Coming back from VA

After having exactly two trips with absolutely no trials and tribulations, it all came crashing down on me on my trip back home from Virginia.

I stayed at Karen's apartment on Saturday night. Being a new apartment that she is not exactly moved into yet, she has not had the heat on to warm up the place. Also, because she has not exactly moved in yet, she has no furniture. The building is like two duplexes side-by-side, one floor units, with what I am assuming is a concrete slab floor. Damn, was that floor cold and guess where I slept. I took all of the blankets out of the van and laid them on the floor. It was nice and cushy, but I got absolutely no sleep that night because I was so friggin' cold. I finally got up around 2:00, went out to the van and got my electric blanket. Because it is just a throw and not a true electric blanket, it doesn't give off that much heat. I think it took the rest of the night to warm up all the blankets and my cold body. So problem #1 -- I overslept due to lack of sleep.

Because Karen has this new, very empty apartment, and because just about everything I have in the van is duplicates of stuff I have at home, I gave her half of my blankets, some towels, some other odds and ends, and my pot and frying pan. When she was leery about taking the pot and pan, I told her not to worry, that I would be home the next day and I always had the microwave to cook with.

Problem #2 -- it rained all day. It POURED all day and everything in the van was damp. Because where I parked at Karen's apartment complex was not level enough for my refrigerator to run properly, I turned it off for the night. When I went to turn it on Sunday morning, it wouldn't start. I really thought I was out of propane because the gauge on the tank read just above E. It wasn't until Monday morning, when I tried starting the fridge again and it lit right up, that I realized the burner must have been wet or damp from all the rain on Sunday and that's why it wouldn't fire up.

Problem #3 -- where to stay the night. I couldn't "boondock" anywhere because I thought I was out of propane, which meant I had no furnace to keep warm. That meant that I needed to stay in a campground where I could plug in and get electricity for the ceramic heater. I was in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area. Campgrounds are far and few between and those that are open in December are even fewer. I drove Route 301 for three or four hours and did not see one propane filling station. I ended up staying at a campground I went to last January on my way down to Florida. I had to drive 20 miles out of my way, but at least it was a place I knew was open.

Problem #4 -- The campground. I pulled in just as night was falling. Visibility was rather bad. Most campgrounds have a few sites put aside for late arrivals. They had four sites available, two were back-in spots for small trailers, vans or tents and the other two were pull-through sites for big rigs. Because it was dark and because the map of the campground was all soggy and the directions to the sites were all smeared, I really couldn't read it well, so I picked a site that at least had electricity. I never even saw the site #112 marked on the map. AFTER I hooked up, I looked to see what site I was at -- # 88. So, being the highly conscientious person that I am with the massive guilt complex, I went in search for site #112. I found it with a big honker of a truck parked in it. I walked back up to the office to see what other sites were available. #111, #88 and #89 were. Since I was already set up in site #88, I decided to stay there and went back to the van.
As I am eating dinner, my massive guilt complex is growing inside me because my paperwork said site #112 and I was sitting in site #88 and some large fifth-wheel was driving around and around the campground looking for a site. I finally got the bright idea to run back to the office and trade my site #112 paperwork for the proper site #88 paperwork. Finally, I can now get a restful night's sleep without worrying about someone coming by and telling me I'd have to move.

Problem #5 -- The last time I took the van out, I had the generator running and I used the microwave to heat up something. It took about 10 tries before the microwave finally kicked in. I thought that maybe the generator just hadn't powered up enough electricity yet and that's why the microwave wasn't starting. On Sunday, I was in the campground plugged in to an electrical outlet and the microwave still wouldn't work. After pushing all the buttons 10,000 times, I finally found out that if I ran it for 12 seconds first, then I could run it for the minute or two needed to heat up my food. Before I figured that out, I was in a bit of a pickle because I realized I gave Karen my pot and frying pan so I had nothing to cook with. Besides, I still thought I was out of propane. So here I was camping with no microwave oven, no pots and pans, and no gas. Luckily, I did get the microwave working enough to heat up my dinner. I am sure the microwave is about ready to
kick the bucket  as the quick-cook buttons don't work, either -- just one more electronics gadget in my household to bite the dust. I so hate electronics.

Problem #6 -- the grand finale, which really happened within the first hour after I left Karen's place. That was receiving the call from my neighbor, Ronnie, telling me my furnace at home died and it was 27 degrees in my house. I spent an hour calling the heating repair guy, calling Ronnie back, calling Billy to see if he could rescue Olly, waiting for the heating repair guy to call me back, and finally speaking to Billy to let him know that Olly was OK and didn't need rescuing.

On Monday morning, I made scrambled eggs in the microwave -- which took four times longer to cook because the &^%# thing wouldn't start up. I also toasted english muffins on the stove grates. Lo and behold, I had enough gas to make toasted english muffins. If I had enough gas to do that, I thought I'd try the fridge. Sure enough, it started up on the second try. Like I said earlier, the burner and igniter must have been wet from all the rain.

Karen had e-mailed me to find out where I stayed for the night. When I told her of my lovely adventures for the day, I said, "I can't wait until I do this full time."