Gerri’s Blog

Howdy, everyone! So good to be back with you. Before I begin my recap on the very (may I say) well-deserved vacation, let me again thank Judy, the lovely HP, for her tireless work at keeping the gutter…er…blog, up and running!

Don’t know if this happens to you, but for us, there’s always at least one thing that goes awry when we’re trying to get away. One year, there was the thunderstorm with driving rain and horrific lightning while we were trying to pack the last few things that morning before leaving. Delayed us nearly two hours. Then the time we were all hitched up and ready to go, dogs in the truck, Abby under the seat…and we had a dead battery! Well, this year there was a multitude of things. Thankfully, we had a flexible schedule but we were four days behind that “flexible” schedule!

First, there was the continuous rain from Gustav…and who wants to pack in the rain? Then there was the trip into town to get the bearings packed on the trailer axles. We have “bearing” issues! It started with the popup camper years ago where we lost a wheel “in the middle of nowhere” in the plains of North Texas. But that’s another story. Last year, coming back from the coast on a Sunday evening (in the middle of nowhere), people start passing us and pointing at the trailer. That’s never a good sign! So we pull over, there’s smoke all over the place, and me being the girl, get out, put my hands on my hips and say, “We don’t have a flat.” Diane, being a little more mechanically inclined, says “We blew the bearings.” Okay. I’ve heard the word “bearings” before, I just don’t know what they do! Apparently, they’re very important. And this is where we give thanks to the GPS for popping up with “mechanics” within a 10-mile radius. We call, let’s say his name is Bubba, and sure, he’ll swing on by and take a look. Long story short, three hours later, after dark and after the December cold (yes, it does get cold in Texas!) descended upon us, and after nearly $400 for his service, Bubba sent us on our way. So…we have bearing issues.

And this time, Diane pulls the camper into town and drops it off on our way to work. “Sure, we can repack the bearings, no problem,” he said. Did you also know that they put these little greasy covers over the axle called bearing buddies? Me either. We pick up the camper, get it home…and two of the “buddies” have fallen off. Great. Next day, Diane takes the camper in and leaves it and they take her to work. When she goes to pick it up, she finds out that two sets of the bearings were bad to begin with. (“And why didn’t you fix this the first time?”) So, they keep it overnight. Next day, we pick it up, bring it home….yep, two more of the damn “buddies” have come off! Well, colorful language ensued but I won’t bore you with all of that. But by the time we finally headed out, we had three buddies and one naked axle!

Do you want to hear how the fridge wasn’t working and how we sat on the square of our little town, next to an auto parts place, and played with fuses for two hours? And just think, we haven’t even made it out of Texas yet!

The WM is working on adding some pictures to the website. I’ll try not to OD you on Casey and Cooper pics! And later, I’ll even give you a rundown on Colorado and our turmoil over Hurricane Ike.

Book note:  I’ve had a lot of requests for you to be able to pre-order Partners. So, the WM will add that one to my store this week, if you’re interested. It’s due to ship mid-November.