Eponine
In the late 90s I was writing for About.com. At one of their conventions Sarah and I met Eponine, who we liked. One of the things Eponine and I had in common was that we were sickies. Sickies working online at home wasn't uncommon at About, but it still seemed rare in the 90s.
Eponine was married to a narcissistic actor. She decided to leave him, and she bought a house online in Aberdeen, in the state of Washington, sight unseen. (What a wonderful phrase). She asked us to help her move.
After a few phone calls it was clear that the price of a moving van was very fluid, it depended where they were needed, where you picked them up and dropped them off. The plan was made to rent a U-Haul van with a trailer for her car in Oceanside, CA, then return it in Tacoma, Washington. It was almost $1000 less than LA to Aberdeen.
Thea was living in San Francisco at the time, but was here in town, and she said she would come with me and then I would drop her off. Thea an I took the train down to Oceanside. And while we were on the train we said how I would be driving almost the entire length of the West Coast of the United States on this trip. We mentioned this to the U-Haul lady, and she insisted I should take pictures. So I bought a couple of disposable cameras. (This was because we didn’t have phones that took photos yet).
Thea got the idea of renting a car and actually driving down to Tijuana, turning around, and coming back to Oceanside to pick up the truck. We did. We found a little turnaround just before the entrance to the Mexican border, very easy to do, and that was the beginning of my West Coast trip.
A guy at the U-Haul place was very kind to me, and showed me how to drive a truck with a trailer. How to park, how to back up, how to turn a tight corner, it was an important lesson in geometry.
We got the truck back to Eponine's house in Hollywood. As we were loading it up, my allergy to cats became much too obvious. Nevertheless, we packed all of her stuff into the truck and into her car, which was on the trailer.
Once it was loaded, Thea and I started driving north. The plan was a couple of days later Sarah and Eponine would fly with her cats to Washington, they would rent a car, and drive to Aberdeen.
We started off in mid afternoon, but by the evening I was tired, so we stopped in Visalia in a motel right next to the highway.
The next day we met Max for lunch in Davis. He was going to USF, and came out on BART to meet us.
At lunch people were looking at me oddly, and I thought it was merely my beautiful face. But in the bathroom, the mirror showed me that my eyes were blood red.
Max and Thea went back on BART to San Francisco and my drive to Washington continued.
Got as far that night to Weed, CA. Driving a U-Haul is much slower than driving a car.
The next day Eponine and Sarah had parking adventures, airport security adventures, and adventures with the cats.
Approaching Aberdeen, on the phone with Sarah, who had flown with Eponine to Spokane, I got us motel rooms, one of them cat friendly. And using my new trailer skills, I backed the U-Haul, and the trailer into Eponine’s new driveway, up a slight incline, and left the trailer in her carport.
The whites of my eyes were still blood red, and my breathing was heavy. I went to a gas station in Aberdeen, for gas and their bathroom. When I came out, there was a guy with a knife, ready to mug me. He took one look at my eyes and my heavy breathing and he ran away.
I love that story.
Sarah and Eponine had more adventures getting from the airport to Aberdeen. If you're curious, you can ask Sarah about it. It is her story more than mine. (I do have my version of it, of course.)
They got into town late at night. We went to the motel. We got some sleep. The next day Eponine, Sarah, and two hired teenagers unloaded the U-Haul. To get away from the cats, I went on walkabout and explored Aberdeen.
We had to return the rental car and the U-Haul, and catch a plane home, so we didn't stay that night in Aberdeen, but went on to Tacoma. I think Eponine really wanted us to keep her company that first night, but logistics and my allergies said no. That deeply hurt her feelings.
Sarah and I were flying out of Seattle late the next afternoon. The idea of driving the entire West coast really appealed to me. We had the rental car, so after we returned the truck, we drove to the Canadian border and found an easy turnout and turned around to come back to the U S of A. But when we got back to the border we were escorted to a secure area, then two guys in black with machine guns supervised us while the car was searched. Then we were searched and taken into an office and questioned.
Here was possibly the first time this certain exchange with authority ever happened. The angry border cop says to me, You aren't taking this very seriously. I answered, How can I take this seriously when I know you're wasting your time? I've said that now a few other times, and it's great fun for me, mainly because the cops really hate it.
Eventually, we were released, had oysters for lunch, returned the car to the airport, and flew back to Los Angeles.
Our national border safe once again.