We are at the Elks lodge in Parsippany, New Jersey (map).
After leaving the Philly area on I-95, we had set our sights on the Wal-Mart in Manville, NJ, about halfway to our final destination, and, according to our maps, adjacent to some other shopping we needed, as well as a nice looking local Italian restaurant. Unfortunately, after trundling a couple miles off our route on US-206, we arrived at the Wal-Mart to find signs prohibiting overnight RV parking, by city ordinance. We passed the Manville Elks lodge on the way in as well, which also does not allow overnight parking, possibly due to the same ordinance.
I had some shopping I needed to do at Wal-Mart, but our policy is that we do not patronize municipalities that forbid parking, if at all possible, and so we moved along. Another 30 miles or so brought us here, to this very active and recently remodeled lodge. They seemed genuinely happy to have us, buying us our first round of drinks, and running an extension cord out to the parking lot, where they found us a level spot by moving a couple of cars. It's so pleasant here, we decided to spend a second night, and catch up on a few things around the house. We've dialed our power draw in at 12 amps, plenty to keep the batteries topped up and run the pumps and fans, but we're still running the diesel boiler all night in the bitter cold.
Tomorrow we'll have just an hour's drive to my aunt and uncle's house in New City, NY, where we will spend the Thanksgiving holiday. My folks will be driving up from Brick, NJ to join us there.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Calendar confusion
Psst! (Shifty eyes look around) I just posted something for Small Space Saturday, so it is hidden down below Sean's last two entries. I know, I know: it's Monday. But I was excited about some decluttering tips I found, and wanted it to fit into my whole "day of the week" theme thingy. Not that I've been keeping up with all that, but I wanted it to be right, you know? Anyway, scroll down a bit if you want to read it.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Hey, we're a bus...
We are at the Harrah's Chester Casino and Racetrack, in Chester, Pennsylvania (map).
As is typical for this time of year in the northeast, overnight stopping options are limited. Most of the state park campgrounds are already closed for the season, as well as many private parks. What few private parks are open are generally full of long-term (read: permanent) tenants, which even further detracts, for us, from their already low desirability as overnight stops. And Wal-Marts and other businesses in this part of the country are often crammed in to crowded areas and/or forbid overnight parking.
With such limited options, we rely fairly heavily on Elks lodges, with the occasional Wal-Mart or other parking lot as available. I was surprised to find a casino here when I consulted my on-line Casino Camper directory (the casino is too new to appear in our printed Casino Camping book). The listing said that the casino allowed overnight parking and had an area available for it. It was at just the right distance from Glen Burnie for our end-of-day stop, and so we dialed it in to the GPS, and headed out.
We escaped Baltimore on I-95, which meant a $4 trip through the harbor tunnel. The clearance is 13'6", and we're 13' even, but our CB antenna is, apparently, just taller than that, so it dragged the ceiling through the entire tunnel. Whoops. Just past the beltway we ditched onto scenic US-1, which took us over the Conowingo Dam impounding the Susquehanna. The lanes on the dam are quite narrow, and we had to proceed slowly. US-322 brought us back into the I-95 corridor just southwest of Philly.
Now, the casino web site, as well as a billboard on I-95, suggested access to the casino was via exit 8, then down Stewart to US-291 and back the two miles to the property. Our GPS decided it knew a better way, and tried to bring us in from exit 6, which would have been much shorter and more direct. Unfortunately, the Amtrak electrified main line runs between I-95 and the waterfront, and all the connecting roads run under 12'-something bridges. We ended up having to backtrack back onto the freeway and follow the suggested route, which was fine. We did stumble across a Wal-Mart in the process, which became our backup option, but it looked quite crowded in the lot.
When we arrived here at the casino, there was no obvious place to park, so I called them. After describing our vehicle, they directed us to the tour bus parking area just south of the parking garage. It was a little strange, passing the "buses only" sign and pulling in to one of only four spaces here, designed for disgorging 50+ casino patrons. At least we sort of look like a bus, maybe for a high roller. This is also the area where numerous SEPTA transit buses stop, and the bus stop was busy all night, we presume mostly with casino employees. Nevertheless, it was quiet enough for a comfortable night's sleep. We did leave the diesel boiler running all night, uncharacteristic for us, as it dipped down into the low 20s.
We did have a nice dinner at the "Cove" steakhouse in the casino. We had a view of the river to watch the ships coming and going, and being loaded at a nearby pier. Our parking spot is also adjacent to the paddock area, and this morning the paddock is very busy, with a couple dozen horse trailers in the lot. I don't know if there is racing today, or just practice; we've seen nothing on the track, which is visible out our windows.
Today we'll blast through Philly on I-95 and cross the river before heading off to less traveled roads.
As is typical for this time of year in the northeast, overnight stopping options are limited. Most of the state park campgrounds are already closed for the season, as well as many private parks. What few private parks are open are generally full of long-term (read: permanent) tenants, which even further detracts, for us, from their already low desirability as overnight stops. And Wal-Marts and other businesses in this part of the country are often crammed in to crowded areas and/or forbid overnight parking.
With such limited options, we rely fairly heavily on Elks lodges, with the occasional Wal-Mart or other parking lot as available. I was surprised to find a casino here when I consulted my on-line Casino Camper directory (the casino is too new to appear in our printed Casino Camping book). The listing said that the casino allowed overnight parking and had an area available for it. It was at just the right distance from Glen Burnie for our end-of-day stop, and so we dialed it in to the GPS, and headed out.
We escaped Baltimore on I-95, which meant a $4 trip through the harbor tunnel. The clearance is 13'6", and we're 13' even, but our CB antenna is, apparently, just taller than that, so it dragged the ceiling through the entire tunnel. Whoops. Just past the beltway we ditched onto scenic US-1, which took us over the Conowingo Dam impounding the Susquehanna. The lanes on the dam are quite narrow, and we had to proceed slowly. US-322 brought us back into the I-95 corridor just southwest of Philly.
Now, the casino web site, as well as a billboard on I-95, suggested access to the casino was via exit 8, then down Stewart to US-291 and back the two miles to the property. Our GPS decided it knew a better way, and tried to bring us in from exit 6, which would have been much shorter and more direct. Unfortunately, the Amtrak electrified main line runs between I-95 and the waterfront, and all the connecting roads run under 12'-something bridges. We ended up having to backtrack back onto the freeway and follow the suggested route, which was fine. We did stumble across a Wal-Mart in the process, which became our backup option, but it looked quite crowded in the lot.
When we arrived here at the casino, there was no obvious place to park, so I called them. After describing our vehicle, they directed us to the tour bus parking area just south of the parking garage. It was a little strange, passing the "buses only" sign and pulling in to one of only four spaces here, designed for disgorging 50+ casino patrons. At least we sort of look like a bus, maybe for a high roller. This is also the area where numerous SEPTA transit buses stop, and the bus stop was busy all night, we presume mostly with casino employees. Nevertheless, it was quiet enough for a comfortable night's sleep. We did leave the diesel boiler running all night, uncharacteristic for us, as it dipped down into the low 20s.
We did have a nice dinner at the "Cove" steakhouse in the casino. We had a view of the river to watch the ships coming and going, and being loaded at a nearby pier. Our parking spot is also adjacent to the paddock area, and this morning the paddock is very busy, with a couple dozen horse trailers in the lot. I don't know if there is racing today, or just practice; we've seen nothing on the track, which is visible out our windows.
Today we'll blast through Philly on I-95 and cross the river before heading off to less traveled roads.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Good friends, but no scooter
We are at the Elks lodge in Severn, Maryland (map).
After leaving Frederick Thursday, we proceeded to Mount Airy and the scooter I was looking to buy. It was a 2007 Rattler 110, a modern two-stroke manufactured in Taiwan by PGO and sold here by the Genuine Scooter company. I've been eying these since I first spotted one at the Sandblast Scooter Rally on Galveston last year, where it handily won several of the Gymkhana events. I had reasoned that this model would give me the combination of reasonably good top speed with decent off-road performance that I have been seeking.
Unfortunately, this one did not work out. I think I am still very interested in this make and model, but this particular scoot had some issues that I simply did not want to deal with on the bus. I probably would have gone ahead with the deal if I had a fixed garage -- it was a smokin' deal. But on the test ride, it simply would not remain running -- it kept dying at idle. I attribute this to a number of tuning mods that the seller was trying as he attempted to get the top speed up a bit, including drilling and rejetting the carb and replacing the stock exhaust system.
Other issues for me were the fact that the aftermarket exhaust was a bit loud, and all the fuel vapor recovery hardware had been removed -- a real problem for us with the scooter in the confines of one of our luggage bays. While the seller was offering all the stock parts he removed as part of the deal, it looked to me like I would be fiddling with the carburetion for quite a while to get the bike working right, and I'd still have to noodle through putting the vapor recovery back together, and possibly find someone with a stock exhaust who wanted to trade for the pricey aftermarket one this guy installed.
We thanked him for his time, and he cheerfully refunded my deposit. And, as I said, it was a great deal -- $1,200 for the scoot and all the parts, including a windshield, custom rack, extra carb, extra pipe, and so forth. He was willing to knock a couple hundred more off that if I didn't want the extras (I didn't -- the windshield and rack would not fit in the bay, and I have no place to keep things like an extra pipe), and the rock bottom price of the thing (they go for close to $3K new out the door) was very, very tempting. But the prospect of having a scooter I couldn't really use without hours of fiddling and maybe some dealer visits (and Genuine does not allow its two-year warranty to be transferred) was just too daunting.
