In yesterday’s blog, I wrote about a couple of bad experiences I had here in Morgan Hill, California. But those were petty little inconveniences in the overall scheme of things. Just remember that old saying  “I complained I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.”

Compared to what fellow Escapees Mel and Charlene Schwartz just went through, getting a bad meal or being hassled by an overzealous cop is nothing!

Mel wrote me that about 3 p.m. on June 29, they were driving east on U.S. Highway 50 just outside of Delta, Utah, doing about 55 miles per hour, just enjoying the scenery on the two lane highway, when this limb broke off a tree beside the highway, crashed into the hood of their Ford truck, and then through the windshield, showering them with glass.

Their guardian angel must have been riding with them that afternoon, because unbelievably, Mel and Charlene were not injured. It’s a wonder they weren’t killed! Look how the limb slammed through the driver’s side of the cab and out the window! Mel said that aside from being scared and shook up, they were unharmed.

Mel said their Excel fifth wheel was not damaged, but the truck is going to need extensive repairs. They are currently in an RV park in Delta, and the truck is in a local body shop, waiting for the insurance adjuster to show up. Mel said that once they were set up in the RV park, they spent an hour vacuuming bits of glass out of each other’s hair.

As a side note, Mel told me that the sheriff’s deputy that investigated the accident said that he had been notified of a tree limb that was about to fall, but hadn’t been able to get to it yet. As Mel said, timing is everything.

This is a perfect example of why I believe that while we can take every reasonable precaution in the book, sometimes things just happen, and when they do, all we can do is roll with the punches.

We never know when the car or truck coming toward us down the highway may cross the centerline and hit us head on; or when a tire on the eighteen wheeler passing us may blow and wipe out the side of our RV; or when some tiny speck of plaque in an artery will break loose and block the blood flow; or a million other things that probably will not happen, but can at any instant.

What quirk of fate determines who will dodge the bullet, and who won’t? Why did I have friends who survived Vietnam, only to come home and die in traffic accidents? What keeps that semi tire from blowing when the truck passes me and makes it blow when passing some other poor guy? As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, life is a crapshoot. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose.

We can’t live our lives in fear of everything, so all we can do is cherish every moment we have, and thank whatever higher being we believe in when we have a close call and survive.

Thought For The Day – When life sends storms, remember to dance in the rain!

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We were talking to a couple who are considering extended RV travel, and one of their concerns was safety. They have heard urban legends about RVers being attacked while they spend the night at places like Wal-Mart, small town parks, and rest areas.

We assured them that those kind of things almost never happen and not to spend a lot of time worrying about them. As I told them, they are in more danger from a traffic accident then they ever will be from a criminal, as long as they use common sense, keep their doors locked, and don’t spend any nights parked in an inner city ghetto. We have spent many, many nights dry camping in every corner of this country, in truck stops, highway rest areas, commercial parking lots, even in wide pullouts on back roads miles from nowhere. We have never felt threatened.

However, that does not mean that any of us are ever completely safe. You never know what that idiot coming down the road at you, riding a ton of steel might do, You can be as vigilant as is humanly possible and still become a victim in an instant, as these pictures show.

One of our subscribers sent me the photo on the left the other day. She was driving down a city street when a car driven by a seventeen year old girl who was text messaging somebody on her cell phone crossed the center line and hit her head on. Fortunately her airbag deployed and she was not injured.

Of the four girls in the other car, the front seat passenger had some cuts and bruises, but that was all, fortunately. Our friend said what really ticked her off was that the girl driving the other car never apologized, and never showed any concern for her own passenger. She was too busy being freaked out because her cell phone got broken in the accident! And there are airheads like that driving on every street and highway in America!

I took the photo to the right after a near miss I was involved in a few years ago in Tucson. I was driving down the street when the light gray car in the foreground roared passed me, driving halfway on the sidewalk. Two blocks down the street he ran a red light and slammed into the white car, which burst into flames. Fortunately, the older couple in the white car escaped uninjured. As the story turned out, the driver of the gray car had stolen it and was making his getaway. He jumped out and fled the scene on foot.  

No, I sleep just fine at night, wherever we are parked. It’s driving down the highway that sometimes scares the hell out of me!

Thought For The Day – You’re getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.

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Yesterday started out as a frustrating day.

In Sunday’s blog I wrote that when we bought fuel at the Paso Junction Sinclair truck stop in Pratt, Kansas they triple charged my debit card for over $472 in false charges. I called my bank and they reversed the charges, but Monday night they were back and the money was out of my account. After repeated calls to the bank and the truck stop, which acknowledges that the problem is on their end, now they tell me it could be up to 35 days before it is resolved!

I wanted to get an early start on the road yesterday morning, but instead had to run around finding a place to send out faxes of my receipts and the false charges on my account to both the truck stop’s manager and to my bank.

$21 in fax charges later, we finally got out of town only to get held up in a massive traffic jam caused by an accident just before the junction of Interstate 470 and Interstate 70. Why are drivers so dumb?  We were sitting still as emergency vehicles tried to squeeze past to get to the accident scene, and the cars would not move over to let them pass. Finally we got past the accident scene and got onto Interstate 70 for the short drive to the fairgrounds in Higginsville. We were greeted by George and Starr Sharrer, who have been parked here for a week in their fifth wheel. Soon afterward, Jim and Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour pulled in.

This is typical of the many fairgrounds around the country that RVers can take advantage of for low cost parking. For $10 a night we are getting 30 amp electric, water, and a dump station. What a deal! Here is a picture of the Geek’s motorhome at the fairgrounds, and another of our bus. If you have not checked out the many low cost camping opportunities in this country, order our Special 7 in 1 CD, which includes over 1,000 free campgrounds, fairgrounds with RV parking, casinos that welcome RVers with free camping, public RV dump stations, RV Good Guys, and more. It will save you a bundle.

Once Jim and Chris were parked, it was time to eat. We had dinner at Zybisco’s Bar and Grill, where it was Taco Tuesday, with three for $1.50. Terry said they were great. I had a huge one pound double bacon cheeseburger that even I could not finish! Terry pointed out the weight to me on the menu, but I was busy talking and didn’t hear her. Big mistake! It was yummy, but way too much for one guy to eat alone.

Of course, I had to save room for dessert. We walked a couple of blocks down Higginsville’s Main Street to Sweetz, where owner Jeni Bayens fixed us up with ice cream and other goodies. Before seeing the error of her ways, Jeni was a nutritionist. Now she’s hustling ice cream and chocolate covered strawberries. Personally, I think it was a great career choice.

Jeni’s 10 year old son Casey was a cool kid that I enjoyed visiting with. I didn’t know I could have loaner kids all over the country like I do loaner dogs. Why didn’t anybody ever tell me that? I could have saved a ton of money on child support!

Casey may look shy with his eyes downcast, but he’s just keeping his eye on the showcase full of goodies like chocolates covered strawberries, chocolates covered licorice, and even chocolates covered jalapenos (jalapenos?) to make sure I didn’t sneak one out!

Thought For The Day – Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

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