I set out for the 8:30 a.m. appointment at “Trailers and Hitches.”
This bus has seen happier times. I wonder where it has been and what the singers are doing now?
On the way I stop to take this photo of a bus parked alongside the road.
I notice “Gospel-Singing” written on the side and a for-sale sign in the window.
Once at the hitch place, Chris and I go over the sheet provided by Casita. A Class III hitch is required. I tell Chris I’m still concerned about the brake controller. (He only installs Curt brand controllers and I want a Tekonsha Prodigy.) Chris is agreeable and says it’s okay if I’d rather have the controller installed somewhere else.
I take one look at the waiting room and decide to go for a walk.
Winder is a busy little town sidled up along the railroad tracks. Several fast-food restaurants line the main drag. As I walk toward Burger King for a cold drink, I notice a large strip mall having its exterior updated quite extensively. The sign at the sidewalk says, “Pardon our progress. All stores are open.” Now there’s a statement not seen often these days . . . pardon our progress.
A train thunders past with a commotion no one seems to notice. Back at the hitch place, I plunk myself down in a chair and read numerous copies of TV Guide dated 2008. I know most of the answers to the teaser questions about the next season’s story lines. I stare at a hitch display, safety chains, cardboard boxes of parts, and an artificial ficus tree drooping wearily under the weight of dust upon it. Two hours later I go across the street to Subway.
Ever eat just to kill time?
At long last the hitch is done! Except for one thing. There’s no draw bar with hitch ball sticking out from the back of the PTV. Chris explains. The bars he has give a ground-to-top-of-ball height of 19 inches or 22 1/2 inches. Casita says it should measure 20 1/2 inches! Chris scours his catalog for a solution but doesn’t find one. A guy comes in from the back and says, “Once the trailer is on it will push down the ball.”
No, not acceptable.
If that’s the case, why does Casita specify exactly 20 1/2 inches? I call the factory on my cellphone and Chris and I talk to a guy in the parts and service department. He tells us, hesitantly, that the 22 1/2 inch will probably work. I say, “Wait a minute. When I’m backing up, the ball is going to be two inches higher. Won’t that cause a problem?”
“Just put a piece of wood under . . . “
I think: A piece of wood? For $300 I get to mess around with a piece of wood? He tells me to have the bar put on and see how it hitches up. I explain that the tow vehicle is in Georgia and my Liberty Deluxe is with him in Texas. Oh. He offers to set it up for me once I’m in Texas. Okay. Thanks. I thank Chris and leave without the bar and hitch ball.
I don’t want to have the hitch set up on the morning of my pick-up appointment. With the crew in tow. In July. Right now I’m tired of dingy waiting rooms and decisions!
Back home the crew is excited to see me!
Oh, Bridget! You know you love this! You Big Baby!
We frolic around as if we’d been apart for months! Spike barks insanely, Janie rolls on her back, and Bridget plays the victim while I tickle her belly.
She looks terrified in the photo, but I know she loves this treatment!
I’ll think about the hitch another day.
"Cootchy-cootchy-coo! Who loves you!
rvsue
Wow! The sitemeter passed 4,000!
rvsue and her canine crew 