We arrived here in the Glen Burnie area Thursday afternoon, checked in with the lodge, and got settled in. Our friends Tom and Kathleen picked us up and we had a nice dinner at Irish pub Brian Boru. They, too, are full-timers, and we expected that we would just be catching them here (visiting their daughter) on their way to Florida.
We learned at dinner, though, that Kathleen is having some foot surgery that will likely sideline them here in Maryland all winter. Tom was noodling on how to get more power out to the rig from his daughter's house -- they've been squeaking by on a 15-amp receptacle outside the house.
So yesterday we spent the day fiddling with the electrical panel and shopping for parts. I also spent some time combing through the NEC. In the end, the project of adding a real, permanent, and code-compliant 50-amp receptacle outside her house proved too cumbersome -- access to the panel, in a finished bedroom, was nearly impossible for any legal wiring means. So we rigged up the same temporary arrangement that we've used for Odyssey on the last couple of Red Cross jobs, adding a two-pole 30-amp breaker to the panel, and that will get them through the winter with 7kW of available juice.
That took us to dinner time, and we had another nice meal with them at Texas Roadhouse before saying our goodbyes. It was a nice visit.
In a few minutes we will pack up and continue northeast. We'll escape Baltimore on I-95 and through the Harbor Tunnel, where our wimpy little 10# LP cylinders are just under the limit. Just outside the city, we'll divert over to US-1, which will take us across the Susquehanna and into Pennsylvania, bypassing Delaware and I-95 until the outskirts of Philly.
After leaving Frederick Thursday, we proceeded to Mount Airy and the scooter I was looking to buy. It was a 2007 Rattler 110, a modern two-stroke manufactured in Taiwan by PGO and sold here by the Genuine Scooter company. I've been eying these since I first spotted one at the Sandblast Scooter Rally on Galveston last year, where it handily won several of the Gymkhana events. I had reasoned that this model would give me the combination of reasonably good top speed with decent off-road performance that I have been seeking.
Unfortunately, this one did not work out. I think I am still very interested in this make and model, but this particular scoot had some issues that I simply did not want to deal with on the bus. I probably would have gone ahead with the deal if I had a fixed garage -- it was a smokin' deal. But on the test ride, it simply would not remain running -- it kept dying at idle. I attribute this to a number of tuning mods that the seller was trying as he attempted to get the top speed up a bit, including drilling and rejetting the carb and replacing the stock exhaust system.
Other issues for me were the fact that the aftermarket exhaust was a bit loud, and all the fuel vapor recovery hardware had been removed -- a real problem for us with the scooter in the confines of one of our luggage bays. While the seller was offering all the stock parts he removed as part of the deal, it looked to me like I would be fiddling with the carburetion for quite a while to get the bike working right, and I'd still have to noodle through putting the vapor recovery back together, and possibly find someone with a stock exhaust who wanted to trade for the pricey aftermarket one this guy installed.
We thanked him for his time, and he cheerfully refunded my deposit. And, as I said, it was a great deal -- $1,200 for the scoot and all the parts, including a windshield, custom rack, extra carb, extra pipe, and so forth. He was willing to knock a couple hundred more off that if I didn't want the extras (I didn't -- the windshield and rack would not fit in the bay, and I have no place to keep things like an extra pipe), and the rock bottom price of the thing (they go for close to $3K new out the door) was very, very tempting. But the prospect of having a scooter I couldn't really use without hours of fiddling and maybe some dealer visits (and Genuine does not allow its two-year warranty to be transferred) was just too daunting.
We arrived here in the Glen Burnie area Thursday afternoon, checked in with the lodge, and got settled in. Our friends Tom and Kathleen picked us up and we had a nice dinner at Irish pub Brian Boru. They, too, are full-timers, and we expected that we would just be catching them here (visiting their daughter) on their way to Florida.
We learned at dinner, though, that Kathleen is having some foot surgery that will likely sideline them here in Maryland all winter. Tom was noodling on how to get more power out to the rig from his daughter's house -- they've been squeaking by on a 15-amp receptacle outside the house.
So yesterday we spent the day fiddling with the electrical panel and shopping for parts. I also spent some time combing through the NEC. In the end, the project of adding a real, permanent, and code-compliant 50-amp receptacle outside her house proved too cumbersome -- access to the panel, in a finished bedroom, was nearly impossible for any legal wiring means. So we rigged up the same temporary arrangement that we've used for Odyssey on the last couple of Red Cross jobs, adding a two-pole 30-amp breaker to the panel, and that will get them through the winter with 7kW of available juice.
That took us to dinner time, and we had another nice meal with them at Texas Roadhouse before saying our goodbyes. It was a nice visit.
In a few minutes we will pack up and continue northeast. We'll escape Baltimore on I-95 and through the Harbor Tunnel, where our wimpy little 10# LP cylinders are just under the limit. Just outside the city, we'll divert over to US-1, which will take us across the Susquehanna and into Pennsylvania, bypassing Delaware and I-95 until the outskirts of Philly.
Small Space Saturday: Box Decluttering
On Saturdays I write about strategies for living in 300 square feet.
I just found the neat sustainability/frugality/farming blog Room Farm, and her post about getting rid of stuff stored in cardboard boxes has some really great tips.
We all know the standard method of making several piles as you sort through clutter: Keep, Sell, Recycle. I love Room Farm's twist on the Keep pile: "Put it away immediately if it will be kept. The object cannot leave my hand until it goes into the appropriate place." In other words, if you can't march the item right over to an appropriate new place of honor, maybe you shouldn't be keeping it. Brilliant!
I also like how she forces herself to take her donation box to the thrift store every week. The guilt of having make the trip into town with only one item to donate inspires her to declutter more stuff to fill the box.
If you're working on downsizing your life in order to start full-timing in an RV, you probably have boxes of stuff stored in the attic, basement, or closets. Room Farm's suggestions are a great way to tackle all that dead weight and free yourself up for travel.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Never-ending maintenance
We are at the Elks lodge in Frederick, Maryland (map).
Yesterday's drive through Shenandoah National Park did not happen. After leaving the Waynesboro Wal-Mart, we proceeded back the way we came and turned off at the Blue Ridge Parkway/Skyline Drive junction, only to find a locked gate blocking Skyline with a sign reading "Road Closed -- Snow and Ice." A similar gate and sign barred access to the Blue Ridge as well, making us glad we finished it before they closed it. (And what, we wonder, happens to the folks who are already inside Shenandoah when they close the road?)
We pulled into a little turnout at the bridge to contemplate our options. After a quick look at the maps and Street Atlas, we decided to continue east on 250 to Charlottesville, then north on US-29/US-15 to Frederick. After clearing a 13'6" overpass on 250 we thought we were home free, but the sign advertising a 13'2" overpass ahead promted us to bail off onto I-64 the rest of the way to Charlottesville.
There were no such issues once we were on US-29 and US-15, and we had an uneventful and mildly scenic trip, if a bit more suburban four-lane than our usual fare. Since our plan to, perhaps, camp in Shenandoah (two of the campgrounds are still open) went out the window, Louise broke out the guidebooks, and found this lovely Elks lodge here in Frederick.
In stark contrast to many lodges, this one is in a nice, modern building and appears to be quite vibrant. They serve dinner six nights a week in a well-run facility, have a huge parking lot (complete with two 30-amp power outlets for visiting RVs), and a nice bar. The whole place is also smoke-free, which is always a plus on our list. We wandered over to the lodge last night for dinner; I had prime rib, and Louise had haddock, and both were excellent and reasonably priced. They also have nightly specials, and attract a good crowd daily for lunch, as well.
Since we were well parked and had 30 amps of power, we decided to stay put today to get some pressing things taken care of. Louise hauled out her scooter and schlepped three loads of laundry to the laundromat about a mile away, and I set to work on one of our pesky air leaks.
When the weather turns cold, we always leak more air (and coolant) than otherwise. Mostly this has to do with differential rates of contraction at the fittings, and we don't worry about it too much. But for the last three days, we've been losing copious quantities of air at the left front leveling valve, a problem we've seen before.
This leak is so bad that the electric compressor had to run nearly full time to keep up with it. Hard on the compressor, hard on the batteries, and hard on the neighbors in the middle of the night. The consequence has been that we've had to park more or less on level ground, turn the compressor off, and just let the bus settle on the stops. Because both our toilet and our main entry door are air-operated, I had to start the main engine and build air every time we needed to use the bathroom, and some of the time we needed to exit/enter the bus (the rest of the time, we just squeezed over the seats and used the driver door).
So today I bit the bullet and crawled into the wheel well to see if I could fix it. It's in the 30s here, so we picked up a portable 1500-watt electric heater at our last Wal-Mart stop, which I stuffed into the wheel well with me. It helped quite a bit.
The last couple of times I went through this, disassembling the leveling valve and cleaning it out did the trick, so that's where I started. No small job in the cramped quarters, and it took me over an hour. Unfortunately, that was absolutely no help this time. So I ended up taking a wrench to the nearby check valve, which, having never been removed before (as far as I can tell) took quite a bit of effort (and copious amounts of WD-40) to remove.
