I feel guilty....I've cheated

Some would say I’m a two-timer.  Lately I’ve been spending time with a certain Janome.  In fact, we went away for an extended weekend to get acquainted.  We had a fabulous time together at a Quilting Retreat in Nebraska!  Sven, my Viking badboy has been acting up lately, so I didn’t want to be 3 hours from home with a machine that sounded like the little engine that couldn’t.  My friend Sue let me borrow her back-up machine for a test drive.  Not saying I’m ready to dump Sven, but for the amount of money I paid for this hangdog Husquvarna, he should be running smooth as silk.

Another quilty friend Jen joined me for this Retreat.  Jen and I have done road trips together before so I knew it would be a great time.  Since Jen is taking a photography class (with the photo subject being cemetery pics), she asked that we stop at an old cemetery right up the road from the Retreat Center.  No problem, it’s literally a mile away.  What I wasn’t aware of, that part of Nebraska had received rain for days.  Many days.  Jen mentions the cemetery is on a gravel road – shouldn’t be an issue, it’s been raining so we’ll be minus the gravel dust.   

As we head up this gravel road I can feel my car starting to sink. I realize very quickly, this isn’t a gravel road but more like a mud pit with a scattering of gravel on it. Never in my life have I experienced mud like this.  So thick and sticky!  I had to get out of this!  My head was swimming with the image of mud caked up to my knees and the little wheels of my sewing machine tote clogged with Nebraska sludge because we had to bail from a sinking Hyundai!    

(Right side car tracks - me entering the road, the deep middle set is me swimming my way out)

Luckily we were able to back out.  Once we headed down the road…..imagine a tractor dropping huge clumps of mud….that’s what my car did.  You could hear the road pudding thumping and rolling around under my car…..

Since the photography homework wasn’t happening (and after a pit stop at a car wash) it was time to check-in to the retreat.

Me on the left and Jen on the right... oh yeah, the day is looking brighter already!