EscaPOD Adventures

Great updates stephen. I stayed about an hour due south of emerald, just barely in massachucetts, clarksburg state park. It was really nice, but, not real R.V. friendly. one way , single lane roads and trees 1 foot off both sides. Not your easy back in sites.

Hi Stephen,

We did the shopping we needed to in preparation for the rest of the team's arrival. We also prepared dinner for them. We prepared a total of three dinners and one dessert for Wednesday's potluck at Washington Baptist Church. I made two maple cheesecakes in the 6 quart pressure cooker. Since each was small, I needed to make two to ensure there would be sufficient for everyone present to have some.

My replacement converter arrived with the team. I got it installed and turned the power on. It was wonderful to hear the fan start and see the batteries were charging again. Even though I had a charger connected, it was only a 15A charger with 3A float, which was insufficient to keep the dual 6V batteries charged, as it detected the power draws and determined (wrongly) that the batteries were "bad." With the new converter in place, the batteries were charged fully.

The week at the Calef house and Waterbury Mission went quickly. The new awning performs well. I did do one stupid thing as I was packing up the Coleman grill-stove and propane tank. It looked as if there were some water in the propane hose, so I decided to swing it around to use centrifugal force to help expel the water. I was standing too close to the awning, and the Acme nut hit the top part of the awning's outer edge and dented it! Well, at least I put the first ding in it. I got it straightened out and there is only a very slight reminder to not do something like that again!

We got hitched up after the last trip to Waterbury and set out for home. We got as far  as Cobleskill, NY where we spent the night at a Walmart. I had hoped to get into Pennsylvania at least, but when the daylight was running out, that was my cue to stop.

The next morning we set out and in spite of the GPS wanting to route us around the DC beltway, we stayed on I81. This time, we got as far as Winchester, VA where we stopped at a Walmart again. It had been quite warm during the day, but the evening cooled off enough so that we did not need the AC, just the vent fan plus the O2 Cool fan. By the way, we found a good buy on the O2 Cool fan at our local Staples. It runs on 9V (six D-Cell batteries) and has a 110V transformer. It had the same plug as the other fan we were using, so I plugged it in to one of our 12V outlets. It ran just fine but was a little louder. It still moved more air than the previous fan as the O2 Cool has 5 blades instead of the 3 blades of the previous fan.

We left Winchester and finally arrived home Sunday afternoon about 5:00 p.m. We are in the process of unpacking and getting set for our next adventure. The next one will not involve the R-Pod, but will instead involve flying to Seattle for an Alaska cruise with my brother and sisters and their families. In many respects, I would rather drive to Seattle with the R-Pod for the cruise, but there are too many conflicting appointments for that to happen.

That is it until our next adventure.

Welcome to Vermont!!

I have been delayed posting the second leg of our trip. We packed up and pulled out of my sister's driveway on a shorter trip across New York State. Our destination for this leg was Susquehanna Trail Campground. We had stayed there last year and found it was a convenient distance to the nursing home where my father-in-law is residing. We got there and were directed to a spot near where we stayed last year. The site backs up to Otego creek. The site is back-in with a gravel entrance and pad. These are larger gravel stones. While I was unhitching, the gravel allowed my Andersen leveler and BAL chock to shift. I hitched the trailer again in order to level again. Having done that, I went to plug in the AC power. I have a circuit analyzer inline with my power cord. When I plugged it in and flipped the breaker, I saw that the power pole had an open ground. I reported it to the management and then moved to a different site which meant hitching up again in order to move. At least I had not yet gotten fully set up.

Once moved, leveled, chocked, and stabilized, I was able to get the power connected. I got the slide-out cover and awning deployed just in time as the rain arrived shortly afterward. I really like the new awning that I bought and that was installed when our R-Pod went to the factory for repair. It is so easy to insert the crank and wind it out.

The weather was not conducive to taking advantage of the pool. The water was a little too cold for my liking. had the day been warmer, it would have felt nice though. We had some good visits with my father-in-law and went over the mountains to my wife's home town to pick up some things from her brother.

Until next time . . . .