And now? We wait.

There she is: beautiful, new, only had it for 17 days camper of ours.  RDB and I are still so beside ourselves on the fact that we specifically bought a new camper so that we could walk away from the mold issues in the Wildcat that we bought from PPL in February, and yet, here were are, again, dealing with mold issues.... in what should be a brand new, mold-free camper. 

We texted our sales guy, Rusty, Sunday afternoon as soon as we realized the problem, letting him know we were coming down to the dealership first thing Monday morning.  RDB asked him to let the GM know that we'd want to discuss this with him as well; we wanted everyone aware of the situation from the get go.

The service department gave us a call as we were on our way, wanting to make sure we knew they were aware of what was taking place, and to ask for Victor when we checked in.  In no time, they were up on the roof inspecting the damage and agreed with what we had puzzled together.

The hole in the roof membrane near the front AC unit was likely there from the time the unit was installed at the factory (Forest River). The unfortunate part to this meant that it was likely letting in water from the time the dealer (Ron Hoover) took delivery of the unit until we found it.  It's a new 2019 model, so we could figure that it's been on their lot, leaking every time it rains, since the beginning of last year (just shy of 52" at IAH last year, including Hurricane Imelda which hit in September, and another 21" in Houston so far this year).  We've heard others say the two things that will kill your camper are: water, and electricity.

And they weren't kidding:

Those were the photos we received from the service department, once they had taken down the ceiling in the bedroom.  RBD went back and took a few more, to give us better context on what was visible on that first day.

The roof was so soft, from all the rain damage over time, that the service techs were able to tear away portions of the plywood using their bare hands.  The dark black on the ceiling panels, and the white fuzz in between the rafters? Mold. Obviously, this damage had happened over a lengthy period of time - not just in the 17 days that we took possession of it. 

Ken, the GM, said that they'll work Forest River to determine a plan of action. He mentioned several times that "there are steps we have to take" and (in summation) if we were unhappy with the resolution that we could "take it up with Forest River." We understand that he has a process he has to follow, so we're doing our best to be patient.

RDB made sure to inform him, as we had told Rusty when we arrived that morning, that we have no intention of taking this specific unit back; Rusty knew our story: we came to Ron Hoover to buy a NEW camper, so that we wouldn't have to deal with mold issues.  Taking back the Palomino Columbus, even if it were repaired, doesn't change the fact that it now has a history of mold. It's not just a cosmetic issue (though the pictures of it torn apart are breaking my heart); it's a health issue; not one we ever wanted to deal with.

So now?
 

We wait. 

If it Weren't for Bad Luck....

...we'd have no luck at all.

So, with Hurricane Hanna upon us, and our camper parked in the driveway getting ready for a week long trip to Colorado with KD & the Vowels, we discovered the very thing we were trying to avoid when we Cut Bait only two weeks ago - we have water issues.

And not just water issues, but a HOLE in the roof - and who knows how long it's been there?!  Well, actually we know it's been there long enough, at least, for the water that was pooling inside the LED light over the bed to be GREEN - as in MOLD green.

M. O. L. D.  Again.

We'll take it back to Ron Hoover tomorrow morning, and see where we go from here.

All Is Calm

I can't help but smile - we went to Lockhart State Park for our first trip with the Castle, and it's right outside of the city of Lulling.  

See lull, think "calm."

And I am so much more calm and happy now that we're camping again.  The hat RBD bought me for this trip truly says it all:

It's always a bit of a mess when you're moving into a new camper - I think we made 4 (5?) trips to Wal-mart along the way regathering items (and food!).  We were so excited to head out after closing on the camper that we didn't have any of our gear from the old camper that we had in storage.  I can tell you, THAT makes for an interesting weekend - knowing you have the stuff, but you don't have the stuff.

I'll tell you though, the one thing we did have was ice! 

OMG, y'all our new camper has an in-freezer ICE MAKER!!!!

 I have nothing but coffee mugs, but we. have. an ICE MAKER!! 

*swoon*

Lockhart SP is a fun campground - its a loop of hookups right on a golf course.  So, of course, we spent the evenings taking walks and enjoying the stars.  (I'd forgotten how wonderful the dark skys are when you get out of town.)

Lulling also happens to be a really neat little town to visit (Check out the write up from the Day Tripper).  We greatly enjoyed the bar-b-que the last time we were here, and this time, we went down to the local farmer's market.

Y'all - support the locals. We enjoyed a little lunch at Mom's Front Porch  - the chicken salad salads were delicious, and the smell of fresh baked bread wafting out the front door was like a hug and a kiss on the cheek from Grandma.

The Farmer's Market just down main street was another great place to help support the locals - we bought fresh veggies for breakfast on Sunday, and the smallest watermelon they had - which was still big enough to fill the whole freezer! 

I'll have a whole post about a trick I learned to cut watermelons.. Look forward to that shortly!

