It is ready
Talked to the mechanic on Wednesday afternoon. Great news!!! The RV is done and ready to be picked up. This meant that it was time for the Home d’Pug grumble to be on the road again.
We picked up our 1989 Tiffen Allegro from the mechanic this past Thursday morning. The RV went back to her winter home at the storage lot not too far from our home. Later Thursday evening we started to load all of the stuff we had taken out as part of winterization. The early (not too early) part of Friday morning finishing packing and by late morning we were on our way to setup our summer home.
On our way
The ride went well. It was apparent that work that was done to the suspension and new tires improved the ride. We also were not trailing much in the way of noxious fumes from the exhaust. These are all good things.
Mid-afternoon, we pull into the Delaware Water Gap / Pocono Mountain KOA, check in and go to our site for the season. It did not take long to back the rig into the site and get it level. Happily, the site was fairly level to start. Plugged into the power pedestal and wouldn’t you know it, we were operational. By this point, we were both starving as it had been several hours since breakfast.
The start of the adventure
The pugs settled in the RV, blankets on the floor, dog toys out, and a bowl of fresh water. As we did not bring much in the way of food stuff with ourselves so we went to a local restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner. Afterward, we returned to the rig and finished setting up and unpacking. This is where the first issue showed itself.
At the end of last season, we decided to upgrade our water filter system. After some research, we settled on the Watts 520022 RV/Boat Duo Exterior Water Filter system (more on this later). Connected a short 4-foot hose from the water bib to the one end of the filter, no problem. Connected our longer, fifty-foot hose to the filter only to find out that the hose has a leak right at the connection point.
This was the only long hose we had we had to improvise a short-term solution. Out came the duct tape. While it slowed down the leak, it did not stop it completely. It is too early in the year to start playing around and trying to fix the hose. So we elected to replaced it with a shorter, ten-foot hose that covered the required distance and did not leave a large coil of excess hose on the ground.
New water filter system
Back to the water filter. Like may (most?) first-time RV’ers we did a little research on water filters and purchased the common Camco single stage filter. The smell and taste of the water was still not “right”, so we used bottled water last summer for drinking, cooking, water bowls, etc. The Watts 520022 is a dual stage filtration system. The smell of the water is greatly improved. The water system is in the process of being sanitized so we cannot talk about the taste, yet. Early opinion is that it was a worthwhile upgrade.
Time to relax
The balance of Friday night relaxing and spending time with the pugs. Saturday morning made breakfast and decided that it was time to tackle the next big step in our RV life. That was to get the hot water heater fired up. Last summer we did not have hot water within the RV as the relief valve had to be replaced. We have been staying in campgrounds with showers so this was not a major inconvenience. It was on my list of things to get repaired/replaced before this season started. However, our mechanic lets us down. While he took care of all the other issues we identified, this one was missed. So we will have to have it replaced here at the campground. Not a major problem, but what a letdown.
Being in the Pocono mountains the campsite was visited by some of the local wildlife. Our neighbor is kind enough to leave out corn for the deer and wild turkeys. As city folk is a site to wake up in the morning and see deer in and around your campsite. Ollie, the only male in our grumble, was not too happy about this situation. He ran from window to window to try and get a look at them.
The rest of the weekend spending time around the fire and enjoying a little R&R. Rosie, Ming, Casey Jones, Ollie, and Sugaree all seemed to be very happy outside soaking up the sunshine and fresh air.
So happy to back in the RV!!!
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