Sure enough, the check valve was leaking (passing air in the wrong direction), which meant the air bag was continually trying to fill even as the leveling valve did its best to exhaust enough air to keep it in balance. I managed, with some effort (and no small thanks to the enormous wrenches I bought to fix the fuel system a while back, even though they are SAE and the valves are metric) to get the valve disassembled. There was a good deal of crud in the 24-year-old valve, but also the rubber diaphragm is just tired. After cleaning it out and lubricating it, I got it to perhaps 99% functional.
After reinstalling the check valve and airing back up, we find the compressor coming on about every 12 minutes or so for less than a minute. Not perfect, but we can live with it. I'm going to have to look into getting some new check valves; I'm sure every valve in the system is in about the same condition.
We'll be here at the Frederick Elks for another night. Louise found a massage place just a mile or so away, and we have 6:30 appointments for some long-overdue massages, after which we will grab a bite at a nearby restaurant. Tomorrow I expect to head towards Mount Airy and the scooter, which I am hoping we can cram into an already full scooter bay.
Yesterday's drive through Shenandoah National Park did not happen. After leaving the Waynesboro Wal-Mart, we proceeded back the way we came and turned off at the Blue Ridge Parkway/Skyline Drive junction, only to find a locked gate blocking Skyline with a sign reading "Road Closed -- Snow and Ice." A similar gate and sign barred access to the Blue Ridge as well, making us glad we finished it before they closed it. (And what, we wonder, happens to the folks who are already inside Shenandoah when they close the road?)
We pulled into a little turnout at the bridge to contemplate our options. After a quick look at the maps and Street Atlas, we decided to continue east on 250 to Charlottesville, then north on US-29/US-15 to Frederick. After clearing a 13'6" overpass on 250 we thought we were home free, but the sign advertising a 13'2" overpass ahead promted us to bail off onto I-64 the rest of the way to Charlottesville.
There were no such issues once we were on US-29 and US-15, and we had an uneventful and mildly scenic trip, if a bit more suburban four-lane than our usual fare. Since our plan to, perhaps, camp in Shenandoah (two of the campgrounds are still open) went out the window, Louise broke out the guidebooks, and found this lovely Elks lodge here in Frederick.
In stark contrast to many lodges, this one is in a nice, modern building and appears to be quite vibrant. They serve dinner six nights a week in a well-run facility, have a huge parking lot (complete with two 30-amp power outlets for visiting RVs), and a nice bar. The whole place is also smoke-free, which is always a plus on our list. We wandered over to the lodge last night for dinner; I had prime rib, and Louise had haddock, and both were excellent and reasonably priced. They also have nightly specials, and attract a good crowd daily for lunch, as well.
Since we were well parked and had 30 amps of power, we decided to stay put today to get some pressing things taken care of. Louise hauled out her scooter and schlepped three loads of laundry to the laundromat about a mile away, and I set to work on one of our pesky air leaks.
When the weather turns cold, we always leak more air (and coolant) than otherwise. Mostly this has to do with differential rates of contraction at the fittings, and we don't worry about it too much. But for the last three days, we've been losing copious quantities of air at the left front leveling valve, a problem we've seen before.
This leak is so bad that the electric compressor had to run nearly full time to keep up with it. Hard on the compressor, hard on the batteries, and hard on the neighbors in the middle of the night. The consequence has been that we've had to park more or less on level ground, turn the compressor off, and just let the bus settle on the stops. Because both our toilet and our main entry door are air-operated, I had to start the main engine and build air every time we needed to use the bathroom, and some of the time we needed to exit/enter the bus (the rest of the time, we just squeezed over the seats and used the driver door).
So today I bit the bullet and crawled into the wheel well to see if I could fix it. It's in the 30s here, so we picked up a portable 1500-watt electric heater at our last Wal-Mart stop, which I stuffed into the wheel well with me. It helped quite a bit.
The last couple of times I went through this, disassembling the leveling valve and cleaning it out did the trick, so that's where I started. No small job in the cramped quarters, and it took me over an hour. Unfortunately, that was absolutely no help this time. So I ended up taking a wrench to the nearby check valve, which, having never been removed before (as far as I can tell) took quite a bit of effort (and copious amounts of WD-40) to remove.
Sure enough, the check valve was leaking (passing air in the wrong direction), which meant the air bag was continually trying to fill even as the leveling valve did its best to exhaust enough air to keep it in balance. I managed, with some effort (and no small thanks to the enormous wrenches I bought to fix the fuel system a while back, even though they are SAE and the valves are metric) to get the valve disassembled. There was a good deal of crud in the 24-year-old valve, but also the rubber diaphragm is just tired. After cleaning it out and lubricating it, I got it to perhaps 99% functional.
After reinstalling the check valve and airing back up, we find the compressor coming on about every 12 minutes or so for less than a minute. Not perfect, but we can live with it. I'm going to have to look into getting some new check valves; I'm sure every valve in the system is in about the same condition.
We'll be here at the Frederick Elks for another night. Louise found a massage place just a mile or so away, and we have 6:30 appointments for some long-overdue massages, after which we will grab a bite at a nearby restaurant. Tomorrow I expect to head towards Mount Airy and the scooter, which I am hoping we can cram into an already full scooter bay.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Between parks
We are at the Wal-Mart (do you detect a pattern here?) in Waynesboro, Virginia (map).
After leaving the Wal-Mart in Salem yesterday, we proceeded across town and got on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We spent the rest of the day yesterday doing the last 120 miles of this beautiful parkway. We have done the entirety of the Blue Ridge once before, on a motorcycle trip in the spring of 2000 -- it's quite a different place in the late fall.
For one thing, there was almost no traffic, and we had the road mostly to ourselves the entire distance. All the visitor centers and campgrounds, unfortunately, are closed. We did find the concessionaire-run lodge at Peaks of Otter open, and stopped in for a nice lunch overlooking the lake.
We stopped at a handful of overlooks and points of interest, but mostly we just enjoyed the natural beauty of the parkway, the evergreens standing out among the stark and mostly naked deciduous trees, and the ground carpeted in brown leaves. We did the last ten miles or so in the dark, as sunset found us still around milepost 30; I-64 crosses the parkway at mile 0, and so it was a short coast down the hill to this Wal-Mart.
Today we will head right back there, and continue north on Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park.
After leaving the Wal-Mart in Salem yesterday, we proceeded across town and got on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We spent the rest of the day yesterday doing the last 120 miles of this beautiful parkway. We have done the entirety of the Blue Ridge once before, on a motorcycle trip in the spring of 2000 -- it's quite a different place in the late fall.
For one thing, there was almost no traffic, and we had the road mostly to ourselves the entire distance. All the visitor centers and campgrounds, unfortunately, are closed. We did find the concessionaire-run lodge at Peaks of Otter open, and stopped in for a nice lunch overlooking the lake.
We stopped at a handful of overlooks and points of interest, but mostly we just enjoyed the natural beauty of the parkway, the evergreens standing out among the stark and mostly naked deciduous trees, and the ground carpeted in brown leaves. We did the last ten miles or so in the dark, as sunset found us still around milepost 30; I-64 crosses the parkway at mile 0, and so it was a short coast down the hill to this Wal-Mart.
Today we will head right back there, and continue north on Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park.
Monday, November 17, 2008
The road less traveled
We are at the Wal-Mart in Salem, Virginia (map), just west of Roanoke.
We had set Roanoke as our goal yesterday, and were heading for the Elks lodge there, which our guide indicted as having RV space in the parking lot. However, as we rolled into Salem we passed Mama Maria's Italian restaurant, which caught our interest, and then spotted this Wal-Mart just two doors down. Being only eight miles shy of our target, we decided to stay here and give Mama Maria's a try (it was quite good). Plentiful independent, family-run Italian joints are some of the few things that we like about the east.
We've come only 130 miles or so since our stop at the Wal-Mart in Bristol. That would have been just over two hours on I-81, but it was nearly twice that on the old highway, US-11. The last few times we've been through this way, we've been in too much of a hurry to take the blue highways (and haste makes waste -- we knocked part of the satellite dish off the roof on a low overpass on I-81 our last time through). So we were happy to finally take the slow road, and pass through the quaint downtowns of a dozen or so communities, including some that the freeway bypasses altogether, such as Pulaski, Dublin, and New River.
We've gotten word this morning that the Red Cross is opening three national relief operations in California for the wildfires there. We've reported our position to the Disaster Operations Center, informing them that there is really no way we could be in California in time to help open the operations -- we're a good 4-5 days out. Also, this distance is outside the range of what they will reimburse. The fires are a long way from contained, and it's not clear whether these will be three-week operations, or something much longer.
Until we hear otherwise, we are continuing our slow roll towards the scooter awaiting me in Maryland. If the weather (and the Red Cross) cooperates, we will try to push north from there and get in some family time for Thanksgiving.
We had set Roanoke as our goal yesterday, and were heading for the Elks lodge there, which our guide indicted as having RV space in the parking lot. However, as we rolled into Salem we passed Mama Maria's Italian restaurant, which caught our interest, and then spotted this Wal-Mart just two doors down. Being only eight miles shy of our target, we decided to stay here and give Mama Maria's a try (it was quite good). Plentiful independent, family-run Italian joints are some of the few things that we like about the east.
