Just Another Day

What can I say other than I am still surprised by the way this company he works for gives us notice where we are going and how long we are planning to be there. So far all I know is we are headed south to Arizona and that we have a day to get there. He has to be at work Monday night. It is going to be a long night and a very long day tomorrow. I have about 2 hours of prep to get us ready to pull out. I also will have very little help from the other half as he will say I just worked and it’s your responsibility. So I hope I can do this quickly. I managed to get almost everything ready; all that’s left is to unhook water, power and sewer. After that all that’s left is to hook up to “Betsy” and take off. Monte said that he wanted an early start so that we weren’t getting there in the dark, but as usual he is sleeping and I am forcing myself to stay awake long enough to get the last little push to get us on the road. However I am in dire need of a nap until he is ready. When that may be is anyone’s guess. I am afraid that if I lay down now I won’t want to get up.
I am glad that I decided that it would be smart to top off the tank before we hooked up; while I was there I washed the windows and checked the wiper fluid and oil levels. Both were nonexistent. A gallon of wiper fluid and a quart of oil later, I hope that it will protect us from the engine monster that loves to eat poor “Betsy’s” heart.
I managed a small nap before we headed south, upon waking we made quick work of packing what little remained and we were off in under an hour. Good for us it normally takes much longer, we are not much of a team when someone gets in a hurry instead of taking a little extra time to ensure that everything is done properly. Oh well, can’t win them all I’m afraid. We got no more than a quarter mile before our first pit stop. The man wanted food and drink to get things rolling, I had no objections. Back on the road we chatted for a while before the sandman started screaming for me to take a nap, climbing into the back I curled up with my blanket and pillow and fell fast asleep. Three hours later I awoke to the man cursing and the thick smell of the summer grass fires we had been driving through. Trying desperately not to get up I summoned the sandman once more, he didn’t come, so reluctantly I made myself get up.
Checking my surrounding I was a bit surprised that we were nearly out of the state, pleased we had gotten that far and it still was early in the day, optimism of the promise of an uneventful trip was within site.
Many more miles pass we have crossed the Utah/Nevada state line everything looks the same mountain desert with a few palm trees and a very strange looking cactus. Up some hills and down then through a mountain pass, they looked cool, as usual I left the camera in the trailer so my mind that was looking at everything that would make a great picture was telling me wish you had the camera don’t you, you moron.
I finally made him pull over so I could change out of my sweats; while sweats are comfortable to travel in they were too hot to wear traveling through southern Nevada. As Las Vegas came into view we were excited that we’d actually get to see something other than the desert. The strip was getting closer and closer Monte was so excited to see the Luxor Hotel while I was just a bit disappointed that the TV shows and movies had glammed it up so much that the appeal was a little less, all I could thing was wow this looks a lot like Reno just bigger. The closest we got to the strip was the very, very east end as we passed by on the highway. Just a little reminder those people in Vegas are crazy idiot drivers, slow down, speed up and never mind that we were towing they even had the nerve to cut us off within feet. Not more than a mile out of Vegas Monte tells me we need gas “I hope there is a gas station soon.” He says, as we head up another hill and Betsy is guzzling the fuel with each passing mile. The road eventually levels out and we see a town closing in and a gas station; relief, thank God we won’t run out of fuel, while we refueled both of us were drooling over all the boats passing us by on the way to the lake. Man I sure do wish we had a boat to enjoy the water. Okay one that at least runs.
Heading out of Boulder City, Lake Mead was in site, I was so happy to see a body of water, even though we were near Utah Lake I never saw it, anyway, we could see all the boats buzzing across the water leaving a white tail behind them. Almost instantly we hit a wall of slow moving traffic, great road construction just what we need to ruin the perfect trip, twenty-five miles an hour was our top speed, I don’t know how it happens but it seems like the last few trips the last 80 miles or so end up to be the worst. But there we were moving at a snail’s pace, down the road we go deeper and deeper into the valley where we would soon cross the Hoover dam. What should have taken ten minutes to descend down the mountain to the check point before the dam took almost forty-five minutes, there’s nothing like getting searched, that was the fasted search ever, less than 5 minutes.
By this point Monte had pointed out that we had no trailer breaks, whatever braking we would be doing would be done just by “Betsy”. Don’t fail us now baby girl was all I could think about as we headed down, riding the brakes the whole way. To help distract myself from what I was sure was going to end this trek I busied myself by taking pictures of whatever I could cars, road work, helicopters, rocks I didn’t care I just wanted to keep my brain from thinking. Finally what seemed to be hours we made it, Hoover Dam I could not believe the amount of people flocking to check out the dam there must have been close to a hundred cars parked alongside the road, not including all those parked in the parking provided for visitors. It was hard to enjoy the magnificent structure with all the people and traffic forcing us to keep moving, I hope we have the time to stop and enjoy it on the way back home.
Just as quick as our descent was are accent, twisting and turning there was a little more speed on the way out but not much. For the next twenty miles it was all construction an absolutely no passing, needless to say “Betsy” not working at full capacity sure didn’t help any, four grand up those hills, oil pressure way up, and her temperature reading well above 210 Degrees, she was definitely telling us something’s wrong. Sixty miles left she was finally allowed a little breather and her temperature came back down, but just as quick it went back up as yet another ever so gently climbing road was in our path. These words kept running through my head “c’mon girl you can do it, it’s just a little farther.”
By now the GPS is no longer working and unless there was a sign we had no idea how much further we had to go, we did know that it had better be soon or poor “Betsy” was going to crap out on us. Finally Kingman came into view, we decided that the first RV park we came to we would check out, as it happened the first exit had one and just off the main road, we pulled in, the office was closed for lunch, we were just about to leave when a kind handyman pulled up in his golf cart, you see a lot of those around here, he asked if he could help, we told him that we were looking for a place for a week or two, he said he would go get the office gal for us, he did and while we waited for her to return Monte called his job supervisor, so we could get a better gauge on how long we needed to stay. Getting his answering machine, we left him a message informing him where we were planning on staying. We decided that this was as good as any so we promptly paid for the week, and told the lady we would let her know just as soon as we know how long were planning on staying. No problem she said, and told us if we were staying for two weeks she would give us the monthly rate as it would be cheaper than paying for another week. We parked the trailer, unhitched, connected power and hoses, feeling settled in we decided to take a drive to acquaint ourselves with the town, but before we left we noticed that there was a nice little spattering of oil coming from under “Betsy” that went half way up the trailer. So instead we headed for the first place we could find to hopefully fix her bleed. We found a shop that would do it they just wanted to wait until the next day as it was almost the end of the day and she was too hot to work on. Okay we say, an hour of time wasted the next day would be no big deal. Besides whatever was making her bleed would be fixed. She was no longer gently dripping she was now spurting out her vital blood; we at least made sure that we put another quart in her until we could get her in to get fixed. And with that our minds were at ease and went to go find dinner, the trailer had turned into a hot house, we in no way wanted to start cooking in there, let alone get out the bar-b-q and cook in 100 degree weather. We had dinner and came back to the slightly cooler trailer, I felt bad making the dogs stay in the trailer but it would have been a death sentence for them if we left them in the car. Finally we could rest and know that even though we were only there a short while everything would get taken care of and we wouldn’t have another problem.

