Let's Do the Time Warp Again - Part 3

For Part 1 and Part 2 see the week before this and the week before that.

Part 3

We continue our saga of our most recent trip picking up with our return that night to the campground. I pulled into the pitch black area where our site was moved to and looked for a road that would take us past the least amount of trees and boulders that were put here to make you think you are in a forest to make maneuvering in the dark easier without doing damage to my Roadtrek. With hesitation I slowly went forward and got to the site. Meryl at this point got out with the lantern and guided me into the small pull through site avoiding hazards. Before we had left I had put down our recovered level markers at the tires so that we would find the almost level spot on this site. She found the markers and guided me to them. At least we were in the site without incident.

Now, we were about to actually connect to the power and cable for the first time. We had tested the power box before we left for dinner with the polarity tester and the voltage meter and it tested OK but the box itself was hanging loosely from the post and the power boxes in this section do not use circuit breakers but glass fuses making it necessary to plug into these outlets live rather than the usual way of shutting off the breaker so that you plug into a dead and safe outlet.  We plugged in the Roadtrek wire to the Surge Guard (adding in a Plug Dog) and then cautiously plugged the Surge Guard plug into the broken box. The Surge Guard pulled the box to a forward angle on the post and the plug to the Roadtrek sat on the ground. Not the best but the night was dry. We waited and watched for the Surge Guard to cycle on and it did. We next connected the cable television connection and then we went inside expecting for the television that had a channel scan the night before to be set up when it was turned on. I turned the TV on to find a blank screen. We went back outside to make sure the connection from the Roadtrek to the campground box was good. It was securely connected with our coax cable.

Back inside to check channels. Some were there and some were not. I rescanned and the number of channels found compared to the night before was about half. Apparently, one side of the campground has a different cable connection than this area. Channels came in here but were not clear and the number of channels were half - and much more basic than those we had the night before. My outrage with this campground and what went on with us (see Part 2) went up a notch! We were leaving the next morning so we settled in for the night.

We were up the next morning - Saturday and dressed again in our colonial clothes to go off to Fort Frederick for a second day.  The first day there was to go through the whole fair and see all that was on sale. The second day was to seek out old friends and acquaintances, tour the fort itself, take time to watch the entrainment and just have a good time. We unhooked the Roadtrek and were off - and out of the Yogi Bear Jellystone Campground in Hagerstown, Maryland - not to return again.

At Fort Fred we were had an opportunity to see the French and Indian War era reenactors who were manning the fort march on the forts parade grounds. The fort is only manned this way for special events.

The barracks buildings in the fort are open for tours and you can look into various rooms of officer's quarters, enlisted quarters, and service chambers. There is also a museum that tells the history of the fort to the present on the second floor of one of the barracks buildings.This is there for the public whenever the fort is open, special event or not.

We stayed at Fort Frederick until about 3 pm. We wound up purchasing a piece of ironwork that we say that would be put to good use by our reenacting unit and it was small enough to tuck into the back storage of the Roadtrek. We were heading for our favorite campground in Lancaster, PA but on the way we planned to stop at a restaurant that was a bit out of the way in Thurmont, Maryland.

I had planned the routes for most of this entire trip before we left - as I usually do - since the in-dash Tom Tom GPS can take you through some routes that you really don't want to take with an RV - even with one as small as the Roadtrek. One problem, however, is that once the Tom Tom starts the route there is not always a guarantee that it will follow the route as it looked on the computer screen when planning. As we started out and were approaching Hagerstown heading north we saw that the Tom Tom was not taking us as we expected to go. I will explain in a moment why this is a problem. We pulled off the road to check the route on the GPS. As suspected, it was taking us the shortest and fastest route but it was taking us into Thurmont, Maryland through Cocatin Mountain Park, a national park in Maryland.

Cocatin Mountain Park is the location of Camp David, the President of the United States' retreat. Surrounding Camp David the park is open to the public and a major east/west route goes through the park. We once followed the GPS in a passenger van on this route to the same town of Thurmont and wound up in the middle of Cocatin Mountain Park on a narrow road that twisted and turned around sheer drop offs and went through forests and back to twisting turns around more sheer drop offs. After that harrowing experience I decided that I would avoid that route even if it meant driving more longer.

We looked at the routing in the GPS and then looked on a map and found a much longer in distance routing, but in actual time because it was on limited access roads all the way, the time was within five minutes of the route through and around the mountain. We headed off again with this new route.

The route was uphill a great deal and mileage in the Roadtrek was not great because of it. We made it to Thurmont in plenty of time and had a pleasant ride getting there.

After dinner we headed back out toward Lancaster. The plan for the second part of this trip was to make up for the two missed trips to Lancaster that we had planned but had to cancel due to the storm in October (Sandy) and my illness in December.

Old Mill Stream Campground in Lancaster, PA is where we stay for our frequent trips to Lancaster. We have two spaces that we like at that campground (my secret - sorry) and neither was available for our arrival on this Saturday night when I made reservations for this trip. One of them would be from Sunday on, but the site they told me we would be assigned when I called for reservations seemed fine.

Arriving at this campground after hours is no problem. Often we know our site number and if we don't they always leave a note for us at a box at the office door with the site number on it. We pulled in at almost 10:30 pm.  For the last weekend in April, the campground was pretty crowded. We found our site, which was on the campground's entrance road to the rear of the office and I backed in - as I usually do at this campground. We got out to hook up and discovered that the electric connections were at the wrong side of the Roadtrek. Rather than try to put the wires under the van to the other side, I pulled out and drove forward into the space. The arrangement here of the hookups for this space was unusual but because the campground has rows with spaces that fit two RVs in a T formation, some sites at the end of rows - like this one - wind up with the connections on the opposite side than expected. Our box was next to the box for the trailer parked next to us - who was facing as expected. It was really not a problem but finding a level spot on this site facing in this direction was not easy. We finally came close enough and at least the front was lower than the rear which made the foot of the bed lower than the head of the bed. We hooked up and settled in for the night.

The next morning when we went into the office to pay for our stay - we would be staying here until Tuesday I asked if we could change to one of our "regular" spaces. They were happy to accommodate that and said that we could not move into that other site until after 2 pm when the RV that was in the site was leaving. This was not a problem and we went off to spend a Sunday in Lancaster.

End of Part 3.

I will continue my articles about this trip next week, but rather than Part 4, as we have now left our personal time traveling, I will continue with "Sundays in Lancaster" in the present.

Before I leave you for now I can't resist...

"It's just a jump... to the left... and a step to the righ-igh-ighty- right. Then put your hands on your hips... and bring your knees in tie- i -ight! But it's the pelvic thra- ah- usts, that will nearly drive you
insay-ane-anity-sane. LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN! LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN!!!"








 

Let's Do the Time Warp Again! Part 2

When we awoke in the morning for our first day at Fort Frederick the sun was shining but the temperature was chilled. Getting dressed in the Roadtrek is easy, though the two of you do need to move to opposite ends of the floor and give each other a little room to maneuver. It is not much different getting dressed for the 18th Century but it does take some more room and a lot more staying out of each other's way - plus being able to help each other tie things that are behind you and out of reach. There are long full leg length hose to be put on - requiring a full leg stretch out - for a man this is not an everyday thing. The lady's petticoat (what would be called a skirt today) gets one to be a lot wider in the aisle with the yards of fabric in it. Because of the chilly temperature outside that was not supposed to increase much during the day, a few extra layers went on. On a regular day in the 21st Century getting dressed can take ten minutes. Dressing for the 18th Century can take a half hour - and then we have to go outside and smile at all of the gawking campers in the sites around us, and unhook to be able to leave. Then it is back in the Roadtrek and a rundown of the checklist to make sure all is secured, nothing has been left connected outside, and we are good to go. It was well over 45 minutes all together that we were on our way back to the past. Now the Roadtrek was out time machine!

