The Williamsburg Pottery. Williamsburg, Virginia

For many, many years The Williamsburg Pottery, known by many as just "The Pottery" was one of the must stops when visiting Williamsburg, Virginia. It was a conglomeration of warehouse buildings and outlet stores. It was started by a man who put some old dishes on their lawn to sell to tourists driving by. The business grew to include a pottery - yes, where pottery is made - and this salt-glazed pottery made in colonial style became a popular souvenir of the area, not just sold at "The Pottery" but all in all of the local gift shops. Soon odd lot items were brought in along with baskets, flower arrangements, woodwork, housewares, garden decorations, and the list just goes on and on. The great thing about The Pottery always was that you would find the most unusual things there and the prices were exceptionally inexpensive. It was incredible. And there was an RV park on the rear of the property.

A few years back the Williamsburg Pottery closed for renovations. The gentleman who started the business passed away and now it was in the hands of the family who decided that it needed updating. There was a lot of apprehension of people who loved the place when the drawings of the new Pottery were revealed. When it opened this past April, I read a lot of disappointing reports from people who went looking for The Pottery and found something very different. On this last trip to Williamsburg we decided to see for ourselves.

The Williamsburg Pottery is located on Route 60 and the address is 6692 Richmond Road in Williamsburg. It is actually very close to the campground that we stay at - American Heritage Campground. This is what you will see from the road. There is a very large parking lot and the building in this photo extends to several buildings all in the same design. What there is now is a "cute" Williamsburg Pottery. If what was inside matched what had in the past been inside the warehouse buildings, it would have been great. But while some was the same on a much smaller scale, a lot was now "upscale" and the prices were increased to match the look. Gone are the bargains. Gone are the oddities. Gone is the room full of baskets, each only a couple of dollars. Gone is most of the fun. Even the food court is gone. Replaced with an upscale cafe and a Bon Pain restaurant. They used to have these great pulled pork sandwiches and a refillable souvenir of The Pottery plastic cup of soda. Those, too, are gone.

You can still see one of the buildings, shown in the photo above of the original Pottery. Seeing standing next to one of the new buildings made me miss the old Pottery even more. The railroad tracks go through the Pottery property and you can see them in the foreground of the above photo. Freight trains still come through on a regular basis. In the photo to the right you can see the old railroad crossing that in the past you had to cross to get to the Pottery buildings. It is all in rubble now.

We went through all of the sections of the "new" Williamsburg Pottery hoping to find a bargain. No bargains were to be found. We looked at the salt-glazed pottery that was on display and did find the section of "seconds" which the Pottery was always known for. Pots with slight mistakes that really did not make a difference and always in the past sold for much, much less than the same piece of pottery that was "perfect". The seconds were there but the prices were more than the price of the same perfect piece that we saw at a tourist gift shop.

It was sadly disappointing. Meryl said to me - as she often does - "change is not always for the better".  It was a way to spend a rainy afternoon, but it turned out to be a sad afternoon recalling what used to be.

They have not forgotten the founder. They put up a monument to him. I wonder when he looks down on what his family has done with his pride and joy what he must be thinking.

A Trip to Connecticut

I wrote about having the Ezee-Lift installed on our Roadtrek. To do this we had to travel to Connecticut which I figured, given the price that shipping must be a heavy package and not having to do the installation ourselves, was worth the time, the tolls, and the gas. Besides, it was an excuse to take the Roadtrek out on a trip.

It is a busy time of the year for Meryl's business, and while she could get away for one day, she really could not get away for an overnight trip. The day that we were going was my birthday, so we decided that we would make the trip a birthday excursion, and just go up and back for the day. We did take clothes and supplies in the Roadtrek to stay overnight, just in case, but that just in case would really have to be big.

The trip to Connecticut where we had to go to have the Ezee-Lift installed, according to the GPS, was three hours and fifteen minutes. We wanted to arrive at about 1 pm and we also wanted to try to avoid some of the rush hour traffic (ha ha). It is a funny thing about Connecticut. Connecticut is about 23 miles from our house. The problem is in that 23 miles is an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean named the Long Island Sound. There is no bridge. That has been an ongoing fight for more than fifty years, and while there has been willingness to build the bridge no one has really been able to find a place for it, as the attitude of the people on Long Island always tends to be "not in my backyard" or as it is actually called around here "NIMB" pronounced nimby. There is a ferry out on the east end of Long Island, but the ferry has a set schedule, is quite a distance from where we are, and costs a lot of money. (I have no idea if it would even take the Roadtrek.) So the way to go to Connecticut is to travel west into Queens County in NYC, cross the Throgs Neck Bridge into the Bronx and travel up and around to the start of the Connecticut border, and travel back east - all the time, if you could see across the Sound you could see where you just had been. So what you are doing is driving a U if you put that U on its side to the right. It is not so funny when you put our location into a store locator map on an internet site and have it come up to say that there is a store just 25 miles away - in Connecticut (if you have a boat car).

We have made this trip many times before - but never in the Roadtrek. We know that in Connecticut there is a major route that we cannot travel on with the Roadtrek, as it is not permitted due to its height. This is the Merritt Parkway or Route 15. I have software on my computer at home to program routes that can then be saved on either a Garmin or Tom Tom GPS. I always start planning a trip with this software because with the Roadtrek, you cannot rely upon the car-type GPS to not put you on roads the Roadtrek (or any RV) is not allowed on. The name of the Software is TYRE and it is free. It uses Google Maps and will route you much as a GPS does BUT then you are able to look at the route and find the roads that you are not allowed on (using other websites) and then basically route yourself around them - using waypoints that your drop on the map on places on the roads that you can travel on. This must be done very carefully in zoom mode to make sure the point you place is on the correct side of the road. It will then re-route and you can review the new route and continue with more waypoints if necessary to get to your destination if the software decided to send you on more roads that you can not travel on. (A truck or RV GPS would do this for you - they are expensive, but a possible new toy to buy at some point in the future.) Websites that I have found to do this only print out a readout of directions and from what I saw, left out exit numbers, etc. So - I create a route to Connecticut that works. I transfer it to the Roadtrek's Tom Tom - and the route in the Tom Tom goes out of its way to send me on the parkways that I cannot travel on. What happens is that TYRE is sending not the route, but the series of waypoints that you set for the route. The GPS then takes those and does its own routing which, if you have not put enough waypoints to make absolutely NO OPTION for the Tom Tom to go another way. I worked between Tyre and the Tom Tom for several hours until I had a route I could take the Roadtrek on. I should also add that we needed to change from Route 91 North to Route 84 East and the access road from 91N to 84E is on Route 15 - an extension of the Merritt Parkway. I worked another hour in frustration looking for a route that would not take me north and then back south to get on 84E from 91N. When I showed this to Meryl, she said that she did not think that the restrictions on Route 15 went that far north - and that we might be able to take the Rt. 15 access to 84 East. We decided we would see when we got there.

We started the trip on the driveway finding out that the walkie-talkies that we use for Meryl to guide me backing out into our street full of traffic did not work. Well, mine turned on and Meryl's turned on, she went down into the street to watch for oncoming cars, and I heard nothing. I looked down at the walkie-talkie and saw the power light out. Batteries don't last a year. OK. I stopped, opened the window and let her know. She tells me I just missed one of the few clear opportunities to pull out. We proceeded with her shouting when it was clear. I pulled out, she got in, and we were off!

Traffic in NY is not good. It does not seem to matter what time of the day. If there is not a tie up for an accident there is some construction going on. We got to the Long Island Expressway to start driving west and the road was heavily congested. This eventually came to a bumper to bumper stand still - well beyond rush hour. The problem was that there were three construction trucks in the left lane way up ahead - and the rear truck had an arrow flashing to move all traffic into the middle and right lane. But there was no construction. All that was happening was that the traffic was being moved right to go around these three moving trucks! Once around that traffic was not too bad in NY but that wasted quite a lot of time. Over the bridge and around through NY and into Connecticut where we got on I-95, the Connecticut Turnpike, not able to go up the Merritt Parkway which is an alternative.

No matter when we have been on the Connecticut Turnpike in the past several years - day or night, no matter what hour, there is construction going on. I am not sure what they are working on but they are always working and it is never finished. We lost an hour on the trip stopped in traffic, moving a little head, and stopping again, until we got off I-95 to the next part of the route which was north on I-91. Remember that the trip was supposed to take just over three hours total. We also added in a stop of lunch but we were well off schedule.

We decided to stop for lunch off of I-91. I-95 has Route 1 running alongside with many places to stop to eat, but I-91 has markings at exits of what is at that exit and it is less congested to get off and back on again. Be aware that I-95 does have rest stops with fast food restaurants, but triple the prices of the food at your local fast food restaurant and that is what you will pay at any of the rest stops on the Connecticut Turnpike. We saw an exit sign that said McDonald's and Wendy's and we pulled off. A sign at the exit told us to turn left to the restaurants and we did.

