Hello.. new here, and to RV'ing

[Pam and Paul]

My hubs and I just bought our first RV, and to say the least, we have a lot to learn! I am so happy to have found this forum, so maybe our 2nd week on the road will go much smoother!

We made our first trip out from Mississippi to Virginia. As nervous as first parents, we hit the road. Stopping to fuel up and kick the tires along the way. We had a destination, but neither of us thought to call ahead, that was the 1st mistake (well 2nd, but I will get to the first BIG mistake we made later) we wanted to stay at The Pocahontas National Park....I had read all about it and it sounds wonderful... but when we got there we started noticing Event Parking Signs a mile from the entrance, we got a lot worried and sure enough the park was sold out for a Music Festival, if we'd only called to make reservations that would have been Awesome! By this time it was getting a little late, and feeling like this, "lets just go where the road takes us" plan, might not be such a great plan, we started calling around until we found a place to park. While pulling in to turn around, we passed the nice park ranger, who supplied us with pamphlets with the numbers of near by RV parks, and a city map! As we were passing by we stopped to wave and tell her thanks, she asks if we found another place we told her Yes, and a fellow standing next to her pointed to his trailer and said "I am in the same pickle, I come here every year..I didn't have a reservation neither. Well, that made feel a little less nincompoops.

Finally, we got to our new park, a beautiful place, perfect place! Very nice folks. They led us to our spot on a goof cart, help the hubs back our trailer in... it only took him 8 tries to get it in straight and lined up, I was glad he had gotten a lot better at it. Yay!!! We were parked, I could see a hot shower and nice cozy bed in my immediate future. Hubs got busy leveling and I got bust uploading our clothes, linens, towels, pillow, and groceries. I just put everything else except the groceries out of the way in the back bunk room floor.

Well at this point I'm getting quite sleepy, so I will have to finish the story later.....it get's really fun when mistake #1 is learned..... and then I have to tell you about the catastrophe! And something very important that I learned the hard way.

Good night :sleepy:

[WildWildWest]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on the new RV! Look forward to hearing more...and it will get better!

[fhenn]

Welcome to the forum here.In Ms you can make reservation through Reserve America on our state parks. The other great source of good camping is the Water Parks. Pat Harrison has quote a few of them Let alone the four around the Rez.

[cw3jason]

Welcome, Can't wait to hear the rest of your story!

[Tim D]

Congrats. Welcome. Can't wait to hear "the rest of the story".

[kcandsting]

Welcome to the forum.

[Greg Z-1]

Welcome to the forum. There are a lot of us 'newbies' here, but there are also a lot of experienced RV'ers to learn from. Glad you are here and looking forward to learning a thing or two from you when you get back.

[ZT211RD]

Welcome and thanks for sharing.
I tried to share some of our "Lessons Learned" but there is a maximum amount you can post. Grin

[cowboy_71]

Welcome to the forum....it's a great place for information...

[DavisK]

Welcome to the forum. If you are referring to Pocahontas State Park, then you were only about 5 miles from where I work. One of the other members here lives just a few miles down the road from that park.

[mike06081969]

Congrats on your new trailer, and welcome to the forum! I enjoyed your story, can't wait to hear how it ends. You guys are definitely getting your feet wet heading out from Mississippi to Virginia on your first ever trip, lol. My first RV experience was about 2 miles from the house at a county park campground. I didn't venture out more than 30 miles for several months. Good luck. You will be old pros before you know it.

[Loneoak]

Welcome! Lots of experience on this forum. There is quite a learning curve when it comes to the RV lifestyle, and there are lots of friendly folks along the way to help you. Most of us learned from others and we are now "passing it forward". Even some of us experienced RVers run into situations that could use a little input from others. You never stop learning!

[anaro]

Hello and welcome. You have made the first of many mistakes, if you can't learn from them and laugh at them then what fun is it? Let us know the rest of the story!

[Pam and Paul]

Thank you all for your kind welcome! Yes, we have learned a lot in the last few weeks, and met a lot of friendly folks. It has actually been a wonderful experience, after we got past first couple of nights.

