A Roadtrek Can Go Anywhere - Almost...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket, CT

On our recent up and back Roadtrek trip to Connecticut in one day, we went at night to Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut is near Ledyard, Connecticut. I am not a gambler. I would like to be but it is an extravagance that I really cannot afford. I have been known to drop some nickles in a slot machine or even a few quarters, but slot machines are not what they once were and now are video games that you put five and ten dollar bills into and push buttons to play credits. This takes the psychological factor away of the money actually leaving your fingers as you pull the handle - oh yes, there are no more handles - as you push the button. But I do like the atmosphere of a casino, particularly the tables and pressure and excitement of lots of money being risked, lost, and occasionally won. I get just as much entertainment walking through a casino floor and watching the play, as sitting down and worrying that when I leave, I will not have the payment that needs to be made that month on the Roadtrek. Meryl has never been a gambler. But we do go to casinos.

What I especially like at casinos are the buffet restaurants, and that was what we were doing at Foxwoods on this night. Before I tell you all about the casino, I want to tell you about this casino and your RV - Roadtrek, other Class B, Class C, or Class A - or travel trailer. Foxwoods has a parking lot for RVs - and you are permitted to stay overnight at the Foxwoods RV parking lot in your RV. I was very interested in seeing the RV parking.

We arrived having an idea where the RV parking lot should be as we have been to Foxwoods before and have driven past a lot that seemed to be it. But there are three parking areas at Foxwoods, each connected to the other by a road that runs along the front of the building, and we were not sure which one the RV parking was in. We drove into the middle entrance - three entrances from the road that the casino is located on - and did not see any outdoor lot, just an indoor parking garage. The height clearance in the three garages is not even close - no way the Roadtrek will fit in. We drove along next to the building to the last parking area. This is at the third entrance coming from north to south on Route 2 which is the access road to the casino. The entrance is called on the signs, Rainmaker Parking. The RV parking if you come into the Rainmaker entrance is on the left side about half way to the casino building. There is a large parking lot here for vehicles in general and at the far lower corner is the actual RV parking lot. It is nothing fancy. It is a paved parking lot with large spaces marked out. You are asked to park close to other RVs to allow spaces for others. There are no hookups. No electric, no water, no sewer and no dumping station.

This is what the lot looks like. As you can see there were not many RVs here and it did not change any later that night when we came out. In this lot you are about a five minute walk to the casino building. There is a shuttle bus that seems to run all night to take you to and from the lot to and from the Foxwoods building.

We actually parked in the lot across from the RV lot. It was almost empty. There was a truck camper parked in one of the spaces. I don't think there would have been any objection had we stayed there all night as the Roadtrek took up only one regular parking space - though I parked head in up against a curb with a grass apron and the front hung over the grass and the rear of the Roadtrek could then be completely in the space without sticking out. At the shuttle bus stop there was a large sign that said RVs must be registered with Security and directed you to the security desk in the Foxwoods building. We were not staying all night, and we did not register that we were there. The intent is that the security car that patrols the parking lots will keep an eye on your safety all night. Rather than take the shuttle bus we decided to walk up the path for the not very long walk. When we got to the building we were not seeing where to go in. Later we found that if you turn right at the building and walk to the middle of the side of the parking garage you will see a large entrance there that will take you to stairs that go right up to where the Hard Rock Cafe is inside the building. We did not see this when we arrived and turned left, went around the side of the building and found an entrance - which took us directly into the Poker Room. There was no problem - unless you are coming in with children as there is a sign at the door that says no one under 21 may enter. You will not have this problem at the entrance by the garage. While we are talking about the RV aspects of Foxwoods, I will skip to when we were leaving. It was about 11 pm - perhaps a little later. We walked to the lot and the Roadtrek. The photo above was taken at the end of the night. You can somewhat make out the RV specific lot in the distance with a few RVs still there. You can also see that we only have cars around us. We got into the Roadtrek and I wanted to see what digital television signals would come through the antenna on the Roadtrek and also if there was any wifi service to be found.

