A Pre-Season Opener For My Roadtrek

It has been a very long and difficult winter in the Northeast this year. My Roadtrek has been winterized since mid-November and it has only been off my driveway for a single day - there and back the same day - trip in early December.  We enjoyed that trip in December and since then have been looking to do it again.

We usually take these one day trips in the car, but with the car being a little uncertain for long distance trips, we have decided that we might as well take the Roadtrek and put some driving hours on it rather than it just keep sitting on the driveway. Using it just to drive around town is not easy here as just getting it off our driveway and into the steady flow of traffic at most hours of the day can take up to 30 minutes to safely have a clear enough opening to back it out and get it on the road. We had hoped to be able to do a repeat trip in January. The weather was not cooperating. Despite some warmer days in February, that month did not work out. We were sure that when March came we were going to be able to do it and we had four Nor'easter snow storms in March with no hope of going anywhere - including one on the first day of Spring. With April coming we were really hopeful and until just now, April has been cold and raining - too cold to even consider de-winterizing. But then there was a forecast like no others in the recent past - it was going to become suddenly warm and not raining - maybe even hot - not necessarily here where the ocean influences the temperatures this close to the coast, but inland. Inland was good - inland was where we would like to go. This sudden gift was only to last two days because following this phenomenon the temperatures would drop again into the 40's and perhaps lower once again with a two day rainstorm. Circumstances here - as they often do - were not going to let us take advantage for more than one single day. It would be out and back in the same day - as it was in December - but one day was good. One day was wonderful considering!

We knew where we wanted to go - one of our favorite haunts in Pennsylvania which to most would make them wonder why - but during those snow storms and those cold days and nights, if someone asked me where would I rather be - it was there. It was outdoors. It put me in the middle of people that I very much like interacting with and being around. We were going!

We left at 9:30 in the morning- to avoid the heaviest of Metro NY rush hour traffic - and off we went. Getting out of the driveway only took ten minutes after a steady stream of cars whizzing by. I had plugged the Roadtrek into the outside house outlet two days before and let it sit for 24 hours plugged in so that the batteries would be fully charged and there would be no problem running our Roadtrek's compressor fridge on batteries for the trip. There were plans to bring back some foods that are not available here. After an hour and a half this fridge reaches temperature.

As always, traffic getting out of NY was heavy but at least moved. The trip should take no more than three hours - but it generally takes four to four and a half hours - not counting the time to get out of the driveway. As I have written in the past, the trip is bang, bang, vibrate on the roads in New York. Once into New Jersey the ride gets noticeably better. In Pennsylvania with a newly repaved PA Turnpike it gets much better. The PA Turnpike - I suppose because of its new road surfacing -increased the speed limit for most of the part we drive on to 70 miles per hour. The 6L engine in my Roadtrek 190 Popular handles that speed very nicely - in fact it is too easy to get to 80 and not realize it - and it handles that speed nicely also , but I am never comfortable driving it at that speed and pull it back down. One thing that is odd, however, on the PA Turnpike with this new speed limit is that some cars and trucks do not want to drive at it. In fact they are driving below 65 - and more like 60. This was not making me happy. With one day and the long a drive to get there, I wanted to be at least the speed limit. Where I live the speed limit is 55 mph. At any time of the day or night local drivers see that sign and see 65 and faster. Most of the roads here are not made to go that fast but fast most go. I try to avoid having to keep up with that at times here can be more dangerous than not - and I not just in the Roadtrek. But here I was with a legitimate 70 mph speed limit which if it was ever to be the speed limit here would translate to 95 or 100, and I was sitting behind 60 mph drivers. It was not just the time of day because the same happens when we head home - and we travel later at night most trips when we are heading home.

When we arrived it was after 1:30 pm and it was 82 degrees outside. Oh my! The sun was shining. The place we were going was hoping and I was looking forward to a wonderful day - which we had. The trip down, at least past NY, the Roadtrek rode smoothly. Parking is in a large gravel and grass parking lot and we usually head down to the farthest section where it is open enough to park even a larger RV - and there are always a few RVs parked there - and there is no concern of being boxed in by cars or the narrow lanes that the rest of the parking lot has.

