I'm really, really exhausted; it has been a very long day. I wrote about it in my blog and am cutting & pasting here (except for the photo), so please forgive me if you follow the blog and are reading the same thing twice!
This day was certainly full of challenges!!! Let's see, where do I begin?
We were hoping to hit the road no later than 11 am. We finally pulled out of the driveway at 5 pm....
First, we discovered the reason the bull wouldn't start was not only were the 2 batteries bad, but so was the alternator. Pretty normal for sitting unused for 2 years in the Florida heat. The bull took enough of a charge to drive to the nearest auto center, where they installed the new batteries. Mitch and Kevin purchased an alternator which Kevin was going to install (he knows a little bit about trucks). Turns out that he either really didn't know what he was doing or he didn't have the right tools, but they couldn't get the belt on. I think it was hilarious that here are these 2 men standing over a huge truck with a laptop on the back, watching Youtube videos on how to replace an alternator!!! Finally, Kevin called in the troops - a friend who is a retired mechanic, who came over and fixed it within 10 minutes. So problem # 1 resolved and it is now 2:00 pm.
Next, Kevin went over all the instructions again with Mitch on closing up (I already had everything ready inside the CoW. I'm leaving the stuff like the sewer hookups to the men). Finally, finally, it's 4:30 and we're ready to leave. And then the sky opened and the winds were roaring. Rather than drive in that, we were invited into the house, given hot tea and a change of clothes and some snacks (we hadn't eaten much breakfast and no lunch) and waited out the storm. Have I mentioned before what incredibly wonderful people they are?
Finally, 5:00 and we left the driveway, taking our home on wheels out for the very first time alone.
The ride itself wasn't too bad, although I would have felt better if Mitch wasn't reading all the signs (passing thru Disney territory). Then we came to the campground, which was not what we were hoping for at all. There are over 900 sites, most of which are permanent trailer homes. There are lots of streets which are very narrow and winding. There's NO WAY we would have gotten into any other site. We were given a spot which is perpendicular to another street so we should have been able to back straight in. Unfortunately that perpendicular street was curved so it was difficult to get really straight. Not having experience backing up this beast, knowing that turns don't respond until 5-10 seconds later, made it extremely difficult.
We started out with Mitch driving and me giving directions, but I was having a lot of trouble communicating. Usually I'm much better at following directions, so we traded places.
About that time, a friendly neighbor, Dick, an elderly gentleman, came over to offer his assistance. He commented "I haven't done this in a long time" (clearly he lives in one of the trailer homes). So he's giving me one set of directions, which mostly were wrong (almost identical to the ones I was giving Mitch -- go this way, no go that way, no stop, go the other way again, wait, straighten up.....). Meanwhile Mitch is giving me another set of directions over the walkie-talkie. This kept up for about 1/2 hr until my legs started cramping and I had to give Mitch the wheel, and let Dick guide him. It took maybe another 15 minutes but we finally did it!!!
Let's just say we landed at the campground around 6:00 and finally got it just right at 8:00. Phew.
Next came having to unhitch the beast (we're calling the trailer the CoW, castle on wheels; the truck- the bull which pulls it, and combined they are the beast. If you see them up close and personal, you'll understand). There is a master lock in place and Mitch couldn't find the keys. We had to call Kevin to find out if he gave them to us. He recalled that he told Mitch to leave them in the underbelly (Mitch forgot). We opened the lock and then started to proceed with dumping the air in the truck in order to lower it so we could unhitch the pin. After attempting for about 20 mins, a pin broke off the hitch. Mitch was able to find something to replace it, but we still couldn't get it quite right. Meanwhile, it's now about 8:45, and although we witnessed a pretty sunset (picture below -- view from our back window), we knew we only had about 15 more minutes of light. We decided to ditch the unhitch and try again in the morning. In fact, the guy doing the roofing is an RV mechanic so perhaps he can give us a hand.
So Mitch proceeded to set up the sewer, water and electric. He did an excellent job of that. After about 1/2 hr, the a/c went on and the first thing I did was jump into a cold shower. That felt awesome! It was now 9:30 and I made some veggie burgers on a toasted bagel with melted cheese.
