Clever Stuff

There is a skylight over the RV's shower. Nothing special, but I suppose that any skylight serves to add some "class" to a structure's appearance. But that's not why there is a skylight in the shower.

It seems that there is a lot of clever thought that goes into the design of an RV. Sure, some of it goes to save a few bucks, but much of it is about making the most of the available space. The space over the driver's cab is a bunk bed. The sofa isn't just a sofa, it's a hide-a-bed. Even the dining table can be converted into a bed. Many of us use the space below our bed at home to store things, but an RV makes that official. The space below the floor of the living area holds some of the equipment that doesn't need to be in the living area of course; like the water heater and the holding tanks. The rest of that space is referred to as the basement, and just like in any other home, it's where you store stuff. There's really a surprising amount of storage down there. Inside, there is an overhead wall cabinet just about anywhere you could possibly put one - not much space on the walls for hanging those photos of the kids and grandkids. (I suppose one would need to rethink how you hang a frame in a home that travels down the road.)

At first glance, it would appear that the RV's shower is open to the hallway. There is no door to separate the living space from the shower area. Haven't these RV designers ever heard of modesty? But there is something interesting about the tiny room where the lavatory and toilet are. Although the room is very small, its door is as big as you would see in a handicapped restroom. I wondered why. The first time I allowed the door to open wide, it made quite a clunk as it hit the wall on the other side of the hall. At first, I thought I had let it hit so hard that I broke something. Did I mention that the lavatory is right across from the shower? When you open the lavatory door just a bit beyond ninety degrees, a magnetic latch grabs it and holds it against the opposite wall. The door now serves as the barrier between the shower and the living space. Otherwise, you would have needed another pocket door and that would have wasted three or four inches of precious space. They even used a piano hinge on the lavatory door instead of the usual type hinges. This way, no matter what position the door is in - open, closed, or in between - you can't see through the crack between the door and the door's frame; thus ensuring privacy.

The popup we rented a while back had some pretty unique engineering in it. When it is traveling, it's only about three or four feet tall. So, the door that covers the entry in only three or so feet tall. How do you make a three foot door become six plus feet tall? The answer is that you don't. The travel mode door is latched fully open when the unit is popped up for use. Another door is velcroed into the door opening. That door is removed and suspended from the roof while traveling. The popup's kitchen cabinet is taller than the trailer is when traveling. So, it is actually sawed in half at about two and a half feet high. With hinges and flexible plumbing hoses, you fold the top half of the cabinet down into the floor in front of the cabinets bottom half. Pretty clever.

Most new RVs make use of slides. A slide, basically, is a moveable wall. The most common use is to provide additional space in the main living area; the wall that the dining table and sofa are set against slides out two or more feet when the unit is set up for camping. This provides a much bigger feel to the living area. When traveling, the slide is retracted into the unit. When in traveling mode, you can barely get between the couch and the kitchen counter. Some units will also have a slide in the bedroom. The more expensive units may even have two slides in the living area on opposite walls. This can make for quite a large living space in a vehicle that has to squeeze down to less than a 102 inch width while traveling.

Back to that skylight in the shower. The shower has to be built up on a platform that is several inches above the floor. This allows access below the shower should there ever be any problems with the plumbing. But since the shower is already in a part of the RV where the ceiling is a bit low, even only slightly above average height men would have to duck while in the shower. Skylight to the rescue. That raises the ceiling above the shower about five inches while also giving you something that is attractive. Win - win. Pretty clever..........Hardware

Down in the Boondocks

It didn't take long, only a day or two, to know - I just wouldn't be cut out for this. No, I don't mean that I would never trade my house for a 300 square foot RV. I mean that I would not be a boondocking enthusiast.

Boondocking is the term used in the RV world to describe camping without any hookups - no sewer connection, no fresh water connection, and no electrical connection.

