Never a Dull Moment - Part 1

There is a superstition that if one starts out the day saying that it will be delightful and carefree, this almost assuredly guarantees just the opposite. Well, I was looking forward to our October trip to be just that - delightful and carefree. Silly me! We had to cancel a two day trip in September because we had not made reservations at a campground in advance. For the past two years we have been waiting to a day or two before planned trips to call to make reservations. This seemed to have been working - no risk of paying a canceled reservation fee - as much as a night's stay at some campgrounds - when at the last minute the weather would be terrible or unexpected things at home demanded our presence. I had not even thought twice about not doing the same for this trip at the end of September. We were going to a Quilt/Fiber Sales Show near Philadelphia and then planned to spend the next day at Green Dragon Farmer's Market in Lancaster the next day and home at night on the next day. A nice three day business/pleasure trip.  Well, there were no campsites to be had in any campground that we called - even a few that I would not normally consider staying at. The Roadtrek had been packed the day before - the bed was made - all was inside - our clothes and necessities for three days. And it did not happen. We did go to the Quilt Show - by car and home in one day the next day. So as that trip did not happen I was really looking forward to this October trip!

I made the reservations for the October trip right after this all happened in September. We were going to stay in a different campground in Lancaster County - not the one we have been staying in for the past four years. A coming article will be a review of the "new to us" campground. Why we were not going back to Old Mill Stream Campground is a tale in itself. Old Mill Stream raised its rates two years ago and there were signs that things would be changing. All of 2014, things were somewhat as usual - though they no longer accepted charge cards when making reservation by phone and required a check be mailed to hold a reservation. The couple who have run the campground for years and years were not always around. This was not a good sign. They were made this an exceptional campground - beyond a good campground. Our first trip there in 2015 in May, these people were nowhere to be found. Things were becoming more "corporate". This campground had been owned privately and then by the Hershey corporation (along with the children's amusement park next door - that this campground has been a part of). Just after we started coming it seems that a European corporation bought out the amusement park and the campground - but there has been no evidence of that until now. When we arrived for five days for July Fourth this year - there was a great deal of change in customer relations and particularly in the revision of the campground entrance - and not for the good. Let's start with the entrance - and exit. It was being changed so that anyone coming into the amusement park and also the campground had to enter a single lane entrance that split off into three lanes going into three parking booths. The right hand booth and lane was for RVs going into the campground - but this did not mean that cars going in to park for the amusement park did not get into that lane as well. Busy amusement park - lots of people with small children coming in (this amusement park is focused on young children) - and big RVs trying to get in to get into their space. One would think that at 2;00 pm when the campground starts check-in that this would not be much of a problem - but it is. To make it even more exciting the entrance lane at the corner of busy Route 30 is alongside the exit lane and cars pull into the entrance lane to exit - while you and your RV is out in the road trying to get in. We saw this happening that Fourth of July week. We discovered that week, that to exit the campground you now followed a sign that led your RV into the parking lot for the amusement park - and as you tried to make your way though the narrow aisle - narrow even for a Class B - you came upon moms and dads walking their toddlers by the hand through the lane - oblivious to the RV behind them. We saw a few close calls. By our trip there in August, the parking lot changes were complete and the situation getting in or out was even worse. Now, also in July and August we discovered that the last row of the campground - which just happened to be where our preferred for four years site was (next to the bathhouse) - was located right where the "overflow" parking on the grass for the amusement park starts. We woke up one morning to some odd sounds and looked out the window to see cars being parked behind us. (Just what you want for security in a campground - people who don't belong in the campground getting in and out of their cars all day - and into the evening, right behind your RV.)

OK - that is just the getting in and getting out. The people working in the campground and in the office were different. In July, there was one woman who we recognized from before. I spoke with her about the changes that we were seeing and her answer was that the corporation decided it all and no one asked them for any opinion or consultation in planning. It was very evident that the corporate people were taking over. This campground always books solid for Fourth of July weekend and it has always been policy that a reservation cannot be made more than one year to the day in advance. We were told when we first came there that if we wanted to come for Fourth of July weekend we had to make the reservations a year in advance and we have been doing that - every year, despite our not making advanced reservations for other trips. When we checked in I told the woman behind the counter that we wanted to make next year's reservations right then starting on that same date. It has been custom here to give whoever is in a site regularly, preference for that site when making that year in advance reservation. We asked for the same site for next Fourth of July week. The woman at the desk is flipping through papers and calendars and says - "OK I can make the reservation for you - BUT not for that site. It is taken." What?!? We were polite - we exclaimed our disbelief - how could this be? It has always been policy to not make a reservation for a site until one year to the day - and we walked in to the office at exactly 2:00 pm at the very start of check in for this day. When was the site reserved - "several days ago". What?!? "Sorry, it is now first come first serve." Oh yeah?!?  We made the reservation (which can be canceled with no penalty) at our second preferred site. We knew that our favorite campground was not going to be a favorite any longer. We had to find another campground that we would like. The problems were mounting up. The final straw was in August - we went back just for convenience. We had the site for four days and decided that we wanted to stay another night. We got another night but in a different space which was understandable and fine. The morning that we were going to move. We were getting dressed inside the Roadtrek at 10 am and there was a bang on the Roadtrek door. I looked out the window past the closed curtain and there was a man outside. He looked like he belonged to the campground - there are lots of men in tee shirts working now in the campground from the amusement park. Official checkout time at the campground is 11:00 am. It used to be 1:30 pm. It was an hour before that. I open the door and he says we are supposed to be out of the site! I tell him that checkout is an hour away. There is a trailer in the entrance road. Remember - check in is at 2:00 pm - it is 10 am. He gives me a look. I told him that we were moving to another site and when we were finished doing what we were doing we would be moving over there. He went off in a huff. What the heck is going on here?!?

