Time to De-Winterize

Friday, 30 March

We actually have reservations at the campground at Bull Run Regional Park (BRRP) next weekend to de-winterize and prepare the Phaeton for the 2012 camping season.  When Mui mentioned that he wanted to give the coach a wash and wax too, we knew we wouldn’t be able to get everything done in two short days, so we made another reservation for this weekend.  Since Monday is a work-from-home day for us, we’ll be here through Sunday night.  We booked with late check-out (7:00p) on Monday, giving ourselves an extra day at the Phaeton.  I’m so glad that we have the technology to telecommute from almost anywhere now.

We left the house after our workday ended.  For us, that’s around 3:00p.  By 4:00p, we were settled in site 109.  At $43.58/night for a 50 Amp FHU site, BRRP is not cheap.  Considering its location on the outskirts of DC, that is no surprise.  We don’t have to like it; it is what it is.

City water hooked up, we turned on the faucets to run the antifreeze out of the pipes.  Wasting water goes against our nature, and my fingers itched to turn the faucets off, but I knew it was a necessary evil.  With plans to be on the road south next December, hopefully this has been our last season of winterizing.

We like the parallel-to-the-road sites at BRRP; they offer complete privacy on the wooded side.

Next, we needed to get the water heater going.  Before we could do that, however, Mui had to replace the anode rod.  Think of the rod as a magnet for all those particles that would otherwise corrode the water heater tank.  By ‘sacrificing itself’ the rod preserves the life of the water heater — that’s a good thing.  (Sorry, no photos of the corroded old rod, which was removed when we had the coach winterized by Reines RV last fall.)

It’s easy to replace the corroded rod with a new one.  Doing so while we were de-winterizing simplified the process further as the tank was already drained.  After wrapping some Teflon tape to improve the seal against the drain hole, Mui inserted the rod and tightened it with one of the nifty tools he insists is essential for every RVer.  Then, with the water shut-off valve moved to the ‘normal’ position, we were ready to fill the tank and heat water for tomorrow’s showers.

Mui will check the rod monthly, and replace it again when it is corroded.

Chores completed for the day, we went for a pre-dinner walk around the campground.  While many of the sites on the FHU loop are occupied, the rest of the campground is pretty much empty.  It won’t stay this way for long.  After all, spring is already here; and summer is not far behind.  In the meantime, we’ll enjoy the peace and quiet as the park goes through its annual cycle of greening-up.

We had a quiet evening at home.  We have not used our aircard much in March, so we streamed the next episode of Muhteşem Yüzyıl (Magnificent Century), a Turkish soap opera based on the longest-reigning Ottoman sultan, Kanuni Sultan Süleyman (Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent), and his slave-girl-turned-wedded-wife — Hürrem (Roxelana).  There’s no doubt that the writers took a lot of liberties with historic facts, but the palace intrigues keep us tuned in week-after-week.

With five bars on the CradlePoint router, we watched the episode from You Tube.
No glitches; no choke points.

Tomorrow will be a day filled with chores.  But, I will somehow fit in a walk over to the Bluebell Trail to see the flowers, which, like so many others, have bloomed and peaked early.