Preparing for the Road

We wrote previously about how important planning is to make sure we have a place to stay each night. Another very important part of the preparation process is to ensure the motor home is in great working condition. Our 2012 Thor Daybreak has had two previous owners; but has very low mileage (just over 8000 miles when we purchased it). So, in theory, all system should be in nearly new condition. During our maiden voyage, we were able to operate most of the appliances and house systems and only found a few minor issues that need to be tweaked. With a long road trip approaching however, we want to make sure the chassis systems are also in top-notch condition. After all, it is a motor vehicle, and the engine and drive train will need to perform well for a long time and a lot of miles.

We began to look for a service facility that could do a thorough check of our rig several weeks prior to the trip to allow time for corrective action, if needed and one more outing to make doubly sure all was good to go. Our original go-to place in Culpeper was not able to schedule us until May 18 - way too late for comfort. And, although they agreed to get us in and out in one day (provided no parts needed to be ordered), it was still too far from home if there should be something seriously wrong that prevented driving until repaired. We heard great things about this service center - but apparently everyone else did too. Is this another symptom of the up-tick in RV sales recently?

Our second choice, in Manassas and a previously visited service center, was able to schedule an appointment for May 11; but it was even further from home. Their systems check included only the house systems for $299, and their oil change charge was $125. So, we checked out an RV service center right here in Fredericksburg. We learned about them from a neighbor RV'er and made the phone call. They have a full check out service, including the chassis systems, for $325, and oil change for $90. And, no appointment is necessary. Tomorrow is the day.

One more thing. Em really wants to swap out the 6 gallon hot water heater and install a tankless, on-demand water heater. She likes long, hot showers!! Who doesn't? So we checked with our Fredericksburg facility to see what they would offer. Yes, they could install one at a reasonable cost.

After some research, I found only two manufacturers of tankless hot water heaters for RV applications. If there are others, they don't advertise it. One of the two is highly rated. The other, not so much. The only problem is, the highly rated system, made by Truma,  is sold only by factory-authorized dealers. Failing to find a dealer within 50 miles of Fredericksburg, we called the factory and spoke to their sales department hoping they could either point us to a dealer or sell one to us by mail order. That brought good news/bad news: to maintain the highest possible quality control, they only sell through authorized dealers and there is no authorized dealer within 300 miles of home. Bummer!!! Truma offered to establish a sales relationship with our Fredericksburg service center if they were willing. But, they said that there was no local demand for Truma so it would be too costly to take technicians off line for training. I suggested that perhaps there was no demand because they were not an authorized dealer. That did not convince them.

We will continue to search for a solution, but in the meantime, we are psyching ourselves for short Navy-style showers.

Planning for the Trip

We are back home from our maiden voyage to Bull Run Park and continuing to work on planning for our National Parks Adventure. Planning is necessary in these days when the very crowded national park campgrounds fill up early in the day and don't take reservations. How did we know this? By subscribing to RV related publications, both in print (e.g., Motor Home Magazine) and on line (e.g., RVTravel.com). Chuck Woodbury in RVTravel.com has been writing lately about how, with the boomer generation reaching retirement age, RVs are flying out of dealerships in record numbers. That means more campers vying for available campsites. To make matters worse, campground operators are not creating new sites. In fact, many are converting existing sites to more lucrative cabins.

What does one do? We are not risk-takers, so we opt for planning out our trip so we know where we will be and when. That way, we can find our campground of choice and reserve a site. Reservations are a necessary fact of life for RV travel, especially for the best campgrounds. For part of our adventure, we will be traveling with friends, so we'll be needing two campsites, preferably ones close together if not side-by-side. As an example, we booked our campsites in Grand Canyon RV Trailer Village about six months ago when we first decided to go there.

