RV life goes from good to bad to good

Part of the time this week I was as unhappy about things as this dog was about getting a bath.

Last Friday afternoon I was getting ready for my 7:00 a.m. flight from Costa Rica back to the US.

I had packed for my three month trip in two small backpacks. One backpack was mainly full of computers, video cameras, lighting equipment, and electronics in general. The other backpack had clothes and misc. personal items.

Friday afternoon I pulled things out of all the drawers and put everything on the bed. It wouldn't take long to put things in the two backpacks. It was raining hard, and about 2:00 p.m. I heard a loud lighting strike and the power went out.

With no power (and therefore no WiFi), I couldn't do anything on my computer. Some friends were going down the mountain into town, so I hitched a ride with them. After all, packing would only take a few minutes and I could do that when I got back.

I got back at 6:30, and the power was still off. You have to remember that I was in Costa Rica, and there you have to learn to go with the flow. Sometimes things work and sometimes they don't.

I walked into my apartment and it was pitch black. I couldn't see the nose on my face. Since it was still raining, there was no moon. I did have my cell phone that I could turn on momentarily to find where the bed was, but it didn't have much charge left and I needed it to stay on all night for the alarm would go off at 3:30 a.m., so I didn't use it much.

I was beginning to think it would be impossible to get everything stuffed and crammed into the two backpacks (and do it in the dark), but I made it. Just as I breathed a sigh of relief, I realized that I still had a dryer full of wet clothes that I had put in there just before the power went off. What would I do if the power didn't come back on so I could get the clothes dry? And where would I put the clothes even if they did get dry?

Oh well, about 8:30 the power came back on, and I got the clothes dry. Then I realized that not all of the clothes were going with me. Some things like a tablecloth, and two small rugs stayed at the apartment. Anyway, I got everything in the two backpacks.

Bad things and then good things and then more bad things happen

I got to the airport in plenty of time, enjoyed one last cup of great Costa Rican coffee while I was waiting to board my flight. Just as I got to the check-in counter, an agent stopped me (and I thought, oh what now?). But it was good news. He gave me a different boarding pass. I had been upgraded to first class. I have flown over two million miles on Delta, so anytime there's a first class seat available, I get upgraded. That was nice since it was a four-hour flight.

Of course, things continued to alternate between good things happening and bad things happening

When I got my motorhome out of storage, I found out that I should have winterized it after all. Some pipes had frozen and were now leaking. Also, the valve on the commode had frozen and cracked and it wouldn't turn off. And to make matters worse. Mickey Mouse and some of his friends had been living in my motorhome while I was gone.

Everything is fixed now and the rig needed a good deep cleaning anyway (with Clorox and Lysol). It seems that in the RVing world, bad things happen, then good things, and back to bad things. If that pattern keeps up, the next thing that happens to me should be something good. We shall see.

Bottom line: As Orson Welles said, "If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story."