Category Archives: Restaurants

Vintage Trailers and Cars

We’re still here in Alana’s driveway in Arlington, Washington. There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel though – Lifestyles Recreational Products expects to have the parts to complete the repair of the Spyder this week. Then I have to sell it.

We’ve been thinking about ways to increase available space in the trailer. I’ll need room to load Midget-San in there with enough clear space to avoid any damage to the car. After bicycling on Thursday, Donna came up with an idea. We were storing four bicycles in the trailer – her road bike, her beater bike, my road bike and my mountain bike.

I haven’t ridden my Orbea road bike in over a year. Donna isn’t planning to do any more long distance events like RAGBRAI with her road bike. She thought she should get rid of her bikes and replace them with one hybrid road/trail bike. I could get rid of my Orbea since I haven’t been riding it. That would take two bicycles out of the trailer but we would still have bikes to ride.

On Friday, we rode our bikes – Donna on her Trek Madone road bike, me on my Orbea – to Arlington Velo Sport bike shop. We did a little horse trading and ended up leaving both bikes there on trade and placing an order for a Trek Dual Sport 2 hybrid bike for Donna. The bike should be here by the end of the week.

The rest of this post is picture heavy. The weather has improved since my last post. Friday we had a high of about 70 degrees and enjoyed the two-mile walk back to Alana’s place from the bike shop. Saturday was another clear, sunny day with a high in the upper 70s. Donna and I drove Midget-San to Stanwood for a vintage RV (trailer) show. They had over a dozen restored RVs from the ’50s and ’60s on display. Some of the old rigs were very small, but usable for weekend camping.

Small travel trailer from 1969
Cozy interior
Beautiful truck and trailer from the ’50s
You could find something like this in every suburban neighborhood in the ’60s
Custom Ford Victoria and pop-up trailer
1950s pop-up camp trailer
Spartan Aircraft Company Royal Spartanette

This 1951 Royal Spartanette was built by the Spartan Aircraft Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. These were very expensive travel trailers and were considered “The Cadillac of trailers.” The floor plan on this one was laid out in such a way that it seemed roomier than our coach with the slides out! I wonder what they used to tow this rig?

We had lunch at the Chinese restaurant behind the Spartanette trailer at the Phoenix Pavilion. The food was great. After lunch, we took a drive over the bridge to Camano Island. Donna found free public access to the water on the island. We drove to English Boom Preserve and parked there.

Midget-San at English Boom Preserve

The name comes from the 1920s-1930s when the English Lumber Company logged trees in the area and floated log booms into Skagit Bay here. We were there at low tide and the bay is basically a tidal flat here. This tidal flat is an important habitat for salmon. Smolts swim out of the rivers they were spawned in – mainly the Snohomish, Stillaguamish and Skagit Rivers – and the eel grass along this flat provides cover for them as they grow and enter the sea.

Tidal flat at English Boom – snow covered Mount Baker in the center background

We made a stop at Ale Spike Brewery on the island. Donna liked her porter but I wasn’t impressed with my choice there. I should have known better when the Firechicken Ale I chose was described as red ale – amber. Okay, which is it – a red ale or an amber? It didn’t taste like either one – it was bitter with a yeasty aftertaste. Although the bar maid said it was their most popular brew, I didn’t care for it at all.

Is it a red or an amber?

After we came home, I went out to the Burger King parking lot nearby. When I lived here in the early 2000s, I had a couple of old Corvettes in the garage. On Saturday evenings, the local hot rodders would gather in the Burger King lot to swap lies and admire each other’s cars. I hadn’t been there in over 15 years, but I wanted to see if they still came out. They did.

Custom old Ford cabover truck
…with a big Ford V8 mid-ship
A guy I knew named Jan Boyd once owned this car in Darrington – big supercharger
The rear license plate folds up to show off the chrome

The guys there told me there was a big car show the following day – Sunday – up in Bellingham. They said they expected around 400 cars there.

On Sunday morning, Alana’s boyfriend, Kevin, and his sons picked up Alana, Gabi and Gabi’s friend, Kennedy around 6:30am. They were off to the airport for a flight to Hawaii. They’re spending the week on the big island and are looking forward to time on the beach and the golf course.

I made the 50-mile drive up to Bellingham in Midget-San while Donna used Alana’s car to go play pickleball in Marysville. I’m still resting the groin pull – it’s been a bother for months now.

The car show in Bellingham was a fundraiser for veterans. I used to do car shows with my Corvettes – I had a 1965 big block roadster and a 1972 LT-1 T- top. I got tired of the car show scene after a few years though.

At the show in Bellingham, I found myself drawn more to the vintage and unusual cars instead of ogling all of the muscle cars – the Camaros, Corvettes and Mustangs.

Remember the mid-engined truck at Burger King? This is what it was originally like
Fully restored 1950s MGA – it even has the original tool kit and oilers
MGB with a supercharged 215ci aluminum block Buick V8

The 215 cubic inch Buick aluminum block V8 was developed by General Motors and brought to market in 1960. This engine was way ahead of its time. It was lightweight and durable and produced great power. But it didn’t catch on with the American consumer – bigger was always thought to be better. Eventually GM sold all of the tooling and rights to Rover in England and they used versions of this engine into the 1990s.

MGA with aluminum Buick V8 and trailer

I talked to the owner of the blue MGA. He had pictures of the car as he found it sitting in a pasture – rusty, missing a rear quarter panel, no hood or grill. He and his son restored it to this condition and he bought the trailer so he and his wife could drive the car from Washington to Reno, Nevada for a week at the Hot August Nights car show.

