I’ll be the first to admit that when I started RVing I was absolutely clueless about how to back my 5th wheel. I remember very distinctly trying to put it on a site in the middle of a virtually empty campground. The sites were all grass, tons of space between them and no obstacles. It probably took me about 30 minutes before I finally gave up and decided to sleep in it ‘as is’ even though it was sitting cockeyed. Fast forward 12 years. I had to take the RV in for body work. Eddie’s Truck Center in Box Elder SD was able to schedule my work quickly and even sent someone out to the campground to check the damage before the work was done.

I took it in the next morning and asked if they wanted me to back it into a bay. They said they would move it in with a forklift and I could just unhitch in the middle of the lot. I did that and went out for breakfast. Halfway through the meal they called me back and said they couldn’t move it with their forklift. They wanted me to come back and put it in the bay.

12 years ago, I would’ve shown up and just handed them the keys to the truck. But with that much practice under my belt I felt pretty confident. FYI, the RV is 8.5 ft wide not counting the rolled up awnings and 40 ft long. The bay door was 12 ft wide. The open space in front of the bays was adequate and I managed to get it in place in less than 5 minutes. I was taking things very slowly since I didn’t want to cause any more damage. It’s not something I’d like to do on a frequent basis but it’s great to know I can.

I was able to pick it up the next day and the repairs look great. Now, for the awnings and topper replacement.

I arrived safely in Rapid City after a hard 2 day drive. It turned into a hard drive because of my decision to change plans midway through the drive. My modified route just didn’t have any decent rest areas.

Anyway, I found an RV repair shop to handle the awnings and topper. They’re even an authorized dealer for my brand so that helps. They recommended a truck body shop in town to repair the holes in the exterior. I got an adjuster out and he finished all the paperwork and let me know how to proceed. Great! I called the body shop the next morning and discovered that their next available appointment would be 1 week after I leave for the sugar beet harvest. There was a hard hailstorm in the area just a few days prior so they were already booked with those repairs.

With a little help, I found another body shop in the next town and will be dropping the RV off tomorrow morning. I should be able to pick it up Friday afternoon, then schedule the remaining work at the RV dealer. Keeping my fingers crossed.

My daily walks here in the Black Hills are certainly different than the ones in Florida. I can’t go more than .25 mile without going either uphill or downhill. Because of that (and some narrow, twisty roads) I haven’t even tried a bicycle ride but I may have found a suitable road for that, maybe next week.

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 🙂

I’m currently in central Florida in a combo mobile home/RV park. There is 1 street that has only RVs and that’s where I’m at. The sites aren’t huge but they’re not the smallest I’ve seen either. There’s probably about 20 feet between RVs and all the sites are full hook up (water, electric, sewer). We’re right on the edge of a metropolitan area with a fair-sized hospital only 2 blocks away. I say all this to provide the groundwork for the following story:

I was watching TV the other night and about 8:30 PM I took a book up to the bedroom so I would have something to read in a little while. The weather was absolutely gorgeous that day and one of my bedroom windows was open with the shade all the way up. I noticed that there was  a lot of light coming from the site next door and glanced out the window. What did I see? Some guy peeing on a tree about 10 feet from my bedroom window! I couldn’t believe it. After a few deep breaths and assuring myself that he couldn’t be doing anything else (he had his back to me but was talking to his buddy that next time he shouldn’t hold it so long) I had a few words for him through the window. After that, I called the park office to report the incident and request they talk to him the next day. I went back to watching TV and heard the neighbors putting things away for the night and at least one vehicle leaving.

The next morning I decided to share my experience with the fine folks on rv.net. I’ve been a regular reader/contributor on their forums for years and rants about campground/RV park/Walmart behavior are fairly common. Well, I made my post, then went on with my life. A few hours later I checked in and was dismayed. It seemed that many people were siding with the urinator!

I guess to allow the benefit of the doubt, it seemed like some folks thought I was in a forest campground but once they started in a mob mentality broke out and it was open season on poor Joe.   So, here’s what some of the responses were like.

