RV PLUMBING CAN BE A PROBLEM

3/11/09

For those who say using a laptop in an RV Park is dumb, I have to disagree. I went on line and would you believe, put in our current location and searched for an RV repair service in the area. My first search found one that was located only about ½ mile away from the RV Park called Jackson RV Repair and Parts store. We were lucky and had it in the shop by 8 am and it was repaired by 10 a.m. After spending $98.00 for the repair we were on our way once again.

A little advice for anyone buying an RV is to make sure you know where all the hidden valves are located. Even though this is a new coach there were no directions on where these important valves were located. When we purchased the home in 2006 the sales person should have showed us were this hidden valve was located. Hey, I guess that’s why it’s called hidden he probably did not know.

It’s a unique valve that is usually located near the shower. The bypass valve is need when you winterize your home by opening up this valve your able to flush you water line with special motor home antifreeze. The main reason you’re bypassing the hot water heater is to avoid getting any anti freeze in your hot water tank. I guess it corrodes the tank when you have antifreeze to protect you water lines in the winter you would shut this valve down so the antifreeze does not contaminate the hot water tank. Great idea as long as you know where the hidden valve is.

At the turn off onto Hwy 42, heading west toward Coquille we found gasoline at $1.99 per gallon at a Love’s station right off highway 5. It took almost 38 gallons of gasoline to drive 337 miles from home to Winston OR, which works out to 8.8 miles per gallon. Mileage still holding about the same, towing our Saturn as compared too towing our pickup with the boat last trip.

We got to Coquille around 3 pm or so. Helen drove the last 50 miles or so as I was feeling a little under the weather. I kind of knew I was not feeling that great when we left home, but thought that it was just the cold in our country. By the time we got to Coquille I knew it was something else. We unhooked the car from the motor home and Helen drove me too the Coquille hospital. What a way to start off a vacation!!

Their emergency service for such a small town as Coquille was quite well organized. I don’t think we had to wait more than 10 minute for the doctor to see me. After some testing they diagnosed me with Pneumonia. I knew ahead of time I probably had Pneumonia again and sure enough I did. The first thought I had was that I would be spending a week in a hospital, but they started me on intravenous injections of a strong Antibiotic, followed up with prescriptions of steroids and Leviquin.. They had worked it out so I didn’t have to stay in the hospital for a few days just come back for two more days of additional intravenous antibiotic treatments, which only takes about 1 ½ hours per treatment.

This is another problem caused from the bad habit of smoking. Even though I have not smoked for over 4 years the damage has been done. Once you have COPD it never goes away and you’re prone to Pneumonia the rest of your life.