Day 2 -- Still in the South, but moving' west

The morning started out foggy at Beaver Lake Campground (never did see the lake, though ;-) ).  After morning coffee and a brief walk-around we departed around 9:45 AM (8:45 AM Central Time).

Satellite view of Beaver Lake Campground (what looks all brown was really very green, we were camped just to the left of the Marathon Gas notation above)

Foggy morning at Beaver Lake Campground

Hard to believe this place would charge $40.00 a night as the regular rate, but we got it at the Passport America rate of $20.00, plus tax, so it was worth it for a quick overnight.

Looks like they need to move the sign or trim the bushes

Overnighters -- Our trailer is the second from the right

We overheard the people in the 5th wheel trailer just to the left of ours in the picture above say they are full-timers; meaning they travel and live in their RV all the time.  BTW, you should be able to click on any of the pictures in the blog and get a bigger version.

Jeri's great idea:
On a side note--Storage space is at a premium on a small 23' trailer like ours, but Jeri had this really good idea for organizing things.  She bought this faux canvas shoe holder at Target for $15.00 and hung it on the trailer's bathroom door.  We put all kinds of things in it, from the can opener to flashlights to, you guessed it, shoes.  It works great!!  Way to go, Hon!!

Jeri's great idea

Our well-stocked reefer -- no going hungry or thirsty here.

On with the show:

Lunch break at a rest area

Bill driving; Mobile bay in the background

Welcome to Mississippi!!
(Don't tell Jeri, but I took this picture while she was trying to nap--didn't want to wake her up.  LOL)

Coming into Mobile, AL

The U.S.S. Alabama battleship in Mobile Bay

Here comes the tunnel!

Into the tunnel we go -- damn this is steep (down)!!!

Tunnel shot

I have to admit going down into the tunnel made me kind of uneasy.  Why?  The speed limit was 40 MPH, so I was doing 40 MPH, but just about everyone else was doing 70 MPH or more I think, including semi-trucks!!!  It was really steep going down and coming back up, so I think at one point I was down to 35 MPH--it's a wonder we didn't get creamed in the rear!  But hey, we made it.  :-)

Other than that (and it wasn't that bad, really) we had an uneventful pull (knock on wood for our favorite kind) over to Biloxi where Jeri booked us a camp site at Boomtown Casino's brand new RV park.  I think she said it cost $40.00 a night, but I can't verify that because she's already in the casino hitting the slots.  LOL

Total miles today:  277 miles
Total travel time:    5.8 hours
Avg MPH:              48 mph (we stopped a lot between rest areas and gas stations)

Bill setting up at Boomtown Casino RV Park

Our campsite at Boomtown RV Park in Biloxi

View of Boomtown Casino across the street (where the flag is)

The blue dot is us in the Boomtown Casino RV Park.  As you can see, the satellite view was taken when it was just a parking lot.  Much nicer now.

Luckily, even though the casino is an easy walk across the street, they actually have a shuttle--you call them and they come pick you up.  Jeri is going to be there a little while, then come back here for a while.  I'll probably go back over with her for a while later this evening.  We'll let Sugar Belle guard the trailer.  She is doing well--quite the little traveller!!

Well, Jeri is back--no big winnings.  I think she broke even.  We are going over in a bit and hit the buffet or one of their restaurants for dinner and let Jeri gamble a bit more.  I'll post an update later if anything exciting happens. :-)

Day 1 -- Early start a half day early

We managed, in spite of the thunderstorm at home this morning, to finish up loading the trailer, connecting to the Jeep and finishing our preps by around 1:30 PM this afternoon.  We even had time to quickly shower off the humidity/heat caused perspiration from all the effort.

Vicki, Jimmy, Jack and Max came over and we had the good-bye hugs and loving.  We're sure going to miss them!!  Vicki even offered to make her fantastic gumbo today if we waited until tomorrow morning to leave. What a sweetheart!!!  I was tempted--I love, love, love her Gumbo!!

