So… we have been planning this trip for a while and have most everything lined up. Although we didn’t put too much pressure on it being perfect, we were not expecting the “humor” that we experienced the first few days…
The first leg of the trip went fairly smooth. The flight was great, for the first time we bought a plane ticket for Aiden (even though he isn’t 2 years old yet) so that we can put him in his car seat. He is happier and we are happier when he is buckled in and knows that he can’t get up and run up and down the isles of the plane.
We landed in Orlando (‘Merica!!!) and promptly found the Chick-Fil-A. (Aiden was in desperate need of a “meal” and snacks were just not cutting it)
After grabbing our luggage at baggage claim, we took the shuttle to the off site long term parking lot where we store our truck year round in the states and started loading the carseat in and getting the luggage loaded into the truck.
Tavis promptly fired to rig up to cool it off… the 98 degree heat and 100% humidity of central Florida were out in full force. I got Aiden strapped into his car seat about the time that Tavis yelled “Smoke!!! Get Aiden out of the truck!!” I pulled Aiden out and looked over in time to see smoke pouring out from under the hood. You can under stand why I don’t have any pictures of this sequence of events…
Thus begins 3 days of sweating… Tavis figured out that the AC compressor locked and started smoking. Tavis was able to disconnect it so we could drive and not over heat the engine but that meant no AC… Did I mention that it was 98 degrees…? It might have cooled to 96 degrees by this point but once it is over 90 who really counts. 3.hour.drive. did I mention that it was 96 degrees and we didn’t have AC?
We get to my folks house that evening, a bit later than we were expecting, but we got there. The next morning we dropped off the truck at an AC shop to get the compressor replaced and as it turns out, the fan clutch, water pump, tensioner, serpentine belt… and a few other things got replaced as well. It came out to about double the money that we were not expecting to pay. $$$$$…..
Yesterday we went to pick up the Airstream from the collision center (a blown tire did a little damage to the side of the rig last month) and bring it to my folks house to clean it up and get it outfitted for our trip. When I went inside start cleaning and I smelled the unmistakable scent of a septic tank that had been baking in the Florida sun… I grabbed a septic tank tablet and was going to flush it down the toilet to deodorize whatever was brewing down there but as I stepped on the foot peddle I was met with an overflowing tank bubbling out of the toilet and into the bathroom…
At this point the first thing that needs to happen is to drain the black water tank so that it stops coming into the bathroom. Since we are at my folks house and they do not have a septic drain hookup we get back in the truck and haul the trailer back to the RV collision center to use their dump station. I wrap some old towels around the base of the toilet to minimize the mess as the “liquid” that is is the toilet sloshes around while we drive.
We dumped the tank (after visiting 3 of the dealerships locations to find the dump station), and head back to my folks house and finally begin the clean up process. As messy as it was, I got the inside all cleaned up and Tavis took care of organizing, cleaning and packing the outside areas of the camper and the truck.
Later in the day we were finally able to spend a little time at the pool relaxing and hanging out with family. Aiden is loving hanging out at Grandma’s house this week and getting to see his cousins. Here is a picture of him hanging at grandma’s house enjoying not being in his carseat.
Now that we got all the bad juju off thing will be looking a little better as we hit the road at the end of the week.
[…] and getting ready for the road, I am going to start our day count over. That way I can erase all the craziness of the first week and a half. So this post is about the day before we left and the new day […]