Home again

Nov. 1—All good things have to end, and our vacation did yesterday afternoon. All that is left of it is a pile of dirty clothes to wash and put away, as well as the memories and pictures we took and the blogs I posted.

Every trip we take (OK, this was officially only our third), it gets easier. But we still continue to learn things.

For instance:

• Unplug the garage door opener. Our neighbor came over as we were unpacking. He told us the day after we left, we found our garage door open. He knew we had not left it open (it had been closed just a few minutes earlier). He went into the garage, pushed the button to close the door, and ran out. Since nothing was disturbed, the only thing we can figure out is that somebody else has a door opener on the same frequency as ours.

• Create a to-do list. We had put together a list of things to make sure we take with us (such as our pillows), but we had not created a to-do list for closing up the house. I have begun one now. This trip we forgot to turn off the water to the washer and the electricity to the hot water heater. Those things will be on the list, as well as things such as plug in lamp timers, adjust sprinkler settings, stop mail and paper (all of which I did, incidentally).

• Buy some extras. We weren’t going to buy a second set of dishware, pots and pans, etc. because, as Jim put it, “We’re going to go full-time…why have duplicates?” Well, it’s a pain to remember what to bring and what to leave at home. It’s much more convenient to have two of some things. We already bought a small mixer and a new coffee grinder. Now we have to add a couple more knives, a potato peeler, jar opener, and other similar items. Much easier.

• Pack an extra set of towels and sheets. We have a washer/dryer, but it’s only convenient to use them when we are in an RV camp with full hookups. I intend to put an extra set of linens away, since we find that dry camping while traveling isn’t too bad and saves money.

• Camp at state parks. They are quiet and usually offer a discount to us old geezers. That’s the good part. The downside of staying in state parks is that cell phone/internet reception may be nil, and the sites do not usually have full hookups, meaning we can’t use our washer.

There are probably other “learnings” but that is all I can think of right now.

Our trip was fairly uneventful, but Baby did have a couple malfunctions. The third night we stopped to camp, we were unable to put down the jacks. A couple nights we slept at a slight angle. The other problem was our slide-out. Our 13-year-old Baby has a bit of arthritis, it seems. The rollers on the slide, apparently covered in rubber, are crumbling and when we put the slide in and out, Baby groans quite a bit. The last two nights we went without the extra room. Jim will be investigating how to fix both the brakes and the slide before our next big trip.

Back to normal now.

Until next time,

Your Reluctant RoVer,

Linda