You See Something Strange Every Trip

On the way home yesterday we pulled onto I88 East and within a mile had to swerve to miss what was left of somebodies AC unit cover. I knew right away it was from an RV. I was averaging 59mph but managed to catch up to the rig, a fifth wheel, minus an AC cover, well, actually some parts were still there because they were still flying off.

I pulled up next to him and honked and he gave me the thumbs up but I managed to signal him to pull over. I walked back to the passenger window and he told me others had told him this as well, so I responded well maybe you should remove the parts that are still lose so people don’t have to swerve around them as I had to.

He replied there's nothing I can do so I’m going to continue on…   I said ok, have a safe trip and left. I agree there is nothing he could do to repair it, but he could have removed the loose plastic parts that were flapping in the wind waiting to tear off and hit a windshield at least!!

Vacation Comes To An End

The campground is emptying out pretty quickly now, I am doing my duties with tanks and cleaning the windshields and checking the engine etc…

Maybe somebody can explain to me why people with diesels feel the need to fire the engines up at 5:30am, rev them up and idle them for 20 minutes only to shut them off until they leave several hours later? There was a Holiday Rambler club here this weekend and most of them only left around 11am this morning yet most of them cranked up their engines at sun up, I believe I understand diesels well enough to know that they don’t need an early morning warm up for leaving 5 hours later.

I finally had gotten some sleep when these guys fired up, let me tell you, 12 diesels running at the same time will wake the dead, or wake a guy who doesn’t sleep well making him one cranky SOB.

I finished writing up the instructions for the lady next door so hopefully now that the campground is almost empty she’ll be able to handle most of the  RV chores alone.

Well, time to flush the tanks and begin heading out, we wanted to wait for the mad dash for the exit to taper off. We’re heading back to Blackhawk and pretty soon we have to commit to one more year there or go back to how we camped before leasing a spot… we aren’t sure yet, what do you guys think?

Ghosts EVERYWHERE!!!!

Ok, so only the power posts are haunted….    or more specifically have high EMF readings. It was fun though even if nothing happened. Ghost Hunters use a KII which seems to have activity everywhere they go, they ask a question and the KII responds… the red light flash light it has was cool though!

So, there appears to be no ghosts in the Geneseo campground, not that we tried very hard to find them. We watched White Noise last week so didn’t try EVP but I’m going to try that tonight, who knows maybe we’ll get something…

Stop laughing!!

 

 

 

You know you secretly hope we find something!

Friday Thunder and Lightning Storm

Starting around 4:00am this morning the skies opened up. I wish I had a way to record it properly it was that intense. Lightning crackling across the sky and instant thunder means the strikes were very close by. This went on for 4 hours, it was awesome! It rained very hard as well, I wish I had taken video but the only camera I had is my T3i and the battery was dead, lousy timing.

It’s only 74f outside today and cloudy so we’re happy! Perfect day for a long walk and a fire pit tonight. Ronda is out buying batteries for our “Ghost Hunting” equipment… ok stop laughing!   We’re going to have some fun with it, I know we won’t find anything in a campground but the idea is to have fun with it.

I’ll post back tomorrow and if we capture anything it will be there!  

The Couple Next Door

When we pulled into site # 1 we never expected this but then stuff happens. We didn’t see the neighbor next to us until our 3rd day. I was filling a little plastic pool with water so Loki could splash around and keep cool and we could dunk our feet when I noticed a lot of water coming out of the rig next door.

I took a closer look and when I saw it was coming from the floor and not a connection, I ran to the door and knocked. It took a few moments but an elderly lady answered and explained she had over-filled her kitchen sink. She also explained she didn’t know what was what and that somebody was coming to help check it out for her. I offered my help if she needs it and went back to our rig.

I could tell somebody set their rig up and it couldn’t have been her judging by what she told me. It’s a fifth wheel and well, you can tell who ever set it up knew what they were doing. Last night I saw her coming back with other people so I walked over and asked if everything was fine (not sure why mind you, it was a gut feeling) and if she needs any help let me know, she thanked me and re-explained what happened. She is such a sweet lady, my guess is she is in her mid 80’s, if not older.

This morning (9/4) she and Ronda started talking and she explains that she just got married 5 months ago and her and her new husband came to Illinois to meet his family and then are moving on to Pennsylvania to meet hers. Before getting married both her and her husband were very healthy, since getting married she has been sick twice and last week in the campground her husband had a stroke while working outside on the rig, they were getting ready to leave and had about 2 hours before hitting the road when the stroke happened. Makes your heart hurt just thinking about it.

There is a hospital less than a mile away and he was rushed there and when stabilized he was air lifted to Peoria for further treatment. His daughter, who she had just met, has been driving her to the hospital and back each day since so she is staying in the camper until something can be arranged. At the time I’m writing this he was given a new drug called TPA which helped keep the paralysis at bay and he looks to have most of his mobility but no speech yet.

