Chillin' in the RV

After we arrived at our campsite last Sunday afternoon, Tango and I took some time to just chill out. This was before the storm Monday morning that knocked power out to over 800,000 people. And knocked out our internet for the better part of the week. This was, in fact, relaxing before the storm.
-Fran

Teddy - novice camper

We stole a great idea from our friend Brutus's blog and decided to take you all along as Teddy explored the campgrounds!

Just when he was sitting pretty to show off the sign and landscape, a big, friendly German Shepherd walked by and Teddy had to get up to say "Hello!" very, very loudly. We don't think the neighborhood really appreciated his greeting - it was about 7:30 a.m. on Sunday.

We were charmed by the care and creativity the seasonal and permanent residents show in their landscaping. Ted had to make sure the animals weren't real.


Especially the frogs. There is a weird affinity between French Bulldogs (Frog-dogs) and frogs.

Maybe it's because they wear the same expression.....

Teddy really wanted to check out the lake. Or maybe it was the fisherman's bait bucket.

Still haven't gone RVing

Last fall I wrote about our grand adventure - buying an RV, going to get it, and driving it back home. And someone recently asked for an update on our RV adventures. To make a very long story into a video - our RV was the star of our entry in an aspirin company's "Biggest Headache" contest. Unfortunately, we weren't chosen as finalists, but I want to share the video anyway. The wonderful work of our amazing friends Amy (whose voice you hear on the video) and Gary (who edited it for us) should be seen.

And we still haven't been anywhere. After getting the RV back from the shop - we discovered another leak. It's back in the shop. Apparently it's only allowed home for short visits. - Hope

Spring Fever

We've got it bad. It was almost 60 degrees yesterday! No record but it sure felt good. The snow in the back yard is almost gone. There are still hills where the biggest drifts were, and I almost took a header last night on the ice. (Tango found a stick. I was chasing him. It was fun.) Hopefully it'll be gone before the snow they're predicting for Monday.

To divert ourselves, Hope and I started measuring the Land Cookie's storage areas - cabinets, drawers, etc. We also started making lists of all the stuff we're going to need. We're planning on going to the RV Show in Rosemont this weekend. I'm sure we'll see lots more stuff we'll need! Many area campgrounds have booths, so we'll see which one looks like the best candidate for our first camping foray.
-Fran

RV adventure - Part VI

Monday morning, bright and early, (ok, early, chilly and wet) I started on the last leg of the journey - the Land Cookie was going home!
And, of course, it was the only time in the whole trek I got lost. I have a pretty good sense of direction - once I've been somewhere, I can generally get there again. This time, for whatever lunatic reason, I decided to follow the signs instead of just going back the way I'd come. Mistake. I've never encountered it before, but apparently in Ohio you have to go east to go west. Silly me, I thought going northwest on one road would eventually get me to the west-bound road I needed. So I lost about 45 minutes, lost in the driving rain.
The rest of the road trip was actually kind of nice. The weather eventually cleared, I had sunny skies by the time I hit Indiana. There were no mountains, so the Land Cookie was actually able to keep the speed limit. I'm not usually quite as law-abiding, especially on my home turf, but the circumstances were unusual. I was driving a vehicle close to the size of a semi-truck, for the first time, without any license plates. Ironically, New Hampshire won't give temporary license plates to non-residents, and Illinois won't give temporary license plates without a title. Nice little Catch-22, wasn't it? I'm still rather amazed that over three days and seven states, I wasn't stopped for not having plates. I wouldn't recommend it, it made me a bit paranoid, but as a one-time thing - I'm still glad it's over. The Land Cookie is legal now - I visiting the Dept. of Motor Vehicles the day after I got home.
When I planned the trip back, I thought it would be a good idea, when I got close to home, to take the toll road that circles Chicago rather than take the Land Cookie straight through the heart of downtown. By the time I got close I was too darn tired to add the 25 minutes to my trip. The Land Cookie and I braved the Dan Ryan, the Kennedy, and the Edens Expressways at about 3 p.m. on a Monday afternoon. Heart of the city in the middle of rush hour.
I'm glad I did. Now I'm not afraid to drive that behemoth anywhere. Cause you want to know a secret? It was fun! - Hope

RV adventure - Part V

Finally, I've got a few minutes with nothing more urgent to do - I can take up the story of bringing the Land Cookie home. When we left our heroine (me!), I had just arrived at the American Wilderness Campground in Grafton, Ohio - too late to check in for the night. I now know that many RVers find a friendly WalMart and just park for the night, but I was new to the whole thing and kind of dreaded being without water or power for the night. I was flummoxed for a few moments, until I saw a man drive in and head for the house on the property. I explained my dilemma and he told me "just find a place and set up. Don't worry about it!"

