Just in case we came off as all sunshine and roses- HA!
     We are currently camping in Hermit Park, just outside of Estes Park, Colorado. We have been coming up here for the last five years with an ever expanding group of friends. It is truly cherished time, we wait all year for. Some in our group even drive all the way up from Durango to be here for Memorial Day weekend!
     The hot water saga that has been playing out for some time now, (five weeks but whose counting...) finally came to a head. And, as I promised you the good bad and the ugly....
           (insert wavy lines here, it’s a flashback ya’ll!) If you’ll recall, the lack of hot water is the entire reason we ended up moving into my in-laws basement. I am sure when they offered the space they had no idea it would be a month before we moved out again! At that time, we took it in stride but deep down, I had this nagging feeling. A teeny, tiny, little voice whispering.... “you’ll never have any normalacy again!” Now, I am not entirely sure why this little voice decided to equate the shower as our newest symbol of normalacy. Maybe it’s because I am not a big fan of showering in public shower houses, or maybe it’s because this whole time I had worked up the courage to say to Alan, I am not a princess but this is the ONE home-like thing I really want. Either way this symbol of normalicy was about to become “the icing on my cake” as my friend Nicole would say.
    Last week, we gave up trying to fix the issue ourselves and took the rig in. The man wiggled some wires and, after being without all our worldly possessions for three days, we were assured it was fixed. Not so much! Another three days, I snapped, called the trailer guys again and forced poor Alan to take it in. 30 minutes later, hot water! Pretty darn exciting, however, no time to try it out, gotta hit the road! And we were off like a herd of turtles to Estes. That was yesterday, I am fine with camper hair, so no shower last night.
     Today, finally, at the close of a long day, all the kids had mercifully been taken by one of the parents to play baseball. The camp had cleared out, this was it! The big moment! My chance to take a long-ish HOT shower! All 6 gallons, mine, all mine! But, what’s this?? All the water is gone! Yes, after a million dishes and flushing, we had used all the water, GRRRR! I can feel my jaw flexing, and voice a saying “No biggie, we’ll work around this, gotta be jugs here somewhere, I’ll just find them....” 10 minutes later, jugs found, truck loaded.... No keys. The are, of course, with Alan, a quarter mile down the road with all the dogs and kids. So, as I sat in the car, I did my best not to burst into tears. Instead, I thought, I’ll go in, turn on a movie, kick back.... Ahh, but not enough power so the generator needs to be on. Do you think we had any fuel in the generator? Not a drop! Finally, Alan returns home, I am sitting, in the dark, playing  a game on my iphone, downtrodden to say the least.  relay the story to Alan who promptly borrows fuel, gathers water and has made a pretty good run for husband of the year at this point.  The magic moment arrives, and, well, of course, the faucet is broken. I end up ankle deep in lukewarm water which quickly turns opaque as I attempt to splash water upward and over. All the while shouting out at the boys, “don’t open that door, close it, dear god, do you HAVE to be in here now???” I dry off the tiny parts of my body that got moist, put on my jammies, sit down at the table, head on my arms and promptly begin to sob. And, my sweet man says, “This can’t be about a shower.” But it is, the shower I so wanted, the piece of normalacy I counted on being there, the unforseen straw that would break this camel’s back. No, it’s not a shower, it’s about accepting a nomadic lifestyle, it’s about leaving this community of friends we so love. It’s about hearing them say, we love you, we worry for you, we envy you... You’ll come back right? It’s just a shower, on the way home we’ll pick up a new faucet and all will be right as rain. And that little voice will have to find something else to pick upon. If I were the new brita water pitcher I’d watch my back....