Traveling by yourself has definitely advantages, but also disadvantages.  When you are in a funk and things start to go wrong there is nobody who can get you out of that mood.

After the water leak, which was bad but was taken care off, my fridge broke down on Tuesday.  What was supposed to be a relaxing Wednesday at Lake Medina, turned into a not so pleasant experience.  Camper fridges don’t work the same way as regular home fridges.  They run on an absorption system with an ammonia and water solution.  Well, somehow a blockage got into the cooling tubes, preventing the fridge and freezer from getting cold.  A new fridge cost a whooping $1,100, yes all that for a 6.3 cubic foot fridge.  As it turns out, the fridge is still under warranty.  Norcold will pay for a new cooling system and I pay the guy to remove the old and put in the new, at an hourly rate of $85.  I think I am in the wrong business.

If I had a clear head all this really would not be so bad.  I am “stuck” at beautiful Lake Medina where I am parked next to my friends’ house.  I have a great view onto the lake as I am writing this.  Basically, my ice cream melted, I guess a melted pint has fewer calories than a frozen one (I couldn’t just throw it out), and hopefully my bread will just re-freeze when the freezer is fixed.  All the other stuff is kept kind of cold by ice.  My friends had to go back to Austin otherwise I would be using the fridge in the house.  It will cost me a couple of hundred dollars for the installation and I have to endure the beauty of the lake.  Why am I still in a funk?  This could really be much worse.

I had a great day on Monday and Tuesday with Alison, Joanna and her parents.  It was really nice to have dinner in a family setting.  Having had dinner with friends in the last couple of weeks was nice, but it was special having parents around and sharing stories.  Tuesday we took care of a couple of things at the house and the afternoon was spent on the lake.  This time it was not in a small boat with a tiny out border like at Lake Alexander, but a real motorboat.  Wow, what fun we had.  I had my first waterskiing lesson and I even stood up on the skies and went for 100 yards or so before I crashed.  Actually, I think I let go of the rope, couldn’t handle the little waves.  What a thrill.  I was just thinking to myself that I am the luckiest person in the world.  Traveling and meeting wonderful people.  Thank you Joanna, Alison, Patricia and Don!  It is funny in a way, Joanna and Alison only lived a few blocks away from me in NYC and we have a mutual friend, but we never met until I drove to Austin.  There are reasons to leave Manhattan from time to time.

Let’s hope that my mood will have improved by tomorrow so that I can catch up on my writing and photo editing.  Blogs without photos are only half the fun.