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Take - There Should Be Rules
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There Should Be Rules
Take
Ps 37:4
Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. NASU
I have taken the yoke of life on the road. The road began calling me when I was a little girl who occasionally traveled the rails with her railroader father. I do delight in the Lord and God has delighted me with traveling jobs since I was 19 years old and a female business traveler when women were only about 3% of the business travelers. This thrilling yoke includes adventure, beauty, freedom, and awe. The anticipation of the unexpected excites me and meeting new people is a privilege I never tire of.
Because I love the road so much, I usually have tolerance and even a sense of humor about the challenges on the road. The camper is small and when I’m tired, I’m clumsy. I’m currently sporting 2 cuts from the extra sharp knives I bought (not such a good idea in hindsight), a bump on my head (I can’t seem to remember to close cabinets), and several bruises source unknown.
I also get forgetful when I’m tired. I awoke this morning at 4:30 AM, wide-awake with a story on my mind. After writing and posting the story, I hit the road early and pulled into a gas station, already tired.
Unfortunately, I left the gas station with my gas cap on my bumper and not on my gas tank. While flying down the highway at seventy-five miles per hour, I looked out my left mirror and noticed the gas tank door open. Heart sinking, I quickly pulled off the road, praying the gas cap was still on the bumper.
I opened the door, dodged the traffic whizzing by, and ran to the back of Halleluiah. Alas - no gas cap.
Where does one buy a gas cap? I wondered as I calmly closed the gas door and headed back into Hal. When I turned to check traffic before climbing into the driver’s seat, I noticed my gas cap on the highway about 10 feet behind my camper. I waited for 2 more cars to rush pass, raced back, and scooped up my gas cap.
I cheered as I put the gas cap on the gas tank and closed the door. For the next 10 miles all I could say was, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you… I later found out I could probably have bought a gas cap in a Wal*Mart, which is information I suspect will come in handy.
I didn’t get upset last night when the campground told me my campsite was level and it turned out that it wasn’t even close. The ground was soft and wet (did I mention there were floods in Wisconsin?) and I suspected putting boards under the wheel wasn’t going to do much good. I accepted the fact that I was going to be sleeping with my head lower than my feet and opted to use 3 pillows. The fact that it was impossible to keep the bathroom door open while using the facilities was just another potential source for bruises.
I do however think there should be a few rules. Since God promised that if I delight in Him, He will give me the desires of my heart, I thought I’d officially register my opinion regarding these rules.
First, if I’m going to pay the extra money for a private campground, I think the bathhouses should be in reasonable walking distance from any campsite in the campground. My definition of reasonable is walkable in less than 3 minutes.
I also think that private campground showers should be free.
My final rule is that if showers are not free, they should at least be clean and bug free and the camp workers should warn you that you need to take money with you to the shower. I don’t think these are unreasonable requests since the KOA campgrounds seem able to grasp these concepts.
This morning it was 60 degrees outside and damp. After cleaning the camper, walking Belle, and making my breakfast, I donned my pink terrycloth romper – my shower uniform since the beginning of my journeys – grabbed my blue towel, yellow soap-on-a rope holder, and black crocks. I headed out in search of a bathhouse. It was cold and my romper had no shoulders so I draped the blue towel across the pink romper. What an eccentric sight I must have made wandering around asking directions wearing hot pink shorts, accented by a blue shawl, and a yellow soap necklace.
After the third set of directions and a 15-minute walk across a wet dirt road, I finally stumbled gratefully into a bathhouse. The good news was that each area was private, containing a shower, sink, and commode.
The next thing I noticed was that the tiny room was dirty. Since I’ve learned to be grateful for shower shoes and hooks to hang things on, I shook that observation off. I can live with dirt.
I did spend a few minutes studying the tiny black bug sharing the shower with me. I hadn’t seen one like it before. It had wings like a fly but also had a long thin body and crawled slowly. It was interesting so I decided to let it live.
Then, I looked up and noticed slots for quarters. The sign said, “Showers - 25 cents per 3 minutes.” The “Pocket Full of Quarter’s Lady” was quarterless.
Sighing, I donned my blue shawl, put my yellow necklace back on, and headed out for the long trek back to the camper. Once I got to the camper, I was freezing and decided to use Halleluiah’s shower instead of walking back.
I normally reserve the use of Hal’s shower for when I sleep in Wal*Mart parking lots because it fills up the holding tank quickly. Dumping holding tanks is my least favorite part of life on the road. When I do use Hal’s shower, I briefly turn the water on, get wet, and turn it off to use the soap. Then, I turn it back on again to rinse. The entire process takes under 2 minutes. I sighed again knowing there would be no long shower for me. I thanked God that Halleluiah had a hot water tank and that I’d remembered to turn it on.
What I had forgotten was that my camper was not level. It tilted away from the shower drain, which I discovered when I felt the water pooling around my feet. I only have about 1 inch of depth before the water runs up and onto the carpet so I quickly rinsed off, turned off the shower, and began scooping the water towards the drain, using first my feet and then my hands. The disaster was diverted but it was close.
As I later sat in a 4-hour traffic jam, due to construction and flooding on Interstate 80, I had plenty of time to ponder my requests. I think my rules are reasonable and I will repeat them one more time.
Suggested Rules For Private Campgrounds
1. Bathhouses should be within a 3-minute walk to each campsite.
2. Showers should be free (clean and bug free would be a bonus)
3. If you ignore rule number 2, showers should be clean and bug free and campers advised to take money to the showers.
What do you think? Will God answer me and give me the delights of my heart regarding these requests? No, in this case, I suspect He’ll change my heart and teach me to be delighted in all circumstances. Perhaps I don’t have enough faith but I believe the free will of campground owners will interfere with my requests. Someone needs to tell them to take the yoke of doing the right thing. Until they do, I’ll just consider these adventures fodder for my next book, occasionally whine to those closest to me, and on a good day – I’ll laugh. I’ll continue to be delighted by life on the road.
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