is not what you want to see when you’re just going from point A to point B with a 15000 lb, 40 ft 5th wheel but that’s exactly the sign I saw as I let Google maps direct me this morning. So there I was on a washboard gravel road, reduced to about 20 mph. I also saw another sign about a road being closed. The sign indicated a county road and Google maps insisted I was on a numbered street. I kept going, thinking that it was only 3 more miles before I turned on to a different (hopefully paved) road. Well, in another half mile I could see barricades across the road ahead of me. Fortunately, I was right in front of a farmhouse that had a generous driveway to the unpaved street. Ever do a 3 point turn with a large 5th wheel? I think this was my 3rd time where I HAD to. The driveway was plenty big enough and no obstacles at the corners. In just a couple of minutes, I was heading back towards paved roads and civilization. Next time Google maps suggests secondary roads, I’ll double check with another app, or just take known good roads that might take me 5 minutes longer.

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.