Greetings from Nashville! (again)

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
So here's what happened:

We pulled into Two Rivers campground, where we were booked for the next week. Started setting up and...no power. And no camp host to help us, either. So we called the emergency number and Buford rolls up. We explain the problem, tell him that we've had this happen before and it was a problem with the electric post - camp host there did something and fixed it. Buford tells us that it's not the post, it's us. I explain to him AGAIN that everything was working fine in PCB, and that the only other time we had this issue it was the campground's problem.

We go back and forth a bit, and he says basically "sorry for your luck." So now I'm pissed and I get on the phone to other campgrounds in the area. It happened that Jellystone right next door had a cancellation for a 50amp full hookup site, AND it is available through the Memorial Day weekend. THANK YOU, GOOD KARMA!!

So we pack up and roll over to Jellystone, get our site, start setting up....no electric.

At this point we think it must be us and I'm feeling bad for yelling at Buford. Monello calls the RV repair guy, who says he'll be over first thing in the morning.

This morning we get up and while we're waiting for the repair guy, Monello tries to plug my water kettle directly into the electric post so I can make coffee...nope. He plugs it into the site next to us and it works fine.

We flag down a roaming camp ground worker and he comes over, flips a switch to reset the GFI, and BOOM. Power.

So it wasn't us after all, I didn't yell at Buford for no reason, and in fact I should have punched his face for him.

So last night was a CF, moving in the dark and then all the SNAFU involved with that, but the good news is that this is a much nicer campground anyway (besides that they actually have humans here who know what they're doing). We have a bigger site, 50 amp, full hookups - which is much better than the 30 amp water and electric only we had at the other place.

A happy ending.

:cartwheel
 

nutz

Well-Known Member
So here's what happened:

We pulled into Two Rivers campground, where we were booked for the next week. Started setting up and...no power. And no camp host to help us, either. So we called the emergency number and Buford rolls up. We explain the problem, tell him that we've had this happen before and it was a problem with the electric post - camp host there did something and fixed it. Buford tells us that it's not the post, it's us. I explain to him AGAIN that everything was working fine in PCB, and that the only other time we had this issue it was the campground's problem.

We go back and forth a bit, and he says basically "sorry for your luck." So now I'm pissed and I get on the phone to other campgrounds in the area. It happened that Jellystone right next door had a cancellation for a 50amp full hookup site, AND it is available through the Memorial Day weekend. THANK YOU, GOOD KARMA!!

So we pack up and roll over to Jellystone, get our site, start setting up....no electric.

At this point we think it must be us and I'm feeling bad for yelling at Buford. Monello calls the RV repair guy, who says he'll be over first thing in the morning.

This morning we get up and while we're waiting for the repair guy, Monello tries to plug my water kettle directly into the electric post so I can make coffee...nope. He plugs it into the site next to us and it works fine.

We flag down a roaming camp ground worker and he comes over, flips a switch to reset the GFI, and BOOM. Power.

So it wasn't us after all, I didn't yell at Buford for no reason, and in fact I should have punched his face for him.

So last night was a CF, moving in the dark and then all the SNAFU involved with that, but the good news is that this is a much nicer campground anyway (besides that they actually have humans here who know what they're doing). We have a bigger site, 50 amp, full hookups - which is much better than the 30 amp water and electric only we had at the other place.

A happy ending.

:cartwheel

you might consider investing in one of these (or similar)> the indicators let you know if incoming power is on or goofed up.
Suggested model 44270
http://www.trci.net/products/surge-guard-rv
 
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vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Two Rivers has informed us that they will be charging us for last night, even though we couldn't use the site and had to move because their electric didn't work AND their dumb guy wouldn't take a simple step to fix it.

Needless to say, I'm pissed. As far as I'm concerned they're a bunch of thieves.
 

Bann

Doris Day meets Lady Gaga
PREMO Member
Two Rivers has informed us that they will be charging us for last night, even though we couldn't use the site and had to move because their electric didn't work AND their dumb guy wouldn't take a simple step to fix it.

Needless to say, I'm pissed. As far as I'm concerned they're a bunch of thieves.

