OK so here is the update. I finally was able to tinker with it today and got one of the covers off so that I could see the timing belt. I took pictures but I can't figure out how to post them. What they show is the following (as best as I can describe). ALso to avoid confusion, my niece's now husband made marks on the gear looking things and had them lined up with the arrows, not the factory white marks.
1. going by his marks, one is 3 teeth from the arrow, the other is 1
2. the belt has about 3/4" play. I did not see any damage to the belt from removing one cover.

The bottom bolt of the left (facing the engine) was being a bugger and my back has had me down for a few days and I couldn't stand to be out bent over any longer so I never got it off to look at what's behing door number 2 (trying to have some humor along with hope).