The one with the turbo

So, HaRVy is now a member of our pack.  We love HaRVy.  As of this morning, both John and I remain confident that a full timer lifestyle is an appropriate choice for us at this point.  However, nothing in life is easy and simple.  Maybe this last month’s purpose was simply to remind me that life is never simple and that it’s time to learn to give up the illusion of control.It all started the day we picked up HaRVy and headed for CO to surprise everyone.  We pulled out of Ancira RV with HaRVy in tow, took the turn around down the street, merged onto I10 and about 1 mile down the road heard a huge BOOM followed by a hissing sound.  Dammit.  We lost a tire already, or so I thought.  John pulled off and we jumped out.  One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten …. all tires accounted for.  Well that’s weird, it had to have been a blown tire.  So I took another look.  Sure enough, all ten tires stared back at me, wondering why they were sitting on the side of I10 when they had just been given a brand new job and a brand new purpose in life.  So, John and I got back in the truck, stared at each other for a minute and decided to head back to Ancira for a better look.  John put Carrie in gear, applied the gas and then we realized the true magnitude of the problem.  Carrie had no power.  The poor girl literally limped back, along the access road, to the RV dealer.  Fortunately, our good friend Griz knew the problem right away.  “Sister, it’s just the turbo.”  I love Griz.  :)  Sure enough, we opened the hood and quickly saw our beautiful turbo tube disconnected and the associated clamp missing.  A quick trip down to the nearest Ford dealer allowed us to purchase a new clamp, we dug out our tools, put the new clamp back on and headed back to the RV dealership.  But wait … BOOM … hissss…..  “Why don’t we head over to a mechanic?”  So we did.

It helped our egos that the same exact stream of events occurred when the mechanic tried replacing the turbo boot.  Reattach, drive, boom, hisssss….  Come to find out, (at least this is what Ford said) the turbo boots cannot be reused.  There is apparently a glue-like membrane that seals the boot when heat is applied.  When the boot is removed that seal becomes useless.  And possibly, it’s just a good excuse to get more money out of two gullible truck owners, learning the ropes of towing.  We purchased a new boot and were on our way.  Back onto I10 to San Angelo where we stopped for the night.  Our first night with HaRVy in a Wal-Mart parking lot!  Now we are living. 

We made it back to CO and managed to surprise my mom and best friend completely.  John’s mom knew we were coming but she did not know about HaRVy.  My brother was not completely surprised because I wound up needing to borrow his car so I had to make some “prior” meeting arrangements.  Probably, he wouldn’t really want his sister spontaneously showing up on his doorstep though.  :)  Backing up however, here’s how things went.

We pulled into town and it was dark.  We made it down the somewhat narrow, coarsely-paved roads of Pueblo West to my mom’s house.  Thinking there’s no way we could actually park the RV without everyone in the house seeing us, I jumped out of Carrie and began directing John into my mom’s driveway.  If we could do it fast enough, we might be able to sneak up on everyone!  Sadly, I directed him to backup into the neighbor’s yard, then pull forward into the other neighbor’s yard, then back to the first neighbor’s yard, then again forward into the second neighbor’s yard but not before manually moving a few small boulders used for decoration.  This went on for about half an hour until John finally realized that if he came down the street from the other direction, backing up into my mom’s driveway might actually be possible.  He was right!  So, about 45 minutes after we began parking, we had accomplished our goal and no one had noticed!  We leashed up the dogs, made our way to the front door, rang the door bell and then watched as my mom screamed, ran from the front door to her bedroom to find the key that would open the front door, run back to the front door sans key to tell us she couldn’t find the key and finally, after much effort the door was opened and of course my mom was truly surprised.  I guess things were going pretty well.  Now, if only I could surprise my best friend! 

The next day I headed for Denver.  I needed to drop Carrie off with the guys from www.phoudationForChange.org so they could begin converting her to run on vegetable oil.  I managed to safely direct Carrie through Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Denver, through dry roads, rain and snow and met my brother at the mechanic’s shop.  He was kind enough to let me steal his car for the time being since I had to leave Carrie behind.  We had a wonderful dinner together (authentic gyros at a cute restaurant a couple blocks from his house), I got to see both his old and new apartments and I got to walk through downtown with my brother.  It was a wonderful evening, just the two of us.  He gave me a little taste of his life downtown with all the hustle and bustle, all the walking and eating, all the people and of course all of the cold!  Eventually, I had to head out for Boulder though so we parted ways.

I easily found the hotel in Boulder and I can’t say enough about them.  The dog rooms weren’t fancy but the hotel was very accommodating to myself and all four of my furbabies.   http://www.boulderoutlookhotel.com/  They even had a small fenced area for them to run and play.  It was admittedly a semi-steep hill with a fence around it but still.  I was able to let all four dogs off their leashes so they could walk around, stretch their legs and do their doggie business.  We checked in for the night and with lots of ants in my pants, I finally fell asleep.

Admittedly, I started planning the surprise meeting a week or so in advance.  I had never met her Boulder friends but I knew names well enough to do a Google search to locate the director of their social activities.  A quick set of emails to the director gave me the location of dinner for Friday night.  I was guaranteed a specific location and time for her whereabouts so I was set!  However, I was not expecting to be in Boulder so early.  The original plan had me arriving right before dinner Friday night and now it’s Friday morning.  So I hung out with the pack and decided to chat with her.  I got her to tell me her plans for the day and after a bit of chit chat I told her I had to run a quick errand but I’d be in touch.  :)  I packed up the doggies and then we set out.  I found her place of business, an extremely nice receptionist helped me find her office and fortunately she was facing away from the door when I arrived.  I tried to casually walk in, though I’m sure I was bouncing all over the place like a 5 year old trying to walk calmly into Disney World, and asked “So when is this movie tonight?”  Her response, “It’s at….” was all she uttered as she slowly turned around in her chair, stared at me with a confused look, turned her head to the side a bit and then finished her response with “What are you doing here?”  I DID IT!!!  I surprised her and I was so proud of myself!  So very very proud.  We had a great time that night at dinner with her friends and then we saw Zombieland.  I think I’m going to like being home in CO more!

So, I successfully surprised my mom and best friend.  I didn’t get to surprise my brother or John’s mom completely but maybe another time.  For now, it’s enough to have seen everyone, hugged them with my own arms and seen their smiling faces.  I miss my family and friends so much and have ever since we left for California.  I’m glad we lived in California and Texas for many many reasons.  However, when work takes over your life and you find yourself justifying why you can’t be an active participant in the lives of those you care most about, it’s time to make a change.  One of the easiest changes for me to make is to shorten the miles between myself and those I love.  Distance should no longer be an excuse for not seeing those I care about.  They may not be able to come to me but I will be able to go to them.  So watch out friends and family … you may decide that distance was a good thing to have between us! 

This entry was posted on Thu, Nov 05 2009 at 08:08 and is filed under Vanessa's Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.