FINALLY!!!!!!

Here it is Day Six and I feel like Jack Bauer on "24". Too much to do and not enough time to do it.

Here I thought that I would spend my days sleeping in, having a leisurely coffee, doing a little shopping, maybe an afternoon nap and a fabulous dinner with great wine. Well, I feel a little like Zza Zza Gabor on Green Acres - Absolutely out of my comfort zone for sure. Lauren and I hooked up the trailer on Friday and after a 1 1/2 hour wait at the border (thank god I was towing an expensive toilet which I needed at the one hour mark) we got to Birch Bay and parked the trailer. We are parked next to the assistant managers, Earl and Iantha, and if it wasn't for Earl being such a sweetie, I might have returned home and turned the trailer into a coffee kiosk! He helped me hook up power and sewer and explained the extra hook ups that I would need. When I got the wrong fittings he loaned me his extra sewer hose until I could get to Walmart. And thank god for Walmart which stocks much of the stuff I needed but a greatly reduced price. I have made several trips this week!

Everyone that I have met at the park are very helpful and very nice. Yes, I am making nice. I even went to Costco today and, unlike in Richmond Costco, I did not want to kill a single person. Everyone I have met has been so helpful and can't seem to do enough for you. The entire Canadian workforce needs to do training in the US. Not sure where the term Ugly American came from but I have yet to meet one. Even the guy who parked right next to me at Fred Meyers apologized for parking so close. He might have heard me say "REALLY?" and that prompted the apology but he was very nice (might of even been cute if not for the dad jeans).

The major problem in America is morbid obesity. The stores supply scooters for people who cannot walk on their own. If you need a scooter to get to the ice cream aisle, then you might have a weight issue. It makes me think twice about what I buy. With a small fridge it is hard to get in enough fruit and veggies but I buy bag salad and frozen fruit. The freezer is a little crowded with frozen dinners, a bottle of Cosmopolitans and a bag of ice for margaritas. I even had to take some bottles of beer out of the fridge for water - go figure.

I have also taken "puttering" to a whole new level. Although there is considerable storage in the trailer I have had to sort everything based on "Need It Now" "Need it Soon" "Need it Later" and, my favorite, "WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". Some of that stuff went back with Lauren on Monday and the rest is stored in the truck for now.

I have a whole new appreciation for Velcro and the thousand different uses I have found for it. If I can't Velcro it, 3M double sided tape it or gorilla duct tape it, then out it goes. Hopefully everything will stay put when I hit temperatures the the high 90's.

This park doesn't have cable but I have lots of movies and I do watch some programs on my computer. There is a thing called Redbox and they are located in 7-11, Walmart, etc. and you rent movies for $1 (which seems to be a fair price for some of the movies out now).

I have been on a steep learning curve with the trailer and all the systems that I need to understand but the real learning is all the gadgets that come with the dreaded instructions manual - TV with DVD player, blender, coffee machine, coffee bean grinder, camcorder, new cell phone (206-619-9150) and xm radio. That is a lot of new learning for my brain! (Lauren - can you remember where mommy hid all the extra keys? It was like Easter morning when I started looking for my hiding spots. The keys will turn up eventually. It's not like I am living in 7500 sq. ft.)

You may wonder, after all of this, if I am enjoying the RVing lifestyle and my definitive answer is ABSO-*******-LUTELY (Sex in the City reference). I am here until Friday (I sound like a bad Vegas lounge act) and then I am headed south. Not sure of my next stop but I am learning to slow down and not make a dash for the finish.

Pictures next time.

Love to all
Adelle