Strolling Amok

Good News, Bad News

Originally posted 10/10/2012

Waking up in Wolcott, Indiana, was pleasant, though I wondered why the propane heater was only able to hold 66 degrees on its low setting. Seems that after a brief overnight rain, the wind has shifted to west-northwest at a stiff 15-25 MPH which, with the trailer positioned as it is, gets past the stove exhaust vent door. Yup, this thing has an exhaust fan over the range, and such amenities can become drawbacks under the right conditions. That cold 35 degree air leaking in is enough to dilute the heater’s output. I may eventually tear off the outside vent plate and take a look, but such things will never realistically seal very well. It’s just a flapping door.

More sinister is a slight weeping of water across the floor near the bed in the rear. I discovered that with my foot Read more…

Baptism by File

This is a small section of the view out my dinette window. That’s a defunct restaurant in the foreground.

Originally posted 10/9/2012

Because I’m first going to see relatives who kinda want to know when to begin boarding up the windows, I’ve worked out a driving schedule. It was a good thing that I’d only planned an unmanly 3-hour trip to Wolcott, Indiana because I got a late start from my overnight at Cabela’s in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

Why? I couldn’t help enjoying a cup (actually, two) of brewed coffee and sitting at the dinette to compose the previous post. After that, I could tell that things inside the trailer had been trying to skootch forward during transport, so I figured I had some time to unhitch and reset the ball higher. Naturally, I repositioned it one hole higher and after remeasuring the frame then decided that one more would be more appropriate. Easier to do it while the tools are still unpacked and broken out.

You know, it always appeared to me that the camper’s frame was maybe a little droopy behind the axles. Maybe it was an optical illusion, I hoped. Turns out, it isn’t. Although it’s a pretty tall frame and a straight shot from tip to tail, it is in fact, sagging a bit as measured with a ruler. That prompted a mental note not to hop a curb with it, or store gold bars in the rear end. There’s neither anything that can be done, nor should be done. It is The Way of All Things. I’m getting a little saggy myself. It’ll hang in there awhile yet. It’s steel. It bends like the reed in the wind, Grasshopper, while the mighty oak  Read more…

Hitting the Road, Kinda.

Cabela’s, in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

Originally posted 9/8/2012

The Enterprise has departed the “alternate construction bay” and is now officially in service. That’s a nerdy way of saying that while a few niceties remain to be addressed, all functional systems have been completed and final debugging must now take place on the road.

I pulled the Mighty Innsbruck out of the driveway I was parked in, and had the boys at General RV in Huntley IL grease the wheel bearings and look over the associated bits. I like to think of this interstate foray as an adventure, but would like to keep it as positive an adventure as possible. Dry bearings, dragging brakes or bad tires can put a serious dent in one’s touring experience. What confidence did I have that they would catch obvious problems? The Profit Motive. The more legitimate problems they can find, the more money they Read more…