Raven’s RV
The ongoing education and adventures of two rank newbie RVers

This campground comes with its own high speed internet: not wireless, but DSL-equivalent. Because we use Linux, setting up wasn’t quite as easy as plugging things in and hitting “start,” but the resident super-geek, Don, got things working last night and today I have lightning-fast internet instead of molasses-slow dialup. Now, I have nothing against dialup, but as someone who earns her living from the web, it sure makes my life a lot easier to go the lightning route. ;)

Speaking of lightning, Don has been busy too. He installed “the lightning rod” which, though the name might suggest otherwise, is not a thing to direct lightning strikes away from the RV. It is an electrical element which goes into the water heater so that it runs off electricity instead of propane. This improves both our showers and our heating (and is cheaper, too). We now only use propane for cooking, and for the fridge when in transit. Yay!

By the way, I have since learned that the thing where the sewer hoses are stored is called The Bumper. ;-) I thought it was a separate storage thingie but apparently not: it serves double duty. This leads to all sorts of amusing thoughts about what would happen to anyone who rear-ended me, but that’s just me and my potty humor. :-P

We now have end caps installed. He has also been trying to inflate the tires. This is not quite as easy as it sounds: the configuration is awkward and involves extenders that he doesn’t quite trust, and contortions. He has one half of the tires inflated to 60 psi. It didn’t help that the new tire pump we got at Camping World broke on its first use and is only rated up to 50 psi, but Don adapted it to work and so far so good.

One thing I am learning is that running an RV will be a constant litany of things to fix, adapt, and maintain. We found two new leaks: water is coming down from either the sink or the fresh water tank; and the radiator fluid is leaking. Both these leaks must be located and fixed. Running the RV could be a full time job. The flip side is that I’m never going to need to worry that there won’t be anything to write about.

Gas is very expensive right now. Given that full-timing for us in the next year is going to mean living in the RV and making occasional forays to nearby towns, I’m not as worried as others might be. It could, in the future, mean slowly moving around the country. I mean, one could travel a hundred miles (ten gallons of gas for this rig) and settle in a campground for a month (best rates). It would take three or four years to cross the continent, but that’s okay. You would also explore it in ways others would not. You could also stay in state, county or regional parks which usually don’t have internet but are much cheaper. RVing doesn’t have to be a gas-guzzling, excessively expensive proposition.

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