Snowshoeing

A few years ago I decided that I needed to own a pair of snowshoes.  Not really sure why I decided I needed them, but I did some research and found a “starter” pair of snowshoes at LLBean and decided to buy them.  I was a bit anxious that buying them was going to jinx us and we wouldn’t get any snow ever again.  The snowshoes arrived on a Wednesday.  By Thursday they were predicting a snowstorm for the weekend and by Saturday morning there was a historic 2ft of snow on the ground!  WOW!  I strapped on the snowshoes and set out to enjoy our windfall.   However, despite the snowshoes, I kept sinking in up to my mid-calf.  I struggled with it for awhile before giving up.  I attempted another snowshoe walk later in the day and it was the same thing.  I was sinking in and then trying to lift my foot up while it was attached to a 2.5 foot long snowshoe that was covered with snow.  It was not fun.  I took off the snowshoes and that was easier.  I tried one more time with the snowshoes the next morning and it still wasn’t much fun.  I sunk in on the deep snow and in the street, that wasn’t plowed, but packed down, I kept knocking the snowshoes together and almost tripping myself.  I put the snowshoes back in the box they came in and planned to send them back.  However, I never got around to sending them back.  

We really haven’t had snow since the big storms we had the winter I got the snowshoes.  It’s been 3 years.  So maybe I did jinx the snow!  This winter however, I decided I was going to try the snowshoes again.  I’ve lost almost 70lbs since I tried them last and was thinking that might have been part of the problem, that I was too heavy for them to work properly.  Of course, there is no snow to be found anywhere nearby.  I was going to go to West Virginia in January, but it rained the whole week before I was going to go and washed the snow away.  Finally, this weekend, there was enough snow and it was a 3 day weekend!  I was heading out!

All the places with snow were about 3 hours away, so I was hoping to spend the night, however the overnight low in Canaan Valley WV was forecast to be 9*.  Considering that I was freezing when I was sleeping in the RV over Christmas and it was a balmy 37*, I decided that 9* was just right out.  I decided that I’d rather spend my evening driving back home than trying to entertain myself and stay warm in the RV.  When it’s warm the evenings are nice – you can sit outside and read or I blog, or check out the campground.  But when it’s cold there’s not much to do.  The RV will stay warm as long as I run the heater, but as soon as it turns off the RV gets cold quick.  It was going to use a lot of propane to keep the RV warm enough when it was 9* outside.  I’m going to have to concede that RVing is just not a winter activity, as much as I enjoy winter activities, I’m gonna have to make them day trips!

I was up at 5:00 and out the door by 6:30.  This is my usual weekday schedule so it wasn’t a big deal.  I made a quick stop in Moorefield, WV and made it to Blackwater Falls State Park in Davis, WV by 10:15!  Many people weren’t even out of bed yet and I was 3 hours from home, standing in a winter wonderland, ready to seize the snow!  :-)

Going in there was no snow at all until I got to the top of the mountain, but even then there wasn’t much.  Then I arrived in Davis.  Davis is right on the edge of Canaan Valley, where they get a ton of snow every year.  All the sudden there was a lot of snow!  I think Canaan Valley is the Promised Land for snow enthusiasts! 

There was enough snow and snow removal chemicals to get the RV flithy:

Before I started the drive back home I took a windex wipe to the back window so I could see!

The road into the park was snow covered and inside the park the trees were covered, the ground was covered!  It was amazing! I drove around the the lake area and broke out the snowshoes.  I noticed immediately how much better they were working!  I trekked across the field – sinking in a little but staying mostly on the surface of the snow.   When I got into the woods I discovered that I could walk “off trail” as the snow covered all the logs, rocks, sticks, leaves etc and made a clear path for me!  I stayed near the trail – they were well marked with blazes – but off the trail because I didn’t want to mess it up for skiiers. 

     

2 views from the 1st set of trails I snowshoed.  That field was huge and full of untouched snow!

I have no idea how deep the snow was, however, I tripped myself a few times and did a face plant into the snow and always landed in powder!  Never stirred up dirt and leaves or anything buried so I’m guessing there was at least 6-8 inches, maybe more in spots.   This picnic table in the campground gives an idea, but I think there was more:

 

I trekked around the lake area, covering all the trails as well as some off trail routes that I invented, in about an hour and half.  I decided to head back to the RV and drive around to the lodge.  I’d looked up a trail map on the computer and was remembering that there were a ton of trails over there, but I needed a map!  (yes, I committed a cardinal sin of hiking…I headed out without a map! By the lake it was ok – I knew where the road was at all times and there were plenty of bail out options – including following my own tracks, which were distinctive and there weren’t any other tracks, back to the RV!). 

