The next series of events is neither politically correct as far as what we SHOULD have done nor is it probably remembered in the correct sequence.....We jumped out of bed like a shot, I headed to the kitchen/living room and opened up all the windows. Eldy went immediately outside, (I know, I know, I should have gone with him!) and turned off the propane.. I had remembered smelling a whiff of propane at the kitchen stove earlier this afternoon, but it went away and I didn't think anything more of it. NOW the smell was VERY strong! The beeping continued for about 30 seconds, then all of a sudden, it stopped. We looked at each other. We looked at the stove. We looked like idiots. I said, "We've got to call somebody!" Who ya gonna call at 9:30 at night to come to a rural Alabama campground in the boonies? Oh, duh--now that I think about it, the fire department. The volunteer fire department was just down the road outside the campground! We weren't thinking clearly at the moment, that's for sure!
Eldy made the executive decision that we didn't need to call anybody at this time of night since the warning beep and light had gone off, and the smell dissipated. We kept trying to figure out why the warning beep had occurred. Finally, Eldy noticed that the rear burner knob on the stove was turned on just slightly, not in full "light" position, but it was on enough to trigger a gas flow. After a lengthy discussion of how in the world could a stove knob be turned in just a partial turn on position, we figured that somehow, SPARKY must have bumped the stove knob when cleaning the stove earlier in the evening, or not paying attention because she was too hyped up on Coca Cola today--I confess I had more than my one Coke!-- OR had started to turn on the wrong burner while doing something at the stove. Eldy just could not rest until an explanation was found! I told him it's because I'm developing Alzheimers early, and don't you know that's one of the first things you start to do is forget to turn the stove off! Good thing my nursing home long term care policy is paid up currently, because we might need it sooner than I think! At any rate, because the living room fantastic fan was running, it kept the gas from building up by the stove area. Once we turned the ceiling fan off for the night, the gas accumulated enough to set off the alarm! Wheweee!!!!! THAT was an eye opener! Sparky will be more careful around the stove, and we know that the alarm works great! Just a reminder to everyone to check your batteries in your detectors in your RV and make sure they all work! We know the smoke detector works because every time Eldy makes his huge batch of popcorn, the smoke detector goes off! We test that one about once or twice a week!
We decided to leave Gunter Hill Campground in Montgomery, AL a day early. Sparky surrendered to the ants! No, not really.....We just decided to get the hell out of the campground that was rife with ants, raining acorns, leaves and a gritty stone site....Guess there were some more drawbacks to that pretty campground after all...The grit coming into the coach from the crushed stone site was getting Sparky down. Had to clean and re-clean the floors every single day...Along with the ants, along with the acorns "storm" that rained every day on the rooftop...Most of the time, the acorns rained down at night..They hit the roof so hard it would wake us up several times a night. So-o-o-o-o, before we could pull out, Sparky, being of sure foot, climbed up on the rooftop to survey the leaf/water/acorn removal job ahead of her:
An uneventful drive today except for the strong, gusty winds buffeting us from side to side. We drove I-65 down south, eventually picking up highway 59 south, which brought us to Gulf Shores. We will be staying at Gulf Shores State Park, quite the place, for the next 3 days...a little over budget to stay on the waterway--35.70 a night, but Sparky might get to see an alligator, so it's worth it to her! Pull through site, full hookups...great facilities. We'll tell you all about it in the next day or two..AND to make it sweeter, our friends, Greg and Jan White are here!
