Tuesday 11/02/2021
Today is moving day albeit only a matter of about 50 yards although it still entails doing most of the things I would normally do for any move. We went out for our usual short walk enough for the dogs to stretch their legs and do their “thing”. I fed them and myself and settled down to check emails to see if there was anything either interesting or important which I took care of before addressing the moving situation. As I mentioned in a previous blog, the site we are moving to is A14 and in the first row of the park and backs onto the forest behind us. This time, I will have neighbors on both sides but that’s OK as we are not at all close together.
Moving Miss Daisy is a piece of cake. I put away everything and then cleared the inside area that the slides go into so as not to impede them in any way. Normally, I would use bungy cords to hold in the drawers as they tend to open with the RV’s movement but with this being such a short trip, I didn’t bother with it this time. I made sure there was nothing that could move around even for such a short journey before going outside and unhooking the black tank hose. I was so close to the new site that I just dragged it along to the new hook up so it was ready for Miss Daisy when I drove her there. I spent some time looking at the site choosing the most level and best place to actually park her as it had to be within reach of that hose, 20 feet in my case as I have two hoses. Both water and the electric hook up were also close by. The last thing to unhook was the electric power cord after I had pulled in the two slides and with everything free, I pushed the button and the automatic levelling system gently lowered Miss Daisy to the ground. It is so easy. Prior to pulling in the slides, I got up on the roof of Miss Daisy and swept off the slides so that the seals would not be damaged by any loose debris like leaves and such. In our case at this park, it is pine needles. This is actually a very important part of any move.
I drove her the fifty yards to the spot I had picked out at the new site and after making sure the hoses would reach, I placed short boards under the jacks to help stabilize them, pushed the button again and lo and behold, we were level. As I said before, it is so simple. I hooked up the electric and water along with the aforementioned sewer hose otherwise known as a “stinky slinky” throughout the RV’ing world, opened the slides and we were all set. It took a while to move over the outside stuff, wicker couch and table, outside floor mats and miscellaneous other things before we were set up outside and our old site was cleared of all remnants of our visit and ready for the new tenants who are coming in Friday. I went back inside and spent time making the bed and straightening up Miss Daisy for it to be habitable again. I had bought another bigger outside mat when I was in Walmart’s so now we have two of them making for a clean entry way. I rewarded myself for a job well done with a cup of tea and a banana to keep off the hunger pains gnawing at my stomach.
Incidentally, I walked enough steps while I was moving Miss Daisy to cover almost a mile according to my iPhone. Didn’t seem that much but I guess going backwards and forwards several times between sites, it all adds up. With Miss Daisy all set, I settled back down to check emails and to write this blog after finishing up the one from yesterday. We ended the day in the usual way with food for the dogs and then me followed by watching more English Football with the added comfort of a glass of wine.
Wednesday 11/03/2021
Today the forecast is for heavy rain so we went out early for our walk. The dogs didn’t seem very interested and we only walked for a short time before heading back in for breakfast and coffee. The coffee is for me, not the dogs. We had no plans for the day and with the forecast not very good, knew that we would spend most of it indoors.
True to form, it came on to rain around 11:00 am not hard at first but as the morning went on, the rain became much harder until in the end, it was a downpour. In the midst of it all, a new camper arrived with an especially made tow vehicle that looked like a flatbed truck with a fifth wheel unit attached towing a huge RV that had to be forty five plus feet long. Instead of the usual double wheels this one had three wheels on each side. I’ll bet it is every bit as wonderful inside as what the outside looked.
They stopped at the office and were assigned my old space that we moved out of yesterday but it was apparent that after several attempts at getting the unit where the driver wanted it, it was not going to happen. Plus that site is not level both front to back and side to side and I think was a bit too narrow and uneven for him to get it right especially with such a long rig. He gave up in disgust and headed back to the office having previously scoped out the site next to it. Apparently, this one suited him better as after leaving the office, he jumped back into his rig and made the circle to the new site where it only took a couple of tries to get the RV situated. As he parked it and went about the business of blocking, unhooking and levelling which, by the way took him all of five minutes, his wife? got out of the truck with her little dog. It looked to me that she stayed there on purpose not helping him to park because throughout this whole time especially in the first site, every time he got out to check, I could see him talking to himself and waving his arms about and I got the impression that he was not a very happy camper. I can see that with the very long length to his RV and an unlevel site would give him some problems more so than for me with my much shorter vehicle. Besides, mine is a contained unit and not a fifth wheel meaning that I don’t have the extra length of the tow vehicle added to the length of the trailer. His truck is probably at least twenty feet long and I’m guessing the RV forty five feet for a total around sixth five feet. Miss Daisy is only twenty nine feet total and I disconnect the Jeep before setting up the RV. That is the beauty of a smaller rig and why I bought her in the first place. You have to give up space which is all important especially if there are more than one of you as you could easily get on each others nerves as there is nowhere to go to get away from each other. You really do need to be very compatible to live with another person in an RV. Dogs, not so much.
Satisfied that he had it levelled the way he wanted it, he allowed the wife? and dog to get in the RV while he completed the set up, hooking up electric, water and sewer and putting out the slides and such. By the way, it was raining hard the whole time he was working on this and to start with, he was in his shirtsleeves as he jumped in and out of his truck. Only after he changed sites did he put on a rain jacket and wellie boots. By then, I imagine he was already soaked which would not help his mood. Even after he was parked and set up, he still continued to work outside washing the wheels on the RV with a hose, raking a channel for the rain water to flow away before eventually going back inside. They are parked immediately in front of me across the street.
With all of the excitement finished for the day and after writing it all down here, we had to go out for the final walk of the day. It had left off raining although the trees continued to drip and the ground was wet and soggy. We only covered a short distance just so the dogs could do their thing before heading back inside for the evening meal. The TV reception was very slow and kept going in and out so I resorted to watching both a soccer game and my usual evening show on my laptop. Different size screen but same picture.
Written 11/03/2021 – Read my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com