Strolling Amok

Pops goes on tour.

05 Oct 2016
16 Comments

State of the Intrepid – Bedding Mods

Kinda looks like one big mattress, but it isn't. You're looking towards the front of the truck.

Kinda looks like one big mattress, but it isn’t. You’re looking towards the front of the truck.

The FWC’s original equipment 3-piece queen-sized foam mattress is fine for most folks, but I couldn’t spend more than a few minutes on it. Still too firm, despite FWC’s recently having gone softer in durometer. I wound up yanking out the main section, replacing it with a “self-inflating” sleeping bag pad, an Exped MegaMat 10, which just happens to sleeve perfectly into the hole vacated by the original main foam piece when the bed platform is in its “tucked in” position. See, the basic bed platform can be expanded to full queen width by pulling out a sliding section that then overhangs part of the dining area. I don’t need that extra width, so mine stays narrower, and the single Megamat fits right into the vacated hole.

With the MegaMat yanked out of place, you can see the bed platform and height to the piano hinge, which all bedding should stay well below.

With the MegaMat yanked out of place, you can see the bed platform (light grey) and height to the piano hinge, which all bedding should stay well below.

I’ve found that I can’t trust user ravings about how great a particular mattress is, but I lucked out on this one. It’s basically a layer of open-cell foam inside an air mattress, and in my case, I run it with very little air pressure added. Heavenly, and more comfortable than a residential Sleep Number mattress I’ve had. Your mileage may vary. The Megamat is considered to be a “car camping” pad, since it’s Read more…

Posted in Mod Squad and tagged
02 Oct 2016
32 Comments

Certainly Uncertain

Sample image from Despair.com

Sample image from Despair.com

I’m glad to announce that I’m back, and I’m bad. Okay, I’m not bad. I’m harmless, actually.  Executive Summary: My plans to return to the Yuma, AZ area via Montana and Wyoming this year on a 4-month boondock camping extravaganza ran into a snag when my annual physical checkup threw a flag. A wad of follow-up tests quantified its degree of seriousness, and also spotted something else, the doomsday machine of the cardiac world. This has been mentioned in previous posts.

Though not an experience I’d care to repeat on a dare, the end results have been largely per plan. One oddity remains unresolved. I’m told that surgery screws up the electrical heartbeat signals about a third of the time, disrupting things. This normally recovers in a week or less. Mine became more notable for its day-to-day inconsistency – never having been great coming in through the doors. When the question was “will this system return to normal, or will a pacemaker be needed?” my heart monitor answered “blue rooster”. A crew of electrical Read more…

Posted in Daily Life and tagged
20 Sep 2016

Reminder of Interruption

sample image from Despair, Inc.

Sample image from Despair, Inc.

This just to remind the three of you that Strolling Amok will have no new posts for awhile, and as of now, I will not be able to respond to comments, either. If you have subscribed to Strolling Amok, you’ll be the first to know when you can once again resume wasting your life away reading inane and pointless drivel.

By the way, the above poster is meant to be sarcastic, but I take its message seriously. There’s far too much cultural emphasis today toward “unless you can excel at what you do, don’t bother even trying”. I’m for people doing things that they enjoy, regardless of the level of accomplishment reached. Should you do what you enjoy for the sake of getting the approval of others, then you’re bound for disappointment. If you’re in it because it pleases you in the doing, then you have a lot of enjoyment ahead of you. Go for it.

Posted in Navel Gazing
19 Sep 2016
6 Comments

Shock and Awe – The Green Mamba Jet Car

I'm not sure, either...

I’m not sure, either…

Last weekend, my son and his family made their annual trek to Rockford Speedway in Illinois for a special event. I wasn’t there of course, but I was in spirit. I introduced this event to them when they were young’uns, and I suspect that it will become a tradition as long as a certain one of the feature events hangs in there long enough. Rockford Speedway is a quarter-mile banked oval track, and the “Miller Lite Night of Thrills” featured Doug Rose and the Green Mamba Jet Car, monster trucks, a school bus figure-8, hornets (4-cylinder shitbox oval racing), and “Spec Drags”.

Spec Drags were earlier referred to as Spectacular Drags, and before that, Spectator Drags. Anyone in the stands is eligible to run what they brung, be it a 10-year-old Honda Civic, a full-on 1978 Dodge Charger, a pickup truck complete with bed toolbox, or your grandmother’s Buick. That last one did not go well; Read more…

Posted in Tourista! and tagged ,
17 Sep 2016
2 Comments

Days on the Monon Rail Trail

The monon Rail Trail is the Interstate of bike trails.

The Monon Rail Trail is the Interstate of bike trails.

One delight of being stuck in Indianapolis is the Monon Trail, an arrow-straight paved recreational trail running 20 miles, from downtown Indy to the northern suburb of Carmel. As was pointed out to me, that’s pronounced CAR-mel, not that snooty car-MEL, as in California. This post is a composite of three days involving the Monon and/or Carmel. See, the oppressive heat and humidity finally tempered, and I took the Evelo Aurora out for a brief 6-mile spin one day, just to gauge my butt’s condition, or lack of. One of the trailheads is just a mile from where I’m staying, and the main connector involved has a broad shoulder. Low and behold, I could feel the seat by the end of the ride.

