The life of a rescued horse and other ramblings...
The camping trip from Hell...
I'm finally home from the camping trip from h***. This has absolutely nothing to do with Alex but I needed to vent somewhere. WARNING: Long story not made short! :D
Every year we go camping with my in-laws for a week. For the last 10 years we've been going to the same lake and over the years we've had some problems but nothing like this year. Our "vacation" started Saturday night when I was trying to level the RV and managed to blow a hydraulic line for one of the jacks. We were able to makeshift with some wood blocks and get it at least level enough to sleep in but by Sunday morning my fridge wasn't working and we suspected it was because the RV was still nowhere near level. To top it off, the generator that had been working fine in town decided it didn't want to run right either. Hubby made a quick run to town to pick up our leveling blocks (which we had forgotten) and to buy another set or two just in case. Wouldn't you know, our set is buried somewhere in the mess we call a garage and Wally World was sold out so he couldn't get more. He picked up a heavy duty set of ramps, grabbed some 2x6's and a large floor jack and came back up. Meanwhile, I'm sitting at camp watching our fridge warm up with several hundred dollars worth of groceries. He got back up there but was in a foul mood so I told him and a buddy to go ride the ATV's while a friend and I leveled the RV. It should have been a simple process and I'm the one who usually does it so I figured we'd have it done in no time. Wrong! After 1 1/2 hours of fighting with it we finally gave up and left it for the guys. When they got back, Henry took a look around, made some quick adjustments, and had us pretty level within about 10 minutes. Great, now my fridge will work! NOT! We tried the generator again but it was still coughing and sputtering and basically useless. In desperation I opened the outside panel for the fridge and got looking at it. I could see and hear where it was trying to ignite the pilot but it just wouldn't catch. So I had my son turn it off and hand me a stove lighter. We let it sit for a couple of minutes and then I had him turn it on while I used the lighter to light the pilot. When it caught, it really caught! It ignited with a whoosh and scared a few years off my life so I blew to try and blow out the flame. It didn't blow out but a whole bunch of debris (not hot) flew back in my face and gave me an aha moment. I had Cam turn off the fridge again, I blew more debris out, and told him to turn it back on. This time the igniter worked perfectly and the fridge ran like a champ. Whew, no groceries lost and now I can try to relax and enjoy my trip! Suuurrreee...
We got up Monday morning and out of habit I checked the fridge. Ugh! Sometime during the night it had shut off again and this time it wouldn't even attempt to ignite. I did some more inspecting and found that for some reason my batteries had gone completely dead during the night even though we couldn't find anything drawing on them. So dead that the generator wouldn't even start because the starter draws on the batteries. We used a jump start and got the generator to start and even though it was still sputtering we hoped it would at least charge the batteries a little. We left it running while Henry and I made another "quick" run to town. Our mission this time was to get a couple of new batteries, borrow a spare generator, and talk to the RV place to see if there was anything they could suggest to get our generator running properly. Our first stop was at the battery place. We told him what we wanted, paid for them, and went to pull the car around for him to load them when the salesman walks out and says "I forgot, we sold out of those yesterday and won't have more until tomorrow." I laughed and smiled on the outside (and screamed on the inside!) while he refunded to my CC and we went down the road to the only other place in town that supposedly sells the specific battery we needed. Nope, they've never even heard of them. After a phone call to my dad we found out that the place we're at does have one that will work so we finally got some batteries. We hustled out to the RV place to ask about the generator but they had no suggestions that were things we could do out in the woods so we headed up to get the other generator. After a quick stop to get ice and a big cooler just in case we headed back up to the RV. Word of warning, driving 50 miles in a Jeep with a gas generator is not a good idea. Even with all 4 windows down the smell was horrid! Once we got back to camp we found the RV generator had completely died so we got the spare running. We looked to put the new batteries in and discovered that the post configuration was different than the old ones and we weren't sure we could get them to work so we decided to leave the generator running to charge the old batteries. They showed a full charge by bedtime but by morning they were completely dead again so Henry had to figure out how to make the new ones fit. Fortunately, it ended up being a simple process and he had us back up and running soon. While changing them we discovered that one of our old batteries was no good and that was why we were having the power issues.