Nearly all RVs have provisions to allow for some level of boondocking. There is a holding tank to store fresh water, batteries and propane cylinders to store energy, and holding tanks for buffering grey water and black water until you can dispose of it properly. Many units have generators and some even have solar panels for generating additional energy. But that doesn't make it easy. It takes a lot of conservation; a lot of discipline; to be successful.

For some, the motivation seems to be just the challenge itself; it's a game for them to see how long they can last. For others, there is a financial motivation. While the fees for camping in most national and state parks are very reasonable, I'm told there is a lot of Federal land where you can boondock for free. As well, I have read that most Walmart stores will allow you to boondock in their parking lot overnight for free. Apparently, a lot of people take advantage of this when travel between campgrounds requires an overnight stay.

So, how do you pull it off? You have to conserve wherever you can. You run the water as little as possible when you brush your teeth. When you are running water and just waiting for it to get hot, you capture the water instead of just letting it go down the drain. You use that water later to maybe rinse soap off the dishes or rinse shampoo out of your hair. If you have captured some grey water and you are confident that it is safe to do so, you pour the water out on the ground away from the campsite instead of putting it into the holding tank.

For electricity, you will need to run the lights as little as possible. Forget the TV, the microwave, and for sure, the air conditioner. Even if you have a generator, you'll have to be conservative since it is pulling fuel from the same gas tank that is going to get you back home or to your next campground. And those solar panels won't be helpful if trees are blocking their view of the sun.

It can help to plan your travel with boondocking in mind. Spend the summer months far enough north to get along without air conditioning. Alternatively, you might spend the summer at a high altitude. We spent a few days in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. At 3600 feet above sea level, the temperatures were ten degrees or so cooler than the places not in the mountains where we camped. Similarly, spend the winter somewhere south so that you don't need much in the way of heating.

I've read blogs where people say they are able to boondock for as long as two weeks. Good for them, but I just don't see how I could do it.

There are in betweens; partial hookups. As I write this, we are at the Piney Campground at Land Between the Lakes. The campground is quite large, nearly 400 sites total, but only about fifty have full hookups. I am thankful that we have one of them. At various campgrounds, you will find sites with fresh water and electricity, but no sewer. You will also find sites with electricity only. Of course, you get what you pay for. The fewer the hookups, the cheaper the camping fee. In anything other than moderate weather, I don't see how you get along without at least electricity to run the heater or air conditioner. For short stays, you may be able to get by without water and sewer hookups, saving a few bucks. By the way, a campground that has any sort of hookups, will have a dump station. If you've camped without a sewer hookup, you can empty your tanks at the dump station as you leave the campground.

But even short stays require conservation. Our previous stay was at an Army Corps of Engineers campground on Old Hickory Lake outside of Nashville. All sites had electricity and water, but no sewer. There were public restrooms and showers that we used for everything except one middle-of-the-night bathroom break. We tried as best we could to limit what went into the holding tanks with brushing teeth, cooking, and washing dishes. If we did not finish a glass of tea or cup of coffee, we captured the leftovers in a jug rather than pouring it down the drain. But in spite of our efforts, we still found ourselves disconnecting the RV on the third day and driving it over to the dump station.

Of course, the bigger the RV, the bigger the holding tanks. Our rental is probably in the middle in that regard.

You can purchase a portable holding tank in sizes ranging from maybe fifteen to fifty gallons. Some people use these to empty their holding tanks rather than disconnecting and moving the entire RV. They typically are roughly the size and shape of a child's wagon with four wheels and a handle. After you transfer the contents of your RV's holding tanks into the portable tank, you can actually pull the "wagon" behind your car to the dump station. Just keep it under five miles per hour and watch out for those speed bumps. But this is quite doable in a typical RV campground.

I suppose with time and experience, I'll get better at it. A larger RV will help. But, me going two weeks? I just don't see it.........Hardware

Fun Times in Nashville

We had a a great time this weekend now on the road for 2 weeks. We spent the weekend with family. We went to the first ball game of the season at Father Ryan High School. The evening started with a very tasty cookout on the grounds of the school. Then we watched the band march into the stadium. Our amazing nephew Ransom is in the marching band. He plays the baritone sax. He has been playing the alto sax but changed this year. His band is very good and has competed in many band competitions.

