Our Fourth of July Weekend

So, I will start out by saying that one this particular weekend that none of us were hurt. We took our new-old RV out for a camping trip and we come back unscathed....at least physically. Some of us were hurting emotionally by the end, (probably only me) but we survived and I am living to tell you that none of us were hit when:

1.We hit a deer within an hour of beginning our drive

Because we traveling in such a huge beast, the death wishing deer only left us with a few small exterior cracks and some blood on our RV. Dave was hoping a souvenir antler would be stuck in the grill...but no such luck.

2. We were stalled on the side of a mountain no less than three times.

Parked for a While

George

Viewing Mount Rushmore While the RV was Stalled

Lunch 

Happy and Sweating

Evelyn and Saige with "Her Fishing Hat"

So, the first time the RV stalled, it was uncomfortable. It was hot outside and the overheated engine took about 2 hours to cool off. But, we were safe and very near a Mount Rushmore viewing site. After the RV was rolled out of traffic, and parked on the side of the road, the girls and I went and got some pictures of George Washington and then we had lunch in the RV. When the dang thing still wouldn't start, we tried to make the best of our delay and hiked around the side of the mountain we were parked by. Thankfully the RV started again, and we were headed to our previously decided on fishing destination.

After Hiking

Celebrating When the RV Started

Happy Dance/Over Celebration

That is until the RV stalled again. This time it was much scarier. We were on the side of a mountain in Custer State Park. A very narrow, steep mountain with a lot of traffic. Jesus was with us. I was ready for him to come back.

We found out later, that we shouldn't even have gone the way we did when we went to Sylvan lake. We had gone on the recommendation of a person who worked at the campground. They said this way was the best for our RV and that it had no small tunnels like if we took Needles highway. They were wrong. It was a horrible way to go, it was scary to climb tiny mountain roads in the beast and there was mountain chiseled out tunnel that we barely passed through. When we got back to the campground, we told them that we took a different much safer in our RV way back. They said it was  couple minutes shorter to go the way they recommended....um...no.

The last stall of the day was at the parking lot of Sylvan lake. Praise the Lord we had reached our destination! (Several hours late, but still!) Dave had the task of getting the RV into a spot while the girls and I got out and walked around to stretch our legs. We couldn't just leave the RV in the middle of the steep parking lot (no matter how we were tempted to.) Once Dave got the RV parked, the girls and I headed back to help him unload fishing gear. Only one more hiccup though. It started sprinkling. That was fine though. I could see the other side of the cloud. It would be over soon, and fish usually bite well when it's sprinkling. Except the sprinkling turned into thunder and lightening. And then hail. So, we ate pistachios and waited out the storm in our RV. When the storm passed, we hopped out of the RV, grabbed our gear and got to start fishing around 4:00 that day. The heat of the day had been whisked away with storm, but we grabbed our jackets, poles and tackle box and headed to the lake.

Waiting to Fish at Sylvan Lake

Cuties

Hail From the RV Window

Playing in the Pea-sized Hail

3. We went fishing and caught zero fish

Fishing was not all the girls, Dave and I hoped it would be. We didn't catch anything for several hours. The people next to us were catching trout, so we changed it up. We were using what the guy in Cabela's recommended: spin bait. But they were using live worms with bobbers. So we used live worms with bobbers. Then they were catching fish on pieces of marshmallow. So we ran to the RV and tried using pieces of marshmallow. None of us reeled in a single fish.

4. The A/C didn't work while driving

The funny thing about RVs is that they have different systems for different times. The plug it in A/C doesn't work the same as the propane A/C which doesn't work when we are driving A/C. Does any of this stuff make sense to me? No. I just want a cool (in temperature) and cute (in appearance) RV.

5. It took us 10 hours to drive back home on the Fourth of July. It should only take 4.5 hours.

We had to miss a small group function because of this. Dave, Julia, Lydia, Saige and I are all extroverts. And we were very saddened by this.

6. A tire blew while we were driving

So the tires were in good condition, but they were old. When Dave hit the deer, he probably ran over something like a piece of bone that weakened the tire. It was a back tire, the one closest to the interior of our RV. So, when it blew, we all heard and saw some pieces of our RV wall go flying. That was scary for all of us except Evelyn.

We waited 45 minutes for the repair man to come switch out our blown tire for our spare tire. Then, we waited in some tall grass while he jacked our RV up and repaired it. It was a hot day, and with all the warmth, the waiting and grass itching my daughters legs and feet, I was surrounded by a bunch of whiners! Even my dog whined. Evelyn slept in her car seat and Dave was helping the tire guy. But everyone else whined.

This is the Countryside Where Our Tire was Fixed

We have already spent a very pretty penny having all 7 tires (this includes the spare) on the RV replaced. It's still at the tire shop now.

The overheating engine and tire blowing was what slowed us down.  Thankfully we know now why the engine was overheating. We get to fix that next.

7. The driver's side mirror fell off

This was probably partly because of the deer. (Dave saw his antler fly by his window after he hit it) and partly because the screws on the mirror of our 1988 RV were already stripped. Either way...it really stunk.

You can't switch lanes safely in an RV with out a side mirror. I had to be Dave's eyes every time he switched lanes. This means I had to run to the back of the RV and check for oncoming traffic. But like I said above, no one was hurt. Not physically.

We have already purchased a replacement mirror at a salvaged RV shop in Rapid City. We just get to get that thing put on before we go out in the beast again. (We should have asked the shop if they'd buy the RV from us too.)

8. We got mouse poop all over our RV carpet.

When Dave was fixing the engine the first time, her pulled off part of the inside of the RV to get to the engine. (This is normal RV procedure.) When he did so, he found out that there was once a family or two of mice that lived in that engine place. So, the nest fell out and spread mouse droppings all over our RV carpet. The shabby blue carpet will be ripped out as early as possible.

9. We got pulled over for our tail lights being out.

Add it to the list of repairs. No ticket. Just a warning.

10, The latch that held our microwave in place kept flying open and threatening to drop a microwave on our heads.

Dave fixed this issue one of the times were stalled out.

***

Is there anything else not fun that happened on our two and half day weekend. I think so. Can I mentally handle writing about it right now? No.

On the way home, I was ready to throw in the towel and cut our losses. I wanted to put a for sale sign in the RV's window and cancel our future DC trip. But, Dave is convinced that all of the RV issues can be fixed. And that this sort of thing won't happen again. So, I guess my coral, turquoise and gray color scheme with a Happy Campers decal put on the back spare tire cover will still be done. But, not today. I think I'll put it off til I've forgiven the RV and can look it in the eyes again. Maybe I'll start back at it in a few days.

I know what you are thinking...that's what you get for buying such an old RV. Well, yes and no. A lot of these things were just freak occurrences. We had several RV specialists, an electrician, a mechanic and friends look at our RV and tell us we made a wise purchase. We also prayed about and over the beast a lot. For some reason, we were meant to experience adversity with this stinkin' thing. And God will be glorified in it all. We got back to our North Dakota home just in time to run out and see our town's fireworks. Which. were. amazing. And for this year, they were best part of our Fourth of July.

Thanks for reading this post. It's a long story that I will enjoy reading someday. And by the way there were happy moments...like when we saw my sis and her family for a minute and ate lunch with them on Saturday. And s'mores.  I hope your Fourth was supremely blessed. Ours was because we were together as a family.

Finger-lickin', Plate-lickin' Good

Dave teaching the Girls to Toast the Mallows

Yum!

Thanks so much, Amber