So finally 3 days into our 8 day trip we thought we were able to relax and enjoy the lake. Tuesday I went swimming for a little bit and managed to get sunburned pretty bad. I burn easily so it's not unusual and I just tried to stay out of the sun the rest of the day. Wednesday morning the burn felt better and it wasn't overly hot outside so I hopped on the ATV to go for a ride. I rode about 25 miles on back country roads and just had a great time. I finally made my way back to camp where Henry took one look at me and said "Whoa, you'd better go look in the mirror!". When I did I was shocked to see that my whole upper chest was covered with bright red blotches and bumps. I had somehow managed to get sun poisoning even though I hadn't really been in the sun! Plus the burn on the back of my neck had blistered like crazy! I spent the rest of the day in the RV and by that night I was feeling pretty lousy. I kept the areas coated with aloe and drank lots of water but basically didn't leave the RV much for the next couple of days.
By yesterday morning I was feeling better and the weather was perfect for a nice walk in the woods. My in-laws, husband, nephew, and I called the dogs and headed out for our favorite walk. It's an old logging trail onto a peninsula in the lake and is a lovely walk that takes us near a Bald Eagle nest and eventually out to an old cabin. We hadn't made it 1/4 mile down the trail when we heard a noise and realized there were people camping (in a no camping area) about 100' up around the corner. The next thing we knew we had 3 huge dogs coming at us. My in-laws dog took off for our camp, my husband pulled his dog behind him, and I grabbed my two Shelties to pick them up. I had just gotten them off the ground when the largest of the 3 reached us and grabbed one on my Shelties by the hind end. I was screaming, my dog was yelping, the people that owned the dogs were screaming, and my husband clubbed the dog with his walking stick. The dog let go and the owner grabbed him while I started frantically checking my dog to see if she was OK. I didn't see any blood but she has a lot of hair and I just wanted to get back to camp. My mother-in-law carried her, I picked up my male, and we started back. But by then I was furious so I turned around, marched back to their camp (I knew they were holding the dogs), and made it very clear I was getting their plate numbers and vehicle descriptions so I could turn them in. The woman was being nasty about the whole thing but her boyfriend/husband was as shook up as we were and offered to give me his phone # in case there were vet bills. I took it but as soon as we got back to camp I hopped on the ATV and went down to get the camp host (about a mile down the road). I got back to the RV about 10 minutes later and my son was checking Briar for injuries. He found a small cut so I went to get the peroxide and then he moved more hair and we realized the cut was actually quite large, I had missed it because it wasn't bleeding much. So in the car we went and the boys and I headed to town to the vets. The camp host had called the Sheriff and I saw him on my way out. I stopped long enough to give him my info, the vets info, and to tell him the our dogs hadn't been leashed either but that mine was in my hand and off the ground when she got attacked. We got Briar to the vet and they checked her and saw the same cut we did but they wanted to keep her for a little bit so they could sedate her, clean the cut, and check for more. They're a 24hr emergency clinic and were very busy so it took a while. I finally took my nephew back up to camp at 8:30 last night and found out that the owner of the dogs was severely fined for camping back there and for having a vicious dog running loose. He was also informed that he is responsible for all of the associated vet bills. I was finally able to pick Briar up at about 10pm last night but before they'd bring her out they let me know the injuries were much more extensive than any of us originally thought. She had 2 puncture wounds in her hip and 2 large tears in her flank and abdomen area. Luckily none of them went into any internal organs but she has somewhere around 20 stitches and 2 drains in the tears. She also has extensive bruising and the open punctures. But they don't anticipate any further problems and we were able to bring her home. Last night was horrible, she could barely move and yelped every time she did. But this morning when I opened my sons bedroom door the transformation was amazing. She seems like her old self and doesn't even have a limp. And we're already having to watch her closely to make sure she doesn't overdo it! So we were very fortunate, it could have been so much worse, but it was a horrible ending to a rotten trip.
