Is it Luck?
One of my two sisters does not hesitate to tell me that I am a lucky person. I think to her it seems I lead a 'charmed life'. I don't see it that way. While I admit I have a life that I love. I think I've earned it with hard work, taking risks, over coming fears, and following my intuition mixed with a tiny bit of tenacity.
Now if we just want to consider LUCK, then in a world of opposites like the one we live in, the LUCKY must also be UNLUCKY, right? The Yin and the Yang. So here is my story of one unlucky day.
First I need to back up a tiny bit. If you have been following this blog you know I have already covered a quite a bit of U.S. ground. In that time I have been traveling in my trusty Honda Element and staying in hotels. That's right CHA-ching! Cha-ching! It gets very expensive hotelling it. (Is hotelling a word? Spell check is saying no) Anyway, when I returned from my last journey I sat down and did some math. I compared hotelling it vs. camping. Yes, camping. Some 52 year old women still like to camp.
So I investigated the camper market. Decided if I was going to travel alone I wanted a camper that I didn't have to tow, ie get out of the truck and walk back to the camper. I didn't want to advertise that I was traveling alone. SO, I looked at little van campers, medium sized campers and even a couple of giant bus campers. ALL were too expensive.
But then we happened upon a used one that had deep discounts and only 7400 miles on it at a local dealer. Hurray! I calculated gas mileage, camp fees, payment of vehicle etc and compared and yes I would be saving money. Every thing had been tested by the dealer and checked out. It was like new, it still had the sticker on the sink, in the shower and on the stove! It even had the new camper smell. : ) So I bought it. We took it for a test run and all went smoothly, I drove it and backed it and tried out all the bells and whistles. I was good to go.
The morning I went to leave for this leg of my 'giant shop hop'. One of the slide outs wouldn't slide in! YIKES - I kind of freaked out. What if that happens on the road? We managed to get it in, in fits & starts. Then drove it to the dealer and he said it was the "just" the toggle switch and that's easy to fix. But they have to order the part. I decided to leave on my trip anyway and simply not slide out that wall. No problem, it's just me. I don't need all that room.
So 2 hours later I am going down the freeway and I pull off into a rest stop. I am going to try out the toilet : ) So happy to not have to use those yucky public bathrooms on this trip! This is so nice. I think I love my new camper. Then I go to flush . . . WHAT? the water doesn't work????? UGH. I did not want to have to call my husband already. So I hauled out the manuals. It sounded like a fuse for the water pump might be blown. So I tried to locate the fuse. There are about 4 different locations for fuses in one of these rigs. And I discover I don't really know what a fuse even looks like. So I drive to the nearest Ford dealer. They are no help but send me off to a nearby RV dealer and by now it's 3:00 on a Saturday afternoon and nobody had any technicians available to help me. UUuggghhh!
So do I turn around and head home? NOPE. Risk taker remember. On I drive, I have a date for Tea at Mill House Quilts on Sunday and I plan to be there.
Saturday evening I find a spot in a quiet little family owned campground and settle in for the night. The RV dealer told me he thought the water would work if I hooked up to a water source, and it did! Yeah! Now I just needed to get my clothes ready for the next day. Awe rats, I forgot my iron! I thought, what if I just spritz my khaki pants with my water spray bottle that I brought along with my sewing stuff, and them hang them to dry? That might take out most of the wrinkles. So I spritz and spray, spray and spritz . . . nothing comes out, so I pump harder, add more water, pump faster. Nothing. Not even the spray bottle was going to work for me today. Unbelievable!
The next morning I bought a travel iron. Showed up for tea on time wearing freshly pressed pants. First thing Monday morning I need to find an RV fixer.
So what do you think about luck? I'd love to hear your comments.
Now if we just want to consider LUCK, then in a world of opposites like the one we live in, the LUCKY must also be UNLUCKY, right? The Yin and the Yang. So here is my story of one unlucky day.
First I need to back up a tiny bit. If you have been following this blog you know I have already covered a quite a bit of U.S. ground. In that time I have been traveling in my trusty Honda Element and staying in hotels. That's right CHA-ching! Cha-ching! It gets very expensive hotelling it. (Is hotelling a word? Spell check is saying no) Anyway, when I returned from my last journey I sat down and did some math. I compared hotelling it vs. camping. Yes, camping. Some 52 year old women still like to camp.
So I investigated the camper market. Decided if I was going to travel alone I wanted a camper that I didn't have to tow, ie get out of the truck and walk back to the camper. I didn't want to advertise that I was traveling alone. SO, I looked at little van campers, medium sized campers and even a couple of giant bus campers. ALL were too expensive.
But then we happened upon a used one that had deep discounts and only 7400 miles on it at a local dealer. Hurray! I calculated gas mileage, camp fees, payment of vehicle etc and compared and yes I would be saving money. Every thing had been tested by the dealer and checked out. It was like new, it still had the sticker on the sink, in the shower and on the stove! It even had the new camper smell. : ) So I bought it. We took it for a test run and all went smoothly, I drove it and backed it and tried out all the bells and whistles. I was good to go.
The morning I went to leave for this leg of my 'giant shop hop'. One of the slide outs wouldn't slide in! YIKES - I kind of freaked out. What if that happens on the road? We managed to get it in, in fits & starts. Then drove it to the dealer and he said it was the "just" the toggle switch and that's easy to fix. But they have to order the part. I decided to leave on my trip anyway and simply not slide out that wall. No problem, it's just me. I don't need all that room.
So 2 hours later I am going down the freeway and I pull off into a rest stop. I am going to try out the toilet : ) So happy to not have to use those yucky public bathrooms on this trip! This is so nice. I think I love my new camper. Then I go to flush . . . WHAT? the water doesn't work????? UGH. I did not want to have to call my husband already. So I hauled out the manuals. It sounded like a fuse for the water pump might be blown. So I tried to locate the fuse. There are about 4 different locations for fuses in one of these rigs. And I discover I don't really know what a fuse even looks like. So I drive to the nearest Ford dealer. They are no help but send me off to a nearby RV dealer and by now it's 3:00 on a Saturday afternoon and nobody had any technicians available to help me. UUuggghhh!
So do I turn around and head home? NOPE. Risk taker remember. On I drive, I have a date for Tea at Mill House Quilts on Sunday and I plan to be there.
Saturday evening I find a spot in a quiet little family owned campground and settle in for the night. The RV dealer told me he thought the water would work if I hooked up to a water source, and it did! Yeah! Now I just needed to get my clothes ready for the next day. Awe rats, I forgot my iron! I thought, what if I just spritz my khaki pants with my water spray bottle that I brought along with my sewing stuff, and them hang them to dry? That might take out most of the wrinkles. So I spritz and spray, spray and spritz . . . nothing comes out, so I pump harder, add more water, pump faster. Nothing. Not even the spray bottle was going to work for me today. Unbelievable!
The next morning I bought a travel iron. Showed up for tea on time wearing freshly pressed pants. First thing Monday morning I need to find an RV fixer.
So what do you think about luck? I'd love to hear your comments.
