a new place

So we have a new blog home. It seems to be a little more user friendly for Trent. So check us out at our Wordpress link  New blog  https://dablairsondaroad.wordpress.com/

Our first real getaway

Ok, so we already had a first getaway,  I know.  But this one was a real, no kidding, getaway.  Not a trial run, not a "welcome to the gravel farm" like we got from Dickens RV park getaway.  This one was a true vacation, one that we got to enjoy our coach on.  WE ACTUALLY GOT TO STAY ONCE WE ARRIVED!  Sorry, that was caps lock worthy...I mean really, we stayed in the same place for more than an hour this time, a real hoorah moment if there ever was one.

So, we drove the ever-so-short drive to Charleston, South Cacolackey, a pleasant 6.5 hour drive to the heart of family land.  Family land is where Mellie's folks live, all eleventy billion of her closest kin-folk and friends, all within spittin distance...yay.  Too bad they didn't come to visit, which was really the sole reason we went to Short Stay to begin with.  We actually planned to drive down so Mellie's family could come out to see us and our new home (I know, what was I thinking, right?).  Of the aforementioned eleventy billion relatives in the area, only 9 showed up.  You'd think that I'd be all "woohoo!" about that, and normally, you'd be way right.  Except this time...there was no "woohoo" in "woohooville".  Them not showing up was soooo uncool.  Too bad they missed the opportunity to see the vehicle with which God has blessed us and those that we will meet in the future.

At any rate, I don't want to spend a lot of time dwelling on other people's loss, I'd rather yap about the camping trip we had.  We went to Short Stay, a military campground in Charleston.  It was a reeeeaaaalllyyyyyyy long drive to get there, but the views of Lake Moultrie at sunset were stunning.

We stayed at a normal wooded site (the waterfront sites were booked up), but we were only about 150 yards from the water, and a 5 min walk from the beach, so no complaints there.  The site was hugemongous...we could have parked our RV, the car, a towed trailer, some jet skis, a boat, a hotdog stand, and a couple of bleacher seats from Fenway Park if we really wanted too.  We didn't want to, so we just had ol JJ and the borrowed truck there.  Too bad, some park hotdogs woulda been tasty.

Hugemongous site 54

The sites were big, they had some decent facilities (the legendary bath house at Dickens RV Park has nothing to fear here), friendly folk (none of which were related to us.../whew, I was worried), and plenty of hot, sticky Charlestonian weather.  I mean really, how do you people live in all that stickiness?!  We would not have been so sticky, save for the fact that our hitchin post supplied only 30 Amp power instead of 50 Amps.  Tres Bummer (that's French, for those culturally challenged people, myself included...aren't you proud of me, Mrs. 4th grade teacher whose name I can't remember?).  So we spent a few hot, sweltering, oh-my-goodness-how-do-you-people-stand-this-ridiculously-hot-weather days cooped up inside JJ with only one AC unit working, but at least we were on vacay, so we were determined to enjoy ourselves anyway.  Which was a good thing, since we had problems right from the start of us getting there.

As it turns out, getting a bigger hammer, is, indeed, the cure-all to most mechanical problems.  I say this, since the rubber camp mallet we had with us to bang on the stuck leveler did NOT do the job of getting it unstuck...no matter how many times I pounded the daylights outta it, no matter how hard I whacked it, no matter how many of Mellie's family members I was swinging at...oops, was that in my type out loud voice?  The point is, the darn thing would not move past the half way down point.  For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, I'll explain it some more.  The doomahickey that helps make the coach not go boingy boingy when we walk in it was totally BDNWW (broken down, no worky worky).  How's that for simple?  