I turned on the battery disconnect switch - a miss-named switch that actually connects and turns on the battery power - and then pushed the inverter switch to have 110 volt power in the Roadtrek. Meryl cranked up the antenna while I unsecured the television and got the remote out of the cabinet. I turned on the TV and with the antenna in its start position, I set the TV to scan for channels. After several minutes only two channels were found. We spent about fifteen minutes turning the antenna, scanning for channels, and then repeating the process. With the antenna directed east we picked up 20 digital channels. There was a good assortment of entertainment channels but none of the big three networks. For a one night stay these were good enough, if we come back and want to stay overnight. We closed all of this down, cranked down the antenna - with a small bit of excitement when inside it seemed that the antenna should have been fully down and when I looked outside it was still half up. Oh boy - you can't drive with it up for so many reasons. I went back in and saw that the direction adjustment wheel was not in the correct position to lower the antenna. I cranked up it to full height, turned the arrow to face exactly where it has to be to lower the antenna and cranked it down. I went outside hoping it was down - and it was.

Before we left I wanted to find out about a wifi signal. I have a small tablet that I brought with us and I turned that on. There was no wifi signal to be found. I assumed that since there is a large hotel in the building that there would be a wifi signal that might reach into the parking lot. It does not - then again, I don't know if there is any signal even in the common areas of the building. And I have been in some casinos where even cell phone service was blocked. We did not try the laptop which we did have with us. That has a stronger wifi antenna than the tablet but most likely there would be no wifi found on the laptop either.

While we were inside the Roadtrek doing all of this the shuttle bus passed us maybe ten times making its rounds. There is good as there is someone passing by regularly to see that all is well.

So let me tell you about Foxwoods. The complex is made up of three buildings all connected to each other. At one end is the MGM Grand at Foxwoods - an MGM casino and hotel. This is connected to a middle and the original building of Foxwoods that is called the Grand Pequot Tower. This large complex is connected to the Great Cedar Hotel and Rainmaker Casino. There are more than four casinos including various casino rooms attached to each. There is a non-smoking casino but be aware that there is smoking allowed in many areas of this complex including common areas. The fourth casino is on an upper floor and is for "high rollers".

There are several entertainment venues in the complex. There is a bandstand in the middle of the rainmaker area that is open for all to enjoy and this starts to get rocking at about 9:00 pm or so. There is a theater for concerts. There is a comedy club. On one of the upper floors there is a bowling alley that is open to all. There are many restaurants and restaurant stands. My favorite restaurant here - and the one we came here for - is the Festival Buffet which during the week is $18.95 and on Friday and Saturdays is $19.95. These are all you can eat, all inclusive meals from soup to dessert and includes unlimited soft drink beverages, tea, and coffee. The menu selections change. On Friday and Saturday nights there is an extensive seafood section added with snow crab legs. (No lobster - not for this price up here in lobster country.) There is really a large assortment of things to eat on every night.

There is a game arcade for children complete with a tree house. There is also a little New England street set up with building facades that are actually shops. There is an assortment of nice but very expensive shops. There is a Rolex store here as well. That is across from the diamonds sold at the jewelry shop. There is also an Apple store next to the MGM Grand casino floor. I guess they would like you to transfer your winnings into gifts to bring home.

If you are a gambler, you will find every game you would like to play. I mentioned the poker room and Texas Holdem was being dealt on a room full of tables. There is black jack, roulette, baccarat, and craps - among other table games. There are huge rooms full of slot machines. No one under 21 is allowed in any casino room.

Foxwoods is owned and operated by the Native American tribe, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. In the complex there is a small exhibit room about the tribe and their history. On the grounds of the complex there is a separate building that houses a large museum about the tribe. Admission is charged to visit the muesuem. I have not been to it, myself, but I am told by an historian who has been in it that it is quite good. On some return trip - especially now with the Roadtrek and the ability to stay here overnight in it - we will visit the museum and I will tell you if my friend was right.

If you are visiting Connecticut and want a place to stay for the night, you can come to Foxwoods, park in the RV lot, enjoy the complex, eat in one of the restaurants, and stay in your RV all night. I do not know how crowded this gets in the summer. This was the beginning of April. It may be that there is no place to stay - but your Roadtrek will fit in a regular space and if you park as we did, you probably will not have any problem getting a spot to stay in. If you leave the next day and come back again at night, I don't think there would be any objection. They want you inside gambling or spending money - and this is how they enable you in your RV to do that.

Living in the Roadtrek - Security Part II

This is the second in a two part article on securing the contents of the Roadtrek from potential crime. Part I was last week's article.

