Mesa, AZ - DUH ! ! !

Gary is reviewing lots of old paperwork that he’s been saving over the last few years. We get RV’ing magazines with lots of articles about places to visit, things to do, RV maintenance, new products to buy, etc. We cut out many of the articles and he’s filed them for a long time. We’re taking the time in Mesa to go over lots of things and he’s been going over his filing. Mostly, he’s been scanning the articles, organizing his maintenance and new products articles into his computer and giving me the travel articles for me to keep and organize. Then he tosses the paperwork. He’s emptied out 2 plastic containers so far. Whoopee.

He gave me some notes I had taken when we took possession of our first RV. Now, remember, we had never had an RV, never been in one except for touring a few at the Iowa State Fair and now we actually owned one and were getting our ‘walk-through’ to tell us how everything worked. Those walk-throughs go so fast, the guy looks at one item and rattles off how it works, he looks at the TV, DVD player and speaker system and rattles off so more, I’m taking notes as fast as I can but I can’t keep up. Not only that but I don’t have a clue what he’s talking about since I’m a real newbie. Generator? Heat pump? huh? Here are some of my notes:

        ‘Start generator during waking hours, turn off when you go to sleep.’

        ‘TV antenna - crank antenna down before moving anywhere.’

        ‘bring awning in when moving.’

        ‘watch your fresh water tank when filling so you don’t overfill.’

DUH.

Wow, was I ever a neophyte.

However, I’ve got a better story about how little I knew about RV’s. On the same walk-through, the technician, Gary and I got to the bathroom and the tech looked at the toilet and said ‘well, that’s the toilet’ and then moved on to another topic. Uh - all I can see is a toilet bowl and some funny foot pedal near the floor. Hmmm. Wonder what that is for? I kinda figured it out but, my, I knew nothing about toilets in an RV.

Gary had his own ‘interesting’ first experience with toilets and the ‘pyramid of death’. One day on our first major trip I was sitting at the breakfast table doing a crossword and Gary, after spending a long time in the bathroom and then walking out, walked back into the RV with a long stick. He told me that I didn’t need to know what he needed the stick for. Yeah, right. I see a good story here. But, that’s all I’m saying now.

Suffice it to say - we’ve learned a lot in the 7 years that we’ve been RV’ing. Are we still learning? Sure. But, our daily total of new things we learn has gone down considerably, whew.

‘A train station is where the train stops. A bus station is where the bus stops. On my desk, I have a work station.’
                                                                Anonymous