After a lunch of wings with Jason, I drove down the road a mile or so to Crestview RV in Selma, Texas, and asked to tour the few Class B and C motorhomes they had on the lot.  They mostly deal in towables, so all they could show me is a couple of used Super Bs and a used C.  I’ve not really walked through a B before, and since Lex and I are already starting to think about our next RV (nevermind that this one is nowhere near paid for), I wanted to get a feel for one. 

The Super B (or B+) is really more of a small Class C.  The only real differences  are the lack of a  cabover bed and the shorter body.  The Class Cs of course have more room and are surprisingly cheaper given their relative size.  But because Cs are so big, I don’t think they’d resolve our desire for something much smaller and more manueverable.  I want to be able to drive and park the rig myself so that Lex can get a break, and I also want something we could legitimately park in a driveway.

That means we’re really looking at a regular Class B (also known as conversion vans or camper vans).  New ones are ridiculously expensive, so I’m hoping we’ll find a nice, reasonable used one when we are ready to make that transition to living most of the year in a small site-built home and traveling 2-3 months out of the year in a much more compact RV than the one we currently have.

At any rate, I may try to find a dealership in the area that sells regular Class Bs just so I can get a feel for them.  I need to know if they’d be a viable option for a long jaunt like the one we’re taking this summer.

Before I left the dealership, I ordered three combi-cams from their parts department.  I’d like to make my basement storage more secure, and the keys that go to RV storage compartment locks are basically universal, so if you go into any RV parts store and buy a replacement lock with key, you have access to 90% of the rigs out there.  I don’t know what genius thought that one up, but I don’t care for it.  The combi-cam isn’t foolproof (a really determined thief could just bust the door with a hammer), but it’s a step up.

After the RV dealer, I headed back into San Antonio and went to visit my friend Drea who I haven’t seen since our friend, Crystal’s, funeral.  Drea was home sick today, so I didn’t stay long, but it was good to sit and chat a while and just catch up.  She now lives on the same street with our friends Mari and Steph, so I meandered down the block to visit them after leaving Drea’s.

Only Steph was home, but we got in a good visit and even went to the grocery store together.  The supermarket was the same one I used for years when I lived in the adjacent neighborhood which is sort of the “gay ghetto” of San Antonio.  As a result, we called that particular H.E.B. grocery store the “Gaycheebee.”  Appropriately, kd lang was playing over the speakers in the store while we were shopping.  Go figure!

Groceries secured, I went back to the campsite, unloaded, then grabbed the dogs and took them to the little doggie park here at the RV park.  They ran around for a while, but it was hot outside, and they were soon panting and looking pitiful.  I brought them back in and gave them dinner before cooking up some dinner for us.  We’ve not been eating at home enough on this trip, so I’m hoping we’ll get better about that in this next couple of weeks.

Today, I also planned a get together for this Sunday with several of our friends at Steph and Mari’s house.  It’s going to be a potluck-type thing, very low key, but I’ve been dying to just spend time, all of us together, again.  I spoke to my friend, Roberto, today, too, and we’ve planned an overnight tent camping trip to Hill Country State Natural Area later this week.  He’s a hardcore hiker and camper who is all about packing it in and packing it out, digging his own latrines, etc.  I’m, at best, a car camper who likes to be within a short jaunt of the toilets and who likes to be able to unload her gear right from her car onto her site.  We’re compromising with a primitive campsite (no power or water) that is a walk-in.  It’s a short walk from the parking area to the site, however, and the chemical toilets are not far away.  I can live with that.  My main concern is my ankle.  It’s still swelling a lot when I spend any time at all on it, and I don’t want to end up doing any damage by trying to hike any real distance.  I’m looking forward to the trip, even if it is miserably hot in South Texas right now (business as usual this time of year).