As we roamed around I realized that I have been in the house too long this winter and what is generally not tiring was really tiring me out after about two and a half hours. Not good - and I had to readjust to what it is like to be in over 80 degrees. I did find a bench and sat down and listened to two gentlemen talking about hunting and their tales of learning to hunt from their fathers. These are things one does not much get to hear being discussed where I live - and while I was not involved in this discussion at all, I did enjoy it. It was only fifteen minutes or so later that I was ready to leave the bench and get back to Meryl and keep going. (If you are waiting to hear of some catestrophe that happens on this trip - there was none.)  This was a nice slow day with me trying to pack in months of not being there. Overall we were at this one location for over four hours. Nothing important to do. Nothing spectacular to find or even seen. As a mostly city boy, I have always had a special place in my heart for sprawling farm land and things that are basically plain - and this all is all around people that are, with no negative connotation, "The Plain People". Beaches don't interest me. Mountains only marginally appeal - and generally don't more than do. This is where I need to be to really relax  and it has been for many, many years. And there I seek out being away from the tourists and get to be among the locals, and especailly the Amish and Mennonites of this area. I have met some. I am never intrusive. I don't gawk as some people do there. Any interaction and I am especailly respectful. And I am grateful that my good wife recognizes this in me and enjoys it as well.

Past 5 pm we headed to a favorite restaurant - again not a fancy restaurant but one that is really only known by the locals - and had a great dinner. After dinner I was not really ready to leave, so we started out the long way back. We drove past the campground we usually stay at. We even stopped at a store before we actually were on the road to go home. It was past 1:30 am when we arrived home. There was no traffic coming home -in fact some roads were surprisingly empty - yet we still found ourselves behind slow drivers with the road empty in front of them - and again, I don't mean slow because they were just at the speed limit - but well below the speed limit. I was in no hurry to get home but the last thing I like have happen in the Roadtrek is for anyone behind us to think it is us slowing them down - and resulting that  - they speed around us and cut in too close.

Last Spring I took the Roadtrek for a ride to the East End of Long Island to get it on the road. I realized after that it would have been so much better had we come to this area instead. Eight plus hours of round trip driving plus multiple bridge tolls and turnpike tolls - almost a full tank of gas - and it was all worth it.

The Roadtrek did not balk the whole time. This is not always the case, and surprises no matter how minor are more the norm than the exception. I think it liked its drive. Had it not been for the past weather, it would have been on several more trips like this.

I am still not sure when I will dewinterize. Most years I would have done it already. Since I am hearing low 40s or colder in the forecast, I am not running to do it. One of the advantages of even a single day trip with the Roadtrek is having a bathroom along for the ride, I figured that were we in need, we would just use it and not be that concerned. I could always through more A/F down into the black tank when we got home.

So this was not a real - sleep in the Roadtrek trip - but we did most everything we would do if we went there to stay overnight for two days. What I knew before but this trip made me more immediately aware of was that the CO Detector has expired and needs to be replaced - which we will do when we dewinterize. That the Roadtrek Roadside Assistance policy needs to be renewed - and we have not heard anything from them about it. That we discovered after our last regular RV season trip was that our walkie talkies no longer worked and we needed to replace them which I put off until we were ready to start traveling again. We use the walkie talkies to get the Roadtrek out of the driveway and into the street in front of our house (Meryl "OK it is clear RIGHT NOW - GO QUICK!!!") and when backing into a campground site, Meryl guides me in using the walkie talkies. I know which I am going to buy and we will be doing that pretty soon!

So thanks for rambling along with me. Nothing exciting - but isn't that nice!

First Trip of 2014

The Roadtrek did go to Pennsylvania in early April for one of the all too frequent needs for service, but that trip really can't count as our first trip of 2014. We had thought about extending that trip for a few days but the weather was just not good - and this has been the problem ever since. We went down and drove back home that night. It seems that once all of the snow ended in March, the rain started and there has not been a decent end of the week since then until just a week ago.

