(I make that sound like all kinds of efficiency, but of course you will read it properly as, "Got up, made coffee, drank coffee, sat outside, played mandolin, went down and showered, washed the dishes, stowed the crap, unhooked the extension cord..." and so on.)
Yes. THEN we hit the road for a long, hot hot hot road day. All the stops today were gas station/convenience store stops. We passed through whistle stop towns that have fallen on hard days - anyone want to buy a gas station? There are a bunch of 'em derelict out here. We passed through some dry country and into some less dry - some that could almost pass as Sonoma County, with a few extra cactus snuck in. We passed colorful road and town names - Toe Nail Trail, for one. The town of Grit. Like that.
We did make connections with my Kingsland friend, and they offered a lakeside place to watch the fireworks. So we stopped off to buy some cold drinks to bring, and M bought a clean t-shirt in the store and was ready to climb in the camper and get himself company-ready, when we discovered that we COULD NOT GET INTO THE CAMPER.
No, really. The lock had broken. Oh, we're in Texas, that's right - I mean the lock done busted all to shit. And we're in dirty clothes with all our food, cosmetics, computers, medicine, and everything else IN THE CAMPER.
So, what now? Well, use some tools to remove the doorknob, right? You mean the tools that are IN THE CAMPER?
How about, let's drive to the Dollar General - an institution in these parts - and buy some clean clothes. Then ask to use the Dollar General's bathroom so we can clean up and put on those clean clothes and head over to our friends' lake house to hose up a little air conditioning and anything you got over ice. Did I mention how freakin' HOT it is here?
We accepted the generous offer of an air-conditioned room for the night, holiday leftovers for our dinner, and the opportunity to run a laundry tomorrow morning. And it was great to catch up with friends. Ah, hospitality.
The fireworks on the lake were beautiful, complete with swooping bats right over our heads. M was able to borrow enough tools and decided to remove the entire door, which worked (resourcefuless points again, eh?) and tomorrow we'll go buy a new knob and some more silicone seal. And sail on.
We're an hour out of Austin and that's where we'll spend tomorrow, I think. After we do a load of laundry, and drink some coffee, and shower, and run to the hardware store, and....
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