Come Visit in Alabama

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This blog is usually about trips we take. Today's post is about one we would like YOU to make...to visit us in Alabama. When we bought the house 5 years ago, it had a lovely half court basketball pad out front. I'm a bit too old; the grandsons are a bit too young. So we had the idea to convert it to an RV pad for visiting friends. It's taken some time (and money) but we finally got it completed just before Thanksgiving.

Delco Services (Don Lang contracting) did the work and like a true craftsman, he measures 3 or four times prior to starting. I watched him use two bent metal wands to walk the electric line from the pole to the house and then mark the water line from the road to the house. (He told me cutting a water line was not a problem; just shut of the main line from the road, put in a Tee to the pad and then finish the work. Cutting an electric line was NOT good for us and whoever was on the back-hoe.) On the appointed day he showed up with his back hoe, a ditch witch to lay a narrow trench, and two employees of his to help and run pipes and lines.

Don started digging near the power pole, looking for the water line. We are in a drought here and the ground was hard and dry. Don got down about 3 feet and no water though he was right on top of his mark. He kept going. Down to six feet and still no pipes! The men started poking with shovels and Don got off and "re-dowsed" the line. Something was clearly not right as it showed him right on top of the water line. Finally he told the sub-contractor with the ditch witch to dig the trench and cautioned them to keep it between the electric and water lines that he had clearly marked on the dirt drive.

Off went the ditch witch digging a 2-3 foot deep narrow trench and I went back in the house. I was about to make a phone call on the land line when I noticed the phone service was dead! Opps...they'd cut the land line for telephone to the house. (Of course, that meant no internet either, a major concern for a teen-age grandson and daughter and son-in-law who gobbled up bandwidth for video, homework, data gathering and social media. I quickly reported to Don the loss and he and the entire crew began looking for the cut wire.

They never found the phone line.

The crew laid plastic pipe and ran the heavy electric line in. Eventually it went in the back of the house and into the main breaker box where it was tied to a 100 amp breaker. (This will allow us to shut off power to the RV pad when we are gone.) Meanwhile, they kept looking for the water line. After phone calls to the original builder of the house and the water company, they finally determined the line did NOT run along the drive, but actually went through the middle of a one acre field we are trying to turn into meadow for butterflies and hummingbirds. They eventually dug a trench with the back hoe and finally found the line near the pad. Once they had that, it was only a short time until they had a tap on the line and a frost free faucet installed next to the electric box.

Meanwhile, they continued to look for the phone line. Phone company was contacted and promised to send someone. No one came.

Finally it was getting dark. The ditch witch crew had left with their equipment. Don put cones around the work and left, promising to be back the next day. When he came in the next morning, he had a large spool of underground phone wire and over 190 feet of PVC pipe. He laid the pipe and ran the phone wire though it then buried everything. Now we had water and electric at the RV pad and new phone wire ready for the technician to patch in so we could have phone (and internet) service restored. Later that morning, a large gravel truck came and spread a huge load of crusher run on the drive and in front of the garage, giving us a nice, smooth, level drive.

It was three more days before a phone technician arrived. He probed and swept his electronic gizmo over the yard, trying to find where the cable had been cut. I showed him the new wire and recommended he just tie in to that instead of worrying about where the old one was. Eventually, we left to do some shopping and when we came back, we had phone service restored. Apparently the tech found the break because he never used the new wire.

So now we have a level, 30x20 foot concrete RV pad with full electric and water. We also have a sewer dump hole in the back yard put in 4 years ago and it ties to our septic. It will be useful when someone arrives or leaves to allow them to dump waste. The approach is easy and with a little dip off the drive and up onto the pad, visitors will have a great spot to set up and have their privacy and yet be close for a visit.

We hope our friends with RVs will take advantage of this and come visit or stop off on their way north/south or heading west to Arizona/New Mexico. Give a holler and we'll have the coffee on and/or make some sweet tea and then sit back and enjoy the sunset with you.

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Comments

[Deborah]

Wow!
That was a project for sure! It will be great for traveling guests. Nicely done!