We are off on another winter escape. The plan to leave on Monday the 3rd of January was thwarted by Carol’s need to have doctors cause her pain and suffering. Once we knew the schedule we went ahead with a revised plan to leave on the very next day, Tuesday the 4th. I need not go into the effort Carol put in to not losing more time on the trip than was avoidable.
Sunday we loaded as much as we could and on Monday both before and after the procedure, we worked getting everything ready for a Tuesday departure. Tuesday we woke up early and it was clear we were leaving, although my co-driver was going to be sitting out the drive in the navigator seat. We rolled out at 10:50 AM and made a brief stop at my mother’s to say good bye and make our departure real for her.
Then in grey and drizzle we started south. Our thoughts were to make Carlisle, PA that night and stay at Western RV Village and push on early in Wednesday. I have not taken a solid 5 hours at the wheel since we started these adventure. Fortunately Gee 2 handles very well and is not troubled by big trucks passing or normal cross winds. The new tow’d, 2005 Toyota RAV4 AWD standard transmission follows like a contented puppy dog. The only consession we have to make to it’s owner’s manual is to remember to start the engine and let it idle 3 minutes every 200 miles. Since it is unlikely we will travel that far without a normal stop, we just run back and start it up each time we take a break.
We did not make it quite as far as the RV park. I pulled into the Flying J at the intersection of I 81 and the Penn Turnpike (I 76) to fill up the propane tank. While there Carol found a place at the end of the row of parked RV’s with just enough room for us. I pulled in, leveled, and ran out the bedroom slide into a space that was not in anyone’s way. After dinner on board we took a walk and met some of our neighbors. While talking with a couple and a trucker, the other guy noticed that I had a puddle of water and a drip from the utility compartment. I opened it and noticed that the low point drain did not seem to be secure and that was the source of the leak. I seated that and closed up, content that the problem was easily solved.
The lullaby of diesels and rv generators was fairly steady and we slept quite well, waking early as the others in the parking lot started to get under way. One fifth wheeler, from our neighbor to the north, was trying to go between our unit and the next one over, where our overnight neighbor had departed. This space was really too narrow for him to go through and turn, but he was putting my bedroom slide in jeaporady, so I yelled to Carol to get out of the bedroom and I pulled the slide in. Eventually they gave up and backed clear and pulled around behind me, without hitting the tow’d.
Having had enough of that kind of excitement we rolled out at 7:30 AM. The drive down 81 was uneventful and we arrived at Malena and Dan’s by 11:45. AM. There I was able to spot Gee 2 in a reasonably level place in no time and we invited Malena and Cory on board for lunch. Gee 2 may have a new name, “Zayde’s Bus” Cory started calling it that. We will see how long that lasts. Alex’s “Kitchen Bus” is long gone. He is too sophisticated, its “the Motorhome.”
We had dinner at Gretchen and Ed Robb’s home. For the story of how we met see San Antonio, TX, Winter ’04. Dinner and conversation were delightful and we may go back on Saturday afternoon, to take the kids to see Gretchen and the farm and horses.
Back on board, during the night I noticed that the water pump was cycling occasionally. This is not good, it means there is a leak in the system someplace. Somehow I managed to ignore it and sleep just fine. In the morning it became more evident that there was something wrong and I began a search. The search took me to the utility compartment ( this compartment houses the water inlet, the drains and the black and grey water drain as well as cable, phone and satellite connections). There I double checked the inlet connection. This connection has a check valve which must be depressed a bit when winterizing. I had read on rv.net that it was subject to damage if pushed too enthusiastically. I determined that this was the source of the leak. By the time I finished the diagnosis it was no longer a slow leak. I had also read that the part is inexpensive ( a relative term in the RV world) and easy to change out. The latter was true, undo three screws and unscrew the the pipe connection from the back. It is clear this is not a repairable item. The nearest rv supply place to Dan’s is in Harrisonburg, 60 miles away, nearby in RV terms. They had the part and the installation was trivial. I have a spare stored in the utility compartment. Any item that breaks and costs less than $100 is worth having a spare on board, especially if it’s failure is a show stopper, and this one is, it means no running water.
We are repaired and settling in to celebrate Josh’s 13th birthday, he is a legit teenager, God help Dan and Malena. The Bar Mitzvah is the end of this month, we will be back.
No pictures this time, it has been grey and dismal and we have not had time for photos yet.