Here's where the difference between being a child of God and being a child of the world comes in...we didn't cry, we didn't complain, we didn't pack up and quit.  God has given us peace and self control, and we used it to make lemonade out of the lemons we were handed.  We propped up the jack with some wooden blocks, leveled JJ as best we could, and proceeded to get our camp on.  Take THAT, you ol nasty devil!  As a side note, I thought that people parked across from us that were watching me beat the tar outta the jack with my hammer were likely thinking I was an escaped mental patient, until I remembered where we were...I was just Friday night's entertainment, and they didn't even have to plug in the bug zapper.

We got settled in, and got our dogs outta the coach for some campground introductions...in Dog speak, that means they peed on everything that wasn't moving.  It also means JoJo ran at and barked at EVERYTHING in the camp...moving cars, other campers, and the 2348756234785623 golf carts that were there.  I mean really, how many golf carts does one group of campers need anyway?!  One site had like 5, and there couldn't have been more than 4 people in that tiny camper.

There were even tent campers there, although I have NO idea why, since the soles of my shoes were literally melting on the pavement from the heat.  I guess the camp staff needed something to feed the gators that lived in the tent area...

This was across from the tent area, with another sign just like it in the front of the tent area.  I dunno about you, but I'm not tent camping in an area that says there are gators there.  I mean really, sleeping inside a tent in a sleeping bag is the same thing as giving the gator an individually wrapped treat.

We stayed there for a week, learned a lot more about our future home, and realized rather quickly that not having a sewer hookup at our site was the suck.  When the tanks get full, they need to be emptied.  For those that have seen the movie "RV", with Robin Williams, yes this can happen.  For those that have not seen the movie, think Old Faithful, only not water...At any rate, we had to pack up the coach every 3-4 days and drive over to the dump site to dump our tanks at the state-of-the-art dump site...

This thing was invented just after dirt on the creation timeline I think, but it did work.  It sure did smell like it has been around since the dawn of time anyway.  We had to trek out here a few times, which was good for hold your breath exercises, and then go back to set up camp again.  Mellie even had to do this little gem of a job by herself, since I had to travel to Mississippi during the week.  She did a spectacular job, given that she is not yet comfortable driving JJ.  I say not comfortable, but it's more like  what an escaped convict might feel like at a police social.  Pucker factor of 10 or so, but she did it just fine.

While we were there, we quickly came to the realization that we love that lifestyle.  We loved the down-sized feeling, the closeness, the outdoors, meeting and getting to know our neighbors, the whole enchilada.  We were not keen on melting during hot days with not enough AC cooling, nor did we enjoy having to dump the tanks repeatedly, but everything else was a lot of fun.  So for those of you who may read this and think "mid-life crisis", you need to know that's not the case.  Instead, think life style change and remember that we didn't get into this thing on our own.  We got here because God put us here and we believe that we are supposed to live out our faith with a community of people that don't generally go to church.  We are called to be salt and light, and we believe that this lifestyle will allow us to do just that...the fact that we totally dig RVing is just a really big plus :)

Holiday

How did you spend Independence Day? For us, it was quiet, really quiet. This used to be my favorite holiday, hands down. I loved going to watch fireworks, eating hot dogs, and wearing red, white and blue. I loved that there was a day set aside specifically for being a dig-it, so I could proudly tell my husband how proud I am that he sacrificed for others to be free. He doesn't let me act the dig-it very often, so I take those opportunities as they come. Last year was different, we had planned to do all that, but Ashley had a meltdown and we weren't able to do anything. This year, though, I just didn't have it in me. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it's that my priorities are here in the present instead of the past, maybe it's because it feels like this country is going to hell in a hand basket. Whatever the case, I wasn't in the mood to pack up and go out to watch fireworks. Don't get me wrong. I'm still proud of how much and how long my husband sacrificed to make sure others here can be free, and I appreciate all those that are still serving to preserve that freedom. I truly do love this country and all the opportunities it offers to us, each of us. Maybe this year was different because I have a peace that I've never felt before, because I know that even if I weren't here in this country, living in freedom, I would still have freedom in Christ. "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Words from a new praise song at church - that kind of liberty, that freedom, goes deeper than anything I can feel for this country, this place where I was born that makes me sadder each day as it compromises that freedom for the sake of progress. 

