I received an email from my mother last night, which said: "why do you have a blog if you're not going to update it?"
She's right, of course. But the truth is....this trip has been so far quite lacking in drama.
Now in fairness, I am currently staying in a sweet condo, which has running water, electricity, internet, several televisions, several bedrooms....you get the gist. Oh...I hadn't mentioned that I'd be cheating and staying in a condo? Well it's true. I bartered 3 nights for myself in a condo in Williamsburg, Virginia, as a salve to my sanity. So the long and the short of it is that I've only actually spent one night in the camper so far. But, for my loyal fans (I think just myself and my mother), I will recount the experience of that one night.
4:52 p.m., Friday, April 3.
We finally, after 8 long hours driving through the drearier parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania, arrive at the Friendly Village Campground. As my good friend Brion likes to quote from their website: "it's where lasting friendships begin." Not really sure I'm ready to make lasting friendships with the RV crowd, but whatever. We pull in to the registration office, and I hop out to announce our arrival. Doors closed. Doors locked. Lights out. Ohhhhh Kkkkkkk....nobody here. I return to the RV. "It's all locked up," I announce to Marco. He sighs, and gets out of the RV. We head back to the registration building. We walk around the building. We read all the signs. Then, after several minutes of hunting, we see a "Night Registration" box, with some little golf pencils and forms next to it. "I guess we can fill this out" I say. "But how do we know which site is ours?" Marco counters. Good point. Maybe it's in my email confirmation. Back to the RV. Get the phone. Search for the confirmation. Now it's been about 20 minutes, we're tired, rain is threatening, things are not looking good. Doom and gloom. When all of a sudden.....there it is!! I look up, see a map and a note thumbtacked to their bulletin board: CUCCO FAMILY. Boom! Saved.
We grab it, hop back into the RV, open up the map, and start following the purple highlighter to our RV site. On the way, we pass a large shed full of firewood. A large sign says that "FIREWOOD IS AVAILABLE FOR SALE AT MAIN OFFICE." Marco screeches The Beast to a halt. "We need firewood," he says. "You can't take that wood," I say. "You have to buy it at the office." (I'm always the well-behaved one) "The office is closed," he replies. "Come help me put some of this in the car."
Holy hell. NOW he's reducing me to thievery!! We hop down and I half-heartedly grab a small chunk of wood. "More," Marco says. Shit. I'm going to be in trouble I'm going to be in trouble I'm going to be in trouble. When Marco's done making me steal wood, we climb back in and head to our site.
It's the beginning of April in Pennsylvania, so the campground is nearly empty. An RV sits kitty corner from us, campfire already blazing. 2 sites down, an older couper in another camper are walking their golden retrievers (which elicits cries of dismay from my children, who are upset that we left our dog at home). We park, and I notice with some delight that we are RIGHT NEXT TO THE BATHROOMS. Now some people might think that's gross, but I'm thinking of having to walk out to it half-dressed in the middle of the night. My heart lifts a centimeter or two.
Now we've never actually set up an RV before, and we have to hook it up to the electric and level the thing. There are 2 electrical boxes next to us, each with several outlets. "I don't think this is 50 amp" Marco says. "They're ALL 50 amp," I counter. (Don't we sound professional?? I don't even know what 50 amp means.) He shrugs, drags the enormous orange hook up cord out of the back of the RV, and plugs it in. "Niccolo! Plug in your phone! Does it work???" we yell. (insert Jeopardy music)...
....
....
"Yes!" we hear back.
Success!
I'm so happy. And here's why. I don't know the first thing about electricity. I'm no electrician. I don't know my voltage from my wattage. I can barely screw in a lightbulb. So imagine my dismay when early Friday morning when we were taking off, I discovered we had no electricity working in the RV (apart from the vehicle dashboard). In my mind--what the heck? Isn't the point of driving this big camper somewhere so that you can have all of the conveniences in the back while you're driving? Apparently not. Unless you are plugged in, there isn't enough power in the back to run anything other than some of the lights. So you have to plug inverters into the dash, and run extension cords to the back so that people back there can plug in.
Now in 2000, when my dear Beast was built, this was probably not much of a problem. But now, even my 75-year-old mother-in-law has her ipad, and they all want to run their devices non-stop.
So it was a bit painful for 8 hours making sure everyone had enough juice not to die of boredom on the road.
So now we have power!! Yay.
I can see that this is going to get long-winded, and I need to sign off for the moment...the natives are stirring around here, so I will post more later, and you can hear all about how we made fire.
She's right, of course. But the truth is....this trip has been so far quite lacking in drama.
