Getting ready to move out

[aadler]

I got the same RV tech who helped us diagnose our motorhome’s failure to start (solution: battery replacement) to come in and fix a minor water leak that had kept us depending on our fresh water tanks and water pump, so now we’re able to use city water — i.e., a hose running from a water faucet to the motorhome — for most stuff. Likewise, I went by and topped up our propane, so now we can do rangetop cooking again. (Which we could have done already, but we’d reduced the propane levels so much, while relying on propane for heating during the coldest weather, that I was cautious about the possibility of running out.) We likewise swung by an engine repair shop and had our onboard generator removed for servicing; they can’t get to it till next week, but having it already in their shop means they can start on it as soon as other jobs clear, and we don’t have to leave the entire motorhome and live in a motel meanwhile.

The water leak repair was so we could do the normal living-in-a-hookup-slot; the propane top-off and generator repair are for the opposite purpose, to enable us to stay overnight or even a few days in a non-hookup area via what the RV community calls ‘boondocking’, operating off your own resources. We intend to start traveling again at the very end of August; current plan calls for a brief stop in Missouri — a day or two — then two or three days moving up to Minnesota, probably for a few weeks’ stay. After that, back south to Mississippi, as the north is better during summer and the south during the colder months.

We stayed in place a lot longer than originally desired, a mixture of Susan’s agreeing to fill in at her old job for a couple of months, then her needing to stay put while she underwent certain individual therapies, then the overseas trip (Spain and then China). Now we’re ready to get back into U.S. touring, and it only remains to be seen where that will take us.