So in August on a rainy afternoon we headed over to a campground that I had seen good reviews for and that is owned by one of the large local companies that has hotels, restaurants, and bake shops and all are family owned and run. It gets great reviews. My hesitation with it in the past was that it has a traffic gate that requires a key to open. Never having been in a campground with a gate - and our usual schedule of arriving late at night on some trips and getting in past office closing. We had to know what the story with that gate and our late arrivals would be. We parked the Roadtrek outside the office and went inside. There was an Amish woman at the desk. Interesting - and nice. We explained that we were just in for information - that we were regular visitors to the area but were in need of a new campground - mentioning some of the problems without saying any name - and she smiled knowingly. The gate key card would be no problem. As long as they know that you are coming with a reservation, they will leave the card and the site number for you outside the locked office. Wonderful! We tried to walk around to look at the campground but it was pouring. From what we could see it looked nice. The next trip we would try it - which was supposed to be the September trip, and I have already said what happened with that. The October trip would be our trial stay.

Wow! All of this and we have not even gotten to the start of the October trip yet. Maybe it is best that we end here and make this Part 1 and the article that I set down to write this afternoon will be Part 2. Sometimes when you think, let me tell you this before I tell you that - well, it can take some time, but we try to keep the path interesting and entertaining as we go meandering along.

So - end of Part 1. Part 2 in two weeks...

It Isn't All Peaches and Cream, Part 7

As I am writing this, it is four days before the start of April and it has been snowing here all day. Outside, once again, my Roadtrek is on the driveway covered in snow. The Roadtrek must like the snow as it collects on it faster than it does on my car or my van. Well - so much for "Spring can't come too soon!" It came and seems to have gone. It is 28 degrees F right now. Yes, this is the "S" that I mentioned at the end of Part 6. Just in case you wondered if it actually came - yes it did, Snow Happens. Of course, you are reading this starting almost in the middle of April so we will all know by then when the next snow came - I really hope there is no next snow, but each week the weatherman says, "this is the last one of the season!" Perhaps he should keep his mouth shut and not keep jinxing it.

Anyway, let's return to yester-month, way back in October 2014 and what turned out to be our last trip of 2014. We have been going away for Meryl's birthday for years and years. Meryl does not like the date her birthday is, and we leave to try to avoid it. We were off for four nights and five days - Tuesday to Saturday. Reservations were made for this trip in September and we looked at the site that we would be in then, to make sure it was going to be fine. My only concern was that the electric pedestal was a distance from the edge of the site and we decided when we saw this that we would bring the RV extension cord with us. It takes up some room in the rear storage but it is better to have it than to not reach to plug in. We were all set and the weather, as usual, seemed would be dismal mid-week. We were both very anxious to make this trip as there was something that we had to see.

This takes me back to September so we shall flashback - just like in the movies - for a few moments. One of the places we very much enjoy going to and that I have written about in past articles of past trips is the Green Dragon Farmer's Market in Ephrata, PA. It may sound strange to those who like to go into the woods and get away from everything and to those who go to the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, but this to us is the best day of a trip to this area - and it is only open on Fridays. Twice in 2014 we missed getting to it - the last was on our last trip when we had to change the trip itinerary due to the funeral that I spoke about in Part 6.  In early September there was a major fire at Green Dragon Farmer's Market. I learned of it on Facebook and we tried to find as much information about it as we could - and find out just how much burned. When we heard about the fire we were heartbroken - as if it was a close friend's home we were hearing about. Searching the internet we found very disturbing video footage of the fire as it was being fought by multiple fire companies - the video taken with a camera attached to the helmet of a fireman. The video was dizzying to watch as it moved jerkily around as this man moved through the burning structures and looked in every direction as he did. It took us a little time to orient ourselves to where he was and what he was looking at and then very familiar scenes came into recognition through the black smoke, the flames, and the night sky. The fire started at night - seen from the road by someone driving by who called the fire department. The fire, it was learned later, started in a snack bar kitchen located in a very large building that housed an animal auction and also a furniture store. (Yes, an odd combination.) There were no animals in the building or on the grounds at the time of the fire. Just behind this building there are a number of permanent vendor stands in pre-built sheds. In front of the building there is a covered area of produce stands and vendors. The auction building, what is behind, and what was in front were ablaze. As this fire fighter moved on, we were watching where we have walked many times over many years burn to ashes.

The week right after the fire the owners of the market went into gear to make sure the market would open in two weeks and they did. They cleared the burned rubble. We saw photos of this as they did. They got sections temporarily ready to open again and brought in a generator to provide the electricity as the fire went right up the electric poles in this section of the market. We very much wanted to be there both to give our support to everyone there and to see for ourselves that what we care so much about was coming back. We missed that at the end of September. Whether it was pouring this trip of not, we were going. End of flashback...  Currently, a new building just began construction.

So we were were going. We left on a Tuesday with decent weather and headed southwest. We arrived at the campground, checked in quickly and only stopped at the site to test the electic box for proper voltage and polarity. Best to do this first, because if there is a problem the site needs to be changed or the campground has to repair it right away to be in proper working order for use. Tip - get a polarity tester ($5), a voltage meter ($30), and a 30 amp plug to 15 amp socket adapter ($8) and do this first thing when coming into a campsite at a campground. All tested well and we were off for the afternoon to another Farmers Market - Roots Market. (A close second to Green Dragon but not as good.)

We had a nice time at Roots and had dinner out and eventually came back to the campground at night - which is our usual mode when traveling. We had to find a level spot on the site - if there was one - and we were prepared this trip for the first time with our new Andersen Levelers, and then hook up electric and cable. It is about ten o'clock at night and we move around the space and actually find a spot that was nicely level - no need for the levelers and I am not complaining. In fact it was so good we made a written note of the site number to know that this would be our second choice when "our" site is not available. We set down our "level markers" to be able to get to that level location on the site quickly when we came back in the next night. I have made some additions and changes to these which we can talk about in some other article. Next we were to find out if we needed the extension cord or not and when we took out the entire length of the Roadtrek's power cord it just made it to the pedestal. We did not need the extension cord. A couple of more feet away and we would have. Again, better to have it than not, because if we had left it home we would have needed it. I also put out a new flag that we had bought on our August trip to alternate with the one we have been using for a couple of years. I staked the flag stand into the grass at the side of the site and attached the new flag. Nice. We were set and went into the Roadtrek for television and eventually bed.