After securing a map and taking a bit of break – snowshoeing was hard work – I headed out again for part 2.  The trail head was supposed to be right across the road from the lodge, but I didn’t see it.  I saw what looked like footprints so I decided to follow them.  Turns out they were deer prints, but I trekked up into the woods following them anyway.  I couldn’t find a trail anywhere, but just snowshoeing around in the woods was fun!  If there wasn’t snow or if I wasn’t wearing snowshoes, I wouldn’t have been able to traverse the woods, but with the snowshoes it was easy!  I continued in the general direction of the trail, figuring I’d find it eventually, even if I didn’t, I was within sight of the road so I knew I wasn’t going to get lost. 

I did find the trail rather quickly, so that was good.  The only catch was that the trail was narrow, with trees and rocks and stuff on both sides making it hard for me to not tear it up and make it harder for the skiiers.  Where I could I took off into the woods, staying near the trail though.  The terrain over here was different too – bigger trees, more rocks, more hills.  I definitely did it right because the trails by the lake were easier and it was a good place to start to get my feet wet and then move on to the harder trails! 

                 

 

 

There were a ton of trails in the lodge/cabin/sledding hill area!  None were all that long, but that’s ok, because snowshoeing/skiing is slower than walking and takes more energy so you don’t go as far.  When I was at Blackwater Falls before I was looking at the trails from a hiking point of view and didn’t think they were all that exciting.  I wasn’t going to get too excited about a mile long trail.  But when you are snowshoeing things change and now I think Blackwater Falls is the perfect place for snowshoeing!

I did a “lollipop” loop from the trail I was on that was about a mile around.  At the beginning I saw a few other people, mostly skiiers, but some sledders.  There weren’t that many people which surprised me, it was a holiday weekend and there was snow, it was also very cold, maybe that scared people off?   On the way back I decided to take a different trail back to the lodge.  This trail said that it wasn’t suitable for skiing.  I thought it would be ok for me because I wasn’t skiing and I’d already traversed terrain that wasn’t suitable for skiing.

It was a nice trail, but I see why they didn’t want you skiing on it.  It was narrow, windy, lots of rocks, a few blowdowns you had to climb over or go under (more challenging when your feet are 2.5 ft longer than normal!). 

             

And then I came to this:

Stairs. 

On snowshoes. 

I almost took the snowshoes off, but decided I could do it with them on.  And I did.  It wasn’t easy, but I did it!

I was rewarded with a view of a cool waterfall:

Then it was back to the RV.  It was 3:00 and I was ready for a break from snowshoeing.  I would have liked to have taken a break and then go out again before it got dark, but I was worried about navigating the mountains after dark.  Not so much because of the driving, but because of the cold and the fact that coming in the roads were wet and I was worried about black ice after dark.   I had two mountains to contend with, the one that I climbed to get to the valley (Canaan Valley is the highest valley east of the Mississippi) and the one that I came down to get into WV.  It was the downhill one I was most worried about and that one was 1st!

I took a few minutes to change – one of the many perks of traveling in a RV – and get a snack before I departed.  When I got back to the RV I was hot and sweaty from snowshoeing, but soon I started to get cold.  At that point I knew I was making the right choice in going home, I knew that once I stopped snowshoeing just sitting in the RV trying to keep warm to read or watch TV was going to be miserable.  Better to leave on a high note!

The roads inside the park were in bad shape – snow covered, not salted or cindered or anything.   The road leading out out of the lodge had a small incline and as I pulled up I had to stop to look for oncoming traffic and when I tried to go, the van was stuck.  When I gave it some fuel, it didn’t move and a warning light on the dash flashed on.  It was a triangle with and exclamation mark in it.  At the time I thought Roxy was showing me her sarcastic side…”warning: you are stuck”, because I wasn’t going to be able to figure that out on my own.  I wasn’t sure how to problem solve this one.  I started by backing up and trying to get some more momentum going before I hit the slippery spot, but I got stuck again.  I tried just giving it a lot of fuel, but it wouldn’t budge.  I then decided to try the other exit, maybe it was on less of a hill or had less ice.  This involved backing up all the way to where I could turn back into the parking lot.  This was great back up practice since I really didn’t want to land in a snowdrift!  I pulled around to the other exit and it was better – it wasn’t a hard turn and it was downhill so at least I had gravity on my side.  I probably would have had it no problem if I hadn’t had to stop for another car.  When I tried to go again I got stuck for a second and then the warning light flashed on but the van kept moving.  It got stuck a little again before I made it to my side of the road, again I saw the warning light, but controlled forward motion continued.  I was on my way, despite the death grip on the steering wheel.  I was very glad when I exited the park and hit the cleared and dry main roads!