The route to Fort Frederick from the campground is direct and almost all on an interstate. I programmed the Tom Tom to get us there the most direct way - as the Tom Tom's own routing was taking us through towns and mountain side roads that it decided was faster.

Fort Frederick is a Maryland historic park. During the regular season (this event takes place before the park is fully open for the season) the park has camping facilities for tents and RVs but no hook ups. With this event it is much easier to camp outside the park as most of their property is taken up by those participating at the fair including 18th Century tent camping. Most of the sutlers - those selling their wares - are sleeping in the marquee tent in the back of their selling space. Some have wood stoves inside to keep them warm - as it generally is cold at night during this event. One does not have to be a reenactor to attend this event. Anyone from the public can come. And one does not need to dress in 18th Century clothing - though it is much more fun for those that do. Reenactors are always looking for a place to "play" and an event like this is one great playground.

For this event you park on a large grass field that is quite hilly. The field slopes up and down across it. I have some concern when parking here with the Roadtrek because of the inclines and declines on the grass, unexpected holes, and if it has been raining the entire field turns to a muddy mess with a good chance that the heavy Roadtrek will sink into the mud. (Something I don't even want to think about.) We pulled through the field gate and were directed by boy scouts to a parking space down toward the end of the lot. When we got to the space they directed us to pull into we explained that we had to take up both spaces front and back because of the length of the van - no problem the kid said and he went on to park other vehicles next to us. The people getting out of their cars are mixed in dress - some dressed for the 18th Century, some mixed couples where one is and one isn't, and some dressed in everyday 21st Century clothing. As we were closing up inside the Roadtrek and coming out, there was a family getting out of their car next to us dressed in 21st Century clothes. He looked at me in my tricorn hat, coat, and breeches and said, "Your not what I expected to see coming out of that van!" I just smiled. I thought, "Don't you know that the Roadtrek is also a time machine?" I didn't say it; he would not have gotten it. Off we went to the gate to pay our $5 each admission to a day at an 18th Century Market Fair.

This was Friday. The event starts on Thursday and continues through Sunday. The big crowds come in
on Saturday. The market extends throughout the property and around the fort which you can tour and there is a regiment of French and Indian War British and Colonial Regulars within the fort. For a reenactor of the 18th Century, spending time looking through each sutler's tent, shopping, visiting the fort, watching the entertainment, and having a meal at the food area takes a good two days to do it all. For a casual visitor one day is enough. While we are looking and shopping we are conversing with others of the period - "Good day to you, Sir" (or "Madam") (there is no word "hello" in the 18th Century - it comes in the 19th Century). We look for friends who may also be there. We look for sutlers who we know and catch up. It is a time to spend in a most unusual hobby.

What follows will take up a lot of this article so I will talk a little more about Fort Frederick in Part 3. I will jump now to the end of the day. We stayed at Fort Fred until 5:00 pm when the Fair closes for the day. Back at the Roadtrek, I looked out in front of us at the steep hill down toward the exit path and decided that I was not taking the Roadtrek down that angle concerned with bottoming out. I put the van in reverse and the rear wheels started to spin on the grass on the incline before they grabbed and move us back onto the worn path in the grass that would take us back to the exit road by the way we came in. I was happy that the tires did grab when they did as I could see them digging their way down as they spun. This is one of those places where a four wheel drive Roadtrek would be an advantage - that feature was discontinued a few years back but was always done by a third-party company for Roadtrek - and they will still arrange for you to bring the Roadtrek there yourself if you would like the 4WD or AWD option. It is expensive and not necessary except for the rare occasion. It does not make the Roadtrek into an off-road vehicle.

OK - moving on. We left Fort Fred and headed back to our campground. We arrived at the entrance, pulled through to the section that our site is in, and as we approached our site there was a large trailer in our space. Gone, also was our flag. What?!? I have heard about this happening. I did not think it could happen in a commercial campground where all spaces are accounted for by the campground. We decided that the best thing was go to the office and let them deal with it. There was no sense it confronting the people in the trailer and having a fight. We would let "Ranger Smith" have the fight!

We are still dressed in our colonial clothing. The campground now was getting crowded as people were arriving for the weekend and people were walking around the grounds - mostly on the roads. We made our way in a big circle back to the office, parked, and went inside - in our colonial clothes. "May I help you?", a guy behind the desk asks. "Yes, I am, we arrived yesterday, and there is a trailer in my space." A voice comes out from behind a glass partition on other side of the room. "Oh yes, we can explain that." We moved to where the voice was coming from - and we were both enraged and trying very hard to hold our tempers. The story we got was that when we were moved the afternoon before to a level site we were moved to a site that was reserved. Still holding my temper I said that we were moved to that site by their employee who said he was coming back to the office to put the change into the computer. The response was - oh, we tried to reach you but you were gone. Really, as you read in Part 1, we took a walk for an hour after we were moved to that site and we passed "Ranger Smith" on the road while walking - who did not say anything to us about a problem. There was no response. It now became all matter of fact - well, the space is not yours any longer. You can pick another site out of these five - all of which were in the section in the woods.

"Where is my flag!?!"

"Oh we have that here for you."

"I had markers on the gravel marking where my RV went to be level - where are they!?!" "We have no idea about those - we will have to find out."

I was handed our flag and holder and Meryl was handed a site map with five sites circled. I was waiting for an apology. None came. Then she said that we had a small refund of a few dollars coming because the site we had yesterday that we no longer had today was more money than the site we were being put on. Really? When we made the reservation we were told that the preferred sites were the same as the standard sites - but apparently this only was for Thursday and Friday is considered the weekend. And still no apology. It occurred to me that had this happened someplace like a hotel they would be offering me this night free - lots of luck!

Both of us were fuming.We got back into the Roadrek and headed over to the "woods" where the road was narrow and the boulders and trees lined the edge and the edges of the entrances to the spaces. During the day it was maneuverable, but as I learned last year at this campground, at night in the pitch black it can be a disaster waiting to happen pulling the Roadtrek through.

We made our way to the first site. It was off on an angle with a large rock taking up one full side. I did not even try to pull into it. We went to all five sites. Just as the day before, the sites in this campground are not level - and now not only were they way off front to back but also side to side. we headed around again, and went back into the one that was the least off. I pulled around the space looking for some area that we could be close. I got to one point where it was close side to side and the front was at least lower than the rear and not the other way around. Still furious, I asked Meryl to call the campground that we were going to on Saturday night in Pennsylvania with hope that the site was available tonight. She tried and the office there was closed. This would have to do and when we came back from dinner at night we would have to be extremely cautious getting back to this space.

Now, we are still in our colonial clothes. Meryl headed off down the road to the office to tell them where we are and to find out what happened to our ground level markers. She was gone for a very long time. Cell service was marginal here and I was able to get through to her once, got cut off and she got through to me but could not hear me. Messages did get through. The markers were found by the people in the trailer and they gave them to a passing "ranger" in a golf cart who was on her way to give them to me. At one point they were at the office and Meryl said that they were very nice - and it was not there fault that the campground screwed us over. What made me even madder was that a year ago at this same campground when we arrived to check in there was someone in our space and instead of putting us there - or in an adjacent space moved us to the "woods" where we were now. I have to wonder if a little RV like a Roadtrek gets the same consideration - while paying the same money - as a larger RV. It sometimes does not seem that it does at some campgrounds.