I left off my last story at the point with me bringing all our things into the trailer while hubs was leveling and hooking up everything........ well this is where "mistake #1" became apparent. Soon after turning the water on we had water gushing from under the trailer.... after investigating, hubs determined the hot water tank was busted!!! To bypass it, he opened up the compartment over our bed, (something I found useful the next day). Problem solved! We would not have hot water until we got a new tank, but we had water.... I walked out with hubs watching for leaks while he removed the tank to have it replaced. When he finished he walked in to clean up and came bolting back out to turn the water back off! We had a cracked toilet pipe, and the camper was full of water! All of our clothes and linens were soaked! We cleaned all of that up and left the water off and just went to bed. The next morning the hubs left to buy replacement parts, there he found out, both cracks were likely caused by us not knowing to winterize the camper, that I call our 1st mistake and lesson learned!
Now, I will tell you about mistake 3, and this one made me feel like I was filming one a kooky scene from the I love Lucy show... that day after hubs woke and left to run errands and to get the needed parts and other supplies. I woke, I was going to go wash and dry all our things. We had put everything outside to dry and to clean up all the water the night before. while still in my robe I stepped outside to get my shoes, when I turned around to open the door, I found it had locked behind me! I tried pulling and prying on it and it would not open...I didn't have my phone, I was not dressed to go anywhere, so I decided to just sit in the lawn chairs and wait it out. Knowing that it could be several hours or even longer, knowing that one of hubs stop would be the Home Depot, and that always takes half a day. I thought of ways to get back in the camper, finally it dawned on me! I could crawl in through the compartment under the bed.... it was not easy, but that is what I did, by that time I was exhausted and hot... but, I couldn't help but laugh. But, now....because of that mistake, it kind of resulted in the "catastrophe"!

After hubs got back,and all was fixed we started enjoying ourselves. We set up camp which included the canopy... I was showing hubs how to open it, because "I Googled it and knew".. as we were opening it I raised my half, he raised his half, and then I raised mine a little more... then he said, no leave it slanted enough in case it rains the water will run off, I said no, it needs to be tight..... well, sure enough, he left the next day and there came a down pour! After a while of very heavy rain, I opened them door to check on the canopy... the whole middle of it was full of water!!! I could just imagine it getting so full it ripped open....I decided I had to do something, because if it broke, it would be MY fault for not listening to hubs. So, I went out it the the rain to quickly let it down so the water could run off, and being a quick learner, I left the door wide open so I wouldn't get locked out again....I run an grab the release handle on the canopy, without stopping to think how much all that water would weigh! As soon as I lifted that handle, the canopy slammed down, breaking the canopy arm and because I had left that door open, it ripped the canopy open. .....Another lesson learned! But the biggest thing I learned is how much the hubs loves me :-). He did not kill me, he didn't even get mad. He of coarse didn't like it that the canopy was torn up, but he was more concerned that I was not hurt...

All that in the 3 days.... we have been happy campers since. We are now having a wonderful time and even though it has been only a couple of weeks we can laugh at the mistakes we made. We are having the time of our lives.

[Loneoak]

You are sure being initiated the hard way! Kudos to you both for keeping your spirits up in spite of all those catastrophes! Enjoyed the story, however.

[cw3jason]

Great story! I am sorry all that happened, but I am really glad you and your husband are keeping a positive outlook. I wish you would have found this site before, we could have saved you some headaches. If you have any new questions, do not hesitate to ask

[Tim D]

Funny now. Probably not so much when it happened. Hopefully now that you got it straightened out you can relax and enjoy.

[Pam and Paul]

That's how I found this site, I thought I needed to read up on what to, and not to do. It has been very helpful!

[MidOhioHunter]

Well on the bright side Pam, you got all the bad out of the way and now the only way to go is up. You are heading in the right direction. My wife, kids & I are newbies at this too. Whether many here on this forum know it or not, I've learned a lot by reading about experiences and making mental notes on what to do and not do. By taking it all in, our first three trips have been very good and getting better. Now we are going out on our first big trip, 3000 miles roundtrip from Ohio to South Dakota.

[kcandsting]

You'll have some great campfire stories.