Eventful end to Summer 2023 camp trip

The second week in our campsite on the Rim, I discovered mouse droppings in Minnie. I got out my electric rodent zapper and caught one the next morning. Just in case he wasn't a solo RVer, I reset the zapper. Since I found more droppings in multiple locations, Dale brought over his zapper and I set both of them, moving them around each day. Meanwhile, Dale & I went on a hunt for small openings where they might be getting in. We stuffed steel wool in three different holes we found, though not being certain any of them were open to the outside. Over the next few days, I caught three more mice, then I had a quiet night with no activity and no mice in the traps, so thought I might have gotten them all. On Tuesday evening, as I sat reading in my recliner, I heard the zapper on the engine console go off. Sure enough, there was a mouse in it. I tossed it out the front door and re-baited and reset the trap. Fifteen minutes later, I heard it go off again. After the third one an hour later, I knew there was some super highway into my rig that the whole mountain mouse community had discovered. I crawled in bed with my covers up to my chin, but didn't sleep well. Each time I heard the zapper, I would get up & toss the dead mouse out the door and reset the trap. By morning, there was a pile of five mice plus another one scratching in my oven, and I decided to pack up and head home.

No, not this mouse. This mouse would have been welcome!

I pulled up in front of my house at noon. After unhitching the Fit, Minnie wouldn't start. I tried jumping it with the Fit, but got nothing. Daryl was out and about and I called to ask him to stop by on his way home to double check my jumper cable connections. He started to reconnect them, but told me to first try the key one more time. Sure enough, Minnie started right up. I pulled it around and up the driveway into the back yard, when Daryl noticed one of my back (dual) tires was flat. I remembered either hitting a bump or pothole, or something hitting me as I came through Mesa. Just then, I noticed my gas gauge was also reading empty. It had been over half full just a few miles out of Mesa. I was then very concerned something had put a hole in my gas tank.

All of my electrical system seems to be down. and my brothers suggested the empty gas gauge might be a result of that instead of really empty. Now I'm thinking I might have had a blowout on the tire, and the electrical outage is a separate issue, possibly related to mice chewing wires. I sure hope that's the case or it could be a big expense, not to mention the complication of getting it into a shop to be repaired. It would likely have to be towed. Since I don't have any camping trips planned in the next few months, I'll wait until it's a bit cooler to start making some calls.

Meanwhile, I slept soundly last night in my cool block house, and I'm glad to be home. It was a fun camping trip (up until that last night!) but I'll be ready to hit the road again as soon as Minnie is healed up.