Saying good-bye

We pulled out from home around 2:00 PM, drove across Florida on route 20 to Gainesville where we got on I-75 north to I-10 west.  Filled up with gas a couple of times and we stopped for the night at exit 174, Beaver Lake RV Campground, a Passport America  place (so we got it for half off, for a total of $20.25 for the night with 30 Amp electricity so we could run the A/C.  We stopped at 7:30 PM after right around 275 miles, so we averaged right at 50 mph overall.  

I pull the trailer around 60 mph, give or take a few either way, since the tires on the trailer  are speed rated at 65 mph.  The computer on the GC was indicating we were getting around 9 miles per gallon.  Ugh!!! (normal, though) The Jeep (Hemi engine) did a good job pulling the trailer.  The Jeep and the trailer weigh pretty close to the same when the trailer is loaded, but the Jeep seems to handle it well.  Outside temperatures were mostly hitting 92-94 degrees as we drove west.

Our campsite at Beaver Lake RV Campground. (Haven't seen any lake though. LOL)

This is really not a campground one would want to spend a lot of time at and I think most of the people here are just spending the night and hitting the road again tomorrow.  Jeri talked to one of the ladies camped next door--they are on their way home after a trip out to California.

For tonight I did not disconnect the trailer from the Jeep, but I did put the jack down to take some weight off the Jeep's springs and I ran the stabilizer jacks down so we don't have a lot of wobble as we move around inside the trailer.  I use an 18v cordless drill to raise and lower the stabilizers--makes it fast and easy.

Jeri just fixed us a dinner of chicken and baked beans.  Went with my Captain Fisher cocktail (Captain Morgan, Cointreau and Coke) quite nicely!! :-)

Watching some football on the TV at the moment.  Tomorrow we'll cruise to Biloxi.  We should get there fairly early, so Jeri can get some gambling in at the casinos.  LOL

All-in-all, today's drive went very well.  Even our Sugar Belle (our guard dog ;-) did well.  Whined a bit now and then as usual, but mostly slept in her bed on the back seat.

Okay, time to wrap this up since it's now 9:10 PM.  Need to walk Sugar once more before we hit the hay.

Stay tuned!

Prep Part VII -- Final Preparations

Thankfully, Tropical Storm Erika dissipated and appears to no longer be a threat or impediment to our leaving on time tomorrow--although we may leave early this afternoon instead of waiting for tomorrow morning.  Not sure about this yet.

We have to move a lot of last minute items into the trailer and button up the house.  We have never left a home unattended for a month before, so have some serious trepidation about doing so; however, we have the following to ease this for us.

1. Our daughter will come over at least once a week to check on things.  
2. We have a very trusted pet sitter and house watcher (Chris Vinkski) who will be coming a couple of times a week to feed our bird and check things.  He is extremely reliable.
3. We have a web cam in the house to monitor things 7x24 and it will send me instant alert notifications for loud noises or movement in the house.  It works!
4. I have a few interior lights on timers to at least sort of give the appearance someone is home.
5. And of course, I have a whole list of items to do, like unplugging appliances, etc.  Already put a hold on US Mail and Vicki and Chris will pick up any newspapers thrown onto the driveway.
6. We also activated the big 150 watt security light by our house a few months ago and it lights up the front like daytime.

Well, as I type this it is storming like crazy outside, so we will move forward finalizing things inside and getting ready to move things into the trailer and hook the trailer up to the Grand Cherokee when the rain stops.

Prep Part VI -- Erika??

It seems that now, thanks to this fickle tropical storm Erika that does not know what it wants to do or where it wants to go, we not only need to finish up getting ready for our Western trip and IL wedding, but now we have to start preparing for this storm that may or may not come our way.

Also, we have to make a decision at some point soon about whether we still leave on Monday or wait another day or two.  I really don't want to leave if the storm is going to hit here and perhaps cause damage to our home that I would need to deal with.  On the other hand, it would be nice to get the trailer out of the storm's path if there is going to be a lot of wind.  Our home was built to the latest 2001 Florida hurricane codes and is like a bunker, so I don't worry quite so much about it.

