Christmas on the Great Plains

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Baffled, Part 3

Kibitka is finally home from the authorized Dometic repair center. We didn't mind that it was gone so long since we had no trips planned and we looked at this as free camper storage off of our driveway for the time.


The repair center consulted with Dometic on the phone and Dometic sent them a fan and baffle to install in the space behind the refrigerator, under warranty. The fan operates on a thermostat and has an on-off switch on the left side of the refrigerator (over the bed) for enabling the fan to operate. The switch is labelled "refrigerator fan switch" which leads us to believe Dometic has repeatedly seen the need for this switch and fan. The Dometic baffle is somewhere near the top back of the refrigerator, although we haven't removed the vent panel to see it. We will not be able to conclusively prove the success or failure of the new fan and baffle system until warm weather. Their purpose is to move more air across the cooling coil than occurs naturally. Great Husband and I are rating our confidence level in this fix at about 50-50.


Update as of 3-28-2013:  We've just finished a long trip with the new baffle and fan, albeit a cold-weather trip. We are reluctant to declare victory until we take a trip in hotter weather, but on this cold-weather trip the refrigerator worked great at all times.

Baffled, Part 2

On our big 4-week trip, we took several complete days of data regarding our refrigerator, and put it all into an Excel spreadsheet when we got home. It is clear that the baffle we installed did not fix the situation at all. Once we observed that, we tried other kinds of changes. For instance, for brief stints of driving, we sometimes removed the top or the bottom vent covers behind the refrigerator to see what impact that had on refrigerator cooling. No improvement. And in the second half of the trip we added a second thermometer inside the fridge to verify that the first one wasn't just giving us bad numbers. They both correlated.

The bottom line is that the refrigerator never cools while in motion on the road and always cools great while sitting still, both on propane and on electricity. I became proficient at dashing from the car into the camper to get data very quickly at each stop! And, after being on the road with the fridge temp rising, we always saw the fridge temperature start dropping right away no matter how short the stop. 

So we have just dropped the Escape off at a certified Dometic repair shop and were delighted to see the repair guy taking our spreadsheet seriously and then to hear him say, "I'll be in touch with Dometic. This might take a new refrigerator," and "We'll get this fixed. I don't give up." That's the kind of positive attitude we need!

Random Thoughts After the Latest Trip

Always learning...

For the first time, we stored our cereal and crackers in zip-lock bags and kept them on the open shelf above the dinette. This storage method was very practical to access, kept the food from getting damp in the cold, wet weather, and avoided boxes which might abrade the vinyl wall covering of the insulation package.

Even with the optional insulation package and thermal windows, when it was too cold at night to leave a window open, by morning there was some condensation on the windows from our breathing, and on the vinyl walls behind the mattress and behind the dinette cushions. We will start pulling the dinette cushions away from the walls at bedtime to allow for air circulation there, but we can’t do this for the mattress, since it’s enclosed at three sides.

When we  ran out of propane in both tanks unexpectedly, one exchange tank of propane (Blue Rhino) purchased at a gas station in Ohio was about $23 with sales tax.

We love our Garmin GPS, and really like the feature that shows which lane(s) to be in in advance of a turn. We also like the feature which shows a pictorial representation of upcoming exits which apply to your route. Because the Garmin has a strong preference for interstates, sometimes we must insert a waypoint to force it to take the non-interstate route we have chosen.  We cannot imagine anymore the effort it would take, especially at night, to go back to navigation by maps.

It's our style to set the speed control for 60 mph as much as possible and just let the faster traffic move around us. It's a lower-stress way to drive.

Great Husband and I enjoy planning details for our trip by making a detailed Excel spreadsheet at home. It includes the expected campground for each night, the length of the drive for each day in miles and hours, GPS coordinates and addresses, museums or other special places we want to visit, and info for campgrounds. We send the spreadsheet out to relatives so they can know where we are for emergencies.

I like the thought of flying by the seat of our pants more than we do, but it doesn’t seem to work for us. 

On this trip, I drove the Flex under towing conditions for the first time ever. Great Husband loves to drive and tends to keep that job for himself. But a migraine overtook him, and suddenly it was my turn to drive. It was a little unnerving to get initiated to towing in a town rather than out on the highway, including learning to look at our Aero towing mirrors instead of the car’s mirrors. All went well.

