The next problem is just around the corner

Issue #21, Let's Get Lost, August 31, 2024

The majority of this issue, including new recipes for lemon poppy seed scones, Door County whitefish wraps, and green beans with bacon, is for supporting members. Get access to the stories, recipes, ideas, and recommendations in this and every issue by becoming a paid subscriber. Thank you! ❤️

Before we dive in, I wanted to remind you about the Recipe Index, which includes links to every recipe I’ve published on Substack since launching this newsletter earlier this year. A couple of things to make before the summer comes to a close: Cherry chicken salad, Peaches and cream puff pastry danishes, Mushroom and summer veggie hash, and Chilled gazpacho with fresh dill.

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What a week it’s been, friends. In case you missed it, you might want to go back and read this post from June about finding the right flavor of shit, because the answer to the question of is it still the right flavor?, is yes.

But, RV life isn’t for the faint of heart. (Although, I am actually rolling my eyes as I write that because LIFE isn’t for the faint of heart. It doesn’t matter who you are, life is hard and there’s just no getting around it.)

The other thing I want to say before I dive into this story is that the very worst things in our life set the bar for everything else. Do you know what I mean?

The worst thing that’s ever happened to us by far is the death of our son.

From that moment forward, nothing else has felt all that bad. So, while this week tested our problem solving abilities and energy and enthusiasm for RV life, when my daughter asked us how we were doing I said, We’re fine. Because we were.

Last Saturday we left our beloved Door County, Wisconsin and headed for Saint Louis.

I have been quite ill, some upper respiratory virus that settled into my lungs and created a deep hacking cough. So, after packing up the RV on Saturday morning my husband said, All you have to do for the rest of the day is sit in the truck and rest.

This sounded very good to me. We found a good book on Audible and settled in for the 9 hour drive.

Somewhere on the interstate in Milwaukee, we heard a noise and looked in our mirrors. Bouncing along next to us was a tire. A somewhat large tire.

I said, could that be ours?

Steve said, I think it most certainly has to be.

We pulled of the highway and into a neighborhood, parking our 43-foot long trailer in front of the only home on the street with that long of a curb.

Sure enough. Our 6 wheel trailer was now a 5 wheel trailer. 

Now, we are prepared for many things. Steve has changed out all the tires on our trailer by himself. We’ve had to put on a spare tire after a blowout on a Colorado interstate and we’ve changed out a truck tire in a parking lot late at night. But we didn’t know a tire could just, you know, fall off.

After taking some time to assess whether this was a problem we were going to be able to solve a) ourselves, and b) that day, and c) while parked along a curb in a busy Milwaukee neighborhood, we determined that it was at least worth trying and got to work.

Steve was able to retrieve the tire from the highway, purchase all the parts he needed to fix the broken tire, and about 4 hours later, we were back on the road.

We were extremely fortunate that this happened in the middle of the afternoon in a city with auto parts stores nearby. 

And, I am, as always, extremely fortunate to live with a person who can fix almost anything.

Since we were so far behind schedule, I found a small RV park about 3 hours down the road where we could stop for the night. The park had full hookups (access to city water and sewer) which was VITALLY important to us because after the tire fiasco, we were filthy and in desperate need of showers.

We pulled into the park at 11pm to discover that our bedroom slide out would not budge. Now, this is not true in every RV, but in ours, when the bedroom slide is in, it completely blocks access to our bedroom and our bathroom. 

So, if you would have been in that same RV park and happened to look out your window around midnight, you might have seen two people climbing up a ladder, breaking a screen, and crawling through a window. And I would have thanked you for not calling the authorities. 🙂

After determining that this was not a problem that could be fixed that night, we gathered some clean clothes and climbed back out the window to spend the night at a hotel.

Here’s the kicker - upon exiting our bedroom window Steve accidentally locked it. 🤦🏻‍♀️

So, the next morning, we not only still had a bedroom slide that was stuck, we couldn’t even get back in to try and fix it.

We decided to just head to Saint Louis and figure it out there. On the way, we discussed how the heck we were going to get into our bedroom.

Steve thought that if he removed the fan from the bathroom ceiling he could drop in through the roof. This seemed like our only option but also quite possibly a terrible idea.

Thankfully, he devised a genius idea to affix a slipknot to the end of a long pole, which he hooked onto the window latch through a 2-inch opening in our bathroom door then used the end of the rope to pop open the latch and get the window open. It’s impossible to describe but the important part is that it worked!

Also, I am apparently married to MacGyver.

We were able to climb back up the ladder and through our bedroom window (did I mention it was a scorching 100 degrees and I was busy coughing up a lung?) where Steve was able to manipulate the slide enough to create a gap large enough for us to move between the bedroom and the rest of the RV.

THAT meant we could actually live there while he worked on fixing the problem. 😮‍💨

And fix the problem he did. Late last night, we were able to put the slide out completely and we are back in business.

Once again, I am extremely fortunate to live with a person who can fix almost anything. This life would not work for us if Steve wasn’t Steve. 

But also, it wouldn’t work if I wasn’t me and if we weren’t us.

I assume that whatever the problem, we’ll figure it out. Because we always do. 

In October, we’ll celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary and holy cow we have had our share of challenges over the years. But, we are somehow always at our best when facing a difficult problem.

And that is fortunate because if there’s one thing in life I know I can count on it’s that the next problem is hanging out and waiting for us, just around the next corner.

Also, our campsite for the week was right next to a lake and we had sunsets like this every night. And by Thursday, I was feeling well enough to kayak. ❤️

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