Bloopers and Oopsies

RV living is definitely a learning curve and things learned along the way are sometimes comical, sometimes not. All in all, our winter experience was a great one, although not without its share of bloopers and oopsies, things we wish we'd known first off, and things that only experience can teach. Mom has wanted to write this post for a long time but decided to wait till the end of our winter excursion so she could include them all.

Door railing latches over
the door during transit

The first thing we learned was to make sure all doors are latched securely for travel. The door in the rear (main entry door) has a hand rail next to it that latches over the door to provide extra security so the door doesn't open during travel. The other door nearer the truck doesn't, so it depends on just being locked. We were traveling down the highway in the middle lane and a semi pulled up on the passenger side, beeped his horn, then proceeded to point to the trailer. We realized he must be trying to warn us of something so we pulled over in the break down lane to see what the problem was. That front door was open. Since it leads to the bedroom there wasn't anything that could have fallen out, but we discovered it needed the extra security of a bungee cord wrapped around the handle on the door and the handle on the RV, in addition to being locked. Lesson - make sure everything is securely latched and secured before travel.

Most of the time the temperature inside the RV can be controlled just like a normal house. When it's cold, turn on the heat. When it's hot, turn on the air conditioner. In between just open the windows. Since heat rises there are also roof vents, sort of like skylights, that can be opened to let heat escape and to provide more ventilation. However, you must remember to close them when it rains! Yup, you guessed it. Apparently Dad opened the roof vent in the bedroom one warm afternoon. Mom didn't realize it was open when she went to bed, and Dad had forgotten all about it. In the middle of the night Mom awoke to soaked bed covers. Since I wasn't totally house trained yet I was the first to get blamed. But I didn't pee on the bed. Promise. It was raining and the wind was blowing the rain in through the roof vent, dripping right down onto the middle of the bed. A quick change of blankets got us right back to sleep and the next day we visited a laundromat to use the dryers. Lesson - remember to close roof vents at night, and by extension, before travel.

At the hitch where the RV attaches to the truck for towing there are stabilizer bars which help to prevent swaying during travel. A mounting bar pries them into place by lifting them up and over a bracket. Putting this bar down on the trailer tongue briefly while you finish hooking up may lead to forgetting to place it back in the truck. Next time Dad needed the bar he couldn't find it because it had fallen off during travel. Dad found a crow bar does the same job which was easier to locate at just about any store. Lesson - never put anything down temporarily, and check and double check everything before travel.

When we park the RV on unlevel ground there are leveler jacks that are deployed so the RV is, well, level. Our RV is supposed to have automatic levelers. Just push a button and the onboard computer levels automatically. Great idea, right? Wrong. The first time Dad pushed that button it worked perfectly. And that was the last time it worked perfectly. We took it to a dealership and they supposedly fixed it but said it was considered maintenance, not warranty work, and so charged us for the "repair". Next time Dad tried to used the automatic levelers it didn't work, again. Fortunately, the electronic levelers worked even though Dad had to level each corner separately. We will be taking it back to the dealership where we bought it this summer to get it fixed. And you can bet he will insist it be fixed under warranty! Lesson - don't pay extra for automatic levelers. It's just one more thing that can, and did, go wrong.

Speaking of leveling -  The bathroom door closed as all doors should. Then Dad leveled the RV and the door got stuck in the closed position. We had to take the knob off to get the door open. Lesson - make sure doors that have door knobs and latches are open when leveling so that if they don't close correctly after, it would take only a minor adjustment rather than taking the whole knob apart.

The refrigerator has a setting that it can either work on propane, or electric if you're hooked up to power. When we brought the RV in to the dealer for the auto leveling problem it never occurred to us they would shut off the propane at the tank while working on it. They had the trailer overnight and when we picked it up the next day we simply headed out to our next destination. After setting everything up Mom went about making supper. Imagine her surprise when she opened the freezer and discovered the ice cream had melted all over everything. It had been cool enough overnight that nothing in the refrigerator part was spoiled, but not cold enough to keep the freezer part frozen. Lesson - make sure when taking the RV in for service you remove anything perishable and put it in coolers with ice. Eat the ice cream. Sammy and I would be more than willing to help with that.

