Last night as I was falling asleep to the sound of the wind battering the outside of the RV with gusts of up to 50 mph, temperatures in the teens, and sub-zero windchill, my final conscious thought was, “I should leave a faucet dripping.” I promptly went off to the land of Winken, Blinken, and Nod without ever stirring from beneath my toasty electric blanket.
This past year was an adventure, indeed! We’ve spent the past six months actually living in our fifth wheel RV, but three months before that we spent preparing for our move. It’s not been one big vacation, to be sure, but this life has its upsides. I want to take a moment to think about the bad and the good and to consider where we go from here.
Tags: 2010, fulltiming, New Year, rv
Our repairman, Patrick, finally returned yesterday and managed to get the power restored to the curbside outlets in the RV. Turns out that the problem resulted from Eagle RV drilling holes through the outer wall into the box containing the outlet for our bedroom TV when they mounted the wrong awning. We’re lucky. That short had been arcing. Our house could have burned down with us in it. Just another reason for me to be absolutely furious with that dealership.
I called them yesterday and asked to speak to the owner. As usual, he wasn’t available. I spoke with his wife who claimed they were coming to fix the awning next weekend. Uh huh. I don’t even want them to touch my camper again. They screwed up the awning twice, left a bunch of holes in my house, and caused me to have to get $500 in repairs to my electrical system!
If we ever do get the awning issue sorted out, I can guarantee you that I will never, ever, ever deal with them again for any reason.
I’m so glad that Patrick got the power back on when he did. We were down to only three working outlets which were overloaded with appliances. Now we’re back to having them distributed more evening across the breakers and I feel a bit better about it all.
Hopefully we can weather this winter storm without losing power altogether.
So I’m sitting inside the 5er here in Baltimore which is currently experiencing the biggest snowstorm it’s seen in years (possibly ever…remains to be seen).
When we moved, we had to get rid of a great many things. Some of our kitchen gear was hardest to give up. We had a LOT of it! There were certain items we couldn’t bring ourselves to part with, however.
I’m a bit frustrated right now, and I’m finding it difficult to resolve said frustrations. Here’s a list of things that are bugging me about my RV life:
1) It’s been raining off and on for nearly two months now. The ground never gets a chance to dry out. This is a problem because our RV is sitting right on top of the septic field into which our holding tanks flush. When the ground is saturated and it continues to rain, the water just pools up over the septic field and everything turns to mush. Plus, nothing wants to flush down into the tank because it’s full. The handyman has pumped out the tank twice, but it’s still an issue. In order to avoid stepping into a sewage-laced puddle when I come out my front door, I’ve laid down a layer of straw in the muck that used to be my “patio.” It helps, but I’m sure it irks our maintenance guy. He can just hush. It’s organic and will break down by spring.
When I’m having a hard time draining my holding tanks, I’ve learned that I can use my main holding tank valve as a sort of “plunger.” When the sewage stops flowing downward, I can close and reopen the main valve and create enough suction to start the flow again. But the drain is slooooow, and my favorite thing to do is stand out in the dark, in the rain and the cold, and flush holding tanks. PLEASE STOP RAINING, and snowing, and slushing, and all other forms of precipitation!
Tags: expenses, frustrations, repairs, rv
First snow of the season today, but it was mostly slush. As a result, the ground around my camper is nothing but mud. I went and bought a bale of straw and scattered it on outside my door so I wouldn’t track mud inside the house. I also bought some salt and put it down on the steps. They were getting icy fast! I also bought some lock de-icer just in case. I have a feeling that if we get a real ice storm, we’re going to have a problem getting that door open.
It’s hovering around freezing right now, and it’s kind of chilly inside the RV. Trying to keep the thermostat down around 65 so the furnace isn’t running constantly. Using an electric heater to help out. I think I’m going to go climb under the covers and call it a day.
Turned my tank heaters on for the first time. Let’s hope they work. It’s going to get down into the 20s before the night is out.
Obviously, there isn’t room in an RV for much that is purely ornamental. Every inch of floor space is spoken for. I wanted to decorate for Christmas inside the RV, but I don’t like fake trees and couldn’t justify bringing in a real tree. I did have a little rosemary plant sitting outside in a clay pot, though, so I picked up some tiny ornaments and battery-powered mini lights at the drug store, brought the plant inside, decorated it, and parked it on the end table by the sofa. We now have a little bit of Christmas spirit inside. The great part about this sort of Christmas “tree” is that it smells great and will live on (hopefully) well past the holidays.
Tags: decorating, holidays, rv
Think RVing is something new under the sun? Guess again! This year marks the 100th anniversary of RV manufacturing in the US, so 27 years before this film, folks had been hitting the road in their homes on wheels.
Take a gander at all those vintage canned hams! I wish I had one of my own.
Tags: canned hams, rv, video, vintage, youtube
Before we even took possession of the fifth wheel, I’d been considering moving the sofa into the rear of the RV where the recliners and end table used to be. We discarded the remaining recliner when we moved in because it was broken, and I turned the back part of the RV into my little office, with a computer cart, chair, and small filing cabinet. I left the sofa in the dining room slide, we removed the dinette set, and replaced it with Lex’s desk and chair. That worked fine, but I got tired of having to put my feet up on the sofa in order to be able to face the TV which is at the front of the living room across from the door. Now, the sofa faces the TV rather than being perpendicular to it. Much more comfortable.
Tags: floorplans, furniture, living area, rearranging, rv