Tina looking over the lake.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Lake Coeur'd'Alene, ID
The bald eagle winter migration attracts a large population to Lake Coeur'd'Alene, ID, a short drive from my folk's house. We saw 30-40 bald eagles in our short drive and hike.
Tina looking over the lake.
Tina looking over the lake.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Day 2, 3, and Christmas
Day 2 - 12/23/09
It was pretty cold the first night. We woke up to single digit temperature and icicles on the camper and truck.
Our campsite in Lake Shastina during the day.
Running the dogs on our way out of Lake Shastina.
We drove most of the day, but made sure to stop at one of Wiley's favorite Mexican restaurants, Mucho Gusto, in Medford, OR.
We drove by Multnomah Falls (WA). Unfortunately, it was dark. You can just barely make out the white strip of water in the background. Try clicking the picture to enlarge it.
On night 2, we camped in Cascade Locks, WA. It was a quiet, but beautiful, little mountain town.
Cascade Locks is the home of the Bridge of the Gods.
Wiley thought this was a pretty funny sign.
Day 3 - 12/24/09
After a much warmer and better night of sleep, we got on the road for Day 3 aka Christmas Eve. We made a slight detour to Richland, WA for Spudnut Donuts (www.spudnutshop.com). Spudnuts are donuts made from potato flour. They were pretty tasty.
While in Richland, we found quite possibly the coolest park ever. It had running/walking trails right next to the river, tons of open grass area, and a huge playground with a zip line, rock climbing walls, swinging benches, and stuff we've never seen before.
Can you see the zip line with the swing attached? So much fun!
Other than a flat tire on I-84 going through WA, we had a pretty smooth drive. We arrived at Wiley's parent's house in Liberty Lake in the afternoon. After a marathon session of present opening and a great Christmas Eve dinner, we called it a night.
Christmas
Merry Christmas! We had a great day of eating, more presents, walking the dogs up the hill, more food (especially delicious cookies), and hanging out with the family. We hope everyone had a great day.
View of Liberty Lake from up the hill.
It was pretty cold the first night. We woke up to single digit temperature and icicles on the camper and truck.
Our campsite in Lake Shastina during the day.
Running the dogs on our way out of Lake Shastina.
We drove most of the day, but made sure to stop at one of Wiley's favorite Mexican restaurants, Mucho Gusto, in Medford, OR.
We drove by Multnomah Falls (WA). Unfortunately, it was dark. You can just barely make out the white strip of water in the background. Try clicking the picture to enlarge it.
On night 2, we camped in Cascade Locks, WA. It was a quiet, but beautiful, little mountain town.
Cascade Locks is the home of the Bridge of the Gods.
Wiley thought this was a pretty funny sign.
Day 3 - 12/24/09
After a much warmer and better night of sleep, we got on the road for Day 3 aka Christmas Eve. We made a slight detour to Richland, WA for Spudnut Donuts (www.spudnutshop.com). Spudnuts are donuts made from potato flour. They were pretty tasty.
While in Richland, we found quite possibly the coolest park ever. It had running/walking trails right next to the river, tons of open grass area, and a huge playground with a zip line, rock climbing walls, swinging benches, and stuff we've never seen before.
Can you see the zip line with the swing attached? So much fun!
Other than a flat tire on I-84 going through WA, we had a pretty smooth drive. We arrived at Wiley's parent's house in Liberty Lake in the afternoon. After a marathon session of present opening and a great Christmas Eve dinner, we called it a night.
Christmas
Merry Christmas! We had a great day of eating, more presents, walking the dogs up the hill, more food (especially delicious cookies), and hanging out with the family. We hope everyone had a great day.
View of Liberty Lake from up the hill.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Day 1
We left our home in Clovis, CA today and drove to Lake Shastina (CA). We can see the moon reflecting off Mount Shasta. It's chilly, but we brought enough jackets for a small village, so we should be okay. It was already dark when we got here and the dogs were pretty antsy. They ran around until they stumbled upon some cows. It was pretty funny listening to the moo's in the darkness.
