Getting Her Ready…

Someone got new shoes this weekend…

The Jay Feather is uncovered and we’re getting her ready for the season!

Chris took the cover off this weekend and took her to get some new tires.  We bought the camper used and had no idea how old the tires are.  We’ve been camping for 3+ years now, and we’ve gone to Florida and Maine and everywhere in between on the East Coast.  So we figured it was time.  (sidebar: camper tire blowouts freak me out and thus, was probably the real reason for the new tires.)

So, let’s backtrack a moment, shall we?

The cover comes off, and I’m super excited to see how the camper has held up over the winter.

“Why,” you ask?

Well, it seems to have become a perfect spot for mice in the previous winters.

Last year, halfway through the winter, I went outside to check out the scenario.  UGH.  I see droppings all over the floor.

I open the drawers and UGH! I see droppings and tissue scraps all in the drawers.

I slide out the bed and look in the storage areas.

I found their house.

I screamed and slammed the storage cover HOPING that I scared them/it out of the camper and back out the hole that they/it amazingly found to enter through.

I look in the bathroom.

I found their summer condo.  Little scraps of tissue under the sink.

I’m freaked.  I’m ready to trade out the camper for a new one now, please.  After all, I am The Bougie Camper.  I don’t do vermin.

So I go to the store and get some supplies.  Rubber gloves, (the thickest I can find) garbage bags, paper towels and antibacterial spray.  I Google how I’m going to clean up this mess and go to it.  I’ve never had to do this before! I knew no one else would be involved in this mess and I was determined to disinfect this camper.

First, a disclaimer.  I did leave some things in the camper…not intentionally.  There were some old skool, in the round wrapper Tums in the kitchen drawer that became used as house building materials. Also some papers and some utensils for cooking.  I also left a box with a few tissues in the bathroom. So I suppose had I removed these items, I wouldn’t be dealing with this right now. 🤦🏼‍♀️

So I begin.  Everything in the trash.  I have to buy new BBQ tongs now because I used them to pick things up instead of using my hands.  I spray everything down and let it sit, as Google told me to.  A few hours later, we were disinfected and all cleaned out.

Now, the year before I found a few droppings (no legit houses) and did a little research.  I shared my research with my good friend, Keri.  Keri and her husband, James, basically taught me everything I know about having an RV. I told her how I read that if you put Irish Spring soap in the camper, it deters mice from coming in.  The next day at work, she brought me a bar of Irish Spring and told me to try.

Lies.

Take a look at how much it deterred them.

NOT. AT. ALL.

It looks like it was a delicious snack. They were probably laughing at me as they chomped away at it.

So this year, determined to give the mice absolutely no interest in entering, I took EVERYTHING out of the camper.  Bare bones.  Nothing left.  Nada. I even put those little mouse poison things under in the storage compartments to make sure we had no winter visitors.

So I expect when I open the door this weekend I’m going to be doing a dance of joy.

Not. So. Fast.

It was about 7:00 on Friday night, before daylight savings time, so it was dark.  There was no power to the camper so I’m going in with nothing but my iPhone flashlight.

I open the door and I spot them…droppings in the sink.

What. The. Heck.

BUT…I don’t see them where I normally do.  I’m shining my light all over.  None on the floor…none on the countertop.  Maybe this was a one-time visit? Maybe they stopped by and we’re bummed that there was nothing interesting this year. “No Tums? No tissues? No plastic spoons to chomp on? This place is beat!”

So I decide I’m going to do the first check in the bathroom where I have previously found their vacation home.

I open the door and…

I SCREAM

Evidently, when Chris (with help complete directives from our friend James) winterized the camper, he forgot to put the toilet seat down. (shocker)  What’s in the toilet?

A MOUSE.

[I swear this toilet is cursed.]

He was dead.  But he was in there.

Now, in all these years of cleaning up their mess, I never actually saw a mouse.

This time was different.

I run out of the camper mumbling screaming unintelligible words.  When Chris and Bougie Boy ask what’s going on,  I explain there’s a dead mouse in the toilet and of course, they want to go see.  I shine my flashlight in and they have different responses.

Bougie Boy: “Cooool!  That’s a rat.” (No, it wasn’t.  It was about the size of my pinky finger.)

Chris:  “UGH. Is it really dead?” (No, it’s taking a bath in anti-freeze and toilet water.  YES, it was dead.)

Chris tells me to go inside and he’ll deal with it later tomorrow. 🙄

I was told the next morning that Chris pulled it out with our new BBQ tongs.  He also announced that he left the tongs on top of the garbage can by the garage in case I wanted to keep them.  (ARE YOU CRAZY?!?)

So, in the next two weeks we’ll I’ll be sanitizing and prepping the camper for her first trip.  We’re really excited about the trip, but I am not excited about the sanitizing part.   Hopefully we’ll get a few nice days where I can open it all up and air it out.  We’re supposed to get snow again this week.  I sure hope not! Not looking for any more visitors trying to get warm from the snow!

~Michelle