This has been a busy week, even if there's not much to show for it. I'm still learning how to select campgrounds. I moved here from Pats Bluff last week. At 190+ miles, it was a decent move, and the big Ford performed flawlessly. Slow, but flawlessly. I even pulled into a rest stop next to a guy with the same model of GMC that I had before this. He was cussing about it overheating. I understood his pain.
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| There's been a lot of rain, and I seem to come across a wreck every time it gets heavy. This was on 55. Despite all the Kings horses and all the Kings men, it looked like everybody was alright. There were scattered cars and suspension parts on the median. |
I chose my current campground based off of Google reviews. The reviews looked good, and the pictures showed a decent looking site. I called ahead, and asked about cell service, bath house, and availability. You'll note I didn't say anything about price.
The website said that the sites were $20-$30. I assumed that, like most campgrounds, the more expensive sites had fancier stuff like 50 amp service, pull-thru, water, and sewer. It's entirely my own fault for not verifying this before rolling in.
I came into the campground, and I pulled to the side of the road. I couldn't tell whether there was room to turn the rig around at the office without backing up, so I called. I was told which site to go to, and to come to the office after I was parked.
I rolled to my site, and disconnected the Mazda. I backed into the site to hook up power. I swapped the refrigerator in Shreveport, and I don't have it on an inverter yet. I move everything I can up to the freezer the night before a trip, and pitch everything left in the refrigerator before I leave. I unplug last, and plug back in first when I get to my destination. I purchased a 300w pure sine inverter last week, and will install it as soon as I can find all the appropriate connectors, fuses, and hardware.
Before I got the truck plugged in, I had dozens of fire ants climbing my legs. Apparently the vibration of the diesel on the concrete pad upset them. There was a nest right where my door opened, and I didn't notice. I didn't step on them, but they were still on the warpath. This would be the first of several good bites this week.
I stomped them off my shoes and walked to the office. I was informed that I would be paying $30/night for my stay. I asked whether there were any $20 sites, and was told they were all taken.
Well shit.
This will hopefully be a short term problem. This is my life now. As I bounce week to week, I have to pay higher fees because of it. Paying $30/night is like $900/month rent. It gets old fast.
After I finish fighting off fire ants, I set up the RV and level everything. It was time to check out what I was paying for. I walk around the campground and it looks decent enough. I find the $20 sites, and I was glad I didn't get put there. They are on a literal gravel parking lot spaced out about 10' apart. If you tripped coming out of your RV, you'd leave a nose print your neighbor's trailer.
The big gimmick of this place is that parts of the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? were filmed here. Particularly the frog scene at the river. Due to the recent rains, all that is under water now.
There's tent camping at the back of the park, and I noticed a truck camper back there. I longingly wished that I could have gone back there myself, but there's only 15a power, and I'm not sure how much my air conditioner pulls.
After I went to the river, I looked for the bath houses. It turns out, there's one bath house and a couple of the blue construction johns. I walked into the bath house, and was immediately disgusted. There was a sink ripped off the wall, the urinal was within sight of anybody walking by outside, there was one clogged toilet, the other one didn't have a door and was leaking bowl water out of the seal, the shower curtain was ripped in half, failed to close, and was covered in mold, and the shower looked like something out of a prison, and there are brown streaks on the wall that look suspiciously like retaliation for running out of TP. I would later find out that the shower doesn't even spray, but shoots a cold stream. It warms up enough to stand under after you're just about done.
All this for the low price of 30/night. Perhaps George Clooney's ass touched that toilet a decade ago. I mean, there's that, right? Maybe that's why they don't clean it.
I called about the clogged toilet after the first night. One usable toilet for 25 campers is kinda inexcusable. After I called, they came and unclogged it. As I was using it the second night ( LPT: Keep a couple Clorox wipes in a sandwich bag ready at campgrounds), I noticed that I was squishing stuff under my flip flops. They apparently didn't clean off the plunger after unclogging the toilet. I was pretty seriously grossed out with their cleaning etiquette.
I hate when people say this, but it is what it is. I feel ripped off and disgusted, but it's home for the week, and I'll make due. The staff is friendly, and the rest of the campground is nice enough. It's not worth getting upset about. It's a pleasant campground otherwise.
I kept seeing this down the side of the road as I left for work in the mornings.
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| Do you think I'm stupid enough to cross a highway bridge with no shoulder and only a butthole high guardrail, tiptoe down this log, and risk falling ass-over-teacup into swamp water without anybody knowing where I am, just to take a few pictures? |
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| Sure am. |
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| Don't you judge me. |
During my stay, I was looking out for other campgrounds, I found one 8 miles away at $22/night, looked really nice, much more wooded, with nicer facilities. I even gave those facilities a test drive while I was there. Anything to keep from using the one where I'm at.
As the week wore on, it sunk in that I really need to get my water and power set up on the truck camper, I've had 3 RV's, but I've never used the water system on any of them. The previous owner of my 35' motorhome put shelving in the shower. When I asked him about this, he said something that made a lot of sense to me. He said that if your boondocking, you can use the woods. If you're paying for a campground, you almost always have a bath house. I didn't need much convincing to not have to play with emptying a black tank or winterizing the water system.
