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One week ago (May 27th) we were all packed up, closed up, hooked up and ready to drive out of Tropical Palms to head North. You all were nicely settled in your seats and Lulu noted no one was arguing for the “shotgun” seat. We bid our farewell to Sam and Sandy and watched as they rolled through the exit gate at TP. “We’ll miss you and will look forward to seeing you again soon” we called out after them. Okay...our turn. Art stood guard in his golf cart watching our RV move ahead. It moved one inch and then: BONG, BING, BONK, BEEP, RING, DING, DONG....our bells and whistles went off!....and the RV wouldn’t move. Oh, God! Not good. Bad sign. What is going on? Cory studies the dash gauges. RATS! Our two air bag gauge indicators aren’t going up like they should. They level off at half of what they need to be at. Bad sign! Nauseous, I removed myself from my navigator seat and get out of the RV.....Cory follows. Art looks on in puzzlement. Bad sign: a hissing noise coming from behind the passenger front wheel. No, it wasn’t a mad snake. No, it wasn’t a leak
in our tire. No, it was Mr. Wind under our RV. No, it wasn’t Lulu trying to whistle. No, it wasn’t me throwing a hissy fit (although I wanted to). It was air leaking from the area of our air bags....RATS! No air pressure...no brakes (we have and need air brakes). No driving the RV. We weren’t going anywhere! Our departure mission was scrubbed!! Good grief! What to do? What is plan B?
The answer is simple: get the RV fixed. Getting it fixed isn’t all that simple, though. We need a repairman to come to our site...we can’t drive the RV, ‘member? Most mobile service people are for the actual “house” part of the RV.....not many for the chassis and it’s components. RATS! We call all the obvious numbers we should....no luck. Finally, after asking several times “who do you know we can call”, we reach a truck repair place in Orlando that also works on RV’s. Whew! Yes, they will come out and look at the RV but not until morning. C’est la vie. We are disappointed but that’s how the cookie crumbles. That’s how the water flows. We are just glad we have some help coming.
Art offers words of encouragement as he heads back to his house. He’s such a good guy and good friend. He had tried to diagnose our problem by crawling under the RV. Not a pleasant place to be. He was hoping he could fix our problem but it was beyond his expertise. He took a picture of the leaking air valve which proved helpful when contacting the repair service. I wish you all could meet Art....he is one in a million. He has helped just about everyone in our park with their problems. He is a friend to all and that’s what he says as you try to reward him for his help...”We are all friends... that’s what friends are for.” He is such a good and humble man. He is our expert electronic guru but has many other talents besides. I’m going to “spotlight” him when we can resume our coffee hour and I do my “Sandy’s Snippets.”
Our traveling clothes were exchanged for work clothes. Cory unhooked our car and hooked us back up to the water, sewer and electric again. With hopeful hearts, we kept our slide-outs in and maneuvered ourselves along the narrow pathway
We stay put....the RV won’t move
Before Sam & Sandy left: Sonny, Art, Cory, Sandy & Saminside the RV. Nothing to do but wait. Lulu stared aimlessly out the front window from her traveling crow’s nest perch. She was so confused.
Jason, the repairman arrived the next day as planned. He followed Art’s pathway under our RV. He pounded and grunted within the tight confines at the front end of the motor home. Cory ran fans toward him trying to keep the sweltering hot weather from killing him. How do people live full time in Florida? My hair is constantly in shower mode...wet! It is slickered to my head like it is painted on. Finally, Jason emerged with the air valve in his grimy hand. This is the culprit. It needs to be replaced. Okay. He calls his boss to get one ordered. Rats! Not so easy. The piece is obsolete now! Remember our RV is a 2008 model. Where have the years gone? Only solution is to have the manufacturer make another one! OMG! It will take one week! But we were supposed to leave yesterday!! Scratch that plan....Plan A.
Having experienced other issues in the past with the RV, we have learned you just have to adapt to the situation and deal
with it. Nothing else you can do. We were just so glad that if this was going to happen, it happened while we were still in our park and not out on some major highway. That would have been super, super bad!
