Things we did while at Tugaloo State Park:
- Daily hikes with the dogs
- Watched the sunset over the lake
- Bought a cooler (OUR FRIDGE DIED!)
- Camped with family (Hi Mom!)
After 4 1/2 weeks into full time RV life, we felt we were becoming pretty comfortable with traveling every couple weeks and we were enjoying exploring new places and trying new things. So far, our inaugural trip was going really well. Yes, we had setbacks – the weather did not want to cooperate (it was rainy and extremely hot and humid- particularly in Knoxville) and I was working about 50 hours a week which limited our ability to explore.
And then our refrigerator quit cooling. We use THESE thermometers, recommended by Chad and Tara of Changing Lanes to help us monitor temperatures in the fridge and freezer. Particularly since many people have problems with their RV refrigerators not keeping food at safe temperatures.
Picture this: you’re in the heat of summer (August in Georgia!), and your RV’s refrigerator will not stay in the 30’s. Or the 40’s. Panic begins to set in. You have a bunch of food that you were planning to eat over the next few weeks in there. Plus, how are you going to keep all your sauces cold???
Well, first, you go out to the nearest Walmart and pick out a cooler, praying that your ice maker can keep up with the increase in demand. Then you call your mom and ask her to bring her dorm-size refrigerator with her when she comes to join you in a few days.
We were also really fortunate to have a Dometic portable 12vdc/120vac electric refrigerator/freezer that we carry with us for extra space. We used this and the new cooler as primary storage, but they still didn’t have quite enough space for all the food that the 12 cubic foot refrigerator in our Reflection can hold.
You can’t do much about the weather, but you can call an RV tech to come help you confirm whether anything can be done with the fridge. Maybe it’s just a wire, the propane not firing or lighting, or something else simple. Or maybe it’s something catastrophic that is not an easy fix. An RV tech can run some tests on the fridge and help get down to the root cause.
When you call an RV technician to help you with a problem, it’s important to ensure they are licensed and insured. RVTAA can help you locate the closest technician to you who has verified credentials. RVTAA does the basic diligence for you, so you can feel confident that someone listed on their website is educated, licensed, and insured. It’s also a good idea to look at business reviews on Google. The technician we called was wonderful to work with and came out over the weekend to help us.
He diagnosed the problem with the fridge as a blocked tube due to the crystallization of the ammonia. That’s a catastrophic failure, leaving replacement as our only option. But, replacement of the cooling unit or of the whole fridge? Stay tuned for more info and our decision!
Mom showed up with her dorm-size fridge a couple days later, so we were able to have some extra space and keep a few things frozen too. She stayed with us a week out of the two weeks we stayed in the park and Steve’s brother and family came for an afternoon. We had a wonderful time being with them and our nieces really enjoyed the lake.
Of course the whole trip was not overshadowed by the fridge. At Tugaloo State Park, there are many hiking trails, which give amazing views of the water. We did a good bit of hiking/walking with our dogs and watched the sunset over the lake a few days while we were there. We had elected to not do much site seeing on this stop because of the fridge situation, family coming into town, and the amount of biking and walking we could do at the park.
