I’m writing this on Friday the 24th of April. Not sure exactly when it will post because we have to cell phone service or internet connection here.
Vicki and I have been enthusing about this first trip all winter long. The 22MLS group was planning a spring meet up in Michigan. You might remember that last year we planned our first trip to be about this time of year in Cowan’s Gap PA, and then the 22MLS group had a spring meet up in Ohio that we went to earlier, and afterwards we’d had to re-winterize the trailer while it was snowing, and then de-winterize it a week or two later to go to Cowan’s Gap. Well, this time the meetup was a little later, so it basically took the place of both trips.
We grabbed the trailer out of storage a few weeks ago for two reasons – to take it back to Meyers to do the annual safety inspection (and at the same time get the wheel bearings serviced so we had a baseline for them) and also to replace the factory mattress with a much more comfortable from rvmattress.com. We then put it back away after doing a few small maintenance tasks but without de-winterizing it.
Then last weekend, we grabbed it again. This time, we did the de-winterizing steps. It’s good we had an easy way to plug the trailer in because with the fresh tank full of chlorinated water for sanitizing the system, we were able to keep the tank heaters and the internal furnace on to make sure the tanks and the pipes didn’t freeze. The temperature while we had it home was barely above freezing most days, and got down to or below freezing a few nights. When we finally pulled the slider in to get ready to go, a sheet of solid ice came off the slider topper and shattered on the ground.
As well as de-winterizing, I also re-installed the batteries, got the solar system up and running (I bet you were wondering why the solar system hadn’t been working, right?) and did some other maintenance tasks. I’d intended to wash the outside of the trailer, but with the highest temperature that weekend barely above 41F, I didn’t feel like getting splashed.
Meanwhile, as we’re prepping for the 3 leg trip to get to Steamboat RV Park in Michigan, we’re hearing that the Grand River has flooded and they don’t know if our group’s spots were even going to be above water next weekend. Since it’s a 3 leg trip, we don’t really want to set off in that direction if the whole place is going to be underwater. The organizers of the group camp-out decided not to organize an alternative location, because evidently everything around that area was also experiencing flooding. Last year our destination had flooded out, but the park itself actually took care of changing our reservations to a different park on higher ground.
So Vicki and I decided, pretty much at the last minute, on Monday, to cancel our reservations at Steamboat as well as the places along the way, and head on down to Cowan’s Gap. We’d enjoyed the place last year, and it certainly seemed like it was going to have better weather.
One of the last things we did for packing up was finally taking the new Blackstone grill out of the box and assembling it. Due to bad planning (and not knowing how much assembling there was to do) we ended up doing a bunch of it on our next door neighbor’s lawn, or at least the strip of grass on his side of the driveway that officially belongs to us. We lost a few bolts in the grass, and I had to make a run to the local hardware store to buy a couple more. Another thing we made a hardware store run for was to buy a 100 foot long water hose – Cowan’s Gap doesn’t have water service at the campsite, but the spigots are pretty close together and I was betting with the 100 foot long hose, plus our existing two smaller hoses, we could refill from the nearest spigot without having to hitch up the trailer and drive over to one. Speaking of that, I also remembered to tie the pooper scooter to the back ladder, but I forgot to pack the little metal thingy that lets you easily tow it behind your truck. Oh well.
I don’t know why, after planning 3 legs of 3 hours each to get to Steamboat, we decided to just tough it out and do Cowan’s gap in one 7 hour push, but we did and it worked out ok. I guess we’d had enough of making reservations. I was pretty sore afterwards, but I was able to get through all the setup and stuff when we arrived. We also managed to make a very early start. Last year I think I’d told Vicki I wanted to be on the road by 10, and we didn’t put the truck into Drive until 11:15 or so. This time, we were actually not just out of our driveway, but I think we were at the Country Max getting our propane cylinders refilled before 10. Because of the early start, we got to Cowan’s Gap while it was still light, and setting up everything goes so much better when you can actually see.
