The Great Mouse Adventure

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Alas, it was time to press on to the next leg, Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. We didn’t know what to expect, except that there was a pool fed by warm spring and camping was free.

We started on our way, spending the night outside a town about 2 hours away. We found a parking lot next to a grocery store with a couple of other RV’ers already parked there.

The following morning we finally had some internet and I saw that I had to renew my Texas Adjuster License that very day. This involves obtaining CE’s which I didn’t have enough of. Yikes, I had to spend the day doing the classes. We couldn’t go on to the Refuge as there would be no internet or service there. Instead, we found a camping spot in an RV park, the town closest to the Refuge.

Well, this turned into a real adventure. The Mouse Adventure!

We woke up in the morning to find mouse droppings on the kitchen counter and then found some on the floor. YIKES!!! Now for those of you who know me know that I totally lose it with mice.

When we got to Sheldon we started looking and found mouse droppings in the cooktop as well. I guessed that the mouse was hiding out in the wall behind the cooktop.

Now, we did have a mouse try to travel with us another time. We were in Mesa Verde with the 4 older grandkids. We’d washed dishes but didn’t drain the water that night. I got up early but there was a mouse in the sink water. I let out a scream, ran back to our bed in the rear of the RV, climbed into the bed and covered my head with the blanket. Our granddaughter had to get the mouse out of the sink and throw it out.

Dale set up mouse traps, one in the cooktop, one on the counter, the rest in different places on the floor. We started to settle down for the night when the traps started going off. First, the one in the cooktop went off. We went to look and I saw another mouse trapped on the floor, then we saw one trapped by the door. Kids threw the mice, trap and all into the fire pit still burning.

Dale set up another trap in the cooktop and low and behold, another one was trapped. We couldn’t believe that 4 mice had gotten in. It was like an entire family had wanted to move and thought that we would transport them to a better place. Well, we did transport them to another place, in another world!

The kids laughed later and I overheard one saying: “did you see grandma? Grandpa started to put the mouse in her face and she started yelling in a funny voice to get it out”? They thought that it was great fun! We must have been quite a sight, me yelling for Dale to get it out, some kids yelling that they wanted to see it, others yelling that they wanted to hold it. We had total pandemonium.



The next morning we woke up to no mouse droppings. I cleaned everything with disinfectant, not leaving anything to chance.

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