... I'm heading back into town to the make shift laundry mat. As I pull up, the lights are still on, but still not sure if it's close or if the doors are locked. I get out, check the doors, peek in, see a scruffy old man doing his laundry... all is go. I head back to the car and get my HUGE load of blankets and sleeping bags. Because I can't see over the top of the mound, I don't see what is next.
I throw the heap on the nearest table so I can observe this place and get a better understanding of my layout. That's when it hits me that I could be in grave danger. In various places on the floor (due to it being so level in the rickety joint) are an inch to an inch and a half pools of standing water, and many puddles are flowing under the washers. Are you freak'n kidding me???
As I tiptoe around trying to find dry spots, I say a lil prayer again, "Oh heaven please help me, I don't want to be electrocuted".
Since the dryer drums were on the wall and the water was flowing to the center of the room, I figured I was at least some what safe. I have 4 big blankets, 2 in each dryer should be good. I try not to make eye contact with the gentleman doing his stuff, so I turn my back to him, lean up against a dry washer and play The Game of Life on my phone. Periodically I glance up to check to see if the dryers are still spinning. Yep, good. Another few go by. I decide to feel them, maybe readjust the blankets to help out the heating process. In the one dryer when I felt them, they weren't hot, not even warm. I know that I check the setting before I started it-high heat. Higher heat means getting out of there faster. So I move it to the next dryer- I drop a quarter in the slot and the drums doesn't spin. Stupid me drops another quarter in..still no go. Then I glance at the other dryer that has my other blankets, it stops spinning, too. It ran out of time, so I drop another quarter in the machine. No spinning either. Oh mother of mercy!! What now? In my observations I noticed that there was a hall way of more dryers. But I was trying to avoid that area. Not open, not well lit, kind of out of the way. Not my idea of a hang out... but on the brighter side, there was no pools of standing water. Carved in the metal of the door of the machines are "don't work" then a date, "no heat" then another date, "use at your own risk" yet another date. I just want to go home. Oh what the hell, what's another quarter and 20 more minutes of my time. I throw my blankets in and keep playing my game. An elderly lady come through the back door, smiles at me (no eye contact, keep head down, no eye contact). She asks me how my night is going so far... I really could unleash on her. "Fine, thank you. Just wish I could find a dryer that works." She replies " Oh honey, I waste about seven dollars every time I come here, you never know which one is going to work, kind of a Russian roulette." She then shows me the only two dryers that have proven to be dependable, of course they are the ones being used. One dryer that I took a chance on seemed to be okay, the other had no heat either. What ever. When one blanket was dry, I pulled it out in hopes of the others drying faster. After what seemed to another life time, the nice lady was loading up her clothes from the good dryer. She told me there as still time left on that dryer and that I could use what is left. God bless her. By that time only two blankets were left to be dried out. Within about 1o minutes, the rest were dry and I got the hell out of there. When I walked in to the camper, Eric gave me a look of "Where have you been?" I shook my head and shortly told all the kids it was bed time. Conveniently no argued with me. Good. I just wanted to go to bed... so i did, not knowing what tomorrow morning might bring........
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