Disaster or Disaster Avoided?

Today was a disaster. Or perhaps it is a day when disaster was avoided.

The morning went pretty well. We left the hotel in St Robert, MO close to an "on-time departure" and arrived in Tulsa to do a bit of sight-seeing for Ryan, and a little coney eating too, before we went to Mom and Dad's.

We loaded the RV and made for Oklahoma City. First, it was the generator that malfunctioned. The generator was surging which made it nearly impossible for the air conditioner to run, which made it really, really hot inside the RV. So, before we got out of town we stopped and tried to make adjustments. Nothing really worked but I got behind the wheel and we entered the Turner Turnpike.

That's when the engine went amiss. Each time we tried to climb a hill it would starve for fuel. It backfired once. Still, I kept thinking it might just smooth out.

Forty miles onto the turnpike we hit the toll booth. As we exited the RV decided not to shift into overdrive. The torque converter wasn't kicking in. So, Dad said, "Jerry, we need to turn around and go home. We can't have this thing breaking down and stranding us in the middle of nowhere." By the way, the middle of nowhere was our chosen destination but breaking down there was not our chosen activity.

So, I turned us around and headed back to town; bewildered and with my Dad nearly sunk with disappointment and sorrow. He kept saying he was sorry, but, it didn't need to be said because he hadn't caused the phantoms and I wasn't about to hold the misfortunes of the day against him.

Still, I didn't know exactly what to do. We called a place in Tulsa called NotNu and they rent CruiseAmerica RV's. Yes, we can get one tomorrow she said. Not today? Nope, thanks to Timothy McVeigh no one can get a same-day RV rental ever again.

I talked with Kelly and she said that this was a once in a lifetime trip and we would just work out the money at a later time. How, I don't know and I didn't really think about it as I signed the rental agreement.

Tomorrow we get a CruiseAmerica RV with a huge billboard on the side of it. It's bare. We have to take everything from toilet paper to sheets with us tomorrow. It's gonna be an ordeal, but, they have roadside assistance. It's nearly new. It sleeps 7. It may be OK.

But, we still have to get to Phoenix by 9:00 PM on Wednesday to pick up Kelly at the airport. Hard days ahead tomorrow and Wednesday. We can't get the rolling billboard until noon tomorrow and it will surely be 1:00 before we are packed and moving.

Still, I think today is about learning something. Even though it seemed to have all went wrong we are moving forward; trying to learn; trying to be on sabbatical. By the way, that was especially hard to do today because the church phone kept calling me to tell me someone had left a message. I thought I had turned that off but I guess I didn't. The tech guy was supposed to call or come by last Thursday to help with the phones but he didn't.

Trying hard to be on sabbatical. Trying hard to learn each day. Today I learned a lot about character and will and determination and grit. And I think Dallas and Ryan learned something too. I hope they did.