If you are buying an RV.

Surfside RV Resort, Parksville BC (2 stars)

Get one with a frost-free fridge.

Lez defrosted our fridge today, a regular exercise we have to do every couple of months.

Luckily, the outside temperature was the same as a fridge, so stuff could sit outside while we thawed the fridge out.

Chores must be done! For the phrase I would give this day, I am taken back in time to a TV weatherman Bill Matheson who referred to the dreaded of all meteorlogical phenomena, the Idaho High.

I refer to my dreaded of all RV refrigerator chores - the defrost and clean. Our RV is an older one and the fridge is not frost free. Ice build-up in the freezer brings the capacity to hold our food down to 50%! Hence the dreaded chore. There is no "defrost" button. One must empty the contents of the unit, keep them cold or frozen in various baskets, turn off the freezer and open the door and wait a few days OR fill a cake pan with boiling water, set it in said freezer and close the fridge to warm the inside. As the ice melts there is a little spout that drips into the fridge - and one MUST remember to put a capture container under it, and empty it frequently.

At this time I sigh, there will be one more such cleaning chore - when we put the RV up for sale this spring.