The second weekend away in Chateau Sugaree, our new RV.  We were able to capture a spot at our former home away from home – the Delaware Water Gap / Pocono Mountain KOA Holiday. True to form it was a wet weekend.  This has been the case just about all summer.

Wet and Wild Ride

Being as we have not secured a “permanent” camping home for Sugaree yet we have been picking her up on Friday afternoon and returning to the storage lot Sunday afternoon.  Not that bad, but would love to have a place to go to without the setup and breakdown.  This will come in time.

The ride up to East Stroudsburg was a wet and wild ride.  Rachel and pugs meet the RV along the PA turnpike and we caravaned up to the KOA.  Traffic was heavy but moving.  To our West, we could see grey clouds headed our way.  As we traveled up route 33 they got closer and darker.  We just past the exit for Wind Gap when the rain started.  The winds picked up and the rain came down hard.  To say it came down in sheets would have been an understatement.  You could not see the front of your vehicle, let alone any cars in front of you.

Small branches from trees along the side of the highway broke off and were blown across the road surface.  The shoulder of the road is narrow and not a good place for a car to pull over, let alone the RV.  Along with the rest of the traffic, we slowed down to about 5 MPH and stayed in the right-hand lane.  Before long, the rains eased and we made to our destination with minor periods of lite rain.

Setting up in the rain

It is not fun.  That is all I can say.

As we could not get proper alignment of the site we ended up being a little too much to one side of the site.  This did not prevent us from hooking up to shore power or the water outlet.  We were a little tight to a couple of trees and could not access the sewer connection.  The slide had enough room to extend fully, the AC was kicking out cold air, dinner was on the table, and life is good.  Tomorrow, weather permitting, we would move the rig to sit in a better position within our campsite.

What to do on a rainy weekend?

As this was our second trip in Chateau Sugaree, we were still in move-in mode.  While most things were brought into the rig on our maiden voyage, there were new things to organize and find a proper home.  While this did not take too long, it had to be done.

After a long week and a stressful drive in the rainstorm, we spent the rest of the evening relaxing, talking and spending time with the grumble.  As we could not sit out by a campfire, we decided to call it an early night.  It didn’t take long for the pitter-patter of the rain on the roof to allow us to fall fast asleep.

Saturday morning came and fortunately, the rain was taking a break.  This allowed us to get the dogs out for a morning potty run before breakfast.  After the dogs ate, bowls and kitchen counter cleaned it was time for coffee and tea.  Yes, we got all this done without our morning coffee and tea – and everyone survived.  It didn’t take long for the grey clouds to move back in and the rain to start up again.

By this point, the humans were getting hungry.  So we made eggs, toast, and turkey sausage.  After cleaning up from our breakfast it was time to do the prep work for chili.  That was going to be our dinner Saturday night.  We heard great things about the Instant Pot, so we bought one last summer and love having it in the RV.  We browned the meat and drained off the excess grease. Then cut up the vegetables – did I tell you how nice it is to have a little extra counter top space?  Put the Instant Pot into slow cooker mode and dumped everything in, and put the cover on.  It was not long before the RV was filled with the wonderful smells of the chili cooking. YUM!

Saturday night the rain had let up enough that we could get a fire going and enjoy the night air.

Entertainment system

The original owners did not replace the old tube style TV.  They did, however, install a surround sound system in the living room and a small flat screen TV in the bedroom.  The TV antenna, cable feed, etc are housed in a cabinet over the front dash with the TV in front of and over the co-pilot’s seat.  The wires in the cabinet next to the TV was a jungle.  So I spent a little time trying to trace some the cables and just generally organizing the mess.  This is the first step in getting upgrading the entertainment system.

Lesson Learned

Get out of the RV and walk the site prior to trying to back into, especially at twilight or after sunset.  The mirrors and backup camera do not give you all of the information you need.

In the end

In the end, we had a great weekend.  Learned a lot about our new to us RV and get some time to relax and just enjoy time with each other.