I also towed on the interstate for the first time, and I found it so easy! It will still take me some time to gain confidence about changing lanes in traffic.  Great Husband and I are both convinced that our towing mirrors are an absolute necessity and it would be foolish to try to tow without them.

We have given several tours of the Escape on this trip, but are also surprised at how much interest is generated by our Ford Flex. Lots of people ask what it is and have never heard of this car before. They are surprised that we can tow a camper with the Flex and always ask about towing capacity and how much our Escape weighs. We think Ford is missing out by not promoting the Flex better than they do.

There has been a minor problem with the Escape’s electric cord getting tangled up on stuff under the bed, so Great Husband intends to build a little partition in there to keep the cord separated from the rest of the under-bed storage.

At multiple campsites, we have had a problem with our old water pressure reducer (used for years with our pop-up). The water flow would dwindle to a trickle and then Great Husband had to go outside and work some magic to get the flow started again. He thinks we are due to buy a new pressure reducer. His research has shown that some are advertised as lead-free, so that sounds good.

When we had the Escape 19 built, we asked Reace for longer stabilizer jacks than he was typically using. He installed some that we believe are the ones he has been using on the Escape fifth wheels. We are very pleased with the longer stabilizing jacks, and don’t need to put any wood under them, which simplifies life.

Speaking of wood, we need some shorter pieces for leveling on the next trip. We are using pieces of 1 x 6s and need some shorter ones that will fit between the two tires.

The black water tank indicator typically reads high. But since we have never come close to filling that tank, we don’t worry about the tank reading much. When we clean the tank thoroughly at the end of a trip, the indicator works fine again. 

The bumper pads under the stove cover and on all the cabinet doors are sliding around. We have pushed them back into position, but will they stay there? Hmmm.

We are pleased with our ability to hitch up. We have learned that after lowering the tongue onto the hitch ball, pull the tow vehicle forward an inch or less and that makes it really easy to lock the tongue onto the ball. 

We travel with a little electric space heater (1300 watts on high) and use that whenever we can. It is much quieter than the propane furnace and easily heats the interior of the Escape to a comfortable temperature. Plus, of course, it doesn't use our propane.

The awning is so easy to operate that we never hesitate to put it out, even if briefly. Whistling Son timed us at 30 seconds to open up the awning.

We are using microfiber bath towels, and they came with a loop at one corner. I’m going to add a second snapping loop near another corner, and we will hang our towels from the cabinet handles across the bed and across the dinette for indoor drying. For various reasons, there haven’t been too many days when we could hang the towels outside.

For this trip, we bought a TV. It is an Apex 19” from Walmart, and was under $100. It stores beautifully under the passenger side dinette seat, in an upright position, and using the foam packing material that came with the TV. The storage height is perfection, and the plywood seat presses down slightly on the packing material to stabilize the TV. When we ordered our Escape, we chose not to have the wall-mount for the TV. We had our cable connection installed under the driver’s side of the dinette. We set up our TV either on the dinette or on the flip-up counter extension. 

We brought our antenna from home to use with the new little TV. It looks just like a sheet of laminated paper, and works great. We can position it to get the reception needed, sometimes hanging it from a cabinet handle with a twist tie. It is called The Leaf and we got it on Amazon.

For the first time, we also got to use cable TV (an option with the Escape). We found that a 25- foot coaxial cable works well at the campsites we’ve encountered. Shorter may not be enough.

This was the first trip during which we made zero reservations for campsites in advance. It worked out in every location, although we were surprised how often the campgrounds were nearly full in September and October.

We bought a year’s membership in Passport America since we could easily make up the membership price on this trip at just one of our chosen campgrounds. Passport America campgrounds give members 50% off the normal price. Their website lists the participating campgrounds. http://www.passportamerica.com/

By calling Passport America to order our membership, instead of signing up online, we avoided an extra charge for the printed copy of their participating campgrounds.

4-week Trip, Part 4

We planned a couple of days in Dayton, Ohio to wrap up this wonderful trip. Dayton is a great place to visit if you are interested in aviation.

We had a half day for the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, which focuses on the Wright Brothers and on poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, who was their contemporary. I had come to enjoy some of Dunbar's lighter poetry recently, so to come across him here was a pleasant surprise.

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Wright Bicycle Shop

Reconstructions of the Wright catapult, rail, and airplane shed at Huffman Prairie Flying Field.
Because of the Wright Brothers' flights here, Huffman Field is considered the first airport in the world.