Mom always turns the heat down to 55 at night because she likes it cool when sleeping. I don't mind because I crawl in under the covers with her. But one morning when she got up it was 40 inside the RV. She turned the heat up to 65 and it didn't come on. OK, time to wake Dad up, who doesn't usually open his eyes till the crack of 10:00. He looked it all over, tried several things, but still couldn't get it running. Our RV has an electric fireplace that Mom thought was just for ambiance. The fireplace needs electric power to work, while most of the RV runs on the 12V batteries. Fortunately we were at an RV campground that had full hookup, which means we were plugged in to power. Mom asked an RV FB group about the problem and everyone said it was a sail switch failure. Apparently it's a common problem. Wish the dealership had advised us to carry a spare as it would have saved us a lot of time and aggravation trying to figure it out. Lesson - when purchasing an RV ask the dealership what items should be carried as spares, and always carry a spare sail switch.

Along those same lines, when picking up your RV, the dealership takes you on a walk-about to explain the workings of it. Make sure you try everything out - stove, refrigerator, heat, and so on. Our RV has an outside gas grill that we found out later wasn't hooked up to the propane. Wasn't much of a problem because Dad quickly had it figured out, but still. Lesson - check and double check everything while still at the dealership.

An RV not only has a tank for fresh water, but one or more gray tanks for waste water from the sink and shower, and a black tank for toilet waste. These tanks must be emptied occasionally when the sensors indicate they're full. One day Mom was taking a shower and she noticed she was standing in water rather that it draining as it should. She called to Dad who went out to empty the holding tank. Voila! Water drained correctly. A similar thing happened when she was washing dishes - sink began filling with water. Again, tank was full. Fortunately, both times we were at an RV campground with full hookups and it was a simple matter of turning a valve to empty the tanks. Lesson - keep a better eye on the sensors.

When those tanks need to be emptied and you're not at a campground, you need to search out a place that has an RV dump, which is basically a big septic tank with a fixture on top that hooks up to the hose from your RV. This hose hopefully stays attached while draining the tanks, and everything functions properly, especially when emptying the black water tank. There's an inner valve and an outer cap. They are both supposed to be closed. The hose gets attached to the drain hookup on the sewer, then you remove the outer cap and attach the hose, then open the inner valve to start the flow out of the tank. The first time Dad hooked everything up to drain the black water he attached the hose to the sewer connection, then went to remove the cap so he could attach the hose to the RV. Unbeknownst to him, the dealer hadn't closed the inner valve. When he removed the cap the "water" burst out and bathed him in poop! He quickly shut the valve, but not quick enough. Even I thought it stunk! He got everything working correctly, drained the black water, then the gray water which rinses the drain hose. Then cleaned himself up and changed his clothes. Lesson - always make sure everything is as it should be BEFORE removing that cap!

Another time Dad was emptying the tanks the handles broke off. He had the dealership replace them when the RV was in for the leveler repair (see above). Not sure what the lesson is here except maybe have some extra handles on hand as well as sail switches.

Our RV has an awing that extends and retracts with the push of a button. It has a slide-out that does the same. We stopped at a gas station to fill up and Mom noticed the awning wasn't quite retracted all the way. Fortunately no damage was done from the wind while traveling, but apparently when you retract the slide-out and awning, then retract the levelers, there's sometimes a little more they can retract to make them as tight as possible against the RV. Lesson - retract both slide out and awning, then after the trailer is ready for travel, push the button again to make sure they're retracted all the way.