Later when I got home I pulled out the owner’s manual to see what the light meant and I’m glad I did.  It wasn’t the OS light that I thought it was, Roxy was not being sarcastic with me.  Turns out the van has a traction system that engages when one tire gets stuck and transfers power to help you get unstuck.  The light comes on to let you know that conditions are such that you need to change your driving.  Smart.  I should have expected something like this from a German vehicle – they get some serious snow out there in the Alps! I’m sure that’s what was happening the 2nd attempt to get out of the parking lot – the light was on but I kept moving.  I guess the 1st spot was just too much even for the traction assist – either that or I wasn’t using it right!  Now I just need some snow here so I can go out to an icy parking lot and test it so I know how the system works. 

I made it to Moorefield by 4:30 and stopped in a rest area for about a 1/2 hour to run the generator and heat my soup for dinner.  Then headed out up the final mountain and back into VA.  I  made it to 81 before it got dark and was home a little before 8.  I’m so excited that I was able to go so far away and still have a full day and get home early!  If I hadn’t been worried about deteriorating conditions on the mountains (which I didn’t need to worry about, I bet it would have been fine) I could have gotten in another hour or two of snowshoeing. 

I also kinda solved another issue I was having.  The radio in the RV is about the only thing in the whole coach that isn’t top of the line.  In fact it’s bottom of the barrel cheap.  The speakers are great, but the CD player skips more than it plays correctly.  I’d brought the computer with me, thinking I could play music right from iTunes like I do at home.  I set the computer up on the floor of the passenger side and it worked great!  I could hear the music over the engine noise (I can’t hear the speaker on the phone over the engine) and it wasn’t tinny like the iPod speaker I tried when I first got the RV.  One glitch is that I can’t control it while I’m driving.  I have to commit to a playlist and stick to it until I stop.  This was perfect for navigating mountains in WV, I didn’t want to be distracted by fiddling with the radio!  This system might buy me some time in getting the radio replaced!

The RV is a great day trip vehicle, but it’s not good for winter camping!  I leave you with a picture of the inside after I got done…everything was wet and needed space to dry and there was no place to walk!

Winterizing (a long overdue post about a process that took way too long!)

(I’m writing this post on May 27 – I should have written it back in November so I’m going to post date it!)

 

One of the many tasks of RV ownership is winterizing when the weather turns cold.  In my RV in particular all the water pipes are exposed under the coach and highly susceptible to freezing. 

Since this was my first time going through the winterizing process, I wanted my dad to help me so I headed down there over Columbus Day weekend in mid-October.  This felt a little early to winterize as some years we don’t get our first freeze until well into December, but I was ultimately glad I started this simple process sooner rather than later.

There are several ways to winterize your RV and I’d decided that the best way for me was to pump RV anti-freeze (not toxic like automotive anit-freeze) into all the lines, traps and tanks and by-pass & drain the hot water heater.   This way would enable me to re-winterize on my own, should I decide to undo the winterizing to camp (if it got warm) and Dad had an extra 2 gallons of RV anti-freeze he wasn’t going to need (he drives his RV to southern FL to winterize it).

I’d use the water pump on in the RV to get the anti-freeze into the lines but I needed a special joint to attach a hose to the input on the water pump, luckily Dad had a extra that he gave me.  Our 1st step though was to get a section of plastic tubing that we could put the joint on.  A quick trip to Lowe’s, with the joint to test it, and $2.00 later we were ready to go. 