It turned out his son was the guy with the supercharged Buick V8 MGB in the previous picture. Talented car guy – he can handle all the mechanical aspects, design and fabricate, weld and paint.

Morris Minor from the 1930s

This Morris Minor was designed for the narrow roads of England. I think this coupe is smaller than Midget-San.

English Ford

This Ford built in England is much smaller than its American counterparts. Small ruled the road in England while bigger was better here.

There was a downside to the car show. While Midget-San was parked there, someone decided they needed the MG emblem on the rear deck lid and removed it from the car. I can hardly believe someone would steal the emblem from the car, but there it is. I ordered a replacement and should have it in a few days. Sheesh!

The week ahead calls for rain Tuesday night. Otherwise, we should be in for warm, sunny days with highs around 80 degrees. Donna’s new bike should arrive on Thursday.

Alternate Routes Through Portland and Seattle

We were up early on Friday morning and hit the road with what had to be our earliest departure ever. We were on the road by 7:30am. I’d snagged an appointment for a chassis alignment on the coach at Brazel’s RV Performance Center in Centralia, Washington. I thought I could make the drive in four and half hours, but you never know what you might encounter driving through Portland.

I decided to take the long way around on I-205 rather than going straight through downtown Portland in I-5. This turned out to be a good decision as we only had a couple of slow-downs and no drama. We made good time and I had enough time to spare for a lunch stop in Chehalis. I went to the Subway sandwich shop while Donna fixed a salad for herself. We arrived at Brazel’s at 12:30pm and dropped the trailer in a pull-through site in their RV customer lot. This lot has full hook-ups for about a dozen and a half rigs. They took the coach into the shop right at 1pm.

The alignment job was a comprehensive chassis alignment that began with weighing the four corner wheel weight of the coach. They adjusted the ride height, checked rear alignment and thrust – no issues there – and front wheel camber, caster and toe. The front toe needed to be reset. Meanwhile, Donna used their 5G wifi to get some work done in the customer lounge area. With the work completed, we rolled out of Centralia at 4:30pm.

We got lucky and kept the wheels turning through Olympia with only a couple of slow-downs. The traffic came to a standstill just past the Martin Way exit where we left I-5. Our destination was the Cabela’s store in Lacey. We pulled into their lot around 5:30pm and called it a day. We’ve stayed at this Cabela’s before. It’s a quiet, out-of-the-way stop and good for a one-night layover.

Parked for the night at the west end of the Lacey Cabela’s

I’d planned on using the Cabela’s dump station but found they had removed it! Where the old dump station was located, they had poured concrete over the dump station hook-up. I don’t know what prompted that.

Donna made a favorite for dinner – pork tenderloin medallions with a dijon sauce, sweet potato mash and steamed asparagus.

Pork tenderloin medallions

The sun doesn’t set until well after 9pm this far north at this time of year. Consequently, we stayed up later than usual watching TV. Saturday morning we didn’t get rolling again until 10am. Once again, I opted to go the long way around and took I-405 instead of following I-5 through Seattle. I’m not sure how much it helped – traffic was terrible through Tacoma before we even got to I-405. Then we had a number of slow-downs and and full stops along the way. Once we got through and rejoined I-5 in Lynnwood, the slow downs continued. I-5 through Everett is poorly designed with traffic joining the Interstate right where lane closures or exit only lanes appear. It didn’t matter that it was mid-day on a Saturday – traffic came to a halt several times.

We stopped at the Smokey Point rest area at mile post 207 and used the free dump station there. They have three lanes for RV dump stations and we didn’t have to wait. From there, we continued north to Mount Vernon where I dropped off the Spyder. The shop there had a backlog of work, so it may be two weeks before they get to work on the Spyder. It was our best option though.

Now we’re parked in my daughter, Alana’s, driveway in Arlington, Washington. Her driveway is long enough to back in our 65-foot length of coach and trailer and set up for a couple of weeks of mooch-docking. Getting the coach and trailer lined up on the narrow residential street is a bit of a chore, but we got it done. I had us leveled and connected to the 50-amp electrical service I installed here a couple of years ago when I found out I couldn’t get Dish satellite reception. I had to pull the jacks up and move forward about three feet before the satellite antenna could lock in the signal. It’s all good now, but next time I’ll try to remember to check the satellite before I set everything up.

Mooch-docking at Alana’s

The weather has been outstanding. Mostly sunny skies with the high temperature reaching the mid-70s over the weekend and should be the same today. But, this is western Washington in June. Rain is forecast to reach the area overnight and we’ll have rain over the next few days.

Today is Alana’s birthday. We’ll be going out to celebrate over dinner at The Bonefish Grill tonight. Happy birthday, Alana!

Birthday Girls

We didn’t do anything exciting on Sunday. I watched a couple of races on TV and other than a trip to the grocery store, I had a lazy day. The day was cool – the high temperature was only 65 degrees – but it ended with a spectacular sunset.

Sunset at Rolling Hills RV park Sunday evening

Monday was Memorial Day. This is a day where we honor those who’ve given all in service to our country. Last year we went to a memorial service in Kentucky at the Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This year we went to a service at Sunset Hills Cemetery in Corning. The service was hosted by the Tehama County Veterans and the local American Legion. Boy Scout and Cub Scout troops participated along with the Corning High School band. I was impressed by the band – they were quite good!

Huge flag flying from a firetruck ladder
Memorial service

Memorial Day is much more than beer and barbeque. Donna and I try to respect the meaning of the holiday.

