I woke up cold and guessed that the heaters had run out of propane. I tried to lay there but just could not get warm and as both dogs were laying on the spare blanket, gave up on the sleep idea and crawled out of bed. I took a long hot shower to warm up and then put my track suit on to go outside and switch the gas bottles, a two minute job. It was cold out and I was glad to get back inside and dress in my regular clothes. 

We harnessed up and went for a quick walk just around the top end of the park, but it was cool enough to be uncomfortable, so we headed back indoors where the heaters had done a good job of warming the RV up. I made breakfast and that all important coffee to get me started although the cold wind had already done the job of waking me up. 

I turned to the world news, and it was as depressing as usual, and I checked my emails. There were a couple that needed attention and one that I thought I recognized but when I clicked on it, was warned NOT to open it as it was too risky. That one was quickly trashed after reporting it as spam. I got to thinking about many of the emails I receive from different camping writers and RV Travelling news and although, they are sometimes helpful with good information, they are not really something I will be needing in the future. Maybe, I can lower the amount of mail I get by unscribing from these. 

I have definitely decided to sell Quatro as I am no longer interested in driving around and visiting other campsites. I am very happy here at this park and have finally found an RV that has about everything I need, making it easy to settle down in one place for the rest of my days or at least, as long as I am able. The urge to travel has been satisfied. Which will take, one more old man threat off the roads, except for the odd local trip in the jeep. 

I got to thinking about storage and lack of space to put everything when I finally complete cleaning out Quatro. I remembered the next door ladies and their large storage box and the huge unit that Malinda and Daniel have that holds a full size refrigerator and started to look it up on line. Daniel had mentioned that he got his unit from Ace Hardware, so I looked for the closest one which was miles away in Austin. The same App showed me that The Home Depot also carries similar storage boxes. Without further ado, I jumped in the car after telling the dogs I would not be long and made the short drive into Dripping Springs. 

Needless to say, I went in the door on the Construction end of the store and looked in all of the wrong places and could not find what I wanted. Then, swallowing my pride, I asked one of the employees for aisle information to which he directed me to aisle 2 which was outside in the Garden Section. At the time, I was in aisle 43, way off base and completely at the wrong end of the store. Still, part of my exercise routine is walking in these large stores. 

I wandered over in right direction and finally found what I was looking for. There was a large selection and I spent time deciding which one would be a good fit. I already knew how much space there was to install the unit so that cut back a lot on the choice. I finally narrowed it down to one particular sized unit and pulled the large box down onto the floor. Finding a flat cart, I realized that I really needed help in loading it and wandered around, finding an employee walking the floor of the Garden Nursery. With her help, we loaded the large box onto the flat cart, and I paid for it at the register. 

She pushed it out while I went to find my car which, of course, I had parked way up at the other end of the car park. She was still waiting for me and helped to load it into the Jeep. It just fitted in the space. 

The drive back was uneventful, and I was thinking of the assembly and such.  Incidentally, I had bought the inevitable Latte and took a few sips on the way to the park. When I arrived back, I harnessed up the dogs so they could sit and watch as I unloaded the box and at the moment, Daniel and Malinda arrived walking Remington and wanted to know what was in the box. 

When I told them, they at once got to work unpacking, identifying and then assembling the new unit. It took well over an hour to do this but as they had experience having assembled their own unit, knew a couple of tricks to make it go smoother. I sort of hovered around and held this or fetched that and sometimes, digging a tool out of my collection but really, did very little in the way of assembly. They both did all the work. 

With the unit assembled we moved it to its location in between the slide outs where it is almost hidden from view and set it up with levelling blocks. All that is lacking is a couple pieces of 2×8 for an interior shelf plus a padlock but other than that, it is ready to go. 

I thanked them profusely and I have learned better than to offer to pay them as they both got very indignant when I did. They went on their way back to their RV and I took the dogs out for the last walk of the day. They had invited me over for a beer which I did after putting the dogs back inside. 

My next door neighbors, B.J. and Peggy came over and joined us and we chatted about a lot of nothing, regaling each other with stories of our adventures. The weather had turned cold and even though I almost sat in the fire ring, I could not warm up. Malinda brought me out another jacket and it helped a bit but, In the end, I had to go back to The Caboose where I could get warm. 

We went out for one more short walk and then adjourned inside in the warmth of the RV sitting in front of the fire with the heaters going full blast. 

All in all, it was a very interesting day and I have made a good decision to stay here permanently. 

Written 03/18/2023. Read my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com