Toward Niagara Falls…A Bucket List Item

We departed Auburn, AL on 21 May and headed north making our way toward Niagara Falls, NY.  When we were first planning our full-time RV lifestyle, we made separate lists of places we wanted to visit and the compared the lists.   Neither of us has been to Niagara Falls, so it is no surprise that it made it on both our lists.  Visiting friends in Maine that we have not seen in decades is also on the list, so we decided to focus our travel on the North East United States this summer.

We use several trip planning tools when planning our route.  The Good Sam Trip Planner is good for long trips because you can put in multiple locations as well as your RV size/weight limitations.  I make the initial plan and Pattie uses the Allstays App and Google Maps to revise our route.  We also keep a Rand-McNally Truckers Atlas in hard copy for times when Internet and satellite service fails.  On the first leg of our trip, I had picked a state park campground in North Carolina for our first stop.  As we got close to that location, Pattie called to see if the y had spots available and there was only one back-in site left.  Since we cannot back-up unless unhooking the Jeep and didn’t want to drive 7 miles of back roads only to find that one spot had just been filled, Pattie quickly found a Wal-Mart along our route that allows RV’ers to stay overnight for free.  Of course, we always end up spending money there stocking up on essentials, so “free” is relative.  I am still amazed that we can stop in a parking lot when it is pouring rain, turn on the generator, run the air conditioners, cook a nice dinner, and watch satellite TV in comfort. We are very thankful that for the first time since we have owned The Bus that the hot water, heat, and satellite TV are working at full capability. 

We revised our route and made reservations on-line at the Gauley River Recreation Area in West Virginia for the next four nights and Lolita State Park in Pennsylvania for four nights after that.  We were basically burning time to get past the Memorial Day weekend because all the campgrounds near Niagara Falls were full for the holiday weekend.  The Gauley River Recreation area is a beautiful part of our country.  The Summersville Lake and river rapids nearby are breathtaking.  I bought a four-day fishing license and enjoyed catching small mouth bass in the lake.  During the days, we hiked and explored the area with the Jeep.  We were able to get back into areas where the river guides set up remote camps for whitewater enthusiasts.  

I asked one local if there were any Jeep Trails nearby and he said, "No, not really"which I thought was a bit odd considering the location and terrain.  We decided to explore on our own and found County Highway 19/25 that runs near the river hoping to see some more beautiful scenery.  Well, the map shows the county highway crosses a creek several times.  It didn’t say there were bridges and there were not any.  We twisted though the mountains for about 6 miles making 50 water crossings and a few mud bogs before rounding a bend and finding a huge Beech tree had fallen very recently across the road.  The base of the tree was over four feet around.  We knew that we were near a connecting road that would lead us to some river vistas and eventually out; so, I made an attempt to winch the tree far enough out of the road to maneuver around it.  I put about 12,000 lbs of pull on it and moved it several feet, but not enough.  We were forced to turn around and drive out the way we came in leaving the tree for someone with heavy equipment to move. I joked with Pattie that I should write the county highway maintenance department a strongly worded letter on the state of their highway.

County Highway 19/25

We had to depart on Thursday because this area was fully booked for the Memorial Day weekend.  As we left, we dumped our tanks and refilled with fresh water.  Many of these state parks have only electricity at the campsite and one central sewer dump station.  We arrived at Loleta State Park Campground that evening and found the campsite that we reserved through the Memorial Day weekend.  This site only offered a 30 amp hook-up and no water or sewer is available, so proper resource management was necessary.

Lolita State Park Memorial Day weekend

The Lolita campground is very remote. We did not have Internet access or phone because no cell service is available.  Fortunately, the new Winegard Trav’ler satellite antenna was able to lock on to two of three satellites, so we had most of our TV channels.

During the day, we explored the area in the Jeep and on short hikes. One day we drove an hour north to Bedford, PA to scout out the area we will be staying at for the Jeep Jamboree in late June.  It is a good thing that we did because some of the campgrounds that sounded good on-line turned out to be very sketchy and there were several restricted roads in the area.  Speaking of restricted roads, the Pennsylvania highway department seems to scatter “10 Ton Weight Limit” signs around like feed corn for chickens.  Almost all side roads off main truck routs have these blanket limits.  How does a gravel road have a 10 Ton Weight Limit? Sure, if there is a bridge or culvert along that road, but those should be clearly marked at the road feature.  I believe they are posting these signs to require commercial vehicles to purchase a bonding permit (tax) for traveling on those roads.  Whatever the reason, we escaped unscathed due to Pattie’s quick navigation skills to divert us away from the route the Good Sam Travel Planner made for us.  It is always a good idea to check your route with several sources.

