Our (Un)Excellent Adventure

Last Wednesday I attended our Forum Holiday Party.  It was held close to home this year which made it even nicer for me.  Afterwards, I separated all the gifts donated into piles of "one for you, one for me" until we had two equal (as best we could) piles to be loaded into vans to be taken to two local charities.

The next morning I worked at the Nursing Home Christmas party and afterwards intended to take the gifts from the night before to one of the proper places.  Judy was taking the others.  While Sandra and I were blowing up balloons, she said she would just take them since they were all in her SUV and she lives down that way and I don't.  It made sense, so I agreed.

Our Merry Melodies sang lots of Christmas Carols to entertain the folks.  It is so interesting to watch those residents that do not communicate normally mouth the words to the songs.  I had lots of fun with one lady who took great pride in singing along with me showing me that she remembered all the words.  When I looked up from bending over her wheelchair I noticed everyone standing against the walls and I was the only one standing among the residents during the performance.  One of our singers came over afterwards and thanked me for singing along.  Good thing she couldn't really hear me!

We intended to head to Chanute, KS on Saturday but the weather was really bad with the ice storm so we waited until Sunday.  Well the weather was OK by then but what was on the ground north of Dallas wasn't.  I have my doubts that there is a snow plow in NE Texas!  The road from Richardson to Sherman was all ice and overpasses were the worst.  We saw tractor trailers off the road, a Greyhound bus and numerous cars scattered hither and yon.  It took us two hours to go 7 miles at one point.  Ted did a fantastic job of driving ... considering he was pulling our RV!

We reached Durant OK and found the casino campground covered in about 3 inches of ice.  We sort of slid into our spot.  Ted hooked up the electric, fired up the propane furnace and we ate our lunch leftovers for dinner.  We were on our way to pick up our new 2014 Mobile Suites 5th wheel and had emptied the old trailer to minimize time switching things out.  This was supposed to be a quick trip up and back!  So we found ourselves stuck with no extra blankets, no space heater if the propane ran out and only some canned food.  We were afraid to unhook for fear of not being able to back up to hook up to leave.

The campground between our spot and the office.

We knew we were not going anywhere on Monday so we thought we would call the casino shuttle and go to eat at the casino.  Wrong!  The shuttles were not running.  Lucky for us the manager of the KOA campground took us in his SUV to the casino, came back to pick us up and even took us to the Valero to pick up a few things to tide us over.  Our other problem was we had no water because the hose would freeze and Ted had winterized our tanks.  I was unable to negotiate the ice so Ted had to keep walking me to the office to the bathroom!  Fun! 

Tuesday Ted spread about 100 lbs. of de-icer in the path we needed to leave the campground.  Major roads were cleared but getting to them could have been tricky.  When we tried to leave, the wheels just spun!  So he put de-icer around our tires and we were able to get a running start and didn't stop until we were on the cleared road.

The trip into Kansas was uneventful and we were able to do the paperwork and pay for our purchase in just a few minutes.  Then we spent about two hours going over the unit and moving some things we had with us.

We chose to spend the night in a motel and the next morning spent three hours finishing up learning the ins and outs of the trailer, moved our dishes and were on our way.  We spent Wednesday night back in Durant and the ice was gone!  I did write KOA praising their manager for going Above and Beyond for us.

Here are some photos of the inside.  The refrigerator blows my mind.  It is bigger and fancier than mine at home!  The improvements are Independent suspension, body paint, bigger TV that stows behind the fireplace and raises up to watch, a way fancier kitchen, beautiful storage in the bedroom.  So far we are really pleased.

On the right is a fireplace you can't see and the space above is where the 46 inch TV comes up.

 

Behind those mirrored doors is a cedar lined walk in closet.

We arrived home mid-afternoon and parked the RV at the storage facility.  It is so dirty on the outside!  We are busy this next week but when Tom and Eileen arrive we will join them at the campground where Ted will wash it and I will put away the rest of our things that are sitting in a bedroom and the garage right now.

Thank you, Santa!  And praise to our Savior for the blessings he has bestowed on us.