It’s an Augusta weekend getaway! Ahhhh, stress-free and relaxation. OK, maybe not to start with. We arrived Friday night. It was pouring rain. Everything was muddy. The RV stairs didn’t slide out when we opened the door. Oh boy. Here we go. Luckily we have other steps we can put at the door. In the rain. Done. We get inside and attempt to deploy the slide-out. Nope. No noise. Nada. In the bathroom, we find the “toilet humor” picture fell off the wall. Fortunately no broken glass. I discover that I forgot the dog food. A trip to the store will be needed but first we address the slide-out issue. The “house batteries” are dead. We hook up the Mazda to the RV and then the steps work as well as the slide-out. Great, there’s 2 batteries and we replaced them not too long ago and they’re expensive. Yeah there’s warranty but we just want the damn things to work. We charge for a while and then all seems right with the world RV. We went to Walmart. As we left the store, it was pouring rain again. The umbrellas were inconveniently located in the car. Across the lot. In the rain.
The highlight to that adventure was having Krystal Burger for a late snack. We didn’t have Krystal in our part of Florida, nor in Charlotte so having it here in Augusta was a treat. When I lived in NY we had White Castle (similar) which we often referred to as “belly bombs”.
So… we got home, we had a very late night. Bedtime was 3am. At 4am the carbon monoxide detector beeped 3 times. We woke up and thought “what the heck was that?” and went back to sleep. Jim thought it was the smoke detector. That happened several more times with 3-5 minute intervals. Jim investigated. Just in case we turned off the propane supply. There’s a handy-dandy control panel in the RV for this. The leak detector still beeped. Next he removed the sensor from the wall and cut the wires. That will teach it to make noise. Bad sensor, bad.
I tried lighting the stove. No gas flow. We finally figured out the house batteries were dead again (we tried the slide-out again), and apparently this is what is powering the propane sensor and carbon monoxide sensor. Low voltage issues. So now we think we might have a power converter (110 to 12v) issue. We jumped the house batteries again and the propane worked. He reinstalled the carbon monoxide detector and it worked too. He changed a setting on the converter and so far it’s working. We’ll see what happens.
We went to Publix for lunch. Jim found a location that had a café seating area. We ordered some subs and ate them while people watching. We love their subs.
We decided to drive through some neighborhoods. We came across this:
Next, onto Walmart for yet another visit. Jim wanted to have a trickle charger on hand in case we have converter issues again.
Finally, some pool time. We spent a lot of time just swimming around in the pool and socializing.
Jim had a coupon (shocker, I know) for Red Lobster. He craved Cheddar Bay Biscuits so we cleaned ourselves up and off we went. After salads and biscuits I was feeling ill. Nauseated. I forced myself (I felt guilty like I was wasting it) to eat my fried shrimp and fries but left a lot of it. Jim noticed my unusually slow eating pace and asked what was wrong. He took me back to the RV and then he’ll go shopping on his own. But first, Jim spotted this on the side of the road. He said we have to go back for me to see it. So a u-turn here and there and viola:
The poor thing has a broken wheel. Yes, it’s a plastic toy wagon. There’s a recycling place a block away. The best we can tell is someone didn’t quite make it there.
We arrived back at the RV to find that damn CO2 detector beeping again for low voltage. We had power issues again. We always seem to have power issues. The battery maintainer (trickle charger) he bought didn’t have a long enough cord. I laid down sick, listening to a loud beep in the bedroom. I put socks around the sensor to muffle the alert sounds. It was the best I could do till he got home. I slept on and off (because of the beeping). Once he got home to fix the issue (temporarily) I slept a little longer. By 8ish I was ready to go for our usual evening swim and socializing.
Our Sunday here in Augusta is typical now. We wake up, surf the internet, pack up a little, go to the café for a breakfast sandwich, take a dip in the pool, finish packing up and shower. Naturally as we were packing the car up, it started raining pouring. To save some time, Jim stripped down, put on his swim suit and loaded the car in the rain. He also did our other “getting ready to leave stuff” like dump the holding tanks and such. The rain did delay us by about an hour though.
We did our typical grocery shopping. In the back to school section they had a Bissell PowerForce Compact vacuum for only $35. We chose pink! It’s for the RV. We have our older self propelled Hoover at the RV but it’s cumbersome, very heavy and too wide for some of the RV areas. Before we leave the RV I vacuum and mop. The ground all around the RV is pretty much dirt/sand so the carpet and floor is always filthy.
We gave the vacuum a test drive when we got home and it’s powerful. This makes me happy. One thing I hate about bagless is that it may lose suction over time. We’ll see.
We went to our RV about two weeks ago and the engine battery was dead. Last week, the house batteries were dead as well. The heat around here just kills batteries if they are not used regularly. I was wondering if I could jump them with my car and you answered that question.
ReplyDeleteWe have two house batteries so when jumping those we have to have 1 terminal on one batt and one on the other I think.
DeleteAre you leaving the RV plugged in? What kind of converter do you have? When is the last time you checked the water in the batts? You may have cooked them depending on your converter, or the converter may not be charging at all...
ReplyDeleteDeep Cycles don't last all that long, especially if they aren't maintained (water levels watched).
John