THE BIG STINK

We are now back in Connecticut for Acacia's wedding. As many of you know, Acacia (my daughter) purchased our house in February. We left for our full-time RV adventure in April. So after a month of being away we returned to our former home to find a reorganized interior. We are now relegated to the small bedroom and the small bed. More importantly, we have been mildly scolded about neatness--hummm!
The 2 weeks prior to returning to CT have been dominated by the "big stink." We started noticing a smell of rotten eggs, similar to the smell of grey water, in the rig. The odor seemed to be on the exterior of the rig and infiltrated the rig from the outside. The smell became so intense that we could not live inside. I was able to alleviate the odor by creating a positive pressure inside which kept the stink at bay. However, the stink was so pervasive that we cancelled the remaining days in a campground and went to the factory service center in Decatur, IN. They took us as a walk-in without an appointment and did a thorough job of testing and upgrading the entire grey water system.
After spending 2 nights in Decatur, we left for Chain o Lakes State Park in Albion, IN. Chain o Lakes is a beautiful park with a lot of good boating and biking opportunities as well as having a 413 site campground. It turned out that we were the only residents of the park for our 1st night but this was a good thing as the stink returned with a vengeance which any neighbor would be able to smell. Frustration set in and thoughts of getting off-the-road were starting. I decided to take things into my own hands and rip apart the rig until I diagnosed the problem. After spending about an hour crawling under the rig and starring at every nut, bolt, and connection it dawned on me that there is another item in the rig which can emit an odor of rotten eggs--the batteries (sulfuric acid). Armed with this epiphany I opened the battery compartment to discover a major stink and a sizzling battery. I have no idea regarding the root cause of the problem, but at least I identified the problem. Relief set in, our adventure was going to continue, and my 1st martini of the trip was justified!
On to the Escapade and Boot Camp. The Escapade is the annual rally of the Escapee's RV Club. The club is focused on full-time RVer's and the Boot Camp is a pre-rally training course for new RVer's. The rally turned out to be a gathering of almost 1,100 RVer's with their rigs and provided educational seminars, RV products at rally prices, and entertainment. We were there for 8 nights, had a good time, made some new friends, and spent a lot of $ upgrading to our rig.

New friends Dave and Leslie.
Dave and I worked together for several years and recently became friends when we
discovered a mutual intent to enter the full-time RV world.
Dave and I retired on the same day.

Upon arrival at the rally the batteries went on the attack. It seems that charging the batteries while traveling really annoys them. They were hissing and steaming at me like an overheated tea kettle. Since I knew that a partial solution to the battery problem was as simple as adding water, I figured I would just pop the cell covers on the batteries and refill with water. Not a good idea--not at all! Once the cell covers loosened, the pressure inside the batteries resulted in an eruption as water combined with battery acid geysered 3 feet into the air. The liquid solution soaked my leather recliner, my hiking shoes, my arms, my pants, and shirt. We quickly cleaned the floor of the rig, the recliner, my shoes, and I doused myself with water. There appeared to be no damages. I was fortunate that I had my skin protected, used rubber gloves, and had worn protective eyewear. With the disaster averted, it was off to Boot Camp to learn as well as to meet other new RVer's. It turned out that I made a memorable impact as unbeknownst to me the battery acid went to work on my clothes. When the afternoon Boot Camp session ended and I returned to the rig I noticed that the acid had burned several holes through my shirt in the chest and stomach area, and on my pants in the crotch area. Not the best way to make new friends and impress strangers!

We did manage one interesting side trip after the Escapade. We visited the RV Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN. You don't have to own an RV to enjoy the RV Hall of Fame, but if you own one this museum is special. I won't bore you with a lot of details, but some pics are justified.