Larry and Peg's first big tear adventure

Took a couple "shake down" trips to Round and Priest lakes here in Idaho. Figured out how everything works (yeah right) so thinking we are pros now we got ready for a points unknown, no time limit trip.

4/26/15 The big day came for our departure. We reserved a site at Deschutes River State campground (Oregon). We got little sleep that night because of the nearby train which had to blast his horn multiple times as they went by.

4/28/15 Arrived a Crater Lake. The rim road was closed because of snow so on to the Humbolt Redwoods.

4/29/15
Ah, the redwoods. Huge, majestic and the one place Peg REALLY wanted to go in this country. Loved walking through the ancient forest. Our little tear seemed very happy parked with trees to big.
5/1/15
Pulling out of our camp site while a couple are watching such a cute trailer. How proud we were. The tear seemed jerky to me as I was pulling out of the site but what do I know, I am new at this, it must be rough ground. I got to the pavement and was pulled to a stop. We had forgotten to raise our leveling jack! We had plowed a furrow that a corn farmer would be proud of.

Of course the jack was ruined and permanently bent to the ground.
I had Peg go to the camp host to book another night so we could figure out how to "fix" the jack. She came back with the news that they were totally booked and if we did not remove the trailer soon it would have to be towed. I was able to remove enough parts to make it onto the pavement and off we went, terrified of hitting a speed bump somewhere.

5/1/15
We are looking for a RV repair place to fix our broken jack. I had also managed to pop off the face of my watch while draining our grey water. I did not want to get any of it on my hand so jerked it away as soon as the water started flowing. I have learned that "its only grey water" it won't kill me. I did have the pleasure of looking very closely at dirt and needles trying to find all the little parts that came off.

Found or RV place and they quickly took the offending jack off.

We found Van Duzen county park quite be accident, just driving by. Unlike the Humbolt redwoods state park this one was deserted yet still in the redwoods! We were thrilled. We parked the tear right between two trees each one wider than the tear. We were right on a river, parked under giant trees, life is good.

Loved our stay there and only had one problem. We had a two gallon water jug with spigot, it was cute, it matched the red theme that Frank Poole the tears former owner started us on. (Thanks Frank, it has become a quest in itself finding red accessories). We found that you cannot close the back hatch with a water thin water jug sitting on the top shelf in the galley. Water everywhere. Take everything out of the galley and dry it all up. Its one way to make sure everything is clean.

5/3/15
We left Van Duzen and headed for Lassen National Park. I should add that we are and always have avoided freeways and love the back roads. The 130 miles from the coast to Redding was perhaps the twistiest road I had driven. My kind of road.

We got to Lassen the day they opened the road through the park. Uncrowded, beautiful and almost all to ourselves. None of the campgrounds were open yet but the opened the visitors center parking lot to campers (with their normal camping fee). Our first night in a parking lot. It seems that everyone else staying there wanted the "tear tour". We met a lot of very nice people.

I do have pictures to go along with all this but have not figured out how to add them.

5/4/15
Drove past Lake Tahoe, up Kit Carson pass and camped at Silver Lake camp ground. The campground was owned by a water district which was a new category of campground for us. It was almost deserted.We are loving this early year camping!

We took a hike to an area where as far as you could see was smoothed rock with the occasional stunted tree growing from a crack. Love these totally unexpected "finds".

5/5/15
Hurried through Yosomite Nat'l Park. Way too many people for us and we had been there before.

Camped at Millerton Lake state recreation area. This was the start of our discovery of just how bad California's drought is.

5/6/15
Made it to Sequoia National Park. Peg really does like giant trees. The trees are bigger around than at Humbolt but not as tall. Then on to Kings Canyon NP. We camped there in a beautiful spot at the bottom of the canyon. We spent a couple nights here as it was so pretty. I managed to drop my reading glasses case into our campfire melting the end into a new custom case. Memories...