Ransom playing his baritone sax!

Anyway, the half time show was so awesome. He and his friends did a great job. Conlon who plays the baritone did a one handed cart wheel during the half time show. Where did he put that baritone?  Mac another friend plays clarinet. These guys have been friends since early in elementary school at Holy Rosary. The game was fun even though they lost to Overton. 

Halftime show

Nephew Will

Speaking of Holy Rosary our other equally amazing nephew Will attends there and is BMOC. He is in his last year. How time flies. Will plays drums and guitar at Holy Rosary. He and Ransom also have for years performed in the school plays. We look forward to returning later in the school year to see them both in a play. For years I have been coming to Nashville without Dennis to enjoy the many plays and concerts our nephews have been in. It is so much fun to enjoy this time with Dennis here in Nashville. At the game we sat with many of my brother Howard and sister-in-law Lisa's friends; the Griesmers & Pillons. Their friends always make us feel welcome.

On Saturday we had tickets for the DUCK boat tour. But, it had mechanical problems and the tour was canceled. Quack! Quack! 

Waiting for DUCK boat that never came!

We rode around town and saw the city. We had a great tour guide Lisa our sister-in-law who has lived here in Nashville most of her life. We ate lunch at local brewery. The food was great and the waiter was very entertaining. We wanted sweet tea. He said we only have non sweet! With a bit of humor he explained, "We brew beer not tea." So we had non sweet tea! Dennis had water. He was on strike for non sweet tea! We laughed but still enjoyed our great food. Later that evening we went to the RV and had a cookout. We served salmon burgers and brownies. Will & Ran gave 2 thumbs up to the burgers. We sat out under our awning with our camp light and citronella candles. Those pesky mosquitos have been bad with all the rain.  Will & Dennis played the guitar and we sang old songs. 

It was fun. 

The weather was stormy again on Saturday but we made the best of the weather and worked around it and all in all it turned out to be a GREAT DAY...... Our experiment is going well. We have now entertained at our RV and have realized it can be as fun as entertaining at "home.".........Software

Internet to Go!

You may be wondering how we are getting internet access while on the road. It's not amazing of course, the technology has been around for some time. If you don't own a laptop, however, you may be less familiar with the internet-away-from-home options. There are a number of internet on the go options available, and we are taking advantage of several, but let's start by talking about wi-fi.

Any relatively new laptop will include wi-fi as will many smart phones. Other devices that use networking but would be awkward to have to to use with a cable will have wi-fi as well; for expample, the Apple iPod Touch. Wi-fi is the common term for wireless ethernet networking technology. In your home, you can install a wireless base station which is connected with an ethernet cable to your DSL or cable internet system. Then you can use your laptop around the home without wires; the laptop communciates wirelessly through the base station. (You can also put a wireless network card in you desktop computer. We did this at home with a machine that was located in a place where it wasn't possible to run a cable.)

You have no doubt heard the term "Internet Cafe." This refers to a business, often a coffee house of some sort, which has intalled a wi-fi base station and make it available for their customers. These businesses seemed to be among the first to recognize that providing internet access could increase sales. Now many fast food and fairly upscale restaurants offer wi-fi, as well as hotels, automobile service waiting rooms, and much more including - yes - RV parks. Now, businesses are offering wi-fi because they just about have to; it is just part of doing business in the 21st century.

However, campgrounds in state and national parks generally do not offer wi-fi. Our first stop on this trip was at Fall Creek Falls, a Tennessee state park. This is remote enough that even cell phone service was flaky at our camp site. If you stepped outside the RV, it worked poorly. Inside the RV was hopeless, as were the non campsite places; the bike trails, the falls observation areas, and so on; but that is probably a good thing. Fall Creek Falls does, however, have an inn. The inn provides wi-fi service, but only the in the lobby, not the guest rooms. But that was good enough for us. It was about a two mile bike ride from our campsite. We loaded the laptop into our bike's saddle bag and made the trek to the inn, posted to the blog, and headed back to the campsite.

