Dang RV

Out Out Dang Snow!

By Katrina Kane, on January 6th, 2013

Temperatures have dropped way down to the single digits routinely every night and sometimes below zero so it is time to head south for the rest of winter. 6 inches of snow is on the ground and icicles are dangling off all the rigs as you can see in the picture of the motorhome behind me. Everything has frozen on the new rig except for the inside plumbing which is certainly an improvement over the previous trailer. They also did a good job with placement of the water tank on the new 5th wheel. Rather than being under the bed with no heat like the last one, it is in an outside compartment near the furnace so the water is warm enough not to sting the hands with cold.

To get ready to leave is taking a lot of work and time with everything else frozen. The black water tank and one of the gray water tanks froze along with the sewer hose and the gate valve to the other gray water tank. The new awning over the slide out was full of an ice pond on it. The truck was full of snow and one door iced up. Fun, fun, fun. Before you all start commenting on ways to avoid some of these issues, yes I know them. There were circumstances beyond my control which prevented much of them and keep in mind I just got this rig and am still working on improving it. Some things like tank heating pads only make sense in cost if I planned on snow camping more which I do not. A skirt would have helped tremendously but again I just got this rig and don’t have one yet. The $1500 cost will have to be budgeted for.

One thing I have learned this week is to keep some wood handy for my wood stove. Running out of propane early in the morning is no fun. Yes, my 5th has a wood stove installed in it as a backup heat and cooking source.

My best friend the last couple of days has been hot water. I was able to use pots of hot water (not boiling) thrown on the slide out awning to get the ice pond to break up so I could gently get it off in chunks with my truck’s snow brush. I used some heat underneath the tanks which helped the gray water tanks but the biggest helper to unfreeze the black water tank was pouring boiling water down the toilet and some RV antifreeze I finally found onboard. Once the tank was emptied, I added the rest of the antifreeze to it. I also used hot water to soften the sewer hoses and melt enough of the ice inside them to get them flowing again. I just poured it over them. Running hot water through them helped with most of the rest of the ice and allowed me to disconnect them to pull them inside. My bath tub is now full of hoses LOL. I’m keeping them warm in there and letting what ice is left in them melt until I get where I’m going.

Almost ready to fly. A little more packing up needs to be done. A few improvement projects have been put on hold until I get somewhere warm. Looking forward to seeing my friends and family who are already down there.

Eureka! I Found It!

By Katrina Kane, on January 3rd, 2013

New lesson learned this week is always search every cranny after buying a used rig. I bought my new 5th wheel used and have had it for almost 3 months now. I knew when I bought it that the shower curtain and rings were missing and the windows seemed to be missing something along the sides. My previous trailer had solid matching cloth covered boards down the sides of each window. At the time I didn’t understand that they served more purpose than just being decorative. They also prevent people outside from looking in through the side of aluminum or vinyl blinds. Without something along the sides of blinds, you can forget getting dressed in the bedroom unless you like putting on a show for others and going to jail. 😉 There was mounting hardware still around the sides of the windows but none above them and no sign of the missing boards I assumed should be there. I chalked all these missing items up to bachelor abuse or preferences of the previous owners. You know how those bachelors are. LOL

I bought a new shower curtain and rings. Of course, the shower curtain was too long for the shower so I cut it down and hemmed it to fit. Since my shower has a built in seat, I actually cut a square out of the curtain to fit around it. While I was at it, I bought an Extend-A-Shower rod to replace the current one and give me more elbow room. I really hate having a shower curtain stick to my butt in a small shower and I can’t say enough good things about the Extend-A-Shower. I caught it on sale at Camping World and it was worth every penny. I don’t touch the curtain at all while showering and, when not in use, it folds into the shower for use as a laundry drying rack or wet coat hanger. If your shower has a curtain, get one!

Now that I had a shower curtain, I was considering options for the window coverings and wondering if there was any more storage space one day when I decided to do some exploring in the new rig. While I had already looked briefly inside all the cabinets and drawers, something told me to explore deeper. I pulled the lower drawers out in the kitchen and found a bunch of stuff under them which had either fallen out of them or the previous bachelors thought was a good storage space. I pulled out boxes of plastic bags, silverware, cooking utensils, and more. I found my inverter lurking under one of them which is good to know and found a heat tape wrapped around some of the plumbing which is also good to know. I found plenty of dust bunnies to clean up too. Ick!

Like the beating drums in the movie “Jumanji”, my attention was beckoned by the doors under the oven and refrigerator. Under the oven, I found a bunch of open space. I wouldn’t care to store pots under there but it will be an excellent location for items not often used like serving trays, extra ice cube trays, etc. once the dust bunnies are evicted. Next to it, I opened the door under the fridge and spotted the fireplace tools I had seen before for my woodstove. Looking further, I saw a plastic bag which I pulled out and put aside and lots more storage room. Now that would be a perfect place to store my drill and other tools I thought. After moving them into the space, I started to throw the white bag back in when I decided to look inside. Lo and behold, it was filled with special brackets, odd looking cloth twists, and clean crisp window curtains! Aha! Below them was a new looking fancy shower curtain and wrong colored rings. Oh well. Nice to have a backup I guess. I have hung up the window curtains with the cloth twist tiebacks and now have my privacy back. Yay! They also add a lot of class I think.

Hospitals To Avoid When Traveling

By Katrina Kane, on December 28th, 2012

Whether you live in a stick house or a house on wheels, getting sick is part of life. When you live in a stick house, you get familiar with the hospitals around you and may know what to expect. Not so when traveling the country in an RV. Per Leapfrog, a coalition of public and private purchasers of health insurance benefits, some hospitals are better than others and you may be surprised at some of the hospitals that made their recent 25 worst hospitals list. If you are planning to winter in Quartzsite, AZ or attend the annual RV swap meet there, take note that Palo Verde Hospital in nearby Blythe, CA is on it. Before running off to the nearest hospital, check their rating at hospitalsafetyscore.org and hey! there’s an app for that.