We planned this trip since April and every week we cancelled the trip. I usually make reservations ahead of traveling but current forecasts and long range forecasts were just not cooperating. We had initially planned to attend the annual 18th Century Market Fair at Fort Frederick in Big Pool, Maryland. The weather forecast was dismal and I learned after that the rain was so bad - when we would have been there - that the place flooded. We then decided that we would go to Lancaster, PA - our home away from home and with that I looked for decent weather from a Wednesday or Thursday though Saturday. Week after week it was raining at the end of the week there - and here for most of that time. At one point we heard on the radio, following another of what was becoming too usual a forecast, that it had rained on Thursday and Friday for the past eight weeks. I was sick of the snow - and it seemed that the rain was taking its place. (Yes, in some parts of the country - particularly on the West Coast - there has been a severe drought, if possible we would have gladly sent this rain back in your direction.) Anyway, week after week passed with no trip. There were a few weeks when I thought - go anyway. But with the cost of tolls and gas - to go where we wanted to go and be there in the rain, it was not worth the trip - no matter how badly I wanted it. Finally, a week ago, things were looking promising. They had looked promising other weeks too until the days were almost there, and then the weather reports that had said sun a few days before were saying severe storms. I even considered, two days before we would leave,  calling to our favorite campground and making reservations. I was also eager to get to this campground as I had learned that there had been some big changes there and what was not being said was if the management had changed. (I will be publishing an updated review of the campground shortly and will not go into details here.) I decided not to jinx the weather and we would wait until the last minute to call for a reservation. We would call on Wednesday - we would leave on Thursday - as Wednesday was now forecast for rain. It would rain on Thursday but only at home. The call Wednesday was disconcerting - only an answering machine answered. We left a message. Two hours later we called again and this time got the reservation - not for "our space", but at this point I did not care. We still could not tell if the management was the same and there were more indications that it might not be. Anyway, we were set to go and there was no cancelling now.

We filled the water tanks and Meryl made the bed up in the Roadtrek. It was a hot day for the first week in June and I started the generator so she could have the A/C going while she did so. We then packed the Roadtrek with everything that we needed for just three days - really two nights - that could be packed and not needed that next morning in the house. A bag is set aside in the house for the must haves - medications, personal items, etc. that can only come out when we are about to leave. As each of those items is used and not needed again until we are on the trip, it goes into the bag. There is just s much that you want to have always in the Roadtrek that you get duplicates of for that purpose - and some things we have can't go in until the very last minute.

This was the first time that Meryl was making the bed with a new piece that she asked me to make for her. The boards that make up the bed fall short about six inches at the bottom of the bed leaving about six inches without support. This support is not needed as support but Meryl realized that bottom corners of the middle of the bed (see Meryl's method of making the bed) were not remaining tucked in because of nothing under them. She asked that I make a board to fill in that space. Our Roadtrek came with a short board that did not fit anywhere - it seemed to have been an extra piece of wood - in not so great condition (perhaps a cutoff) - that was just in the back with the rest of the boards. It was too big to fit in with the other boards and we just set it aside in the house waiting for some need for it. I took that board and after careful measurement of what was needed cut it down in my workshop, rounded the unfinished edges and fit it into place. It fit perfectly. So now Meryl had a platform of boards that went under the mattress cushions with no gaps of mattress without a board under it. She made up the bed with the new board in place and was very happy.

The next morning we were ready to go and it was pouring. That was OK as it was expected. I was just counting on the reports that in Pennsylvania that storm would have passed by 10 am and we were heading into clear weather for the next three days.

This was the first trip that we would be using the Copilot GPS app on an actual trip and not just test drives. It would be out in three states on interstates. I also had the Tom Tom in the Eclipse in the dash programmed with a pre-planned route to take us where we needed to go on roads that we were permitted in the Roadtrek to drive on. I set the location in the Copilot and knew that there were going to be some arguments between the two GPSs because the Copilot was going to send us correctly on roads that avoid some that I know I can get away with - as any RV GPS would do. Had I not been driving these local roads for more than forty years, I would not chance going as I would be going and I would have followed the Copilot's "safe" route.  We finally set off.

What I learned pretty quickly about the Copilot was that its traffic function can be very valuable but very annoying if you know you are going a different way than it wants you to go - as it kept telling me to make turns that I knew I was not going to make - and it was finding traffic delays of hours along the route it had planned. I just ignored these - and discovered that the special traffic screen that comes up to present the alternative to you or asks if you want to just keep going the way you are going, goes away in less than a minute and returns to the map and route display. Good. Once it got to a point locally that it had no alternative but to follow the route planned on the Tom Tom, it settled down and the two routes agreed - no traffic ahead too! And it was raining!

Even with my modifications to the "RV safe" and permitted route, it takes us about a half hour longer to get off Long Island than it would in a car - and that gets added to what, with traffic and road construction, already can take four hours or more. Once off Long Island the routes on the Tom Tom and the Copilot agreed - except where I went the way I like to go which is not the short way. One thing to be aware of with any GPS is that it does not know about traffic light delays and it does not know to avoid streets in areas where you know there are frequent shootings and gunfire. I usually take the long way around those.