Traveling from one campground to another will often consume several hours of your time. It would be nice to be able to use the internet as you drive down the road. Of course, I mean the passenger, not the driver. The technology that will do this is commonly known as wireless broadband. The technology that provides digital voice service for your cell phone can also provide data service for your computer. The hardware required for this is rarely provided in a laptop computer. You will need to purchase a seperate device for this which usually (in 2010 anyway) connects to one of your USB ports. This modem device will probably cost somewhere between 75 and 120 dollars. You can get a full time service, but the monthly fee is pretty high for occasional use. I opted instead for a prepaid, no contract plan. Prior to our trip to Illinois in late June, I purchased a service through an internet merchant where I had purchased before with good results. Unfortunately, I did not research before I bought. Although the service is on the Sprint network (no problem there) the prepaid service I purchased was through a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) which contracts with Sprint for the physical network. The initial setup was painful and customer service was poor. Once setup, it worked quite well, at least for our first trip. When we took off for our next trip, it did not work at all. I called customer service and found it would be out for a week. A week later, I was told two more weeks. So, I looked elsewhere.

I found that Virgin Mobile is also an MVNO using the Sprint network. You can purchase a modem and prepaid cards at a variety of locations. We picked ours up at Walmart while enroute between campgrounds. I did have a couple of glitches with the setup, but by comparison to the previous MVNO, Virgin Mobile was a breath of fresh air. This first problem was that I had hoped set up the service while driving down the road. The setup procedure did not work as expected, I could not install their software. I called customer service but their first question was "What zip code are you in?" Well, I didn't know, so we were not able to complete the install. Once we arrived at our next site, I tried again. We still had trouble with the software, but customer service was very helpful. The problem turned out to be that I had to remove the software from the previous MVNO. Once that was done, the Virgin Mobile installation worked as expected.

For the first few days, the service was rather disappointing. When using a web browser, it would seem to hang frequently when loading pages. Sometimes the delay would be just a few seconds, sometimes fifteen to twenty seconds, and occasionaly so long that you felt the need to restart the broadband software. It did not seem to matter whether we were in a remote RV park, driving down I-40, or in the heart of Nashville, the performance was about the same. Today, suddenly, it is working quite well.

I don't know that I can explain what is going on, but perhaps it is a combination of service area and the weather. Since I started using the Virgin Mobile service, we have either been in a fringe coverage area, or in rain, often very heavy rain, or both. Today is the first day that we have had sunshine while we are in a fixed location and in what should be a good coverage area. Most types of radio transmissions are affected to one degree or another by rain, so perhaps that has been the cause of the poor performance. I'll keep testing and give you an update. By the way, this is what is refered to as a 3G broadband service.

There are other options out there. Clear Communications has a new service known as WiMax. It works using equipment deployed on cell phone towers, and is several times faster than 3G. The cost is about the same. Unfortunately, it is still in the rollout phase and is only available in a limited number of cities at this time; the current coverage wouldn't meet the needs of a serious business traveler, much less an RVer. However, coverage is increasing. The speed is fast enough that it may be the only service you need. That is, if you don't need internet service in your home when you are not at home, then if you have the Clear service, you could cancel your cable or DSL service. Clear works in my home town and in the cities where I visit family. I have it and it works well as long as you are in their coverage area. Clear is being resold by Sprint. You can get a dual mode modem that uses the WiMax service when you are in a coverage area and automatically uses 3G whenever you are out of WiMax range. Not surprisingly, the dual service is quite expensive.