I need to get back to work for now.  I'll update more later.

Prep Part V -- Water Pump Fixed

Well, to make a long story short, the leaking water pump in the trailer has been replaced, by me and is working fine, with no leaks.  

Now, if you want the long story:
Neither Camping World or Coleman/Keystone were of a whole lot of help.  Camping World advised me that due to Coleman's requirements I would have to drag the trailer up to their St. Augustine location where they could verify that the pump was in fact leaking (duhhhh), then they would contact Coleman for repair permission.  The receipt of this permission might take one to two business days, then Coleman would have to ship the replacement pump to Camping World so they could replace it.  What a friggin' runaround!!!  The service guy at CW said they had the pump in stock--they didn't because I called CW's parts department and they could only come close with a different brand (Shurflo).  

I called Coleman and a nice young lady there told me if I was willing to pay for the replacement pump upfront and replace it myself or pay CW to replace it they would most likely reimburse me at some point.

So, I drove the 50+ miles roundtrip to CW in St. Augustine and bought the pump, came home and installed it in less than 10 minutes.  It's not rocket science--there are four screws that hold it down, an inlet hose and and outlet hose and two DC power wires to splice together.

I called Coleman back and another nice lady told me to scan and email them a picture of the receipt and a couple of pictures of the pump.  I completed that a few minutes ago and now am hoping that at some point I get a check for $101.31.  She also advised me to hang on to the leaking pump in case they want me to send it to them.  I said I'd be happy to hang on to it until the matter was closed and would be happy to return it to them at their expense.

I know this stuff happens, even to a brand new pump that had less than 10 minutes of run time since we bought the trailer brand new in May of this year, but I think that both CW and Coleman could have demonstrated just a bit more concern and sense of urgency to help me get it resolved.  CW showed none whatsoever (other than a minute of lip service).

Prep Part IV -- Uh Oh!!

Well heck!  Late this afternoon while testing the trailer's water heater and water pump (pressurizes the self-contained water system when not hooked to city water) I noticed a wet spot on the floor by the couch.  The water pump and water heater live beneath the couch area.  Further exploration revealed water leaking out of the bottom of the pump where the green (pump) and black (motor) join together when the water is running and the pump kicks on.  I tried tightening all the fittings and the screws holding the pump together, but to no avail.  Still leaks like a sieve!

This is not a good thing!  This is especially not a good thing when we want to leave on our trip Monday.  It's under warranty, but I'm not sure how fast Camping World will move on it.  I will call in the morning to see if they will just exchange the pump for me and let me put it in (the simplest for everyone concerned) or if they are going to make me haul the trailer up to St. Augustine and leave it.

In all five of our outings since buying the trailer new in May we've been at RV resorts and hooked to city water, so never used the pump.  The pump is critical for our upcoming trip because we will be boondocking a lot, so much have pressurized water.  Damn.

Here are a couple of pictures.

The culprit--the water pump!

Leak is at the junction of the green and black parts
just above the red wires at the bottom.

More after I call Camping World at 8:00 AM in the morning!!

Prep Part III -- Wiring the 110 vac Side and Remote Switch for the Inverter into the Cabin

This morning I have been tackling installing the 10-2 Romex wiring from the inverter 110vac outlet to a standard 110vac outlet inside the cabin of the trailer.  It's not a lot of fun crawling around inside the basement of the trailer, but I got it done.  Here are some pictures.

Outlet box installed inside cabin

Outlet box basement side

10-2 Romex with Plug coming off Inverter

10-2 Romex cable run in basement to box

Finished--it works!

Now I just need to mount the remote inverter switch.  It will sit just to the right of the receptacle above.  Once that is in and tested I will squirt some sealant and caulking to seal up any holes, etc..

All the wiring is done and everything works.  Pictures.

Finished wire runs & dressing

Remote switch wire dressing
(I left all the white wire in case I want to move the switch at some point.)

