Trip to Durango and the window is fixed

June 22- I didn’t feel well at all this morning. Actually thought I might have a kidney stone. I was feeling that right kidney twinge and then just felt yucky all over. Uh-oh! Not good. But it was our day to go to Durango and we had a list of stops and planned to go to a movie too. We just had cereal and I showered while Bill cleaned two sites (on his day off). We left about 9:40 and made arrangements with Rebecca to come and take Xena out for us.

On the way I made a call about the dumb washer. The tech says one part and the Whirlpool people say another part. I just wrote it down and left it at that for now. Just didn’t feel like dealing with it as then I had a headache coming on.

We stopped at Home Depot and they had a special on a battery powered weed eater and blower combo for $99. Bill has wanted to get one for at home instead of the gas one he uses so he got it. It came with 2 batteries, so that is good. I got a hand tool for getting up dandelions that I can use on my weeding. We stopped at Tarpley’s RV to check if we need different sealant for the window or just the stuff they sent with it and the guy showed us how to use what they sent and said it is supposed to be fine. At least that stop didn’t cost us anything. We went to the Hilton Doubletree and I went in and asked if we could try out their mattresses, as Kam can order us a set at a super price but we need to let her know soon. Kam and Bill had their doubts that they would let us lay on the beds but once I explained my daughter was an employee and why I wanted to she said of course. She called the head of housekeeping who took us to a room and he was really nice. He said the employees order them all the time and how good the mattresses are. Well, Bill loved it and the pillow so we got the name of that also to check on.

We picked up my photos from Walgreens and next I’ll have Bill label the backs of them. Then we took Bill’s shoes to the only repair shop we found and it was just down the road from the campground we stayed in on our last trip to Durango. The big challenge was finding a parking space in downtown so Bill could go into the jeweler to see about getting his gold chain repaired. They had the block we needed for one shop closed off and we kept circling and then he illegally parked in another store’s spaces while he went to the second shop on our list. I stayed in the car in case a tow truck appeared. This lady only wanted $30 to fix it compared to the $125 Kay’s Jewelry quoted. Hope we can find parking to pick it back up! I still was not feeling much better so Bill said we’d pass on the movie but did check and it will be there thru Thursday, so we will plan to go next week. Bill had wanted to eat downtown but due to parking constraints we ended up going to Wendy’s. I wasn’t all that hungry anyway and just had a half salad and Bill got a combo. Then it was a trip to Wally World, fuel up and head for home.

That didn’t mean the day was over, as we needed to defrost the fridge and freezer as it had not been getting down as low at night as it should, so Bill took all the frozen food to one of the park houses and put it in the fridge there and the rest I put in 2 coolers with ice. It only takes a couple of hours for these to defrost. We had leftover teriyaki chicken and veggies with brown rice for dinner and then took 2 loads of wash down and came back and did a loop check and turned reservations and chatted with some of the guests until it was time to go back for the laundry and picked up our frozen food on the way back too. Bill put the clothes in the dryer and I hung a few things.

Barry is coming at 9 tomorrow to help Bill put in the window since I will be at the office working. It could have waited until I get home but then the sun is on that side and I hate to make Barry work out there on the ladder in the heat. I’m sure the two of them can handle it. We did check on our door window today on the way home and he was out and hasn’t called but Bill might call him tomorrow.

My headache finally got better but as soon as we had dinner my stomach was in an uproar. I think my system didn’t know how to handle yesterday’s spicy, greasy, and 2 Pepsi’s in there. Don’t think I’ll do that again any time soon.

June 23 – I woke up feeling OK, so that was a good sign. Since I had to work in the office today I didn’t want to have a headache or stomach ache. Marion came to let Bill use the TP key this morning so I caught a ride with him since Barry was coming. I was kinda rushed and left with no watch, no earrings and no key to my money box. Oops! I did take my cell phone but as luck would have it, Bill didn’t answer. Doug, the park manager, came in and one of the girls asked him if he could get out the key and he said he would and he never came back. However, Bill came up to get our reservations and I told him I needed the key so he went back and got it. Not the best way to start the day but as least it was slow and I didn’t have a single customer until Bill got back.

It was pretty busy from about 9:45 til I got off at 1. I’m so glad I only have to sell one item. I would hate dealing with licenses and registrations. It takes a long time and then people are waiting in line and not happy. The girls do appreciate that I’m there so they don’t have to deal with a line from both directions. It’s like I’m at a bank drive thru window and they are behind me working the teller line in the lobby. We got word from the park manager that we were now on a fire alert which meant no campfires, no charcoal fires, no lanterns. The only thing that could be used is propane grills and propane lamps. It’s going to be bad for a lot of the tent campers who brought charcoal and have no way to cook inside. Plus we’re 18 miles from anyplace they can get cooked food or any kind of other supplies.

