The Nomadic Life

[bigbill]

We safely arrived in Worland, Wyoming, on Saturday and were able to go directly to our property and hook up the trailer. I made sure nothing had made a home in the 100A box and turned it on at the pole. I flushed out the water line, ran the hose to the trailer, and dumped grey water to check the flow to the septic tank. All good. We looked at some houses in town since we're looking to relocate away from NW Arizona. I think we'll buy a manufactured home for our property since it already has septic, water, and power. We can do a construction loan to upgrade the waterline to 1.5" and run a gas line.

In other news, I had to run the furnace today because it was 40 and raining. We have a few nights in the mid-30s before it becomes spring next week with 80/50 days.

[Too Tall]

Good re-cap Bill. LOL I remember July snow squalls in Rock Springs. It certainly is never boring there is it?

[bigbill]

We have had off-and-on sleet since noon. I have the electric fireplace running to keep the place kind of warm. I have used the day to assemble more sources for my latest thesis which I'll start writing next month. The 4G around here is spectacular and I upped my Verizon account to 130 GB a month so I can hotspot and use my laptop. Finding primary sources from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is challenging, so I am relying on journals and publications. Midwife diaries are very useful. If you see me in a bar, buy me some beers and I'll tell you all about the Proclamation of 1763 and how it was responsible for the Revolutionary War, but I'll only use examples from western Pennsylvania.

The upcoming weekend looks better for riding with upper 60s and the following week will have 80-degree days.

[Too Tall]

True fact: if you are in a trailer which is stuck by lightning the rubber tires are not going to save you.

This was my thinking when a ground strike happened just feet from my trailer window. The sound was loud enough to shutdown my hearing aides!!! The smell is what convinced me this really did just happen.

I'd rather this did not happen again.

[bigbill]

True fact: if you are in a trailer which is stuck by lightning the rubber tires are not going to save you.

This was my thinking when a ground strike happened just feet from my trailer window. The sound was loud enough to shutdown my hearing aides!!! The smell is what convinced me this really did just happen.

I'd rather this did not happen again.

We had a close strike two years ago in Wyoming. It split a limb off a tree about 200 feet away. Of course, we had the trailer under a huge cottonwood. When I did the power for our RV site, I drove an 8' grounding rod in the ground next to my 100A panel with a large gage copper conductor connecting to ground from said panel. It's pretty much there for lightning

[Too Tall]

Update on the lightning strike. That rascal ran down the wire 200 yards and fried the Franklin Electronics protection for our well pump. Good news the electronics saved the pump, bad news is that costs large. I'm going to have a heart to heart with the power company about their barely adequate ground rod. This is the second time the well house got hit and fried the electronics in a three yr. span. Humph.

Trailer Camps are magnets for tornados and lightning. You heard it here.

[bigbill]

Here is the summer setup in Washakie County, Wyoming. We have Syndicate and Chancy in the upper field with us and will shortly have Scully and Chase in the lower field. Chancy and Scully are full sisters and their sire is Chase, who is now a gelding. Chase is an appaloosa with great markings, but failed to pass down the trait. Chancy's real name is Last Chance, because she was the last foal he sired and she did not get the traits. He was gelded a few months later. Chase is 30, Scully is 25, Chancy is 21, and Syndicate is 16. Scully and Chase are literally out to pasture for the rest of their lives.

The fence with the electric tape was made with repurposed wood. We had considered wood cross rails, but decided we didn't need to buy more wood and the remaining poles are too large in diameter.

The trailer setup was good to go, nothing made a nest over the winter, plus I had it shut off at the pole. I dump tanks every 3-5 days and tell everyone who uses our bathroom to sing the happy birthday song to themselves while holding down the flush pedal. When we build our house on the lower field, I'll leave this setup in place with some extra 30A outlets for visitors.

[Too Tall]

Livin' the life big boy. Great to see the horses. Boy do I miss that.

[rwsaunders]

Lightning…the one and only wireless electricity.

[merlinmurph]

OK, we're almost ready. Leaving Sunday (6/9) for about two months, heading west thru NY, Canada briefly, into MI to northern MI (Traverse City) and the UP, and ending up in Door County WI for a few weeks before working our way back into VT and Lake Champlain. Phew. 8 years ago, we went west a similar way into the MI UP and it worked out well going north of the lakes. And the UP is fantastic.

Getting the trailer ready has been.....eventful. Apparently, I didn't get all the water out of the toilet water line when I blew the lines out last fall because a valve in the toilet cracked. Easy fix, but I got totally hosed by the RV dealer for the part. $60+ for a piece of plastic I could get online for <$30, but I needed it NOW.

Then, I was up on the roof checking out the caulk in various places. I was on my knees feeling around, put my hand on the skylight over the shower - and my hand went right thru the skylight. There were words said. The trailer is now 10 years old and I guess the plastic got brittle in that time. After I regained sanity, I got some thick plastic sheeting and strong tape to cover the hole. This will be a long-term temporary fix I'll have to keep an eye on and fix it when we get back. I might consider getting a mobile RV repair guy to fix it in WI.