Every year we go camping with my in-laws for a week. For the last 10 years we've been going to the same lake and over the years we've had some problems but nothing like this year. Our "vacation" started Saturday night when I was trying to level the RV and managed to blow a hydraulic line for one of the jacks. We were able to makeshift with some wood blocks and get it at least level enough to sleep in but by Sunday morning my fridge wasn't working and we suspected it was because the RV was still nowhere near level. To top it off, the generator that had been working fine in town decided it didn't want to run right either. Hubby made a quick run to town to pick up our leveling blocks (which we had forgotten) and to buy another set or two just in case. Wouldn't you know, our set is buried somewhere in the mess we call a garage and Wally World was sold out so he couldn't get more. He picked up a heavy duty set of ramps, grabbed some 2x6's and a large floor jack and came back up. Meanwhile, I'm sitting at camp watching our fridge warm up with several hundred dollars worth of groceries. He got back up there but was in a foul mood so I told him and a buddy to go ride the ATV's while a friend and I leveled the RV. It should have been a simple process and I'm the one who usually does it so I figured we'd have it done in no time. Wrong! After 1 1/2 hours of fighting with it we finally gave up and left it for the guys. When they got back, Henry took a look around, made some quick adjustments, and had us pretty level within about 10 minutes. Great, now my fridge will work! NOT! We tried the generator again but it was still coughing and sputtering and basically useless. In desperation I opened the outside panel for the fridge and got looking at it. I could see and hear where it was trying to ignite the pilot but it just wouldn't catch. So I had my son turn it off and hand me a stove lighter. We let it sit for a couple of minutes and then I had him turn it on while I used the lighter to light the pilot. When it caught, it really caught! It ignited with a whoosh and scared a few years off my life so I blew to try and blow out the flame. It didn't blow out but a whole bunch of debris (not hot) flew back in my face and gave me an aha moment. I had Cam turn off the fridge again, I blew more debris out, and told him to turn it back on. This time the igniter worked perfectly and the fridge ran like a champ. Whew, no groceries lost and now I can try to relax and enjoy my trip! Suuurrreee...
We got up Monday morning and out of habit I checked the fridge. Ugh! Sometime during the night it had shut off again and this time it wouldn't even attempt to ignite. I did some more inspecting and found that for some reason my batteries had gone completely dead during the night even though we couldn't find anything drawing on them. So dead that the generator wouldn't even start because the starter draws on the batteries. We used a jump start and got the generator to start and even though it was still sputtering we hoped it would at least charge the batteries a little. We left it running while Henry and I made another "quick" run to town. Our mission this time was to get a couple of new batteries, borrow a spare generator, and talk to the RV place to see if there was anything they could suggest to get our generator running properly. Our first stop was at the battery place. We told him what we wanted, paid for them, and went to pull the car around for him to load them when the salesman walks out and says "I forgot, we sold out of those yesterday and won't have more until tomorrow." I laughed and smiled on the outside (and screamed on the inside!) while he refunded to my CC and we went down the road to the only other place in town that supposedly sells the specific battery we needed. Nope, they've never even heard of them. After a phone call to my dad we found out that the place we're at does have one that will work so we finally got some batteries. We hustled out to the RV place to ask about the generator but they had no suggestions that were things we could do out in the woods so we headed up to get the other generator. After a quick stop to get ice and a big cooler just in case we headed back up to the RV. Word of warning, driving 50 miles in a Jeep with a gas generator is not a good idea. Even with all 4 windows down the smell was horrid! Once we got back to camp we found the RV generator had completely died so we got the spare running. We looked to put the new batteries in and discovered that the post configuration was different than the old ones and we weren't sure we could get them to work so we decided to leave the generator running to charge the old batteries. They showed a full charge by bedtime but by morning they were completely dead again so Henry had to figure out how to make the new ones fit. Fortunately, it ended up being a simple process and he had us back up and running soon. While changing them we discovered that one of our old batteries was no good and that was why we were having the power issues.