Black panel on front is actually a window

There's a large window over the head of the bed on the front of the RV. It doesn't open but does let in quite a bit of light during the day. It's inset into a window well. An RV is basically a tin can on wheels and is pretty air tight, which means condensation from cooking, showers, and just breathing can accumulate on the windows, especially when it's warm inside and cold outside. One day Dad noticed condensation of that front window, then noticed a sizable puddle in the window well which had been created from condensation dripping down the window. Lesson - keep a towel in the well to absorb moisture and change it out when it gets wet.

Cabinets over bed

As I posted in a previous post Mom has been redecorating. If you missed it you can read it here. After she finished with the living room she started on the bedroom. Originally there were 2 tall cabinets on the sides and 2 shorter ones in the middle. There was no room under those taller cabinets to make the bed or even roll over without hitting your arms or head. So the side ones had to go. She wanted to keep the middle ones and build either cabinets on the ends to match, or open shelves for baskets. Dad decided to get to it one day and started to remove the taller side cupboards. Apparently, the center ones were attached to the side ones and came down with them. Oops! Time for Plan B. It's still in the process so I can't post a picture of what's going up in their place, but here's the lesson - always be flexible and have a Plan B or even C.


Finally, who, in their right mind, designs anything where the smoke alarm is over the cooking stove? Lesson - understand these things are built more by regulations than by what actually works.

There were other minor things along the way that aren't particularly worthy of mention. With all these bloopers and oopsies you might think we didn't enjoy our travels. Quite the contrary, we all had a great time, saw lots of interesting places, met many fantastic people, learned a lot about the RV lifestyle, and realized that life's problems are best handled with a positive outlook and a good sense of humor. We're already talking about next winter's adventures. My wish is that everyone could enjoy life as dogs do.

--Cruz

Homeward Bound

We are back at our home in northern NH a few weeks earlier than planned. As the coronavirus has spread to various parts of the country many things are shut down and cancelled from sporting events to schools, and yes, some RV campgrounds are closed except to full time residents. Some boondocker hosts are not accepting guests. Others are still hosting, even allowing people who are in quarantine to stay as long as they need to. Many RVers are full time so have no permanent home to go to. Mom and Dad wanted to make sure those people had places they could go. They also figured that if it happened they should have to be quarantined that it would be infinitely more comfortable to do it at home rather than on the road.

So let me take you back to TN for some of the things we did while there.

Mom was able to visit her friends Von and Shannon, who own a sheep farm in Holladay, TN. She got her baby fix by feeding a bottle lamb who's mom had no milk. Von was extremely helpful when Mom was first learning about sheep. This knowledge was then transferred to goats. Now Mom helps everyone in her area when goat or sheep questions or problems arise.

After the tornadoes were over life settled into tourist mode. We visited the National Military Park in Shiloh, TN. Shiloh National Military Park contains a wide array of historic sites. One of which tells of the most epic struggle in the Western Theater of the Civil War. Nearly 110,000 American troops clashed in a bloody contest that resulted in 23,746 casualties; more than in all of America's previous wars combined. Located within the boundaries of Shiloh Battlefield is also a United States National Cemetery, which contains around 4,000 soldiers and their family members. A National Historic Landmark in its own right, The Shiloh Indian Mounds are also located within the park boundaries. If you want to learn more, visit their website here.

We also took a drive through David Crockett State Park. Since this is the off season most everything is quiet. That's OK because Mom and Dad aren't the touristy kind of people anyway. They prefer to meander through things on their own to leisurely enjoy the sites. Most everything had self guided tours with plenty of plaques to let you know what to look for throughout the areas.

The Trail of Tears passes through both the State Park and the National Military Park at Shiloh. In 1838 and 1839, as part of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States and to migrate to an area designated as Indian Territory, which is in present-day Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears," because of its devastating effects. Approximately 60,000 Native Americans made this journey of over 5,043 miles long that covers 9 states. 4,000 Cherokee people died of cold, hunger, and disease on their way to the western lands.

