Looking For A Lull

Wow!  With everything that's been going on with work and prepping for AZ and now being on Jury duty to top it off, I feel like I'm going non-stop from the time I wake up until I go to bed. Prepping for AZ: Well I was informed that Arizona law, (precisely A.R.S Section 28-958.01) requires that all trucks that are bigger than 3/4 ton have mud flaps.  I don't see an exemption for out of state or 'just passing through' either when I read the law or talk to anyone so guess what I did?  I got mud flaps installed on Bodie so she'll be AZ compliant. Investigating a new piece of equipment that I may look into getting for Chappy.  It's called the TOGO Roadlink C2  and it's pretty cool.  It creates you're own wifi by expanding the range of available wifi networks and using its built in 4G AT&T connection.  Best part, AT&T offers an unlimited data plan for this guy at $360 a year.  That is pretty decent.   Minor repairs.   ...

Last week I took Bodie on the first long road trip (sans Chappie) down to Atlanta.  Here are my observations. The seats were extremely comfortable and I love the lumbar support for long trips.  With record high temps in ATL the week I was there, the cooling feature kept me from getting stuck to them as well. For some reason, I really love the button that folds in my mirrors.  Not sure why. The large backseat easily held all of our stuff with plenty of room. The Android Auto integration is sweet!  Audible and Waze both accessible without touching my phone.  Very nice! My buddy discovered his phone has wireless charging and totally took over the charging area in the center console. :) Very nice road trip.  Now I can take her in for her first oil change.

So the hitch did give me fits again. Not only was it hard to hitch up but it would not unhitch for anything. I tried, my buddy Shannon tried and we could not get it undone. Finally, after letting the trailer sit for a day or two, I stretched it again and yanked on the release and it came free. Yeesh, I'm going to have to report this and to Curt and see what their customer service is like. Aside from that we are enjoying camping here in Michigan at the "Tyler Lull Campground". Here is a pic from before I got the truck unhitched. We are much more level now that we are unhitched!

When we had the hitch in Delilah put in I bout a cheap vinyl hitch cover to put over it to sort of protect it from the rain and the snow etc, but the down side of the hitch and the 5th wheel was that I had to take out my big truck box and that lost us a lot of storage. With Bodie I decided to forgo the cheap little hitch cover and since this new hitch is easily removed (stolen) due to the Puck system, I opted to have a bed cover installed to provide some security by obscurity and to keep it out of the elements. The added benefit is that when we are not tethered to the trailer we will have extra storage for groceries etc, that we don't normally have...and it looks nice! Nice and slick!

We went out to the lake for the weekend and set up camp with the Grandpuppy in tow this  last weekend.  Katia and Tony were on vacation and we were lucky enough to be able to take Serenity with us.  She did really well!  She gets along great with the Rocky and the Donk and they had a pretty good time. Chillin in the camper Serenity making herself at home I tried hitching up again while we were out there and it took about 10 minutes or so before the hitch finally bit on the kingpin.  I'm hoping that over time it will loosen up but I'm going to exercise it and lube it up a bit this week.  We're leaving for Michigan soon and I can't wait to see how Bodie handles on this trip. 

Well, we are gearing up for our much needed Michigan getaway!  We will have grandpuppy next week and then we will be heading out for a 5 hour jaunt to Michigan.  I'm excited to see how Bodie tows! I plan on practicing hitching up again when we go to the campground this weekend.  I'm hoping that my first attempt and it's difficulty will not be a normal thing and that there is some "Trick" that I'm overlooking besides repeatedly bashing the kingpin into the hitch. (Ok, bashing is not quite the right word but you catch my meaning.) I'm also exploring putting a bed cover on Bodie to keep the hitch covered when not in use and give us some more cargo space out of the rain when we are not hooked up to Chappie. This is what I'm looking at.  ~$300 I also need to really give Chappie a good bath.  I keep saying that I'll do it and then I don't.  The rain just isn't quite enough to get all of that road grime off. I'll have to take some ...

The two week vacation was a great time but, as vacations often are, it was packed and busy and there was always something going on.  It was also preceded by my son moving, moving my office, and all the prep work and followed by Karen's Mom visiting and my awesome Aunt and Uncle visiting after that.  This is the first week in a while I haven't had a ton of stuff going on except for work and I'm trying to rest up. We went out to the camper this weekend to stay, rest, and test the new hitch.  It was a nice quiet get away and we'll do it almost every weekend until we hook up again for our Michigan trip. The Michigan trip will be a working trip for me and a another good test of the setup and equipment for working on the road before heading south for winter.  It will also give us an opportunity to spend time with friends and family up there as well. Getting ready to Hitch Bodie and Chappy the first time!

