Excitement I DID NOT need!

August 19 – I was up early as I needed to call 2 places to see if they had a carpet shampooer to rent.  I called the closest one first and they had one and it was available.  She put my name on it and I told her I’d be there by 8:30.  Bill and I drove down to get it and it was huge.  Weighed a ton!  Once we got it home and looked it over, it was disgusting!  No one bothered to clean the brush or around it for what looked like several times!  There was a pencil thick piece of hemp wound up in there!  Nasty!  We spent 30 minutes cleaning it before bringing it in the RV.

Then the fun began!  Ugh!  That thing was hard to move and luckily it fit along the sides of

Bear Attack!

the bed but you couldn’t make the corner turns.  I had to lift it to move it!  So I did the bedroom, which was disgusting, then under the table.  We moved our coffee table and I did the big rug and put it on the picnic table to dry outside.  Our front piece of carpet is a hassle to move so I did the tracking area of that and put rag towels down until it could dry.

I left the shampooer sitting in the middle of the RV and sat down to rest for a few minutes as my back was killing me.  I glanced at my left hand and the emerald from my engagement ring was gone!  Instant hysteria!  I hollered for Bill and showed him my hand.  I just knew it fell out in the yard when I took the rug out and would never find it in the grass!  He was trying to calm me down and I started to look inside first and there it was, on the floor, clear as day, right beside the shampooer.  What a relief!  Bill said we could have replaced it, but I would never do it, as it wouldn’t be the same!  There’s a story of my rings.  We picked the emerald out together from a local private jeweler.  Then I took him an old wedding band of my dad’s, my old band from my first marriage and various single gold earrings.  I wanted it to be something special to leave Kam some day since it contained items of her family.  So yes, my relief was ecstatic.  I’m taking my stone and ring home to my regular jewelry to reset!  I feel rather naked without it after 31 years.

Once I put my ring away, it was time to clean up the shampooer so Bill could take it over to Gina to use before they leave today.  I could not believe how much Molly hair was in it.  There was a rope of hair about a foot long across the front of the brush and quite a pile that I dug out in and around the roller.  Ewww!  But the living room rug looks great! 

Oh, and I didn’t want to buy a bottle of shampoo so I went on line and got a recipe and made up a quart.  Works great and I gave it to Gina to use and she said it worked great on the RV carpet there also. 

Bill's dinner

I spent the afternoon doing some photos and blogging until shower time.  We planned to

Kelly's dinner

leave about 5 to take the shampooer back and to eat at the BBQ place across from there.  However, it’s not open but Wednesday – Saturday.  So we ended up in West Yellowstone at the Beartooth Barbeque.  We both had brisket, Bill’s sliced and mine pulled.  VERY good!  After dinner we did some shopping for bargains and eventually each had a scoop of ice cream.

First View

We headed home before it got too dark as I’m not crazy about driving that road in the pitch black due to all the

Last view

possible wildlife accidents.  The skies ahead were beautiful and changed totally in the short 8 – 10 minute drive.  We caught it at a good time!  No wildlife in view going home, but I did see 2 wild turkeys on the way.

Quiet rest of the evening at home!