Three more days and we’re off to Valens again! Two weeks between visits seems so long and I miss our fiver so much in between. We’ve used our new fiver a total of seven days so far and absolutely love it! The last weekend away I decided to use our water system for the first time. It worked terrifically after a comedy of errors on my part! In my defense, I must say I had worked Thursday night then drove up and set up camp immediately after finishing work on Friday morning. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!

I have a procedure that I follow when we’re using our fresh water in the winter. First, I get the heat going, put my wireless thermometer in the front pass thru and wait until it’s warmed up in there to about 12C or above. I have four 6 gallon blue jugs that I fill with water to put into the tank. The first thing I do once the temps are reached is run fresh water through the taps to flush out the pink. Once that’s done, I change the setting on our water control to pump water into our tank. The pump on our new fiver seems faster than the old one and it is definitely a different model. It really doesn’t take long to do this. Once the tank is full, then I turn the pump off, switch the setting to “Dry Camp” and turn the pump back on. This fills the hot water tank too.

Despite that plan, things didn’t quite go so smoothly. First, in my tiredness, I mistook the sound of water running through the lines to fill the tank and found it was the sound of water running out the open tank valve onto the gravel pad. I realized only after I’d dumped almost two 6 gallon jugs on the ground. After additional trips to the comfort station to fill my containers again, I succeeded in filling the tank to full. I changed the settings on the control panel, turned the pump on and went inside. About 15 minutes later I realized I forgot to turn the hot water heater on outside. The sight of water gushing out the hot water panel greeted me. The anode rod was not inserted. Of course it wasn’t – it was a new fiver and the system had not been used! I turned the pump off, checked the tank level – EMPTY!!! Geez….. back to the comfort station – twice – for more water. Sigh…… I blame it on nightshift and being tired LOL. By about 5pm I had full tanks, hot water and everything sorted out!

I do notice a difference with the dual pane windows in terms of drafts and moisture in the fiver. We have had average winter temperatures, but nothing extreme. I really wish I’d had this new fiver for New Years weekend to see the difference in REALLY cold temperatures. So far in comparison to the previous two years with the other fiver, I can say the drafts situation has improved. Before, when sitting at the back of the fiver where the large window is, there was always a draft. Now there’s now. As well, nothing in the slides when we’re sitting in the theatre seating.

I love the little changes like the kitchen window. It adds so much brightness to the fiver and it’s nice to open the window when cooking. I think the motion sensor lights in the bedroom closet are wonderful. I open the door to get something and a light comes on. The change in design of the closet is nice to. Being full length, I can store my broom and vacuum in there with so much space to spare. The light switch in the bathroom – thank you KZ! Not sure how that was not in my first fiver but I’m glad it’s in this one. I really enjoy the theatre seating – so much more than the recliners our other one had. I could go on and on, but I won’t. Let’s just say both of us really like our new fiver!

I believe we have about ten nights of camping left at Valens for this winter . That will take us to our last weekend at the end of April. It seems to have gone so fast this year. Likely the fastest season so far! I’m not sure if it’s because of switching fivers at the beginning of February but whatever the reason, I can’t believe how fast time has gone.

The weather forecast for this weekend is 1C for Friday, 1C for Saturday and 2C for Sunday. Every day is supposed to be sunny which will be very nice. It always seems nicer when the sun shines! I’m pretty sure we’ll use our water system again. It was so nice to be able to use our own shower and have hot running water! It’s a bit of work, but well worth it to me. So, I’ll be posting some photos of our weekend so stay tuned!