Seeing Matt’s mental state, I realized I had to hold it together for us both and have a breakdown at a later date (I seem to do this a lot, but then forget to have the breakdown – I’m sure that will never catch up with me). I spoke to Matt in quiet, soothing tones. He probably didn’t even hear me over the blood rushing in his ears but at least it calmed me down.

While Matt unhooked the stepladder from the back of the trailer, I pulled storage bins out from the “basement” until I found the one with the saw. Despite his fear of heights, Matt climbed the ladder, winding up with one foot on the top step (the one marked “THIS IS NOT A STEP”) and one foot on a hinge of the RV door. With cedar shavings falling directly into his face, he sawed the branch until the RV was free. Well, not free. There is nothing “free” about this RV.

Quite frankly, I was astonished that he moved so quickly to get on the ladder. He’s really, really afraid of heights and I figured it was all over when I realized what had to be done. I was so proud of him for overcoming his fear and just taking care of business. I knew then that we’d be okay, regardless of what other tribulations were in our future.

Later, he admitted that he’d figured that if he fell off the ladder and broke something, this would all become someone else’s problem.

Whatever works, I guess.

The move to and setup on site 59 is, quite frankly, a haze to me now. It was apparently uneventful and we wound up fairly straight on the site. I’ve since mentioned to Matt that I think parking at a jaunty angle should just become our signature move, since most other RVers seem obsessed with parking their rigs perfectly straight on site. I’d rather focus on mixing the perfect martini.

Rick (the owner) & Doug (the minion) with RV Specialists arrived on time, and Rick was quite complimentary. At least, I think he was complimenting us when he glanced at the roof, took in a sharp breath, and said, “Oh, you really did this right.”

The guys took a hammer and some carriage bolts to the leveling leg bracket which had bent, then spent some time assessing the roof damage. Because the roof is a single membrane, there is no quick fix – the entire damaged membrane has to be removed and replaced. In the meantime, they did a patch with roofing tape and got us on the schedule for a weeklong repair at their shop. They also discovered the fiberglass end cap on the rear was damaged and we have NO idea when or how it happened, but that was put on the repair schedule as well.

Taking a closer look at the side of the rig, Rick asked, “How did you not damage your slideouts or awnings?” I promised myself we wouldn’t let Rick down and would try harder next time, although we did manage to put a pretty good scrape down the wall and wreck a bunch of the decals.

Rick also took the time to walk us through why we were having leveling issues, particularly our use of Lynx leveling blocks (called “legos” in RV lingo). Go to any RV park and you’ll see they’re ubiquitous. They also can slide away from the leveling leg, which is probably what caused our bracket to bend. He recommended we use wood or concrete blocks instead. He also suggested we not leave our wheels suspended in mid-air (also ubiquitous); rather, use the Lynx levelers under the tires. We’ve incorporated all these changes into our setup routine since then, and the rig is noticeably more stable.

State Farm was quick with their claim review and approval. $13,282.31.

And that was Our Very Bad day. I look forward to it being over.