Mmmm-kay. I guess I would be tellin' the BBB, 7 on their side (or equivalent in Nashville) Trip Advisor, and heck yeah, maybe even shouting it from the Grand Ole Opry. :yay:
 

MR47930

Member
I seem to remember seeing Biscuit Love on one of the TV food shows. Possibly Delicious Destinations. :drool:
We stayed at an Air B&B that was close to it so we tried it out on our 2nd day there and then went back the following 3 days in a row. It was delicious. I believe you're right that it was Delicious Destinations.

I had the sausage gravy and biscuits with fried chicken...Sounds strange and I wasn't sure I would like it (I enjoy both dishes just wasn't sure about combining them) it was :drool:
 

DoWhat

Deplorable
PREMO Member
Two Rivers has informed us that they will be charging us for last night, even though we couldn't use the site and had to move because their electric didn't work AND their dumb guy wouldn't take a simple step to fix it.

Needless to say, I'm pissed. As far as I'm concerned they're a bunch of thieves.

Put a stop on the payment.
 

MR47930

Member
That city is buzzin'... Preds are going to the Stanley Cup Finals!

Crazy how much that city has grown...We did a tour and the lady said on average 100 people a day are moving into the city. Everywhere you look downtown there are cranes building high rise apartments.
 

Monello

Smarter than the average bear
PREMO Member
That city is buzzin'... Preds are going to the Stanley Cup Finals!
On the sports radio on the drive into town the predators were the table ok if the town. I don't follow hockey closely. They were not expected to get this far in the playoffs.
 

itsbob

I bowl overhand
Two Rivers has informed us that they will be charging us for last night, even though we couldn't use the site and had to move because their electric didn't work AND their dumb guy wouldn't take a simple step to fix it.

Needless to say, I'm pissed. As far as I'm concerned they're a bunch of thieves.

Wellllll.. it is possible the problem could be with your RV..

When you plugged into the new site your RV could have been the culprit that tripped the GFCI.. when they came back and reset it, it was OK.

The only way to know for sure which one was the culprit at the first site would be to plug in a known good RV and see what happens.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Put a stop on the payment.

That's what I will do. :yay:

I'm surprised. I had every expectation that when I told them what happened they would apologize for our trouble, refund our payment, and assure us that they were going to get the site fixed, and as a bonus give their "emergency" guy better training so their campers don't have this happen in the future. Seriously, I almost never have a business tell you to eff yourself when you bring a valid situation to their attention in a respectful way. Typically they want to make it right.

If I'd gone in there raising hell, that would be one thing, but I didn't. Again, I completely expected them to make it right, sorry for the problem, end of story, no need to be upset or bent out of shape.

:crazy:
 

Monello

Smarter than the average bear
PREMO Member
So we were 2 days on the road. Looking forward to getting to experience Nashville again. From Florida it was a pretty easy drive. The first part of the route was secondary, 2 lane each way roads. Not much traffic. A few more traffic lights than I care for. I need a lot of space to come to a complete stop. Rolling up to a green light I have to mentally calculate, if the light turns yellow, at what point I can brake and stop before I end up in the intersection. This is 1 benefit of the interstates. Then I hop on interstate 65 for the balance of the first day. Now all of a sudden the speeds increase by about 15-20 mph over the secondary roads. I don't feel comfortable driving over 60 MPH. It's a big, boxy rig and somewhat top heavy. Then throw in a few curves and hell no, I'm going a reasonable speed.

2nd day is right back on interstate 65. Traffic is good. Birmingham, for some portions, had 8 lanes across while driving through it. So all is good. I do a couple hundred miles and the last 15 miles will be on the local street to the campground. It's coming up on 4pm. The radio station is giving the commuter updates. Seems they have some really crappy drivers since it's non stop accident reports. I recognize a few of the road names as they are on my route. Just getting to my exit off of the interstate and there is a wreck in the opposite direction. A couple tenths of a mile ahead I roll up to a parking lot on the interstate. Bumper to bumper with no traffic moving. I'm 9 tenths of a mile from my exit. I can see it ahead. I'm sitting with what seems to be the entire driving population of Tennessee.

Nothing to do but wait it out. We creep along. Once I get far enough, my exit is free. I worm my way over and get out of the traffic only to find after a bit of an opening it jams up again. In the end I probably lost close to an hours time Then I get to the campground. I think the traffic jam was a sign of things to come.