One of the big features of a Roadtrek is that you can "park anywhere". Well, that really needs to be "park almost anywhere" as there are a lot of little parking lots with little room for a large vehicle to maneuver. We saw the Wendy's and pulled into the lot. It was a very small lot. There was no spaces really large enough to put a 21 foot van and there was a drive through line of cars that extended almost to the entrance of the lot from the road. We could see that up where that line turned to the left to go under the drive through that NO WAY the Roadtrek could have fit under (I have yet to see a drive through that the 8'9" Roadtrek can fit under) that there was an exit to the right that would take us back to a side street and back on the road we came on. We could also see the McDonalds almost next door with a much larger parking lot. We waited on the line of cars, and moved up until we could get out of there - and did.

We got to the McDonalds lot and it was not much better, but a car had pulled out of a space near the exit and I could just pull the Roadtrek right in. Lunch was quicker than getting from I-91 to finally parked. Happily, the road back was easy to get on and the entrance to I-91 was directly on. We headed north again.

When we got to the cut off on Route 15 where the access from I-91 North to I-84 East was, we could see trucks pulling off onto Route 15. There were no signs of any kind with any vehicle restrictions and we just followed. Now, let me tell you a little problem with routes transferred to Tom Tom with waypoints. No matter what it wants to go to those waypoints in order and will take you in circles until you go back. We had to stop Bedelia as I call her from telling us to get off and go back, get off and go back. Meryl cannot see the GPS screen from the passenger seat - a problem in how the GPS/radio is designed and set right in the middle of the dash. I could not and would not try to do anything to change the route while driving, so I pulled off I-84 on an exit and looked for a place to pull the Roadtrek over - which was not easy to find. Eventually, I was able to pull off the road, clear the route and tell Bedelia to go to the Ezee-Lift address directly as there were no longer any roads we could not drive on. We got back to I-84 and headed to our first destination of the day.

I told you about the trip to Mr. Jone's home, the inventor and maker of the Ezee-Lift, already in my article about the install. The very much country roads are scenic, narrow, and in some places one lane. There were moments when we were very close to the edge of the road that just dropped off into the forest about ten feet below. Slow and easy is the way to do it. And we did. The trip that was supposed to take just a little over three hours was almost five hours.

We got to Mr. Jones and he put in the Ezee-lift and as I told you then he gave us a way to get back to I-84 without the twisty, single lane road. Nice. What we did need now was gas.

I had been watching gas stations along the road from and to I-84 and the gas prices were ridiculous. Connecticut has one of the highest gas taxes in the country. NY is not much less but it is less. Where at the time gas was $3.99 at home for regular, gas here was ranging from $3.13 to $3.35. And all of the stations next to those prices said "CASH". Credit prices were fifteen cents higher and up. We saw a Sunoco station up ahead with a large sign that said $4.02. I never thought that I would ever be happy to see a gas price at $4.02, but I figured that even with a credit card charge added on top of that it had to be better than what I saw. Unless you carry a LOT of cash on you, the Roadtrek takes 35 gallons and that means at these prices of say $4.25 per gallon cash that you will need almost $150 in cash in your pocket for just that one fill up. I don't carry anywhere near that much cash. It has to be credit. I got really excited when I went up to the pump and saw that the $4.02 was the cash OR CREDIT price! Eighty dollars later on the charge card and we were back on the road.

So where were we going? There is a chain of outdoor stores called Cabellas. The stores are few and far between. There is one in Pennsylvania between Allentown and Harrisburg off of I-78, and there is one in Connecticut in Hartford. We have been to both before, and the Pennsylvania store is larger and much more fun, but the Hartford store is OK for a Cabellas fix. This is a store that is referred to as "shoppertainment". There are things to see and do in addition to things to buy. The stores have a large, walk through aquarium with floor to ceiling fish tanks containing large, local game fish. At the Hartford store, the tank is about half as long as the one in Pennsylvania. There are local wildlife - stuffed - all over the store in natural habitat displays. If you are opposed to hunting do not come into any of these stores. There is an electronic shooting gallery, an archery range, a "gun library" to look at antique guns - all for sale, and a restaurant that serves game and common food items as well. This is where we were going.

Cabellas caters to RVers with RV parking and an RV dump station including fresh water. At some of their stores you may stay overnight in the parking lot. You always ask the store manager for permission to do this. The Connecticut store does not permit this and there were signs in the parking lot that stated no overnight parking. There was an RV parking lot and there is a dump station in the rear of the parking lot, near the RV parking lot.

We pulled into one of the large RV spaces big enough for a Class A and parked. We were the only RV there. We walked into the store past a display of kiacks hanging from the overhang for sale. Inside the store there is a large camping department, a small department for trailers and some things for RVs, a large gun department, a large fishing department, a boat department with boats on display, and a large camping department. If you have any interest in camping or outdoor activities, there is something here to look at. We had no intentions of buying - just looking and we had a great time. There is even a display of taxidermy wild animals from Africa including an elephant. (I already gave you the waring if you are anti-hunting.)

Dinner was to come next - my birthday dinner - and we were heading for Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Connecticut which is further east. Look for a coming article all about Foxwoods, as there is an RV connection there.

I will skip past Foxwoods and tell you about the way home. I would love to say that leaving at 11:00 pm would find clear roads all along the way but no, in Connecticut that just does not happen. I will say that the delays and construction was much less than we encountered during the day on the Connecticut Turnpike, but it was there. Any thought about staying overnight was put right out of my head when I saw how tied up the return roads were during the day. The trip would be much better at night - and it was. On much of the route in Connecticut, we were one of only two or three vehicles on the road. It was pretty good considering what it was like during the day. When we got into NY however, even at almost 2 am, the roads were congested - no construction, just traffic. Yes, the "city that never sleeps" really never sleeps and they drive. It was quite late when we pulled the Roadtrek into our driveway. But we had a real good time!

I know that this has been a really long article, and I hope not too boring, but I am sure some of you are wondering how did the Roadtrek do on the trip?

First, it is still winterized as there have been some near freezing nights in March and into the beginning of April. There are may things inside that are out of place and the cabinets are not stuffed and made noise-proof as they would be when we are packed for a regular trip. There was a lot of banging inside on rough roads - nothing new, but noises that were silenced by full cabinet were there with partially full cabinets. There is a new noise that we cannot yet figure out. It showed up at the end of last year - a hollow sound - and it happens when we first start to drive and quiets as we keep driving, but comes back again if we stop and start again - but like most noises in vehicles, it does not happen every time.Tires for the trip were 60 psi in the front and 80 psi in the rear and the ride was pretty smooth, away from potholed roads. I think that I will leave the tires at this for the next trip - maybe experiment at some point with the max recommended psi in the front which is 65. But so far 60 seems to work. The Roadtrek behaved and the ride was comfortable. Oh yes, and the audiobook on my mp3 player played so nicely through the dockboss on the Ipod connection to the Eclipse radio!

ROADTREK MODIFICATIONS: EZEE-LIFT

THE EZEE-LIFT COMPANY HAS GONE OUT OF BUSINESS. THIS TOOK PLACE SOME TIME IN 2020/2021. THE WEBSITE IS GONE. THERE SEEMS TO BE NO WAY TO CONTACT THEM ANY LONGER.

 

The spare tire on the standard Roadtrek is stored in the storage area under the bed and accessed through the rear doors. This pretty much takes up the main storage area that the Roadtrek offers. Roadtrek - as an option - offers an alternative called the Continental Spare Tire Kit. This places the spare tire on the exterior of the van over the rear bumper and in front of the driver's side rear door.

The Continental Spare Tire Kit is attached to the Roadtrek with a second hitch receiver. The "tire kit" and be taken on and off the Roadtrek, but if it is off and you are traveling, unless you have moved the tire under the bed, you have no spare. For some reason, the Chevy van rear cargo doors cannot support the weight of the tire on the usual spare tire carrier that swings to the side on a hinge. With the Continental Spare Tire on the Roadtrek, if you want to move the tire out of the way to open the left rear cargo door you must lower it down on a hinge that swings down toward the ground. Getting the tire down, you have the weight of the tire to move it - though you really want to hold on and slow it down or it can come down with a bang if you move it to the point where gravity will take over. The tire is very heavy, and of course, is on a steel rim along with the support bar, the decorative back-plate that matches the paint of your van, and the chrome ring that surrounds the tire and locks it to prevent theft. One strong person can lift it back into place. For the average person or older person, to lift the tire back into place without straining it takes two people. Since we have gotten the Roadtrek we have avoided opening the left rear cargo door as much as possible because moving the tire out of the way takes too much effort - and the two of us to do.


