A turtle and Ants in My Pants!

 

Well, you would think by now I know how to make great lemonade! Well, actually, I do make a mean lemonade from fresh lemons, and I make a syrup and let it cool. That’s not the kind of lemonade I’m talking about.

I’m talking about the kind of lemons you get when Life Throws You Wrenches. As most of you know, I’m a planner and I like to plan events, and I like when a plan goes well. Makes me happy as a mother bird on a nest.

This week, however, we got lots of lemons. Daryl and I decided to go camping in our RV, aptly named Tranquility! You will see the irony of that soon! We had not used the RV since we drove it across country when we moved here. It took a lot of work to get ready. Daryl partially remodeled the bathroom and had to put in a new microwave. Of course, I had to clean everything from top to bottom as it had been sitting for a while. The mice had decided to make a mess with the toilet paper. That was interesting. If they would have only used the toilet I might have been happy!

 We set off for Lake Murray and Dreher Island State Park. Our site was located right on the water, and it was magnificent. Some of the highlights: I got to eat s’mores and hotdogs. That was a real thrill! We swam in the lake, which was fabulous. We sat by the fire and watched enchanting sunsets.

One of the most exciting things was the chorus of frogs. Daryl and I listened to these frogs and of course he analyzed it musically, but I laughed so hard. One frog would start and then others would join in, and it had a rhythm and a pitch. Daryl recorded it. I tried to get information about singing frogs. There are many kinds, but I thought they must be either the Southern Chorus Frog or the Upland Chorus Frog. I listened to their songs on my phone, but it didn’t sound like what we heard. Now I was really intrigued. It was great at first, but after an hour and a half of it, we were wishing that they would go sing somewhere else. I still had to laugh about it. They kept repeating the same rhythm at the same pitch. It was about three or four different notes. I’m going to do more research about them.

 And then there were the birds! Birds with vibrant colors; cardinals, finches, robins, mockingbirds, egrets, geese, ducks, and doves. Our site had thistles growing by the water’s edge and they loved it. I took some pictures as you will see above. One little cardinal came and visited us every day. She sat on our table and on our chair. Daryl said she chose us. We are blessed. I agree wholeheartedly.

But let me get back to the lemons. First, when we arrived, we hooked the RV up to the water and the electric and of course, there was a leak. “Oh my goodness not again,” I said. We turned the water off and tried to investigate where the water was causing all the mess on the floor. We discovered that it was behind a panel on the outside of the shower. We opened it and seemed like it would be an easy fix. However, we could hardly reach it, and we didn’t have the equipment or the parts. We could not use the water in the RV, so we had to haul our water to the table, wash our dishes there, take showers and use the restroom in the shower house. Fortunately for us, the shower house was right across from our RV. I have to say I have never seen a State Park restroom so clean. It was impeccable. I was quite happy.

 We got lucky though as Thursday morning we noticed that there was an RV mobile repair man a couple sites down from us working on somebody else’s mobile home. Daryl walked over and asked if he could come check a leak for us. He said, “sure.”

 Imagine our delight when he was able to fix the leak and replace the leaky valve. We thought now we can use the water in the RV and I can wash dishes at the sink instead of having to carry water to the table. Oh no, it was not to be! I turned on the water at the sink and immediately heard water running where it was not supposed to be. I looked underneath the sink and there was a big puddle. We discovered that one of the pipes had come loose. We couldn’t find out how to fix it, and we didn’t have the tools. OK back to carrying water.

 Then there was the fishing. Everyone told us what a great place Lake Murray was for fishing. They even hold fishing tournaments there. We brought our fishing poles, our bait, tacklebox, good bait, and my trusty lucky worm. Talk about lemons, here we go again. All I got was a turtle and ants in my pants. I was so afraid of getting a turtle because they were swimming all around; even near us when we were in the water ourselves. Of course, my first cast in, a turtle had to attach itself to my hook! Ugh! Lucky though, he only got the hook in his foot a little bit and I was able to hold him and pull it out carefully. I had a little chat with him. I told him that he should not go to places where people are fishing. If he hears a fishing pole or sees the bobber, he should go far away. He listened and we had no more incidents, but there was no success in fishing. The ants, well I will not go into details here! A couple in the RV next to us caught lots of fish and told Daryl where to fish. He was excited. He got his things together and went to the place they had described. He was there 15 minutes and a terrible thunderstorm came up. He came home, soaking wet. 

 So of course, my mind got to thinking about all this. One can choose to be grumpy, fuss at all the mishaps, or just laugh. That is mostly what I did. I just laughed. I thought about it, leaks, turtles and ants in my pants! Can it get more exciting?

 So, by now we have a bathtub full of lemonade, but oh no, of course there is more. Our last day as we were packing up and I was walking gingerly from the restroom (because I had an aching knee) and suddenly it popped. Okay now, lemonade does not taste good at all. As a matter of fact, I am sick of it!

 The pain was excruciating and we immediately put ice on it. I have past experience in orthopedics so I am pretty sure I tore my medial collateral ligament. I already have an appointment to see the orthopedist on Tuesday but this is bad! Unfortunately, I had to drive the RV home because Daryl and I brought two vehicles. We were being cautious since this was our first time taking the RV in a while.

 I took Tylenol, wrapped it and said to Daryl, let’s go. I will go to Ortho urgent care when we get home. That was not to be because they were not open on Juneteenth. We arrived home and fortunately we had a walker and Daryl dug it out. I hobbled to the bed and stayed there, foot propped higher than my heart, wrapped and ice!

 You know what? When I open my eyes to possibilities, God provides great opportunities for insights, joys and sharing escapades with my loved ones. I’m telling you all about it now and oh how cathartic this is! Thank you for your presence!

 We can all be fretful about issues in our lives. We’re not happy with the way things are in the world. War, a wretched economy, poverty is rampant and it touches many of us. My grocery bill was so astronomical last week, I think I could’ve made a car payment with that amount! Daryl reminds me as he prays at our meal that we have food on the table and money to buy groceries. “Let us be grateful and always share,” he prays.  We are happy to help others who don’t have enough food or money to pay their bills. It’s a small difference we can make to others where it salvages their lives in a small way.

 I’ll admit there were moments of discouragement but that only lasted about 15 minutes. I do not enjoy the energy of complaining about life. So, I’m choosing to raise the roof on happiness. It’s especially hilarious when you have to rustle the toilet when you can’t bend your knee! I haven’t fallen off yet!

 That’s it for the successful camping trip! I hope you’re laughing with me as you read this. I pray that your days will be full of sunshine and maybe lots of lemonade, but only the good stuff! Love and hugs to you all, Bonnie Lee. Joy in the Journey