So I did.

As I was hooking up the electric and water, my new next-door neighbor came home. Another Jason! Apparently he lives there most of the year and was very helpful. While we were chatting, a golf cart came whizzing by - with more nice people aboard. We were passing the time of day when one of the ladies asked "Are you Hope?" Turns out she was the campground manager and signed me in on the spot. No need to check in at the office - no need to worry about anything. I was legal and everything!

The best part of the whole trip was next. I called my friend Michelle, of Brutus the Frenchie fame, who lives in the area. Truth be told - I chose this campground because it was in Michelle's neighborhood - kinda. We'd planned for her to come by and see me and the new RV. She asked what she could bring - I told her "anything alcoholic." It'd been a stressful couple of days.

And, wonderful as it was to see Michelle again, it was over the top terrific that she brought Brutus and Carmen, her French Bulldogs, along. We walked around the campground for a while, then settled in for a three-hour visit.

You'd've thought we'd known each other forever. We'd just met the previous month at the French Bulldog National Specialty show. You know how you form an instant connection to some people? Michelle was one of those. It's kind of great knowing someone you just met is going to be a friend for life.

RV Adventures

This morning we took our new RV in for actual RV service - get the generator working, the heat working, and a myriad of other stuff that needs to get done in order for it to be really livable and fun for us. We knew we'd have to leave the Cookie for several days, so Hope drove the RV and I drove my car, so that we could both get home. The RV place is about 45 minutes from our house, and of course I got lost when I was almost there. I don't think we've mentioned that I can get lost in the Florida Keys, where there is one road. Anyway, I realized that I took a wrong turn pretty quickly, but Hope called my cell when I was headed back in the right direction. Despite the fact that she left after I did, and had to drive somewhat slower, she was at the service place first and called me. Story of my life. Lost... - Fran

Rv adventure - Part IV

I had a lovely rest of the evening, talking with my neighbors, then settling in with a good book and a Diet Coke, snug in my new RV at the Cheerful Valley Campground. It was getting just a wee bit chilly, so I decided to turn on the furnace. It immediately turned on - a good thing. Blowing cold air. Not so good.
During this trip I had with me only the things I could carry on the plane. No extra anything. Including blankets. It was a bit of a chilly night.
Next morning was gorgeous. I woke up early and decided to tackle the infamous black tank dumping that everyone dreads from the scene in the Robin Williams movie RV - Runaway Vacation.
The first thing I did was get out my sewer hose and hooked it up to the RV. No problem. Stretched it out (it's built like an enormous flexible straw) toward the hole in the ground it's supposed to attach to. And could not, if my life had depended on it, get out the plug from the hole in the ground. I tried. I tried really, really hard. No luck.
So I walked up to the campground office to get some help. I'm never reluctant to ask for help from experts. It saves lots of time and energy. But the office didn't open until 9 a.m. It was 7:30 or so.
I took a walk, took the pictures in the previous post. Sat and read. And waited. Finally, about 8:45, I went back to the office and was delighted it was open early. I explained the problem and the "strict dad" from the night before met me at the campsite.
I'm delighted to say - I didn't get it wrong. Some idjit drove over the plug and jammed it in. It took tools to get it out. And the actual dumping part? Easy! No muss, no fuss, no bother. I can see how it might go horribly wrong, but it didn't!
Cleaned up, emptied out, ready to go! I set out on the next stage of my trip, with a stop that night at another campground west of Cleveland, Ohio.
On the drive that day I learned that the RV is water-tight (it poured in parts of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio), it likes flat country much better than mountains, and that I can, in fact, drive it and park it at a mall. There was a nice-sized mall at my interstate exit in Ohio and I really wanted to pick up some blankets for that night. If you're willing to walk - there's usually plenty of parking on the outskirts of most malls. While my parking job wasn't the neatest - it worked.
So on Sunday night I arrived 10 minutes too late to check in at the American Wilderness Family Campground in Grafton, Ohio. And if all, or even most, campgrounds are as nice as the two I've visited so far - I'm hooked.