“It’s natural for guys to pee on trees in the wilderness.” Absolutely right but this happened in an urban RV park.

“Dogs pee on trees all the time and you don’t get upset about that.” Right again but dogs also hump in the middle of the street at high noon and stick their noses in your crotch to say hello. Standards of behavior are different for humans and animals.

“It’s god’s will.” This guy probably shouldn’t be out of the house without a caregiver.

“It’s a common practice in Europe.” Last time I checked Florida was not a member of the European Union.

“That’s the way we always did it on the ranch/farm.” Again, not a crowded urban RV park.

There were also a few suggesting it was my own damn fault for looking out the window. 1 poster suggested that I shouldn’t get upset unless someone is peeing directly on my steps in broad daylight. One guy said it was my problem for being in a mobile home/RV park. I quickly put that snob on my block list.

There were a number of people who agreed with me and came to my defense and I thank them. Hopefully all the ‘pro public urinators’ will stay in their own campgrounds.

For the record I’ve peed on trees from the Everglades to southeast Alaska and in woods all over West Germany. I’ve even peed on the side of the highway during emergencies. In all of those cases, there were no other options. This guy could have taken 2 steps in the other direction and used the facilities inside his RV.

Due to my foot injury I left Stephen MN sooner than planned, but not by much. As I was prepping the RV on 10/17 I got a phone call from the city manager saying that they would be shutting off water in the campground sometime on 10/18 due to low temperatures. So, even without the broken foot, I would have only lasted a few more days in the campground with my freshwater tank. Due to the injury, the biggest change in my traveling plans was final destination. Instead of heading due south to Kansas to work for Amazon, I drove southeast to Florida.

Departure on the morning of 10/18 was predictably cold, temps in the low 30s. I really should have put away the sewer and water hoses the night before but just couldn’t stand limping down to the bath house the night before. Other than that, the final preparations went smoothly, got the RV hitched up and headed out about 8 AM for my 2100 mile trip. I expected it would take a full 4 days but my main concern was getting into warmer weather as soon as possible since I would be boondocking in rest areas or truck stops at night.

I stopped in Grand Forks ND just long enough to finish some paperwork with Express Employment Professionals for my worker’s comp claim. Then it was back on the road heading south. Surprisingly, I didn’t have to fight headwinds getting out of the state and made it as far as Sioux City Iowa that first day. I can’t even remember if I boondocked at a rest area or Flying J that first night so I must have been tired. I do remember that it was still very cold. Between the cold, my foot, and Dakota craving attention, it was not a very good night for sleeping. I was back on the road before 5 AM.

My next planned stop was in southern Illinois. That meant I would have to finish crossing Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and part of Illinois. Traveling on a Saturday made it easy to get through Kansas City and St. Louis although there seemed to be a college football game in Missouri that contributed to traffic on the interstate. I had already checked out a rest area in southern Illinois in The Next Exit book. Just a few miles north of that rest area I noticed a lot of bright lights off to the side and thought it might be a sports stadium or industrial complex. Not even close. It was a prison, complete with lots of shiny concertina wire, and only 2 miles north of my rest area. I started reconsidering spending the night there but the decision was taken out of my hands. The rest area was closed and had a barricade across the entrance. No problem, my backup location was a Pilot truck stop a few miles further down the road.

I get to that exit well after dark and find a construction zone. Fortunately, I made it to the truck stop without getting lost or stuck on a 1 lane road. Unfortunately, the truck stop was totally full. 18 wheelers were packed in there like sardines. Even if there was an empty spot I might have still passed due to my inability to back into a tight spot, in the dark, after a long day driving. So, back on the interstate heading south to the next rest area. What a surprise! All the truck and RV spots full there also. But, trucks were parking on the shoulder in the rest area so I figured it was OK for me also. I drove head first into a large spot between trucks but the end of the 5er was still very close to the roadway. The trucker parked just ahead of me offered his advice and assistance. I pulled forward into the road again and parallel parked that RV! Many thanks to that trucker for spotting me so I could get a decent nights sleep.

