Ooops!

Here is what happens when tears from heaven dump on an awning not designed to hold a lake full of water:

The frame buckled, twisted then folded nearly 90 degrees and collapsed. 

Dear Miss Mermaid worked in a Machine Shop for 2+ years and knows that aluminum can not be straightened back into place, without severely weakening its strength overall. In other words, no easy repair.

This is very berry baaaaaaaaaaaaad. 

This is not how an awning frame is supposed to look. That twisted mangled broken strut should be straight and neat. 

These are the sawed off pieces that will be discarded. Dear Miss Mermaid was sooooooooooooo lucky that her special friend drove over two hours to come visit.

And he brought his hack saw (plus cheesecake and fresh blueberries.) 

Now THAT is an angel. 

This is the modified awning, with the struts hacksawed down to retain the much shorter, remaining straight parts. Notice that it no longer cranks up high, it cranks up low now. 

However, the new shorter struts, can be removed from the motorhome, and propped up perpendicular, like a porch roof. This raises the awning to almost normal height. The only problem is, then a stiff wind can collapse the whole awning again, possibly causing more damage.

But, a handyman, who lived in the campground resort (they call it a resort because it has a pool, horse shoes, tennis, shuffle board etc.) anyhow, he had some ground stakes that screw into the earth, forming an anchor, from which we could tie ropes to attach to the awning frame and this prevents the awning and frame from taking flight at an inopportune moment.

He offered up three ground screws, and I readily accepted them.  I've been traveling with small rope, one just never knows when rope might come in handy. I took some pictures, of the awning with the supports perpendicular, attached to the ground screws by small bits of rope,  or thought I did, but my oldish camera works randomly (like me) and I think I am taking pictures and find out later, I am not. So, apparently, I have no pictures to show of the awning when we had it set up like a porch cover.

A few days later, Dear Miss Mermaid was towed off the interstate highway to a repair shop.  This had nothing to do with the awning. This was after 911 and the fire department (more angels!) had come to her rescue.

The motorhome set off alarms that were ear piercing and black smoke poured out from under the motorhome. This was while Dear Miss Mermaid was driving 60 miles per hour down the interstate!

Ah, life is so much fun.

Never a dull moment!