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.

In case you couldn't picture it

Trent got to tell you how wonderful the RV park was, but unless you see it, it's hard to 'appreciate'. So onto pictures!
The legendary All new bath house:

I found out that this is actually quite a magnet. You see with Dickens RV Park being out in the boonies, but close to a nuclear power plant, coupled with its low rates ($15 a night, what a bah-gain!), it truly is a flocking ground for the union guys that came to work on the outage at the plant. Funny, two nights before we arrived, the park was completely full, even to the point of them doubling up lots. I said all that to say that those folks were truly excited about getting a new bath house. And to its credit, it has nice laundry facilities, and even handicapped showers! Not to mention a bag of ice for a buck (honor system, same as paying for the lot, woah that was unexpected).

This was the site that welcomed us when we arrived:

Pretty house,  pretty field. Thought that might be where we check in, but nope. Kent, who was an extremely nice gentleman met us at the bath house when we arrived and we followed his golf cart to our spot amongst the herd. I should have zoomed in more because if you look closely down the gravel lane, you can see Trent chatting with Paul, who by the way, was like most of the folks there and he contracts with Siemens. Yeah, the same Siemens who sends Trent all over tarnation.

We're like five or six down on the left. Trent did mention there was gravel there, right? Whatever you can picture for gravel, it's not nearly enough. There was more than a plethora, immensely more.

So taking the dogs for a walk was...interesting. This...yes, this right here, doesn't it look like pretty grass???

Well do not be deceived, it's actually green mud. Those are the 30 amp sites, which I'm told was the original park, and the 50 amp sites where we were was an addition. Like Trent said, no bashing on the place, it's not a luxury park or anything, and honestly I don't think we'd go back just because gravel is not my idea of a lounging spot, but we learned a lot about the RV and that was the whole purpose of the trip.

But during the walk, I did get to lay my eyes on the local attraction, i.e. The Plywood Mill. You have to look close to see it beyond the last electric pole there, but the puffs of smoke give it away. It was actually kinda pretty at night all lit up, but I didn't get a picture because I was too busy trying to stay out of the mud, and keep the dogs from trolloping through as well.

The dogs hadn't been in the RV before, but they did really well - even did their regular play fighting to release some energy. They love playing tug of war:

I was going to take a picture of Linus all cuddled up on the couch, but JoJo decided to steal the limelight and jumped up as I snapped the picture. You can almost see Linus in the background.

And he was all about making himself at home. The bed quickly became his favorite place to relax.

Nice, huh?

Linus finally made it into the camera's view, but I think it's only because he thought I had a treat for him!

It's funny that in taking a trip to get away from work this weekend, two thirds of the people there were contracted by Siemens to work the outage at the plant, so work followed Trent. I almost took a picture of the hitching post that boasted a Siemens breaker, but Trent thought I was just being silly then, so I refrained, as far as you know.

All in all, it was a good trip. Like I said, we learned about our RV, we met some really nice people, and we are looking forward to our next trip already! Seeing a happy face when we put it back in storage means it was a good trip, no aggravation!

Our maiden road trip!

Relax, don't get your knickers in a twist, it isn't all that or the bag of chips.  In fact, I might prefer the bag of chips over the place we went to.  But some wise person back in the good ol' days said that life isn't so much about the destination as it is about the journey.  I'm fairly certain I am related to that person, as it sounds like something I'd come up with...I digress...

So here we sit at Dickens RV park, in good old Moncure, NC.  It consists of a parking spot, a hitchin' post  (water/sewer/electric connections), and eleventy billion of our closest neighbor/friends parked on top of one another.  We got here right as every other RVer on the planet was already here enjoying the simple pleasures of staring at the "new bath house", which is the only other thing here at the site that isn't an RV or the people driving them.  I can't really say the bath house is the only thing here.  There is also a swing set, 3 trees (for shade you know), and half a billion pounds of gravel for your parking pleasure.  I should have known that when the website said "rural", it meant "in the boonies".

I'm not bashing the place.  It's good for what we need it for...a place to learn about the RV.  Dickens RV park is reasonably priced, quiet, and populated with some good folks.  We parked next door to some full timers and talked with them for several hours about everything under the sun.  Good people, nice meeting you Paul and Viki.  All in all, day one went well.  We got here in one piece, which is always a plus, hooked up the systems, met some new people, ate some food, and went to bed.  Which is where the problems started...

Apparently, you can use our RV to hang meat in if you turn the AC temp down low enough.  Which is what we did the first night, not knowing any better.  Mellie woke up at 4AM with icicles hanging from her nose, and completely stuffed up.  Couple that with the sneezing, coughing, runny nose, where is the Nyquil when you need it symptoms, and it made for a long night.  No, really, where is the Nyquil when we needed it?  Note to self...bring Nyquil for RV...

After running to the store (hooray Wal Mart) to obtain said Nyquil, I got back and Mellie went into a Nyquil induced sleeping coma for about 3 hours.  Ahh, blessed relief/sleep.  Nap time was nice, now to close out the rest of today.

Editor's note:  I am not now, nor have I ever been, a spokesperson for Nyquil...although if anyone from said company is reading this and is looking for a spokesperson, look no further :)  I'm your huckleberry.