Even More Quilt Shops!

Now that I think about it, almost all of our camping trips are centered around whether there are quilt shops nearby. This weekend was no exception. We had a reservation at Keyser Pond Campground in Henniker, NH, which is in Henniker, which is home to Quilted Threads quilt shop. Who knew?

This is in southern New Hampshire so it wasn't a bad drive. So we wouldn't have to break camp to go to the shop, we stopped in before we got to the campground. Deb did her thing while Skip and I chilled in the rig. When she was done, we headed over to Keyser Pond. This campsite, like the last one in Maine, was just a tad shabby but it didn't feel as "icky" as Green Valley. It was predominantly seasonals - trailers with built-up porches of every type. As with most seasonals, they tend to get pretty grimy from all the tree droppings and such so the whole place just felt a bit "used".

The spaces were nice though and we had a ton of room to pitch the screen porch thingy. We relaxed Friday night and then on Saturday, got on the tandem for a trip to yet another fabric store. Just before we got on the bike Deb realized that she had forgotten her bike shorts. She ended up using my gym short which worked fine actually. We had a really nice ride along a river and up and down some rolling hills. Her quilt shop iPhone app showed the shop at a certain place but when we got there after about 10 miles, it wasn't there. I did a quick google search on my phone and found the proper location. It was really hot - did I mention that we also forgot our water bottles so we had to buy some small ones from the camp store? Anyway, I waited in the shade while Deb looked at fabric and then we headed home via another route. We ended up doing about 21 miles.

When we got back to the campsite, we just took off our shoes and walked straight into the pond to cool off. We had a nice rainstorm Saturday evening followed by our neighbor coming over and telling us about the slide-out seal that was hanging down about half-way along the left side. It looked like it had just pulled out as the slide came out. I tried getting it back on but towards the top, it was a really tight fit between the slide and the rig. It actually looked like the whole slide section was canted in the hole since the top left was much closer than the top right.

I struggled with it for awhile and then just got tired. I thought that maybe the rig was twisted slightly due to being on the jacks kind of funny. I figured I would drop the rig off the jacks on Sunday as we were getting ready to leave and try to fix it then.

So, on Sunday, with the rig off the jacks, it was no better. I finally ended up spraying Pam cooking spray onto the rubber so that it wouldn't stick to the side and be pulled in as the slide came in. I'm not really sure how I'm going to fix this...

Dumping involved the usual leaking of the RhinoFlex hose and coupling. Can't figure out why that leaks so badly.

The drive home was pretty easy with just some moderate traffic at the NH tolls.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.