Honey, I'm standing in water

or Where did all this water come from???

(June 16, 2017)

We started our summer break, with a mini-break, not far from home. I still had to work, this week for a few days, so it was decided we would camp near my work so we could use up a few more nights at the Encore camping resort we got as new owners of the coach. We spent a few days in Bradenton, during the week, and on Thursday the 15th, we packed up and headed down to Venice Florida. 

We arrived at the Royal Coachman RV park, in no time, and began setting up the trailer. FYI, the Royal Coachman park is fantastic. It's big, it's clean, it has a huge pool, and cabana area complete with palm frond covered Tiki huts. The grounds are carefully maintained, and the facilities are excellent. The annual residents keep their equipment clean and in good repair. I did't see any broken down units, or for lack of better words, "Trailer Trash".

As we connected our coach, I realized I had forgotten to open the grey water tank like we usually do. I made a mental note to come back and open it later when we were all done. The Florida heat and humidity usually takes its toll on me, so I'm dripping with sweat. I step inside to cool down and relax, figuring I can get the other stuff done shortly. 

As the afternoon progressed, we decided it was time to head over and check out the nice pool. So we donned our swim attire, and drove over. We set our things at an umbrella table, and got into the nice cool water. It was the perfect temperature too, not too cold and not warm. We splashed about for 30-45 min, and then we decided to head back and have dinner and turn in for the evening.

We had a great dinner, watched some Netflix movies and turned in for the evening. As we bedded down, I forgot to take my medicine so I got up, went to the kitchen and got a glass of water to wash down the pill. With that taken care of we drifted off to sleep. Some time around 11pm my wife awoke to use the restroom, when she exclaimed "Honey, I'm standing in water!" I replied "WHAT!"  I looked at the tank monitor and saw the gray water tank full light flashing and then it hit me, I forgot to open the gray water tank! I bolted outside, and opened the tank, water gushed out the tank and through the hose into the sewer. I was still partly asleep and wondered how the grey water tank got filled up??? As I got back into the coach, I realized I had left the sink water running after I took my medicine. And with the grey water tank closed, it filled up and flowed into the tub, over the sides, and into our bedroom. We grabbed all the dry clothes we could, some towels and t-shirts and mopped up the water the best we could. Once dried up, my wife headed back to sleep, while I, in my excited state, needed some time to process what had happened. I posted our mistake on Facebook, and a friend replied that I should get a dehumidifier to dry up some of the water that may have seeped into the flooring. 

The next morning I called the local Home Depot and they had an industrial dehumidifier that I could rent for 50$ for the day, so I picked it up and brought it back to the coach. I turned off the AC and turned on the dehumidifier, and pointed the fan into our bedroom. It got hot in the coach quickly, so we decided to spend the day out checking out the sights. We bounced around Venice beach for a while and headed back 6 hours later. We got back to the now extremely warm coach, and hoped that it did the trick. I returned the equipment and when we got back to the still warmish trailer we headed out to the pool again for an evening swim. 

Later that evening, as I browsed through the Inter Webs I came across a website, that had 10 great tips for New RV Owners. One of the items was a white board, that was posted near the door. Another tip was to communicate with your camping party so everyone knows whats going on. We got a white board put up in the kitchen (no room near the door for it) and we started putting notes on it right away. We are still working on the communication. For now we have decided, That I would do the outside and my loving wife would do the inside. Except for the hookup and disconnecting of the tow vehicle from the trailer.

After our stay ended, we packed up and headed home. We got hooked up and left the wonderful RV Resort, the Royal Coachman, and vowed to come back another time. We pulled up to our home, emptied out the fridge, and I fixed the door latch plate to the bathroom, It was off center and would not allow the bathroom door to latch properly without lifting the door slightly. 

Once emptied we took the trailer to our storage location and dropped it off. We secured it, disconnected the battery and headed home to do laundry and get ready for another week at work before our real summer break begins.

P.S. We have learned a bunch of new things about RV Living, but we still have much more to learn. One of my biggest failures is to communicate with my spouse and not get upset about anything when setting up or tearing down our campsite. I believe most of my issue is with the amount of heat and sweat my body produces when engaged in physical activity. The humidity of Florida in the Hot summer sun also adds to the effect. It causes me to blow up at the slightest thing, and for that I feel like hell when I blow up at my loving wife. I hope she will forgive me one day. Better yet, I hope I can find away to calm myself during these times, because she does not deserve the wrath, I unintentionally dish out. 

