Still Circling in St. Louis

Shortly after my last post, we hopped in the Jeep and drove over to the waterfront where Mary Ann could get a good set of sunset pictures of the Arch and the skyline. In our rush, I hit a chug-hole too hard, pushing a marginal U-joint over into Imminent Failure Mode. I could tell something was wrong, seriously wrong, as we drove to supper. Come next morning, I limped at barely legal minimum speed on the highway to the nearest Jeep service center, Dave Croft in Collinsville. We got in line without an appointment and they promised to work it in.

We went ahead and rented a car, not knowing how long it would take. Mary Ann had several chores to take care of and I can work anywhere, so we were content to spend a few days next to the Arch if that’s what it took.

But then, barely mid-afternoon, we got the call. They had diagnosed and fixed my Jeep and it was ready to be picked up, ahead of schedule and under their quote. Nice. We dropped Mary Ann’s schedule and picked it up. Drives nicely now — better than it has in the last couple of months.

This pushed her activities closer to deadlines. She had a large set of photos to mount and send to a Museum in New Mexico. (Yes, we’re doing all this in the RV.) Also, she had magazine submissions to send off. We were almost back on schedule when she received an email from a stock photo company that needed her immediate attention.

The last stage of the process was to send off some sample photos. She needed serious bandwidth, Now! Neither the RV’s satellite nor the cell phone was good enough, so we hopped in the Jeep hunting for a Starbucks. Through evening drive-time, we drove. The first was going to close too soon, but she found another. I headed back to the RV park to wait until she was done. (I don’t drink coffee.)

All this is set-up. Imagine me, in the Jeep, dropped into evening drive-time in downtown St. Louis, winding through twisty roads. Overcast sky, so I lose my sense of direction. The GPS gives me a compass arrow, at best, but even with that, I find myself heading west when I need to go east.

A couple of loops later, I manage, finally, to get back to the RV camp. I just hope I can find her again when she calls.