~Wednesday, March 23, 2022~
Day 647
It’s a whole new world. As I opened those blinds this morning, I was reminded that we’ve traded in our beautiful, vast, Red Rock Mountain scenery for a lovely RV park with views of trees, lawn and other RV’s. The longer we stay somewhere, the more we adapt to our surroundings. So it is a bit jolting when you’re presented with something new just outside your window. My morning ritual of writing gives me a perspective of people getting their days started, like people having neighborly conversations while walking their pooches, or simply hanging out on their small covered patios for a morning cup of Joe. But it also allows me to witness the inner workings of wherever we’re staying. It appears that every morning, a water truck makes 2 rotations throughout the park, “moisturizing” the decomposed granite to keep the dust down and the fine rock in place. Since the trailer is finally clean inside, we appreciate any efforts in keeping the dust down. There’s also the camphosts doing their morning rounds making sure people are doing what they’re supposed to be doing…..like keeping dogs on their tethers and off the grass for potty breaks. With all these distractions, it’s no wonder it takes me 2 hours to get my journaling done.
Since today was THE BIG laundry day (we’re talking 10 loads for 2 people and about 3 weeks worth),
we needed those all too valuable quarters to complete the task. So I drove to the local Dollar General store with the intent to only buy a pack of gum to get my $40 cash back, when I discovered a few bargains. How could I resist $1.00 champagne glasses (a nice alternative to our Yeti tumblers), a loaf of brioche bread for our delicious French Toast, and a pack of 8 velvet hangers to replace the broken ones. ‘Ya never know what you’ll find in these bargain basements. Then I drove the 5 minutes back to the RV park office to get my 2 rolls of quarters, collect laundry cleaning supplies and head out. Jeff stayed back to work on other things.
It would be nice to get Hank and Billie Jean cleaned as well. We’ve already inquired about washing vehicles here at the park, but they won’t allow it……makes sense since they’re on a well. But for $150 big ones you can hire a service to come in and do the work for you. Zane Grey only allows one service to do the work, where the guy hauls in his own water. Evidently he spends on average 5-6 hours on just 1 job alone. So he must be thorough. The trailer is actually in pretty good shape, but the truck is a different story where he should be named “Pig Pen ''. Our truck definitely stands out. As I headed to Cottonwood, I noticed a really nice, well-run car wash right off the main highway. Our camp host had told us about these guys, so think we’ll opt for this $1/minute version.
Since our RV park’s laundry facility strongly urges you NOT to clean pet bedding/rugs, I had my sites set on Cottonwood, about 30 minutes away to cover my larger laundry tasks. Super Clean Laundry in Cottonwood was the perfect spot. Nearly every machine was being used (and it’s a big place), but managed to find my one big, $7.50/load machine to get the job done. I ran into a tiny glitch when I had forgotten to add a missed item into the machine after I’d already slid my credit card through and locked the door. It appeared to reset things, so I thought I would be double charged for my mistake. The clerk assured me that it hadn’t gone through the first time since the machine never ran. Hope my one machine won’t end up costing me double. So nice to see Sadie’s bed back
to its original beige
shade instead of the rust dust that she’d gotten used to these past few weeks.
Next stop…..WalMart (not my favorite place in the world), but it allows me to get the household as well as the groceries done in one shot. Whatever I didn’t find, I found at my third stop of Safeway.
Thankfully Jeff helped with unloading the truck and finding a home for my purchases while I headed over to the laundry room to complete our 10 loads of laundry. Again, I had all 8 machines to myself. Nice! Though tempting as it is to use all the machines in one swoop, I always abide by the laundry etiquette, never using more than 2 at a time. But 2 is better than 1. I think I wrapped things up by 1:00 a.m. but so worth the clean exchange!!