[2007] Trailer Roulette.

AwayWeGo · Jun 2, 2012

Resort 2nd Home Acreage Out In The Country.

Rose Pink said:
We bought a lovely RV lot on a hill overlooking Bear Lake, Utah, decades ago. We've never used it and I don't foresee us ever using it. We don't fish or boat or water ski--although I do eat raspberries. Worth the drive just to get fresh raspberry shakes in the season.

We've had it on the market for a few years but the only interest was a guy who wanted us to carry the loan. I wasnt in the mood to play banker.

I wish we had never purchased it but we were young, had a newborn who was crying and the salesman must have trained in the timeshare industry.

After I was grown & gone, my parents bought a double-lot across the street from the waterfront sites in a planned development on the Northern Neck of Virginia, down by Callao in Northumberland County.

They talked of building a nice retirement home there some day, but both their lives ended before they ever got round to looking at designs or talking to builders.

As executor of their estate, I sold the land to the owner of an adjoining lot, & divvied up the proceeds with my brother & sister. (Even though I was executor, the buyer's attorney made me get my brother & sister to sign quitclaim deeds. Suspenders plus a belt, I suppose.)

The Chief Of Staff & I are well enough satisfied with our modest timeshare holdings & our dinky non-traveling travel trailer so that we feel no need for a permanent 2nd home in some nice getaway location. My parents' experience in buying rural resort land that they never used only reinforces that feeling.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

amycurl · Jun 2, 2012

Thanks, Alan! That website takes me right back...we probably started going there right after it opened in '83. We loved that place. Our friends knew Mr. Hanna, which helped in getting a table in the height of summer (call in, let the hostess know we were coming, by the time we got there, our table was ready, and we could walk right past the mystified crowds....) It's probably been almost a decade since I've been there.

I wonder if they still have the folks who do nothing but walk around with the baskets of freshly baked bread goodies (I couldn't tell from the website.)

And it is in Fenwick, of course....we tended to group anything over the state line as Rehobeth or on-the-way-to/from-Rehobeth.

AwayWeGo · Jun 4, 2012

Bethany Beach & South <-- oOo --> Rehoboth Beach & North.

amycurl said:
And it is in Fenwick, of course....we tended to group anything over the state line as Rehobeth or on-the-way-to/from-Rehobeth.

In pretty much the same way, I guess, every place south of the state line is Ocean City MD.

We once rented (for a week) an apartment above the apartment over a garage -- not sure whether it was in Rehoboth Beach or Ocean City. When you went up the outdoor wooden stairs to 1 level above the garage, you had to go up 1 more flight to get to the top, where our shaky vacation rental apartment was perched -- a far cry from the luxury & stability of timeshare resorts. The Chief Of Staff & the kids & I had a nice time anyhow.

Ever since we got our dinky non-traveling travel trailer, we've found ourselves gravitating more in the direction of Lewes DE & less in the direction of Bethany Beach DE & Ocean City MD. The road to our little recreational trailer park is up by the Wal-Mart store, way north of Rehoboth Beach proper. The park is on the back side of Rehoboth Bay, a short boat ride from the bay side of Dewey Beach but a significantly longer car ride.

As old folks & grandparents, we have developed a preference for Lewes Beach, which is on the mouth of Delaware Bay right around Cape Helopen from the Atlantic Ocean. The bayside beach has wimpy waves by contrast with the surf you hear & see & feel smashing & crashing on the sands of the ocean beaches, & that's fine with us -- specially when we are on child-watch duty. (For years we thought the way to say Lewes was Looz. Later we caught on that you say it Lewis. Who knew?)

Our location is up by the 3 (tax-free) Tanger outlet malls & all the commercial development that has sprung up -- Kmart & Wal-Mart & Safeway & Food Lion & Super Fresh & Kick'n Chicken & Outback Steakhouse & I don't know what-all. A surprise this season was noticing that the Ledo Pizza place is no longer Ledo but just some generic unaffiliated pizza joint, also that both Black & Decker locations are GONE ! -- the 1 in the Tanger outlet mall as well as their clearance store up by the former Ledo Pizza parlor. So it goes.

