The Tale of the Awning: a Sub-blog in The Big Trip

You won't get the whole story until I publish week four's blog post, but as anyone who's lived in the desert knows, it's windy in Tucumcari. You'd think I'd know that as I lived in southern New Mexico for several years and am all too familiar with the outta nowhere winds that sweep across the desert, but sometimes we take chances when we should know better and it was hot in the tree-less lot at my KOA. So I put my awning up.

The winds were only forecast to be 7 knots from the east...the weatherman must live in Detroit because what roared through the campsite late afternoon wasn't 7 knots, and when it did, it took the awning and tossed it over the roof of the van, then flung it back again and within seconds, it was no longer an awning, but a drape. Suffice to say my awning's dead. The maintenance guy at the KOA helped me lift the support arm, and then while I held it, he cranked the shade in. I asked if he had a screw gun so we could just take the whole thing off...he did not, so this morning I set out for my next stop: the Fort Amarillo RV Resort, hoping that, like an over bent paperclip, the whole thing didn't come flying off the van and land me a spot on Fox News: "Arkansas woman takes out the entire east-bound lane of I-40 with a ballistic awning. News at six."

We made it fine. And the nice maintenance man at the RV Resort helped me take it down, then carried it off in his side-by-side with his own awning story. Seems that's a thing with the camping crowd...everyone has an awning story. My sweet husband said that we'd get a new one when I get home, and that it'll be better than the old one. It'll probably be a WiFi-Bluetooth enabled hotspot that will brew my morning cappuccino, and bring me a ham sandwich and the morning paper. It's all good.

Minerva sans Awning

So why, you might ask, am I writing a blog article about today's mishap? It's my sweet husband's idea. He said that he's told everyone at work about my trip and they all reply something like "oh, how brave! I would love to do that, but would be scared something might happen." And to his point, stuff always happens...and when it does, we deal with it. The big three seem to be: bears (wildlife), scary men, and stuff breaking. Well, all three happened on this trip. No bears, but we did have a bighorn sheep/coyote/big cat encounter, some weirdo started pounding on my door at 6am at the Bonito Campground, and now, the awning gave up the ghost in Tucumcari. Sounds like a country song. Anyway, the point is that these things would have happened regardless of my gender or age, and when they did...I just dealt with it. So to all of you who want to strike out...go to places you've not been or experience something that scares the hell out of you. Do it. Plan, have contingencies, and be smart. You've got this.