Not Much, How About You?

I wish that I had something exciting to blog about. 

I've been puttering about the house mostly.  This week's big project was replacing a garbage disposal leaking from the bottom.  From my research, a disposal is pretty much burnt toast when that happens.  I watched some YouTube videos to see if it was a do-it-yourself and pretty much concluded that I would be calling a plumber on this one. 

Then I watched a video by this young woman named Sarah that convinced me that I could do it myself.  Honestly, she had the best video on this installation, although her language and enthusiasm might be a bit much for some.  Lots of people must agree on the video's value because she has almost 700,000 views, despite only a couple of thousand subscribers.

Anyway, with Sarah's help, it was a very quick job and easy swap out.  The broken disposal came out easily.  The new one went into place with more difficulty, but no leaks so far.  I'm not very handy, but YouTube is an amazing resource and a confidence builder. 

I also swapped out my shower pump in the Scamp, which stopped working after 19 years. 

Old Shurflow Pump

I couldn't find an exact replacement, but I found something that worked for about $40 on Amazon. 

I rarely use the shower, but I do take sponge baths with a bucket of water.  It's quite handy to pour the bucket of water over my head when done and have the pump take away the water to the gray tank.  Gravity would be preferable, but my Scamp wasn't designed that way, so it has a pump.

Yesterday, I took my usual walk out into the country during which I pass by some bees.

The first thing you might notice is how high the bee boxes are stacked. During the winter, they are stacked about four high. The beekeeper keeps adding boxes throughout the summer to give the bees room for expansion and honey production. 

We had a storm last night that rocked the bees' world. 

Dominoes

The bees in the toppled tower were understandably upset.

Other than that, we are just muddling around here in the fly-over state of Wisconsin, hoping that our tower doesn't topple.  If things don't get too bad, there will be a fall trip with the Scamp either north or west

Historic Edenton, North Carolina

When we went to hitch up the Brew Hut on the morning of our departure, we learned that the Outer Banks wasn’t quite done with us yet.  One of the Brew Hut’s tires was markedly low (20 psi).

I got the “opportunity” to try out my low tech bicycle pump to re-inflate the tire.  After about  20 sweaty minutes, I was able to get it back up to 50 psi.  In the meantime, Julia found a tire repair place in Manteo that promised to fit us in.  I have nothing but good things to say about Tread Quarters Discount Tire.  They found the screw (in the header photo) causing the problem, patched it, and got us back on the road in about an hour for under $30.   We were fortunate not to have a blowout on the rod and to be within driving distance to get the slow leak resolved.

We drove on to a nondescript RV park near Edenton.  There was a nice view of a pond from our campsite, electric to plug into on a hot day, and a serviceable shower.  The main reason for our detour to Edenton was history.  This is the site of the Edenton Tea Party, where the 51 American women defied King George’s Tea Tax in 1774.

My wife Julia loves women who stir things up so this was a must stop for us.

There she is by the famous tea pot sculpture, Next she is lurking in the shadows of 1767 Courthouse.  Finally, she poses for her rabble-rousing punishment.  I am there to take pictures and perform the final rescue.

We only spent one night in the area, but it was a worthwhile stop.    Our next destination is Medoc Mountain State Park.

Overnight at Lake Kegonsa State Park

After our trip to Point Beach State Forest, I finished up the converter.  You know how you get to the end of a project and have pieces left over? Well, that isn’t a new occurrence for me.  It turned out that the main shore power cord needed a wire clamp to hold everything in place.  It would have been better to install that before everything was wired into place.

So there was some disassembly and then some reassembly.  Later,  the converter needed side shims to close a gap and to provide more support for attaching the converter box to the interior frame of the  Brew Hut.  I finished everything on Wednesday.  On Thursday, I took the Brew Hut in for the final summer upgrade:  new tires.

When I originally purchased this Scamp trailer, the owner told me that the battery and the tires were new The old battery was dead, and the tires were bald.  However, he also admitted that he bought the cheapest replacements that he could find at the local farm supply store.   I immediately replaced the battery.  After traveling to Arizona last fall and to Texas this spring, I didn’t trust the cheap tires for another long trip.

Based upon several recommendations at the Fiberglass RV forum, I ordered three Carlisle Radials.  The existing spare tire was the original (stamped 2000), so it was time for that to be replaced also.  After the tires were balanced and installed on the Brew Hut, I was off to Lake Kegonsa State Park for a quick overnight trip.