Friends we've known since before any of us got married bought an outstanding luxury Ocean City condo a couple of seasons ago -- more like a Wyndham Presidential Reserve timeshare suite than your regular, plain-vanilla everyday condominium apartment. We've visited them there a couple of times, enjoying their ocean view from the vista out their large 4th floor balcony. Very nice. Extremely nice, & an extreme contrast with our dinky trailer, but not so extreme that we're tempted to go into hock for something similar.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

AwayWeGo · Jun 5, 2012

What A Doofus. (Me, Not You.)

AwayWeGo said:
The hired man also leveled & stabilized the trailer under stacks of concrete blocks, removed overgrown hedges, buried the satellite TV cable, secured some insulation that had some loose under the trailer, & I don't know what-all. I helped, but (appropriately) the young & strong guy did most of the work.

More correctly, the leveling stacks of blocks are under the trailer; the trailer (obviously) is not under the blocks. And the insulation the guy secured had come loose (not some loose).

What a doofus. (Me, not you.)

AwayWeGo said:
We're back from Delaware for the time being, but we'll be going back again & again this season -- not just for continuing worka-worka-worka, but also for enjoying life in our dinky non-traveling travel trailer whenever we get the chance.

We're at our dinky trailer again right now -- got here about 10:30 last night after a leisurely evening drive featuring no traffic congestion whatever because rush hour was over when we started out. No doubt more worka-worka-worka will show up on the agenda while we're here. When it does, I will deal with it at the time.

Is this a great country or what?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

theo · Jun 5, 2012

A "flashback" question...

AwayWeGo said:
<snip> ...we have developed a preference for Lewes Beach, which is on the mouth of Delaware Bay right around Cape Helopen from the Atlantic Ocean. <snip>

Alan:
In a previous era of my life, while on a 2 year job assignment to Cape May, NJ, I would occasionally take the the ferry with some friends over to Lewes, Delaware for crabs and cold beer at a place called Lou Ianiere's.
Good times and fond memories.

I haven't been back to the mid-Atlantic in many years now; do you happen to know whether or not that place even still exists? (...Lou Ianiere's, I mean --- I'm pretty sure Lewes, DE itself is still there...)? :shrug:

AwayWeGo · Jun 5, 2012

Blast From The Past.

theo said:
In a previous era of my life, while on a 2 year job assignment to Cape May, NJ, I would occasionally take the the ferry with some friends over to Lewes, Delaware for crabs and cold beer at a place called Lou Ianiere's.
Good times and fond memories.

I haven't been back to the mid-Atlantic in many years now; do you happen to know whether or not that place even still exists? (...Lou Ianiere's, I mean --- I'm pretty sure Lewes, DE itself is still there...)?

Apparently that place belongs to history & nostalgia -- but I can't say for sure, because we haven't been up that way lately.

Click here for an internet picture from the wayback machine.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

AwayWeGo · Jul 4, 2012

A Great Country For Sure.

AwayWeGo said:
We're at our dinky trailer again right now -- got here about 10:30 last night after a leisurely evening drive featuring no traffic congestion whatever because rush hour was over when we started out. No doubt more worka-worka-worka will show up on the agenda while we're here. When it does, I will deal with it at the time.

Is this a great country or what?

Even though our little Fairfax County neighborhood in the Washington DC suburbs had power when all the surrounding neighborhoods were still powerless & without a/c in the sweltering July heat, & with the stuff in their fridges & freezers relentlessly warming up, we jumped in the car Sunday morning for a week-long stay in our dinky non-traveling travel trailer in a pleasant little Delaware campground on the back side of Rehoboth Bay, roughly halfway between Rehoboth Beach & Lewes, Delaware.

Power & internet & cell service here are OK. We have virtually all the comforts & conveniences of home, except on a very small scale. But the power problems on the western side of the Chesapeake Bay were widespread when we headed east. We aimed to have supper at a favorite barbecue place outside Annapolis MD Sunday evening. When we got there, the parking lot was empty & the place was locked -- no power. We drove over the bridge & chowed down on the Eastern Shore, where everything was working OK.

