Water
Water is constantly on my mind. I spend half of my time thinking about how to get water into the airstream, and the other half of my time is spent thinking about how to get water out of the airstream. And I’m not just referring to the tanks; humidity is also an important factor. We currently have three Eva-Drys (reusable humidity absorbing contraptions), two dehumidifiers, and have either the fans or the AC going pretty much at all times. It’s also rained a whole heck of a lot, so we’re also navigating the joys of having three wet dogs in a small space seemingly every other day. Yesterday, however, we were treated to a whole new watery adventure: a leak.
To set the scene: it was raining. I was with the pups in the trailer, puttering around and listening to my podcast. My partner was out running a few quick errands before his high holy season (football) was to begin, and I had literally just gotten off the phone with him when I noticed some condensation on a couple of the AC vents. I made my way to the back of our trailer where our climate control panel is, intending to turn up the temp by a degree or two, when I noticed a wet spot at the end of our bed.
Initially, I didn’t think anything of it. I laughed and looked at Penny, who was peeking out at me from behind our pillows, (she loves our new bed), and said something along the lines of, “Oh my goodness, who is mama’s drooly baby?” and reached out towards the wet spot, to assess whether or not I needed to mop it up a bit. But it was wet. WET wet. Saturated. It was definitely not a drool spot. Out of instinct, I looked up towards the ceiling just in time to watch a drop slip out from the seam and plop onto the bed.
Luckily, because we have three dogs, we also have several waterproof blankets, and I always have one covering our comforter. Thank GOODNESS. Our bedding and mattress was completely unaffected. I ran and grabbed a couple of pots and arranged them on the bed to catch the drops. Then I immediately sat down and started searching for the closest Airstream service center (over three hours away) and googled “what to do if your Airstream ceiling starts leaking.” And then my partner walked through the door.
He looked so excited; I’m sure he was anticipating a fun day of yelling at the tv, eating yummy snacks, and cuddling with the pups. I myself had been planning on taking off for a little bit of me time, very important when sharing such a small space and often dealing with extremely stressful situations, but that clearly wasn’t going to happen. None of it was going to happen. I’ll never forget the way the smile just SLID off of his face when I said, “You need to come look at this.” I couldn’t even say “leak” out loud at that point or I would have burst into tears.
My partner turned around and went back to the store. After a mini freak-out, of course. We didn’t really have a plan yet, but we knew we didn’t have anything to help stop or even temporarily fix a leak. I stayed with the girls and continued my research, and called my dad for advice since he’d just spent most of the summer working on the roof of his RV. I looked but I couldn’t find any service shops that were open on Sunday. So, I kept an eye on the leak and waited for my partner to get back.
The rain had stopped by that point. The water would only come out of the ceiling if you pressed on the seam, so that seemed to be a step in the right direction. The thing about ceiling leaks, especially in RVs although the same can be said for almost any kind of structure, the origin point of the leak won’t necessarily be right above where the water is coming in. Water travels.
My partner had gotten some sealant, but then we realized our ladder wasn’t tall enough for him to be able to see the roof, let alone reach anything. We did a lap around the campground but since it was a Sunday, a lot of people had cleared out earlier in the day. No one we spoke to had a ladder tall enough for our purposes, so my partner went back to the store yet again. We decided that the best thing to do was for him to get a ladder, a tarp, and some rope. If he got up there and spotted where the leak was coming from, great, he could use the sealant. If not, we would just cover up that end of the airstream with the tarp and tie it down until we could figure out the next step.
It was beginning to rain again by the time we got the ladder set up. My partner couldn’t find the leak; to be fair, he didn’t really know what he was looking for. So I tossed him the tarp and we started trying to arrange it over the back end. Just then, a man approached, because that’s what people do at campgrounds, and he helped us spread the tarp. I popped into the airstream to check the leak and with the tarp covering that portion of the roof, it had stopped! So at least we know the general area that it’s located. We tossed the rope around a bit and tied it down - if you want an idea of what it looks like, think of the OG Little Mermaid where they’ve got the sail tied around her. It looks like that. I’ve been referring to it as the diaper.
Because the tarp is covering one of the AC units we can’t run it, but the tarp has also kept that end of the trailer particularly cool today, and no more water is coming out of the ceiling, not even when you press on the seam. It doesn’t feel squishy at all anymore, so hopefully any residual moisture has pretty much dried up by now. We tried without success to speak with any of the service techs that were recommended to us, but hopefully we’ll hear back from someone tomorrow.
Until then, the weather report shows nothing but sun. My partner did get to watch part of one game yesterday, and has Monday night football to look forward to as well. The whole situation sucks, but there’s nothing to do but roll with it. It could’ve been a whole lot worse!