Not long after getting the Roadtrek, I learned about an invention from a Roadtrek owner called the Ezee-Lift. The Ez-ee lift is designed with a spring and pulley system that makes the tire easy to lower and put back up into place. With the Ezee-Lift, the weight of the tire feels like only 20 pounds to lift rather than the 70 pounds that it actually weighs. Meryl and I both knew that we needed to have one of these, as it would greatly improve the ability and convenience to have both rear cargo doors open. We decided to wait until this new RVing season to get one.

I asked on one of the forums if the claims were really true and I was told they are. I also learned that the gentleman who invented and manufacturers the Ezee-Lift, Mr. George Jones, would install the system for you if one can get to his home in Connecticut or if he is selling his system at a Roadtrek rally. The system is actually easy to install, but I was looking to get the Roadtrek out on a first trip, and I have physical difficulties that prevent me from getting down and under the van, and the system needs to be bolted to the frame of the Roadtrek in the rear. Since Meryl would rather not be in charge of putting the bolts on - though she certainly is capable and willing if necessary, we both decided to take the trip to Connecticut with the Roadtrek to have Mr. Jones do it for us. We decided to go on my birthday as a birthday excursion. Because of work commitments that Meryl has at this time in the year and with the holidays at the end of the week, this would be a one day trip - up and back the same day - with a couple of other destinations thrown in for fun. There will be a separate article coming about the trip to Connecticut itself, and another article about one of those destinations.

Mr. Jones' home is located some distance east of Hartford, Connecticut in a very hilly (maybe it is better described as mountainous) area. Once off the Interstates we drove on several winding roads that climbed up and down through very beautiful terrain. There were homes interspersed along the route, but when you look at the route with Google maps set to satellite mode, you do not see a road - you just see trees. And indeed, you are driving through a roads that wind their way through a forest. I would not want to attempt this drive at night, on ice, or in the snow - though we I commented on this to Mr. Jones, he told me that in Connecticut if it snows, the plows clear the roads by the next morning. That does not always happen where I live. There are ponds, streams, and a few places that if I could have just pulled over to the side, I could have taken some very nice photos. I will tell you right now, in the event that this all concerns you, that Mr. Jones gave us directions directly from the road that he lives on that went straight and fairly level back to the Interstate. Another lesson on not relying on one's GPS. Often the best route is not what a GPS will send you on.

Anyway, with traffic in New York and the never ending construction and traffic on the Connecticut Turnpike it took us four hours to get to Mr. Jones. He had asked if we would call when we were thirty minutes away, and we did. When we arrived at the turn to the road that he is located on, we could see a man in the street waving at us. It was Mr. Jones. He helped guide me to back up into his driveway. When we got out of the Roadtrek he told us that his wife had seen us pass her on the road along the way, and called him to say that a Roadtrek was heading that way. There are not a lot of Roadtreks that are commonly seen on a lot of roads, so she knew it had to be us.

Mr. Jones had the Ezee-Lift installed on our Roadtrek in about thirty minutes. The job requires that a powder-coated square tubular bar containing a large, heavy duty spring attached to a plastic enclosed metal cable be bolted under the back of the Roadtrek. On most Roadtreks there are already two holes in the frame to place the bolts through. If the holes are not there, Mr. Jones provides a template to use to drill them. You can contact Mr. Jones through his website, to find out if the holes are there - and there are photos there to see exactly what to look for if you look under your Roadtrek. Once this is bolted on, a bracket is bolted around the top of the Continental Spare Tire support arm. There is a pulley that is an integral part of the system and that is placed on the side of the bottom of the support arm and is bolted through the hole that normally holds the bolt that serves as the hinge pin. That original bolt and nut are removed (which did take some doing - due to the weight of the tire above), the pulley plate is put in place, and a new bolt is put through the pulley plate and through the support bar to the other side to now become the new hinge pivot pin, and locked into place with a locking nut. With all of the parts in place, the last step was securing the metal cable to the bracket that went on the top of the support arm, just under the tire. The cable is installed so that it will hold the tire tightly toward the van which eliminates the shaking the tire did on the back of the van before the Ezee-Lift was installed. This is a nice bonus. The only tools necessary where a pair of ratchet wrenches. Mr. Jones installed the system with the tire still on the support arm. If doing this myself, I would have removed the tire first to take the weight off the hinge pin to make it easier to remove. He has installed many, many of these and I am certain that he knew the tire did not really need to come off.

Once the system is installed, to lower the tire, all that is necessary is to take hold and give a slight push down, guiding the tire easily down without really feeling its weight. To raise the tire, you just lift and put it up. Mr. Jones recommends giving a little oomph on the first pull up and it will just follow up on its own. He had us both try it! Wonderful! There is also a bar included that you use when you have the tire off the support. This bar is put into place using the original hitch pin that holds the support arm up all of the time that the tire is not lowered. The bar then holds the tire carrier down and prevents it from springing up. Without the weight of the tire to hold the spring down, this is important. The whole system is very well designed.


On the 2012 Roadtreks, Roadtrek started including its own version of a lift system to make raising and lowering the Continental Spare Tire. I tried this at the Roadtrek display at the RV show that we attended in Hershey, PA last Fall. I was not impressed at the time with Roadtrek's system. It involved releasing a latch to raise the tire back up and it required a hand on the latch and a hand on the tire - and then some juggling - and it still required quite an effort to raise the tire. No. This was not a good solution. Roadtrek may still be offering this on new Roadtreks. The apparently offer a replacement kit for older Roadtreks, but that kit costs well over a thousand dollars and requires that you replace the tire surround and other parts in addition to the new lifting system. No, that is ridiculous - and it does not make lifting the tire any easier.

The Ezee-Lift costs $287.00. If you don't go to Mr. Jones directly, shipping is, of course, additional. You can order the system from Mr. Jones' company through his website, ezee-lift.net. This is money well spent and really a must for every Roadtrek. Get easy access to your cargo doors. No need to strain with that tire any longer!

The time that we spent with Mr. Jones was very pleasant. We were so lucky that the weather was perfect. And Mr. Jones gave us such great directions to get back on the Interstate!

Below are photos of my Roadtrek with the Ezee-Lift installed. Above are the before photos. Here are the after photos!

THE FOLLOWING NO LONGER APPLIES -

ADDENDUM:  For awhile the Ezee-Lift website has been unavailable and there has been no response to calls to Mr. Jones, the creator and seller of the Ezee-Lift system. I am happy to report that as of Feb. 2013, the site is up and running again. There are some glitches on the website that will not allow one to put in an order online, but there is a phone number (860-933-6949 M-F 9-5 ET) and if you call Mr. Jones, you can purchase an Ezee-Lift from him. (Thanks to one of our readers who shared this with us!)  The website requires that your browser have Java enabled to be able to place an order online. This is easy to do with the add-ons/extensions for your browser depending on your browser.

Living in the Roadtrek - Towels

Small things that you would ordinarily not give much thought to, in a Class B RV, because of its size, you really need to give some consideration to selecting. When you are at home you can have lots of towels and when they get wet there are usually a lot of places that are available to hang them to dry. In the Roadtrek with limited cabinet space, you have to limit the number of towels that you carry or do without something else. As to what to do with wet towels, space is even more limited. Most towels sold are not made to dry very quickly. The plusher they are the wetter they stay. Before we got the Roadtrek we started researching what type of towels to buy.

The most common answer to this question is micro-fiber camping towels. These are sold in some camping stores and online. We looked in two local large chain stores, one a camping store and the other an outdoor sports store. Everywhere we looked we saw the same small micro-fiber towels. There was certainly nothing very useful if one took a shower or went swimming. What are considered hand towels in what we saw were more the size of wash cloths.

The "Sham-Wow", as seen on TV, was suggested. We had one of these that we had purchased at a farmer's market for a dollar. I was told that to make this stiff towel feel soft to the skin, soak it in water and let it dry. We tried that and what we got was a wrinkled Sham-wow that was not really soft. I tried at home using it to dry my hair. It felt terrible to use. That idea was put aside. I should say that these are good in the Roadtrek for drying the floor after you have taken a shower in the aisle. While most of the water does goes down the drain in the floor, the floor does remain wet and these will do a good job at drying the floor - and drying the shower curtain.

Micro-fiber towels are basically the same no matter what their purpose. You can find them in the automotive departments to use to wash and dry your car. You can find them in the housewares departments to use as kitchen towels. They are all pretty much the same - and a bit heavier than the special "camping" towels that are sold for a lot more money - plus they come in a variety of sizes.

