Man and I love RVing. We love our Tana and Jolly. But, not all RVing days are created equal. Some days are so stressful that we cannot express how exhausted we are when those days end. There are encounters with less than stellar drivers of other vehicles (can't fix stupid types). Close calls, like the one last fall with a dog running across the expressway. Many tight parking spots. Yellowstone and Custer come to mind.
And, yet, the RV industry in all it's PR wisdom never shares the snarky stuff (I mean, why would they, it is all roses and wonderful sunsets, right??). We see it all the time, newbies, in person and on the internet. Newbies, just spent a bucket or two or three full of $$ to buy this wonderful, gorgeous RV. They have little camping experience, poor souls, have NO clue. Some don't know the difference in 30 AMP and 50. They have no idea that they cannot run 2 air conditioners, fridge, hot water heater, toaster, microwave and curling irons all at the same time on a 30 AMP service. They have no idea about wide turns (which can prove disastrous). Roofs come into contact with low branches that for some reason campgrounds refuse to trim.
And, it is not just the newbies that have bad days. Man and I have fought and shoehorned Tana into some spots. Oh, boy.
And, today, I am going to share some experiences that we have had just since this winter jaunt began on November 3rd.
OKKK, here we go, laugh and cry with us, will ya please?? (If you are a Facebook fan, you may have read some of this, some of this text comes directly from my "timely" posts there.)
9 December 2015 15:41
That moment, after a semi-stressful drive you discover an unintended motor home parked in the campsite you reserved weeks ago. And no one is home.
This is not good. Wait till you hear entire story.
16:33 Just. Wait. It's really bad. Tana is fine. But we cannot get in sites.
16:44 I am starting to get just a weeeee bit hysterical.
17:26 Boon docking. No power. Thank goodness we got the frig fixed. Several months of insulin in there. Mr. Winston is hungry. Battery on phone just about dead. Later. It's Miller time!
I was concerned about traffic running into the slides. So we borrowed some cones from the flooded areas. Flooding not so bad. I need the cones more. If people are stupid enough to drive around the barricades. Well. Too bad. (It was getting dark, as you can see from the iPhone photo.)
I'm not In a very giving mood about now. Sorry friends.
9 December 2015 17:54
Ok here is the Cliff notes version.
We were supposed to be on lot B6. We got there a See Ya MH, as in motor home, was in the site. Oops.
So we were switched to "A something or other".
As I am waiting for Man to return from previewing site "A something or other", the See Ya goes blasting past me and almost hit me.
We get to "A something or other" and the very same See Ya is backing in. Yep. Same lot.
So the campground staff comes and tells him he cannot park there. He is livid and tells them to get out of the way.He pulls forward and promptly runs into a tree and blows out his windshield.
And we cannot get into "A something or other" site either.
And so we are in the parking lot. Boon docking.
We are fine. Thankful that we move slow and careful. Cause we did not hit the same tree that took out the windshield of the MH. (And believe me, it was very very close.)
For all the trouble today Man and I cannot gripe about how the staff handled this snafu.
Even the gate guard was sweet and apologetic when we came back in after a great Mexican dinner. (If you think I was gonna try to find something to cook after all this, you are greatly mistaken! Mexican = comfort food.)
They had even offered to have the camp host move his rig for the night to give us their site. I would have been distraught if they had.
We are fine here. Our winter Arizona training with the MOC came in handy. Yaaaaa!!
Course there is no humidity out there.
Tomorrow we will head south again. Another day another adventure.
In the meantime. Nite.
Blessings. And. May you learn to boondock.
Now that we have the orange cones.
December 10, arrive Key West, and this was our site, close parking:
With the slide open:
With the slide open:
The other side was not much better and Jolly parking was very tight, only had inches to spare to open the door. We ended up parking Jolly in the next campsite, without permission. Yes, we did. OOOO, my! LOL
December 14, arriving at Key Largo, we had a "pull IN" site, not pull through, but, pull in! Killer view tho, eh??
I wrote on Facebook:
Well. I am gonna wish for semi cloudy sunsets. I won't lie. This is an interesting set up. You can make of that what you wish. We PULLED into the site. Unhooked. Then had to wiggle Jolly out. Sorta sideways. I'm dreading hooking back up. Ugh.
Anyway. The view would be terrific out the front window of a motor home. Too bad I cannot enjoy out my desk window. First world problem.
So pray for "kick me outta this world" sunsets. Cause we really are working this one.
Come December 17, we are leaving Key Largo and heading back to Fort Lauderdale, only first:
When you need 4 wheel drive and it needs service. Ooopps. Never a dull day in this life.
A few minutes later, I posted:
A few minutes later, I posted:
Hooked up. Ya us. Man got Jolly out. Well done.
December 17, 2015 Fort Lauderdale, same park as where we boondocked on the 9th:
Over a bit of grass and mud. But we got ER in.
Home for the holidays. Will we have a white Christmas?
This is a gorgeous park, but, seriously, they need to widen the roads a bit and trim the foliage. Stuff tends to grow fast here, eh?? The site is rather large, but, what good does that do if you cannot back into it without running your unit into a tree or sign or someone else's rig/vehicle?
December 29. Our time here is over, but, before we can leave, this poor fellow had a bit of trouble. We need to go where he is, eh?? Post from Facebook.
Narrow roads and uncut foliage and oodles of rain. Makes for newbie trouble. This is NOT US.
Man helped them out of this predicament. Sigh. Nice people.
December 29, Tampa, where we intend to stay for 2 months, give or take:
In. Second site assigned. First was a nightmare site. This one is reasonably level at least. And, yes, I need to get a better photo. And, yes, Tana has love bugs all over her nose. Ewwww.
Man and I see wonderful things when we travel, we get to eat in some great local restaurants and meet up with dear family and friends. But, it is not always a lot of fun getting "there" or where ever.
This reality check is now over. Good luck to you all. RVon!
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