Before going out for dinner at The Cellar (9/4) we left a note on her door offering to dump her tanks and handle anything else she might need help with.

This morning (9/5) there was a gentle knock on our door and she asked me if I could check her tanks and locate a leak she is dealing with. I checked under the rig and sure enough there was water dribbling out near the gray tank. I went inside and checked the tank readings and they were reading full. I showed her how to read the tank sensors and then showed her how to dump the tanks.

As soon as the water level lowered you could see that the leaking stopped, which was a good sign. We went inside and she showed me the plumbing for the shower was all wet. Thankfully the access panel was easy to remove, I checked the connections and they were both a little loose. I tightened them up and she dried up everything she could and then we check the sensors again and the black tank was still showing 2/3 full so her black tank sensors are dirty.

I explained what she could do to clean them and also to add some water to the black tank after dumping with some Dawn or Joy dishwashing liquid to help clean things out. She was using chemicals that caused odors instead of removing them so I was able to talk her out of that. Since we’re going to be here until Sunday I’m going to go by daily and see if the smell returns and also help her monitor tank levels and then I’m going to watch her dump the tanks before we leave to make sure she is comfortable with doing it.

I’m a little worried that there won’t be many people around the campground after we leave, it’s almost empty here now. I’m going to speak to the owners and ask them to help her out after we leave. Ronda and I are praying for her husbands speedy recovery so they can get back to their honeymoon travels. If you have time to say a prayer for her and her husband it would be appreciated.

They Predicted 84f, It’s 95 With A Heat Index Of 102!!

How is it, yesterday they predict a high of 84f and this morning they change it to the mid 90’s? All week was supposed to be mid 80’s to high 70’s, instead it’s more like what we dealt with during the July4th vacation, HOT! I have the blankets back up over the windshield and slide windows to help the AC keep up.

      

Yesterday we lost power when the circuit breaker overloaded at the power box. When I turned them back on it was very hot to the touch, so I’m keeping an eye on it.

Supposedly it’s going to be much cooler for the rest of the week but if they can’t predict the next day how can we trust they are going to be right?? Before hitting the post button EDIT: Scratch that! The temp tomorrow has been changed from 77f to over 90 AGAIN!!!! With the rest of the week of course being in the high 70’s, but don’t you believe it, at this rate you can bet we’ll be in the 90’s all week, wouldn’t it be nice if we all got paid to be wrong all the time? Three days in a row where the prediction is over 10 degrees off, at this rate my 6 year old niece could predict the weather better. 

Ok, enough whining about inaccurate weather people…

Tonight I’m taking Ronda to “The Cellar” in Geneseo, IL for our anniversary dinner since they were closed for Labor Day yesterday. We were going to have a fire tonight like last night but it’s going to be a bit too hot so we’re going to a local store to purchase a movie and we’ll sit inside and pop some popcorn and enjoy movie night.

Happy Labor Day Everybody

Methane….. You Know It Stinks…..

Good grief, the stench is back, Ronda just got done losing her dinner because the rig decided to chase us out out by stinking up the joint… I give, now what the frackin heck can be the cause this time? I power flushed the tanks, everything smelled rosy until…

Today for some reason, it’s windy, great right? So you know air is going by the fancy schmancy rotating air vents we had installed so why the heck does it smell like the local sewer treatment plant?? We make it through the July 110 degree meltdown with no issues, no wind to help keep the stench out but doesn’t matter, no smell! Now it’s fantastic out and we get the stench back.

Tomorrow is our 13th anniversary so I’m sending Ronda out while I spend the morning flushing the works and praying something got stuck or something that I get cleared out or we won’t make it the week. For now I’m playing the change the direction of the fantastic fan game, when using the head suck air into the rig, when not have the air blow out of the rig pulling air in from the bathroom vent.

So far that works, no smell but when it hits 90 tomorrow I better have it resolved… there are times I actually hate this rig and this is one of those times.

EDIT: FOUND IT!!!  Ok, right now I bet the rig is blogging about stupid owners!! If you find her blog let me know I’d really like to see what she writes about us! The gray tank was full and had filled up into the shower base. About 3 inches of gray water was sitting in the shower, I was in the back talking to Ronda when the light bulb went off.  ok, so it went off twice!!

I was telling Ronda why doesn’t it smell in the toilet room?? I move the dogs den and open the shower door and there it is, about 1 inch from overflowing…   That damn tank sensor isn’t reading right so after our anniversary tomorrow on Tuesday I’m going to clean out the gray tank…

I was going to just delete this post but it is a kind of time capsule that down the road we can read back on and say, “remember that??” and hopefully laugh!

Have a great Labor Day everybody!