Where we have camped so far

 Thanks for keepingupwiththejonesrv!

Back to Red Bay for Service and Upgrades

Pattie and I had hoped to continue north all the way to Maine; but the failed windshield wiper motor and a few other issues required us to alter our plans.  We departed Maryland in the rain with no windshield wipers and drove south for two days to Red Bay, AL.  The liberal use of Rain X water repellant on the windshield made driving with no wipers close to a non-issue.  The rain just rolled off.  We signed in at the Tiffin Service Center and took spot 31 in their campground.  The campsites are on a deserted runway where motorhomes line up in three long rows.  Nothing special here, but I always get the feeling I am at a remote military airfield in the Middle-East.

Monday morning, Norris (service manager) came by and we reviewed our list of repair items.  He said it would be a week and a half before they could get to us.  We resigned to sit still until we could get the items fixed.  (Note: Norris typically gives you the worst-case time estimates.) Meanwhile, we called Bay Diesel and made an appointment for chassis service the next day.  We also contacted Nick Brewer who installs custom electronics after Tiffin’s normal service hours about a new satellite antenna.  Our 2007 Bus came with the Trac-King in-motion satellite antenna that has become obsolete.  It only picks up one of three satellites on a good day and never local channels. 

 We made an appointment with Nick to install the Winegard Trav’ler antenna on Thursday.  For technical reasons I wanted to switch service to Direct TV, but after becoming totally frustrated trying to get them to understand that I wanted service ONLY in my RV, I decided to just stick with DISH.  When you buy a $200 antenna for home use, it is not as big a commitment as when buying the $2000 Trav’ler.  Hopefully, DISH Network will serve us well.

We enjoyed meeting other Tiffin motorhome owners and hearing about their experiences, problems, and modifications.  On this trip, I met a lady named Sue who showed me what she and her husband had done to modify their coach.  Some of the cabinet modifications peaked my interest and Sue immediately put me in touch with Chris Berry who did the woodwork.  I contacted Chris who came by and we talked about some custom cabinetwork he could do over the next week and a half.

Bay Diesel took care of the routine chassis maintenance by changing the engine oil, transmission fluid, drive belt, and all air/fuel/oil filters.  They also serviced the air tank reservoir. I am not exactly sure what this is, but when we were driving The Bus would be constantly hissing air on and off.  Since compressed air is used to operate the brakes and air bag suspension, it is something that must be in top condition.  I think they drained some water accumulator or something and it works fine now.  This is another system I will need to study up on how it works.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Tiffin scheduler called and told us to report to bay 3 at 7am on Wednesday (three days and they got us in a bay!).  When we arrived and met the technicians, I handed them a box of parts I had removed from the windshield wiper motor assembly and a new motor.  I thought the guy was going to make me sign a statement that I would never touch the windshield wiper system again.  Apparently, I had removed several things that do not need to be removed when changing the motor.  He was a good sport and got it all back together correctly.  He also swapped in a new Aqua-Hot control thermostat.  I have been in constant contact with the Aqua-Hot engineers trying to determine why our system acts so erratically.  They narrowed it down to this sensor and paid for the installation.  It worked and I cannot say enough good things about how Aqua-Hot has stood behind their product and warranty. 

 

Next, the technicians worked on a leak we had in our grey water tank.  These tanks catch and hold the sink and shower water.  We noticed that when it is half full or more and we move The Bus, we would see water leaking out each side.  They quickly found that the pipe going into the top of the tank had cracked and could be replaced without removing or having to replace the whole tank. 

After that, we asked them where our thermostat sensors were for Zone 1 and Zone 2 heating and cooling.  We noticed other coaches of the same year model have visible sensors and we could not find any.  They searched, found them and replaced them with more modern sensors.  Overall heating and cooling is much more consistent now.  They fixed a few other odds and ends and we were done before 3pm.

On Thursday, we relocated to a self-service campground near Nick’s place and waited for him to arrive.  We met him at 4:30pm and he quickly removed our old King Dome Trac-King antenna and installed the new Trav’ler.  By 7pm we were outside watching the new antenna locate and lock on the all three Dish Network satellites.  We called Dish and they activated local channels for us.  It was great to finally get all the channels we pay for each month.

On Friday, we called Chris Berry and told him we had finished up early and were ready to meet him and complete some work or just do it on our next visit.  He said come on over and we parked outside his woodshop in the country.  He connected us to power and began building custom drawers, slide outs, and improved my bedroom TV mounting system.  It took him most of the day and he allowed us to stay there overnight.  The small improvements Chris made give us extra room and make it easier to access things in the back of the cabinets.