Now in fairness, I am currently staying in a sweet condo, which has running water, electricity, internet, several televisions, several bedrooms....you get the gist. Oh...I hadn't mentioned that I'd be cheating and staying in a condo? Well it's true. I bartered 3 nights for myself in a condo in Williamsburg, Virginia, as a salve to my sanity. So the long and the short of it is that I've only actually spent one night in the camper so far. But, for my loyal fans (I think just myself and my mother), I will recount the experience of that one night.
4:52 p.m., Friday, April 3.
We finally, after 8 long hours driving through the drearier parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania, arrive at the Friendly Village Campground. As my good friend Brion likes to quote from their website: "it's where lasting friendships begin." Not really sure I'm ready to make lasting friendships with the RV crowd, but whatever. We pull in to the registration office, and I hop out to announce our arrival. Doors closed. Doors locked. Lights out. Ohhhhh Kkkkkkk....nobody here. I return to the RV. "It's all locked up," I announce to Marco. He sighs, and gets out of the RV. We head back to the registration building. We walk around the building. We read all the signs. Then, after several minutes of hunting, we see a "Night Registration" box, with some little golf pencils and forms next to it. "I guess we can fill this out" I say. "But how do we know which site is ours?" Marco counters. Good point. Maybe it's in my email confirmation. Back to the RV. Get the phone. Search for the confirmation. Now it's been about 20 minutes, we're tired, rain is threatening, things are not looking good. Doom and gloom. When all of a sudden.....there it is!! I look up, see a map and a note thumbtacked to their bulletin board: CUCCO FAMILY. Boom! Saved.
We grab it, hop back into the RV, open up the map, and start following the purple highlighter to our RV site. On the way, we pass a large shed full of firewood. A large sign says that "FIREWOOD IS AVAILABLE FOR SALE AT MAIN OFFICE." Marco screeches The Beast to a halt. "We need firewood," he says. "You can't take that wood," I say. "You have to buy it at the office." (I'm always the well-behaved one) "The office is closed," he replies. "Come help me put some of this in the car."
Holy hell. NOW he's reducing me to thievery!! We hop down and I half-heartedly grab a small chunk of wood. "More," Marco says. Shit. I'm going to be in trouble I'm going to be in trouble I'm going to be in trouble. When Marco's done making me steal wood, we climb back in and head to our site.
It's the beginning of April in Pennsylvania, so the campground is nearly empty. An RV sits kitty corner from us, campfire already blazing. 2 sites down, an older couper in another camper are walking their golden retrievers (which elicits cries of dismay from my children, who are upset that we left our dog at home). We park, and I notice with some delight that we are RIGHT NEXT TO THE BATHROOMS. Now some people might think that's gross, but I'm thinking of having to walk out to it half-dressed in the middle of the night. My heart lifts a centimeter or two.
Now we've never actually set up an RV before, and we have to hook it up to the electric and level the thing. There are 2 electrical boxes next to us, each with several outlets. "I don't think this is 50 amp" Marco says. "They're ALL 50 amp," I counter. (Don't we sound professional?? I don't even know what 50 amp means.) He shrugs, drags the enormous orange hook up cord out of the back of the RV, and plugs it in. "Niccolo! Plug in your phone! Does it work???" we yell. (insert Jeopardy music)...
....
....
"Yes!" we hear back.
Success!
I'm so happy. And here's why. I don't know the first thing about electricity. I'm no electrician. I don't know my voltage from my wattage. I can barely screw in a lightbulb. So imagine my dismay when early Friday morning when we were taking off, I discovered we had no electricity working in the RV (apart from the vehicle dashboard). In my mind--what the heck? Isn't the point of driving this big camper somewhere so that you can have all of the conveniences in the back while you're driving? Apparently not. Unless you are plugged in, there isn't enough power in the back to run anything other than some of the lights. So you have to plug inverters into the dash, and run extension cords to the back so that people back there can plug in.
Now in 2000, when my dear Beast was built, this was probably not much of a problem. But now, even my 75-year-old mother-in-law has her ipad, and they all want to run their devices non-stop.
So it was a bit painful for 8 hours making sure everyone had enough juice not to die of boredom on the road.
So now we have power!! Yay.
I can see that this is going to get long-winded, and I need to sign off for the moment...the natives are stirring around here, so I will post more later, and you can hear all about how we made fire.
1 comment:
Ha ha ha to the stealing wood thing. As Marco said, the office was closed. You could always pay them later. I was wondering more how comfortable it was to sleep in the Beast. I'm glad things seem to be going well. Loved your photo with Abe.
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