A Quiet Week So Far

This is Tuesday morning. We’ve been watching with interest as passersby, be they on foot, bike, golf cart, or in a car, slow down and gawk at the ruined shed across the road from us. Because we were witnesses to the calamity and had reported the situation to the park management, we consider ourselves as “first on scene,” rather than gawkers, and our picture taking as “recording the facts,” rather than morbid interest.

Today the Facility Committee made their official inspection and have brought a large trailer to the site to haul away the debris. We suspect some of the building will be salvageable, but we also suspect there’ll be an evening’s bonfire in the near future.

Now Tuesday afternoon. No action on the shed across the road. However, we do have a new toilet! Like the old one it is mostly china, but this one sits on a riser, therefore the seat is higher. Good for old folks like us! We were fortunate that we have an extended service contract on the motorhome. That paid for over $400 of the total bill, including the new toilet, the riser, the service call, shipping costs, and two hours of the tech’s work time.

We bought the service contract in 2002 for $2200. It has repaid us more than that over six years. Now it is up for renewal. Our motorhome is technically seven years old, and is expected to have more problems, so the premium has skyrocketed beyond belief. Instead, we have purchased an insurance contract from the Good Sam Club. It’s called Continued Service Plan, but it is a true insurance program. We’re hoping we made a good decision.

So, what’s ahead for us? We hope to leave here before the end of the week, heading through New Mexico to the Panhandle of Texas, where we’ll visit Palo Duro Canyon. From there we’ll move into Oklahoma to see so much history: Cherokee Country, the Trail of Tears, Will Rogers’ home, and so much more. After that, it’s a six-day rally at Branson, Missouri. Then on to Arkansas and our friends Cynthia and Wayne.

Wednesday. No action on the shed. We took this day to get haircuts and do a little shopping in preparation for our trip. We’re trying to use up all the little bits of leftovers in the refrigerator before we leave. Not very exciting, but it’s necessary.

Thursday morning. Doug, the park’s Facilities Manager, drove up to the ruined shed in the park’s big tractor, poked the shed a few times, and drove away again. He returned in the late afternoon with the SMALL tractor. He picked up the small pieces he could handle alone, put them into the lift on the tractor and drove away. We suspect he has realized one person alone will never get the walls and roof out of there.

If anything more develops while we are still here, we’ll let you know. This is a quiet week in … Our Life on Wheels.