I woke up immediately thinking that this is the day that we’ve been waiting
for since Friday…the day we talk to someone and get the information we need to
move forward. And yet…and yet, all the elements for the next Inside Out movie were
competing for space in my head…hopefulness, anxiety, confidence, apprehension,
calm, nervousness and the list goes on. Aghhh!!
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Well, I can say with certainty that President’s Day isn’t a holiday for
at least one garbage company in the city of Topeka. Seven thirty this morning a garbage truck was
outside our room emptying the dumpster over in the corner and that isn’t a
quiet activity. Just sayin’…
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Around 9:30, Kim talked our situation over with a service manager at
Hoyt’s Truck Repair, who’s going to write up an estimate and get back to us. One thing we did find out is that going with
heavier axles will require new tires and rims because of the need for 6 lug
nuts instead of the 5 lugs that our current tires have. Seriously? Brand new tires on Friday and now
we need to replace those? They don’t even have 60 miles on ‘em! So, we’re still waiting but at least
contact has been made. I’m finding that baby steps require an enormous amount
of patience.
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After the phone call to Hoyt’s, we walked over to Cracker Barrel for a
late breakfast. Then it was back to the
room to wait for a call about the estimate.
Filling time until the call came
in, we were turned to our computers. Kim
found an eagle cam showing two eagles sharing egg sitting duties. Weirdly fascinating! If there are no birds in the cactus nest this
year, I’ll just content myself with watching these eagles.
Here is some info from the website www.fws.gov/nctc/eagle-cam:
The nest is located approximately 75 miles northwest of
Washington, D.C. on the campus of The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services' National
Conservation Training Center. The campus is near Shepherdstown, in the eastern
panhandle of West Virginia, approximately 1/4 mile from the Potomac
River.
An
American Bald Eagle pair began building this nest in 2003, near the top of a
large sycamore tree. Two eaglets hatched in 2004, were successfully raised, and
the two young eagles fledged from the nest in June of 2004. In the fall of
2005, NCTC installed our first eagle cam and the 2006 nesting season was the
first to be observed online. The NCTC Eagle Cam soon became very popular with a
large online following of viewers amazed to watch the eagles raise their young
each season.
The nesting season
begins each year in the fall and early winter when the eagles bring in sticks
and work to build up the nest. Mating happens from December to February, eggs
are laid in mid-February, and with 35-38 days of steady incubation, the eggs hatch
around mid-March. In twelve weeks, from mid-March to mid-June, the young eagles
grow incredibly fast, and the adult-sized young will first leave the nest
(fledge) in mid-June. The juvenile eagles will then spend the summer months
near the river with the adults to hone their fishing and hunting skills. During
the summer, we will see the juveniles back in the nest on occasion, but by fall
they are on their own.
I had a split screen going on my computer so
I could watch the eagles and type my journal at the same time. Eagle #1 was sitting the nest…Eagle #2 flew
in with what looked like more nesting materials in its talons and did some
light housekeeping by moving a few sticks around…they switched incubation
duties…Eagle #1 flew off for a little ‘Me’ time. Like I said, it’s weirdly fascinating.
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At some point, Kim suggested we go check out a used toy hauler he found
online at a local RV center. Buying a new camper is not the direction I want to
go in this situation, but in an effort to be open to wherever this is going, I
agreed. The camper is a 2022 Grand
Design Momentum toy hauler with all sorts of perks guaranteed to glam up our
camping experience. A definite upgrade from our Grey Wolf camper. But there was one glaring fault with it: I
couldn’t reach any of the cupboards when standing on the floor. A person would have to be 7 foot tall to
access most of the cupboard space! I
told Kim that a folding step ladder would have to be permanently in the way if
I was to do anything in that kitchen. I
may have been able to get past the cost, if it weren’t for the high cupboards. Those would definitely be a deal breaker for me.
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I learned something on the way to the RV dealer: Kim had called Hoyt’s
Trailer Service this morning, not Hoyt’s Truck Repair, which also meant that
yesterday we cruised by the wrong business on our recon mission. So, after leaving the RV dealer, we decided to
see where Hoyt’s Trailer Service was located.
As it turns out, it wasn’t far from both the RV center and the truck
repair shop. And since we were in the neighborhood, Kim decided to stop and see
where the service manager was on the estimate.
I was enjoying the warmth of the truck when Kim yanked open the door and
with a big grin, said, “How does (insert amount) sound?” I wasn’t sure if I’d heard him right because
we were both expecting a much higher figure.
He repeated it and I said, “That sounds wonderful! I hope you told him
yes.” The next thing he said was, “He has everything in stock and wants us to
get it here ASAP because there’s a winter storm warning in place for tonight
and tomorrow. And he said that it might
be done by Wednesday.”
Up
to that point, we had been at loose ends, just waiting for a phone call; now we
felt a definite sense of urgency.
Hotel
to Hoyt’s is 5.8 miles…that’s all we needed out of that camper tire, and it had
to have been the longest 5.8 miles of my life. We made the trip to the hotel
and back with the camper in less than 30 minutes and that included a bathroom
stop at the hotel for both of us. The relief I felt at making
it into that
parking lot with the tire still intact cannot be overstated. The next step was for Kim to back it into a
service bay and when that was accomplished, Poof! the anxiety
of the last couple of days vanished.
Now, mind you, the repairs still have to be done but we’re both feeling
good about how this day turned out. I
thought I was doing a good job of dealing with the stress of the situation:
praying for peace, redirecting negatives thoughts to positive thoughts,
recognizing that worry accomplishes nothing, etc., but when we pulled away knowing
that the camper was in the hands of Shawn and his merry band of helpers, I felt
a heaviness fall away…a heaviness I didn’t even know I was carrying. There is light at the end of this tunnel, and
I humbly thank God for that.
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In all our scurrying around, we didn’t have time for any kind of lunch;
by the time we got back to the hotel, it was 4:30, we were both hungry and even
though we now had many options on where to eat, it was Texas Roadhouse for the
win…again! And this time, because I
asked if they sold their homemade rolls, I walked out of there with 6 rolls in
a to-go box. The two remaining from our supper
and 4 more complimentary rolls that she’d boxed for us. It’s been a good day
indeed.
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