The next day I hoped to make it at least to south Georgia, maybe north Florida. It was good weather and clear sailing through Nashville, Chattanooga and Atlanta. Knock on wood, I’d only had one small problem with my brake controller and was trying not to think about any more mechanical problems. The exhaust brake worked just great in the mountains as I cruised by the truck runaway lanes. That Sunday evening I pulled into the Florida welcome center on I-75, looking forward to a shower and a good nights sleep. I found a level spot so using the water pump on my freshwater tank was not a problem.

I turned on the water heater (on propane) for the shower, made a phone call, then reached in the freezer for a Klondike bar. After taking the first bite and seeing liquid ice cream run out, I realized I had a problem. In north Georgia, I had a propane cylinder refilled. Apparently, I left both propane cylinders turned off when departing the Flying J so the refrigerator/freezer couldn’t run at all the entire day. My water heater also wasn’t heating any water for my shower. Oh well, I stepped outside to open one of the cylinders, came back inside and verified the water heater and frig were working again. Made another phone call while waiting for hot water. Finally got my shower and slept with one vent open since the temps were very comfortable.

Got another early start on Monday morning. After some quick calculations, I figured I would be in Malabar FL by lunchtime. Turns out my biggest ‘big city’ hassle of the entire trip would be Jacksonville FL. I hit it right at morning rush hour and even though I took the bypass, there were several spots when all traffic came to a complete halt on the interstate. After that I stopped at the Flying J outside St Augustine. Wasn’t sure if I had enough diesel to finish the trip, so better safe than sorry. You’ve heard about ‘the ugly American’ overseas? Well, I saw ‘the ugly RVer’ in that parking lot. Someone in a 5th wheel had pulled in, taking up 2 RV spaces, had all 4 slides out and a spare gas tank under the 5er feeding the generator. It’s folks like these that give RVers a bad name. Anyway, I got in line to fill my tank and waited, and waited, and waited. The RVer ahead of me in line was attempting to get a propane cylinder filled but they were obviously having problems. When I questioned them they had no idea how long it would take so I asked the RVer to spot me in back so I could back up and take the other (empty) lane. Mission accomplished and back on the road.

I had called the RV park while waiting for diesel to let them know I would be there early. The manager advised that she would call me back only if my spot was NOT available. No callback, so life was good. I’d stayed at this park before so I knew exactly where I was going. Unfortunately, she didn’t tell me that it was lawn care day. That means that people park their cars and trucks in the street so the lawn mowers have access to the grass. After weaving through parked cars, I get to my spot and check it out. On the street in front of my spot, in my planned maneuvering area, is a pickup truck. The local manager cruises up in a golf cart, then a workamper, and they determine that the owner is off the premises. So, I look very closely and figure I can still make it in. With the workamper spotting my blindside I had the RV positioned in under 5 minutes. Get the electric hooked up and life is good. Temps are in the 80s so everything else can wait until I rest up some more.

Many RVers, whether full-time, most-time, or part-time, have a home base where they return on a regular basis to recharge, update legal documents and take care of routine medical or dental care. They have doctors and dentists who maintain their records and are familiar with their history.  And then there are the full-timers with no home base. I’m in that last category. I always considered myself lucky in this regard for a couple of reasons.

First, I earned very low cost health insurance by serving in the Air Force for 20 years. Everywhere I’ve traveled in my RV, I’ve been able to find a doctor or hospital who accepted my Tricare insurance when necessary. Second, despite some very bad habits during my younger years, I’m still pretty healthy. At the ripe old age of 57 I don’t take any prescription medications. When I remember, I’ll take a multivitamin in the morning. According to the health professionals I’ve talked to, that’s uncommon. So, on the medical side, I’m pretty lucky.