The sky cleared entering New Jersey - the rain returned briefly and by the Pennsylvania Turnpike the sun was out and it was clear. Including a stop for lunch we were at the campground in four and a half hours. We checked in with the lady who we have known since we started coming here when we got the Roadtrek and received a warm welcome back. We were very glad to see her still there! We chatted and went to the site. As always when coming in to a campground site, we find a level spot on the site, mark it to be able to get right to it when we come back later in the day - and every day for the stay, and then we test the power box for polarity and voltage. This site was slightly off. It took putting the Roadtrek on an angle diagonally in the space and then turning the front wheel all the way to the right to get onto a spot that was very near level. The campground was not empty but not full. We saw when we entered that a travel trailer group was having a get together there and many of those who were there were part of that group. It did not bother us any; we go and come back each day and do our own thing. The power box was fine and we were off for a first half day in Lancaster since last October. Oh yes, heavy rain kept us away in December - those reservations had to be cancelled - and this campground did not charge us anything for the cancellation (some do, many do).

Let me put out right here that we like going to campgrounds. I know that some Roadtrek owners don't. In fact recently it has been their trend to put down all campgrounds. We don't want to stay in Walmart parking lots for days. (You actually are only supposed to stay in one over night for one night only.) We don't want to find some corner in the woods to stay in - I don't think anything like that here even exists - without trespassing. Nature is nice. To me relaxing nature are farm fields in rolling hills and what makes this area relaxing for me is being around the Plain People at places that are not places the tourist much know about. I have been coming here several times a year for more than fifty years. At one point we thought about buying a home here as a second home. We bought the Roadtrek instead - or we would be going no where but here. When we travel I want to know that there is a place for us to be when we get there and I want that settled in advance.  So if you don't like campgrounds, that is fine for you. Everyone does what they like to do and this is what we like.

This was a happily uneventful trip - Roadtrek-wise. Nothing went wrong. Nothing broke. There were no water issues. The small issues that we did have were a few minor annoyances that were resolved during the trip (with one minor exception that remains to be resolved and does involve the Roadtrek). The lever support that holds the outside cabinet up and open is letting go with the slightest touch. This never happened before and the door fell on Meryl's arm twice. I have to find a way to fix this or come up with a way to keep it in place with some addition. The rest, as I say, were just annoyances. As this was a short trip and I had just started a new insulin pen I did not need to bring a spare. An unopened pen needs to be kept in the refrigerator above freezing and not above 36 or so degrees F. We did not need the fridge for insulin which was a good thing because the remote thermometer that Meryl had set up the night before for the fridge and was working then, was dead in the morning when we left. We were only guessing at the temperature inside which only mattered to keep the soda bottles and cans from exploding if they froze. That night a trip to the local Walmart and we had a new remote thermometer ($10). Regulating the temperature inside the AC/DC Nova Kool fridge was a bit of a challenge as the temperature outside suddenly was into the upper 80s  during the trip and several times the temperature inside the Roadtrek was at or near 99. We keep forgetting to open the ceiling fan vent when we are parking the Roadtrek for several hours on a hot day. We usually get the temperature down in the fridge and find the spot on the control dial to keep it at and it stays fairly consistent for entire trips unless the temperatures outside vary a lot and on this trip they were all over the place, hot to cool and back to hot again.

One thing that took us a while to figure out since we got the Roadtrek because of the temperatures that the inside of the Roadtrek can get to on hot days - and cold days it how to deal with the insulin pen that cannot be put back into the fridge once it is started and must be kept at "room temperature". Room temperature is never figured to be 99 degrees. Last year we resolved this with a cooling pack called a Frio. Perhaps I will do an article about this in the future. It keeps the pen 20 degrees below - or above in cold weather - the temperature outside of it and does so with no power or mechanics involved. So far it has worked as advertised to the Diabetic community.

