Monday, July 30, 2012

Maine-ly Meh

Deb got wind of another quilt show earlier in the year so we booked a stay in Augusta Maine so she could check it out. The drive up to Green Valley Campground was rather long - about 4 hours altogether - so we were pretty tired when we finally got there. The Waze GPS app on the iphone took us for another crazy route again. It wound us around some back roads to get to the campsite - taking us about 5 miles out of our way to get there. I'm really going to have to double check routes and not just blindly rely on the GPS to get us wherever we are going like I'm want to do.

When we got to the campground, we were less than impressed. It's hard to put your finger on it but it just seemed a little run-down, and cramped. We had a pretty nice site actually - compared to the others that we saw. The only trouble was that it had a pretty good slope to it.

One problem with the jacks is that the front jacks are pretty much on the ground when they swing down. There's really no way to put anything under them to give them more extension. The result is that if the site is sloped forward too much, they aren't able to raise the front of the rig enough to level it out. Well, this site had just enough of a slope that I could not get the front end up enough to get us level. After jockeying the rig around for about 10 minutes, I finally gave up and pulled in frontwards. This, of course, puts everything on the wrong side but, since we had to head to the quilt show the next morning, we said "screw it" and just lived with it.

The entertainment that night was a DJ playing music and a huge bonfire with about three people around.

Next day, we unhooked and headed into Augusta to find the quilt show. It was a good distance from the campground so rather than return and then go back to get Deb, Skip and I found a place to park and I took a nap.

I evidently slept better than i thought because I missed Deb calling me telling me she was done and to come pick her up... She ended up having to wait for about 30 minutes. Sorry Deb!

We headed back to the campground and this time, I had the bright idea to back in but run the front wheels on some blocks and then put some additional blocks under the front jacks. This gave me enough lift get the front end high enough to get the rig level. Should have thought of this the day before...

One problem with having to break camp to "go somewhere" is that we end up not putting up the porch tent thing so we never really "settle in" to the camp site. This, coupled with the run-down feeling of the place made us just not really enjoy the stay very much. We did get a kick out of some of the signs and "backwoods Maine"-isms that we found throughout the campground.

Another issue with the site was the sewer hookup. As you can see, the pipe was well up off the ground and, in fact, was just about as high as my dump valve. Since, my hose has to drop down below the compartment, it seemed like I was not going to be able to dump. I could just envision pulling the valve and having the dump hose simply fill up with gunk and not being able to get it to flow down the drain.

Luckily, I was able to pull off the riser pipe and get enough drop so that the eff, fluented - so to speak.

This was the first time I used my new 90 degree connection to get the hose to go out the port in the bottom of the compartment and I was hoping it would work well. Unfortunately, the connection to the hose leaked as well as the hose itself. I'm really confused about this. I spent some money on this setup and it is supposed to be the best. Strange.

When Sunday came around, we were pretty much ready to go so we packed up and headed home. I don't think we'll be going back to Green Valley Campground.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

On the Level

During the Great Circle trip, the Right Rear leveling jack started acting up. The way the system is supposed to work is this; After getting the rig where you want to be and setting the Parking break, you press the On button once to turn on the system. A second press of the button swings the jacks down from being tucked up horizontally, into a vertical position. A third press of the button extends the jacks and automatically levels the rig.

Well, what was happening was that after the second press to swing the jacks down, the Right Rear LED on the control panel was not lit (like the other three were). A visual inspection of the jack showed that it was fully swung down just like the other three. A third press of the button simply turned the whole system off. Apparently, not getting that LED from the jack told the system that it couldn't do anything more and it quit. Luckily, I could turn on the system again and use some other buttons to manually extend the jacks and raise and level the rig. Not a big deal but something I'd like to get fixed.

Another thing I noticed was that when the RR jack was swung down but not "officially" extended, it was still extended a few inches anyway. None of the other three jacks was extended at all until I manually extended them from the panel. Strange.

I posted my problem on my favorite RV Forum asking if anyone had any ideas on what the problem could be. The general response was "Call the Manufacturer - they are usually pretty good at helping you out". Hmm, okay. I'll call.

Called HWH in Moscow, Iowa of all places and told them my issue. They said they would have a Tech call me back. After a few days, I got a call from Frank who asked me a few questions and had me do a test. He had me disconnect a connector at the jack and connect a jumper wire between the two wires on the harness coming from the control box. If the LED came on in that situation, he said that hopefully that means it's just a Warning switch going bad on the jack.

I did the test and sure enough, got the LED to come on. Back on the phone with him, I told him the results and, after charging my credit card for $27, shipped me a new one. Installation was easy. I just unscrewed the switch and screwed the new one in. I turned on the unit and all four LEDs lit up. Whoo Hoo!

