Frosty Windshields

Decision, decisions, decisions…..

                        Sometimes I wonder if the quandaries served up by the making of, or the lack thereof, those conclusions or resolutions (hopefully arrived at after careful consideration) prove themselves worth their final outcome.

                        I am quite sure that this will be the case, but this exercise is becoming a test in itself of this process as we are “Low Clearance” overpass high in said accumulated issues (?).

           “What in the name all that’s confusing are you talking about Donny?”

            Hmmm…. Yes, I can see where you may need an explanation of the current dilemma that sparked that diminutive diatribe.

                        Last year, as you may recall, we were down at the tip of South America for Christmas. This is their ‘summer’ down there and we were enjoying yet an additional ‘Longest Day of the Year’ on December 21^st and the accompanying nice, balmy temperatures whilst aboard the Majestic Princess as she sailed the complete circumference of South America.

                        Nice.

                        But to be honest, we did miss being at home with everyone at Christmas. Facetiming and gloating about those balmy breezes gets you just so far in feeling good…..until you close that call and wish you were home.

                        So! This year, come the proverbial ‘Hell or High Water’ we made sure that we would be back in the old neighborhood for all the right reasons. Getting there was the issue, and the “Decisions” that subsequently followed were the bane of our collective existences (so far) but the rewards of this trek will more than suffice for the efforts. I will let my friend Billy Shakespeare take it for a minute….

                To drive, or not to drive, that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous road rages

Or to use credit cards against a sea of airline tickets

And by opposing this decision, end them. To drive—to sleep,

On the road, in a now frozen motorhome

No more? Nay, and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache and the thousand natural shocks that

Come from deteriorating roadways!

That question is heir to: ’tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To Fly?, to sleep.

To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub:

For in that sleep of at least an Aisle Seat, what dreams may come!

To grunt and sweat under a weary life of dubious automotive electrical systems.

But that the dread of something after death,

(the death of a bank of RV batteries)

The undiscovered auto parts store, from whose bourn

No traveler returns, except the lucky one with the correct tools and parts…. It puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know of?

Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of that dubious thought,

“We should have bought the stinkin’ tickets and be done with it!”

And enterprises of great soul and freezing moments

Spent astride a calamitous auto tow-bar device.

With this regard their currents turn awry

And possibly, lose the name of action.

Action???!!!

We’ve had plenty of action and we’re only two days into this foray!

             No heat coming from the dashboard system.

             Having to run the generator almost full time in order to keep the little ceramic heaters going that are pointed at us up front.

             Worrying about the 90 gallons of water that travels with us, never mind the ‘other’ tanks of a dubious nature that need periodic emptying!

             And we still have the next month or so to spend in the Northern Climes of the USA while we visit with friends and loved ones.

                      For the most part, actually, the WHOLE part, motorhomes, etc. are not equipped for extended cold weather running. The walls are about an inch thick, the systems are barely weather resistant, never mind proof!

All of this was carefully considered, debated, talked about, and harangued over before we made that decision to drive.

We based our final decision on the Law of Averages.

   Ha! That Law went out our proverbial frosted windows after the second night on the road when it dropped to 12 degrees (nope, I just checked again… it is now 9 degrees) in Tennessee!

             Now, this is mid-December, we’re still in ‘Autumn’ not mid-January or February!

Mr. ‘Law of Averages’ took a powder, and I think he booked out on this year’s South America cruise!

                      Today we will stop in Appomattox, Virgina to spend a day or so with Paula’s son Brain and his wife April. They just finished a brand spankin’ new house that they nicely considered us travelers and had a ‘full hook-up’ parking space installed! We may never leave! At least this will give me a place (besides a Walmart Parking lot) to check the offending batteries and probably procure some new ones. We will need maybe the full four. These are the guys that let us run electrical items (of a not huge nature) like lights, TV, microwave without running the generator, until they power down and need recharging. Our current ones are feeling the effects of our frequency of using them and have given up.

                      Or so it seems. Only a Test will tell, and my Official Tester is officially on the fritz, otherwise we would have already surmised this before we left. Ha! famous ‘Last Words’.

                      To be fair, there were other factors taken into account in order to come to our present predicament, ahh, I mean scenario.

   We would have had to rent a car for about a month, and those days of the $29.99 a-day-rentals are far behind us, never mind finding a place to sleep at this time of the year! Just ask Joseph and Mary! We did have several offers of homes to frequent while we were here but as the plaque over the pilot and co-pilot’s seats in the Motorhome says…. ‘There’s No Place Like Home!’

                                And that is exactly why we’re on our way!

                      God willin’ an’ the creek don’t rise……

And the temps don’t fall….

          And the batteries behave….

                   And …….