Having Second Thaws

After a week of dealing with ice, snow, freezing temperatures, and a number of problems with the RV, we were eager to be headed to our next stop in warm and toasty South Carolina.

We got a late start because of the weather. We arrived in the dark. After we got off the highway, the GPS wanted to send us down a very long, very narrow, under-construction, unlit road. There was no campground entrance in sight and we were unsure if there was anyplace to turn around if necessary. We rolled forward very slowly – keeping an eye out for places to turn around. At one point I got out of the truck and walked ahead. After a terrifying ½ mile we finally saw the entrance!

We found our site and set up only to find that heater wasn’t working. Ugh! We were delighted to be out of the snow, but it was still cold at only 38º. We ran the fireplace heater all night, slept in our thermals and used both blankets. Right around now we were starting to wonder what the hell we had gotten ourselves into.

During the night the temperature apparently dropped below 32 degrees because the water froze. It was a quick fix and our spirits rose with the temperature which broke 60 degrees that afternoon. We opened the back porch for the first time. We had no furniture, so we used two of the dining room chairs and sat out there for most of the day barbequing and eating our dinner off the top of a cooler. We stocked up on groceries, ran a few other errands, and unsuccessfully tried to resolve the heater problem. 

We’re not sure if the heater issue was ever resolved. The igniter seemed to be working OK. You could smell gas coming from the unit when it was trying to start, and we’ve started it up successfully a couple of times since then. Hopefully, it won’t rear it’s head again when we need it most. By the way, after the trip was over, a Camping World mechanic told us that the propane doesn’t vaporize sufficiently in very cold weather. I understand that things vaporize better at higher temperatures but seriously? Not working in cold weather would be a major drawback for a heating fuel. Can anyone confirm that this is remotely possible?

Anyway, things were finally looking up and would only get better. Florida here we come...

-Diane

Catch up on the complete story of our first trip:

1) Baptism by Ice: Digging Out
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2015/12/baptism-by-ice-digging-out.html

2) Baptism by Ice: Murphy’s Law
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2016/01/baptism-by-ice-murphys-law.html