Stayed at a KOA near Sea-Tac, the airport and also home of many Boeing plants in the area. Will go to lunch tomorrow with Brian, a family friend who works at Boeing. Settled in for the night, I woke up around 2 a.m. thinking someone was trying to break in. There was obviously a storm going on that shook the RV like it was coming apart. Once I decided it wasn't an intruder I went back to sleep, but in the morning woke up very cold. It was 42 inside the Doodle. My electric blanket had gone off. I reached over and turned on the heater before even getting out of bed. Love this little rv. The lights all worked because they work off the battery in the rv and the propane had the heater and stove working so I could have my breakfast. But didn't know why the electric blanket went out. It's old, I guess.
Went to lunch with Brian at a place called Bahama Breeze and had a hot toddy to warm up.
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After lunch I gave up trying to charge my laptop while driving and alternating it with the GPS plug in and bought a universal electric charger. There will be other charging cords I leave places so it will come in handy, I'm sure. Now I can charge the laptop at night like normal people.
Arriving back at the rv park the electricity was out all over south Seattle because of the storm last night. That's why my electric blanket didn't work. It needs to be plugged in to shore power and the rv park power was off. It was too late to go to another rv park and besides my app told me the only other ones were in Bellevue and with commute traffic I wouldn't get there before dark, another rule of mine not to drive after dark.
So I called my rv guru, Nacio, who told me I would be unintentionally Boondocking tonite. That's where you camp without hookups. Great! I did want to experience every kind of camping on this trip but thought I would save that for another trip. It's really an adventure now. He told me to turn on the generator for an hour or so, then turn it off and turn the heater on. Do this until I go to bed and then put on many layers of clothes and all the blankets I have. The generator runs on gasoline from the vehicle and it was only half full so I couldn't leave the generator on all night. Besides, its' noisy and drives the neighbors crazy. At least I was better off than the tent campers in the next aisle and the young man who seemed to be sleeping in his car!
So I did some blogging on the computer which had some power left until I got tired of typing with gloves on and went to sleep at 7:30 feeling like a stuffed sausage with all those layers of clothes.
Woke up hours later thinking surely it's morning. It was 10:30. Closed my eyes remembering reading that when people freeze to death its like falling asleep. But I did wake up in the morning at 7 feeling pretty good to be alive. It was 35 degrees inside the Doodle.
Still no power in the rv park. So glad to get out of there toward Bellevue that I forgot to stop in the park office and see if there was a refund for no electric.
What I learned:
You won't die without heat. You'll just be cold.
Don't be tempted to heat with propane from the stove. That's how to die, not freezing to death.
Your electric blanket will only operate when you are plugged in to shore power.
Always ask to use a person's photo. They may be in the witness protection program.
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