A few nights ago the temperature in the RV went below 60 degrees, prompting the heat to go on. Tonight we turned on the air conditioner after a high of 88 today. Whew! I wanted to escape the cold New England weather. Little did I realize how quickly it would turn as we travelled south.
I first moved to Providence from New Jersey in the spring (many years ago). I still remember driving back to New Jersey a couple of weeks after I started working in Rhode Island. It was mid-May. In Little Rhody, the leaves on the trees were just starting to come out. When I got to New Jersey, the leaves were full and it felt like early summer.
Fast forward to the present. We started this trip two days ago. As we started down the highway the trees were budding, producing a carpet of reds and browns. Rarely did we see any leaves on the trees. As we drove through Connecticut and into New Jersey, we started seeing more green on the trees. Now, in Maryland, all the trees have pushed out their leaves. It’s a welcome sight after a long winter.
I read an interesting comment on a blog post yesterday: “RVing is fixing something so that you can drive down the road and have the opportunity to fix something else.” This trip has been a series of fixing things. Nothing serious but it seems like every place we have stopped, I had to work on a new issue. The latest one was hot water. I couldn’t figure out why the hot water wasn’t working. After calling the dealer twice and being told that someone would call back later, I decided to pull out the manual and figure it out myself. It turned out to be a lever was turned to winterizing mode, not normal mode. Problem solved. I’m looking forward to that shower in the morning! Hopefully that is the last problem on this trip.
All dressed up and ready to Go!
We are on our way, ready for our next adventure. Our first day on the road was productive and exhausting. We drove to the storage place, got the refrigerator set up and prepared the car for towing (see picture above). Then we headed out, to a truck stop about 40 miles away. First, we filled the tires with air. Then we prepared the fresh water tank for sanitizing. Finally we filled the fuel tank. Through a comedy of errors, it took us well over an hour to do all that. Part of the problem was that towing the car meant that I couldn’t back up. So, getting close enough to the water source meant that I had to drive around the building twice. Then I had to wait for a specific fuel pump, since I can’t get into small spaces with an RV towing a car. And filling the tank with ~55 gallons of fuel took a while.
Back on the road, we headed to New Haven, our first stop for this trip. This is where we were able to finish the fresh water tank sanitizing by emptying and refilling the water. One bonus for staying in New Haven was that we got to visit my brother and sister-in-law. We went to their house for dinner. It was the first time in over a year that we went inside someone’s house and stayed there for an extended period of time. It was such a pleasure, being able to start reclaiming our lives after a very hard year.
After a rainy morning, we finally got on the road and drove to New Jersey, where we are tonight. We are staying in the parking lot of a country club for the night. Tomorrow we head for Maryland for a week. We’ll be visiting our daughter, Tessa, who is in DC and my sister Marla, who is in Maryland.
A few weeks before this trip, Cathie decided to make a quilt for our bed. After many hours of labor, she produced this masterpiece. It’s very cozy, with a nice flannel backing.
This was just flowering as we were planning to leave, so we brought it along with us. It’s a welcome addition to our home on wheels.
Owning an RV required us to learn a lot of new terms. Phrases like ‘wet bath’ and ‘doghouse‘ have very different meanings from what you would expect. As does the term, ‘toad’. Once you realize that ‘toad’ means a vehicle that is towed by a motor home, it makes more sense.
Last week we took Cathie’s car in for modifications so that it could be towed. The most significant addition was installation of a baseplate, which permanently attaches to the car and has connections for the tow bar. The mechanic also added wiring so the car’s rear lights are controlled by the RV. And he added an electrical plug so that when the car is being towed, it uses the RV for electrical power.
On Saturday we went out to the RV for some spring cleaning and a chance to check out the tow package. I connected everything to make sure I understand how it all works. It took a while to figure it all out. The brake system was a bit confusing at first but is actually pretty simple. It’s a portable unit that sits on the floor in front of the driver’s seat. There is a claw arm that attaches to the brake. Once it’s positioned properly and plugged in, the system senses when the vehicle is slowing down and applies the brake to slow down the car.
Our next test is to connect everything and take it out for a test ride. I’m a bit anxious about that step but I do remember last year when I was anxious about driving a 30 foot motorhome. Now it’s not as daunting. So, towing a car will probably be OK, eventually.
The Cruznick Adventures 