Give us this day our daily maintenance

My cousin Brian asked me to write about daily life in the RV.  Here's the request answered, although I do think it sounds a little like whining.....

Recipe for maintenance: Put your house on wheels, drive it down the road and shake it all day. Follow this simple recipe and you are guaranteed to have daily maintenance.

For example, yesterday Carl re-installed the shade on the cabin door, then made the passenger seat belt re-tract again. This morning he cleaned the refrigerator drain so that ice stopped forming in the defrost tray. Then he changed filters in the a/c, a procedure that requires a screwdriver. Tonight, he re-caulked the exterior where the cab and the house meet. That's when he noticed the screws in the cabin door were loose.

So you might be thinking it looks like Carl does all the work? Well, maintenance wise, that's true. When I am on my own, I let the fix it list build higher than the deductible on our maintenance policy, and then I visit an RV center and get it all fixed at once. Last summer when the A/C went, the water pump went, and the kitchen faucet knobs all came off, I met the minimum on my policy and then some. The sticky part, after finding a repair center on my route, was making two trips to the same repair center two weeks apart so they could get the A/C unit ordered and delivered.

Little things seem like big things in the RV. Particularly if they are noisy things. Two nights ago an alarm started beeping. I crawled down from my bunk and disconnected the battery. Carl opened the window, in case we were dying of carbon monoxide poisoning. Just needed new batteries, it seems. Last night the satellite clock alarm went off at midnight. It's very easy to accidentally set the alarm when pushing the light to see what time it is as you go by in the middle of the night. Carl reset the clock alarm to noon in case it happens again.  And the smoke alarm goes off anytime I use the frying pan for beef.  Maybe it has a cholesterol sensor?

There's more to RV TV than using the remote. One night Carl thought the TV wasn't working, but next morning discovered there's a filter that accidentally got turned off.  When we got to Canada the TV stopped picking up signal entirely.  Carl slept on it, and then had an aha! moment.  Canada is still analogue.  The signal going through our digital converter box was the problem.  Not that Canadian TV was something we craved:  it was either in French or World Cup coverage, and if those buzzing horns bother you in your great room, try listening to them in 120 square feet.  We caught up on some movies, like Avatar on the small screen. It's all plot on a 17 inch display. Recently I drove off with the cable still attached, but it looks like I got away with it. TV cable still works fine.

Driving the house adds stress to other components as well. We have broken three bike racks now.  The problems started when we added a storage box behind the RV and the bikes are now farther back behind the box.  We also bought a bike cover, because the bikes get really dirty without one. The cover created a sail, and bike racks started failing, two last summer and one this summer.  Luckily, Carl discovered all the failures while parked and we haven't dropped the bikes on the freeway yet.  We're now going uncovered with dirty bikes.

Daily life in the RV involves conserving water and developing a pattern of electrical use.   All is cool if the microwave or hot water heater are not on at the same time as the A/C.  We've learned to remember this most of the time. And all RV'ers learn that hair dryers are verboten.

There's other daily jobs besides maintenance, and we've reached a routine on who does what.

Carl........
Prefers to drive, except during sleepy time in the afternoon
Plans the route on his GPS ... he couldn't sleep if he didn't
Hooks up TV and finds all the channels
Fuels up, lubes up, pumps up the air shocks, all systems go
Hooks and unhooks, walks around to check before driveout
Makes a dinner salad, just like at home
Early morning Daisy pee - they are both early birds
Does his best to make me happy

I........
Decide where we are going, what sights we are going to stop to see
Drive when I want to look at something at my pace and don't want to give directions,  want to listen to music (driver gets radio control), and when Carl needs a rest
Refill fresh water tank
Hand wash the dishes (I am a fan of Dawn Hand Renewal detergent, which makes my hands feel better than before I wash dishes)
Take out the trash every day (I am amazed how much trash we create every day... we have a large carbon footprint relative to the space we live in)
Wash clothes
Empty the grey and  black water (a very special job)
Take Daisy on morning and evening poop walks
Answer Daisy's middle of the night emergency walks...this is when I fantasize the bedroom door to the backyard at home


When you live in 120 square feet, relationships patterns require adjustments.  Foremost, only one butt can be in motion at a time.  While waiting for your turn to move about the cabin, you can work on your Buddhist patience practice. You can also practice patience while waiting for your turn to stretch out on the sofa or for your spouse to go to bed or wake up or be ready to go, and a list of other things that you can imagine for yourself.  And I haven't had a private thought all summer.  In that small space, nothing is private.

As for fashion,  I like my three changes of clothes very much.  (Actually, five changes, but two are for cool weather, wherever that is.)  When it comes to groceries, we live European style....never buy too much at once, and buy as much from roadside vegetable farms as possible. The homemade pies at the fruit stands help me get in five fruits and vegetables daily and the ice cream cones increase my calcium  intake.  Healthy eating rules in the RV are very flexible.

We're not very particular about washing the RV.  In fact, we haven't done it this summer.  Lots of rain has done the job to our satisfaction, although we have considered pulling in to a fundraiser and letting the cheerleaders wash it.  Some owners like to wash their RV every night, but I think the guys outside for hours waxing and buffing are simply finding a way to have a few private thoughts.

So, Cousin Brian, does this help you visualize the nitty gritty of life on the road? 

Today's photos:  sunset in Amish Country, Pennsylvania, with tobacco (yes, Amish tobacco) growing between the corn fields and a hot air balloon overhead.