Our first purchase of towels were micro-fiber towels found in Wal-mart's auto department. There we found large bath size towels and medium sized hand towels. Of course, they were not called bath towels or hand towels. They are all purposed there for your car, but the sizes were close. These towels are soft to the touch, easy on the skin, absorb water and dry relatively quickly. The drying time is the most important part. On our first trips, these were the towels that we used.

In the Roadtrek there are three towel rods. One on the bathroom door, another on the large kitchen cabinet below the sink,and the third is on the clothes closet behind the driver's seat. As you can see none of these towel rods is very long and only the rod on the bathroom door (above) has any room for a thick towel to fit through. Micro-fiber towels tend to be thinner than the towels that you would get for your home bathroom so they don't have a problem fitting onto the rod, but there is not very much room across to put more than one or two towels depending upon their size. These three rods are all you have in the Roadtrek for drying anything on. You can hang a clothes line across the aisle, but no matter where you put this, it is going to be in the way. The best idea for this is behind the driver and passenger seat across the width of the van, but if this is there and you want to sit in the front seats to watch TV, you are not going to see anything but whatever is hanging from the line. It is a good place to dry things after you go to bed.

A short while after we had the micro-fiber towels, I read on an RV forum about quick drying, home bathroom towels that are sold in J.C. Penney. The towels have the label. "Linden Street" and the sign in the store says "Quick-dri". These are just like the towels that one uses at home, but they dry much faster. The come in the standard home towel sizes and there is a wide variety of colors including colors with stripes. The towels sell for $3 to $20 depending upon size. They are all cotton. Here is a link to the towels on J.C. Penney's website, but you can find them in your local Penney's store in the towel department. We tried a few of these first and they are great. They feel as comfortable as any home bath towel and they really do dry quickly. According to the store they dry 33% faster than regular towels. I am not paid by anyone to tell you about these, but they really are good for RV travel. We now use these for all hand and body use and the micro-fiber towels are now used for cleanup and drying dishes. Of course, we carry paper towels and when not needed, they are stored inside the microwave.

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A There and Back Trip to Camping World and Atlantic City, NJ

Camping World is a chain of camping supply stores all over the country. Of course, "all over the country" rarely includes metropolitan New York and the nearest Camping World store to us is in New Jersey, about as south as Philadelphia in PA. I have ordered things from them on their website and joined their President's Club for discounts - because the discount that I got on my initial purchase both paid for the membership and also gave me a substantial discount on top of that for what I was buying. There was something else that I decided that we need for the Roadtrek if we find ourselves needing to stay not in a campground overnight and we need to run the air conditioner. It is called a Gen-turi Generator Exhaust System and it allows you to run the generator and move the carbon monoxide exhaust up over the roof of the camper and away from you or anyone parked near you. And in this way, you don't die inside from the exhaust while you are sleeping.

Some say this is not necessary. Some say the carbon monoxide detector alarm will wake you in time, but I say, why take the chance when the solution is less than $200. And as it happened Camping World had this on sale.

I could have ordered it online but I really wanted to see it and make sure that it was going to fit without a problem both on the Roadtrek (I have been told by other Roadtrek owners that it would) and also how it will fit in the storage area. This is an assembly of three four feet long pipes. They should just fit inside the back of the rear storage compartment leaving enough room for the three laundry baskets that we keep in there to make moving things in and out of the area easier. But should fit and do fit can be two different things.

We decided that we would make a day trip of it and take the Roadtrek to New Jersey. We would go to Camping World and then travel about an hour and a half further south to Atlantic City for dinner in one of the casinos. I am not really a gambler - I would like to be but can't afford to be. We planned the trip for the end of the week. The week was hot - in the middle of a heat wave of over 100 degree F temps. I decided that Thursday, the coolest (low 90's) and less humid days was the day to go. We would not plan to stay overnight. We made no reservations at a campground and if we needed to stay over for some reason we would find a Walmart parking lot - as there is no overnight parking at any Atlantic City casino parking lot - as there is at many casino parking lots in other places. With the heat expected to climb again, I was not really interested in staying over to a much hotter day, anyway.

We put a change of clothing in the Roadtrek just in case. We made sure there was water in the tanks and we headed out to New Jersey. We took our usual route for the Roadtrek out of New York and headed for the Garden State Parkway. At least we did not need to deal with the traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike due to the construction that is going on there.

The Garden State Parkway was fairly clear and the road surface was good which means it is Roadtrek friendly and we did not have too many bangs and squeaks as we drove. We stopped for lunch at a rest area's Burger King and then continued along. We got to the turn off to Camping World in good time.

I had expected a lot larger store than we found. For some reason I imagined the mecca store for campers - much as Cabellas is for sportsmen. (For those unfamiliar with Cabellas - this is a chain of stores that are large sports/camping/fishing/hunting/etc. stores that are built for "shoppertainment". That means the store is designed to entertain as much as it is to sell you things - and you can spend hours in one.) This Camping World Store was a store with three long aisles of RV gear, equipment, and supplies. There was more than was at our Roadtrek dealer's supply store but certainly not a store to spend a lot of time looking in. Attached to the store is an RV service center and around the store was an RV sales center. We parked the Roadtrek outside near another RV and a few cars and went inside.

I had called before we left to make sure that they actually had the item in stock - as their website indicated they did. I was told that one would be set aside for me. I was not going to make this trip for nothing. We went into the store and started to walk and look. There was a lot to see that we had not seen before.

Of course, when in a store that is of great interest looking at things not previously seen anywhere, we start to shop. We soon had several items that we would gather up and purchase with the Gen-turi before we left. A collapsible tub, a refrigerator fan, a hose to connect to the sink to put water into the toilet when it needs to be power cleaned, a bottle of coconut oil lube to lubricate the tank valves and seals - how can anyone resist these things? ;)

We did manage to spend about an hour in the store. I went up to the cashier and told them that we had a Gen-turi on hold for us - and there it was right behind the counter. I asked a few questions about it and how it would fit. I decided that I could install it myself, rather than have their service department do it for almost fifty bucks. We bought the Gen-turi and the rest of what we collected along the way.

Looking at the Gen-turi in the store, I was reassured that it could be installed to work as intended with a Roadtrek. Installation is temporary and it has the correct fittings for the Roadtrek generator exhaust pipe for the part that is permanently installed. Outside, I opened the back door and made sure that the Gen-turi was going to fit where we needed it to fit to store it. The only problem was that in the box, it was not going to fit in the back as it would out of the box. We did not want to leave the box behind, so Meryl went inside to access the rear through the little aisle door at the bottom. With that and one basket removed, the box could fit down the aisle and into the back compartment. It took about fifteen minutes to get everything in place and we could be on our way.

I pulled out of the Camping World parking lot with the GPS set for Atlantic City and the directions were telling me to head not back in the direction that I had gotten off the parkway. I decided that it must be easier just reversing the directions that I had to get off the parkway I turned around and headed back the way that I had come. Unfortunately, there was no entrance back onto the parkway heading south - only north. OK. I turned around and followed the GPS.

There must be a way back on to the Garden State Parkway and the GPS did not seem to come back to it - if it ever did for miles and miles. It was heading now toward afternoon rush hour and I did not want to be on side streets. We passed a sign that pointed to the GSP South. I turned around and found that sign again, and headed hopefully toward the parkway. Maybe it actually went there - and maybe it did not but we never saw the parkway or any other sign. We were just driving in New Jersey, somewhat in the correct direction. This time we routed the GPS to the GSP South. We drove for over an hour, maybe longer, only to wind up just about where we started and came upon the Garden State Parkway - south entrance. Finally. Driving in New Jersey can be like this - and NJ is the home of traffic circles - no left turns - until you get to the right in the one place where there is, unexpectedly, no traffic circle and you need to make a left. The Roadtrek is a large vehicle and top heavy. It also has limited visibility around it. It is not the type of vehicle that you want to make sudden turns or change lanes quickly in.

We were back on the parkway to Atlantic City. Time again to relax and enjoy the day. To go to Atlantic City you connect from the Garden State Parkway to the Atlantic City Expressway and this takes you right into the middle of the city close to the Boardwalk and in the midst of all the casinos.

There are two areas of casinos in Atlantic City. The main set is along the Boardwalk. There are also a few off to the other edge of the city at what is called the Marina. We were heading to the Showboat Casino parking lot which is the last casino on one end of the Boardwalk. I chose this one because we have seen the outdoor parking lot there and I knew that we could park the Roadtrek with no problem. Other casinos seem to have outdoor parking lots. This one is large and open. I recalled that there was a large iron fence around the parking lot and I was right. What I had not realized was that there was easy access in and out around that fence so the only security would be from the parking lot cashier's booths - one on each side street. It costs money to park in the casino lots in Atlantic City. If you have a player's card from the casino it is discounted. We came with such a card. You pay one price for the whole day or any part of the day - and you pay when you leave.

