We’ve had a few missing items since we began this journey. I don’t know if I’ll ever really be able to put words to that last week before we moved. Needless to say, we not only brought many unintended items with us, but also left behind some things that we were counting on (and some things we were not counting on, like the huge boxes of trash in storage).
One of the first things to go missing was the key to the lock attached to the generator; if you’ve read my other blog posts, you’ve already heard about this debacle. After a mere six weeks on the road, we finally ran across (and promptly labeled) this key.
One night in Erie, John went to grab the keys to the truck so he could go pick up our groceries. They weren’t on the counter near the sliding door where we normally drop the keys. He checked his pants’ pocket; no luck. This started a ninety minute search for the keys. We searched every nook and cranny of our trailer. It’s a large trailer, but there are only 41 feet. We took apart every hidden compartment, checked every place where they could have slipped. We rooted through the truck cab, then started looking through all of the outside compartments. We searched the grass in a perimeter around our RV. The places we were looking made no sense, but we were out of logical, reasonable responses. After about ninety minutes, John remembered that Kaeli had asked for something from the truck a few nights before and he had told her to take the keys and grab what she wanted. Kaeli did not recall actually picking up the keys, but we were now desperate. Our groceries window had long come and passed and I was now running through scenarios on how we would get a replacement key. If Ford dealerships don’t even carry all of the parts for F-350s because they are not a common vehicle, would regular pop-a-lock services have the ability to make a key for it? At this junction in my reverie, staring into the fridge, hoping to find the keys between the leftover taco meat and bag of sugar snap peas, I heard John’s cheer from outside. He found the keys in the field on the other side of the pond near the road. Apparently, Kaeli had retrieved an item from the locked truck several nights prior, then proceeded to take the dog for a walk, dropping the keys without noticing. I could focus on a lot of things in this scenario, but I’m zoning in on the fact that Kaeli is picking up the majority of dog poo. You win some, you lose some.
We were almost “home” from our last trip to the beach at Presque Isle State Park, when a panicked “Oh no!” exploded from the back seat. Kaeli couldn’t find her phone; this happens regularly, so we didn’t initially share her concerns. We quickly realized that it had lost signal several minutes after our arrival to the beach despite a full battery charge prior to our departure and our level of concern increased. Kaeli showed us her spibelt, used to hold her phone on the go, which was sopping wet and empty - with the zipper limply sitting in the fully open position like a tongue wagging at us.
Keeping track of an 11 year old’s phone is one of the pitfalls of life with diabetes. Luckily, Kaeli’s blood sugars have been extremely stable since we left on our trip. The cycle of monthly lows seems to have disappeared across the last two months, making us less concerned about immediate replacement of her phone/dexcom receiver.
John returned to the beach and combed all of the areas where the kids had played, but it was a futile attempt. I believed in my heart that her phone had gone Into the Unknown of Lake Erie for a new life, and a different sort of adventure. In our haste to prepare for two back to back trips in the RV, we looked into the phone’s insurance (because we would have to be insane to not take out insurance of an 11 year old’s phone), but did not finish the forms to order her a replacement.
On a hike at our new campground three days later, Riley found part of a toy that had clearly been half buried in the dirt for months or years. We joked that a child would find Kaeli’s phone two years from now and it would be an antiquated piece of a toy, but not really useful.
When we returned from this very hike, I received a text from Kaeli! In reality, it was a lifeguard, Jake, from the beach who let us know we could stop by the main lifeguard station or call them after noon to arrange for pick up of her phone. Apparently, someone found it and the lifeguards charged it and texted, “Mommy.” Her phone has officially been reunited with us. There are truly some wonderful individuals in this world.
We are learning a lot about flexibility on this trip. We’ve had a lot of mishaps, but we’ve also encountered some people, opportunities, and blessings.