On the dental side, not so much. I’ve had periodontal disease for a number of years. There’s really no cure for it. I follow a very strict home heath care regimen but that’s not enough. My last ‘regular’ dentists strongly advised that I should also get professional cleanings 4 times a year. Great! Again, because of my military service, I qualify for low cost dental insurance. Unfortunately, it’s like most other insurances. They’d rather pay after a problem occurs rather than spend a little more on preventative measures. They’ll only pay for 2 cleanings a year despite the diagnosis of periodontal disease.

That leaves 2 hurdles while traveling. The first is finding a dentist who accepts my insurance and is willing to take a new, one-time patient. That task is made a lot easier because of the Internet and Delta Dental’s website where I can look up the nearest dentist. The second problem is actually scheduling the appointment. Some offices schedule their cleaning appointments 6 months or more in advance. Others require you to make an initial exam appointment before they’ll do a cleaning. I carry my own X-rays with me so each office doesn’t have to shoot new images (which would come out of my pocket).

The last point is not so much a problem as an interesting side note. You just never know what kind of dentist/hygienist you’ll get until you actually show up. Every place I’ve been has fallen into the ‘satisfactory’ to ‘excellent’ category. I just needed to relate my latest visit since it was so out of the ordinary. I visited a dentist in Drayton ND today, maybe the only dentist in the town. The office was only open 3 days a week. OK. I’ve seen a lot of offices that only worked 4 days. I drove through the town about a week before my appointment just to see where it was. I didn’t have the exact address written down but knew it was on Main St so it couldn’t be too hard to find, right? Wrong! Drayton is a very small town and driving the entire length of Main St only takes about 2 minutes.

So, the next time I was in the RV, I checked the exact address, went back to Drayton and looked again. I found the addresses on either side of the office but in between those was a door and window with absolutely no numbering or signage. Hmmm. The receptionist called me 2 days before the appointment and she confirmed that I should indeed come to the unmarked door. The practice was so small they didn’t have a hygienist. The dentist cleaned my teeth, which was a first for me. After the procedure, I mentioned to him that it was the first time I’d seen a stealth dentist’s office. He explained that he’d been there forever and everybody knew where he was. Since he was getting ready to retire, he had no desire to spend money putting his name on the window.

This subject comes up occasionally on various internet forums, especially for fulltime travelers. It can be difficult to maintain a physical exercise routine. Two of the most popular exercises among RVers are walking and bicycling. I really had to think twice before that last sentence because I’m not really sure that it counts as exercise if you’re just strolling during your walk or peddling your bicycle at walking speed. OK, it’s better than sitting on the couch but probably doesn’t do much for weight loss.

If you need to exercise for weight loss or building muscle tone, your options can be tricky. Personally, I’ve always been a big believer in jogging for weight loss. But as I get older (and maybe lazier) I can’t run far enough or fast enough to make a difference. I also have to consider deteriorating knee joints and foot problems. I certainly don’t want to carry my own home gym with me due to space and weight requirements.

Finally, a light bulb lit up over my head. I’ve heard about the benefits of yoga and decided that it fit the bill for an RV. No equipment other than a mat. No jumping up and down or other high impact moves. So the last time I was in town I went into Best Buy looking for a yoga DVD. The only 1 they had on the shelf was by Jillian Michaels of The Biggest Loser. Naturally I had misgivings but decided to buy it since it had 2 different level workouts. After playing the DVD, I found out that even Level 1 had 2 different levels within it for beginners and advanced. My biggest concerns were balance and flexibility. The next morning I gave it a try. She started out with a short warmup of yoga poses and that had me breathing hard. The entire workout is supposed to be about 30 minutes. I think I lasted about 5 minutes after the warmup. The next day I made it 15 minutes.

So, something that looked very easy was turning out to be very difficult, at least for me. Maybe I should’ve looked online for ‘Yoga for Seniors’ or something similar 🙂 Anyway, I’ll keep trying and hopefully I’ll be able to finish the full 30 minutes without calling 911.