We've come only 130 miles or so since our stop at the Wal-Mart in Bristol. That would have been just over two hours on I-81, but it was nearly twice that on the old highway, US-11. The last few times we've been through this way, we've been in too much of a hurry to take the blue highways (and haste makes waste -- we knocked part of the satellite dish off the roof on a low overpass on I-81 our last time through). So we were happy to finally take the slow road, and pass through the quaint downtowns of a dozen or so communities, including some that the freeway bypasses altogether, such as Pulaski, Dublin, and New River.
We've gotten word this morning that the Red Cross is opening three national relief operations in California for the wildfires there. We've reported our position to the Disaster Operations Center, informing them that there is really no way we could be in California in time to help open the operations -- we're a good 4-5 days out. Also, this distance is outside the range of what they will reimburse. The fires are a long way from contained, and it's not clear whether these will be three-week operations, or something much longer.
Until we hear otherwise, we are continuing our slow roll towards the scooter awaiting me in Maryland. If the weather (and the Red Cross) cooperates, we will try to push north from there and get in some family time for Thanksgiving.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Back in the RV-unfriendly East
We are at a familiar stop -- the Wal-Mart in Bristol, Virginia (map), where we stayed two winters ago on our way to New Jersey.
This is really farther than we wanted to come yesterday. After fueling at the Flying-J (which took forever at the RV island, now that the truck islands are off-limits) and crossing through Knoxville on I-640 (I-40 was closed downtown for some reason), we had a very pleasant drive along US-11W, which more or less parallels I-81 but several miles north. We figured to stop somewhere in the middle of that stretch between Knoxville and Bristol, Tennessee.
Louise consulted her vast library of travel guides, but we came up empty on state or local parks, Elks lodges, or other bonafide camp sites. We settled instead for the Wal-Mart in Rogersville, which showed as a 24-hour supercenter. It was in exactly the right place for our end-of-day stop, and was not listed on our "no-no" list of Wal-Marts that don't allow overnight parking.
Unfortunately, as we pulled in to the lot, we spotted the red-and-white signs forbidding overnight parking, complete with graphic of a tow truck hauling you away, and so we decided to move along. That presented a problem, as we still had few other alternatives, and the Wal-Marts in Kingsport and Bristol, Tennessee were both on the no-no list. I remembered that we once stayed here in Bristol, Virginia, though, so we ended up driving about an hour past our intended stopping point to get here.
It is just as we remembered, and there is a plethora of dining choices within easy walking disatance, including Outback, O'Charleys, Kobe Japanese Steakhouse, Chili's, Golden Coral, Logan's Roadhouse, and even a bar and grill in the Holiday Inn. We ended up walking to the closest choice, Chili's, which was fine after a long day on the road.
From this point forward, convenient stopping places will be harder to find, one of our principle issues with traveling in the east. Also, it's getting quite cold as we move further north -- I'm hoping for conditions dry and pleasant enough to try out the scooter I've purchased in Maryland. Fortunately, Odyssey excels in the cold weather, with our Webasto diesel-fired boiled providing more than enough heat to keep us warm and toasty well below freezing.
This is really farther than we wanted to come yesterday. After fueling at the Flying-J (which took forever at the RV island, now that the truck islands are off-limits) and crossing through Knoxville on I-640 (I-40 was closed downtown for some reason), we had a very pleasant drive along US-11W, which more or less parallels I-81 but several miles north. We figured to stop somewhere in the middle of that stretch between Knoxville and Bristol, Tennessee.
Louise consulted her vast library of travel guides, but we came up empty on state or local parks, Elks lodges, or other bonafide camp sites. We settled instead for the Wal-Mart in Rogersville, which showed as a 24-hour supercenter. It was in exactly the right place for our end-of-day stop, and was not listed on our "no-no" list of Wal-Marts that don't allow overnight parking.
Unfortunately, as we pulled in to the lot, we spotted the red-and-white signs forbidding overnight parking, complete with graphic of a tow truck hauling you away, and so we decided to move along. That presented a problem, as we still had few other alternatives, and the Wal-Marts in Kingsport and Bristol, Tennessee were both on the no-no list. I remembered that we once stayed here in Bristol, Virginia, though, so we ended up driving about an hour past our intended stopping point to get here.
It is just as we remembered, and there is a plethora of dining choices within easy walking disatance, including Outback, O'Charleys, Kobe Japanese Steakhouse, Chili's, Golden Coral, Logan's Roadhouse, and even a bar and grill in the Holiday Inn. We ended up walking to the closest choice, Chili's, which was fine after a long day on the road.
From this point forward, convenient stopping places will be harder to find, one of our principle issues with traveling in the east. Also, it's getting quite cold as we move further north -- I'm hoping for conditions dry and pleasant enough to try out the scooter I've purchased in Maryland. Fortunately, Odyssey excels in the cold weather, with our Webasto diesel-fired boiled providing more than enough heat to keep us warm and toasty well below freezing.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Flooded
We are at the Cumberland Mountain State Park, near Crossville, Tennessee (map).
Yesterday morning we had breakfast at IHOP -- uncharacteristic for us, but it was right there across the parking lot. No need to do that again, at least for a while. We made a quick stop back in Wal-Mart to pick up a few supplies, and return the RedBox video we had rented Friday night (Forbidden Kingdom with Jackie Chan and Jet Li -- pretty good, actually).
We blasted out of Nashville on I-40, just to clear the metro area, then bailed off onto much more pleasurable US-70, which brought us all the way here. I had actually intended to stop a bit further east, but there were really no pleasant alternatives between here and Knoxville, which was farther than we wanted to drive.
We're glad we stopped here -- it's a wonderful park, with several camping loops (all but one closed now in the off-season), a store (also closed), a restaurant, and several structures dating back to the CCC era, including the park's signature stone arch bridge and impoundment dam. $20 got us a nice spot with 30-amp power, which provided us with plenty of heat and gave us the chance to top off the batteries.
We thought about trying the prix fixe restaurant for dinner, but opted instead to grill a steak. If we come back here sometime, we will definitely give the restaurant a try. It's across the bridge from the campground, with a view over the little lake.
Last night we had quite a thunderstorm here, and I am sad to report that the leaks have gotten worse. A new one has sprung up above the window over the kitchen counter, and this one was, at one point, running about a gallon every fifteen minutes -- we had to put a pot under it, and tape plastic bags to the woodwork to protect it. Fortunately, the gusher only lasted for an hour or so; the rest of the night was more moderate, and our leak control was manageable. Some of the water got behind the counter and into the cabinets, so we ended up pulling drawers out, mopping up, and setting a fan up to dry it out.
One thing this fast leak did for us, though, was give me a chance to study the flow pattern in a way that the slower drips do not. It is definitely coming in from between the coach body and the window frame (rather than, say, through the gasket that seals the emergency window when closed), or perhaps even somewhere higher than that in the roof. Given that things are getting worse, my theory now is that the original adhesives used to glue the window frames into the coach body is breaking down and failing. I'm not sure if there is a way to get some kind of sealant in there without removing the windows entirely (a dicey proposition), and even investigating this possibility will mean removing the rain gutters -- a big job.
Today we will continue east on US-70 to the Flying-J, just west of Knoxville, put in some $2.609 diesel, then clear Knoxville on the Interstate. We'll bail off again onto US-11 on the other side.
Yesterday morning we had breakfast at IHOP -- uncharacteristic for us, but it was right there across the parking lot. No need to do that again, at least for a while. We made a quick stop back in Wal-Mart to pick up a few supplies, and return the RedBox video we had rented Friday night (Forbidden Kingdom with Jackie Chan and Jet Li -- pretty good, actually).
We blasted out of Nashville on I-40, just to clear the metro area, then bailed off onto much more pleasurable US-70, which brought us all the way here. I had actually intended to stop a bit further east, but there were really no pleasant alternatives between here and Knoxville, which was farther than we wanted to drive.
We're glad we stopped here -- it's a wonderful park, with several camping loops (all but one closed now in the off-season), a store (also closed), a restaurant, and several structures dating back to the CCC era, including the park's signature stone arch bridge and impoundment dam. $20 got us a nice spot with 30-amp power, which provided us with plenty of heat and gave us the chance to top off the batteries.
We thought about trying the prix fixe restaurant for dinner, but opted instead to grill a steak. If we come back here sometime, we will definitely give the restaurant a try. It's across the bridge from the campground, with a view over the little lake.
Last night we had quite a thunderstorm here, and I am sad to report that the leaks have gotten worse. A new one has sprung up above the window over the kitchen counter, and this one was, at one point, running about a gallon every fifteen minutes -- we had to put a pot under it, and tape plastic bags to the woodwork to protect it. Fortunately, the gusher only lasted for an hour or so; the rest of the night was more moderate, and our leak control was manageable. Some of the water got behind the counter and into the cabinets, so we ended up pulling drawers out, mopping up, and setting a fan up to dry it out.
One thing this fast leak did for us, though, was give me a chance to study the flow pattern in a way that the slower drips do not. It is definitely coming in from between the coach body and the window frame (rather than, say, through the gasket that seals the emergency window when closed), or perhaps even somewhere higher than that in the roof. Given that things are getting worse, my theory now is that the original adhesives used to glue the window frames into the coach body is breaking down and failing. I'm not sure if there is a way to get some kind of sealant in there without removing the windows entirely (a dicey proposition), and even investigating this possibility will mean removing the rain gutters -- a big job.
Today we will continue east on US-70 to the Flying-J, just west of Knoxville, put in some $2.609 diesel, then clear Knoxville on the Interstate. We'll bail off again onto US-11 on the other side.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Dinner and a show
We are at a Wal-Mart in south Nashville (map). Interestingly, the aerial photography, at this writing, still shows the shopping mall that was on this site three years ago, now demolished.
