GrampaDennis

We left our home in Readfield, Maine at 8 AM on July 7th. We made 2 rest and lunch stops and 2 fuel stops along the way. We were in a long rolling traffic jam on I-495 in Massacusetts, north of State Route 2. Traffic only stopped completely one brief time, but was just crawling for miles. I turned on the CB for a while. I got a bit of useful information from the truckers' chatter, especially about where the traffic opened up again. However, I could have done without the profanity. It was a construction lane closure that had everything messed up. It could have been worse. We arrived at Black Bear Campground in Florida, NY around 5:30 PM. Black Bear is a very neat and well-maintained campground. I recommend it. It's a few miles off I-84, but worth the diversion. The campsites are up on a ridge and the pool is down near the store and office at the entrance. If you don't have a toad or a golf cart, plan on a good hike down the hill and back up again, if you want to use the pool. On the 8th, we got going a little slow and rolled approximately 9 AM. We made 2 rest and lunch stops and one fuel stop along the way. We got to Cherry Hill Campground around 4:15 PM and were set up on our site by 4:45 PM I learned some things about the MH on this trip: While running both air conditioners at home before the trip, on a 20amp circuit, I forgot I was so overloaded and started the vacuum cleaner as well. That tripped the breaker in my garage. When I went to hook up the shore power on the trip, I found that I had melted the plug adapter. I had to pry it apart, then cut off some rubber remaining from the adapter, and clean one of the prongs of my 30 amp plug. Maybe there's a reason my manual says not to run both air conditioners on a 20 amp plug. While plugging in a night light for my grandson, I discovered that the outlet under the table didn't work. I thought "that's funny - it always has worked." I then checked and reset most of the 120 volt breakers. No problems found there. I checked the outlet on my side of the bed and that was dead, too. Next, I checked the bathroom outlet, which is one of those GFCI units, with the Test and Reset buttons. It was dead also. I pressed the reset and it worked. It was then that I had an "Aha moment!" The other dead outlets are wired through that GFCI outlet! Sure enough, the other outlets worked fine after the GFCI was reset. Grandma was observing my frustration with the outlets and confessed that she "may have" blundered into the test button on the GFCI outlet earlier. I should have diagnosed the problem sooner. At home, we have several outlets wired through a GFCI outlet the same way. This Spring, I paid a goodly sum to have the dash AC fixed in the motorhome. On this trip, I got some return on that investment! The temps were in the low to mid 90's. With the dash AC blowing on me, I was comfortable most of the time in the driver's seat. However, the rest of the coach was getting quite warm. During rest and lunch stops, I started the generator and ran the two rooftop AC units. On the last leg of the trip in the afternoon, I let the generator and the rooftop AC's run while driving down the highway. I have read in the forums that some other folks do this. It helped to keep us cooler, and it didn't seem to use a lot more gas. Besides, I understand that it's good for the generator to run it under a good load occasionally! I'm not sure if it is due to a problem in the ductwork, or a problem with the AC unit itself, but the front rooftop AC (actually closer to mid-length) does not push much air to the front two sets of vents. The rear AC, over the bedroom, will freeze you out. Some day, I may take things apart enough to find out if there is an obstruction in the duct. Other comments: The EZ-Pass is fantastic for paying tolls! We have a lot of toll roads and bridges in the Northeast. All of them on this trip took the EZ-Pass. Several toll stations had high-speed lanes that read the EZ-Pass at full speed! I am getting somewhat used to driving the MH in any lane, with traffic and big trucks all around me. It's still a little tense, but I can manage. The NJ Turnpike was the worst driving. I decided to take another route on the return trip. It is my understanding that some of the diesel pushers handle much better than our 33 ft gasser. That would be nice - especially for the kinds of driving we have had on this trip! As I am finishing up this entry, we are back home and I'm back at work (some day, I'll REALLY retire!) I plan to write a post about our time in Washington and another about our trip back.

We have a reservation at Cherry Hill, in College Park, MD. The place comes very highly recommended and they have a bus stop. It's a short bus ride to the nearest subway station. Our plan is to get around that way.

I enjoyed reading of your adventures. I wish you many more!

Thanks, Jurisinceptor, for adding your experience. I got into a scary iced mountain situation once in Colorado, but that was in a rental car, not a motorhome.

