Last full day in Douglassville, PA

Today we closed up the house and drove away from it for the last time.  Some Hopebuilders from Hope Church came over and helped Audrey Dunekack, Michael McKinney, Bob Simcox and our daughter Jennifer load up the last of the furniture items they had wanted. The auctioneer, Cathy Pennypacker, comes back on Monday with her truck to remove the last of everything that remains in and outside to Gouglersville Fire Hall for her auction next week.  Hopefully we'll receive a check of some amount from that sale.  :)

Mona drove TOAD (Our Honda CRV) to get it's last mini-detail cleaning at Scott's Car Wash and it's last discounted fill-up at Redner's, both in Exeter.  I took the coach for its final DUMP of grey and black water at French Creek ($9.00 is a bargain for the use of their facilities considering the alternative.  On second thought, DON'T consider that alternative.  You won't be able to eat anything for at least a day.

Unfortunately (I hate when I have to begin a sentence with that word) I also decided to take the coach to WAWA in Exeter to fill up its tank with diesel fuel. All went well in the filling and I treated myself to a cool Diet Cherry Doctor Pepper as a result.  Then I went to pull out.  Two cars in front of me, and a car pulling in as I turned left away from those cars.  Now I attempt to turn right out the curved exit just as two cars turn into WAWA from the street to my left front.

I check my mirrors... all looks good!  One car goes far to their right to get in around me.  The other stops in her lane, blocking my wide turn!  Another check of the mirrors and all still looks good and I start the turn; around the curve and into the street goes the bow and forecastle of our mighty 35 foot land yacht!  Then just as I am about to fully enter the drive lane the right rear tires roll directly up onto the 8" high curb, and off again.  A matter of 6" less than required for the turning radius. On the down beat the bottom of the right rear battery and engine compartment doors fall hard on the top of the curb.  A jarring 'SMASH' fills my ears as the too heavy (we thought they'd be all right!) Corelle dinner ware slams against their clasped cherry wood cabinet doors and pop them open spewing dishes and bowls all about the galley.  The shattering of 8 pyrex clear glass dessert cups striking tough hard ceramic floor tiles concludes the symphony of culinary destruction.

I'm fully in the drive lane now, moving at the posted 35 MPH and there is no place to stop for several miles.  Glass and Corelle particles slide about on the galley floor and I can only imagine the damage I cannot hear or see in my rear facing interior mirror.  I finally do get into a parking lot and survey the damage in its entirety.

Some tableware, as described above destroyed.  And it took a full coach vacuuming to get the last of the tiny glass shards in every nook and cranny. The tiles are undamaged, though not for want of trying by the dishes. A call to State Farm Insurance's claim office got us a claim number and the assurance that we can be lined up in 8 days in a Breckenridge CO, State Farm approved, body shop to have the doors repaired while we stay at a nearby Marriott for our pre-planned visit with son Jim. The coach is perfectly driveable now till then.  Just one ironic, perhaps even God-Thing-Teachable-Moment (Darn it) to report on:

As daughter Jenn visited with us earlier this afternoon she looked about the cabinets we have so carefully stocked as efficiently and as safely as we knew how. Upon opening the galley cupboard housing the dinnerware she exclaimed, now to our utter chagrin, and to her sense of young wisdom compared to our older know-it-all-ness, "You have actual glass up here?  That'll shatter when it flies out of that cabinet!"

Yes, Jenn.  NOW, sadly, we know.

Time for bed.  We're parked at Hope Church waiting for the morning when the congregation will come, we are told, to our coach to escort us into the 10 am service. All curtains of the coach must be drawn and no peeking is allowed by us, as several surprises of United Methodist proportions are planned.

After the totally successful surprise retirement party the church threw for Mona and I a couple of weeks ago we can only wonder what memories our friends and church family have in store for us on the morrow.

Surely more pleasant than the learning experience we cleaned up a couple of hours ago!

Nighty night!

-Ken