Effingham Photography Traveling Workshop // Sports workshop, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa

The Journey to Remember! 

Have you ever had one of those weeks where literally nothing works out or seems to be going well?

I have. It started as a normal day loading up my SUV for a workshop I was going to teach in Iowa. With ADHD, it was hard to sleep the night before, which isn't unusual in a mind that doesn't shut off. I had the SUV loaded, sweet tea at hand and radio playing as I was ready to launch out of Effingham. What should have been a 4 hour drive took more than 5. Leaving Effingham was just the beginning as there was a detour around the Wal-Mart/Interstate area because of a wreck. No biggie, but 30 min later (which shouldn't have taken one minute to pass through) starts to work on the mind. Is this going to be one of those trips? Why, yes. Yes it is. About an hour later I passed through another small town and all of the traffic lights were out. Why in the world are they out? Was it the enormous amount of storms we've had? Nope. At this point, it should have taken maybe 5 minutes to get through the town, but again, my luck had it that it was going to take another 30-45 minutes as 5 police vehicles blazed by with their sirens going. Now, I was to only wonder what was happening at this point. I finally reached an area of stop lights where the cops, fire trucks and ambulances had met and were re-directing us to go around the wreck through another Wal-Mart parking lot only to have the car in front of me not move and just sit there watching the scene. Frustrating was an understatement. Maybe because I have some road rage in me. What I could see from the distance on a 45 mph road was a small red car wrapped around a telephone pole and had it snapped in half and bent over the ditch.

That was the start of my mini Giligan's Island three hour tour. Thankfully I did reach my destination and ate Mexican. But to continue, I was finally making head way into Iowa to my brothers work (he just moved close to where I was  teaching), and could you believe it. Out of nowhere, a storm rolled in. The sky turned black, the wind picked up and the heavens unleashed a rain storm. I didn't want to stop just in case vehicles behind me couldn't see me and hit me. I continued to pursue my destination at 25 mph with my car shaking and raining to hard I could barely see and bam. It started to hail. Seriously!? One of the other things I found out about Iowa was that Verizon does not have great signal. Can you hear me now? Not good! I literally had no idea where I was at and praying that my one bar of signal would not disappear. Let's speed this up a tad, I made it through. No  tornados and being blown away. I made it.

On to the next part. This is June 28th. It has been a year of weather and storms. Well this storm blew in a 70 degree evening which I cannot complain about, but the next day for the workshop I was about to teach, it hit 107 degrees. Our sports models rocked it, they were super awesome and thankful. I could not have asked for a better team of young leaders.

On a fun note,  I found out in Iowa, along the high ways are random gas stations not by towns. I also found out if you're going out to eat with locals (Thanks Kathie Brune), they take you to a place they say will be packed but has awesome food. What they didn't say was the town was 6 people and 15 cows, three ducks and 3 grain bins. It was confusing to see such a small town have a restaurant packed with an hour wait for food! It was great btw, even the stares from the other locals who know you're not from there, ha.

I would have loved to say my bad luck ended there,  but it was the journey home that life throws at you. I relearned that it is truth that one must learn to take the lemons thrown your way and make lemonade on a Sunday when no mechanics are open.

It stated as an awesome bright sunny morning with exuberant attitudes of getting home early to surprise the family only to literally get on the road and find out that the SUV battery was not holding  charge. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I called my wife to google some ideas, called my dad for some wisdom. I was in the middle of no where hoping to reach Quincy, IL where anything could be at, even a hotel if needed. Grr!

There were times my voltage gage would show such a low number, that I would pull over and hope it charged just enough to go 10 more miles. I did that about 3 times and hit just outside of Quincy at a gas station. I asked about anything to be around and was pointed to an O'Rileys. Hoping my SUV was charged just enough to make the two mile journey, I got in the car which hadn't charged hardly any at all to make it over the two lane bridge with no side of the road parking. I was really praying it wouldn't die there. Luck had it, I made it up the huge bridge, put it in neutral to coast down it and up to a stop light, again praying it would not die there. Turned left, which was a down hill type road and only a mile to go and it died in the middle of an intersection. Bone dead dry. I called the town police station and they sent a squad to direct traffic and get a tow truck for me. I asked the Officer about mechanics but of course, it was a Sunday and nothing was open. When the tow truck got there, I asked him to drop me off at O'Rileys where I hoped it wasn't my alternator out and all that fun stuff. I was blessed enough to have this 12 year old looking kid (obviously older than 16) who had a buddy do side work. He called him, had him come to the area. This is where it gets interested. I swear Maui from Moana pulled up with his thick strong stature and curly like demi god hair in a rustic red jeep.
Seriously? Ok, Ok, don't judge this 23 year old looking dude, but come to find out, he was O'Rileys manager.

What should've taken 1 hour ended up taking 4. Not because he didn't know what he was doing, but because these new SUV's were made to not be worked on by anyone these days. Blah. Also, we worked in 106 degree straight sun heat with no vehicle lift and tools.

Oh, did I mention he had to work at noon and we started at 10? We started simple with changing the 7 year old battery and that wasn't it. So we jumped right in to the alternator. I swear we were working in an area that my hand would barely fit, but somehow had to take the alternator out which was 3 times larger than our hands. Talk about turning a bolt a 1/16th of an inch at time and not only that, it seems Chevy hid a secret screw we couldn't find for a long time to get this darned thing off! Now it was noon, he wasn't off his shift until 8 that night. No way am I staying outside or around Quincy with no friends around for 8 hours. He can't work on the clock but I could ask him questions where I do the mechanic work as he guided me. I would do a small task, go get Maui (ha), and have him check it and tell me the next step. Let's just say, a one hour job done in 4 isn't to bad when you don't have the right equipment or garage to work in,  but we did it. It started right up, charged the battery, paid him for his help and was on my 3.5 hour journey back home.

I am glad that happened there verses when I teach in West Virginia where there's no signal, all mountains and no one around to help.

On the flip side, I learned to trust, smile even thought life hands you lemons and enjoy the journey that is front of us! I've once heard my dad say a million times, it rains on the just and unjust. Life's not fair but it's how you handle the situation that grows you.

Check out below for some of the images created at this sports workshop and if you're looking to book one, check out www.lokerphotography.com