William and Cheri Caudle

At church we met William Caudle who has authored several books. His wife Cheri is both a genealogist and a member of Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). We were invited to their meeting on Tuesday. Not only was the meeting extremely interesting, but Bill treated us to lunch. The speaker gave a presentation on the electoral college, it's history, how delegates and super delegates are chosen, how they vote for presidential candidates, and it's relevance in today's voting process. Mom said she thought she already knew a lot about it but was amazed how much more there was to learn.

Bill Caudle also gave Mom a signed copy of his book Sugar Creek, a historical novel set in Civil War times. Since historical novels are Mom's favorite genre she's anxious to read it.

Pear trees in bloom, Hohenwald, TN

As we left TN the pear trees were in full bloom. Spring is working its way north, and so were we. We've decided to end our winter excursions a few weeks early due to the coronavirus Covid-19. There are already large areas being quarantined, and public health officials are warning to stay away from crowds. Since we live in a small community in upstate NH Mom and Dad felt it prudent to head for home before things get worse. This was a decision based on information and advise from many sources. One of the most devastating things in times like this are when people panic. As the saying goes "Keep calm and carry on." Home is an easier place to do this than on the road.

Mom is disappointed she didn't get to visit her son in Kansas City. If things get worse we're already at home, if they get better we can always go out again this summer or next fall. With a traveling house we can go anywhere, anytime. And we've all agreed that we'll head to Kansas City first next winter.

So ends our winter travels. It's good to be home but it's still cold here. Spring weather doesn't really get to the north country till May. Meanwhile, I turned 6 months old yesterday, 3/13. I'll keep you updated on any excursions we take this summer, or definitely connect next fall when we leave again for the winter. 

--Cruz

TN Tornadoes!

Last Monday night 2 powerful tornadoes with wind speeds up to 175 mph ripped through Nashville and Putnam county, about 60 miles north of us, as the crow flies. Pretty scary considering that the US Weather Service reported that one of the tornadoes had a 60 mile path! We had some strong winds, torrential rain, and a pretty spectacular lightening display but we were still upright in the morning.

The tornadoes hit in the wee hours of the morning, and considering the damage, it could have been a lot worse. As it was 25 were confirmed dead and several still missing. At least 385 residential properties and 184 commercial properties sustained major damage or were completely destroyed. It was reported that one car dealership is "missing". Emergency crews worked hard to search for victims. Public service crews have worked round the clock to restore power to thousands. More than 50,000 were without power and only about 5,000 remain.

People show their true colors during tragedies. There are countless stories of people who helped one another - a husband dragged his wife off the bed and laid on top of her to protect her from flying debris. A son saw the tornadoes on the TV and called his parents to warn them. They made it to the basement just in time to save their lives. Numerous people joined in the search for their neighbors, even though their own homes had just been destroyed. The local hospital is accepting whatever insurance pays for victims treated for injuries and if the people don't have any insurance the hospital isn't billing them. Mom always says there are more good people in the world than bad. Good deeds just don't seem to be as newsworthy. It's tragedies like this that put the spotlight on those good people and reaffirm our faith in humanity.

--Cruz

New Best Friends

While in Huntsville, AL, we visited the Historic Slave Cemetery. There were no individual gravestones but it is a commemoration of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of slaves buried there. "On September 3, 1818, the Huntsville City Commissioners purchased two acres of land from Leroy Pope for a "burying ground" for slaves. This cemetery was located within the NE quarter of Section 1, Township 4, Range 1 West of the Base of the Meridian. It was affectionately known as "Georgia" within the black community. The cemetery continued to be used from 1818 until 1870 when Glenwood Cemetery was designated as the city's burial ground for African Americans. No known records have survived" - Alabama Historical Association, 2001.


Across the field from there is the Glenwood Cemetery. 1,148 gravestones mark burial sites of slaves as well as prominent black citizens. It is estimated that as many as 9,000 or 10,000 unmarked burial sites remain to be identified. In 1993 students of the Academy of Science and Foreign Language began a project to uncover the cemetery's secrets. If you'd like to read more about this project click here.

