If you have spent anytime traveling in an RV one thing you learn pretty quick is to establish routines for each procedure in order to avoid those costly and embarrassing errors.
For example, when we are hitching up the fifth wheel to the truck we have a set routine so we don’t forget any steps. To make a long story short this is our routine for when we have hitched up the truck and the fiver, (what rv people call a fifth wheel) and are about to head on out to our new and exciting destination.
My lovely wife Denyce, gets into the truck and inputs our new destination into our three different GPS devices at which time I double check we have left nothing behind, the break away brake and power line is secured between the fiver and the truck, the chocks are all pulled up, our water and sewer caps are secured, All five slides are all the way in, windows are closed and hatches are shut and locked.
On this particular day the last hatch was still unlocked. Imagine my horror when only a third of the key came out of the lock… Well poopy head! All our locks use the same key. The entire fiver is locked and the key to open it is broken. In other words, we had no way to get back into the Mother Ship! I had a minute of pure panic before I remembered we have a second key on my wife’s key ring.
I hop into the truck and the following conversation ensues.
Me, “Do you have your rv key?”
Denyce, “Yes, why?”
Me: slowly holding up my broken key, “the rest in stuck in the lock”
Denyce: “Is the rv completely locked up now?”
Me: nodding. “So where is your key?”
Denyce, “ummm…..in my other purse….in the Mother Ship?”
Me: looking at my wife with slight horror on my face…..sighing
Me, “We have a two hour drive ahead of us, hopefully we will figure it out.”
Denyce, who thinks faster than I do decides to call the next campground and see if they have any ideas. Maybe they know a locksmith or some other type of magician who can help us.
The KOA dude was very nice and suggested an rv service center which was only twenty minutes out of our way. Denyce calls the service center, they ask her to read off the serial number on the key. Miracle of miracles this is the part of the key we actually had and they had four of those keys left in stock! He grumpily said he would be sure and hold one for us.
Collective sigh of relief.
Five dollars and a few hours later and we were at our campsite and able to get into our home on wheels. We learned three lessons this day.
1) Always have a spare key in the truck.
2) There are only a handful of locks which come standard with any rv. Anybody can go into an rv service center, buy a few different keys and have the ability get into every rv in a campground.
3) The $210.00 keyless entry system is suddenly a very good deal.
Well crap! now we have to remember the passcode.
After writing this with my lovely wife I remembered another key story which you can read here
PanningForGold 