When we're here, I settle into a pattern of drinking coffee & typing on the portable computer & otherwise pretty much going with the flow. I am easily entertained. Plus, I try to be helpful around the ~~house~~ dinky trailer.

The Chief Of Staff by contrast likes to be out & about & doing stuff, not just shopping, etc., but trailer improvement & trailer modification & I don't know what-all. This week's project has been building a new set of wooden steps for entering the trailer. The steel fold-down steps that are part of the trailer won't do -- too steep & too shaky. Ugly, too. The ready-made fiberglass-over-plywood steps that look like concrete also aren't exactly right -- too high with a top platform right outside the trailer door that's too large. So we bought ready-cut stringers at Lowe's plus a bunch of pressure-treated 2x4s & a 4x4 & a box of outstanding deck screws & went to work. An electric circular saw & some electric drills with various bits, including screwdriver bits, stay here as part of the stuff we keep at our dinky trailer, so all it takes is brainpower (Chief Of Staff) & manpower (the old man) to cut & assemble.

We did the work on the installment plan in fits & starts over several days, rather than diving in & sticking with it till completion. That has several advantages. It allows for design modifications on the fly (Chief Of Staff) plus rest & recuperation between bouts of physical work out in the July heat (both of us). A few more days & I'm guessing it will be Case Closed on the new steps. After that, there surely will be more worka-worka-worka projects -- I just don't know what those will be. (But I'm sure I will find out.)

I have been using an outstanding 20-year-old Schwinn 5-speed mountain-style bike to pedal around the campground for the past few years. It still had its original tires & tubes on it. The back wheel went flat from tire & tube deterioration, & no doubt the front wheel was about go to likewise. So I took the bike to the shop yesterday for new tires & tubes & a handbrake check -- will pick it up before early closing today (July 4) at the bike shop. Taking the bike in for that work is a special indulgence. I have installed new inner tubes on bicycles (mostly kid bikes) several times in the past with minimal trouble. For the big bike with the 5-speed rear sprocket & chain-moving speed changer on it, I decided to enjoy the luxury of leaving it to the pros.

Fireworks on the beach are set for 9:15 PM or so, with remote parking & a free shuttle to the Boardwalk area. We're more apt to keep clear of the crowds & the heat & view the aerial display from our end of Rehoboth Bay.

Here's wishing a safe & sane & fun Independence Day to all my USA friends.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

Passepartout · Jul 4, 2012

Alan, thanks for the report. I had wondered how you fared with the aftermath of the storm that tried to blow the mid-Atlantic out to sea. Glad you and the dinky trailer did OK.

We are at our seasonably non-traveling RV at the lake for the holiday and have been here since last week sometime. The county is under a burn ban. No fireworks, campfires or open flames. Tended BBQs are allowed. Did I mention it is dry?

We have a similar division of labor here. DW enjoys her time to be painting. She dives right into the watercolors soon after we get situated at the camp. I paddle my pontoon boat around the 'pond' doing a lot more 'fishing' than 'catching.' I am a little envious of your access steps. We are relegated to the OEM folding metal ones because we are more mobile than your assigned space situation.

We took a 90 mile loop out and around though some of the rural mountain communities and other lakes yesterday. Lots of family groups set up to enjoy the nation's birthday. We will probably button up the RV later today and make the almost 2 hour trek home for tonight's municipal fireworks and band extravaganza. I get to stand with all the other veterans to bask in the annual warm feeling of love outpouring from the citizenry.

Life is good.

Jim

AwayWeGo · Aug 19, 2012

Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Doing Twice.

After we won at trailer roulette 2012 & got done with all the work involved in moving out of the old site & getting squared away in our new spot, the big workload shifted to our son's old trailer, & then his new 1. He bought a 2010 Coachmen as an upgrade for his 2005 Wildwood. Both are comparable, except the Coachmen is not only newer, but also has a nicer 2nd bedroom in back for our grandson (age 9).

