First day of travel

Traveling down the road today certainly brought a lot of thoughts to mind – mainly because I ALWAYS listen to books on cd, but alas, I had to return my books and cd’s to the library Tuesday.

But it was good to ponder these past few days. Saying goodbye to all my friends and relatives was harder than I expected! When son Chris first moved to California, I cried every time I left him behind, then when Claire and Emily were born, it was worse. When son Andy and daughter Shelby moved to California I was a little better – I would have my crying jag on the airplane, i could actually get through the airport without weeping. For anyone who really knows me, you know I’m a sensitive creature!

As I drank my sweet tea from Wendy (just like your mother’s) and ate my snacks that she and Cassidy packed for me; I chuckled at the decorations that the girls did on Harvey (thanks to Terri), ate oatmeal cookies from Liz, Eleanor joined in blowing horns and throwing confetti; I was glad I had the fresheners from Tara, (no onions or brake smells just a very ripe cantaloupe); sweet honey crisps from Milburn’s (thanks Dan and John) and promises from Ralph and Greg to finish cleaning up my mess at the house and to take care of Beaster (actually Shelby’s cat she left behind) – and this was all in the last few days- I realized yet again how blessed I am to have so many good friends and loving relatives.

All my preparations for my trip were worth it. Since I hadn’t posted the last couple weeks of time, I’ll do some catch up:
On my way to get my braking assist mechanism set up properly, one of my front brake calipers got stuck and was smoking and hot. I let it cool off a bit, and traveled slowly into the shop. Brake Buddy was all fixed, but they didn’t have time to look at the brakes on the other wheels, so another trip was scheduled. I took it there with no issues and brought it all the way home. As I was walking around the front of Harvey after parking at home, a sudden rush of air was heard and my back tire went flat. Two Praise God’s went up – one that the flat waited till I was home, and the other: just 10 days before that, I had signed up for Good Sam Roadside Assistance. A different type of valve was then installed on all the back tires, and a new spare was purchased on yet another trip to the shop.

Harvey also needed to be caulked. I knew that, but this past summer was not conducive to climbing up on the roof and working there. Temperatures as high as 104 degrees made that job completely undesirable. But, since I knew there was a leak and that was actually a job I could do instead of shelling out even more money, I tackled it last week. It took several hours of extra help, in addition to the three days I spent peeling old caulk, washing vents, scrubbing off oxidation from the rubber roof, then re-caulking and putting a UV coating on the rubber part. I was so exhausted from that, I gave myself another day at home to recoup!

Tomorrow, I will travel the rest of the way to my Uncle Dave’s house for a visit.