5/8/15
We woke up cold, seeing snow just above our site. For some reason our furnace is not working so hurrying...
Leaving the canyon exactly one week after destroying our leveling jack, we did it again. This time I knew how to remove it as I had watched at the RV place that removed the other one. Strange, we knew we would not forget after that first mistake. It is even one of the items on my "before you tow" check list. Unfortunately I don't have a check your check list reminder. Oh well, I had emailed Cary after the first "mistake" asking him where to get a new jack or if he could FedEx one to us. When we got out of the canyon and had an email connection again I saw Cary's answer. They are easy to find and usually come in pairs! How lucky am I? I now needed a pair. There is always a silver lining.

5/9/15
Camped in Furnace Creek CG in Death Valley NP. No longer worried that our furnace does not work, it is HOT!
5/10/15
Camped in our first commercial CG so we could shower and do laundry before heading into the Grand Canyon NP. We were now clean but also convinced that commercial CG's were NOT the way to go.

5/10/15
What a maze the visitors center area is. Like Yosemite just too many people for us. My second trip to the canyon and probably my last.

5/11/15
Camped at Homolovi state park not far from Winslow, AZ. Very windy, interesting ruins. We left the tear and explored Meteor Crater, Winslow, petrified forest and the painted desert. Homolovi was a good base.

5/13/15
Camped at Sunset Crater Volcano Nat't Monument. We had another flood on the shelf where we keep our new water jug. Will we never learn? Unfortunately Peg had her phone on the same shelf. iphones do not like total immersion.Stopped at a Best Buy to inquire how to fix/replace/dry a phone. We were told to put it in a bag of rice. It worked! Sunset crater is very cool, awesome lava formations. Peg cooked up a wonderful Indian dinner since we had rice. There is that silver lining again.

5/14/15
Went through Monument Valley. This was the place I wanted to go on this trip. Just before we entered the valley I sent Peg a text just checking her phone. Even though her phone now worked it still had quirks. After hitting send on my phone everything on my phone became enlarged. No matter how many times I reset it, restarted it or talked nicely to it it refused to go back to normal. I could not take a picture as the camera button was off the screen. Very frustrating since this was "my" destination.

After leaving Monument Valley I found a Verizon store, handed my phone to the employee. He said he just learned two weeks ago that if you tap on the screen twice with 3 fingers everything would go back to normal. Not very intuitive but it worked!

Camped at a BLM sit just outside Mesa Verde NP. Had a wonderful thunderstorm, our first rain in the tear, love the sound. In the night the rain turned to snow. We had not put our alcove up so just donuts and coffee for breakfest. Peg is the master of bacon, eggs and hashbrowns and my specialty is blueberry pancakes. Donuts once in a while are very tasty.

5/15/15
Camping at Mesa Verde NP. Toured the ruins. Perfect weather for the tour. Then cold, rain, enough hail to make things white.

5/16/15
Woke up to 2" of snow and now neither the furnace or stove worked. Unhitched the tear and headed to Durango and purched a Blue Rhino propane tank. Love Durango. Back to Mesa Verde, did laundry, and walked through the snow to take a shower.

5/17/15
Woke up this morning to frozen rain on everything. Still no furnace or stove.

We headed to Black Canyon of the Gunnison. This is one of our favorite NPs. We are now at 8,320' and the propane is working again, yea!

5/18/15
Woke up and no propane again. Put the tank in the sun and eventually got coffee and breakfast.

Camped that night outside Fisco (between Breckenridge and Vail). Absolutely stunning campsite. We were the only ones in the entire place, right on a beautiful lake surrounded by snow covered mountains.

We even had cell coverage. Peg got a notification on her phone that we were due for 10-20" of snow that night. We talked to the camp host about the snow and he said they usually report worst case. No problem if we got snowed in as all the sights were empty until Friday then every one was booked. That gave us a few days so we figgured bring it on, it would be and adventure.