Monday was also birthday girl day. It was Donna’s birthday and also my youngest daughter, Shauna’s, birthday. We celebrated with dinner at Timbers – the steakhouse in the Rolling Hills Casino. It’s probably the best restaurant in the area. Donna enjoyed a braised lamb shank while I went for the 14-ounce prime rib cut. We shared a nice bottle of sangiovese with dinner.

Fabulous at 59 birthday girl

We were hanging out after dinner when Donna met a woman walking her dogs by our site. Her name was Carol and they hit it off. They had a glass of wine together and talked while I puffed a cigar. Carol has property she’s developing into a resort in Canby, Oregon. She invited us to stay at the property – we might take her up on it as we’re heading into Oregon soon.

Today I need to pick up some packages at the post office. I also need to organize the trailer. We’ll be pulling out of here tomorrow and plan to head up to Lake Shastina for a few days of boondocking on the lake.

We’ve had a few late afternoon showers along with a passing overnight shower or two. Today is forecast to be much warmer – mid-80s. The warmer temperatures should hold up for the rest of the week. Lake Shastina should be a few degrees cooler. We’re at an elevation of only around 250 feet above sea level here – Lake Shastina is close to 3,000 feet above sea level.

Spring Ahead

We had a great weekend. It started with the usual Friday happy hour at Lucky Lou’s but the highlight was Saturday’s lunch. Our friends, Jeff and Deb Spencer (Rolling Recess) organized a lunch for members of Xscapers. Xscapers is a sub-group of the Escapees RV Club. We aren’t really Xscapers – it’s geared more toward young, working full-time RVers. But, we are Escapees members and although I’m retired, we still feel young enough – most of the time!

The lunch meet-up was at the Monastery Bar and Grill adjacent to Falcon Field on McKellips Road in Mesa. The Monastery is a unique place. Although they call themselves a pub, it’s mostly an outdoor restaurant, bar and activity center. The menu has everything from nachos to steaks. They have a full-service kitchen and wait staff – but you can also order your steak, chicken or burger uncooked for about half-price and grill it yourself on grills they provide in the courtyard. They also have a huge beer selection.

Xscapers group at The Monastery
Jeff Spencer in his usual pose


The indoor seating area has limited space, but there’s a bar on the patio with a stage, tables and several outdoor seating areas. There are also two sand volleyball courts and bean bag cornhole games.

Outdoor sand volleyball court at The Monastery

The only people in attendance that we had met previously were Jeff and Deb. We had a good time meeting several new people in the RV community and we’re glad that Jeff and Deb organized this and invited us.

After the big lunch at The Monastery, Donna kept it simple for Saturday night dinner. Simple but delicious! She made an Asian chicken stir-fry that I loved. The sauce she whips up for it makes the dish – it includes soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, chopped fresh ginger and garlic.

Asian chicken, broccoli and mushroom stir-fry

We had another social event on Sunday. It was time for the annual Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort Pickleball Club meeting and banquet. There was a short club meeting in the ballroom at 4:30pm here at Viewpoint to discuss club business. We learned that the pickleball club now has over 500 members in good standing. They had door prizes and Donna won a free membership for next year – a $15 value.

Viewpoint Pickleball Club meeting

The dinner was catered by Buca di Beppo restaurant and they served a great lasagna with dinner salad and bread. The serving line was very slow though as they only had two people staffing the cafeteria-style food service.

The rest of the country set their clocks forward over the weekend. In Arizona, we don’t do that. In the winter months, Arizona time is equivalent to Mountain Standard Time. When everyone else springs forward, Arizona doesn’t change their clocks, but now we’re the same as Pacific Daylight Time. Someone forgot to tell Verizon that. I have my phone set to automatically reset to the local time. On Mondays, I have an alarm set for 6:15 am so I can get up, have coffee and breakfast and be ready to hit the pickleball round-robin match at 8am. Yesterday I got up at the sound of my phone alarm and fixed coffee and breakfast. Donna came out and asked if I realized we were up an hour early. What! I checked my phone and sure enough – the clock had reset to Mountain Daylight Time. Grrr!

The weather was great last week – mostly in the 70s with clear to partly cloudy skies. That changed yesterday. Rain moved into the area and the temperature will only reach 60 degrees over the next couple of days. We expect rain showers to continue through tomorrow morning. By the weekend, the forecast improves with highs in the upper 70s to 80 degrees for the remainder of the month. That’s more like the weather we expect and love in this part of the country at this time of year. This has been and long, wet and relatively cold winter here.

Minimalist RV

There’s no right way or wrong way to go about the RV lifestyle. Decisions on how to do it are based on lifestyle, preference and budget mainly. I’ve photographed and written about coaches costing upwards of two million dollars and also small teardrop trailers and even homemade tiny houses built on a trailer.

Most full-timers are either in a motorhome or a fifth-wheel trailer. These offer the most room and storage capability and each has its advantages and disadvantages. Motorhomes generally have more storage space and can tow a vehicle or cargo trailer. Fifth-wheel trailers are usually roomier inside and once the trailer is set up, the tow vehicle can be used for local transportation. Of course that means driving a truck wherever you want to go. Some people have medium- or heavy-duty trucks converted to RV haulers that can also carry a small vehicle such as a Smart car. Our friends Brett Miller and Cheri Alguire started their full-time journey in a fifth-wheel trailer for a few years and recently switched to a class A motorhome.

What brought this subject to mind was a unique set-up in a site near us at Mission Bay RV Resort. It’s a small – I’m guessing 6 x12 or 6 x14 foot – cargo trailer that was converted to living space. Windows were added to each side and to the door along with a fold-out grab-handle by the door.

Cargo trailer conversion

30 amp power connected at the rear

The trailer has a 30-amp power cord so it has electricity, but I didn’t see any provision for fresh water or sewer, so presumably there’s no toilet or shower or sink. This is quite the minimalist set-up.