It was a pretty easy day with no major issues. We got the best gas mileage with a camper so far - 10.9 mpg! Wiley drove and I worked most of the day, thanks to my wireless aircard. The refrigerator, freezer, microwave, and toilet are all doing their jobs, so all is good.
Tomorrow, we plan on driving just past Portland, OR on our way to Wiley's parent's house in Liberty Lake, WA (eastern WA).
It was a pretty easy day with no major issues. We got the best gas mileage with a camper so far - 10.9 mpg! Wiley drove and I worked most of the day, thanks to my wireless aircard. The refrigerator, freezer, microwave, and toilet are all doing their jobs, so all is good.
Tomorrow, we plan on driving just past Portland, OR on our way to Wiley's parent's house in Liberty Lake, WA (eastern WA).
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Camper modifications
Camper is a 1991 Lance 11'3" truck camper. It has a 2500 Watt Onan generator, dual propane tanks, hydraulic jacks, fridge/freezer, 6 gal water heater, Coleman a/c, heater, dual stainless sinks, "dry" bathroom (separate shower/toilet), 40 gal fresh water tank, queen bed, lots of closet space, microwave, etc.
Getting the camper home was interesting since I assumed the tie-downs would be part of the package. The previous owner had torque-lift tie-downs for his ford and I have an 01 Chevy dually. It wasn't going to happen. I used a couple of 2000 lb ratcheting tow straps for the front and back to secure the camper to the truck and also bolted the hitch extension to a custom mounting plate that was installed under the camper bumper. It made everyone else nervous but I thought it should be fine. It worked better than fine, it worked great. Not a permanent solution but it worked better than I thought. I figured I might end up with rub marks on the truck finish in a small spot but it came out with absolutely no damage.
Being old, I expected a few glitches. First things first, I almost lost the camper. The guy I bought it from told me one of the jacks was acting up and needed rebuilding but it would hold pressure, it just didn't crank very well. I was lifting the camper to load it and had just backed my truck under it when the jack decided to slowly fail. I was on the other side of the camper so I let off the jack on my side so at least the camper would land square in the bed of the truck. It worked out fine, just not a fun experience. I spent the rest of the evening rebuilding the jack, since that guy already had the rebuild kits. It's not that hard, once you get the rusted threads to break free.
I looked at tiedowns online and checked out the forums for 2 weeks. I am never going to be caught paying almost $500 for fancy tie-downs that aren't worth half that. For those of you who can afford it, enjoy. I'd rather build better ones for a quarter of the cost. A trip to the steel yard later, I had all of my pieces to build my own tiedowns.
I had the generator start acting up. Not wanting to shell out too much money, I researched the heck out it. I narrowed the problem down to the starter motor. I disassembled the generator and gave all of the parts a good cleaning. That's all it needed! The centrifugal clutch was stuck on some gunk and not engaging. Easy fix.
Next, we were camping in Sequoia National Forest (the maiden voyage for the camper)
and turned on the water pump. It worked fine in the driveway at home but on the trip it decided to pump water out of the hose connection valve on the camper exterior. Not able to reset the valve, I hooked up the water hose and crimped it with a set of vice clamps. That worked fine for the weekend. I replaced the valve when I got home.
