Thursday, August 5, 2010

Judy on being a Jeute, or is it Judy?

You know it really doesn't matter which way you say it, I was destined to be a double Judy.  In the past few days I have had the most unreal experiences that a person can have, and it feels like it has been an ongoing test of my strength and courage.  I must tell you, I am quite proud of myself, I have passed this battery of tests with flying colors.

Last I left you, "Change" was in the air, if I only knew how true that statement was going to be!  Saturday was Bailey Day, and oh what a glorious day it turned out to be.  As a matter of fact, I reserve the right to come back and write about it again.  But, suffice it to say, that once again, we blended our biker, mountain hillbilly friends with the historical (literally-ha!) park crowd beautifully!  My book signing was a huge success, twenty books sold along with small town folk coming out of the wood work to congratulate me.

Although that should be the highlight of this post it gets crazier from there.  I mentioned that I would be offline for a few days, but I didn't say why.  Well, I read somewhere your not supposed to advertise when your leaving, if only for a short time, so I didn't.  We had a quick family trip planned in Fort Collins, and when I say family, I mean my entire family.  So we were really looking forward to this one. 

As usual, I was as unorganized as can be, but I felt like it was really important to get these two blankets into the camper; a piece of our family, so to speak.  Nathan was already up there with my parents so the four of us headed up the road, and all was going well until we got onto the scariest part of I25, just full of construction, and the motorhome starts to overheat.  We chug, chug along until she just dies, and luckily we coast to just inches off of the busiest Interstate in all of Colorado. 

We look up and the reason we had been stuck in traffic in the first place is because of an accident that had been caused by the construction.  A truck had rolled over and caught on fire, terribly!  So, not only are we front row to watch them put out this fire, and turn the truck back over, etc. Tom has to try and work on the RV on the side of the road.  I am keeping the kids and the dogs out of the back, as I am just praying that we won't get hit, because those assholes passing by sure weren't slowing down any.

As many of you probably know, the engine compartment in many RV's is inside, so Tom got a mug of gas and primed the carburetor and got us on our way.  He had done some testing and knew that we had one fuel pump down, and yes this is important,  with one working.  Now, I have talked about my "trouble bubble" before, but I have never worked so hard on concentrating on getting us safely off of a road in my life!

We made it about a mile off of the exit and she died again, that was it.  Tom was getting really frustrated and the kids were dying to get there, so he got that damned mug back out.  The one that I had kept trying to take from him the first time!  And that was when it happened.  The engine back fired, and there was a fireball two feet wide inside the motorhome with all of us and the dogs!  Tom was on fire, the mug was on fire, the chair, my purse, the engine, My God!!!

Tom ran out with the mug, I screamed at the kids and the dogs to "GET OUT!!!", who immediately froze and sat down because they had never heard that command and didn't want to go out as Tom had started a huge grass fire outside!!!  Yes, a huge grass fire outside with his mug of gas!!!!  I can't use enough exclamation points here, I'm sorry. 

People had immediately stopped and were kicking dirt on the ever growing grass fire while I was inside throwing things out that were on fire, hoping to save the motorhome.  Blessedly, one of the things that I threw out the door was one of those blankets I had insisted on packing that morning, and it was what Tom used to put out the grass fire.

Thomas, my oldest son, had not wanted to come with us in the first place really.  He is seventeen now and getting a little old for family vacations, especially when you add that he missed out on one of the parties of the summer and a day of work!  But, late the night before we left, I had finally given in and told him that he didn't have to go.  He had said that he had gone to bed that night saying he would see how he felt in the morning and then decide, and thank God he felt like coming, because he was the one who had run off with the gas can when the grass fire had started!  The three of us worked together like a well oiled machine to save the motorhome, the dogs and possibly our lives.

To be honest, I can't even really remember how we got the damn motorhome running again, but we made it to the campground where we were to meet up with my family.  The funny part is, is after all of that trouble, my husband being on fire, and almost being a demolition derby vehicle on I25, it was a pulled wire!  And even funnier, I'm afraid that wire might have been karma from when my red heads were younger.  This wire had been pulled when a mysterious little red head came to play on my wonderful day (sorry T, had to out you here, but better to face the horror now than in a decade, like I'm afraid happened with me-ha!). 

So, all is well that ends well, as they say.  I'll go back to an old purse, dang, I really liked that purse, and as for the blanket, well, it's a total loss.  But me, I faced the fire, head on as a matter of fact which is a big accomplishment; we had a fire in our house when I was a kid.  And although the whole way home I didn't think I could face getting straight to work when I got here, I did it.  I had guests to prepare for, who else was going to do it? As a matter of fact the everyday work of cleaning and cooking (last breakfast ever-yeah!) was quite therapeutic.

We are all much stronger than we give ourselves credit for, if we dig deep.  I mentioned that change was coming, and I can feel it in the air.  I have been quoted on another blog (more on that later), I faced the fire and won, had a wonderful book signing and even got a few hours in with family.  Today, I will work on grounding myself, as funny as it sounds, but I need to do it or I will fall apart.  Mother Earth and I will be working in the gardens today, reconnecting and revitalizing.

4 comments:

Tiffany said...

Oh my god. Please tell me that's not true. I am so. sorry. )-:

Daisy said...

Oh, my. This kind of adventure is the kind you can do without.

lfhpueblo said...

Scary, scary, scary.
Been around three small home fires as a kid, and all put out without the help of the fire department, but nothing where the fire sounded so close to human beings.
One caused by an uncle smoking and then falling asleep on the couch.
Parents yanked him off (he was drunk) and they threw water on the couch and dragged it out on the front lawn and hosed it down.
Couch was a lose, uncle had no burns.
My brother and me were practicing with a BB gun in the basement and were shooting at large wooden matches we had superglued to a piece of wood. We must have shot
one of the heads of the matches off and it lit. We didn't realize it, but then smelled smoke and so did our mom upstairs. She came running down at the same time we
saw a box of clothes packed on a shelf had caught on fire.
We got the clothes put out by smothering it with a heavy wool blanket on a cot in the basement.
Third fire, the oven. The element or something in the oven broke.
Knocked the plug out of the wall with a wooden broom handle and just keep the oven door closed until it smothered itself out.
It made an electrifying sound when it did that. Electric stoves do I
guess.
So, too many fires, but none right on a person, well except my uncle.
Yet, he knew better. He was told never to smoke in the house. Within a week after that incident my Dad told him he had to find another place to live.

Unknown said...

Judy, that IS scary. And I am glad you came out of it so well. But don't try it again, please. Hope you nevertheless enjoyed the news you got to hear (I suppose) in Ft. C. about us.