No Bueno

Waiting on the laundry...Shawn brought me over a refreshment. :)

Well. Just when I thought things were starting to go in the right direction, the RV decides that it hates us. I heard that buying a new RV is like buying a new boat. You need to just relax and get used to the fact that things are not going to work in the beginning. You need to work out the kinks. I do not enjoy working out kinks. I already have 3 little kinks on this trip and I don’t need more kinks.

A bigger part of the problem here is that Shawn and I are not fixers. In any way whatsoever. My husband is super bright and extraordinarily capable in many ways, but “fixing” things is just not one of them. This is not something he disagrees with. (My parents just gave him a book for father’s day called ‘How to fix anything’ –  just to give you a sense of how public this is.)

To start, our hot water heater appears to just not be working. We have called the dealership and explained the problem and their solutions are not working. I am already someone who takes extremely hot showers to the point where Shawn thinks I am crazy. So the shower that I took this morning was actually painful it was so cold. I swear it could be used as a terrorist interrogation tactic by the military. I literally think there were seconds where I stopped breathing. The hair was growing on my legs as I was shaving them. I cannot possibly subject my children to this so I guess we will get to explore the campground showers. (The silver lining here is that my mom told me that Dr. Oz said it makes your hair fall out if you wash it in hot water, so since I am balding, this is a good thing.)

Apparently I am also going to get to explore the Laundromat too. I washed our first load of laundry this morning in the brand new washer that came on the RV. This was something I was very adamant about – I was not going on a long trip with the kids without having a washer and dryer. I even packed in perfect portions knowing we would have this on board. Well, today, when the washer appeared to be finished, I noticed that the clothes looked so incredibly wet. I opened the door and wasn’t I just thrilled when all of the water came pouring out of the door and onto the carpet in my bedroom. Awesome. Freaking. Awesome. So, I shut the door quickly and spent the next 90 minutes on the phone with the RV dealership and then waiting for a technician at the washer company. I finally got him on the phone and he said, “Oh that’s easy. The pump is bad. It probably wasn’t winterized properly. You will need to get it fixed when you get home.”

Me:”Totally not an option. We are on night 4 of a 45 day trip and I have 3 children under 6. I need this to work, pronto.”

So I just left a message for A to Z mobile repair man, Ed, in a suburb of Kansas City. I am praying Ed can somehow fit us in. On a weekend. A holiday weekend.

So now I was faced with figuring out how to get all of the laundry out of the washer without the gallons of water spilling out all over the floor. I needed a bucket. Damn if I didn't see a $6 bucket at Target and decided not to get it for the trip. I was cursing my cheap self. I was going to have to ask my neighbor. I had both boys with me and Shawn was at the water park with Macy, so I would need to take them outside with me to ask for the bucket. Jude was wearing no pants (per the ususal) but I figured, who cares, most of the people here are wearing way less clothing than they should be. So we went outside, shut the door, and started walking next door. I noticed our cooler out of the corner of my eye and realized that was a great solution. No need to speak to strangers. We grab the cooler, step up to the RV, and the door is locked. Like it is literally locked and will not open. I have no keys. The door is not SUPPOSED to lock from the inside, but apparently my 2 year old has figured out how to make it happen. I knew he was playing with the door when I was talking to the repair guy, but I never checked to see if he moved the lock button. So here I am with Luke, the cooler and my half naked baby, and we are locked out of our RV. With no phone. Just then, Shawn and Macy pull up in the golf cart and I am telling him we are locked out. After a few deep breaths, he gets up, and just then our neighbor walks over because he overheard us (of course he did. I could spit on his fire), and tells us how we might be able to have a kid crawl under the bus to break in. Of course. I am going to send one of my small children under this rig to break in. Sounds great. By the grace of God, Shawn looks over at the picnic table and there sits our keys. We could not believe it, but for once, the RV Gods were on our side.

I ended up having to squeeze all of the water out of each piece of clothes in the washer, and put them in a big trash bag, and I proceeded to walk over to the Laundromat, with said dripping trash bag and quarters in hand, and finish washing our clothes.

After we were done, we actually grilled out (yay!) and walked the kids over to the pavilion next door where karaoke night was in full swing. After watching a ‘Wind beneath my wings’ rendition and a few Taylor Swift songs, we called it a night.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we pick up the Tahoe tomorrow. We just realized we forgot the extra seat for the 3rd row. Which means we only have space for 2 kids. Not the 3 that we have. Awesome.

P.S. - hot water is now working! Please let Missouri be kind.

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