Glamping Days

Got a late start today on purpose, as it's a short drive from Wheeling to Pittsburgh. Arrived mid-afternoon in a campground, where the trailer will stay till next weekend. After that it will be in NC for a couple of months having some custom work done.  I'll add more to this blog blog once I begin to travel, which will at the end of January, if the work on the camper is done by then.  Until then, it's good to be home!  "Our Glamper" at Mountain Top Campground, east of Pittsburgh, 11/12/22

Drove about 530 miles today through a bit of Illinois, across Indiana & Ohio, & landing in Wheeling, WV - almost home. Most of the scenery was pretty boring, & much of the drive was rainy, so no pics today. Future trips will include WAY less driving & WAY more visiting of interesting people & places, so those reports should be more interesting. A steady rain is pitter-pattering on the trailer roof, so should sleep well  in Cabela's parking lot with everything a person needs here in my little home on wheels. 

Driving with the trailer is much easier than I'd thought it would be, & it's easy to tow it on the interstate, as long as the traffic isn't real heavy. So, I've been driving further each day than planned, & made better time going on interstates as opposed to secondary highways, even while staying well under the speed limit.  Drove 580 miles today through easter Nebraska, Iowa, & a bit of Illinois. A nice roadside nap perked me up late in the morning. The scenery was pretty ho-hum, & I was despairing of finding an interesting spot to photograph when a mid-afternoon rest stop brought me to this place. It's a sprawling complex that even includes a trucking museum - saved that for next trip. Snagged another riverfront "campsite" this evening facing the bridge going from East Peoria to Peoria. Facing the other way is a Bass Pro Shop, one of a number of places which let RVers stay a night in their parking lot. 

Awoke early today & got on the road before 7AM, just as sleet was beginning to fall. I soon got out ahead of the rain & clouds, but 40-45mph wind gusts lasted for more than half of the drive. Much of the scenery was pretty drab, but a few spots called me to get out & snap a pic. Southern Wyoming is much less scenic than the northern areas, & some stretches seemed to be too barren even for a few cows.  My plan was to stop around Cheyenne, but forecast was for very cold temps overnight in southern Wyoming & western Nebraska, so I drove just over 600 miles to get to Kearney, NB, & slightly warmer temps. Much of western Nebraska was blanketed in fog, & where the temps were around freezing, the fog was freezing on the trees looking like snow. But then the temperature rose very quickly, & it was 70* when I got to the Cabela's in Kearney, where I'm dry camping in their parking lot. 

Long 500 mile drive today. Wanted to get far enough south & east to avoid temps much below freezing.  Spending the night at a place in south western Wyoming called "Little America". It's a sprawling complex in the middle of nowhere that includes a huge truck stop, a travel center, a hotel, a restaurant, an RV park, etc. It's all very busy.  My big excitement today: I emptied the black & gray tanks of the trailer this evening for the first time. Surely, this is the most exciting bit of news you've heard all day. south central Idaho northeastern Utah northeastern Utah

Had the trailer brakes worked on this morning. They aren't really fixed, but good enough to drive home with.  My original destination for this evening had me driving 260 miles, but it is predicted to go down to 20* there tonight.  I didn't want to drain all my tanks for one night, so pushed on another 80 miles to the lowlands where predicted low is 30*. That's no problem as I'm dry camping (no electrical or water hookups) tonight anyway. I scored a beautiful campsite on the banks of the Snake River on the border of Oregon & Idaho (town of Ontario, OR). Well, it's beautiful if you look one way. Turn around, & I'm actually in a Walmart parking lot. Hey, if it's good enough for a Supreme Court Justice (Thomas), it's good enough for me! Very convenient to just stop, shop, eat, sleep, & shove off early in the am. Minimal "camp" to set up & take down, & the price is right.  Had a weird thing happen at a gas stop this afternoon. Wh...

I just hung around today doing laundry & such, waiting for the appointment tomorrow to adjust the trailer brakes again. So, nothing new to report. Since some one asked, here are some pics of the inside of there trailer. I requested that the front sleeping loft & rear dinette areas not be finished. Since I'll be traveling solo, the standard finishes (queen mattress in front & 2-4 person dinette in the rear) don't make sense for me. Those areas will be finished/customized for me by a company in North Carolina.     

Welp, today didn't go exactly to plan. After having the trailer brakes adjusted yesterday, my mileage was terrible, even accounting for towing. A friend from the Escape forum explained how I could check that they were good or too tight, & one of them is definitely too tight. The earliest appointment available to have that readjusted is Monday am, so my stay here has been extended until then; the plan had been to drive some every day until reaching home. Ah, well, at least it was a beautiful day for a long walk around the campground, eating a leisurely meal out, driving up to an overlook & getting a few things at Walmart. A bit of snow predicted for tonight, & well below freezing temps likely tomorrow night, so I brought in my water line, & will use what's in the tank.    A red maple by the river in the campground View from a nearby drive. East of the Cascade Mountains, Washington is very dry, except in the river valleys, where apples & grapes are grown. Whe...

Well, after breaking camp this morning in a steady cold rain, I had the trailer brakes adjusted (a routine maintenance item for new brakes). Then I drove about 230 miles on a variety of roads, from state highways, to interstate, to a beautiful stretch of US highway through a corner of The Cascades. The truck & trailer handled well in every situation - whew! The predicted upper 30s in the mountains turned out to be lower 30s, so that the continuous rain was sleety at times. A horse trailer kept me company in the slow lane through that stretch, & the roads were mostly just very wet, so none of it was scary. The beautiful scenery more than made up for the tougher driving conditions. After 3 nights in a KOA campground in Lynden in northwester Washington, tonight finds me at another KOA, this one in Ellensburg in south central WA. 

Another day spent figuring out all of the workings of this trailer. I've pretty much run every system & sorted out the various ways of doing everything except for unplugging & just using battery power. However, the monitor says that batteries are fully charged, so that shouldn't be a big deal. Biggest accomplishment today was unhitching, driving away from the trailer, then returning & hitching all by myself; lined it up perfectly on the first try! Thank you God & generous souls for YouTube videos . Rain moved in this afternoon, & will still be wet in the am for breaking camp. But, I got as organized as possible before the rain & planned out a short drive for tomorrow. 

A beautiful day here in Washington, though rather chilly. Spent the day figuring out most of the systems for the trailer & checking to be sure that I got what was ordered. There's a fair amount to learn & remember as most everything runs on 2 different kinds of power or has 2 different water sources. This is handy as everything runs with or without hookups, which will allow me to pull up anywhere & camp. My brain is pretty fried, but it looks like I got what I wanted & most everything works - still have to figure out a couple of things tomorrow. Thank goodness for YouTube videos!

Well, today was a very long but successful day. My new trailer was delivered to me in Washington state, just over the border from where it was build in British Columbia. The delivery guy & I (mostly him) had to do some work on the attachment between the hitch & trailer which was supposed to have been done at the factory, but otherwise it went as planned.  I then spent an hour in an abandoned gas station & some side streets learning how the trailer tracks & how to back it up...sort of. Then, I took it on some farm roads to burnish the brakes - basically breaking them in. Next, it was off to the local grocery store where I got groceries & a temporary tag for the trailer. Then, I spent a couple of hours driving around on some back roads to get more comfortable towing.  Now I'm in the KOA campground in Lynden, WA where I set up camp for the first time; none of it is hard, but it was all a bit awkward doing it for the first time.