After wrapping up our conference call yesterday, we decided to see if our affiliate club here in Nashville could accommodate us for dinner last night. We were able to get 6pm reservations, and a quick check of Nashville's transit agency showed a single bus would get us to the club downtown from this Wal-Mart, so we packed up and headed over here.
We had a nice dinner, although we had to dine in the bar on account of a large event in the main dining room. No surprise, since the Country Music Awards were Wednesday night, and the town is hoppin' -- the bus dropped us off on Broadway and we strolled past half a dozen clubs, all packed and all sporting live music. The stroll was as much of the music city night life as we needed to see.
In a few minutes, we will be heading east out of town.
After wrapping up our conference call yesterday, we decided to see if our affiliate club here in Nashville could accommodate us for dinner last night. We were able to get 6pm reservations, and a quick check of Nashville's transit agency showed a single bus would get us to the club downtown from this Wal-Mart, so we packed up and headed over here.
We had a nice dinner, although we had to dine in the bar on account of a large event in the main dining room. No surprise, since the Country Music Awards were Wednesday night, and the town is hoppin' -- the bus dropped us off on Broadway and we strolled past half a dozen clubs, all packed and all sporting live music. The stroll was as much of the music city night life as we needed to see.
In a few minutes, we will be heading east out of town.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Déjà vu all over again
We are at the Wal-Mart in Murfreesboro, Tennessee (map).
We had a lovely stay Tuesday night at the free park service campground (map), adjacent to the Meriwether Lewis grave site, along the Natchez Trace Parkway. We'd stayed at this campground before, and we ended up just a couple of spaces away from where we parked last time. We've switched internet satellites since then, and on this visit, we were not able to get online -- we had managed to squeak a shot through the trees earlier. Also, the campground was nearly full, as had been the other two free Park Service campgrounds on the Parkway, whereas it was mostly empty on our first visit, which we now must attribute almost entirely to Hurrican Katrina, rather than the lateness of the season.
Yesterday we completed our drive up the Parkway in the rain, which somewhat diminished the spectacular fall foliage we'd been enjoying these last few days. It was, nevertheless, still beautiful, and we are really glad we chose to repeat this trip just now -- we likely hit the absolute best week for color.
We bailed off the Parkway a bit short of the end, to divert here, about 30 miles east on Tennessee 96, in order to visit friends Russ and Pat. The last time we visited them, about a year ago, we stayed on their property, but all agreed that in the current weather, we'd be better off on the pavement. They suggested we meet here at this Wal-Mart, and we agreed. We did have a wonderful dinner last night with them at nearby Olive Garden, a new addition to this neighborhood since our last visit. (Thanks, guys!)
What we had not remembered was that we also stayed here a year ago, a few days after our visit with them, while we waited for our mail. We arrived yesterday in the early afternoon, and were not expecting Russ and Pat until 7pm, so we started walking around to several of the surrounding businesses to get some errands done. The eerie feeling of déjà vu escalated slowly until we finally hit a landmark that made us realize we'd been here before. (After a while, many suburban Wal-Marts start to look the same, often with the same core group of chain stores nearby.) As usual, I had to refer back to the blog to remember when and why we had been here.
Yesterday was the first real rain we've driven through in a while, and, it turns out, both wiper blades began to fail. On one, the clip that retains the rubber blade in the holder came off, and I was able to jury-rig it with a binder clip to get us someplace where we could change it. On the other one, the rubber is just disintegrating. No problem -- I've always gotten suitable replacements at Wal-Mart, a 28" Anco model. However, Anco has changed their design and they no longer fit. Looks like I will be taking the Dremel tool to a Rain-X model, also carried by Wal-Mart, to see if I can make it fit. Wal-Mart (well, this one, at least) no longer seems to carry just the refills, which is really all we need.
We're a little bit at loose ends right now, as we don't have a clear route planned out from here. Also, I have a conference call at 1pm, and we might well end up right here in the Wal-Mart parking lot until it's over.
We had a lovely stay Tuesday night at the free park service campground (map), adjacent to the Meriwether Lewis grave site, along the Natchez Trace Parkway. We'd stayed at this campground before, and we ended up just a couple of spaces away from where we parked last time. We've switched internet satellites since then, and on this visit, we were not able to get online -- we had managed to squeak a shot through the trees earlier. Also, the campground was nearly full, as had been the other two free Park Service campgrounds on the Parkway, whereas it was mostly empty on our first visit, which we now must attribute almost entirely to Hurrican Katrina, rather than the lateness of the season.
Yesterday we completed our drive up the Parkway in the rain, which somewhat diminished the spectacular fall foliage we'd been enjoying these last few days. It was, nevertheless, still beautiful, and we are really glad we chose to repeat this trip just now -- we likely hit the absolute best week for color.
We bailed off the Parkway a bit short of the end, to divert here, about 30 miles east on Tennessee 96, in order to visit friends Russ and Pat. The last time we visited them, about a year ago, we stayed on their property, but all agreed that in the current weather, we'd be better off on the pavement. They suggested we meet here at this Wal-Mart, and we agreed. We did have a wonderful dinner last night with them at nearby Olive Garden, a new addition to this neighborhood since our last visit. (Thanks, guys!)
What we had not remembered was that we also stayed here a year ago, a few days after our visit with them, while we waited for our mail. We arrived yesterday in the early afternoon, and were not expecting Russ and Pat until 7pm, so we started walking around to several of the surrounding businesses to get some errands done. The eerie feeling of déjà vu escalated slowly until we finally hit a landmark that made us realize we'd been here before. (After a while, many suburban Wal-Marts start to look the same, often with the same core group of chain stores nearby.) As usual, I had to refer back to the blog to remember when and why we had been here.
Yesterday was the first real rain we've driven through in a while, and, it turns out, both wiper blades began to fail. On one, the clip that retains the rubber blade in the holder came off, and I was able to jury-rig it with a binder clip to get us someplace where we could change it. On the other one, the rubber is just disintegrating. No problem -- I've always gotten suitable replacements at Wal-Mart, a 28" Anco model. However, Anco has changed their design and they no longer fit. Looks like I will be taking the Dremel tool to a Rain-X model, also carried by Wal-Mart, to see if I can make it fit. Wal-Mart (well, this one, at least) no longer seems to carry just the refills, which is really all we need.
We're a little bit at loose ends right now, as we don't have a clear route planned out from here. Also, I have a conference call at 1pm, and we might well end up right here in the Wal-Mart parking lot until it's over.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Slow rolling
We are at the Tishomingo State Park, adjacent to the Natchez Trace Parkway and near Tishomingo, Mississippi (map).
We have really been enjoying the parkway, taking it very slowly and stopping at many of the points of interest, which has made for very low mileage days. Yesterday we did about 110 miles, and we arrived here right at sundown, having left Jeff Busby around 1pm. Stops yesterday included a nature walk at the remains of a Chickasaw village, and the Tupelo headquarters and visitor center. The exhibits at this latter stop seemed unfamiliar, even though I know we stopped here in 2005; I think perhaps they have renovated it.
In stark contrast to the free campgrounds on the parkway, which have been mostly full, only three sites out of 62 were occupied here last night. $16 includes water and electricity, and we were happy to top off the batteries and not have to burn any diesel for heat this morning -- it's been dropping into the 30s at night. This park has a direct access road from the parkway, making it a convenient interim stop between Jeff Busby and Merriwether Lewis, where we expect to be tonight.
This is a large park, and we would love to take the scooters out and explore a little. The RV sites are along the lake, in the section of the park north of the Trace. The southern section has cabins, a lodge, a seasonal swimming pool, and some large group areas. It's just starting to rain, though, and the forecast says it will continue to rain all day, so we will likely just move along.
Monday, November 10, 2008
A destination
We are at the Jeff Busby campground on the Natchez Trace Parkway (map). We rolled in right about 2:30 yesterday, and landed one of the last few spaces, and likely the only one with a shot to our satellite. The place seems to be filled with Quebecois, and there were even two other bus conversions her when we arrived -- an MCI-7 and an MCI-8. It's lovely here, in a great stand of eastern hardwood forest.
A trail leads from our camp site to the 603' (woo hoo) summit of Little Mountain, with a panoramic view of the forest canopy in all its fall color. An exhibit there discusses nature's slow reclamation of the land from clear-cut for farming by early settlers back to hardwood forest. Sadly, the decimation of these forests in the 19th century drove many species to extinction, including the Carolina Parakeet, the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, and the Passenger Pigeon. The forests are returning, but these animals never will.
This particular campground, located, as it is, more or less at the mid-point of the parkway, was previously billed as having a gas station and camp store. The building and the gas pumps are still here, just as we remembered them from our last visit, when they were closed due to Katrina. It now appears, though, that they are closed permanently. The current site map makes no mention of them, and the icons on the road signs have been obliterated. The store appears vacant.
We have been slow-rolling north on the parkway, enjoying immensly the fall foliage. It will take us another three days to arrive at its northern terminus in Nashville, where we will try to meet up with some friends. After that, we had no particular plans, however, as I posted here last night, I have contracted to buy a scooter, which happens to be in western Maryland, and so we now have a destination of sorts. I'm not sure what the route will be from here to there, but weather will likely play a large role.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Kymco Scooter for Sale
I am selling my trusty steed, "Chip," the mint-green Kymco People 150 scooter I've been riding for the last year. (What follows is, basically, an ad. But hey, it's my blog...)
