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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Living in the Driveway

Did I mention that we're living in our RV in our Daughter's driveway right now?  When we moved to AZ two years ago, we promised our Kids/Grandkids that we'd come up to visit in the summertime.  Since temps can often run 115 degrees in the part of AZ where we live, it sounded like a good plan at the time.  But I'm beginning to rethink that plan.

The first summer we arrived in Olympia a month behind our original plan (My Mom, who lives with us, fell and broke her hip that April).  We were looking forward to spending a quiet summer at my Daughter's home, looking out at the forest across the street from her house. 

I imagine the look on my face must have been priceless when we arrived to find all of the trees gone across the road and heard my Daughter announcing airily "Oh that.  They're building a Win-Co over there."  Our entire summer (Except when we went camping, which was often!) was spent listening to loaders and dump trucks and the never-ending beeping of large equipment backing up.  They started every morning by 6am and often worked until dark.  Geesh!  To top it off, summer never did arrive in Washington last year. (If you live here, you know what I mean!)

So this year, we came a little later, thinking maybe summer would be better this year since we didn't have one last year.  We parked in our usual spot next to our Daughter's driveway and settled in for a nice visit with our Grandkids.  We went camping over Memorial Day weekend with our extended family, had a wonderful time.  And the weather cooperated.  Finally!  A fun summer on the way for sure.

As we drove around the final corner to our Daughter's house after that camping trip, I noticed heavy equipment parked in a vacant lot.  "Nah, couldn't be for anything around us," I thought.  We parked the RV, put out our awning, watched our Grandson play baseball that night, came home and went to bed.

At 7am, the first generator started, startling me out of a sound sleep.  Then a huge rumbling sound got louder and louder until it seemed to stop right outside our door.  I got up and peeked out the window at the huge letters outside our windshield that said "Ditch Witch".  This massive rumbling machine was attached to a truck that said "Directional Boring" on the side.  John went outside to talk to the workers and found out that they are putting in all new gas lines along the street! They've been here now for the past 3 weeks.

I'm thinking now that the AZ summers may not be so bad... 

17 comments:

  1. LOL...at least there's an up-side with getting to see your grandkids :) Maybe next year will be better!

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  2. Oh no that is horrible...but the family is still there. We are in the process of looking for an RV to do some travelling too.

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  3. Oh no! Hopefully the construction will be done by the time you visit next summer!

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  4. Ah...the wonderful season of Construction...followed by winter. LOL

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  5. Seems like construction is everywhere! Don't they know people are trying to have a nice visit with the fam?

    Hope you've had some great times with your family even if you lose sleep due to noisy construction.

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  6. There really are just two seasons...winter and construction!! Hang in there! Enjoy the grand kids!!

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  7. When I was a kid, there was a big storm that knocked over a tree in our front yard - right on top of our house. So we did a complete remodel, and we lived in our driveway for a few months. Noisy construction all day long, and being in an RV...I know what you're going through! But hey, on the upside, you get to visit your family. =)

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  8. Oh my. In Chicago, there's winter and construction. At least you're with family and grandkids.

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  9. LOL! So sorry you've had to deal with this 2 years in a row! Hopefully, getting that special family time with the grandkids makes up for it! ;-D

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  10. ack! ;>)

    you should pack up the entire family next summer and take them to the middle of a nice cool forest campground!

    marilyn g

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  11. At least you're with family and are mobile. Will keep fingers crossed for next year.

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  12. at least you spent time with your family!)

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  13. Wow. Wow. Did you cry the morning of the ditch witch?

    -Melina

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  14. Wow, sounds like a lot of work is being done. Hopefully next summer will be peaceful?

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  15. LOL, I hope you get better one next year :) The good part is enjoying your grand kids.

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  16. That's so sad that they cut down the forest!

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  17. Oh my! Your luck :( I hope it gets better and you can have a restful summer sans noise!

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