WordSisters

Category: RVing Life

  • Best Summer Ever!

    Dead RV battery. Ticks on the dogs. Ticks on us. Toothache. Dead car battery. Awning broke. Our 10×10 pop-up gone in the wind.

    “Best summer ever!” I told Jody.

    Lake George, New York, our seventh campground, was the first time Jody and I felt like we were really on vacation—living in our RV, traveling the Eastern Seaboard.

    Maybe it was the unfamiliar Adirondack landscape. The steep hiking. Scrambling over roots and granite, climbing through the forest and then suddenly coming out to a view of Lake George, a ribbon of blue tucked between mountains.

    Our travels continued with bike rides through the countryside, up and down valleys. I was a kid again, sailing over the pavement. Nature and being outside filled me. Farmers in the fields. The smell of hay being cut. Leaves beginning to fall.

    There were more challenging hikes in the Appalachian Mountains. Swimming beneath waterfalls. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. I stopped noticing—or caring—what day it was.

    Time was marked by moving day and arrival at the next site.

    The other stuff—the broken stuff—Jody and I figured out.

    New RV battery. Ticks dropped into a jar of alcohol. Tooth pulled. Car battery replaced. Awning added to the RV repair-and-maintenance list. The 10×10 pop-up was simply gone.

    115 days.
    16 weeks and 3 days.
    Almost four months.

    I watch seven merganser ducks diving underwater, chasing small fish. They play tag, frolicking, seeming to dance across the water.

    “Best summer ever.”

  • RVing Mishaps Along the Way

    “You don’t have to tell people about this,” Jody said. I agreed.

    No one needed to know that we drove into a car wash knocking our air conditioner off its frame. Our 29 ft. Class A motorhome didn’t fit. This was something Jody and I were never going to do—drive into a car wash with our RV. Immediately, we knew we made a mistake when we heard a loud “Clunk”. After we both screamed, I slowly backed out of the car wash. Jody inspected the ceiling of our RV and could see daylight. This was not going to be an easy fix.

    Belonging to well over 20 RV websites: RV Lifestyle, RV Maintenance – Repair & Remodeling Group, RVing with Dogs, RV Traveling with Cats, Winnebago Motorhome Repair, 50 and Over RV’ers, 60 and Over RV’ers, Full Time RV Living, RV Group for Beginners, RV Owners Helping RV Owners and many more, we were knowledgeable and aware of the hazards. We discussed horror stories.

    For gosh sakes, we had even gone to a weeklong RV class.

    There was a sign at the car wash that said RV WASH. We didn’t look closely enough to see that the arrow was pointing to the OUTSIDE of the bay.

    There have been other mishaps.

    I trust my mirrors. They don’t lie. I don’t need to see directly behind our RV. I use my side mirrors effectively. Backing all 29 ft. into my cousin’s driveway with him guiding me, I forgot that we had our E-bikes on the hitch. I dented the right corner of his car with the E-bikes. Ooops.

    Jody and I have learned that she should be on the phone directing me with her shrieks and yells while I am driving out of or into parking spots. My cousin’s “STOP” is so much more mellow than Jody’s. I know her nuances, her breathing, her certain shrillness.

    Jody’s role is to be the fixer. She handled getting the air conditioner repaired. When an exterior storage compartment was damaged due to an object flying off a semi on the freeway, she ordered the part from Winnebago and will oversee the replacement. She diagnosed a leak in our bathroom shower and ran after an RV serviceman in a KOA to get it repaired. Our backup camera is now working because of her efforts.

    My role is to clean the grey and black waste tanks weekly.

    It’s been three months since we’ve left Minnesota in our RV. We’ve learned that we can live together in a tight space. And, if something breaks or gets damaged, we will fix it same as if you fall over in a chair, you don’t stay down. You get up, find the humor, and carry on.