TOUCH DOWN!!!

Before leaving Yuma yesterday morning, I stopped by a Chevy dealer to talk to them about that dang Check Engine light that came on the night before and then was off again in the morning. That bothered me.

The guy said sometimes it means the gas cap isn't closed tightly, so he checked mine, but it was fine. He said they could do a diagnostic for $85, but I'd already had that done in Dallas. So the mystery remains, but I asked him to check my oil while I was there. WHOA! The dipstick was nearly dry! I told him immediately to do an oil change, which I figured should get me to San Diego. But that shook me up a little bit. Why is that car using oil like that????

So after that, I got on the highway about 11:30. I thought I'd passed thru desert on the way into Yuma, but heading west out of Yuma, there were actual sand dunes! Wow. And then, about an hour outside of San Diego, the highway goes up, up and up, to 4000 feet elevation, and passes thru mountains of rocks. It looked like a moonscape. Without easing up on the gas, it kept
going slower and slower till I was putting along at 45 mph, while everyone else was whizzing past me. My little car did NOT like those mountains. I was a bit nervous, wondering if it was going to slow down all the way to zero mph. But FINALLY, after what seemed forever, the road starts descending. I thought I'd never get out of those desolate mountains. It's not a drive I'd care to take again.

*Photo courtesy of Cameron Kaiser, http://www.floodgap.com/roadgap/6/

Yesterday morning before checking out of the motel in Yuma, I emailed a girl about a rental I saw posted on Craigslist the night before. Since I would be driving for several hours, I gave her my cell phone, and she called me back when I was a little less than an hour from San Diego. She hadn't rented it yet, so we arranged for me to call when I arrived, and then she gave me directions to the house. It's a little studio cottage attached to a house, and her mother lives in the house.

I liked the place immediately, and happily, she didn't make me fill out any application or pay a credit check fee, or any of that rigamarole. I just went to an Albertson's and used the ATM to get cash for the first week's rent. She seems to be a very easy-going person, and I met her mother and her boyfriend. She's Cuban! She has one of those stud piercings under her lower lip, her boyfriend has tattoos and dreadlocks, and her mother converted from Catholic to B'Hai. Well, that's California for ya!

The neighborhood is a little edgy, but I feel pretty o.k. with her mother living right next door. She told me there's a police substation in the neighborhood, and so they're always patrolling. A few blocks away there's an Albertson's, McDonald's, Starbuck's, and Panda Express. Oh, and a library branch!

This morning I met the Mayflower driver at the storage unit at 9:00. They had all my stuff unloaded and tucked away in two hours.

Anyway, I would like to add that I believe God was surely watching over me on this long trip, as evidenced by that angel/mechanic in Deming, NM who spotted my cracking tires, and then that weird Check Engine light coming on, causing me to take it to the dealer and asking them to check the oil. And THEN, to snag a cute little cottage to live in, with no hassle whatsoever - yup, that was definitely Divine Providence.

Some time before leaving, I found some words in a Norman Vincent Peale book which became my mantra thru all of this. And here they are:

"I believe I am always divinely guided."

"I believe I will always take the right turn in the road."

"I believe God will make a way where there is no way."

'Nuff said.