RVing Day 12

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I finlly slowed down a minute yesterday and realized that I have been LIVING in my RV for 11 days! That is really cool! It has actually been an easy transition from the apartment to the bus. Yes, it is smaller but it is all mine. No Mr. Stompy Butt-head upstairs, no one walking their dogs all day long in a continuous stream of traffic by my patio, no parking problems! ( I love dogs but I do not love owners who refuse to clean up after their pet when it has left presents two feet from my back door! As far as Mr. Butt-head, he earned that name because he would sit on his upstairs balcony smoking and then throw his cigarette butts down on the grass right next to the dog poop!)

So, what has my RV experience been like??? Work!!! I have not stopped since I moved in. James desgined and built a platform for my mattress to elevate the head by 7 inches. Yeah, still dealing with acid reflux. I did help with the project as top go-fer. That took three days of gathering the materials and building it. And it works really well.

James also changed the front and rear brakes on my Camry. Doing any kind of mechanical work on a car can be an adventure. Seems that you never get all the parts you need all at once or something gets damaged in the process and you need a replacement. All part of it and, other that having to deal with the heat, it wasn't too bad. So my Camry now has great brakes, new tires all the way around, and has been inspected for road trip worthiness!

I found an RV repairman to come out to my campground and work on the RV for me. He showed me how all the interior systems work. Seems that leveling jacks will not work if the parking brake is not set. I guess that makes sense from a safety point of view. Good news was that it was operator error and not system malfunction! Chris did a few other minor repairs to switches, showed me how to light the gas, checked out the water heater and showed me how to put the awning up the right way. I didn't have one of the braces fully extended and one side got a little bow in the arm. Just enough to keep it from closing up. So, Chris found a used replacement and switched that out for me on Saturday.

James and I installed the platform for the bed on Saturday and we were ready to road test the RV. Problem was I still have boxes and containers of stuff that I haven't had a chance to put away. I had planned to do that Sunday but that didn't happen. I was exhausted from working in the heat for the last ten days on all of the projects and decided that I had earned a "Netflix sofa day"!! Yes, I have a sofa and the wifi was working pretty well on Sunday. Got in three episodes of Dr. Who. I really needed the rest.

Monday James and I decided to take a trip up to Mom and Dad's to see how everything worked. First thing we had to do was get gas. It took 57 gallons of gas to fill the tank. Wow. That is a huge gas tank. I guess that is a good thing when I expect the mileage to be somewhere between 5 and 10 miles per gallon.

After had her filled up we settled in to our seats and started her up. Except she wouldn't start up! It took us a while to figure out we had a loose battery connection. James tightened that up and we were ready to go. Engine cranked beautifully and we switched on the generator. But, the generator wouldn't start. It turned over once and then nothing. Without the generator the air conditioning doesn't work when you are driving down the road. This bus is like a sauna without the A/C!! We decided there was no way we could drive 4 hours in that heat and I drove back to the campground. I've decided to stay here three more days while I figure this out. I do have a call in to a repairman. Hopefully, it will be something simple.

I did learn a lot on that short trip about how to load the RV. Lots of things shifted in ways I had not expected so I will make use of the next few days adjusting the load and getting some storage containers to keep the small stuff from rolling around in the cabinets. That should make for a quieter ride!

Well, that is where things stand this morning. Still working the kinks out of the bus. Better now than on the road!

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