Don’t Be Jelly. We Made $23 In The Rain.

This is Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle. Some days you wake up and think, well, uh oh. You know that kind of day? Where you just feel something is a little off? Yeah, so that was yesterday. We thought that we were on our way to that Virginia place. But the day had other plans. And our back up plans needed plans of their own.

As we were about to pull out of our campsite, the Big Blue Treat Wagon grumbled when the key was turned. And then? Well, Boy Person tried again. The RV tried again. Grumble. Little grumble. Boy Person kept trying. It kept trying. But the last time? Not even a grumble as loud as the Deputy’s stomach at 5:55 p.m. before dinner. Nothin. Nothin at all. And we were stuck.

Now, they say when it rains it pours. And as the deadline to check out of our campsite loomed over us, the skies above turned gray.

It was time. Time to admit that whatever the problem was could not be solved quickly.

And as we went inside, Girl Person called up the next campsite to cancel it for the day. Then she went to pay for another night here in New Bern, North Carolina. And after that was all said and done? Well, we came out with an extra $23 for our trouble. And I thought, hey. You know, $23 is nothing to be scoffed about. $23 for a whole morning and afternoon of drama and trauma in the rain seemed like it could have been worth a little more than that. And we still had a problem. A very. Big. Problem. But it wasn’t so bad. Because I had Jelly. We all had Jelly.

Yes, I named her Jelly. Peanut butter and Jelly. Goes good together, doesn’t it?

You see, Jelly was getting her first taste of life on the road. And it wasn’t a good one. I didn’t want her to be too scared and nervous about traveling. So I tried to explain to her that this happens sometimes, and that even on a day like this, there were a few things to be thankful for. Even when Boy Person kept trying to fix the RV and it would not budge and we were standing in the woods crying with Girl Person.

You see, we may not have made it out of our campsite. But that was a good thing. Because if we would have, we may have broken down on the side of the road. And if we would have broken down, we could have been stuck there. And it was better to be stuck here in an almost empty campground in campsite #5 with an extra $23.

I tried to explain to Jelly that as time goes on, we are realizing how much it counts. Every minute, every hour, every second wasted being upset is just not acceptable. Sometimes, things happen to make us realize that it is time to regroup. Time to make changes if we have to. And when you have others around to support you, the travel to those changes thru learning lessons can make the next minute, the next hours better.

And as Boy Person banged on stuff and tried to talk to the Big Blue Treat Wagon and get her to start, the clock was ticking. It was looking like maybe the next day we were going to earn another $23 again. And that’s when we heard it thru the woods. The sound. The roar. The Big Blue Treat Wagon sounding like herself again. No grumble this time. And it was like I was hearing that roar for the first time. And then I realized. This was the first time Jelly had heard it. And that was pretty special too.

Because as bad as our day had seemed, to see Jelly’s face light up (yes, it did), was worth all the trouble. Our day had not been wasted. No. There were lessons learned and tears cried. But through it all, when the day was done, we knew that the next day had it’s own possibilities to be better. We can hope.