Campgrounds that do take reservations, especially the campgrounds in the parks, book up early, so detailed planning is essential. Here are a few things we have considered as we planned our trip:

• Hours per day are we willing to drive (6 to 7 hours max)
• Type of amenities we require during our stay (full hookups preferred; i.e., Electric, Water and Sewer. Cable is a nice to have and we are not depending on reliable WiFi).
• Transportation while we are at a campground or National Park (rental cars company that will pick us up at the campground.)
• The route will we take: Interstate highway or more scenic non-Interstate paths (mostly Interstate to make good time, with occasional ventures off the main to see something special).
• Location of rest stops, available fuel, and of course, the campgrounds (Good Sam Trip Planner does a nice job at this)
• What are the campgrounds like? How do they compare to each other? (We are relying on Good Sam ratings for the campgrounds and seek to find 9's or 10's across the board when possible. Clean rest rooms are paramount.)
• Weather such as average, high and low temperatures, likelihood of rain (helps with taking the right clothing and outdoor gear).

We used two tools extensively: the Good Sam Club Trip Planner and Google Maps. Trip Planner is geared toward RV'ers. It provides a comprehensive routing utility that takes into account vertical clearances, road condition and other factors that RV'ers need to know. You set a distance off your route and Trip Planner will display campground locations, fuel stops that offer Good Sam discounts, rest stops, attractions, etc. [Note: you must be a member of Good Sam Club to use the Trip Planner. Cost is nominal and worth every penny.] Google Maps is another option, but does not take into account RV restrictions and uses a higher speed to compute driving times. Together, they help bound the trip.

Both mapping applications also provide quick links to the various campground and park websites [Note that some campgrounds don't have websites, and some websites are pretty primitive]. So we used them as a jumping point to learn more about our destinations and for choosing a campground.

Our Maiden Voyage

April 10-13 2017: Bull Run Regional Park, Centreville, VA. 

Our maiden voyage has one main objective: Test out the rig and get it ready for out big National Parks Adventure. Two things are important: check out all systems to discover if anything does not function properly, and get our cabinets and storage areas organized for easy access and efficient functionality. And one other thing – clean up after the bug-ridding activities to get the film of insecticide off all surfaces. 

So, we chose a long-time favorite local campground, one of the best in the Northern Virginia area called Bull Run Regional Park. This well maintained, clean, quiet and professionally operated campground offers pull-through and back-in sites with some full hookup sites. It is near the Manassas National Battlefield Park and has connecting trails to several other parks in the region. We highly recommend this campground to anyone travelling to the Northern Virginia area – it’s accessible to DC, several museums, and lots of good restaurants. Make reservations because it fills up early during the best camping season. This week, I’d guess the campground is at about 60% occupancy. 

Our campsite this time was spacious with lovely light lavender flowers that opened to full splendor during the day and closed for the evening and night. Our weather was perfect with temperatures in 70’s and 80’s each day. There was a short sprinkle on Wednesday morning, but only enough to make things a little damp. The rest of the day was sunny and in the 70s. 

Our systems check was highly successful. Nothing major wrong with one or two things needing some tweaking for better performance. Within the first half-hour, we did have one issue with a slide out that would not function; but we did something at the controller to reset its logic and it seems to be fine now. Was it a fluke? Bad luck? It would be nice to know what was wrong and how we fixed it. Hopefully, we won’t have that problem again – but in the meantime, it bears some research to see how that controller works and where the reset button is located. 

We’ve had two full days of learning how to use our “new” RV and feel we are ready to go into full service our next trip out. Before that, we plan on taking it to a service center for a thorough check out of all RV and chassis systems to ensure readiness for the big trip. We are also planning on having a tankless hot water heater installed to give us a continuous supply of hot water and more efficiently use our propane.

We also had an opportunity to meet a very nice couple from Oklahoma who had traveled to the area to visit their son in Alexandria. K and V invited us to join them on Wednesday evening for a glass of wine and conversation. We shared RV experiences and adventures and talked about future plans for trips to see Alaska.  On departing on Thursday morning, we exchanged information with thoughts we might join up for a future trip.

We are list-makers and this trip has resulted in lists of things to buy and things to do to further get ready for the next outing.

