Curt Gowdy State Park, WY

We stopped for a couple of nights in Laramie, WY to visit the Snowy Range, but the byway is closed.  With the byway closed, we rode over to visit Curt Gowdy State Park.  We'd learned of this park back in the summer of 2009, but had yet to visit it.  (Remember, our trailer hates I-80. We don't travel this way unless the perceived advantages of traveling I-80 out weight the destruction I-80 does to our trailer.) This park is located midway between Cheyenne and Laramie, WY on Wyoming State Route 210.  The visitor center is new, and it appears that there's new (or at least renovated) campsites in some of the loops (some sites with concrete pads for the picnic tables).

What we didn't know until we got here is that this park is a mountain biker's paradise.  Trails are rated from novice to advance/expert.  There are several cutoffs from the main trails where the bikers can go "play" in rougher terrain.  And what's not to love about trails named "Igneoramus" (and that is how it's spelled on the trail sign) or "Pinball"?  There's a handicapped accessible, paved trail at the visitor center, too.

We chose to hike the Stone Temple Circuit which takes you through many of the parks more picturesque rock formations, Ponderosa pines and a variant of Aspen trees that were just beginning to bloom.  It's a mid-range hike of about 4+ miles.  We were passed by or met numerous mountain bikers - some with dogs running with them.  I think the dogs were having more fun than the bikers!  We quickly found that we're not in shape for these high elevation hikes - no surprise there.  We enjoyed our hike though and will be back.

We posted several pictures of the visitor center and our hike.  If you have the time, take a look at them.  We hope you enjoy them!  David

At Kearney, NE

Near Amana Colonies, IA.  No corn, yet.

Well, a week has passed and a lot has happened.  Indiana Interstate Enterprises took the trailer in last Thursday morning.  We got it back Saturday.  They'd done a ton of work and finally fixed a complaint I'd had with the bedroom slide since we bought the trailer in December 2010.  One of the many problems with the RV industry is it's ability for manufacturers to admit something isn't right.  After years of complaining about the flex of the trailer and how it affects the bedroom slide as it rides down the road, Paul notice my complaint.  He fixed the pan that holds the bedroom slide once it's slid in the trailer.  That pan was supposed to be installed with 16 screws.  Paul found only three had been used.  There's no evidence of screw holes for the other 13.  It's now installed correctly, and we're no longer twisting & breaking corner trim pieces on the bedroom's slide exterior as we travel down the road. 

Back to the story: we loaded up with groceries on Saturday and headed west along I-80 Sunday morning.  Before I go on, let me remind you:  Our trailer and I-80 have a mutual hate for each other.  We have broken more stuff on the trailer, lost more wheel center caps on our trailer wheels, lost more trim screws, broken more latches, etc on I-80 than any other interstate.  Sunday proved this mutual hate is alive and well.  Yeah, we lost another center wheel cap - no biggie as it's the first one we've lost in years.  However, this time I-80 is demonstrating that not all upgrades to the trailer really work as planned.  Our upgrade to MCD shades last September has proven to be a bad decision.  The shades are too heavy for the wood window trim to hold.  The installation screws just can't hold the shades' weight.  We're basically bouncing them off the windows as we travel down the road.  We're now afraid to touch them when we stop for the night. And given our window valances are almost permanently installed, these shades are not the easiest to reinstall when they do fall.  Plus the screws stripping out is destroying the wood trim on the inside of the windows.  Looks like we get to go back to the old style shades this September.

Moving on:  Stops this week were at Geneseo, IL; Newton, IA, and Greenwood, NE where we stopped for two nights to allow a cold front and severe weather to pass before continuing west.  Tonight we're in Kearney, NE (about halfway across Nebraska).  Since it's a cold front that pass, we're experience colder weather - freeze warnings.  Climbing in elevation isn't helping in that department.  We're at 2,200 ft tonight.  Weather channel app indicated highs near 70 when we get to Jackson, WY next week.  Plenty of time for that change, unfortunately.

Upcoming stops are Sidney, NE (Cabela's); Laramie, WY (another planned multi-night stop with freeze warnings); Rock Springs, WY, and finally our goal - Jackson, WY.  If we get lucky, maybe the window wood trim will last, and we may get quicker at reinstalling the MCD shades as we go along.  One can dream, ya know!

