JUMP OR SWIM

There is a fine art to RV septic dumping. Gaila is an expert after dumping for five months when I hiked the Continental Divide. Now and then she will let me take a turn at the dump station. That was the case recently in Cody, Wyoming. We found a city RV dump station by going on the internet. Yes, the internet can even tell you where to take a dump. I did everything by the book as Gaila stood by to grade my performance. My plan was to fill up nearby with fresh water after dumping, but before I could do that a large tour bus pulled up. There was a big sign that stated, “No Commercial Dumping” but these two Canadians must not have understood English. I could see them considering their options. One was obviously the driver and the other was a slick looking tour chaperone who seemed most talented at smoking his cigarette and suggesting how the driver should go about dumping his bus full of ballast. I heard Slick say to the driver, “We can just back it up close to the hole and let ‘er go, eh?” When they started backing up next to us I told Gaila to run for her life. We jumped in the motorhome and we made a quick retreat. These turkeys didn’t even have a sewer hose. They just backed over the dump station and let’er fly, splashing everywhere. The driver was doing all the dirty work, and Slick Willy was running in the opposite direction holding his nose, puffing on his weed and yelling, “Oh, my God that stinks, eh?” 

The septic outlet on an RV is on the driver’s side of the vehicle so that irresponsible people cannot dump on the side of the road. It is obvious that this isn’t true with tour buses. I am not sure when the RV industry implemented the new location for black and gray water outlets. Trailers in the 50’s and 60’s had the dump outlet on the road side of the vehicle so that trailer owners could dump on the shoulder. I can see how that would have fallen out of favor as millions of Americans took to the road in recreational vehicles. Anyway, our new method of dumping the motorhome septic is to first check for Canadian Tour Bus operators, then get in and out fast. --Keep Smilin’

CASCADES TO THE ROCKIES

I don’t know why we had never been to Crater Lake before. We just skirted it on past trips. What a cool place. My knees have been giving me problems since my hike in Glacier or we would have done a lot more hiking around the lake. 

The morning we were leaving the park our Saturn decided to die. My brother-in-law (a much better mechanic than I)  was heading back to California and not even out of sight when it stopped running. We have still been using it but have to push start it. I push and Gaila pops the clutch. She is getting better at it all the time. The first time she didn’t have it in gear. I’ll have to put a starter in it when we get home, I just don’t feel like climbing under it and dealing with it on the road. 

This traveling is wonderful. Gaila used to complain that I drank too much coffee but now she has decided “If I can’t beat ‘em, I’ll join ‘em.” As you can see by the picture we have a supply wagon full of coffee that shadows us wherever we go. 

Once we reached the Eastern side of the Cascades in Oregon there was a dramatic change in scenery. It is very dry and rolling terrain. A lot of second gear climbing but not a chore with an air conditioned motorhome. I think it might have been a bit more difficult with a covered wagon full of arrows. Idaho flattens right out and we watched ranchers combining and haying this year’s last cutting. 

We followed “Goodale’s Cutoff” http://www.idahohistory.net/OTgoodale.html one of many shortcuts along the historic Oregon Trail. We visited Craters of the Moon National Monument and hiked through a lava tube 60 ft. deep and 800 ft. long. Blistering hot up top on the lava field and amazingly cool through the tube. Pigeons were roosted in the cool tubes which proves that birds are not stupid.

Fifty miles west of Idaho Falls, ID the Rockies come into view. You can see from the bottom of the Wind River Range up into Yellowstone, with the Grand Tetons anchoring the center of the horizon. This area is the largest volcanic region in the world and the surrounding landscape make it evident. 

Teton Pass into Jackson Hole, WY is a first gear, slow climb up, and a first gear, fast, sphincter tightening ride down the other side.

Jackson Hole was a unique, small western town when I was a kid but I see no resemblance today. We drove through quickly and I think I will just drive around it in the future. We camped just inside Grand Teton National Park and ate breakfast the next morning with the mountains framing our motorhome picture window. Not a cloud in the sky, four moose in the field and me pushing a Saturn through the campground as Gaila pops the clutch. Is that sucking the juice out of life, or what?

Yellowstone is closing up for the winter and although the weather is perfect, they must know from the past that it’s going to get cold soon. 

September has always been a golden time of year to travel. Once school starts around the country the vacationing traffic thins considerably. But I am noticing a silent invasion. It is getting much busier during the fall. It is the invasion of the boomerang gang (boomers). As the Geritol Posse grows, the busier recreational destinations are becoming in the fall season. Maybe with global warming we will have extended fall seasons that will accommodate larger crowds. 

