Paper Trail 6… Review and Conclusion

We were enjoying some margaritas at Madeline’s when we left off in the last post…

In my friend Madeline Arendt’s studio- wow! It’s like a store!

Samples of Madeline’s work…

Such a great workspace- I am drooling (and thinking I need to overhaul my studio!)

Her die cut station

and dies… a few of mine 🙂

What I didn’t tell you was what happened BEFORE we got to Madeline’s… we packed up from the show and hitched Scotty up. This always makes me slightly nervous…

FLASHBACK to Los Angeles 2014 where I had an unfortunate incident when the trailer. came. off. the. hitch! while I was following my friend Jennifer Priest to dinner. Thankfully I was not on a freeway or going super fast. But it scared the heck out of me! Luckily we were able to get it hitched back up and on the road… but it has made me nervous every time I hitch and un-hitch…. I stopped at one point during the trip to get an oil change. Till they told me I had to take the trailer off… nope. Didn’t happen.

So anyway, I called my husband as I was hooking things back up just to make sure I attached everything correctly and we rolled on out. We got about a mile away and the trailer popped off the hitch again! Crap! There was a very bad burning smell as the belly of the trailer dragged along the ground. In my rush to make it end, I stopped too soon and the hitch from the truck ran into the trailer and punched a hole in poor little Scotty!

We got out to assess the situation- everyone was fine- we had been going slow, thankfully.

I tried to crank the trailer up to raise it high enough to hitch up again, but the pavement made it too hard to turn. I was on the phone with Good Sam, our emergency road service, to see when they could come and help when a Chicago policeman drove up. He had a jack in his car and very nicely helped get us back on the road, with the help of a neighbor.

We had 11 miles to go to Madeline’s and the whole way I was a wreck thinking it was going to pop off again. I decided to bring Scotty to a hitch place that night and leave it there in hopes that someone could take a look first thing in the morning. I was very grateful to get a call saying that they could take a look at it. Turns out they cut off the coupler I had and welded a new one on for only $75!  In talking with Tom from Master Hitch, he told me that the coupler was worn out and broken… so at least it was not all my fault. Still, Scotty was looking pretty bad…

That afternoon, I had a meeting at Crescent Cardboard, leading manufacturer of my favorite material in the whole world- matboard!

After lunch, Doug  patched Scotty up with a FedEx envelope and Duck Tape while Connie and I had a tailgate crafting session…

Crescent Matboard and Body Work- service with a smile!Then it was time to get on the road and head down to Mattoon, IL for a class at Daisy-Lane Scrapbooking and Craft Mall. We ran into a LOT of traffic and didn’t arrive until fairly late. Karen’s husband was able to secure us a lovely room and we had a great night’s sleep.

Nice big classroom…

All kitted up and ready to go…

Class today was fun but slightly hectic because the dies that we were going to use for class must have gotten put in the wrong box and went back to California with the Sizzix folks after we packed up the Paper Arts Show. So we had two dies for 10 people! Karen nicely cut a bunch of the pieces we needed to save some time but this project has a lot of steps to it. Since not all students are on the same level, we needed to give extra attention to some ladies to make sure we got done in three hours. Ack- the joys of travel teaching! But overall, everyone was happy with what they created and had a great time.

Love how that book cover came out!

Hanging with Mary for a few minutes after class…

Using my new fish eye lens given to me by my son Chris before I left. Really cool effects…

We finished class around 5 and drove into town to celebrate the completion of the Paper Trail 6 at The Alamo Steakhouse with a leisurely and delicious dinner.

Got back on the road around 7:30 and after about nine miles, the check engine light started blinking. Blinking gauges freak me out- I’ll admit it. So I called my husband and mechanic BIL but no one answered so I called my SIL of GT Peace Auto, and thankfully he answered. I explained the symptoms and he said it was probably the ignition coil and I should try and have it looked at. Being a Saturday night in a small town, nothing was open, so we proceeded to an O’Reilly Auto Store. I told the guy what was happening and asked if he knew of anyone who might be able to take a look tomorrow. He recommended his friend Eddy and gave me his number. He also said there was a Days Inn a mile away, so Karen and I drove over and checked in. Although I had hoped to get to Indianapolis that night, there was nothing to do but make a party out of it. We brought in our crafty supplies and spread out. Karen was working on her Passport Book travel journal and I made a special Sizzix trailer for Connie with matboard she had given me on our visit.

Photo by Karen. Of all the places in the parking lot, this white car has to park right in front of us???

The next day we got up and thankfully Eddy, the mechanic, was able to get us back on the road. I am so thankful to all those who have helped us along the way. It does my heart good to know that there are people who will take time out of their day to stop and help a stranger.

With 720 miles to go, we started driving at about 1PM and finally rolled into town at 4 AM. That was ONE LONG DAY, but we made it!

I want to thank my friend Karen for riding along with me. She never lost her cool or seemed upset and there were a few times when most people would have! I also admire that she always kept her sense of humor and a positive outlook. I was honored to have Karen along- thanks too to her husband Pat, who was working behind the scenes, lining up hotel rooms and being our sounding board with technical issues.

So with a grateful heart, I can close the book on Paper Trail 6. It was only 10 days, but wow, we crammed a lot in there!

Thanks friends, for following along, for leaving comments, for your encouragement and support. Get ready- another trip starts in 11 days!