Sunday, 4 days before departure.
Welcome friends and blog readers. So happy you decided to come along with us. It’s a new summer trip with a new route and an arsenal full of planned and unplanned activities. As you know, the navigator is the planner and this trip took a year of routing, researching, and reserving.
This year we were so proud. We had all of our maintenance done on truck and trailer waaaay in advance. We were quite proud of our exhaustive planning and preparation. In celebration, we visited our friend Lorie and took a little time to go for a blissful swim.
Ahhh, the water was so cool against the hot Florida sun. All was going well until… (queue the suspenseful music) “Where is my phone?” Glub, glub, glub, it’s taking a swim in my back pocket. What are the chances it still works after a few laps in the pool? 100% no chance!! No rice, no fix a phone person, no chance for repair. But lucky for me and against my better judgement, I paid extra for the phone insurance. Yippee.
Monday, 3 days before departure
On Monday morning, I visited my neighborhood T-Mobile Store. They helped me file my claim and told me I could expect a new phone by the next day. See, things are looking up.
As an aside, have you recently noticed that online businesses want to verify that you are who you say you are? And how do they want to do that? “We are sending you a text message with a secret code that lasts 30 seconds.” Without a phone I ain’t gettin’ no stinkin’ code.
When I returned home from staking my claim, Pam and I decided to pick up the camper and begin the whoppingly, tiring job of packing for 3 months. Hey, we’re still ahead of schedule and we are delighted. We brought in the slide, stowed all moving parts inside the camper, secured the steps and prepared for hitching. Pam backed up the truck. She is really good at that.
My job? I push the button for the jack to go up and down. Uh oh… “What do you mean the %$#!!$%!$ electric jack isn’t working?” How will we get the camper high enough to place it on the hitch ball of Pam’s truck?” Don’t panic, we have a manual crank. And so we began to crank and sweat and crank and by the time we were done, I was cranky. And Pam? This is a family blog. I can’t repeat it.
As soon as we arrived home with the camper, I ordered a new electric jack from Amazon. The soonest arrival date was Wednesday, 1 day prior to departure. So much for being ahead of schedule. Now we were both optimistically panicky. That evening I received the nicest email from Assurance, the phone insurance people, “We’re sorry, your claim has been denied.” Shocking, right?
Tuesday, 2 days before departure
I went to Best Buy early and purchased a new phone. For some reason, buying a new phone always consumes half a day. Feel free to send me the text with the secret code now.
Not much time left for packing on Tuesday. Can’t go outside once the skeeters come out. We have Malaria mosquitoes and dengue fever in Sarasota. Plagues, jacks, phones and wildfire smoke headed to New England and we haven’t even left our house.
Wednesday, 1 day before departure
It’s going to be a good day. I just know it. Pam had a day full of events planned. I was focused on packing and hoping the electric jack would arrive early. Amazon delivered the jack around 1:00 and Charlie, our mobile RV repair guy, came right over and zippity zap we had an electric hitch. Now we’re back on track.
Today, departure day
We set a very doable goal to leave by noon. 95% of the packing was done. Our first stop, visit my sister and brother-in-law and have a nice dinner together. A noon goal gave us a bit of a cushion.
I was stowing our wine in our wine cellar, under the couch and I noticed the new water pump was hanging askew. 2 of the screws had come loose already. Good thing we purchased a trusty drill last summer. It took some time to repair so we might not make a noon take off.
That’s okay, we have a cushion.
At 1:00 our packing was complete. If we don’t have it, we don’t need it. Let the trip begin!!! Pam backed up the truck and it was time to push the button and raise the electric jack.
So here’s what’s supposed to happen, I push the button and the jack goes up. Uh oh… “What do you mean the %$#!!$%!$ electric jack isn’t working?” It’s a bit like a ballet when these things happen to us. Pam immediately called Charlie, who would be there in 45 minutes. I got on Amazon and printed out the return label. Pam drove to Campbell’s RV and purchased the second electric jack in 2 days. In the heat of the day, Charlie was uninstalling and reinstalling the 2nd new electric jack.
Amazon wanted the broken jack returned in the original packaging. So I went dumpster diving in our recycle bin for the torn up box pieces. With duct tape and tenacity, we put that piece of _____ electric jack back in its original packaging and I drove it to UPS. I hoisted the hideous looking bundle up on the counter with the label. The nice woman behind the counter smiled and said, “You dragged it in, I’ll take care of Frankenstein’s monster from here.”
And right on time, at 4:00 we loaded our precious Lucca into the truck and we were finally on our way.
We arrived at the campsite at 6:15. We had pizza, salad and a fun game of 5 Crowns.
WOW! There is always an adventure with you two. 🙂 Glad you are on the road and about to have a great time!
Hi Pam, Thanks for reading the blog. Yes, Pam and I are adventurous and most times we have a fantastic time. Canada has been wonderful so far. I know it is only going to get better and better.
With all the mishaps along the way. You still managed to get the journey on its way. I’m loving this blog so far. First time viewing and it’s quite funny and enjoyable. Be safe and have fun
Hey Nat, Thanks for reading the blog. I enjoy writing it and taking the photos. It may not seem that way because I’m behind but getting internet to cooperate has not been easy. Hope you’re doing well. Hi to Otis.
We will see you in September! Have a wonderful trip and I hope you packed your fun!
Hey Sue, Thanks for taking the time to read the blog. Maine and Canada are definitely worthwhile camping spots. So much to do and so much beauty. Getting a lot of exercise too, walking and biking. It’s worth the aggravation.