We parked in an open area not too far from one of the cashier's booths. We closed up all of the windows - we have made curtains, plus the curtains that the Roadtrek came with on the windows, that do not permit anyone to look inside. I beeped the remote to lock the doors and off we went to the Showboat Casino entrance which was right across the street.

You enter here at the bus entrance and make your way through the heavy cigarette smoke of those waiting for their free or heavily compensated bus ride home. You walk down the hallway and come into the hotel lobby which immediately leads to the casino. The theme of this casino is riverboat gambler with a French accent. Every casino in Atlantic City - maybe all over the US - has the same distinctive sounds - slot machine alarms going off paying a jackpot, the sounds of machines being played - symphony of electronic bells and whistles.

I have liked Atlantic City since before there were casinos. My family would come here for a weekend or a week's vacation when I was younger - primarily in my teen years. Then the Boardwalk was filled with hucksters trying to entice you into their showrooms to sell you some very cheap things at very expensive prices. There is little of that remaining, though there are plenty of little shops selling overpriced gifts and souvenirs. I cannot go to Atlantic City and not recall the cons that would happen on the Boardwalk - all a great deal of entertainment if you had the willpower to resist getting involved. Then there were the piers - of which only a little remains. So long ago, I saw the diving horse at the Steel Pier (a little amusement park now is on a pier where the Steel Pier once stood). The Steep Pier was a wonder in those days. There were several movie theaters inside, a concert arena, rides and carnival type attractions - and all for one low admission price. Further along the Boardwalk there was the Italian Pier and inside that (the piers were covered over and mostly were roofed buildings over the water. The Italiian Pier was the place to go for great Italian sandwiches. That pier is still there, no name now, and the sandwiches are just a memory. There are still frozen custard stands on the Boardwalk and of course, you can still get fresh made salt water taffy. It is all still rinky-dink, but it is nothing like the past. For awhile this all went even further downhill and the city was desperate for a revival - and then the casinos came. At that point it was Atlantic City or Las Vegas if you wanted to casino gamble in the US. It turned the Boardwalk around, but did little for the bulk of the city which is still a high crime and poverty area. If you visit Atlantic City do not go more than two streets away from the Boardwalk. This is one of the reasons that we suspect that local ordinances prohibit overnight parking in the parking lots - safety.

We took a relaxing walk down the Boardwalk. About halfway down we stopped to go into the casino restaurant that I had decided upon to see if there was a wait. It was after 6:30 anyway, and it necessary we would just get on line which we discovered was necessary right then if we wanted to have dinner before the restaurant closed. We waited over an hour to get in to eat.

After dinner, we went back out to the Boardwalk. Because of the cooler temperatures of this day and the hotter temperatures coming in for the next day - plus the ocean being right there, a thick fog had come in and all of the neon lights were surrounded in a hazy glow. Oh boy! I am not a fan of driving in the fog to begin with - though I have done it. But with the Roadtrek that I was still getting familiar driving, I started to wonder if we might just be better off finding a place to park and "camp" for the night. No matter what we had to get out of Atlantic City, so we started walking back to the Showboat and the Roadtrek. Ah well. I had been looking forward to a night walk on the Boardwalk.

We made our way walking through the fog, avoiding being run over by the Boardwalk's mode of transportation - the rolling chairs. Men and women push these chairs on wheels with you and your family in them. They often do not care if anyone is walking in front of them. They are not inexpensive - and often you can just as easily walk than ride. We arrived at the Showboat. Looking up at the tall hotels you could not see the tops in the fog and most of the lights were just a subdued glow.

Outside in the parking lot, the fog was noticeably less. We could easily see the Roadtrek. We got in, took down the cloaking curtains and set the GPS for home. I figured that once we left the city and were more inland we would evaluate the fog.

When you drive into and out of Atlantic City you drive with the water on each side of you. The fog here was also not as thick as it had been on the Boardwalk. Visibility out the windshield was not bad. We would encounter several other places that we would be close to the ocean along the trip. Move onward and see was how we proceeded. The Atlantic City Expressway was not too bad and once on the Garden State Parkway there was no fog. The radio weather report - now that the radio in the Roadtrek was fixed we could get weather reports - said that the next day would be into the 100's. It would be a good idea to get home and not deal with that heat. Whatever geographic and weather conditions had resulted in that thick, heavy fog in Atlantic City, it was no where else. And that was good.

We got home without any more fog. It was late when we left New Jersey and it was very late when we got home. We left everything in the Roadtrek that we had with us for the day and went in the house and went to bed. Not a camping trip as it turned out, but it had not been intended as one. Think of it as time to get better acquainted with the Roadtrek; this was something that I needed to do.

Back to PA to Dealer Service

We were home from our trip to Pennsylvania for a day and it was time to head back to take the Roadtrek to dealer service for several things that were wrong. This date was determined by the dealer service center who said that they would have their best Roadtrek service technician available to work on our Roadtrek. A part needed to be replaced and the part that had to be ordered would be available as well. So despite having just traveled the many miles to PA and back again, we were on the road again heading back.

As I had said at the end of my last article, we did not just stay the extra two days to Thursday in Pennsylvania was that we had to get back to our real life for at least a day to take care of "business". Sometimes reality leers its ugly head and demands your attention. So it had to be home and back.

The trip to the dealer should take between three and four hours depending on road traffic and construction - and every road in NY seems to be under construction. We decided that we would not take the New Jersey Turnpike as the GPS recommends because that is under major construction as well. We would head north to Route 78 and go through the mountains with the 18 wheelers. I was not sure how the Roadtrek would keep up on this route as my older van has trouble with the inclines. We would see.

Getting to that route - heck, just getting out of NY meant a vibrating and banging ride on the worst roads imaginable. I do not think that Roadtrek had roads like this in mind when they designed the RV because everything vibrates inside as you ride over roads that could serve as a torture test track for military tanks and somewhere inside is something that still goes bang, bang, bang with every bump in the road. We have wedged down the toilet lid. We have cushioned the shower drain plate in the floor and we have used velcro straps to hold the TV solid in its wall mount. Things that we have placed in the cabinets have been cushioned. I know that there are going to be noises when the road is not smooth, but with each bump I cringe as I hear the bang and shake inside.

We set out early so that we would get to the service center at a reasonable time for them to do the work. We had to stop for lunch along the way and we did not know what to expect from the traffic. Our choice of routes was good. Route 78 was fairly clear. The Roadtrek had no problem with the hills going up and down the small mountains that this route passes through, and it kept up with the 18 wheelers. We arrived at the dealer service center just before 1 pm. We all were surprised that we had gotten there that early.

There were several things that needed to be attended to. Since our first night in the Roadtrek - that night of the day of delivery - the monitor panel that shows how much is in the various tanks was not working correctly. One of the LEDs to show how full the black tank is would not light. We had already been back to dealer service that next day to show them this light and the tech insisted it was fine. He never showed us that it actually lit but claimed it did. When we got home we filled the tank and just as before the lights went from 1/3 to Full with the 2/3 light never lighting. This is a small tank - only ten gallons - and not one that you want to be uncertain about. When we called the dealer to say we were coming back with this problem they told us that they would order a new monitor panel and they did.

A big problem that we were having was that the dashboard radio - a Roadtrek installed combination radio/GPS/CD/Ipod/USB/DVD player and back up camera screen - did not receive any AM radio stations and the few FM stations that it received were barely audible and not locked in. I suspected that the antenna on the van was never attached to the back of the radio. This is a simple thing to attach IF you can reach or even see the back of the radio under the dashboard. Cars and vans today are not designed for you to have any access to the back of the dashboard. In the Roadtrek you cannot even see the back of the radio if you stick your head under the dash. It is behind the upper middle of the dash and blocked by the engine cover that protrudes into the cabin. There was a time, way back when, when you could get under the dash and see the radio, move a few screws or clips and pull the radio out, change the radio or change the antenna and it was an easy and quick job. Not anymore. To get to the radio the entire dashboard had to be removed which involved screws and clips and I was warned that a slight bend this way or that and the dash would snap and that would be a major replacement not covered under any warranty. No, I would leave repairing the radio to the experts.

I had contacted Roadtrek about the radio. I explained what I thought it might be and got little advice but have dealer service look at it. They did advise that the service center should have on hand a new antenna and a new antenna wire just in case the antenna was faulty. If the radio was bad, the service center told me that a new one would have to be ordered and that could not be done UNTIL they looked at the current one to see what the problem may be. That would mean another trip back to Pennsylvania.

While we were away for our four days in Pennsylvania a few other things went wrong. One afternoon, I went to move the driver's windshield visor and the clip snapped off from the ceiling of the van. Roadtrek installs a cushioned ceiling in the Roadtrek that comes right up to the windshield and they replace the visors as well. I looked to see if it could just snap back into place of if there was a screw that came out. There was no screw and there was no way to snap it back as I tried. We were going for service so this would be added to the list.

