Our First Weeks in the Motor Home

We had planned to stay close by until we finished up with all routine medical visits and ordering things for the RV and just for us getting used to it. We scheduled two weeks here at Outdoor Living and then we soon felt that was too rushed and we extended a week and our new goal was to be on the road by the 14th. The park is a Class A only park and is beautifully landscaped and has ponds, a golf course, tennis courts and several pools. It's overkill for our needs, but it is close by to storage and shopping.

We have what is called a narrow king bed, so it takes special sheets. We bought a set at the RV store at La Mesa RV. They fit really tight, but they work. Our first challenge was using the washer to wash them before making the bed. It would not start. It seems to not sense that the door is locked and won’t run until it detects it. Plus, it seems that doing things in a particular order is important otherwise it won’t start. Even though no water was in the machine, it goes into a drain mode to unlock (the unlocked) door and you have to start over. OK, that took many tries to finally luck into it starting the load. Greg had to press the door closed until it finally locked. At least the dryer is aggravation free. If the washer continues to be an issue we will have to get it fixed. *update: we have a service tech coming Monday. We get it to work, but the door seems not to line up correctly so we have to pull up really hard on the door until it locks and then it will start. **update: The tech came out and it's not a simple fix. He said it needs a new circuit board which he ordered. He can't fix it in the coach, so we had to make an appointment at La Mesa RV's service department. They uninstall the washer and then the tech goes on site there to make the repairs and then La Mesa reinstalls it. The earliest they could get us in is the 15th. So, needless to say we need to extend our stay here another day or two or up to a week. 

One of the first things we realized was that the comforter set that came with the RV had to go. It was huge and heavy….there was nowhere to put it to sleep at night as it was just too heavy to sleep with on the bed. I swear it weighed 50 lbs. Plus, there were a ton of matching pillows that also had nowhere to go at night. It looked lovely all made up, but just too hard to live with in such a small space. Plus, there isn't a lot of room beside the bed to tuck it down between the wall and the bed and it was a knuckle breaker. We now have it in storage as it will look great for selling the RV when that time comes.

There's plenty of room on the sides except at the head of the bed where the wood is.

We looked high and low and decided to do a light quilt like we had in Panama. It can be washed and is thin enough to use as a cover and tuck down the small space on either side of the bed and wall. It’s called Coastal Living from Bed Bath & Beyond. Aqua with seahorses, turtles and starfish pattern. We needed towels and found aqua & white ones with seashells on them.

We then went in search of “things” we need for the RV. Space is a premium so finding collapsible and stacking things is vital. While we will often use paper/plastic silverware & dishes, a real set of each will be needed eventually. I ordered a set of Corelle and got a set of silverware. Sine we gave away most everything in Panama before moving back we needed quite a lot of normal things. Bought a set of knives, new cooking utensils that are safe to use in the new cookware, cleaning supplies and more.

Here is the cookware I bought to use on the induction range:

 all of this stacks to store to look like the photo below

Magma stock photo

I ordered plate holders that should hold the dishes in place as we are going down the road, 2 wall dispensers for the shower for shampoos & soap and a pop up paper towel holder for under the cabinet by the sink. It has the advantage of being able to pop it off to carry the roll of towels anywhere like outside. I ordered an ottoman that has storage to double as a foot rest and a place to stash my computer, throw etc. 

Our heads are swimming with terms like black tank, grey tank, Air Force One, Septic safe TP, Flying J and what to do with them. Greg successfully emptied the black tank yesterday. Tomorrow, we plan to do a practice “ready to roll” drill. Bring in the slides and make sure everything is disconnected and stowed properly and drive away and come back and set up. The stands need to come down and the unit self-levels which is nice. Then, get everything hooked back up to water, sewer and electric. Slides back out. I’m sure all of this will come second nature after a while, but right now it’s a lot of steps to keep straight. We want to be well practiced before we hit the road for real. 

Simple things like watching TV and surfing the net needed to be figured out. Our plan was to use our phones as hot spots to surf the net, but that wasn’t working. I had a mini melt down over that. After doing lots of research on how to get internet that wasn’t worse than it was on the cruise ship, we were ready to buy a signal booster (which we may still get), but before going on the cruise we set up a simple phone plan and it only was 3G and a simple upgrade to 4G solved our problem. We still need to get set up with Dish or similar for better TV, but we already watch quite a bit through my computer anyway. (as we did in Panama) **update: OK, we just found out that the unlimited internet package we had wasn’t unlimited. We were allowed only so much if using our phones as a hot spot. So…..after much research to figure out how to make this work, we went in and talked to AT&T before buying any new “equipment”. Greg had about an hour long “chat” with their help desk and got nowhere, so we went to a local branch and within 10 minutes, the guy there got us set up with a truly unlimited internet package that is for those of us that need Hot Spots. We’ll see how that goes. I watch a lot of TV via the internet and project it onto our real TV, so I was burning through the “not really unlimited minutes” quickly. Phew!

At one point we both were so overwhelmed with things that Greg asked if I thought we rushed into this? We knew there would be a learning curve, but this seemed way harder than getting settled in Panama. I don’t think we could have been more prepared, it just takes jumping in with both feet and figuring out how to make everything work. We will get there!

We ordered the stuff needed for Dish TV and Greg will install it on the roof (there is a dome up there it goes into) so we can have TV and DVR capabilities. **Update: so far it does not detect a satellite. We aren't sure if it's the space we are in or it's not hooked up correctly. It's been raining pretty hard everyday with lots of thunder storms, so we haven't been able to really deal with it.  

On the doctor front, sure enough, I went back to the doctor and she ordered more bloodwork. There was no reason not to order it all at the same time. It wasn’t my fault I went in for a physical and she didn’t have time. I asked the nurse if it’s a “Dr. Vidal thing or a Martin Health thing” that they won’t write the scripts the way insurance wants them (and every other doctor we have ever seen) forcing us to come back 2 or 3 times  year instead of just once. (as long as we are healthy, of course we would see a doctor if we become ill). The nurse said it seems all the docs at Martin Health do it that way. Greg liked his doctor, but I really don’t gel with the one I saw. I’ve never had such a brusque and confrontational doctor. Even the nurse said that it was important to really gel with your family doctor and I should probably keep looking for a different one. First, I need to work out my Celebrex (for my feet) as Express Scripts denied it and the doctor just prescribed something else. It's a "step up medication" that requires you to try other things first and if those don't work, then it goes to review and they will cover it. I have already done that quite a few years ago and shouldn't have to go through it again. I did try the other medication and the side effects were severe and had to stop it immediately. So, I called Express Scripts and they agreed I shouldn't have to go through it again. So, I called the doctor's office and the doc rewrote the script and called the special number to start the override. Hopefully, we can get this worked out soon.

We have tested everything in the RV now. Successfully used the microwave and the convection oven, the induction cooktop, the central vacuum and the dishwasher. Greg exercised the generator for the 2 hours they prefer it to be done every month or so. We've bought tons of plastic storage tubs in various sizes to fit in various cabinets and for the basement so things don't roll around while on the road.

We have our storage unit pretty well organized now, but before we do hit the road we need to go through clothing to take us for different climates and we should be done.

At some point we need to get to the having fun part of owning an RV. After the washing machine gets repaired.... It's a new RV, but even new things can not work "right out of the box". Hopefully, my next post will actually be from "on the road".