While Meryl was gone, I changed back to my everyday jeans and shirt. She arrived and did the same and we then went outside to check the electric connection for the first time in this space. The electric box was barely connected to the post it sat on. As we opened it to plug the polarity tester to the outlet, it wobbled around. Wonderful! The polarity tested fine and the voltage was within range. We would have to be very careful when we connected the heavy portable Surge Guard to it that night.

The saga of the campground continues and we return to Fort Fred on Saturday. That will continue in Part 3 next week, but before I go I have to tell you what I found when we got home days later. On our answering machine AT HOME, was a message from the Yogi Bear - it was time stamped by our machine on Friday afternoon at about 1:30 pm telling us that they just tried to find us to tell us that someone else had our site reserved and that we should come to the office so that they could move us to another site. Friday afternoon - not Thursday when they claimed to try to find us. And with this message at my home- the answering machine outgoing message that we have at home is clearly not for a cell number - how would I hear it to go to the office - unless I was home!?!

End of Part 2.
Part 3 next week.

Let's Do the Time Warp Again! Part 1

Dewinterized and ready to go, what better first trip of the season than to not only leave home but also the present. Our Roadtrek would be our time machine to take us into the past. We were heading for Fort Frederick in Big Pool, Maryland, an historic fort that saw service in the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, and the home of the annual 18th Century Fort Frederick Market Fair, a  market of reproduction clothing, weapons, gear, and miscellany of the 18th Century all for sale that attracts reenactors from around the US and beyond.

An ordinary trip in the Roadtrek takes us a few days to prepare.While we keep a lot in the Roadtrek that we use daily when we travel, with the first trip of the season we have to make sure that everything that we took out for the winter has been put back inside for the new season. We have been doing that over the course of a few weeks. It involves finding where we stored it and getting it out to the Roadtrek. We also check on things that we left inside to see what needs to be replenished. The day before the trip we spend filling the fresh water tanks, making the bed so it does not have to be made when we get to where we are going, and moving the clothing for the trip out to the Roadtrek's cabinets. For a trip like this - time travel - it means having clothing for two different centuries - 21st Century clothes and 18th Century clothes. And because the weather has been so unsettled this year, we had to prepare for the possibility of cold, warm to hot, or rain and this in two centuries of clothing. As it turns out we had a little of all three weather conditions.

Reservations were made at a campground in Hagerstown, Maryland -the largest city near Big Pool, Maryland - two months before. We were going back to the Yogi Bear Jellystone Campground that we had been to a year ago when we went to Fort Fred. Our reservations were for a "preferred" site which according to the website was the same cost at this time of the year as the "standard" sites. What "preferred" means here is unclear. After the difficulty maneuvering the narrow tree and boulder lined roads in this campground we requested this site area as it is more out in the open. Since there had been a problem last year when we arrived discovering that the space that was supposed to be ours was occupied, I wanted to be sure to get to the campground before the office closed at 7:00 pm. The trip according to our GPS routing would take about 6 and a half hours including a stop for lunch along the way. We started out at about 10:30 in the morning on the Thursday that we left. The time is about right to avoid the traffic on the avenue in front of our house to be able to back the Roadtrek out of the driveway and into the street. Earlier, we would be met with a steady stream of cars.

I have written a lot about our trips leaving Long Island with poor roads, continual construction somewhere on every highway, and the bridge tolls just to get to what is considered the mainland United States. The trip that morning was not too bad. We got off Long Island, crossed Staten Island, and headed into New Jersey to travel to and across Pennsylvania and then south into Maryland. We were going a different way. We were not taking the turnpikes but traveling on Route 78 which crosses PA. It involves riding through hilly and mountainous interstates where most of the other vehicles are large trucks that seem to be in more of a hurry than those on the turnpikes. We have traveled this way several times in our car and often the car is overwhelmed by both the inclines on the roads and the trucks. We would see how our 6.0 L V8 Chevy engine in our Roadtrek would fare on this route up against the 18 wheelers.

The Roadtrek handled the hills and mountains nicely. It never hesitated and had the power to keep up with and at times even pass the trucks. The trucks seem to command this route. Often traveling in pairs they do not hesitate to come up very close behind and also cut into the lane in front of you. During this trip we not only encountered trucks like this but also a several motorcycles whose drivers seemed to know no fear and foolishly road next to the Roadtrek in the blindspot and one tried to pass just too close for his own safety. It was a little unnerving as I had not encountered this in the Roadtrek before.

We arrived at the campground at about 5:30 that afternoon. I am going to write about the campground in its own review article so if you read this tale here and then that article you will hear the same story told twice - and I am doing that because the story of what took place over the next two days at this campground needs to be seen by anyone considering staying at this campground. I do not intend to stay there again. So - we arrived at the campground, went into the office and were told where I site was and that one of the "Rangers" would take us there - just follow his golf cart. Fine. This is Yogi Bear land and "Ranger Smith" the park ranger character in the cartoons is who is taking you to your campsite. We followed the golf cart to the "preferred" sites. We arrived at the site. He showed us the hook up connections and then was off.

I was on the long gravel site that was large enough to accommodate a Class A and most of the other RVs that were there were large trailers or Class As. I started to move the Roadtrek around the site to find a spot to stop that was level or at least very close to level. (Level sites are advertised here - and for the price paid that should be a given.) Well, I pulled all over that site and with the side of the Roadtrek with its connections on the side of the space with the electric box and hookups, the space was on an incline. I did not need the levels on my dashboard and my door to tell me that the front of the Roadtrek was pointing up. The space was a pull through and the front of the space was higher than the road in front of it while the rear of the space was higher than the road behind. OK. We would get out the leveling blocks.The space actually was near level side to side.

I carry a set of Linx leveler blocks. These look like very large, square "Lego" blocks.  I will do an article just on leveling the Roadtrek so I will not go into the mechanics of this here. Meryl went into the outside cabinet of the Roadtrek and pullout two blocks from the bag they come in. We put one in front of each rear wheel and I backed the rear tires up onto the blocks. I looked at the front back level and the bubble was still all the way forward as far as it can go. Putting the tires up two blocks high requires the assembly of a three block unit. We did that and there was no difference. The position of the bubble was still all the way at the front end of the level. Three blocks high requires an assembly of 6 blocks under each of the two tires and the set of leveling blocks only comes with ten blocks so three blocks was out of the question. I was not going to sleep with my head lower than my feet and it was not comfortable inside the Roadtrek up at this angle. This space would not do. I looked around at the other RVs and since larger RVs and trailers have built in leveling systems, they were using those PLUS several blocks of wood to raise them even higher to get level. I could not see any difference in the spaces around me. Meryl said to stay with the Roadtrek and she would walk back to the office and tell them that we need another space.

