Mango Bob (7 page)

“After you get locked out a few times, you'll learn to keep your keys with you.

“Let's go back to the rear of the coach and I'll show you how to hook up the water and power.”

Jack pointed to a small door at the back of the driver's side. “That's your utility compartment. You'll find your water, electric, sewer, and cable TV connections in there.

“One of the keys you've got will unlock it. Go ahead and give it a try.”

After I unlocked the door, Jack pointed, “See that chrome hook above the compartment? Use that to hold the door open.

“Now that you've got both hands free, reach inside and get that heavy black cable. That's the power cable.

“Push the plug through the opening in the bottom of the compartment. Then pull out enough cable to reach the electrical box over here.”

Jack was pointing to a pole at the rear of the campsite that had a fuse box attached to it.

“Before you do anything, flip the breaker on this fuse box to 'Off'. Then plug in your cable, and flip the breaker back on.”

I did as Jack instructed. When I flipped the breaker back on, I could hear beeps from inside the motorhome.

“That sound you hear is the microwave beeping to let you know it's powered up.”

“Next, you'll want to connect to water. Get the end of that white water hose and push it through the opening in the compartment floor. Don't let the hose end touch the ground.

“Then pull the hose over here to the water spigot.”

Jack was pointing to a water pipe near the electrical box we just hooked up to.

“It's a good idea to spray the water faucet with bleach before connecting. You never know who or what may have touched this spigot last.

“Could have been someone just dumped their sewer tank and didn't wash their hands. Or maybe a raccoon or dog looking for a drink of water.

“Either way, you don't want to contaminate your drinking water. That's why we keep a spray bottle of bleach in our utility compartment and use it to clean the water hose connections.”

I nodded, “That's a good idea. I'll have to remember to pick some up next time I'm at Walmart.”

Jack pointed to the faucet, “Since you don't have bleach, go ahead and connect the water-hose. Just don't drink the water.”

“I won't. I usually drink bottled water anyway. Just to be on the safe side.” I didn't tell Jack I'd gotten in the habit of always having bottled water with me from my days in Iraq.

Jack pointed inside the compartment, “That large black connector there is for your sewer hose.

“Some campgrounds have a sewer connection at each site so you can dump your tanks. But this park doesn't. They just have a main dump station near the exit gate.”

Jack pointed to the compartment door, “Now that you've hooked everything up, close the compartment door. Just unhook it from the chrome latch, close it, and turn the knob to lock it.”

Jack saw me wiping my hands on my pants. “Yep, you can get your hands dirty doing this. That's why it's a good idea to keep some rubber gloves and sani-wipes close by. Add those to your shopping list.”

“Will do.”

“Now if you want, we can go inside and I'll show you how to check the levels and make sure everything is running the way it should.”

I smiled, “That'd be great. I appreciate anything you can show me.”

Jack hesitated, “You want to go in first? Hide anything I shouldn't see?”

I laughed, “All you're going to see inside is how little I have. Just a few cleaning supplies I picked up at Walmart.

“It's safe, go on in.”

I opened the door, “Ladies first”, as I waved Jean in. Jack followed, I brought up the rear.

Jean spoke first, “Not bad. Looks just like ours. Even has the same color scheme we have. Smells like you just cleaned it up.”

I beamed, “You're right, just finished cleaning. It was a real mess when I picked it up.”

“You did a good job. Looks new.”

Jack turned and pointed to a rocker switch near the entry door. “That's your coach power switch. If you disconnect from shore power and want to run on batteries, you have to flip the rocker switch to 'On'.

“Usually you'll leave the power on when you're using the coach, and turn it off when you going to be away for a few days.

“If you forget to turn the power off, it'll eventually drain your batteries.

“If you're using your fridge, even on propane, you need to have the battery power switch on.”

Jean laughed. “Jack learned this the hard way. We put the coach away for a month and forgot to turn the battery power off. The next time we wanted to use it, the batteries were so dead we had to replace them.”

“And then there was the time we stayed with a friend for a few days and Jack flipped the power switch off to save the batteries.”

“When we came back five days later, everything in the fridge had gone bad. It was a real mess.”

“And speaking of messes, there was the time Jack was dumping the tanks and somehow the sewer hose popped off after he opened the valve. Sprayed sewage all over him . . .”

Jean was laughing so hard she couldn't continue. Jack started laughing too. “Yeah, that was a mess. But I learned my lesson. Only happened to me once.”

Jack turned to Jean, “Okay if I continue?”

She sheepishly nodded, “Yes. I'm really enjoying this.”

Jack turned back to me, then pointed to the dinette area. “That's your slide room. You can push the button on the wall over there and the dinette room will slide out, giving you more space inside.”

I moved to the wall and started to press the button.

Jack stopped me. “Don't press it yet. You need to check outside. Make sure nothing's in the way of the slide. Could be real expensive if you run the slide room into a picnic table or tree.”

“Yeah, that'd be bad. I'll go check.”

I went outside and checked. There was at least six feet of clearance between the slide room and the nearest tree.

Back in the coach, I reported my findings, “All clear. Nothing in the way.”

“Good. One last tip - the slide won't go out if the parking brake is not set. Check the brake, and then come back here.”

The brake was still set from when I parked the coach earlier, but I checked just to satisfy Jack.

“All set here. The brake's set.”