Campground rules limit the total length of any trailer here to 36 feet from the back of the rear bumper to the very front of the trailer hitch. (That's why I call'm dinky trailers.) The Coachmen trailer exactly fits, just barely. Rules also limit the width of slide-out extensions to 36 inches. Our son's Coachmen trailer has 2 slide-outs that are nominally 36 inches -- except they're 37½ inches by actual measurement (done by the park BOD president), so the Coachmen trailer was not allowed in.

Unfortunately, the Coachmen was already here. The Chief Of Staff's sister hooked it up behind her Ford E-350 & brought it here from Westminster MD via the northern route (up I-95 to Newark DE, then down Delaware Route 1, avoiding the Chesapeake Bay Bridge). We stashed the new trailer at a storage lot while grappling with the issue of the extra inch & a half.

Meanwhile, The Chief Of Staffl had already found a buyer for the old trailer -- a lady who showed up with money in hand for the agreed upon amount, which was only $500 below the asking price. The Chief Of Staff put the buyer off while while trying to come up with a solution. Before long, the buyer got cold feet & backed out.

We learned that another family in the park brought in a new trailer that had to be modified because its slide-outs went out an inch or 2 too far, like our son's. The RV dealer who did the modification was willing to modify our son's trailer too -- for $450 or so. Plus, we would have to tow the Coachmen trailer from here to a Baltimore suburb to get the work done, then back here again once the trailer was modified -- across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge & back.

After trying & failing to get somebody local who knew what he was doing to take on the job, we decided to do it ourselves. We bought dense, closed-cell PVC foam sheets. We cut those into 3-inch strips, which we glued to both wide sides of 2x3 boards using 3M industrial spray adhesive. We cut 2 of the foam-covered boards to match the lengths of the 2 trailer slide-outs, & we cut 4 more to match the height. We joined the ends of each long board at right angles to 2 boards the height of the slides & placed the upside-down squared-off U-shape foam-covered wooden contraptions on top of the side-out room extensions, which are basically large boxes open on the inside, so that when the slides were pushed out, they were blocked from full extension by the wood, & sealed inside & out by the dense waterproof foam that's squeezed against the outside of the slide-out frame & against the inside of the opening in the trailer that the extension slides through.

It worked. The trailer was re-measured & officially OKd -- a good thing, too, because we had already repositioned the 2 trailers, new 1 out of storage lot & onto our son's site, old 1 moved into storage. For that, the Chief Of Staff hailed a guy at the marina who had a trailer hitch on his pick-up. She got him to do-si-do the 2 trailers -- swap their respective places in storage & in the park -- for an agreed upon sum.

After some last-minute repairs to the old trailer, The Chief Of Staff found another buyer for it. We met him at his bank in Elkton MD, way up close to Newark DE. With cash money in hand, we drove back down to the Rehoboth Beach campground & let out a deep breath. Later that day, the new owner arrived at the storage lot & hooked up his newly bought 2005 Wildwood trailer & drove off with it.

With the modified Coachmen trailer approved & installed, The Chief Of Staff hired a loal guy to level & stabilize it over stacks of concrete blocks. Son & family moved in & settled in. Our daughter-in-law, who had been skeptical, was very happy.

Meanwhile, the new owner of the old trailer phoned to let us know that the fabric moisture barrier under the larger of that trailer's 2 slide-outs had ripped asunder when he activated the extension mechanism. Repairs, estimated at $2,500, could not be put off. The last-minute repairs we had done on the old trailer had to do with the switch & solenoid on the in-out slide mechanism, not the structure or sub-floor fabric of the slide outs. Nobody knew anything was wrong with the moisture barrier, which looked OK & was OK. Can't account for why it ripped up after ownership changed hands. We felt bad enough about the situation, though, to pay $500 toward the repair & the guy found an RV service place that did it for less than the 1st estimate -- $1,700 or so.

The very next time we were here, a member of the park HOA came to see us when we were in our trailer just relaxing in the a/c. "I don't know if this will make you mad or glad," he said. "The board just now decided to change the size limit on slide-outs. Now it's 40 inches. There was heated discussion about it, but now it's official -- no more 36-inch limit."

