Roughin' It

After lunch we began taking everything out of the motorhome’s storage bays (the “basement”) so that we could take stock of what we had and replace it in more of an organized fashion.  About midway through our task I did one of those, “Oh no, not again!” things.  I was bending down to reach into one of the bays and cracked my head on the edge of the overhead door.  I saw stars, just as I did a few days ago when I whacked my head on the rearview mirror when walking around the motorhome. I fell to my knees, held my head, and rocked back and forth while keening like a newly widowed Irish woman at her husband’s funeral.  Carol Ann got the icepack out once again and I held it to my head and sat down until I could see clearly again.  RV’ing is hazardous to your health!

We still haven’t finished the job and it looks like we are holding a garage sale at our campsite.  Too bad no one has asked to buy anything.  I guess I have to finish putting it all back in. 

Carol Ann also needed a little first aid yesterday.  She asked me what was on her neck.  It was a tick!  It must not have been there too long as it was not yet swollen with blood.  My first thought was to touch it with a cigarette until I remembered that neither of us smoked.  I suggested using a butane grill lighter but Carol Ann vetoed that.  Next idea was clear fingernail polish, which she had, but I decided to “Google” the proper tick removal process first.  It turns out that all of those old wives tales are wrong.  You need to do two things according to the CDC.  Remove the tick quickly and completely.  To do so, use a fine-tipped pair of tweezers, grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible (do not squeeze its body or it will “inject” infectious juices into the skin), and gradually pull with increasing force until the tick lets go.  If you pull too fast or too hard, the tick simply breaks apart and leaves potentially infectious pieces of the tick in the skin.  Once the tick is removed, apply triple-antibiotic ointment and observe the site for redness or rash over the next few days.  Some ticks carry Lyme’s Disease, which is difficult to cure and can leave one weak and feeling unwell for month’s.

Aside from the ticks, head knocks, and leaking sewers, camping out in an RV Park can be a very pleasant experience.  There are people here from tents to half-million dollar motorhomes and there is no “zoning”.  Anyone may take any vacant site he wishes.  Some people may be really roughing it by sleeping on the ground in a tent, cooking over an open fire, and trotting back and forth to the “wash house” in the middle of the night while their next door neighbor is in their 45-foot motorhome with 3 air-conditioning units, sitting in their leather recliners watching satellite TV on a 65-inch flat screen after having just completed a nice steak dinner with a complimentary red wine from the wine refrigerator.  After their TV shows are over they will take a nice hot shower before crawling into their king-size bed.  We are somewhere between those 2 extremes.  I wouldn’t say we were “roughing it”, however.  Our motorhome didn’t cost half a million dollars and is not 45-feet long.  Nor does it have a 65-inch flat screen with satellite, or a king-size bed.  However, it does have two recliners, a 54-inch flat screen (but no satellite), and a queen-size bed (not king).  Oh, and only 2 air-conditioning units.

Speaking of TV.  It seems like many RV’ers these days really “want their MTV!” so they have satellite TV in their RVs.  Some of them have permanently-mounted dishes on the RV’s roof, but most have the kind that are set up on a tripod on the ground.  These can be moved around a lot easier than the motorhome in order to find a hole in the trees for the signal.  Many of these portable dishes will have very long cables to make it easier to find a good place for it.  This RV park is very wooded, making it difficult for people to find a good place to setup their dishes.   A good spot will usually play host to a number of dishes, the owners of which may be parked 50 yards away at the other end of the cable.

In addition to comfortable RVs and satellite TV, there are more golf carts here than you would find at many golf courses.  A lot of people who look like they could really use some exercise, use golf carts to get from point A to point B in the park.  Now, we don’t have a golf cart.  We just take the car.  It is air-conditioned and more comfortable.