Escape 19 Photos, Bathroom

BTW, the door alone isn't meant to keep water in, so the
camper comes with a shower curtain to cover it.

Escape 19 Storage, Photos Above the Queen Bed

Left side

Right side

Escape 19 Storage, Photos Under Queen Bed

Looking through the outside hatch into the under-bed storage --
This shot is toward the back left corner of the trailer and includes the power cord.

Rotating right to see toward the left side of trailer, including the
water heater in the center and water pump on the right

Rotating further right to see through the open under-bed cabinet doors.
 That's part of the wheel well on the right.

From inside the camper, looking through the open under-bed
cabinet doors toward the outside hatch

Looking from the open under-bed cabinet doors toward the power cord and water heater

Escape 19 Storage, Photos at the Dinette

Above the bench on the left side

Nice open shelf spanning the front of  the camper,
Kleenex, cups, and t.p. are shown just for scale.

Above the bench on the right side

This is the optional extra door going into the storage under the right bench

Same bench showing hinged plywood access panel on the top

Same bench opened up. Here we keep miscellaneous tools
and an electric space heater.

 

Confusing photo looking down inside the other dinette bench.
On the left, that's our portable propane stove sitting on top of the black water tank,
and on the right we have a little crockpot in a box.
The rest is converter and battery charger, so there's not too much storage space here.

Escape 19 Storage, Photos near the Refrigerator

Shallow cabinet under the refrigerator

Standard closet with rod, between refrigerator and bathroom

Escape 19 Storage, Photos of the Kitchen Cabinets

Upper cabinet

Drawers

Full-depth cabinet below the sink

Shallower cabinet near the floor

Homestead National Monument

Cabin of a Nebraska homesteader

For many months Great Husband has been telling me we would one day be going to the Homestead National Monument of America near Beatrice, Nebraska. Oh, yeah? You don’t say! Even though it’s only about two hours from home, I had never heard of the place. He sealed the deal by mentioning that at Homestead National Monument I could acquire another official cancellation in my National Parks Passport, and right here in Nebraska. Well, in that case, let’s go! But let's turn this visit into a camping getaway, not just a day trip.

Homestead National Monument of America
Heritage Center

Folk singer John McCutcheon

We timed our visit for the last three days of an incredible week-long special event at Homestead National Monument, marking the sesquicentennial of the Homestead Act of 1862. 

What a fabulous Escape escape! Just in our time there we were treated to

• chautauqua events with presentations by historical figures Laura Ingalls Wilder, Mark Twain, and Willa Cather
• workshops on such themes as harmonica playing, song-writing, and the rise and fall of the Wild West
• a spectacular outdoor concert by folk singer John McCutcheon, who is also a song writer, storyteller, humorist, guitarist, hammered dulcimer player, fiddler, and “seven-time Grammy loser”
• visits to the Homestead National Monument Heritage Center and Freeman (one-room) School

And all without charge. We even received free harmonicas.

While in Beatrice we enjoyed camping at Chautauqua Park (a city facility), which has concrete pads, full utilities, and no crowding even on Memorial Day Weekend.

A Little Quiz

1. When was the era of the Wild West (cowboys, cattle drives, and lawlessness), which has been so romanticized in movies and television?
2. What invention helped bring an end to the Wild West?
3. What percent of homesteaders “proved up” to gain ownership of the land they settled?
4. Where and when was the last homestead started?
5. Which President signed the Homestead Act?
6. Students at Freeman School studied orthography. What's that?

Willa Cather (Betty Jean Steinshouer) and Mark Twain (Warren Brown)

Quiz Answers

1. 1865-1895
2. barbed wire
3. 40%
4. Alaska, 1987
5. Abraham Lincoln
6. spelling and how letters are combined to make sounds and words

Pollyanna Comes Clean

Lest I give the wrong impression about our Escape 19 with my perhaps Pollyannaish enthusiasm for everything about it, it is only fair to mention that we have encountered some flaws during our first seven weeks with it. Reace is sending us a new valve for the black water tank to replace the original valve which leaked. And Great Husband will be re-gluing a crack which developed between the camper roof and the air conditioning shroud on one side.