Well, we sure could have been mad after all the work we did to meet the old limit. But instead we were glad that we could now remove our home-made improvised slide barriers & let the slide-outs extend their full intended distance, which would make them more apt to seal out the weather & the moisture than our questionable foam-padded lumber block system.

We removed the foam-padded 2x3s. The Chief Of Staff got some other guy with a truck to come move the trailer over two -- 2 -- inches toward the curb side to accommodate the extra inch & a half that the unblocked slide-outs now extend on the street side. Repositioning the trailer meant removing all the stabilizing stacks of concrete blocks. Same guy who stabilized before came back to stabilize it all over again, 2 inches over from where it was when he did the job before.

Even though anything worth doing is worth doing over again, here's hoping that particular job will not have to be done again any time soon. Twice is enough.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

AwayWeGo · Nov 17, 2012

Trailer Storm Preparations & After-Storm Recovery.

Ahead of the big East Coast storm, we packed up & secured everything we could at our little trailer campground in Delaware, That included taking down & securely tying our rigid-panel patio roof, which we felt would be vulnerable to hurricane force winds. Tied down that way, while still hinged by the awning rail at the top edge of the trailer, it was like a big storm shutter on the curb side of the trailer.

Trouble is, hanging down that way it blocked not only the front door but also the water heater outdoor access panel, which the people winterizing the trailer had to be able to get at. So after the storm The Chief Of Staff & I drove back to Rehoboth Beach & untied the roof panel & set it up on its support posts again.

As it happens we likely would have been OK if we had not tied down the patio roof panels. None of the others like it in the park had been taken down, & they all came through the storm mostly OK. After the storm, 1 support post at somebody else's awning was semi-tilted, still connected but causing the roof to sag a bit at 1 end. That was it.

Our dinky trailer is all winterized now, disconnected from power & water, just sitting there in the cold till we go back & start the 2013 camping season with another rousing session of Trailer Roulette.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

susieq · Nov 18, 2012

Glad you made it! Guess you were all pretty lucky! :whoopie:

AwayWeGo · Mar 29, 2013

Getting A Jump On The 2013 Camping Season.

AwayWeGo said:
Our dinky trailer is all winterized now, disconnected from power & water, just sitting there in the cold till we go back & start the 2013 camping season with another rousing session of Trailer Roulette.

Trailer Roulette is still a few weeks off but we're here in our dinky non-traveling travel trailer ahead of time anyway.

The trailer survived the rigors of winter in all respects (so far as we can tell) except 2.

The leveling blocks on the street side have settled into the sand to the degree that the trailer no longer sits level -- tilts slightly & will have to be re-leveled & re-blocked before long (i.e., when the weather warms up).

The bathroom sink faucet sprang a leak under the cabinet. We didn't notice it till puddles appeared on the floor. Fortunately, it did not leak except when the water was running, meaning that the faucet assembly itself sprang a leak, not the water supply lines.

The leaky OEM faucet assembly was 100% cheap plastic. Amazing it lasted as long as it did.

Fortunately installing a whole new replacement faucet was not much trouble. The new Moen faucet from Home Depot is solid brass. No doubt it will last longer than the rest of the trailer.

So far, so good.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

Passepartout · Mar 29, 2013

I'm envious. Our 5th wheel is still residing in an unused (for the original purpose) potato cellar along with several dozen others. I plan to wrestle the bad mat out of my pickup, put the hitch in it and retrieve the trailer sometime next week. The RV resort at the lake where we park it over the Summer is all paid up and will be open April 15. The owner/managers try to organize work crews of the inhabitants to do a Spring clean-up, paint, prune, etc. It's a good weekend to have someplace else to be.

We will be hauling it to the Midwest fairly soon to oversee the rehabilitation of the late FIL's house. We'll live in the trailer instead of 'hoteling' it. A long journey, but it will show me one way or the other whether I want to play snowbird.

vacationhopeful · Mar 29, 2013

Passepartout said:
....We will be hauling it to the Midwest fairly soon to oversee the rehabilitation of the late FIL's house. We'll live in the trailer instead of 'hoteling' it. A long journey, but it will show me one way or the other whether I want to play snowbird.