The next day was pouring and we spent the afternoon in an indoor antique mall while it rained outside and by the time we were coming out from there the rain was stopping. When we got back to the campground that night we had a different campground experience for us. As we were getting hooked up, a dog came over to our site - now again, this is around ten o'clock at night. The campground is actually crowded. There are RVs and trailers all around. And here is this dog loose with no one in sight that seems to be looking for him. It was not a very large dog but large or small I am cautious with any stray dog - and Meryl is afraid of dogs and has been so since a young child and she was anxious to finish hooking up and get inside away from the dog. I talked quietly to the dog and kept telling him to go "home" - still no one is looking for him. We finished outside as quickly as we could and headed inside and this was a cue for the dog to start barking. I told him to go away and we went inside. He stayed outside around our site and barked and barked. And everyone decided it was our dog - and there is yelling to shut the dog up and the dog is barking. Eventually someone must have taken the dog away as there was some activity outside and then the dog was gone. I was certain that the next day we would get an earful from our neighbors or the campground owners. No one said anything - no one was around when we were unhooking the next day to go off for the day.

I will jump ahead to our visit to Green Dragon - post fire. They did a remarkable job getting things back to almost normal. The building, of course, was gone. The cement slab floor was all that remained. The covered section in the front was temporarily replaced with a very large tarped canopy. The smell of smoke was still evident -and the most blatant evidence of the fire was the vinyl siding on some of the vendor sheds behind where the building stood that had melted from the heat of the fire. I have never seen anything like that. It was curled and distorted - and in some places gone with melted plastic left behind over the charred plywood outer wall of the shed. What was most encouraging to see was that Green Dragon had risen from the ashes and was as busy as always.

While at Green Dragon I found a book at the book stand that I knew I could not pass up. It is an obscure volume by an obscure author that was printed in London in the year 1746. It is a thick book that had been rebound sometime in the 20th Century but the "new" cover was coming away from the cover pages - but the entire 18th Century book itself was in excellent condition. For $25, no matter what the subject matter of the book was - and it happened to be a collection of writings of the author including personal observations of people and the state of affairs of the period - I was buying it - and I did. I have, with the guidance of a friend who is a craftsman and artist, repaired the cover - not touching the 18th Century pages and the book is now readable. Touching the pages is touching the past. For a historian, that is just remarkable. I have a very few other books printed in the 18th Century but the pages are near crumbling. This one is very different.  I have researched the author and he is of minor note. (Aside over.)

I have not mentioned not being able to find RV antifreeze for the coming winterizing we would have to do. There was none on the shelves in the stores at home. There usually is at this time of the year but even the expensive brands were not there. I had figured to find it in PA but I was not seeing it here either. We just happened to be  in an area heading to a restaurant that we had not been to in a while where there is a large multi-supply store that we have been to a few times over the years and found it there - and on sale - but this made me realize not to wait until almost November again to buy RV antifreeze.

Let's go to the night when we return to the campground. We arrive at the site and back in and I am feeling that there is something wrong. After we hook up I walk around the site and realize that my flag and flag stand are gone. I am furious. Meryl, of cooler head, suggests that perhaps someone - once again - thought that we had left and were not coming back and took it to the office. This has happened before - which I though that my ever present and obvious sign that says "Just Gone for the Day! Will Be BACK TONIGHT" would take care of. The sign was still there. The level markers were still there. The flag and flag stand were gone. The office was closed so we had to wait until the morning which I awaited fuming. The large trailer with the big truck that stuck into the lane that had been in the site opposite to ours that had made it difficult every time we needed to back into our space was also gone. All of the others around us were still there. I cannot accuse but I was certain.

The next morning - Saturday and the day we were leaving it was heavily overcast and the forecast for rain was for later. Meryl went to the office to find our about the flag as she keeps calm when I will blow. Best that she went as when she returned with no flag it was clear that it had been stolen. The people in the office at this campground are very nice and they said that should it appear they would hold onto it for us. The flag was gone. It would never appear. Someone is enjoying our flag that they stole.  We keep reading and hearing that people who RV and camp are all so nice and friendly. We wave and say hello and rarely get waved back to or said hello back to. The little Roadtrek is an oddity to them in the middle of their huge bus RVs and super-sized trailers. Rather than the norm being those who actually are friendly - it is the opposite. Those who are friendly or are friendly back to our efforts are the rarity. That's OK - and when I mention this to other RVers I often get agreement - they too find other RVers are not all peaches and cream!

So we waste time this morning that we must leave finding out about the missing flag and now we have to unhook and get underway. My plan was to repeat the flushing of the black tank as I had at the end of the last trip and saw, finally, the black tank sensors read empty. The black and grey tanks have to be dumped and then the black tank is flushed and as we get ready to unhook it starts to rain - but not just a shower - a downpour. And we have no choice but to keep going and get the tanks dumped. We could not leave this until we got home as there is no convenient place to dump the tanks near or at home - and now the date is November 1 and we have to winterize very soon - that coming week just in case the temperatures start to drop into freezing. As those with Roadtreks with macerators know, the button to operate the macerator is inside the driver's door at the bottom of the driver's seat. That button is a hold in to operate button. If you let go, the macerator stops. To operate this you open the door, stand outside in the door well and push the button. I push the button while Meryl bends down over the dump hole and holds the hose over the hole to dump the tanks. It was pouring and the rain was pouring into the front of the Roadtrek. It was filling the pockets in the door soaking what is in them, it was wetting the seat, it was wetting the dash. It was flooding the inside of the driver's area. You can't rush dumping the tanks. The macerator pump grinds and pumps at just one speed. And there are two tanks to dump. It seemed like it was taking forever - even though I was throwing towels down, everything was getting soaked. So much for flushing the black tank. When we were done it read Full and shortly later it read 2/3 and that is how it stayed. This was the crown jewel in the rotten peach. This was the ultimate It Ain't All Peaches and Cream end to the 2014 RVing season.

