106 - Ain't Nobody Got Time for That

Ah Sweet Brown, you are etched into my vocabulary and my psyche, and today you are especially relevant.

So there I was in the bathroom when I smelled something foul. You may think this is normal, but since I was doing my hair, it wasn't. It smelled sort of cabbage like at first so I leaned over to take a whiff of the toilet. Since the bowl doesn't hold water at the moment, it's entirely possible that sewer gasses can come up and cause an odor, but it didn't smell like methane. Then I heard a couple of pops in the living area so I stuck my head out and smelled burning electrical components. As I came down the stairs I saw dark grey smoke billowing from the large vent next to our refrigerator.

At this point I freaked out and everything seemed to happen at once.

My first thought was... is our RV on fire? Then I worried about where to put Gracie... could I get to the cage in time? The windows were already open because it was nice outside, so the smoke had somewhere to go, but the heater had come on and since the smoke was coming out of the vent I figured the two might be related. I shut that off and went out to open the storage compartments to see if I could see anything there. I couldn't see anything from the vent because of the smoke, and I couldn't remove the cover because I didn't have an allen wrench handy. There was smoke in the storage compartment, but I couldn't see the cause and the smoke seemed to have stopped.

I came back inside and shut the fuses off because the tv power indicator lights were flickering and going crazy... didn't notice that initially because I was more worried about a fire. Then I shut the breaker off at the pedestal. I called the mobile RV repair guy and scheduled him to come out and I called our dealer and asked for a copy of our extended warranty, which I had done a couple of days ago... apparently there are only two people qualified to email that to me and neither of them are available. I told them I couldn't wait any longer, my RV almost caught on fire and I needed at least the name of the warranty company. After I calmed down a little more, I called the office and asked them to come check their pedestal.

In the meantime, I tried to disconnect the plug from the back of our RV and it wouldn't come out. I came to the conclusion that the power surge melted the plastic enough to warp it and it was now stuck... half-in, half-out. Great.

The maintenance man said that there was power at the pedestal, so that wasn't the problem, it would have to be from the surge protector to the RV. Since he didn't check the voltage I can't say that's the case... The maintenance man tried to dislodge the plug from the back of the RV and couldn't get it out. The two guys staying next door came over and asked if we were having problems with our electricity because their power has been coming off and on for the last couple of days. They both tried to dislodge the plug... No dice. They did get it back into the receptacle and we turned the power back on... everything seemed to work, but I have kept the load low... just the television components, my computer and charging my phone. Except for the times when I have the washer going and I'm cooking, I don't usually keep a lot on the circuit.

The mobile repair guy came out. He looked behind the vent and said there's nothing back there that should smoke. The furnace looked fine. Then he said if it's been a while since the furnace has been on, it sometimes smokes a little. That's not the kind of smoke that was coming out, and we have been using it off and on since we got the RV back. So he said if the fuse panel started to smoke it could have been drawn into the vents. He checked that wiring and said it was fine, putting out 120 volts on both sides. He checked an outlet and it was fine. He checked the pedestal and it was fine. I was getting a little frustrated. Finally when I had him try to remove the plug, he said the same thing I thought... it melted the plug and we have to replace the receptacle and the cord. He said there is no way to predict a power surge, they happen sometimes, and our surge protector is probably what caused the power indicator lights to go all schizophrenic, because it was shutting the power down... probably saved our electronics.

In the meantime, everything should be safe to use. We turned the furnace on and it ran fine, no smoke. He said the receptacle should be covered by our warranty and he would also see about getting the toilet replaced. He thinks he might be able to get the parts by Monday or Tuesday.

I have lost all confidence in this fifth wheel. I'm afraid to leave it unattended at this point with anything running, because what if that had happened and I wasn't home? Losing our stuff would be bad enough, but to come home and find it burnt to the ground, knowing that Gracie was inside is a horrifying thought. I just don't know what to do anymore. At this point I've had all I can take. I know things can get worse, they can always get worse, but fucking hell... between the truck and this shithole I'm at my wit's end.

I feel stuck. My house is rented until June, so even if I wanted to go back - which I don't - I can't. We can't qualify for a loan, so we can't get out of this thing and into a house, and we are stuck paying $625/mo in storage fees in the meantime. There are some dumps out there that we could probably afford through owner finance, but that's just digging a hole deeper and delaying our ability to get into something we do want and I refuse to make another bad decision. My car is in Georgetown, the rest of our vehicles are still in Houston... truck is in the shop. Any time we start to make financial headway, we lose more ground than we gained. Every time we turn around it's bad news.

Hell, at this point, we can't even move onto our land and just keep the RV stationary because we can't afford to have it leveled again, we can't afford the concrete for our building, we can't afford to put the building up, we can't afford to insulate it, we can't afford to put end walls and doors on it, we can't build the inside out, we can't afford the utilities... we can't afford shit.

Stuck. And pissed. And tired of worrying about everything.