Since I bought the RV two years ago, (yes it was exactly 2 years ago this week!) I have probably used the awning twenty short times. I enjoy the shade it provides, and certainly love how much cooler the RV is when it is open while the sun is beating down in the desert here in Arizona. I usually put it up, only to take it down an hour or two later. This is to avoid, what I have been told repeatedly, is the biggest accident issue with RVs; a broken awning.

I have been a first person witness to two such mishaps while traveling the country. One was rain induced, the other wind. In addition, I have heard countless stories about broken awnings. When I arrived back here, in Arizona, a neighbor had just had his awning blown to bits while he went to the store. The winds can whip up here pretty good, and quickly. I have seen people use weights and other tie downs to secure their awnings, but I was not sure how, so I continued to pull mine out (manually, as David pointed out when I was in Kansas City, “Mom I thought you had everything on the RV, but not an electric awning?) and then put it back in, before I would leave it, and yes, I would worry the whole time it was up, because if a wind whipped up, what could I do anyway?

As I walked the dogs around the RV Resort, which is filling up, more each day, I saw numerous awnings out, shading the RVs from the warm sunshine. I looked at all of them and noticed they all had a ground stake, of some sort, and something around the awning to tie it down. I felt like a detective trying to solve a mystery as I looked at various awnings, and then tried to determine if I had the right equipment to do this myself. I became more certain that this would solve my sun/shade issue, if I could only figure out how to do it.

When I got back to the RV, I decided to clean up the remaining mess the monsoon had left, by washing my slab of concrete down. The monsoon left it full of sand, and I thought the next rain would take care of it, but instead it just baked in the sun and became a mess. I had been using an old rug, someone had given me on the porch,(glad I was since the monsoon ruined parts of it) and I decided it was time to get my good rug out and spruce up the place before all the new people arrive. I washed down the cement, and then I fixed my water hose which had been leaking at the RV connection. I had tried to tighten it, but it continued to trickle water out. I discovered that the second hose was not needed here, the one actually made it from the RV to the water faucet on the ground behind the RV. I was happy and relieved to see that when I connected it, there was no leak at all. Better to be a leaky hose connection than RV connection!

Once I cleaned off the slab, I pulled out the awning and tried to set up the arms of the awning on the ground, as I was shown, once, 2 years ago. I did this, but honestly, the awning sagged, and it did not look right. I envisioned a rain with pooling water up there, and decided I could live with the extending ams from the RV, which I will occasionally bump into, and have better piece of mind if rain should start while I am not there. Then I dug out the alligator clamp things Chuck had bought me for the scooter, before we found the cool Harley ones which work like a seat belt buckle. Chuck had tried to explain to me numerous times how easy the alligator tighteners work, but for some reason, I just couldn’t get it. We tried over and over, and he kept saying, “Oh it’s easy, Laveda, you’ll get it.”, but as soon as we bought the Harley ones, I was so relieved to not need to use the others. He insisted I put them in my RV, because “you never know when you’ll need to secure something.” So I have driven all over with them in my bin, just in case, but the fact I had a very loose idea of how they worked meant I would really need them, before I would sit down and figure them out.

Today was that day. I pulled them out, and mustering all of my brain cells together and willing them to remember how Chuck said these things worked, I looked at the awning and then at the loop and clasp. This seemed to go there, so I secured that part over the awning itself, and after seeing where the other part dangled down, I used my big fat sledge hammer (Chuck also made me pack) to hammer the (tent) stakes into the very hard ground. These were the tent stakes from the tent, which have a loop on the top. I went to secure the other clasp to the loop, and it was too short.

Now the beauty of these things is, they adjust. I looked at it, and if I could figure out how to adjust them, I think they’d make it. I pulled it down, and spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure out how this alligator thing worked. I know how to make it tighten, but making it looser was what I needed to do, and Thank God they were put away already rolled, because I never would have figured them out otherwise! Finally, my memory kicked in, and playing with it enough, I got it to give back some of the material, to make it longer and this time when I attached it, the clasp reached. Then with a couple alligator cranks, it was pulled tight, and I have to say, I was quite proud  of my work. I repeated the same procedure on the other side and felt like for the first time, I would not worry about the awning.

I moved the old rug to the back, by the wall for the dogs to use, but I needed something to secure them both down, so I went to the store. I bought the plastic stakes and some solar lights. I had to put the solar lights together, (that’s what I get for buying the cheaper ones in the box!) but I really liked how they looked and they put out a decent amount of light. I secured both rugs and put out my big blue chair, which is so comfy, I have fallen asleep in it before.  I discovered by accident, my outdoor radio actually plays my satellite radio feed from inside directly. I discovered this about 2 weeks ago, which is nice when I am outside. This would have been good to know the past two years! Once I was finished with that, I went and got the wooden sign I bought back in March which tells passersby that this is “The Peterlins”, and that we are from Chicago. I put in the hangers and secured it to the front of the RV. Around here, almost everyone has such a sign. I enjoy reading the names and where they are from as we walk through the Resort, which is why I wanted to participate.

Once I finished, I sat in my blue chair, under the awning, listening to the satellite radio and admired my work for the day. Yes, right now I love the awning.

My Finished Work