A very interesting (?) trip

Get another RV,” I said. “It’ll be fun to travel,” I said.  “We can take the dogs,” I said.  Right. 

Sometimes there’s nothing recreational about owning an RV. We had one 10 years ago, a large class A diesel pusher,  and ended up selling it during COVID because the upkeep and maintenance were too prohibitive. But then in late 2023, we decided to try again, this time with a fifth wheel—a used one at Alex’s insistence. “I’ll fix it up and we’ll check it out in the spring,” he said. He parked it across from the house and from day one we had problems; when he disconnected it from his truck, the RV wouldn’t level and he couldn’t figure it out. There it sat and sat, and sat. While we dealt with unexpected hospitalization (mine) and a stressful job (Alex’s). Months later, he gave up and hired a mobile RV repairman to fix it. 

We planned our maiden voyage for Alex's birthday in July and reserved a spot at a hip camp in Newport, Tennessee. First order of business: make the towing vehicle, Alex’s 13-year-old F250, safe and capable of towing a 17,000-pound trailer. Next, a last-minute Walmart trip to get leveling blocks and a water hose. After that, pack the RV with essentials and food for five days and get ready to leave. Oh wait…the RV refrigerator isn’t working. Ok, scratch the food. We will eat out. Next, he has to trim branches on our road to avoid damaging the RV. By this time it’s pouring down rain and it’s 7 pm, so we delayed our departure by a day. 

Friday, he hooked it up to his truck and we were on the road. Alex somehow injured his foot so badly he could barely walk, but he handled driving and setting up like a pro. We walked the dogs and went to dinner (remember? The fridge was broken). Figuring it was only for a short while, we left the dogs uncrated in the camper. By the time we got back, they managed to dismantle the storm door, shred the screen, destroy the door seals, and tear the welcome mat into tiny pieces. (Note to self: shop for dog crate on Amazon).

Saturday we went to a local birding park (with the dogs) and I enjoyed a 2-mile walk amid nature, spying indigo buntings, bobolinks, and warblers. While sightseeing in the beautiful Smoky Mountains, the RV site owner called (never a good thing): water was dripping out of the front of our camper. When we got back and opened the door to the RV we were met with a 1/2 inch of water on the floor from an overflowing toilet. So much water had leaked into the insulation Alex had to poke a hole to drain it. I still don’t understand what happened--something to do with flush tanks, storage tanks, and water regulators.

Sunday, thank goodness, was incident-free. Monday, though, was the icing on the lopsided cake. First, the cable for one of the slides had come loose and Alex had to fix that. Next,  I noticed one of the tires was flat; Alex fixed that too. But when we dropped the camper off at Camping World (for much-needed repairs),  Alex unhooked it from his truck prematurely; the RV slipped and landed on his hand, necessitating a trip to the emergency room. Alex could not fix that.

Believe it or not, despite the hiccups we had a good time. And, while the RV requires a few tweaks and fixes, we look forward to our next trip. Hopefully, less eventful!