Life's Small Bumps

Our travels led us to Florida about six days ago -- sun and fun, right? Well, not exactly.   The last few day have included some bumps in the road.

Our location has served us well in the Escapees RV Park at Bushnell, about 50 miles north of Tampa.  No problems; the park is quiet and friendly and gives  us a chance to catch up on living requirements.  And there's the very interesting Webster Farmers Market  a few miles down the road every Monday.  We made that trip already. This may be the biggest assembly of booths, flea market, antique, general merchandise and produce, that we've every seen. But we were interested mainly in the produce - plentiful and reasonably priced. And Jerry had in mind creating one of his "stoups" or gumbos.

You can find every imaginable vegetable, some gargantuan ones, a huge assortment of peppers, etc.  It's fun to just browse the booths and talk to the vendors.  We made the rounds and found everything we needed to take home, as you can see from this photo.


But our intent for pausing here was actually to get the mounds of laundry finished and clean the layers of dirt off the Jeep and Ferd's windows. After all, we need to enjoy all of the Florida sunshine.  First, I did a few loads of laundry.  Oh #$!, right afterwards I noticed a favorite sweater and jacket had rust stains that the signs in the laundry room warn "can be an occasional problem." Continuing the bumpy episode,  the next morning I woke up with a sinus headache and runny nose and have been fighting a cold since then. 

But what's my point?  This isn't just a long list of complaints.  After all, it's just LIFE, right?  Of course.  We were lucky to be in the warm weather while many others around the country were dealing with all kinds of storms, wind, snow and ice, etc.  We were feeling somewhat blessed. Then it happened. We noticed that our refrigerator stopped cooling.  It's not a total surprise to us since it is 15 years old. What to do first?  Our fridge is larger than some rv units. Could be $2000 or $3000, or who knows, maybe more.  These RV appliances are overpriced.  And who do we trust to do the work? Of course, there's the immediate concern of all the food inside. Throw it away? 

First, don't open the doors a lot.   Long story short, we made an ice run and filled two coolers with some of the food.  Then, the next morning, we bought a dorm-type refrigerator at WalMart and put it in the bathroom for temporary cooling.  Now we are working on the rest of the options.   The Internet to the rescue once again.  We are gathering information to make the decision since this model is no longer made.   A few more phone calls and we'll know more.

This morning the problem didn't seem as serious, even though the rain poured down most of the day.  I feel as though my cold is on the downside. Besides, between the showers we ran into an rver friend traveling with a lady and her sister-in-law whose husband had died suddenly and who was now in the local hospital herself after a fall. 
I guess our latest small bumps in life are really nothing but a reminder of our good fortune.