She was gone for about fifteen minutes when "Ranger Smith" came driving up in his golf cart to take me to a "level" spot. He pointed at one in the row behind us. I moved the Roadtrek there and that space was not only equally off front to back but also side to side. He pointed to another - same thing. And another back in the row we started in - same thing. I tried five spaces until we found one that was very close to level and good enough. Meryl had just arrived back when I tried that site. Fine. He told us that he would go back to the office and have them register the change of our space to this new one and that we should change the number on the hang tag that is required to be on the rear view mirror when in the campground. We then went though our usual routine and checked the electric box that we would be hooking up to for polarity and also voltage. The polarity was fine and the voltage was in range. The electric box was much newer than the box that was in the space we were given the year before - this one had circuit breakers just like all of the other electric boxes I have hooked up to except for here - the space last year had glass fuses - so when you hook up the outlet is live, rather than plugging into an outlet that is off and then clicking on the circuit breaker to make it live which is much safer!

OK - we were settled.  We then put out my level markers on the gravel at the tires to tell me where to pull back to when we came back to the site after leaving to go out for dinner or coming back the next day after our day at Fort Fred. One last thing was something new. On our last trip last September we bought a small wrought iron banner/flag holder that is made to stake into a garden or grass lawn.
We saw them put out at sites at campgrounds and thought that it would be a nice way to mark the space as ours. We bought a banner with a primitive colonial flag to go on it. We put the flag on the bar of the holder and staked it into the grass at our space.

It was too early to eat dinner so we headed off on foot for a walk around this end of the campground. We walked for about an hour and along the way we passed "Ranger Smith" in his golf cart who waved to us. After that we got into the Roadtrek and drove off to Hagerstown for dinner.

When we returned that night we hooked up - using our Surge Guard power/surge protector - to the electric box and hooked up the cable TV connection on the Roadtrek to the cable connection on the side of the power box. It was a cold night and I turned on the propane in anticipation of needing hot water - a very rare thing for us, as usually it is so hot outside when we are traveling that the water from the tanks is hot on its own - and to use the furnace if it dropped below 40 degrees F during the night as the heat pump does not work when it is that cold. We then settled in for the night, happy to discover that a few of the unusual channels with vintage TV shows from the fifties and sixties that we enjoy at home were on this cable setup. Nice. We had a very pleasant night in anticipation of driving the Roadtrek in the morning in our colonial clothes back in time to the 18th Century at Fort Frederick.

End of Part 1.
Part 2 Next Week.

A Roadtrek Can Go Anywhere - Almost...

To be fair this is not just about Roadtreks but motorhomes in general. One of the things that is attractive about a Roadtrek is that it can be parked in any surface parking lot. It drives the same as any van so it can go on almost any road. You can go anywhere in a Roadtrek. This is true - but what happens when you get there?

That is what I have been encountering planning trips now that we are comfortable enough in our Roadtrek to head off to more of the places that we have always liked to go and new places as well. Here are some examples.

In the city of Richmond, Virginia there is a museum called the Museum of the Confederacy and next door to that museum is a building named, "The White House of the Confederacy" which was the home and office of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy. Parking for this museum is either on a busy Richmond street or in a tiered parking lot at the hospital next door. When we had visited these museums years ago, we parked our car on an upper floor of the hospital parking lot. I have been thinking that these museums would be nice to return to. Exhibits have changed and we enjoyed these sites when we were there years back. I contacted the Museum of the Confederacy to ask about parking a vehicle that required a height clearance of 8 feet 9 inches. I got a prompt response back that it would not be possible to park in the hospital garage because of the height of the vehicle. I was told that there is valet parking at the hospital and they could possibly park the van outside. I thought to myself when I read this that there was no way that I would have a valet come into the Roadtrek to take it somewhere to park it and hand over the keys with all of our belongings and valuables inside. So this was out of the question. There was still street parking but it was unlikely that spaces would be available. So, there was no way to visit these museums with the Roadtrek.

I encountered this even greater in a more significant destination - Washington, D.C., our nation's capital and one of the most visited destinations in the United States. There are few campgrounds around Washington, D.C.. The most popular one is some distance outside of Washington in College Point, Maryland. If you ask on the RV forums where to stay if you go to Washington, D.C. with your RV, the just about everyone will tell you Cherry Hill Campground. Now, for most people this campground is ideal as it has a metro bus stop on site at which a bus comes hourly and will take you to the nearest metro train station to travel into Washington, D.C. The bus ride is about a half hour. The metro ride is also about a half hour. But it is possible to leave your RV safely at the campground and go to see D.C. About a year ago, we saw representatives from Cherry Hill Campground at the Hershey, PA big RV show. Meryl went over to talk to them about alternatives to the bus. I have a problem. Since I was very young, I experience motion sickness. If I am driving I am fine. If Meryl is driving, I can - sometimes - tolerate the trip. But more often than not, I cannot. I have to drive - and there is no way, of course, that I can drive the bus. So, I have a problem. This is my problem and has nothing to do with the Roadtrek - but I know I am not the only one with this problem. Meryl asked what can be done to avoid the bus. She was told by the people from the campground that on weekends the metro parking lot was free and would have many spaces available. All that would be necessary would be to take the train - which I can manage, though a half hour ride is about my limit. Fine. We could go to Washington, D.C. and I very much would like to go back to Washington, D.C.. It is my most favorite city for things to see and do. I actually made reservations for three days in Washington at Cherry Hill Campground for this summer.

Waiting for the trip, I started to check out the metro parking lot and getting information necessary to take the train. I stumbled upon a reference to the safety of parking in this parking lot. There were many comments about how it was not a good place to leave a vehicle especially on a weekend and that there was no security. Vehicles were broken into and stolen. Oh boy!. I contacted Cherry Hill Campground and asked them directly if it was safe to park in that lot for the day with the Roadtrek. I got back an answer that said, "No, do not park there due to security issues." That was that. I could not risk losing the Roadtrek. No trip was worth that. I cancelled my reservations at the campground the next day. Again, this is my problem and not due to the Roadtrek - but it is another place I am not going with the Roadtrek. Looking at other campgrounds which are further away in Virginia, the metro parking lots were all garage parking with the exception of one that again, posed security risk.

It is not just these places. I looked North to visit Boston. I have not been to Boston for many, many years - it got too expensive to stay in hotels there. The nearest campground is miles away up to the northwest of the city near Lexington and Concord. To get to Boston from the campground you can either find a commuter train and take that to the city or you can drive into the city but as far as I was able to find there is only one outdoor parking lot in the city and that is at the expo center which has parking available only when there is no events taking place. For the time being, we have crossed Boston off the list.

Then there is the lack of campgrounds in areas that one would figure are prime places for campgrounds. I am continually surprised to look at a site that I would like to visit and then look for a campground to stay in to go there - and find nothing at all. Evidently, camping and campgrounds are few and far between in some areas - and plentiful in others.

So, not to be discouraging, there are plenty of places to go and see in your Roadtrek - but don't be surprised that if you look to visit an attraction, you may not find a way to do so with your RV.

Of course, there is a solution. It is possible to tow a small car behind the Roadtrek and this resolves all of these problems. Maybe, someday, we will.

Fort Frederick, Big Pool, Maryland

The purpose of our trip to Maryland was to attend an 18th Century Market Fair. This is an event where vendors of clothing, supplies, accessories, flintlock guns, and more gather in tents to sell to living history reenactors and anyone interested in colonial history. The Market Fair takes place annually on the last weekend in April from Thursday through Sunday and it takes place at Fort Frederick - a Maryland state park that features an original, though restored, military stone fort built in 1756 to protect the area from Indians (sorry, Native Americans) and the fort played an important role in the French and Indian War, was a prison for British soldiers during the Revolutionary War, and was an outpost for Union troops to guard the C & O canal. The fort has seen a lot of history and the fort stands today as it was during the French and Indian War complete, restored, and furnished.