So... we went to the spots we like to go to. We spent the entire day on Friday at Green Dragon Farmers Market - and we commented to each other that it seemed early for the tourists to have arrived already and how we like this much better when it is not tourist season, but still had a relaxing and good time. At Green Dragon the aisles in the acres of parking lot are narrow - pretty much rows of cars on gravel that form their own front to back rows - so we always head out to the far corner and park in two spots. There are often RVs parked - just for the day - off in a grass field on the edge of a wooded area and we could have gone there - and will the next time as it is a closer walk and less up and down hill than where we tend to park. Of course, the horse and buggies get preference parking and there are stalls for them right along the edge of the market. We brought sub sandwiches back to the Roadtrek from the market for lunch, started the generator to run the A/C - it was already 90 inside at lunch time - turned the front seats, pulled out the front table, and had lunch (trying hard to keep crumbs off the floor so as not to attract any critters inside). After lunch it was back to the market. We had dinner at favorite restaurants each night.

Sundays, as I have written about before in this area, are off days. Most things relating to the Amish and Mennonites - especially local restaurants are closed. We now come here avoiding Sundays, so we check out on Saturday morning and we spend the day and a good deal of the night in the area and then drive home Saturday night. This means that Saturday is now dump the tanks day and this has to be done before we leave the campground. We don't want to spend the day doing this so we were up a little earlier than we would usually be and went out to dump the tanks. I decided that with 2/3 of a tank of fresh water left I wanted to keep that water in the tanks - and fill the black tank and add water to the grey tank before we dumped using a gallon bottle filled at the campsite water spigot. I should have just decided to use the water in the tanks and refilled them before we left, as this process took more time than anything else. I wanted fresh water in the tanks in the event that we needed to use them for whatever reason on that day going home. The black tank was reading 2/3 before we left home and all that could be in there was about a gallon of antifreeze that we had not dumped after de-winterizing (anticipating one of those trips that did not take place in the weeks after). By the end of Thursday night the black tank showed full. If you don't already know, RV tank monitoring sensors and gauges are notoriously incorrect. The systems just do not work for so many reasons - and this holds true for all RVs and travel trailers. You have to guess when the tank is actually full - or know your pattern of use - we figure now four days of use to fill the ten gallon black tank. You can tell for sure if you see water come up through the pipe that flushes down into the tank in the toilet. I knew the tank was no where near full and I wound up adding six full gallons of water to the so-called full tank to actually fill it. It only needs to be 2/3 full to dump but with these conditions of knowing what the level really is, how can anyone know 2/3. The grey tank monitor on my Roadtrek is actually pretty accurate and it only took a gallon or two to get it to show 2/3 on the panel. This is what takes the time. The actual dumping with the macerator takes minutes.

The tanks emptied, I added the usual one gallon of water to the black tank - never leave it dry - plus two ounces of tank chemical and we were good. We pulled the electric plug outside and the cable tv cable, put them away and we were off. The trip was too short. We spent a nice day in the area on Saturday, saved the best restaurant for last, and headed home - again with the Copilot running along with the Tom Tom. In this direction the Copilot almost mirrored the Tom Tom.

When we got home, I checked to see how much data the Copilot used on the drive home to report traffic - the only thing the Copilot needs a data connection for and it was less than 9 mb. Not bad.

We were home, safe, and I was grumpy - because once I get away I want to stay away, but life calls at home and things just can't always be set aside and ignored.

Good trip - and we will be heading back for the Fourth of July! And I have some ideas for a few new trips in between - if the weather cooperates - this week there is no day without rain in the forecast... Those were lucky three days that just went by!

ANATOMY OF A TRIP Part 8

 TRIP DAY 5 Saturday (Last Day and The Trip Home) - CONTINUED:

 We went back to the Bird In Hand Farmers Market and to the antique shop across the road. When I first had come to this area and when Meryl and I had first come together, this antique shop then was not an antique shop but a large gift shop with a variety of local items. Walking through now, for us, is a pleasant reminiscence of our times gone by. 

At one of the Bird-in-Hand Farmer's Market's meat stalls, we bought sliced meat and two rolls to make our own lunch in the Roadtrek. We went back to the Roadtrek and, as we had at Green Dragon, ran the generator and turned on the air conditioner. Waiting for the generator to run about two minutes before starting the air conditioner so that the generator would come up to full power to start the compressor in the A/C seemed like a very long and very hot two minute wait.  Again, the passenger seat was swiveled around and the front table was swung out of the cabinet. Cold soda was brought out of the refrigerator and we made our sandwiches and ate in cool comfort. I sit on the third seat while Meryl sits on the passenger seat. 

