Car wash girl

Well, the towbar deal for the 20th didn't exactly work out. Actually, the base plate won't ship until the 18th and I probably won't get it until around the 25th. My event in Callahan got slipped a week so I'm spending a week off at an RV resort called Flamingo Lake which is just south of the Jacksonville airport. It's been a nice respite and the resort is very nice. All the amenities including a cafe, a beach on the lake, a rec center and lots of activities -- none of which I've participated in preferring instead to just chill out all week. The main thing that's nice is I have a shady spot for which I'm grateful after spending a week in the sun in a K-Mart parking lot. The asphalt would get so hot in the afternoon that the boys couldn't even walk on it. I had to carry them over to the grass so they could do their business. The air conditioner would run constantly all day from around 10 till 8 trying to keep the coach cool. The temp would get up to about 80 but it was still way cooler than it was outside.

My biggest accomplishment this week was getting the motor home washed and truck washed and waxed. The motor home looks brand new again. I hadn't realized how dirty it was until the next day when the sun was shining on it and it looked so white. I also paid a man named Lou $50 to get my carpets cleaned. They were filthy black from the asphalt at my last event on Beach Blvd. Then I gave him another $10 to get the rest of the bugs off the cap of the motor home. I scrubbed yesterday until my arms felt like they were going to fall off. I got about 70% of them off but the last bit I just couldn't reach. Lou had some chemicals and a pressure washer and it took him about 15 minutes but the cap now looks as good as new. I could strangle the people down at Lazy Days for not washing the motor home when I asked them to.

Speaking of which, I finally got my new radio. Lazy Days overnighted it to me and I put it back into the dash by myself -- which is obvious because I couldn't get it to fit right so now it's just kind of sitting in the hole but it works so I'm happy. While I was at it, I hooked up the input for the Zen so now I can play it through the radio too. But I got my Sirius radio back and that's a good thing. I also broke down and got a Magellan so now when I drive the motor home, I'll be able to navigate like I'm able to do in the truck.

Since my carpets are now clean, I went to the Home Depot and bought a couple rugs to put down in the aisle from the cab to the kitchen to help keep it clean. New Rule: Shoes come off at the door from now on. The boys love the new rugs because they are now the softest part of the floor.

One more week till I get the tow bar (I hope). I've arranged for one of the park office workers (Debbie) to give me a ride from Callahan back to the park on Sunday night. She'll follow me as I take the truck up there and leave it. Then I'll take the motor home up there Monday morning. Since Callahan is only 11 miles from the RV park, it's not too far out of the way for Debbie.

That's about all my news for this week.

All done with Delaware

It's been an eventful two weeks. First of all, let me say that Roadmaster called me yesterday to let me know that the part number is ready for the base plate on the Mariner. FINALLY! It has been a rough month trying to jockey around the truck and the motor home. Here's how it went down after my last event:

First, I spent several days scrounging for a driver to help me get my truck down to Lazy Days which is where I planned on leaving the motor home for some warranty work. At the last minute (like within hours) Mendy from LaborReady volunteered to come to Lazy Days to pick me up. She had to take her kids to her in-laws in Winter Haven which is about 23 miles from Lazy Days. So on Monday I drove my truck down to Lazy Days and left it in the Cracker Barrel parking lot. Mendy picked me up about an hour later and drove me back to Mascotte. Then I drove the motor home down on Tuesday morning, walked over to get my truck, loaded it up with dogs and dirty clothes and headed up to Delaware to stay with David for a few days.

So that part wasn't *too* bad. The settlement was fairly uneventful. Only one or two crises but we got everything all done. I opened up my new bank account on Friday and closed the old one. Also tied up a lot of loose ends. I couldn't bear to go out to the house. Tammie showed me pictures of my hydrangea bush and I got all choked up when I saw all the blooms.

I left Delaware around 11 in the morning on Saturday. Driving down I-95 is always a drag and this time was no exception. Between DC and Richmond there were the three morons playing idiot on the interstate. One was in a Camry and the other two were in Mini Coopers. At first I thought they were involved in a case of road rage until I saw one wave to the other. They would speed up to get in front of each other then slow down and block the one in back from changing lanes. It was like playing chicken at 90 miles an hour. Totally insane.

Then in South Carolina I saw a horrible accident. It looked like a Ford Explorer pickup rolled a couple times and then hit a tree. Two semis were blocking both lanes to keep people from running over a couple people laying in the road. One was a heavyset lady and she wasn't moving. The other was a young girl around 9 or 10 and a man was covering her up with a blanket. There was another person hanging out of the truck and that person wasn't moving either. There were parts of the truck scattered all over the place and I had to watch were I was going to miss the pieces. The cops had not gotten there yet and the several cars in my lane were using the grass in the median to get around the wreck. I tried Googling to see if there was any info on the accident but didn't have any luck.

I finally rolled into Jacksonville around 1 in the morning and found where the sale was going to be. Then I found the Budget Rent-a-Car place. After that it took me a while to find a hotel that was pet friendly and got lucky with a Holiday Inn Express. It cost me $120 for 6 hours of sleep. I needed to be at the car rental place by 9 so I could rent a car and make it to Tampa by 1. The game plan was to leave my truck at Budget in JAX then drive to Tampa, drop off the car, hook a ride to Lazy Days, get the motorhome, then drive back to JAX. The girl at the Budget in Tampa gave me a ride to Lazy Days. I get it ready for the road and headed back to JAX. When I got to the K-Mart lot, I had to wait a couple hours for Jim and Rose to bring me the big truck. They gave me a ride back to Budget to get my truck and I finally had both vehicles together again. What a day.

I have one more jockey to deal with next week when I'm supposed to be in a burg called Callahan which is about 60 miles north of JAX. And that should be the last of it. I made an appointment for the 22nd to get the towbar work done so after that I won't be having to do the back and forth routine anymore. I will be SO glad.