The Market Fair juries the participants who are selling and also camping in period correct 18th Century camps. Only the top vendors are permitted to sell and they must prove documentation for the items that they are selling showing that they are period correct to the time period that this market represents. As a result this market fair draws vendors and visitors from all over the United States. It is considered one of the largest such market fairs in the United States. Fort Frederick is located in Big Pool, Maryland which is northeast of Hagerstown, where we stayed at the campground. It would have been possible as reenactors to camp on the site in period tents or in our Roadtrek but while the park does have RV camp sites during season, there are no hook ups, no dump station, and only water available. Other visitors would not be permitted to camp on site during the Market Fair, but if you come during the summer months when there is not an event taking place at Fort Frederick you can RV or tent camp there (again, no hookups).

Many visitors who are reenactors come dressed in their period clothing and go around the market fair shopping and visiting. Colonial clothing is not required for visitors as you can see in the photo above, but it makes the fair just so much more fun. Renenactors are always looking for a place to "play" and this makes for a very nice "playground". At the market fair there is 18th Century entertainment - musicians and an 18th Century magician. There is also food sold by two local civic groups - and the pork barbecue was just wonderful!

We went for two days - Friday and Saturday. We went, of course, in our reproduction colonial clothing - most of which Meryl has made for the two of us over the years that we have been in the "hobby". (We both belong to an 18th Century Revolutionary War unit.)

It is a large site and there are many, many vendors. We saw only part of the vendors on Friday. We came back Saturday to see the rest and revisit with some that had things that caught our eye. We also visited the actual fort on Saturday, which has been further furnished in its buildings since we had been here last about three years ago - pre-Roadtrek. If you are a renenactor it is possible to spend a lot of money here. We restrained ourselves and made just a few purchases, but of course, you see this and that of things that you will not see anywhere else, and somethings you just cannot resist. Meryl has become very knowledgeable in 18th Century embroidery and samplers. (I would go so far as to say that she has become an expert - and she has been published in a national embroidery magazine with an article that she wrote on Jacobean embroidery.) She demonstrates this at living history events. So, when she saw books that she does not already have in her library on samplers and period embroidery, they were not to be passed up. I found a few things to amuse myself as well. Some of those who sell are craftspeople who make the reproductions that they sell and this includes furniture, clothing, leatherwork, firearms, knives, ironwork, and horn work. The craftsmanship is of the highest quality. And if you see something that you cannot afford that is handmade, if you keep looking from tent to tent you are likely to find a less expensive, similar reproduction of lesser quality but just as utilitarian. As a renenactor you put all of this to actual use. Nothing is just a prop. You carry a flintlock - you use the flintlock. You carry a knife or tomahawk, you use the knife or tomahawk. When you shop at an event like this you are looking for things that will hold up to day to day use - and they have to be authentic and documented in their reproduction.

Needless to say, we had fun! If anyone is interested in history, they will have a good time here too. Admission for the day is just five dollars. Parking is in a large, open grass field. I had some apprehension about driving the Roadtrek with its low ground clearance onto this field as I know from the past that there are dips in the ground - and if it has been raining - it can get very muddy. The brief rain did not bring any mud. There was a forecast for showers on Saturday but they did not come - happily. There had been brief rain a few days before the event. People who attend this event regularly will tell you that there are three things that you can count on when you go to the Fort Frederick Market Fair - it will be cold, it will be very hot, and it will rain. This year, there really was no significant rain - though the forecasts kept predicting it. There was cold - in fact it got very cold - and if you are in a tent on the site - you know just how that cold can feel (as opposed to inside the Roadtrek with the heat pump or furnace going. On Sunday after we left temperatures here dropped down into the 30's during the day. What the weather did not do was get hot. It has gone from freezing in the mornings here to 90 in the afternoon. The lack of heat was actually a very pleasant change as we were able to walk around comfortably.






If you go to Fort Frederick at any time that it is open you will be able to tour the fort. The fort consists of stone walls that enclose the fort with points at each corner for artillery. What you see here is the path leading to the entrance of the fort.










Here you see the entrance to the fort from the inside. You can see one of the large wood doors that secured the fort.















A view of the fort barracks and the stone walls. This is the enlisted men's building.

The three photos that follow are enlisted men's quarters. Note, the red uniforms. This is a British Colonial fort in the French and Indian War. At this time we all wore red uniforms and would have been fighting alongside the British against the French and the Indians.

During the Market Fair, there is a French and Indian War renenacting unit occupying the fort and living overnight in these rooms.

On the opposite side of the parade ground is another building - built to mirror the one above. In the 18th Century architecture is all about symmetry. The top floor of this building is a museum that tells the story of the fort from when it was built through its restoration.

The photos that follow show Officer's quarters, work areas, and storage rooms.

As you can see, even when the Market Fair is not taking place, Fort Frederick is a great historic site to visit and a unique opportunity to see a fully restored fort of the French and Indian War era.

This is a link to the historic site of Fort Frederick. Here is a link to the Fort Frederick Market Fair.

Yogi Bear Jellystone Park Camp-Resort, Hagerstown, Maryland

The Yogi Bear Campground is listed as the Hagerstown Yogi Bear Jellystone Park Campground is listed as being in Hagerstown, Maryland but it is actually located in Williamsport, Maryland which is southwest from the city of Hagerstown. We stayed here for three days and two nights on our recent trip to Maryland.

There are two campgrounds in this area to choose from. One is this Yogi Bear campground and the other is a KOA campground. I did some research and made some inquiries about the two campgrounds. I decided upon the Yogi Bear because reviews of the KOA kept mentioning the narrow entrance road that road along the edge of a river with several cautions about going off the side. The reviews of Yogi were mixed, but decided that as we would be coming back from our day activities late at night, I wanted to be sure of the road that I would have to take coming into the campground in the dark.

The purpose of this trip was to attend a colonial market fair held at Fort Frederick historic park in Big Pool, Maryland which is located northwest of Hagerstown. I may not have mentioned this before in my articles but Meryl and I are Revolutionary War living history reenactors. The event at Fort Frederick is one that many reenactors attend in 18th Century clothing and this is how we would be attending. One of the things that I have always heard about Yogi Bear Campgrounds is that they require all who stay to wear wristbands showing that they are registered - and from what I could learn about this particular campground, they are very strict about enforcing this rule. There was no way that we could attend this event with adhesive wristbands on our wrists. When we made the reservation, we explained this and we were told that arrangements would be made so that we would not have to wear the wristbands but we must have them with us at all times when we were on the property. Fine.

Finding this campground is a bit tricky when routing by GPS. The address that is given to route to this campground brings you to the correct location, but the GPS was determined to route you there in such a way that it involved a road that did not exist. It was necessary to find the road with the actual entrance and mark a waypoint on the route to get you to that point on roads that do exist.

I decided that it would be best to arrive at this campground for the first time during daylight and we left Pennsylvania for the two hour and fifteen minute ride so that we would come in to the campground around 4 pm. My tweak of the GPS route got us to the entrance. The entrance is very hard to see as it is tucked back from the road in the woods. There is a sign but the sign is also offset from the road and it comes up very quickly at a point at which there appears to be nothing there. Once into the drive and though the trees on a narrow one way entrance road (there is another exit road parallel), you are greeted by a large Yogi Bear, much like the photo above. (The photo is of the Yogi at entrance of their miniature golf course.) You then proceed down a long poorly paved road that is full of potholes. Avoiding these potholes is not easy - and there are some that you cannot avoid. As you continue weaving around the potholes you come to a building which houses their registration office. There is a sign to park along the side of the road and as we arrived there was a large Class A with a car towed behind it in front of us. If we parked behind it we would block the entrance so we waited awhile until the Class A driver came out and moved their RV. Time went on when we decided to just leave the Roadtrek on the side behind the Class A and go inside.