Mom spent the afternoon at Glenwood uploading photos to findagrave.com before taking me to a dog park where I ran and ran and ran. I loved spending time with the other dogs. I even found a human who threw a ball for about an hour. I haven't quite figured out that I'm supposed to bring it back. It was much easier to train the human to come get it where I dropped it. He didn't quite understand what he was supposed to do at first, but when I brought the ball half way back and dropped it, I looked at him, then at the ball, then back at him, then at the ball. He finally figured out he was supposed to come get it and throw it again. After I had him trained we had great fun together.

Our next stop was in Rogersville, AL. Ron and Cindy were our hosts and were very welcoming and helpful. Ron has been an RVer for over 20 years and has been just about everywhere. Mom and Dad really connected with them, and their dog Champ. We were scheduled for a 2 day stay but they invited us to stay 4 days. They treated us like visiting family. Champ smelled the treats Mom always carries in her pocket for training me and he became her shadow. Those peanut butter dog biscuits could win anyone over. Well maybe not humans, but definitely dogs!

During one conversation Mom mentioned that she goes to cemeteries and photographs the grave sites for findagrave.com. Cindy was very interested in the why's and how's of this so Mom invited her to go with her the next day. They went to Anderson Cemetery in Anderson and photographed 73 grave stones. They even found a grave stone that had a different name than the listed one had but was clearly the same person. Another several had different dates than what was on the listing, and 2 of them had gravestones for the same person in 2 different locations, one the original and the other a newer one. Mom said doing this work is like being a detective. Sometimes you have to follow the clues to lead you to the correct person. Mom showed Cindy how to upload the photos to findagrave.com and set Cindy up with her own findagrave user name.

Cindy was also very interested in family history work so Mom set her up with an account on familysearch.org and showed her how to enter information on her ancestors. Cindy has a book of genealogy on her father's ancestors which will keep her busy for a long time. Mom told her that if she goes back far enough she will most likely tie in to someone else's research which will bring her back even further. Sure enough, she entered her grandfather, then Mom showed her how to find that person, and that connected to someone's else's family tree that went all the way back to the 1400s in France!

Our time there came to an end and we said goodbye to our new best friends as we moved on to our new site at Nachez Trace RV Park in Hohenwald, TN. This is about an hour from Nashville so I'm sure we'll be visiting there. It's also about an hour ride to visit some dear friends in Holladay, TN, who were Mom's mentor when she first got sheep. They're in the middle of lambing season so maybe Mom will get a chance to help deliver some lambs.

--Cruz

Leaving Arley, AL

Our 2 weeks at Hidden Cove RV Camp is at an end so it's time to pack up our traveling house and mosey on to the next location. The way our membership to Thousand Trails works is that we can spend up to 2 weeks at their campgrounds, then have to spend 7 days out of the system before spending another 2 weeks at another RV camp. So that 7 days we find people registered through boondockerswelcome.com. We're headed to Athens, AL for 3 days, Rogersville, AL for 2 days, Lawrenceville, TN for 2 days, then on to Nachez Trace RV Camp in Hohenwald, TN for 2 weeks.

Leaving the Arley area we saw this unique truck parked at what looked like an old service garage.






Mom noticed these red As all over the place. Apparently it's the logo for the University of Alabama. However, before Mom knew this she mused that Nathaniel Hawthorne must be popular in this area. The Scarlet Letter was one of her favorites.

Camilias blooming

Spring is coming in AL. Camelias are blooming, bushes are starting to get leaves and we hear peepers every night.

"Helping" Dad eat breakfast

Will keep you posted when we reach our next 2 week stay in TN.