Just got new tires, old ones were 6 years old. Blowouts suck. Been there.

Bearings were greased by a mechanic. He tested the emergency brake-away switch - that failed and he replaced it.

The awning stitching is pulling out in places which gave me the opportunity to learn about a sewing awl called Speedy Stitcher(R) and did what I could to patch that up.

After cleaning some mouse poop, we went on a shakedown cruise to Horseneck Beach in Westport MA for 3 nights. Went well and made a visit to the Back Eddy restaurant.

Meanwhile, had to reconfigure the bike rack in the back of the truck to accommodate my wife's new e-bike. The truck has a cap and we keep bikes, tools and other stuff back there.

So now, we're getting all our stuff together to pack into the trailer. Can't wait to just leave.

We will probably (try to) sell the trailer and the truck at the end of the season and replace it with a smaller trailer, like ~25'.

[Too Tall]

TCB Merlin. Often said "it is not JUST a lifestyle, it is also a hobby".

Safe travels, please share locales and impressions. VS approved campsites always appreciated.

[bigbill]

Once we build our place in Wyoming, we'll get a smaller travel trailer. We have the 33' trailer because it is our home 3-4 months a year, in Wyoming. After we relocate, I'd say a month of living in it, at the most, so a 25-26' trailer will be in our future. Our 33' trailer excludes us from many RV parks.

[merlinmurph]

Yup, ours is 30' with a large LR slide and a small wardrobe slide in the BR. It was great when we went around the country in '16 because, as my wife said, there will be rain for days sometime and we're going to need the space. The coasts of OR and northern CA in Oct delivered said rain, in a big way. We're still married.

The '15 F-250 and the '14 TT are showing their age a bit and I don't want to deal with it. The thing with the truck is it's showing rust spots (hey, life in NE), and the trailer has soft spots in the floor. A smaller trailer could be pulled with a 1/2 ton and we plan on sticking to east coast trips. The current trailer could be tough to sell with a soft RV market.

Safe travels, all.

[Too Tall]

Yup, ours is 30' with a large LR slide and a small wardrobe slide in the BR. It was great when we went around the country in '16 because, as my wife said, there will be rain for days sometime and we're going to need the space. The coasts of OR and northern CA in Oct delivered said rain, in a big way. We're still married.

The '15 F-250 and the '14 TT are showing their age a bit and I don't want to deal with it. The thing with the truck is it's showing rust spots (hey, life in NE), and the trailer has soft spots in the floor. A smaller trailer could be pulled with a 1/2 ton and we plan on sticking to east coast trips. The current trailer could be tough to sell with a soft RV market.

Safe travels, all.

Kudos to you both for years of fun travel.

I got your 26' Airstream sitting in my driveway. Come and get it!

[merlinmurph]

Kudos to you both for years of fun travel.

I got your 26' Airstream sitting in my driveway. Come and get it!

Huh? You selling? Done?

Ah, nevermind, went back and saw your older post.

Anyways, I'd get an AS, but my wife loves the slideout. We have had AS discussions - they were short discussions. She really likes our layout with a rear kitchen. Not sure if there is a shorter TT with a RK.

Packing some stuff today.....

[bigbill]

I think no matter what we end up with, trailer-wise, I'll keep my F250. Up here in Wyoming, we're either driving in the Bighorn Basin where we live or pulling over the Bighorn Mountains and not much in between. Without a trailer, I can get 21-22 mpg, and on our trip up here with a loaded trailer, 13 mpg. When we relocate permanently to Wyoming, we'll bring the 2018 Ford Escape with its fire-breathing 1.5L three-cylinder engine for our daily driver. I'll put some good all-season tires on it for the winter.

I'm not sure about everyone else, but we shun interstates every chance we can while towing. Interstates in Wyoming, Utah, and Montana typically have 80 mph speed limits. I don't tow a trailer at those speeds; I'm typically 70 mph or less in the right lane. When we travel to Wyoming, we use I-70 from north of Moab to Rifle, CO, and I-80 for about 30 miles to Rawlins. The backroads have the best scenery anyway. Who wants to miss Monument Valley, frybread tacos in Cameron, all the old Mormon towns in Utah, scenic Muddy Gap or Baggs, or the Prison Museum in Rawlins?

[bigbill]

A little OT, but for the folks that pull their trailers with a diesel pickup, I had to solve a riddle. My wife's 2007 Chevy 2500 with a 6.6 Duramax was getting check engine lights and saying the DPF was clogged. We used all kinds of additives, drove for 30 minutes at 3000 RPM, to get the DPF cleared out. A warning for the DPF causes a reduction in power. I was about to the point of using my terminal to manually initiate a regeneration in her truck. Then I drove her truck and it was getting check engine lights with reduced power, but no DPF indication. The reduced power would last a few minutes and go away, so I plugged my terminal into her truck and it gave the code for mass airflow sensor, and showed a bunch of occurrences in the last few weeks. Since the MAF sensor was probably OEM, I bought a new one instead of cleaning out the old one. The truck has been perfect since, even with almost 300K miles.