No, we have not given up on scooters. I've just contracted to buy a different scooter, one that's a little lighter and, I hope, better in the sand and dirt, albeit a bit less powerful and speedy on the highway.
When I bought the People 150, one of the things that impressed me about it was the large 16"-diameter wheels. That's the ex-Motorcycle Safety Foundation instructor in me: larger diameter equals better handling and more safety. And, as far as riding on the pavement goes, this is entirely correct, and I have been extremely pleased with the Kymco's speed and agility on the street. So what gives?
Well, as regular readers know, we spend a good deal of time away from the pavement. And off the asphalt, Louise, on her relatively underpowered 49cc Honda Metropolitan, leaves me in the dust. Her scooter is lighter, with a lower CG, and, most importantly, the aspect ratio of those standard 10" scooter tires is more suited to the soft stuff. For the most part, I can keep up with her, because she runs out of top end so soon. But she can, for example, ride on the beach, whereas I can not.
So the bottom line is I am getting something smaller, lighter, less powerful, and with 10" wheels. We'll miss Chip's comfort and speed when heading to dinner (or wherever else the Metro isn't fast enough to go) two-up, but everything is a trade-off.
My loss can be your gain; Chip is for sale. Details:
Delivery: OK, I admit, the trick is to get rid of this before I pick up the other scooter in a couple of weeks. That bike is in Maryland, and we will shortly be in Tennessee. I can probably deliver this anywhere in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, or northern Virginia without too much trouble -- delivery would be negotiated as a matter of what it will cost us, fuel-wise, to divert. Any place else, we would have to talk about arranging a pick up, or delivery by independent company at your expense.
Photos: Coming soon. There are several scattered throughout the blog, but I will take a couple of dedicated shots to post here. I'll add them to this post, but will also post something fresh when I do. In the meantime, here's one with me aboard:
So there you have it. If you want a great deal on a great scooter, drop me a note and make an offer. The MSRP on these is $3,200 (about what I paid, exclusive of prep, etc.), and retail blue book is $2,345.
No, we have not given up on scooters. I've just contracted to buy a different scooter, one that's a little lighter and, I hope, better in the sand and dirt, albeit a bit less powerful and speedy on the highway.
When I bought the People 150, one of the things that impressed me about it was the large 16"-diameter wheels. That's the ex-Motorcycle Safety Foundation instructor in me: larger diameter equals better handling and more safety. And, as far as riding on the pavement goes, this is entirely correct, and I have been extremely pleased with the Kymco's speed and agility on the street. So what gives?
Well, as regular readers know, we spend a good deal of time away from the pavement. And off the asphalt, Louise, on her relatively underpowered 49cc Honda Metropolitan, leaves me in the dust. Her scooter is lighter, with a lower CG, and, most importantly, the aspect ratio of those standard 10" scooter tires is more suited to the soft stuff. For the most part, I can keep up with her, because she runs out of top end so soon. But she can, for example, ride on the beach, whereas I can not.
So the bottom line is I am getting something smaller, lighter, less powerful, and with 10" wheels. We'll miss Chip's comfort and speed when heading to dinner (or wherever else the Metro isn't fast enough to go) two-up, but everything is a trade-off.
My loss can be your gain; Chip is for sale. Details:
- Model: 2007 Kymco People 15o
- Color: "Vintage Green" (kind of a mint color)
- Specifications here: www.motorcycle.com/specs/kymco/scooter/2007/people/150.html
- Review here: www.motorcyclingmag.com/Machines/Scooters/Alchemy-Kymco-People-150.asp
- Mileage: 1,350 at this writing
- A 12-volt DC power outlet ("cigar-lighter" type) with weather cover. I added this to power my GPS or cell phone, as needed. Works great, and looks "factory-installed."
- Additional turn signal/running light combinations in the built-in locations. For those unfamiliar, Kymco does not equip these light locations with sockets or bulbs for scooters sold in the US -- they have turn signals mounted on stalks below the handle bars instead. Chip now has both -- many people like to remove the stalk ones for a cleaner look.
- I'll throw in the complete service manual and wiring diagrams on CD
Delivery: OK, I admit, the trick is to get rid of this before I pick up the other scooter in a couple of weeks. That bike is in Maryland, and we will shortly be in Tennessee. I can probably deliver this anywhere in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, or northern Virginia without too much trouble -- delivery would be negotiated as a matter of what it will cost us, fuel-wise, to divert. Any place else, we would have to talk about arranging a pick up, or delivery by independent company at your expense.
Photos: Coming soon. There are several scattered throughout the blog, but I will take a couple of dedicated shots to post here. I'll add them to this post, but will also post something fresh when I do. In the meantime, here's one with me aboard:
So there you have it. If you want a great deal on a great scooter, drop me a note and make an offer. The MSRP on these is $3,200 (about what I paid, exclusive of prep, etc.), and retail blue book is $2,345.
The interconnected web of... the Web
We are at the Wal-Mart in Kosciusko, Mississippi (map), convenient to the Trace and familiar to us from a previous visit.
After we left LeFleur's Bluff yesterday morning, we headed over to the Flying-J for 170 gallons of diesel. I was happy to see that the cash price had dropped another few cents over night, now posted at $2.679.
My joy turned to anger when I went inside to pick up my fuel ticket -- apparently, Flying-J has discontinued its policy of providing the "cash" discount to credit-card customers who use their "Real Value" rewards program. So I ended up paying the $0.09 per gallon credit surcharge, costing me an extra fifteen bucks. Had I only known, I would have paid cash. When we last fueled at a Flying-J, back in July (at $4.43 per gallon -- gasp), they were still giving the discount. Harumph.
We did have a lovely drive, though, once we got back on the Parkway. Fall color is still in evidence, although things are getting browner as we get further north. Unlike our last jaunt down this stretch three years ago, when we were hustling to meet a schedule, we are slow-rolling out way north, and so we stopped and did the 20-minute nature walk through a baldcypress/tupelo swamp a little south of here.
We stopped here at the Wal-Mart because we expected, on a Saturday night, that the free Park Service campground another hour north of here might be full. We'd like to stay there on this trip, and tarrying here a night puts us there on Sunday, where our chances for a spot are much better. Assuming we do get a spot, there is a good chance we'll be off line again due to trees. While we were here, we picked up some needed supplies, including extra coolant -- it's dropping into the 30's now, and we lose quite a bit of coolant (and air) as a result.
This morning, Louise was checking in on our web site statistics. Our readership drops off significantly while we are on Red Cross operations, mostly because we just don't post very much then. Now that I am posting more frequently, readers are coming back, and she's been checking up on where folks are coming from. That led us to this post on a heavy-duty towing forum about our recent experience getting stuck in the sand. Which just goes to show, the Web is truly interconnected, and you shouldn't ever post anything that you can't live with forever -- things have a way of coming back around. As you can see, once she found it, Louise felt compelled to chime in.
In a few minutes, we will return the RedBox video we rented last night (The Amateurs -- don't bother), and head back onto the Trace.
After we left LeFleur's Bluff yesterday morning, we headed over to the Flying-J for 170 gallons of diesel. I was happy to see that the cash price had dropped another few cents over night, now posted at $2.679.
My joy turned to anger when I went inside to pick up my fuel ticket -- apparently, Flying-J has discontinued its policy of providing the "cash" discount to credit-card customers who use their "Real Value" rewards program. So I ended up paying the $0.09 per gallon credit surcharge, costing me an extra fifteen bucks. Had I only known, I would have paid cash. When we last fueled at a Flying-J, back in July (at $4.43 per gallon -- gasp), they were still giving the discount. Harumph.
We did have a lovely drive, though, once we got back on the Parkway. Fall color is still in evidence, although things are getting browner as we get further north. Unlike our last jaunt down this stretch three years ago, when we were hustling to meet a schedule, we are slow-rolling out way north, and so we stopped and did the 20-minute nature walk through a baldcypress/tupelo swamp a little south of here.
We stopped here at the Wal-Mart because we expected, on a Saturday night, that the free Park Service campground another hour north of here might be full. We'd like to stay there on this trip, and tarrying here a night puts us there on Sunday, where our chances for a spot are much better. Assuming we do get a spot, there is a good chance we'll be off line again due to trees. While we were here, we picked up some needed supplies, including extra coolant -- it's dropping into the 30's now, and we lose quite a bit of coolant (and air) as a result.
This morning, Louise was checking in on our web site statistics. Our readership drops off significantly while we are on Red Cross operations, mostly because we just don't post very much then. Now that I am posting more frequently, readers are coming back, and she's been checking up on where folks are coming from. That led us to this post on a heavy-duty towing forum about our recent experience getting stuck in the sand. Which just goes to show, the Web is truly interconnected, and you shouldn't ever post anything that you can't live with forever -- things have a way of coming back around. As you can see, once she found it, Louise felt compelled to chime in.
In a few minutes, we will return the RedBox video we rented last night (The Amateurs -- don't bother), and head back onto the Trace.
Friday, November 7, 2008
A short diversion through Jackson
We are at LeFleur's Bluff state park, in Jackson, Mississippi (map). Because we are under the trees and can not get on line, I am drafting this post to upload later.