Release the 1600-pound weight to send the airplane down the 60-foot rail, and into the air.

We also spent a whole day at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, where Great Husband soaked up details about military aircraft from all nations, displayed in huge hangars, and I took it in at a superficial level. The section I found most interesting was about the Berlin Airlift.

A Presidential plane used from Kennedy through the Clinton years.
 We were able to walk through this plane and several others on display.

Planes, planes, and more planes

4-week Trip, Part 3

After visiting Monticello, we headed on to Shenandoah National Park, and camped there at Big Meadows Campground. As I awoke on the first morning, I thought that Great Husband was deliberately saving on propane by keeping the temperature too low in the camper. This is a known trick of his. But not this time! We had most unexpectedly run completely out of propane, and were facing two very cold days and two more very cold nights with wind and rain and fog and no heat. I guess this was good for us and meant to keep us from being too spoiled.

At Shenandoah National Park, we hiked to a waterfall, walked a short distance on the Appalachian Trail, wrapped up in a sleeping bag to hear a ranger talk about killer storms in the park, and had a "French supper." Actually, the French supper was a multi-course meal meant to use up the food in our refrigerator, since there was neither propane nor electricity to cool it. It didn't include any French foods, but since it extended over a period of four hours, we decided it was French.

At times we also hung out in a big cozy public room in the Great Meadows Lodge, where there was a fire and Wifi to keep us happy.

A ranger talks about raptors, this one a red-tailed hawk.

Shenandoah National Park was built in imitation of the national parks in the western U.S., although it
doesn't have the great natural features of those other parks. In a very good display at the visitors' center,
we learned that there were many shenanigans in the park creation, and politicians
 and other movers-and-shakers displaced some 2000 property owners, some of them forced out
quite unwillingly.  The CCC came in to build park features, such as Skyline Drive,
and planted thousands of trees. So the park is essentially a planted tree garden.

Great Husband at Big Meadows Lodge

Enjoying fall colors at an overlook

4-week Trip, Part 2

Following our time in Georgia, we headed to Williamsburg, Virginia to visit our middle son, to be called Whistling Son in this blog. Whistling Son works in digital history at Colonial Williamsburg and it is one of our favorite places in the whole world. Virginia is teeming with American history and we've barely scratched the surface. We did visit Yorktown National Battlefield, Historic Jamestown, and Monticello on this trip.

Chesapeake Bay at First Landing State Park. We had a great weekend camping here.
But most of the time we camped in Williamsburg itself
and practically had a train track running through the camper. 

On a hike at First Landing State Park,
we saw bald cypress trees and knees
 (those odd, spiky growths).

Great Husband and Whistling Son on the beach

Fifes and drums at Colonial Williamsburg

Colonial Williamsburg is a wonderful restoration
where the Revolutionary Period is
presented as accurately as possible.

Lafayette speaks to the crowd.
He says he has been called "a statue
 waiting for a pedestal." Indeed!

Even the sheep are true to the period.

George Washington and the Continental Army had a decisive victory over the forces
of Cornwallis at Yorktown. The terms of surrender were signed here at the Moore House,
and this essentially marked the end of the Revolutionary War.

Reconstruction of a "stick and mud" building at Historic Jamestown
We enjoyed a talk about John Smith, whose story is full of craziness and unbelievable exploits.

Beautiful colors and perfect weather at Monticello.
We were surprised that Jefferson's house is on a mountain.

Monticello. After a very interesting tour of the house, we were free to wander the grounds.
We took a second tour to learn about Jefferson's ownership of slaves.
About slavery he wrote,"...we have the wolf by the ear,
 and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go."

Monticello. Jefferson died in extreme debt, but the property was difficult to sell,
partly because of its position on a mountain. The house went
 into serious decline before ultimately being restored and preserved. 

4-week Trip, Part 1

We've just returned from a 4-week trip with the Escape, September and October, 2012, having covered a total distance of 3900 miles. Part 1 of the trip took us from Omaha to Fort Gordon, Georgia for the birth of our new granddaughter. 

We made a brief stop in Hannibal, Missouri . Here is the boyhood home of
Samuel Clemens and what they call "Tom Sawyer's Fence."

This part of town makes the most of the Mark Twain connection.

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park
(Georgia and Tennessee)
commemorates these significant battles of the Civil War.

