So, yesterday I left the campground I’d been working at in Wisconsin. But I almost didn’t. The entrance to the campground is a dirt road on an incline. During the few months I was there, I would routinely go up that hill in my truck idling in 2nd or 3rd gear with no problem. Now I knew I couldn’t get away with that once I hooked up the 5er to leave so I got a running start at it but didn’t want to overdo it because of the slight curve at the bottom of the hill. So, I get almost to the top of the hill and the engine starts lugging. Couldn’t drop to second quick enough and started spinning the wheels. (Note to self: next time get a 4WD automatic!) Had to back all the way down the hill and almost screwed the pooch on that one. Overcorrected at one point and had to stop to remove a post before I hit it.

I had no intention of failing on the second attempt so I just barreled through that curve and made the top with plenty of room to spare. The rest of the drive was pretty boring, thankfully. Still a lot of construction around Minneapolis/St. Paul. Ran into headwinds again starting in the western half of MN. I knew when the winds picked up because I could see my computer-generated MPG dropping. But it never got as bad as it did the first time I drove to Stephen.

Got to the campground with plenty of daylight left, backed in, got leveled, hooked up electric, cable and water and started to relax. There’s something strange about my television because the first time I hook up to new cable many of the stations come in fuzzy. It always clears up within a day or 2 but last night I got to watch reruns of The Big Bang Theory (just a little on the fuzzy side).

Dakota was initially leery of heading for the open door, probably since I haven’t let her out in a long time, but eventually she got the idea and she spent the night outside last night. She didn’t do any hunting cuz she headed straight for the food bowl when I let her in this morning. We’ll see what happens tonight.

Yep, it’s that time of year again. Getting hot and sticky in Florida and a campground job was waiting in Wisconsin. I wasn’t getting any warm fuzzies by watching the weather channel just before leaving Patrick AFB. There was supposed to be heavy rain along most of my route through FL, GA, TN and KY. Well, we all know weather guessers can be wrong frequently so I was hoping that would be the case here.

I left on a Saturday morning with overcast skies but no rain. That was good for a couple of reasons. First, it kept the temps down on my engine and tires. Second, there were no love bugs in the air so the front cap of the 5th wheel stayed clean. My good luck with the weather lasted until partway through GA. Then the rain started, not real heavy but steady. I made it around Atlanta without any trouble and spent the night in a truck stop north of there.

The next day was more of the same, lots of steady rain all the way into Indiana. The interstate in IN also left a lot to be desired. I went over a small bridge south of Indianapolis and thought for sure that something was going to break since the front of the RV was bouncing like a bucking bronco. About 30 miles up the road I decided to exit and during my mirror check I noticed something strange on the driver’s side. I’d been watching water get thrown off my tires for the last 2 days but this looked different. After a second I realized that there was a tremendous amount of smoke coming off one of my RV tires. I quickly pulled to the shoulder and stopped. Fortunately, this was at the exit ramp so I had plenty of room to walk around. Damn, looked like an axle problem. It had skewed so that one of the tires was rubbing against a suspension component. The tire still had air in it so I turned on the hazard flashers and limped into the Flying J truck stop. I went directly to the truck parking in the back and it’s a good thing there were plenty of open spaces since maneuvering the RV was a  little challenging with one of the axles off center.

It was still raining so I didn’t even try to crawl underneath the rig for further inspection. Instead, I started looking for a local RV dealer for repairs and posted some inquiries on RV.net. Then I headed into the restaurant for all you can eat spaghetti.

The next morning I called an RV dealer just across the interstate. He showed up in about 10 minutes, took a quick look at the problem, and gave me a card with the number of a tire shop on it. Then he gave me a ride to the shop, which was directly across the street from the truck stop. Talk about lucky! They had a mechanic available. He drove across the street with some tools and got the axle straightened out enough for me to drive it to the shop. After further inspection, they just needed to replace a pin in the leaf spring assemble and replace the tire that got smoked. I was back on the road about lunchtime.

I spent a few more days in IN visiting family, then continued my trip to WI. The rest of the trip was uneventful. Arrived at the campground and got set up  fairly quickly. Just in time to experience low temperatures below freezing at night. Hopefully, that’s the last I’ll see of those temps until the sugar beet harvest.

