Carnivore

I don't know! Mexico in background. Where the wall will be built.

I don’t know! Mexico in background. Where the wall will be built.

Not long after I moved to the Ogilby Road, I noticed my refrigerator was not working. When I checked the freezer compartment everything was soft and wet. This was not the first time I have had trouble with this fridge and it probably won’t be the last. But why does it always happen after I have freshly stocked the thing with food?

Appliances in an RV seem to develop problems a lot more than their counterparts do in a sticks-and-bricks house. I’m not sure whether it is the constant banging around from movement or maybe they just aren’t built as well. I have replaced refrigerator coils, microwave, water pump, and A/C thermostat. My furnace is not working at the moment and I have lost battery connection to the compartment under the coach. I guess it is a good thing I know the systems pretty well now, and I can fix most problems myself. If I had to take it to a shop each time something broke, my savings account would be broke, too.

Fortunately, I have a 12 volt refrigerator that I bought when I was having problems last year. Unfortunately, it is a lot smaller that my coach refrigerator and there is no freezer compartment. I transferred as much of the food that would fit – mostly expensive items – into the little portable, and inventoried all the frozen items from the freezer. There were several packages of meat: hamburger, hotdogs, and sausage; a few frozen dinners I resolved to eat that evening; and a box of ice cream bars that were a total loss and tossed into the garbage.

I knew the eggs and cheese would last a couple of days without refrigeration, and most of the condiments would be okay, but unrefrigerated meat is something you don’t want to mess around with for long. I fried up the hamburger and with the TV dinners cooking in the microwave, I just had room for the meat in the small fridge.

Over the next two days I felt like I was on the Atkins Diet. I have never in such a short time eaten so much meat. I literally fried up half a pound of bacon and ate it in one sitting! For lunch I had sausage and hamburger and more bacon. For dinner I ate the last TV dinner and washed it down with more hamburger. I’m not sure how much meat I ate yesterday, but my carnivorous ancestors would have been proud.

The wind finally died down on Sunday and I moved to Pilot Knob LTVA. I wanted to remain close to Yuma in case I needed parts for my propane supply to the fridge. Once I pulled out the little jet orifice that regulates the propane gas to the refrigerator, I knew right away it was just plugged. With a little cleaning and picking, I had the jet looking like new, and as soon as everything was back together and turned on, the unit started cooling again.

This LTVA would not be on my list of favorite places to stay. The area is quite barren – void of any vegetation except creosote bushes, there is no dump or water available, and the close proximity to the highway and railroad tracks makes it noisy. While I was out walking yesterday I asked a man I met why he likes to stay here and he told me it is because there are no crowds of people. He said the other LTVAs have too many people. I guess if you want to be alone this would be a good place to stay.

Right now the thermometer in my freezer says 3 degrees.

5 Responses to “Carnivore”

  1. Dale says:

    I just wanted to clarify something. Many probably think it would be better to throw food out than make such a piggy of yourself. I get that. My usual diet is eggs, cheese, bread, butter, potatoes, pasta, cookies, chips, fruits, vegetables(sometimes), ect…. I probably didn’t take in more calories than normal, just that it was all meat. The bacon I cooked up was snacked on over a few hours. I had good intentions to save some for a BLT at lunch but that didn’t happen;)

  2. Geez – there’s no way I could eat all that meat, but I’m not that much of a meat eater, anyway. It sounds like you were able to refrigerate some of it, so you’ll have it all ready for the next few meals.

    I think the reason we have issues with our systems is because they are older. My rig is a 2006, so my fridge is 10 years old. I’d guess in the next couple of years it’ll be causing me some headaches, too. And when you think of how they are bounced down the road all the time, well… it’s kind of amazing that they last as long as they do. 🙂

  3. Don says:

    You had me at “1/2 lb of bacon”…

  4. Daryl says:

    Good thing they weren’t mushrooms going bad that you had to eat. Though I guess they wouldn’t have found their way into your refrigerator anyway…

    I bet you were wishing that you had caught the ice cream in time so you would have had to eat that all up!

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