Driving tour of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park

Java Daughter and her family, stationed at Ft. Gordon, Georgia

A very young naval officer

The kids meet new little sister
 "Cupcake" at the hospital.

Baffled, Part 1

We've been baffled as to why our Dometic RM2510 doesn't cool on the road, but cools great while sitting still. The flame is not blowing out. But one possibility is that the space behind the refrigerator is too big and needs a baffle to direct the air flow to the absorber coil. We got this idea from a Dometic installation manual on page 3 at http://bryantrv.com//docs2/docs/dometicventing.pdf.

Looking down through the top vent opening behind the refrigerator.
This is a top view of the absorber coil. The flue pipe is on the right.

Here's the THERMOPAN sheet, 19.5 x 47.5 inches,
 we bought at Menard's to make the new baffle.
THERMOPAN is a type of heat-resistant, foil-covered cardboard,
easy to cut, and easy to fold for this purpose.

We cut and bent the THERMOPAN to create a baffle in this configuration.
The new baffle is meant to direct air closer to the absorber coil.

Great Husband inserts the new baffle down through the top vent opening
until it sits on the top lip of the lower vent opening below.
There the vent trim screws hold it in place.
The upper edge of the baffle is also held in place by the vent cover screws.

Calmark Cover, Part 3

Today we found new success in installing the Calmark cover on the Escape 19 and Great Husband summed it up, “Super-duper! It was a cinch!”  We are no longer fighting gravity to get the cover up onto the roof, and the whole operation took only a half hour, including installing the padding.

New method for removing the cover:

Unfasten the two black cords and pull them from under the belly of the camper to the non-door side of the camper. 

Near the buckle on each cord, bundle up all the excess cord length with bungees or wire ties. Fortunately, we never cut off all the excess length of these cords, and that extra weight was helpful later. 

Roll the front and back ends of the cover to the center of the camper, between the air conditioner and the Maxx fan. We do this with me helping on the ground and Great Husband moving a ladder around.

Secure the rolled-up cover by wrapping it with two bungees, one at each edge of the roof. The rolled-up cover doesn’t have to look especially tidy.  But the bungees keep the cover under control while it is stored so you can easily recognize the proper orientation when you are ready to put the cover back up.

From the door side of the camper, tug the rolled-up cover straight down into a large, clean trash can. The black cords should end up on top of the cover. The cover will remain stored in the trash can until you are ready to reinstall it on the camper.

New method for putting the cover back on:

Set up the trash can at the side of the camper.

The weight of the bundled-up black cords now becomes essential, because you can easily toss each of the black cords over the center top of the camper to the other side. Toss them over.

From the non-door side, pull the black cords toward that side while another person on the door side helps feed up the cover fabric out of the trash can. This is remarkably easy.

When the bungee cords are positioned at the edges of the roof, you know your cover is balanced from side to side.

Remove the bungee cords, and gradually unroll the cover toward the front and the back. Some of this can be done from the ground but some must be done by moving a ladder around.

Calmark cover stored in a trash can

Toss each black cord over the roof to the opposite side of the camper.

With me pulling the black cords from the non-door side,
Great Husband assists the cover fabric over the awning.
You can see the bungee around the fabric below his hand.

Here is the rolled-up and still-bungeed cover
on the non-door side.

We've taken off the bungees and started to unroll toward the front and back ends.

Assisting the fabric over the Maxx fan

And assisting the fabric over the pool noodles around the air conditioner

A bit more fabric-lifting to get it gently over the air conditioner

It's on! And nobody's cranky!

Escape Tips after Five Months

Always learning. We've had the Escape 19 for about five months now.

Pollyanna was wrong about needing only one BAL X-Chock. Our campsite at Sylvan Lake had some slope and it dropped off significantly immediately behind the camper. So we had leveling boards on one side, plus were using both X-Chocks for the first time. When getting ready to leave, Great Husband raised the stabilizing jacks and one tire slipped off a leveling board, which I had poorly positioned during set-up. The dual X-Chocks limited the camper movement to a significant jolt. I was inside the camper at the time, and pleased to avoid rolling down the hill.  http://norcoind.com/bal/products/consumer/chocks/chocks.shtml

The retractable screen door had been getting less retractable, tending to bunch up instead. Great Husband gave it a quick shot of silicone spray and that bit of lubricant made it operate like new again. 