Thanks for stopping by and checking up on us.  We plan to be at the hatchery this time next week. David

Back in Lagrange, IN

Essenhaus, Middlebury, IN

Riverwalk, Elkhart, IN

Long read - just documenting what happened.  Read at your own risk...

We got out of Luray, VA last week just fine.  Nothing after that went as planned.  Hence, that's why we tell you, "That's the plan...until it changes"

We arrived at Bedford, PA Wednesday of last week at about 12:30 PM and got the trailer off the truck.  At that moment, we had a complete hydraulic failure on the trailer.  Third time in 10 years when you count both 5th wheel trailers that we have owned.  Lucky for us, only the front legs were extended.  Most trailers have a backup where you take a drill and turn the hydraulic pump to move things.  It's painfully slow and can take several hours to pull everything in/up as necessary for safe travel.  In our case it took about an hour and three people to move two legs:  One to run the drill turning the pump, one to hold the button on the controller to open the solenoid so things can move in the preferred direction, and one (in this case, Bob from the campground's maintenance staff) to confirm things are moving in the desired direction.  We put the trailer back on the truck and had everything stowed for travel about 3 PM.  We decided to take the trailer all the way to Howe, IN where there's a hotel with a parking lot where we can park the rig and spend the night.  We arrived about 11:30 PM Wednesday night.  We'd made phone calls along the way trying to get appointments rearranged and moved up to see if we could get the hydraulics repaired first.

Now, with our current trailer's layout, when everything thing is stowed and slides are in, you can't reach anything.  Only one door of the fridge can be opened, no clothes, no access to the bathroom & toiletries...you get the idea.  We took the hotel's complimentary razor, shaving cream, toothbrushes and tooth paste, turned the trailer's refrigerator off, and called it a "morning" about 1 AM (Thursday).  After a few hours sleep, we found that there were no rental cars to be had until that afternoon, and Lippert notified us that they couldn't help us until our planned appointment on May 1st - a week away.  Indiana Interstate Enterprises (from here on called "Paul & Kay's) couldn't help as they couldn't work on the trailer until the hydraulics were repaired (though they helped immensely as you'll read below).  We decided to run the generator some to try to save the frozen food in the freezer and begin to see what food could be saved from the fridge area via the one door we could open.

Once we got the Samsung refrigerator to turn on (Samsungs are notorious for being hard to restart after several hours of begin off), we found that the fridge area had only dropped to 42 F and the freezer was at 31 F.   Having lots of experience with taking the fridge apart several times last year to defrost it until we could get it repaired, that experience came back to pay dividends.  With one door fully open and the other door opened maybe open an inch, we took the interior apart which allowed Donna to removed all the food.   Donna was able to save enough food from the trailer's fridge to fill our little fridge in the hotel room.  She also crawled around in the back of the trailer where she could and grabbed a few creature-comfort things she could reached.

After that, Donna decided to make a reservation for a rental car, and that worked to our advantaged.  By a little after noon, we had our choice of four cars to choose from.  A trip down to Paul & Kay's to vent our frustrations and make a plan and set priorities of what to repair on the trailer when they got it.  (Keep in mind: we're missing our planned appointment there, and they are booked with future appointments - what work gets done depends on when they can fit us in vs. when we have to leave for Wyoming.)  As we went through the repair work to be done after the hydraulics are repaired, they told us they had a spot where we could park the truck & trailer, not block anything and plug into power so that we wouldn't lose the frozen food.   Now things are really improving!  After moving the trailer down to Paul & Kay's shop, we were off to Walmart for  laundry supplies, toiletries and wardrobe to get us by until the hydraulics are fixed.  And that's how we rolled until 4:40 AM Wednesday morning when the alarm clock went off and our day to have the hydraulics repaired at Lippert in Goshen, IN began.  (OK, we did make a couple of trips back to the trailer from time-to-time and took a bunch of things from the pantry.)