While I’m here, there are so many people I still want to visit: old coworkers, friends from high school, relatives in Austin.  I’m just hoping I can make time for everyone.  As I get older and as some of my family get older, too, the fact that each time I see someone may be the last time is made more apparent.  I hate to pass anyone by if I can avoid it.  I don’t want to “overprogram” myself, though, so tomorrow I plan to go NOWHERE.  Instead, I’m just doing laundry, cleaning house, and clearing my desk tomorrow.  That should keep me busy the whole day until Lex gets off work, and then if there’s anything she wants to go do in the evening, we will.

Oh, I almost forgot that my friend Jason has arranged for us to go tubing in a couple of weeks when we move the RV up to Bandera.  Lex has never been tubing in her life and wants to go.  This will be a prime opportunity since Jason has private river access to the Medina River.  I haven’t been tubing in at least 15 years, so this will be a lot of fun for me, too.

Lex reports that the wifi here at the park is super slow, so she’s going to be relying on her Virgin Mobile broadband modem while we’re here at this park.  At least we have 3G in this area.  That’s something, anyway.  She’s missing the blazing network at Hillshade, though.  If it had been a little closer to San Antonio, we’d probably have just stayed there the whole four weeks we will be in the area.

She showed up yesterday afternoon with half a dozen beautiful, brown eggs and stayed to chat for a moment.  She’s parenting five children, some hers by birth and others by adoption, and she’s helping to run this park.  I admire her energy and determination!

Thanks to her, we’re enjoying a lovely breakfast this morning.

Fresh eggs from Christine

Really, the Moers are such warm, welcoming people that if you RV and find yourself in Gonzales County, you’d be missing out on something special if you didn’t make this your homebase during your stay.

They are a religious family, and so it would be the easy assumption that perhaps they might be intolerant.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  They haven’t blinked at an interracial lesbian couple with a visiting young guest (who is herself interracial).  I suppose their own very diverse family is part of the reason for this.

Yet another very pleasant surprise this summer.

I thought it’d be nice to take a look back at this post that Alexis wrote at the end of our first day as fulltimers.

Here’s to more adventures and another happy year in our mobile abode.

I emptied the holding tanks, and then turned on the black tank flush. This forces clean water into the holding tank to force out excess waste. I waited a few minutes, then went back and turned off the fresh water spigot and closed the holding tanks. At least I thought that’s what I did. Then I took the dogs on a walk.

By the time I got back to the camper, Lex poked her head out the door and reported that “something is going on.” That’s never what I want to hear, not ever. What was happening was that the fresh water spigot hadn’t been turned off but instead had been turned on full blast right before I closed the holding tank dump valve. That means that fresh water mixed in with all the sludge that manages to build up in the tank into which our toilet flushes, and when the tank filled with liquid, it had nowhere to go but up.

Fortunately, RVs have built-in emergency vents should just this sort of idiocy occur. So raw sewage soup went shooting up out of this vent all over our roof and poured down the sides of the RV. When the pressure built up in the vent pipe wasn’t released fast enough, the sewage soup finally started to back up into the toilet itself. Apparently, the pressure was pretty high because there were feces and bits of toilet paper all over my bathroom walls and floors. It took a whole lot of towels, Clorox, rubber gloves, and trash bags to get the place cleaned up.

So, moral of the story: when turning a strange water faucet off, make sure to stick around for a moment and be certain that the faucet off, especially if it’s connected to a tank full of shit.

And now I’ll be taking a shower, thanks.

The thrill is in the hunt and the find. It can be a competitive activity, but I don’t really do it that way. I just like going out, discovering new places, and logging caches. Plus, it’s giving me something to do while Lex is at work during the days on our trip.

I set out around 10:30 or so this morning and got back at 4:00. During the course of the day, I hit 12 caches sites, only seven of which I found. Of the five I didn’t find, I only made an earnest effort to find three of them. By the end of the afternoon, it was 93 degrees out, I was tired, and lacked the necessary patience for a proper hunt. On those last two, I sort of got out of the truck, glanced around, said “screw it,” and then got back in the truck and left.