Bodie came with the puck system so it didn't make much sense to remove the old hitch from Delilah when we traded her in.  I bought a new hitch from a local dealer and he got it delivered in record time delivered in record time.  The installation was simple except for moving around the bulky hitch, attach the legs, drop it in the pucks and close the latches. Hitching up to the trailer was a little difficult though.  The jaws are supposed to close and lock when you back up to the pin, but I couldn't get them to close all the way.  After a few attempts moving forward and then back again we finally did get it to engage so I'm hopeful that over time it will "loosen up" and be less of a hassle. It's a nice hitch system though and I like the design.  Curt Q20 if you are interested in that sort of thing.

Returning to Michigan and then to Ohio was very uneventful but sad as always to see the end of a vacation coming.  The Donk was a real trooper and on the final leg between Michigan and Ohio it was just her and I in the truck since Karen rode back in her own car with her Mom.  She actually fell asleep, unaided by the good drugs, with her head snuggled next to my elbow for most of that final trip. Sometime during the ride from SD to MI, I can't recall exactly when, the subject was brought up by Karen that Delilah's back seat was 'just to small' for a big dog like Donk and WAY to small for both her and the Donk so we discussed getting a new truck. I realize there is still much to tell about the trip, dropping the trailer off at the campground and other events that have occurred and I promise to get to most of that, but because I'm excited to share and sad to see Delilah go I want to introduce our new tow vehicle  "Bodie" (Short for Boadicea) Bodie at ...

We finally got Chappy back from the dealer, all fixed and ready for the road, and dropped him off at the campground.  I had been waiting for that before I took my truck in to have the oil change and tires rotated and I wasn't expecting to have to wait so long, but that is done too.  The packing list is ready, the road food list is ready, We are starting to pack. Amidst all of that, Tyler moved to his new apartment and we helped with the move. Mom Tyler is coming to visit and we are picking her up in Michigan on our way back from South Dakota and that brought on a whole bunch of work I wasn't expecting.  We want her on the main floor so she doesn't have to deal with the stairs so I moved my office to Tyler's room.  Karen moved our old bet from the basement to the old office and all of this while I was on call for work. I still have to mow the lawn, finish packing, and have everything ready to go so we can stay the night at the campground and leave early the next m...

We stopped by the campground this past weekend even though Chappy is still at the Dealership.  It's probably a good thing he's still there as the ground was very soggy and they had not yet fixed the electrical at our site.  Regardless, I'll probably call the dealership today and see if they can give me an update since we are fast approaching our next big trip! There is a lot going on around here.  TW found an apartment and we started helping him move his stuff over the weekend, all of this rain lately has really made the grass grow so I need to mow again, with Chappy still gone we are falling a little behind on our packing/planning/cleaning that we had planned, and to top it off I'm on call for work this week which means that I'll probably end up rushing around next week to get most of my stuff done before we take off. I hate being rushed.  When rushed I find it easy to try to blow through the checklist and then something inevitably only gets half done or skippe...

Being back at home base after a trip and sliding into that same old routine is a bit depressing, but it helps to get your mind off of it by starting to plan your next trip.  With Florida/Georgia done we are beginning to plan for South Dakota and it will come up quick so I haven't wasted any time and I called to set up an appointment to drop off the trailer for a quick workup.  I also have to get the Oil changed on Delilah and possibly think about getting some new tires although I'd rather wait on that until mid/late summer. The campground for the majority or our trip is already booked, I'm still looking at stays for the trip there and back since we probably won't want to do it all in one day.  I've given some thought to maybe dry camping but I'll have to make that decision pretty quick in case we do decide to try and book a site. Too Far for one day... There are a few other things I need to do to Chappy before we hit the road again (We finally gave the ...

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!

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...

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...

Years ago we found a need to get out of the house for a change of scenery.  Our kids were younger, we'd spent months housebound with nothing much more than an inflatable backyard pool for entertainment and we were looking for something new to help us get away without a lot of work.  We purchased a used trailer off of Craigslist and put it on a permanent spot in a campground about 45 minutes from the house and spent many weekends enjoying times out there. For a few years we kept going out to the trailer, but found that as the kids were getting older that we spent less and less time there enjoying ourselves and more and more time at home doing the same things in our back yard that we'd do at the campground.  That coupled with the age of the old girl and her desperate need for more work that we were willing to put into her got us thinking about purchasing a 'Real Trailer'.  I bought my truck at the end of that summer with the intention of looking for a 5th wheel we wo...

In preparation for our first trip of the year I picked up a few greatly needed things for the trailer that I hope will come in handy. First a new air compressor!  I've read a ton of reviews from people saying this little guy is the best and I have to say I was pretty impressed when I took it out of the box and tried it out.  I ended up filling all of the trailer tires and the tires on my wife's car while it was hooked up to my running truck.  The hose reached everywhere I needed it to and it didn't take long at all. Portable Air Compressor The second thing I picked up is also tire related.  The truck has as TPMS for all of it's tires, but I wanted to be able to keep track of the trailer tires as well.  So I picked up a little kit for that.  I haven't tried it out yet, but maybe I'll post an update about it later on. And finally,  I got something I think will come in pretty handy.  I spent last year fighting with regular garden sty...