We got back home and the 1st step was to by-pass and drain the hot water heater.  I unscrewed the panel, turned the valves and we were ready to go out and unscrew the anode rod to drain it.  When we got out there we discovered that in order to unscrew the anode rod we needed a 1 3/4 inch socket.  Dad had every other socket imaginable, but not that one.  He thought maybe he had it in the socket set at his RV, so we got in the car and drove the 3 miles over there and looked, but nope, he didn’t have it.  We even checked Home Depot, but they didn’t have it.

So, we decided that we’d just pump colored water through the system to practice and then I’d do it for real once I was able to drain the hot water heater.  We made some colored water and pumped it though the system, it was very easy and straight forward.  It’s definitely helpful that I can open all the faucets without leaving the bathroom!  I had to hold the hose in the bottle of water to keep it from floating to the top.

The next weekend I went to Lowe’s to try and find the socket that I needed to remove the anode rod.  I walked in and quickly found the socket that I needed – and it was available all by itself, not part of a set of other sockets that I probably don’t need!  Then I of course need a drive and and a drive extender.  I ended up buying more tool than I needed, but the good news is that now I have a weapon should I need one.   After Lowe’s I stopped by the RV storage lot to try and get the anode rod out.  After spending a long time trying to figure out the ratchet feature of the drive and making sure I was turning it in the right direction, I realized that I the rod was screwed in too tight for me loosen on my own.  I was going to have to find someone to help me.

The next weekend, it ended up that my parents needed to bring  me something and we decided to meet at Wegman’s in Fredericksburg.   I could drive Roxy and then Dad could loosen the rod!  Perfect!  When my parents arrived I handed Dad my ginormous drive and socket and he proceed to unscrew the anode rod – it was quite easy for him and within seconds the rod was loosened to the point that water came shooting out like geyser, covering him with water and bits of calcium deposit!  Luckily it wasn’t hot!  Next time I need to remember to run some water inside 1st to release some of the pressure!  We replaced the anode rod but I tightened it down so I could remove it again when I was ready. 

By the next weekend it was really getting to be time to get serious about winterizing, October was almost over and November would certainly bring colder temps.  I’d hoped to get in some more camping, but that didn’t happen.  I was planning to finish off the winterizing job when they started predicting that Hurricane Sandy would hit my area.  Everyday the weather prediction got more and more dire.  I’d been through Hurricane Isabel and I wasn’t too worried – usually the weather forecasts around here are overdone and they send everyone into a panic over what usually turns out to be nothing.  Still, I was in a bit of a quandary over what to do – I knew that if I winterized we’d probably lose power and water and I’d be forced to live in my RV and I wouldn’t have the resources I needed, but if I didn’t winterize, we’d get a basic rain storm.  The complicating factor was that it was supposed to get really cold right after the storm – if I left it un-winterized I wouldn’t have much time to winterize it later. 

I’d decided that I would just winterize and hope for the best.  I drained the fresh tank, drained the hot water heater, ran the water out of the lines and started to pump anti-freeze into the lines.  It was here that I discovered that the water pump needs be primed after it has run dry and somehow the RV anti-freeze wasn’t doing the trick.  (to be honest I didn’t know that this was the issue at the time – I just knew that the pump wasn’t pumping the anti-freeze but it had been pumping the water.  I had a different theory at the time, but it was wrong!) I decided I needed water in the tanks to make the pump work so I drove the RV home and put a few gallons of water in.  The pump then worked just fine and I was able to put antifreeze in all the lines.  While I was home however, I decided that I’d really kick myself if Hurricane Sandy hit and I *could* have had 30 gallons of fresh water, but didn’t have it, so I turned the hose on and filled her up. 

So, I once again had attempted to winterize the RV and returned it to the storage lot un-winterized.  This was getting comical. 

Hurricane Sandy scored us 2 days off from school and a lot of wind and rain but no serious damage or disruptions.  We were lucky.  A few hundred miles north and it was a different story.  I was glad I’d taken the over-prepared route!

By now it was absolutely time to get the coach winterized. I ended up having to go over after school one day to drain the fresh tank and make sure all the lines and traps and tanks had anti-freeze in them.  It only took  few minutes and it was finally done!

Just two days after I finally got the RV winterized we had our first freeze of the season!  Perfect timing. 

(Since I’m writing this in May and have now un-winterized, I can say that I did it perfectly – it was a cold winter, whole weeks of below freezing temps, but nothing burst!)