Registration was easy. The people behind the desk were very nice and welcoming. Next to us was the Class A driver and she was there without reservations and they were finding a site for her. We were told what our space was, given a packet of materials explaining the campground, and also were told about the special event that was taking place on Friday and Saturday - Mardi Gras Weekend. We would be there Friday. We had no intention of going to the Mardi Gras activities as we had our own plans for the day and night. Then we were handed our armbands. We explained what we had explained when we made the reservations and were told that this would be no problem as long as we had them with us. We were also given a sign to put on our windshield while we were in the campground. The reservations were paid for in advance in full - which was the only way they would make the reservation.

You don't just drive to your space here - you are escorted by a "ranger". We were met outside by a "ranger" driving a golf cart and he told us to follow him. When we made the reservation we were told that the standard RV site and the premium RV site would be the same price and we were given the "premium" site. We followed the "ranger" down a narrow dirt/gravel/paved road - again full of potholes. We came out of the woods into an open area with large RV sites - much larger than the Roadtrek. This was where our site was to be. But the "ranger" stopped and we could see him talking into his walkie-talkie. Something was obviously wrong. We waited a few minutes and then got out to find out what was going on. It seems that a large trailer was in the space that we were assigned. Suddenly, the Class A that had been in front of us came up behind on the road we were on with a "ranger" in a golf cart leading her. Our "ranger" told us we had to pull to the side of the road and he did the same. He directed us into a cut in the side of the road. The Class A pulled into the site that was next to the one that we were supposed to be in. Apparently, the trailer was not scheduled to be there that day and was supposed to have left that morning. Obviously, it did not. Our luck. There was a lot of chatter with the main office over the walkie-talkie and the manager was to be coming to decide where to put us. There appeared to be a lot of open spaces right there, but this was Thursday and perhaps there would be a big crowd arriving Friday for "Mardi Gras". OK. We were told to turn around and follow the "ranger".

I wish it was just that easy. The cut that we were directed into posed no problem for a golf cart as he could just swing right out and move in the direction from which we had come. The Roadtrek had no room to go forward and turn around. A u-turn was required. I pulled out, pulled forward, and then started pulling back to back into that same cut so that I could turn in the direction that we now needed to go in. Surrounding this cut were trees and boulder sized rocks along the edges and sides. As I backed up with the limited visibility of the Roadtrek to the rear and the angle of the backup camera, it appeared that I was clear until I heard the thud of what had to be my hitting one of the boulders. My heart sank and I had some unpleasant thoughts about Yogi Bear. There was nothing that I could do at that point - and we had to follow the "ranger" to our new site. We drove back along the road that we had come down on and back into the woods. We followed the "ranger" to sites that were surrounded by trees - and large rocks. This was not at all like the "premier" area that was wide open. This was literally in the woods. We were directed into a short pull through site. There were trailers all around us in the sites that were occupied. It took a sharp turn to avoid a large rock to get into the space. Once in the space I moved the RV around to see how level the space would be and did find a spot that was just about level in both directions - I did not find that spot again no matter how hard I tried for the rest of the stay.

The "ranger" checked that the water faucet was working. It was. The "ranger", who by the way was very nice, waved goodbye and was off. I looked at the back of the Roadtrek to see what damage I had done when I hit the rock. I could not see anything on the bumper and I suspect that I hit the van exhaust pipe. I hope that was it because there are a lot of things that hang down under the Roadtrek and if I had hit the generator I would have ruined it. The first thing that we do when we arrive at a campsite is check the electric service at the power post. This was the most unusual power post that we have come to so far and probably is not uncommon. This was a 30 amp site - no more "premium" site - on the map this was marked "standard". There was a 30 amp outlet and a 20 amp outlet. There were no circuit breakers - so far at each campground that we have been to there have been circuit breakers. It appeared that there were fuses. It did not look like Yogi had updated the power posts in some time. The box was also close to the ground and we could see that our power protector when plugged in first would be on the ground - which should not be a problem though there was a forecast for rain - when we eventually actually hooked up the power we set the Surge Guard on one of the large rocks that was in front of the electric box. The power tested correctly and that is what is important.

We decided that since it was just barely 5 pm we would take in the sites of Jellystone Park. The Yogi Bear campgrounds present themselves as resorts - and charge extra for this in the way of a required $4 per person fee per day in addition to the site fee. As we were really here off season, and we were leaving on Saturday - the start of the weekend - we did not have to pay this fee. During the summer and "in season", the fee is applied every day. We were curious to see what it was we could have been paying for. Of course, the theme is Yogi Bear and everything is geared toward that theme and to families with children. There is a large water slide, pictured here. This slide goes into the swimming pool which, by the way, at the end of April while we were here is closed. The swimming pool was large and looked to be very nice when it is open. Walking down the road to get to the slide and swimming pole we passed Yogi's miniature golf course, a playground, and an outdoor movie theater.






















As we walked through the campground we were passed by "rangers" in golf carts. Each would wave and say hello as they went by. Again, the staff was very nice here. We saw a sign for "Cindy Bear's Go Carts". We followed the sign into another area of the campground and did not find the go cart track - it is on the map. As we were heading back, we passed this little mining town building with a slouse gate and a place to pan for "real" gold. This was not open but there was a sign that there is a charge to pan for gold. Everything else that we saw including a building with laser tag seemed to be included with the stay.

As we were walking back to our site, we decided to see if there was access to the road in front of our site so that we could come around the next time we came in and back in, avoiding the rocks and trees. We followed one road and then another and did find that the roads looped around - be it through trees and more boulders but they did come around and would lead to the front of our site. What we did not notice at the time was the lack of any road lighting along any of the roads.

This photo is just an example of the terrain that makes up this campground.

Actually this is mild compared to what some of the terrain and roads are like here. Yes, it is Jellystone Park, home of Yogi Bear and bears live in the woods. I did not imagine that the theme was taken so literally. During the day, it is not much of a problem. You can see the holes in the road. You can see the mud. You can see the large rocks. You can see the trees. Come back at night and the campground is pitch black. The only lights come from a few cabins scattered through the campground areas and whatever lights are coming from RVs and trailers. You can no longer see the road. You can no longer see the rocks. You can no longer see the trees - until you are too close.

Coming back to the campground that night we missed the entrance to the campground off the road. As I said, it is set back and guess what - no lighting. So we drove about a mile down the road until we came to a cross road and luckily, it was possible to make a u-turn, as there were no cars coming down that road. This is not a deserted area. There are houses scattered along.

We got back to the entrance and drove very slowly until we found it and pulled into the dark entrance road and realized just how much of an obstacle course getting in and out of here on these poorly paved, potholed roads is. And to make it worse - no lights other than your headlights. We had scouted out this other way to get to our site and decided that we would try it. We thought we knew how to go. We headed down the road that we were sure it was and it got even darker and we were surrounded by trees. I had Meryl get out with the walkie-talkie to walk on front and guide me through. We crawled along and came to what appeared to be a road climbing a hill into darkness. No way was I going down that road. I gingerly backed up to another road that we had just passed that appeared just to go into the darkness of the woods. I do not know how large Class A's or trailers come through these roads. I looked at the turn I had to make between two very large trees and several boulders and I was certain that there was no way I could get through without scraping up the side of the Roadtrek against one of these trees. I had a very agitated discussion with Meryl about getting me through this small turn and she guided me in. We pulled down that road and could see that we would connect to the road that led into our campsite. We got there and backed in.

