Experience

Coker, Alabama

Weather: low 51 degrees, high 83 degrees, mostly clear skies

The nice weather continued today, and we're enjoying it. The forecast tells us that we can expect some rain over the upcoming weekend and holiday. In order to ensure we will get the promised rain, I cleaned up the inside of the truck.

After my morning walk and breakfast, we went to Publix to buy a few groceries. Carolyn likes to go to that store, so when she goes with me, that's where we usually go. It is a nice store, and the people who work there are friendly and helpful. That doesn't mean we aren't using the WalMart Mall. There are still items we buy there because they are less expensive or it is more convenient to get to that store.

When we bought our first RV, we were not given a good walk through that showed us how everything worked. In fact, the entire walk around took less than ten minutes. At that time, we knew so little about what to ask that we assumed we had all the information we needed to start using the RV. Not so. We learned by reading the manuals, talking to other RVers, and just diving in to a problem and figuring out what to do.

One thing in particular bedeviled us for the first three times we went out in the RV. We could not get any hot water to come out of the faucets. The hot water heater was on and and we could tell it was heating up, but no hot water in the shower or kitchen. Can you imagine taking a shower with cold water in the winter? Brrrrrr!

Finally, my frustration boiled over one night when we were in Natchez, Louisiana. The temperature was in the 30s, and I couldn't stand the thought of another cold shower. Since I knew the water heater was working, I decided there had to be a simple reason why we had no hot water. Opening the kitchen sink cabinet doors, I looked at all the water lines leading in and out of the water heater. I saw some valves located among the lines. Looking at the valve orientations, I noticed that one valve was closed. Hmmmm. Why is that valve closed? Since I didn't think I could make the situation any worse, I opened the valve to see what would happen. Guess what? The valve was the water heater bypass valve. Once I opened it, hot water was allowed to go to the faucets. Problem solved.

When we bought the new RV, the orientation we received was completely different than what we received for our first RV. The orientation took almost two hours, and we knew enough to ask a lot of questions. Isn't experience a great thing?

More later, be safe.

Today's Town - Biloxi, Mississippi: The Playground Of The South

Not all who wander are lost.