What happened to the old saying that bad things come in 3s? After one problem with the RV and 2 problems with the truck, I thought it was time for some smooth sailing. I left north GA as scheduled and the drive north was mostly uneventful. Had a scare driving through Nashville where I almost had to lock up the brakes to avoid an accident. I-65 through southern IN wasn’t as bad as the last time (broken axle hanger). Stopped at a rest area south of Indianapolis and thought it might be a good idea to call my planned campground to make sure they had spots available.

That phone call did not give me any warm fuzzies. It sounded like I was talking to a trainee who kept checking with someone else. Oh well, everyone has to learn and there was someone else there. I got my site number (a back-in site) and was informed that my registration package would be taped to the office door. I arrived after the office had closed but one of the park employees just happened to be coming back from dinner and he told me how to work the gate and verified that they’d circled my site on the map. He did NOT offer to guide me to the site so off I went. I turned down the proper road and discovered that site numbers were not visible from the road. I stopped the rig and started walking through vacant sites looking for markings. The site numbers were marked on the electric meters and when I finally found mine, it had somebody else’s stuff on it. This was the seasonal section and apparently someone had ‘spread out’ from their site. Even if it had been empty, it was doubtful my RV would’ve fit. One of the neighbors offered to drive me back to the gate, where he thought there were workampers. Nope, just regular campers. I called the office and it went straight to an answering machine, no instructions given for emergencies. We cruised through the campground for a few minutes and I decided to just park in a pull through spot and figure things out in the morning.

Going into the seasonal section to start with was a giant mistake. The roads were very narrow, some twisty and trees were growing very close to the edge. I navigated several turns, just barely missing trees. On my next to last turn I heard something that I assumed were branches hitting my air conditioners. After pulling into my spot, I discovered that I had actually gotten close enough to a tree on my blind side to damage my main awning, destroy the patio awning and destroy the kitchen slide topper. I did a minimal setup (water and electric) and called it a night.

The next morning I was waiting at the office when they opened. It turns out the entire office crew was new and unfamiliar with the park (some unfamiliar with camping in general). Ownership had recently changed hands and all the experienced summer help had just gone back to school. The one lady who had previous RV park experience changed my reservation to the site I was currently on and gave me a 30% discount for my stay. I insisted we get in her golf cart and check out the site they had originally assigned to me.

I guess the moral of this story is to pay more attention to my gut feelings next time and not to put in such long driving days when heading to an unfamiliar campground.

The insurance company is doing their best to work with me on repairs since I’m only in this area for a short time. After determining that they wouldn’t be able to send an adjuster before I leave, I enlisted the aid of my brother-in-law to detach awning and topper hardware. It was relatively painless and the RV looks much cleaner now. During the phone call with the adjuster, he talked about transporting the damaged components inside the RV to the repair shop at my next stop. I immediately nixed that idea since we’re talking about 12-14 foot long pieces. But after thinking about it the next day, I realized I could strap them to my kayak racks so that problem was taken care of.

So now it’s Friday afternoon in the campground and I’m going through a bit of culture shock. For the last several years, I’ve been staying in 55+ parks. Tonight, this campground filled up quickly with young families and their young, screaming children, ready to make the most of the weekend. Fortunately, I’ll be spending most of the weekend visiting family away from the campground.

It’s now been 8 days since my last day at work in the corporate world. In retrospect, maybe I should’ve allowed myself a few days to decompress before hitting the road again but the end of the month/ pay period/lease all fell on the same day, so there you go. I had a dental appointment scheduled early in the morning on my departure day. Since my first campground was only about 4 hours away, I also had a leisurely breakfast at a local Greek diner before taking off. I managed to get out of the park without incident. I think RVing is similar to flying. In the aircraft world, the most dangerous times are takeoff and landing. In the RVing world, it’s leaving a campground and getting into a new one.

So, I made it to the next campground OK even though the GPS on my phone was acting up. Had a pull thru spot so that was good. Then I had a huge brain fart. The ground was very sandy so when I unhooked the umbilical from the truck I laid the plug across the ball hitch instead of laying it in the sand. Got hooked up to shore power, dropped the front jacks, disconnected the breakaway cable and pulled out from under the 5er. In the first 2 seconds, I felt a little tug and thought ‘What the hell?’ I found the umbilical laying completely in the sand, pulled out from the RV junction box. The plug end had caught on the ball hitch. I finished setting up and decided to attack that problem the next morning, after consulting Dr. Internet to get the wiring schematics.