We also made an appointment to visit the Lulling Lavender Fields (made an appointment, because Covid-19 is still rampant, and even more-so in Texas where we've "reopened the economy" before mandating mask wearing and because of the Memorial Day weekend, we're now seeing unprecedented outbreaks and the maxing out of our hospital systems....  but I'm not going to make this blog about Covid, and the 19 bazillion things that are being discussed elsewhere. Camping is about getting _away_ from all that, so that's where we're going to focus.) 

M-kay?  Okay.

Now, where was I? 

Oh, yeah - Lulling Lavender Fields.

Our visit was short, but we found several items to take back to our new home-on-wheels: CBD peppermint tea, a few bundles of dried lavender, and a CBD/lavender/frankincense balm for me.  RBD and I have both found CBD to be a wonderful addition to our daily lives - for me, it's been a huge aide in pain relief from the nerve pain that still lingers from a car accident five years ago.  So, it was nice to find another local place that we could support, and take home a few items we know we'd enjoy.

For dinner that evening, we used some of the jalapeños that we picked up at the farmer's market and made one of our camping favorites: bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers.  

New Camper, Tasty Dinner, Good Movie

I mentioned that Lockhart is on a golf course, right?  Well, we enjoyed walking the course and taking picture, but the park headquarters had a little bit of free fun around it, too. I always try to drop into the park HQ, because you never know what you'll find!

It was such a great weekend to be back camping again - though, RDB says we should start calling it "RV-ing" because we've definitely moved up a bit aways from where we started.  To-may-to, to-mah-to. I'm just glad we're back!

We were in Site #5 of the full hooks loop at Lockhart State Park.  I know I used to tell you if the sites were relatively level or not, but the Castle has auto leveling (something RDB really desired) so all we do is push a button and viola! We're leveled!  We've been to this park before: Really Good Bar-b-que, Really Bad Gas, and a Game of I-Spy.

For more camping photos, go here.

Buying our Rollin' Home; Ron Hoover RV

Nothing like taking time away from work to go camping....and not being able to go camping.  

RDB and I had a long weekend over 4th of July, and with all the troubles we were having with the the Wildcat, we did what we're known for doing: making a big move, spur of the moment. 

And I don't regret it one bit! 

Rusty:  281-381-4505

Working with Rusty at Ron Hoover was a really enjoyable experience.  He's a boat guy by trade, but did a really great job of listening to what it was that we were looking for, understanding our price point, and showing us "a little bit of luxury" that culminated in us purchasing a 2019 38" Palomino Columbus.  And y'all? It's the most luxurious thing I think we've ever bought! 

To put the nail in the coffin on this whole debacle with buying a camper in 2020: Rusty had a quote on the wall of his office, and after our experience with the Wildcat (AKA Cut Bait), I couldn't help but snap a picture of it - it just resonated so much with me:

And a final note: Damian - one of the service techs at Ron Hoover - was INCREDIBLE.  The level of detail he took in giving us the walk thru of the camper, and the incredible amount of honesty that he shared with us about our unit and hte industry as a whole, and the fact that it was Friday afternoon and he had already clocked out and was heading to vacation for the next week- but remained behind to make sure we were hooked up and ok before he left.... its all of those things that really made an incredible difference for us in our experience with Ron Hoover over the other guys.  And it's likely why we'll be customers for life.

We couldn't WAIT to go camping - in fact? We closed on it Friday afternoon and immediately hit the road for Lockhart State park.....

For more new camper photos, click here. 

Cut Bait

 The old and the new, side by side.

I'm kinda laughing at that statement: I wrote it thinking the old was the Rubicon and the new is the Wildcat, but really, the old is the new and the new is the old.  Whoever purchases our Rubicon is going to get one hell of a nice, clean, NOTHING'S WRONG WITH IT camper.

*sigh*

Our first trip out with the Beauty and we're not even going to get to stay in  it.  But, this is the next step - getting it up to Camper Revampers so that Chris can work his magic and make her like-new again. 

And, oh, what a list to make that happen:

• Mold remediation
• Repair walls
• Slides:
• Replace seals as needed
• Repair mechanics in the living room 
• Install slide covers on all three
• Reinforce slide floor in living room
• Replace carpet throughout
• Roof coating/repair
• Replace sky light
• Replace edging/trim in interior
• Ceilings
• Front door
• Paint interior
• Ceilings - white
• Walls - Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray
• Dispose of old mattress
• Extend bad platform for new mattress
• Drill holes for SleepNumber bed tubing
• Replace battery
• Replace water heater anode rod
• Possibly replace water heater
• Replace broken handles on cabinets 
• Install MaxAir fan in bathroom
• maybe a second one in living room
• Replace fire extinguisher
• Install Wifi antenna - Wineguard Air 360
• Repair water damage in basement area

Diesel's tuckered out just _thinking_ about all the work that's going to be required to make it happen!  And you know, so were we.

So, we've decided to "cut bait." We're not going to move forward with the Wildcat camper that we bought back in February and ran up to Chris in May.  I don't think he was all that surprised that we were stepping away from what was  going to be a long and extensive project.  

It was 4th of July weekend, and we just. want. to. go. camping. 

In the space of about a weekend, we went down to Ron Hoover in Katy and purchased a NEW 2019 Palomino Columbus.