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Foil Blanket Insulation for curtains[/caption]Fifteen years from now I imagine Champ and I sitting here in Volunteer Village with younger volunteers just getting started in this remarkable life and talking about years past. The Memorial Weekend of 2018 is going to be one that we remember for the rest of our lives. I can see us sitting around telling war stories about being full time. We’ll bicker about exactly what year it was, but the story will go something like, the hottest Memorial Day on record and no AC. We’ll wonder how we got through it.
When the central air in the motor home started acting up in Texas we didn’t think too much of it. After all, the real heat in Iowa doesn’t normally show up till late June. We’ll have plenty of time to get it fixed. Hah! We are set to shatter a heat record today that has stood since 1895. A predicted high of 97 with heat indexes approaching 105+ and dew points around 70 we will wave at the 92-degree record by noon today. The hardest thing to believe is just 7 days ago we had the fireplace going to keep warm. Midwest weather was wild mood swings as anyone who has lived here knows all too well.
Like most difficult situations, when you realize it is going to happen you don’t know how you will cope. But humans are quite resilient. We seem to hunker down and adapt when life deals a blow. On Tuesday evening as Zack walked away with our burnt-up compressor fan motor, I thought to myself “We have three full days before the holiday weekend, there’s a sporting chance we’ll be okay by the time the heat gets bad.” On Friday afternoon I was watching the weather, and my phone, that never resulted in the much wanted call from Zach, saying the motor was ready, and resigning myself to the fact that this was really going to happen. Champs personality is one that will roll with most anything. Mine is to go down swinging. We have filled with big windows with insulated foil wrap, making our home on wheels look like a space capsule. The portable AC unit that is on my corner table and 2 high velocity blowers are keeping the humidity out and the temp around the same as the outside instead of the 130 degrees it would likely be in here with no intervention. After all we live in a giant car. It is Monday and we’ve endured most of the weekend. The last few days has been an ongoing layman’s experiment in thermo-dynamics. In retrospect we’ll remember with awe the weather pattern more reminiscent of Iowa State Fair weather in August, than Memorial Day Weekend weather. It will become part of our journey. With the exception of Friday, when I had a hot flash in the heat of the day and Champ agreed the portable AC unit was worth the money (after being on the receiving end of a hormone fueled meltdown) it has been uncomfortable but not, impossible.
Prairie Flower Campground’s power grid went down on Saturday leaving over 300 campers with no electricity for nearly 9 hours beginning mid-afternoon. I thank my lucky starts that we have electricity to run all the appliances that are keeping us from checking into a hotel with the cats, and the means to buy the things we needed to make this little adventure tolerable.
I wonder what tomorrow will bring.
Until then…
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