After the Sequioa trip, I was charging the battery and noticing the "charge" indicator light fluttering. Soon, it was out completely, the battery still not charged. Further research and inspection proved to be a worn-out power converter. The original Magnetek 6300 was apparently not a good converter, so I guess I should be impressed it lasted as long as it did in an 18 year old camper. I considered the upgrade 7300 converter until I found the Progressive Dynamics Intelli-power P9140A converter. This 40 Amp converter was a little more power than the old one (32 amps) but not so much as to charge the battery too fast and burn it up. It fit into the old Magnetek housing so I didn't have to alter any of the camper interior. For an install link look here: http://home.comcast.net/~rabarber/magnetek.htm
I put the camper in the truck for a few days so I could take off the jacks to sand and paint them. While I had the paint out, I also repainted the compartment doors and plastic covers on the exterior. Next, I thought I would sand off a couple rust spots on the camper bumper, just under the door. When I started sanding with a flap disk on the angle grinder, I started to smell something odd. Pinning the smell to electrical, and just finishing the power converter mod, I thought the camper was on fire. I opened the door and the air was just fine. Close inspection of the power converter proved nothing. Outside the smell had dispersed. I unplugged the camper and threw the fuses anyway. Not finding anything, I went back to sanding and smelled it again. This time, a bit of bondo started to show. Maybe the bumper wasn't so clean and straight afterall. I sanded the whole thing, finding lots of pitting in the metal. Structurally, it seemed fine for a while, until I can build a new one. I primed and painted it, then (not wanting to bondo back over it) covered the entire top surface with 3M grip tape. I actually looks great, is more functional, and I can build the new bumper later on.
I also found out that the propane tanks are only about 8 years out of date. The guy at Suburban Propane told me replacement tanks ran about $252.00 each. No way.
I took out the bottom of the interior closet to access the top of the poly propane compartment. I cut the top of the compartment out, built a 6" tall box around the edge to raise the height of the compartment and attached the piece of removed poly back on top. I sealed the seams, inside and out. Using the same hoses and regulator, I traded in some old bbq propane tanks for new bbq tanks and was able to slide them in the original compartment door sideways and stand them up straight. (Yes I knew this would work. Measure twice, cut once). Now I have room to install a small compressor. I only lost a few inches in the floor of the closet (not noticable) and gained the ability to get propane refilled or tanks swapped almost anywhere.
Getting the camper home was interesting since I assumed the tie-downs would be part of the package. The previous owner had torque-lift tie-downs for his ford and I have an 01 Chevy dually. It wasn't going to happen. I used a couple of 2000 lb ratcheting tow straps for the front and back to secure the camper to the truck and also bolted the hitch extension to a custom mounting plate that was installed under the camper bumper. It made everyone else nervous but I thought it should be fine. It worked better than fine, it worked great. Not a permanent solution but it worked better than I thought. I figured I might end up with rub marks on the truck finish in a small spot but it came out with absolutely no damage.
Being old, I expected a few glitches. First things first, I almost lost the camper. The guy I bought it from told me one of the jacks was acting up and needed rebuilding but it would hold pressure, it just didn't crank very well. I was lifting the camper to load it and had just backed my truck under it when the jack decided to slowly fail. I was on the other side of the camper so I let off the jack on my side so at least the camper would land square in the bed of the truck. It worked out fine, just not a fun experience. I spent the rest of the evening rebuilding the jack, since that guy already had the rebuild kits. It's not that hard, once you get the rusted threads to break free.
I looked at tiedowns online and checked out the forums for 2 weeks. I am never going to be caught paying almost $500 for fancy tie-downs that aren't worth half that. For those of you who can afford it, enjoy. I'd rather build better ones for a quarter of the cost. A trip to the steel yard later, I had all of my pieces to build my own tiedowns.
I had the generator start acting up. Not wanting to shell out too much money, I researched the heck out it. I narrowed the problem down to the starter motor. I disassembled the generator and gave all of the parts a good cleaning. That's all it needed! The centrifugal clutch was stuck on some gunk and not engaging. Easy fix.
Next, we were camping in Sequoia National Forest (the maiden voyage for the camper)
and turned on the water pump. It worked fine in the driveway at home but on the trip it decided to pump water out of the hose connection valve on the camper exterior. Not able to reset the valve, I hooked up the water hose and crimped it with a set of vice clamps. That worked fine for the weekend. I replaced the valve when I got home.
