Earlier this year my wife finally talked me into beginning to make all those family memories we hope that our kids will remember for the rest of their lives…we bought an RV. I say that she had to talk me into this because one of my greatest fears is for the RV lifestyle to turn out like it did in the movie “RV” with Robin Williams. Well, as it turns out the movie is a whole lot more accurate than I’m willing to admit!
You see, when you first buy an RV the dealer will assigned a technician to walk you through the vehicle. The sole purpose of the technician was to orientate us how to operate everything from the hydraulic levelers to the DVD players in the kids bunk-house. We’ll call our technician “Daryl’. Daryl was one of those guys that had forgotten more than I think that I’ll ever know about how to operate this thing. Moreover, one of those things I believe he’d truly forgotten was the sheer terror of buying your first RV. He did, however, give me one little gem of advice that has proven to be invaluable: “when something goes wrong…think it through…you’re doing something wrong.”
This past weekend we decided to go on a camping trip in the RV. It turned out to be quite an adventure. We set out on the open road with all the hopes and dreams that any family of 4 would: looking forward to making all the family memories that I grew up with camping with my own family.
We started the weekend by navigating our way to the RV park, which, thanks to Lola (my GPS), turned out to be a whole lot easier than I had initially thought it would be. When we got to the campsite, I figured I would try to time myself in setting up the motor home. You see, a good friend of mine told me that he was able to ‘Set-up’ his RV in 10 minutes flat. Here’s an account of that Adventure… minute by minute...:
• Minutes 1 - 7: figured out how to pull into the campsite without going into the ditch
• Minutes 8 - 13: discovered that leveling the RV on dirt was fairly easy
• Minutes 14 – 17: Plugged in the electrical – 4 minutes…OK, I did not know that the 50 amp service box at the site came complete with breakers…that you had to turn ‘ON’ to get power in the RV.
• Minutes 18 – 24: I discovered that not all camp sites have septic hook up!
• Minutes 25 – 26: hooked up the H20 (I’ve been practicing that one)
• Minutes 27 – 28: Lowered the awning
• Minutes 29 – 38: I began living the “High-Life” and basked in the glory of beating my all time fastest time of 45 minutes
• Minute 39 – Realized that there was still no power in the RV
• Minute 40 – 44: Thought about Daryl’s advise and turned on the ‘Coach Batteries’ on
• Minutes 44 – 47: Reset the Radio
More to come…