As with any good story, in the end all gets revealed, and we were about to have one such revelation. When we were finishing lunch glancing over at the refrigerator the door was sitting at an odd angle. I looked more closely and the door was sitting below the latch at the top. I opened the fridge held on the the vacuum seal of the rubber gasket around the door, and the door came down off my hand. I grabbed it and it came completely off. There was no longer a pin coming up from the bottom hinge. The pin which screws up into the bracket was sitting below on the floor. Meryl grabbed everything out of the door - this was several juice bottles, cans, etc.that were weighting it down.

Getting the door back on meant catching the top of the door in the top hinge pin and then moving the bottom into place on the hinge bracket and getting the pin up and into just the right place that could not be seen on the door. We tried over and over again – each of us with no success. I finally managed to get the door in just the right position and found my way to the floor hoping that I was able to do this quickly and just by chance got the door and the pin lined up. Any tools that I had to tighten this pin were in the rear storage compartment accessed from outside the Roadtrek so I just got the pin tight by hand. Note – get a small socket set to keep inside.

We had changed the direction of the refrigerator door a year ago and with all of the shaking and vibration that goes on with the Roadtrek when traveling on bumpy roads, screws – especially screws in metal – tend to come loose. This one must have been working its way out for awhile and now we knew why what had taken place on this trip with the refrigerator was happening. Going all the way back to the first day when the fridge door swung open on the highway – the door that Meryl was sure she secured and now we knew, had secured. Add to this the inconsistent temperatures inside the fridge and it all came clear. Following this quick, though unexpected repair, the refrigerator kept perfect temperature inside for the rest of the day and night – and during the day the inside of the Roadtrek rose to 109 F after a half hour stop and parked in not direct sun. 

Well, that was enough excitement for one day. The afternoon continued on with just pleasant touring of the countryside that did include a not so wise turn onto a road that went up into the hills and things got very steep and narrow going up and down the roads to get back to somewhat level ground. 

After dinner we did turn down one road that lead us into the farmlands in the direction of the entrance to the turnpike. As long as it remains light out, these two lane (one in each direction) farm roads that twist and turn and go up and down the rolling hills are fine. In the dark they can be a little challenging. There were at least a hour or more of daylight so that was no problem. What we did encounter were horse and buggies, a lot of them as we drove along – and always at the bottom of an incline up a hill with no visibility of oncoming traffic. As always, we just rolled slowly behind them until we could see what might be coming over the hill and then put the gas peddle down to the floor while moving into the oncoming lane and passed around them. The big challenge today was when there were two following each other in these same circumstances.  That pass was a little too close and I just made it around the buggy in the lead when an SUV came up from the opposite direction going at speed. The Roadtrek takes a lot of judgment when passing buggies.

Before we got on the turnpike we stopped at a Walmart store to pick up some groceries for home. From the parking lot as we were leaving we got to see a pretty impressive fireworks show that was taking place at a park nearby. We watched briefly and we started for home. According to the GPS we would be home just after 1 am.

The PA Turnpike is part under construction and part in need of construction and when the road is uneven with rises in the pavement where patches have been made, the suspension in the Roadtrek reacts to them. When these patches are spaced fairly evenly apart the result at highway speed is something know in RV circles as porpoising – an up and down motion of the entire van much like the motion of a bucking bronco – or the motion of a porpoise jumping out and into the water as it swims along. The one place that I have experienced this most in the Roadtrek is on one section on the eastbound side of the PA Turnpike somewhere between Lancaster and Philadelphia. It is not a comfortable way to ride and the only way to stop it is to slow down to the point that the bumps or patches are driven over in a longer interval between. This is fine if you are alone in the road but if you have to keep up with traffic you can’t do this. And this is not something that is felt in a shorter and lighter vehicle, so in a car you would never know about this. We came to that stretch of road and I slowed as much as I could until we passed it by. As you go along through this, you want to yell, “Ride ‘em, cowboy!”

The trip through Pennsylvania into New Jersey was rather relaxing. I connected our MP3 player to the Eclipse radio though the Dock Boss and put on a recording of a radio broadcast from the 40’s – Command Performance which was a weekly show of stars performing for the troops who were fighting in World War II. This show was broadcast every week until the war ended – and while it is 60 years old, it is funny and has great music. The ride in the dark was quite enjoyable. Once we got to New Jersey, the turnpike the construction – an expansion of truck and car only lanes throughout the length of the turnpike – and the changes in traffic flow - were slowing down the Saturday night traffic and the road was congested. Things did not get heavilycongested until we reached New York. And here the road surfaces become particularly bad.

