By Monique & Barry Zander, the Never-Bored RVers
Like so many of you, now that spring has arrived we’re back on the road, shaking off many days of confinement at home. Except for taking forever to line up the hitch ball with the receiver, it has been a welcomed change of pace.
We have returned to Coronado Island by San Diego just in time to see the roads and streets lined with freshly opened, vividly-hued flowers. But this edition of the Never Bored RVers blog is not about travel or roadside beauty. It’s about one of the most appreciated elements of RVing – Our community on the road
Two months ago we bought a cabin in a small community, where there is said to be one volunteer organization for every 43 residents. Seems like everybody’s involved in at least one club or charitable group. We’ve never seen anything like it … but, wait! Isn’t that similar to what we love about our lives on the road?
Monique and I have been full-timers for four-and-a-half years. Before we ever departed for our first stop at Sequoia National Park, we did a “shake-down” cruise to a son’s high desert property in California. Boy, were we raw! With only a 45-minute walk-through at the RV dealership, we knew practically nothing. Example: we didn’t remember what our docent said about filling the fresh water tank. It was from the satellite dish installer guy who looked at us like we were probably taking on something that we weren’t ready for that we learned where to put the hose.
RVers HELPING RVers
Since then, we have crammed our heads with what seems to be “Everything There Is to Know About RVing.” But that’s not really true, because we have come to realize that no one knows it all.
Leonard and Davie had traveled for seven years in their aging 25-foot travel trailer. Delightful folks, not too curious about what they didn’t know about RV travel. One night as we were sitting around a campfire at Smoky Mountain National Park, Davie mentioned that they didn’t use their refrigerator – never had – because most of the time it didn’t work.
That night after they left, Monique asked me, “Do you think the refrigerator doesn’t work because the trailer isn’t level?” Next morning I walked over and realized that after they unhitched, they left the front of the trailer high, not lowering it to level it. I turned the crank about four turns, and, Voila! the frige kicked on.
In Death Valley last November, we weren’t getting a charge from our solar panel. I checked out the wiring, the fuse and the batteries, all to no avail. Before giving up, I walked over to the motorhome down the line with several solar panels, all designed to move with the sun. I figured, “This guy must know something.”
Paul, right, and Rod were happy to help make staying in Death Valley more comfortable
Rod and his neighbor Paul walked over and proceeded to go through the same steps I had taken of checking the lines from roof-top panel to batteries. I was ready to throw in the towel and stop at an RV repair shop on the way to our next campground, but Rod wouldn’t quit. He took the cover off of the solar regulator installed with the solar panel and immediately realized there was a wire that had come loose. Five minutes later, we were back in business.
I can’t finish this blog without mentioning Jim, one of our companions on our caravan trip to Alaska last summer. The first time I realized Jim knew a lot about mechanics was when we stopped to help him change a flat tire on his toad along a narrow road in British Columbia. I wasn’t much help, although I was willing. Jim had it under control from beginning to end.
Three times during the trip he put in hours helping our fellow travelers with mechanical problems. He never expected payment for his services. At one stop in Alaska, the man parked next to us – not in our group — asked me if I had a brake tool set, which I didn’t, but I suggested that when Jim returned, he might have the tools the neighbor needed. He did ask Jim, and Jim spent about three hours working on the problem until it was fixed. That, my friends, is helpfulness above and beyond.
YOUR TURN TO GET INVOLVED
Readers of these blogs would love to hear your tales of helping and being helped. Many of these stories, if not heroic, are reminders to us all that we are a community of people who take care of each other.
All the Adventurers on our Alaska caravan pitched in after an arduous trek on the Top of the World Highway to clean the mud off their fellow travelers' rigs
Here’s my request. If you have a short note about how you were helped, how you helped another or if it’s about someone else helping another, tell us the story in the comments section below.
If it deserved more than a few sentences, I invite you to email it to us at neverboredrvers@gmail.com. I will use it in a later blog and maybe even in a future magazine article.
I would especially like your stories about how you were helped when you were just starting out in your RV. Many beginner RVers are afraid to ask for help, not realizing that most of us are eager to be of assistance (and to show off what we know and the tools we carry with us). I think this will be a good way to make newbies comfortable asking for help. We all learned and continue to learn from others.
From the “Never-Bored RVers,” We’ll see you on down the road.
© All photos by Barry and Monique Zander. All rights reserved