Thornton River Hike

Had a lovely night at Matthew’s Arm! It was dark and quiet and chilly!  A nice change from the Wal-Mart! :-)

The great part about camping in the park is that I can get an early start on my hike!  I was up by 7 and on the trail by 9!  It was a chilly morning and I was kinda wishing I’d brought my fleece pants to put on over my shorts when I was eating breakfast!  It was comfortable as long as I was moving, but sitting at the picnic table eating it was really cold!

I checked out of the campground and moved the van over to the Elkwallow Wayside.  They had some nice parallel parking spots just perfect for Roxy!  I got the rest of my stuff together and headed out. 

The 1st mile was uphill and it was nice because it warmed me up!  I was moving at a good pace and the first few miles just flew by! I was 1/2 way though the hike and it was only 11:15! When you estimate hiking times you assume a 2 mph hour pace and then add an hour for each 1,000 feet of elevation change.  This hike was 10.6 miles and had 1,100 ft of elevation change so it should take about 6 hours to hike.  I’m usually a slow hiker so I figured it would take me at least 6 hours, probably more like 7 or 8 to finish the hike.  You can imagine my surprise when I was back at the van at 2:30!  10 miles, 1,100 feet, in 5 1/2 hours! WOW! I didn’t even feel like I was hiking super fast, it didn’t tire me out like I expected it to. 

While this hike was rated as “strenuous” in my guide book, I will say that it was A LOT easier than some of the shorter hikes Dad and I did in the Adirondacks!  1,000 feet of elevation change over 10 miles is a lot different than 1,000 feet over 2.5 miles!  And, interestingly enough those short steep climbs took almost as much time as my 10 mile loop!

The 1st half of the hike I saw no one! I had the woods all to myself!  I could tell that I was the 1st one to come down the trail too because of all the spider webs! Luckily the sun was hitting them just right so they glistened and I could see them in time to swing my hiking stick at them!  Walking into a spider web is never fun – you have to get that invisible web off you and then you always wonder if the spider might be crawling on you!

Just passed the halfway point in the hike I crossed the Thornton River for the 1st time.  I decided that it was a good place to stop for a rest and to eat snack so I puleed up a log and sat by the edge of the river.  The river was almost dry, mostly just a bed of rocks, but it was still a pretty spot in the quiet peaceful woods!

Not long after I sat down another hiker came up the trail.  He was wearing a fanny pack and had a large stick, almost more of a branch, stuck in the waist band of the fanny pack.  The stick was about 5 feet long and sticking out in front of him.  It looked rather dumb and I was wondering what purpose the stick was serving.  It was too flimsy to be a hiking stick, and it looked like he’d clearly put it there on purpose.  I was wishing I could have gotten a picture of him but there was no way to do it discreetly.  As he headed up the trail I was glad I’d stopped so he could pass me, now I wouldn’t walk into any more spider webs, he’d break through them 1st.  And that’s when it hit me what the stick was for!  It was sticking out just enough in front of him that it would hit the web before his face did!  Genius! 

A few minutes after “Spider Web Stick” Man passed me a group of about 15 Asian Women came along.  They were in the middle of crossing the creek when the rest of the group – the 15 Asian men, came along.  They were all yakking with each other in their language, although a few did say “Hi” to me.  One even peeked in my backpack and declared my carrots, sugar snap peas and hummus healthy. (Thanks, I was unsure until I got your approval!) I was sitting on a log, mostly in the middle of the trail so I was suddenly surrounded by a huge crowd of folks all speaking in a language that I didn’t understand.  One minute I was enjoying a quiet morning by a peaceful river and the next I’d been transported to a busy park in Tokyo or something.  It was a little “Twilight Zone”.  The large group had finally passed me by and I was planning on sitting there a bit longer to put more space between us, but I could sit hear them so I looked over my shoulder and discovered they’d stopped for lunch a few feet from where I was sitting.  I quickly threw the rest of my carrots in my backpack and started hauling ass up the hill to get away from them.  I never encountered them again!

Quickly I arrived at Skyline Dr and then the harder part of the trail started.  Hiking is 95% mental and 5% physical (or something like that), and that’s what happened after Skyline Dr.  There was a spur trail up to the AT, and in my head “spur trail” = “easy”.  Ummmmm…no.  The spur trail was steeper than the trail up out of the Thornton Hollow!  And it was longer than I expected!  Also, I had in my head that once I hit the AT I was almost done.  Again, not quite, it was still 2.6 miles.  And, most of those 2.6 miles were downhill. 