The Junkman said
09:17 PM Jun 29, 2014
I hope my first day goes better.. But sounds like fun to me..
Rob_Fla said
02:56 AM Jun 30, 2014
Congratulation's, you survived the first day, it only gets better from here !!!!
You will have all of this stuff mastered in no time.
cherylbrv said
06:31 AM Jun 30, 2014
Fun???????? It was not at all fun. The only way I kept my sanity was reminding myself how this is all part of the adventure.
Our next stop later this week will be in my brother in law's driveway. I am really, truly dreading that!
Dave Buck said
06:53 AM Jun 30, 2014
I've been trying to back into spaces for more than two years with my DW directing and very seldom does it happen without several attempts. That's why when traveling I try to find pull through sites. I will only get better with practice.
BiggarView said
07:21 AM Jun 30, 2014
Cheryl, Cheryl, Cheryl.... Where is the video when you need it? In it's place your wordsmithing was awesome, I was able to envision the whole thing, and I had a few chuckles , sorry. I hope the pin wasn't off anything important. At least you made it without serious incident so I'd consider it a success. A few more moves and you'll be a pro... Mitch too.
Our turn will come...Tickets will go on sale for this lifetime event
MarkS said
08:33 AM Jun 30, 2014
Cheryl, all that, and you reward yourself with a veggie burger? Good to hear you got a charge out of all that work on the truck.
Backing isn't that difficult. The driver just uses the force. My wife and the guy at the storage lot tried to guide me. I never ask for their help. I finally ask them to stand back and watch. They were cute trying to help. They just weren't needed.
WestWardHo said
08:49 AM Jun 30, 2014
MarkS, quit bragging - you've had experience! : )
Cheryl, it's awesome that you kept your sanity through all that! It's one of the most important characteristics we RVers can have! I agree with Brian that I could envision it all. I don't get to all the blogs so glad you posted here. Our first few weeks were pretty challenging. Backing??? I've tried several times, once for over half an hour (at least it felt like that) before I turned it over to Jesse. We too hate those big parks and trying to squeeze into a site.
Hope your next adventure is smoother and Whoo Hooo, you're outta there!
Sherry
cherylbrv said
07:19 PM Jun 30, 2014
The second day had just as many mishaps, but in the scheme of things, we're still pretty fortunate. I know it could be a LOT worse. From my blog:
Roof guy (Benjamin, who is a full fledged RV mechanic) arrived around 11:00. He showed us how to unhitch. The problem was that Mitch didn't pull the level out hard enough. It was as easy as that! Unfortunately, we forgot to raise the RV high enough to clear the spare tire and tailgate, so that bent and came off. Thank goodness Benjamin knew what to do. He was able to hammer it back in shape and showed Mitch the part he needs to reattach it. He also discovered the ladder to the roof was missing a part. No clue how Mitch and Kevin went up there a few times without falling off! Another part we needed to replace. We were able to find a few extra pins for the handle of the hitch, so that was fixed as well.
So Benjamin finished the first phase of the roof at noon. It was sunny with a few patchy clouds. He left to get some food, saying that it needed to dry for about an hour. Yep - you guessed it! About half hour after he left, the sky turned black and the thunderstorms began. Interestingly, I had a conversation with the clerk at the office here at the campground when I made the reservation. They are only about 30 miles north of St. Cloud, where we had rain every single day. She commented that except for the previous day, every day was sunny up here!!! So of course, it's our luck that it's raining on the day we need sunshine!
Actually, it didn't turn out too bad. The sun never came out but the rain did finally stop. Benjamin dried the roof manually. We found a few more problems while up there - one plastic a/c cover had a crack and Mitch leaned on the other one and broke it. So now we need to replace 2 vent covers. Fortunately there are plenty of RV supply places down here. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that a hornet's nest was found under one of the vents (the one that broke). Fortunately it was discovered before they removed it, so we bought some spray and killed the nest at sundown (pretty sunset again).
So by the end of the day, Benjamin was able to finish applying the primer. Tomorrow he will need to apply 4 coats of the sealing stuff. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't rain again!