So finally 3 days into our 8 day trip we thought we were able to relax and enjoy the lake. Tuesday I went swimming for a little bit and managed to get sunburned pretty bad. I burn easily so it's not unusual and I just tried to stay out of the sun the rest of the day. Wednesday morning the burn felt better and it wasn't overly hot outside so I hopped on the ATV to go for a ride. I rode about 25 miles on back country roads and just had a great time. I finally made my way back to camp where Henry took one look at me and said "Whoa, you'd better go look in the mirror!". When I did I was shocked to see that my whole upper chest was covered with bright red blotches and bumps. I had somehow managed to get sun poisoning even though I hadn't really been in the sun! Plus the burn on the back of my neck had blistered like crazy! I spent the rest of the day in the RV and by that night I was feeling pretty lousy. I kept the areas coated with aloe and drank lots of water but basically didn't leave the RV much for the next couple of days.
By yesterday morning I was feeling better and the weather was perfect for a nice walk in the woods. My in-laws, husband, nephew, and I called the dogs and headed out for our favorite walk. It's an old logging trail onto a peninsula in the lake and is a lovely walk that takes us near a Bald Eagle nest and eventually out to an old cabin. We hadn't made it 1/4 mile down the trail when we heard a noise and realized there were people camping (in a no camping area) about 100' up around the corner. The next thing we knew we had 3 huge dogs coming at us. My in-laws dog took off for our camp, my husband pulled his dog behind him, and I grabbed my two Shelties to pick them up. I had just gotten them off the ground when the largest of the 3 reached us and grabbed one on my Shelties by the hind end. I was screaming, my dog was yelping, the people that owned the dogs were screaming, and my husband clubbed the dog with his walking stick. The dog let go and the owner grabbed him while I started frantically checking my dog to see if she was OK. I didn't see any blood but she has a lot of hair and I just wanted to get back to camp. My mother-in-law carried her, I picked up my male, and we started back. But by then I was furious so I turned around, marched back to their camp (I knew they were holding the dogs), and made it very clear I was getting their plate numbers and vehicle descriptions so I could turn them in. The woman was being nasty about the whole thing but her boyfriend/husband was as shook up as we were and offered to give me his phone # in case there were vet bills. I took it but as soon as we got back to camp I hopped on the ATV and went down to get the camp host (about a mile down the road). I got back to the RV about 10 minutes later and my son was checking Briar for injuries. He found a small cut so I went to get the peroxide and then he moved more hair and we realized the cut was actually quite large, I had missed it because it wasn't bleeding much. So in the car we went and the boys and I headed to town to the vets. The camp host had called the Sheriff and I saw him on my way out. I stopped long enough to give him my info, the vets info, and to tell him the our dogs hadn't been leashed either but that mine was in my hand and off the ground when she got attacked. We got Briar to the vet and they checked her and saw the same cut we did but they wanted to keep her for a little bit so they could sedate her, clean the cut, and check for more. They're a 24hr emergency clinic and were very busy so it took a while. I finally took my nephew back up to camp at 8:30 last night and found out that the owner of the dogs was severely fined for camping back there and for having a vicious dog running loose. He was also informed that he is responsible for all of the associated vet bills. I was finally able to pick Briar up at about 10pm last night but before they'd bring her out they let me know the injuries were much more extensive than any of us originally thought. She had 2 puncture wounds in her hip and 2 large tears in her flank and abdomen area. Luckily none of them went into any internal organs but she has somewhere around 20 stitches and 2 drains in the tears. She also has extensive bruising and the open punctures. But they don't anticipate any further problems and we were able to bring her home. Last night was horrible, she could barely move and yelped every time she did. But this morning when I opened my sons bedroom door the transformation was amazing. She seems like her old self and doesn't even have a limp. And we're already having to watch her closely to make sure she doesn't overdo it! So we were very fortunate, it could have been so much worse, but it was a horrible ending to a rotten trip.
Comment
-
Comment by Tim Mills on July 26, 2009 at 8:52pm - Ronni, I am glad your dog will to be OK. And...it seems like you got lucky that pilot light did not just blow you out of the RV!
About
© 2009 Created by Ronni on Ning. Create a Ning Network!
You need to be a member of Alexandrite to add comments!
Join this Ning Network