Not a Happy Camper

Ok, so, last we talked, I was right about here:

...having discovered a serious mold problem in our new-to-us Wildcat.  I followed the black, white, dark, and icky mold trail up the side and over the top of the kitchen slide.  And when I gave up, Rich kept working on pulling back more and more of the wall paper, revealing the true extent of the damage behind it.  Not only was it over the kitchen slide out, but we found more of the tell-tale bumpy wallpaper over the top of the living room slide out.  This was not good. (understatement)

I commiserated with one of the Facebook camping groups we had joined when we moved up to the 5th wheel.  LOTS of compassion and sympathy from the campers there - truth be told, NO ONE wants to deal with mold in their home on wheels; it's often a death sentence.  

There are a lot of things lately (too many too blog about) that remind me that Providence is real, and watching out for RDB and me.  It was another one of those moments when Chris, from Camper Revampers, reached out to me and offered help.  

We talked for maybe an hour that week - and I left thinking, "Ok, it's not a burn it to the ground situation; maybe we can do this."  And so I went to work, starting out by sanding the walls I knew we were planning to paint.  To be honest, I was a bit too chicken to tackle the mold just yet.

Wearing homemade masks before it was cool.

That was about the second week of March, 2020.  For future reference, that was also about the time that the world turned upside-down with the novel coronavirus, Covid-19.  Much of the work we had planned to do on the camper was put on hold - as travel was restricted and stores shut down.  To add to the frustration, many of the RV parks and all of the state parks closed to the public for a period of weeks.  As I type (third week of May) RDB and I are still practicing physical distancing, and only making trips away from the house for essentials.

A small dose of good luck in all this was that RDB and I were able to secure covered parking for our camper at the same lot RDB stores his kayak.  We couldn't help but laugh at the fact that we would be parking next to a nearly identical Forest River Wildcat! Haven't met the owners yet, but they have good taste in rigs!

We're the gray one on the right.

We had a laundry list of things that needed to be done - from repairs to upgrades, decor and "wants."  And when we discovered the mold, it really set us back on our heels. We knew how critical it would be to repair that and whatever hole was causing water to get in, and we knew as well, that some of the wood panelling in the camper would need to be replaced (it was rotted thru from the mold and wet).  It was just such a task, and we had zero experience in doing it right.

Looks like an angry dog.  

So we reached back out to Chris at Camper Revampers and made arrangements to haul the trailer up to the Dallas area to let him do the repairs.  It was raining the Saturday morning we had planned to drive up, so we coordinated to try again Sunday. The morning arrived, the weather was beautiful - this was it! Let's hook her up for the first time and drive her to Chris.

We arrived at the storage unit, our covered, gated lot, only to find that our camper was not in the same state when we last saw it.  The back windows had been opened and shoved out - and I knew that RDB wouldn't have left the camper that way when he parked it last.  Someone had broken into our camper. 

We called HCSO and it took about 30 minutes (yes, that's normal response time for a non-emergency) for a deputy to arrive.  

Deputy: How's your day, ma'am?   

Me: Well, I had to call you, so.... 

Deputy: Yeah, it sucks when idiots steal your stuff.

Ya damn right. 

We had waited till he arrived to go inside and see what had transpired: a TV stolen from the bed room, RDB's new Bose sound bar pulled form the living room (but not the TV - it was bolted onto the mount), and a bucket full of various tools...  thankfully, no vandalism, and the only damage was to the back window where they obviously slide the TV out and the window screen where they forced entry.

When I mentioned that one of the tools that was stolen was a folding razor-blade knife, the deputy decided he wanted to see if he could pull a few prints from the window that was used for entry.  It was when we pulled the camper forward that we noticed our "twin" neighbor also had the same back window jimmied open; they likely had ben burgled, too.  As a friend said: some people suck.

Well, here we were: a camper full of mold and other problems, and now a police report for stolen property and damaged windows.  What do you do?

Let Chris know there's going to be a few more repairs and make your way towards Dallas.

...to be continued....

Beauty and the Beast

Hi.

It's been a while, I know.

