Mission One was in Midland/Odessa Texas. We left Colorado around March 24th 2020. Right at the beginning of the Covid outbreak, right as everything in the United States was being shut down. We were so scared staring this life like this. We knew we needed to be together in this uncertain time. That was all we truly knew. We didn’t know if we would be able to get groceries as people had begun to hoard food products and of course, toilet paper, of all things! Toilet paper? I can only imagine how this will sound to future generations. Well, we had a global pandemic respiratory illness and people hoarded toilet paper. Future generations are going to wonder if it was a global pandemic of the loss of common sense, I’m sure. But I digress. When we packed our camper, we packed as much of the food from our house as we could fit. And we headed south.
Welcome to Midland/Odessa Texas! Now first things first, I am going to apologize up front to all those from this area. What I have to say may not be very nice, but it is my honest impression.
The campground we stayed at was very basic. Let’s face it, the company hubby works for is paying for the space and they are not going to spring for the Broadmoor of campgrounds. So we stayed at Oasis North, it was basic, but it was very accommodating. It is actually located between and to the north of the two cities in a small place called Gardendale. Hubby’s job site was about 20 minutes away. Perfect! It is very much a large dirt lot, but it does have full hook ups, very clean laundry facilities and showers if needed. They also provide basic cable TV and internet. The internet is not amazing, or so we thought, more on that in Mission Two.
The first thing that struck me when we arrived was just how darn cold it was! This is Texas! I thought I would be roasting! I used our heater for the first two weeks we were there, and then, the heater went out. Welcome to the RV life. During a pandemic. Since we had just purchased our camper, the warranty information was not in the system yet, it takes about a month she said. That was problem one. Problem two, this is our HOME, we are living here. If I take the camper in to be repaired, where will we LIVE while it is in the shop? We decided to take care of it when we get back to Colorado and just go find a space heater…. In Texas…. During a pandemic…. I cannot tell you how many lines we stood in, in front of how many stores, but we finally located a fan/heater combo at Walmart. And it worked fine.
You would be surprised at how easily a camper heats up. It is amazingly fast!
Of course, as time went on, we needed the heater less and less. And by the time we reached May, we were hitting temperatures in the high 90’s, low 100’s. Remember how I just said, you’d be surprised by how easily a camper heats up? Well, let me tell you! It is like an oven in those temperatures! You know what an RV’ers best friend is? Besides the stuff that makes the black tank not stink. Foil bubble wrap! This stuff is great for deflecting the heat. You can buy it precut specifically to the size and shape of different windows and vents or you can buy a giant roll and cut it to the size you need it to be. I have both. I don’t prefer one over the other, just get me some relief!
If there is one thing I have quickly learned, it’s not to believe what the salesman says about the insulation in an RV. Sorry to my awesome salesman at Windish RV in Fountain, Colorado. I’m scared for this winter. Even though I was told our camper is specifically made for cold temperatures, well, we will see how the future missions play out. OK, so back to the heat, the bubble wrap and now, the A/C. I am not all together familiar with the A/C jargon, but I’ll do my best here. I KNOW for sure, we do not have the largest A/C unit available, I think we are one size down from that. 12,000 whatever, not the 15,000 whatever. In Texas, this unit struggles. I would recommend the larger unit for sure, if you have a choice. Another option, and I think we may do this, is to have a second unit installed elsewhere. For us, that would be the bedroom. Then we will have a unit on each end of the camper. Or as we affectionately call them, the “wings”. Right now we are parked in an east/west position, so we call the bedroom the west wing and the living room of course is the east wing. Speaking of the direction you are parked. When camping in the heat of summer, be sure, if you can, to orient your camper so that the side your refrigerator is on, is NOT directly in sunlight! We had a heck of a time keeping the refrigerator temperature down as we were parked in a north/south direction with the afternoon/evening sun shining directly on the refrigerator side of the camper.
Well, this feels like it’s getting long winded without even telling you about the area, so I will stop here and write another post where I am actually talking about Texas and what we liked and didn’t like.
With Love,
Jen Fulks, the Elegant RV’er
Lord, I may not understand your ways, but I trust that you are good, and that what you do is good. Help me trust you even more, in Jesus' name, Amen. ~Sharon Jaynes