I’d hiked this section before and I knew how grueling that downhill was but I didn’t remember until I was about 1/2 way through it.  The last time I hiked that section I’d done an 11 mile day hike (and I was not in the physical condition to handle that) and I had crappy boots.  It was during that downhill that I seriously considered taking off my boots since I was pretty sure walking on the trail barefoot would have been less painful.  And then I saw a bear!  My 1st “on the trail” bear!  So it was an exciting day!

Today however, there were no bears along the trail and my feet weren’t hurting as bad, but my legs were! I ended up pulling out my phone and playing a little Dave Matthews Band to cheer me along.  I didn’t use my headphones, just the external speaker and dropped the phone in my pocket. I didn’t see any other hikers so I didn’t disturb their enjoyment. 

I was really excited when I got back to the RV at 2:30!  A big hike like that in just 5 1/2 hours is HUGE for me!

The RV was sitting in the sun so was hot, hot, hot.  Just because I could I decided to take a shower!  So fun to just be able to shower where ever, when ever! 

Once I was cleaned up I started driving home.  I didn’t want to leave, but I knew I needed time at home this weekend. 

I got home around 6 and quickly unloaded and took the RV back to Holly Acres, dumped (I filled the tank this trip!  I’m pretty sure I put in a lot more water than I needed to (for the toilet chemical) after the last dump), and was home by 7:00! 

It was a great quickie trip & hike! Looking forward to more fall camping in the coming weeks! :-)

Matthew’s Arm

When Dad and I were hiking in the Adirondacks I realized that I needed to start including more elevation gain & loss in my workout routine so decided to try and do a hike that included at least a 1,000 ft of elevation change at least once a month.  I figured I could Septembers hike in this weekend since I already had the RV out for Back to School Night. 

I left school a bit late and had some traffic to deal with, but that was ok because I was stopping at the farm to get my CSA stuff.  Leigh had told me that he puts the boxes of stuff “by where you turn off the paved road on to the farm driveway”.  When you go to the farm you turn off a paved road onto a dirt road and then from the dirt road on the farm driveway.  So was Leigh calling the dirt road the farm driveway or was he calling the dirt road the paved road?  This could go either way.  I found a place to park the van off the paved road and decided to head in on foot – it’s about a mile back to the farm.  I was almost to the farm when I encountered Leigh heading out in the farm van to put the shares out and go to Manassas for the pick up.  He offered me a ride back to the real paved road – I accepted mostly because I wanted to get the CSA stuff quick and get to the park.  I’m so glad I did!  It’s clear that Leigh drives this road in his truck regularly…I’m pretty sure he hit 40 mph – on a one lane narrow dirt road – and I know we caught air at least once!  It was like a 2 min roller coaster!  When we got to the paved road he pulled the shares out and I got my stuff and was on my way!

It was after 6 before I got to Matthew’s Arm but I was lucky enough to get the last spot in the “wifi” area! There’s a handful of spots at the top of the mountain that have great cell reception!  Turns out I got the site right out from under someone else who was trying to claim it!  1st come, 1st served! 

It looked like it might be hard to back in but somehow I just put it in reverse and cut the wheel and popped it right in on the 1st try!  I was amazed with myself!

By the time I went down to register and pay and walked back it was almost 7:00 – generator hours end at 7 and I needed to microwave my dinner!!!!  I pretty much ran up the hill, getting back at 6:55!  I managed to get dinner heated and the generator off by 7:01! I had a partial back up plan – I’d gotten eggs at the farm and I could have made scrambled eggs – I even had an onion, a green pepper and some potatoes all of which I could have cooked up on the stove, but I didn’t have any oil or seasonings.  Gotta keep that stuff in my “always gets packed” basket.

By the time I was done with dinner it was dark!  Gets dark early these days! I like it because it gets dark closer to my bedtime! I did get in a walk around the campground before chores, blogging and now reading!

Tomorrow I’m planning a 10.6 mile hike in Thornton Hollow – which is advertised to be some of the best bear country in the park!

Back to School Night: RV Style

This is my 11th year teaching and since I live so far away from my school I’ve never been able to go home between school and an evening event. Until now. :-)

Thursday I drove my RV to school with plans to stay at the Chantilly Wal-Mart, just minutes from school!

