On Christmas day we plan to leave for the coast again for about a week. So I went to the RV, wanting to pull the wrap off from the windows - one can see through them from the inside but it made everything just that little bit darker. Anyway, once the windows were clear, I had to patch out some partial words and figure out a way to add those now missing words elsewhere so the message still made sense. Needless to say, I did not have matching pieces for where I needed to patch and while I was making a really good but pointless attempt at achieving this, I pictured us back in an RV park, stuck at the back somewhere and having people walk big circles around us, avoiding contact. This was not what either I or Frank needed or wanted, so I started thinking that it was time. Time to pull the wrap off. At first we had said that we would keep it on until summer next year, but the reaction to the wrap was not what we had wanted it to be anyway, it was almost counter-productive.
So when today grew good and warm, out came the ladder and up I went. The wrap was pretty easy to get off at first, it was stuck on there pretty well but peeled of smoothly as long as I pulled gently with even pressure. That changed after the third blister popped! But it was good. When the lettering of PenniesforCancer.com came off, I spoke to Penny, thanked her for riding with us and everything else too - it was lovely up there on the top of the ladder in the sunshine talking gently.
As the sun moved, parts of Skilpad got shaded and the wrap became stubborn, clinging firmly to Skilpad. Frank moved her for me while I ran cold water over my hurting hands, but I was keen to get out there again. Frank knew that this was something I needed to do by myself - at least for the most part and he left me to do my thing while building me a jerky (biltong) drying box. It felt as if I was really pulling leukemia out/off, relegating it to an ugly pile on the ground. It felt good to see everything good and clean where the words were before.........was strangly cleansing and very therapeutic for me.
At one point in the middle of pulling the big word 'leukemia' off, I realised that Steven has had to drive past this every day on his way out in the morning. What a way to start his days with leukemia literally in his face at the start of every one! Wow. And then I really let rip and I found myself humming and smiling while blisters popped into sticky vinyl wrap! :-) Lovely! After hours of tugging at the vinyl, Frank joined me and grew his own blisters....... It was all good.
And now Skilpad is as she was before. If only I could make that happen for Steven too by the simple act of taking off a wrap. But he is doing so well that I am really not going to complain or anything at all.
I know for a fact that so much more could have been done with fundraising with that RV if only things had been done differently... but I looked inside myself and knew that we had to move forward and that that included removing the wrap. I am really glad we did that and we were really fortunate to have such warm weather so late in the year that allowed the relatively easy peeling of it.
I carefully cut out around all the names that were written on the sides and have those put on backing paper, in the shop. I am going to put them in the photo albums that I will be making about this trip. Right before starting to strip the wrap, I did my final walk around, dragging my hand over each name and sending positive thoughts and really big thanks to each one. Some people I am still in contact with but I will always hold each one of them close in my heart. I still say that those people who;s names were on our sides, were what truely made that adventure incredible.........
And so the RoadRunnersUSA trip has truely ended now. It was time.
Big smiles here tonight.
{{{*.*}}} www.penniesforcancer.com
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