Looks like the RM maintenance man saw I was home and turned on the water for me! He did that last year, so I checked the hydrant yesterday afternoon and this afternoon in case he did it again. Tonight, I hit the jackpot. Woohoo!

I made a rookie mistake while dewinterizing — I hooked up my hose to the RV without filling it with water first. That meant I got tons of air in my lines, which took forever to bleed. Otherwise, the water tank and heater filling was uneventful. Once both were full, I tested my system for leaks.

The tap in the dressing room is dripping, something I’ve avoided dealing with for a while because I don’t have room to work. It’s always corrected itself, so I hope that will happen again… This leak may explain why I have heaps of pressure in the dressing room and almost none in the kitchen. I haven’t found a leak in the lines, so I’m sure it’s that or that there’s still water in the lines leading to the kitchen. Usage will tell. At least, the shower appears to have good pressure!

Then came the fun part — lighting the water heater. Forget doing so from inside. I went out to the control panel and manually forced ignition. I actually got it to light in two tries, but it wouldn’t stay lit. I made some adjustments to the heat probe spacing and after a few more ignition attempts and corrections, I finally got the thing lit for real! Wow. That water heater is exhausting. The one on Isla wasn’t much more reliable, but being on a manual pilot system, I just had to turn on the gas every afternoon and apply a flame to it to ensure I had hot water for a shower. With Miranda’s decrepit water heater, I never know if I’ll be able to ignite the stupid thing from day to day.

I appreciate the irony that I got my water system going right after doing a huge mountain of dishes by hand, including hauling water and heating it on the stove!

Oh, I’ve missed my RV kitchen, especially my oven! I use my oven a lot and I really missed in Mexico.

As some of you may remember, I bought myself a cast iron Dutch oven for Yule. It’s a pot with a tight fitting lid that can go from stovetop to oven. I can’t wait to sear a pork roast in it later this week and then transfer to the oven to slow cook!

Well, quite a few of my friends in Mexico are or were RVers. Those of them who saw the Dutch oven thought I was nuts for believing I could use it in my RV oven. Having seen dozens of RV ovens, I’ve only ever seen another one as large and usable as mine, and that was an upgrade made after purchase, so I understood their concern. Many RVs don’t even have a real oven, just a convection microwave. Some folks, like my friend Vicki, find their oven so useless that they have to make space for a large toaster oven instead.

In my case, I moved the rack to the lowest position to fit the Dutch oven in with an inch to spare at the top, so it will be easy to pull in and out, even when super hot.

I’ll also be able to store the pot in the oven, with the baking sheets and cast iron frying pans fitting neatly under the broiler.

My oven also heats very evenly and is good for baking. Don’t buy into the myth that you can’t cook or bake in an RV as you can in a stick home. Instead, insist on a better and more usable oven!