Before we left Pennsylvania, that Saturday, we bought another flag stand and I also bought a two foot metal stake with a ring on the top. The plan now is to put the flag on one side of the front of the site and the metal stake on the other. A bright yellow poly rope will be run between the two in front of the entrance to the campsite. When we leave each morning, the rope will be put up. There should be no way to think then that the site has been vacated and things left behind - as that rope can only be put up that way on the way out indicating that we are coming back. Who knows?  If they are going to steal, they just don't care if you are coming back or not. This at least gives the benefit of the doubt that people are honest. Maybe.

So you have come down this winding path with me. Mostly it was the weather that determined what was and what wasn't though there were non-weather related excitements as well. Some call RVing a "Lifestyle". I often see it as an endurance challenge.

As I started out saying in this article, it is a couple of day before April and it is snowing. Now it is 26 degrees outside. By now, in years past I would have de-winterized already. Temperatures are predicted to be well below normal for this week ahead and it is unlikely that there will be a significant difference the week after. I am really not sure when we can safely de-winterize. We should be making arrangements to take the Roadtrek to dealer/service to change the oil in the generator and I would like to have them install a digital voltage meter inside connected to the monitor panel test switch to get an accurate reading of the coach batteries' voltage at just the push of a button. Hopefully they will do this and will have such a meter to install or I will have to find one to take to them - if they can put it in. I would love to say that the 2015 RVing season is about to get off on the right foot, but if that is going to happen that step will have to wait, at least for now.

Well, it still isn't all peaches and cream!

Thanks for bearing this long, convoluted journey with me. We will all keep smiling - me too.

End of Part 7 and the end of this series.












 




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It Isn't All Peaches and Cream Part 6

We have come a long way together on this convoluted look at our 2014 RVing season. We come now to the Fall and we are at the end of September. We annually go to a quilt show outside Philadelphia every year and stay over at our favorite campground in Lancaster. This trip was planned for awhile and the campground reservations had been made for Thursday and Friday when we were at the campground in August. We plan this trip to be at the quilt show on Thursday and have Friday for one of our favorite spots - Green Dragon Farmers Market open only on Fridays.  As one of my readers pointed out very recently - as Rosanna Rosanadana once said - "Its always something!" Well, things happen and things were happening.

Our reenacting unit was contacted by a special historic site that was asking us to come and do an encampment. The date was the Sunday of the weekend we would be in Pennsylvania. As Commander of the unit I am not really able not to be there for this type of event - and even though we would be back for Sunday, Meryl and I spend the day before an event preparing for what will be needed the next day. Well, I started making arrangements with other members to take on the tasks that we should have been doing. Things were set - we would be exhausted to getting to this event the next day but I alerted everyone that we would be there - but later than the start. Fine - obstacle averted.

We get to the week of the trip. The weather for this trip appears to be actually cooperating and we are getting ready to go - and we get a phone call. The wife of a good friend has passed away. The funeral would be Thursday. No question - we were going to a funeral rather than leaving on this trip. A fast call to the campground and we delay arrival until Friday and let them know that our two day stay is now one day. This campground has always been great with us in allowing us to cancel or make last minute changes to our reservations. No problem at the campground. We would go to the quilt show on Friday and stay at the campground that night. Saturday we would spend the day in Lancaster, have dinner and head back at night - not too late.

I want to say that this trip is rather uneventful but there are is a minor and a good major event that take place on this trip. We knew the site that we would have in the campground. What we were not aware of was that in the site we were in we were facing a large street lamp that lights the central intersection of the campground. This should be no problem but it stays on all night and the three roof windows in the front of the Roadtrek faced this very bright light. The covers that came with my Roadtrek to block out these windows do not fit snug to the edges. The center window - the largest - has a cover that warped our first year in the Roadtrek still in the window as the August hot sun rose in the morning and heated the window and the composite plastic cover and warped it like a "U". I have been looking to eliminate these windows in some manner for some time. If pointed toward the sunrise, the morning sun comes in around the edges of the covers and streams in waking us way before two "night" people want to wake up. I had tried before this trip to flatten this cover out - clamping it between two boards and heating it with a heat gun. It actually looked flat when it came out and cooled but when placed on the window it went back to its "U" shape. I brought along some foam and my plan was to stuff strips of it around the edges of the covers - sealing the edges.  A while back I made Reflectix covers for these windows - (I will not go into what Reflectix is now as that is an article all on its own) and while it would seem that these covers should work as I made them larger than the windows, they are too flexible and don't sit close enough to not allow the light to still stream in around the loose edges. I have even tried to combine the Reflectix covers with the original plastic ones but this is too thick to fit under the turn clips that hold the covers in place. It turned out that this is the same problem with my idea of putting foam around the edges. No, we had the light from the street lamp at night and the sun streaming through in the morning.

Now one major good thing occurred on the day we were leaving. This was the day that we actually saw the black tank sensor on the monitor panel show empty. A first! Not even on the day we took delivery did the tank show empty! This story appears in the article, "For the First Time...". This was a reason to cheer and it got a big "Huzzah!" out of me when I saw it. As you will see in the article about this linked, it was a short lived experience.

Well, we got stuck in traffic coming home - no bangs, but that lingering mysterious vibration was still evident and as I said in the last article in this series, it seems to be the third seat - but I still have not come up without a way to secure that. And then, of course, there is the wobbling that seems to be coming from outside and mysteriously comes and goes with no predictability. The fire extinguisher was secure in its foam bed and that noise (hopefully) is a thing of the past. We got home a little later than we would have liked to and we got to the event the next morning at Noon which was nicely underway without us thanks to the wonderful group of men, women, and children in our unit. That afternoon we had some nice first person interactions with visitors and with other members - bringing history to life and creating a time travel experience for those who came to see us.

