Sometimes, the best laid plans of men and mice go awry. Exactly one week ago, we stocked the mobile dog house (RV) and tied it to Cirrus, the Ram-mobile for a sojourn to Gulf Shores to meet the kids, with a secondary destination of Grapevine, Texas to spend a few days with our dear condo friends who reside there. Plans were drawn up while at Gulf shores to drive north to the Badlands and then back to the compound. Uh huh….
After setting up at Gulf Shores State Park, among the snakes and alligators, we discovered we had no water. I am a Vietnam veteran, and understand mosquitos, but in the process of hooking up the water, we were bled out by the little bastards. Given my vast mechanical knowledge, I began to trouble shoot the dog house, checking every conceivable connection to and from the vaunted nautilus system adopted by Gran Design. It was late and we turned in without water. The next morning, Sharon remarked it had to be something simple and asked if I had checked the connection to the nautilus. It was my last shot before a mobile tech, and bingo. A 10 cent screen deep in the nautilus was totally stopped up. A new one and presto, we had water. A small consolation, as I broke a tooth while eating…..
Next up, a rapidly developing tropical depression was cooking in the Atlantic and could head our way, but the prognosticators said it was likely to hit Florida’s big bend area. We were safe…….and turned our attention to a 4’ gator sunning himself on a culvert near our site. I engaged a park worker, the original good ole boy, in a conversation about the park. He was a delightful guy, and the head snake catcher for the park, with hundreds of cotton mouth captures to his credit. He assured me that while water moccasins were everywhere, there were few diamond back rattlers around. Comforting! While walking Taz, I came across a road killed rattlesnake. This was day two, and the weather guys were saying the storm may go further west, threatening us with torrential rain. When it rains hard, the snakes get restless said the snake man. Hmmmmm
We made an executive decision, pulled out and headed north, hoping to find a location to park the doghouse for a night before heading up to Vicksburg, Mississippi where I could spend some time second guessing US Grant during the siege that nearly leveled the town. We found a neat little park, right off the highway and pulled across a four lane race track into the rather dark drive, down grade, only to find it was closed and I was downhill with no way to turn around, necessitating backing back out onto a race track, after dark. After spending a few minutes cursing the internet and our dilemma, a nice security lady came to our rescue, opened the gate and we were able to find a parking lot to turn around in and exit. We spent the night in a honor pay, municipal park in Hattiesburg before charging on to a park named Poverty Point, a state run park just inside Louisiana. We checked in and found it to be among the top three parks we have ever used. Immaculate, modern and very reasonable!
After a great nights sleep, I noticed a slow drip of water coming from under the dog house, no where near a water point. The drip was increasing and I engaged a mobile tech, who was prompt and clever. He found the leak after removing drawers in the bedroom, but had no idea what the silver ball was. It was the expansion tank for the instant hot water system. We began calling dealers and were told it would be weeks before anyone could help us. The tank is available only from the manufacturer, so he bypassed the system, and we now had only cold water for the rest of our trip. I was a little aggravated and broke the same tooth again. If you plan to or are an RV’er, you need to know that service on the road is extremely difficult and that parts are nearly non-existent in today’s world.
We broke camp and headed to the safety of the compound, where I am writing this. One week, mosquitos, snakes, alligators, bear scat close to our site, dental problems, a hurricane, balky water system and non existent service and parts. We get it. The signs were there, even Tazzy was questioning our wisdom. RVing is normally a hoot…….normally. We are rethinking the concept…..
Glad to be back home…….
SR
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