Work at Lippert could not have gone better (notwithstanding a low tire pressure reading on one of the truck tires).  Made two new friends.  By 4 PM all hydraulics were repaired (new pump, electric motor, wiring harness and touch pad controller), we could move everything as needed.  We planned some additional work for Lippert to do when we're in the area in September, and headed to one of the campgrounds in Shipshewana to sanitize the holding tanks so we can have them worked on at Paul & Kay's shop.  We're back at Paul & Kay's by 6:30 PM and plugged into a 15 Amp extension cord Paul & Kay have left out a door for us to plug into to keep the fridge running.  Things are looking great and we're emptying out the storage area to make it easier for Paul to work on the trailer's electronics until I notice the inverter is still carrying the fridge. It's that stinky piece of "ground fault" &*%$#$%^&&*()(*^^% **&%$.   REALLY???  WHY????  WHY NOW????

Four resets of power to the trailer didn't solve anything.  I remember that Paul had told us it could be the transfer switch.  I took a rubber mallet and tapped (Yes, I tapped.  Yes, I wanted to take a sledge hammer to it and boy did I want to take a sledge hammer to it, but I really did tap - ask Donna) and we had good shore power for the fridge when we tried another power reset.  We'd save frozen food for one more day!  This morning they moved the trailer into a bay to start repairing what they could.

(Trivia question:  Now that the hydraulics work and we can open all the slides, what do you think we got out of the trailer?  A second pair of shoes for me.  We've gotten so use to our emergency wardrobe from Walmart, that we decided to just keep wearing it.)

Things are going well.  We got the truck tire repaired this afternoon.  Take a guess which wheel?  Go on, guess!  Passenger side, inner rear dual wheel.  It's always the passenger side, inner rear dual wheel.  We had one nail go into one tire on our F450 the whole time we owned it.  Which tire?  Passenger side, inner rear dual wheel.  Had a low tire reading on the new truck two years ago which happened the first time we experienced that stupid *^%$%^##*&% "ground fault" gremlin.  Which tire?  Passenger side, rear inner dual wheel.  It's always the passenger side, inner rear dual wheel.  ALWAYS!

Movin' on: Truck goes in for service tomorrow as we now have unplanned time to do that.  If we're lucky, it'll stop raining/snowing, and we'll have good weather for the weekend.  We don't bother Paul & Kay.  We need to leave by May 9th to make our May 15th arrival date in Jackson, WY.  There is no plan - just a "it'd be nice if..."

Thanks for dropping by and reading about our adventures!  Until next week, David

Shenandoah Nat'l Park

Luray, VA viewed from Stony Man Nature Trail

Dark Hollow Falls

We're wrapping up our one-week "vacation" here in Luray and our visit in Shenandoah Nat'l Park.  Despite the southern portion of Skyline Drive being closed (MM 80 and south) and only the Skyland Lodge being open, we found the park busy and parking lots at the more popular trail heads full to overflowing.  Bicyclists seemed to be everywhere.  And what the weather channel app promised as a rainy stay with chances of rain around 60+% each day until the day we were suppose to leave, turned into to nice, sunny days.  We've had a beautiful stay. The leaves on the trees at the lower elevations have popped out since our arrival last Wednesday.

Tomorrow starts our trip to the Elkhart, IN area and the beginning of the trailer's maintenance rodeo (Monday).  Planned stops are Bedford, PA; Streetsboro, OH; and Angola, IN.

That's it for this week.  Thanks for dropping by and checking in on us.  Until next week, David

Dark Hollow Falls

Dark Hollow Falls

Luray, VA

View of Skyline Drive from Stony Man Trail near Skyland Lodge

We're back in Luray, VA for a week.  This was our weekend get-away spot when we first started RVing in 1991. This time we're in the Jellystone RV park which we haven't visited since 2009 when we had our Excel 5th wheel.  Never really cared about phone or internet connection in this area back then.  Don't know how bad it was then, but wireless is poor now.  The only thing we can do now - reliably - is text.  Campground WiFi has been useless so far.  So how am I getting this post accomplished?  A layover at a Panera Bread in Harrisonburg, VA after visiting friends!

The campground itself has made tremendous improvements with some pave sites (premium, of course) and added numerous cabins.  Still remains a kid's paradise with a small water park and a large field to play in.  If you're a full timer, the local KOA worked nice for us last year and may be a better stop for you.