I had thought that this would be the last article in this series, but once I start writing, things get longer than I start out anticipating - so one more time. And the "S" word is in the weather again - (this is being written about six days before it will be on the site) go figure end of March and there is "S" in the forecast ("S" starts a four letter word - your choice, no difference), so who knows when I will be able to de-winterize and actually pull the Roadtrek out of the drive way so... Since 7 has been a good number for me -

End of Part 6

PART 7 (and that really "should be" the last part) NEXT.

Changes at Old Mill Stream Campground, Lancaster, PA

We stay at this campground whenever we are in Lancaster, PA and that is several times a year. When we were there at the end of October 2013 we learned that for the first time the campground would be closing for the winter - then at the end of December. We had reservations to come back there at the beginning of December as a return stop from Virginia, but because of very bad weather, that trip was cancelled. It was not until the Spring that I started planning for trips that would begin in the Spring and into the summer. For some reason I decided to go to the Old Mill Stream website. I was a bit taken back to find a very different looking website. It had become a website plainer in appearance and the personal touches of the previous site were gone. I also saw that there were some major changes at the campground over the winter. This campground has been owned by the Dutch Wonderland Amusement Park (a theme park for young children located on the lot adjacent). I began to wonder if with the changes the very nice couple who managed the campground were still there. Over the several years of going there we had become friendly with the people who work there and felt like we were with friends when we were there.

To read my first review of this campground please see this article. Many things are still the same. If they are not the same, you will read about the changes here. 

It was not until we actually walked through the door of the office to check in on our next trip there that we were certain that these same very nice, friendly and accommodating people were still managing the campground and were still there. The people are the same but there have been changes.

The most important change has been the conversion of the "T" sites - sites that had one common entrance to two camper spaces - into independent back in sites. I have been in "T" sites here a few times and never liked them. If you were the only one in the site there was no problem, of course. But if you were sharing the site with a large trailer that needed room to hitch up to leave while you were in the site, there was a potential problem. (Though one skilled trailer tow car driver managed to do it without a problem with us in front of him once.) Many reviews of this campground mention the "T" sites as undesirable and a negative. All of those sites with the exception of one are gone. The one that remains has its front site as a pull through - a site we have been in many times and has been a site we preferred over some others. So, if you read about this campground in reviews and you see "T" sites mentioned - they are GONE! As half of the campground had been these "T" sites, this is a major change.

Another change has been the addition of cabins, taking the place of several sites and also four sites for Teepees that are complete with furnishings. We saw the small cabins - and they are typical of what you find at campgrounds. I was really curious to see a teepee and the furnishings inside. There were none set up when we were there in the sites they are designated in on the map. It may be that they set these up as needed or they have not yet set them up yet. They are listed on the rate schedule.

*This campground will now continue to close for the winter but not at the end of December but rather at the end of November. This actually causes a personal problem for us as we come back here when we go to Virginia in the first week of December - and now that will no longer be possible. There are other campgrounds that remain open in this area 12 months a year (not all but some) and we will have to go to one of those if we have decent weather to travel to the outdoor winter event we go to in Virginia. (We actually took a few detours to see some of those campgrounds on this most recent trip and found some to be on roads so twisting into the mountains that there would be no way I would want to drive that in the winter with possible ice in the dark. We did find two that would be fine and we will have to decide between the two before next December.)

*During a September visit I asked about their closing for the winter and I was told that despite what the website says, they will be open all year. The will not close for the winter - which is good news for us!  On our next trip, I will confirm this and make sure it is true.

Check in and check out time has also changed. In the past both were 2:00 pm. They decided to give some time between the two and now check in is at 3:00 pm and check out is at 11:00 am. As we are not morning people this check out time concerned me, as we generally spend the final morning of our stay here dumping the tanks and refilling the fresh tanks - even if just to have water on board for the trip home. This all can take some time unless one likes getting up and out early - which we don't. I spoke about this with our friend at the desk and I no longer have any concern about it.

I have held the negative change for last - the rates have increased and they have increased a lot. The rate has been $48 a night for the past two years and I recall less than that our first year coming here. On season rates are now $55 Sunday to Thursday, $60 Friday and Saturday, and $65 for holiday weekend nights. These are full hook up sites - electric, water, sewer, and cable - 20 amp/30 amp/50 amp. There are about 4 electric and water only sites for less. Off season rates are now less.  This now makes this campground the most expensive of the other campgrounds in the area - though some of those campgrounds charge additional for "extras" that are included here. This is now the most expensive campground that we stay in. Yes, it is a lot. It is actually less than some areas in the Northeast. Location is prime here. This campground is in the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch attractions. It also has a fishing stream across the back border of the campground and a full view of farm fields and pastures behind across the stream. I have often seen cows at the stream - and in the stream - as we have gotten ready to head out for the day. None of this really justifies the price that they are now charging. For now, I am willing to pay the increased rates. We will see what happens in the future especially after we experience one of the two that we have found for the winter. And for all I know the other campgrounds here will follow suit and raise their rates also. Hotels here have become very expensive and this area has visitors steady from April to January. This is a popular area to travel to and this campground fills and books to full for holiday weekends a year in advance. As I have said in articles about our trips to this area, this is my home away from home. When I come I want no stress and to know that things are as I expect them to be. I have that here - at least now that I know what has changed and what remains the same.

The restrooms and showers are spotless and there are "single room restroom/showers available - often called Family Restrooms. Cable reception is still 48 channels and wifi is good.  There are clean laundry machines. Sites remain fairly level. It does take some maneuvering in the space with the Roadtrek to find the spot on the site that is level. With the new changes, they have raised the dump pipe up about six inches on each site. I now longer will be driving over it backing into the site. (No that could not have been me!  ;)  )  Sites are shady and the whole campground is in the "woods" with trees everywhere. Roads in the campground are paved. Sites are gravel. There is a small shop selling some RV accessories, snacks, and fishing things. They also sell propane.