So Tuesday was pretty much a driving day. The weather was nice, maybe a little cool, but way warmer than it had been at home when we were prepping the trailer. Wednesday was extremely pleasant weather, and we went for a very long hike with the dogs that tired all of us out. I’m not sure the dogs have recovered yet, here on Friday. We tried to connect up the Blackstone to the plumbed in propane line on the trailer, but something was amiss and it didn’t work out, so we went back to using the 1 pound bottles that we’d had for our Coleman stove.
Thursday, we ignored Gizmo’s whining first thing in the morning, so he paid us back by peeing on the comforter. So we spent most of the morning in the nearby town washing the comforter in the laundry, and doing a bit of “digital re-toxing”. There’s no cell phone signal or provided wifi in Cowan’s Gap, which means I’m ripping through my backlog of unread Analog magazines at a tremendous rate. But I had to bring my iPad into town so I could maintain my NYTimes crossword streak and catch up on my 82 unread emails. I also nipped into the Tractor Supply to pick up some more 1 pound propane bottles and look at their Blackstone display and see if there’s anything I’m missing. I posted something to the 22MLS group about my problems with the hose I’d bought to hook up the propane, but while I was posting it I looked up the order on Amazon where I’d bought that hose, and noticed that it had come with a brass piece with a 90 degree bend and some plumbers teflon tape. I didn’t remember the brass piece, but later on, as we were driving back to the campsite I remembered seeing the plumbers tape in the Ramboxes, and wondered if that piece was there too. After we got back, I had a root around in the Ramboxes and found it, and that was the missing link in getting the hose to hookup to the quick release on the camper and the nozzle opening on the Blackstone. So now we have 6 1 pound bottles of propane that we don’t need, but we no longer need to swap out bottles in the middle of cooking.
And after that, we went for a paddle around Cowan’s Gap pond. It’s not a very big pond, and even at a very gentle pace we circled it twice. But it was really nice to get out with Vicki – we haven’t paddled together in a number of years. Friday morning I dumped both tanks – the grey tank was making blooping noises that tell you it’s nearly time, and I did the black was well because why not? I improvised a connection between the pooper scooter and the tow hitch using a compression strap. I drove very slowly and watched it through the backup camera and it seemed to work ok, except one trip where the handle got kind of caught up with the tow ball and I had to drop the hitch to get it free.
After that I tested out my theory about the 100 foot hose and the nearest spigot, and found out we were about 20 feet short. So I borrowed a hose from a nearby camper and completed the circuit. Didn’t get the tank filled because it came over very dark and we could hear thunder. The tank gauge says it’s only 1/3 full, but I don’t trust tank gauges. But I thought I had to get the borrowed hose back before it started pelting down, and I took it back in a very light rain. And that was it, as soon as the light rain ended, we stopped hearing thunder and the black cloud above us stopped looking so black. So mostly we’ve been hanging around and enjoying the wonderful weather. But here it is a few hours later and it just started raining again. But it’s not pelting down and it’s not windy, so we’re not all buttoned up like there’s going to be a thunderstorm.
A couple of days of being in a site with no cell phone service and consequently no internet has taken Vicki and I from “there’s no way I’d give Elon Musk a penny if I could help it” to “maybe we need Starlink” pretty quickly. We’ve got a big loop around Northern Ontario planned for later in the year and we could run up some big data charges if we could even get data out there. Certainly we need to do some research, both on the costs and how to run it on the trailer – I’ve heard there’s some DC adaptors that would run it off the batteries with the inverter losses. I also wonder how well it work down here deep in a valley. Vicki’s been using the T-Mobile/Starlink connection to send text messages, but it seems to only connect to one Starlink satellite at a time and you have to hold it in alignment as it moves across the sky.
So now it’s Friday evening. I’ve done a bunch of stuff around the trailer, but mostly just relaxed and enjoyed the scenery and the weather. We still haven’t used our bikes, which I brought along, but the place is pretty hilly so we might not get to them. We also discussed maybe spending a full day at Gettysburg at some point in the next few days. I wish we could check the weather forecast. But you know, just hanging out at the trailer with Vicki and the dogs is pretty awesome too.
I’m in my happy place.