Looking For A Lull

The two hour drive to GA was pretty uneventful.  I did have a bit of fun trying to get into the Diesel pump at the gas station.  I ended up blocking one of the entrances to the pumps, but we got Delilah fed. Pet Peeve #198:  People who fill up their gas vehicles at the Diesel pumps when there are a ton of other pumps open.  For crying out loud, there are usually only 2-4 pumps at a regular station that dispense Diesel and they are usually on the end for a reason:  Most diesel vehicles are bigger.  Take your little Toyota to one of the gas only pumps and leave the Diesel ones for those that need it.  I can see if the entire station is filled, but when the rest of the pumps are empty and I have to wait for you to get back from buying your coffee for 20 minutes it leaves me in a rough mood. Ok, now that I got that off my chest.  We made it to GA!  What a great little campground this is.  The people here are absolutely some of the best t...

We woke up and hit the road at 4AM for the first leg of our trip to TN for an overnight stay before moving on to GA.  The trip was good.  I'll have to post some pictures from the road later. The Donk get's nervous when she travels.  She sat upright in the back seat of the truck panting and occasionally she would share a beef stick with us, but she preferred to sit up the entire 8 hour ride over laying down. We arrived at the Sweetwater KOA in the afternoon, set up camp and relaxed.  We walked around and took some pictures and let The Donk stretch her legs a bit. Little Pond at Sweetwater KOA BigFoot X-ing The Donk Playing at the doggy park! Right before we were settling down for bed Karen called me into the master bedroom and pointed at the skylight.  She said, "Is that supposed to be wide open to the air?"  Of course the answer is "NO!"  Somewhere between Akron and Sweetwater the cheap plastic skylight cover had disintegrated and ...

We picked up the trailer today from the dealership over my lunch break today.  All of our fixes were done and we have a shiny new backup camera that I think will help tremendously on the road as well as backing into places. I had them look at the DVD player to see why the video quality was crap and it turns out it was me.  As techie as I am, I overlooked that the DVD player was actually hooked up to the TV with component connections, and even though we could see the picture etc on the AV setting, it is MUCH clearer when you use the correct setting.  DUH! She's parked in the driveway right now, just waiting to be filled with our stuff and hit the road.  I can't wait.  I'll work on getting the TPMS installed tonight and take some pre-flight pictures.  Of course we still have to put in the new mattress, stow all the goodies and then go through our checklist right before we leave, but I'm feeling good about this trip. It's good to have her back!

Of all of the things that I haven't tried using in the trailer since we bought it, or the old trailer for that matter, the oven is one thing that seems the most intimidating to me.  I love to cook, but baking is one thing that I've not spent a ton of time doing. Sure, I've made bread and casseroles, I've heated meats, baked turkeys and pies at home, but I've never tried baking or heating anything at all in the oven in the camper.  I think it intimidates me because it's so different than the one at home.  Here are a few reasons why I feel that way:  It's so small!  Compared to my home oven this thing is tiny.  What if I get things to close to the heat source?  Will I burn the bottom of my pans and scorch whatever I'm cooking? You have to manually light it.  Come on.  Even the stove top has a little ignition system that helps you light it.  I can visualize myself without eyebrows, sure. It seems like it is best guess for temperatur...

A wise man once told me, "Never skimp on anything that sits between you and the ground!".  Paying for quality items that meet that criteria will make life much nicer.  Tires, shoes, chairs, and a mattress are some items that you should never go 'cheap'. That said, there is a difference between inexpensive and cheap.  Inexpensive lasts long, is good quality, and comfortable cheap misses out on at least one of those qualities.  I've opted for cheap before and still do from time to time when I need something quick, but if I'm going to use it more than once, I prefer to spend the extra money and buy good quality items. Of all of the things I listed, a mattress is one of those items that pays to buy quality.  We spend so much time sleeping or laying in our beds that to 'go cheap' on a mattress is insane. (Unless you are a masochist, then its an anti-luxury?) When we first bought the trailer last year, the bed came equipped with a standard 5th wheel co...

Got a call yesterday, the trailer is almost ready from her checkup at the dealership.  I've got my packing lists completed and bought a few new additional items that I've had on the list for the winter and wanted to get before our trip. First, we got a new dash cam for the truck.  My old one was ok, but it was starting to act a little flaky and it didn't have some of the features that I wanted like Wifi connectivity and easily removable.   This new little guy mounts to the windshield, like the old one, but is held in place by a magnet so I can pull it out when I'm parking somewhere I don't feel like leaving it.  It also has a little button separate from the camera that you can push if you want it to save a still picture. (Not sure that I will use that but there it is.) Secondly, we have a separate instant pot for the trailer now.  I like to cook in the slow cooker when we are out travelling sometimes because you can put stuff, leave, come back and you h...