--Cruz

Arley, AL, Library

While at Hidden Cove RV Park in Arley, AL Mom decided to do some family history work by photographing gravestones for findagrave.com which has the largest gravesite collection in the world with over 180 million memorials documented. Many of these records don't have actual photos of the gravesite. Sometimes a person doing genealogical research will request a photo. Other times memorials just need a documenting photo so it's there when someone is doing research. Mom said this would give her something to do.

During her research she visited Arley Public Library. Upon entering she noticed a tile floor and walls in the foyer that had people's names on them. She found this interesting and inquired what it was for. She was told that the old library was just a small trailer. Then Arley decided to build a real library and did a fundraiser where people could purchase a tile for a donation. The effect is quite unique.

Tiles on one wall at Arley, AL Public Library

This is the history of the Arley Library: "When a tornado destroyed the Carl Elliot Library in Jasper [AL] in April, 1974, they offered to set up a branch library in Arley if the town would furnish a librarian and a house for it. The Town Council was involved in getting the water system set up and asked the Women's Club about making the provision for the library. They decided to try to make the arrangements even though a great deal of financing was needed. Since there was no building available, the decision was made to have a trailer built that would be suitable. A plant at Addison agreed to build one for $2900 without the lights. Dolphus Smith said he would give the lights. Since the plant requested cash, the women had bake sales, road blocks, donation request and other fund raising activities. We had only $800, so about a dozen women signed a note and borrowed $2100. Dorthen Wadsworth allowed us to set the trailer up on his lot indefinitely or until he needed the lot. A trucker brought the shelves and books from Jasper and the Club got William Knight to install the shelves. The books were catalogued and shelved. The Club hired Peggy Hyatt to work six hours a week as librarian. Later, they were able to get free help from two ladies who were on Federal Work programs. After their time expired, the Club was given the services of Beulah Fincher who was also on a Federal Work program. She is now paid by the town council. The council has also paid the utility bills and the per capita fee all along, but the Club has paid the insurance, repair bills, and the expenses of any added equipment. The library is an asset to the community. Since the library was opened for public use in September, 1974, it has served hundreds of people throughout the local area as well as the surrounding areas."

A 2nd wall

The library floor in the entryway

Thought you'd like to know a little about the lake we were at in Arley. Hidden Cove RV Campground is on the shore of Lewis Smith Lake which is actually a reservoir created by the Lewis Smith Dam. One of the largest earthen dams in the eastern US, it stretches 2200 feet in length and reaches a height of 300 feet. The lake is located on the Sipsey Fork of the Black Warrior River and covers 21,000 acres. Being the deepest lake in Alabama it has a depth of 264 feet. It has over 500 miles of shoreline. It was a bit on the cool side for the 2 weeks we were at Hidden Cove and rained much of the time so we didn't get to enjoy any water activities, which is fine with Mom since she's very much a landlubber. But I've heard that the temperature of the lake in the summer averages 80 degrees. I would have surely liked to take a dip in that!

Till next time,

--Cruz

Arley, AL

Traveling the open road is fun, but sometimes it's nice to be in one place for a while. We were at Hidden Cove RV Camp in Arley, AL for 2 weeks. Mom and Dad chose a site w-a-y down at the end right near a big field so they could let me run off leash for a bit every day. Of course I went crazy out there and didn't want to come when Mom called. At first I would come for a treat but then I figured that measly little dog treat just wasn't worth losing my freedom over. Mom had to find better treats. She discovered I really like pepperoni. So now instead of calling "come" she yells out "pepperoni". Didn't take me long to learn what that word means but now I think the neighbors think my name is pepperoni.



A trip to Winston County seat brought us past the jail at Houston, which is the only surviving log jail in north Alabama. If you click on the picture you can read about its history.

Houston jail

Main room inside jail

Smaller prisoner room

Nails in walls to discouraged sawing

Mom found the nails peppering the walls interesting. They were to make it very difficult to escape by sawing your way through the 2" thick walls.

Doorway for much shorter people than Dad

I'll update you more about Arley, AL in my next post.

--Cruz