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Published: September 13th 2022
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Yes, we have! Our landing date here at Tropical Palms was Saturday, September 10th. Exactly as planned. Lulu was as excited as Cory and myself. She could finally change her constant position of staying on our dash while performing her job as navigator. She was our RV’s figurehead….just like on the bow of a ship. She did sit next to Cory when he snacked. She didn’t suffer. Arrival is always such a great feeling of joy and relief. Hooray! We are here to stay….for nine months. Start unpacking. We have to start planning our adventures for this season.
Not surprising……it is HOT here! OMG, is it ever! We had just become comfortable with the cooler temperatures back home. Zowweee. It is like living on top of a volcano. Only thing missing is the lava. I took a few photos on the couple occasions when we have gone out in our hot box car. Take a look at those temperatures! You would think we are living in Death Valley ……hottest desert in the world! Lulu made the most of it. She used my dishpan as a small swimming pool. She seemed content even though the water heated up like it was
in a cauldron.
“Double, double toil and trouble
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble
Double, double toil and trouble
Something wicked this way comes.”
Well, let’s hope that last stanza doesn’t happen! But, as we all know…Frisky Lulu can always whip up something wicked when she wants. Devil Lulu!
A few of our friends are already here at Tropical Palms. It’s so wonderful to be back and see them all again. Most everything looks the same as we left it. One of the first things to check out were the new supreme sites. Just as I figured, we missed the arrival of RV’s to some of these sites. We were going to bring chairs and popcorn for all of us to sit back and watch as they pulled in. There are about five RV’s parked in this section at this time. I guess we can wait for another exciting event to happen. We’ll still bring the popcorn.
Steadfast Cory has been working away setting up our stuff outside the RV…..in the ungodly heat! He’s decided now to take each afternoon off because it is just too hot to function. An afternoon siesta is on his
agenda now. We have lots of time to do all this housekeeping.
We did luck out with one anticipated problem. September is the lovebug season! They made such a mess of the front of our RV one time….we didn’t want a repeat. We had quite a bit of rain off and on coming down….maybe that helped to keep the copulating critters at bay…..I don’t know but we had just a few to clean off. Whew!
Speaking of coming down, our trip here was splendid and almost uneventful ….almost…we had one exception. I told you I would go into more detail concerning that exception in my blog. I know you have been waiting for this morsel. We could always chat about the wonderful experiences on our trip…..like the gorgeous scenery, the tasty food at Cracker Barrel, our daughter’s chocolate chip cookies, the peculiar vehicles that passed us. But….we know more interest is in what happened along the way to cause the bump in our road. Now, let us tell you.
Cory loves to “top off” our gas tank in the RV. He doesn’t let the level get down below half. So, keeping with his ritual, we pulled into
a LOVE’S truck stop. He usually prefers a PILOT truck stop but this one was right here before us and had a fairly reasonable diesel gas price. Station Attendant Cory put on his gas pumping gloves and took his position out at the gas pump. He proceeded to perform his pumping process. He feels like a trucker once out around the diesel smell and roar of the engines. If he had a headset, he would fit right in. Once the job was done, he got back in the RV, took his seat and turned on the engine. There are various dials on the dash that tell you the functioning (or not) of parts of the vehicle. Uh oh. We have a problem, Houston. The dial that tells the amount of air going into our air bags is only going partially up. Uh oh! Not what you want to see. Cory works away like a mad scientist trying to solve a time-bombshell problem. In the meantime, there is a mad Mexican man jumping up and down outside our RV….”why weren’t we moving up and out of the way$#@/%@$xxx!” Cory gave him the “hands up” sign. We decided this problem wasn’t going
to solve itself. He went inside the truck stop and told them we were stuck outside in one of the pump lines. They told him to check with the mechanic on duty. Concerned Cory put a garage can in the pathway behind our rig so no more mad Mexicans would get stuck behind us while we figured out what to do. Then, he hoofed it to find a mechanic. In the meantime, I tried my hand at seeing if I could get it to work…..nothing….my attempt was fruitless. I tried. Cory returned with a mechanic. Of course, he said they didn’t work on RV’s. I had recently read this on Facebook. They used to but no more. Oh, dear. Cory explained what was going on and what he thought was the problem. The mechanic listened and agreed. They thought that a valve to our “air dryer” was stuck. The air dryer dries moisture out of the air used for our air brakes……or something like that. The mechanic said they weren’t busy so he would check if they had the valve we needed. We waited and waited. We went inside to a Subway restaurant. It must have been 30’ in there!!
I was frozen stiff while trying to play on my iPad. It was unreal! Why do they have to put the a/c to freezing? Why? The mechanic found us. No luck….they didn’t have a valve. Of course not!! He told Cory that it would be almost the same price to replace the air dryer so that’s what he started to look for next by calling around. We had enough air in the airbags to get our RV up next to the workshop on the grounds. Long story short…..no one had one except he found 3 in Florida and one in Georgia. Nice!!! That’s a big help! The mechanic saw the disappointment all over our faces as well as the wails and sobs from Lulu. Wait a minute. He went back to the shop and found another mechanic. They dug around and found a valve that would work. They had to put some glue or something around it to make it workable but he said it would get us where we were going. He was such a nice fellow. He said there was No Charge. It must have been Lulu that affected him deeply. Cory gave him some cash anyway. And
then, we were on our way. We both said if this had to happen, what better place to be but in a truck stop! Compared to some of other experiences, this was not a biggie. Nothing to do but it get fixed and that’s what we were able to do……and then move on. Life on the road!
Now, we will settle back in to our life as snowbirds. Soon more of our friends will show up and eventually, the Tropical Palms family will be all together again. So much to look forward to and be grateful. Stay with us…..the adventure has just begun. Remember: 21 photos to see so keep scrolling way, way down.
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