Finally

Finally, I've actually completed the first leg of my journey! And with no troubles, even! Until just this very minute when the water stopped coming out of the kitchen faucet, which I'm choosing to ignore for the time being. But the story has worsened since my last post!

You might recall that I traded my PT Cruiser in for a Mustang a week ago. That Saturday morning, I drove over to the Ford dealer to finalize all the paperwork. Everyone was oh so apologetic over the fiasco of the night before, as they should have been. Tidied up all the details and went thru another soap opera over the security/alarm system because it had been installed incorrectly, and finally drove away with a gorgeous shiny Mustang that turns heads as it cruises down the road.

Stopped at Camping World to order the tow brackets for the car . . . of course no one works on Saturday, but we at least got the order started. They told me that first thing Monday morning they would call the manufacturer and get the price to overnight the shipment, so it would arrive Tuesday and be installed on Wednesday.

That evening, Saturday, Maggie arrived from Seattle to make the trip back up with me, for which I'm very grateful. Having someone with me who has lived in small places before (she's spent a lot of time on sail and motor boats) is a welcome blessing! We had a wonderful dinner and caught up on events and crashed.

After hearing all my stories, she voted that we simply relax on Sunday and replenish, which was a real treat!

Monday morning, we took the coach back across the street, again, to get last minute things fixed. We stayed in the coach all day (where it was nicely air conditioned in the way too hot day), which proved beneficial in several ways. One of my major complaints was that I just couldn't get the entertainment center to work right, let alone at all sometimes.

This very nice fella, Bruce, who I hadn't seen previously, came to show me how to work the bloody thing. Just push this, this and this and - pregnant pause - it didn't work. I didn't say 'I told you so'!! After careful study, he determined that not only had I been mis-instructed in how to work the thing, it had also been mis-wired. Took most of the day to get all that stuff squared away.

Meanwhile, about 4 o'clock the phone rang. The Camping World guy called to very sheepishly tell me that even though the computer showed the company had a tow kit for the Mustang, and they had confirmed they had the kit, when they went to ship it, they couldn't find it. No tow package for the Mustang. Here we go again.

Went to Dave again and told the story. He had his parts guy try to find a solution. Turns out that there are two companies that make the things. One of them had one in stock. I said, no actually they don't. And it was just as well. It seems that the Roadmaster kit, which I had ordered and didn't exist, does NOT fit into the Blue Ox tow package that is on the coach. Can you imagine how I'd react if the bloody thing arrived on Tuesday, was installed on Wednesday, and then wouldn't fit?

The other company to make one is Blue Ox, but they haven't made one yet for the 2006 Mustang. Terrific. Maggie and I headed back to the RV park, with me practically in tears at this point, to try to figure out what to do now.

Then, and did you notice the hesitation at "then"? When setting up the coach, when I put out the living room slide, the slide topper, a little awning thingy that goes out with the slide to keep junk off it and out of the mechanism, ripped loose. Naturally, La Mesa was already closed. At that point I got out the Jack Daniels again.

I'll skip over the very inebriated evening where Maggie took care of me, and fed me, and go to the next morning. I was so very lucky to have my good friends, Ron and Helen White, offer to keep the Mustang in their garage for the duration. I started crying again with that phone call. Unbelieveably wonderful! But can you believe it - a brand spanking new sexy gorgeous car and it's going to sit out the trip. I keep telling myself it's a good thing - think of the money I'll save in gas.

Then I heard from La Mesa - the slide topper was not fixable, but they could get one here from the manufacturer on Tuesday! WOW, maybe things have turned around!! Of course it didn't arrive on Tuesday. They said it would for sure show up on Wednesday at the 10:30 delivery. Not! So I told them that if it ever showed up, just store it, we were hitting the road. And we did!

Made it up to Tempe, where we laughed and giggled and drank too much champagne with my dear friend Lizzie and a house full of doggies. Today, we're off to Jacob Lake, where we anticipate more thunderstorms and rain and COOL days!!!

Now to try to fix the faucet! Later!