Fabulous Friends

The only constant in travel is that you will have to change your plans. It’s an unfortunate reality for Jakki; if you knew her, you’d know that planning is her favorite hobby. This last turn was particularly hard on me.

Seriously, get roadside assistance, kids. This tow of 15 miles was going to cost us more than $600.

Yes, that’s our home being pulled by a truck usually used to pull other trucks that unloaded weigh more than twice we do. The place I’ve come to think of as the real Deep Space Expendable was experiencing mechanical issues with the brake lines. Obviously, this isn’t the kind of thing you can ignore.

I called no fewer than 14 places before finally finding a place actually willing to work on the brakes of our home, now considered obsolete due to its age being further than the 7 year limit. Not content to let our home die an apathetic Logan’s Run, I finally scoured enough to stumble upon Jack’s Best Auto and Motorhome.

Outside of a few communications issues, I’d say Jack did right by us on trying to get us on the road quickly. I personally had taken our travel paralysis in the worst way possible: I need to be on the move and waiting for a response we won’t receive completely murders my motivations.

Friendship goes a long way in these situations. When things go wrong, your community bands together and helps out the person in need. You see it all the time. Honestly, had we been in any other town, things could have been so much worse. So, so much worse.

Generally speaking, we get along just fine with the 3 cats in our home. Unfortunately, in the not-so-rare circumstance where we’re going to have to turn our actual house over to a mechanic who laments during my daily check-in phone calls about the unavailability of a set of parts for our specific situation, we’re going to need to find some place to stay. One that accepts cats.

Our very generous friends in Denver offered to allow us to stay, but I believe in the preservation of friendship if possible, so not knowing how long we would be sidelined, I declined his offer and we found ourselves holed up in an Extended Stay Hotel. Well, minus one of our clan.

Dean

Most beautiful of Cats.
Moodiest of Teenagers.

You see, our friends had been hosting our amazon packages, as we’d discovered that some of our basic needs had been unmet, so we ordered Solar Power components and motorcycle seat cushions and our hosts were kind enough to receive and store them. As my good friend was kind enough to transport them for us back to the RV, Dean and he fell in love with each other. Almost immediately. And who wouldn’t? Look at that beautiful cat-specimen?

But Dean also did the thing he usually does when he meets someone new, which is be nice to them and offer his belly. Dean is one of those rare belly-rub-loving cats, you see. And so my friend was happy to provide belly rubs. And Dean was immediately smitten. More than I’d ever seen. Dean was also the least well-equipped-for-travel cat in our posse. And our friend? He was already suggesting that we let Dean go home with him.

When it came time to finally bring our home in for service, the side suggestions became very serious consideration. Dean had never really been happy with us; at least not as long as we’d been fostering a 3rd or 4th cat. So we re-homed Dean. Or really, we finally gave Dean the home he was waiting for. I like to think of it more like we just fostered Dean for a long time. And Dean? He seems happy. Genuinely happy. At home with a family who adores him, including children who like to start their day with cuddles from the moody sap.

We leave Denver behind with our wallets a little lighter from the unexpected expenses. Denver itself isn’t my favorite city, the din of its existence defined more by the sound of its perpetual traffic jams now than any of its cultural offerings. Sad to me, as I’d always held the city in my heart as a special place. Perhaps it’s my age that sees me considering the surrounding cities more beautiful and more my pace. But we have amazing friends in Fab and his family, who would often at the drop of a hat, hearing that we’d have a plan to handle our newest hurdle, would drop nearly everything to come offer any help he could.

We leave Denver behind and we also leave Dean. We’re not sad, though. We leave Dean with the best kind of friend: An unconditional one. I’ll see you both next year.

Dean and Poseidon keeping warm in Steamboat Springs.