Once back at the house it was time to start assembling items for the upcoming trip as well as make the house ready for the new occupants. Clothes, shoes, hiking boots, electronics, drone were all staged in the living room. Sheets were washed and bathrooms cleaned in all bedrooms. After 9 am, Kevin and Theresa began to make noise in the cul de sac as they opened up all the basement bays to remove unneeded items, vacuum left over debris from the last trip and repack just the essentials for this trip. This step was completed by noon. With a sense of great accomplishment, they took a break for lunch.
Next it was time to load up the staged items and find stowage space for all items. Items not needed until Toronto for Kiehl and Madison were put under the bed. Any items needed during travel would need a spot that was still accessible when the slides were pulled in. With 5 years now of travel experience the task was swiftly executed by the duo.
The heat of the day summoned another break and a chance to work inside assembling some of the more perishable items. With very little left to load into the home-away-from-home the afternoon would be focused on other tasks.
Torreen, Kevin's sister, had called a few days earlier saying that she had ran over her phone with her scooter and it was no longer working. This seemed like a good reason for an upgrade for Theresa so she can hand down her old phone to Torreen. Boom … Theresa Scores! This task took the remainder of the afternoon and left the evening for final prepping of the Tasman abode for it's new residences arrival on Sunday.
One last task on the RV was to hook up the water line and be sure that system is fully functional. Kevin drug out the hose from the house and connected it to the RV city water hose. Theresa opened a facet inside the coach, as instructed, so any air pressure could be released as the house water was initially turned on. Kevin looked at his connection and realized that he had not included the filter nor regulator that is normally part of the hook up. Water was turned off at the house while he included the missing items and once again was ready for any leak check in any of the connections. All looked solid, so the RV was locked for the night. Kevin and Theresa headed in for one last night in their house, from now on they would be guests.
With coffee in hand, Kevin made his first trip out to the RV that Sunday morning to unlock the beast for loading of the final items. Perhaps a Monday departure could get them a jump on the miles to the East of Chicago destination? His eagle eyes spotted a small puddle underneath the water and holding area. Looking under the coach he noticed a small drip, drip, drip coming from what appeared to be a connection to the fresh water holding tank. He then laid down on the street and shimmied under the coach and felt the underside of coach where the drips were coming from and discovered it was soaked and mushy. With a stream of expletives he quickly turned off the water from the house to avoid any further saturation.
There were more expletives as he explained the situation to Theresa. He looked under the coach again and this time looked all the way across the coach where the other holding tanks are and noticed that all three sections of the floor that covered the tanks were bulging and sagging like a full diaper. Not good, not good at all. Not sure where the leak was exactly, and fearful that the bottom would just fall out, Kevin was ready to call off any departure of any kind until this issue was resolved. Theresa was noticeably upset at not making the Leeney jamboree and even more upset about adjusting any of the numerous reservations and pre paid tickets that were already made! By afternoon, she did settle down and was resolved to the fact that there was nothing that could be done until Monday when service places and the Tiffin HQ were open.
There was only one thing left to do … Party with the neighbors and share the woes of RV ownership over some wine and appetizers. Steve was the first of the Sparano's to arrive just as the shade took over the cul de sac and chairs were positioned in an ever expanding circle. Zach would show up late that evening and Carolyn, Samantha and Zoe(the dog) will arrive on Monday.
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