The Black River is running high and strong right now, a little too much for my kayak, but it should settle down soon and let me get some playtime in.

Here are the Lost Falls, the campground namesake.

Sometimes things just work out right. I took the 3G Stepper out for a ride this evening. It was a little windy but otherwise very nice weather – sunny and low 70s. On the way back I decided to use the exercise trail that runs along the Banana River. This brackish river is home to a multitude of sea life, including the Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin. I used the full, formal name just so nobody gets it confused with the delicious dolphin (mahi-mahi) that you get in restaurants. Just past the halfway point my phone rang with a call that I was half expecting – the billing department for the hospital where I had my knee surgery last summer. After hanging up, I continued on my ride and spotted a dolphin swimming very close in. I slowed down a little to see what he would do and the next time his dorsal fin broke the surface he was still behind me. I stopped completely and noticed a large moving shadow right next to the seawall. The dolphin was almost directly below me. Not knowing what else to do, I leaned over and slapped the seawall a few times. Well, Mr. Dolphin rolled over on his side and eyeballed me for a few seconds before continuing on his swim. How neat is that?

Well, the past week here has been entertaining, although not very happy for a couple of people. Late last week a 35 or 40 ft Class A pulled into the campground and proceeded to the office to register. After talking to the driver (husband) much later, he said he was following his wife’s instructions, which turned out to be a big mistake. Next to the new office is a large sandy field (for lack of a better word) that used to be the base firing range. They tore it down sometime in the last 2 yrs and haven’t done anything other than remove all the rubble.

Oops, I stand corrected. They did have a fabric fence around the area to keep the sand from blowing all over. That was removed when some office worker decided it would be a great idea for all overflow vehicles (mostly tow dollies and box trailers, but some trucks and cars) to park on this soft, sandy ground instead of a nearby paved parking lot. That decision was rescinded within 24 hrs as people tried to get into the new parking area and started sinking into the sand. The fabric fence was never put back into its original location. That turned out to be a big mistake as the Class A from the previous paragraph pulled in.

The wife suggested to the husband that they pull off the pavement so they wouldn’t block the road. Unfortunately, hubby followed this advice. After registering, they went back out to the RV and attempted to pull out, only to dig the rear wheels in, down to the axle. Even though a case could be made that it was the military’s fault and they probably had a suitable vehicle in the motor pool to pull him out, this poor guy had to use his emergency roadside service. So, 2 hrs later, the tow truck shows up. At this point, we find out how starved RVers are for entertainment. They (including me) started coming out of the woodwork to watch the festivities. There must have been 40 or 50 people just sitting in lawn chairs or on picnic tables. The tow truck driver did a very good job and had that RV out of the sand in about 20 minutes, with no further damage.

The following day was my turn to move again. Everything was going well since there were some empty spots in overflow so I didn’t have to wait for somebody else to move first. There was one moment, however, when my stomach did a few flips and my heart was racing. When I kicked the last wheel chock out from between my 5th wheel tires, the RV started rolling. Fortunately, it was already hitched to the truck so nothing dropped. It only rolled a couple of inches but I was already racing for the truck to jump in and stand on the brakes. The rest of the move was nowhere near as exciting.

Now fast forward a few days and I’m looking at the opposite row of overflow parking and see something that looks out of place. I mentioned in my last post that they put the power pedestals forward on some of the sites. Well, it was just a matter of time before somebody hit one. This pedestal was leaning over at a 45 degree angle, completely exposing the cement base that was probably meant to keep it in place. A little later I found the RV that caused that damage. It was another Class A and they hit the pedestal while pulling out of the spot. The tail swung out to make contact and you could see the gouge starting about 8 ft from the back of the RV. So, a couple of storage bay doors will need to be replaced and the rear cap will require some fiberglass work. It all brought back some sad memories of my accident in Nebraska when I pulled a similar stunt at a truck stop. The big difference here though is that this guy had a spotter available. I know that because I saw his wife spotting as he backed into his new site. Now, if only she had been spotting as he pulled out of the old spot, they wouldn’t have to get their RV repaired.

