Vacation – Days 2, 3 & Home

I was going to write a daily post while we were away, but between a serious lack of sleep due to the extra extra firm bed, and having 2 adults and 3 dogs confined to a space smaller than our living room, the last time I actually had the quiet and ability to think was early Sunday morning after hubby went back to bed once the dogs had gone out to potty and had been fed.  The dogs went back to sleep too.  I was in too much pain from the bed to even think about sleeping.

The first night, we both slept on the bed, along with Angel and Merlin.  The next two nights, hubby pulled out the sofa into a bed and slept there.  Angel and Sassy slept with him, and Merlin slept with me.  Merlin is a bed hog, and no matter how much room is in the bed, he has to sleep either immediately next to or on top of us.  I spent all 3 nights sleeping tossing and turning on less than half the bed, and waking up tired and in pain.

The "You shall not sleep" torture device, also known as the RV bed.

Aside from the bit of Saturday rain, it was sunny while we were at the park.  It was also blazing hot and muggy (someone who shall remain nameless decided we needed to take our trial trip in the middle of July even though we live in the south), so walks were limited to cooler morning and late afternoon hours.  But we wanted to be able to have them outside and not strictly confined to inside the RV.  Hubby came up with the idea of a “doggy yard”.  It wasn’t very pretty, but it was functional and served the purpose. And just so you know, the white table with only 2 legs was placed over a fire ant mound to keep the dogs out of it.

The Schatz Pack Doggy Yard

All 3 dogs took turns lying on the sofa, but Sassy opted to spend a lot of time under the table (and on our feet) or laying on the bare floor nearby.  Merlin decided the bed was his spot and he spent a lot of time there.  If Angel beat Sassy under the table, she slept there for awhile, otherwise she was on the sofa.  Monday morning we left the sofa bed pulled out, and all 3 were on it at the same time.  We rarely see all 3 on the same piece of furniture at home.  Alas, hubby’s claustrophobia set in and he put it back into sofa mode.

Pups on the sofa

At any rate, Sunday was a mostly quiet, sort of lazy day.  Angel, our little scaredy dog, barked at the scary monsters (aka RVs) that passed our spot as they entered or left the park.  She also barked at the various sounds the other campers made.  Luckily, she stopped when we told her to, although it did sometimes take 2 or 3 tries.  Sassy and Merlin barked mostly because Angel barked rather than starting it.  The dogs quickly figured out they could see out the front windshield by standing on the center console.  Sassy and Merlin also figured out they could jump up on the dashboard, which is huge compared to a car. 

Sunday dinner didn’t go quite as planned.  Hubby was going to grill marinated chicken but experienced technical issues and ended up bringing them inside for me to cook on the stove top.  Having learned our lesson about cooking on the stove the evening before, I opened the roof vent, turned on its fan, and opened the window in the “kitchen” before I even pulled out the skillet.

  The Kitchen - You can't really see it, but the pantry is directly right of the refrigerator.

Monday morning he had to work (gotta love being able to work anywhere you have an internet connection), so after I finished with my morning computer stuff, I sort of puttered around until he was done so he could have more space on the table.  I just couldn’t get into the puzzle book or any of the other non-computer stuff to do.  I was probably just too tired to even try.  Thankfully, hubby (mostly) fixed the technical issues with the grilling and he grilled a couple of rib eye steaks for dinner.  They came out rather well, and he learned a couple of lessons.  Now he just needs a charcoal grill to get some more practice.

Hubby spent a lot of time just sitting and looking out of the front window at the water … at least until the glaring afternoon sun hurt his eyes too much and forced us to pull the curtain closed.  When we weren’t outside with the pups, and he wasn’t looking at the water, we played Phase 10 (the dice game version) or Scrabble.  We also watched a few of the VCR movies we brought with us.  The RV had a dual VCR/DVD player, but since we no longer have a working VCR, we opted to bring movies we don’t get to watch anymore. 

After dinner, we took down the doggy yard, as well as packing unneeded items.  Unfortunately, Merlin decided the dashboard was the place to go when daddy started packing stuff into the outside storage compartments.  He was in a combination goofy-scared mood, and I spent a good 20 minutes getting him down because he kept jumping back up.  He finally decided staying down was a good idea after I hit my head on the edge of the backup camera while getting him down for the umpteenth time.  The spot is still quite tender and painful.

Tuesday morning, the dogs had us up early (again), but instead of going back to sleep, hubby decided to start getting stuff ready for us to leave.  He said he wasn’t rushing me, but he turned off the water and dumped the tanks before I could brush my teeth or do any cleaning.  We took the dogs for a last walk and threw out our trash, then pulled out of the park shortly after 7:00am.

The drive home was less eventful (no “oh s**t moments or turtles trying to cross the road).  We did get stuck behind a slow poke county truck that couldn’t or wouldn’t go the speed limit.  The worse part about this was that there are few stops along the road where an RV can easily pull in and out.  I needed a bathroom break, and was fussing at the driver of the truck under my breath.  He finally turned off just before a BP station that was big enough for the RV.  Hubby was so excited to be rid of the slow poke that he accelerated past the BP.  I whined and gave him a withering glare.  He said “Oops”.  So we continue down the road and end up behind another slow poke.  More fussing under my breath.  OMG, construction zone!  Thankfully the workers were not stopping traffic, so we were able to keep driving, albeit at a slower speed.  I spotted a gas station up ahead and told hubby he had better pull in there or else.  Wouldn’t you know, the slow poke driver in front of us pulled in there too.  Luckily for her, she didn’t need the restroom, which is a good thing since there was only one for both men and women.  Once I had used the facility, hubby filled the gas tank, we let the dogs out for a break, and we started home again.

We arrived home about 10:45am.  First order of business was getting the dogs into the backyard.  As we headed into the living room to get to the back door, we screeched to a halt and stared at the mess our son left.  After a few deep breaths and muttered expletives, we went out on the deck.  There we discovered more stuff, including one of the water bowls from inside and some dog poop.  WTH?  Yeah, the kiddo was in doo-doo when he got home from school and work.

After the initial shock, we let the dogs back inside while we started the process of unloading and then cleaning the RV.  We finished around 3:30, and the only thing left to do was to gather the towels left to collect the water after turning off the refrigerator and leaving it open – which we did this morning before hubby left for the office.  Then we went out to eat since we hadn’t eaten all day.  It was rather nice eating on real plates again with real glassware.  After dinner, other than feeding the animals, we pretty much vegetated, too tired to do anything.

Today I get to wash 4 loads of laundry, and unpack and put away everything from the trip, along with a run to the store for some groceries so I can feed us and the dogs.  By the time I’m done, I expect that I’ll be exhausted.  I’m still tired from the lack of sleep in the RV, the unloading and cleaning of the RV, and being woken up at 2:30 this morning.

I think I need a vacation from my vacation.  A housekeeper would work too.