Guest Author - Dennise Ziaja
Traveler’s World RV Resort, San Antonio Texas
Today's article was supposed to be about memberships in Camping clubs and organizations. Stay tuned. The article is already written and ready to go, however...
I am going to discuss an incident that happened to me just recently, and boy, it made me think about how to avoid it in the future. I usually don't write a lot about my personal day to day life on the road as this is an information resource for those who are, who want to be, or just learning about life in an RV fulltime.
My DH, Paul had hip replacement surgery at the VA hospital here in San Antonio. It took me a while to convince him that I was perfectly capable of being in the motorhome with the furkids, without his expert and necessary help and more importantly, his presence. He would be safely cared for by the staff at the VA, and I would be warmly ensconced in our home on wheels at the campground. Since his hospitalization tenure was uncertain, I resisted his insistence that I check into a motel for safety reasons. He probably thought I'd burn down the motorhome...or maybe he thought I might just pack it all up and head outta town, LOL!
His surgery was a success, however his blood pressure dropping and wildly fluctuating resulted in a minor setback...he wouldn't be able to get the physical therapy that was necessary for him to be released. He must be able to walk with his new walker, use the bathroom, go up and down stairs, and put on socks with some strange looking apparatus that looked like a giant hook. Having had several other joint replacements, Paul felt this one would be a breeze...he knew what to expect and decided that he would be in the hospital only two or three days. As I sit here and write this, the blood pressure issues have kept him IN bed, unable to work on any therapy and he is now on his fifth day in what he calls the "slammer". He is cranky, honked off at the whole situation, the world and me, in other words being an overall baby about the whole thing. Since his surgery was on Thursday, the problems appeared on Friday and the dreaded “being in the hospital on the weekend nightmare” didn’t help the situation.
OK, ‘nough about old cranky butt. Saturday morning, my 8 month old YorkiePoo, Mack woke me up at our normal wakeup time of 6:45 a.m. (He never did acclimate to the time change back in October!). I get up, groggily put on my loafers on bare feet, slide my light jacket on, hook up Mack’s leash and head out the door. Mack does his thing, I am freezing and back to the rig we go. Door is LOCKED! This cannot be happening. Apparently, I didn’t lift the latch up high enough when I unlocked it earlier and when I shut the door; the latch fell back into the lock position. It is 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning and not a soul or mouse is stirring in the campground. Now, I normally wouldn’t be worried…but here I am in my Santa Polar Bear flannel sleep pants that are two sizes too big, loafers with no socks and a mere plastic jacket on my body in 32 degree temps. San Antonio has cold spells…I didn’t know this either! No car keys, no motorhome keys, no phone. Just a whining puppy and a frozen backside. I recall that I have the extra rig keys in the car…which is locked. If I can get into the car….
I start to walk around the campground until I find a workamper who just happened to be out on his day off. He promises to look for a coat hanger or wire so we can break into my car and get the extra rigs keys. What could we have been thinking? Cars today are break in proof unless of course you are a seasoned car thief. It is now 8 am. Workamper guy walks with me down to the office to call for help. He walks fast and I am totally outta shape so by the time we walk the half mile to the office I am gasping for breath. The office gals are nice and call Mr. PopALock to come to my aide. I walk back the half mile to our site (I did manage to beg a free cup of coffee from my sympatric new friends). The PopALock guy said a half hour…forty five minutes and a frozen butt later he arrives. In lickety split fashion he pops the lock on the car, and although the alarm is going nuts, I hop into the car to find the extra set of rig keys. Oopsie…no rig keys. Keys to the house in Weslaco, keys to a lock we no longer have but all of our consumer discount grocery cards are on the ring, a key to my son’s car (he is currently back in Illinois) and a key to my father-in-law's car. Grrrr. I cannot believe this. So Mr.PopALock tries to use his expertise on the rig door. I think I know why this fella gave up the dark side, he can't break into a simple RV? Forty five minutes later, still no luck. A gentleman across the way is breaking down camp with his class B rig. He comes over to offer his assistance. He places HIS rig key in the door, jiggles it around and pops the lock! I cannot believe it. Another rig’s key was able to open my motorhome door. Something isn’t right about this, but do I care at this point. NO!
OK, so $40 in cash later for the Mr. PopALock guy, I am back in the rig. Cold, thirsty, hungry and just a bit mad at myself, but, I made myself a promise…I will NEVER go out of the rig without my phone, my car keys and the keys to the motorhome. AND I will have extra keys made and stash them around the motorhome for both the car and the rig. I will make sure I have a hidden key somewhere on the car so I cannot be locked out of the car no matter where I go. Somewhere in my memory, I recall asking the DH to do that for the car, but this is not something I can easily place blame. Another lesson learned, right up there with the “don’t let the water trickle out of the faucet in cold weather camping so the pipes don’t freeze without opening up the grey water tanks.” Fellow RVer’s will know all about that one.
Next time I’ll get back to the subject of joining an RV group. Right now I am off to the key maker guy.
