Radio Redux

All during the Great Circle trip, we were frustrated by not having a good source of music to listen to during our long drives. Before the trip, I hastily burned a couple of MP3 CDs to play on the Nav/Radio/CD unit but neglected to test them before pulling out. You guessed it - the stupid system refused to play them at all. Thus, we were reduced to listening to radio stations that sounded crappy and  would fade out after a few miles anyway.

I've been spoiled by having Bluetooth in the car and was longing for it in the rig so I could play songs from my iPhone. So, for the upcoming trip to Vermont, I decided to replace the Nav unit with a new radio. Of course, no decision is ever easy for me so I hemmed and hawed over what kind of radio to get.

I also have satellite radio in the Fusion and we've really enjoyed it in the couple of long drives we've taken in the car but adding yet another monthly subscription payment didn't really seem like something I wanted to do. After a lot of research, I finally settled on a JVC Bluetooth unit that had good reviews in Crutchfield. I figured I could get almost the equivalent of satellite radio by using something like Pandora on the iPhone.

Of course, I reached this decision mere days before we were to leave for Vermont. On Thursday, I went to Best Buy on the way home to pick up the radio. While there I found a "Universal Ford" mounting kit that looked like would be good to have to help mount the new radio in the dash. Luckily, I happened on the car stereo installation guy who took me back into the shop and got me one that was specifically designed for the Ford Econoline chassis that the RV is built on.

After dinner, I set about the task of taking the old radio out of the dash and installing the new one. I really wish I would have taken pictures of the mess in the front of the rig during this process. I started with taking off the doghouse - that cowl that sits between driver and passenger and covers the engine. With that off, I could see under the dash and grab the radio and wiggle it a bit but I couldn't get it out of it's pocket and saw nothing that looked like it was holding it in. I finally realized that the dash trim panel was partly holding it in and managed to pry it up and away from the dash. I then saw that the radio was held in by a bead of some sort of black goo that bonded it to the top of the radio pocket. It was kind of like that glue that they use to stick your new credit card to the paper with when it comes in the mail but black and much tackier.

I tried slicing it with a utility knife and finally got a corner to come free. Grabbing it with a pair of needle nose pliers allowed me to rip it out and free the radio. Well, the radio and the nest of wires that came out with it of course.

There were about four separate wiring harnesses attached to the unit - GPS antenna, Radio antenna, power, speakers, and other stuff, and cables for video in and a CD changer that weren't connected to anything. I detached them from the back of the radio and then found that the power and speaker cables ran to another connector and detached that.

I took the radio back into the house to try and figure out how to match up the wires on the new radio. I ended up using the existing power and speaker harness from the old radio and soldering in the connector to the new radio. Luckily, I had the manuals for both radios so I could figure out which wires went where. With the new harness made, I took it out to the camper and plugged it into the connector just to see if it would work.

Sound! Yahoo! I got a nice connection to a radio station and it sounded pretty good. I couldn't stop there though. With the radio just sitting on the passenger seat, I got my iPhone and went through the Bluetooth pairing process. In about 10 seconds I had tunes thumping on the system.

This thing rocks! The old radio sounded so bad that I figured I'd eventually have to get new speakers but with the new radio going, that need dried up fast. I went inside to have Deb come out and give a listen but when I got in she said she could hear it from inside. Yeah, I guess I cranked it up a bit... I also had her call me on my phone and I was able to talk through the radio and hear her through the speakers - just like in the Fusion. Woohoo!

So, with the radio working, I moved on to the harder job - mounting it in the dash. The old radio was a double-DIN system which means that it was twice as big in height as a normal radio. Although I had considered getting another double-DIN system as a replacement, I saved the money and got a single. The mounting system I got had a pocket and frame that fill in the resulting gap.

The mounting instructions for the new mounting system were pretty comical. It basically just said "Mount this in your dash somehow." Cool.

It actually fit pretty well but I quickly realized that it wasn't going to hold the radio very securely as we were bouncing down the road. I needed to attach the radio to an existing radio bracket in the dash and that would hold the radio and the trim frame more solidly. By this time though it was late Thursday night and I needed to hit the hardware store to see if I could cobble together a mounting system. Nothing for it but to wait until tomorrow and see if I could get it done before we left that morning.