This past weekend (June 20 - 22, 2014), we camped at Paradise Park Resort, in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. Years ago, we had tried 2 or 3 other campgrounds in the OOB area. We liked this one the best of any we've tried. It's a tad expensive, compared to the places we normally stay, but worth it. The pricing is similar to other places in OOB. This campground is VERY neat and clean and has the best restrooms we've seen. The location is on a side street across from the upper end of Old Orchard St, where Route 98 meets Route 5, and is within a reasonable walking distance of everything. If walking is not your thing, they also run a shuttle service on a stretched golf cart. On a trip home by car a few weeks ago, we took a side trip off I-95 to check Paradise Park out. We inspected the place, picked our site, and made our reservation on that stop. Even though the selection was a bit limited, due to making the reservation late, we got a nice site on a corner. Our site was a bit larger than most. We'll definitely keep this place in mind for a future fall or spring getaway, when the rates are lower and the crowds are thinner. Close to half of their sites are seasonal setups. However, these are all very neat and well done, unlike some of the seasonals we have seen in our travels. As with most of the OOB area, our French-speaking neighbors from Quebec are well-represented. There was a mix of all types of tents, all types of trailers and all types of motorhomes. This is a family atmosphere, where folks are quiet and respectful of others. One of my pet peeves in life is the tendency to hype products by giving them names that are impossible to live up to. Having stayed at Paradise Park, I must say that the name is not all hype. It IS a little bit of paradise! Now, a little bit about how the motorhome went. This was our first outing since I had an alignment done and new Bilstein shocks and steering stabilizer installed. These improvements made a definite difference in the ride and handling of our 33 Ft Southwind. It still steers a little too easy, and you have to be especially watchful in crosswinds, but it recovers from bumps better, and has less tendency to wander. I had the work done at a truck and suspension shop in Waterville, ME, which has a good reputation - Harry J. Smith & Co. While there, I had the annual State Inspection and a chassis lube as well. (I had done an oil and filter change last fall.) In a couple of weeks, we are headed out to Washington, DC. I'll let you know how that goes.

For a couple of years, I've had my desktop computer set up with a boot menu that lets me boot in either Windows XP or Ubuntu Linux. More and more, I have been using my Android tablet (another story there). For a couple of reasons, I had been primarily using XP on the desktop. Since XP has "expired," I have turned that around and now use Ubuntu for almost everything. I still boot XP once in a while, but I'm trying to wean myself from it. For this year, I'm still paying for Norton Antivirus on the XP side. I'll have to decide before the next renewal time, but I may be off from XP entirely by then. Ubuntu is not perfect, but it's not bad. In my case, I've had prior experience as a System Administrator on Unix systems and on VMS systems. Therefore, learning Ubuntu was easier for me than it would be for some. These days, you can get all the tech support advice you need online.