Tuesday was Sini Schmitt’s birthday. Bill and Sini picked us up around 5:45pm and we drove down to Seaport Village for dinner at Season’s 52 restaurant. Bill’s son Brandon joined us there. We had a great dinner and drinks with good conversation. It was a nice celebration for Sini’s birthday.

I had scallops for dinner at Season’s 52 and then Donna found scallops on sale the next day. I didn’t mind having scallops twice though. She made seared scallops with jalapeno vinaigrette and served them with a butternut squash risotto and cumin-roasted Brussel sprouts.

Scallops with roasted Brussel sprouts

A storm brought rain Wednesday night and it rained all day on Thursday. The temperature stayed in the low 60s and we had the heat pumps running in the morning. Today is sunny and we should see warmer temperatures in the upper 60s. There’s no rain in the forecast for the week ahead.

Our Friendsgiving

We’re more than halfway through Thanksgiving weekend as I type this on Saturday afternoon. This was the first year since we hit the road that we didn’t have family members to share Thanksgiving with. But, we weren’t lonely. Our friends, Jeff and Deb Spencer, made the drive down from Dana Point where they are camp hosting at Doheny State Park. It rained early on Thursday morning but the sun came out and it was dry after 9am.

Donna grilled turkey breasts and a drumstick and thigh on the Weber Q. Deb brought down a salad plus asparagus and cherry tomatoes for roasting. Donna sauteed some corn with peppers and onions and made mashed Yukon gold potatoes and turkey gravy for Jeff and I  – the mashed potatoes and gravy didn’t fit the Bright Line Eating Plan that both Donna and Deb are following.

Grilled turkey

Round one

Deb and Jeff arrived around 2pm and we soon had the outdoor picnic table set. I poured a Belgian golden ale to go with my turkey. In lieu of pies for dessert, Donna baked Bartlett pears with cinnamon and chopped walnuts, then served it with a drizzle of balsamic reduction sauce and blueberries with a dollop of Greek yogurt. Deb said it was as good as apple pie!

Belgian golden ale

We dined and talked for a few hours. Before sunset, we made a quick lap around the RV park to stretch our legs and have a look around. The park is nearly full – but not quite as full as it was over the last couple of years. We actually have an empty site next to us which is a pleasant surprise. Deb and Jeff hit the road for the drive back up north after sunset.

Jeff, Deb, Donna and me after sunset

My friend Gary Stemple sent me a text saying he was visiting people over in site 71 and invited us to stop by. We went over and sat outside by their fire pit and talked for a while and made plans to get together on Friday.  Then Donna and I came back home to watch the end of the football game while I puffed a cigar.

Gary came over Friday at noon with a power boat that he beached outside of the park in De Anza Cove. We weren’t sure how many people were planning to go out on the boat – Gary, Donna and I planned to take a boat ride over to Paradise Point and have lunch at the Barefoot Bar. We thought others would be joining for a cruise after lunch.

Looking north from the boat as we cruised across the bay

Lunch at the Barefoot Bar started with Bloody Marys for all three of us. They make a great Bloody Mary and garnish it with wedges of lemon, lime, olives, celery and bacon!

Bloody Mary with bacon – because everything is better with bacon

I ordered the muffaletta sandwich and Donna had a salad with seared ahi tuna while Gary went for a bowl of clam chowder. The food was good although the service could’ve been better with a more attentive waitress. One thing I saw on the menu bugged me.

Hidden charge in the small print

If you click on the photo above to enlarge it, you’ll see a surcharge notice. It says they support increased minimum wage and other mandates – so they add 3% to the bill to cover them. In other words, they hide the additional costs of these government mandates with a surcharge – that way they can say we haven’t raised our prices on the menu – but you’ll pay more.

At the Barefoot Bar, they have a small lagoon that has water from the bay pumped through it. There are a variety of fish in the lagoon including small sharks. They had fish scraps brought out from the kitchen and fed the sharks while we were there.

Feeding the sharks

It turned out that everyone else bailed on the boat ride, so Gary dropped us off back at De Anza Cove and left. Thanks for the boat ride, Gary!

I mentioned the park is nearly full. As usual, many families and small groups came to the RV park for a long Thanksgiving weekend. People have been fairly well-behaved and although the kids run wild until about 8:30pm and parties in some sites are a bit noisy, it mostly settled down by 10pm. I hope that holds true tonight as the weekenders have their final night here. Tomorrow there will be a mass exodus as the park empties. I almost expect to hear a whooshing sound as everyone pulls out.

Monday we’ll have to leave. We’re restricted to a maximum stay of 62 days here before we have to leave for 24 hours. We’ll pull out Monday morning and head down to the Elks Lodge in Chula Vista for the night. Then we’ll be back to site 112 for another month-long stay. The forecast looks great for next several days with highs near 70 and mostly clear skies.

 

Deja Vu in Pennsylvania

Our overnight stay at the Delaware Water Gap Penn DOT Welcome Center was uneventful. It could have been quieter, but a tractor-trailer rig with a refrigerated trailer parked by us. His generator ran all night to keep the trailer refrigerated. This is a nice overnight stopping place – they keep the air conditioned building open 24/7 and it has clean restrooms plus free wifi with good speed – even out in the parking area. There are14 Welcome Centers in Pennsylvania, I don’t know if all of them are as nice as this one. We may find another before we leave the state.

Donna was happy to learn that the Welcome Center was on the 2.6-mile Cherry Creek Crossing Loop Trail. She enjoyed her hike which took her first along the creek and then into the small town of Delaware Water Gap where she found a bakery.

