As any good camper knows, the prep is just as important as the camping. In fact, I actually enjoy getting ready. Ever since Amy and I aquired our 22' Fleetwood Wilderness trailer, we have been preparing for this trip. In fact, we have been planning it since December. Everything was ready; all items were ready to go.
My plan was to work a full day on Friday (until 4:45pm) and then go pick up the camper at our storage lot (Circle Storage) in Harrison, OH. That would have given us plenty of time to get home, load up, and get some sleep.
Ideally, I would have taken a half of a vacation day and left at noon. I hadn't planned on doing that because I was running out of vacation days. However, earlier in the day I had recieved an email telling me that a caroling gig that would have been during a work day was not going to go happen. So, one vacation day back in the hopper.
For some reason, I felt like I should go ahead and take a half day. I thought that I would probably get home and have plenty of time to wash the trailer in addition to the other stuff.
So, I left at noon and decided to stop at Berean Christian Books to spend some of my birthday money on something that I had wanted for a little while: a Pocket New Testament. It's cool...size and shape of a check book. After that I drove through Wendy's for a Double Stack...nice little double cheeseburger for a buck.
Anyway, I went from there to the storage lot and got there at about 1:00. I drove around to our spott and backed up to the camper. As always, I did a walk-around before hooking up. What should my wondering eye should appear, but a flat tire. Totally flat...no air.
These were BRAND NEW Toyo tires that I just purchased from Colerain RV not even 30 days ago. The tire in question was a bit of a problem for the technician. He had a hard time getting it "seated". He told me though that it wouldn't be a problem. We had even camped for a weekend at Big Bone Lick State Park. (awesome T-shirt store, by the way...check them all out.)
So, after I FLIPPED OUT, I called Colerain RV. They said that they did not have any of that wheel or tire in stock, but that they would come out to my storage lot, get the tire/wheel, take it somewhere and reseat it, then bring it back. I was skeptical, but I ran with it.
The nice lady at Colerain said that someone would be there in about an hour. So, I did what any sensible person would do: I plugged the RV into the nearest outlet at the storage lot and plugged in the TV. Unfortunately, the only show that would come in was The Bonnie Hunt Show. It was horrid, but it was the only thing on. After about 15 minutes, I started reading the gospel of Matthew in my New Testament...that helped me calm down.
It was still hot and humid wearing my work clothes out there. I ended up rolling up my pant legs and unbuttoning my shirt. I walked like that to the entrance to meet Jim, the Colerain RV guy. He got the tire off and went to find a tire store that would help him out.
So, hot and chic-looking Jon sat at the camper waiting for another 2 hours. Eventually, Jim came back with a working tire. THANK YOU GOD.
Seriously, from the time that I got the message that the caroling gig was cancelled, it is evident that God was directing me to GET TO THAT CAMPER. Had I not gotten there when I did, we wouldn't have been able to leave until 12 hours later than planned.
No problems getting it home...everything went well.
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