I did find some clever caches like the one near the roller rink where the person who hid the cache created a fake drain pipe and planted it in the ground. As someone who hides caches myself, I appreciate an interesting cache container. Here’s a shot of me at that particular site.

Seven is not a bad total for the day, though. This area is really cache-dense. Some of the cache sites were only slightly over the minimum of .1 of a mile apart. There are at least 20 caches within a one-mile radius of the park where we are staying.

When I got home, I discovered four little urchins hanging out at our site and on the empty sides immediately adjacent to ours. These are some of the same kids I mentioned in a recent post plus a few of their friends. It’s summer, and this park doesn’t have much besides a pool to keep kids busy. Apparently, they occupy themselves by wandering around, hollering, and hitting bushes with sticks. Great. Of course they were standing practically right outside the door when I took the dogs out for an evening walk, so I had to stop and let everyone pet the two of them. Fortunately, they were unusually well behaved (the dogs, that is) and stood nicely while they were given attention.

We went out for dinner to a little Jamaican place just across the road. I have to say that I’ve never had Caribbean food out before. I had curried goat, rice and peas, fried plantains, and stewed cabbage. To drink, I got a sorrel. I have to say, that was foul. I was under the impression it was just hibiscus tea. I LOVE hibiscus tea. I know hibiscus tea. That was not it! Nearly made me gag. The rest of the meal was pretty decent. The cabbage was kind of bland, but the curried goat was tasty as was the rice. We both ate for less than $30, so I’m not going to complain.

Then it was off to the grocery store for a milk run. While there, we grabbed a Redbox movie, She’s Out of Your League, which is currently in progress. Totally cringeworthy. I haven’t screamed in disgust and horror this much since Superbad.

I’m having to find things to do on the cheap right now because the well is running dry, and payday isn’t until Friday. As a result, I thought I might venture out tomorrow and check out either the nearest yarn shop or the nearby game ranch. Just heard thunder outside, though, so we may have storms for the next several days. May just have to play it by ear.

When I was halfway done, I started to get antsy, so I got up and tried to fix the crank on the TV antenna, the parts for which I found yesterday at the RV supply.  The good news is I can now make the antenna crank up and down and rotate.  The bad news is that the crank assembly isn’t really “fixed.”  It all falls out of the ceiling at the slightest provocation, and I don’t know how to make it stick.  They didn’t include one part in the whole kit, and that’s a small nylon bearing.  I wonder if that little piece of plastic is the magic “glue” that will make the antenna crank work properly.  Well, I’m calling it good enough for now.

I also spent some time trying to work out why my refrigerator is no longer cooling properly.  The freezer works fine but not the fridge.  I read the manuals and a number of discussion forums that talked about similar problems, and I tried all the tricks everyone suggested. I checked for ammonia leaks.  Nothing.  Checked that the fridge is level.  Went outside and made sure the evaporator fins and the propane ignition are clear of debris. I installed a battery-powered fan, and I adjusted the thermistor.  I even removed a bunch of stuff so that air could flow more easily.  Still not working properly.  The fridge is cooling but not nearly enough.  I meant to buy a thermometer at the RV supply yesterday but forgot.  I just want the darned thing to magically heal itself because I’m not excited about the prospect of trying to get the darned thing repaired.  RV fridges are expensive.  The fix would probably be covered by my extended warranty, but there is still a $100 deductible and the time and trouble it will take to haul this thing to service.  I’m in a state of denial right now, pretending it will be JUST FINE if I simply don’t think about it too hard.  We’ll see how it’s doing tomorrow, I suppose.