Stepping stones across a creek on Donna’s hike

Bakery and market

Donna walked to the bakery Sunday morning and bought breakfast sandwiches – they were excellent. I watched the Moto GP qualifying for the German Grand Prix before we packed up. We were in no hurry. We planned to go about 80 miles to Hamburg, Pennsylvania and stay overnight at Cabela’s.  I didn’t realize we had stayed at this Cabela’s before. Donna recognized it as we were pulling in. We stayed here in August, 2015.

Originally I planned to utilize the dump station at Cabela’s, but we made a change of plans. After talking with my youngest daughter, Shauna, we decided to go to Gettysburg on Sunday. Shauna could drive up from Washington, DC on Sunday afternoon for a visit. We booked two nights at the Artillery Ridge Camping Resort where we stayed in 2015.

After settling in at Cabela’s, I got Donna’s knock-around bike out and she went for a ride on the Schuylkill River Trail which intersects with the Appalachian Trail.

Trailhead

Appalachian Trail

Meanwhile, I walked next door to the Cigars International (CI) Superstore. CI is a big retailer of cigars and related accessories. They have three retail outlets in Pennsylvania and are opening one in The Colony, Texas. Most of their sales are through online shopping.

Me – at Cigars International

The Hamburg location is the largest – it’s a two-story building with a full bar and patio on each floor. They have a selection of hundreds of cigars and an inventory on-hand of about a million cigars. I was like a kid in a candy store browsing around.

The prices in their retail stores aren’t anything special – better deals can be found online. But, I had the opportunity to look over many cigar brands I hadn’t seen before. And I was able to buy some singles to sample – if I really like one, I can watch for a deal online later.

Later, after Donna’s bike ride we went back to CI for happy hour. The building has a complex climate control system. The entire building is humidity and temperature controlled while also providing ventilation and air filtration. While were at the bar, the temperature was about 70 degrees and the humidity was 68%. Customers are allowed to puff cigars anywhere in the building – they have a few lounges – one with a pool table – and the two bars which also serve food.

While we were having a beer we met a guy that’s hiking the Appalachian Trail with a friend. They started at the southern end of the trail in Georgia about three months ago and plan to make it to the north end in Maine by mid-September. What an adventure!

Sunday morning I watched the Moto GP race until a thunderstorm blocked the satellite reception. We headed out around 10:30am and went about two blocks away to Walmart to stock up on a few things. Then we hit I-78 to make the 100-mile drive to Gettysburg. We hit one slowdown after I-78 became I-81 near Harrisburg. It rained off and on until we were past Harrisburg.

I stopped at the F:ying J Travel Center at exit 77 in Harrisburg. I blew it by not filling our tank before we crossed into Pennsylvania. Fuel is expensive in Pennsylvania, but I needed to top up because we would be running too low before we get to Ohio. Our Onan Quiet Diesel generator runs off of the same fuel tank as our coach’s engine. The diesel fuel pick-up is on a stand pipe in the tank roughly a quarter of the way up in the tank. This is done so you can’t inadvertently run the fuel tank all the way empty while dry camping with the generator. The generator will run out of fuel, but there will still be about a quarter tank of fuel left to drive the coach. So, since we will probably be doing more dry camping, I don’t want to run the fuel tank too low.

We checked in at the Artillery Ridge Camping Resort at 1:30pm and set up. I dumped and flushed our tanks – it had been 10 days since we last dumped the tanks in Scarborough, Maine. Shauna came to our site a little after 3pm. It was about a 90-minute drive for her. She brought her boyfriend’s dog along. After a short visit, we piled into her Volkswagen Tiguan and went to downtown Gettysburg. We walked along the streets and checked out the old buildings and historical placards. I wrote about Gettysburg when we were here before in this post.

Donna, Shauna and Guinness outside of the Farnsworth House

Eventually we stopped at the Farnsworth House where they have a beer garden and patio dining that’s dog friendly. Guinness the dog, was well-behaved and sat in the shade. One of the wait staff brought a water dish for him. We had a beer and talked over dinner. On the way back, we stopped at the Gettysburg National Military Park and climbed up the 59-step spiral stairway of the State of Pennsylvania Monument.

Shauna and I on the top left of the monument

Shauna headed for home around 8pm. She had to work in the morning – she’s an Associate Attorney in DC at Dentons Law Firm.

This morning I tried to extend our stay here until Wednesday due to the weather forecast. Thunderstorms are predicted for tomorrow. I wasn’t able to keep our site for another night, so we’ll have to suck it up and drive in the rain. I’m not sure where we’re stopping next.

Four States, Two Detours

We ended up spending eight nights moochdocking at Donna’s parents’ place, west of Old Bennington, Vermont. I haven’t posted in a week – this was one of the rare places where we had trouble getting a good internet connection or phone service with Verizon. I could take my laptop into the house and use Duke and Lorraine’s wifi, but it was awkward and I wasn’t very motivated to post.

Donna spent a lot of time doing yardwork. She spread mulch that was piled under a tree in the yard to create a plot about 12 feet by 20 feet. She also did a lot of weeding and learned to operate a weedwacker! The weedwacking would have kicked my allergies into high gear.

The highlight of the week was a trip for brew and dinner at Brown’s Brewing Walloomsac Taproom. This is located in Hoosick Falls, New York where Donna attended high school. Bennington, Vermont is less than 10 miles from the New York state line. The taproom and brewery is in an old building on the banks of the Walloomsac River.

Brown’s Brewery and Walloomsac Taproom

The brick building was originally built in 1854 and housed a papermill making wallpaper. In 1943, the site was purchased by the White-Flomatic Corporation and was a factory for the valves they made.