"People who want to appear clever rely on memory, People who want to get things done make lists." - Peter McWilliams I live by lists.  I have apps for lists, spreadsheets for lists, shopping lists, to-do lists, reading lists, project list and many more.  Trips and camping are one thing where lists definitely save time, headache and money. Karen and I use a shared google spreadsheet with tabs for different lists of stuff we need to make sure we have before we leave with the RV.  We have a list for clothes, a list for food, a list for thing to bring/buy for the camper and truck, a list for the dog(s) and a to-do list of things leading up to our departure. We add things and cross them off as we go and inevitably we still usually manage to forget at least one thing.  But if we didn't make the lists and follow them, it could be much, much worse. I also have an app for my RV checklists.  It contains 4 lists: Departure checklist Arrival and setup Preparati...

So many times we have needed to have a big vehicle to haul stuff home from the store or move large things like furniture or appliances.  When I bought my lawn tractor from Lowes I turned heads at the store and on my block when I gassed it up in the parking lot of the store and drove it 1 mile home.  I have neighbors that still tell that story and some employees at Lowes mentioned it a couple years later when I bought my grill. Since getting Delilah, I've loaded her with wood for projects around the house and in my wood shop, carried furniture, helped neighbors move and pulled a small trailer around the block for a Halloween hayride we put together with the neighborhood, but I bought her specifically to tow a 5th wheel RV. For 5 years I drove a 2011 Jetta turbo-diesel and I loved that car.  I like to tell the story of filling it up near home in Ohio and driving to Florida without stopping for fuel until the Florida border.  800 miles on one tank.  The car was...

I may not like the cold, but I like my drinks cold and my food fresh.  One of the odd things about us is our love for refrigeration.  In our house alone we have 3 refrigerators (down from 5!) and a large chest freezer.  One fridge in the garage for company and extra drinks, one regular fridge in the kitchen, another small one by the bar, and a chest freezer to store all of our meats and other frozen foods. Camping is not much different, it is our smaller home away from home.  The trailer has two refrigerators one indoors and one outdoors.  We even supplement that with a large ice chest that we carry in the back of the truck to keep our food and drinks cold while we are traveling down the road.  We could leave the indoor fridge running on propane, but I don't like to have that on when we are moving. Years ago we bought a large cooler, I'm guessing that it is 150 Qt but it could be larger, and we took that with us camping.  Back then we tented it qui...

We moved to Ohio in 2007 from New Jersey after I accepted a position working for a company in Cleveland.  A few years later we purchased our house just NW of Akron and that has been where we have lived for the past 9 years. We have lived in Ohio for 12 years.  That is the longest period of time I have ever lived anywhere in my life. Karen and the kids where all born in Michigan and that is where we got our start together.  We have family and friends there and visit periodically though I don't think I could find myself living there again. The southwest has always had a pull on me that I can't describe.  I love the desert, the mountains, the vast open spaces and the weather. Too often in the east and Midwest everything is so cramped.  If your neighbor isn't within handshake distance from your house you are likely separated by corn.  I can see the appeal to some but it just isn't for me.  Then there is the cold months.  The snow, the ice, the...

When the kids where young and we didn't have as much as we do now, but one of the things we made sure to always keep was roadside assistance.  We often drove older, or hand-me-down vehicles and even staying relatively close to family for the first few years it provided us peace of mind and saved our bacon more than once. As we got older we found that there was even more of a need for it as we moved away from Michigan and away from family and friends there.  We keep roadside assistance on our vehicles, but we added AAA as well.  After reaping some of the benefits it provides over the years we purchased it for our kids when they started driving and got their first vehicles. Now with the addition of our trailer we have overlapping protection when we go on trips.  Delilah (my truck) is covered by our insurance with roadside assistance and AAA.  The trailer itself is covered by the same insurance, AAA, Good Sam, and the warranty we got when we purchased it. ...

We dropped the trailer off at the dealership to have a few things on our checklist looked at under warranty.  As with anything new, there are always things that can break or don't work and although we love our trailer there are some things that aren't 100% right. Our list is simple: We have a GFI outlet that is not working.   There is a small leak around the closet slide-out only when it pours down rain in buckets.   The DVD plays DVDs but the picture is not clear.   Some of the lights on the main slide out can't keep their covers on.   Finally, I once noticed a small leak in the outside kitchen sink, but I was not able to find it nor did it happen again (weird). Along with all of those items, we are having a backup camera installed.  Karen try's hard to guide me in when I back into places, but she doesn't tell me soon enough when to turn and sometimes mixes up directions and I end up getting out, looking, backing up, gettin...