Temperature sensor sits inside fridge

Some years ago Great Husband won a door prize at a car show--an indoor-outdoor thermometer intended for reading the outdoor temperature from inside your car. Instead, we mounted the indoor part on the surface of our refrigerator, and the outdoor part (the temperature sensor) inside the refrigerator. With this set-up, we can monitor the refrigerator temperature without opening the door. 

Digital read-out mounted on fridge door

We are glad to have two methods of emptying our tanks, and have been using the stinky slinky for quick dumps, followed later by thorough tank cleaning using the Sewer Solution, which macerates the tank contents without using any electricity. We especially like the back-fill feature of the Sewer Solution, since we can refill the tank with clean water and empty it repeatedly until we're convinced the tank is really clean. Too many dump stations do not have a threaded hose connection as is necessary for the Sewer Solution, but we make sure to find the right hose connection as the last stop before coming home. It's very obvious that the stinky slinky does only a basic job of draining the tanks, and plenty of "black" is left in the black water tank if the stinky slinky is your only method.  http://www.sewersolution.com/

Still loving the Escape 19. It is funny that when I show others the inside, I am most excited to show the bathroom, however small, however humble. 

Great Husband bought a great wax-substitute called RejeX. With it, the dead bugs wash off the front of the trailer so easily! In hindsight, it would have been nice to bring RejeX with us to the Escape factory, and apply some to the front of the Escape before we ever drove away.  http://www.rejex.com/

After more practice, the awning is now a breeze for us to open and close. I bet if we timed ourselves, we'd find it is up or down in 60 seconds. 

We purchased a 7-pack of awning hangers (Camco 42693), meant for hanging party lights from an awning. When the weather is right, we can hang our towels out to dry on the S-hooks included.  

Microfiber towels hang out to dry

Black Hills, South Dakota

Last week we Escaped to the Black Hills, a place we love for its wildlife and natural beauty, meanwhile avoiding the too-touristy towns, the casinos, and the Sturgis motorcycle rally. We have been to the Black Hills four previous times, when camping meant a pop-up full of kids, but we always find something new to discover and favorite activities worth repeating.

Mammoth Site

Mammoth Site, Hot Springs, SD – Here you can see the bones of 60 mammoths right in the dig site where they continue to be uncovered and studied. Great place to visit.

1880s Train

1880s train ride starting in Hill City – What a pleasant two-hour ride to Keystone and back! We sat in an open-air car and enjoyed the view and friendly, low-key narration. 

Mount Rushmore – We always enjoy seeing the four Presidents carved on the mountain. This time we didn't even take pictures.

Relaxing in the family room with "The Scarlet Pimpernel" on the laptop.

Sylvan Lake

Sylvan Lake – Two Ukrainian sisters were working the boat rental, and we took a canoe out on Sylvan Lake for an hour. Near the dock end of the lake, a wedding was underway and we listened in a bit without being intrusive. As I climbed out of the canoe, I was thankful to not fall into the lake in front of the wedding guests.

Black Hills Playhouse – This theater is a gem, presenting several plays each summer. We saw “The Three Musketeers”, an oddly humorous story with elaborate and well-choreographed sword fights.

The Civilian Conservation Corps built this fire watchtower at Harney Peak.

Hike to Harney Peak – This hike is rated moderate, but because of its length (over 7 miles round trip), it was plenty challenging. I could not, however, give up part way, since along the way we met an older man with heart trouble, diabetes, and other ailments, and even he was very steadily going after that mountain. By the way, if our conversations with strangers on the hike are any indication about the upcoming presidential election, Obama is in trouble.

View from Harney Peak

Up close and personal

Wildlife Loop Drive – Even if you didn’t encounter any critters, this would be a stunning drive. But we did encounter critters, including close encounters with bison herds (aka American buffalo), lots of pronghorn, lots of deer, prairie dogs, and one coyote. We recommend going off on one of the back gravel roads rather than staying on the primary wildlife loop.

We're told they are not feeling threatened unless they raise their tails.

Stay in your cars, humans!

And planned for next year – back to Custer State Park for the annual Buffalo Roundup! This takes place the last Monday in September each year. The bison are rounded up by volunteer cowboys and put into corrals, where they can be checked, branded and vaccinated. A month later a large number are sold at auction, and this helps support the park financially. It also reduces the winter bison population to a level that can be sustained by the available grassland. By spring the bison population booms again with the birth of the new calves!