I got all my papers graded by 6 p.m.  and started to get ready to head out to the laser show at Stone Mountain Park, home of the world’s largest bas relief sculpture which is carved into what has been mistakenly touted as the world’s largest granite outcrapping.  It’s damned big, but it’s not actually granite.  The mountain was the site of the rebirth of the modern Ku Klux Klan in 1915, and the Klan continued to hold meetings there for another 45 years until the state of Georgia bought the mountain and condemned it just so they could stop the Klan from gathering there.  Back in the 1920s, the Klan raised $250,000 for the sculpture, the design of which they influenced, making sure it bore only Confederate heroes. The sculpture, started in 1923, was not completed until 1972.  I find it amusing that the money raised and the jobs produced by Stone Mountain Park now help to support the thriving African American community that has grown up around it.  I’m sure Nathan Bedford Forrest is rolling over in his grave (or thrashing about in the fiery pits of hell) at the very thought of it all!

The memorial contains images of Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis (and their horses).

We arrived at the park by 7:30 p.m. because I was laboring under the misapprehension that the laser show started at 8:00 p.m.  Don’t know what I was thinking given that it’s still light at 8:00.  No, the gates OPEN at 8:00 p.m.; the show itself didn’t begin until 9:30.  That was fine, though.  Lex and I wandered into some of the little shops, had a bite to eat, and went to find our seats.  While we were waiting, I knitted a row on the blanket I’ve started for a friend’s granddaughter who should be arriving in the next month or two.

Finally the show started, and it really was spectacular.  There were moving tributes to Georgia history, American heroes, our troops, and Georgia musicians. They threw in some fireworks for good measure.  Here’s a link to video I took of one segment of the show, Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”:

Tribute to Charlie Daniels at the Stone Mountain Park Lasershow Spectacular

The whole show lasted only 45 minutes, and then we trekked back through the masses of people all the way to our truck only to find that I was missing my very expensive Sanyo Xacti digital still and video camera.  My bag had come open on the walk back, and the camera had fallen out.  In a panic, I rushed all the way back across the park to where we were seated.  Nothing.  I dejectedly walked back to the truck figuring someone had gotten themselves a free camera.  On our way out, I saw a police officer pulled over talking to some folks, so I approached him to report the camera lost.  Turns out the people he was talking to were turning in my camera!  I described the item to the officer who returned it to me once he was convinced it was mine and then I thanked the people profusely who turned it in.  Whew!  Close call!  I’d just spent two hours photographing everything in sight and would have been crushed had I lost that camera.   Thank you, nice couple, whoever and wherever you are!  I’m very grateful.  Seems like there are still honest folks in the world.

We knew these two storms were coming, thanks to Foot’s Forecast, so last Friday morning before storm #2 began, I went out, had the propane tanks filled, stocked up on groceries, drinking water, beer (gotta have the essentials), and made it back home as the first flakes fell. Storm #2 raged through Friday and Saturday, leaving 26-30″ of snow on top of the 2″ already on the ground.

It took us three days to dig out, so on Monday I was able to take our back-up propane tanks, exchange them for full ones, and get more groceries. Then, on Tuesday afternoon, storm #3 began. We’re at the peak of that blizzard right now. Before it’s all done later this evening, we’re expecting another 12″-20″ of snow and gusts up to 55 mph.

We’re not done with it yet, obviously, but we’re learning the hard way how to weather the worst of the worst. Here are my top ten tips for fulltiming in a snowstorm:

1) Have back-ups for your back-ups.

We have two 20 lb. propane  tanks (the type you can exchange at the grocery store) ready to go should our two 30 lb. tanks run out. We’ve got two electric space heaters to supplement our forced-air propane furnace, and we’ve also got a small, portable propane heater and a case of 1 lb. bottles just in case we lose power and can run neither the furnace or the space heaters.

We also bought several bottles of drinking water, and I filled up a number of containers of water in case our water supply freezes over. I can’t use my fresh water holding tank right now because there’s a problem with the plumbing that I never got around to fixing. If I had, then water would be no real concern.

I’ve also got battery powered and rechargeable lanterns, flashlights, and radios in case we lose shore power AND run our house battery down. In addition, I’ve got a small,  gas-powered generator that can run one small appliance (like a space heater), and I’ve got a small inverter that I can hook up to my car battery if all else fails.

