The Sandcastle

27 08 08

Dirty Talk

I keep thinking no one wants to hear about the nitty gritty of getting a new RV ready to hit the road but maybe you do.  So I'm going to talk about sewer systems.  If you are fastidious you may want to stop reading now.

We didn't have to make any decisions about the dump system on the Free Spirit because it came with a complete system that we just used.  It had a macerator pump permanently connected to the outlet with a sewer hose permanently connected to it.  You just turned on the pump, dumped the black water then the gray water.  They gray water helped clean up after the black water.  Then you screwed the cap back on and shoved the thing into it's compartment.  No hassle, no mess.

The Winnebago View comes with holding tanks that have to be emptied but no hoses for doing so.  We spent about an hour on Monday at Camping World looking at sewer hoses and connectors. ... (more)

26 08 08

Laundry Libraries

I read a lot.  Sometimes I read a book a day.  Some books take longer.  Some days I'm too busy to read.  But, I read a lot.

I got my first library card before I started school.  My Mom still remembers hearing me arguing with the librarian as to whether or not I could possible write my whole name which I had to do to qualify for the card.  Once Mom hurried over from her own search for a good book and assured the librarian I could, indeed, write both my first and last name, I got my own library card.  I've had a library card ever since.  I even had one when Dave was in the Army because there was a library at each post where we were stationed.

Now I don't have one.  You have to have an address to have a library card.  Of course, I have an address in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but we are there for such short periods of time I'm afraid we'd drive off with a pile of library books only to learn I'd done so when I got notice of a huge fine. ... (more)

24 08 08

Prep

I'm currently reading the book To Serve Them All My Days which was also a Masterpiece Theater Presentation.  It's set in an English boys' school and one of the events of the day is called Prep.  I think this is like the American Study Hall where you read your assignments, write your papers, and try to prepare for exams.  My days lately feel like all day Prep as we try to prepare for living in the View.

Every day I try to figure out another batch of what should go where in our new RV.  Then I sit in the View reading operating manuals while Dave cuts non-slip mats for the cupboards I have designated and tries putting into them the items I think should go there.  Then we repeat the procedure over and over again.

In between we make shopping excursions to get things we need like more non-slip matting, new sheets, etc.  And we visit our storeroom to put in things we think we are done with and get out ones we still need. ... (more)

22 08 08

Choices

As I mentioned before there are three versions of the Winnebago View, the motorhome we've been thinking about buying.

Interested in the idea that maybe we wouldn't have to fold up the bed each day but neither would we have to crawl over one another to get up from the bed, we looked first at the 24P, the one with bunk beds in the back. Unfortunately, there's a step in front of them and I am not tall enough to be able to sit back over it far enough to be able to get my creaky knees into the lower bunk never mind trying to climb the ladder to the top bunk. Plus when I sat on the bunk, the middle section fell a few inches. The salesman fixed it but when Dave later sat on it; guess what?

But Dave demonstrated that he could get into the top bunk and it would be nice to have that lower bunk for storage so, we checked out the sofa bed in that same unit. It opens into the room towards the ... (more)

19 08 08

Storage Shopping

Those of you who have been with us awhile know we like traveling in our Free Spirit but are frustrated at not being able to bring everything we want with us and with having to dump our black water holding tank every three days.  We considered buying a trailer so we could bring more stuff but that didn't take care of the holding tank problem.  So you will probably not be surprised to hear we are,once again, looking at the Winnebago View RV.

The View is built on a Sprinter chassis just like the Free Spirit but Winnabago ordered theirs with only the cab and frame and an extra set of tires then they built a fiberglass body on that.  The extra set of tires increases the amount of weight the Sprinter can haul and the fiberglass body weighs less than the standard body so the weight capacity is increased again.

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That means their black water holding tanks can hold three to four times as much as the ... (more)

18 08 08

Fixed!

Our RV's power steering is fixed.  It's been quite the adventure getting to this point.  For those of you who have not been following this saga, here's the whole story.

On July 8th we took our RV into Dodge Town in Rapid City, South Dakota, with a whining engine.  They said the right inner tie rod was leaking so we need a steering gear.  The told us the part is on back order and they didn't want to order it for us since they thought we would want to leave town before it arrived and they didn't want to pay a restocking fee if we didn't wait.  They filled up our power steering fluid and sent us on our way.

Next we went to Peterson's Stampede in Nampa, Idaho, on July 22nd.  This is close to Dave's brothers so we thought we could have Peterson's order the part and we would go to a family reunion while waiting for the part to arrive then return for the actual repair. ... (more)

17 08 08

Playing with trains

For us, one of the advantages of being in the Minneapolis area is we get to go to model railroad operating sessions.  We've been to two of them in the last two days.  For those of you who have no clue what that means, here's some help.

Those of of who build, or have built, model railroads often think of them as real railroads.  Thus, we like to see them operate as if they were real railroads.  That means trains have a reason for being.  Train crews pick up and drop off cars at industries, sort those cars at freight yards into other trains, and drive those trains to somewhere else.  To do this in an organized manner we have timetables, and dispatchers, and clocks that run faster than normal ones so we can do a day's work in an evening or afternoon.

Here's an example of a model railroad industry.  [!-- error: could not popup flour.jpg. File does not exist --] This is Shamrock Flour Mill on our former Cedar River Terminal Railroad. ... (more)

14 08 08

We're Home?

I am often at a loss nowadays when someone asks me, “Where's home?” We live in our RV. Our legal domicile is South Dakota. We're from Minnesota. Which answer is the right one for this question?

