$%*! Happens

Awaking to another crisp November morning, our plan today was pretty simple – make a quick visit to Noble Coffee for espresso before taking Lilly on her final walk through Ashland.  Afterwards, as the plan called for, we’d hook-up the Airstream and depart in time to rendezvous for a lunchtime meet-up with my cousins about an hour away, before finally making our way to Eugene – our destination today.

Per usual, the Noble barista pulled a succulent shot and Lilly was happy to be outside, happily depositing her marks for other dogs to inspect.  All was going well – that is to say, without incident.

The same cannot be said for the remainder of my leave preparations.

Typically before engaging in departure or arrival activities, I like to conduct a quick visual inspection, walking around the trailer as I look for anything unusual.  During such review this morning, I noticed one of the curbside tires was running low.

Actually it was worse than that – the tire was completely flat.

$%*!

Ugh, a flat tire

I updated Kelly on the situation and she called for roadside assistance while I began readying both the flat and spare tires.

Roadside assistance to the rescue

Ready to exchange the flat tire for the spare

No doubt this carriage bolt caused the flat tire

I was impressed with how quickly the service guy arrived.  He was really nice and we engaged in a bit of chit-chat.  He was mostly curious about our trailer and before too long and without too much hassle, the repair was complete and the service guy left.  I figured all was well and we’d quickly be on our way.

Then the following dialogue occurred:

Kelly:  (sensing that I was looking for something and with annoyance in her voice)  “what are you looking for?”

Me:  “Did you move my keys?”

Kelly: (with significant annoyance in her voice) “REALLY?!?!”

Me:  (with passive aggressive annoyance in my voice) “Yes, really.”

To summarize the next half hour … we tore everything apart in search of the keys.  Eventually, we did find them.  Of course they were safely in the truck, almost in plain view the entire time.

$%*!

We were only about thirty minutes late for lunch and had good conversation with my cousins.  The remainder of the drive was uneventful once we managed to get ourselves on the road.

We’re now in Eugene, resting and content at Armitage County Park.  We’re here tonight while we await some service work at the Airstream dealer in town.  Like most Oregon parks (and certainly by comparison to the “campground” we stayed at the past two nights) this place is awesome.  Tucked away in the Northeast side of town, the park is quiet, each site affords loads of room, and Lilly-dog adores the fully enclosed two-acre dog run located just steps from our site.

Lots of room and plenty of open space in the RV park

Dog park

We’re here just for one night.  We need to flush our holding tanks and fill with fresh water in advance of dry camping most of the coming week while we’re in Washington.  Bummer our stay will be so brief, we will need to plan another visit for sure.