Rain, Rain Go Away

What a stormy and rainy Spring we have had this year which has made it difficult to get out and do much or to get any work done on the RV. Yes ,we needed to get work done on the Fifth Wheel again this Spring. When we arrived back at Shady Acres Campground where we left the Fifth Wheel for the winter, we discovered signs of rodent infestation again.

The rig looks good and it is hard to believe we have so many issues inside

After the mess last Spring, Tim had done a good bit of work to close up any potential access points with spray foam insulation and steel wool. We emptied all of the cupboards, drawers and closets of anything they could use for nests. We also left a ton of Grandpa Gus Rodent repellant bags throughout the RV. I guess we were lucky in that there wasn’t any signs of them in the cupboards or drawers, but they left us a mess in the kitchen, bathroom, living room floor and in the bedroom closet. So once again, we had to spend a good bit of time thoroughly cleaning and disinfecting the RV.

After cleaning inside, we started testing all of the appliances and electronic switches and discovered a much worse problem than last year. The electronic thermostat would not work, so we couldn’t operate the air conditioners or furnace. Also, the Fantastic Fan in the kitchen would not work and neither would the electronic awning.

If that wasn’t enough, we also found that the leveling jacks were not working, so we could not relevel the trailer. That was the first problem we tackled and luckily it seemed that the control panel for it was bad. We got a new panel which fixed the issue. After leveling the RV, Tim started trying to trace the problem with the wiring. It seemed that there was power to the AC units, but the communication between them and the thermostat appeared bad.

Unfortunately, the rain really delayed the work, because we needed to be on the roof for much of the troubleshooting and repairs. It seems that mother nature didn’t want us to get to this work. It rained and stormed almost everyday and some of the storms were quite nasty. At least we didn’t get tornados or high winds like some other areas have gotten.

Tim needed help from someone familiar with wiring and able to climb on to the roof. Neither of us is good at getting on this roof any more, so we needed someone willing to climb up there. My brother John, the campground owner Doug and our niece’s boyfriend Dan have been a big help. They were only available on weekends so the work has been very slow going. The guys traced the lines and got a little closer to solving the problems but they would fix one and then find more problems. Last weekend, with a new controller in the main AC and a new thermostat, they got power to the thermostat and could get the ACs to both turn on but only when plugged directly into each AC. We can’t run new lines until we know how they need to be configured so we decided we had gone as far as we could.

Since we have reached the end of our and our helpers’ available knowledge, we decided it was time to give up and send the Fifth Wheel to Amish Family RV in Indiana for the repair. It will cost us a bit for transportation and the repair, but we feel they are the experts on this rig and it will get repaired the right way.

In between the work and the rain, we did manage to find a little time to have some fun. When we first returned to Pennsylvania this Spring, we stopped in Gettysburg over the Easter weekend and then spent about 10 days in Hershey, PA. Both are places that we enjoy visiting both for things to do in the area as well as visit family and friends. In Gettysburg, we spent 2 days touring the battlefield and the visitor’s center which contains some nice movies about the battle as well as an interesting museum.

Trent enjoying the sunset at our campground in gettysburg

In Hershey, we were able to visit my cousins Jacque and Sandy and Jacque’s husband Tim and got to see them a couple of times. I also got to visit my Aunt Dot in the nursing home. Even though she didn’t remember me, I enjoyed the visit and am glad I was able to see her.

We also visited our favorite restaurant in that area, the Quentin Tavern. Our friend Haskell came up to join us one day for lunch. We also met Dave and Robin there for dinner one evening. Dave is a college friend of Tim’s and they always enjoy getting together and reminiscing their glory days!

Memorial Day weekend was very cold and wet but I still enjoyed a girls weekend at the campground. My sister Brenda, sister in law Carol, niece Sarah, her mother in law Mary, and my new great nephew Ryker managed to have some fun, taste some wines and enjoy good food over the long weekend. On Friday, we decided to tour around the Ohio wine country near Lake Erie. There are also many covered bridges in that area so we decided to explore both the covered bridge trail and wineries. I think we visited 5 covered bridges and 4 wineries as well as stopped at a park on Conneaut on Lake to check out Lake Erie. Saturday and Sunday brought visits to a few more wineries and a meadery.

This one was huge and unusual with the metal bridge at the one end. See how high and rough the river is - due to the rain and wind. It was a cold windy, rainy day for sure.

lake erie had some high swells that were hard to capture in the pictures.

Hopefully once the Fifth Wheel is moved, Tim and I can get out and visit more of this area. I think he would enjoy some of the places that I visited with the girls. While I was enjoying the girls weekend, Tim enjoyed family time in Pittsburgh. His sister Sue came up from Florida for a surprise visit and he picked her up at the airport to take her to surprise their Mom, Aunt, and sisters. Everyone had a very enjoyable holiday weekend.

Well I didn’t get this published last week, so I thought I would add to it.. After all the rain, summer started and we went right into a Heat Wave! Ugh, it has been so challenging to get work done but we finally succeeded getting the rig cleaned out, organized and ready for travel. It was picked up yesterday and delivered to Amish Family RV for repair.

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