Off

On -- It works!!

I am glad to have this done.  Now I'm looking forward to playing with it a bit and see how it does with some real-world uses.  I know it will run the TV and I'm pretty sure it will power our little 750 Watt toaster, but I'm really curious to see if it will drive our microwave.  The microwave is 900 Watts output, but says it draws 1350 Watts total, so that may stretch the 1100 Watt microwave.  

I did a bit of testing and everything I plugged into the inverter worked great.  Now I will preface this with the fact that the trailer was plugged into shore power, so the converter was supplying power to charge the battery while I was testing the inverter.  Anyway, here are my results.  The suspense is over!!

TV:                          Worked great                      Pulled 57 Watts on the Inverter meter
Toaster:                  Worked great                      Pulled 756 Watts
Microwave:            Yes, it worked great            Pulled 978 Watts

Here's the 978 Watts driving the microwave!

I actually boiled a cup of water in the microwave without any trouble at all.  I am really happy with the new inverter setup!!

The inverter install is complete.

Prep Part II -- Installing the Inverter

Geez, it's hot!!!  Talk about perspiration!  It was hot, but I got the basement of the trailer emptied and, after only one trip to Lowes I got the new inverter mounted in the front of the basement and wired to the 12v battery bank.  I've decided to just mount a dedicated, standard 110v outlet in the trailer for the inverter to feed and I will mount the remote switch for the inverter next to this outlet.  Should work out well.  We can just run an extension cord to the TV or whatever if necessary.  I tested it successfully with a 100W trouble light.

Inverter mounted in the RV basement

Hopefully tomorrow I will mount and wire up the outlet that will just plug into one of the outlets in the front of the inverter and the remote that plugs into the back of the unit.  As you can see, it's powered up and working.  I used 4 gauge stranded wire to attach it to the battery with a 150 amp ANL fuse in line with the positive battery lead.  I also need to squirt some filler into the hole I had to drill for the cables to seal it up and perhaps some additional wire dressing will be needed.

Prep Part I -- Getting Started with Prep

Okay, just went out and put the mirrors and WD (Weight Distribution) hitch on the GC and loaded some tools in preparation for getting the trailer from storage in a few minutes.  I also bumped up the air pressure in the rear tires to 38 psi per the advice from Tires Plus.  We will bring it home now so I can get all the improvements (LED bulb replacements, spice rack mounted, inverter installed, etc.) done and get it all prepped for our trip.

I need to check all the air pressures in the trailer tires, shoot some grease in the wheel bearings, check the torque on the wheels, drain and refill the fresh water tank (although I haven't decided yet whether to fill it completely with 60 gallons of water that would add approximately 500 lbs of weight to pull or only partially fill it like I've been doing) and check the propane.  One tank is completely full because the automatic switch over is still on the first tank that we've been using since we bought the trailer.  I will take it off and weigh it and decide whether or not to go ahead and fill it now or wait until we get out to Denver and before we head north into Wyoming and Montana where we most likely will need to run the furnace some, so I want both tanks full before we head up there.

I also just used my iPhone 6 to put in a "hold" for our U.S. Postal Service mail, so that's done.  Jeri has already arranged with Chris Vinski, our ultra-reliable pet sitter and house watcher to come a couple of times a week to feed and water Captain Morgan, a Nanday Conure and watch bird extraordinaire and make sure everything is okay with the house.  Our daughter will also also come by periodically to check things, too.  We also have a hidden web cam in the house to monitor things and besides alerting me to any movement or loud sounds in the house it also records a running week, so if anyone does break in we would at least have a record and video of the event which hopefully would lead to their arrest and recovery of any items stolen.

