Ed's Thoughts on the Summer

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Overall, or well to sum it up, this trip was great for the family and quite doable for my business. I must give a great deal of credit to Lori. She organized most of it and catered to my job. I was able to stay busy with calling on customers via email, the phone, or and visits. The only problem I experieinced with the cell card for email or the cell phone was in Yellowstone. For that, I just took my vacation during that time. With the great organization, it became quite balanced. I enjoyed going out to see customers during the day and then coming back to the RV at night to be with them.

We found a great many things about ourselves and our relationships. We became closer, decided to get away from each other and than came back together closer than ever. We become very close to the kids with a more balanced relationship. Going from 4850 sq ft of space to less than 300 sq ft of space was a challenge at times, but there was always the door to the great outdoors. I think we got use to it and each other after 3 weeks.

About the RV, the only thing that went wrong with it was the drain in the bathtub/shower started leaking. Plumbers putty will not stand up to the vibration, but silicone caulk will! It was fixed in a jiffy. We did crush the table leg with the slide out, but $14.00 later that was fixed with 2 new pipe legs. We broke the poopie pipe cover, but found a new one the next day. As long as the valves are closed there is not a problem.

Things to never do with an RV and other bits of amusement. We never did these things but saw those who did.

1) Never disconnect the poopie pipe before closing the values. This will get you quite close to the human effient of life. Like changing a big diaper.

2) Go eat without washing your hands after connecting or disconnecting the poopie pipe. Reminds me of, "You might be a redneck if you handle the poopie pipe and then go directly to the watermelon at the table and dig in!"

3) Do not back up with your car attached. I did this one, only 2 inches and it bound the car to the point I could not get the car to detach. Remedied by moving forward 3 inches.

4) Use aircraft pins on the car tow bar or your car may take off. Met someone who trusted his local RV supplier to supply the right parts. He lost his car with $5000.00 worth of damage. Imagine you are going down the road and a car comes up beside you blowing the horn and saying, "Mister, your car is gone". You turn on the real camera and find no car. This guy was tempted to keep going, but his wife nagged him into stopping.

5) Push the button to bring out the slide out right beside a big oak tree. Yes, again this happened to the same guy who lost the car. Result, a broken slide out window.

6) Drive 75 MPH down an 8 degree grade. Did this and it was not fun stopping it, especially slowing it down around a 50 MPH curve. That 3200 LB car behind you is trying to push right down the hill and straight through the curve. Overall the Class B/C van frame with the Triton V 10 handled very well. The brakes are adequate to stop it under normal conditions. The engine is quite strong. We got 8 miles MPG pulling the car, and 10-11 not pulling it. It does run good at 70 MPH, but do not plan to stop soon.

7) Do take the awning down in high winds. If you do not, it will act like a big kite and shake and rock the RV. Saw someone who lost theirs due to high winds.

8) Remove all food including the table cloth when camping in bear country. Lock it up. We saw the aftermath of a family's pop up camper who left food out. A bear came in and tore the camper apart. The rangers scared it away and it came back 20 minutes later. Eventually, and sadly, the rangers had to put the bear down.

9) Make sure you fill up the gas fired hot water heater before you turn it on. If not, and you fire it up, it will burn it up. Burning metal does not smell good.

As for the future, I loved this and I will do this in the future. Our life has changed because we chose to do this. The kids are and were at the right age. We will always remember this.

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