Then there are satellite based systems. The equipment is very expensive, that is several thousands of dollars. It is also very large. I saw a HughesNet setup at an RV on the first day we were at our current campground. The dish was somewhere between two and three feet in diameter and was set up on a heavy duty tripod like you would see on a professional TV camera. The advantage of this system is that it will work in even the most remote areas, so long as you have a clear view of the southern sky. Of course, the most desireable RV sites are often the ones surrounded by trees which would interfere with satellite reception. Obviously, it does not work while traveling. Since I have not used it, I can't speak about the speed, quality of service, or effort needed to setup and aim the dish.

If you are desperate, some RV parks have POTS lines (Plain Ol' Telephone Service) available along side the power and water hookups. This would allow you to use a dial up analog modem at less than 56K speeds.

We will be at Land Between the Lakes soon for a seven night stay. I expect cell phone service to be similar to Fall Creek Falls, but without the backup of wi-fi in a nearby hotel. I'll let you know about our internet connectivity there, but it may be after the fact.........Hardware

Day 12- Sun & Floods

The sun came out yesterday in more ways than one. First we are so excited that our niece Amber gave birth to a son. His name is Braxton Lee Bagwell 7 lbs. 6oz. & 19” long. Amber & James are very excited about their bundle of joy. Our family has been anxiously waiting for the birth of their son. My brother Bill and his wife Carol are the proud grandparents of this little bundle of joy. Being a grandparent is the most amazing experience.  

Grandparents Bill & Carol say,  "Cutest Baby Ever"

Dennis & I love being grandparents to our adorable granddaughters Ava & Peyton and we are excited that Braxton will be joined by a new 2^nd cousin which is a boy in about 3 weeks. Bill, Carol, Dennis & I will be having the time of our lives playing and watching our grandchildren grow.

Secondly, we are so glad the sun came out because we have experienced a lot of rain on our trip. Most days the rain was welcomed. However, here in Mt Juliet, TN we have experienced 9 inches of rain in one night fall. On our first day here we arrived in heavy rain. We managed to get setup then just chilled out in our RV watching the rain. During the late hours of the night the thunder, lightening and heavy rain came. We didn't get much sleep. The next morning we looked out and the area around us had flooded. The camp area we are at is on Old Hickory Lake. We are blessed that the camp site we chose was high enough to miss the flooding. We now have lake front property! The water came within 20 feet of our RV. It is just another experience in our RV. It's a real life experience and it was not that bad. The sound of the rain pounding on the roof did remind me of a tin roof like my grand parents had.

The "now lake front property"

The RV in one piece after the torrential flooding

Yesterday was nice and sunny. We ventured out to see “The Hermitage”. We spent four hours touring the grounds and reading and listening to the life and times of the 7^th President of the US, Andrew Jackson. Dennis & I enjoyed the day learning about the life and times of the people during Jackson's life time. Andrew Jackson was known for “Jacksonian Democracy”. Truthfully from my schooling years that was all I remembered about him. I discovered much more about his life yesterday. The one thing I found so sad about is life was how he felt about slavery and what he did to the Cherokee Indians. I am grateful society has come so far to have abolished slavery and give women rights. What a different nation we now live in.

The Hermitage

The tour guides dressed in the era of 1820's

We are enjoying each adventure. The camp ground we are in is a state park area. We only have water & electric hookups, no sewer. So in order to conserve our grey water tank we are taking baths at the bath house. All of the bath houses we have used thus far have been clean and well maintained. In some respects it seems like we are in a camping situation. Most people would say living in a RV is not camping. The similarity to camping is the conservation of natural resources and the way you live outside of the RV. When we setup at our site we extend the awing, have a picnic table, chairs ,and a small grill. Then if weather permitting we can eat our meals outside. The outside experience is much part is much like camping. One thing is for sure our “front yard” is never the same. As we travel from location to location we have had some amazing landscapes to enjoy......Software

Day 8-" On the Hunt"

Early this morning we rented a car. A driver came to pick us up at our RV site. His name was Chuck. He was a lively retired gentleman who had been a life long firefighter in Asheville, NC. He and his wife live here from May to October and are snow birds the rest of the time in Florida. Dennis & I have met many wonderful people along our journey.