I had Deb come out and swing down the jacks while I looked underneath so that I could make sure that I had enough slack in the wire before I zip-tied them up.

Job Done.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Bees and Kites

This trip got off to a rather ignominious start but ended up being pretty fun. On the advice of a friend, we booked a campsite at Melville Ponds Campground in Portsmouth, RI - just north of Newport. She stressed that it was a no-frills place which suited us fine since we usually don't use the pool or play Bingo or whatever. Since it was close to Newport, we figured we'd bring the tandem and use it to head into town on Saturday.

We headed out on Friday afternoon and made the easy, 55 mile trip down. We had a bit of a bobble finding the place. We spotted the road that the GPS said to turn on but it looked like a school parking lot so we didn't turn. The next light had a sign for the campground though so no big deal. The road leading to the entrance was abysmal - we basically inched along for quite a ways so as not to destroy the rig. We pulled in and I went in to register.

I had a reservation and I guess I paid half the rate - hmm, was it really $45 per night? As I pulled out my wallet and got ready to hand the lady my credit card, she said "we only take cash or checks". Oh.

Seriously? Is that even possible?

I guess we must have mailed a check for the deposit too. Of course, I didn't have enough money so I thought I was going to have to go find an ATM. As I was heading back to the rig I thought, hey, Deb still has those things called checks! Problem solved!

So we register and head to the site. As I'm getting the rig situated in the site, I realize that we don't have sewer - just water and electric. Really? $45 a night for just water and electric? Dang!

I get situated where I want and put the jacks down - going through the process of manually leveling since the auto-levelers don't work. I did put some bubble levels on the wall earlier in the week so that I wouldn't have to keep using the level app on my iPhone to do it. I put the sliders out and then went out to hook up water and power. Well, I was close to the power post but then realized that there was no water spigot to be found. I finally spotted it - a tee feeding my neighbor's site and mine - all the way up by the road!

So, the power post is at the extreme rear of the site on the left side, and the water is diagonally across from it at the front of the site. No way is my hose going to reach from the road, all the way to the back of the site and connect to the inlet on the left side of the camper.

So, up with the jacks, in with the slides, jockey the rig forward and to the right - and try to split the difference and guess if my hose will reach. Luckily, I guessed right on the first try and got the hose connected. Back down with the jacks, level the beast, out with the slides. 


Then I went to connect the power.

Wasps in the power cover. Lots of wasps.

I gingerly lifted up the cover just to see... Crap! Yup, they sting! One got me on the arm before I could even react. I went and got the awning pull-down pole and tried to whack the little nest they were building off the post. I managed to get it off but they were still swarming so I went up to the office and asked them to bring a spray. Half an hour later, the guy showed up and blasted the box. It's a week later as I write this and my arm still hurts at the sting site.

Anyway, we finally got situated, fired up the grill and broke out the cocktails. After some Rumicube we called it a night. Sometime during that night, we lost power. Luckily, it had cooled off considerably so the lack of A/C wasn't a killer. I figured someone just tripped a breaker somewhere but casually asked Deb, who had gotten up to look around, if everyone else was out too. She said "No, just us". Crap.

I got up and grabbed a flashlight and went to the power post. I gingerly opened the cover door, expecting to find that the wasps had come back with friends and had re-wired the post into some sort of doomsday device - set to detonate when some hapless fool lifts the cover. Maybe I've seen too many Gary Larson cartoons?

Well, no bang, just the cord pulled out of the plug. Hmm. It then dawned on me that since I had moved the rig so far away from the post, it had invited everyone heading to the restrooms up the hill to cut through our site. Someone had evidently tripped on the cord during a midnight potty break and cut us off.

After breakfast on Saturday, we hemmed and hawed over whether to make the effort to bike into Newport. It's our usual inertia - we love the bike once we are on it but getting off our butts in the first place is sometimes a challenge. We finally overcame the friction and got moving. We did have one problem though. Over the last year or so I have proceeded to lose all of our biking water bottles - someplace. I think I usually leave them at soccer games but regardless, we had none. Oh well, it was cool and we'll find a bike store in Newport...

I looked at a map and plotted our route into Newport - staying off the main road for as long as possible. The route took us along the bay and we had some beautiful views of boats and water and glorious vistas. It looked like a fleet of old America's Cup 12 meters were playing on the bay - fabulous!

There are all kinds of Navy facilities on the bay and we passed a bunch of them. Then, we came upon a massive aircraft carrier being scrapped at a dock. I later found out that CV-60 is the USS Saratoga. Kind of erie seeing that there and thinking of what she had been through.

We got to the end of the coastal route and had to take the main road for the rest of the way in. Traffic quickly built up as we entered Newport and we soon found out why - the Hall of Fame tennis tournament was going on. Newport has some swanky grass courts which is where all the mansion owners played back in the day. 

