Thanks for the insights, it helps for me to figure out if I'm working in the right direction.  We just came back from our first full vacation trip with our new 178; 2 weeks at MacGregor Provincial Park on the shores of Lake Huron.  The provincial parks in Ontario are very good, the only thing they are missing is water hook up, so you have to use the fresh water tank / pump option.  It was our first experience camping with the Rpod and we were very impressed (a huge leap forward from the 20 year old tent trailer!).

We also have the Thule awning and are very glad we ended up with that over the R-dome, the awning is very easy to set up and I was impressed how stable it is.

We intentionally held off on all mods we want to do until we have a few trips under our belt, but I really like a few of your suggestions... One question for you, with your shelf over the bed, did you anchor it to the walls or did you rely on the window valens to hold the weight?

Thanks again for your input... Kasper

complain, complain, complain

We too would like to make it up there with our R-pod. The last time we were up there, the Al-Can highway was "barely" a gravel road, and vehicles went to extraordinary lengths to protect the fronts of their vehicles from flying rocks. Somewhat intimidating.

Time to start writing about our first major 2018 trip.

This one was again out west to see our daughters and their families. Our trip lasted over a month and covered 6481.4 miles (not all of it towing, but most of it was). We also fulfilled a lifelong dream of seeing some major sights. This was also the major test of our new Hensley Cub hitch.

Our first leg was from North Carolina to Tempe, AZ. We went along I40 with a detour off there to visit a friend in Oklahoma. The trip was uneventful, in part because the Hensley hitch does indeed work better than the Equal-i-zer which I had been using. I would always feel the wiggle when a truck was passing us before. With the Hensley, a number of them sneak up on me as I don't get that wiggle. I still do get a push from some of the flat-front busses and RVs that passed us, but it is not a wiggle from the hitch pivoting. Overall, I rate the Hensley hitch very highly. The one instance that concerned me was when we hit what would have been a dust devil if it had been over dirt but was not visible. It did catch the truck and nudged it harder than any of the trucks that passed us. Perhaps because it was rotating, it introduced a different type of force. It was not enough to be dangerous, but it did remind me that I am still towing a sail. This happened a little later in the trip, but I was discussing the hitch here, so I mentioned it here. After that, I put the Hayes No-Sway back on as an additional safety measure. The one thing I think is different is that the Hensley hitch seems to cause a rougher ride in the R-Pod as we would find things on the floor that previously had stayed in place.

After we left Oklahoma, it was back onto I40 for the trip to Tempe. That is, until I saw the sign for Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. A quick check of the map and I saw that it would not take us too far out of our way. I was able to use the Access pass to go in to the park and we drove the length of the road, stopping to take pictures and stopping at the gift shops to pick up souvenirs. Among them are two batches of petrified wood to go into our rock tumbler to be polished. Hopefully, we will get some good pieces to the turned into jewelry when they are done. We did not get back onto 40 for the trip into Tempe, but instead were on a combination of back roads and roads through national forest lands. It turns out that after we went through, a fire broke out in the area we had been on not too many days before. We did not have any problems, but had we come later, we would have.

We had a good visit with our younger daughter and her two boys in Tempe, AZ. We spent several days there. They were busy with helping to get some jobs done that had been postponed but needed doing.

On our way from Oklahoma to our younger daughter's house in Tempe, we stopped by the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park. The park is a drive of 28 miles between I40 in the north and Highway 180 in the south. There are many places to pull off and take pictures (and you will want to). It would be interesting to spend a day in the Painted Desert from sunup to sundown to see the interplay of light on the various colors of rocks and vegetation, but we did not have that time available. Still, it was beautiful and I am glad we stopped.