While on the entrance ramp to a route on Staten Island we hit a bump and heard a lot of clanging inside the Roadtrek behind us. Meryl looked back and saw the kitchen draw had opened. There was no place to pull over in Staten Island and we had to go into the streets in Brooklyn anyway to get from one route to the next so we waited and drove with the contents of the draw banging inside. I stopped along a street in Brooklyn near the VA Hospital so that Meryl could go back and close the draw. I grew up, until I was 7, not too far from here and I still remember the roads through here and this was a fairly safe place to stop – though that has been more than 50 years ago and lots has changed. 

During our first year with the Roadtrek we had a lot of trouble keeping the kitchen drawer closed as we drove. We tried various things to keep it closed including two suction cups that stuck to the counter with a cord from one to the other that went around the drawer knob. This actually did keep the drawer closed but this was a pain to put on and off and there had to be something better. Service tightened the latch but it would still open – that is until we received the cutting board that sits on the top of this drawer inside. This had been missing when we got our Roadtrek and service got us one from the factory. After that went in, the draw stayed closed.  We have not had a problem with that drawer opening while driving until this trip – but there were some wide curves and a lot of bumpy roads. Perhaps we will get out the suction cups and cord and keep it ready if we find the drawer is now opening regularly again as we drive.

On a Saturday night after midnight, one might think a road would be fairly light in traffic, but not around New York City on the limited access roads. Here the roads can be as congested as during rush hour with no reasons for a slow down other than the number of cars.  And traffic can stop just to look at two cars pulled over to the side of the road – no accident – just parked there – and this happened going through Brooklyn where we sat bumper to bumper slowly rolling until we passed these parked cars and then the road opened right up again. Everyone has to slow down to look - the "rubberneckers". The other thing that happens on NY roads at night are the test runs for the big car race at Monte Carlo. That is what it must be for two, three, and more cars to be racing each other while weaving through traffic. The speed limit in NY is a maximum of 55 and within NYC bounds on limited access roads no more than 50, but most look upon that is a suggested speed and add 25 to 30 mph to that – and the cars that are racing swish by so fast that they must be doing twice that. We got to see several races including one with motorcycles on this drive home. The drive home took a lot of concentration and I turned off the MP3 player once in NY to attend to the traffic.

We arrived home well after 1:30 am. Now we started on the unpacking of the Roadtrek. The refrigerator had to be emptied. Everything that we brought in that belonged back in the house had to come out. Meryl stays inside the Roadtrek, puts the next item or items that need to come out on the third seat, and I run back and forth from the Roadtrek to the house carrying it all in. Unpacking the Roadtrek takes a lot less time than packing it for a trip. We were done in about a half an hour. The refrigerator is turned off and we double check that the battery switch is turned off.

Thus in so many days and parts over 8 weeks has been our trip told with all of the non-interesting details. But as I suggested in the beginning things might happen that need to be dealt with and they did. Perhaps on your next trip you will benefit from something that we experience on this trip. The bottom line is that we had a good time – and I regretted being home. I am not fond of NY and we always have the same argument when we get home – due to my frustrations with NY that I vocalize when we come back to NY from a trip – that we will just move to another state. This is easier said than done for various reasons for the two of us.

Oh yes, way back at the beginning, I said that this article was being written in a different way. And it was – or at least much of it was. Just before this trip I got an Android tablet – but not just a tablet but a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 that has handwriting recognition. One reason for getting it was to make writing these articles, among other things easier. With this tablet you handwrite either in cursive or printing and the handwriting is recognized and turned into text – which it does very well. It recognizes my combination of styles of writing and with a little more practice I believe it will smoothly flow my writing into text without the need for edits. The one thing I realized while doing this – right from the first night of writing this article in this manner is that I have not written much by hand in many years. I have been typing what I write for a very long time – way back to typewriters and then to PC keyboards. So handwriting does not come easily to my flow of thought. Despite that the tablet worked well,  to get a lot down quickly, I did use a Bluetooth keyboard that I keep in the Roadtrek to type parts of the article with. I do recommend the Note 10.1. The handwriting feature is a great thing to use for a fast note, using the internet, or posting on a forum or Facebook.

So that is the trip complete – all revealed – and now we wait until the next trip which is not too far off in the future! (Though we you are reading this final part has long taken place...) Thank you all for bearing with this experiment and I hope it brings some benefit to you.

The End... Until the next time.