1:30 PM:  We have the trailer home now and hooked up to the 30 amp shore power drop I installed in the garage.  I've already replaced every interior incandescent light bulb (18 of them) with the new LEDs I bought.  They all worked initially, although you do have to put them in with the right polarity (no biggie, if they don't come on you turn them 180 degrees and they do) and I think they are going to work out fine.  We will check them out tonight, but they seem plenty bright.  I can attest to the fact they run a whole lot cooler than the incandescent bulbs did.  I have two spare LEDs and of course, I will also carry all the 921 incandescents I replaced for spares.
[8:00 PM follow up:  the new LED lighting seems plenty bright in the dark of night.]

It's 90 degrees out, so will start on outside the trailer stuff when it's cooler in the mornings and evenings.  I think it's going to feel good to get to CO, WY and MT and cooler temperatures (and best of all the non-humid climate!!!).

I keep pondering how I want to install the 1100 Watt inverter output.  The 12 vdc input is a no-brainer--the heaviest cables that came with it to the battery, along with the 150 fuse link to prevent catastrophes in case of a massive short of the primary wiring or the inverter.  Since most of what I want to power with 110 vac inside is the TV, maybe the toaster (75 amp draw on the 12 vdc!) and possibly the microwave, I'm thinking more and more about just wiring up a separate normal household outlet box and running an extension cord to plug in the TV microwave, etc..  

Trip Plan

Here is the travel plan for our upcoming 2015 Western RV Extravaganza, but understand that like all plans changes may occur for any number of reasons.  This is only an estimate.  The only date and event that is positively cast in stone is 9/26/16, Sami's wedding.

2015 Camping Extravaganza
Depart	Arrive	Trip	Miles	Hours	Travel Days	Avg Miles/Day	Avg Miles/Hr
8/31/15	8/31/15	Home to Biloxi, MS	530	10.5	1	530	50
9/1/15	9/4/15	Biloxi to Parker, CO	1,391	28	4	348	50
9/5/15	9/11/15	Denver area	Time on site:		7
9/12/15	9/13/15	Arrive Grand Teton NP	545	11	2	273	50
9/14/15	9/14/15	Arrive Yellowstone NP	90	3	1	90	30
9/15/15	9/18/15	At Yellowstone	Time on site:		4
9/19/15	9/19/15	Arrive Cody, WY	78	2	1	78	39
9/20/15	9/20/15	Little Bighorn Battleground	188	4	1	188	47
9/21/15	9/21/15	Arrive Deadwood, SD	306	6.1	1	306	50
9/22/15	9/23/15	Arrive Bellevue, IA	796	16	2	398	50
9/24/15	9/24/15	Arrive Windsor, IL	284	5.7	1	284	50
9/25/15	9/27/15	Windsor for Sami’s 26th Wedding	Time on site:		4
9/28/15	9/30/15	Windsor to Home	981	19.8	3	327	50
			5189	106.1	17
		Avg Miles / Hour to Make:		49	Avg Miles/Day:	305
				Total Days:	32

Welcome to our 2015 RV Travel Extravaganza Blog

Bill & Jeri

Why I created this blog:
I created this blog as a way for family and a few close friends to follow along on our RV trip  as we head west, taking the southern route to Colorado to see two of our boys and their families, then up to Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Cody, the Little Bighorn, Deadwood and down to Illinois to attend our granddaughter's wedding, before finally heading home.  Altogether our trip will extend to 30-31 days and cover well over 5,000 miles.   We hope you enjoy following our trip.  What an adventure this will be for us!! 

A bit about us and our RV:
This past May, 2015 my wife decided she wanted to buy a travel trailer, so she purchased a brand new 2016 Coleman 192RDS at the Camping World in St. Augustine, Florida.  It is 23' long from hitch to bumper and we currently pull it with our 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited with a 5.7 liter Hemi engine and full-time four-wheel drive, using a weight distribution hitch and friction anti-sway bar.  The Jeep seems to handle it just fine as long as we keep towing speeds down to 55-60 mph, although the gas mileage drops from around 17-18 mpg to 9 mpg!  We had to have a trailer brake controller installed, along with a seven wire receptacle to attach the trailer electrics, brakes, etc., to the GC (Grand Cherokee).

