Tuesday, July 7, 2009

The life of Camping (this is actually morning of day 4)

Good Morning...well maybe, Ken and I got woke up around 4:30AM by this kinda knocking on the camper, we couldn't figure out what exactly it was. It was very blustery outside and we chalked it up to the awning flapping in the breeze. about 45 min later we realized what it was.... the vent right over our bed has cracked and is now being pulled apart by the wind, flapping open- hanging on by a thread..
Now our camper is about 5 years old and we had this vent replaced once already about 2 1/2 years ago and we just replaced the back one last month. Well as luck would have it we didn't bring our 10 foot ladder ;-(. So we tried to get to it from the inside with no luck.. well with out removing the entire framing. So at 5:30 in the morning we (all three of us are outside, in our pajamas starring at the vent flap on the roof, like it was going to fix itself, trying to figure out how to fix it (where is Mac Gyver when you need him) before it completely cut loose. Time was of the essence.
Well my husband (yea the one who had back surgery the end of November) decided to climb up on the trailer tongue then upon top of the Propane tanks (he is now about 5 feet off the ground) and tells me to get him the broom. We'll he was able to reach the vent cover flip it back over to it original position. OK now what? ...ROCKS we can hold it down with rocks (we live in "The PARK" this is completely acceptable). So at 5:45 in the morning Ken is standing on top if the double Propane tanks holding the vent flap down with a broom and Jacob and I are looking for rocks!? nice flat ones that are not to heavy.
Then Ken carefully lifts the broom of the vent ( I am praying that it doesn't catch a gust of wind and finally do it in) places the rock on the broom then positions it over the vent and gently slides the rock on to the vent, he repeats this with the second rock. Now if we had some of the ultimate fix-all tool GRAY TAPE we could have fixed it proper and Taped that sucker down.
So we go inside and you can see up through the vent. Well I am the daughter and sister of Engineers, I wasn't really happy with the position of the rocks on the vent. With the placement of the rocks and wind velocity and time of day etc. it just wasn't calculating out right for me. I wasn't happy about the placement-they need to be moved. So again my husband climbs up on top of the Propane tanks and carefully slides the rocks till I am happy-I mean they are in a better calculated spot on the vent.
OK all said and done it is now about 6-6:15am My son and husband are asleep and I can't go back to sleep. There will be a nap later.

Moral of story replace your vent covers every 2 years whether they need the or not, 2 1/2 is to long. I will be putting an alarm in my iPhone to remind me. Oh and to replace the tire every 3 years whether they need them or not but this is a whole other story.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Wow that is crazy. I am so clad you guys were able to fix it. At least for now, Don't forget to take the rock down when you start to drive home. Hate to have them hit a window on the way home.

Love the blog, I think you did a great job w/ your first post, can't wait to hear your next adventure.

Ps, Saralyn loves your "Bee" Ladybug. She is sitting here w/ me and saw it and started saying bee bee bee. :-) Miss ya
Brandy