Thinking back, the MAF failure makes sense. They can malfunction without completely failing, a malfunction causes reduced power, it interfered with the DPF regen, probably contributed to the DPF clogging due to improper air/fuel mixture, and explains the soot buildup on the passenger side of the horse trailer. $90 part, five minutes of labor.

[merlinmurph]

OK, just got back from ~2 months of travelling. Looks like the forum has been quiet and that's a good thing - everybody has been out riding and travelling. I will desperately try to keep this short, no 2-hour slide shows....

Here's our route in a nutshell:
Leave Hopkinton MA, go thru Syracuse NY, enter CA at Niagra, Ontario, re-enter USA at Sarnia, stay at Traverse City MI for awhile (great place to be with the lake, good riding, cool area, cool little city), go over Mackinac bridge into UP, west along Lake Michigan, south thru Green Bay and up to Upper Door County staying at Rowley's Bay for 12 days, back down and up to Porcupine Mts Wilderness area for 5 days (westernmost point of eastern time zone, sun set at 9:58), start heading back east to Pictured Rocks Nat'l Lakeshore, Grand Marais (6 days), Tahquamenon SP, back into CA at Sault Ste Marie, unplanned diversion to Manitoulin I., southeast towards Thousand I's, cross into US and stay at Wellesley I SP, east to Champlain I's for a week and home.

The goal was to hit Door County because lots of people suggested it 8 years ago when we went around the country and didn't have time to hit it then. It was a good combination of nice quiet places, beautiful landscape and coastline, together with towns with restaurants and a music scene (we went to a Sam Bash concert). Most importantly, my wife loved it. I liked it, OK riding, kinda touristy but not overbearing, lots of *ahem* large people. The east coast is fairly quiet, lot busier on the west coast, and nothing but farms in the middle. We were almost all the way up north and it was pretty nice and quiet with a decent town, Sister Bay, only 6 miles away. Not much desire to go back.

Overall, we really like the UP, Door County was good, Pictured Rocks area and Grand Marais were great, but the whole middle part was, uh, lacking, and there's a lot in the middle. We were really happy to finally get to VT.

Notable places to stay:
Wagon Trail Campground, Door County: OK, it's a hokey name, but this was one of the nicest, best-managed campgrounds we have ever been in. Nothing fancy, no pool, no amenities at all, just a very neat, well-maintained place to stay. There were people continuously tending to the grounds making sure everything looked good, stuff was clean, and everything worked. The employees were excellent and the woman that owns/manages the place knows what to do and how to do it. Every contact with her was great. The place is deceivingly large and you really only notice how large it is when yo walk around. Most of the sites are very private in that you are tucked into your site with trees around you providing privacy. Highly recommended.

Twelve Mile Beach Campground, Pictured Rocks NL: We did not stay here, I happened upon it on a bike ride from Grand Marais. I wanted to take a look at one of the campgrounds in the park, see what they were like. OMG, I was in love. It's a smallish campground along the shoreline with the first section allowing smallish RV's, like <25' or so. From your site, you can walk about 50' to a small bluff right on one of the most beautiful beaches ever. And you don't hear a sound. If you're tenting, they provided a raised area to pitch your tent. I so would have like to have stayed here, but we're not equipped for it and are too large. No services, you're on your own.

Tahquamenon SP, Riverside section: We stayed in this SP 8 years ago, but in another section. The Riverside section is a lot nicer, a bit smaller, not as crowded and right along the river. Great spot.

Champlain Resort, formerly Champlain Adult Campground, Grand Isle, VT: One of our favorite places to stay since friends introduced it to us in 2021. The owners just want an older crowd, no kids, no big rigs, and have no interest in packing the place. He seems to favor Airstreams. I'd guess that they use maybe one quarter of the potential sites and have a perpetual "NO VACANCIES" sign out on the road. Every site is grass, and if the site is getting worn, they give it rest and let it recover. This is a natural setting, simply but beautifully landscaped, right on the lake with an orchard of apple and pear trees. Limited but decent riding on quiet roads with the option of riding the bike path into Burlington. The islands are pretty quiet, not much going on, and that's OK.

I'll leave it at that.

Hope everybody's travels are going well,
Murph

[Too Tall]

Quick reply does not justify how grateful for your detailed report. Many of the places you stayed are on our bucket list.
Welcome back.

[bigbill]

We head back to AZ on the 15th. I had the oil changed in my truck yesterday, filled up the DEF at the pump, and on Monday, I'm getting the 100K mile service (F/R differentials, transfer case, and transmission) performed. I'm not that far off from new brakes as well. On the way from WY to AZ, the only steep decline is the descent to the San Juan River near Monument Valley and that's mostly engine braking.

It's been a good summer and normally we would be here into September, but my wife is teaching ceramics and pottery at the community college and classes start on the 20th. I am finishing up my directed readings for my military history masters thesis and it's easier to travel from AZ to Pittsburgh for research at the Heinz History Center in early September, and to Northfield, VT, in October to give a speech at a history symposium.