Heading south toward the city.

Heading south toward the city.

That particular ride took me south, and there are stopping pull-offs to view the scenery. This was on Read more…

Posted in Tourista! and tagged ,
12 Sep 2016
7 Comments

State of the Intrepid – Options & Standards

The built-in propane stove is pretty handy, and a flush-mount model is also available.

The built-in propane stove is pretty handy, and a flush-mount model is also available.

Options are always an individual thing, and some equipment has been made standard since I ordered my Grandby. The standard two-burner gas cooking range works well, and its diminutive size does not compromise cookware that can be used on it. Only if you use two huge pots at a time or need more than 10K BTUs per burner will you need to go a’campin’ with an outside stove.

Yup, it's filthy. I use a screen in the drain to put less food waste into the tank, and to slow clogging of the line out.

Yup, it’s filthy. I use a screen in the drain to put less food waste into the tank, and to slow clogging of the line out.

The deep stainless steel sink is a mix of blessing and curse. To the good, it’s stainless, and cleans up easily. Its Whale faucet has good controls as well as a spout which can be twisted side-to-side and adjusted from spray to steady stream. This adjustability to task decreases water usage quite a bit – nearly halving it, in fact. And the water pump supplying it has quite a wallop, if you need it. The water pump in my unit was Read more…

Posted in The Intrepid and tagged ,
02 Sep 2016
7 Comments

State of the Intrepid – Camper Bed Mounts

Camper mounts may be the least glamorous part of any truck camper, but are functionally the most important.

Camper mounts may be the least glamorous part of any truck camper, but are functionally the most important.

“If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy” is a saying that also applies to truck camper mounts. The camper does not wedge tightly into the truck bed, but has plenty of clearance. It’s then effectively strapped down tight to the flat bed surface. In the case of Four Wheel campers, the goal is to keep it pulled fully forward so that slamming on the brakes affects nothing, and keep it centered and otherwise down tight so it can’t shift around. Fortunately for me, the Mighty Furd is wearing a Line-X urethane bed coating that has a rough surface which helps friction. The camper is pretty easy to slip-n-slide on painted metal, but mine took three guys and an incline to coax it to move when it had to be reset in the bed. I recommend any such urethane spray, or a much less expensive full-width rubber mat on the floor only. Plastic bed liners should not be used.

I had some early problems with the camper shifting in the bed, with damage to one Read more…

Posted in Camper Nirvana, The Intrepid and tagged , ,
26 Aug 2016
39 Comments

Please Stay Tuned for This Message From Our Sponsor

Demotivational image courtesy Despair, Inc.

Demotivational image courtesy Despair, Inc.

Normally, Strolling Amok is about thoughts, places, adventures and misadventures. Nothing profound – just goofin’ around. You may have noticed the recent veer toward hardware, recycled posts, and ill-considered considerations. Sorry to say, that trend will continue for awhile. As a matter of fact, the rest of this year is pretty well shot, as far as “camping the USA” articles go.

I finally got in to have a heart surgeon evaluate some new-fangled movin’ pitchers on DVD, and in trade for the next three months of my life, I’ll receive an operational circulatory system, pretty much. The proper time is right now, I’m told, not next year when delay damage would negate the benefits. All it will take is some guy on my chest with a roofing crowbar, some Gor-Tex shoelaces, and a Read more…

Posted in Navel Gazing
23 Aug 2016
14 Comments

State of the Intrepid – Floor Plan

Could'a used a wider lens on this - which I don''t have. Anyway, the Grandby front dinette model.

Could’a used a wider lens on this – which I don”t have. Anyway, the Grandby front dinette model.

[This post is a look at the Four Wheel Grandby’s basic features which inherently come along with the front dinette floor plan. Several more posts about other of the Grandby’s aspects will follow. Caution: neat/clean freaks may experience some degree of trauma due to the graphic nature of the photographs used throughout this series, which were taken after some 5 months on the road. The camper is in active camping condition, not display condition. You have been warned.]

In general, the Grandby itself has worked out very well, without regrets. The front dinette model can sleep four adults, the second pair sleeping on a platform created by stowing the dinette table between the two side benches. Of necessity, the seat foam is markedly stiffer, and coin-tossing for sleeping location may be advised. Obviously, I didn’t select my floor plan for that capability, and I wouldn’t expect the head count after a long 4-person weekend camp out to be the same returning as it was departing. Whoever sleeps on this lower platform is likely to be stepped on when Read more…

Posted in Camper Nirvana, The Intrepid and tagged , ,
21 Aug 2016
2 Comments

A Secret Blog Post!

More Constitution

This is just for those of you who don’t subscribe to this blog and instead just come by now and then to see what’s new. The latest post is actually here, but you don’t see it on the top of the home page because this blog software posts in order of entry start date, not published date. Begin an entry a year ago, and that’s where it is in the final stack. I forgot that, so click on the link above if you want to check out the latest.

Posted in Uncategorized

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