Painted Desert:

http://hafflys.linkpc.net:8008/2018trip/Painted_Desert.png">

Petrified Forest:

We left our younger daughter's house after spending several days visiting and helping with a number of projects which she had not been able to get to after her move. We plugged in the GPS for South Jordan, Utah, figuring we would be taken up through Las Vegas since that seemed like it would be the fastest way. Instead, we traveled up 17 to Flagstaff where we saw a sign for Meteor Crater. This was also a place I had wanted to visit, so we made the 30 mile trip east to get to the access road and then drove almost another 6 miles to get to the crater.

What can one say? It is a BIG hole in the ground. It was interesting to see that NASA used the area to train for the moon landings. It was quite windy, especially near the rim where it seemed the side of the crater was accelerating the wind.

After leaving the crater, we drove west on I40 toward Flagstaff and then turned off on US89N We drove through some beautiful landscape on our way north through Arizona. The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, like the Painted Desert, is very colorful.

We continued on to Page, AZ where we stopped for the night. We had, unfortunately, run out of daylight before we got there so we did not get a good view of what was probably some pretty spectacular scenery heading into the Grand Canyon area.

After our stop in Page, Arizona, we set out the next morning to complete the drive to South Jordan, Utah. We continued up US 89 until we got to UT 20. We took that to connect to I15 which took us the rest of the way. We passed signs for both Zion, Brice Canyon, and Capitol Reef parks, but did not have time to visit any of them this trip.

We arrived at South Jordan and set up our escaPOD in the driveway of our daughter's house. Since their neighborhood is still under construction, I retrieved a couple of pallets from a pile and used them to build a platform to step onto as we exited the door so we would not potentially step into mud if it were to rain. It didn't rain, but it still kept us cleaner than if we had stepped into the dirt.

While we were there, we saw school awards ceremonies and the 8th grade graduation ceremony at our grandson's school as this is the highest grade Challenger Schools has. We also visited Antelope Island which was a bit of a surprise. I had not heard about it so it sounded like a good idea to visit. It was. Antelope are native to the island, but in prior years, North American Bison were brought in and there is a pretty good sized herd on the island.

We also saw some birds that I had not seen before. One was a chukar partridge.

We also made a trip up into the Wasatch range to the Alta and Snowbird resorts. While the day was warm, there was still some snow on the ground but not enough for someone to ski. It made for some great scenery and pictures though.

Friday, the day after our grandson's 8th grade graduation, we took off headed northbound with our intended stopping point of West Yellowstone. We chose it for a couple of reasons. First is that our older daughter and family were planning to travel up on Saturday to join us. We had originally discussed them camping with us, but in the end, they made motel reservations in West Yellowstone. It took much of the day to travel from South Jordan up to West Yellowstone. Again, it was a scenic drive.

We arrived in West Yellowstone in the late afternoon and checked in at the Pony Express RV Park. This is an adjunct to the Brandin Iron Inn, which seems to have bought out the Pony Express Inn and now uses it as expansion. The RV park is across the street from the P.E. Inn and next to the B.I. Inn. The proprietors were friendly. We had a pull-through spot which was apparently sized for motorized RVs. It was no problem to pull the RP179 into the spot and get it lined up for electric, water, and sewage hookups. The only potential issue was that the post was 50A. However, the office had adapters available for use without charge. The only condition was to turn it back in before we left which we did. The spaces were partially shaded. They were close together, but that was not an issue. The rates were reasonable, and we knew that we would not be doing much more than sleeping there since our days would be taken up with touring Yellowstone NP.

I had not taken pictures of the set-up with the awning deployed. The evening before we left, the wind picked up so I stowed the awning both to protect it and to cut down on the noise of the fabric flapping against the framework.

Since it was somewhat late when we arrived, we did not go into the park Friday evening. Instead, we went over to a new restaurant that had just opened, the Firehole BBQ which featured central Texas style BBQ. The owner had underestimated demand that first day, so much was sold out when we got there. However, they did have a rack of ribs which ended up being spit between my wife and me. They were very good and the side-dishes were pretty good also.

