Camper Week

     Hi, it's me Danny! It has been a crazy week! We got our camper, and it has been non-stop since then. I guess I will start this off, as there is a lot to cover.

     Well as many of you know we bought a camper sight unseen. Our truck finally came back from the shop, so this week we drove the four hours down to go pick it up. We ended up staying with Amelia's mom since she lives only a half hour away from where it is.

     We got up early Monday morning to go to the tax office to get the tag and registration for the camper. It went surprisingly smooth, so fast that Amelia wanted to go back and sleep before we actually went to pick it up, but we both knew it was going to be a long day. We drove with her mother to Ormond Beach to the house where the camper was at.

     When we arrived the lady whom we had bought it from was not home, so we waited for about fifteen minutes for her to arrive, we could see our new home in her back yard, but we could not yet access it. When she finally came home she let us into her yard to begin getting it road ready, and her chihuahuas were less than enthused about our presence there.

     The trailer looked pretty good for a nearly twenty year old machine that had been sitting for two years. The only issues we found at first were a few broken odds and ends with the cabinets and doors, a non functioning AC unit and fridge, and a busted front window. There was also a piece of plywood screwed down right by the front door, but we shall elaborate on that later.

      The guy who had been living in it was an obvious smoker, as there were burns on everything! I can only imagine alcohol or something else must have played a roll in it, because I can't imagine somebody dropping so many cigarettes otherwise, as there were burns on: the carpet; the couch cushions; the tables; the bathroom floor; ac vents; you name it. I honestly can't even imagine somebody just throwing their lit butts wherever when they were done with them doing more damage than this. On top of all this he had apparently not been dumping or flushing out his black water tank, simply draining it bit by bit into an old gas can and I assume pouring it somewhere. This, and his waste water must have simply been emptying into this poor woman's yard, as when we went to first check it the valve was already open.

     So we spent several hours getting it ready, taking it off the jacks, emptying it out, when I go to hook it up to my truck and realize something is amiss. The brake connector for the trailer lights was a seven pin round connection, but the connector coming from my truck was only four. I called a local RV store to ask about this dilemma, and they told me I would have to rewire my truck, and that they would have to get a service technician to call me back with an estimate. Being a DIY kind of guy I started researching it on my phone and realized I could get the parts to do this myself at a local auto parts shop, and within an hour we had the part, had eaten burritos, and I was underneath my truck installing it.

     As I was in the process of putting the part in myself I finally get a call back from the RV store for an estimate, and the guy on the phone tells me it could be anywhere from 175-500 dollars. I tell him that is a lot of money, and ask if it is something I could possibly do myself. He says probably not, and I tell him "Well, in the time it took you to get back to me I did it myself for thirty bucks and had time to eat a burrito, eat my shit" and hung up. By the way that shop was http://www.giantrecreationworld.com/ Of Ormond Beach, just so we're on record for saying they are scum.

     Anyway with all that finally done we were able to hook up our new home and ride off into the sunset. We told the lady about our blog, and I hope she gets a chance to read it and enjoys being part of our story. Also I hope she knows she sold us a camper with water damage, but that is for our next post, which I will let Amelia tell you more about.