Ahhh, another lovely moving day here in sunny Florida. They have a rotation policy here in this military campground. If you’re on a partial or full hookup site and there are other people on a waiting list, you can only stay on that site for 30 days. My 30 on a partial hookup site was up this morning so I got to swap spots with someone in the improved overflow. So, the morning started with gathering up the outside stuff (bike, kayak, racks, etc) and tossing it all in the back of the truck to put on the new site. Then back to the RV, finish securing stuff inside, disconnect utilities, bring in slides, hook up and head for the dump station. Wish I’d had more time at the dump station to flush the black tank real good but it was good enough for a few weeks in overflow.

I said ‘improved’ overflow because they’ve added electricity since my last visit. My new site was very narrow, just barely long enough for the RV, the power pedestal was too far forward and there was an electric panel on the door side of the RV. Oh, and it was angled so I had to back in from the blind side. With the help of a couple of neighbors, I got situated OK in about 15 minutes. I had to make several adjustments so that I could still open one of my storage compartment doors and the big slide would have room to clear the electric panel. When all was said and done, my RV door opened on to fairly new sod instead of the concrete patio but I can live with that. Dakota is happy that it was such a short move.

I’m back on the waiting list, this time for a full hookup site. That will really be nice to have sewer again. I’ll probably be here in overflow for 2-3 weeks. After my move to a FHU site, some of the other RVers should start traveling again so I may be able to sit there until I head back north. I’m also much farther away from the bath house in my new site so I’ll be getting more exercise walking back and forth.

Right now I’m on a partial hook-up site. In this case it means I have water and electric but no sewer. Fortunately, the dump station and the bath house are very close. I can take all my showers in the bath house so 1 of my 2 gray tanks only gets water from brushing my teeth or washing my hands. The other gray tank is for the galley so that gets more use from washing dishes. And I only use my toilet for middle of the night requirements. At that rate, the black tank should easily last until it’s time for me to move off this site. At that point, I’ll either dump the black tank at the dump station or a full hook-up site.

But what about the gray tanks? Well, the clever folks in the RV industry manufacture a nifty little product commonly known as a Blue Boy tote. They come in various sizes but they all have wheels, handles and openings to let you fill and empty them without making too much of a mess. Besides the weight when they’re full, the other bad part is not being able to visually tell when they’re almost full. That’s important because you have to stop the gray water flowing into the tote before it’s full, otherwise you get a lot of overflow. That’s also the reason that you shouldn’t try using a tote for your black tank. Nobody likes cleaning up a poopy spill.

Blue Boy Totes

Today I decided to empty my gray tanks. The process was uneventful. I filled up the first tote and wheeled it over to the dump station. As dump stations go, this one is fairly nice. The actual sewer opening is at the bottom of a concrete, concave surface. There’s no lip on the sewer pipe so any liquid that makes it onto the concave part of the station will flow into the sewer. After positioning the tote near the sewer opening I gradually opened the dump valve on the tote. Gray water began pouring out, down the slope and into the sewer opening. As the tote emptied, I opened the valve further.

About that time I got some company. One fellow RVer walked up beside me and the camp host pulled up in his golf cart. After exchanging pleasantries with the camp host, he took off. The other RVer then went on to tell me that he got reprimanded for dumping a tote exactly the same way I was. In other words, without hooking up a sewer hose first to drain directly into the sewer opening. That was kind of surprising until the next words out of his mouth. He said “You know everybody mixes gray and black water when they’re using the totes”. Really? Not me! All the totes are clearly marked for gray water only. My guess is that he was using the tote for his black tank, the camp host saw that dirty water/mixed solids coming out of the tote and had a little conversation with the gentleman.

For those of you new to using totes, please check with the local host/manager before your first use. It may save some embarrassment later.

Well, I finished work at Amazon at 10:30 on a Friday evening. Weather in KY was still cold so I didn’t get as much accomplished before the shift as I hoped. On the brighter side, I won productivity contests on my last 2 shifts so I was able to stock up on goodies from Kroger and eat at Subway courtesy of Amazon.

I was unable to get my sleep schedule adjusted properly so I didn’t leave Campbellsville until noon on Saturday. Traffic through TN was absolutely terrible – one slowdown after another. I was able to pick up an all news radio station north of Atlanta so I didn’t drive into any traffic jams there. Spent the night in a truckstop just south of Atlanta. Temps got down to 28 that night. Fortunately I had all the blankets on the bed, plus my long johns. I actually slept past sunrise despite all the diesels idling around me.