So what DID we do you ask? We worked on the RV! Trent took off the steps, used the grinder to take off rust, primed and painted them and re-installed them. He says I helped him, but I didn't do much beyond keeping him company, and he said that was enough. I did take pictures though!

final painting is done - ready to install

Second step, only one to go!

last step  = yearly maintenance done!

Today we received the Millenicom air card so we now have internet on the road (it plugs into the WiFi Ranger and makes the RV a big hot spot for all our computers and the printer and scanner). Tomorrow I'm picking up the tire pressure monitoring system from Camping World. There are two more things that we want to get to make the RV ministry and work travels a reality, but we don't need those to actually get on the road, so they can wait. We'll eventually get an outdoor freezer - thankfully, it's already wired for it, and the previous owner left the freezer rack system in place. We also need to buy a grill, so that we can actually feed the people like we've dreamed of doing. That we should be able to afford next month, but for now, I'll take the skillet and crockpot and call it good. I made some crockpot bbq ribs the other day that got rave reviews so don't tell me I have to have a grill :)

Trent said he has a tentative for a job in Florida next week. If that's the case, then we'll leave here Sunday and drive down in the RV and make our first real WORK trip. As in a trip where his company pays for us to drive down there and stay instead of him flying and staying in a hotel. I'm SO excited about that. 

I'm such a dork. We had the RV at the house this week, instead of the storage unit, so we could do miscellaneous maintenance on it, and one day, I just didn't want to be in the house, so I turned on the generator and went and worked in the RV. I'm so ready to be rid of this house and just be on the road full time. My mother thinks I'm certifiable because I have no desire to be 'anchored' as she calls it. She's happy that we kept the house for now, but I'm sure I'll get to hear her disappointment once we are finally able to sell it. I'm trusting that God will send a buyer to us that will pay enough to pay the mortgage and closing, no more, no less. We just need to pay the bill, yanno? That's asking for a God sized miracle considering that the tax value just came back almost $50K less than what we currently owe - no one will want to pay over the tax rate, but I just know God has that person on his way that will see the value of the home beyond what the figures say. 

Okay, I got all sorts of rambly, huh? Trent is Iowa today and I'm recovering from the sinus surgery, and I got a steroid shot today in my right shoulder, so the pain meds are ever so lovely, so forgive my ramblefest. I'm off to finish up some work - wow, it really throws off things when there's a holiday in the middle of the week!

The catch up

Ok, so it's been a while, like a week.  But really, after the week we've had, can you blame us for not writing?  It's been a doozy, lemme tell ya.

First off, we had the world's shortest camping trip.  Driving 5 hours for a burger is not what I call fun, even if it was a Bubba Burger.  The company was good, and maybe one day we'll be able to actually spend the night at Zooland campground, but not without AC.  I'm pretty sure I'd melt and we don't even want to get in to what Mellie does without AC.  I think it's one of the signs of the apocalypse or something.

At any rate, the transfer switch is fixed...hoorah.  I must say, I didn't need that $450 anyway, it was just burning a hole in my pocket.  The price wasn't as bad as we thought it was gonna be, so kudos to the RV Refrigeration repair guys for a job well done.  Yes, I said refrigeration guys, as in, they fix fridges and the like.  I guess they also fix transfer switches, work on generators, and tell people what that little red light on the driver's side door is that's been bugging us for the entire time we've owed our coach too.  I coulda figured it out, but noooooooo, Mellie had to ask...

On top of shelling out a small fortune for the transfer switch repair, we also registered the coach.  Here we were thinking it'd cost around $35 or so for the plate and we'd just save up some cash for the big registration/title fees later, but ohhhhh no, North Cacolackey had other plans.  We got the plate and the registration for said coach, but it cost us an arm and half a leg.  We walked out of the DMV $1500 poorer, scratching our heads, wondering just what a Highway Use Tax really is.  I guess I can't be too boggled here...this state taxes my taxes after all.

