Day 22..... Mothers Day Weekend "Excitement"

Happy Mothers Day to all the wonderful Mothers out there. I hope your weekend was as awesome and relaxing as mine. Normally Mothers Day consists of a big BBQ here at our house, and no matter how "well meaning" everyone is, Mom is still the one that ends up doing a good portion of the work and a good amount of the clean-up. This year, we opted for something different. On Friday night we packed up the 5th Wheel and went camping at Salt Creek. It was incredibly beautiful, weather, warm, sunny and the entire weekend was completely relaxing . It was exactly what we both needed.
It didn't ....however....start out relaxing. We arrived out at camp, picked our spot and parked. First job....get the propane fridge up and running to keep the weekends worth of groceries nice and cold, like the 2 yummy rib steaks we brought. Second job is to get the hot water tank up and running. Don turned the knob as usual to get ready to start it...and it broke. Well, out came the wrench but the trick was to be sure it was in the right position since it no longer had any markings on it. Don put the striker in position and ...flick...."WHOOSH". A huge flare of hot flames shot out at him. He was able to jump back in time, but wow....bit scary. However, we just assumed that the time it took to use the wrench, just allowed a bit of extra propane to leak out...all would be well. Right? Not so much. When he struck the striker again, it was once again a huge whoosh of flame, but this time it didn't go out. It just started to burn. Flames heading up the side of the 5th wheel.
It's funny how you find yourself doing something in a moment of panic like that...that you didn't even realize you were doing. I bolted around the front of the 5th wheel...ripped the fire extinguisher off the wall and turned to Don who had appeared around the corner. I threw it into his hands and he hollered..."shut off the Gas...Shut off the GAS" He ran back to the fire, and fumbled with the fire extinguisher...that we didn't even know would work or not. ( thank god it did)
I got the gas turned out and came back around in time to hear him say, "it's out".
Oh MY GOD....totally terrifying experience. The extinguisher was almost out of pressure, and fortunately he was able to get just enough that it shot a POOF of dry powder on the flames and put them out. By then , the paint on the side was bubbled up and it was only a matter of a few seconds and we would have lost the entire thing.
And by entire thing...I mean everything. It was still attached to the truck. There would have been no way of getting it unhook from the truck in time.
Hearts pounding.......panic beginning to subside....we looked at each other and thought...WOW !!!!!
Anyhow, we made a big ...GIANT"  whiskey and sat down and got our breathing and pulses back to normal. And....the rest of the weekend went perfect.
We had a big ice pack in the cooler so we put it in the fridge to keep everything good, left the gas off and cooked on the BBQ and camp stove outside...and all went well. But ...WOW...talk about a bit of excitement. ( I really don;t want to repeat it ...EVER )!!!!!!

And of course, now there is that wonderful...added expense of a new water heater control $300... but that is ok...because I can't spend a summer in Alaska, or anywhere else, without hot water. And....best of all, we still have "it all"