Is this the lake house you mentioned in VivianLynne's Poconos house saga?

Passepartout · Mar 29, 2013

vacationhopeful said:
Is this the lake house you mentioned in VivianLynne's Poconos house saga?

I don't think so. FIL's place is near Madison WI- not on a lake. We normally keep the trailer at a reservoir in Idaho for the summer.

AwayWeGo · Mar 31, 2013

Who Needs Warm Weather For Stacking Up Concrete Blocks ?

AwayWeGo said:
The leveling blocks on the street side have settled into the sand to the degree that the trailer no longer sits level -- tilts slightly & will have to be re-leveled & re-blocked before long (i.e., when the weather warms up).

Turns out it was not necessary for the weather to warm up any at all.

Before lunch, we re-leveled & re-stabilized the trailer. Now it's sturdy & steady & straight & non-bouncy once again.

After that work, we came inside for lunch.

After lunch, it started raining -- so that was that for outside work today.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

AwayWeGo · Apr 13, 2013

Trailer Roulette 2013.

Only 4 spots opened up this year (out of 147 sites in the whole park).

Nobody in our extended family moved.

That didn't keep us from worka-worka-worka all afternoon, mainly in helping with the installation of a SilverTop awning on The Chief Of Staff's sister's trailer, which is already in a prime location right on the bay.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

Denise · Apr 14, 2013

Congratulations on your upgrade! Hurry back, we miss you already!

AwayWeGo · Apr 6, 2015

Defunct Trailer Water Heater.

Trailer Roulette 2015 is coming up in just a few weeks. To get ready, we spent Easter weekend at our Rehoboth Beach campground -- our 1st Delaware trip of the year -- opening up our dinky non-traveling travel trailer, getting it all ready for the season, & having fun.

Only problem that cropped up is the 10-gallon gas-electric RV-style water heater. Everything else that we know of worked OK -- although we did not check the air conditioner because the weather never got hot while we were there.

The trailer water heater does not work on gas & as luck would have it also does not work on electric power. It might be repairable, I don't know. But I don't know how to fix it & at my advanced age I am not much inclined to learn. Having it fixed by an RV service company is a possibility. Then again, the repair bill is bound to be pretty steep -- possibly too steep to be practical for fixing a 10-year-old unit that's close to the end of its designed useful life.

That got us thinking more about replacing the defunct water heater & less about repairing it.

After some internet & in-store research, we have just about decided against an exact replacement RV water heater. Instead, we are leaning strongly toward installing a 12-gallon 1,500-watt Whirlpool electric water heater.

After checking out that model at Lowe's in Lewes DE, we took measurements at the trailer & did a mental assessment of what it will take to remove the defunct gas-electric water heater & install the 12-gallon all-electric water heater in its place.

Water connections (in & out) will require 3/4-inch to 1/2-inch adapters. The gas connection will have to be disconnected & capped off. The existing 110V-120A power supply is adequate.

So unless we talk ourselves out of it, we're going ahead next time we're at the campground. I'm expecting that if we're patient & take it step by step, maintaining peace of mind as much as possible, we'll be able to do the project in a day.

We'll see.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

Passepartout · Apr 6, 2015

Ahhh, the adventure of non-traveling RVing. I haven't retrieved our 5th wheel from where it resides over the winter. Inside a gigantic potato cellar. Indoors, out of the weather and virtually never freezing. Our winter was pretty mild this winter anyway, so it's unlikely to have frozen in the storage place at all. Mox nix anyway, it was all winterized.

Since tucking it away last Fall, we've bought an urban loft apartment, so the trailer will be in search of a new owner and home. Or maybe (probably) I will be doing the search for a buyer. After retrieving and 'summerizing' and detailing it. I put my foot down that I have no interest in being the one keeping up the maintenance on the homestead, an office, an RV, and now a townhouse. Somethin's gotta go- and by consensus, it's the trailer. We've just about run out of time to enjoy all that AND timeshares too.

