Lost Dutchman State Park, Apache Junction, Arizona
Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife; quarrels and insults are ended. ~ Proverbs 22:10
Let’s begin today with some words from my sister-in-law, Donna (married to Blaine’s baby brother, Bruce).
We are 14 days into self-isolation and it is really upsetting to me to witness my husband standing at the living room window gazing aimlessly into space with tears running down his cheeks. It breaks my heart to see him like this. I have thought very hard about how I can cheer him up. I even considered letting him in….
but the rules are the rules.
Isn’t she hysterically funny!!!!???!! LOLOLOL!
I spent the bulk of the morning preparing for visitors. Michelle, Jen and her two older boys (Jackson and Nathan) were coming for an afternoon of hiking, ‘Catan’ game-playing and fire-building for dinner and s’mores. Eighteen-month-old, Austin decided to stay home with Daddy to help him work from home. Stay-at-home moms out there – – you can guess how that most likely went. 😊
I baked my usual chocolate chip, and since we had those oranges from Jen’s tree, I used the rinds for my chocolate-dipped orange cookies (recipe at the end). I’d thought to surprise the crew with a taste of the tree. Well, that didn’t work out so well. I needed two tablespoons of rind but was only able to scrape off enough for one. So I tried adding orange juice, but that meant I needed to add more flour, and so, not only did they not taste orangy enough, they also didn’t bake quite right. Blaine and I will still eat them, but I’m not sharing them with anyone else. ☹ And no, Mom, I didn’t have any orange extract. 😊
The orange ones, we eat frozen. They’re really good that way!
Plus the chocolate tends to get a bit messy if you let them thaw.
Blaine has learned when he needs to vacate the premises, so that’s what he did today. 😊 Back up to the ‘praying hands’ for one last look down at the Park and surrounding area.
Gotta get off the trail for those! : )
Once the cookies were baked, it was time to begin prepping dinner. There were onions to caramelize and burger patties to make. Plates and silverware to get out. Stuff like that, because I didn’t want to spend all my time in the kitchen once our guests arrived.
And then they were here! And we had a marvelous time once again! And as you can see from the pictures, we at least attempted to practice the requisite six-foot ‘social distancing’.
The tacked up one is a new sign.
Jen says this picture was taken in October.
I didn’t have any pictures of Austin,
and Josh’s pictures were pretty intense as he played ‘Catan’ with us the other night. : )
Nice photo guys!!
Everything was practically perfect all day!
Right up until the time they were getting ready to leave.
And Michelle went inside the coach to gather her stuff.
And hollered for me.
And I came in and discovered my home was flooded!
Right away, Blaine shut off the water, and we decided the best thing was to move out everything that was sitting on the floors, keep the boys (including Blaine) outside, grab towels and start mopping. (Thanks for all your help, girls!)
There was at least an inch of water filling the bedroom floor. Thank goodness for the short step between the bedroom and bath that kept the water out of there and thus from pouring down all over the engine. And thank goodness the floor was slanting back to there ever so slightly, which kept the water from filling the entire coach. As it was, it had already eeked its way into the kitchen area when Michelle discovered it.
But it also leaked around the half-bath toilet and under the bedroom and consequently down into the basement. And a good deal of water dripped (poured? we’re not sure, but there was a lot) into the basement section that holds the electrical wiring. And currently, that’s our biggest concern. Good thing there’s an electrician in the house!
Us girls filled about two five-gallon buckets with wrung out water, plus whatever we didn’t get wrung out of the towels – which was a good amount because I’ve got some really big towels. And since we used all of them, we’ll need to seek out a laundromat soon.
So, by now you’re probably wondering what happened. And no. This isn’t some early “April Fools!” joke. Although no one had the presence of mind to take any pictures to prove it.
It seems the foot pedal in the hall bathroom got stuck in the ‘flush’ position, and it just kept running and running and running. The water eventually filled the toilet bowl, ran over the side, out the bathroom door and into our ‘hallway’, making its way slowly (or maybe not so slowly) to the end of the bedroom, and as I mentioned earlier, was making progress towards covering the entire floor.
And now, you’re wondering why that small thing would cause a flood. Certainly, it wouldn’t cause much more damage than a higher water bill (if you have city water) at your place. But all our sewage goes into a holding tank. And when that tank gets full there’s nowhere else for stuff to go except up and out. And while that’s probably sounding like more of a disgusting, horrific disaster than I’ve led you to believe, the dirty water stayed down and the clean water stayed on top and that’s all that made it to the floor!
Praise God from Whom all blessings flow! And Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!!!
but here’s the cleaned up and dry area so you can see where it went.
But now, our holding tank is completely full. And we have no sewer hook-up at this place, so we can’t release it. It requires packing everything up and going to a dump station, and it’s now past “Quiet Time” in the Park.
We leave in the morning, so it’s not a big deal. Except we can’t use our bathroom until then. And first thing in the morning, other things besides the toilets will be full and needing immediate release.
The campground facilities are about a quarter-mile away, and there’s always the possibility that the coronavirus has come to visit the campground facilities as well.
What would you do?