We found that if we heated a propane tank in the car it would work for a while. We did not know if it was the cold or because we were above 9,000'. That night the rain came. I thought if this was snow it would be very interesting. I started getting drips hitting me in the head, rolled a t-shirt up and stuck it behind the curtain. Worked great, no more drips. In the night the pounding rain stopped suddenly and I opened my door to look. It had not stopped, it had turned to snow. Because of the propane issue and the fact that we could no longer see the mountains because of the low clouds we headed out once more.

5/20/15
Off to Sterling,CO. We were going to visit a new found relitive of Peg's. Once we got there we thought we would stay at a nearby State park. After seeing the park we went back and asked if we could park in their driveway. Their solution was lets go across the street and we can park in their shop. Off we went and ended up parking in HUGE bay. We pulled the tear in and it seemed lost in there. We did have his and her showers though which is always a plus. So we had our first indoor tear experience.

5/21/15
Headed for Rocky Mountain NP. Rainy, cold and the road through the park was closed. We camped there for the night in an almost deserted campground.

5/22/15
Decided to head for home. The first 3-400 miles it rained. We still had 600 miles to go so are desperately looking for somewhere to camp. Peg found a primitive campsite with her AllStays app (wonderful app, we used it constantly). Very cool campsite, deciduous trees instead of evergreens, right on the Yellowstone river. Our first primitive campsite and we loved it. We lit a fire and the rains came. Tried sitting by the fire under an umbrella enjoying our last night and getting soaked.

5/23/15
Made it home, back to Coeur d'Alene, ID. We had stayed in the tear for 28 nights, still liked each other and were back. We covered 5,444 miles. None of our problems on the trip were insurmountable, and now are something we laugh about.

As I write this (8/15/15)we are looking forward to our next adventure. This time a little farther, a little longer. Ahhh, retirement.

Larry and Peg
2008 ultra 550 #249 Audi A6 Avant

 

Heheh, great trip indeed...
Just filling up the map..

Jacks:
While I never used them you might also consider the little Leveling Legos that the campers use... you just pull the TD up on them as needed and they'er not connected. Might have a problem on keeping them on, but some chaulks might work, just a thought.

Heater/Propane:
Cold is a bummer. Used to happen on the campfire bottles all the time. Ended up pouring hot water over it to keep it going for a little bit, 20 min but not a good solution. That's why I went with the 20lb bottle as main connection and the little TD one as a back up. But the 20lb will ice up too. It's just the liquid can't evaporate to gas to run the stuff. hehheh, and, LOL, as you probably found out, while the 'Heat' part won't ignite, safety issue, the FAN WILL blow.. c-c-cold Air.. not fun.. Heat pad will drain the battery at 3am so that's not a good one. Just a warm 750 down quilt and long johns seem to work.

What a great trip...

looking forward to photos..

photos:
You might try using the free program, Picasa (Google) which will automatically, if you choose, post them in Web sized format to your Google acct Web Album and then you can link from there.. it's what I do..

It'll upload automatically and you can use Picasa to edit pics if needed...

Hope that helps, great trip..

You always remember/talk about the bad parts...heheh jacks, glasses etc... it's what camping is all about..

fun..

 

Frank,
After talking to Cary he suggested a new regulator, the one at the bottom by the frame. I got one from Amazon for $12.50 and it went on pretty easy. It now works at home, will see about in the cold at altitude.
Loving "your" tear,
Larry and Peg

 

Heheh, kewl.... just be aware that regardless of the fill, in the cold, it won't last long...

I've got mine (camper) ordered and truck in 2 weeks, camper as soon as they get one in or have found one. Figuring mid Sept, I'll be off and running, will catch up to you all on the trails for sure...

Fun..

 

... and don't forget the PNW meet this coming week... I think??

 

Loved this travelogue! So many laughs! You do have to laugh or the mishaps will make you crazy! We are in Ellensburg WA, heading toward your home town! At the moment, not sure of timing. But perhaps we can meet? Would love to share stories! We are on our way to Wisconsin for the Camp-inn Camp-out. Hope we can arrange to meet!