The RVing has taken us through 3 RVs and ownership (timeshare-like) in a private RV campground. DW put that up on Craigslist a couple weeks ago. It sold within a couple of hours for what we paid for it some years ago.

I can sympathize- and fully understand your reluctance, Alan on replacing the water heater. RV's are notorious for small spaces, stuff installed before walls are built, then with a water heater, you're into the water, gas, and electric circuits. Monster PITA!

Enjoy your time at the Bay. Sounds nice.

Jim

MuranoJo · Apr 7, 2015

Jim, You do (did) have your hands full.
We've never had an RV campground ownership, but we also don't want a second home--hard to take care of what we have as it is. Really prefer not to have the maintenance issues that tend to tie you down and cost money you could be putting towards other interests. Glad to hear you got it sold so quickly.

Alan, good luck with the water heater. Sounds like a very nice spot you have.

AwayWeGo · Apr 24, 2015

The Water, She Is Hot.

AwayWeGo said:
So unless we talk ourselves out of it, we're going ahead [with water heater installation] next time we're at the campground. I'm expecting that if we're patient & take it step by step, maintaining peace of mind as much as possible, we'll be able to do the project in a day.

New 12-gallon Whirlpool electric water heater is in & hooked up & working.

The project took about 6 hours, starting with picking up the new water heater & associated installation parts at the nearby Lowe's on the way to our campground, then taking out the defunct RV gas/electric water heater, & completing installation of the new replacement household-type all-electric water heater.

Midway through the job, we had to go to Home Depot to buy the right kind of flexible water lines after discovering the ones from Lowe's weren't exactly right (different size connectors on the 2 ends that for our project needed to be both the same size). Fortunately Home Depot had'm, so we got'm & used'm -- will return the wrong-end lines to Lowe's along with some extra unused installation parts that we bought just in case.

No blood was shed. No curse words uttered. No collateral damage done. The new water heater works.

When thinking through the project over the past few weeks, 2 potential issues stood out . . .

A product reviewer at the Lowe's web site said the plugs in the side water connections were in so tight that he could not unscrew them, meaning he had to use the conventional water-in & water-out connections on the top of the water heater. We planned on using the side connection holes. Fortunately, we got the side-hole plugs unscrewed OK & used'm to plug the top holes. Then we connected the tank via the side openings, as planned.

I wasn't sure how to cap off the gas line after it was disconnected from the old water heater. I bought a variety of caps & plugs from Lowe's, figuring I would have to get down in the dirt under the trailer to find the pipe leading from the propane tanks to the water heater, disconnecting the branch feeding the water heater, & capping or plugging it out there. Instead, after unscrewing the flare fitting connecting the gas line to the old water heater, I also removed the brass elbow screwed into the gas valve. Then I screwed a brass cap onto the threaded end of the elbow & reconnected the gas line (via original flare fitting) to the other end. The gas line is connected to the same fitting as before, but now the line dead-ends at the capped-off fitting instead of allowing gas to flow.

Most of the water connections were OK. We checked before connecting electrical power to the water heater & checked again before switching on the power. Tiny drops seeped out of 2 connections, so I tightened those carefully till I saw no more droplets. I'll go out & check'm again in the morning.

With hot water on tap, our dinky non-traveling trailer once again has most of the comforts of home (gas heat, hot & cold water, fridge, gas stove, air conditioning, microwave, satellite TV, queen-size bed, internet, flush toilet, etc.). The Chief Of Staff is a happy camper again.

Is this a great country or what ?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

swditz · Apr 24, 2015

Alan I loved reading of your campground adventures. We started at our seasonal site 12 years ago with 6 kids and a pop up. That was a very crowded summer!. The next year we "upgraded to a 30 ft camper with bunks in the back, and a "real Bathroom". The next year evolved into a 38 ft park model. The year after we added a Florida room and rented the site next to us. we found a 20 year old camper and put the 3 boys in that. From there we added a third site which has the 3 girls. Now Dw and I have our own little retreat with the others in easy eye site. We have a beautiful location on a brook out in the woods. Great place to spend our summers and Lots of great memories. All this twenty minutes from our regular Home! Like yours its a small no frills campground with wonderful friends and extended family. Thanks for sharing!
Scott

AwayWeGo · Apr 25, 2015

Trailer Roulette 2015.