It was fun cruising by the stalled traffic heading into town but I wanted to head down by the harbor so I turned off the route to the mansions and then on to Thames street. Big mistake.

Thames is a quaint little *cobblestone* street. Yikes! We inched along - hoping that my front wheel wouldn't catch in a rut and pitch us over. It was a jarring ride - one I hope to never do again.

We headed back up to Bellview street, which is the main drag out to the mansions. We'd been by these before in the car but they are still very impressive. We never have toured any of them though.

Bellview ends and turns into Ocean Drive and then it gets really pretty. There are some absolutely amazing houses out on that point. Pictures really don't convey the wealth that oozes from those places.

As we continued along Ocean Drive, I spotted what looked like kites in the sky. We've seen them before, being flown over a popular park at the end of the peninsula.

Then we started seeing a *lot* of kites.

Big kites, triple kites, lots of kites. Turns out it was the Newport Kite Festival that weekend - who knew!



We stopped and watched, grabbed a bite, and took pictures. Very cool!

The route back seemed longer than the one out and it was getting really hot. And we didn't have any water.

We made a feeble attempt to find a bike store but had no luck. On the way out of town, I pulled into a convenience store to buy some sports drink. I only had one dollar left and they wouldn't take a credit card for less than a minimum $5 purchase. In hindsight I should have bought 5 bottles of Powerade but they guy spotted me the 6 cents tax on on $.99 bottle so that's what I got.

As Deb and I stood outside the store gulping it down, two sketchy-looking guys walked past us. One of them was wearing a tank top and we could see a massive bandage covering his entire chest. I wonder what the other guy looked like...

We managed to make it back to the campsite but I was cooked. It's really embarrassing too because the ride was only 30 miles total. I should not have struggled like that - sucks to get old...

On Sunday, we broke camp and headed up to the dump station to do the dirty deed. After a wait behind another guy, we were on our way.

All in all, it was a good weekend. I think the campground is a little pricey but it was a nice place and we had plenty of room. We had a great ride and enjoyed the festival so I'm glad we went.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Fridge Contortions

Another topic that comes up occasionally on the RV forums is the fact that spiders love to spin webs around LP Gas burners. There are typically two gas burners on an RV that are exposed enough for spiders to find them - the water heater and, oddly enough, the refrigerator.

When the Fridge does not have AC power - like when you are driving down the road - it runs on a little bit of battery combined with a propane gas-powered science project that actually cools the fridge.

Well, I read a story about an RV that caught fire and they trumped out the usual suspects of bugs in the burners so I figured I should check mine.


The water heater looked fine and when I opened the fridge panel, it looked fine also. It was a little dirty so I vacuumed it out just to be safe. On the side of the panel I noticed a little drain port that looked like it was for some sort of overflow drainage. When I followed the tube up, I found that it was just floating there - it was broken in two with the other end running up to a connection into the fridge.

You can barely see the connection in the second picture. Two bad things; 1) The tube appears to be cracked right where it makes that connection into the fridge and 2) I can't get my hand up in there to take it off to replace it. Dang.

Another post to the RV forum and they basically said "You gotta take the fridge out". Well that sounds fun. I'm not sure what, if anything, I'm going to do about it at this point. I've mended the main break with electrical tape so it's really just the "potential" problem with the connection into the fridge. I never get frost in the freezer so I might just hope this is not an issue. How's that for a plan?

Monday, July 2, 2012

Off to Vermont

As hinted in the Radio Redux entry, the weekend right after we returned from the Great Circle trip was the Vermont Quilt Festival. Deb goes every year - I wait back at the campsite and pick her up when she's done.

It's about a 4-and-a-half-hour trip up there but it's through some pretty scenery so it's not all bad. I didn't do a formal measurement but, with all the hills/mountains, the gas mileage was pretty bad...

Anyway, not much to report on this trip. We had a nice site and set up the screen porch, cooked dinner and played Rumi-cube. The next day, we disconnected water and power, retracted the awning and took Deb to the Champlain Valley Exposition Center where the show is held. Skip and I just go back to the campsite and chill until Deb calls us and we go get her.

There are a couple of times where having another vehicle would be helpful so we didn't have to use the rig but I hate the idea of towing a car (and what that would do to the mileage) so we just deal with it.

When we left Sunday, Deb said she wanted to stop in a quilt museum just down the road. Turns out this is the Shelburne Museum which is apparently very famous. Not only are there quilts but also paintings, costumes, tools, antique snowmobiles and even an actual steamship in a field. Skip and I waited in the RV but Deb had a great time.

The drive home was uneventful so it was another successful trip under the belt.