Uh-Oh!

We took a drive yesterday and the dreaded yellow wrench popped up on our engine display. When this happens, you STOP driving and get a tow truck to take you to the nearest garage. Ugh! If any of you are aware, NC-12 is a little two lane highway that travels the length of the Outer Banks from Corolla to Hatteras. It’s narrow and busy with a little sliver of blacktop on the berm. After that, it’s soupy sand that can quickly suck you into the ditch. It’s not anyplace you want to break down and wait for a tow. So, I managed to limp the one mile back to our camper and started making calls. From what we can tell, the message light indicates something is wrong with the drivetrain. It can be something easy to fix. Or it could mean a new transmission. With any number of things in between. The first call I made was to a garage over in Manteo and they happened to have an opening this Friday! That’s unheard of from what the locals tell me. Thank you, God! I found a car rental near the garage that can get us a car for a special rate used for folks whose cars are in the shop. That was very helpful. They may have a car available today so send up a little prayer for us.

The trickiest part of the deal was what to do about the camper. We have to leave our site on Saturday because there are campers coming in that afternoon. Our truck will be in the shop, so the nice folks at the campground will move our camper to an interim site for Saturday night. I went online and booked Sunday the 20th to the following Saturday. The only catch is, it doesn’t have electric. We will probably have to get a generator to keep electric to the camper during the day so our food doesn’t spoil. But I’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Mr. FixIt says it’s always an adventure with Ginny McKinney!

We have met some of the nicest people this trip. We always go across the road every evening to see the sunset at the marina. Every evening, just at dusk, this happy guy pulls in and starts fishing. We struck up a conversation with him and were so touched by his joyful presence. As we were pulling out to head back over to the camper, he came running over to the truck and asked if we’d like a fish he just caught. Oh, YES, please! He ran back to his gear and brought us a big red drum. We were thrilled. Mr. FixIt’s hands don’t allow him to do such tasks anymore so I cleaned and prepared the fish. We cooked it the next evening in garlic, butter, lemon juice and beer. It was SO good! I had a good two to three cups of leftover fish that I picked off the bones so I prepared fish cakes the next night. We had three of the patties left over so I told Mr. FixIt I was going to package them up and take them over to our new friend, Leroy. I flagged him down and said, “I have something for you!” When I gave him his treat, he broke out in a big smile and said, “Oh, I’ve got to have a hug!” Leroy is a retired school teacher and I envy any little child who had the joy of learning from this kind man. He runs a YouTube channel about fishing on the Outer Banks. You can find it here. (You’ll have to watch till about the third cast of his net. Amazing!) https://youtu.be/-z23h8hfctU?si=0XvrJT9AMOBHxgVc

We met the nicest couple in that cute vintage looking camper. And, guess what? They are writers and editors and travel bloggers. I may get them to have a look at my book in the coming months! The flowers are so pretty along the dunes. The moon was full. The comet was amazing. The storm clouds were beautiful. There was wind and rain, and of course, the truck fiasco. But life is still amazing and beautiful!

You can’t tell me God doesn’t plant you where He wants you…you just have to lean in and trust the process!

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.” Psalm‬ ‭37‬:‭4‬-‭6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

‭#trustgod #obx #truck #camping #beach #comet