LTLTR's Recovery Journal

[LearnToLoveTheRide]

I'm running for my life. I've been on the road for days now, just a bag of clothes, a box of toys, two sleeping bags and my three sons.

We left early on a Friday morning. K is four years old, I couldn't see him lasting more than five hours strapped into his seat so I headed up the coast sure I'd find someplace to stopover for the night. Holiday season hadn't started so most places would have free rooms.

Two hours on the road and a thousand 'look sheep' and 'look cows' from K and R later we crashed off the highway. Everyone was OK but we were stranded. I Googled up a mechanic using Google Maps and My Location and he sent out a recovery vehicle for us. A Highway Patrol vehicle passed us by, turned around and then kept us company, hazards flashing, until the recovery vehicle arrived.

While I waited, I jacked up the front left side of the vehicle and crawled under to see what the damage was: the left steering arm had disconnected from the left wheel hub causing me to lose control of the steering. Fortunately, I'd managed to control the slide off the highway and not directly into an oncoming double- trailer freightliner.

The mechanic in the recovery vehicle managed to reattach the steering arm and we followed him back to his workshop to have it properly repaired. He took us into this beautiful village where he worked from. Deep, rich, green forests surrounded us and a long, large mountain range ran upwards from the edge of the village. Dams glistened through the trees.

After thoroughly repairing the vehicle, the mechanic informed me that the vehicle steering mechanism had been deliberately sabotaged. The steering arm joins the hub with a self-tightening but a cotter pin that runs through the bolt so that even if the but were to loosen it would never detach completely. For that to have happened, someone would have had to have removed the cotter pin and physically loosened the nut.

In his opinion someone had sabotaged the steering with the intention of causing an accident while the vehicle was being driven. They hadn't simply disabled the vehicle but had tried to ensure that I was injured or killed in a collision.

That made a great deal of sense. I'd been having problems with gangsters for a few months: breaking into my vehicle; stealing my headlamps, threatening me in the street and extorting money from my wife. Not one to shy from confrontation I'd stood them down on a number of occasions and filed a report with the police. In fact the night before we left, I'd challenged one of the gangsters to s ettle this, here and now, once and for all. He'd backed down but apparently had taken the dishonourable root of sabotaging my vehicle later that night.

But it wasn't gangsters or gang threats that I was running from. I was running from something far more evil, far more sinister, and more insidious than a knife fight.

[DecimalRocket]

Hey, LTLTR, this is some dangerous stuff you're talking about. It must be stressful when your life is going dark. I don't know what else to say, but to wish you good luck and to take care. I just hope someone else can settle in and share something that's more helpful.

[Three Roses]

I'm so glad you got the 3 of you out of that situation! With everything else you were dealing with, you didn't need thugs to contend with as well.

I think I know exactly what you mean in your last paragraph. There is a feeling of indescribable evil afoot when the person you've bound your heart to seems intent on your demise, or at least, determined to cause you nothing but misery. It is a very dark, lonely feeling and one that I think a lot of us here can relate to - be it a spouse, a parent, what have you.

[sanmagic7]

a myriad of thoughts running thru my head, ltltr.   very glad you and your boys are safe is no. 1.  outrage at the idea of sabotage.  very glad you got out of town.  i, too, understand the evil of which you speak.  grateful you and your boys are away from that.

sending a hug filled with strength and safety to you - i'm so relieved that something worse didn't happen.    i admire your courage.

[Blueberry]

a myriad of thoughts running thru my head, ltltr.   very glad you and your boys are safe is no. 1.  outrage at the idea of sabotage.  very glad you got out of town.

and also that you controlled the slide off the highway. 

I don't what else to say either. This must be horrendously difficult for you atm. I wish you all the best - no more bad surprises like the sabotage.

[LearnToLoveTheRide]

Hi

@DecimalRocket: thanks for just taking the time to read and respond.
@Three Roses: yeah, that sense of  insidious evil is like something Dean Koontz would write a whole book about.
@sanmagic7: thank you but I don't feel very courageous, just terrified!
@Blueberry: thank you for the well-wishes.

Amitofu. LTLTR

[LearnToLoveTheRide]

(Bit dated, but I need to get the Journal out of my head.)

Nov-2017:

I was quite distressed after the incident involving my sabotaged steering column. When the mechanics had completed their repairs and I was ready to continue my journey, I pulled into a local convenience store and purchased some quick sugar snacks to prevent myself going into hypoglycemia; I was feeling a little lightheaded. Distributing snacks and cool drink in the car, I looked back at the way I'd come. I was scared of the journey ahead, and everything that could happen. At that moment, I was convinced that I wouldn't be able to make it and that my best option was just to turn around and return home.

I looked at Z, my eldest. "That was quite a scare. Do you want to go home, or keep going?"

"Let's keep going," he replied briefly and bravely.

I followed the road out of town heading in my original direction. We spent the next four days, for between five and seven hours each day, driving in the car during the day and settling into quaint little hotels in the evening.

The first night we spent in a cottage in a lively seaside village. The cottage bordered a wide river which meandered down and around to the sea. We had a relaxing morning swirling our feet in the water before breakfast and starting on the road again.

The second night we spent in a chain-motel in a much larger seaside town. No river but all the amenities supplied.

The third night we spent in a shack on a hillside overlooking the ocean. Z and I had been looking forward to this small village because it was an iconic getaway. Unfortunately, the area had been obviously fallen on tough, poorer times and the shack we found ourselves in was very rustic to say the least. But, we had fun picking amongst the rocks and a storm blew in just after nightfall. It was very pleasant falling asleep to the sound of rain hammering on the tin roof.

We started out early the next day. By now we were in quite a remote part of the country and after four hours on the road without seeing any restrooms to sop at, K became quite distraught. I pulled off the main highway into a forest access road so that K could answer the call of nature next to the car. He became hysterical at the thought of going in the grass. It took me almost fifteen minutes to convince him that it was okay to do it naturally. But when he finally had no choice anymore, he found it intensely funny!

On the fourth day we ended up in a relatively well known seaside town. It was far enough from our starting point, fairly well populated but still quiet enough. I decided to stop driving and settle for awhile. I contacted a local estate agent and arranged for a furnished apartment. We settled in that evening. 

[sanmagic7]

quite the journey, ltltr.  quite the adventure.  i'm just glad you and your babies are safe. 

you mentioned that you felt terrified when i wrote that i thought you courageous.  isn't that what courage is all about?  doing something even tho we're frightened of or by it.  that really is true courage.  you've got it all over the place. 

sending love and hugs for you and yours.  well done.