TALES OF OUR TRAVELS AND OUR LOVE OF ADVENTURE

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Oh, what a night...and the day, too

Yesterday we set the trailer up at Yucaipa Regional Park for 2 days in order to make it easier to get ready to go to Colorado.  After I got off work, I went over to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening. The day was hot, so Don had the air conditioner going. While we were eating supper, it went off.  I thought it still felt warm inside, so I went to kick it down a notch - and it didn't come back on.  Of course, thoughts of delays, repair shop, and such went through my head.  After about 5 minutes of worry and troubleshooting, I asked Don if it could have just popped a fuse. He found the breakers, and sure enough, that's what had happened.  Whew.  First disaster averted.

Then next, after supper, we were watching television and Don commented that the "auto" light on the refrigerator hadn't been on all day.  I checked inside, and it was cooling and freezing just fine.  So again, panic set in momentarily.  (The first summer we had our Wave the refrigerator died 2 days into the trip, and we went all summer using a cooler and bagged ice for everything.) Don went outside to shut the power off completely, and I walked over to the unit to see what happened.  That's when I noticed that he'd accidentally hit the "gas" button - it's ON when it's OUT, and he thought it was ON when it was IN. So the refrigerator was getting a message to stay on GAS, even though we were on shore power.  I hit the button, and the "auto" light came on like it should, and the gas went off.  The refrigerator had been running on propane since he'd set the trailer up at noon.  Second disaster averted.

As it cooled down at night, we opened up all the windows, and lay down for a night's rest around 10 pm.  At 11:30, we were awakened by the roar of what sounded like a geyser underneath the kitchen window (which opens outward from the bottom.)  Water was spraying into the kitchen, and it wasn't just plain water - it was stinky smelly recycled water.  The staff of the park had forgotten to turn the sprinklers off near our site, and a broken sprinkler head was erupting upwards - and it was huge!  It sprayed the underside of the awning, and into the trailer through the kitchen window.  The only thing Don could do was close the window and take his folding camp chair and place it over the geyser, which at least stopped the spraying all over the side of trailer.  Since it was so forceful, and was hitting canvas, it was loud - so we couldn't get back to sleep until it stopped - which was after midnight.  At 4 am, the sprinkler underneath the slideout came on - unbelievable. I slept through it, but dreamed of nasty smelly things. Don got up and stayed up, fuming, until he was able to go over to the camp office at 7 and discuss things with whomever was there. 

They were apologetic, offered a claim form in case anything was damaged (nothing was), and promised to a) come over and repair the broken sprinkler head, and b) turn the water off for tonight. We learned that the sprinkler heads near the pavement get run over often by RVs, and they don't know if one's broken until someone comes and reports it.  (They only water at night.)  What a system, huh?!

I truly hope this is not a portent of things to come.

We DID enjoy our evening in the trailer, even though we haven't left on the trip yet.  I LOVE the new reclining loveseat - it makes all the difference in the world!

2 comments:

Merikay said...

OK, so I put Check fuse first when something doesn't work right into my mental RV tip file!

Hope all your troubles are as easily solved and you have an enjoyable trip.

Myrddin said...

Some day you'll be sitting around a campfire and telling a fellow RVer about the night the sprinkler water came in through the window, and you'll laughing about it.

Jim