Archive for December, 2007

Dec 18 2007

Our first boondocking and driving/pulling experience

Posted by JacQ

Yesterday was our first day with the Fifth Wheel was a long one.

On the way to pick up with Fifth Wheel, I realized that we forgot to take the mountain bikes with us from Dave’s. :D More about this later…

At RCD, the outside temperature was below freezing, so a few of the items they weren’t able to show us because the doors were frozen shut or the locks were frozen. After dealer walk through, which was a whole lot of information to take in. We finally drove the baby out of the lot.

Jeremy did an awesome job driving the rig! For first timer, he really did great! I am so proud of my baby!

So we headed down to south end of Columbus and parked the rig at a Lowe’s parking lot. Jeremy’s dad and us drove the element and headed to Dave’s to pick up with mountain bikes. We also picked up some strips and tarp to protect the bikes. The RV bumper bike rack we got from RCD is pictured below.

Swagman 2 Bike RV Bumper Rack

We didn’t have any tools with us, so we had RCD service department installed the rack for us. We discovered that they were positioned too far apart. But the thing we did not foresee was that the bike tired were too fat for the rack. Plus the handle bars were going to really damage the back wall of the Fifth Wheel. We decided to put them in the truck bed.

That was a 15 minute struggle in the freezing old… So we were finally ready to take off for the long way home. That was 7PM.

Jeremy drove all the way and we finally got tired around 12:30 AM this morning, and decided to boondock at the Love’s truck stop.

I believe the temperature outside was around 26 degrees. So we turned on the heater in the Fifth Wheel and lowered the jacks so they took off some weight from the truck bed.

The Fifth Wheel finally warmed up and we slept in the master bedroom without sliding out the bedroom section, since we are parking in the middle of the Love’s parking lot.

I was so excited… our first boondocking. Everything seems to be good. We had to be inside our sleeping bags, but that was ok…

We woke up this morning around 9AM and felt rested. It was awesome. I realized that this is the beginning of the end for our hotel stays.

Jeremy quickly found out that the truck’s battery was completely dead this morning.

Lesson learned today: Do not leave your Fifth Wheel plugged into the truck when boondocking.

So we had the truck battery powering the heater all night instead of using the propane to heat the Fifth Wheel. Bad idea~ haha…

Dec 16 2007

Where are we now?

Posted by JacQ

I have installed a new feature to our blog! For friends and family to find out where we are at the moment.

This is an easy to install, plug and play Google Maps Plugin for WordPress, thanks to Avi Alkalay.

Here’s an example of how it works.

We ate at Akai Hana (formerly known as Restaurant Japan) tonight. Don’t forget to click the get directions link for directions from Google Maps and click the icon on the map for name and address or description of the place.

get directions
Akai Hana
1173 Old Henderson Rd
Columbus, OH 43220
(614) 451-5411


Dec 16 2007

Our first trip with the Fifth Wheel

Posted by JacQ

Tomorrow will be the start of our first trip with the Fifth Wheel. We are leaving the Honda Element in Ohio for Jeremy’s dad to sell it for us. There is no sense of driving it back to Texas and we can save money on gas~

RCD Sales Company (the dealer we bought the rig from) will dewinterize the Fifth Wheel for us and walk us through how everything works. They will also move the electric break unit out of our way. And we will see if it is easier for me to drive then~

I can’t wait to start moving our stuff in the Fifth Wheel. I am a little bit concerned with the weather and road condition in Ohio though~ Snow and ice…

We are going to take it slow, and only drive when there is day light. This might be a long trip for us.

I will keep everyone posted.

Happy Sunday!

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