Good New, Bad News

So, it's been an interesting past couple of days. Sunday night we dropped Mike at the airport. The plan was we'd get back the RV on Monday by noon and drive to Steamboat. Well, I got a call Sunday night that the director of Pennies for Peace, Christiane, had to fly out of town on Monday and would not be abble to meet us until Tues. When the kids woke up on Monday, we took a vote. They decided to stay one more night in Denver and go to Evergreen on Tuesday morning. Lilly really wanted to meet her. Swimming and playing with the Pittman kids was a great alternative. Plus it did give me time to get to Costco and restock/clean the RV. I got the RV back Monday afternoon, ready to go, so we thought...

Tuesday morning I wake the kids up and get ready to leave Denver. We say our good-byes and head to Evergreen, CO by 830am to meet P4P director, Christiane. Evergreen is only about 40 minutes from Denver, and it's UP a very steep grade. When I pull off at our meeting place, my left front brake is smoking so badly, that a man in the parking lot comes over to see if we are okay. Clouds of smoke and horrible burning brake smell is coming out of the tire well. But I just have to leave it and meet Christiane.

Christiane was fabulous, and the work she does for Pennies for Peace is so exciting. Lilly, sadly, wasn't feeling well and spent most of the meeting with her head in my lap. But by the end, she was good enough to take a picture with Christiane and Pennies for Peace.

After coffee, I called my RV shop in Denver and asked if they had any ideas as to why my brakes were smoking after going UP hill. They suggested I take it right to a shop and have it looked at. I did, and the consensus was to drive it back down to Denver, straight to the shop. The kids might be done with the "it's just part of the adventure!" line I use when "minor repairs" happen. I'm calling them minor repairs instead of breaking down to make myself feel better...

Krissy came to our rescue, again, and picked us up at the shop. We were hoping to get it by 3, but it wasn't until 5 that it was ready. By the time I could get a ride back over to the shop, load the kids, get gas, it would have been 630pm. It's almost a 4 hour drive to Steamboat, over passes, and in the dark. We elected to be like relatives that never leave, and stay another night in Denver. Doesn't fish stink after 3 days?? Isn't there something like that for house guests?

Here's another funny part--when Krissy took me to the RV, I had told the guys to lock the keys in it as I had a spare. Well, you know where this is going. I got there, found my spare and went to unlock the door. My spare key is for the back door only, different from the passenger and driver door. There are 2 locks on the backdoor. One lock I don't even have a key for. Guess which lock was locked?? Here comes AAA to let me in!

If anyone has seen the movie "RV," the kids in the movie call the RV "the big rolling turd." We are now thinking of changing our name from White Lightening to "the big BROKEN DOWN turd."

If we're lucky, we will make it out of Colorado today. I will drive the kids through Steamboat, stopping for lunch, and then continuing on to Rock Springs, WY.

Could you all just cross your fingers please?