We are now in Minnesota. We'll be in the Twin Cities for about three weeks. During that time we'll see friends and family, get work done on our vehicle, operate model railroads, shop in familiar stores, try to get the post office to correct the error they made in our our address change, see our doctors, move stuff into and out of our storeroom, and whatever else we think of while we are here. This is familiar territory. But is it home?

We no longer own a house here. But, we miss this area. We are thinking we may come back for some extended time every summer. Where would we live during that time? And how would that feel? ... (more)

12 08 08

Geocaching

Back in 2002, my good friend, the late Pat Walker, introduced me to the hobby called geocaching.  This is treasure hunting for those of us who like electronic gadgets--in this case a GPS system.  Basically, people hide containers of stuff and post the GPS coordinates to the Internet; then you go look for it and log the results of your efforts.  You can learn more about it at www.geocaching.com.  Dave wasn't interested then and we all soon drifted to other things.

This year, at the Escapade in Gillette, Wyoming, Dave and I attended a seminar on geocaching.  Dave was more interested this time.  He dug out our GPS and entered the coordinates for local caches hidden by the seminar presenters.  But, we never actually went looking for any of them--it ws just too hot to want to go walking outside.

A few days ago we started thinking again about geocaching.  It's not as hot here in North Dakota. ... (more)

10 08 08

City Park Camping

Small towns have found another source of income.  They have been installing electrical hookups in their city parks so RVers will camp there overnight.  Some provide a place to dump your holding tanks.  Some even install water and sewer hookups.  Some charge a small fee for camping and some don't.  Those that don't, know you are likely to spend money in their town. 

We stopped at several of these parks along Highway 2 in North Dakota although we didn't stay overnight at all of them on this trip.

We stayed at one in Ray about 15 years ago when we took a trip in a rented class C motorhome.  We were curious to see it now so we drove in.  This park has a ball diamond and a small rodeo ground.  When we were there before it was a Sunday evening and the rodeo folks were just leaving.  The free camping sites are drive through sites between trees with hookups. ... (more)

09 08 08

Can I Hear You Now?

Those of you who don't yet have “old ears”, who can hear everything clearly, might want to count your blessings. For those of us who wear hearing aids, life can be puzzling.

Friday morning I put my aids in and turned them on. Each one beeps when I turn it on. Today, the left one didn't beep. Generally, this means I forgot to turn it off the night before so the battery died. So, I put a new battery in. No beep. Maybe that battery was bad? Try one from a different set of batteries. No beep.

Now what? My audiologist knows I'm traveling so he told me before I left I could call him if I had problems and he would find a qualified technician where I am. But, I thought I should figure out what else I might try before calling.

Then I remembered there is a filter he sometimes cleans. So I got out my hearing aid tools and cleaned the filter. No ... (more)

09 08 08

Another Day Another Dealer

No, we're not gambling. Well, we sort of are. We are sitting at another Dodge dealer seeing what this one is going to do about our power steering. It started whining again this morning as we were getting ready to leave Minot, North Dakota.

It looks hopeful. Tracy, the service adviser here at Minot Chrysler, said the service tech was at lunch so he couldn't even tell us if they could look at it today but he'd do what he could. So we set up our computers in their customer lounge and began waiting.

Soon Tracy came in to tell us they would be able to look at it this afternoon. Then he showed us where we could plug in our computers and router so we could connect to the Internet.

A few minutes later Dave made a quick run back to the RV to fetch lunch for us since we might well be here all afternoon. ... (more)

06 08 08

Glacier Park

These notes are from several days ago but I'm still finding them interesting so maybe you will, too.

By Glacier Park there was a sign that said "Helicop-tours".  I like plays on words so this stuck in my mind.

People were rafting on the river even though the temperature was only 64 degrees.  Brrrr.

The red sight-seeing buses with canvas roofs are back but the roofs were tightly closed this cool day.

Going-to-the-Sun Road has a length limit of 21 feet.  Our RV is 24 feet long.  We decided not to risk it.

Mariah's Pass was discovered in 1889.  The railroad was built there in 1891.  Highway 2 was not completed until 1930.  In the meantime, automobiles were loaded onto flat cars where the railroad hauled them over the mountain.  My conclusion:  the for-profit companies will generally be more efficient than government projects. ... (more)

04 08 08

One Dam Day

Fort Peck Dam, that is.  The original Fort Peck, Montana, is under the water of this reservoir but we spent most of a day exploring the dam and it's surrounding area.

[If the more button doesn't get you the rest of this entry, click on the more button of the previous entry, increase the number in the header there by one, and press enter.  That should get you back to this entry with the whole thing visible.]

Here's the sign that gives you the basics of the dam.


And here's the dam itself.  I know it just looks like a grassy hill--that's basically what it is. ... (more)

03 08 08

Types of RV Camping

People who have never camped in an RV sometimes ask us where we stay. For them, here's some descriptions of the types of places we camp.

Resort Camping: Luxury park with many amenities such as pool, clubhouse, and store. Most, if not all, sites have full hook-ups (water, electricity and sewer connections). Likely offers cable or satellite TV connections. Offers WIFI connections if available in neighborhood. Likely hosts groups events such as games and meals. May offer extra activities such as golf or go-karts. Most membership camping organizations like Thousand Trails or Camp Coast To Coast have resort parks.

Private Campground: May or may not be a resort campground. Is owned by a person rather than an organization. Generally has at least water and electricity but may have only 30 amp rather than 50 amp. ... (more)