One other positive change that has nothing to do with the campground. I am able to now get a number of over the air antenna channels here without having to raise the antenna on the roof of the Roadtrek. This was not so in the past. The area broadcasters must have increased their signals. There is one over the air channel that comes into our cable at home that we like to watch and that is not on the line up of cable channels here - so late at night when we are looking to watch that here, all we do is push the antenna button and set the TV to antenna channels and there it is. A few button clicks and we can go back and forth. We always could get it in the past with the antenna up here but now that is not necessary.

So there you have it. I still recommend it - aside from the new rates. If you don't want to pay this much try one of the others, there are several to choose from. If you don't like staying in campgrounds then don't come here or to any of them in this area  - or anywhere. Everyone is free to make the choice they favor. I like campgrounds and knowing I have a site for the night and power to plug into to use our air conditioner. It gets hot here in the summer and inside the Roadtrek the temperature has risen to over 100 degrees F. For health and comfort I will pay for a campground.

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 3

TRIP DAY 1 Tuesday:

Before we left this morning we turned on the coach batteries and started the refrigerator. All of the last minute items were brought out and packed away. Meryl went through the inside of the Roadtrek making sure everything was closed and secured for travel. Using the walkie-talkies Meryl guided me down the driveway and into the 4 lane avenue in front of our house. She got in and we were on our way. We were leaving around 10 am to avoid the rush hour traffic earlier that would have detained us until now anyway.

Getting off Long Island takes longer and longer with construction on all of the main exit roads off the Island. In Queens NY on a limited access road we heard a noise behind us and Meryl looked back into the rear of the Roadtrek and saw that the refrigerator door had swung open. She had been sure that everything was closed and secured inside before we left. Evidently the fridge door latch had not been set. There was no where and no way to pull over on this road and ahead traffic was stopped. We saw an exit and knew that up ahead on the streets there was a shopping center that we have seen along this road in the past. We got off and tried to make our way through New York City borough traffic to get to the parking lot of the shopping center that we could see up ahead. This was not a place one wants to drive anything large that one cares about.  We got to the entrance of the shopping center and pulled in. I have rarely seen a Home Depot parking lot so busy on a Tuesday morning. The lanes were tight and there were cars moving everywhere. We made our way through to an empty corner of the parking lot and pulled over. Meryl got out of her sent, went back into the Roadtrek, and closed and latched the fridge. We were back on our way.

 The weather when we left the house was unexpectedly dry but heavily overcast.  As we moved from traveling west to south the rain started - but not heavy. We were making fairly good time despite pulling right into the traffic that had been stopped when we got back on route. The rain came and went and came back again.  We actually saw sun break  through the clouds as we got into Pennsylvania. We arrived at the campground in 4 and a half hours as expected with a half hour stop for lunch at a rest area on the PA Turnpike.

When we checked in at the desk in the campground office the lady (who seems to know us now) told me that the people who had reserved our original space for this day had left early and we could have the space that we reserved for the rest of the week today rather than tomorrow. Wonderful! This is our preferred site in this campground. It is easy to get into. It is right across from the restrooms and showers. It is even easier to get out of and quickly be on our way each morning. While we were at the desk we reserved the site for next year's Fourth of July week to be sure we would have it.

We pulled into the site and checked the electric box. Even though we have been in this site before we always check the electric box - first for polarity and then for voltage. Both were perfect. I then put out our banner and stand on the site (the one from my tale about our not so nice visit with Yogi Bear). I staked the stand in the grass on the corner of the site. With that, we were off for to enjoy the remainder of the day.

The refrigerator started to cool down quickly. It usually takes only about two hours to get cold but today it was inconsistent. It was not going down below 40 F and below 40 F and above 32 F is where my insulin has to be kept. Several times Meryl made adjustments to the thermostat up and down during the day.

One of the reasons why I wanted to add Tuesday to this trip was to go back to Root'sMarket. That was where we were headed. At Roots we found that they were having a garden plant auction. There were hundreds of garden plants being auctioned way below retail prices and you were bidding on as many as you wanted - even just one. This was so tempting as the plants looked so much fuller and nicer than anything we had at home. The problem is that there was no way that we could fit three large flower pots over-bursting with flowers in the Roadtrek. Finding large things to take home is often a problem with a Class B RV - there is just so much storage space to carry things - and these plants were not going to fit under the bed (nor did we want to be sleeping over them). 

We had a nice time at Roots and then it was then off to dinner. Dinner was on the other side of Lancaster County and we had a pleasant drive to a very nice meal at which I over-indulged. The first PA Dutch meal of a trip tends to make me make up for what I have missed since the last trip. I very likely over did the carbs and I hesitate to test my blood glucose later and see what I did to myself with my very nice meal.

After dinner we got gas for the second time today. Gas prices in New Jersey and here in Pennsylvania are 30 to 40 cents a gallon less than they are in New York. I don't wait for the tank to go below half as I don't like to see the price that results on the pump  - and even though spread out it is the same thing, it is easier to take (psychologically, at least) a little at a time. Today I filled up when the tank went below three-quarters. I would rather stop for gas when I have nothing else to do, than stop on my way to someplace I want to get to.  Because of the length of the Roadtrek and the location of the gas pipe in the rear corner it is necessary to pull all the way through at the gas pump and this usually means sticking out into the lane that vehicles use to exit from the pumps. At some small gas stations this can cause a problem.

When we returned to the campground, Meryl guided me - again with the walkie-talkies - into the site and close to the electric box. I stopped and the spot was perfectly level in all directions. That is another reason I love this site. (This is not the case in all of the sites at this campground- though they are not far off from level.)  As I was getting out of the Roadtrek so that together we could hook up the electric and cable, Meryl asked if I had moved the banner and stand before we left. No, I had not. I had placed it and left it. Well, it was gone! Again! There is something about this banner that it disappears when we leave and come back. This happened in Maryland! We decided one of three things had happened. Someone from the office, knowing the last people on the site had left early had forgotten their banner and took it into the office. A friend of the people still here thought that those people had forgotten a banner and took it to hold for them. OR Someone stole it. I hope not. In the morning we will go to the office and find out. Before we went inside the Roadtrek for the night, we put our level markers down on the gravel next to the front and rear driver's side tires.

