HARD TIMES... change, not for the better (Part 55i)

After a long Sunday where I still couldn’t come up with a “plan” I woke up to more bad weather. The weather added to my misery as the remnants of a coastal storm were battering us. I wished I had someone to talk to who could give me some direction. I was utterly discouraged which certainly didn’t help when I was racing. By mid week Mrs AJ had left a message that AJ had been released from the hospital and they would be back by the weekend. Having to put the entries in three days in advance and not knowing, for sure, if AJ would be able to drive left me in another quandary. At that point I was determined to leave, at the latest, Saturday if I got my pay so didn’t enter any horses for Saturday night. I was of the mind that no matter what I did it would be wrong.

Mrs AJ showed up with AJ Friday night. I was shocked when I saw him. His eyes were sunken into his head and he’d lost weight. I didn’t know what he’d say so I was a bit nervous. It went well as could be expected. He still wasn’t feeling well so he wanted to make it quick. I told him what I'd done and then he paid me. When I tried to thank him for being my mentor he just walked away. It wasn't the way I wanted it to end. I had my grandfather’s horse entered to race that night which would be my last one for AJ. It didn’t go well...again. This was a horse that seldom went off stride and, for whatever reason, he did. It certainly wasn’t the way I wanted to remember my last race for AJ or my grandfather. In the two weeks I been filling in for AJ all I had to show for it was one third place finish out of eleven starts. Not good!

Basically I was all packed and ready to leave the first thing in the morning. I stopped by the barn to say my goodbyes to Ed and the other men and was on my way. I figured it would take about seven to eight hours and was “hyper” once on the road. I was in Connecticut before the first problem arose. I heard a “thumping” sound and when I stopped to check on it I found a bulge in one of the tires on the trailer. I had no spare. It was right around midday and, back in those days, many businesses were only open for part of the day on Saturdays. It took almost two hours before I was able to find a tire place open who had the size tire that the trailer needed. That was only the half of it. The tire cost around $20 as I remember it which was about 1/3 of the cash I had.

I made it onto the New Jersey turnpike right around dark. I’d driven for about a half hour when I saw flashing lights behind me. I pulled over and a State Trooper walked up to the door and told me I had no lights on the trailer. I knew I’d hooked them up and checked them before leaving. He was very nice and with his flashlight we found the problem. I’d neglected to secure the wires to the hitch and they’d been dragging on the road surface and worn through. Neither of us had tools to do the repair so he “escorted” me to the nearest service area. By the time I got on the road again it was close to 10pm. I called Dan and told him where I was and I could tell he wasn’t happy. I pulled into his driveway around 1am. All the lights were out and I was exhausted so just opened the door to the trailer, pushed some boxes around and flopped on the sofa.

The next thing I knew there was some pounding on the side of the trailer. I was sound asleep and it scared me. I opened the door and found it was barely light out. Dan was standing there and, seeing I was dressed, told me to follow him. I didn't know it then but it was something I was going to be doing for the next six months.

To be continued...