Thursday, June 4, 2015

"This Wheel's on Fire"







This past Monday was the day of all days.  We got to scoop up our Sugaree!  We had the family all at the RV service center where we were eagerly awaiting her unveiling.  We've had so much fun seeing her transformation.  To finally get her home to further make her perfect in every way, makes me so happy...YAY!!!!  

Again, Jeff had very patiently taken us through all the complicatedness of our most fabulous bus.  David had the wise forethought to have Dylan videotape all the in's and out's of our bus as Jeff explained it thoroughly to us.  There definitely is a lot to learn and still lots of work to be done.  Of course, we are up for the challenges that we will no doubt encounter.

We hardly got her home and couldn't wait to show her off.  First stop, David's parent's, Tom and Sara, whom seemed rather impressed.  Next stop was my Mom's house.  She took a tour and also seemed to be impressed with our efforts.  How can you not be?!  She's our beautiful and Darling Sugaree!  Our parents all have continually been super supportive of this whole bus idea.  Even as crazy of an idea as it is, they must've thought we lost our minds to buy a school bus in the first place.  Much less with the intention of converting her into an RV.  Thank you Mom, Tom and Sara for always loving and supporting us, especially through our latest mid-life crisis.  8-}

We headed home on I-75 and took our usual route South from North Dallas.  On the way home the kids and I were saying we need to get that exhaust thingy that Jeff was talking about fixed because a little smoke started bellowing in our bus.  David, oblivious to the smoke, was overly thrilled because he thought people were waving at us because of our cool bus.  He very happily waved back with great enthusiasm and a huge smile on his face.   We finally get home, Cassidy was moving her car to make room for Sugaree.  She had a major panicked look on her face and started flapping her arms around saying "We're on FIRE!!!"  Literally, as soon as we pulled up to our home we were definitely on fire.  Everyone was grabbing bowls of water from the house running in and out until the fire department could get to our Sugaree.  People were probably waving to us on I-75 because we were on FIRE, not because of our "Panther Pride Runs Deep" military looking bus!!!!!  

In typical UP fashion, our wonderful firefighters were here to help us out in no time.  However, not quite the unveiling we were hoping to have for our girly with our friends and neighbors.  But there definitely will be another unveiling after she's all painted and "psychodelified" and hopefully will not require another visit from our dutiful firemen.  Thank you to our UP firefighters...you guys rock!

We sat around all day today waiting for the tow truck.  They were originally going to be at our house at 9am.  Then after a lot of the typical run-around via recordings we finally got to speak to a real, live person.  One of many as it turned out, by the end of the day.  EVERY person (as the recordings) had the same schpiel.  They would begin with, "Is this an emergency, if so, please hang up and call 911."  Our response was always ,"No, we're all fine.  We've been waiting for our tow truck all day.  Blah, Blah, Blah.  The guy finally showed up after 5pm.  He told David that he had to finagle some things under the bus to make sure she wouldn't catch on fire again while he was transporting her to the mechanic.  He was very clearly not happy about David questioning his abilities regarding how close the generator, AC, etc...what seemed to be maybe 3 feet off the street.  Tow Truck Guy's response, "This ain't my first rodeo."  That sure was comforting and made us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I absolutely must say this had nothing to do with Jeff or McClain's as they were not expected to address any of the mechanical issues.  They were only to oversee decorating and reconfiguring the living areas.  Which again, we're happier with the way she turned out, even more fabulous than our expectations.  David had a mechanic check her out before we took her to Denton originally to Camping World.  That mechanic gave us his seal of approval.  Plus, we drove her all the way from Shreveport, so we assumed all was well.  Stuff happens and it could've been way worse than it was.  We will continue to have her checked out and do trial runs again and again before we commence on our big adventure.  AND we will be buying at least 6 fire extinguishers for every room on our bus.  The one fire extinguisher that we did have wasn't even half full and wasn't helpful at all.

On a decorating note, I'm embarking on another sewing project...the window treatments.  I've done them before for Avery's nursery 21 years ago.  They were a lacy, delicate fabric and I was very happy with how they turned out.  I would be remiss to not thank my Mother-In-Law, Sara for my love of creating...whether it's cooking and trying out new foods, sewing, decorating.  You should see the outfits she sews for herself.  And the bedding and drapes she's created for us over the years, outfits for the kids when they were toddlers, etc...  She's quite impressive indeed.  As for me, straight sewing lines for the drape project I think I can handle.  We shall see.

Bus on fire, fire trucks and neighbors gathering...Good times!!  We're thinking very positively that our bus will be repaired and in perfect shape to travel half of our country in...wish us luck!  

Our Darling Sugaree saga, to be continued...

No comments:

Post a Comment