On a Thursday night, there were plenty of campsites available.  The sites are nicely spaced and wooded.  There are about 100 campsites; however, I saw only a few that would be good for solar power. Since I was checking out my electrical system, I opted for an electric site.

After a long hike on grassy trails at the edge of the woods, Callie and I watched the Packers game on my little-used television.  Well, Callie mostly watched me watch the Packer game.

Everything electrical seems to be working, and the new tires have set my mind at ease. On Friday, we moved Justin’s things to his new dorm room and moved Justin back home for a couple of weeks of relaxation (for him, not me).

During the next couple of weeks, I’m on caregiver duty.

After Justin starts college, I’m heading southeast in the Brew Hut, hoping for a quiet hurricane season.  Julia plans to join me again closer to our destination.  If all goes well, we will enjoy some time in a new place:  the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Wisconsin: Point Beach State Forest

Back to Wisconsin

After our trip to Montana, we settled back in to our daily lives in Wisconsin.  Julia was back at work.  I had firewood to get ready for the coming winter.  The Brew Hut needed repairs.  Specifically, I replaced my power distribution center and converter.

The old system allowed me to have AC power when plugged in and DC power off the battery.  A working converter, when connected to shore power, operates the DC system and charges the battery.  I’m not sure if the converter worked when I bought the Scamp because I knew so little about RV electrical systems.

However, I eventually figured out that the converter was completely dead.
I contacted Progressive Dynamics awhile back to ask what would be an appropriate replacement for my trailer.  They recommended the PD4135, which includes a smart charger for the battery. After watching several youtube videos, I pronounced myself as ready as I ever was going to be.  I won’t say the installation process was easy (for me), but everything is where it’s supposed to be, and works the way it’s supposed to work.

Point Beach State Forest

On Thursday night, we took the Brew Hut to Point Beach State Forest, which is just north of Two Rivers, Wisconsin on Lake Michigan.  I’m not a fan of towing in the dark, but we made it without incident.   On Friday morning, we woke up to a deserted beach.  Julia and I hiked along the beach and along the inland Ice Age Trail.

What the photos do not show are the biting flies and clouds of mosquitoes.  I’m one of those people who swell up for each mosquito bite.  Then the bite itches for several days.   The flies were much more immediately painful, taking small chunks of flesh from my bare legs.  I thought I was going to go insane until I switched out my shorts to long pants. We hiked about seven miles on the first day. That was it for the rest of the weekend as far as hiking the interior trails of the state forest.  The insects won this round!

Poor Callie received the most attention with flies covering the back of her head and ears.  When we got back to the Scamp, she begged to go inside, which is very unlike Callie.

That night, we decided to treat ourselves by going into Two Rivers, where the Rogers Street Festival and Smelt Fry was going on.  I’ve lived in Wisconsin almost all of my life and have never had smelt.  In my world travels, I’ve eaten eel, assorted raw fish and meat, along with organs and tendons of questionable origin.  Smelt look a lot like minnows or fish bait. The guts appear to have been removed, but the head and tail are intact.

Being Wisconsin, we ate the smelt with deep fried cheese curds and hard lemonade.  I declined the beer choice:  Miller Light.  My first first few bites were okay.  “A little bit fishy, but not too greasy and not too crunchy.”  After eating about half of my smelt, I wasn’t hungry anymore.  It just felt too much like eating bait.

On Saturday morning, Julia went kayaking, while I finished a book in the “Last Kingdom” series by Bernard Cornwell.  Julia reported that there were no biting flies off-shore.  In the afternoon, we drove up the coast to Algoma, which had a brewery I was interested in visiting:  Ahnapee Brewing.  As we drove into town, we saw that another summer festival was going on:  Shanty Days.  The streets were packed with people.

Ahnapee Brewing is located in a two car garage on the Von Steihl Winery property. A classic rock band was playing in the back public space along the water.  We purchased two IPA’s and headed for the lawn.  Faced with this experience or the experience of being eaten by flies in the state forest, this was an easy choice.

After finishing our beers, we took a walk on Algoma’s boardwalk.

That evening, I made steaks, yellow squash from the home garden, and sauteed mushrooms.

By this time, I forgot all about the biting flies and eating fish bait.

Dog Days of Summer

Sirius is the Dog Star.  It disappears into the sun’s glow from July 3rd to August 11th. According to the Greeks and Romans, the dog days of summer produce heat, drought, thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, and bad luck.  I’ve experienced some of those things this week while making trailer repairs and completing hikes in the summer heat.