It's a little early to be in the park at Big Meadows.  Not all of Skyline Drive is open, and we know the Wayside at Big Meadows is still closed.  We'll try to get up there at some point and may go back to Luray that way from here (Harrisonburg), today.  If not, we'll probably go after tomorrow's severe storms pass by.   Looks like it's going to be a generally wet week for us.  Not all that unusual for us and does make for fantastic waterfalls.  We're carrying four cameras with us this week, so we - theoretically - should be able to get a good picture if it presents itself.

As is always the case, we're limping our way back to the Elkhart area.  I think we burnt the electric motor for the hydraulic system or damaged the pump while in Birmingham, AL.  We had a devil of a time getting the trailer to level, and we probably over heated the hydraulic system's electric motor.  Things move, but it's not right and at times you can tell the hydraulic system is struggling.  We're planning to leave the door-side slide in after we leave here just to relieve some of the demand on the system.

We smoked some wires carrying electrical power to the hot water heater last week, too.  It's back to propane-only until we can get that problem located and repaired.  All-in-all, I think we've got over 14 items on our "grip" list when we get to Lagrange.  Believe it or not, that's about normal for us though much of it is preventive maintenance.  We've still got a rogue ground fault that we can't locate, too.  Little stinker causes the surge guard to shut off all 120 volt power to the trailer when it shows itself (many times between 2 and 4 AM).

We're also finding that we're having to fully extend the front legs to get the trailer off the truck, so we're in talks with MORryde to have the trailer lowered in addition to talking with the guys in Lagrange to get the rear hydraulic legs lowered so we're not having to extend them so far.  We're routinely having to put 10+ inches of blocks under the front legs just to get the trailer off the truck.  MORryde, understandably, is struggling as they come come to grips that a customer wants to lower a trailer.  We've got eight inches of clearance over the truck's bed rails and over seven inches of clearance at the tailgate.  We're overkill on clearance, so we can give some up.  Expensive, but I don't think our hydraulic system can handle what we've got now.  Never mind that Donna can't reach the door to unlock it when we pull into a site.  (Our steps now store inside the door of the trailer.  If you can't unlock the door, you can't get the steps out.  Even I need a stool at times to reach the door lock.)

So that's this week's life of full-time RVers who are traveling through states where "level" is just an engineering concept.  Thanks for dropping by!  Everyone stay safe in the storms.  Until next week, David

Week 2 @ F'burg

We're still in the Fredericksburg, VA area and getting our visits in.  This year we beat the pollen in, but it caught up with us a couple of days ago.  Hasn't reached peak, though. Trees are beginning to bud while others are blooming.  It's beginning to feel like spring here when we walk through the battlefield.  Other than that, not much has changed since last week.

The KOA remains busy with people moving north.  Lots of Ontario & Quebec tags each night in the campground.  There's three South Dakota tags in the park:  us here for about two weeks; a next-site neighbor here for two months to visit family in the local area; and one unit belonging to park maintenance staff.  Interestingly, we're in the smallest unit of the three!

We plan to move over to Luray next Wednesday for a week and visit Shenandoah Natl Park. I think we did the same thing last year.  For us, it's like a vacation as that was our typical long-weekend trip when we lived in the area.  A little too cool for us to stay in Big Meadows Campground, though, so we're going to a campground in Luray.

Anyway, that gets you up to date.  Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us.  Until next week, David

Fredericksburg, VA

After a quick weekend at High Point, NC, we've made it to Fredericksburg, VA.  We're at the KOA and here for a couple of weeks.  We've gotten our dentist appointments out of the way, and got out without needing any additional appointments.   Donna's got her rental car, and we're out visiting friends as best we can.  We continue to abuse Beth & Frank as they've become our receipt, storage & delivery service when we're in this area.  Overall, though, I think we're doing great.

Trailer's continuing to show wear & tear and has presented us with a couple of new issues since we've left Gulf Shores.  We're trying to add another appointment while in the Elkhart area which could slow our trip out to Jackson, WY.  We've also used the trailer enough now to decide that we need to lower the trailer a little bit.  We've got plenty of clearance to play with and could give up an inch or so.  We'll try to do that on the way back from Wyoming or early next year.   Live and learn.

So that's got you up to date on us.  Thanks for dropping in and checking up on us.  Until next week, David