Its now Tuesday morning. I was able to study for my CDL tests all through the weekend and then Sunday afternoon I took off for Alturas CA to get my drivers tests done. Its a 6 hour drive across the desert, though this drive is a little more scenic than the other route. Past some mountains and a few lakes. So not a bad drive, weather was great too!
I arrived at Goose Lake campground and found a spot for the night. I planned to camp there (just a few miles from Alturas) and then head into Alturas in the morning for my physical and DMV visit. It was a pretty nice spot and I put my tent up without any embarrassing collapses or anything. Usually I get it half way and it will pop out of one of its holds and the whole thing will come crashing down.
Monday morning bright and early I headed to Alturas. Early enough to find the doctors office and go back into town for a coffee. There was a nice man serving coffee out of a drive through window. And I suspected, it was the first drive through in the area because the window was not very convenient for him and there was a table with chairs inside the little place with good ole boys sitting at it. Old habits die hard.
I was telling the nice man that I was headed to the DMV and all about my drive to get there and about my upcoming job and he was really funny, he said, "bring your group by here and I'll get them all fixed up", I told him Alturas (in the northern most tip of California) wasn't really on my route but thank you!
He said the DMV in Alturas is a really quiet DMV and that they only just got a take the number machine so they were moving up in the world. That's what I had hoped to find out, so I was looking forward to the visit.
Once I got all my papers in order from the doc I headed to the DMV. I took a deep breath and opened the door and guess what I found? All chairs full, people standing, and one nice lady helping everyone. Ha! So I took my number and waited in the quietest office you've ever seen. Now all chairs full was 8 chairs. Not the usual 20-30 chairs and one old couple left because they didn't have a few minutes to wait. (apparently waiting at the DMV was REALLY new) so my number was called in record time. The one lady working was very efficient and I heard her say before I got to her that they were hiring new people so she was the only one working, hence the "enormous" wait! Doesn't it just figure. The quietest DMV I wander into in California has been understaffed and had a line. Ha! Makes me laugh.
I got to the counter thinking I'd finally managed to take care of everything and she says "I need to see your social security card please" and I said I'm sorry what!!? And she proceeds to point to the line on my application stating SSN documentation is required. Oops!
My tears of success (or soon to be) turned into tears of sadness as I realized I didn't have it, didn't even know where it was (its packed away) and realized I'd have to drive back to Idaho 6 hours to go find it. She felt really bad for making me cry and she was really apologetic and I told her, if any employee of the DMV's I've visited in Cali lately had spilled the bad news they certainly wouldn't have been as nice as her. So off I went to cry in my car.
I called Mom to see if she might have it in a file but alas she didn't, then i sent her to the storage unit to see if it was in the bin and it wasn't so I decided to come home and find it. I couldn't either. Turns out you can get a replacement card for free and I had all the documentation that I'd need to replace it if I could just get myself to a SS office. There was an office 100 miles away from Alturas. Boise is 400 miles away. Hmmm. I'd like to think it wouldn't have been that simple and I'd have still had to drive back to Boise.
needless to say I was kicking my butt the entire way home. What it boils down to is this. Sometimes when you want something so bad that you fight and fight to get it, means you weren't supposed to be doing that thing. If doors keep closing or things keep happening maybe its not meant to be. On the other hand somethings in life are worth fighting for. HOW DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE? At what point do you stop fighting and say, maybe this isn't the right path? Or maybe its the right path but wrong thing at the end of it.
Don't get me wrong I'm really excited about this upcoming tour. I mean, its going to be great! But the struggle to get there is really getting me down! I think I'll stick with the idea that this will be something worth fighting for and keep trying. If too many more road blocks appear though I may have to call and say no thank you. :(
We shall see. Tomorrow I drive to Cali and back in a day. That's 13 hours of driving round trip. Its going to be great!
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