What Else Can Go Wrong

Have you ever had one of those days where absolutely everything goes wrong? I mean you try to prepare for some things but when mother nature and the cosmos conspire against you what can you do? We thought we were going to have a smooth transition from TH Stone Memorial St Josephs Peninsula State Park to Dade Battlefield Historic State Park. We planned on leaving on the last day of the month, travel about halfway down and spend the night somewhere before continuing on and beginning on new assignment on September 1st. Our last volunteer coordinator even allowed us to have the last two days off so that we could do any last-minute cleaning and get ready to travel. That is when we started having problems.

I worked Thursday at the museum for the last time and mom was going to get started on the cleaning but before I could get out of the campground I walked up on some kind of snake on the road from the showers. I didn’t stick around to see what kind it was. While I was at the museum, didn’t get not one visitor 🙁 by the way, the back AC unit went out and our little tin box heated up pretty quickly. Luckily, the wind picked up around noon and she decided to sit outside to keep cool. Unluckily, a small baby rattler slithered by while she was reading her Kindle. She didn’t notice it until it was halfway across the campsite. And it didn’t notice her either. Needless to say I was not happy when I got back to the RV. We opened every window, hatch and siding trying to get the cool ocean breeze to penetrate inside the RV. Later that night I got so desperate that I went out to the car with all the windows rolled down and tried to take a nap. When the sun came up I got out our RV manuals and read that the front AC unit could be powered by generator AND the shore. We were under the impression that it would only work with the generator. Okay, so now we are taking everything out of the RV, cleaning cabinets, windows, mirrors, drawers, and floors. We spent all day washing things up and repacking everything in their various places. And that night we got a decent nights sleep.

Now it is Saturday and time for us to leave but I forgot to get pictures of the various bathhouses in the campgrounds for our park movie. So, I head out and run into a herd of deer trotting down the road. I had to get them on film. Then I ran into the other campground hosts at Shady Pines and we got to talking. That put us behind. Now here comes the rain. We have been clear for 3 days but now mother nature decides to dump a ton of rain our way. We hurry to get the waste tanks empty and I bang up one of my forearms on the water valve. Here I am bleeding trying to finish getting the tanks emptied to we can get off the peninsula before we get caught in the rainstorm. No luck there. We hit it halfway across the peninsula. There is standing water in some parts and mom is in the minivan and hits one that is too deep and her battery light comes on. We are afraid to turn anything off so we sit at Salinas Park for a little while waiting on the rain to subside. Did I tell you that the rain cover for the Refrigerator vent blew off and we had to find it. We wanted to stop for gas thinking that the mainland would have less expensive gas prices. We stopped in Apalachicola and guess what? They were 10 cents more expensive than the BP on Cape San Blas which is always 10 cents more expensive than in Port St. Joe, Florida.

Okay, we get down the road, find our way past Perry, Florida and wanted to stop in Chiefland, Florida at the local Walmarts to get something to eat, let the dog out and rest our bums. After resting for a little while the minivan starts up fine no more battery light and the RV starts like it always does and we hit the road. Just before Fanning Springs I thought I heard one of the 6 tires separating and smelled burnt rubber. We had pulled over but couldn’t see anything wrong with the tires. Anyway about 10 miles south of Chiefland the RV backfired twice, chugged down and finally quit. We were almost the Florida State Highway 24 intersection but the only thing there was a bait and tackle shop and a convenience store. After cussing for a few minutes I get out our Good Sams Roadside Assistance Card and make the call. Now, mind you, we have already spent all of our money on filling up the RV, Minivan, and some supplies to get us through until on next payday, but what choice did we have. The tow truck driver is paid by the Good Sams insurance but the repairs are going to have to come out of our pocket. Now, my brother doesn’t live far from there but he was on his way to Jacksonville with his car that also has some kind of belt problem and the AC unit on the fritz.

The tow truck driver and his wife, owners of the towing company, come out for the RV. Now these big boys usually will need a Semi-Truck Towing to carry them. And they come in one of those bad boys. They even arrived earlier that they said they would. Which was a miracle because of the holiday weekend and already there are accidents. The lady is extremely nice and she gives us her business card and the business card of the repair shop. Which was very nice. You see Good Sams will only pay to have your vehicles and RVs towed to the nearest authorized repair shop. That one happened to be in Cross City which was 27 miles back from where we had come from. They assured us that the repair guy was extremely competent and would work with us the best he could. And that they would be happy to take care of delivering the RV and getting the keys to the shop owner. He lives right next door. I must say that Tri-County Towing which serves Dixie, Gilchrist and Levy counties is just about the nicest towing company we have dealt with so far. It was nice to be able to head to my brothers without having to spend another hour or two waiting for them to get the RV tied up properly and set for towing, deliver it to the repair shop and making our way from Cross City to O’Brien, Florida.

Now here we sit at my Brothers house with my sister-in-law and her roommate waiting for the weekend holiday to end to find out how much we are going to have to beg, borrow and whatever to get the RV on the road again. To top it off the front tire on the minivan was flat this morning. We have fix-a-flat in the emergency roadside kit we bought last year and my brother has an air pump. We just don’t know if that we hold the tire until we can get it fixed or repaired.

So how is your weekend going?