We came back from six weeks in Brazil to droppings, chewed mats, and at least one uninvited tenant. Four days of traps, baits, ultrasonic repellers, and sealing later, here's what actually worked.
We put the Brinkley into storage mode, flew out of Chicago to Brazil for Fabiola's graduation, and gave you the full tour of our other home, electric shower and all.
Two weeks of full tanks, a 36-gallon tote, a macerator pump, one leaky starter hose, and a mess we now call the Poopsie. Here's the tote-and-macerator workflow that finally worked for us.
Last day of boondocking, so naturally we cleaned every AC filter and ceiling fan in the rig, then skipped our Harvest Hosts plan for a casino parking lot. The slots were bad. The sleep was great.
Tiny roads, soft grass, and a 40-foot fifth wheel: our back-in at Richard Bong State Recreation Area took twelve minutes of video to resolve. Then Wisconsin got good.
Fifteen minutes into a three-hour travel day, our trailer lights and brakes started cutting out. What roadside assistance actually did for us, what it couldn't, and how we limped to Wisconsin before dark.
We hauled our warranty list across several states to the Brinkley factory, toured where our Model Z was built, sat out a tornado watch in a house on wheels, and left with most (not all) of the list fixed.
Six months of full-time RV life, every dollar counted: truck, campgrounds, groceries, internet, propane, and the theme park tickets we're not sorry about. Here's where the money actually went.
A Cracker Barrel overnight where a truck nearly boxed us in, our first fuel stop with the RV hitched, a campsite made of mud, and a parking-lot haircut. This is the unfiltered week.
A week at East Bank Campground on Lake Seminole: remote work with a lake view, a door that wasn't actually locked, a surprise leak in the passthrough, and a cave tour to finish it off.
Our first Cracker Barrel overnight, the actual numbers from our CAT scale weigh-in, some math about water weight, and an insect invasion that hitched a ride from the last campground.
After two months parked, we hit the road to weigh the rig at a CAT scale. Stuck chocks, a hitching refresher, and a parking lot on a hill that lifted our wheels clean off the ground.
We unbox a Blackstone 17 inch griddle, discover our new camping table is comically short, season the cooktop three times, and cook our first outdoor meal: burgers, bacon, eggs, and solar-powered fries.
Three months into our brand-new Brinkley and we have a hydraulic fluid leak, a jack that needs full replacement, and a growing fix-it list. Here's how the warranty process is actually going.
Too many uneasy nights hearing noises outside pushed us to install Blink cameras around the rig. Same week: furnace bug screens, X-Chocks, a new ladder, and a full-scale war on ants.
The full inside tour of our Brinkley Model Z 3515, room by room: what we love, what annoys us, and the upgrades we installed before Fabiola got stuck in a closet.
