When Dave Drum founded the Kampgrounds of America, or KOA as they are known to most RV'ers, he built the first one with hot showers. Those clean and hot showers can be one of the things a camper most looks forward to - especially after dealing with a cranky hot water heater for several days and resorting to heating up the water and pouring it over yourself as a poor substitute.
When you haven't showered properly for three days you are very careful about your stops. For instance, you pick restaurants like Po Folks over places like Ruby Tuesdays simply because in Po Folks you can't be smelled over the fried steak, chicken, livers, or tomatoes. But if you eat like that non-stop you soon discover that how you smell is the least of your worries.
The morning of day three of our Great San Antonio Adventure, we woke up and blew a critical driving hour by deciding instead to discuss us as a couple. We were finally able to admit that the extraordinary connection we'd felt from the beginning was worn so thin that it was almost non-existent. And we were also finally able to admit that we weren't sure what to do about it but that if we didn't work on it together we were surely going to continuing having to pay for two hours sessions with the therapist instead of the standard one hour. The ever practical (and money conscious) Chris recognized this as an extra $250 a month out of his pocket, for his half, that he certainly didn't have with his new job and the resulting pay cut.
The bond between us is hands down a spiritual connection. On more than one occasion those that know us have referred to us as soul mates. I can't deny believing that myself. The question is, how much time do we really have to dicker around with whether to accept this fact or not? For that matter, what happens if we just let things roll as they have been?
Running later than planned we buttoned everything up and hit the road. The GPS, a model I'm not fond of, sent us twisting and turning until we cried Uncle and decided to remap our route. We grabbed my laptop and headed into the local Forsynth, Georgia Waffle House. The smell of frying eggs and bacon, usually mouth watering, sent my stomach churning and even the grits were half hearted - but then Waffle House doesn't use real butter - which to my mind is almost as bad as putting syrup on your grits.
No matter what I did, I could find no way to get from where we were to where we were planning to go that night. Even worse, the route we were taking would cause us to miss the state of Florida. No state, no decal on the map. Unacceptable. Tasteless food, churning stomach, and now very frustrated because we were going to miss Chris's timetable on a trip I still didn't want to be on, I pushed the laptop away and said "I give up."
Then Chris asked a simple question. What if we continued going south on i75 and if necessary took an extra day to get to San Antonio? I plugged the data in and a lovely route emerged that included a highly ranked KOA, notable for its executive sites (complete with a swing) and hot showers. We booked a reservation and made our way to Florida, the state we were determined not to miss.
For the first time on this trip we arrived at a campground with daylight remaining and our site was, miraculously, across from the bathhouse. We grabbed our shower items and headed over, discovering when we arrived that the private shower rooms were fully enclosed, included a toilet and sink, and were absolutely spotless. I turned the shower on and was delighted to find excellent water pressure. Stepping in I could feel the days of sweat, grime, and grease slide away while I scrubbed my skin and washed my hair.
When I was finally clean, dry, and dressed I stepped out to find myself surrounded in twilight. Chris, who'd finished much sooner, came around the corner of our RV and met me part way. We settled onto the swing and sat, comfortable and relaxed, continuing our conversation from the morning.
For the first time in a month I began to see San Antonio as the hot water shower we so desperately needed to clean up the stink in our relationship.
Your posts don't have date-time stamps? Is that intentional?
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