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....