When It Rains, It Pours.

This past week took me to Rocky Mount and Roanoke/Salem, VA. What's cool about Roanoke/Salem is I have friends there. I was able to hook up with them for lunches and Wednesday dinner. The Curves in Salem is in the courtyard part of a the shopping center. Very pretty. Sorry, no pics.

Now about that rain.
Last week, Danny put his truck in the shop for major surgery - something about the oil pump and or valves. So he was going to use my Mercury until it was done. Over the weekend, I loaded the Mercury with Rendezvous gear for this weekend's event, then headed out with my visiting friend Jacki to go see another. I heard a couple of clunks and started worrying about transmissions. I put it through its gears while Jacki looked under the hood and she said motor mounts. OK, so when we got back, I asked Danny to take it in and have the mechanic check the mounts after work Monday. Tuesday he calls me for my towing service number. Towed it in, yep, all 3 motor mounts are broken, and some peripheral damage. Now 2 vehicles are in the shop. He still has to go to work so he unplugs HIS motorhome to drive that to work and it won't start. His truck finally came out of the shop Wednesday or Thursday.

Meanwhile, back in Salem, I come out of the supermarket and go the wrong way on Apperson. I find a parking lot to turn around in but misjudge the building. My rear end swings around just a tad too far and connects with the roof overhang. I think I ran over a curb - oops - drive to the next store and level the motorhome. Oh *expletive deleted*! I see a ding in the left rear side - small but there - and the roof's a bit buckled behind it. I duct tape the little hole I can see just as it begins to rain.
By Thursday morning we're getting rain bands from the hurricane and it's raining cats and dogs and it's doing it in my kitchen cabinet. The same one that water came in when I had the rip by the TV receiver. I've been through torrential rains since that was fixed and no leaks. Now I have more water than that rip ever produced. I rig a dishpan in the cabinet to catch it and go to work. On break, I bail it out. At lunch I bail it out. After work, as I step into the motorhome my weight makes the full dishpan slosh over and dump water all over the sink and surrounding area. At least it was the sink. Now water is coming from other places and the covers on my light fixtures on that cabinet are full of water. I bail, set bowls, cancel my weekend plans and drive home. The Escaper is back under its big blue tarp waiting for the rain to quit so we can figure out what I really did to it and how to fix it.

Now, since it's still raining cats and dogs and little babies, my motorscooter is not an option either. At this point I'm glad the potential buyer for the Dodge Lodge changed his mind, and that it's still got insurance and tags. What it doesn't have is a mattress. I have to work in Winchester VA next week and I don't fancy doing it in the old rig with all my stuff moved out of it. But it will do fine for going to the post office and bank and hunting down some Eternabond in hopes of repairing whatever I find on the roof of the Escaper this time.

I've been in Vehicle Hell before. There was a time when every time I said hello to a mechanic it cost me $1k minimum. I couldn't even ride in other people's vehicles without them breaking down. I'm praying this time it is a short trip and I'm out of Vehicle Hell by Monday.

"Raindrops keep falling on my head..."