I passed my OQ's and found that I'm heading toward Arkansas and Oklahoma as my area till the end of the year. I thought that I would be moving this weekend, but found out last minute that I would be here another week.
As I was preparing to move to the other site, I thought that I should give the current site's office a call. I asked about price and availability for another week. This is the first opportunity that I've had for a month to get a decent weekend. I figure that if I could get a stationary weekend, I could get some work done to the rig.
The lady in the office quickly repeated $30/night. This means that I would be paying more for two weeks, than the long term residents pay for a month. I respectfully explained that I couldn't (wouldn't) afford to keep doing this, and would be heading up the road. She became all apologies. I said that it wasn't and issue, and it's what the market will bear. The campground is full, so they can ask whatever they want.
A few minutes later, I got a call from the owner. She explained that I could move to the tent sites like the other truck camper for only $15/night, but there would only be 15a power outlets. I could also pull forward 100 feet to their pull-thru spot for $20/night, but there's no water or sewer there (which I don't use anyway). I told her that I would take a look at the sites, and we can sort it out the next day.
Now, this really pissed me off. All the sites she mentioned were here when I arrived, and sat empty during my entire stay. I would have felt ripped off normally, but I was pissed, considering the conditions of the bath house. Unfortunately with this job, it's not a good idea to burn bridges. I might need these folks down the road. Maybe they'll clean the bathroom by the next time I come through.
Honestly, I needed a stationary weekend just to catch up a bit. I was giving serious consideration to moving to the tent sites, and even tested the power usage of the air conditioner through my 15a extension cord. I had a pair of 100' 15a cords, but I gave one away before I left PA. I didn't realize till now, that I gave the better cord away. The cord I purchased and gave away was 12 gauge. The cord I kept is 14. Another 12 gauge cord will cost me $125+.
The air conditioner, refrigerator, and charger, only pull about 10 amps. This was lower than I thought, but was still enough to heat up the 14awg extension hord. It wasn't hot, but it was warm to the touch. I wasn't comfortable using this as my primary power source.
I opted to pull forward to the pull-thru site that sat empty 100' in front of me all week prior. At least I wouldn't have to worry about power. It also meant that I wouldn't have to hook the bikes to the truck to move them, and I wouldn't have to worry about being flooded out near the river. This ended up being a wise choice.
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| The river was on the other side of those trees when I got here. |
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| I stepped across this a week ago. I'm not Jesus. |
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| I told the owner that the water was at this guy's back wheels yesterday. He wasn't here, so one of the employees went to take a picture to text him. He apparently decided it wasn't worth moving last night. The truck was moved shortly after this picture in the morning. His power cord was under water. |
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| I was told by one of the other long term tenants, that the campground would flood within about 45 minutes if the water got across the road. |
There's only a couple feet of pipe that I couldn't see. There's a small area that I don't have access to, covered by a mismatched panel inside. My guess is that this used to be a cupboard door, and was replaced with paneling. I believe this area was used for the generator on higher end models of this camper. I'm intend to open it up later in the week and hopefully I'll find room for my fancy-pants battery charger and power inverters.
I built a pressure tester a year or so back, and finally put it to use. I heard that Lance tests their water systems at 100psi, so I tried to do the same. My little air compressor would only go to 90 psi. I lost pressure quickly until the pressure dropped under 50psi. 24 hours later, I still had 30 psi. I thought that this might be because of the check valve right at the city water inlet, so I opened the valve on the kitchen sink so be greeted by a satisfying whoosh of air.
I believe that the pressure loss is likely in the valves. I would be willing to fill the fresh water tank to test everything, but the fresh water tank drain was covered be a piece of plywood adhered to the bottom of the camper by a previous owner. I'll have to provide a drain (likely drilling through the plywood and the truck bed floor) before I put water in the system. I also need to purchase an anode (I bought the wrong one) for the water tank if I want hot water.
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| Nothing blew up. |
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| 24 hours later. |
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| There's your problem. I spent a good hour chasing pipes, closing various faucets and valves to get the system to hold pressure. Righty tighty, lefty loosy... sometimes. This is why we do it with air first. I forgot all about hooking the expansion tank up. It was sitting in the sink when I bought the camper. The fresh water drain at the bottom is blocked by plywood and construction adhesive. I'm not putting water in it, until I can get it back out. |
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| I hope I never have to fix a leak here. |
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| The water heater is in better shape than I thought. You can see the hole for the anode. I could just plug it, but I might as well do it right. |
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| Upper left is the low point drain. That's not rust, it's dirty caulking on fiberglass. The drain is half covered with caulking. |
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| Grey water tank and low point drain valve. It took me a few tries till I realized that this was open. |
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| Black water tank and sensors. The toilet sits right on top of this. Things are tight in a truck camper. The valving to the right is the hot water tank bypass. Hot water tank is to the left out of the picture. |
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| Definitely going to need some bleach before I drink anything out of this system. |
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| City water inlet with a check valve that was screwing with my readings. They make a special fitting that depresses this valve. It's fifty bucks, but I'll only have to buy it once. I have it in my Amazon shopping cart. |
I'll keep working on it. I needed this weekend, even if half of it was spent screwing off. I needed some time to screw off.