The trailer has a "short queen" bed up front that we added a pillow foam topper to so it would be comfortable. Moving toward the rear is a small, but full bathroom with a sink, toilet and tub/shower.  Across from that is the galley with a double sink, 3-burner stove with oven and a microwave.  Aft of the galley is the dining table with two bench seats.  This table can be dropped down to form another bed and both bench seats have storage space underneath.  There are cabinets running all across the left side upper wall and a stereo receiver, DVD player is mounted in the aft most cabinet.  We mounted a 27" LED TV on the upper section of the back wall.  Aft of the bathroom on the right is is a pantry and a 8 cubic feet reefer (refrigerator) with a freezer. Next to that is a sofa that also makes into a bed.  Again cabinets run all across the upper right side from the pantry to the back wall.

Some specifications:
Fresh Water Tank:                    60 gallons
Gray Tank (sinks, shower):       42 gallons
Black Tank (toilet):                    42 gallons
Propane:                                   2 X 20 lb tanks
Reefer:                                      8 cubic feet refrigerator/freezer.  Runs on 110 vac or 
                                                  propane
DC Power:                                1 X 80 Amp-Hour Deep Cycle Battery (I plan to add
                                                  an additional battery at some point after this trip.  I want
                                                  to see how this one does.
AC Power:                                30 Amp shore Power, soon to have 1100 Watt inverter    
                                                 running off the battery and ultimately 
Air Conditioning:                      Yes, ceiling/roof mounted unit (works well)
Furnace:                                   Yes, thermostat controlled automatic propane with 12v
                                                 blower
Pressurized Water System:      Yes, either by shore hookup or its own 12v water pump
Hot water:                                 Yes, 6 gallon propane hot water heater
TV:                                             Yes, we added a 27" LED on a swivel mount.  The trailer
                                                  has a crank up antenna with a signal amplifier for over-the-
                                                  air signals and is fully wired up for cable TV.  
Stereo Radio/DVD Player:        Yes, besides being a radio and music player it will also
                                                  play DVD movies to the TV.  Works great!
Self-defense capability:            Yes, including bear pepper spray and a vicious, man-killing
                                                  dog (well, she might lick you to death) ;-)

Some initial pictures of our portable cabin.  I will post some more up-to-date ones later.

Our new rig

Coleman 23' (hitch to bumper)

Short queen bed in front

Looking toward the rear (TV not mounted yet)

Galley

Bathroom

Dinette/Optional Bed

Upper Cabinets Left Side

Microwave & Range Venting Hood

Double Sink

Door to Bathroom, Reefer and Sofa (bed)

We have taken the trailer on five different short range trips to get used to it and get it set up the way we wanted.  Our first trip was 12 miles from home and our longest trip was around 300 miles.  These were fun trips and we learned a lot on each trip--continually adding more necessities to our rig.

In preparation for this trip we had the transmission serviced and a transmission cooler installed on the Jeep (the transmission cooler was recommended by our local Jeep dealer).  We also put a complete set of Bridgestone Dueler tires on the Jeep.  

Since we plan to do quite a bit of boondocking (dry camping) on this trip I have also ordered and received a Kriëger 1100 Watt inverter that I need to wire in before we leave on our great adventure in a few days. We also purchased a small 12 volt DC fan to move some air around in the trailer when boondocking and we can't have the AC on.  I am also going to replace some or all of the incandescent (power hungry) interior lighting bulbs with LEDs (I already have some to try) to save both battery power and heat (incandescents are hot).

I also need to double-check the operation of the furnace since we are expecting nighttime temperatures down in the 40s and maybe 30s while we are up in Wyoming and Montana, although as hot as the temps have been running here in Florida I might not be able to set the thermostat high enough to make it come on here.

Anyway, feel free to check back often for the frequent updates, along with pictures, while we travel forth on our great western RV travel extravaganza.  I will be posting updates as we complete our preparations and trailer modifications this coming week and will update along the road as I can while we are on our adventure.