Out go our slide-outs. Some of our packed goods are unpacked. Cory brings out three of our lawn chairs for morning coffee hour. Lulu puts out the OPEN sign again. We are settling back in for whatever time it takes to get the RV repaired. Morning coffee hour continues with Art, thankfully. That’s a pleasant plus to this distressing situation. The pool reopens so Cory takes full advantage and goes swimming everyday during his assigned swim time. Melba is glad we are still here and we are happy to be able to see her, too. It’s all going to be okay. As Cory says “just focus on what we can control”. He’s right.
But that’s not so easy for me. My mind thinks differently. I’m awake many nights fretting. I keep having premonitions that something else is going to happen with our RV as we travel home or return back to Tropical Palms. I know I’m
overreacting but something keeps me troubled. I’m not a psychic or a fortune teller but.....I just have a bad feeling. So we talk...and talk some more.
Plan C. We decide to leave our RV right here on our site. Cory is thrilled with Plan C. He has always wanted to leave our RV here. We shall just drive our car “home”. But, remember, we have no home! Oops! Could be a problem, Houston. We call our children in New York and explain the situation. Of course, they rally around us and welcome us into their homes. Whew...that problem is solved. We have doctor and dentist appointments in June/July that we should be at. Cory calls the various campgrounds we were going to stay at and cancels our reservations. No problem there. We pay to extend our stay here at Tropical Palms as if we have never left.....which we haven’t!! Unreal! Once we can leave (It sounds like we are prisoners), we hope to take extended vacations this summer to “Somewhere USA” if we are able to find areas that are open for tourists. We would like to rent a cottage on a lake if that becomes available to us.
Life can give you lemons and it’s up to us to decide what to make out of them: lemonade, margaritas, limoncello, gin & tonic, lemon bars.....or.....
Art to the rescue, again. I told you he was one in a million! Because we had sent our golf cart off to the storage place, we were stuck at our stuck RV. Our roaming days were over. Our excursions were limited to a few foot steps here and there. Of course, we could venture outside the park in our car but our visits around our neighborhood was mighty quelled now. Our knight in shining armor (Art) arrived in a glistening, teal blue golf cart for us to use. Really? For us? How? Art had called another friend, Ray, who had one of his golf carts in storage here at the park. He agreed to allow us to borrow it for awhile. Oh, thank you, thank you. “This is what friends are for”.....we are blessed to have such good friends!
We have passed the time by unpacking and repacking. Art and Cory brought back our storage box that Art was kind enough to keep for us when we thought we were going
to be gone off our site until October. Prep work must be done to ready our RV to be left here unattended for the several months that we’ll be absent. We have never left it behind before.
We received the call today that the air valve part is in and the repairman will insert it tomorrow (June 4th). With positive expectations, Cory will drive our RV around the park to get all the parts in it moving again. We also need to fill our propane tank that we use in our furnace during the cooler months....boy, does that seem so long ago and hard to remember. If Lulu had mittens, she would have packed them away ages ago...but she actually only has earmuffs.....you know why.
And then we shall try again....to leave Tropical Palms and head North. There is a tropical storm predicted (oh, sure) so we have not set a departure date. We shall go when the time is right. My first doctor’s appointment is June 11th so I would like to be “home” by then...but if not, I’ll just reschedule it.
Most all our “snowbird” Tropical Palms friends have left and reached their homes safely.
It is always a relief to know their journeys have been successful. The park has an empty feel to it. Fortunately, we still have a few friends living here at TP. We would be lost without them. It would seem like we were on a desert island. It truly has the look and feel of a desert island with all the palm trees, etc.....just no water surrounding us. A small alligator thrives in the small, murky, mucky creek on the grounds. We are so grateful to have our dear human friends close by.
While in this staging mode, we are just going with the flow. One day at a time.... Plan D: arrive back in our hometown area safe and sound and be with our family once again. Lulu is so excited. So, gather up your belongings and be ready for the expedition to begin again....one of these days. We may be squeezed a little tighter traveling in the car but I know you will cope and be content that we are all together on this journey. And off we go.....hopefully.
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Karen Cooper mckean
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Travel
Hope your trip north is uneventful. You both have had enough stress for awhile. Be safe. Karen