Day 4 was Sunday. We dressed for church and said goodbye to the peaceful RV park. We attended church with a local congregation in Spring City. We enjoyed talking with the great people we met there. We even had someone invite us over if we didn't have anywhere to go after church. We wanted to be home for a family dinner that night so we made a quick lunch in the church parking a lot and then headed home.

The rest of the day gave us a nice break from the rain. The sun was shinning and the sky was blue with a few big puffy clouds. The landscape was so green and alive. 

We're so glad we had this experience! We learned a lot in just a few days and I'm sure we'll learn tons more once we're living in one of these full time.

In the morning on day 3, we drove to the small town of Mt. Pleasant and had some breakfast at Cindy's Cafe. Breakfast was great and the locals were very warm and friendly. After calling around to some of the RV parks in the surrounding area, we decided to head over to Camper's World, Pleasant Creek Ranch.

The park attendants put us in a spot close to the main building so we would have a strong wifi signal and easy access to the restrooms. Once we plugged the RV in, we started charging the laptops and took our dog, Fender, out to play Frisbee for bit.

It's still the off season for RV parks around here, so it was a nice quiet day at the park. It rained on and off all day while we read, edited video and watched a bunch of bus conversion videos on youtube. We went for a nice walk before the sun went down and we both took advantage of the warm, clean showers at the RV park.

This morning, on my daily walk with Fender, I spotted a leak underneath the RV. Unfortunately, the water leaking was not clear... it was blue... and other colors too. Upon further inspection, I realized it was coming from the black water tank. Great.

The drain pipe had become completely disconnected, and was dripping out blue water, toilet paper, and everything else nasty that you'd expect to be leaking from a black tank. Fortunately the toilet had only been used a couple times so far this trip, so it wasn't a huge mess.

Without cell service, we weren't able to call Cruise America to come and repair it. We know they said not to make any repairs ourselves, but driving around looking for cell service while leaking sewage all over the road seemed like a greater offense in the grand scheme of things. Once Steve had a look at the problem he could tell that this wasn't the first time this RV has seen a black water leak. If you watch our video, you'll see that the mood was pretty light as Steve did his best to re-secure the hose clamps and mop up the mess.

When it came time to do the dishes, I made sure to switch the hot water heater on at least 15 min prior, so it would have time to heat the water. It was a nice thought but after nearly half an hour of heating up, I only got about 2 cups worth of warm water before it turned cold. Is there an insider RV tip for using the hot water heater? I can't imagine trying to take a shower like this. I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining, I just think I'm doing something wrong, and I want to be informed when designing my own RV someday.

After we were done mopping up the black water mess, we packed the RV up and took a scenic half hour drive to Electric Lake. With nothing better to do, we grabbed our Kokapelli packrafts and took a short hike up a little stream that fed into the lake—and I mean little. Our float down the stream was like bumper boats. In some spots it wasn't even wide enough to paddle so we'd push off the banks on either side to steer around rocks. It was also so shallow, we were hitting bottom and getting stuck on rocks a lot. I was hoping not to get my feet wet but once my foot went in, I was just glad I didn't end up taking a whole bath. It wasn't the best choice of places to float, but it definitively tested the durability of those Kokapelli packrafts and it was a real laugh.

Safe and warm in the RV again, it was time to sit down at the computers to do some video editing and writing. I was really hoping to use my sun oven today, but since it was cloudy, I'll save it for another day.

- tess

We've rented an RV for 4 days and we're taking it for a little spin. Although spending a few days vacationing in an RV isn't even close to living in one full time, we thought it sounded kinda fun and we're hoping to glean at least a little knowledge from the experience. Neither of us has even spent the night in an RV or driven such a large vehicle before. We've read all about the various tanks and plugs, watched the training video and now we're excited to see them all in action.

We picked up our RV rental from Cruise America late this morning. It was a little nerve racking for Steve to drive this 30ft. class C through Murray straight to I-15. By the time we got to our house 40 minutes later, he was starting to get used to it. Packing and loading an RV for a 4 day trip is a bit of a pain—now we see why people who own these for part-time use still keep them stocked with dishes etc.

About an hour into our short drive, we headed south on Highway 6. It was now my turn to get behind the wheel. The fact that I got into the driver seat without protest is a testament to how much I want to make this full-time RVing dream a reality. Anyone who knows me will agree that me driving anything much bigger than my Honda Fit is outside of my comfort zone. Highway 6 turned out to be a great place for me to have my first RV driving experience. Since it was a Thursday, there wasn't much traffic, and that helped me relax and enjoy the driving experience.

We arrived at our campsite at Madsen Bay in Scoffield State park. We have our own electric, water and sewer hookups. The view of the lake is nice. If we were tent camping, I'd be like “meh” but if this was the view from my office, I'd be like “daaaaanngg!”

Speaking of the office, we brought our computers with us. Steve and I have spent some time editing video, and writing tonight. We also took some pictures and we got to try out our new induction cooktop and cookware. It's been a nice evening. I'm sure some of the charm will fade when we're working from an RV full time, but I really like the idea of looking up from my work to a different view every few weeks.

Tess