Buddy and the Mini-Winnie
Day 6
For me, the Great Alaskan Adventure started here.
We got up in the morning and drove to where we picked up the RV. It’s a 31-foot Mini-Winnie. Much bigger than we needed, but it was the only rental RV we could find in Fairbanks.
The owner rents the RV out through a rental service, Outdoorsy. Outdoorsy promised us that there would be someone there to go over how everything worked and record any damage before we took the vehicle.
Uh uh. The woman who owned the RV was not there. It turns out she is a nurse and couldn’t get off work to come check us out.
“What about your husband?” I asked.
Apparently, he works on the North Slope and was gone for two weeks.
OK, she promised to make us a video showing how everything works. Nope. Didn’t come. We did get a short text telling us some of the basics.
It’s a good thing that I wasn’t a tenderfoot. I’ve had a lot of experience with RVs. We walked around the vehicle and familiarized ourselves with the various systems. Sometimes the instructions were helpful, sometimes they made no sense at all.
My friend, Gary, has an almost identical RV that I’ve spend several nights in. When we couldn’t figure out how to turn the house batteries on, it hit me. The switch was in the entryway well, not on the outside of the cabin as the instructions indicated. I flipped the switch and, voila, everything worked.
We continued to familiarize ourselves with the unit until I was happy that we were ready. Then off we went.
While we were trying to figure out the vehicle, Buddy sent many texts to the owner. She did not respond. Hours later, she texted answering only the last question. We had it all figured out by then anyway.
I’m told that Alaska is a spectacular country with incredible scenery.
For me, the Great Alaskan Adventure started here.
We got up in the morning and drove to where we picked up the RV. It’s a 31-foot Mini-Winnie. Much bigger than we needed, but it was the only rental RV we could find in Fairbanks.
The owner rents the RV out through a rental service, Outdoorsy. Outdoorsy promised us that there would be someone there to go over how everything worked and record any damage before we took the vehicle.
Uh uh. The woman who owned the RV was not there. It turns out she is a nurse and couldn’t get off work to come check us out.
“What about your husband?” I asked.
Apparently, he works on the North Slope and was gone for two weeks.
OK, she promised to make us a video showing how everything works. Nope. Didn’t come. We did get a short text telling us some of the basics.
It’s a good thing that I wasn’t a tenderfoot. I’ve had a lot of experience with RVs. We walked around the vehicle and familiarized ourselves with the various systems. Sometimes the instructions were helpful, sometimes they made no sense at all.
My friend, Gary, has an almost identical RV that I’ve spend several nights in. When we couldn’t figure out how to turn the house batteries on, it hit me. The switch was in the entryway well, not on the outside of the cabin as the instructions indicated. I flipped the switch and, voila, everything worked.
We continued to familiarize ourselves with the unit until I was happy that we were ready. Then off we went.
While we were trying to figure out the vehicle, Buddy sent many texts to the owner. She did not respond. Hours later, she texted answering only the last question. We had it all figured out by then anyway.
I’m told that Alaska is a spectacular country with incredible scenery.
The Great Alaskan Wilderness
You couldn’t prove it by me. It had rained since we arrived, and it wasn’t about to stop now. We headed off into the wilds, with such a low cloud cover we couldn’t even see the tops of the trees.
We headed out toward Seward, Alaska. Buddy informed me that it was such a nice, picturesque little town. OK, but the campground she selected is about an hour outside of town.
We found our campsite in a National Forrest campground. The pad was far from level, and we didn’t have any jacks or other equipment in the rig to level her out.
I found several sticks of firewood in the storage bin and tried to use that. We got her near level fore and aft, but she had a horrible starboard list. We fiddled with it for about half an hour and I gave up.
“That’s good enough.”
Then there was the generator. There is a control panel next to the refrigerator. I flipped the generator switch on. It fired a couple of times, then died. I tried again. Same results. Buddy texted the owner. The next day she replied that you have to hold the switch down until the generator is running. I tried it and got the same results. Oh, well, who needs electricity anyway? Lewis and Clark didn’t have a generator.
We headed out toward Seward, Alaska. Buddy informed me that it was such a nice, picturesque little town. OK, but the campground she selected is about an hour outside of town.
We found our campsite in a National Forrest campground. The pad was far from level, and we didn’t have any jacks or other equipment in the rig to level her out.
I found several sticks of firewood in the storage bin and tried to use that. We got her near level fore and aft, but she had a horrible starboard list. We fiddled with it for about half an hour and I gave up.
“That’s good enough.”
Then there was the generator. There is a control panel next to the refrigerator. I flipped the generator switch on. It fired a couple of times, then died. I tried again. Same results. Buddy texted the owner. The next day she replied that you have to hold the switch down until the generator is running. I tried it and got the same results. Oh, well, who needs electricity anyway? Lewis and Clark didn’t have a generator.
Buddy at the Helm
RSS Feed