I woke up early Friday and ran down to the hardware store to see what I could come up with. I got some tiny bolts that would screw into the radio and then picked up a couple of angle brackets as well as  two strange brackets that are used somehow to hold downspouts in place. Took me about an hour of pondering and designing in my head before I left the store.

Back home I tried fitting the various pieces into something that would hold the radio and wasn't having much luck. Nothing would line up with the slots in the existing bracket and the clock was ticking. I was looking at some left-over pieces that came with the trim kit - parts that are used when installing in a different Ford I guess - and realized that those parts had slots in them. Slots are essential when doing this kind of thing because they give you the adjustability you need to make things line up.

I got out the Dremel and sliced off some tabs and wings that were in the way and fit them in the dash. I attached the downspout tabs, bent them into place, screwed them into the radio and I was done. One more test to make sure the harness was still working and we were golden.

I think it came out looking pretty good and it sounds great.

The Great Circle of the Summer of 2012

After last year's vacation at the lake in Georgia, we wanted to do it again this year. And then we got stupid and decided to add in a visit to Mom and Dad in Florida, and Shell and Jeff in Kentucky and make one big, massive driving test of us and the camper.

Here's the route we planned. About 3,000 miles altogether. We figured we'd break up the trip down to Jacksonville into three days with stops in Maryland and North Carolina, then stay a few days in Jacksonville at M&D's, then up to the lake in Georgia, then over to Shell & Jeff's, then back home.

The first place we stayed was Cherry Hill Campground in College Park, MD. This was a pretty big place and was very much geared for sight-seeing trips into Washington DC. When I went in to register, they asked me if I had any discounts - Good Sam, AAA, or anything else. I said "No" but the guy said "Oh well, I'll give you the discount anyway." Kind of glad he did. It went from being a $60/night spot to $35.

Cherry Hill Campground - College Park, MD

It wasn't much of a spot either as you can see from the pictures to the left. We didn't bother setting anything up since we were just going to be there for the night. One problem we encountered (which is still causing problems as I write this) - the jacks didn't work properly to auto-level the rig.

Cherry Hill

Normally, when I do the leveling, as the jacks swing down, 4 red LED's light up on the panel when each leg gets down. Well, the right rear LED did not light. When I hit the "auto-level" button, it refused to level - presumably because it didn't think that jack was down. I got out to look at the jack and it was down just like all the others but something was telling the system it wasn't ready. Oddly enough, I could manually work the jacks so that's what I did. I used the front/back/side buttons to adjust the level and got things pretty good. Frustrating though because it should just all happen automagically.

We got on the road the next day for the leg down to Fayetteville, NC. For navigation, we were using a combination Waze on the iPhone and the Nav unit in the system in the dash. There wasn't much navigating needed since the route was pretty direct but the dash nav was particularly funny. As we were driving down 95 with no turns for the next 100 miles or so, the unit would randomly pipe up and say "Proceed...on 95...South" in this kind of syrupy, strange voice and delivery. That thing is just plain weird.

Lazy Acres Campground - Fayetteville, NC

We got to Lazy Acres Campground outside of Fayetteville, NC in the evening. It was located down a very long, sand road and was really quite nice. The manager led us to our site in a golf cart and chatted with us for a while - asking why we couldn't stay longer. Turns out he was a Work-Camper who was in his second year there and was going to head to Florida at the end of next year. I got to learn all about his health and plans for going from place to place - friendly place.

The next day was the final leg to Jacksonville. Again, no issues, just long days of driving. And pumping gas. Each fill-up was close to 50 gallons at $3+ per gallon - you do the math...

We got to Mom & Dad's right as a gully-washer came down. We dropped off our clothes and fridge contents at their house and parked the rig in a parking area - getting pretty much soaked in the process.


We had Skip with us of course so this was his first chance to meet Sam. Mom said Sam was looking forward to Skip's visit so he could have someone to play with. Skip took one sniff of Sam and was ready to do other things - explore, pee, sleep, etc.

Sam was having none of that. When his nose wasn't in Skip's butt, he was biting his hind legs as he walked or jumping up on Skip and then running away when Skip growled at him. He was doing his best to get Skip to play with him but it wasn't working. Every once in a while, Skip would look over at us with a look that said "Who the Hell is this, why is he bothering me, and can you please make it stop?" It was actually pretty funny.