The other thing you have to deal with at the end of the season in National Parks are some cranky rangers. They have spent the last several months answering every stupid question imaginable and they just can’t take it anymore. I just love stopping at the Visitor Centers and asking really stupid questions to see how many of them I can push over the edge. 

That’s all for now out here in the Wild West. Keep Smilin’, Dick

HOW TO BLOW YOURSELF UP ON THE ROAD

Hauling a large tank of propane around under your seat is maybe not the best idea but it is convenient. It runs the motorhome hot water heater, refrigerator and furnace. It’s a necessity if you want cold beer, a bath and a warm space to enjoy hot coffee on a chilly morning. The tank itself has what is known as a pop-off valve. When filling the tank you want to make sure the attendant opens the pop-off valve. When the liquid fuel reaches the valve it starts spewing gas and you know the tank is properly filled to 80%.  

The way you know it is not done right is very simple. You start in Montana with a guy with brown teeth who’s complaining about it being cold and that he was lassoed into doing this filling job. I should have been watching him but I was busy doing other things. I thought, when he handed me my bill, that $39.78 was a little steep for propane, but I paid and headed down the road into Kalispell, MT. 

All of a sudden it sounded like someone took a shot at us with a shotgun. A few seconds later they fired again. My thought was the refrigerator was trying to light and getting too much gas. I pulled over in the perfect spot--a funeral home parking lot. After inspecting the propane tank I thought maybe it was through expanding in the morning sun and finished with the mini-explosions. Again, we started down the road, and again the explosions. 

I saw what I thought was another propane dealer. I pulled in and discovered it was a Schwan’s Food distributor. Luckily for us, the manager was well-trained in propane as all their trucks are run on propane. He grabbed a pair of gloves and popped the valve, releasing lots of pressure. I could see the dollar bills shooting out of the tank. He said not to touch it without gloves as it was two million degrees below zero. He also suggested not releasing it like this around any smokers or open flame of any kind. On a cold morning he said it would just float low to the ground looking for something to blow up. The moral of the story is: Know how your propane fill should be done. Watch the attendant to make sure it is done properly, especially if he has brown teeth and complains a lot about having to work on a chilly morning. 

ON THE MOVE--WE HOPE!

Once I cross the Mighty Mac and start heading west on Hwy 2, I am born again. It almost didn’t happen this time. After a month of readying the motorhome and getting techno road abled with a laptop and DC powered printer, so we could take the book business anywhere, things went south fast the night before we were leaving. Gaila was working at Munson Urgent Care when she started having chest pains. They were not sure she was going to make it to her 59th birthday, just hours away. They gave her an EKG, a chest and abdominal X-ray, blood pressure monitoring and a check of all her vitals. After checking her vitals they discovered her problem was vittles. I could have saved her a ton of money. I had just told her that morning that she was full of shit. But she wanted a professional opinion I guess. Now she is on constipation meds and I will be looking for RV dumping stations all the way to Seattle. Keep Smilin’, Dick E. Bird  

The Rambling News (Gaila's Blog)
National Park Camping
National Forest Camping
Compare RV Models
Full Time RV Living
RV Repair Tips
RV Travel in North America
Traveling and Camping on a Budget

RV Lifestyle

Camping in a tent or sleeping on the hard ground isn’t everyone’s idea of a meaningful experience with nature. Nowadays, a camping trip often means roughing it in a recreational vehicle. Many campers today are looking for something a little more comfy.
A motorhome, travel trailer, or other RV is like a small cabin on wheels, usually complete with stove, oven, refrigerator shower, toilet, beds, heater and 12-volt electrical power. Smaller units may not have bathrooms or hot water. Some rigs, though, have lounge areas, air conditioners, bathtubs, microwave ovens, built-in color televisions and generators for extra power.
When asked why they like the RV lifestyle, RVers cite the convenience of cooking their own meals, sleeping in their own bed, and taking a hot shower at anyplace, any time, even in a remote campground. They also mention that with an RV they are always packed and ready-to-go.
Compared to automobile travel, where motorists eat at restaurants and sleep in motels, vacationing in a RV is economical. Gasoline and campsites are the major expense. Food costs the same as at home because you cook your own meals. Overnight accommodations are reasonable, usually from about $5 to $25 a night. A surprising number of public campgrounds are still free.
There is, of course, an initial investment. You don’t have to buy a palace on wheels to enjoy the RV lifestyle. In fact, the more you spend the more gadgets you get—and the more gadgets you get the more maintenance problems you have. Do you really need a doorbell that plays a hundred different tunes? Do you need a step that automatically comes down when you open the door? Shop hard and buy used. That’s my advice. There are plenty of people who have purchased a rig and found out they didn’t like the RV lifestyle. Their loss can be your gain. You can even rent a rig for a few weeks and try before you buy.
Camping can still be inexpensive depending on how fancy you want to get. We love to camp in National Forest campgrounds which are usually under $10 per night. Many small communities have free city and county parks often with full hookups.
Seniors can obtain a Golden Age Passport, which is a lifetime admission and discount pass for citizens or permanent residents of the United States who are age 62 or older. The pass is valid at National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Corps of Engineers, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, and Tennessee Valley Authority sites with admission fees.
The Golden Age Passport also provides a 50% discount on federal use fees charged for facilities and services such as camping, swimming, parking, boat launching, and specialized interpretive services.
If you are just making time and want a safe place to park for the night, try Walmart. Most stores allow overnight parking and provide around the clock lot security.
You will make a lot of new friends living this lifestyle. Gaila and I have friends all over the world that we met while traveling. Expand your horizons!