After the Sequioa trip, I was charging the battery and noticing the "charge" indicator light fluttering. Soon, it was out completely, the battery still not charged. Further research and inspection proved to be a worn-out power converter. The original Magnetek 6300 was apparently not a good converter, so I guess I should be impressed it lasted as long as it did in an 18 year old camper. I considered the upgrade 7300 converter until I found the Progressive Dynamics Intelli-power P9140A converter. This 40 Amp converter was a little more power than the old one (32 amps) but not so much as to charge the battery too fast and burn it up. It fit into the old Magnetek housing so I didn't have to alter any of the camper interior. For an install link look here: http://home.comcast.net/~rabarber/magnetek.htm
I put the camper in the truck for a few days so I could take off the jacks to sand and paint them. While I had the paint out, I also repainted the compartment doors and plastic covers on the exterior. Next, I thought I would sand off a couple rust spots on the camper bumper, just under the door. When I started sanding with a flap disk on the angle grinder, I started to smell something odd. Pinning the smell to electrical, and just finishing the power converter mod, I thought the camper was on fire. I opened the door and the air was just fine. Close inspection of the power converter proved nothing. Outside the smell had dispersed. I unplugged the camper and threw the fuses anyway. Not finding anything, I went back to sanding and smelled it again. This time, a bit of bondo started to show. Maybe the bumper wasn't so clean and straight afterall. I sanded the whole thing, finding lots of pitting in the metal. Structurally, it seemed fine for a while, until I can build a new one. I primed and painted it, then (not wanting to bondo back over it) covered the entire top surface with 3M grip tape. I actually looks great, is more functional, and I can build the new bumper later on.
I also found out that the propane tanks are only about 8 years out of date. The guy at Suburban Propane told me replacement tanks ran about $252.00 each. No way.
I took out the bottom of the interior closet to access the top of the poly propane compartment. I cut the top of the compartment out, built a 6" tall box around the edge to raise the height of the compartment and attached the piece of removed poly back on top. I sealed the seams, inside and out. Using the same hoses and regulator, I traded in some old bbq propane tanks for new bbq tanks and was able to slide them in the original compartment door sideways and stand them up straight. (Yes I knew this would work. Measure twice, cut once). Now I have room to install a small compressor. I only lost a few inches in the floor of the closet (not noticable) and gained the ability to get propane refilled or tanks swapped almost anywhere.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Our Mobile Vacation Home
We bought a cabover camper a few months ago and Wiley has been busy preparing it for our 3-week trip to the Pacific Northwest. We've taken it on a couple test runs and aside from a few quirks, everything is great. It has a queen-size bed, foldout sofabed, full kitchen, and bathroom with shower. The dogs love it too!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Our Adventures
We've done a lot in the 10 years we've known each other...
Vacationed in Maui.
Honeymooned in Belize.
Visited family in Arizona.
Hiked & rappelled in the Millerton Caves (Fresno, CA).
Went to Disneyland (Anaheim, CA).
Went to Legoland (San Diego, CA).
Gone ATV'ing in Pismo (Pismo Beach, CA).
Rappelled our dogs off our roof (in preparation for a rappelling trip in Southern CA).
Visited family in Las Vegas.
No, I didn't ride this bike :)
Shot skeet.
We've also rock climbed in Bishop & Joshua Tree, hiked Mt. St. Helens and Half Dome, gone whitewater rafting, hiked through caves, hiked ancient ruins, driven the Road to Hana (Maui), watched the sunrise at Haleakala (Maui), rowed for Santa Clara University, camped, gone skydiving, and much, much more.
Here's to a lifetime of adventures...
Vacationed in Maui.
Honeymooned in Belize.
Visited family in Arizona.
Hiked & rappelled in the Millerton Caves (Fresno, CA).
Went to Disneyland (Anaheim, CA).
Went to Legoland (San Diego, CA).
Gone ATV'ing in Pismo (Pismo Beach, CA).
Rappelled our dogs off our roof (in preparation for a rappelling trip in Southern CA).
Visited family in Las Vegas.
No, I didn't ride this bike :)
Shot skeet.
We've also rock climbed in Bishop & Joshua Tree, hiked Mt. St. Helens and Half Dome, gone whitewater rafting, hiked through caves, hiked ancient ruins, driven the Road to Hana (Maui), watched the sunrise at Haleakala (Maui), rowed for Santa Clara University, camped, gone skydiving, and much, much more.
Here's to a lifetime of adventures...
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