It was easier to get into the space this way, but it put us in a position on the gravel on the site that we were at a different angle than we had been in that afternoon. I backed up and to the side and forward again looking for an almost level spot. I knew there was one here somewhere. I could not find it. I settled for a spot that was close to level but actually off to the front. I would rather have my head up in bed than my feet. Side to side was a compromise as well. With the precarious ride to get to the site and the time it took to get level enough to be comfortable, it was getting late - and we had a big day ahead of us on Friday. We got out and hooked up, went back inside and settled in.

Wifi service was fair but adequate. Cable television was very good. There was a large number of good cable channels and many came in in both HD digital and analog. We have yet to be in a campground other than this one where the cable signal is digital and this is because of the conversion of cable companies and satellite to digital and the campground converts the signal back to analog to avoid needing a special box to tune in the channels, like the set top box you have at home from the cable company. Without the conversion by the campground every RV would need a box specific to that provider company.

While we had been walking around that afternoon we checked out the restrooms and shower facilities. They were all clean but were dated. There did not look like there had been any change in them since they were put up, though the men's room did have waterless urinals which is a recent thing.

The next morning we dressed in our colonial clothes, got outside at the site and unhooked the cable and the electricity. We must have looked like we were ready for the Mardi Gras and we attracted the looks a several campers and children. We headed off for Fort Frederick.

When we returned that night we took the easy way to the back of the space and pulled through just being careful of the trees and the rocks. We got into the space and went through the dance of finding a not level but suitable place to stop. The next morning again, we dressed in our colonial clothes, got out to unhook, got more stares and got back in and left Yogi Bear Campground heading once again to Fort Frederick, from which we would leave that evening to head back to Pennsylvania.

Now, will we come back to Yogi Bear next year when we return to this same annual event at Fort Frederick. At this point, I will say probably. The rate was reasonable. The location for where we needed to go was fine. I did not like the condition of the roads in the campground - for a so-called resort with extra fees, things should be in much, much better repair. The entire campground of roads needs re-paving and the road in and the road out is treacherous and terrible. It would be easy to miss avoiding a large hole - and there were some very large holes and do a lot of damage to your axle or your under-carriage. I suppose people like feeling that they are in the woods. I would rather this be not quite so woodsy and that there were at least a few street lamps on the roads in the campground. Anyone walking at night takes their life into their hands. There was also a problem with campers' dogs not on leashes. We saw several and encountered one pooch that ran off from its owner who was at the side of their trailer and decided to chase us. I have little problem with dogs - as long as they are small - but Meryl is frightened of dogs and always has been. This one was yapping and snapping at our legs. The owner called the dog - lots of luck if this dog cared. He eventually came over and got him - too late though for Meryl who was trying hard to just get away from there. There is supposed to be a rule here to keep pets on a leash but this was not enforced.

I am not sure where else I would stay in this area. We did not have an opportunity to see the KOA campground though we did see a sign on the Interstate for the exit to take to get to it. Aware of what I am now aware of and what to look out for when coming into the campground at night, I would likely come back.

Not far from this campground is Antietam Battlefield of the Civil War (also called Sharpsburg depending upon which side you are from North or South). It is an excellent place to visit and I have been there many times in the past before our Roadtrek days. We will likely go back again. This is also a good location to visit Harper's Ferry National Park in West Virginia which is very close by. So there may be reason for you to be visiting this area - other than Fort Frederick which is a musuem and has a real 18th Century military fort to tour besides the events that take place there. If you decide to visit here, and come to stay with Yogi, you have the whole story now. There is a Walmart in Hagerstown and a Pilot Truck Stop that both allow overnight parking of RVs if you would like to stay without a hookup.

Off on Our First Trip of the Season

I always have a little apprehension before taking a trip - even before the Roadtrek, but with the Roadtrek I start wondering before a trip what will go wrong on this one. Last season we encountered some of the strangest weather - a snow storm in October, a hurricane, and an earthquake all on trips in our Roadtrek. Of course, the Roadtrek had nothing to do with the weather, but you do feel a little more vulnerable out in an RV when the weather starts to go bad than you do in a hotel room. Well, anyway, we planned a trip to Maryland at the end of April to attend a living history event at Fort Frederick in the town of Big Pool, Maryland. There will be an article all about the event in the near future.

When we ended our last trip of the season in 2011, we had a problem - or perhaps I should say - the nonoccurrence of a problem with our grey water tank valve. The grey water tank is the tank that holds sink and shower drain water. This is different from the black water tank which is the tank that holds waste and water from the toilet. The problem with the valve was that the pull handle that works the valve would not push in to close the valve. This resulted in the grey water mixing in with the black water when the black water tank was dumped. This is not a good thing and it had been fixed last Fall for the same problem at dealer/service. Not a month after the repaid the same problem reoccurred. I contacted them back at that time and we agreed that in the Spring we would be back to have this fixed - and this time I would like a new valve installed. There were no promises about a new valve, but they would repair the problem. Planning this trip in April, we would make a first day stop in Pennsylvania to take the Roadtrek to dealer service. While it was there, we would have them change the oil in the generator which needs to be changed after the first twenty hours of use. We would be heading after that to Maryland but decided that as we did not know how late it would be in the day before the Roadtrek would be ready - and if there was any problem that we needed to come back the next day - we better stay that night in Pennsylvania. We made a one night reservation at Old Mill Stream Campground in Lancaster, PA. From there we would be going to Hagerstown, Maryland to the Yogi Bear Campground. Reservations were made weeks before, even though it is early in the season. We would stay two nights in Maryland and come back to Lancaster on the way home rather than drive through - which we could have done, but we were in no hurry.

Traffic, of course, is impossible and we were delayed getting off Long Island, in New Jersey and in Pennsylvania. We arrived at dealer service in a little over three hours. They took the Roadtrek right in for service and we spent the next two and and a half hours walking around the small shopping center that is about a quarter mile away. When we got back to pick it up, we were told that the valve did not need replacing but that the long metal wire that attaches to the handle on one side and works the valve on the other needed to be shortened, stopped from slipping, and tightened down. I have to share that I have my doubts that this will be the last of the problem.

We then headed off to Lancaster. We stopped for dinner along the way, and eventually arrived and settled in at the campground. The space that we were assigned was told to us on a note left on the campground office mailbox. It was not a space that we have been in or near before and we followed the campground map to find the space. We got to where the space should be and Meryl got out to locate it, while I remained in the lane for directions as to where to back in. She came back perplexed saying that she could not find the space. I looked at the map and was pretty sure that we were sitting right in front of the space. At this campground the space numbers are marked on the electric hookup posts. I got out and walked over to what should be the space. There was the number on the back of the post. We pulled in and within a relatively short time found a spot on the gravel that was almost level. That was it for the night. We got out, hooked up the electric power cord and cable connection, and we were set for the night. We had filled our two fresh water tanks before we left so we had no need to connect to water.

One of the things that I got to play with on this trip is a new toy - a small Android tablet that has a five inch screen. It connects right up to the wifi signal at the campground and I can surf the web, read email, write articles, and so on. It worked great, though I did discover that writing anything of substance on a little screen keyboard is not ideal. The solution to that is a bluetooth keyboard that will connect wirelessly to the tablet and I quickly decided that one would be purchased when we got home.

