A week of firsts...

It seems that in spite of planning and practice, you always have little mishaps, scares, and close calls, especially if you are a novice at something...in our case RV'ing. We are on our first week of travel, and so far here is our list of "woops / oh! nos!" :

First "It is all over" feeling:
We got a pull-through site in Mckinney Falls state park, nice right?
Well, we learned that these curved style pull-through sites come at a price. You save yourself the hassle of backing up, but if you unhitch, when you need to hitch again, the trailer and the truck are not at a straight angle. This adds a degree of difficulty to the hitching maneuver. Anyhow...we conquered the hitch-at-an-angle challenge, but when we started to tension the spring bars...one popped-out of the Hensley head, and fell to the ground.

Nothing like the feeling of watching a critical part of expensive equipment coming apart. A little voice in your head gasps: "It is all over," then a picture of a stack of dollar bills with flapping wings flutters around the scene.

Luckily my father-in-law was there, and he is quite experienced with all things mechanical, and has RV'ing miles in his background. He quickly realized that the problem was a tiny loose grease zerk screw that holds the spring bar in place. We put it back easily, but this promoted a closer examination of the Hensley hitch set up: It was constantly angled down, because the spring bars were set too high. We read the Hensley set up manual and re-set the bars at the 3 hole recommended set-up. So far so good.

First "How long will the gas reserve last?" moment:
I measured, tested, plotted, and charted the MPG for our GMC Sierra 2500 HD for about 3 months. The hard numbers are different from the on board computer, so by this time I should have known not to trust the "Fuel Range" readout on the dashboard. When we came into HI-10 from TX-290, the sign read 277 miles to Fort Stockton. I glanced at the dashboard, and the on-board computer read "Fuel Range 330 miles." Great! no need to stop at Ozona for fuel. Well, about 50 miles from Fort Stockton the ominous "Low on Fuel" yellow icon lit up in all its doom.
We rolled the last 30 or so miles at low RPMs, caressing that gas pedal with tender care and made it to the first diesel station in Fort Stockton. Now we have this number burned in our foreheads: 350 miles fuel range for towing.

First Black Water mishap:
We stayed for 5 nights in Terlingua RV park. Here I learned that a super air-tight plug in the sewer hook-up is not always the best approach. This particular hook-up needed a bit of air so the fluids would flow. When I first opened that valve, the hose popped-up off place! Luckily I was able to close it quickly before it spilled all over the place.

First campground shower:
After about 2 days, I smelled of all the hard work of moving out of Austin, TX. Time for a shower. But...we realized that the water heater in the trailer was still winterized. So we got acquainted with the RV camp showers. This experience bumped the "Get water heater working" in the to-do-list.

Big Bend looming in the distance

First Airstream trailer shower:
We finally de-winterized the water heater. It heats the water to a fine comfy temperature. The only complaint is that it takes 15-20 minutes to heat up the water. I think I may need to adjust the flame in the water heater to see if it can go faster...still reading the manuals for this.

BTW...I think I am getting some Karma back for all the software documentation that I was involved in in the past. These Airstream manual are clearly written by engineers/technicians, and they are meant for mechanics and installers, not for civilians.

The first on many gorgeous sunrises in out future

First "You are not on vacation" moment:
We planned to stay 2 days in our first campground in Big Bend, but we quickly realized that there is "no rush" anymore. We have time to actually sit for a day and rest, breathe, think, enjoy and slowly enter that "zone," where the plans and routes come to you by serendipity and secular inspiration. This is our 4th day here, and now we know that Spring Break will mark our departure from the park.

First "Yay! We have a generator" moment:
On our second evening at Big Bend, a severe wind came through the area and knocked out the electricity in the Terlingua, TX area. Our RV campground was also affected. We got the opportunity to see the refrigerator switch form AC to GAS automatically (nice), so our food did not get spoiled. Also, this was my opportunity to do a generator drill. It all worked as planned, and we spent the night in comfort while the Yamaha purred outside.

First redneck repair:
I have been around long enough to know that duct-tape and bungee cords are low-brow fix-it tools, yet, in a pinch they do the job. The high winds ripped our picnic mantel. Now it sports a silver duct tape slash. When I have lunch outside, I can hear a duel of banjo and guitar playing on the background.