The latest few problems were encountered by Great Husband during one of his migraine headaches, so even Pollyanna was feeling the effects. The bathroom door wouldn’t latch until Great Husband folded some paper to make a temporary spacer which moved the receiver slightly closer to the door. Then the caulk around the shower drain didn’t adhere worth beans and lifted off in a complete ring during a wipe-down of the bathroom. Duct tape to the rescue for the moment. And not totally diagnosed yet is leaking water from the kitchen sink drain. In the meantime, a pan is catching the drips in the cabinet below.

Unfortunately for Great Husband, Pollyanna has no fix-it skills. All Pollyanna can do is continue loving the Escape without reservation, so that’s what she does.  

Escape 19 Interior Photos, Part 4

For us, the over-bed storage handles plenty of clothes.
The black panel at upper left is where you monitor your tank levels
and turn the water pump on

The Escape 19 feels spacious inside

Escape 19 Interior Photos, Part 3

We had a custom mattress cover made of Sunbrella fabric 

Sleeping bags and lots of other stuff go into the under-bed storage

There is full-depth storage behind the upper two cabinet doors on the left,
and shallower storage behind the lower two doors on the left

Here is the furnace and shallow storage below the refrigerator

Escape 19 Interior Photos, Part 2

We added the extra window above the sink, and requested the light color of blinds

We chose the standard two-burner range, standard sink, added the optional range cover,
and asked for the extra light instead of the standard range hood

Refrigerator with freezer

We like the curved "airliner" door
and privacy glass in it

Escape 19 Interior Photos, Part 1

Custom formica choices (white for the table and yellow-green for the kitchen)
and custom fabric choices which are from Sunbrella

"The Nook" adjacent to bathroom

We like bright and uncluttered

Added microwave above refrigerator

Fort Kearny State Recreation Area, Nebraska

We decided to stay at Fort Kearny State Recreation Area for one more night in the Escape, even though we were only about three hours from home. Our immediate goal was to delay the end of our vacation a little bit, but this would also be a great place to stay during the migration of the sandhill cranes in the spring, which is special enough to draw people from all over the world.

We were clearly back in farm country. As the evening progressed, a foul wind carried livestock odors into the area, and although the farmers call this “the smell of money,” Great Husband said, “I didn’t want to camp in a feedlot.” To suit him, we nearly decided to pull out and head for home, but instead we first took some time to look at all the photos we had taken during this trip. By the time we had relived our trip this way, the weather had changed, the bad smell had disappeared, and there was an astounding, continuous lightning show in the northwest sky which we watched for two hours or more. We have never seen anything like it! Nebraska may not have mountains, enormous waterfalls, and sequoia trees, but it does have weather.

p.s. Our entire trip turned out to be 5215 miles, and the cheapest gas to be had anywhere was back home in good ol' Nebraska. 

Rocky Mountain Mileage Report

Before buying our 2012 Ford Flex, we went back and forth again and again on whether to go with the Ecoboost turbocharged engine which would have cost about $6000 more than the normally aspirated engine. Our biggest concern was whether we’d need the Ecoboost for pulling the Escape 19 through the Rocky Mountains, particularly getting through the Eisenhower Tunnel at the Continental Divide. Almost any trip west from Nebraska requires passing through the Eisenhower Tunnel to get to “the good stuff.”

As it turns out, we did not cough up the money for the Ecoboost engine and we are thrilled with the performance we got with our first Rocky Mountain tow:

Vail, CO (elevation 8380 feet) to Frisco, CO (elevation 9042 feet) including the climb through the Vail Pass (elevation 10,662 feet) -----16.1 mpg, done at 4250 rpm and 40 mph, which is near peak torque for the engine

Frisco, CO (elevation 9042) to Denver,CO (elevation 5280)-----20.4 mpg, including the climb to the Eisenhower/Johnson Tunnel (elevation 11,138 feet). During the hardest part of the climb, we achieved approximately 8 mpg. at 40 mph. The rest of the drive was typically 60-65 mph.

This is very impressive performance, we think. The Flex transmission has a “grade assist” feature that enhances engine braking on descents, and keeps the transmission in a lower gear during ascents. This worked very well, reducing the need to brake during descents, and reducing the amount of up and down shifting during ascents. The burning brakes we smelled were definitely not ours.

