Warning - Long post ahead.
I have always been of the opinion that the worst day of camping was better than the best day of work. I think I put that to the test over the weekend....
It started off badly. I was trying to leave work early on Friday for a short weekend trip to the closest state park. Work conspired against me though and instead of leaving early, I actually left late.
Grabbed stuff in a hurry at home and headed off to pick up the trailer. Got stuck in a monster traffic jam. A trip that should have taken 45 minutes ended up taking a little under 2 hours.
Hooked up in the dark and the rain and pulled out to head to the state park. Very NEARLY hit the gate post on the way out of the drive. Stopped just in the nick of time. Backed up and tried again. Got out onto the road without any more issues (at least that I knew of).
Arrived at the park. Found a site, set up camp in the sprinkling rain and had dinner. After dinner, I noticed that the water heater had failed to light. It hasn't ever done that. I cycled the switch. Still nothing. I could hear it click a few times outside but nothing. I turned it off and left it for about 30 minutes. Turned the switch back on and it lit fine. No clue what kept it from working earlier.
About 2:30 AM, I woke up and heard water dripping somewhere. I listened for a minute then got up to investigate. We had been running the heat pump as the temps were in the low 50's. I had the fan on low instead of auto. It wasn't raining any more, so it wasn't a roof leak. I guess the high humidity caused the heat pump to have some condensation that didn't make it to the drain outside. Not sure exactly what the deal was. I just shut the heat pump off, switched to furnace and went back to bed.
Saturday morning, we ate breakfast and planned out the errands we needed to run. After that, we took a short walk around the campground. As we came back to the trailer, I saw something just below the glass in the rear window. It kind of looked like bird poop but I couldn't figure out how it had gotten there. I walked up to it and brushed it off with my hand. It was kind of powdery like mold or something. Because I was so focused on that, I didn't even notice the DENTS just below that.
There are now two dents on the curbside lower corner of my trailer. They are about 8" - 10" in diameter. Roughly circular and about 3/4" - 1" deep. There is mild scratching in the clear coat.
I honestly don't know if someone hit the trailer with something while we weren't in it or if I backed into something and never knew it.
My mental state went quickly from confused to angry and then to just feeling like I took a punch in the gut.
After looking at it a bit and realizing there really wasn't anything I could do, we went ahead and started running our errands.
First stop - fuel. My Truck is Diesel. I have heard many stories of people accidently putting gasoline in their diesel and I never could see how that could happen. Now I know. Distracted / angry driver pulls up to a pump. Sees a green handle and starts fueling. I was very lucky to have caught my mistake quickly. I had pumped less than a gallon in when I saw what I was doing. I moved to the actual diesel pump and started fueling again. After about 5 gallons, I saw that it was low sulfur diesel, not the ultra low sulfur that I needed. I don't really know how much of a problem that would be, but I just about lost my temper at that point. I pulled the door handle so hard getting into the truck that it stuck in the unlatched position and I couldn't close the door. I fixed that - no permanent damage - and we went to another station to finish filling up with the correct fuel.
We finished our errands with no further issues.
Sunday morning though didn't go as smooth. I lit the pilot light on the oven. It is making a fairly loud noise when lit. In August, we were on a trip and the pilot light quit working. No amount of effort would make it light. I had that repaired and they reported "adjusting" it. It worked fine for a couple of uses at least. Now it sounds like a distant jet taking off. It looks like the flame is higher than normal. We used the oven then turned it off. The water heater Friday night and then the oven pilot light make me think there is something going on with the LP system, but I don't know what. The other LP appliances seem to be working fine.
We hitched up and headed back to park the trailer where we keep it stored. When I went to un-hitch, the power jack refused to work. 30 minutes earlier, it worked fine. Now, it makes noise but doesn't move. A little bit of troubleshooting revealed a reduction gear that was stripped. How that happened is beyond me. The limit switchs are working. Nothing unusual happened during the hitching up process. With the troubleshooting on the jack and having to figure out how to use the manual crank, it took nearly an hour to get away and head home.
A day later and I still feel sick about the whole thing. A few little things. A couple of big things. All added together though........
I got the ball rolling this morning for the insurance claim. I plan on taking it back to A/S for the repair. I don't know of anyone in the DFW area that I would want doing that kind of metal work. I called H&H about the jack. They are sending parts under warranty so I can get it going hopefully. The LP problems remain a mystery. I need to spend some time on that and work through the issue. The truck seems none the worse for wear for the fueling mishaps at this point but I'm keeping my fingers crossed anyway.
I am sure I banked enough problems on this trip to keep the next few worry free
Wayne
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