Bruce and Teri Schwindt love living in their solar powered recreational vehicle. Schwindt said he probably would have put solar panels on the vehicle anyhow, but the $3,000 towards the $7,100 system he received from the Wyoming Business Council allowed him to install a larger system than he otherwise would have.

CHEYENNE—Few people can claim to have a life-style as free as the one enjoyed by Bruce and Teri Schwindt.
They spend nine months out of the year in Wyoming and use the winter months to travel throughout the Southwest, mainly in Arizona, to pursue their interest in muzzleloader hunting.
The key to their nomadic ways is that they do not own a house. Instead, home is their RV.
"We just kind of have that life-style," Bruce Schwindt said.
The accommodations are lean but sufficient, and finding a source of electricity to live on was often a concern when on the road.
They had to rely on either a noisy generator or a friendly relative who would let them plug into a power source.
That is now less of a worry after the couple recently had a $7,100 solar panel energy system installed on top of their RV, thanks in part to a $3,000 grant from the Wyoming Business Council.
The four-panel system produces up to 24 amps under bright and constant sunlight.
Bruce, 52, explained that the power from the panels runs to six 6-volt deep-cycle marine batteries that feed into a 3,000-watt inverter, which turns direct-current voltage into alternating-current voltage that can be used to power lights and appliances in the vehicle.
An interior display screen lists how many amps are charging at a given time.
"When the sun’s shining, it’s charging. It’s so cool," Bruce said of the system.
While small, the couple’s home has many of the appliances found in a typical house, including a vacuum cleaner, computer, television, microwave and refrigerator.
"Last night, we turned on our electric blankets," Bruce said.
Under mild sunlight the system will generate 13 amps. The Schwindts expect to reach the 24-amp maximum throughout most days in the hot Arizona sun.
The Wyoming Business Council has funding to award up to 25 grants a year to applicants who install a photovoltaic, or solar power energy system, on their homes. The grants can be as large as $3,000 to cover half the cost of a system. The system must not have already been installed at the time of the application, and it has to be used on a primary residence.
"They have a primary residence, they just move it more than most people," Dale Hoffman, state energy program manager for the Business Council, said of the Schwindts.
The program started slowly in 1996, generating fewer than 10 applications in its first year, Hoffman said. It has since gained in popularity. Last year, the Business Council received 47 applications.
If more than 25 applications are received this year, Hoffman said, a random drawing will be held including all of the eligible applications to determine who is awarded a grant.
The Schwindts lived in Laramie for 10 years, but now use Pavillion, a town of 165 people northwest of Riverton, as their home base. Teri, 51, has a sister there who owns 10 acres, enough space for them to easily park their home when they are in town.
The couple says they are still learning the entire potential of the solar panel system, including which appliances drain the most sun-powered charge. However, they already know it will make their already free lives even more unfettered.
"If we go out and park in the desert, we can sew or do whatever and before we couldn’t do any of that," Teri said.
The Schwindts said they were able to afford an early retirement based on Bruce working as an electrician at construction jobs throughout the country. He would live in an RV while on the road to cut down on expenses.
In the meantime, the couple invested in real estate, primarily in Wyoming and Arizona. They fixed up properties and sold them or served as landlords to be able to finance their travels.
More and more RV’s are coming equipped with Solar Panels. It’s really nothing new. Twenty years ago I ran into an old friend. I mean really old. He was 91 and still pulling an Airstream Travel Trailer all over the country. He made his fortune as the Porta Potty king and also owned Thedford Corporation, the company that manufactures the majority of plumbing fixtures to the RV industry. His name was Frank Sargent. He had a specially built 26 foot Airstream. The roof was loaded with solar panels. He said, "Dick E. Bird when I park I don’t plug-in, people plug-in to me!