Pineapple on a Patio

Back in August, Mr. Man and I went to Dallas with some friends. While we were there, we bought a pineapple at the Farmer's Market. The pineapple sample was really good, so I decided to try to grow a pineapple from the top.

After getting it to root successfully, I finally potted it this weekend. We brought it back to the RV.

We also bought an indoor/outdoor rug from Camping World. After all the rain, we decided we wanted to try to prevent mud at the doorway. So, today I set up our outdoor patio area with table, chairs, and pineapple. Mr. Man says he will work on getting the awning down.

And the rains came down

Texas has been in a drought for most of the year. The weathermen like to panic about this, but it's pretty normal. My mom told me it would rain in September. Here we are in September and it is forecast to rain all day. Normally, I would celebrate the rain, but there's a problem.

The RV has a leak. Actually, it has two. One is a hole somewhere on the roof. Mr. Man got up early this morning when it wasn't raining and tried to fix it. The fix lasted through one rain shower, but not the next. The other leak is in the bathroom. The seal on the vent in there is leaking. It's almost directly over the toilet, though, so it's not a big deal.

The other one has a pot underneath it, happily collecting drips. I'll empty it when it gets full. Luckily, I have a rain jacket and boots, so I will stay dry no matter where the rain is.

Entertainment

As I said in my first post, the RV park has full hookups. This always means you will at least have access to city water, electricity, and a sewage connection.

When the RV is on electric (or a generator is running), the air conditioning unit and outlets work. So, we have a/c and we can plug in whatever we might want (laptops, microwaves, and tv).

The RV didn't have a tv or a microwave, so last night we went and bought them. At the end of the post, you can see a picture of our tv (a 19 inch Insignia HDTV/DVD combo). This little tv is awesome! It has low power usage (so if we go to solar, we won't have issues running it), it has the DVD player built in (space is always a consideration), and it has every possible connection you can think of (from VGA to HDMI). Last night we watched Epic (bought it as a $5 DVD) and the only complaint was the volume level. On TV mode, it's plenty loud.

We thought that the site had a cable hookup, because there are actually two coaxial cables to plug into. However, neither of them works. I went to the office to ask if cable was included or not, but it was closed until 6... So our little bunny ears are doing the job right now (yay digital breakup when a semi goes past on the highway).

The second picture is of our cute little microwave. We could have gone bigger but we decided that space won over power. Only $49. Thank you college students for making small microwaves cheap in the fall.

The microwave was necessary because the lp gas tube connection is having some issues and the gas is empty. We do have a propane camp stove and a few tanks but since we have electric, that's being saved for emergencies. Plus, we can cook without heating up the RV.

The Ants Come Marching

Our first night in the RV, we ran into some problems. When we moved the RV OUT of storage, we noticed a few ants. Mr. Man said that they sometimes climb up pipes and such.

Throughout that first day, I was randomly bitten by a few ants. It hurt. I was starting to think they were possibly fire ants.

During the night, the ants made their way up to the bed and kept biting Mr. Man. He was itching all over and didn't feel well. As it turns out, they were fire ants and Mr. Man is allergic! I had to drive us to Wal-Mart at 1 am to get benadryl for him. After the benadryl, he felt better and all of the swelling went down some. Thank goodness, because I was starting to panic.

We also bought some Raid Ant and Roach spray and he sprayed the ever-living daylight out of the RV. I am happy to report I haven't seen any ants or been bitten since.

The RV Life

So through various happenstance, Mr. Man and I are now residing in his rv. This RV is only slightly younger than I am (it was born in 1989) so it's been well-loved.

I have lived in the RV with Mr. Man and his friend when he was doing Ride the Rockies, back in June. It was different then because we were in a different town each night and the various "campground" setups meant we weren't sure what to expect before we got there.

We are currently parked north of a city right off of the intersection of two major highways. The RV park has full hookups (more on that later) and some nice teenage trees. It used to be a farm, which we both agree is a great way to keep the family land.

Our first night here, we had quite an adventure, which I will cover in my next post. For now, here is a tour of my humble abode.

(I am using the blogger app so bear with me).

First, the exterior. When we walk in the door using the handy folding foot stool, we are greeted by the dining room. To our right is the bedroom with the closet/cab below. To the left, is the kitchen and off of that is the bathroom and second bedroom.

The dining table can fold down into another bed if needed, but we don't need it. The back bedroom is probably meant to be the main bedroom, but Mr. Man put the better mattress in the loft. The kitchen has a small fridge (not pictured), a sink, a gas oven and range. The RV is too old to have a microwave installed so we bought one yesterday (the gas is on the fritz). That also means the water heater doesn't work at the moment, but the sun heats the water in the hose pretty damn well.