For me, it’s all about the humidity.  I was perfectly comfortable last September out west with hot, low humidity days and cool nights.  However, the high humidity and heat  in Wisconsin make me want to curl up on the basement couch and take a long nap.

Having said that, I did take care of a couple of repairs this week on the Brew Hut.  The first was rewiring the trailer plug again.  I am not getting any 12 volt power from the Nissan at the 7 wire connection. Instead, I was getting 12 volt power running from the trailer battery to the trailer plug.  That situation was causing blown fuses at the trailer battery.

Lots of other people on the internet seemed to have similar Nissan issues.  The brown relay under the hood was properly activated.  There might be a blown fuse somewhere, but the schematics in the owner’s manual are terrible.  One guy reported that he replaced the tail light fuse, and that fixed his 12 volt power problem.

But then I got to thinking. Maybe I really don’t want 12 volt power going to my trailer battery, which is a sensitive Renogy pure gel battery.  Gel batteries have a particular way to get charged, and a 12 volt line from the truck feeding constant voltage might not be the best idea.  So I just removed the 12 volt trailer wire from the connection at the trailer plug. So far, so good with no more blown fuses.  Now, I will simply charge the Brew Hut battery with either solar or a charger that I can plug in when I have AC power to the Brew Hut.

Some of you more savvy electrically-minded folks (than me) might be asking why my trailer converter isn’t charging the battery.  Ahhh, that’s because I believe the converter is dead.  Plugging into power wasn’t charging the battery or running the 12 volt appliances.  I ordered a new converter from progressive dynamics.  I haven’t decided yet whether I will need help swapping out the old dead one, but I’m not going to do anything with the new converter until it’s cooler out.

The final completed repair this week, and the one that convinced me to stop working on the Brew Hut until it’s cooler out, had to do with the water tank.  On the way back from Texas this spring, both metal straps securing the water tank snapped, allowing the water tank to “move freely about the country.”  Well, only a few inches from side to side in the water tank compartment, but that wasn’t sustainable without causing further damage.

I bought some strapping earlier this year to replace the snapped strapping under the grey tank.  That was a pretty easy job, although I’m getting to the point where crawling under the trailer isn’t my favorite activity.  The water tank is located at the rear of the Brew Hut, under the bed inside a fiberglass bench enclosure with a small access door.

There just isn’t much room to work under there.  I had all of the windows and door open, and I was soaking wet with perspiration dripping into my eyes and everywhere else.  I unscrewed the original broken strapping from the floor. The new straps needed to be screwed to the floor on both sides of the tank.  I was able to move the water tank over a few inches to barely access the back side (good thing I don’t have big muscular arms or hands).  After screwing those ends into the floor, I moved the tank a few inches in the opposite direction and attached the front side straps.  The original metal straps lasted 18 years.  I hope to never have to do that again.

Julia hoisting a Belgium style beer

Yesterday, we did what many Wisconsin folks do when it’s to hot and humid.  Julia and I went to a new brewpub:  Union Corners Brewery on Winnebago Street on the east side of Madison.  I’ve told Julia that I never want to live in Madison again, but if great brewpubs like this keep opening on the East Side, I might have to change my mind.  There are condos upstairs, and I was seriously thinking about buying one and never leaving.

The owner spent some time with us, talking about the difficulties of building the brewery and just getting things done in the People’s Republic of Madison.  In the end, although opening took much longer than was expected, Union Corners Brewery is a very comfortable space with 24 excellent beers on tap.  They currently feature 3 of their own beers, and that is going to quickly increase.  I had a Berliner Weisse beer that was perfect for a hot day:  mildly sour and low alcohol.  Julia had a Belgium Single with a malty, sweet finish.

The next Brew Hut journey won’t happen until August.  Until then, I’ll be taking daily long walks through Lodi, which end with Callie jumping into the creek.  We also like to hike at  Gibraltar Rock, which features shade and fewer mosquitoes/biting flies.  Later in the summer, we will travel with friends to Montana.  You  might not hear about that one until we get back, depending on internet connectivity.  With higher elevation, we should be experiencing cooler weather on that trip, I hope.

Babler State Park

During my last night at Caddo Lake State Park, there was a severe thunderstorm.  Not much wind but huge thunder that rattled my rib cage and sent Callie into a panic.  I let her up into my bed for awhile, but she jumped down.  Near as I can tell, she spent the night on top of the dinette table leaning into the window because the table was wet and her back was wet.  My windows don’t leak unless something presses against them during rain, and Callie apparently was leaning hard.