We even have a backup if our cable/Internet fails. We can still get over-the-air TV channels, and we both have iPhones which allow us to connect to the internet, get phone calls, send and receive e-mail, etc.

2) Keep your electronics charged.

We’re keeping laptops, cell phones, and all other rechargeables plugged in at all times in the event that we lose shore power. Should we lose shore power, be forced to rely on the battery power, and lose that, we’ve got car chargers for most items, so we could plug them into our vehicles.I’ve also got some rechargeable AA batteries that I’m keeping charged up and handy should the alkalines in the flashlights fail.

3) Get a good snow shovel (preferably more than one).

When we moved into the RV, I got rid of our very nice snow shovel because I didn’t think I had room for it and wouldn’t really need it for a while anyway (hard to think about blizzards in July). Well, I should have made room. Storm #1 caught us unawares, and we had NO shovel at all. We were digging out with a five-gallon bucket (by the way, get a five-gallon bucket, too, if you don’t have one.  They have many uses) and a regular shovel borrowed from the neighbors. Shortly before Storm #2, I went out and got a shovel, the lone shovel left at the store. It’s cheap and flimsy, and there’s only one, so that means only one person can shovel at a time, doubling the amount of time it takes to get anything done. Snow shovels tend to be lightweight, so if you plan to RV in the winter, get a decent one (or two), and stow it away. You won’t be sorry.

4) Whenever the snow stops, dig out as much as you can.

With back-to-back storms, it’s been important to remove as much of the snow as possible before the next storm hits. If you don’t, then the melting and refreezing makes the snow difficult to move plus the next layer of snow just makes it all that much harder to clear out once the weather breaks. We dug out both our vehicles, cleared paths, and dug out our utility pole (water, power, internet, dump hoses). Of course, all that good work is being obliterated today, but we’ll be at the shoveling again tomorrow. And we’ll have to because there’s a chance of snow this coming Monday. It’s not over yet!

5) Keep an eye on the forecast.

As kids, we learned from GI Joe that “knowing is half the battle.” If you know when the snow is coming, how much you can expect, how long the storms will last, and whether you can expect ice/sleet/rain with it, you can plan appropriately. Don’t get caught unawares.

6) Keep heat on your water supply and dump valves.

I’ve got a shop light hanging on my main dump valve to keep it thawed, and back in November I wrapped my drinking water hose with heat tape and pipe insulation. I’ve also discovered how handy a hair dryer can be. When the valves have frozen, I just aimed the hair dryer at them until they loosened up. The dryer is also handy when you have to be outside digging for long periods of time; it allows you to keep your fingers from becoming numb. I also find that the furnace exhaust by my front door is useful in this regard as well.

Dump your tanks frequently. I use my washer/dryer, so I don’t have much of a choice but to dump the tanks nearly every day.  Even if I didn’t, dumping the tanks often means that should our dump valves freeze over and I can’t get them unstuck, we will be okay for a couple of days if we conserve water. It also means that it’s easier for my tank heaters to keep the tanks warm.

7) Don’t get sick, and if you do, make sure you’ve stocked the proper supplies.

As luck would have it, Lex got a cold late last week, and I now have the flu. Ironically, I had BOTH flu shots this year, and I don’t normally get them. Looks like they didn’t help. I found some new strain, probably at school. It’s been no fun at all having fever, aches, chills, and congestion during all this, especially since the shoveling has to happen regardless.

Between storms #2 & #3, I managed to get out and stock up on Nyquil, Kleenex, juice, and all those things that make colds and flu more bearable. I’m trying to sleep as much as possible (what else is there to do?), stay hydrated, and keep the fever down. I wouldn’t want to have something more serious at this point as I’m not sure how we’d get to the hospital, so if I can keep it under control, then all the better.

8 ) Wear proper clothing.

Wearing layers indoors lets you keep your thermostat down thereby saving propane. Good socks are key. If the feet are cold, everything is cold!
When you go outside in the snow, try to stay dry. Jeans and sweats get waterlogged fast. If you have rain pants or wind pants you can wear over your clothes, that’d be a great idea. If you do get wet, change as soon as you come back in and dry the wet clothes out.

