Reading Psalm 27 this morning, and this was highlighted to me. So true about Tuesday, just two days ago! It was one of the craziest days that I can remember, and a day that will go down as one that will live in infamy in the Banks household!
How it all started
On August 14th, Tina and I did a thing. We had been talking about it since 2021, so we did it. We went and bought ourselves a Lucille. Don’t worry, we are not human trafficking. Lucille is a Camper! Meet Lucille
Lucille is a 26 ft Vintage cruiser, much like me😬, in terms of vintage. She is a beauty that had only been out three times since she was new. So, not even broke in yet as they say!
A side note before getting to the “I would have lost heart” part of the story. Tina and I are no newbies to camping, but our camping was more primitive, or mine was at least. My family had a pop up camper when I was a kid and Tina’s dad had an older pull behind. So we know enough to be a little bit dangerous.
Couple our knowledge with copious amounts of YouTube videos and we are ready to get to camping, right? RIGHT!
The Rest of the Story
As Paul Harvey used to say, “and now for the rest of the story”. We are all supplied up, camp site reserved and ready to head out, or get ready to head out.
Heart loss episode #1 Braking Bad
I arrived at 6am to pick up Lucille from storage, and as I was hooking her up, I smelled something burning, turns out the Bluetooth brake controller just fried! But we were just going 38 miles on flat ground, undeterred at this point.
Heart loss episode #2 The Registration
As Lucille was plugged in and cooling down at home, Tina and I went to get the title transferred and new tags. To no avail, the title was signed by owner in wrong place, so more to do there. Still undeterred, we have 30 days to register. All good.
Loaded up and arrived at Eisenhower State Park camp ground with our dogs at 5:30 pm. Our first camping trip is on its way to reality. This is where it gets so bad, it is almost comical!😳
Heart loss episode #3 The Set Up
We get backed in, plugged in and leveled! All good and ready to connect water and sewer. RV novice lesson 1. Check your water valves in the sinks before connecting and turning on! I, being a novice did not, and Tina was outside with the dogs! After talking to her for a second I went in to find water spraying on the sink cover and spilling out onto the floor! Major crisis in play. After shutting off the valves, we mopped up the water and dried the floor. All good, should be able to settle and enjoy, right? RIGHT!
Heart loss episode #3, Torrents from within
With the Ricky designed flood all mopped up, we turned our attention to straightening up. And that is when we noticed water coming out from under the kitchen AND bathroom cabinets. Luckily it was only the connections for the kitchen sink, and the water pump under the bathroom sink. Hand tightened and another crisis averted! Now we can relax and eat, right? RIGHT! Well almost!
We finally ate around 10pm and had everything set up and settled as you see in the photo above. Exhausted we fell into bed and slept thru the night
Heart loss episode 4, The Twinkling
Early the next morning, we arose and flipped on the lights to make coffee, that is when we noticed the twinkling. The light that had been so bright the night before was dim and twinkling. The refrigerator began to alarm and I had no idea what was going on, we are hooked to 30 amp power. Tina got out the manual, and I went outside to see if there was a switch I had missed that converts from 12v DC to 120AC when plugged in, NOPE!
Looking at the manual we found that there is a converter fuse. Remember back to point 1 when the brake controller fried? Well apparently it blew my converter fuse. Our lights had been running on 12v all night, because the converter was inactive. Replaced the fuse and Walah! Everything is great. (thankful previous owner had supplied a box of fuses).
Unless I had believed
It is Friday morning, as I sit here composing this post. It has been a wonderful few days, my grandkids and daughter are here visiting. We are making some wonderful memories.
Much like the psalmist, if I had not believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, it would have been easy to get discouraged and pack up and go home!
As verse 14 says, wait and be of good courage and He will strengthen your heart. My heart is strengthened today and my wisdom has grown through this experience. I hope you are encouraged through this today. Either in a heart full of laughter at my expense, or in the fact that no matter how bad your day has been, wait and be of good courage! Remember all of life is ministry!
Thanks for playing along
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