Our Second Trip: Day the First

Our second RV camping experience was not as serendipitous as the first. Will raced around all day getting the house ready for the dogsitters, grocery shopping and packing for our trip. I was in meetings all day, so couldn’t really help at all. He picked Abi up at 2:30, then me, then Ben. We drove to the RV storage facility, loaded up the RV, climbed into our seats and Will started the engine.

Except it didn’t start. At all. It didn’t turn over. We thought we heard the fuel pump going, but we found out later that was just the compressor for the train whistle (don’t ask).

We tried to start it for about 20 minutes, then I called the Good Sam roadside service. Luckily I had signed up with them the week before. It took about an hour for the mechanic to show up – young guy covered with tattoos that clearly knew his way around an engine. He figured out within a couple of minutes that it was the solenoid, and fashioned a wire for us to use to jumpstart it until we had time to replace it.

Then he charged us $125. I was surprised, because I thought roadside service meant…free. Like the AAA. Which I now wish I had called. It turns out that Good Sam roadside service is different – Good Sam pays for them to get out to you, but you pay for their time working on the rig. At least I think that’s the difference; I will need to do some reading on this. I was planning to cancel AAA, but I’m thinking that AAA may be better in this sort of circumstance. AAA won’t, apparently, change an RV tire and they won’t haul more than X miles, both of which Good Sam does, so we probably need both.

It was getting dark as we pulled out of the storage facility, with the mechanic behind us. There is a HUGE bump on the way out of the facility onto the road that sent us flying into the air. We were about a mile down the highway when my cell phone rang. It was the mechanic, who told me that our rear lights were out.

We pulled off, into a parking lot, and I ran back to look. Yup, the back lights were off AND the rear mudflap was hanging half off. We think maybe the huge bump shook it loose. It appears to have sheered the toad hook-up (oh, I feel so cool that I know some RV lingo – toad = towed vehicle). We tried to fix it for about 20 minutes and then decided to drive home - 12 miles without rear lights! But Will pointed out that there was no way anyone was going to miss us.

Unfortunately, there were dogsitters at our house, and it was too late to bring the RV back to the storage facility anyway. So we pulled up next to the community pool and parked the RV for the night. Poor kids – their first night camping in the RV was in their own neighborhood. But we had fun anyway; Will made chili cheese nachos and we talked and laughed and went to bed early.

Will and I woke up around 5 and snuggled and chatted until it was light enough to drive without lights. Then we headed out to Lake Cahuilla.

Dawn

First morning out on our new adventure, in Anza Borrego Park at dawn. We picked up our new RV the day before, and drove out here just before dusk. When I say new, I mean new to us; it's a 33 foot 1994 Rexhall Aerbus, a diesel pusher with a Cummins engine and a Banks system. This is a shakedown cruise for us, seeing how she handles and learn how to cope with whatever we find.

First off, on hook-up the day before I discovered a significant leak under the bathroom sink. A connector had worked itself loose, and needed to be tightened. That's all, but it took lying on the floor in an awkward position fiddling around and tightening a connection in a very small space. Barely enough room for a wrench in there. Just took perseverence though, and it was all done.

We're travelling with three dogs, and that's another little adventure all on its own.