NWescapee said
09:15 PM Jul 1, 2014
Welcome to the start of your adventure on wheels!! Sorry it was a little rough to start with, but honestly, it seems to be part of the transition. Hoping for smoother sailing as you progress on this very fun journey called FT RV'ing.
WendysPhotos said
02:45 PM Jul 3, 2014
Congratulations on getting going!!! It may be an uphill battle with the learning curve, but you guys are on your way and that is reason to celebrate.
Dog Folks said
06:15 PM Jul 4, 2014
It will get easier with practice.
I promise.
The Junkman said
10:03 AM Jul 5, 2014
cherylbrv wrote:
Fun???????? It was not at all fun. The only way I kept my sanity was reminding myself how this is all part of the adventure.
Our next stop later this week will be in my brother in law's driveway. I am really, truly dreading that!
From me sitting around here doing nothing.. compared to getting out there and doing anything.. Even when/if things don't go as planned. Yep, Sounds like fun to me.. lol
Joe_Camper said
05:48 PM Jul 5, 2014
Congrats on getting started even if it was a rough start. Experience will fix all of those issues. Keep a positive attitude!
I'm really, really exhausted; it has been a very long day. I wrote about it in my blog and am cutting & pasting here (except for the photo), so please forgive me if you follow the blog and are reading the same thing twice!
This day was certainly full of challenges!!! Let's see, where do I begin?
We were hoping to hit the road no later than 11 am. We finally pulled out of the driveway at 5 pm....
First, we discovered the reason the bull wouldn't start was not only were the 2 batteries bad, but so was the alternator. Pretty normal for sitting unused for 2 years in the Florida heat. The bull took enough of a charge to drive to the nearest auto center, where they installed the new batteries. Mitch and Kevin purchased an alternator which Kevin was going to install (he knows a little bit about trucks). Turns out that he either really didn't know what he was doing or he didn't have the right tools, but they couldn't get the belt on. I think it was hilarious that here are these 2 men standing over a huge truck with a laptop on the back, watching Youtube videos on how to replace an alternator!!! Finally, Kevin called in the troops - a friend who is a retired mechanic, who came over and fixed it within 10 minutes. So problem # 1 resolved and it is now 2:00 pm.
Next, Kevin went over all the instructions again with Mitch on closing up (I already had everything ready inside the CoW. I'm leaving the stuff like the sewer hookups to the men). Finally, finally, it's 4:30 and we're ready to leave. And then the sky opened and the winds were roaring. Rather than drive in that, we were invited into the house, given hot tea and a change of clothes and some snacks (we hadn't eaten much breakfast and no lunch) and waited out the storm. Have I mentioned before what incredibly wonderful people they are?
Finally, 5:00 and we left the driveway, taking our home on wheels out for the very first time alone.
The ride itself wasn't too bad, although I would have felt better if Mitch wasn't reading all the signs (passing thru Disney territory). Then we came to the campground, which was not what we were hoping for at all. There are over 900 sites, most of which are permanent trailer homes. There are lots of streets which are very narrow and winding. There's NO WAY we would have gotten into any other site. We were given a spot which is perpendicular to another street so we should have been able to back straight in. Unfortunately that perpendicular street was curved so it was difficult to get really straight. Not having experience backing up this beast, knowing that turns don't respond until 5-10 seconds later, made it extremely difficult.
We started out with Mitch driving and me giving directions, but I was having a lot of trouble communicating. Usually I'm much better at following directions, so we traded places.
About that time, a friendly neighbor, Dick, an elderly gentleman, came over to offer his assistance. He commented "I haven't done this in a long time" (clearly he lives in one of the trailer homes). So he's giving me one set of directions, which mostly were wrong (almost identical to the ones I was giving Mitch -- go this way, no go that way, no stop, go the other way again, wait, straighten up.....). Meanwhile Mitch is giving me another set of directions over the walkie-talkie. This kept up for about 1/2 hr until my legs started cramping and I had to give Mitch the wheel, and let Dick guide him. It took maybe another 15 minutes but we finally did it!!!
