Today was a maintenance day, laundry day, and get stuff done around the camper day.
I was up around 7:30 and started working on posts. It was a bit overcast outside, and it was wet as it rained most of the night. It got a bit windy as well overnight, so I had to close the awning in the middle of the night. As I was catching up on emails as well, an email came in from the campground we’ll be staying at in Newport Beach.
It said due to the Stay at Home orders, they can only accommodate essential travelers, or essential workers, and if we were not one of those, we would need to cancel or reschedule. If we do go, we need to sign a waiver and select if we are either an essential traveler or worker, so we’ll likely try to go and select essential traveler. Later in the day I also received an email with login confirmation for our next campground near LA, and it had some language about that too. It’s looking like our passing through LA will get a little interesting.
Since our plan was to just stay around, and the weather was supposed to be bad, I didn’t wake anyone up and tried to let everyone sleep. Bia woke up around 8:30, and Bella woke up soon after, and so did Carol. The girls started watching TV and having breakfast. Carol had breakfast and got started on separating laundry. I was writing posts. I wanted to write at least two before going do other things.
I was done writing two posts around 10, so I got ready to go and left to a store that sold plumbing supplies. I wanted to get my on and off valve to instal by the water pump so we don’t have fresh water from the city leaking through the pump into the fresh water tank and filling it when we don’t want it filled. The one way valve was not perfect and allowed water back in sometimes, so the tank got full a couple of times again. I also wanted to buy some type of pump to inflate the trailer tires. The plumbing store had what I needed, it was much more heavy duty than I needed it to be, but they had it. I bought this ball valve, and two nipples to make all the fitting work.
Then I went to Walmart for the pump, but the one they had there was very crappy and the online reviews were not very positive, said it would break easily. I went to Lowes which was next door and found a very nice one. It’s a light pump, that runs on 120 or 12V, so you can run off your vehicle or plug in the wall. It is digital, so it has the target pressure and current, and will auto stop at the desired pressure. It also had a bunch of tips so you can use for balls, bikes, etc. Super awesome little pump, and it’s very light. It was $70 and I was happy I found that one. Then I went to a gas station to fill up, and buy a propane tank so we can use it with Carol’s new heater.
While I was out, Carol did laundry and worked on lunch. She was going to use the turkey she made in her new pan the other day and decided to make pies. She even baked the pies in the new pan, and they turned out awesome. That pan does rock. It’s this Ninja, all in one, air fryer, instapot, baking device… awesome. Carol is now thinking about starting videos again but focused on using this pot, and geared towards RV life. I think that’s a great idea, and hopefully we can work on some type of deal with Ninja 🙂 ehehehe.
When I got back, the girls were watching TV still, and it didn’t look like they had moved much. I told them they had ten more minutes and then had to come outside and do stuff outside. The day actually turned around and it was a nice day, it was warmer and sunny. Bella was not very happy but Bia complied without much complaining. Bia came outside and was on her phone for a bit, than just started playing… jumping rope and stuff. Later, she made a stop motion movie with Carol. Bella stayed inside for a while, and was complaining and throwing a tantrum. It took a while for her to get out of it, but she eventually did. She then came out and started making a target so she could shoot with her slingshot later. She took some cardboard, and paint, and made the whole thing. hahahaha.. she’s creative.
Carol was working on laundry and lunch pretty much all morning and early afternoon. Later on she helped Bia with her stop motion movie, and talked to her parents.
After I got back I started a bunch of little things at the same time almost :). I got the new tire pump and inflated the trailer tires first. I love that pump now! It’s so light, and quiet, and it’s actually pretty fast considering its size. And the fact you can just set the target temp and it’ll go and stop is pretty handy. Then I inflated the truck tires to spec. I also added the on and off valve to the water system. The first attempt had a leak, so I removed again and tightened more and added the one way valve to the end of the connection and it all worked. Now, I have an on and off, and a one way attached to it. If we want it off, it’ll be off and no water to or from the pump will go into the trailer. This will not damage the pump as when it runs and hits pressure back, the pump just stops. If we leave the valve ON, we still have the one way valve that should prevent water from going back into the fresh water tank, in case we forget it ON. I’ll make sure there are no leaks tomorrow again, and I’ll call it done. I rearranged the bed of the truck, to make room for the propane tank we are using for Carol’s heater. We are getting rid of a cooler we brought and never used, and some other things, like the little pump I had brought that didn’t work for us. I made room for the new pump in the tool box, it’s all there now. I got Carol’s new heater working. It’s pretty cool and throws out a nice heat, very directional too. I was done with my stuff and putting things away around 4, then I started a campfire.
Bia and Bella were outside playing then and putting some of the stuff they had scattered everywhere away. Carol came and sat by the fire while she talked to her parents. She had the camp fire in front of her and the new heater kind of behind from the side, it was a little heated cocoon hahaha. We finally used all of Carol’s pine cones today, used them in the fire :). It was pretty to watch those burn and the smell that comes up is really nice. It was definitely a day to get rid off stuff we don’t use anymore, including the pine cones we’ve been hauling for like 2 months.
One of the times I went inside to use the restroom, I saw a little “surprise” Bella left behind. hahahaha… she put some drawings on the toilet paper, and rolled it back, so as you used it, little faces would show up hahahahah.. oh, and when she was done building her target, we took a few shots at it, it was kind of cool. I hit the box on the first try, but not the target she made… she took a while to get used to the slingshot and finally hit the box.
As it got dark, Bella came out with her planting set she got from the surprise Santa and wanted to set it up. A bit harder to do when it’s dark, but we went for it. I helped her with the instructions, and she did the work. She really likes that stuff and enjoyed adding water to the soil mix, then planting the seeds, and the plant that came with it, etc. Now she has to wait 2 weeks or so for the seeds to germinate before she can even open the box. The set was missing a few things I think, but it’s fine. She had 8 seeds to plant, and there was some plant that the roots came for planting in this cup, so she has 9 things to watch change and grow.
We all hangout by the fire for a while. Bia got some marshmallows to roast. It was a bag I bought at the gas station, some brand we didn’t know. They said it tasted great, but the consistency was different, and not super fluffy. It didn’t grow as it got roasted. It was still pretty good according to them, I didn’t want to try as I was having beer. Bella got a Belvitta cookie that has chocolate filling, and she wanted to use that for her Smores. So she just split the cookie and put the marshmallow in there. It worked pretty good, she loved it. The girls had the last carbonated juice they had been saving in the fridge, and we stayed outside until the fire was gone, pretty much. It was a fun time.
Then we all went inside, showered, ate and the girls made their beds. It was time to switch, so now Bella is in the top bunk. They were having a good time at night, were taunting Maggie by putting her in a box, and sticking her head out of a hole. It was hilarious to watch Maggie walking with her head out of the box, and you just see the box moving with no body. Hahahaha. When we were all set, I put some TV on. Carol went to bed early to read, I stayed with the girls for a while and then we put them to bed around 11.
It was a fun day back in camp and we got a lot done.