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The Elephant in the Living Room

Do you have an elephant in your living room? I do. No, I haven’t been drinking and he isn’t pink with purple polka dots. After several years of living in my travel trailer alone, I now have someone else onboard with me for awhile and am seeing the dark side of more than one person living and traveling in an RV. I now also firmly believe that some people are just not meant to live in an RV or at least not with others in an RV.

Take my elephant for example. Let’s call him Jumbo. Jumbo trips over everything and rams his shoulder into everything. I have had to rearrange much of my trailer to suit Jumbo just like child-proofing a house. I never had an issue with any of this and have no problem knowing exactly what is around me, how high things are, etc. But not Jumbo. He stomps through the RV like it is a land-tied house paying no attention whatsoever and then wonders why he gets hurt or things fall down. He has removed my square shelf in the bedroom and changed it to one that is rounded after ramming into it numerous times. My cat box had to move. My space heater had to be moved. My kitchen towel has to move. My bed clothes I normally hang in the bathroom have to move. If he gets his way, even the poor paper towels will have to move to survive him. The dang cat thankfully has her own condo I built for her under the couch so she can get out of the elephant’s way.

Then there’s the tidal wave that flows through the RV every time Jumbo walks. You don’t notice the movement when only one person is in the RV but it sure gets obvious and quite annoying when another person is added. Putting down all jacks on the ground is even more important now for stability, even for one night, and regular readjustment is a must. I am also looking into adding more solid wheel chocks to lock the movement of the wheels as I am told this will help considerably. But then, nothing can help when someone plops on the couch (yes, even I do that sometimes). UPDATE: Got the X-Chock wheel locks and installed them. This issue is now resolved. The X-chocks work wonderfully well! No more ocean surfing in the RV for me. Get some! (I have included a link to the cheapest place I found them which also had free shipping when I bought them. Yes, I am affiliated with them too.)

And then there’s the incredible amount of noise Jumbo makes. Jumbo likes his TV LOUD! While I often can barely hear the TV while he is sleeping out of courtesy to him, Jumbo often has the TV sound up too high. Jumbo also likes to build things and putter with things. I am often homeless when he turns my living room into a garage with hammering, sawing, drilling, putting metal parts together, etc. He has been told to do all his building outside but can’t when it is dark or the project is part of the inside of the trailer and Jumbo just can’t wait for an appropriate time, not that finding a good time around a night shifter is easy. How many times have I heard “I’ll be done in a minute” when he starts drilling for an hour while I am trying to work my paying job on my computer…

Lastly, Jumbo is large like most elephants and constantly blocks the TV while he is puttering about changing something for the millionth time in the entertainment area. You can be right in the middle of a movie when up pops Jumbo in the way again. OK, I admit I do watch a lot of TV but that is part of my lifestyle and how many times and ways can you change the same darn thing in the name of improvement?! GEEZ!

Jumbo quite clearly needs a house or a large unshared RV, not a small shared RV, where he can be with other elephants and behave like an elephant. My hat is off to all you couples who manage to survive each other in RVs. It certainly isn’t easy and makes me want to stay single for sure.

Feel free to comment and tell me about your elephants in the living room. Welcome to my zoo. Smile

[Note: Jumbo is NOT one person in this post. He is an amalgam of several elephants I have been around or heard about.]

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