After our car crash, things were starting to feel like we couldn't catch a break. We kept questioning our karma, the universe, and ourselves. What were we doing wrong? One thing I have learned over the years, things tend to come in threes.
If you've been reading, you know our very dear friends loaned us their truck to help us out of our sticky situation of not being able to get our RV to Ohio from FL. The first night we traveled with the truck we stopped in Fair Play, SC, at an RV park for the night. We were unhitching the trailer, and as I raised the hitch off the ball, the truck started rolling forward towards the fifth-wheel set up across from us. It seems with everything going on, Keith forgot to put the truck in park. He knows it was a mistake, and he felt terrible.
I took off running after the truck, threw open the door and went to put my hands on the brake. I had a second where I questioned which one was the break since I don't control the peddles typically with my hands. The truck was on, so if I had hit the gas, it would have plowed forward into the fifth-wheel. I managed to stop it one inch from running into the fifth-wheel. I kid you not. It was terrifying.
We were both freaking out. I was shaking. I jumped in the truck and told Keith I was going to drive it around the block to "get it away from the RVs." It was a horrible feeling, and I wanted to cry. I did not understand what was going on. We aren't typically so careless and especially with the automobile of dear friends. That eerie feeling of what have we done wrong, why is this happening was hanging over us once again. I can't even imagine having to tell our friends who were so kind as to lend us their truck that we plowed it into a fifth-wheel. The odd thing, no one even saw this happen. We were thankful for that, honestly.
We agreed never to mention it again, but that didn't last. Keith confessed and told them what happened. Most people would be angry, but they were kind and loving. Honestly, we needed that forgiveness. We were feeling down on ourselves. We love RV'ing, and we discussed should we give it up, is it more significant than us, are we failures. Thankfully we decided that no, we loved this lifestyle; there was no way we wanted it to end. We promised to be better and more alert.
It's Not Over Yet
I wish this were all I had to tell you, but it's not. Trouble comes in threes, remember. So the third and hopefully final hiccup on this trip came as we drove from Fair Play, SC, to Mason, OH. Along the way, we stopped at many loud truck stops for gas or snacks and never heard anything other than their diesel engine.
As we pulled into Wendy's parking lot in Ohio, after 9 hours on the road, we heard a loud beeping coming from inside the trailer. Keith went to open the door, and the smell of propane came wafting out. Somewhere along the way, either I hit the stove knob when putting things away or something flew off the counter and hit it thus turning it on. We have no idea how long it had been on, but the reality is we were driving a giant bomb down the highway. If a spark would have happened the trailer, the truck, my puppies and us would have been blown to pieces. That's scary shit!
Why was the propane on you may be thinking? We keep our fridge on while traveling and have always been told to do that. That keeps our food from spoiling. We may re-think that going forward.
Keith is a cigar smoker, so another thing pointed out to us was it was a great thing he wasn't smoking a cigar nearby. I can't even tell you how scary this situation could have been. I am just glad we arrived safe, with no issue. I highly doubt anyone will ever lend us their truck after reading this. I swear we aren't irresponsible and we learned some vast lessons during all of this.
Traveling is fantastic, and we don't want to give it up. We will practice safety and be more vigilant. But if you pray or do the good vibes into the universe - send them our way. Please!
Has anyone else had anything like this ever happen to you?
I would love to know that we aren't alone in the world.