The past week or so has been filled with lovely snippets of nature mixed with weather worries, repairs and surprises. Any stress is temporary. We still love this life!

Weather Wariness and Awe

Hail

Being coastal novices, we had no idea that mini hail downpours are fairly common here in Oregon. As we slept last night the sky just opened up and poured ice pellets. All at once! It sounded like we were at the bottom of a hotel ice bucket being filled by an ice machine. And then it ended just as suddenly.

There were two more hail moments today, one that resulted in two to three inches, and then, boom, melted and gone…except on the sand dunes where the hail stays frozen longer and forms what reminds me of miniature ski slopes before melting. Very cool. Truly cool. Actually.

Rain

It rains differently here, and it rains a lot this time of year. It comes straight down and can be torrential or a perfectly-timed, misty shower. It reminds me of a movie studio tour when they show how they can control the rain with the push of a button.

Wind

As I write this we are under a high wind warning for the next two days. The forecast is for hurricane-force winds on the water and wind gusts up to 70 mph where we are. To us, wind is the scariest weather while living in an RV. We have actually had discussions about what would be the max wind speed we would drive in. There have been times when we’ve had to slow way down in the wind, but nothing that required a change in travel plans…yet. We always err on the side of caution.

We have been in preparedness mode today since the power could go out or the sewer system could fail if it is overrun with water if the pump fails in a power outage. After we cleaned our cabin/yurt and campsites today for our hosting duties, we filled our propane, got a few groceries, filled our freshwater tank, emptied gray and black tanks. Good times!

Our host campsite is in a lush, wooded park full of tall, swaying trees. Rangers actually had to cut down a huge tree last week after it started to sway and crack the ground around it with each wind gust. I will be on edge during this wind event tomorrow. Every pine cone and twig that hits our camper sounds like the beginning of a landslide. I hope pine cones are as bad as it gets!

Fog

Thick fog along the 101 is pretty common at night. Visibility quickly changes from clear to zero and back again. And there are also signs saying the deer are rutting and to watch for them on the road. That you can’t see. Hmm. My preference is to just get back to the camper while it’s still light. Sunset is before 5:00 p.m., so it makes for an early night or a stressful drive home.

Camper Concerns

Awning

Greg is the perfect partner for living and traveling in an RV. He is calm under pressure and very handy with repairs. I am not always calm under pressure and repairs make me frustrated. It’s a good thing I can cook and navigate.

After owning this camper for 19 months, one side of the awning came off the motor/roller when we were closing it yesterday. Imagine my horror as I looked out the window to see just a big, black piece of awning swaying in the wind! Greg remained calm as he grabbed the screw driver and a step stool and got to work solving the problem.

Greg discovered that only one of the three screws that are supposed to hold the whole thing to the roller was actually in place! Two screws were missing! Terrifying. He added screws while I held the awning arm in place. Another crisis averted. And adding the screws was a much better solution than my thought to find the scissors and begin panic-induced cutting of the flapping material.

Tank Sensors

We started our RV life with only two of the three tanks displaying their fill levels. Now we have one that displays anything at all, and that isn’t even an accurate reading. The freshwater tank can overflow while I’m filling it, and it still only shows 2/3 full. Argh!

This is a common problem for all RV owners, even owners of the luxury brands. The reality is that you just have to monitor the tank levels visually: black tank is full when you can see it down the hole (yes, you have to look in the toilet) or if it gurgles when you flush the toilet; gray is full if it backs up into the shower, which is the low point (literally and figuratively); freshwater is full if it overflows outside while filling.

Roof

Our camper roof is taking a beating in all these trees (brag-plaining, I know). Based on the half-ton of pine needles I have to vacuum from the INSIDE of our camper each day, the roof and all its crevices are filled with them. Easy enough to climb up there and use a blower, but it rains everyday…and the pine sap requires rubbing alcohol to remove. It is on the solar panels and our truck. We keep saying that as soon as we camp in an open space we are going to really clean the roof. Some day!

Catio Corner

We have made eye contact with two intruders, a “socialized” tuxedo cat who wanders the campground and a feral Siamese cat who wants nothing to do with people and is scarcely seen. The tuxie goes under our camper and up on the steps and is really stressing us out. Is she going to get in and eat our food and use our litter box? Do we need to lift tail and spray the perimeter of our territory to send a message? She keeps meowing, purring, rubbing legs and howling at our humans whenever they go out. We heard them on the phone talking to the Humane Society and they don’t have room to take anymore cats right now. Good thing we don’t have room for one more living thing in this giant cat carrier on wheels, definitely not, not over our dead bodies. Nope.