My second driving day was totally uneventful – no construction zones, no accidents, just the way I like it. Arrived at Patrick AFB before dark and got set up in the overflow area. Big surprise there since my last visit. They’ve added electricity in overflow so I didn’t have to light candles or walk around with a headlight on. Unfortunately, the cold front followed me down and I’ve actually had to continue using a space heater and the fireplace at night. Rested for one day, then drove into Orlando to visit with my newest granddaughter (and her parents). Moved into a partial hookup site the next day, visited my favorite local Chinese buffet with an old friend, more relaxing.

And as a bonus, one of the other RVers here at Patrick noticed the sign on the side of my truck advertising computer services. He had some malware on his Win 7 laptop and I was able to earn a little extra money correcting that problem.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get the kayak wet in the next week. Surprisingly, I’ve gotten back to jogging since my arrival back in Florida despite the abuse my feet got at Amazon.

Just thought I’d make a quick entry about some excellent repairs on my 5th wheel before I roll on down the road and lose the info. First, Wescraft RV and Truck in Fife WA (between Seattle and Tacoma), 253.926.3443. They did major repairs to the back end of the RV that I damaged in Nebraska while pulling away from a fuel pump. They took the endcap completely off to repair and repaint the whole thing. Looks just like new. They also had to replace inside wallboard that was cracked during the incident. Great job and good communication throughout the process.

The second repair was more of an emergency repair. About a week before scheduled departure my landing gear quit working. I couldn’t find any mobile RV techs advertised in the local area. Called Wescraft and got one phone number to try but he was booked solid for the next week. I talked to the camphost and he told me about Alan at RV Service Pro, 253.229.6209. He’s a certified master RV technician and was able to respond the next morning. He was very knowledgeable and fixed the problem in about 2 hrs. Unlike most mobile techs, he didn’t have a travel fee, just a 1 hr minimum of a reasonable hourly rate.

I would certainly recommend either of these folks for any repairs if you’re in the Seattle/Tacoma area.

I left Texas on Memorial Day weekend with the intention of stopping over for a day or 2 in Ogden UT before finishing the drive to Tacoma WA. You know what they say about the best laid plans. The first day and a half of driving were very uneventful. Traffic cooperated and I had a good tailwind. No problems with truck or 5th wheel. Then I stopped to refuel in Grand Island NE. While pulling away from the pumps, the tail end of the RV swung out a little too wide and caught one of those yellow barriers. I didn’t even feel it, just noticed after parking in the back with the trucks. It looked pretty nasty and I really felt like crap for not being more careful. So, I searched for a nearby campground and found a small county park that was very nice and inexpensive. Called the insurance company and got authorization for a temporary repair on Tuesday morning so I could finish the trip. Temporary repairs were completed on Wednesday and I left Thursday morning. Boondocked in Wyoming, again no problems except for decreasing fuel mileage due to increasing elevation and headwinds. The next day I made it through Utah and into Idaho when I started smelling diesel fuel in the cab. I could also see the fuel guage moving to the left. The next exit was about 9 miles away so I was trying for that but had to pull over and turn off the engine when I noticed smoke coming through the dashboard. Made a call to my emergency road service and got towed to a truck repair in Jerome ID. They quickly replaced a broken fuel line the next morning and I was on my way again. This time I made it as far as Oregon before developing another problem. This time the clutch linkage came apart. Fortunately, it waited to break until I was in a rest area instead of happening on Deadman Pass with the truck runaway lanes. Another night boondocking in a rest area, another call to emergency road service the next morning (naturally a Sunday). This time I got a mobile mechanic to come out and fix the problem, or so I thought. I was able to shift into all gears in the rest area parking lot and entering the Interstate. But when I decided to exit the Interstate for another break, I couldn’t shift out of 6th gear. I pumped the clutch a few times and was finally able to shift again. Since I could continue driving with this workaround, I decided to press on to my final destination instead of looking for a mechanic in the wilderness. I made it to Tacoma without further incident and the clutch seems to have worked through its problems. I have an RV repair shop lined up to finish repairs to the 5th wheel. And most important of all, I got to see my daughter and grandkids. I hope the rest of the summer is nowhere near as exciting. Here’s a couple of pics of the worst of the damage from the truck stop incident: