Monday, July 19, 2010:
No exercise today….got to get the laundry done, pack up, and head out before 9AM. The goal is Yellowstone National Park by 12 noon. We gather all the dirty clothes and bedding together and haul it down to the central laundry only to find out that it opens at 7AM – What time is it, Gary? 6:22AM? Crap --- haul it all back and start to clean out the RV instead. We haul all the laundry back at 7AM and get 2 machines running. Check our time and run back to the trailer as we have 30 minutes until the laundry needs to be changed. We quickly eat breakfast and finish closing up the rig. As we are putting away the awning (our RV has a 14 foot pull down awning that provides much needed shade on these warm summer days) we notice that the latches that hold the awning in place while we drive down the highway, are not catching properly (for those of you who do not own an RV – this is a critical issue. No one wants to be driving down the highway as their awning decides to billow out unexpectedly – causing at minimum frustration and at worst, an accident). Gary looks at me..I shrug..and we decide to open the awning and try to close it again. Well, after 3 times of no changes in our trial and error approach my darling husband deploys his favorite fixit method – Let’s FORCE IT. In this case we noticed that the awning seemed a bit out of alignment so Gary, in his infinite wisdom and definitely manly approach, decided to give the open awning a shove toward the front of the RV before closing it for the 4th time. This time the awning still does not latch, but because it is out of alignment in the opposite direction. Rather than get upset (after all I am on VACATION – I start to laugh. Not a sickly wimpy laugh, no, a full on belly roar – SHHH! It is still only 7:10AM and we are supposed to be in the “quiet” hours of the campground). We open the awning for time #5. Gary shoves it back – again too far – and we are back where we began. At this point I am laughing so hard I can barely contain myself. This draws the attention of our tour guides and fellow campers. Gary motions that all is under control, but being good campers, they all know this to be a big fat lie and they come over the check out our mess. Fortunately, Gary has applied less pressure of try #6 and the rear latch connects – Gary climbs onto the roof to connect the front latch before a group of fellow campers can offer their well intentioned advice. This starts a round of camping stories – You remember the time when….and we are all laughing before we separate and – OOPS – got to get the laundry switched to the dryer! I run back and find that the entire camp ground is trying to do laundry now – so glad I got there early. Suffice it to say, we finish the laundry, pack up the final pieces of our gear, and hit the road. We arrive at the gates to Yellowstone at 11:30AM.