Jack motioned me back to the slide switch. “Here's where it gets fun. Press the 'Extend' button.”

I did and and like magic, the wall behind the dinette slowly moved out, taking the dinette with it.

After a few seconds, the wall stopped moving just as the extended floor dropped to match the level of the original coach floor.

“Wow! That is pretty cool! It really opens up a lot of space.”

“I told you it was like magic. Makes a big difference. Now let me show you a few other things you'll want to know.

“Over here, up on the ceiling is your TV antenna crank. To use it, unfold this little handle, and crank clock-wise until it stops. Then reach into the TV compartment and press the button labeled 'antenna amplifier'. Then use the remote to turn the TV on, put it in scan mode, and it'll seek out all the TV channels in the area.”

Jack walked over to the kitchen area, “You've got a two way refrigerator. It'll run on shore power or propane. Either way will keep things cool, even keep ice cream frozen in the freezer.

“Use the switch on the door to set the power mode - electric or propane. We usually leave it in the middle, on 'automatic'. That way the fridge automatically chooses whichever power source is available.

“Over here is the power switch for the hot water heater. Just flip it on a few minutes before you need hot water. Turn it off after the water gets hot.

“Oh, almost forgot. Your systems display panel.”

Jack was pointing at a black panel on the wall, displaying several vertical bars.

“By pressing the 'levels' button, you'll see a bar chart showing the condition of your systems."

Jacked pressed the button, and the indicators showed battery at 100%. Propane at 80%. Gray water 10%. Black water 10%. Fresh water 30%.

“All good. When the black or gray water gets over 50%, you probably want to dump your tanks. When propane gets under 25%, you'll want to fill up.

“That pretty much covers everything. Any questions?”

I thought for a moment, “What do I do in the morning when I get ready to leave?”

“Good question. When you get ready to leave the site, crank down the TV antenna first. Then retract the slide room. After you retract the slide, go outside and disconnect from shore power and unhook the water hose.

“Stow the power-cord and water hose in the utility compartment and close the small panel on the floor of the compartment. Then lock all the outside compartments.

"Walk around the coach to make sure the antenna is down, the slide is in, and everything is disconnected. Then come back inside, make sure all the cabinets and drawers are closed, and nothing has been left out that can move around while you're driving.

“After all that, start the motor, pull out of your site, and stop. Get out and check that you haven't left anything behind. Then go.”

He saw the look on my face and chuckled. “Once you do it a few times, it'll become second nature.”

Jean asked, “You leaving in the morning?”

“No. I've got to go to work in the morning. And since this is my only means of transportation, I'm driving it. But I'll be back tomorrow night.”

“Good. If you're here tomorrow, maybe we can get together again. How long you plan on staying?”

I hadn't really thought about it. Then I surprised myself by saying, “I'm thinking about leaving for Florida Saturday.”

“Really? What part of Florida?”

“I haven't decided yet. I just thought with winter coming, it might be nicer to spend it in Florida.”

Jean brightened up. “That's what we've been doing for the past five years. Driving to Florida and spending the winter in a house we rent in Venice.

“We stop here for a day or two. Then we're off again.

“We're planning on leaving Saturday morning. If you want, we can get together tomorrow evening and show you the route we are taking.”

“I'd like that. Knowing your route might keep me out of trouble.”

Jack's stomach growled and Jean said, “Sounds like it's time to feed Jack.”

She stood, “It's been nice meeting you. Maybe we'll get together again tomorrow.”

Jack turned to me. “We're in Section B. If you run into any problems or have any questions, feel free to come by. Hope to see you tomorrow.”

After they left I felt pretty confident about my decision to buy the Love Bus.

I'd just gotten a lesson on how to operate most of the systems and had met my first motorhome friends.

Tonight I'd be sleeping indoors in a real bed, with a solid roof over my head.

Being homeless was finally starting to feel like a real vacation.

17

The wake-up alarm on my cell phone chimed. It was time to start a new day.

I'd slept well. Safe and secure without worrying about raccoons or wind and rain.

For the first time in two weeks, I was living with lights, running water, flush toilet and shower - all the comforts of a real home.

What a great way to start the day!

I did my normal morning run, then got ready for my last day of work. Before going to the office, I wanted to take care of a couple of things.

First, I needed to go by Value Self Store and empty out my storage unit. Everything there would easily fit in the cargo bay of the motorhome.

Then over to Pack 'N Ship to check my mail. Make sure nothing important had come in.

And at some point during the day, I needed to go back to Walmart to get some of the items Jack had mentioned the night before. Bleach, spray bottle, sani-wipes, rubber gloves.

The most important task of the day was to go to the office one last time to pick up my final pay check. And find out what kind of surprise Molly had in store for me.

Probably a going-away cupcake with a little flag that read 'live your dreams', if I knew Molly.

After showering and dressing, I followed Jack's checklist of things to do before leaving the camp site.

I cranked down the TV antenna, brought in the slide room, unhooked the water and electric, checked and locked all the storage compartments, and secured everything inside.

Took about 10 minutes to do it all.

Then a quick walk around outside the coach, just to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything. That's when I saw my big blue tent from Walmart.

I didn't want to leave it here for someone else to clean up, so I packed it up and placed it in one of the cargo bays. I'd get rid of it later.

With that taken care of, I eased the Love Bus out of the campsite and headed to McDonald's. It was a scrambled egg and orange juice kind of morning.