We also discovered while we were driving the Roadtrek on our four day trip that the little cabinet door on the cabinet that contains the front dining table opens - and when it does and you are driving the dining table which is hinged in half comes sliding out of the cabinet and starts swinging. That was a very exciting moment while we were on the road - and it happened more than once. In addition the kitchen drawer despite its two catches comes sliding out as well. Our list for service was growing.

The last thing on the list were the valve handles to the dump tanks. When we picked up the Roadtrek for some reason the salesman demoing the RT had a need to turn the black tank handle vertical from its horizontal position. He decided that it was better that way. Well, with the handle in that position it gets caught on the door and the door covering the valve handles does not open. Turning the handle back to horizontal just resulted in the handle springing right back to vertical. Ah well - I have told you about this salesman in a past article. We wanted the service center to try to correct the position of the handle.

The service center is located about a quarter mile from a small shopping center and it is just across the road from the dealer showroom and RV supply center. My intention was to be around the Roadtrek as they worked on it - to be right there to show them the LED that would not light and that the radio was not tuning in stations. This, however, was not going to be permitted. We were invited to go to the showroom and supply store across the road to wait - but as we expected - it was going to take hours.

We have not really seen any RV supplies stores except the one at the dealer and we never really spent much time in that one before. There were a few things that I was interested in seeing and we were going to have plenty of time to explore this one now. We walked across the road and went into the store. It was nicely cool and a good place to be out of the heat outside. Of course, as we walked in a salesman wanted to help us - we told him that we would look around - and did not mention that we might be looking for an hour or two - though I suspected it would be a lot longer than that and when we had exhausted all of the time that we could waste here we would be heading over to the shopping center down the road. We went up and down the aisles - twice. I got to see things that I had read about and saw in ads. I found a box of one amp blade fuses that the Roadtrek uses in two places on its RV fuse panel. I had been able to find all of the other size fuses needed by the Roadtrek but no auto store or big box store sold one amp blade fuses. I had found out that some marine stores do sell them and eventually I had planned to visit a few in my area looking for the fuses. Well, we had time to kill and here were the fuses I was looking for. We wandered around a little longer and then purchased the fuses. We had spent as much time as we could here and it was time to move on. It was an hour since we had arrived.

The walk to the road that the shopping center is on was slightly up hill and we hiked on up, crossed the road at the traffic light and found a round about way into the shopping center parking lot as this lot had been built with no intention of anyone ever arriving there on foot.

There are a few stores in this shopping center, which is actually two shopping centers adjacent to each other. There is a dollar store, a Staples office store and then across to the other shopping center there is a Giant supermarket and behind that a Home Depot. There seemed to be enough to waste at least a couple of hours. We started with the dollar store. If we were going to be tempted to spend money at least it would be inexpensive.

We actually found a few things to buy in the dollar store - some personal and some related to the Roadtrek. We walked around the dollar store several times, waited to the last time around to pick up the things that we found and went to the cashier before they decided we were casing the place to rob it. It was really a small store. We moved next door to the Staples office store. This is a place with a variety of things that interest both me and my wife (as odd as that might sound) and we could spend awhile there - plus the store is large and they would not realize how much time we were spending inside. About a quarter of the way around the store, my wife's cell phone rang - it was the service center. Could they be finished so soon? Or had they found a problem? I was sure they were going to say that the radio was bad and had to be ordered. No, they needed to show us something and speak with us regarding the tank valve handles. Meryl told them fine, we were at the shopping center and it would take us about ten minutes or so to walk back. What shopping center was the response - odd.

The walk was downhill this time and we were back at the service center. They had not yet started on the radio. They were still working on the panel. They needed to discuss what to do about the tank handle. There was no way to correct the position of the handle. It would not return and stay at the horizontal position. They felt that it worked fine but agreed that the turned handle could stop the door from opening. The suggestion was to install a small metal L bracket that would hold the handle in a horizontal position and not interfere with its operation and it would keep it away from the door. They showed me the little bracket and it would be screwed in. Fine. I poked around the van to see what had been done. The table cabinet was fixed by moving the door catch from the top to the side - they said that at the top it never really caught at all. They said that the drawer was a problem as the catch could not be moved and there was no room on the side to install a second catch. They tightened this as best they could. (The drawer still slides open when driving.) They thought that the visor clip would just need a longer screw but they had not looked at that yet. OK - we gave our input about the bracket for the handle and we were not needed any longer. It was back to the shopping center. We had been here now for about two hours.

This time we went over to the Giant supermarket. It is owned by the same company that owns supermarkets that are local to us and my wife was interested in comparing. This supermarket is also prominent around Pennsylvania and if we needed something while traveling it would be good to know that they carried it.

This was not the first time that we have browsed in a supermarket. As we have traveled in the past from state to state we would always find a time - usually late night - to check out a local supermarket and see what they sold different than what is sold where we live and how the prices compared. There are actually a number of things that you will find in supermarkets in different states that you will not find locally to you. And sometimes the prices will surprise you, too.

We got to know that supermarket extremely well. We wandered up and down the aisles. We were running out of stores to waste time in and we had to make the most of each on that we went in. There is no real waiting room at the dealer - just a counter and about three by seven feet of space to stand in. We were out of the heat in the stores but I was getting tired. There was nothing to do but keep moving along. We spent more than an hour in the supermarket and at that point it was just making me hungry. To avoid temptation we left.

Next door was a chain drug store. My wife wanted to look for something and we went inside. While there she found the exact pair of tweezers that she had been looking for months for at home and around in various stores. Well, those few minutes in this store were time well spent.

It was off to Home Depot. It was almost four o'clock. Home Depot is not my most favorite store but I do find that stores like Home Depot are always much better out of state than they are where we are at home. Stores that are really good tend to come to our area - and perhaps it is the people that they hire, but these stores never compare in both service and quality to that same store out of NY. I won't elaborate, but it continually happens like this when a chain, that we know from out of state, finally arrives in our area.

We wandered up and down the aisles. We had a few projects that we were considering so we spent the time checking out what they had that we would need. I went over to check out the lumber which did not look bent and curved as it does at the Home Depot at home. As we wandered I became conscious of the time and wondered if we should just head back to the service center now, as it was after 4:30 and I thought that the service center closed at 5.

We started walking back. I looked along the road that the dealer is on and saw that past the dealer's location the road takes a steep climb upward. I said to Meryl that it all could be worse - the dealership could have been further up that hill and we would be hiking up it.

We got to the service center door and it said closes at 5. It was 4:45. We went in and we said that we came back so that they would not have to call us and wait as they close in 15 minutes. They said, yes, they do close but they keep working until 8 - and they were just working on the radio now. They had replaced the monitor panel and said that all LEDs work now - and that they filled the tanks and emptied them to make sure. There was some concern about some of the sensors but they believe that they will be fine. For a newly built RT, I hope so...

I wandered in the back where I could see the Roadtrek through an open garage door. There were two technicians inside working on the radio. They said that they also could not get any signals on the AM and FM. I did not want them to rush, so I joined Meryl in the office at the counter to chat with the very nice lady who had been working with us all day and also was helping us on the phone all along since we took delivery. We had a nice chat. It was getting close to six. It had been a long day wasting time but at least the outcome - I hoped would be worth it all.

Eventually, she got called in the back and got a report from the technician. The repairs were finished. The radio antenna cable WAS NEVER plugged into the back of the radio. This was just as I suspected! The trainee crew must have been in charge of the interior wiring on my Roadtrek at the factory because they also screwed up the TV antenna wiring. With the antenna plugged in now the radio was tuning in many AM and FM stations loud and clear.

The sun visor clip did not have a screw to replace with a longer screw. It instals with a bar tab that force fits in. They were surprised to see one like this - as they expected to find a screw hole. They managed to get into the ceiling padding but advised me that the fit is weak and any pulling on that bracket will bring it out again. When I later saw it I found that where it went back in, was just out of line and the visor did not lock in any longer, but it was held in place and would not fall out. If Roadtrek had used a simple and standard screw in bracket clip, this would never be a problem.

We were finished. I signed the completed work receipt and we got into the Roadtrek. The first thing that I did was turn on the radio and was delighted that I could tune in stations loud and clearly. I had stations from NY that were coming in. Perfect! The problem was fixed and we would not need to come back again to have the radio replaced.