After school I ran out to get propane and Noodles & Company for dinner and then came back to school in hopes of grabbing a level parking spot in the lot.  Usually when I drive the RV to school I park on the street away from the main parking areas but it’s not level so I turn the fridge off.  Tonight however I wanted to get the fridge going since the blue ice in the cooler was thawing. 

There were a bunch of level spots available when I got back and somehow, miraculously, I was able to shoehorn the RV into one of them!  These spots were painted on before the days of SUVs and big cars! I frequently have a hard time getting my Saturn VUE into just one spot so getting the RV in felt like an achievement!  I was worried about it being tight for the person who parked next to me but luckily a friend of mine (who’s parents have a RoadTrek) came along soon and parked next to me! :-)

In between showing off the RV to the kids playing on the playground and teachers returning for Back to School night I was able to eat my dinner, do a little Facebooking, listen to the new Dave Matthews Band Album and get my bed ready and other “chores”.  It was a nice break from school!

It was so nice to not be watching the clock worrying about getting home super late (the event ended at 8:30, which is what time I usually go to bed and it’s at least a 45 min drive home!).   Left school at 8:35 and I was at Wal-Mart in bed (with my book and my phone!) by 8:45! YAY!

The Wal-Mart wasn’t bad…it was more the airplanes that kept me up than anything else.  I shoulda been able to predict that – Dulles is a few miles away and sometimes the planes rattle the trailer at school! It wasn’t my best night of sleep, but it was way better than the night in Allentown back in July! :-)

It was so nice to sleep in a full hour from when I get up at home! I got all ready for school and had an 8 minute commute!

Now I’m kinda looking forward to evening events at school! :-)

The Propane Tank Needs to be filled too ya know…

Last weekend I spent some time loading and packing Roxy for this week’s adventures.  I was especially concerned about getting everything I thought I might need because I’d pretty much completely unloaded it when I got back from the Adirondacks.  I took a bunch of stuff over and got it put away, I even took Roxy out for a “joyride” to fill up the fuel tank so I wouldn’t have to do that after school Wed.  I thought I was prepared as humanly possible and all I’d have to do Wed night was fill the fresh water tank and pack the food and the last minute stuff .

Wednesday evening I, of course left school late, and was feeling crunched for time when I finally got home around 6:00.  I got the RV leveled and started turning things on – the propane then the battery.  When I connected the battery I randomly decided to check the tank levels and noticed that the propane tank was registering E, as in empty. WHAT?!?!!

I was pretty sure I’d had a partial tank of propane when I put it away so I was kinda worried that maybe there was a leak.  However, the more I thought about it I realized I couldn’t remember the last time I’d checked the propane levels.  But, I was still convinced that there’d be *some* when I put it in storage. 

I attempted to light the stove and it wouldn’t light. grrr…

I wasn’t sure what to do – take it to get propane?  Take it to get serviced?  Try to go camping without propane? (which means no coffee, no shower, no generator, no fridge…all the comforts of home…without propane this is just a vehicle!).  I called Professor Pleasure-Way (aka My Dad). 

We talked about possibilities and random propane leaks that spring up while RVs are in storage are rare so that seemed like an unlikely option.  As we talked we realized that I’d spent 23 days/nights using the RV since it’s last propane fill.  All but maybe 5 of those nights were dry camping meaning the fridge ran exclusively on propane and I used the generator.  Ummmm…yeah…the tank is empty…you used it all!!!!!  DUH!

I got the RV all packed up, put my food for the weekend in a cooler and went to get propane after school Thurs at the UHaul in Chantilly!  I learned a lot about how the system works and I’m not sure it was filled properly the last time…  I’m not sure what’s correct and what’s not, I think I need to do some research on propane systems so I can be more educated about how it works so I know if they are doing it right!  Propane is so important to RVing, but it’s also dangerous so I want it done right!

I Couldn’t Help Myself…

When I was shopping for my RV I was thinking I’d end up buying an older model that would come to me with many miles on it and be rather beat up.  I decided that I’d cover the whole thing with stickers from places I’d been or with fun sayings, kinda like an old suitcase.  When I bought Roxy and she was basically brand new I decided that my sticker plan would have to wait a few years until she is more beat up. 

But then I saw this, on Cafe Press:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just had to have it and I had to put it on Roxy!

 

I hope that folks who see it get a chuckle, and they see the irony! :-)

I also hope that this isn’t the start of a very slippery slope! :-)