Camper Nesting Days: The Squirrel Has Your Underwear

Strange Days Indeed

I frantically searched all of the piles of folded laundry. I couldn't find a single pair of pantaloons other than the ones I was wearing. My clothes bags were packed, and there were none in the small pile of clothes left to be washed. I flipped on my spidey sense and heard it clearly.

The squirrel has your underwear.

Pardon me, I said, but whaattt? I heard it again. A repeated message means this is your only clue. I was out of time for guessing games, and I really needed a shower.

My mind leapt immediately to the fat squirrels scurrying around preparing for winter. Did I leave a bag of clothes on the curb while loading the truck?

Four frogs snitched. One may have winked at me. He and his three pals had my lingerie.

My dumbfounded look melded, replaced by a much needed giggle and then a howl. This has been a pack and stack like no other.

We are still nesting when we should have fledged. The pattern of delays started way back in the spring when the Mississippi River was flooding, slicing the 3000 feet between our doorstep and the riverbank in half. Dan was still working full time, overseeing big projects that were highly scheduled. Some required him to be there Saturdays, our only day to work on the travel trailer stored 45 minutes away. Miss Liberty shakes apart at the first rumble of thunder and loses her mind completely when the car wash light show thunderstorms roll in. We couldn't take the dogs, and we couldn't leave them at home. It was a very wet spring.

Saturdays to get beefier truck and trailer tires, to haul off and hand off things that wouldn't fit, and to get new gear and to sit in our chariot and measure spaces and dream. We got a lot done each time we went. The thing is, the work of the final assembly and outfitting our home on wheels includes installing belongings that we are currently using. Like underwear. But we will get back to that in a minute.

As we exist in this week's cushion of time planned for delays before we truly must be on the roll, we have been met with some weird delays. Just weird with a capitol W, underlined.

It's 3 a.m. and all Cordrays are on the snooze. We are awakened by a crackling sound, like a rodent enjoying a sleeve of saltine crackers. Next, an ongoing crumble and shatter that can only be glass landing on the concrete kitchen floor. We jump out of bed to find the glass on the oven door actively self-destructing. It was not in use at the time with everyone in the house sound asleep.

Next morning I am up in the pre-dawn hours stretching in the dark living room, my roomies still in the sack. I hear a pop and the light over the stove blinks off. I know there are two light bulbs on the bottom of the microwave. Couldn't have blown both at once. Naaah, it was not a pair of blown bulbs. The microwave had also taken a dive. Dan checked the receptacle to be sure.

The dolly trailing broken glass as it hauled out the old stove sent both dogs over the edge. They know we are making big changes but they haven't been to the trailer so they don't have the second two to put together to make four. They need constant reassurance. I get it. I do, too, and Dan gets that thank goodness. This has been nuts.

The smoke alarm has recently decided to munch batteries like candy and spit them out, screaming, at all hours of the night. Since the step ladder went with the cargo trailer, poor Dan on a chair and me consoling a petrified Liberty Jones has been the routine.

Unsettled as we remove ourselves, we await the microwave replacement above the new stove, neither of which we will be using as our lease ends Monday, September 15th, the same day our first camping reservations start. In Michigan. I am grateful that my beloved husband grilled food so we would have a ready made supply.

We were mighty close to launch yesterday when we discovered that the air conditioner on our brand new travel trailer did not work. Again. Previously, we had taken it to the dealership where it was repaired, but we still had issues so it had to go right back. To reset two buttons. Two days delayed back then.

We have take it in today because it is having another air conditioning issue, and while we are grateful that it happened here, near the dealership, we are not happy for another delay.

I chuckle when I think that my own van and the van we traveled in together had no air conditioner. For over a decade we just moved with the temperatures, used fans, or jumped in the nearest body of water to cool off. To ensure comfort as we age, we made sure both truck and trailer have air.

And here we are.

But when it is all in top-shape we will most certainly load up dem doggies and stroll on out of here. We have each other and that’s the important part. We have a plan B idea and will not miss Jon and Kale's wedding no matter what. Several friends have mentioned the “burnt toast theory” which you can research if you would like.

For us, it is Great Spirit reminding us that as always, we are divinely guided and protected and delays are, while frustrating, also part of how it all works. We will get there when we get there, with bells on.

How was it that the squirrel had my underwear? After watching a million RV storage videos, I decided to store things in throw pillows, minus the pillow insert. Ponchos, scarves, mittens, sweaters, and underwear. All a great idea except the underwear. With everything we own existing in a new spot, I will avoid hiding the important stuff from myself.

It was the squirrel, and the other creatures who populate our new living space.

The frog and butterfly pillow reminded me of where I had stored my drawers.

The typewriter pillow reminds me to WRITE.

Elephants and elderberries,

Brenda Cordray

The Desert Rose