It was after six o'clock and we needed to go somewhere for dinner before we headed home. We know a restaurant that is south of the dealer but not close. It is near Philadelphia and we started off on the road to go there. We were driving about fifteen minutes and I reached over to the GPS screen to program in the location of the restaurant. I then noticed a mark on the side of the screen. What is this?, I asked Meryl. She looked and said that she thought it was a scratch. There was no scratch on the screen before. I have been very careful with the screen. I pulled over into a parking lot and looked closer. It was more than a scratch it was a cut. I could feel my blood pressure rising. I asked Meryl to call the service center and hope that they would answer the phone. They did. Come back they said. I turned around and headed the fifteen minutes back north.

We got there and the woman from the office came out with a camera. She took a photograph of the screen and said that she would speak about it with the service manager the next day. She acknowledged that it was a cut/scratch and seemed to believe me that it was not there before. I asked that when she got a replacement, they ship the new GPS to me and I would swap it with this one and send this one back to them. Fine. At least there was no argument and the attitude was positive and friendly.

A bit of the bubble of happiness that I had a half hour before had burst. We drove to the restaurant and after that home. That cut on the screen was now obvious every time I looked over to the radio.

It took a few weeks but a new GPS is was shipped to me with sincere apologies and I am sending them back the damaged one at their expense. Good dealer service and service people are extremely important.

Home Again, Home Again...

Tuesday - the day after July Fourth

This was the last day of our trip. We like to travel at night and spend the day still touring around the area on our trips so we had some things planned for this last day. Before we packed up to leave we decided to dump the tanks again - they were not near full, but we would be having service on the Roadtrek on Thursday involving the tanks and I did not want to bring the tanks to the dealer's service tech with any surprises inside for him to empty first. The black tank really should be at least 2/3's full before dumping so we started filling it with water. The quickest way is to fill a gallon jug at the campground hose spigot and pour the water down the toilet, so we formed a two person bucket brigade - me inside pouring, and Meryl outside filling. At this point, our monitor panel was not working correctly - the one of the reasons for the service visit at the end of the week back to Pennsylvania - and it would not show when the black tank was 2/3 full. It would go from 1/3 to Full. We decided to count gallons poured in, knowing that the tank only holds ten gallons. That done, we dumped all of that water that we had just filled the tank with and then dumped the grey tank. I also wanted to flush the black tank with clear water (no sure why) so we repeated the bucket brigade and I poured ten gallons of water into the toilet and we flushed it all out through the macerator into the campsite's sewer connection. I must say that the Roadtrek is very easy and fast to dump. It takes a lot more time putting the extra water in the tanks to fill them to the dump point than to actually dump it all out.

Once that was done, we unhooked the electric and the cable, secured everything inside the Roadtrek and then got out of the Roadtrek and decided to walk around the campground and actually take a look close up at the whole place in the day time which we had not done before. There were few campers there - most had either left the day before or were out for the day. It was too early for new arrivals. The campground is very nice. We stopped in the bathrooms and shower rooms just to see how clean and each was very clean and well maintained. We strolled around the whole campground. Half of this campground has unusual spaces. They form a "T" with two RVs or trailers face to face with a short access driveway from the campground road. You must back up that driveway and then turn, backing up into your site which is one half of the top of the "T". These sites are large, but the problem is that those with trailers park their cars in that driveway completely blocking access in or out if the car is there. This is a real problem is you are like us and go out for the day and stay out until late at night. We could see that our small Roadtrek could maneuver up the grass and around the car(s) into the space if we had to, but I would not really be happy with that. We made a note to make sure that we always request a non-T space. I had read about these spaces on the forums and reviews, saw them drawn on the map, but did not really understand them until we saw them in person. We continued our walk around the campground. We passed an older couple who were sitting on folding chairs. He was reading the paper and she was painting. They were facing the stream and the farm across the water. We said hello and they said hello back. The mosquitoes were not out with much force and we leisurely walked back to our site and the Roadtrek. We got in and pulled out on our way for the day and eventually, home.

Tuesdays in Lancaster mean Roots Market in the town of Manheim off of Rt. 72. Roots Country Market and Auction is similar to Green Dragon that I told you about visiting on the day we arrived (check back four articles to see that). Roots is a smaller version of Green Dragon, but it is more out of the tourist area and much less known by the tourists that come to Lancaster County. You are not going to encounter many tourists at Roots (pronounced locally as Ruts) but there are a few so you will not feel uncomfortable there. What you will encounter are more Amish and Mennonites and they come here to buy and to sell. They also come for the auctions - both animal auctions and household/produce auctions. There is a large building with stands inside and there is a smaller building with antique sellers - and one of the auctions. Outside there are stands with produce and there are also flea market stands scattered through out. There are also several places to have a good lunch. One of our favorites is Raub's Subs (also located at Green Dragon) and you can get a nice hero/sub/hoagie/grinder (whatever they call it in your area) here at a reasonable price. There are tables that you can stand at outside and we found a canopied area added now with picnic tables in the back near the new restroom building. They recently added a building with very modern restroom facilities. The former building was a bit rustic - but always clean. There are a few other food choices as well including a Pit Beef stand and a Pork BBQ stand. Of course, there are hot, soft pretzels for sale baked before your eyes. Roots has been around for 85 years and is only open on Tuesdays from 9 to 9 and 9 to 8 in the winter. During the summer they do have a flea market on the property outside on Saturdays. We always enjoy walking around Roots, looking at the great produce - and now we have a refrigerator with us to take it home in - and seeing what each stand has to offer. Across the road from Roots at the back end is a large field with flea market stand holders - they close early at about 2 so get there early for those. There are also two buildings on that side of the road selling antiques and collectibles.

When we arrived at Roots I did not expect the crowd that was there - but after all this was July 4th week and many take that week for vacation. The parking lots, front and rear were crowded, but a normal car would have had no problem parking. The Roadtrek sticks out a bit at the back (or front, depending on the space) and I was not going to chance squeezing it into a single space with a flow of cars in the parking lot aisle. I drove around the back and saw the rear parking lot in a similar state, but across the road there is an Auction House that was not open and their parking lot had a few vehicles but there would be plenty of room for the Roadtrek or other RV. We drove into the lot and parked there. It was just a short walk down and across the road into the main section of Roots.

It was hot but not unbearable and we had a great time at the market. We found a few things that we had thought about getting but were not able to find - these places are great for finding things that you can't find anywhere else. We spent most of the afternoon there.

We left Roots and drove a bit around the country side. We had one more thing that I wanted to do locally and after a while I drove back to Kitchen Kettle - that I wrote about on the Saturday article of this trip. Why Kitchen Kettle again? It was not for jelly. I wanted to test something on the Roadtrek and Kitchen Kettle provided two opportunities. It provided a large parking lot for us to pull into and not look out of the ordinary and it is very close by to Beacon Hill Campground where we had stayed on our first night in the Roadtrek on the day of delivery.

When we were at Beacon Hill I could not get the TV/Antenna on the Roadtrek to pick up any watchable digital signals, despite the lady in the office telling me that others get at least 18 clear channels to come in. Well. I got none. When we got home I discovered that all of the antenna wiring had been done incorrectly at the factory at Roadtrek. I looked at the various wires and knowing how a TV, and antenna, and a Cable coax wire need to be connected, took apart the wiring and re-did it correctly. At home we got many clear channels after that. I wanted to see just how many channels and how watchable the channels would be if we returned to Beacon Hill Campground where there is no cable TV hook ups.

We parked in one of the RV spaces at Kitchen Kettle. It was near the end of their day, but there were still people visiting and the shops were still open. There was plenty of parking. I put up the antenna, directed it toward Lancaster city, and got the TV ready to tune in digital signals. Immediately, the chart started to show channels being locked in. There were more than 25. I went through what was available and there were many good channels to watch. Now I knew. I would prefer the cable hook up but in the event that I can't get a campground here with one, Beacon Hill would be our preferred alternative. Test complete. My wiring was correct and there was watchable digital TV in the area.

The last stop before dinner was at a small local department store out of the Lancaster area in a town called East Earle - which is next to the town of Blue Ball (really). The store is called Goods and it is a small local chain with several locations. This is the location that we prefer and it is near two good restaurants for dinner before we head home. Goods Store is also one of those places to look when there is no other place that has what you are looking for. It is off of Rt 23 just past the intersection with Rt. 322. The store is undergoing a major expansion. I am hoping that they are not growing larger than they should. Service from the Mennonite ladies who work here is always excellent.

It was getting late and local restaurants in the Lancaster region close at 8 pm. We headed for dinner before we got on the road to go home.