After hooking up, we went into the Roadtrek to settle in for the night and we have a routine each night. The curtains are closed around the windows, the front seats are turned to face the back, and a fabric popup waste basket that holds a plastic shopping bag is set between the seats in front of the van’s glove compartment where it fits perfectly. All of the straps that we use to indicate what must be secured in the morning go onto the steering wheel. Each small leather strap has a name stamped on it – electric, water pump, cable, cabinets, etc.   Then the TV gets unsecured and scanned for channels. Since the last time we were here we had trouble getting antenna channels, I tried out a new device that we have that I will write about in its own article in the near future. With the antenna pointed in the direction of the strongest signal, I scanned the antenna channels on the TV and got two channels. This could not be. I then set the TV to turn off scanning for "additional" channels which would clear any channels previously stored from past scans and scanned again. Now 14 digital channels came in nice and clear. There were some channels on the antenna that we enjoy at home and are not on the cable feed here. We left the antenna up and with a switch of the A/B switch and the TV channel input setting on the TV menu we could watch back and forth between the antenna and the cable. I know many do not care about TV while they are traveling. We do.

I also turned on the A/C to find the noise that we had repaired at dealer/service in March is back again -  right from the  start of running.  Another trip to service at some point will be necessary and hopefully since the problem was reported and "repaired” while under the A/C's warranty just a few months ago, this will still be covered now that the A/C warranty has passed its two years. We shall see...

Another thing that I found was that when I flushed the toilet, sediment came shooting out with the water - as it had a year ago. The water ran, but in the water it looked like dark gravel coming out with it. This had not happened a month ago during our last trip. It seemed to stop about three flushes later.

I did not turn on the propane. There is no need for it. The water in the tanks has been in the outside heat now for a few days and is plenty warm on its own. There is no need for hotter water. In fact, it would be nice to have colder water – but that is in the fridge.

The routine will be the same every night and does not take very long. The inside of the Roadtrek has been transformed from a vehicle into a comfortable room with all of the amenities of a fine hotel room.

With that all set we settled in and I started writing this. Meryl took some time to get out the last minute bag and move what was inside to the cabinets. She then settled down with her laptop using the campgrounds fairly good wifi signal. The local weather report on the TV news says that it will may rain tomorrow - there is a chance, but there is less of a chance of rain on Thursday, the Fourth of July.

 END OF PART 3. PART 4 NEXT WEEK

ANATOMY OF A TRIP Part 1

This article is an exercise in presenting a trip in the Roadtrek in a different way and it is also being written in a different way which I will not reveal until the end. We are about to undertake a road trek in our Roadtrek. I am going to take you though this trip with us day by day from preparation to departure to return. I will present the mundane and not always interesting things involved in a trip in the Roadtrek. You will get rather the things that happen on some and all trips day by day. Bear with me and you will learn about what you may also need to do when traveling in your Roadtrek.  As I write this at this moment the trip has not yet taken place. Each day after it occurs will be noted. Look upon this as a “Captain’s Log”.

Reservations were made for this trip one year ago - yes, one year ago as this trip takes place over the week of Fourth of July. When we were at this campground a year ago we were advised that if we wanted the same site or any reservation at all for the following year then we better make it right then. I did decide about a month before the trip to increase the trip by a day at the beginning. The campground did have a site but not the site that we had reserved for the rest of the trip. This was not a problem. We would just move the next day into the other site. I made the reservation. The destination for this trip is Lancaster, PA where I have spent the Fourth of July for almost every year for the last 50 or so years. Lancaster is a home away from home for me and the Roadtrek makes it even more so. The trip will last four nights and five days.

Many look at the Roadtrek and feel that you can just take off at any time- and for some this is true, but we don't keep it ready to go at a moment’s notice. There are things in the house that we need with us that we cannot keep duplicated in the Roadtrek. There are many things that we do have that are always kept in it. It does take us a bit of time to prepare for a trip.

TRIP DAY minus 5 Thursday:

The weather reports for the trip week are not good. As it was this week every day, next week is to be scattered thunderstorms. So far this week we only saw brief showers on Monday. Perhaps next week will be the same. In anticipation of possible rain, Meryl decided to bring some of the bedding items that we had moved into the house after the last trip into the Roadtrek to avoid having wet pillows. These were taken out so that they would not be in the way when we did some work inside the Roadtrek during the month.

 

We store the pillows and blankets in large laundry bags between trips. These bags usually sit on the seat cushions in the back. 

We also stopped the mail and newspaper for next week. Meryl printed out her check lists for preparing for a trip. This is a list with all the do not forgets on it and it includes all of the things that need to be done when we return. She crosses each item off after it is done and before we leave the house for the trip it must be all crossed off except for the return section that is set off on the page. The list is left home and does not come with us. If as we walk out the door to leave, there is something not crossed off, we better go and get it.

TRIP DAY minus 4 Friday:

I checked the tire pressure using the dash tire monitor. Front tires are both 60 psi . This is where I like them to be. Rear tires are both 81 psi. The rear tires should be 80 but the dash monitor can be off by 2 psi so it is close enough. The tires are good to go.

We plugged into shore power at the house so that we could turn on the air conditioner so that Meryl could go inside an make the beds in the heat. It is better to make the beds before we leave as it takes awhile and it is easier to do this when you are not tired after a day of travel. Many with the power sofa bed just set up the bed each night and if using sleep sacks this is easy to do. We make the king bed with full sets of sheets.   The bed gets made up and stay made up for the entire trip.

The weather reports have not changed, but they not having gotten worse is a good thing. This is reminding me of our main vacation trip last summer where the weather reports were similar. 

END OF PART 1. PART 2 NEXT WEEK.

