We are driving down the foothills from beautiful Ramona towards the coast, checking out the amazing views we have come to deeply love, when some unfamiliar noises accompany our regular symphony of interesting noises on the Jeep.  These are new and these are scary.  We look to one another, hoping that perhaps the other person didn’t hear it or it was them who made the noise somehow.  No such luck.  We pull off at a turn-out point and cannot find the source of the noise.  We are nervous, not only for our safety in the middle of these hills but also for how much this phantom noise will cost us.

Once we are home safe, we find that our wonderful 1988 Jeep needs some work on the U-joints.  This is good news!  They are pretty inexpensive and Andy knows how to fix it.

The perks of having such a handy husband and a vehicle with parts available everywhere!

We have been fortunate enough to be able to talk about some of the amazing things that have happened on our adventure thus far.  Really neat experiences coupled with really cool people.  We’ve also talked about some of the issues we have run into with RV life.  This is a continuation of that wonderful discussion.

After fixing the Jeep, we are sitting in our yard enjoying the weather when we notice a small bit of moisture under the RV.  I crawl underneath and stick my fingers in the mysterious liquid only to discover that the leak is coming from inside the house.  I repeat: it’s coming from inside the house!  Not good.  As Andy started taking stuff apart, we find out that our toilet is leaking…from three different spots.  If there is one thing that will destroy an RV the fastest, it is water.

We hopped on our bikes, rode to the RV service store in town, and grabbed the parts we needed to fix the job (correction: for Andy to fix it).

I’m sure I’ll keep saying this throughout our lives together but I am so thankful that Andy is such a capable person!  He knows how to fix just about everything!

We spent some unexpected money to fix these very necessary things.  An update on our work situation: the greenhouse job that Andy had did not work out, nor did the ranch job he was supposed to start on Monday.  We had to take a temporary hiatus from soap and jewelry making until we could get things set up here.  Now that my editing job is over and we are both free to look for new opportunities, we have our resumes out there on our search for new work experiences.  Wish us luck!

On the brighter side, we found a free office chair for my outdoor office!  I get to write outside ALL THE TIME!

And check out these amazing views of our park!  Just to leave everyone on a happier note, this morning I got two compliments from people walking through the park.  They thanked me for the work we are doing and said they truly appreciate it!