I’m keeping a set of “outside clothes,” a pair of sweats and a hoodie, that I just slip over my pjs (why get dressed in street clothes?) when I go out. They get hung up to dry as soon as I come back in. Waterproof gloves, snow boots, and something to cover your head are critical, too. If you are exerting yourself shoveling, it’s easy to lose track of how long you’ve been outside and how wet and cold you might really be. That can be dangerous.

9) Be able to entertain yourself while you are stuck inside.

For us, it’s been mostly movies, TV, books and knitting. Of course, if we lose power, then we’ll have to resort to other forms of entertainment like board games, radio, and, god forbid, the art of conversation. I have to say that I’ve also been texting friends around the city and county, checking in with them to see how they are faring, and I’ve had phone calls from family in other parts of the country who are concerned about me because they’ve seen the rather terrifying weather reports.

It’s easy to start feeling like the Omega Man in situations like this, so it helps to be able to stay connected to the outside world in whatever way you can. The local newscasts are staying on the air all the day with weather reports, and I tend to leave it on in the background because I find it oddly comforting. This being the era of social networking, I’m also keeping an eye on my friends’ Facebook updates. Seeing their photos and hearing about what they are up to makes me feel less isolated.

Of course, I’m lucky to be snowed in with someone I love and our three pets, so there’s always a snuggle companion. Our pets have been surprisingly well behaved throughout this despite the fact that they aren’t able to take nice, long walks. They are limited to the little paths we’ve dug through the snow. Like me, they’ve been doing lots of sleeping.

10) Keep your sense of humor.

If you can’t laugh at yourself and at Mother Nature in hard times, then you’ll just cry your eyes out. It’s easy enough to develop cabin fever, to get depressed or develop a sense of hopelessness. Stay busy, watch some comedies, read a funny book, and laugh in the face of hardship. There’s nothing we can do about any of this, so we might as well sit back and be amused at the ridiculousness of all this snow. Bring on the global warming, baby!

Since about mid-December I’ve been on winter break from school and home most of the time. This has led to cabin fever. What do you do when you live in your RV and are dying to get out and about? Well, my answer to this was to go tent camping.

When we moved into the RV, I got rid of all my camping equipment. This meant going out and getting new gear. This was just as well since I didn’t have appropriate stuff for winter camping. I found a double-walled tent, a zero-degree sleeping bags, ground pad, campstove, and headed out with one of our dogs to spend the night in a state park.

Turned out to be a beautiful night under the stars. I grilled burgers, sat by the campfire, drank hot tea & listened to the radio. Otis (dog) and I survived the 30-degree night without incident.

The only rough parts came when my ground pad deflated and when I had to get up and trek to the restroom at 3 am. Fortunately, this park has a heated restroom with hot showers, so I didn’t totally rough it.

The next morning was overcast, so I packed up quickly, managing to get it all in my car before the rains started to fall. I headed back home feeling a little less antsy.

Now that I have the gear, I think I’ll do this more often.

Staying warm by the campfire in Elk Neck State Park

I’ve got to admit that it’s taken some getting used to.  When I first stated working from home four years ago (mid-August 2005), it was really difficult to find a groove to it all.  I’m feeling the same way again as I try to adapt to my new space and MUCH smaller desk.  The picture on the left doesn’t really do my old desk a lot of justice – just snagged it from the vendor website – but trust me, it was significantly bigger than my current.

Aside from the desk size differences, it’s been hard to stay focused.  I’ll start in on something and I’ll glaze over for a few seconds and completely lose what I was trying to do.  I’m always easily distracted, but I’ve not really experienced distraction like this since way back in 2005.  Hopefully, it will get better over time as it did back then.  For now, I just have to persevere until I find my groove again and not let work pile up too high.