We had a great visit with the 'rents of course. Dad was feeling better than he had in a few weeks coincidentally and we were able to go out to eat at Red Lobster for Mom's birthday. We went to a bike shop for a new tube for Dad's trike which he was able to ride around for a bit as well.

Of course, I did the usual computer troubleshooting - working off the list of issues Dad had compiled for the visit. One of the trickier ones was that their printer was printing everything really, really slowly. Couldn't figure out why it was acting like that until I found that it was set to print to Photo Paper. Evidently, it thought it was printing photos and therefore being very detailed. Once we set it to the Normal paper that it had in the tray, it started printing fast again.

With a teary goodbye, we set off on the next leg to Chatuge Lake in Georgia. Hiawasse is in the middle of nowhere and there are a couple of ways to get there. The short route was to go around the east side of Atlanta, up through Gainsville, and then over the mountain via Hellen. The problem with this route though is the mountain road through Hellen is very twisty and very up and down. Tim suggested that we take a slightly longer way and go up 575 on the west side of Atlanta. This gave us a straight shot on much better roads. After much hemming and hawing - all the way up to the decision point heading into Atlanta, we opted for the long route - and went through the middle of Atlanta as well! Since it was a Sunday, there was no traffic and we pretty much went through Atlanta just like Sherman did.

As we were going up 575, the GPS kept wanting us to turn onto smaller roads. Deb was feverishly texting back and forth with Tim and Brenda who assured us that we just needed to keep going straight and it would take us right in. Of course, we did and it did. Never did figure out why Waze wanted us to  take a different route.

Campground Location

We got to the campground an the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds - after pulling into the wrong section and just about getting stuck trying to turn around - to find that the office was closed after 5:00. Luckily, I had an email with our assigned site so we headed to it and registered the next morning.

We were right on the lake in a great spot and just a couple of sites away from Stan's camper.

Of course, the lake vacation is not complete without a Wave Runner. Unfortunately, Stan's had died the week before but we were able to rent one for two days at a great rate so the vacation was saved!

A year later and now Katelyn and Austin are seasoned Wave Runner pros. There was some concern that they weren't old enough to drive it by themselves. Apparently, the law is that you have to be 26 to operate one which seemed to put the kibosh on some of the fun. However, when we asked the rental guy about it he said that "Since it's a rental, the law doesn't apply." What? Whatever.

I had bought a GoPole for the GoPro so that we could get a different perspective instead of just the one using the suction cup mounted on the cowling looking back at the riders. Here are a couple of selected pics from the many Gigs of video we shot during the week. The rest of the shots are on my Facebook album.

Carly and Chris about to get wet

I don't think I mentioned that Carly and Chris drove down to meet us at the lake. This was Chris' first intro to Wave Running (and Moonshine and the Georgia Mountains for that matter). They slept on the couch and dinette in the camper - beds made for 6 to 10 year-olds I think. Their necks may be permanently bent after this experience.

We divided our time between the houseboat and the campsite, eating, playing "Corn-hole", swimming, tubing behind the Wave Runner, and generally just having a great time. We went on a hike to High Shoals Falls - crossing a relatively deep stream in the cars to get there. After a pretty good hike, it was really a beautiful spot.

On our last night, we did a "Low Country Boil" and then played trivia at a little pub inside the  Brasstown Valley Resort. The boil was fabulous as usual and we managed to win a pitcher of beer during trivia - I think due to our creative team name of "The Boston Butts".

On the drive up, Deb and I were listening to a country station and decided we should write a country song called "I Got a Low Country Boil on my Boston Butt".  

Maybe you had to be there...

Angela and Rita

The next day, we pushed off for Kentucky. This was a long day and we were tired when we pulled into the Lampe compound that evening. Unfortunately, the boys were away at a wrestling camp but we had a great night and next day being with the rest of the clan - capped off with a hot hike in the back woods to Tom Wallace pond.

Maria self portrait

Rather than leave early the next morning, we decided to push off that night to get a jump on the long drive home. We drove for about 4 hours and pulled into a rest area outside of Cleveland for a few hours of shuteye - lulled to sleep by the rumble of idling trucks on either side of us.

We headed up towards Buffalo and then across endless New York and to home after about 24 hours from when we started. Amazingly, the only problem we had was the finicky jack so it was very much a successful journey in the rig.

Can't wait to do it again next year!