Home At Last

Well, folks, the Tioga is finally back in the driveway, the home furnace is fired up, and Concetta is fixing dinner in her own earth-bound kitchen for the first time in five weeks. Wow! Five weeks. It's hard to believe we've been that long on the road. It just went by in a flash. The Tioga racked up just a tad over 7,000 miles and still runs like a top. We did lose a set of tires in Minnesota. But other than that bit of foolishness, not another thing gave us trouble. We wanted to take the coach on a dry run before our departure date, but it never came to pass. We never tried the water heater, the furnace, the air conditioner, the water systems, the sewage systems, the generator, or taken a shower in that swiftly disintegrating plastic enclosure whose flaws I gummed up with waterproof silicone and prayed.

To reward us for our blind faith, absolutely everything worked like a champ. Even the CD player that I had never tried worked for literally a hundred hours or more with our books on tape. We did burn out a couple of low-voltage lights. Both the on-board clocks gave up on the same day. And we came home with one running light dark out of the handful I replaced before we left.

At one point on a bumpy road in Missouri the coffee maker came lose from its moorings, tumbled out on the counter, and bounced to the floor. We just replaced it in its rack, loaded it with coffee, and brewed up our next pot of java.

For those of you who have been following the blog throughout, you know that I asked everyone what the little switch under the sink did. Flipping it on and off did nothing. I dismantled it before we left and shinned everything thoroughly. Still nothing appeared to come on when the switch was flipped. Finally, just a few days ago, I discovered the answer when Concetta was complaining about the heat in the kitchen. "There's a fan right over your head," I said. "All we have to do is crank up the vent lid and turn it on. The unit had it's own on/off switch on this particular ceiling fixture.

But as I performed the operation of getting the fan on line, it suddenly hit me that the designers of the coach were probably diabolical enough to put a second on/off switch for the ceiling unit down by the sink. I reached over and hit the curiously-located switch and, voila, the fan overhead shut off. Jeeze! To think I had even emailed the previous owner of the coach and asked him what the switch did. He didn't know.

So, it appears that we'll be keeping the RV for future adventures. I wasn't sure we'd adapt, but we not only adapted but enjoyed the experience immensely. I, for one, can't want to start planning the next trip.

For now, we're home. While we unwind, I'd like to finish out this blog with some things we learned that might help others in their adventures into the RV world. Until then, I wish you good food, good wine, and exciting destinations -- and a warm house when you come home.

Ciao.