RV Adventure - Part III

I spent the first night of my adventure at the Cheerful Valley Campground in the Finger Lakes region of New York. I'm sure it's an absolutely gorgeous area - unfortunately, I arrived well after dark and was unable to marvel at its beauty.
I was lucky that the incredibly nice couple who manager (own?) Cheerful Valley was still in the office. I checked in and the nice lady assigned a space to me, and explained how to get there: "Go around the Class A - you can't miss it it's 40 feet long, swing around over by the bathrooms and it's over on the left. Just back in there."
This is about the place where an absolutely panicked look must have overtaken me. I explained that I wasn't used to navigating the RV at all, had never been to an RV campground before, had never backed it up, and wouldn't recognize the hookups I was supposed to park near.
They took pity on me. "Carl will guide you down and show you how. But he's a tough dad - he won't do it for you!"
I loved that.
Carl got into his golf cart - apparently a very common feature at RV parks, and guided me down to my camping site. He was wonderful, patient, and a very good teacher. I was in place in no time.
And then I discovered a very cool thing about RV campgrounds - they're like little neighborhoods I'm used to, but in absolutely gorgeous settings and most of the people will talk to you, help you and be nice to you.
Jason and Cathy had the site next to mine. Carl was teaching me how to make the water and electrical hookups (not rocket science, but not intuitive, either) and Jason came over to chat, introduce himself, and help. We all decided I would tackle the sewer hookup in the morning - when we could actually see what we were doing. Good idea.
Jason and Cathy had a fire going (all camp sites so far have their own little fire pits!) and after I was all set (lights on, water on, motor off) we chatted for a bit. They actually live within a few miles of the campground - it's a frequent weekend getaway for them. I could see why - the neighborhood is kinda nice.

The land cookie all snugged into her spot.
Nice neighborhood

And the scenery was okay, too!

RV adventure - Part II

So when last we heard, our heroine (me) was sitting at the top of a New Hampshire mountain at a storage facility with her brand-new 13-year-old ginormous RV, less than a quarter of a tank of gas and a hand-drawn map showing how to get to the highway.
After a "here I go, wish me luck!" call to Fran, I set off. I quickly figured out that side-view mirrors are an RVer's best friends. If the mirrors fit, the whole vehicle fits. Another quick revelation - RVs are not good mountain climbers. In the New Hampshire mountains, for every down there's a very-closely-related up. I would like to apologize now to every single person who was out driving in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania on Saturday, September 25. Yes, that was me holding you up and forcing traffic to crawl at 25 mph. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
I also noticed the needle of the gas gauge going down - fast. I needed to find a gas station and I had no idea if I was anywhere close to hitting the interstate and its nice, wide-open service plazas. So when I saw a sign for fuel - I got off the little highway I was on and headed for the service station. Which was on the other side of a two-lane street and had minimal maneuvering room. And an awning.
I know all the hysterical scenarios being imagined here. None of them happened. I filled up (BTW - did you know most gas pumps cut you off when you hit $75?), back-and-forthed back into traffic and went on my merry way.
Remember my day started at home in my very own cozy little bed. Up at 4 a.m., off to O'Hare, flight to Boston, 2 hour drive to New Hampshire. Crash course in RVs.
So my merry way started after 1 p.m., Eastern time. I had a reservation at the Cheerful Valley Campground for that night. Cheerful Valley is in Phelps, New York, west of Syracuse. Which looked entirely do-able on MapQuest and in my TripTik. Both MapQuest and TripTiks expect you to be going somewhat close to the speed limit. Which I wasn't. I tried, but The Land Cookie just couldn't do it. And New York is a very wide state.
It was well after dark when I approached Cheerful Valley Campground. Which will be Part III.
-Hope

What's in a name?

So we interrupt the adventure for a small, related tangent. A few people are insisting we name the RV. We already have. It's the "Land Cookie."

Of course, there has to be a story attached to such an absurd name. And it's an "awwwww" kind thing, so a little bit embarassing. But we're all friends here, right?

When we were little, Fran, our Mom and I made up our very own fairy tale to help Saturday morning chores go faster. Our story featured our dog, Spunky, a Boston Terrier. We made him king of a tiny island in the middle of Lake Michigan. There was a whole lot more to it than that - years of spinning the yarn longer and longer. The upshot for our tangent is that King Spunky had a magical boat that could take him anywhere and back in an afternoon (adventures had to fit between school and supper). And his boat was the "Cookie."
Hence the "Land Cookie."
Hoping to live happily ever after.

-Hope

RV adventure - Part 1

Fran and I decided a while ago that we really needed a motor home. It's the perfect solution for spinster sisters with five dogs and high hopes of getting out of town - at least once in a while.

So we found the perfect one on, of all places, Ebay! And oddly enough - we won it.

The down side of the transaction - we're in the Chicago area and the RV was in New Hampshire. A week ago Saturday I flew into Boston, the seller picked me up at Logan airport, and took me to the RV. He gave me a quick introduction to the workings of the machine (no, I'd never driven one before), took his check, and took off. Leaving me alone at the top of a mountain with a mountainous vehicle.

It wasn't until a couple of days before I left that a few people mentioned that I was "intrepid" and "brave" for flying across the country to pick up an RV and drive it back. No one bothered to say anything before we bought it. Thanks, guys!

I'll let you in on the secret now. It was fun!