Stranger Than Fiction

What a great movie!

It may be a 2006 movie, but we're DVD fans and rarely hit the theater for new movies. After traveling and trying to find Red Box locations in our travels, it was nice to have a movie come to us...well, come to Papa and Ulana's cable box!

So Aisha recognized Emma Thompson's voice from Harry Potter and we both love Will Ferrell. It was a different Will Ferrell than we were used to though. They play the two main characters.

We just loved it. We were really hooked on the story... trying to think ahead as to what might happen next. We were glad the ending turned out to be "less than literary genius" for the author character in the movie. The romantic in me was thrilled with the ending despite the turn of events.

Perfect Spring Day

I've decided my favorite temperature is 76. Not too hot. Not too cold. It's the temperature where you don't need a heater or an air conditioner in the truck. It's the temperature where if you have lots of sun you can leave the windows open in the truck and you're still not cold. Today was 76 degrees.

I dragged the girls out for some exercise... biking on one of RI's many bike paths. Today we did about four miles round trip. Soleil started whining as soon as she saw an ice cream store and said she was thirsty. I told her that she had to wait till we got back to the truck (where the water bottle was left behind). It was a miserable ride back, but her spirits picked up when I told her there was an ice cream stand right near where we were parked. We all enjoyed treats and Soleil enjoyed a ride on the pony express!

Happy Family Day

Today was the be-all, end-all, party of all parties. My sister and her husband hosted families and friends for their newest child's (Jonah) baptism. After the ceremony at the church (which I did a fine job of videotaping I might say), we headed over to Michelle's amazing home and had food, food, and more food. And then we ate cake! The girls got to see family and friends we had not seen in a year and it was a beautiful day full of sunshine and blue sky. We could not have asked for anything more. Well, perhaps to have had all the food be zero calories! Thanks Mich for an awesome day. Send us some photos to put on the blog!

Can you say BIG mistake?

Due to the price in diesel and our very-budgeted funds, we always try to combine driving trips so as to conserve. We've done this for most of our trip. We drive to the place we are going to visit with the camper in tow, unhitch, and then check out places to see that are close to where we are staying. We've continued this practice since being back in RI. I have always pumped my own diesel... except in Oregon where they are all full-serve stations by law.

We recently stopped in East Greenwich and only got $25 of diesel on May 3rd. This station in East Greenwich which prides itself on having "full-serve service at self-service prices." We only used the truck twice since getting that diesel and had trouble with the truck starting at times. It didn't concern me too much because I had an appointment with the mechanic on Thursday May 8th for an oil change and check-up.

On Thursday, the mechanic called to say the truck wouldn't start and wondered if it was due to an alarm or something. I said no, but told him that I had had trouble with it too.

Later on he called to ask me when was the last time I put fuel in the truck. I told him about stopping at the full-serve fuel station in East Greenwich. As I thought about it, I recalled that I had not "seen" the attendant putting in the fuel. That's when we both realized why the truck wasn't starting. I took a moment to look through my wallet for my receipt which confirmed our suspicion. The attendant had pumped REGULAR.... gas.

We don't know exactly how much damage has been done, but it is going to be a costly and time-consuming process to remedy this.

I went and spoke with the owner of the gas station.
It turns out that I am not the first person this has happened to.
He wanted to know if it was going to cost less than his deductible of $500.
I told him he should call his insurance company because yes, it is going to cost more than that.
If the draining of the gas doesn't remedy the situation, we may need a new fuel pump and a new fuel sensor. The parts alone could cost over $3000 not to mention untold hours of labor.

So the truck is at the mechanic's being drained of all the horrible gasoline that has pumped through it's veins and the owner is calling his insurance company to deal with the bill.

My usually very optimistic attitude is a shaken today.
I love that truck.
That truck pulls our home.
I am hopeful that permanent damage has not been done.
I am worried that permanent damage has been done.

We will see...