Don't think I haven't thought about it - you know, run away and live in the woods. Every post I read back thru after we've had a big gap in camping trips admonishes me the same way: I say over and over again how much I love camping, how it brings me back to center, how it calms the deep currents running thru my soul.

(This is the point where I normally would say "But....." and give some reason about life and work and trying to balance things, etc, etc. Ehn.  Let's just not and say we did. Cool? Ok.)

I think RDB and I realized pretty quickly that the Rubicon wasn't our best set-up for camping. Yes, we loved having the bike with us, and yes, it fit a need - but we weren't camping.  When you're sleeping in separate bunks, and not using the shower, well, we needed a change.

So, we did a thing (you knew this was coming, right?!)

Say hello to Beauty and the BEAST.

Ahhh, new truck smell.

I'll save the "How We Saved $5000 on the RAM by Driving 350 Miles" saga for some time around the campfire and get right to the story of our new, beautiful 30' Forest River Wildcat.  

Once again, we used PPL for the purchase, and really appreciate the way they're set up: go online, find a unit you'd like to look at, show up on the lot and spend as much time as you want hanging out inspecting it, then get paired up with a sales person who will walk you thru the paperwork.  I think it was less than two weeks from start to finish.

Only, y'all, we ain't no where near finished yet.  That was February.

Now....?

(Sorry - gotta keep laughing or I'm gonna cry.) We've not slept one. single. night. in our new-to-us camper.  Mind you, yes, there IS a global pandemic going on, but THAT actually isn't the problem.

Let's start back the beginning again:

So, we used PPL for the purchase - knowing it was a used camper, and that the prior owner disclosed that the living room slide had "issues" and the gray tank value was leaking.  Ok, we thought, that's doable; the floor plan of the unit was what we wanted, we can have those two items fixed. 

We didn't even take possession of the camper the day we closed - we just went straight from sales over to service at PPL and left them the keys to work out those issues.  Four (or was it five?) weeks, and several thousands of dollars later, we finally took possession of our camper - with the slide still broken.  When the service guy tells you to come pick it up at 5pm on a Friday, and you find out from his colleagues that he leaves at 4:30, that's probably your first clue that you've been swindled.  (When the service manager never returns your calls, that's probably the second clue...)

RDB started poking around underneath the slide that weekend trying to determine the cause - and y'all, in less than 30 minutes, he'd undone this and detached that and found a gear that had missing teeth which was likely what was making the awful banging noise when the slide went in and out.  (When it takes your hubby only 30 MINUTES to find what the likely problem was, that's probably clue #3 that you've been hosed.  Three strikes, PPL. You're out!!)

Running down random parts for the underbelly of a '15 Forest River Wildcat is its own story y'all.  I'll just leave it here that RDB is INCREDIBLY PATIENT. 

Ok, so, while he was working on the outside, I had big plans for the inside.  I've never re-decor'd any of our campers - but this one? I couldn't wait to paint walls, replace furnishings, and really make it the retreat that we'll enjoy for the next decade of our camping adventures.

A little pre-view of my vision for the Beauty.

So, Diesel and I began a bit of prep work - clearing out the old and making way for the new. With painting, I wanted to make sure I prepped it correctly (there are a lot of horror stories of peeling paint and worse!). Needless to say, Diesel likes "his spot" in the new place already!

Speaking of spots.... notice the kinda rough looking wallpaper there by Rich's elbow?  Well, before I painted, I wanted to make sure that random texture like that - it was on that wall by the slide and then over the top of the kitchen slide as well - wouldn't show up with the new paint job, so, I pulled a little bit back to see what was causing the rumpling in the wallpaper beneath.

The more experienced camper owner at this point knows the music in the back ground has just turned ominous; for the, well, less in-tuned (ahem, me) you'll be just as surprised as I was to find....

MOLD.

With a capital OLD.  This was no recent one-time incident.  This stuff had been there for a while, and likely? The past owners knew about it. Knew about it, and sold it as-is, with no disclosure.  

So, I'm gonna stop the story there for a while.  Because that's exactly what happen - we just.... stopped.  

Our Beauty had turned, rightly so, into a beast.

...to be continued...

(Are you one of those who likes to flip ahead to the end of the story? Then go here.)