On Memorial Weekend, we camped at Beaver Brook CG, in North Monmouth, Maine. This place is beyond the end of the pavement, and our Garmin GPS had the directions wrong. Fortunately, I knew the area somewhat, had been there years before, and had studied my DeLorme Atlas before going. Yup, I'm an Engineer and a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy. Actually, the unpaved portion of Wilson Pond Road wasn't too bad. I've seen paved roads much rougher. Our site was on the far side of the campground, at the top of the hill. The road going up was rocky, uneven and narrow in places, with a few tight turns. I was able to navigate it OK with our 33 ft long Class A Southwind, but I'm not sure I would recommend it for a larger rig. (If you've read my previous posts, you already know that I have sometimes driven this thing where people with more sense would fear to go.) When I made the reservations, I was offered the choice of a few sites that supposedly would accomodate our rig. When I got to Site 353, I had to reset a couple times to avoid the trees, but got in OK. I had less than a foot left over on the driver's side with the slide out, and about a foot left on the other side with the awning out. We couldn't use the fire pit (no big deal to us), because it was within 2 ft of my rear bumper. During our stay, we marked several sites on the map that would have been better for our coach. During Friday night, the CG water system lost all pressure. Fortunately, our onboard tank was more than half full, so I just switched on the pump. When I spoke to the office staff the next morning, they said they had found and fixed some leaks and were refilling their reservoir tank. In the afternoon, they had water again. However, we lost water pressure again on Saturday night, and once more on Sunday night. In our case, this was no real inconvenience, because we just turned on the pump and used our own water. I normally carry water in the fresh water tank anyway. This trip just reinforced my "be prepared" attitude about it. Overall, I have mixed feelings about Beaver Brook. I think the Good Sam/Woodalls ratings of it are on the generous side. The pool is nice, the store is fairly well stocked. The restrooms are "fair" at best. The roads are a little tough in places, but Ok in most areas. Some of the sites (including ours) are tough to get into because of trees in the way. On the plus side, the forest setting is nice, there are some amazing large boulders and some very interesting stone walls that the early settlers put a lot of work into, There are several lakefront sites, there is a group of very long pull-through sites with sewer connections. The property has a very picturesque brook running through it (which I forgot to take a photo of). There are several activities for kids, as well as horseshoe pits, a wooded disc golf course and a run-down mini golf course. There is a hall, which featured a rock band on Saturday night and karaoke on Sunday night. There were very few motorhomes here. There were trailers of all ages, sizes and descriptions, as well as a few tenters. Perhaps it was the time of year, but the crowd was almost all Mainers. There were several seasonal setups, some of which were "park models." We walked a lot, and enjoyed the exercise. If you camp here, especially up on the hill, you better be prepared to walk uphill and down. If you are restricted to level ground, this place is not for you. They had free, unsecured, wi-fi near the store, but none elsewhere around the CG. Would I camp here again? Yes, but I would not be expecting first-class accomodations. At $36 for a water and electric site, it was an OK deal for a 3 day weekend (I dumped once, on the way out). I don't think I like the place well enough to pay the $50 that they charge for a sewered site.

It's finally Spring in Central Maine! The leaves are opening up and camping season has begun. When I retrieved the MH from storage in late April, the engine battery had run down, even though I had used the disconnect switch. I used the battery interconnect on the dash to boost from the house batteries. It started right up. That's a handy feature! I got all of the systems going without much trouble. I did have to play with the burner adjustment on the water heater though. On our last outing in the fall, it got a little sooty. I adjusted it a bit then, but apparently didn't get it right. This spring, it was blowing itself out. After a couple of trials, I now have it working well. I went through my funnel collection and found one that sort of worked for catching the anti-freeze out of the water heater. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, this rig doesn't have the WH bypass setup, so I had filled the entire 6 gallon WH with RV anti-freeze. Some spilled oun the ground, but I captured about 3.5 gallons for re-use next fall. The in-dash AC system in this 1998 Southwind has not held freon since we bought it last year. I had tried the refill kits, and gotten the AC to work, but it promptly leaked down again. Since we are planning a summertime trip to Washington, DC, we decided to get it fixed. I took the MH to a local radiator and AC shop, thinking I just had a leak somewhere that would not be too expensive. It turned out that the leak was in the most expensive part - the compressor. The AC guy recommended a new compressor, as opposed to a rebuilt, which might have been $100 cheaper. He also urged that we replace the drier, which he said should be replaced anytime your are into an automotive AC system this old. The compressor arrived the next day, but the drier came a couple of days later than expected. The shop had the MH from Monday to Friday, and the bill was just under $900. Grandma and I better enjoy the cold air! Originally, we had planned for our first outing of the season to be with the Maine Wheels in Dixfield, Maine on 5/16 through 5/18. However, a memorial service was scheduled on 5/17 for a relative who died in Florida a few weeks ago. So, we adjusted our plans and camped at my sister's place in Parkman, Maine. The MH ran well and we enjoyed the AC all the way there. I saw several cousins and friends that I have not seen for a while. On Saturday night we had real pork and beans - not the kind you buy in a can. My sister and bother-in-law had raised the pig and grown the beans. They were cooked all day in a slow cooker. There was plenty of lean meat in this pork and beans dish. It was accompanied by some excellent home-made biscuits. Yummy! Things worked out pretty well for a rainy weekend! We have made reservations for Memorial Weekend at Beaver Brook campground. This place is quite nearby, so I will drive the MH and Grandma will follow with the pickup, hauling our two kayaks in the back. We have camped at this place before - about 30 years ago! It's grown quite a bit since. We have invited our 10 year old grandson to come with us, but he has another offer - to visit with friends his age. We think we know which one he will choose.

Several years ago, we stayed at Hadley's Point and thought it was nice. I believe they are on the shuttle bus route, when it is running.