It was a simple stop. My mother had died a few weeks before and my stepfather, Rudy, and I had finished packing up his possessions from his eighty-three years of life, fitting them all into a fifteen foot U-Haul truck. He also had a 2000 Saturn, which maybe the last one in existence since they are no longer manufactured. It was on a car dolly behind the truck. This made the whole thing about eight feet longer than the truck alone.
Rudy got a text that said he could have his wife's death certificate mailed, which could take months, or pick it up that same day. We had already driven as far as the town in which the court house was located so we decided to quickly pick it up.
I drove past the front entrance of the court house building and noticed a very nice half circle drive way. Could it be that easy? I thought to myself. No, it will take him too long to pick up the certificate. I won't be able to stay there the whole time. I had better park somewhere else. I let my stepfather out and I turned the corner and drove into a parking lot full of cars. I got around the first line, and then the second. I can do this. Why was I worried? Then I came to the third, and last turn. Not going to happen!
I tried to pull forward, back up a bit, pull forward, back up a bit, pull forward and then I just sat there with no idea how I was going to get out of the mess I had gotten myself into. Why didn't I just park in that half circle? I thought as I sat perplexed in the driver's seat. A man walked up to the driver's window who knew my name. "Are you Lisa?" My stepfather had passed him on his way into the court house. "Yes." I said sheepishly. I knew exactly who this person was, even though I didn't know him personally. He was a friend of a friend from the church I attended.
Your stepfather told me you might need some help. "Um, yeah. Thank you. I have no idea what to do next to get out of this parking lot that I should not have driven into." That last part didn't even need to be said. It was pretty clear I was way out of my league.
He tried to help me figure it out but I finally had to simply ask him do it. He got the truck and trailer a little farther than I and then...
There was a car that was parked at the front edge of a parking space. Two feet farther into the parking space would have allowed us to barely get by but that was not happening. I took the license plate number and went into the front entrance of the court house to find the person and ask them to move their car. Yeah, like that is realistic. I was desperate!
One of the officers followed me out to the truck to assess the situation. Rudy came out a few minutes later and the four of us talked about the hopelessness of it all for about fifteen minutes. We determined that the only thing to do was to take the car off the dolly, move the truck and then reconnect the car and dolly after they were on the street.
Just as I started the long process of disconnecting all the car dolly parts, the owner of the vehicle that was blocking us came out. What are the odds? He was to be in court all day and only came out to get his water bottle he had left in his car. He moved his car and we didn't have to disconnect anything. The truck and trailer was driven out of the parking lot without any more problems and we were on our way.
Next time I'm using the driveway and only moving if they ask me to.
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