On a short night’s sleep, and continued rain, I decided to drive all day to from Texas across Arkansas and to Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  During the drive, I was listening to tunes via Spotify and feeling good.  Just about that the time that my mood was definitely  taking a turn for the better, a Wal-mart truck kicked up a pebble that deeply divoted my windshield with a horizontal crack from the divot. 

I was ticked, but what can you do?  About five minutes later, I came across a really bad recent two-car wreck on my side of the highway.  Things can always be worse.  Much worse.

In Cape Girardeau, I did my internet research and called around to find a campsite for the weekend.  Apparently, camping in Missouri is very popular in early May; everything was booked up.  There were some possible boondocking spots along the Mississippi River, but they were complicated by flash flooding with more expected rain on Friday night.  Some main roads were closed, and that means more minor roads to boondocking spots were suspect.

On Friday morning, I called a couple of state parks during my drive to see about openings.  Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial Park was one of the possibilities.  The woman answering the phone was super nice but they were full for the weekend.  She could try to radio the campground and see if there were any cancellations.  She didn’t call back for a long time, and by then I had crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois.  Then she called with possibly good news.  There was one electric site and one primitive site available, but they were first come, first serve.  She asked if I was feeling lucky.  I thanked her for her efforts, but  I was about an hour away, so I didn’t think I was going to risk it.  Plus, I hated the thought of backtracking.  On the other hand, Babler had great reviews online, and I didn’t have a clue where I was going to stay in my least favorite state–Illinois.

After I hung up, I decided to turn around and run for the Babler.  I turned the hour drive into a 40 minute drive.  As I got off the highway, I called to see if the sites were still available.  She said that as far as she knew, the electric one was, but I should skip the park office and drive directly to the campground and tell the host that I was there for the cancellation site.  When I arrived, the host wasn’t at the campground check-in and didn’t seem to be anywhere near the host trailer.  Breaking with campground etiquette, I knocked hard on the trailer door.  “Is anybody there?”

“No one’s here”, was the answer.  I don’t know if the hosts were saving the spot for friends or what, but they sheepishly emerged and said that the spot was mine since I was the first to arrive and that I could have it for up to four days.  I took three days, set up camp and began some serious relaxation time.

It’s been too wet to hike the trails, but Callie and I have hiked the 3.5 mile semi-paved trail at least a couple of times each day.

The park is named after a surgeon who lived from 1874 to 1930 and reportedly spent much of his time devoted to charity cases and the unfortunate.  He died of pneumonia at 55.

On Saturday morning, the sun broke through.  And the weather looks good for Sunday as well.  Monday morning, I’ll continue north.

Caddo Lake State Park

Caddo Lake State Park is about a four-hour drive northwest of Houston. The entry fee $4, and the camping fee was $15 (with electric).  Showers, dump station, and bathrooms are available.

When I left Northlake RV park north of Houston, I already was having a bad morning.  Somehow, I was showing very low readings on my voltage battery indicator, which did not predict a long future for an expensive gel battery that wasn’t that old.  Normally, I rely on solar to top off the battery, and I’ve never let the battery get below 50% until now.

I headed off to Harbor Freight and then Wal-Mart to find a battery charger that worked for gel batteries.  Then I rushed back to the rv park and charged the batteries up to 80% before leaving. Unfortunately, the batteries wouldn’t take any more charge than that.  I always used to get the charge levels to 13.0, but now I can only go to 12.8.  I think perhaps the polar vortex may have damaged my somewhat fragile gel batteries even though the charge levels stayed high throughout the cold.

Then I had another Brew Hut equipment failure.  I know I remembered to flip up my rear stabilizers, and I found them in the flipped up position when I arrived at the campsite.  However, the stabilizer jack pad on the right side was simply missing.  I flipped the stabilizer down, and there was no rod/pad to let down.  So I had to rig up a temporary solution to have support under the right rear of the Brew Hut.  It should get me home until I can order the part.

Last, to add insult to injury the band on my watch broke.  It was just one of those days.

Once we set up camp, Calle and I went for long walks to burn off energy and anxiety.

She’s sleeping, as I eat my leftovers meal of pan-fried steak burritos with rice, ny strip, jalapenos, tomato, onion, and cheese, washed down with St. Arnolds Art Car IPA (maybe more than one).

If I can avoid further equipment mishaps, I’m headed for Arkansas.

Brazos Bend State Park

We had a great time at Port Aransas.  On the day of our departure, we got up early for one more sunrise walk on the beach.