Here is some extra data once beyond the mountains:

Denver to North Platte, NE – 17.5 mpg at 60 mph

North Platte, NE to Kearney, NE – 16.7 mpg at 60 mph

Frisco, Colorado

We have allowed ourselves three driving days to get back home to Nebraska from Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. Great Husband chose a National Forest Service campground at Lake Dillon by Frisco, Colorado for Thursday night’s stay. Alas, the NFS had barred our access with a big gate and Closed sign.

I-70 across Colorado is no-man’s land for RVs. We don’t see any others on the road and there are no campgrounds posted on the service signs along the interstate, either private or public. I’m speculating that in this land of ski-bums and fancy resort towns, perhaps there has been a concerted effort to keep RVs out and expensive condominiums in. Or maybe there just isn’t enough level space to devote to campers.

Knowing that Walmart has a policy of allowing free overnight camping in their parking lots, we accepted that option, and did just our second night of camping outside of a park setting since picking up the Escape 19 three weeks ago. It is lovely to be self-contained and have a little home that accommodates all our worldly needs no matter where we are. Great Husband did not appreciate, however, the loudspeaker announcement at midnight, “We are now closed. Thank you for shopping at Walmart.”

Checking out the historic district in Georgetown, CO,
an old mining town with 200 original buildings still standing

Capitol Reef National Park, Part 2

The next morning we pulled into Capitol Reef again and got a great site in Loop C of Fruita Campground. Our site was adjacent to an apricot orchard, and mule deer were spending a lazy morning resting in the grass. We walked nearby to visit a pioneer house built by Mormon settlers, and there we bought a mixed-berry fruit pie and loaf of olive and spinach bread that may have been the best bread ever.

Orchard at Fruita Campground

We took a beautiful scenic drive in the park, seeing fabulous rock formations unlike any in the previous parks of this trip, including lovely dark browns in horizontal bands that reminded us of chocolate layer cake. Our only hike was ended early with intermittent rain and dramatic thunder. This gave us more time at the campground, where we thoroughly enjoyed meeting fellow campers and giving tours of the Escape 19, especially to owners of other brands of fiberglas campers.

People have also shown a lot of interest in our Ford Flex, a car with which they have no familiarity. Twice we have been chased down in campgrounds by people who caught a glimpse of us going by, thinking we were towing with a Mini Cooper!

Among our new campground friends were Tom and Bonnie, who are full-timers in a 5^th wheel. Tom was a professional bicycle racer, and holds the record for the senior division (over 50) of RAAM  (Ride Across America), going coast to coast (Irvine, CA to Savannah, GA) in 10 days, 6 hours and 14 minutes. Bonnie was an essential part of Tom’s win because she and their son acted as crew. Tom slept only 90 minutes in each 30 hours and needed to consume 12,000 calories a day, much of it liquid. Bonnie said she felt guilty whenever she had to wake Tom up.

Tom and Bonnie were campground hosts in Death Valley National Park for several months, but Tom showed too much independent decision-making spirit there, leading him to humorously call himself “the only campground host in the national parks to ever be fired.”  

Entering Capitol Reef National Park

Scenic Drive

Mountain goats

Sandstone formations

A touch of gold

Chocolate layer cake

Distant mountains looking like a painted backdrop

Capitol Reef National Park, Part 1

First, here is a towing report for the Ford Flex/Escape 19 combination on Utah Highway 12 climbing between Bryce and Capitol Reef. We were going about 45 mph and the engine was working hard, but didn’t feel strained. There were no real difficulties on the grade which peaked at 9600 feet.

We stopped for lunch and internet access in a little town named Torrey not far from Capitol Reef. An older German couple were at a neighboring table and I struck up a conversation with my minimal German. The Germans were in need of a dentist for some sort of emergency and asked me to translate the verb “kleben” but I wasn’t familiar with it. Great Husband got a translation on his lap-top and came up with “to stick.” And away they went, leaving us curious as to just what was sticking or not sticking!

By the time we pulled into Capitol Reef National Park in the mid-afternoon, all camp sites there were full. The camp hosts advised us that we could backtrack a few miles and camp in Fish Lake National Forest for free, just anywhere we decided to put the Escape, since there are no actual sites. This turned out to be a nice opportunity, and it was fun to set up off the beaten path in near isolation. We were surprised by the soft desert sand which had us spinning our tires on the uneven terrain, as snow might at home. It was also a very very windy place, but I loved the quiet time there in the security of the Escape.

Quiet time at Fish Lake National Forest

Off the beaten path