FRIDAY THE 13TH

It's Friday the 13th, and that explains it all. We are prepared to leave first thing this morning - all I have to do is fill with water, and we are off - Not To Be!!! Go to hook up the water and immediately find a froze up and broken valve on the hook up rigummaroll thingamajig. Can't get it apart - fingers freezing, and then finally able to completely break it and get it apart. Off to High River RV Supply, but as luck would have it, I walked in and walked directly to the exact fitting/valve that I required$29.50 later I walked out and returned to the subject site. Installed same quite easily, then went to hook up the hose - Froze solid - get new one from garage and commence filling. Can't get water to the Hot Water tank --- Hmmmmm, forget that, we'll deal with that later. RV Water pump will not start, even though I did a proper "Winterization" a month ago. Deal with that later also. Then yesterday, we had the bedroom slide out, to access our closets, but didn't slide it back in at the end of the day. Denice said we should put the furnace on overnight, but Me knowing best, said why would we do that, as its all winterized and nothing can freeze - Maybe a little "Scotch" blood there. You know, we need to conserve propane.Anyway the long and short of it, when we tried to activate the slide it would not budge. Checked 120 Volt breakers - AOK. Tried 12 Volt Fuses AOK - now what?? I went outside and tried to assist by pushing while Denice activated the switch - Good Luck, thats like a flee trying to stampede an elephant!! But while I was out there I detected a small short hum when Denice acivated the switch -- so the motor is ok. I went back in and tried the switch a few more times, and alas, finally noticed small movements. A few more tmes and finally it started to come in. I surmise that overnight there must have been a small amount of condensation on the rubber sealing around the slide perimeter, and it had froze overnight. Now it was about 10:30 AM. By now our master plan said that we would be somewhere south of Lethbridge. Oh well plans are only made to be broken. By the way, we are retired. What we don't get done today, we will do tomorrow!! So now shut off the water and all appliances in the house, humidifier, water softener, add vegetable oil to all setting water in the "P" traps and toilets to prevent evaporation (as we plan to be gone up to 6 months) and finally at 11:00AM we are on the road. Once out of High River I ask my co-pilot to call friends, Linda and Tom in Warner to let them know we are on the way and will see them in a few hours. Not to be. I had instructed Telus to put our land line, internet, and cell phone on Vacation Disconnect while we are gone, in an effort to save $$$. Again SCOTCH you know!! We plan to buy a "Wally World" cell for $29.99 once in the USA and a 300 minute card. So now our cell is out of commission. Can't call anyone. So we just arrive at Lindas and Toms at 2:00PM. Linda whips up a turkey sandwich for us, and dinner at 6:00PM. GREAT FRIENDS !!! Tom and I get the Pump working - must have been stuck!! Fill the hot water tank, and now I do believe we are really on our way. Spend the night in ELTORO in front of Lindas house.