We had hardly pulled out of our space this morning at Rocky Springs when the low coolant alarm started sounding. I knew this was coming, so we had purchased a gallon of antifreeze and a gallon of distilled water at Wal-Mart Wednesday morning. We pulled over near the campground entrance and put both gallons into the recovery tank -- there's room for another gallon or so in there, but this would get us going.
The reason I knew this was coming is that we've been noticing increasingly large puddles of coolant under the bus during the pre-drive walk-around inspections. It is seeping around a 20-year-old hose that connects the block to the transmission cooler. When the weather starts to turn cold, and temperatures drop through the night, the steel fittings shrink and the old hose won't shrink along with them -- at least, not enough.
We go through this every winter, and, no matter what we do, we can never stop all the coolant drips. It's a fact of bus life, at least with a Detroit 2-stroke. A couple years ago, we had several of the hoses replaced, as a precaution, and that helped some -- newer hoses are more pliable, and tend to follow the expansion and contraction of the engine fittings a little better. The hose currently in question, though, is very short, and difficult to reach.
In any event, the leakage is bad enough now, and the hose looks swollen and tired enough, that we've decided to try to find someone to replace it. There is a Detroit dealer just a bit south of Jackson, in the suburb of Richland, but he can't fit us in until Monday. We thought about just spending the weekend here -- the state fairgrounds near downtown also has RV spaces -- but we decided against it, so it looks like we'll be looking for a shop somewhere north of here, possibly all the way in Nashville.
We got the last space here at LeFleur's Bluff, and it's only available for one night (part of why we decided not to stick around waiting on the Detroit dealer). The park is quite nice, with the camp sites along an oxbow lake abandoned by the Pearl River. It's a short scooter ride over to nearby local dining institution Nick's, where we had a nice, if pricey, dinner. In the morning, we will fuel up, and head back onto the Natchez Trace.
Autumn on the Trace
We are at the Rocky Springs campground on the Natchez Trace Parkway (map).
This is the southernmost of three free campgrounds on the parkway. There are many other camping opportunities as well -- the parkway runs right past a number of state parks, and there are private campgrounds within easy reach of the exits. However these Park Service operated campgrounds are directly accessible from the parkway itself, are in lovely rustic and wooded settings, have the usual Park Service amenities such as grills, fire rings, and picnic tables (this one also has flush toilets and running water in the rest rooms), and, best of all, are absolutely free.
On our last jaunt down the Natchez Trace, this campground at mile 54, as well as the Jeff Busby site at mile 193, were both closed due to damage from Katrina. That meant that we not only missed camping here, but also touring the ghost town site of Rocky Springs. Yesterday we took the scooters out and rode up there -- it's quite interesting. We also stopped yesterday at the site of the oldest inn on the Trace, preserved and restored by the Park Service.
We were a bit surprised that the campground here was two thirds full when we arrived around 2:30 -- it's November, after all, and most of the snowbirds are already further south. We're glad we arrived when we did, as several more folks came in after us. Only perhaps four or five of the 22 sites here have a clear shot to our satellite, and we were lucky to get the last one -- and it is a very narrow shot, indeed. We're happy to be in the trees, though, as the fall color is quite nice, as it has been all along this stretch of the parkway.
Our next stop from here will be the Flying-J in Jackson, where diesel is now $2.739 per gallon. We'll likely find someplace to stay in Jackson for tonight.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
East of the Big river
We are at the visitor welcome center in Natchez, Mississippi (map).
The visitor center, immediately east of the Mississippi river bridge from Vidalia, Louisiana, has a large bus and RV parking area, where overnight stops are permitted. Even though both my online resource and our Days End guide indicated that it would be "impossible" to get level here, Odyssey's air suspension handled the task with ease, and we had a comfortable night. There is a riverboat casino just upriver from this spot, but, uncharacteristically, they do not permit RV parking.
From here it was an easy mile walk downtown, where we had dinner at Breaud's (the food was good, but the prices were not commensurate with the atmosphere), and enjoyed strolling past antebellum homes and historical points of interest. This morning, we will take the little trolley from the visitor center around the town, which will swing us past the historic steamboat landing and waterfront known as "Natchez Under the Hill."
There is a good bit of fall color here, and Louise took this photo of pistache trees right here in the parking lot:
We also had some fall color of our own; apparently I drove through some wet lane striping yesterday. We saw the striping crew pulled over on the right shoulder with flashing lights, and I did what I always do for emergency or maintenance vehicles so close to the traffic lane: I moved left, partially crossing into the (empty) oncoming lane. I was abreast of them before I could see that it was the striper. Of course, they hadn't set any cones or signs out:
This afternoon should find us on the Natchez Trace Parkway, leaving the mighty Mississippi behind.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
An emotional morning
We are at a Wal-Mart in Alexandria, Louisiana (map).
Our stopping options last night included here in Alexandria, or driving another couple hours all the way to the Mississippi. While Alexandria is not one of our more scenic stops, we're trying to take a much more leisurely pace, and, besides, we wanted to be off the road in time to catch the start of election coverage.
We did pass a nice new SuperCenter on the way in to town, right across from the Rapides Coliseum, but, as long as we were in the city, we wanted the option to walk to dinner, and there was nothing nearby. So we drove another few miles to this store, which is right across the street from the Alexandria Mall, and we had a nice dinner at Sake Sushi. On our way here we passed a polling place, and were most gratified to see that, not only was the parking lot completely full, but cars were lined up out onto the road -- never in my life have I witnessed this kind of turnout for any election.
We also wandered through the mall, and were somewhat surprised that a number of stores are still closed, including J.C. Penney, and many are in various stages of reconstruction after hurricane Gustav ripped into the mall in September, tearing sections of the roof off and flooding large areas. Alexandria is a good ways inland, and it is sobering to see this kind of storm damage this far from the coast.
Once we were settled in, we started watching and reading the election coverage. The presidential race was, of course exciting, but in an unexpected way. The '00 race had us on the edges of our seats because of how close it was; this race had us marveling at largely red states turning blue before our eyes. And, naturally, we were swept up in the history-making momentousness of it all. While we had been worried about having to stay up late into the night to see the outcome, even the very conservative New York Times was calling it for Obama by 10pm (CT).
Instead, I found myself struggling to stay awake for at least some indication of where California's Proposition 8 was headed. It was nearly midnight here before any meaningful returns started showing up, and then I was sorry I waited. By the time I turned in, the measure was heading for victory (and someone please tell me why something so significant as altering the constitution requires only a simple majority), and I went to bed drained.
This morning finds the measure still leading, but, apparently, the race is close enough that even CNN has not called it. With a 52-48 margin, though, it's hard to see it being defeated. And, while we no longer live in California ourselves, this amendment will directly impact many of our dearest friends -- our hearts and thoughts are with them right now, and we continue to hold out hope that, when all the votes are tallied, the amendment will be defeated.
So it has been an emotional morning aboard Odyssey. It has been particularly so to read the reports coming in from around the world about the presidential race -- the world has very high hopes, it would seem, and never before has the outcome of our election been watched and cheered by so many others. America is, indeed, a great country.
Our stopping options last night included here in Alexandria, or driving another couple hours all the way to the Mississippi. While Alexandria is not one of our more scenic stops, we're trying to take a much more leisurely pace, and, besides, we wanted to be off the road in time to catch the start of election coverage.
We did pass a nice new SuperCenter on the way in to town, right across from the Rapides Coliseum, but, as long as we were in the city, we wanted the option to walk to dinner, and there was nothing nearby. So we drove another few miles to this store, which is right across the street from the Alexandria Mall, and we had a nice dinner at Sake Sushi. On our way here we passed a polling place, and were most gratified to see that, not only was the parking lot completely full, but cars were lined up out onto the road -- never in my life have I witnessed this kind of turnout for any election.
We also wandered through the mall, and were somewhat surprised that a number of stores are still closed, including J.C. Penney, and many are in various stages of reconstruction after hurricane Gustav ripped into the mall in September, tearing sections of the roof off and flooding large areas. Alexandria is a good ways inland, and it is sobering to see this kind of storm damage this far from the coast.
Once we were settled in, we started watching and reading the election coverage. The presidential race was, of course exciting, but in an unexpected way. The '00 race had us on the edges of our seats because of how close it was; this race had us marveling at largely red states turning blue before our eyes. And, naturally, we were swept up in the history-making momentousness of it all. While we had been worried about having to stay up late into the night to see the outcome, even the very conservative New York Times was calling it for Obama by 10pm (CT).
Instead, I found myself struggling to stay awake for at least some indication of where California's Proposition 8 was headed. It was nearly midnight here before any meaningful returns started showing up, and then I was sorry I waited. By the time I turned in, the measure was heading for victory (and someone please tell me why something so significant as altering the constitution requires only a simple majority), and I went to bed drained.
This morning finds the measure still leading, but, apparently, the race is close enough that even CNN has not called it. With a 52-48 margin, though, it's hard to see it being defeated. And, while we no longer live in California ourselves, this amendment will directly impact many of our dearest friends -- our hearts and thoughts are with them right now, and we continue to hold out hope that, when all the votes are tallied, the amendment will be defeated.
So it has been an emotional morning aboard Odyssey. It has been particularly so to read the reports coming in from around the world about the presidential race -- the world has very high hopes, it would seem, and never before has the outcome of our election been watched and cheered by so many others. America is, indeed, a great country.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Vote!
