This was originally posted on another blog of mine (Simplicity — Small & Cheap). I consolidated all blogs to simplify my life. – Jen 6/19/09
Don’t stray from a god-breeze. We were getting the original camper ready for the journey at my dad’s house the Monday before Christmas. He had me hold off since he was still checking to make sure things worked. After testing things, a part on the water system broke. Bones, Lil’ Bit & I drove out to Onaway to get it from the RV dealer. For grins & chuckles, we asked what they had on the lot. They had an older, but excellent condition 1986 camper for $2000. A big one, bigger than Bones wanted, but not huge, maybe 21 feet? It’s a pure guess.
We consulted with my dad who had no opinion and bought it. WRONG. THING. TO. DO. It was a nightmare. We called to tell them we’d take it and they made arrangements to have electric trailer brakes installed the next afternoon and we’d fill out the paperwork and pick it up.
It ended up being a huge P.I.T.A. We had left Lil’ Bit with my dad & his wife and were just going to drop off the van. The woman said she thought it would take them less than an hour so we figured we’d stick around instead of going back. One hour turned into 2-1/2! Luckily, Lil’ Bit hasn’t been nursing that much during the day so she was fine.
We went back to get the trailer and we couldn’t even get it onto the van. They had shoveled it out but there was 4 inches of packed snow under the van so we had to call my dad to come out. He brought a jack and 2 hours later got the camper attached only to find that the running lights wouldn’t work and it was pitch black.
The next day, they got it working and home and it was REALLY riding low. And it was sleeting and slippery but we made it.
On Friday, Bones decided he’d really feel better if we bought a leveler to even out the trailer before we left. He spend all day looking for, purchasing, and assembling that. I was so busy trying to get ready that I don’t think I even took pictures of all the junk we had to throw in before we left because I was trying to pack with Lil’ Bit underfoot. I got the most done when Bones’ parents stopped by to help.
We got done packing by 9:30pm and went to bed by 11. We were even up and out by 8am. Just over the Indiana line we smelled this stench. It was terrible. We stopped at this auto place right by the exit we got off on to investigate (thank god for iphones with internet and GPS capabilities).
They were terribly rude. Well one guy was. Was all about not being able to do anything until Monday (duh, we saw the sign when we walked in). Even offered to give us a phone book to take it somewhere else!!!
Now we’re not sure what we’re going to do. We don’t think the van can haul the camper as is for sure and we don’t think that beefing up the van will fix it either, plus the trailer brakes keep shorting out. So we are trying to figure out how to proceed.
To sum up, don’t stray from a God-breeze. When God tells you to use dad’s camper, just use dad’s camper. When you stray from his plan it takes 100x longer.
~J