Sleeping in the Roadtrek has become very comfortable. We got a good nights sleep. We slept late since we would only be traveling that day to Maryland. We stopped in Pennsylvania in a few of the places that we like to waste time at and we were off to Maryland. (If I detail those places, I will be telling you about these same places over and over again. If you look back at July 2011, you will see some of the places we went back to on this short trip.)

I wanted to arrive in Maryland in the daylight. We have been to Hagerstown many times in the past but never in an RV and never camping. The campground is actually located in Williamsport which is just outside of Hagerstown and is off on country roads. Even the GPS was having trouble locating the actual entrance and the route to get to it. The trip from Lancaster is about two hours and fifteen minutes. We arrived about 4:00 pm. I will write all about this Yogi Bear Campground in another article. Let's just say it was an experience!

The week before we left on this trip the weather had been wonderful. The temperatures were in the 70's! The second night in Maryland I started my little Android tablet, connected to the campground wifi, and got a weather alert on the screen for our location. There was a freeze warning over night. Temperatures would drop during the night to sub-freezing temperatures! How exciting! We had the heat pump on during the night and while it only works to about 40 degrees F, it kept us warm through the night. It did not start blowing cold - as it will when the temperature drops below 40 - so the actual temperatures where we were must have remained at around 40. All along the weather reports for that next day were that it would be "warmer". It was not.

I am going to skip over all of what we did in Maryland and bring us all back to Lancaster for the return trip heading home. Again, Maryland will be in two coming articles. We left Maryland on the late afternoon of Saturday, April 28th. We stopped for dinner along the way and did not arrive back in Lancaster until late Saturday night. Again, our space number was left for us in the mailbox of the office. This time it was easy to find the space, but once in the space I could not find a spot to get the Roadtrek level.

For us, being level on the site is only for comfort. For others whose RVs have propane refrigerators being level is very important. These refrigerators must be level to work properly. Almost all campgrounds claim to have level sites. We have wondered if what is level on a gravel site for a large bus size RV can also be level for our little Roadtrek. We have, so far, only been in one campground where the site was truly right on level - and that site was concrete pavement. On gravel sites, we get close, on a rare occasion get actually level, or don't even come near level. A big RV has levelers - mechanical legs that come down and adjust back to front, side to side until the RV is level. The Roadtrek is much too small and very much to close to the ground on the bottom to have any such device under the chassis. To level a Roadtrek you use large, square plastic blocks that look like giant "Lego" blocks. You put them against the front of back of the tires and drive up on them. We carry a set with us. We have used them once when we really could not get level at all. On this night, I was beginning to think that we were going to need to do this again.

What you do is drive around the space with the Roadtrek until you find a level spot. I have two bubble levels mounted inside the front of the Roadtrek - one on the dash and one on a straight part of the door. The dash shows level side to side. The door shows level front to back. I could just not find a spot and to get both level and in some spots both were way off. I drove all around that space - tried putting the Roadtrek diagonally in the space. Getting out I could see the slopes. I was getting angrier and more and more frustrated, but I was not going to give in. There had to be - or did there - a spot that was at least almost level. I got the front to back level and then keeping in that general spot moved a bit here and there to find an almost side to side level position. I gave up with the bubble just touching the level line. By then we were too tired to even bother pulling out the Lego blocks. Don't ask why we just did not pull them out to begin with. I announced an exasperated, "Good enough!", and shut off the engine. We went out to hook up and before we went in, Meryl asked if I wanted to turn on the propane. I asked her why as we don't usually turn on the propane - which has to be turned on from the outside. She said "in case there is another freeze warning". There is one thing that Meryl will tell you - Meryl is always right. I told her no, it would not be necessary to turn on the propane since the night before we were fine just with the heat pump.

Meryl is always right. There was another weather alert on the tablet - this one for Lancaster. It said over night freeze warning with temperatures dropping to sub-freezing temperatures possibly into the 20's. We went to sleep with the heat pump on. The heat pump by the way is a setting on the air conditioner. At about 6:00 am I was awakened by cold air blowing on my face. There are two directional vents for the air conditioner/heat pump that direct down onto the bed. My was pointing at my face. I reached up to feel the air blowing from the vent and it was COLD. This means that the temperature dropped below 40 degrees and with that the heat pump stops working - but it does not just shut down - that would make too much sense. No, it blows cold instead of hot. I reached over to the control panel - which is on the wall in the bed area and shut the unit off. I had the Android tablet at my side set as an alarm clock. I looked at the local weather reading - 34 degrees at the present time. I considered getting dressed and going outside to turn on the propane so that I could turn on the furnace inside and get warm, but decided that I would rather wrap up under the blanket and be a little cold than face the outside cold temperature. Yep, I should have listened to Meryl and turned on the propane last night!

Were the outside temperature the only thing that was unexpected, it would have been overall a great trip. As it was it was a very nice trip, but as has happened on so many other trips, there was a problem in the Roadtrek. This one, is not likely the fault of Roadtrek, but more likely has to do with the winterizing kit that I described was installed in the Roadtrek last November when we had the RV winterized. After flushing the toilet we could hear a hum in side the van. We were not sure where it was coming from but it was unlike any of the usual noises that one hears inside Roadtreks. We traced the sound to the cabinet where the water pump is located. This is where that winterizing kit was installed. I sounded like the water pump was running and it was not stopping - but it was a low hum and not the usual rumble that the water pump makes. I turned on the faucet to find little water coming out and then a burst of air and then more water, and more air and then water mixed with air. The water pump was sucking air. Where this air is coming from still remains to be determined and we are going back to the dealer service center sometime soon for this to be looked at and repaired. Basically, the pump is not priming because it is filling with air and not water - and there is more air than water. I won't go into further details. We shall wait to see what it is when it is repaired. Another unexpected trip to Pennsylvania is in our near future.

The morning that we were leaving the campground and would head home that night, we dumped the waste tanks at the campground. This should not have taken long but to dump partially full tanks you need to fill them up with water and this can take some time. All and all, with refilling one of the fresh water tanks so that we would have water on board for the trip home - just in case - it took about an hour and a half. With that all done, we left the campground to spend Sunday in Lancaster.

Sunday in Lancaster is not the best day to be in Lancaster. The Amish are a very religious community and there are a number of local businesses and restaurants that are closed on Sundays. There are a lot of places to shop and several outlet centers. There is also the farmlands to drive through. A Sunday for the Amish is either a "church" Sunday or a "visiting" Sunday. Either way the back roads in Lancaster are filled with buggies. We seemed to encounter them on the road always at almost the top of a hill or just before a blind turn. When driving in Lancaster and you come upon a buggy, always wait until the opposite lane of traffic is completely clear for some distance ahead - especially in a Roadtrek - and then pull into the opposite lane and pass the buggy. I have had long experience doing this with a car. It is a whole other thing with a Roadtrek where you are as wide as the lane.

Well, again, this trip proved to be one of our trips that something went wrong - the water pump. Sorry this article rambles a bit but the trip rambled and you get that experience reading this article. The coming articles about Fort Frederick 18th Century Market Fair and Hagerstown Yogi Bear Campground will be a bit more exciting - I hope.

Old Mill Stream Campground, mid-week at the end of April



Cows in the field on the farm across the stream at Mill Stream Campground. There was a bull and a cow "humping" but they did not wait for me to get the camera out to pose.