Had some workus interruptus Friday as the power went out right around 3pm.  I had my two computers running, all the network equipment, and MJ had her computer running, the a/c was on and then MJ turned on a small fan in the bedroom, which all = kablooey.  The breakers tripped and we couldn’t get them to re-seat properly, so we figured we’d broken something serious.  We checked power at the pole, checked our cord, and also checked the circuit breaker in the front storage compartment.  We tried flipping everything off and on several times, and no luck.  The circuit panel inside with the breakers that were tripped, has a number of the bladed fuses like in cars, so I yanked all of those out and tested them as well.  Everything seemed fine.

But, it was three o’clock in August.  The air had been off less than 20 minutes before we were sweating bullets.  Just uncomfortable.  One of the annoying things about these RVs is that no matter the manufacturer, no two models are exactly alike.  Everything inside from the toilet to the circuitry to appliances can all come from different manufacturers.   So the “manual” we got with her consists of about 20 different manuals from all the manufacturers who have products in our home.  There’s no clear way to find a quick answer.   And I felt like we were probably missing something simple.  Some switch, some thingymabob, in some random compartment that would solve all our problems.  Frustrated, I decided I’d just call the dealer who sold us the home.  I talked with a guy in the service dept and he said that it seemed we’d checked everything, but maybe the converter was blown.

With that information, MJ pulled out our extended warranty card and called them to find out how we got service.  Seems they also have a 24 hour troubleshooting line, so she talked to him and yes, we’d tried everything – best get to a shop and have it corrected.

Next hurdle?  The big RV show is coming into town in two weeks and the main RV dealers we’ve had contact with are busybusy and couldn’t possibly see us until after Sept. 15th.   Did I mention it was August?  And we have no air?  And live right on the river where we get the worst humidity at times?  While MJ is calling dealers, I’m running down the battery on my laptop with the Cricket mobile thingy searching for mobile RV repair – someone who will come out here and fix us.

Long story shorter, the dealer practically around the corner from us had an electrician who would be in the next morning, so we made our appt.   After a long, hot evening, uncomfortable sleep and the hour or so it takes to pack up the house for moving and hitching it up, we find that our problem had to do with breaker switches not resetting properly.  There is a faceplate that surrounds the switches, and while it doesn’t look like it, the thing actually blocks the breaker from seating firmly into “Off.”  Bobby, the mechanic, showed MJ that the two switches needed to be flipped all the way off and back on again.  And so ends our sweat-soaked night of confusion and misery.   A faceplate.   That we could’ve removed ourselves.  There’s a mistake we’re not likely to make again.

Sunday, we had some lunch over at Squire’s, the popular local restaurant.  MJ and I have been there a few times in the past and haven’t been all that impressed, but we’d never tried their pizza, so we gave them another shot.  The pizza was pretty decent and not overpriced, so I think I could have that again.   The main reason for going was so that we could have something to eat before hitting the grocery store.  Bad things happen when we shop on empty stomachs.  I grew up in Germany and had this notion pounded in my head repeatedly by the Armed Forces Network (AFN).  AFN never showed regular commercial ads, just public service announcements and community news.  A lot of the PSAs were animated and most had jingles.  I still remember a few a them, but this one was a little song and dance called “Don’t Shop When You’re Hungry – No, no no!”   For a glimpse of one my milder childhood miseries, go to YouTube and search for AFN commercials or AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio and Television Services) commercials.

Anyway, lunch had, we headed to the grocery store.  Typically this is a task that I’m able to avoid, but I got blindsided with it today and we were in sore need of groceries.  If I’m forced to grocery shop on my own, I prefer late at night or early weekday mornings.  Weekends are out the question.  All the people, stopping randomly, stopping with their cart blocking the whole aisle, turning corners as there would never be someone else coming the opposite direction.  You have a cart, with four wheels -  I feel all the rules of vehicular traffic should still apply.  Or I’m just a fascist.  Whichever way, it annoys me.