In 2006, Gary Brown bought the place with the intent of converting it to a brewery and taproom – an expansion of his operation in Troy, New York. The renovation took some time and the brewery and taproom finally opened in 2013.

We had a couple of cold ones and dinner with a view of the Walloomsac.

Donna, Duke and Lorraine

While we were dry camped, our Verizon Jetpack was giving us trouble. It was shutting itself off randomly. Sometimes it would shut off only a few seconds after booting up; other times it would work fine for an hour or so before shutting down. We’ve had it for more than five years.

On Thursday morning, Donna and I had breakfast at a diner in Bennington called The Blue Benn – excellent breakfast menu! Then we hit the Verizon store in town. Our old 291L Jetpack needed to be replaced. I upgraded to the 6620L. Five years is a long time for wireless technology. After we returned to the coach, we were surprised to find a 4G connection with the new Jetpack. The improvements in antennas and signal boosting made all the difference in the world.

Donna’s sister Sheila and Sheila’s son Connor flew in from California in the afternoon. Duke drove to Albany, New York and picked them up. We had a late dinner together.

Our site at the Connor’homestead – Mount Anthony in the background

This morning we were packed and ready to go early. We said our goodbyes and pulled out a little before 9am. We took the scenic route out of Bennington, knowing it would make for a long day. Our route took us south on Route 7 into Massachusetts.  The speed limits in Massachusetts keep you on your toes. The speed limit on Route 7 would change – it seemed like every mile or so – without warning or reason. One section might have a speed limit of 45 mph, then suddenly it’s 35 mph. Then it might go up to 50 mph only to drop to 40 mph without any notification of a reduction ahead. You need to keep an eye out for speed limit signs. In Great Barrington, we picked up Route 23 west and headed toward Catskill, New York. We planned to take 9W south to US209, but I made in a mistake in the route plan. We weren’t using our GPS – I planned the route the old-fashioned way with a map.

9W had a sign saying vehicles over 12 feet tall needed to stay on Route 23. There was a low clearance in West Camp. I usually rely on our RV specific GPS for routing for this reason. It has our vehicle parameters programmed in and wouldn’t route us along a road with clearance or weight limits that we exceed. Donna did some navigation on the fly and we made our way back to 9W south of West Camp and all was good. The only problem with the re-route came when we had to go through the village of Saugerties. We had to go through town on very narrow roads – I squeezed through at one point with a parked car inches off our right and oncoming traffic inches away on the left.

We hit US209 and thought we were home-free. But then we hit another detour – the road was closed for construction! We got back on track after traversing a couple of narrow county roads. We made a stop at Subway for lunch – it was conveniently located in a plaza with a large parking lot – and then continued south. At Port Jervis, we crossed into Pennsylvania – our fourth state for the day.

US 209 took us through the Delaware Gap National Recreation Area. We were on the west bank of the Delaware River with New Jersey just across the water. It was a long, slow slog today. Donna found free overnight parking at the Pennsylvania Welcome Center off of I-80 at exit 310. That’s where we stopped for the day. We only covered about 200 miles, but it took us seven hours!

We crossed several notable mountain ranges – the Berkshires in Massachusetts, the Catskills in New York and now we’re in the Poconos. These mountains aren’t as big as the mountains in the west, but they’re plenty steep in places.

Tomorrow we’ll head west. We plan to stop at the Cabela’s in Hamburg to dump our holding tanks and hopefully find fresh water. We’ve been dry camped for nine days. We’re just winging it and will see what tomorrow brings.

A Thousand People in the Street

I hit a milestone this week – I’ve written more than 1,000 posts on this blog. Today’s post will be number 1,003. Little Deer Isle, where we’re currently based, is in a region of Maine known as Downeast. This name originated long ago – when ships sailed to Maine from the south they were sailing downwind and eastward. Sailors called this course Downeast.

Downeast Maine has numerous islands – some large, others small and uninhabited. It also has an extreme tidal swing. The difference between low tide and high tide is usually nine or 10 feet of water. I took the photo below in the morning at high tide in front of Roger’ and Georgia’s place on Little Deer Isle.

High tide

The next photo was shot from the same spot about six hours later at low tide.

Low tide

That’s a pretty big change. In Maine, the shoreline between the high and low tide levels are considered public land. Waterfront landowners cannot legally keep you out as long as you stay below the high tide mark.

The other thing that shifts drastically around here is the weather – more about that later. Yesterday, we borrowed Roger’s car and headed out to Mt. Desert Island (MDI). Due to all of the inlets, coves and whatnot, the route was circuitous. We first headed northeast through Blue Hill and Surry to Ellsworth. The traffic steadily built up as neared Ellsworth. From Ellsworth, we followed a caravan of cars south down route 3 to MDI and on to Bar Harbor.

Along the way, we passed several cafes and I was getting hungry. Donna and I decided we would wait until we reached the town of Bar Harbor to eat since we planned to take a walk through town anyway. It was sunny with mostly clear skies – a bit of haze over the ocean.

Traffic was a bumper-to-bumper in Bar Harbor.  Parking near the waterfront was impossible. The streets and sidewalks were filled with people – thousands of people. I found a place to park uptown a bit. We sat in the car for a few minutes watching people walking shoulder-to-shoulder on the sidewalk. We thought out loud, “What are we doing here? Why would we want to join that throng of people?”

It turned out that the cruise ship Norwegian Gem from the Norwegian Cruise Line was in the harbor. This ship is 965 feet long and has the capacity to carry 2,394 passengers along with 1,070 crew. That explained the thousands of people on the streets. It didn’t explain the number of cars filling all of the available parking though.

