NOTE: This chapter has an accompanying photo posted on Tumblr, under the user name kindly-whisper-tolkien and the tag fleetwood.
June 26
Well, we learned an important lesson while Thorin was gone yesterday! We learned what happens when the "gray water" tank gets too full: it backs up and the little tub in the bathroom fills up with nasty, dirty water. Now, that is just the tank that holds what goes down the sink, thankfully, and not from the toilet! But the gray water tank is relatively small, and apparently Kíli has a habit of leaving the water running while he's washing the dishes. So... yeah. No problem, though! We towed the trailer over to the dumping station when Thorin got home (though he was tired).
And a good thing, anyway: Thorin didn't get lost in New York! But he did get caught up in the traffic after he picked up Gimli. Honestly, it took them hours to get out of it, and by the time they got back here it was after ten at night! I was worried sick, of course, but I tried not to call Thorin because I didn't want him to know that I was worried. But they did eventually get here, and (after we emptied the tank) they had a late dinner and went right to sleep!
We made the table down into a bed for Gimli, and we'll just have to set it back up in the mornings if we intend on using it as a table, but it isn't hard to do, really. But, goodness! He (like Fíli and Kíli) has grown like a weed since we last saw him! He has his dad's red hair and his tendency to snore loudly - but it has yet to be seen if he also has his dad's appetite (Thorin got him a burger on the way, so he didn't eat too much when he got here).
He's also a huge fan of Marvel comics and movies, and he brought a large chunk of his "collection" with him to the trailer. There's Avengers stuff everywhere now! He's even stuck some of his posters up on the walls, and there's a stuffed Captain America on the valance over the window by the door. Fortunately, he didn't have any problem letting Frodo play with his action figures. It seems like they are going to get along, at least, despite the differences in their ages.
Oh! And I guess his love for the comics gave Fíli and Kíli ideas, because they have decided to name the trailer "Howard". As in, "The Duck". Because it's a Fleetwood Mallard. The boys are really too young to remember the 80's "Howard The Duck" movie, thankfully, or else their choice of names might be even more awkward than it already is!