We are at the South Toledo Bend State Park on the Toledo Bend reservoir, just north of the dam and west of Anacoco, Louisiana (map). The place is mostly empty here in the off season, and fall color is in evidence all around us.
This is actually quite a nice park, only four years old. The RV spaces all have 50-amp service and water for $16, with a handful of waterfront spaces and pull-throughs demanding a $2 premium. The park also has "cabins" which seem quite luxurious to us. There is a restaurant nearby at the Bass Haven "Resort" (quotes mine) next door, but they were only open till 5 yesterday, so we ate in.
Today is, of course, election day, and I can't remember a more exciting one in my lifetime. We will be sure to stop early tonight, preferably someplace with good digital TV coverage, to watch the returns. (For the curious, we vote by mail, as does the rest of our tiny county in Washington, and our ballots were submitted while we were still working in Baton Rouge.) In addition to the presidential race, we our following the Washington gubernatorial race, and Proposition 8 in California.
Checkout time here is 1pm, and Louise has a conference call at 11, so we'll be getting a late start today. We're heading towards Natchez, Mississippi, and the start of the Natchez Trace Parkway, where we hope to see more fall color.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Bring me my lusty winch
We've just wrapped up a lovely weekend at our friends' hunting ranch, a bit southwest of our current digs. We're not hunters ourselves, and, even though Saturday was opening day of the season, they didn't do any hunting either. Mostly we rode ATVs around the enormous property, soaked in the wood-fired hot tub, and watched movies on the big screen TV -- pretty much what we did the last couple of times we were there. Opal loves the ranch, and she even manages to find her dogly place among the hunting Spaniels. Which included, on this visit, a 10-week old female puppy that we helped them pick up on Saturday -- what a cutie.
On our previous visits, we had arrived at the ranch by car and stayed in one of the guest rooms, but last time we were there, we scoped out a spot on the property about half a mile from the house, and just a couple hundred feet from their private lake, where we could park Odyssey, and this visit we decided to do just that. This spot is just inside a gate off a paved county road, whereas their house is a quarter mile up a rough gravel road with low trees, off a dirt road, and unreachable in the bus.
We made it to the gate down the narrow county road without trouble, and it would have been a straight shot to the parking spot nose-in, albeit across a very small patch of soft sand. However, we made a critical error in judgment and decided to turn the bus around first, and back into the space. Somewhere in the middle of the three-point (well, more like five-point) turn attempt on the narrow and highly crowned road, I managed to get the rear skids landed on the ground with the drivers in the soft sand, and that was all she wrote -- we were stuck, and fully across the road to boot.
We've done this before, and so I put on my grubby clothes and set to work on unsticking us, while Louise called our contract towing service to send a wrecker, in the likely event that I could not do it myself. Fortunately, there was enough room around behind us for the very little traffic on this road to make it past us, and our friend directed the traffic that way while I continued to try to dig us out.
At some point one of the neighbors arrived with his tractor -- I think he imagined his little Cub Cadet could pull us out (not), but instead he helped move some of the soil with his front-loader. Unfortunately, he also managed to whack Odyssey with the bucket at one point, causing the only real damage of the entire incident. At some point, all three of us were digging the rear end out, after I had already jacked the drivers up and shoved the few boards I had under them.
Even with the wheels on the boards, the combination of the back end still being hung on the slope, and there being very little maneuvering room in front of the bus, meant that I was again immediately stuck after moving the bus forward a couple feet.
Given enough time, we could have continued the cycle of jacking up the drivers, placing the boards underneath, and excavating the skids until the multi-point turn was completed, but darkness was falling, and shortly thereafter the giant wrecker arrived to bail us out.
After assessing the situation and a brief discussion, he positioned the truck behind Odyssey as best he could, in the proper direction to help us complete the turn (we briefly contemplated going the other way, and undoing what we had already done).
Odyssey came to us with a towing pintle already affixed to the frame, and I had equipped this with a hefty grade-8 bolt, which serves both to attach our class-III trailer hitch if needed (we never have) or for it's intended purpose of yanking the coach out of trouble. The wrecker had a strap that would fit around this bolt, and the strap had a fairly low breaking strength of around 8,000 lbs, which would protect Odyssey from damage that the massive wrecker could easily inflict with its main cable, capable, I'm sure, of a good 2o tons.
Once the cable was affixed and the wrecker's massive ground anchors had been deployed, I climbed into the driver's seat, cranked the wheel, released the brakes, and the winching began. Louise reports that the bumper flexed quite a bit, as the angle of the tow cable meant about 30% of the force was in the up, rather than back, direction. After being winched backwards a few feet, we drove forward a few yards under our own power, with the wrecker operator hop-scotching 4x4s underneath the drivers as we went. One more backwards winch, and then I was able to drive straight out onto the road.
We kept the wrecker on hand until we were backed into our lovely parking spot, just to make sure we were not going to sink in. But, as I had originally surmised, we had no trouble at all once it was a straight shot.
This is the first time we've had to be winched out by a wrecker since we started blogging here. We once sunk up to our axles in mud in a Pennsylvania state park, almost exactly four years ago on the newly-completed Odyssey's first cross-country jaunt. That was where we decided that our next set of drive tires would be traction models. It was also the first time we needed to use our new CoachNet road service -- ironically, we blew a tire the very next day, making it two days in a row. We wisely purchased this $100/year towing coverage after literally getting stuck in a driveway on our third day of driving, a 5-hour, $300 mistake (story here, buried in a long post).
Anyway, once we got settled, it was a lovely spot -- the sort of place we normally seek out on public lands, but, instead, conveniently on our friends' property.
On our previous visits, we had arrived at the ranch by car and stayed in one of the guest rooms, but last time we were there, we scoped out a spot on the property about half a mile from the house, and just a couple hundred feet from their private lake, where we could park Odyssey, and this visit we decided to do just that. This spot is just inside a gate off a paved county road, whereas their house is a quarter mile up a rough gravel road with low trees, off a dirt road, and unreachable in the bus.
We made it to the gate down the narrow county road without trouble, and it would have been a straight shot to the parking spot nose-in, albeit across a very small patch of soft sand. However, we made a critical error in judgment and decided to turn the bus around first, and back into the space. Somewhere in the middle of the three-point (well, more like five-point) turn attempt on the narrow and highly crowned road, I managed to get the rear skids landed on the ground with the drivers in the soft sand, and that was all she wrote -- we were stuck, and fully across the road to boot.
We've done this before, and so I put on my grubby clothes and set to work on unsticking us, while Louise called our contract towing service to send a wrecker, in the likely event that I could not do it myself. Fortunately, there was enough room around behind us for the very little traffic on this road to make it past us, and our friend directed the traffic that way while I continued to try to dig us out.
At some point one of the neighbors arrived with his tractor -- I think he imagined his little Cub Cadet could pull us out (not), but instead he helped move some of the soil with his front-loader. Unfortunately, he also managed to whack Odyssey with the bucket at one point, causing the only real damage of the entire incident. At some point, all three of us were digging the rear end out, after I had already jacked the drivers up and shoved the few boards I had under them.
Even with the wheels on the boards, the combination of the back end still being hung on the slope, and there being very little maneuvering room in front of the bus, meant that I was again immediately stuck after moving the bus forward a couple feet.
Given enough time, we could have continued the cycle of jacking up the drivers, placing the boards underneath, and excavating the skids until the multi-point turn was completed, but darkness was falling, and shortly thereafter the giant wrecker arrived to bail us out.
After assessing the situation and a brief discussion, he positioned the truck behind Odyssey as best he could, in the proper direction to help us complete the turn (we briefly contemplated going the other way, and undoing what we had already done).
Odyssey came to us with a towing pintle already affixed to the frame, and I had equipped this with a hefty grade-8 bolt, which serves both to attach our class-III trailer hitch if needed (we never have) or for it's intended purpose of yanking the coach out of trouble. The wrecker had a strap that would fit around this bolt, and the strap had a fairly low breaking strength of around 8,000 lbs, which would protect Odyssey from damage that the massive wrecker could easily inflict with its main cable, capable, I'm sure, of a good 2o tons.
Once the cable was affixed and the wrecker's massive ground anchors had been deployed, I climbed into the driver's seat, cranked the wheel, released the brakes, and the winching began. Louise reports that the bumper flexed quite a bit, as the angle of the tow cable meant about 30% of the force was in the up, rather than back, direction. After being winched backwards a few feet, we drove forward a few yards under our own power, with the wrecker operator hop-scotching 4x4s underneath the drivers as we went. One more backwards winch, and then I was able to drive straight out onto the road.
We kept the wrecker on hand until we were backed into our lovely parking spot, just to make sure we were not going to sink in. But, as I had originally surmised, we had no trouble at all once it was a straight shot.
This is the first time we've had to be winched out by a wrecker since we started blogging here. We once sunk up to our axles in mud in a Pennsylvania state park, almost exactly four years ago on the newly-completed Odyssey's first cross-country jaunt. That was where we decided that our next set of drive tires would be traction models. It was also the first time we needed to use our new CoachNet road service -- ironically, we blew a tire the very next day, making it two days in a row. We wisely purchased this $100/year towing coverage after literally getting stuck in a driveway on our third day of driving, a 5-hour, $300 mistake (story here, buried in a long post).
Anyway, once we got settled, it was a lovely spot -- the sort of place we normally seek out on public lands, but, instead, conveniently on our friends' property.
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