Ch. 8 - Home Sweet Pennsylvania
It is easy to see where Rosie and Rinni get their love of travel from if you look at their parents. The two sisters were raised on the move, resulting in a deep love of the wide, wild world. They found an insatiable restlessness always pushing them to find a new spot, a new adventure, a new home. Their parents (henceforth known as Ma and Pa) haven’t slowed down either. Honestly, with all the zip zapping across the country those two do, they should be the logical RV owners of the family! It was only a matter of time before Ma and Pa’s path crossed Rosie and Rinni’s. The crosspoint ended up being Gettysburg, Pennsylvania! It was a real treat to have the family packed into the rig for the weekend and were able to explore the history of Gettysburg together.
Hosting their parents was such a breeze, they decided the RV was ready to handle real (non-related) guests. Rosie’s close friends, the Riley’s, live nearby and came out to check out camp life on the farm. The boys had a blast feeding the animals, tie-dyeing shirts, jumping in puddles, eating s’mores, and exploring every nook and cranny of the RV. (The adults had a great time too, fueled by Kim’s delicious cocktail wizardry!)
As fun as life in the country is, it was a welcome treat to bring the RV back to the Riley’s Camp Hill home. They have a gorgeous house with an incredible kitchen, and generously lended our travelers with a level driveway perfect for moochdocking!
What is Moochdocking: Moochdocking means you are boondocking or camping for free on your friends’ or family’s property, most often their driveway. It is like couch surfing, but you bring your entire rig along. If you are able to connect to water, power, or sewer then you are basically mooching off of them, hence the name. It isn’t always the most glamorous form of camping, but it definitely has some benefits!
-RVLife.com
Rosie and Rinni never noticed driveways before; but, after a few moochdocking stays, they truly have garnered an appreciation for those concrete slabs. After months of Covid quarantine, the sisters enjoyed time catching up with old friends, dining out and even going to a few live concerts. There was also lots of cooking! Things are just easier when you live in a house, like cooking in an oven (note the pie and meatloaf)…
and receiving packages (THANK YOU RILEY FAM for accepting the deluge of packages). Shipping may seem like a little thing, but there were many things the travelers required for their travels that had to be shipped, including a bike rack, a bug shelter, and a new stabilizing system.
WAIT! What even is A “stabilizing system” and why did they need a new one?? When Rosie and Rinni park the RV, they level it by driving onto blocks stacked to various heights. Then, they press a magic button and big steel arms drop down from under the RV onto the ground to ensure the RV isn’t rocking and rolling like a boat at sea. There’s still a bit of bounce in the rig, but they remove a lot of the sway out of the day.
Imagine: Rosie and Rinni were running through standard pack up procedures to move the rig. The “Retract Stabilizers” button was pressed and the stabilizers started moving up to their storage/driving position under the rig. They were aaalmooost there, when POP, one of them smacked right back down to the ground. “Well that’s not good”, Rosie and Rinni said in unison. Investigating under the rig, Rinni found a couple bolts and cracked bushings. Since one leg was functional and one broken, it was easy to figure out where the parts popped from and how it should all go back together. Easy enough. The bushings were cracked and mangled so they’d just need to get new ones. Rinni called a parts place, who informed her they didn’t sell the bushings but could buy the whole system for 1,000 bucks. Rinni looked everywhere for bushings the right size, but damn if they exist. So she bought some at the home depot with the correct outer and inner diameter and cut the length down to size. Back under the rig, she learned that she couldn’t angle the pieces to go back together without detaching the motor. This was getting a bit too advanced and decided to call the manufacturer directly to see if they’d tell her how to fix the thing. The very kind man at the manufacturer informed her that it was indeed impossible to replace the bushings, but they would send a new system under warranty. At this point, Rinni has spent so much time googling and deburring useless custom bushings that it was time to leave the Riley’s and their shipping address behind. A few zip ties later and the broken stabilizers weren’t fixed, but at least they weren’t dragging along under the RV.
Will Rosie and Rinni solve their stabilizer woes? Will Rinni ever stop grumbling about bushing sizes? Tune in next week to see if the adventure continues!