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We needed a way to close off the view from the front of the van. The first thing we tried was a mylar sunscreen sold at most auto stores and box store auto departments. It unrolls and holds into the windshield under the visors to keep the sun out while parked. This worked, but was a pain the neck to put up every time we stopped. We saw a large Class A RV in a parking lot that had curtains inside the driver's cab that went all around the windshield and the windows. We could not find anything like that made for the Roadtrek. Of course, as I said in Part I, the Roadtrek comes with curtains that cover the windows in the front doors and windshield, but closing them takes a bit of effort, as does securing them back again for traveling. No, we wanted something just as easy as the back curtain that we made. Actually, Meryl made. (She is not only a great embroiderer, but sews exceptionally as well - she is a prize winning doll maker.)

It was back to Walmart for another flat sheet in black. My first idea was a curtain that went up over the windshield - and we actually did make one. There is little metal in the front at the ceiling for magnets. We used the metal arms at the top corner of the visors. It did not hold well. It was easy to get up and take down - but so easy that it had a tendency to come down on its own. Plus with this design the door windows were uncovered and there was a clear view inside of the cabinets. No, the curtain had to be positioned so that while the front cab was visible nothing behind it would be. Seeing the inside of the cab is not a problem - it is a van after all and that is all you would be able to see.

The curtain we designed is made to hook on the front of the sliding drawer that we have in our Roadtrek over the front cab. This drawer is an option and well worth the cost. It adds storage space in a place that has no use otherwise.

The hooks are from the Scotch company and are from the Command line - these can be removed if you want to and will not damage the finish where the adhesive stuck - or so they claim (I have not removed one so I don't know). When in place the curtain still let a small view in from the front passenger window so Meryl added a small piece of Velcro to the right side and the matching velcro to the Roadtrek curtain for the Roadtrek entrance door window. When it is fastened and that entrance door curtain is closed (easy to slide and snap in place), there nothing is visible in the Roadtrek area.

In this photo you can see the curtain in place at the front of the Roadtrek looking at it from the middle. You can see the drawer there at the top going across. This drawer pulls toward the back of the Roadtrek and the door pulls down on a long hinge to access the inside storage. The fabric is hemmed all around and there are plastic rings sewn in to hook it in place

Opening and closing this curtain is easy. When not in use it hangs behind the driver's seat from the left hook. The photo on the left shows the curtain being put away for travel - the part hanging over the seat is just for you to see what has to be tucked back. It all does hang completely behind the seat and is not in the way. At night the curtain comes down when we are using the front seats to lounge in.

Below you see what it looks like with the curtain in place from the outside and what it looks like with no curtain.

I mentioned the curtain on the side entrance door. This door is behind the passenger door. It is the main entrance to the living section of the Roadtrek and that door has a window. The curtain on that window is very easy. Here is a photo of that curtain when closed.

This photo also gives you a good view of how the window curtains snap closed. They slide on a track at the top and bottom of the window.

With the back and front "security" curtains that we made closed, no one can see anything inside but a van. Of course, there are things that you may want to hide in the front section where the driver and passenger sit. The GPS does come out of the dash and can be hidden. A jacket thrown casually over anything is a good cover up - and looks like nothing more than a sloppy van.

I said in part one that I would get back to personal security in the Roadtrek. This is my advice. If you are staying overnight in a parking lot, a forest, a rest area, or any place that is not a populated campground, keep your van keys nearby while you are inside or if you are in bed asleep. If you hear anything that you feel is someone trying to break in, get in the drivers seat and drive away. Look out the window, but never open the door. Drive away. If you are in a campground and hooked up, lean on the horn and keep blowing it. Someone will wake up and come to yell at you and at the same time the crook will run away. Your key remote has a panic button that honks the horn. You can use this if you can't get to the steering wheel. Then call the police.

I know that some carry guns - there are different gun laws in every state. Some carry mace or pepper spray. Some states have laws about this too. If you are going to use either of these that means you are face to face with an attacker and you never really want to be in that position. It is not like it is in the movies. I am not going to get into detail about this. Avoid it.It is the best course of action.

Some Roadtrek owners get alarms and the one most talked about is the Viper Alarm. This will protect the van when you are out or in. There is a remote that will sound the alarm from inside if you need help. The alarm is wired into the electric system of the Roadtrek and the van. I have been told that Best Buy will install this in a Roadtrek. As I am in an area where no one has ever seen a Roadtrek, I am not sure I want the kid who installs stereos at Best Buy rewiring my Roadtrek. The alarm is not a bad idea - and if I knew the installation would be done correctly I would put one in.