When I go to detach the truck from the RV, 1 of the pins that holds it all together won't pull out. We both try with no luck. I spray some WD 40 on it. I comes out a bit then gets stuck hard. I get a set of pliers and wiggle it free. Upon closer inspection the pin is bent ever so slightly. So add new pins to the shopping list. I drive over to our site. It's a back in site.

I smell something really good. It's the neighbor and he's grilling some meat. He sees the Pax River sticker on my truck. He's ex Navy. We chat while I do my thing. Then the leveler blocks go under. Almost ready to level. It's been a long day. Vrai makes a suggestion that the set up would be more enjoyable if we had some beer. The C store is about a half mile away. My first instinct is to just get settled but I agree to go along to the store. She drives. We pick up some beer, bottled water since you can't trust the campground water for taste. Yes we are talking about you Florida. We pay and tell the gal we need to pay for a small bag of ice. We grab our stuff and we are loaded up. 2 gallons of water and 2 six packs. Jumping in the car we go back to the campsite. Crack open a couple of beers and then realize we forgot to get the ice out of the freezer.

Now to hook up shore power. It's a 30 amp power pole. I hook the 50 to 30 dog bone to the main power cord. Attach the power cord and the rig starts to make an awful racket. I have only used the dog bone once before. I look at the prongs and they look a bit cruddy. I rub them with scotch brite. Try it again and get the same noise. So I figure it's the dog bone. I hop on my bike and pedal over to camping world which is literally next door. $22 buck later I have a brand new adapter with nice, shiny prongs. Plug it back in and burzzappp. That didn't fix the problem.

The power pole is low to the ground and it doesn't have any circuit brakers. In all the camping I've done, 99 times out of 100 the breakers are at the site. I call the after hours emergency phone number. He asks if I've checked the braker. I tell him there is no braker at the site. That's because they put them all together in 1 place. I bike over to the braker box which is 3 rows over. I find my site's supply and disconnect it. Reset it then phone back to the campsite where my lovely partner in crime is waiting. We give it a whirl and no love. We are SOL. When I called the after hours number I asked the guy if he could come over when he got back to the campground to see if I got it working.

So now Junior Samples pulls up and I give him an update. He tests the plug and then declares that it is indeed my rig as his source is working just fine. His suggestion is to call the mobile repair guy. So I call the repair dude but it rings and rings. I wait for what seems like an eternity then instead of going to voice mail it hangs up. I try again, same result.

So now we are tired, frustrated, baffled and seemingly out of options. At least the beer is cold.

to be continued.....................
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Wellllll.. it is possible the problem could be with your RV.

It's not. We've had this RV all over Hell's half acre with no problem...except for in Jacksonville, where it was determined to be a problem with the pole, and here, where they told us to go eff ourselves (and it was clearly a problem with their pole).

Even if it was something like us tripping the circuit, Buford should have at least tried to reset it, especially after we told him what happened last time we had this problem.
 

Monello

Smarter than the average bear
PREMO Member
So rainman comes around again. I was tempted to move to an open site so I could test to see if it was indeed this site's power pole or my RV acting up. After a few hundred miles of road and interfacing with a few dozen pot holes, things could have become lose. I was at least willing to try. I realize that I couldn't stay in a spot I wasn't assigned, I just wanted that peace of mind as to the guilty part. When something similar happened in Jacksonville the camp host brought over a 25 foot 50 amp to 50 amp cord. Seems he needed it when he got to a site and didn't have enough cord to reach. We hooked up to a different post and it was fine. As luck would have it that day there was also a mobile repair guy in the campground. He verified that the poles often had issues since they were so close to the salt water and such.

But we would have no such luck with our current dilemma. We have no power, no way to get ahold of a capable technician, running out of daylight and a less than helpful camp host. Normally the hosts are helpful or at least attempt to appear that way. So his well it sucks to be you guys attitude was enough that Vrai started to scramble to find us other accommodations. She found a spot on the same street, There are 3 campground a stones throw from each other here. And we are just down the street from the Opry and quite a few other businesses. During the time we informed the host we were leaving and not paying them my phone rings. It was the mobile repair guy returning my call. I was busy putting things away so we could leave and didn't answer him.