But on the bright side, this Giant recently had a grand re-opening and they’ve put in a service called “Scan It!”  You put in your club card number or phone number and are issued a little scanner, then you grab some bags  or bring your own and start shopping, scanning everything as you put it into your bags.  To check out, you go into the special checkout lane, hand the woman the scanner, pay and gone.   That definitely made today’s trip a little more palatable.  It’s so geeky.  And the large carts even have a little holder built in for the thing.

Also, I don’t know if this is a regular thing (as I try to avoid the store, right?), but there was a three piece jazz band entertaining us.  We started at the opposite end of the store and as we moved toward them, I was thinking, man that music is getting louder and wow, that sounds live.  Then we finally saw them.  Pretty cool, I guess.

Grocery Band 8_23_2009 2_33 PM

During the demo, we took pictures, video, made notes, and measured the sofa and living room slide to make sure we could fit an office in the space we have.  I think we’re clear on how to empty our sewage, fire up our fridge and stove, use our emergency windows, lower our awning, water our battery, switch our hot water heater from gas to electric, operate our day/night shades, and just about everything else we need to know.  Well, except how to hitch it up and tow it.  That will come in a month or so when we actually have the hitch.

After we finished with Fuzzy, a short Russian man walked us through the parts and service department and told us the basic things we would need to get started.  He talked and moved quickly, so after two hours in the demo with Fuzzy, it was hard to keep up with him as he sped through his spiel.  But I did take a look at the prices on everything he showed us, and since I’d been doing my homework and was already pretty well versed in the types of things we’d need, I knew the stuff they had was overpriced.  We’ve learned since getting involved in this that our long-standing embargo on Wal Mart will now, sadly, have to end.  They are the only big-box discount store that has an RV section.  Otherwise, we have to get shafted by dealerships or drive all the way to Jersey to a Camping World.  When we left the dealership after having spent almost three hours there, I had a migraine and Lex had aching feet.

We were both hungry, so I introduced Lex to Golden Corral.  She’s never been, so I decided since we were already having a white trash kind of day, we might as well go full bore on the thing.  She was forced to admit that the place was a decent value and not bad quality.  Of course, it meant dining with some folks who apparently had never seen a interracial lesbian couple given that they were prone to staring. When we didn’t start making out in the middle of the restaurant, I think the gawkers got bored and went back to their crab cakes.

After dinner, we ended up at…yeah, you got it…Wal Mart.  I bought some of those things that the Russian told me I’d need: drinking water hose, toilet chemicals, water pressure regulator, water filter, jack pads/leveling blocks.  Except for a water filter that goes on the inside of the RV and a 25 ft. regular garden hose, I think we’re good to go.  Oh, chocks for the wheels.  We need those, too.  They’re only about $5, though.  I’m sure when we get into the RV on Wednesday, we’ll think of other things, too.  Dundalk, fortunately has both an RV dealership and a Wal Mart, so we won’t be far from the supplies the need arises.

So we’re going to get to the site about 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning to meet the delivery guy who will park our RV and, hopefully, help us get it set up.  There’s still a load of packing to do, but we’re out of boxes for the time being.  I’ll probably just take everything we have packed over to the RV Wednesday, unload the boxes, and bring them back and load them up again.  Rinse and repeat until it’s all over there.  I have to work this week, so at some point I’ll have to stop, get cleaned up, and wander across the street to the writing center for a few hours.  At least I won’t have a long drive home!   Lex is working all week, too, so she’s going to be tied up with work from 8 to 5 each day.  I imagine I’ll be the one doing a lot of the running back and forth betwixt apartment and trailer in the meantime.

I’m still really excited!  They had cleaned the RV up quite a bit, so it was looking even shinier than before.  I’m just really hoping that once we get settled in, nothing major decides to bust.  This has all been pretty exhausting, and I just want to settle into my new home with my girl and my critters and crank the hell out of the (very cold, we learned today) A/C and relax.  Hopefully come this weekend, that’s just what we’ll get to do.