Living in the Roadtrek - Security Part I

I may have misnamed this article, as I am not really sure how to put a title on what we do to keep the Roadtrek secure from break in when we are away from it while it is parked. As far as personal security in the Roadtrek - you are as safe inside as you would be in your car, truck, or van. When inside lock your doors and it will take a bold criminal to come in while anyone is inside. That is not to say that it cannot happen - and I don't want to go off on a tangent here, but I will come back to this before the end of the article.

Anyway - when we got the Roadtrek it seemed to me - as we live in one of those parts of the country where you do not leave your house door open at night or your car unlocked when you are not inside of it - that there was a lot inside the Roadtrek to attract someone with wrong intent to break in. We often hear about GPS units being stolen from cars. In the Roadtrek you have a flat screen TV, positioned where it can be easily seen through the rear and side windows. It is also very obvious when looking through the windows to the inside that this is an RV and that there are people's belongings inside. All very and much too tempting...

Roadtrek's do come with curtains on all of the windows including for the windshield and the windows on the driver's door and the passenger's door. We closed the side windows - on the sides of the bed area and leave them closed. The curtains for the front doors and the windshield are two curtains that pull from the sides and go all around on a track and velcro closed where they meet which is just about under the rear view mirror. This is fine to do at night for privacy, but a pain to do every time you come and go. There are curtains on the rear cargo door windows, but it is necessary to have both doors open to close these windows from the outside. It is possible to close them from the inside easily, but this requires being on the bed, if the bed is made up, and when we are traveling we keep the bed made up all of the time. If you have read my article about making the bed in our Roadtrek, you will understand why. To open the right cargo door is no problem. Open the door and there is the window curtain - pull it across on the tracks that it is on and lock it in place with a button snap. The curtain on the left door works the same way, but to open that door requires dropping the arm that the spare tire sits on, as this blocks this door from opening. The spare tire and holder is very heavy. It is not something that you want to do every time you stop and park - and certainly this will call attention to what you are doing and your Roadtrek. We looked at all types of ways to reach the curtain and pull it over. Nothing that we thought of really would work. We looked at blinds and shades for the windows that might be easier to pull down with just one door open - but these would swing and make noise when driving and that did not seem like a solution. After examining the door frame, we came up with a design for a curtain that would reach across the entire back of the Roadtrek behind the bed that could be pulled up easily from the one open door, secured into place, and be done in just a few seconds. I know that many just keep their rear window curtains closed all of the time. I am not certain of the legalities of that where I live - I am sure it is fine in some places to have the rear windows blocked but with the limited visibility in the back of the Roadtrek while driving, I want the windows open to be able to see what little one is able to see through them. For me, a little can go along way when need be.

The curtain we designed is made from a flat sheet - black - from Walmart (the less expensive sheets that they sell that are not in sets). The cloth is dense enough to not allow any view inside even with light coming in from the windshield to the back and costs less than similar fabric purchased in a fabric store. In the photo to the left you can see the curtain through the open right door. All of the edges are hemmed. The top hem is larger to hold two small, button rare earth magnets at the end in each corner of the top. The magnets have to be stitched into little sections so that they do not lock together (tough to get apart) and so that they sit on the metal door frame at the top corners. The open space at the top is not visible when the door is closed and if there is any space at all there that can be seen nothing is recognizable behind it. The magnets need to be positioned just right inside the corners to make sure that the curtain hangs just as you want it as to hide what it needs to hide. Now, you ask - you still can't get to the curtain on the left - so how is this different. When you release this curtain from the right side, and leave the left side in place on the magnets, the fabric drops down and out of the way of seeing out the left rear window. To make certain of this, I carry a dowel that I can use to push the curtain where it meets the bottom of the window to the side and behind the Roadtrek's open curtain. The magnets are strong and they will not come down unless you really give a tug. To put this curtain up, I open the right door, grab the top corner of the curtain which is usually sitting at the floor right at the side of the left door, and put it in place with the magnets. Close the door and go! With the doors closed, because of the way the windows are tinted (not full tint unfortunately), all you see is black. It is so black that when I tried to take a photo of it all you could see was the reflection of what was behind the Roadtrek outside. This hid the most obvious things that needed to be hidden. And with the curtain in place, from the rear it looks like any other parked van. This was the first thing that we did to secure the Roadtrek, and we thought at first that we did not need to any more. It is not easy to see inside through the windshield and the front side windows. One night getting out of the Roadtrek in a parking lot with bright lights all around, I realized that I could see quite clearly inside and through the windshield I could see all of the cabinets - and the TV. We had more to do.

End of Part I - next week Security Part II.