Since our daughter and family were driving up and not expected to get to West Yellowstone until early afternoon, we went into the park (using my Access pass). It is a significant drive from West Yellowstone to the Madison campground (full) and information center. This lies at the junction of the West Entrance Road and the Grand Loop Road, Madison-Old Faithful. We decided to first head south on the GL Road. Highlights were the Firehole Canyon Drive and Fountain Paint Pot areas. This was our first view of some of the volcanic activity evidenced by geysers, boiling springs, and mud pots.

Fountain Paint Pot:

Celestine Pool:

Fountain Geyser:

Since it was getting on toward noon and we expected to meet our daughter and family in West Yellowstone for lunch, we headed back toward West Yellowstone. On the West Entrance Road, we came up on stopped traffic. It soon became apparent why the traffic was stopped.

This was an unexpected surprise and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be this close up to live North American Bison. It turns out this was not close enough. After the first three passed, this happened:

This one was walking directly toward the front of the truck. It turned aside just enough to clear the mirror. I could have easily reached out and touched it as it passed. I thought better of it as those horns looked like they could do a good can opener job on the truck if I got it upset. Still though, it was quite an experience!

Yes, it was a great trip.

After we saw the bison, we continued on out of the park to get lunch. Our daughter and family didn't get the word to meet us in West Yellowstone for lunch, so they had already driven in to the park. We did not have a cell signal until we were almost at West Yellowstone, so we talked and agreed that we would get lunch and them meet them at Old Faithful.

Old Faithful is a very popular attraction as evidenced by the huge parking lots, hotels, and gift shops as well as a service station. We did not coordinate where to meet as we had never been there before and so did not know the layout. We found parking and then had to hunt for them. We finally met them and found seats to wait for Old Faithful to spout. It was a significant wait. Old Faithful has a few false starts where it increases in steam production and some hot water bubbles up. This happened several times before the main eruption began. Once it did, it was indeed spectacular. The column of water quickly grew to its maximum height within the first minute. Then over the next three minutes it tapered off finally ending about four minutes after it started.

Old Faithful:

We continued around the Grand Loop for a little while but the day was getting late so we headed back to West Yellowstone for the night.

The next day, I fixed breakfast for the family. Because there were a lot of mosquitos, we all packed inside (seven of us) to eat breakfast which was cooked outside on our Coleman Grill Stove. I used the Griddle for bacon and eggs. We used an electric toaster for toast. After we finished, we drove into Yellowstone again, this time packed into one vehicle. There  were a number of sites at which we stopped. One memorable one was the lower falls on the Yellowstone River.

The other was the Mammoth Hot Springs area and the Travertine Terraces.

We also saw elk and a black bear. We saw much of the park, but two days is way to short to see all of it. It gives us reason to try for a return trip someday. Hopefully, we can stay in the park at one of the campgrounds but if not, West Yellowstone is a good place to use as a base for exploring the park.

We bid farewell to our daughter and son-in-law and to our grandchildren as they would need to leave Monday morning to return to South Jordan and we would need to leave for home.

I'm not sure. They are a simple link to the actual files on my home computer. Is your browser blocking the images for some unknown reason?

The actual link for the image above is:

http://hafflys.linkpc.net:8008/2018trip/Travertine.png

If you paste the link into your browser, does it then display the picture?

When I last wrote, we had completed our stay in West Yellowstone. It was now time to begin the homeward portion of our trip. We headed north out of West Yellowstone to Bozeman. The GPS indicated this was the faster route than going through the park. Given that there was construction in the park, it was a good choice. We picked up I90 in Bozeman and started east. As we were driving, we got a call about the death of my sister-in-law's mother. We decided that we would not stop at as many places on the return trip to be able to make it back to North Carolina in time for the services. We bypassed the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, but decided that we still wanted to stop at Mount Rushmore.