Traveling home was... interesting. There was construction on Pennsylvania Turnpike and the road service was uneven. Going from bump in the road to bump in the road at high speed the Roadtrek bucked like a rodeo bronco. It is a long van and a heavy van and the shocks and springs react to whatever you go over in the road. Slowing down just below the speed limit evened out the ride. When we got into Brooklyn on the highway we encountered the perpetual road construction and found ourselves being detoured off the road as the overpass on the highway was being replaced and the highway was closed for all of a mile. We got off, followed the other cars and the easy to miss signs, and wound our way back through the streets of Brooklyn near Coney Island to get back on the highway. I am always amazed in NY in the city boroughs that the roads are just as crowded at 2 am as they are in the middle of the afternoon. In addition the road surfaces are terribly poor and despite the constant road construction never seem to improve. Every bump and ripple in the road was transferred to something banging around inside the Roadtrek. At one point we stopped and and Meryl sat in the third seat to see if that was what was causing some of the noise. It was quieter, but there was still the bang, bang bang. We would be doing a lot of investigating of noises in the days to come. As is getting usual lately with the roadwork, the trip took a lot longer than it should (and it has in years past) - and nothing to do with the Roadtrek - and it was almost 3 am when we arrived home. Home again, home again... Only to need to return to PA in two days to go to the dealer service for necessary repairs. Why not just have stayed? We had things at home that had to be done and business that had to be attended to. Despite what some may think, neither of us are retired.

Still Out

Sunday - Fourth of July weekend

Surprisingly, I had no problem falling asleep to the sound of the rain hitting the roof of the Roadtrek and the thunder and lightening outside. I awoke in the morning still not certain what we would be doing for the day depending on the weather forecast. I put on the Weather Channel and also the local news show's weather report. There was a 60% chance of rain for the day and the report was that the storm front was moving southwest. At the moment they showed live video of heavy rain falling in NYC. The map showed the weather moving in our direction. Interesting, as weather here usually moves northeast. OK - plans for the Kutztown Folklife Festival would be postponed to Monday when the weather was to be cloudy and cooler. Things that we had planned for Monday would be on the schedule now for this day.

We got up and decided that since we had this time, perhaps we should take the opportunity and fill the water tanks. The "black" tank was also getting full - at least it seemed that way as the monitor panel was not working correctly for the black tank since we took delivery. It is one of the things on the service center's list of repairs for our next visit. The grey tank was not very full at all and we wanted to fill that tank so that we could flush through the macerator after dumping the black tank. We started running water in the sink and let it run. We went outside to start dumping and start filling. After that we would unhook and head out for the day. It had rained heavy the night before and outside the humidity was steamy. The rain also brought the mosquitoes out in force. There is that cute stream that flows behind the campground and suddenly it was not so cute as it had to be the source of a lot of these mosquito. As soon as we got outside they were swarming on us.

Years ago, in a Discovery Channel store, we purchased a solar mosquito repeller. This is a little device about two inches long with a key chain on one end. There is a small solar panel on it which charges the device to run a high pitched whistle which is supposed to chase mosquitoes away. Into the Roadtrek I went to find this. I am not sure it worked very well but there were less mosquitoes on us, but we were being bitten a great deal.

With enough water in the gray tank, we dumped the black tank and the gray tank into the sewer. We got out the hose - and the external filter and connected that to the water connection and filled the front and the rear tanks. In the process the front tank overflowed and covered the door and driver's seat in water. Once we dried everything off it was time to unhook the electricity and the cable TV and be off for the day. I am sure that in time we will get better at this all, but it took us almost two hours to do this that morning.

Finally, we were off. As I had said in the last article, because of the religious base of the local Amish and Mennonites, most things PA Dutch are closed on Sundays with very few exceptions. Sunday is not a day that you really want to plan to be in this area unless you want to go to the Outlets or see some of the non-PA Dutch attractions - and there are some.

We stopped for lunch and headed over to the Harbor Freight store. I love Harbor Freight stores - they are a supermarket for men. There are aisles of tools and gadgets to buy - and you will find men pushing shopping carts meandering down the aisles, filling the carts up. In the past year they opened a store local to me - but it is not as big and just not the same as this store in PA.

We then headed for the Strasburg Railroad. The Strasburg Railroad runs real steam trains through the countryside and farmlands. Many think that these trains are from the early 20th Century and earlier, but steam engines were in use in the US until the late 1950's and still are in some parts of the world. The big locomotives that have been lovingly restored and run on the Strasburg line are from the 1940's and 50's. The cars that you ride in are of similar vintage and their most famous car was used in the movie, "Hello Dolly!" - and is named as such so you know which one that it is. For many this is a very old movie, but for Barbra Streisand fans, this train car is still a big deal. You ride the train from Strasburg to the town of Paradise. Once there the engine is turned around, hooked back up to the train and you drive back on the same track that you came in on. I have ridden the train many times. We were not riding the train this day - I was there to take photos of the train and the trains being restored in their rail yard.

It was a good thing that we did not go to Kutztown. It was hot and it was extremely humid. So much so that it was very uncomfortable walking around outside. We went into the gift shops at the railroad station several times just to cool down. I was trying out a new camera strap that I recently got for my camera and had not yet used. It slings over the shoulder and I found that it was far more comfortable than having the DSLR hanging around my neck. I have sold some photographs and I have won an award for one. I am always looking for "different" to photograph. Despite the heat, I took some interesting shots around the railroad station and trains. (This site tends to blur the images and does not do them justice.)


Across from the Strasburg Railroad is the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and this large museum houses many beautifully restored engines and trains. They are exhibited both inside and out and if you are what is know as a "rail fan" this is a must see. There are combination tickets that include a ride on the Strasburg and admission to the museum. The museum is under reconstruction but it is still open.

Parking for the Strasburg Railroad for RVs is limited. There is a large open area at the rail yard end of the property that one can park a large RV. We parked the Roadtrek in one of the car spaces. I chose a spot that was toward the end that did not back closely on to an opposite row of parked cars so that there would be no problem with the back sticking out of the space.

It was good to get back into the air conditioning of the van and we headed off to see a campground that I had read about that is "nearby" that is open all year. Most of the campgrounds in this area close in the late Fall and reopen on April 1st. This one stays open. It's address says it is in Stasburg but it is closer to the town of Quaryville than the populated town of Strasburg. It is south and into the mountains and to find it we were on some winding and steep mountain roads. The Roadtrek had no problem with these - though I was not thrilled with the twists and turns down and then up again. We actually found the campground and it is in the middle of an open field. We headed back on a different route and discovered that it is possible to get to this campground on less steep and winding roads. I am not sure that I would want to drive the Roadtrek on either route in the ice or snow. But it is open and there is a local event that we may like to attend in Lancaster in the month of March - when hopefully - though this past winter found March to be as bad as January - there will not be any snow or ice.


Coming back from Strasburg brings you right to the Outlet Center. We spent the rest of the day until dinner looking - not buying, just looking.

Fourth of July fireworks in Lancaster County don't happen on the Fourth of July. The big shows are generally scheduled on Saturday or Sunday before the Fourth. With the Fourth on Monday, the fireworks were scheduled on Sunday. After dinner we went to a spot to park - at a Home Depot - that we know has a good view of the fireworks show at Long's Park, the larger of the area shows. Along the way we could see the fireworks show being presented at a local golf course and there were many cars parked along the side of the highway to watch. Comfortable in the Roadtrek's front seats we watched the fireworks. You see them, you hear them - you just don't get the musical accompaniment.

And yes, we stopped again at Walmart for a short time to check on a few things and we went back to the campground. As soon as we got out to hook up the mosquitoes swarmed again, attracted to us and the lantern that we had to see when we hook up in the dark. We set the "lego" blocks under the wheels again to level the RT, hooked up the electric line and the cable TV and settled down inside for the night.

It had been very hot and humid all day, as I said, and the night was not much better. We have been running the Roadtrek's A/C all along at night and have found that with the small space that this room size air conditioner has to cool it does too well a job. There are two fan settings on the Cool Cat heat pump/air conditioner that is installed in the Roadtrek. There is a thermostat control and a fan/auto setting. I have kept the fan set on low and have had it on the auto setting which turns the a/c on and off when it reaches the temperature set on the thermostat which I have placed anywhere from 68 to 75 degrees. We both freeze and get too warm with the A/C. We sit in the front seats and there is really no way to direct the flow of air away from us no matter where we set the direction of the three vents. The cold air all too easily reaches us. So with the temperature still in the 80's outside, there I am sitting with a jacket on and Meryl in a sweatshirt. It is a relief when the auto setting shuts the fan off and off comes the jacket and the sweatshirt, but shortly after it starts to feel too warm and as it should the A/C comes back on and so do the jacket and sweatshirt. The low fan setting seems more of what medium should be, but there is nothing lower. Now, I would rather be cold than hot and I am not really complaining, but a little more variation in the settings would have been nice. We could not help but laugh at how we were sitting there shivering on Fourth of July weekend.

Tomorrow we would go to Kutztown Folklife Festival - the highlight of the trip.

To be continued in the next article...