On Saturday, we headed to Auburn, AL to have my doctor look at something that had me concerned.  We figured that we may be there several weeks if it required surgery, so we made reservations at the Auburn RV Park.  We always enjoy this park and the friendly owners.  My doctor sent me to a specialist in Columbus, GA that is near Ft Benning.  Since my sons were out of school, I offered to take them by Ft Benning for a little shooting practice before my appointment.  My youngest son, Chris took me up on the offer and as we passed through the gate realized that his military dependent ID card had expired.  Something we would need to address on this visit. When we got to the shooting range, it had just closed due to a safety incident.  Bummer.  We headed over to my appointment with the specialist and I was relieved when he said I have nothing to be worried about and no procedures are necessary.  Yeah!

Once back in Auburn, I discovered that my oldest son’s ID card was about to expire and since he is turning 23, he is no longer able to receive one. This is a big deal since the military ID card is our health insurance ID card as well.  I discovered that he is no longer covered by our family health care even though he is my dependent and a full-time college student.  We arranged to purchase individual health care at the cost of what I would normally consider to be a car payment each month.  Ouch!  I made an appointment at Ft Benning for the following day for Chris to get his new ID card.  We went back over there, got his ID card and were able to shoot on the range for a couple hours. I also had time to clean up The Bus a bit and found that using an old Scrub Daddy and some Simple Green does a nice job on the wheels.

 We had not planned on returning to the southeast once we headed north in early May.  It is good that we did, as we were able to accomplish several things that needed to be addressed.  Next, Niagara Falls…we think!

Thanks for keepingupwiththejonesrv!

Tip:  Follow this link to Red Bay After Hours technicians: http://www.rvtechlibrary.com/redbay/afterhours.pdf

The Show Must Go On

We departed Louisiana and headed toward Auburn, AL where we planned to visit our sons and attend the Auburn University theater company’s play "The Integration of Tuskegee High School".  Our youngest son Chris is majoring in theater and this was his first colligate performance.  Along the way, we spoke to my Mom and decided to visit with her a few days in Tuscaloosa since we had time to kill.  

We enjoyed visiting with Mom and were able to help Daryl (my brother-in-law) expand Mom’s back porch with paving stones.  It was an area that she could not grow grass, so the stones will serve dual functions. 

On one trip between The Bus and her house, I passed an accident scene where a young man had run off the road down into a ravine.  I went back and offered to pull him out.  It took five different winch configurations to get him back on level ground.  The work took its toll on my winch cable, so I ordered a new one and had it sent ahead to our Auburn address. 

New Cable Installed--Ready for Next Pull

When we left for Auburn, we decided not to stay at the higher priced RV parks near the campus and opted instead to stay at the Maxwell AFB Recreation Area on Lake Martin about 40 minutes from Auburn.  This turned out to be a great choice since we could camp right on the lake and I could fish each day.  We visited our sons, picked up our mail and took them out to dinner. 

Lake Martin campsites come with their own dock!

I spent most of my time fishing and made a few friends while doing so.  One fellow was a regular and showed me his favorite spots and let me use his live minnows.  We caught crappie and spotted bass.  I tried to get Pattie involved, but she said she did not find it relaxing our exciting.  Hmmm.  She will read a book all day, but can’t concentrate on fishing? 

"I find this neither relaxing or exciting."

I contacted my cousin Stanley who lives in the area. He and his wife Missy came to visit and have breakfast.  We enjoyed getting caught up with them.  

On Wednesday evening, we attended the play and were impressed by the thoroughness of the background research that went into the production.  It was fun to watch Chris perform and we hope to see him in future productions. 

Artist: Ethel Vaughn

The next day we rolled out headed to Maryland to attend Disaster Recovery recertification training.

Along the way it began to rain and The Bus windshield wipers stopped working.  We pulled off at a Wal-Mart and I bought some Rain-X to apply to the windshield.  I learned about this stuff back in college and how a woman engineer developed it for aircraft windshields where wipers were impractical.  It takes some effort to apply it, but the water will bead up and roll off the windshield.  That got us to our home church in Dunkirk, MD where we camped in the parking lot.  I troubleshot the wiper problem and determined it was a bad wiper motor.  I found the part number and ordered one hoping I could make the repair myself.   After our recertification training, I spent a day trying to get the old motor out and finally gave up.  I called the Tiffin factory and others who all recommended that I take it to Red Bay, AL and let the factory technicians replace the motor.  We talked about it and decided to alter our plans for visiting the northeast and return to Red Bay, AL to get this item and a few other things fixed.  Not real happy about it, but that is the direction we are being led.  I wonder what’s in store for us there?

Thanks for keepingupwiththejonesrv!