Dog Drama

Sitting here writing this, I am finding it hard to pinpoint the right word to adequately express the past days’ event. This was not directed towards me per say, but being a dog owner I must conclude that at any given time this could happen to me. I witnessed something that is both angering and laughable.
Living in an RV park there are always set guidelines that a guest of the park must adhere to especially if you are a dog owner. Knowing these rules are critical especially when you meet up with an individual who is so apparently loathing towards those who are responsible for those furry four-legged travel companions, who makes it quite clear that they do not and will not tolerate any outburst, or even the site of those lovable creatures.
Case in point; As I sat chatting with a fellow dog owner, his precocious little mini weenie set off to seek out his buddy down the way while his housemate sat despairingly longing to be reunited, making herself known that she was displeased with the other at leaving her alone. As the owner make his way to fetch his runaway the other sounded off. While waiting with the now vocal pup I noticed that we had an audience, I did my best to quiet the girl while still keeping hold of my Boo Bear, this Cruella Deville type stood there seething with hatred, I could see her gears spinning at how best she could manipulate the situation to best suit her. She stood there watching the owner, just as he made his way back to his trailer and the now quiet Cocker Spaniel I had managed to pacify, she quickly and purposefully made her way to the main office with a bag of trash as to not alert anyone that might be watching of her true intentions.
Upon his return we resumed the conversation, thinking nothing of it at the time I hadn’t mentioned that this woman was hawk-eyed glued to his dogs and his apparent lack of control, to her at least. Minutes pass and then out of nowhere here is this irate woman. Spouting off how pissed off she was and how dare he allow his dogs to bark, “I’ve been sitting here watching and your dogs have been barking for the past ten minutes continually, I am getting a tape recorder and prove it to you that it’s your dogs.”
Fine you do that he says, that apparently only aggravated the crazy lady. For now she was posturing aggressively and began to move forward in an attempt to possibly entice the man into a fight.
It’s kind of crazy how much a person’s actions mimic that of an animal if you see the whole picture. In response to this posturing, the man just stood his ground not giving her the satisfaction that she was wanting.
Several minutes pass as the woman refusing to take the hint that this was getting her absolutely nowhere; she finally got the hint and made her way back across the road to her trailer, then promptly climbed into her truck and sped off.
He proceeds to tell me that she HATES dogs and wishes she were home on her cattle ranch. This tidbit of information he had learned in a prior conversation before she decided to make enemies with him.
My thought is that there are several RV parks in the area that do not allow dogs, so if you do not like the why are you staying in a park that allows them, or at the very least why didn’t she request to be placed in an area that had no dogs?
It also begs the question what gives you the right to feel that you are far superior to those whom are dog owners?
My big conundrum with all this is if she went to management and complained to them about this, then why was it necessary to confront the man instead of allowing management talk to him and resolve the issue.
I may never know, but one thing is for sure I have my bases covered, hopefully I won’t need to defend myself.