We decided to get out of town, but as we did, I missed the turn to route 233. I wanted to cut across 233 to Acadia National Park then on to Southwest Harbor. Our friends, Clarke and Elaine are work camping there. I say our friends, but I’ve actually only met them in person once – a few years ago in northern California. But I feel like I know them because I’ve been following Clarke’s blog for nearly six years.

We found ourselves on route 3 heading to the south east side of MDI. I was really wanting to stop for lunch and we finally made a stop at Northeast Harbor. Parking was easy and it was fairly quiet there. We had lunch at a cafe called Colonel’s. I had to have a lobster roll – it’s a Maine thing and I’ve never had one. It’s a toasted hot dog roll filled with chunks of lobster meat and mayonnaise. Good eats – but a lobster roll with fries set me back $19.

Donna and I talked about what to do for the rest of the afternoon. To get to Southwest Harbor from where we were would entail a drive north the length of Somes Sound, then back south on the west side of the sound. I knew Clarke and Elaine were off from their duties at Smuggler’s Den Campground on Tuesday and Wednesday and I figured they were probably out and about on such a fine day. As much as I would have liked to meet up with them, I really hadn’t made any arrangement to do so.

We decided to head back into Acadia National Park and go up Cadillac Mountain. First we made a stop near Thunder Hole where the ocean waves erupt like a geyser through a blowhole. I took about 20 steps from the car when I felt like lightning had struck my lower back and went to my right hip. I nearly fell over. Somehow I’d pinched a nerve and could barely walk back to the car. We didn’t make it to Thunder Hole but later we were told we didn’t miss much. With the calm seas, it wasn’t spouting much.

We continued on to Cadillac Mountain.The peak at Cadillac Mountain is 1,530 feet above sea level. It’s the highest point in Hancock County and offers spectacular views. I walked around the top of the mountain gingerly. The pain in my back and hip was sporadic. Nearly paralyzing with one step, then easily bearable a few steps later.

View of islands and ocean south of Cadillac Mountain

More islands and ocean to the south east

View of Bar Harbor to the northeast of Cadillac Mountain. The Cruise ship Norwegian Gem is in the harbor, center right

We made the 50-mile drive back and stopped first at Blue Hill to gas up the car, then at Strong Brewery for a cold one. It was a warm day – in the upper 70s all afternoon.

We had dinner with Georgia back on Little Deer Isle – she made a chicken dish and Donna made pecan rice – we bought that at Konriko in Louisiana. The temperature dropped quickly before sunset. I took it easy and had a cigar while I watched the sun go down. Donna and Georgia hung out inside chatting.

Rain moved in during the night. It’s been raining off and on all morning with some heavy squalls. This is forecast to continue all day and into the night. I don’t think the thermometer will reach 60 today. They say we’ll have sunny skies again tomorrow afternoon and a high in the upper 70s – I hope they’re right.

 

All Work, No Play

We’ve been enjoying our stay with Donna’s parents near Old Bennington, Vermont. That’s not to say we haven’t had to handle a few projects – I’ll get to that in a moment. We’re parked on their property with a view of Mount Anthony from our door step.

View of Mount Anthony from our door step on the Connor’s property

Before we came here, I needed to replace our bank of four 6-volt house batteries. I ordered four Lifeline AGM batteries on Tuesday, June 5th, in Watkins Glen. I was told by the seller, Powerstride Sales, that I would have the batteries by the end of the week. Well, that didn’t happen and we had to change the shipping address to Donna’s parents’ house. I was told they would arrive there by Thursday, the 14th. At that time, I was in Binghamton fixing the overheating issue, so it didn’t really matter when they didn’t show up. I tracked them and they were in the Estes Distribution Center in nearby Glenmont, NY just outside of Albany. I figured they would be out for delivery on Friday.

When I arrived Friday night, they hadn’t showed up. On Saturday, I received an e-mail from Estes telling me that since the shipment was going to a residential address, they needed to set an appointment time to be sure I was there to receive it. It went on to say they would contact me in one or two business days to set the appointment! They were closed on the weekend, so I couldn’t do anything until Monday.

I rode the Spyder to Bennington Saturday and bought a brisket at Price Chopper. This grocery store had butchers in the meat department. I asked the butcher if he had a brisket flat that was about five pounds. He said he thought so and went into the back. A few minutes later, he came out and put a hunk of flat (HOF) on the scale – 4.97 lbs! How’s that for close to five pounds!

I set up the Traeger wood pellet fired smoker grill next to the garage. On Sunday morning at 5:30am, I had the HOF on the grill smoking. I smoked it for two hours before I raised the temperature setting to 200 degrees for the next four hours. I spritzed it with a spray bottle filled with a can of beer, two ounces of apple cider vinegar and two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce every hour. When the internal temperature of the HOF held at 160 degrees, I wrapped it in foil and put it back on the grill.

A couple of hours later, it was at an internal temperature of 198 degrees so I took it off the grill. I left it tightly wrapped in the foil, wrapped two towels around it and stuffed it into the microwave oven. Keeping it insulated in a tightly confined space held the heat and the meat continued to cook as it slowly cooled. A few hours later it was ready to serve. It came out tender. I think it could have been juicier, but it was good.

Donna’s sister Linda and her husband Tommy came over. The six of us plus Tommy and Linda’s grandson Michael dined al fresco. It was great way to celebrate Father’s Day.