Enjoy life, Enjoy the outdoors and Camp

Joy and George O.

The night of the log jam

Or Flush twice its a long way to the kitchen

(May 27, 2017) 

I  am trying to keep these in order, the first post was actually dated May 20th, 2017, the day we took delivery of our new coach. The date on this and future posts will be listed below the title.

So a little back story; We picked up the coach May 20th, and spent the night. (See previous post). We then picked up the coach from the dealer, and parked it in storage the following week. The Memorial day weekend we stayed at the Lazydays Campground in Tampa again, and we had a great weekend. Friends came over, and we lounged in the pool and ate very well. I ate a little too well!

Saturday the 27th I had all you can eat sushi, and I am fairly certain, I had too much Wasabi with my sushi. We had a good evening with friends, and went to bed. Sometime during the night, the Wasabi caught up with me and sent me to the restroom many times. A toilet on an RV is a peculiar device. Meaning that its not like a regular toilet. There is no water tank, instead you need to fill the bowl up with the flush mechanism. This requires pressing the mechanism halfway and the water will flow., Then when the bowl is full, then you press the mechanism the rest of the way, and the toilet will flush. This allows the waste and water to flush past the S-curve bend in the pluming. This was not explained to us upon delivery! As I ventured back and forth from bed to throne, I was simply using enough water, to flush the waste out of the bowl. Little to my knowledge it was not being flushed past the S-curve, and the result was a Log Jam of sorts. Come morning, I again had to relive myself when I noticed that the water level was not going down and continued flushing made the water level rise, and my anxiety level to increase. A quick check of Google maps, located a Walmart a few miles down the road. SO I hopped in the care, and went and purchased a plastic plunger for a few bucks.

Back at the coach, I began my feeble attempt to clear the obstruction. Also unknown to me, that try as I  may, forcing water and air into the pipes does absolutely nothing to clear a clogged RV septic system. Apparently there are exhaust ports to allow gasses to escape the system so as not to explode the septic tank. Thus forced air/water doesn't work. So I got online and googled how to clear an RV septic system. And the most common method was a plumbing snake. A trip back to the Walmart and a few dollars more and I was in possession of a 6' plumbers snake.

Back at the coach, and the wife is awake, laughing at me, I once again tried to clear the obstruction from the S-curve and return the WCS (Waste Collection System) back to its normal mode of operation. After a few tries, the blockage was cleared and the system was back in business. It was then theorized that the system needed more water during the removal process to properly evacuate the waste and flush the pipes. 

Since this revelation, we have operated and successfully maintained the septic system in good working order. Note to self and others, "Chili Night" may require the use of a normal throne with a significantly sized water tank! And the use of an RV Toilet only in dire circumstances! LOL

Happy Camping

J & G

How it all began...

How it all began or Why would we do such a thing?

The purchase of the travel trailer wasn't a planned thing, it was more of an idea, that blossomed into this. You see, about 3 months ago the wife had a great Idea that we could buy into a hunting lease in South Georgia. We have both been getting into hunting, and I harvested my very first Whitetail deer last season. Together we spent some good times in the woods, and at various camp sites around where we were hunting. A friend let us hunt her property, and I could bunk in their Travel Trailer. Their trailer was nice and huge, and may have been why I decided this a good idea.

We went up to the lease to check it out, and we liked it. Good animal sign, we flushed 3 Turkeys, and saw a mommy turkey with her babies. The lease was good sized for the number of people on it, and some areas for setting up new stands looked promising. The manager of the lease had a splendid idea of seeding the roads with deer mast and forage, because this was a timber management area, there were no open fields or plots to plant deer sustaining  foods. Needless to say I was hooked.

 We had plans on setting up the tent, and getting things moved in order to make a spot for us to stay. We also had the novel idea of  building an Outhouse/Bathhouse on the property.  We had to run water and electric from the mains,  which did not seem like a difficult task. We could rent a trencher from Home Depot, and it would handle the brunt of the work. A hundred feet of 10/2 UAG wire, and 3/4 Pex Pipe, and some fittings and we would have water and electric in our area. As I was developing plans for the outhouse, and listing building materials, things began to get a little out of hand. A toilet was not a big number, but when you add in the cost of a shower stall, and an on-demand water heater, it got to be expensive quick. Not to mention I would have to build this sucker! 