Let's just say we landed at the campground around 6:00 and finally got it just right at 8:00. Phew.
Next came having to unhitch the beast (we're calling the trailer the CoW, castle on wheels; the truck- the bull which pulls it, and combined they are the beast. If you see them up close and personal, you'll understand). There is a master lock in place and Mitch couldn't find the keys. We had to call Kevin to find out if he gave them to us. He recalled that he told Mitch to leave them in the underbelly (Mitch forgot). We opened the lock and then started to proceed with dumping the air in the truck in order to lower it so we could unhitch the pin. After attempting for about 20 mins, a pin broke off the hitch. Mitch was able to find something to replace it, but we still couldn't get it quite right. Meanwhile, it's now about 8:45, and although we witnessed a pretty sunset (picture below -- view from our back window), we knew we only had about 15 more minutes of light. We decided to ditch the unhitch and try again in the morning. In fact, the guy doing the roofing is an RV mechanic so perhaps he can give us a hand.
So Mitch proceeded to set up the sewer, water and electric. He did an excellent job of that. After about 1/2 hr, the a/c went on and the first thing I did was jump into a cold shower. That felt awesome! It was now 9:30 and I made some veggie burgers on a toasted bagel with melted cheese.
You will have all of this stuff mastered in no time.
Our next stop later this week will be in my brother in law's driveway. I am really, truly dreading that!
Cheryl, Cheryl, Cheryl.... Where is the video when you need it? In it's place your wordsmithing was awesome, I was able to envision the whole thing, and I had a few chuckles
, sorry. I hope the pin wasn't off anything important. At least you made it without serious incident so I'd consider it a success. A few more moves and you'll be a pro... Mitch too.
Our turn will come...Tickets will go on sale for this lifetime event
Cheryl, it's awesome that you kept your sanity through all that! It's one of the most important characteristics we RVers can have! I agree with Brian that I could envision it all. I don't get to all the blogs so glad you posted here. Our first few weeks were pretty challenging. Backing??? I've tried several times, once for over half an hour (at least it felt like that) before I turned it over to Jesse. We too hate those big parks and trying to squeeze into a site.
Hope your next adventure is smoother and Whoo Hooo, you're outta there!
Sherry
Roof guy (Benjamin, who is a full fledged RV mechanic) arrived around 11:00. He showed us how to unhitch. The problem was that Mitch didn't pull the level out hard enough. It was as easy as that! Unfortunately, we forgot to raise the RV high enough to clear the spare tire and tailgate, so that bent and came off. Thank goodness Benjamin knew what to do. He was able to hammer it back in shape and showed Mitch the part he needs to reattach it. He also discovered the ladder to the roof was missing a part. No clue how Mitch and Kevin went up there a few times without falling off! Another part we needed to replace. We were able to find a few extra pins for the handle of the hitch, so that was fixed as well.
So Benjamin finished the first phase of the roof at noon. It was sunny with a few patchy clouds. He left to get some food, saying that it needed to dry for about an hour. Yep - you guessed it! About half hour after he left, the sky turned black and the thunderstorms began. Interestingly, I had a conversation with the clerk at the office here at the campground when I made the reservation. They are only about 30 miles north of St. Cloud, where we had rain every single day. She commented that except for the previous day, every day was sunny up here!!! So of course, it's our luck that it's raining on the day we need sunshine!
Actually, it didn't turn out too bad. The sun never came out but the rain did finally stop. Benjamin dried the roof manually. We found a few more problems while up there - one plastic a/c cover had a crack and Mitch leaned on the other one and broke it. So now we need to replace 2 vent covers. Fortunately there are plenty of RV supply places down here. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that a hornet's nest was found under one of the vents (the one that broke). Fortunately it was discovered before they removed it, so we bought some spray and killed the nest at sundown (pretty sunset again).
So by the end of the day, Benjamin was able to finish applying the primer. Tomorrow he will need to apply 4 coats of the sealing stuff. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't rain again!
I promise.
From me sitting around here doing nothing.. compared to getting out there and doing anything.. Even when/if things don't go as planned. Yep, Sounds like fun to me.. lol