Three generations in an RV!

Okay, here it goes...take your imagination and back track to July 15th, I believe. Susan, (one of my longest friendships) arrived in Las Vegas late afternoon to visit and be the official driver (she drives school bus in NYC) of our RV trip to the Land of Georgia O'Keefe.

After RV check-ups, shopping, packing and doing what three generations of woman do we were finally ready for our departure on Thursday at 2 p.m.

Susan had preset her ipod to "On the road again" and we were off...headed to 215 east to catch 95! Yeehaw! Susan, Mel, her youngest GenRose and I were off. We had decided to get outside of Las Vegas for our fuel fill up and as things would go that did not happen...there was a motorcycle in flames at the gas station...quick maneuvering got us out of the turn lane and back on the highway! Hmmmm...we all looked at each other wondering if this was an omen.

We continued on to Needles, CA...thought we'd fill up the tank and throw the generator on so we'd have some air conditioning...the temperature outside was 120 degrees! HOT AS HELL!!! Mel made sandwiches and then went to pay for the fuel. The guy told her we needed all new tires...that ours were baked and just waiting for the opportunity to blow out. After a group discussion, and not wanting to get stuck in the desert if we did have a blow out, it was decided that we'd replace them. We were told it would take a couple of hours and they had an air conditioned waiting area inside we were welcome to use. Gen Rose and I headed in there and Susan spotted a Jack in the Box across the street touting iced coffee and where she promptly headed, Mel was outside eyeballing the tires and talking to the tire guy. She returned a short while later and her phone rang; it was Susan saying the Jack in the Box was air conditioned and not crowded, we should come over there for a while. Of course we did. For a long while! Mel got a bit impatient and headed back to the station to see what was taking so long...Needles is a small town and is one of the first off the desert highway...the station takes care of the gas, food/snacks, and tires...it's a busy little place! Mel is good at being friendly and getting things done and made friends with Sue Ellen, the woman running the food/snack part of the station. We wandered from the Jack in the box to the station several times and generally had a good time visiting with Sue Ellen and watching the comings and goings of others.
At 8:30 pm our tires were changed...we said our thank you's and good byes and loaded up our crazy selves and got back on the road again. We crossed the Arizona State Line at 8:38pm!
Susan and I used to refer to Murphy (as in Murphy's Law) as the one to blame when things would mysteriously occur while we were first friends in college...we were beginning to think he had reared his retched little self and was a stow-away in one of the compartments of the RV.
In spite of everything we left with smiles on our faces...especially GenRose! Sue Ellen's daughter (I think it was her daughter) came running out to catch us as were leaving and said her brother liked Gen and wanted her cell phone number! Mel said not today, maybe in the next couple of years and waved good bye.
On the road again...we went as far as Kingman...it was late, we were tired and hungry...it was time to stop. We ended up at McDonald's where everyone but me ate (I rarely do fast foods and wasn't up to it)...there was a sort of creepy guy there that tried to strike up a conversation with me...started asking if my baldness and cane use was due to chemo therapy or radiation...when I just automatically answered, Mel gave me a kick under the table. We moved outside to eat dessert and sit in fresh air and he followed us. With dessert done we wanted to head back to the RV which we had parked near a Semi and were planning to spend the night in on the generator's power, after all we had a baseball bat, a golf club, and my cane to protect us! So, we headed out to the far parking lot and our home on wheels and the kind of creepy guy turned creepy! He moved over two tables so that he could see where we were going! Now the four of us were totally convinced to hurry and get inside and lock the door, which we did. As I was closing the curtains I got that creepy feeling you get when one is staring at you and looked up and realized that Mr. Creepy was following our movements...gosh it was scarey! Mel promised not to leave the trailer to restart the generator without the baseball bat, it had been shutting itself off for some reason and we desperately needed the a/c to sleep. She ended up going out three or four times during the night and once one of the truckers let her know that he was behind her so he didn't get bashed with the bat...it wasn't a restful night, but we did manage to get a few hours sleep. Friday morning greeted us with that hung over feeling from lack of sleep...to be continued.