Let's see, what else has happened?  Mellie went into the doctor for some much needed help in getting rid of her unruly stuffy nose syndrome (I know, good name for it...and I didn't even go to med school), only to walk out with a migraine that lasted 2 weeks.  Thanks Doc.  I guess jamming a lidocaine filled q-tip into your nose until it touches your brain may have side affects...who knew?  Back to another doctor via referral and she now has surgery scheduled for next week, probably to remove the first q-tip, and in the mean time, open her sinus passages.  I've seen a cat scan of her head, they better bring some dynamite and pack a lunch.  Let's not forget the balloon they're inserting into her nasal passage either.  I'm just wondering what Mary Kay sells that can hide a balloon sticking out of her nose.

Last but not least, we figured out about half of the remotes we inherited with our coach.  Honestly, how many remote controls does an RV really need?  We have 3 for each TV, 1 for a DVD player, 1 for the entertainment system, 2 for the DISH network receivers, 1 for the awning, and 1 mystery remote.  Yes, we have a mystery remote.  It powers something that is made by LG...too bad we have found nothing in the coach that is made by LG.  We tried turning it on, turning it off, all to no avail.  For a while, I was thinking the little red button on the door had it's own remote control, but that didn't pan out either.  So if anyone reads this and finds that their LG doodad is turning itself on and off, it's not possessed.  Well, no guarantee there, but before you go asking for an exorcist, it might be me.  You know men and their remotes...

The untitled post

Why is this post untitled you ask?  It's because the last post was our first hiccup entry, and since we've just had our second hiccup, I don't want to set a precedent for every entry from here on out.  Every subsequent hiccup will have to deal with being a regular entry, and not get top billing.  Deal with it, hiccup prima donnas.

Anyway, before I get too off topic (I know, too late), we have decided to name our coach JJ.  I'll even tell you why, since you asked so nicely.  JJ stands for Jehovah Jireh, which means, for all you non-Hebrew speaking people (myself included...I had to google it), "The Lord will provide".  I had thought about naming the coach a few other things before hand, but this one seemed appropriate.  Other contenders were Rolling Thunder, and Emeril.  Rolling Thunder for obvious reasons (the sounds an RV makes while driving down the road are horrendous, for those that have never driven one).  Emeril was a bit more subtle.  For those Food Network fans out there that remember Emeril Lagasse's show, he would spice up some of his dishes with the trademark "BAM!"  That is kinda what happens when you're driving an RV up a hill...you're going along, and BAM, the transmission shifts into SUPER GAS GUZZLING PASSING GEAR MODE, which is not only realllllly annoying, but eats a hole through your wallet.  In the end, JJ sounded better, was definitely true (because God provided big time), and wasn't a reminder that RVs are in fact giant money pits.

So back to the hiccup.  We had a fabulous weekend planned.  We were going to Zooland Family campground near Asheboro, NC with some friends of ours.  Mellie was running our generator to cool down the coach and chill the fridge for the food we were taking.  All was well for about 6 hours, then the generator stopped.  No biggie, except she couldn't get it to start afterwards.  I come home about an hour later, try to restart the genny, to no avail.  We hear some clicking sounds, go outside to investigate, smell smoke, and watch our weekend plans drift into the atmosphere as our transfer switch is toasted.  If that's not the suck, I don't know what is.  But wait!  Could it be that this doohickey is repairable?  Maybe, maybe not.  I work my electrician magic on it, disconnect some wires, do a bunch of other technical stuff that would read a lot like blah blah blah so I won't post it, and we're off!  WOOHOO, MAH HERO and all that.  At least I thought.

