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surprise

Or: Two reasons I should not travel with the Airstream by myself.

One: All week long I had been biting my tongue to keep secret a surprise I was bringing home for Michael...for me... for both of us.... In Ketchum we found an antique store that was going out of business with everything in the store 30% off. When the shop owner mentioned this for the first time, we responded in unison "everything?" I came home with two fabulous pieces wedged in the trailer, an old bench and a small dresser. (Kelly and Aaron bought themselves some wedding gifts as well.) Normally I would take pictures and send to Michael and we would discuss it, but these pieces were so great and well priced I decided to keep it a surprise. Since it was a two-day drive home, I had not exactly figured out what Beth and I were going to do with the furniture since it would need to be moved out in order to sleep. (Leave it outside alone? What if it rains?) Then it hit me: a hotel! This made much more sense. No need to move the furniture, we'll have wifi, have a much simpler time showering, we can keep driving much later in the evening (when camping we like to try to arrive at the campground before nightfall.) So I called Michael and asked him to book a hotel for us somewhere in northeastern Utah. He just laughed. He was sure that we had already wimped out on camping. Of course I could not tell him the real reason. And what did he think of our new furniture? He likes it...and like any husband, he's always thrilled when I come home with a 'surprise'... "Oh, this is just what we needed I am so glad you found it!!" I think that's what he said, or at least that's what he meant to say. Maybe it actually sounded more like, "how much did you pay for this?"

Two: And then there is the bad news. Minturn, Colorado has lampposts along main street with rock bases where the rock nearly overhangs the curb. Can you guess what happens when you park there? I usually try to get pretty close to the curb in these small mountain towns since the truck (and its mirrors) are wide and the streets are not. Don't do this in Minturn. Apparently it is common that cars lose mirrors or scrape up against these rock pillars, but according to the locals who helped us out, this was the first time a rock pillar has torn a Zip Dee awning support bar off a trailer that subsequently bent back to break part of the jalousie window. Ouch. It was not fun. Our regards go to the great lady in front of whose shop this carnage happened - they helped by supplying duct tape, plastic, a broom, and a ladder. She loved the trailer and felt so sorry for us she even offered to give us a free lunch and chocolate. I don't know why we didn't take her up on the chocolate? Oh well, we have a long list of things waiting to be fixed on the trailer and had been procrastinating taking it in...now I have one more thing to add. (We can fix the window ourselves, the awning is another story.) For the record, I called Michael soon as we were on the road after the rock pillar incident; I did not think it would be a good idea to keep that a surprise.

August 22, 2007 by Lynn in colorado | | permalink