RVing Again!

The bus has been parked all winter. February came to an end. Larry's work travel was over. And finally it was time for us to hit the road.

RVing is still pretty new to us, so once again we pulled out the books, and got ready for some learnin'.

When we packed it up and tucked it in for winter, it meant I had to empty out all the foodstuffs from the inside. Larry had to empty out all the tanks and put anti-freeze in the pipes to protect them from the cold temperatures. Now it was time to reverse all those processes. For me, it was easy. Plan food, and get it in the bus.

For Larry it was a bit more detailed. And I, being the ever vigilant housewife, but not so involved with mechanics, have no idea what all that entailed. Except once in awhile I was called on to go 'turn on all the faucets and run the water until it comes clear'.

Him: "Is it clear?"
Her: "No. It's still pink.
    And a little later ...
"The pink is gone. Why is the water foamy?
Him: "WHAT? Wait a minute. Let me come look!! (exasperation.)
   And a little later...
"I'm sure its nothing. It's going away."
Me: Eyebrows raised. Thinking--"I'm not drinking that water!"

Finally, all was ready. Clothes in the closet. Food in the frig. Maps by my seat. It was time to hook up the Toad and get Frog on the road!

Day 1 through Atlanta in the rain wasn't the most fun we've had, but we took the outer loop and skipped the downtown madness. All in all, things went fine, and we were glad to pull into our first stop at a campground outside Valdosta, Georgia.

We put out the slides, plugged in the electric, set the Refrigerator to AC and turned on the hot water heater. Everything seemed fine except the Levelers wouldn't go down. It wasn't crucial because our site was level, but we knew we would need to have them looked at. Day 1 was in the books and we hadn't forgotten how to do anything. Good for us! (Oh, and the water ran clear, not foamy, and tasted fine....especially the ice cubes in the Gin and Tonic.)

Day 2 we thought should be easy. We had a straight shot down I-75 through Florida to Tampa.

So much for what we THOUGHT it should be like. Road construction had us frequently dodging orange barrels. 16-Wheelers set up trains on both sides of us, whenever they could and buffeted us between them. And then there was the wind. Head wind, side wind, constant wind.

My hero of a husband who can drive anything, was searching out rest areas just so he could flex and relax the hands that had been gripping the wheel, and sit back and close his eyes, shrug his shoulders, roll his neck....you get the idea. He was tense.

We made it to Tampa and our camp site at Lazy Days. I'm glad I wasn't driving, but all's well that ends well. I'm ready for a trip out west; Colorado, the Dakota's, Wyoming. Larry was ready for a beer.

We sat outside, in the sun, drink in hand and watched the news....It was snowing up north, again. Florida was a good place to be.

Hush Now. I've Got Your Back

When I was just a young, married, working wife we lived in a little house with an adequate backyard in a neighborhood where everyone had their own vegetable garden. I had never had one before, but I started with a pretty good-sized one and we grew most of the vegetables we ate all winter.

One summer the rain was pretty frequent and the weeds were growing as fast as the corn. One thing I had learned was that if you didn't want to turn the soil into rock, you didn't work in the garden after a rain, when the ground was wet. That year the rain seemed to come whenever I had time to weed. The ground was always ready when I was at work. One afternoon, I came home from work determined to get the weeds out of the corn. The skies were getting dark and I could feel the pressure building up as thunder sounded in the distance. So God and I had a come to meetin' moment.

"God," I said. " Give me twenty minutes! Just twenty minutes! I can clear the corn patch at least, if you'll just hold off the rain for twenty minutes."

I went to work, pulling weeds as fast as I could. The thunder would rumble in the distance and now and then, a drop would hit me on the head, but it didn't rain. Finally, I gathered the pile of weeds and put them on the compost heap, brushed myself off and headed indoors, just as the rain started coming down in earnest. I checked my watch...I'd been out there twenty minutes.

In those days, God and I had several conversations like that...me demanding....Him coming through. And through it all, I learned God had my back, on the big things, and on the small ones. It was one way God helped me develop my faith.

Fast Forward 40 years....

Recently I went to the local dermatologist. Since I'm new in town, he was new to me. When I left I knew I wasn't going back. I had never had an exam quite like it. He examined my face. Just my face. Not my ears, neck, scalp.... in fact, I had never even taken off my coat! And in that brief visit I was told I needed a chemical peel with Efudex to remove pre-cancers. There were too many to be frozen off.

After talking to friends I got the name of another dermatologist and made an appointment. And I did some research on Efudex. I actually didn't doubt what the first doctor had said. I had noticed several new red blotches on my face so I was concerned, too. But I had lots of questions. And I needed a real exam.

The past two weeks here have been crazy with the weather. Everything on my calendar has been cancelled for two weeks. Every time I think I'm going out, it snows and the phone rings with the next round of cancellations. The day of my doctor's appointment  arrived and school was closed again in the expectation of a bad winter storm coming through mid-day. I was beginning to get nervous. I prayed that the snow would hold off since I had a twenty-mile mountain drive which also had me nervous.

I'm not the worrying type, but this was starting to nag at me. Larry's travel season is over (work-related travel, that is) and we have trips planned. If I needed this treatment I needed to be able to schedule it in between trips and I was running out of time. Besides that, it didn't sound like fun. And besides that, when someone uses the word cancer in any kind of sentence it never sits well.  The day of the appointment came and I kept waiting to hear the phone ring telling me the office had to close.

The call never came. I made the drive on clear, dry roads. I met the doctor, who gave me a thorough exam and froze a bunch of spots on my face. And when she was through we talked. She answered all of my questions, and explained different treatments. As I left I felt more empowered than I had in quite a while. I remembered the scripture verse I had flipped to in my devotional guide that morning. It wasn't the one for the day, but it was the one for my day. It said "Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10.

As I drove the clear, dry road home I could see the clouds rolling over the mountains behind me as the storm prepared to roll in. I pulled in the drive as a few snowflakes drifted down. In minutes it was snowing in earnest.

I looked up at the laden sky and smiled. I could almost hear Him once again saying, "Hush now. Quit your worrying. I've got your back."