“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in, forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it well and serenely…” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Gypsy Lee in a better place than a dinky RV park in Alamosa. -- Photo by Pat Bean
Travels With Maggie*
My grandmother believed that trouble came in threes. I can’t tell you how many times in my life she was proved right, which is why I should have been more worried at the first setback of my perfect day.
My two previous overnight campgrounds were Colorado state parks with trails to walk, lakes to sit by, scenic landscapes out my window and birds to sing me awake in the morning. I expected tonight’s stay at San Luis State Park, just 20 miles down the road from the Great Sand Dunes, would offer much the same.
And well it might have if it hadn’t still been closed for the season – even though my Trailer Life Directory of RV campgrounds, my travel bible, said it opened for the season April 15.
The next closest campground I could locate was a KOA in Alamosa. It was another 25 miles to drive, but the directory’s ratings gave it a thumbs up, along with noting that it opened for the season on March 13.
Wrong again. It didn’t open until May 1.
A pair of mallards cheer up any day. -- Photo by Pat Bean
I then realized my RV was pulling to the right and discovered the front passenger tire was low. My nearly new tire, I saw, had a nail in it. Quickly, I retreated to a tire store I had passed about five miles back up the road, thinking it would be an easy fix. Wrong.
Before beginning this trip, Gypsy Lee, which has over 115,000 miles on her, underwent some major wear and tear repairs, including new wheels to replace the corroded and cracked old ones. They were shiny, spiffy and expensive – and required a special key to unscrew their lug nuts, which someone had forgotten to give me.
The small Alamosa tire store, which was also a service station, couldn’t solve my problem. And by now it was after 6 p.m. and every place else was closed for the evening, even the place in Texas where I had bought the wheels. As a last resort, I called them thinking they could FedEx the part to Alamosa overnight.
I had air put in my tire, hoping it was a very slow leak, and retreated to a dinky RV park a few miles away where campers were allowed to dump their gray (dish-washing and/shower) water on the ground. I was not a happy camper. I might have whined a bit, except Gypsy Lee has a rule against such self-pity.
The best thing I have going for me as a lone female traveling this great country of ours is the confidence that I can handle what the road throws at me. This wasn’t the first, or the worse mishap, I had overcome in seven years of traveling.
So while I didn’t get a peaceful night’s sleep because of worrying about my situation, I awoke ready to solve it.
Thankfully my tire still had air in it, and the local Firestone tire shop I called as soon as they were open, said they could solve my problem. If they broke the studs getting the locks off, the sensible woman on the other end of the line told me, then they would just replace them. It wouldn’t be all that expensive.
It turned out they actually had a key for my wheels in stock, which they sold me for future emergencies. I was back on the road, my pocketbook only $22 thinner, within about 15 minutes.
Now let’s see. If I count the two closed RV parks and the nail-in-the-tire, that makes three things that went wrong yesterday.
If my grandmother was right, I had another perfect day ahead of me.
Continuing Day 7, April 25, 2001
Pat Bean's blog 
Pat, I’m sorry your time in the San Luis Valley had such an unpleasant turn, but I’m glad the Alamosa Firestone tire folks were so helpful. Wish I’d known you were passing so close by–I would have invited you to detour an hour and a half north to Salida for an overnight in our shop yard, with free electricity at least! I know you’re a ways down the road now, and I hope you’re enjoying all Zion has to offer.
Thanks Susan. It would have been lovely just to get to see you. I spend the winter with mostly just electricity in family yards, which is about all I need since Gypsy Lee provides everything else. I feel honored for the invite. This is the first year age and a wet winer kicked my butt, but all my aches have disappeared with the beautiful warm, not yet hot, weather here in Zion. I’ll be heading to Ogden, Utah, for a week or so before reporting to duty as campground host for the summer at Lake Walcott State Park in Souithern Idaho, where I should have plenty of time to write, take walks with Maggie and watch birds. . Keep writing … Pat Bean https://patbean.wordpress.com
I can’t count the number of times “the power of three” has affected our lives as well. And after those sleepless nights of worrying, worrying, the solution is usually a piece of cake. Then I wonder what I was all upset about!! And all in all, it was a perfect day – just not the day you had planned! Looking forward to hearing about tomorrow!
I really admire your attitude, and love the Emerson quote. Enjoy your upcoming perfect day!
Pat, I do believe your grandmother is correct. Troubles come in three, but also good things come in three for me too. I like your RV and hope you have plenty of places to park in the upcoming months.
Things like that do seem to happen in threes, don’t they? I’m glad your threes were not on the extremely serious side, as these things can sometimes be.
Wishing you smooth travels from here on out. 🙂
So, so true! I can’t think of an instance when trouble didn’t come in threes for me. And I can think of some fairly memorable sets of three, too! Glad this particular set of 3 was so easily manageable.