Then we were off on another adventure.  I hitched up the Brew Hut to the Nissan Frontier just like I always do.  Then I plugged in the trailer power connection, which governs the trailer’s brakes and lights.  No power.  I jiggled the connection.  Nothing.  That’s when I noticed that the wires were loose in the plug.  Actually, more than loose. Not connected at all.  Crap.  What now?  It was Sunday morning, and nothing was open.  We called an RV mobile repair service, but no one answered, and no one called back.

Finally, I went to the rv park office to see if they might have a replacement plug.  They didn’t, but a young man heard me talking about my problem and offered to rewire the plug for me.  I told him that I would I would pay him for his time.  The only problem is that he was busy with a whole lot of other things going on with his phone.  After 30 minutes, he followed me down to our site and did rewire the plug.  I watched him closely and gave him a second pair of hands when needed.  When he got to the end, he swore and told me that he messed up by not threading the wires through the plug before rewiring the connections. His phone was going off every 30 seconds, and he said that he would need to take care of something, but he would be back in no more than ten minutes to finish the job.  An hour went by.

In the end, he never came back, and we needed to vacate the site in thirty minutes because it was departure day, and the site was reserved.  I was very grateful that he showed me basically how to do the job and showed me the mistake that he had made, so I was able to get things put together myself–probably not perfect but everything worked the way it needed to.  We looked around for our helper on the way out, but he had simply vanished.  Julia called him my distracted angel.

So after the late start, we drove to Bravos Bend State Park for our last camping night together before Julia flies home, arriving during the late afternoon.  This park is a gem:  lots of hiking trails, well-spaced campsites, and abundant wildlife.  Camping in a 30 amp site was $25/night, and the separate daily entrance fee was $10. We had just enough time to go for a hike, eat dinner, and have a campfire.

We didn’t see any alligators on the first day, but Callie was on the lookout.

On the next morning, we hiked the Elm Lake loop and the 40 Acre Lake loop.  We saw at least ten alligators.  Some were far away, and some were very close up.  A big adult swung close by us and snorted loudly, sending shivers down our spines.  Generally, the trails were wide, which was a good thing.

At 40 Acre Lake, we climbed the observation tower and saw a huge adult streaming across the lake.  Then an even bigger adult. swam from the opposite side directly at the first one.  The two gators were well over ten feet long.  Just before they encountered one another, the first one stopped and turned around, while the second gave chase. There was no fight, but the second one was definitely staking out territory.  The photo below was taken from the top of the tower and shows the first alligator (center).  The second photo shows the two alligators nearly meeting.

Julia flies home Tuesday, and I start north on Wednesday without any specific itinerary.  I’ll update as I can.

Spring Breakout

Spring has finally started to arrive in south-central Wisconsin.  It’s maple sap/syrup weather when nights dip below freezing, and the days warm up into the 40’s and 50’s. I’ll be on the look-out for good deals on syrup at the smaller farmers’ markets later this summer, as we are all out after having stocked up a couple of years ago at $12/quart.


There’s been some good ice fishing during the last week or so, but that season has run its course with the ice breaking up. And the birds have started to migrate in large numbers. The sandhill cranes began arriving several weeks ago–even with temperatures falling below zero.  Now, the swans have arrived.  Today, on my walk with Callie, the snow geese were out–dozens of the black-tipped winged birds soaring above the Wisconsin River.

Justin is home for spring break.  He seems generally in good spirits and has re-committed to college.  Justin has spent much of this week catching up after missing a week of school while fighting depression.  He will be back to school next Sunday.

Allie has returned from Mexico with the end of her spring break.  People worry about the dangers of Mexico, but the worst thing that happened to her was a bad sunburn.  There are all kinds of dangers, but we tend to underestimate those dangers right at home and overestimate the ones in other countries.

The snow and ice around the Brew Hut is nearly gone.  I’ve been making some minor repairs and improvements. The powered tv antenna was stuck in the on position, draining the battery, so I swapped out that failed part.  A broken drawer underwent a redesign, and turned into a deep shelf.  The black tank got a new cap. A broken strap holding up the gray tank outlet was replaced.  A propane tank leaky hose was swapped out for one that works.  I upgraded my outdoor cooking stove from a one- burner butane stovetop to a Classic Coleman two-burner propane stovetop.  A burner valve died on the Scamp cooktop–discontinued model without parts.  I’ll operate with one burner inside for awhile until I figure out a solution.

I’m feeling more optimistic about my planned trip south in April with the Brew Hut.  Since I’m a pessimist and don’t want to jinx it, I’ll put the odds at 50/50.  Callie says I’m a Debbie Downer.