Council Bluffs to Home

I met KC at 7:00 AM in the lobby and, from the look on his face, I knew something was wrong.

"We've got a problem",  he said.  "All of the luggage in the bed of the truck is gone".

Aw crap....

Last night we'd parked the truck and trailer as close as we could to the hotel lobby, but the parking lot was full and we'd had to settle for a spot between a couple of large trucks a good 100 yards from the hotel front door.  We were both dead tired and never gave our choice a second thought.

We went through a couple scenarios of what could have happened but eventually concluded that some asshole(s) had jimmied the bed cover and helped themselves to the bags that Sherry and Karen had asked us to hold (clothes and some jewelry...but not the best stuff, thank you Jesus), my motorcycle duffel bag (just clothes) and KC's Hartman bag with mostly clothes.  Total value was not insignificant, but there was nothing of an irreplaceable nature. 

We quickly mulled over our options and decided that the odds of getting the stuff returned was 1% or less, that an insurance claim would have been eaten up by the deductibles or policy coverage exclusions and limits and that reporting it and waiting for the cops to investigate and write a report would take hours.  In minutes we decided to chalk it up to "life's lesson's" (though I really don't know what we could have done differently) and headed south at ten over the speed limit.

We pulled into KC's driveway at midnight, having skimmed through St. Louis and Nashville traffic, over Mont Eagle's treacherous pass in light rain, fog and murderous truck traffic and through the rain pelting much of north Georgia.  As I pulled out of KC's driveway in my SUV, the low tire pressure light was on.  I made the mental calculations of changing a tire by myself in the dark at 12:45AM and decided that I would drive my SUV home on its chrome rims if I had to.

Before I hit the sack I had to say hello to Bella and was touched by how excited she seemed to be to see and smell me again.  Missed my girl a lot.

I hit my pillows around 1:00AM and slept the sleep of the dead, uninterrupted until 9:00AM.