Then it hit me, what if we don't like the lease? what if the members turn into unfriendly souls? what if the animals just didn't come and we spent all this money to come out empty handed? The thought of getting a different lease became a problem. While it is possible we could have moved the outhouse, that would have been a huge undertaking, and something I could not handle. This is when the idea of the Travel Trailer formed. It's portable, it has a toilet and shower built in, it has A/C (something we would not have in a tent) it has the comforts of home away from home. TV, radio, stove, lights, protection from the elements, and storage. I pitched the idea to the wife, and we headed out to the local RV dealer, LazyDays Rv.

When we got there we found a smallish travel trailer that was brand new, and about the size we were looking for right at the front of the sales entrance. We moved inside and met with our sales rep. We explained our needs, and what we were looking for. He asked about our tow vehicle, and said that he had some trailers he could show us. After some preliminary paperwork, we all got in a golf-cart, and started out to look at trailers. The weather was not cooperating and it was off-and-on rain. We got to our first trailer and liked it, except for the Murphy Bed. The thin mattress would likely not be comfortable to our aging bodies. Plus, we would have to put it away to use the couch/living area.

We moved on to a different coach, and it was nice. The bed was a "Camper Queen" sized bed, which meant it was a little shorter than a regular Queen. There was storage beneath the bed along with the fresh water tank and the spare tire. The Kitchen area was nice and it had a big fridge. the bath room was good with a tub and toilet in separate areas so you don't have to shower standing over the throne like some space saving coaches are setup.

We moved on to another coach, and it was setup like the first, so it was not acceptable. We went back the second coach, and decided that it was the one. We headed back into the sales office and started the "Real" paperwork. We got the financing approval a few days latter, some deposits were made, and a week later we took delivery. We had the walk-through, and the folks there really did a great job showing us around the coach, describing the features and how to use stuff. The last thing our delivery guy said, was "When leaving the coach, always remember to roll in the awning. In case of rain, or storms as they can rip up and destroy the awning in a few seconds." We took his word of advise and stashed it away in our memory banks.

We moved the coach out of the delivery area and headed over to their campground. A free night was setup so we could stay overnight in the coach and learn about it and try it out. The Lazydays campground is awesome. Nice pool facilities, great diner next to the pool selling typical bar/grill fare, and a full liquor bar. They had a camp store on site, as there was a few necessities we needed before we could get hooked up. Like the sewage hose, special toilet paper, and some chemicals for the black and grey water storage tanks. After that excursion and a few hundred dollars later, we were back at the trailer and had it hooked up in nothing flat. 

It was a typical Florida summer day, so it as hot and muggy, and we needed to cool off while waiting for the coach to cool down. So we hopped in our swimsuits and headed to the pool. As we were leaving the wife reminded me to roll up the awning, which I did, and we locked the trailer and headed to the pool. 

Like I said the bar/grill was nice, we ate, I had a few beers, and we hopped in the pool. The pool area was enclosed in big screen bird-cage so there were no bugs, and pool water was clean and comfortable. There was even a nice hot-tub. We were really enjoying this new lifestyle already.

In typical Florida fashion, the storms rolled in, and winds picked up. Rain came down in sheets, and the wind made the rain go sideways. We were tucked under the overhang and an umbrella so we were cozy, and enjoying the summer shower. Another cold beer, and I didn't care how long it lasted. After about half an hour the storm abated and we decided we should head back to the coach to relax in our new home-away-from-home. As we arrived, all looked well, we turned and saw two travel trailers next to us and their awnings were now a pair of dead spiders hanging lifeless from the sides of the trailers. Their owners were outside trying to figure out how to disassemble them so they could get them repaired. We understood now exactly what our delivery agent meant and now had the proof to back up that knowledge.

Back in the coach and the wife was almost a sleep when she said water just fell on her head. I checked and sure enough a little water had pooled in the cabinet over her head. We called our salesman, and was instructed to drop it off, back in the service lot the next day. Being a Sunday they couldn't fix it, but would get to it on Monday.

So we woke up the following day, flushed out the black and grey water tanks, and dropped the coach off in the assigned location. We locked up the trailer and headed home.

A few days later we got the call that a marker light improperly sealed to the coach is what caused the leak, and that they had resealed it and all was fine. I picked up the coach that evening, and took it to our newly acquired storage lot to await our next adventure....