We drive over to the new place. After hours they put orange cones over the entrance so everyone has to come in the same entrance. I thought they had perhaps recently tarred and didn't want anyone driving on it. I figured I'd go in the exit then adjust once I got in. That was a brilliant idea until I noticed that the exit had 1 of those wooden barriers attached to an electric eye. But I was going against the grain so I ended up sitting there until Vrai came out and rescued me with the car by activating the arm so I could get in.

I pull into our new spot. Quickly connect the power, cross my fingers and flip the circuit breaker. I hear the same noise as before. Now I'm convinced it's me. I redial the mobile repair guy. It rings and rings. I send him a text message asking him to call me. I call again, it rings and rings. I text him again this time with a detailed message about the issue we are having. We are now beyond frustrated. I got pretty quiet and was asked several times if I was upset or if I was OK. It was a long day for sure.

We decide to just suck it up. We have battery power so we can have lights and the refrigerator running. RV repair guy calls me back. We chat and he suspects that 1 of my wires is lose. Makes sense. The RV got jostled while tooling down the road. He promises to stop by first thing int he morning. I'm thrilled to have what I believe as someone qualified taking a look at it. We go get some dinner. Now it's 9pm. We rehash the day's events over dinner. It's confusing since we had no problem at all while at the other places. But we persevered and recanted how lucky we have been overall on our journey. So 1 hiccup isn't that big of a deal. Get home, and go to sleep.

Now today, mostly this morning, is somewhat of a blur. I get up at 9 but still no repair man. I know Vrai likes her morning coffee(understatement of the day) so I did out an extension cord so we can plug it into the 110 outlet and she can heat up water. I do that and declare that it's good to go. Only it isn't. I do the head scratch thing. The site next to us is unoccupied. Taking the cord end over then I plug it in. Voila, it works. So in 2 different campgrounds we have bad power sources. KOA picks up the trash at your campsite if you place it at the curb. Camp employee comes by in the golf cart. I flag him down to let him know we have no juice. He asks if I reset the GFI. I do that and now the 110 works at our pole.


Now here's the interesting part. I still believe that I have an electrical issue that needs attention. Vrai asks if the CFI reset has fixed the 50 amp issue. I didn't think so but I don't really know that much about power other than the ON & OFF switches. I figure it can't hurt to try. So I hook the 50 amp up, hit the circuit breaker and we are back in business. Problem solved.

People always talk about thinking outside the box. In this case I had the different power plugs as unique individuals. It never occurred to me that there was some sort of relationship to the 50/30/110. Either way we are now level and slide out. Our bags from our 5 weeks of car travel are put away. Slowly but surely our Shangri-La is coming together. It rained a bunch today and just stopped. Even the sun is trying to poke through the clouds. Life is good.

Here's to my electrical troubleshooter extraordinaire.
:buddies:
 

stgislander

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
Now here's the interesting part. I still believe that I have an electrical issue that needs attention. Vrai asks if the CFI reset has fixed the 50 amp issue. I didn't think so but I don't really know that much about power other than the ON & OFF switches. I figure it can't hurt to try. So I hook the 50 amp up, hit the circuit breaker and we are back in business. Problem solved.

People always talk about thinking outside the box. In this case I had the different power plugs as unique individuals. It never occurred to me that there was some sort of relationship to the 50/30/110. Either way we are now level and slide out. Our bags from our 5 weeks of car travel are put away. Slowly but surely our Shangri-La is coming together. It rained a bunch today and just stopped. Even the sun is trying to poke through the clouds. Life is good.

Here's to my electrical troubleshooter extraordinaire.
:buddies:

I always get a little antsy when Gilligan tries to commit electricity. Especially when it's mixed with Corona.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Here's to my electrical troubleshooter extraordinaire.

:lol:

All I did was suggest we do a minor troubleshoot, just a "let's see". I was sure it wasn't the motorhome with the problem because of the Jacksonville situation, and I'm glad to have not been wrong.

Also, yesterday I ripped my nail off halfway past the quick helping to unhook the truck from the motorhome. I knew there was something else that went wrong.

So now that we used up all our bad luck yesterday, we should be good to go for awhile.
 
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