I know it looks like a charred piece of meat, but it’s tender smoked brisket hunk of flat

On Monday morning, I called Estes Freight. They had the batteries in Glenmont. I arranged to pick up the batteries there at 12:30pm. Tommy offered to drive me there in his truck to retrieve them. The woman I talked to said they would be ready at the loading dock.

When we arrived, I checked in at the dispatch desk. The guy told me it would take a few minutes and he told me where they would load the shipment. Tommy and I waited outside by the loading ramp. And waited. About 20 minutes later, a guy came out and said they had to move a trailer that the batteries were in, then he could bring them out on a forklift, but it would take a few more minutes before he could do that. Meanwhile Tommy and I watched the way they moved trailers around the distribution center with a specially equipped truck.

The truck was designed to quickly connect and disconnect from the trailers. It had a rear entry that allowed the driver to step out on the rear deck to connect the air lines. The coupler plate was hydraulically actuated so he could raise the front of the trailer, bringing the front jacks off the ground. Once he moved the trailer to the dock or wherever, he lowered the coupler plate until the trailer rested on the jacks and quickly disconnected and drove away to the next move.

Our wait of a few minutes turned into nearly 40 minutes, but the guy finally came out with 300 pounds of batteries on the forklift and gently lowered the skid into the back of Tommy’s truck and we were on our way.

I got started on the battery change around 2:30pm. First I had to pull the old wet cell lead-acid batteries. These are heavy.

Old battery bank – the house batteries are the ones with the black tops – the blue batteries are the chassis batteries for starting the motor

The new batteries weighed 66 pounds each. I took them off the shipping skid one at a time and then removed them from the shipping box and put them straight into the battery bay. Luckily, the new Lifeline batteries came with handles secured to the battery top with rope. This helped, but getting them into the bay involved bending over and extending my arms with the 66-pound load. Whew!

Lifeline AGM battery with lifting handles

The new batteries are AGM technology – advanced Absorbed Glass Mat. They don’t require any maintenance – no more adding distilled water and no more cleaning with baking soda as the acid accumulates on the batteries.

I also had ordered new 1/0 wire gauge foot-long cables with 5/16″ ring connectors to link the batteries. The bank is made up by wiring two batteries in series. This makes them into a 12-volt battery – it sums the voltage while the amp-hour rating remains at 220. With two sets of batteries wired in series, they are then joined in a parallel circuit. This keeps the voltage at 12-volts but it sums the amp-hour rating. Now I had a 12-volt battery bank with 440 amp-hours.

New battery bank

I was feverishly working to beat a thunderstorm that was coming. Once I had everything wired together, I double checked the connections. Then I went to start the generator to charge the batteries. No go. The generator wouldn’t crank and the start button LED began flashing. It would flash three times, then pause and flash three times again. Code three. There are three basic or first level codes. One flash means overheat. Two flashes means low oil pressure. Three flashes for all other faults – not much to go on there. By momentarily pressing the stop button, you can read the advanced or second level code. Now it flashed four times, paused and flashed six times. Code 46. This means low voltage at the generator.

I went back to the battery bank and started checking my connections again. By then the storm hit, but I was determined to solve the problem and got soaked over the next hour. Eventually I found that two ring connectors on the 2/0 gauge positive leads to the inverter and generator were corroded and had excessive voltage drop – I didn’t replace these longer cables when I changed the batteries. I figured removing the connectors from the old battery and installing them on the new had disturbed the internal bond between the cable and connector. I needed to cut the cable which is made of hundreds if not thousands of strands of copper covered with a heavy plastic insulator. Once I cut the cable back, I would expose clean copper and I could crimp a new ring connector on. The problem was, I didn’t have anything to cleanly cut the cable or crimp such a heavy connector. Now we were in worse shape than before – I couldn’t even run the generator!

2/0 ring connector – a quarter is in the photo for size comparison

On Tuesday morning, I went to Tractor Supply and bought an 18-inch bolt cutter, perfect for cutting the heavy cables. The bolt cutter also had a dimpled stop behind the pivot that I could use to crimp the ring connector. The heavy copper ring connectors were really stiff and hard to crimp. Once I had that done on the cables in question, the generator fired up and the Xantrex Freedom 458 inverter began charging the battery bank. I had to change the three-stage charging profile to match the AGM batteries. The Xantrex has four charging programs – one for standard wet cell batteries, two for gel type batteries and the fourth was for AGM. There are small differences in each charging profile that optimize the charge.

After a few hours, the batteries were good to go. We had good 12-volt power and the inverter was providing steady 120-volt AC power. I felt pretty good about it.

Later that evening, Donna and I were sitting the living room talking when we heard a whoosh and what sounded to me like ice cubes hitting the floor. It was water gushing from the fresh water supply to the toilet! I jumped up and shut down the water pump as Donna threw towels on the floor and began sopping the water up.

I found the water supply cut-off valve had failed. It’s a plastic 90-degree elbow with a quarter turn valve in it. The plastic separated at the valve and it blew apart! Well, now we had electricity but no water. I had a stiff drink and went to bed.

This morning, I rode the Spyder to Home Depot in Bennington and searched their PEX plumbing hardware. I couldn’t find the replacement shut-off valve, but I found a brass 90-degree elbow with 1/2″ PEX fittings on both ends. This would do. It was an easy fix and all is good now. PEX is really easy to work with.

We met up with Donna’s parents, Duke and Lorraine, and Tommy and Linda at TJ’s Fish Fry for lunch. We sat together and enjoyed the meal. Tomorrow we’ll pull out and continue our trek to Maine. I think we’ll make it to Cabela’s in Scarborough, Maine and spend the night there.

I’ll close this post with a picture of the front of the Father’s Day card from my mother-in-law, Lorraine.