Goodbye to the desert

We decided to leave Rancho Mirage on Tuesday, September 13th.   Normally, I am not superstitious but I may have to rethink that whole "13th" premise.  Our friends, Fran and Di, recommended that we not pack the car the night before or there may be nothing left the next morning.  We took their advice, got everything ready the night before to carry to the car (about 100 yards away) and woke up to - thunderstorms and drenching rain !!!!  

This kind of rain was a rare phenomenon at that time of year in the desert. Friends described it as Palm Springs crying because we were leaving which, although touching, didn't lessen the soaking we suffered getting everything from the house to the car.  When I say everything - it quickly became apparent that we were not going to be able to fit everything in the car.  Move to Plan B.

While Jann cleaned Fran and Di's home, I drove over to U-haul to get a small trailer and attach it to the factory installed tow bar on the back of the van.  Luckily, Wesley and Richard came with me.  I say "luckily" because the "13th" phenomena was still in effect.  First the tow attachment that came with the van was no longer in the car - easily fixed with a new one from U-Haul.  Then the lighting package that came with the van did not work - calls to Toyota to find out which fuse was tied to the tow package lights proved useless.  U-Haul provided a solution - they installed a new wiring system tied to the lights at the back of the van.  None of this was cheap or quick.  Did I mention that in order for them to do this work we had to unpack everything we had put in the van so they could reach the wiring?  Thank goodness for having Wesley and Richard there.  We spent almost 4 hours at U-Haul. 

In the meantime, Richard went back and collected the rest of the stuff at Fran and Di's in his SUV and headed back to his house with Jann.  With the trailer attached, finally, I drove over to Wesley's and Richard's house and with their help we got everything packed in the van and the trailer and left the desert - four hours later than we planned. 

Turns out Tuesday the 13th is the Mexican equivalent of Friday the 13th.   Before this I have regularly courted disaster by walking under ladders, not tossing salt over my shoulder and I have been known to break a mirror.  But I will never again plan anything major on any 13th of the month regardless of the day of the week.