AwayWeGo said:
I tightened those [water connections] carefully till I saw no more droplets. I'll go out & check'm again in the morning.

One easily accessible connection needed just a little more tightening. Now it's all dry all the time. (Even so, I'll be checking again occasionally till it's time to go home. Can't hurt. Might help.)

Completion of the water heater swap-out left us with the problem of what to do with the old defunct RV-style gas/electric water heater that we removed. It was 10 years old, but its tank did not leak & it was potentially repairable, or possibly useful as a parts donor someone could use to fix another RV water heater. We didn't want to heave it into a dumpster if it might be useful to somebody else.

So we took pictures & offered it as a Craig's List giveaway. This morning somebody local showed up & took it away. Waste not, want not.

Right before that, the park's annual Site Selection Day event took place -- Trailer Roulette.

The Chief Of Staff & I are content with our current spot, so we were not inclined to pick another choice lot even if 1 had been available when it was our turn to pick. (Turns are based on seniority -- i.e., people's starting date in the park.) Not only that, none of our extended family members wanted to move to any sites available when their turns came round. So everybody in our bunch stayed put this year, meaning we all got to relax & enjoy ourselves all day instead of throwing ourselves into major serious trailer relocation.

So it goes -- till Trailer Roulette 2016.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

AwayWeGo · Jun 23, 2015

Trailer Vacationing 2015.

AwayWeGo said:
So everybody in our bunch stayed put this year, meaning we all got to relax & enjoy ourselves all day instead of throwing ourselves into major serious trailer relocation.

We're vacationing this week at our dinky 35-foot non-traveling travel trailer on the back shore of Rehoboth Bay in Delaware. Mainly, we're just enjoying time together without a work agenda -- unlike 2 earlier trips to the beach this year which involved installing a new water heater 1 time & adding a 4-foot extension our permanent hard-shell awning the other time.

Even so, unscheduled chores can pop up without warning. Yesterday our nephew (who's here with his wife & 6-year-old son) had major serious electrical trouble at his 36-foot non-traveling travel trailer. All the fuses & circuit breakers in the trailer were OK. Ditto the ground-fault devices. The outside breaker where the trailer plugs into 50-amp, 240-volt power was not tripped. Inside the trailer, the a/c was out & some of the regular circuits were on, the rest out.

Using a neon tester, nephew & I determined that power was coming off 1 side of the outdoor breaker but no power was coming off the other side.

Something similar happened at home 30 years ago. It turned out a buried cable upstream of the electric meter had been nicked. Over time, the conductor corroded at the damaged spot, to the point that the wire burned through & power was out on 1/2 of the circuits. The power company found the break using special instruments, then dug down 3 feet or so, & fixed the break via permanent splice & waterproof insulated covering.

At the RV park yesterday, nephew & I got help from 2 of the park elders. One guy, using a meter, verified that half the power was out at the load side of 1 breaker, but determined that power was present at the line side of both breakers --meaning that the problem was right there in the outdoor box in the form of a bad 50-amp double-pole circuit breaker.

The other guy brought back a box of miscellaneous circuit breakers from the park supply cabinet. Unfortunately the assortment did not include a replacement for the bad breaker.

By then the electrical supply stores were closed for the day. Nephew drove straight to Home Depot & came back with an exact replacement for the bad breaker. Making sure power was switched off at the meter, he quickly & carefully installed the new 50-amp breaker. With power switched on again at the meter, the neon tester glowed red for each of the 2 sides of the newly installed circuit breaker. So we put the panel cover on, plugged in the trailer & -- Whooom ! -- the trailer rooftop air conditioner jumped into action & everything inside worked the way it was spozed to.

Is this a great country or what ?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.

[2007] Trailer Roulette.

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