In-transit to Stone Mountain

Of course this isn't us, but it's how it feels!

We were successful is getting the trailer on Friday afternoon.  We reloaded it and took it down near Indianapolis, IN Saturday to dewinterize it and start using it.  All went well until it came time to get the antifreeze out of the shower. 

Turned on the shower head and nothing came out.  We knew water was on at the manifold, so we searched for a water cutoff valve at the shower head.  Well, visually, there's none there.  We're use to having a slide valve in the shower head.  That didn't exist.  In the navy we had a valve you could twist.  The shower head didn't have one of those, either.  We knew this.  It's a new shower head that was installed in April before leaving for Jackson.  We'd checked for all of this when we got it back in April.

We continued to play with it during the afternoon.  I kept checking it.  You know the drill - do the same thing over and over again hoping for different results.  It was clear we were missing something, but where was the valve we're missing.  I called back to Indiana Interstate Enterprises to see if they knew of a valve we were missing.  They were closed, so no help there.  Everything was working except that stinking shower head.  I called it everything but a shower head.  Finally, in a fit of frustration - we'd been at this for eight and a half hours mind you - I decided to just take the shower head off.  As I start, the shower hand rotates and water runs out.  Eight and a half stinking hours to find out it does have a shut off valve.  What appears as the handle rotating is actually a ring where the shower head attaches to the hose.  Rotate the ring and you open or shut-off the shower head.  Somebody got paid good money to develop this.  Apparently, telling purchasers about it wasn't considered important.

Next day - Sunday - was a good trip down to Cave City to ride out the polar express the east was going to experience.  We stayed four nights to let the temps rise and let snow & ice melt off the truck and trailer.  Good idea except we were going have to stay until next June to get the ice off the off-door side slides.  We had about a quarter to three-eights inch thick sheet of ice across roof of those two slides - and they're long slides.  Our trailer (and truck) looked on one side as if it was in a normal, sunny high 30s day after a light dusting of snow.  The other side looked like it was in a glacier.

Truck was easy to clear.  Drive it Walmart and park it so the iced side is in the sun.  Couldn't do that with the trailer.  Closing those slides with iced roofs would have destroyed the seals.  I tried late Wednesday afternoon (that's when the ladder finally cleared of ice and it was safe to climb) to clear ice with a hair dryer.  It worked - just sloooooooow.  This morning after the temp climbed to freezing, I got up on the roof and Donna starts handing me buckets of hot water which I poor on the top of the slides and I start scrapping ice.  Took us about an hour.  I figured we'd be there all morning.  I was surprised it went so fast.  But it worked.  Only two trailers had this issue in the campground - us and one of the work campers for the campground. 

So we're off way earlier this morning than I figured headed to Stone Mountain, GA.  We're currently sitting at the KOA in Manchester, TN for the night.  Despite being under trees, we do have satellite TV.  I guess it helps when the leaves start falling.  Hope to make it to Stone Mountain tomorrow.  Hope to survive Atlanta traffic, too.   We'll see.

Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us.  Until next week, David