was in a sense rather ironic. Recall that I wrote on the second day that I had made three mistakes, something that usually happens during the shake-down of the trip, the first five days, as I suddenly change all ---and I mean all--- of my daily living chores.

 

The first mistake was sitting on the kitchen container to eat breakfast. Bad idea. The container sat on a slight slope and no sooner had I sat on it facing side-slope when it toppled over, taking me to the ground with it. It could have been serious, but wasn’t.  I should add to my Rules of the Road a new rule “Always sit on anything facing downslope: as a corollary to Rule #1, “Don’t do anything stupid.”

 

The second mistake was when I loaded Donner into his front seat bed before I got on the road. As I walked to his side of the Defender to load up to roof rack, he leaned against to door and the door opened and he slipped out. Apparently, when I had opened that door earlier I had intended to return to do something and closed the door but did not shut the door securely. Fortunately,  I was there to lessen his fall to the ground. My hope is that I would have caught it during the final check before I pulled out later because locking that door is on my check list.  But this is not the first time I made that mistake. Back in 2013, after I took then-paralyzed Leben out of the front seat for a walk from the Defender, I closed the door but did not secure it. I returned him to the Defender by way of the back door and forgot the check the passenger door. As I drove on, Erde jumped into the front seat and started to make herself comfortable as she was inclined to do. As she did, she leaned against the door and fell out into the street (I was going slowly at that point). A bus passing on my right swerved to miss her. She was not hurt, but I thought I learned my lesson. I guess not..  The Defenders do not have any “door open” warnings.

 

The third mistake I already briefly refereed to.  I always take on my trip a pair of boots and a pair of smaller nylon shoes to wear around camp. This year I meant to take my black Garmont boots instead of my black Under Armor boots, but since they look and feel alike,  I mistakenly took the latter. The problem is that they are slightly larger and sometimes get in the way of the pedals on the Defender, and they make it difficult to put two feet on the same rung of the ladder as I climb to the roof rack. So, after one night on the road, safety being on the top of my list, I said it was time to pull out the smaller shoes from the bag on the roof rack. After I pulled them from the bag, I tossed them to the ground, as I usually do when getting something from the roof rack. After I got down the ladder, I probably got distracted by some other of the multitudinous chores involved with breaking camp. When I was ready to get on the road, I did my final check around the camp and the Defender, looking under it, on top of it, and its sides dies to make sure everything was in order (that’s when I would have caught the open door). But the shoes were in a tan bag about seven feet from the Defender in not in my line of vision, so I drove off without them, the first time I let anything behind on of my trips (the second time, really, which I will explain at some future time). Fortunately, as I wrote, I stopped by that camp four days later and found the shoes, abet somewhat wet, exactly where I had tossed them. Now comes he ironic part. I did not put the wet shoes on then,, but about 50 miles up the road, when  I took a break for Donner, after moving him to a nearby grassy area, I got the smaller shoes out and put them on as I sat next to Donner.  Break over, I returned Donner to the Defender and then got busy with the usual chores of loading up and checking around the Defender, but did not check everywhere I had been. . Everything secure, I got on the road. Then, about another 50 mils up the road, the thought suddenly hit me that I did not recall loading the books anywhere in the Defender. When I stopped for gas, sure enough, no boots. I had forgotten to load them. The good news is this. I have a new pair of the same boots at home, but I did not like them anyway, and so I am glad to see them go. The bad news is that this was another mistake that I should not have made, and confirmed my decision to return home (I am too distracted. Usually mistakes end about five days into the trop and I should have been passed that phase. I guess there is a silver lining in everything.

 

Ed and Donner from home.