Bill called a couple of times with questions/problems on installing the window. The sealant that came with the window was too thick so Barry said he’d go to the hardware store in Ignacio because once the window was out Bill was afraid Molly would get out. When we close the hall partition or the bathroom doors there is still about 5 inches gap at the bottom and if she wanted to, even she could squeeze her fat butt through there.

New window outside

New window inside

Bill was right on time to get me and said the window was in and he told Barry I could manage to put the blinds and the window header back up. The blinds were broken and we had them up tied up with bungee cords. I had saved the cord that broke off when the blinds were blowing around and halfway out the window, but I’ve never worked on a venetian blind before. Bill said he asked Terry if he had any rubbing compound to get the marks off from the window frame hitting the side of the RV before we stopped and he not only brought it over, he rubbed out all the black marks. Newell was here too, but true to form I hear, he sat on the Mule and watched.

After we had lunch I needed to get my food ready for our cookout tonight with all the summer help, so I put my pumpkin cake in the oven and then I put together buffalo chicken dip to bake next and I put together creamy Italian broccoli slaw that needed to refrigerate. Bill was taking a nap by then since he’d worked on the window all morning and then cleaned some sites, so I brought the blind and cord out to the living room and just looked it over so see how the cord ran through and access the situation. Luckily I had brought 2 furniture markers and one was dark enough that I “painted” all the bad spots that had been scraped and got the wood-look all pretty much looking like wood again. Then I got down my sewing box and tied the end of the cord to a tiny piece of wire to maneuver it through a hole in the top of the blind and down. Then it was pretty simple to weave the cord back through in the same pattern as the other side which was fully intact. At the bottom of the blind there was only about a 2 inch piece of cord sticking up from the bottom piece and my cord was already damaged and would not work properly if I cut it off and tied it, so I got out some thread and a fine needle and I sewed the two ends together by overlapping and then wrapping some of the thread and sewing through it as much as I could. It seemed pretty strong so I tested it and it worked. It was the cord that draws the blind up and lets it down. I was pretty happy that I managed to fix it since it would either not be available to match it or it would be expensive to replace all 4 blinds to match. We rarely ever use it and no one can even see where I sewed it.

When Bill got up I put the brackets back up for the header and then put the blind up and cleaned it good with Orange Glo. The header only had 2 screws to put in but not much space to work in. I had to mark on the inside with a marker where the hole was to line it all up. After dropping the screw a couple of times I managed to get one in then the other was easy. The header over our other window was not screwed on one end so while I had Barry’s extended screwdriver I put one in there and was done.

Now the down side of the new window is that when Barry was inside and Bill was outside pounding on the new window to get it flush, the vibration made the TV and Direct TV box fall out of the cabinet directly over the dresser onto Barry’s head/back. He was fine, which was a relief but when I went to hook it all back up and get it back in I saw that the cable hookup on the TV was gone. After looking all over I realized it was still screwed into the cable and had totally broken off. RATS! It’s always something! Bill saw it as an opportunity to get a new TV in there, but the hole is not made for a flat screen, so it’s got to be a really small screen. There’s only one repair place in the phone book and it’s in Cortez or Farmington. I just don’t want to deal with it.

Barry came out in his Mule and took all the firewood that was for sale. They gathered it up from all of the camps so no one would be tempted to take it and have a fire anyway. The good news is it won’t take long too clean the sites if you don’t have to clean the fire pits.

We needed to be over at Rosa camp by 5:45 to help set up and we left a little early after loading our grill and a gas tank in the Mule along with a bag of paper/plastic good and tablecloths. There were 11 of us for dinner and everything was very good. It was just nice to sit and visit with the summer help that we mostly just pass and wave or have short conversations with. There were the 3 couples of us that are hosts, a single male host (Newell), our supervisor Terry and his wife, a single ranger (Manuel) and Barry whose wife works in Santa Fe and he comes here for the summer. There were some good stories told about visitors and events of years past and we all had some good laughs. There was plenty of food and no one left hungry. I gave away some of the cake so we wouldn’t be FORCED to eat and the couples gladly took some.

We took Xena for a ride in the Mule and did a loop check and we walked the loop also. I finally worked on some photos and printed some cards to send and did a posting on the blog.