 

Sundays in Lancaster, PA

After our jaunt into the past - with all of its surprises - we headed back to the present with a few days in Lancaster, PA. As planning for this trip turned out, we arrived in Lancaster on a Saturday night and our first day there would be a Sunday. We have been avoiding being in Lancaster on Sundays. Most of the local attractions here and the local Pennsylvania Dutch restaurants are closed on Sundays. This is an area where the main attraction is the large Amish and Mennonite farm population. These are very religious people. There entire lives are lived around their religion and their beliefs and business on Sundays does not take place.

What is left to do in this area is everything that is non-Pennsylvania Dutch related. There are large outlet centers here. This was one of the first areas in the country with outlet stores and I am talking back to the 1960s. In addition there is the Strasburg Railroad, a steam locomotive railroad attraction that will take you on a ride on an old steam engine pulled train through the farmlands of Paradise, Pennsylvania. Across from the Strasburg Railroad is the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum with an extensive collection of engines and rolling stock. The museum will appeal to the "rail fans". The Strasburg will appeal to everyone and it also has small train rides for the kids. Right next to the Old Mill Stream Campground is Dutch Wonderland, an amusement park for younger children. This is a perfect way to spend a Sunday with young kids. If you are up to driving a slight distance, Lancaster is about an hour or so to Gettysburg and in another direction to Hershey. You can visit the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg (this year is the 150th Anniversary of the three day battle which took place from July 1 through July3). In Hershey there is a large amusement theme park, an attraction about making Hershey's chocolate, and a zoo.

One of the best things to do on a Sunday in Lancaster is take off in your Roadtrek (or car) and head onto the roads that run among the Amish farms and enjoy the rolling fields and hills which depending on the season are either being planted, harvested, or sitting waiting for the warm weather to return. You will pass fields of cows and horses. You will see Amish and Mennonite homes that have no electricity and plumbing that is supplied by a windmill pumping water to the house from a well. In a way we were still time traveling - but this time we were looking in on people living in a way that many today have forgotten how to do, but that these people do every day of their lives. Amish transportation is a horse and buggy and you will see them on every road including some very busy roads along side car and truck traffic.

Sundays for the Amish are either Church Sundays or Visiting Sundays - these alternate week to week. Either way you will see Amish buggies on the side roads either on their way or coming home from their services or from visiting friends on their farm. You may see Amish children and teens playing ball. You may see large gatherings of people outside a house on a farm. This is how the Amish spend their Sundays and as a visitor if you keep your distance, don't stop, but drive by you can witness this part of their lives.

I have said this in almost every article I have written about visiting Lancaster. Be very careful of the buggies on the Road when passing them. You will inevitably encounter a horse and buggy on a hill on a one lane in each direction farm road - which most of them are - and these roads turn and climb in such a way that you are blind to any traffic coming down in the single opposite direction. It is best to wait until you have reached the top of the hill and can see clearly what is coming toward you in the opposite lane before you attempt to pass the buggy. Yes, this sometimes means driving at 5 mph with a line of cars behind you but it is better to wait than to risk your lives and the lives of the people in the buggy. It is not uncommon to see the results of those who did not follow this simple advice.

Another thing to be aware of in this area. It is against the Amish religious beliefs to have photos taken of them - in particular their faces. Do not take pictures of them. At a distance you may photograph the back of a buggy as it goes past and you can photograph the beautiful fields and farms, but not the people. Following this is a sign of respect.  The Amish are not unapproachable and if you would like to talk to an Amish person you will encounter them (on any day but Sunday) at a variety of businesses that they work at or at a farm stand on the road at the edge of a farm where many Amish sell produce to those driving by. But you will not see any that are open on a Sunday.

We left the campground that Sunday morning after arranging with the very nice people who are in the office at Old Mill Stream Campground to move to one of our regular sites which would be available that afternoon. We made a stop for lunch - nothing exciting is open in the way of lunch restaurants on a Sunday so it was lunch at McDonalds and then headed out for a drive through the farm fields. And just as I indicated above we encountered more than one buggy climbing a hill.

We also headed over to the Strasburg Railroad, but not to ride the train but to see the trains. There is  construction going on now at Strasburg and there have been some changes made to the children's attractions there. The small steam train ride has been moved and now spreads the length of the property making the ride - for kids and adults - longer. At one end of the line there is a small turntable to turn the engine in the opposite direction and this is something most have never seen in operation. This small it is easy to see how it works and is a must to show kids whose heads now think in terms of computers and electronics instead of mechanics.

While most think of these steam trains as coming from the 19th Century, many that you see in operation in museums like the Strasburg Railroad actually were in use in the United States until the 1950s. Today you will only see them in places like this.

We left the Strasburg Railroad to do some mundane things like shopping and of all places that we could go to any day at home we went to Home Depot for a few things that we would need at home when we got back. After that we had dinner, our usual trip at night when traveling to Walmart (it is more for a place do some walking for exercise than for shopping though we get some shopping in too), and then headed back to the campground. As promised by the hosts, the site we wanted was empty and we pulled into our usual - and level - site.

Sunday night TV is not particularly exciting, especially late night TV. The campground has cable but on this particular Sunday night there was nothing of interest on. There would be on the digital over the air signals through the antenna and I put the antenna up and switched the TV and the A/B switch over to Antenna and started the TV scanning for channels. I had the antenna pointed toward the city of Lancaster where most of the broadcast signals come from. We have had good reception here - in this site - in the past. That night - nothing. I spent almost an hour turning the antenna and scanning without results. I just gave up and switched back to what little there was on the cable.  I mention this only because that night I decided to get a Digital Signal Finder that connects to the antenna and takes away all of the guess work about pointing the antenna. I had seen one in the shop at our Roadtrek dealer. Every time we are there I look at it and don't spend the $40 to buy it. I decided that now I was definitely buying this. (A future article will tell you where to easily get it and how it was to install - and how it works.)

Perhaps you can see now why we avoid Sundays in Lancaster. I am not saying that you should too but after visiting this area for more than 50 years I have found the same about Sundays. Now we plan our trips to spend the week while all things are open and leave late Saturday night for home.

My tales of this trip will continue as we have three more days before we head home. 

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!!!"