At Moorcroft, we turned off I90 and headed southeast toward Mount Rushmore. I had not realized that the GPS would be taking us from US16 to US385 which would take us right past the Crazy Horse Memorial which is under construction. We saw the sculpture from the road, but did not stop at the roadside pull-off from which we would have been able to shoot a couple of pictures. We got to the entrance and found out that this is a privately operated and funded project. We did not have the time to spend to justify paying the admission this time, so we turned around and continued on to Mount Rushmore.

We found that there is a senior discount on the concession parking. As far as I know, there is no other parking nearby. We paid our $5.00 and went in. We saw the main attraction, but again, we did not have much time to spend going through all the exhibits. That will have to wait for a future visit if we can.

Mount Rushmore:

There is not much to add about the next few days of driving except to comment that the roads in Illinois are among the worst that I have driven on in a long time. More about that in my next post though.

Originally posted by StephenH There is not much to add about the next few days of driving except to comment that the roads in Illinois are among the worst that I have driven on in a long time. More about that in my next post though.

I grew up in Illinois, and I can confirm that Illinois does have some awful roads. In their defense, the soil in the state is largely made of clay, and in the earlier days, they did not do a lot of underlayment. As a result, when temperatures changed (especially freezing weather), they would develop these "frost heaves", AKA raised stripes across the road every few hundred feet. Pretty terrible to drive on.

When you get up into Wisconsin and Minnesota, the soils are more sand than clay, and even with the more extreme temperatures they get in those states, the roads are a lot smoother.

"When you get up into Wisconsin and Minnesota, the soils are more sand than clay, and even with the more extreme temperatures they get in those states, the roads are a lot smoother."

That used to be he case.  We have had political events in Wisconsin that has resulted in deterioration of the condition of our roads as well as other things.  In spring when we went to Paducah the Illinois roads were at least as good as Wisconsin.  I hope our roads get the attention they need soon.

As I mentioned, we encountered some very rough roads in the upper mid-west. Once we got farther south, the roads got better. We were on the last leg to Asheboro, NC where my sister-in-law lives. Somebody passed us, honked, and pointed. I started checking mirrors to see what was up. It was a good thing that we were almost to a rest stop. The stress of the rough roads caused the black tank drain to come loose (Again!). When our escaPOD went to the factory for repair, the factory installed a second hanger. Unfortunately, it was of the same type as the first. The nylock nuts had come off both somewhere along the way and the end started dragging on the pavement. I don't know how since the handle is on the foreward side, but somehow beside losing the cap, the valve came open and the tank dumped on the Interstate. It is a good thing that sunshine is an excellent disinfectant. I feel sorry for whoever was behind us though.

At the rest stop, I closed the valve and used a number of zip-ties to strap the drain up. The good thing is that the valve was still capable of  shutting without leaking. I zip-tied a freezer bag over the end to take the place of the missing cover. We got the rest of the way to Holly Bluff Family Campground without further incident. However, our escaPOD had a certain "air" to it. It wasn't too bad and did fade over the next day.

After the funeral, we spent the night at the same campground. It was a nice campground not too far outside of town. It had a pool which we were not able to take advantage of on this short stay. I would like us to return there for a longer stay and to visit the NC  State Zoo in Asheboro while we are there. We arrived home and started the work of unpacking and getting ready for our next trip.

I ordered a new valve, drain, and cap from Amazon. It was tricky emptying the black tank so I could make the repair. Gorilla Tape helped. Still, the valve body did leak some also while it was open. Again, sunlight makes a great disinfectant. I used some bleach also. In addition, I fabricated a new hanger from strap aluminum. My hanger will NOT come loose. I should have done this the same time I did the one for the gray water tank, but I thought that having two of the other type would provide sufficient backup. Was I ever wrong! Live and learn!

An addendum to the above post:

I sent a copy of the above post with pictures to Danielle Beber at Forest River. She replied that she would let the engineering department know that the supports failed and the fix I did to prevent this from happening again. Hopefully, this will lead to changes that will prevent this from being a problem on future R-Pods (and other Forest River brands).