Saturday morning of Memorial day weekend found me, before sunrise, at the RV storage lot. I picked up the Aliner and headed to the condo to load up. One disadvantage to condo living is that that association frowns on RVs being parked on condo property. Because of this we have limited window of time to pull in and pull out. We had all of our supplies preloaded in plastic totes, so the loading did not take long. We had a few onetime setup items like cutting the memory foam topper for the bed and figuring out which fitted sheets would work best. Normally this would have taken us about an hour but as luck would have it, Jan woke up that morning with a head cold and was running at about 30% efficiency. We took the attitude that if someone complained about the camper being parked, we would tell them to send us a letter. We took our time, making sure everything was checked off the list and by noon we were on the road.
A quick stop at Wal-mart for supplies and lunch at MacDonalds had us on the road and headed off to adventure. We got to the state park at about 3:30 and after checking in with the ranger, headed to our campsite. I will be the first to admit that I still suck at backing in a trailer. ( I get a little better each time, I think) I managed to back into the campsite with a minimum of laughter from the neighbors in the packed , holiday weekend, campground. Once in a reasonable position, I Put the camper up in about a minute, put the stabilizers down and unhooked from the "HEEP". No problems....this is going so well. I should learn never to say that. I go and plug in the shore power cord and immediately the breaker blows. I try again, same thing. Shutting off all breakers in the camper and breaker pops again. (I might add that it was about 95° and humid as hell so we really wanted to get the AC running.)
Luckily I always carry a volt ohm meter with me and I tore into the trailer to find out where the short circuit was. I isolated each branch of the power legs going in and out and found that the direct short was in the converter main power bus. What I found amazes me! There was bare wire running from the bus that was tucked into the back of the converter with no termination, no place to connect to and no insulation. I removed the wire, everything in the camper works and no more blown breaker. I do not know how the dealer demonstrated the trailer to us when we picked it up, as everything was working fine then. That wire may have been tucked in there since the camper was made. We may never know.
Electrical problem solved, it was time to party and a killer batch of margaritas was made and consumed. Wife claimed the tequila made her cold feel a lot better....I bet it did, plus all that good vitamin C. Keeping in the Mexican theme, dinner was Yucatan style tacos con carne asada. Way yummy plus rice and beans.
To be honest with you. The first night in our new camper, Jan and I did not sleep together. Jan was so congested with her cold that she made up the extra bed and we slept in different beds together. She was so worried that I would catch her cold and that she would keep me up all night. The roominess of the Aliner is nice that we had that option.
I found out quickly that our 5000 BTU air conditioner could turn the inside of the Aliner into a "meat locker". Jan had taken the down comforter over to her bed and I was stuck with a sheet. I must have adjusted the AC a half dozen times before I dialed in an comfortable temperature.
Sleeping was a quantum leap from the tent that we are used to camping in. A queen size bed with a two inch memory foam topper, was way better than an air mattress on the nylon floor of a tent. Just getting up is easier. I can't believe we waited this long to take this step.
Sunday was relaxing. Nice breakfast, hiking in the centuries old hammocks of central florida and just lounging around. I read two books in the two days were were there.
To add just a little more excitement to our trip, mother nature decided to send us the outskirts of tropical storm Beryl. If we had been tenting it might have been a problem but with the Aliner, we just hunkered down inside, enjoyed an adult beverage and let the weather blow. It sure beats a tent. I shot this picture at night between the rain storms.
The Storms lasted until about 7am. It was so nice laying in bed and listening to the rain on the roof of the camper and being cozy and dry inside.
Breaking camp and the drive home were uneventful but we were sorry to see the weekend be over so soon. We can't wait to head out on our three week trip in the middle of June. Stay tuned for our adventures from the road.
By the way.......I caught Jan's cold and was sick the rest of the week. It must have been that cozy afternoon, snuggling in the "Love Shack".
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