What a surprise! Even after talking to the manufacturer, nobody could provide reliable schematics. I did get a few suggestions and was able to get the turn signals and brake lights working. Unfortunately, the brakes themselves didn’t work. At some point, I decided I must have separated some internal wires near the plug so off I went to Camping World for a replacement cord. Still no luck. Called a mobile RV tech. He showed up the next day and had to test each wire individually to get it working. So, that bill and a couple extra nights in the campground wasn’t too bad.

I left as soon as it was fixed without incident, until I got to the interstate. Somewhere on the on ramp I heard a little pop and the check engine light came on. All the gauges looked good and engine was still running so I kept driving. It seemed like I didn’t have as much power as I normally do but I wanted to hit the next campground before worrying about it instead of trying to get emergency roadside assistance on I-10.

After setting up at the next campground, I visited an old friend the next day (a Sunday), then took the truck into the dealer early Monday morning. My big fear was that I’d blown the turbocharger. They were very busy and couldn’t even look at the truck until early afternoon. They finally diagnosed a bad fuel pump. Had to keep the truck overnight but got it fixed the next morning. Cheaper than a turbocharger and only one extra day in that campground.

On to my next destination. Again, out of the campground without incident even though it was very tight. I had to back out of my pull thru site. At some point during the drive, the truck started shaking badly. I wasn’t sure if it was the truck or the 5er causing it but I could deal with it and certainly didn’t want to stop on the side of the interstate near Atlanta. Got to my next campground and setup before the rain started. I actually have cable and free laundry at this place! Took the truck out for a short drive and it was still bouncing around without the 5er. After looking at springs and tires, I suspect tread separation in the right rear tire. I’ll confirm that tomorrow morning when I put the spare on. Looks like a couple of new tires are in my immediate future.

Semi-retirement should NOT be this stressful! Hopefully, things will settle down soon.

Wherever the RV is parked, if it’s more than a couple of days, I usually take advantage of the park/campground lending library. There are only a few books that actually travel with me in the RV. Lending libraries offer me the opportunity to satisfy my desire to read old school, actually holding a book in my hand, then put them back on the shelf when I’m done. Some travel with me to the next park and get to see a little bit of the country before waiting to be picked up by the next person.

The bigger ones can have a selection as varied as a small town library. And the smaller ones can introduce you to new genres and authors if your regular reading fare isn’t available. I’ve been in my current location for almost a year and even though the library has a fairly extensive selection, I’ve recently run into the problem of picking a book that I’ve already read. Now, sometimes I’ll do that intentionally for an excellent book but this was totally accidental. In some of the books I’ve read here I’ve noticed somebody penciling in their initials and date on the first page. Maybe if I had picked up that habit earlier I could’ve seen which books I already read at a glance. I guess I’ll consider that little trick in the future if the lending library is small or I’m going to be there a while.

Have you seen books marked like that in your travels? Or books that act like a travelogue with locations and dates penciled in as they work their way around the country?

There’s a very good reason why you can have your pick of campsites in central to south Florida in the summertime. It’s so hot and humid that most people are heading north to camp. Due to family circumstances, I’m here for the summer, and possibly next summer also. So, how do I survive?

Well, it’s not as easy as previous summers down here. For 1 thing, I’m still looking for work. That means I can’t run my air conditioner all the time without cutting back in other places. I was doing pretty good until about the middle of July. As long I didn’t do anything strenuous in the RV I was OK with open windows and vent fans/ceiling fan running. I could even turn the fans off at night.

Then it started getting really hot and humid everyday, think 90s for both. I could last until about noon without the AC, then had to turn it on for my sake and the cat’s. She’s leaving furballs all over. It is still possible to keep the electric bill fairly level in these conditions. First, I only exercise in the morning when it’s at least a little bit cooler. But by the end of the workout, I’m still very hot and sweaty. Definitely time for a shower. Since the outside temps are rising and my body needs cooling down, I find cold showers very invigorating. Also, with my strange eating habits, I rarely generate any dishes that need to be washed. I can last about a week without turning on the water heater. It’s amazing how much energy that particular appliance uses (propane or electric) when it’s just keeping water hot. So, I’m saving some money there.

If I get down to the Laundromat early enough, I can save even more by line drying my clothes. The park has communal laundry lines right next to the Laundromat, not too useful in winter but almost as fast as the gas dryers during the summer. I do have to be careful and watch the sky though. It’s a real bummer to have a load of clothes almost dry, then have a fast moving rain shower come over to erase all that progress.

So far I’m surviving the 2 hottest, wettest months in Florida and really looking forward to October when there should be a noticeable cool down. And by February, I’ll be wishing that I could’ve saved some of this heat 🙂