Since we only had the car for one day we decided to see the Smokey Mountains. We had a brochure about the “Elk” so off we went in search of those large creatures. I drove because Dennis is a better picture taker with his Nikon D3000. We drove through very narrow passes and winding dirt roads up very high mountain in search of the Elk. At one point on the narrow road we encountered coming toward us 3 trucks with horse trailers. I had to back up and move over to the left so they could swing past us and not go off the cliff. It was a bit scary but they passed and we were on our way. Then later we came across this really cool one way bridge. Along the way on the hunt for the Elk we stopped at a historical home ,“The Palmer House.” It had relics from the late 1800's and many pictures from the early 1900's. It was fascinating to see how people lived and worked during that time in history.

It was exciting when we found the Elk. First we saw just one grazing in the field, but on the way out we then saw 2 in the midst of the trees. They are really big and the antlers are huge. We were so close to them. We have seen Elk in zoo's, and we saw some in Oregon a few years ago but never this close up. What a day! What a life!

We ended our day eating at a fabulous restaurant in Maggie Valley. I had this amazing fresh local Rainbow Trout. Finally some fresh trout. Our son Daniel loves to trout fish and is an accomplished “fly fisherman”. The only problem is he is a “catch and release fisherman” which means he never brings any home for Mom. I grew up with a father who loved to fish. His goal was to see how many he could catch and bring home. From an early age I learned how to gut and scale fish. Maybe its time for Dennis and I to catch some trout ourselves. We still have plenty of time left in our experiment phase. We will see what the future brings....Software  

Day 6 of RV1.0- Chore Day!

Well, every day can't be about fun times. Today was laundry and cleaning day. Dennis attached the bike trailer to my bike then I loaded 4 loads of laundry into a canvas bag with my laundry supplies and rode over to the laundry house here on the property of Creekwood Farms. I had all the washers to myself. My sister-in-law Lisa would love this laundry room, she loves to do laundry. I'm not fond of laundry. Anyway, I loaded them up put my $2.00 in each and in 40 minutes I returned to place the loads in the dryers. In the meantime I returned to the RV dusted, vacuumed and straightened our things. Just like home except in a lot less time. Only one bathroom to clean instead of 3&1/2. Only one level to vacuum not three. I'm liking this life. Dennis may have a hard time getting me to return home. I finished the laundry in no time and neatly placed it in our cabinets in the bedroom of the RV. We brought enough clothes for 10 days but since we were here and this is such a nice RV park I decided to go ahead and do the laundry. The cost was $12.00. For the experiment, the laundromat experience gets a “10. “ As you see in the picture they even have it decorated nicely.

Now this is a laundry room.

Don't you love the decor! Very entertaining.....

We have had a “real life experience just like home.” Of course it would be the one time Dennis volunteers to empty the black & gray water tanks. I heard the yell “oh crap” no pun intended; we will spare you the details. Out the door I went. Between the two of us we managed to save ourselves from a huge mess. Anyway, we were able to temporarily fix the problem. We will stop on the way to our next destination and purchase a new hose. The real problem we think is that we stretched this hose to far. We are finding we need a longer one for the parks we have chosen to stay in. Interestingly we have noticed that most people have this cool trough they put their hose in that directs the hose at a downward tilt to the sewer connection on the ground. Some appear homemade and others look manufactured. Something new to consider for the future!

We sit by the water with our lap tops and read or surf the net.
No not all rocks. Can you believe all the cute ducks!

We are still loving the quietness of this life. Still no TV, YAH!! We do have internet. Dennis has worked out all our technical difficulties. I have been able to look up recipes and do some online reading. It is so enjoyable to look out the window while I am reading and see all the ducks and hear the babbling brook. Dennis & I aren't sure if the “river” is a “creek or a brook”. It is shallow at times but often it gets full and the water funs very fast over the rocks. What do you think as you study the picture. Brook or Creek?....Software