Testing, Testing

Before we embark on our weeks-long journey west, one imperative is a thorough check out of our new-to-us motor home. After we purchased it last September, by the time we took delivery, registered with the DMV, and de-bugged it, cold weather set in and we had to winterize to ensure we did not freeze up our plumbing and fixtures.

The 2012 Thor Daybreak (formally manufactured by Damon) is almost 30 feet in length, 101 inches wide, and 12' 7" tall. It has two slides, one for the living/dining area and one for the bedroom. The galley is huge with lots of counter space, a three-burner stove with oven, microwave and small refrigerator. The previous owners included a portable ice maker which allegedly makes ice in 8 minutes. Stay turned for a report.

The engine has slightly more than 8,000 miles on it - so practically new. It's a Ford chassis with the Triton V-10 gas guzzler engine.

Here is a photo of us with our Daybreak. Our dog Ge goes everywhere with us:

Our first few weeks with the new rig were spent ridding the "house" of thousands of stink bugs. We don't know where they came from, or why there were there - they just were. We tried using a commercial fumigator which killed off a whole bunch of 'em; but they kept coming. We eventually called in Greenstar Pest Control who did a preliminary treatment last fall and a thorough dousing of the rig the other day. We'll see how effective that is in keeping the critters at bay when the temperature rises in a few weeks.

While we tested most of the appliances at the time of purchase, there is nothing like putting them to use at a campground. Our first shake-down trip starts Monday at Bull Run Regional Park.

Introduction

I’m El. My wife, Em, and I have been dreaming of camping our way across the country to see the great beauty that is America since before we were married  44 years ago. More recently, we have vowed to visit as many of the great national parks as we can. Having recently retired from a long career as an engineer, we are now ready to embark on our first cross-country adventure. My plan is to document the trip in this blog. I won’t promise to update daily, but will really try to keep everyone up to date as we go. I hope to cover the planning as well as the trip itself to include some campground and park reviews and photographs of the sites and scenes we find. Our plan is to be on the road for about 8 weeks. A trip of this magnitude takes a little planning. 

Preparations for this trip began over eight months ago. Our 2007 Winnebago Aspect 26A, we felt, was too small for such a long trip, and we hated the corner bed that had limited access and was difficult to make up. So we sold it and purchased another used motor home, a 2012 Thor Daybreak. We closed the deal and took delivery in late September with plans to take it out to a near-by campground before cold weather set in. But something came up and we were unable to do it. So we winterized and started thinking about a long trip in mid-spring. 

In the meantime, some long-standing friends and former neighbors named Ay and Em contacted us about meeting them in Tennessee near Nashville for a weeklong camp out. They are attending a family wedding there; we are meeting up with them to join in the celebration. From there, we are heading west along I-40 to Grand Canyon National Park. Our friends have decided to join us – what can be better than RV’ing the wild west with great friends? 

We will be in Grand Canyon for 7 days. And being that far west from our east coast home, we decided we have to see the big 5 national parks in Utah and take in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument as well. So, our preliminary plan is to head north from the South Rim and camp between the North Rim and Zion NP for a few days, using that as a base for Zion, Bryce, North Rim and the Staircase. We follow that with a night near Capitol Reef NP and a few nights in Moab to take in Arches and Canyonlands. 

Ay and Em will head for home after Capitol Reef, but have invited us to visit with them at their home after we leave Moab. They live in central Colorado near Boulder. 

We are still in the planning phase for Colorado and points east but we already know we are visiting my sister D in Kansas and Em’s brother Em (hmmmm, that’s confusing) in Texas. From there, we’ll head back north to our home in Virginia. 

This is an introduction and teaser. In the next installment, I’ll start to discuss the planning process in more detail, reveal where we will be staying, and the routes we are taking as well as some of the tools we are using to help with the process. 

One more thing. I’m using shortened forms for our names to protect our privacy. Those who know us, know who we are. Our real names don’t really add anything to the story anyway, so I’m using stylized initials.