After a 2 1/2 hour drive to the campsite, we hop on out, ready to get our camp on.  It's too bad that we have no power getting to the RV.  It seems that some of the melted slag pile that was our transfer switch was important to being able to get the go-go juice to the RV electrical systems, and with it gone, the rest of the system is the equivalent of a paper weight, only stinkier.  This is the part where we said drat, shuckey darn, and in general started sounding a lot like the old cartoon character Yosemite Sam.  At least our friends had a grill that wasn't electric so we had a tasty Bubba Burger and hopped back into the coach for the 2 1/2 hour drive back home.  All was not lost though.  I think we're in the running for the Guiness Book of World Records for the shortest camping trip EVAH!  So we got that going for us...which is nice...

the first hiccup

We were told that living the RV life means becoming a jack of all trades because you never know what will need fixing, but rest assured something will need fixing! So we went to get JJ out of storage (I'll let Trent come back and tell you about how the RV got the name) and lo and behold, the coach batteries are deader'n a doorknob. We did everything right, turned off everything, stored it all properly, so it should have been fine. Seems that the coach batteries weren't maintained very well by the previous folks and there was NO water to be seen in the cells. So there was no coming back from that disaster, because the batteries wouldn't hold a charge at all after that. Thank goodness I started putting money in the RV maintenance last month, so we had enough in there to buy two new coach batteries. And they work wonderfully, I might add!

getting ready to pull the old batteries

Quite happy to have the new batteries in!

So we're planning on going out this weekend, so the boys (yes, the dogs, who did you think?) decided to get Daddy a father's day present a little early. So sweet of them. They got him a surge protector for the RV....awww.

Father's Day Gift

It was on our 'really need to get as soon as we can afford it' list, so I worked some wonders on the budget and they sent me to fetch it. Trent was right happy to get his gift, just what he wanted! So when he got home from the plant today, he set about getting it installed. The guy that I bought it from assured me that "even an electrician" could manage to get it done with little fuss. I'm not sure if Trent was happier because he got the surge protector or if he was getting the opportunity to show his prowess in the electrical field. I must say I was impressed as I watched him splice, dice and do all the stuff to make it work.

And in no time at all, he had the big monster of a cord cut into pieces and was attaching that big box in the middle. Of course I had to get pictures to remember the occasion!

happy man with electrical stuff

I got some action shots but there was too much plumber's crack to put those out there for the general viewing audience. But I did manage one of him pleased with his handy work...

All done!

no chance of frying ourselves now!

Such a small piece of equipment and yet so important. I did find out that I can deduct part of the cost on our taxes because it's to help set up my 'mobile office' that I'll be using while we're on the road. Nifty, yeah!?

Tomorrow when Trent gets off work, we'll be heading to Asheboro. We're meeting some friends from church at Zooland Family Campground for the weekend. So this will be the REAL first camping trip, instead of trying to figure out how to turn on lights and dump sewage, we'll be able to enjoy our time there.  I'll be working on the way there, so hopefully the wifi ranger is easy to set up tomorrow. This will be the trial run to see if there are any kinks to unkink. Until later folks!

So much for diamonds

Diamonds are definitely not this girl's best friend, and Trent is thankful for it! Today, though, the UPS guy thought he had delivered the winning lottery ticket, or at least a box full of new shoes by the reaction I had when he showed up! Truth be told, I was pretty excited. The WiFi ranger arrived. I'm so stinking excited to see if it works as well as we think it will. If it does, then adios home internet provider that sucks so badly, and hello air card internet for the whole house, but especially for trips in the RV!! I wasn't nearly as excited about the second box, but he seemed to understand once I said it was sewer hose connections for the RV. So two more essentials have arrived on the way to making this God-sized dream get on the road.

WiFi Ranger & Rhino Sewer Hoses

Trent has been in Oregon this week. He was supposed to be back Wednesday, but here it Friday and he's just boarding a plane. I told him God was giving him all these experiences so he would REALLY appreciate coming home to the RV every night instead of the crazy junk he's gone through this trip. I'll let him tell you all about it later.