As with every year, Dave and I were eagerly anticipating the start of the camping season. Maybe even a little more this year. We have a new-to-us camper and a new-to-us campground and we really just want to get settled in and relax. We won't be seeing our usual summer friends every weekend anymore, but we are looking forward to making new friends on our new adventure.
Finally, the big day arrived and camping season was underway. And it rained. And it kept on raining. It seems like it rained every single day in May. That's OK, I had a lot of inside work to do at the new camper. Last year, we only had a few weeks before the campground closed and it was like living out of laundry baskets.
Now, I've got things put away in the cupboards, although I doubt that they will all still be in the same location by the end of summer. To Dave's total consternation, I have a tendency to rearrange now and again to make things easier to get to.The kitchen gadgets should stay where they are though. I even have the shelves in that cupboard labeled. It beats the "identify by touch" program I had at our last camper. I wrap everything in plastic bags to keep the dust off, so basically the only way to tell a crock pot from an electric pan is to start feeling around.
Even though campers usually have lots of storage space, I needed just a bit more. I put some of our Halloween stuff and a spare TV on the top bunk. Nobody will be sleeping there anyway. I didn't want to see all that junk up there, so I put up a shower curtain rod from side to side and hung a short curtain on it. Voila: Junk is out of sight and out of mind.
We had a little trouble with our golf cart before it even made the big trip back to the camper. In defense of our ignorance, this is our first experience with an electric cart. At first it wouldn't start. After being on the charger a couple of days, it finally started, but wouldn't move. Upon investigation, it was determined that each of our six batteries was critically low on water. I thought batteries requiring water went out in the '80s.
Apparently not. Twelve gallons of water later, our golf cart was finally ready for the season.
With a little help, we got our gazebo roof and side panels back in place. We even closed off the back side, giving us a little bit of privacy. We're still working on putting up all our signs that used to hang in our enclosed porch at our last campground. One step at a time.
By the time June rolled around, the weather had improved and we were ready to get this summer started. Or so we thought. We had problems with the lights at the camper. We couldn't get them to turn on. All the appliances worked, just no lights. No breakers were tripped in the fuse box. So I brought out lots of little lanterns and things to hold us over until we could get someone to come look at it.
The next weekend, the lights were working, but the outlets weren't. No radio, TV, microwave or fridge. I got on the floor, shoved my head in the cupboard under the sink and looked at the backside of the breaker box. Oh boy, critter damage to the wiring. Lots of it.
I started calling camper repair places. The ones who answered wanted us to bring the camper to them. That's not happening. I left lots of messages. I got two responses. The first one gave me several excuses of why he couldn't even come look at it right away. It was raining and he didn't want to track mud into our camper. The wiring in campers is really hard to get to. And my favorite, his mom fell and broke her hip and was in the hospital. Was she his assistant?
Thankfully, the second guy was an actual professional. He came right away to assess the damage and I had a written estimate of the work to be done and the cost in no time. The check from the insurance company was also handled in record time. It took the repair guy less than a week to completely rewire our camper and apply a shell to the undercarriage to keep it from happening again.
He even fixed a couple of water lines that were also damaged by the critters. We have hot water now. We never had hot water at any of our previous campers. I'm very excited about the prospect of being able to take a shower at camp.
We're finally settling into our new surroundings. We have full electric power, hot water and lots more sunshine, it's time to grab a cold refreshing beverage and just chill.