Why do it the easy way...

...when there is a more convoluted alternative. Jill and I are out for our first outing in about three months. We settled in to our new home for the next several days in the Chinook RV Park in Waldport, OR. This is the first outing since doing several upgrades to the TC (about which I posted previously). To say we were excited to make this trip would be the rankest kind of understatement.

I set up the rig: water? check; electricity? check; Cable TV? check; wi-fi? check. I opened a cold hefeweizen and proceeded to relax. Then I remembered there was one more thing I needed to do. I flipped the switch for the water heater: red light? check...red light??...why isn't the red light going off? Why don't I hear the whoosh of the flame igniting?

I flipped off the switch...that is to say I shut it off; this had nothing to do with those digital messages that other drivers wave at me from time to time. Outside now, I opened the panel for the WH. I removed the heat shield, and of course I dropped one of the screws. After several minutes of searching, I found it in my open tool box, which was directly below my work space (just to make it more difficult to stand in front of the WH panel). I carefully stowed the two screws.

I had Jill turn on the switch. After a few seconds the igniter sparked, but no joy. I told Jill to shut it off. I removed the igniter and dropped that screw in the rust colored gravel. After about a 30 minute search, I actually found that one, too. I stowed it carefully before removing the burner pipe. I'll bet the burner nozzle is clogged, I told myself. I looked through the nozzle and saw daylight; I could blow through the nozzle. Seems clear to me.

I found a lot of loose rust in the combustion chamber. Aha! Now I am onto something. I carefully cleaned the combustion chamber. Next I reassembled everything except the heat shield. "Honey, flip the switch again." After a few seconds...spark but no flame. "OK," I said to myself, "what do you need to make fire? Air? check; ignition? check; fuel? Hmmm...maybe I should check that."

I went inside to try lighting the stove. "Maybe," I thought,"there is air in the line." Now where did I leave that fire stick? Oh, yeah, I borrowed it to do something in my shop. Must have forgotten to replace it in Topper. Hiked up to the office and scored a box of stick matches.

Back aboard, I struck a match and held it by the main stove burner. Funny, usually I have to be careful that the flow of air/gas doesn't blow out the match. This must be a super match. The flame stands up in spite of that air blowing out of the line. There...is...air blowing out of the line...isn't there. Gee...(insert light bulb here)...perhaps, the gas tank is empty.

I went out and switched tanks. That blew the match out. Got the stove started, and miracle of miracles, when I had Jill turn on the WH, it had magically cured itself.

I reinstalled the heat shield and came inside for a cold one!! I ask you, why do it the easy way...?

A few upgrades to Topper

We bought our 2002 Adventurer WSB100 last July. There were a few little things we were not completely happy with, so over time we have been doing a few upgrades. Below are a some pics.

The Problem: a disorganized dish locker. It was hard to get dishes in and out, and they were always in a jumble.

I decided to make some shelves. Using 1/2" X 1 1/2" poplar, I made up some frames.

The frames were then covered with 1/8" melamine hardboard. Everything was assembled with glue and screws.

Here is one of the finished shelves.

Here is the dish locker reorganized.

I also put shelves in the locker above the dinette. The front of the locker folds down to make a bed for a lightweight, so the shelves are removable, just in case the grandkids want to go along.

 

We found the lockers by the head of the bed to be a little clumsy to use. To improve the situation, we purchased an over the door cloth and net shoe holder and cut it up to make handy storage for socks, skivvies, etc. By placing grommets in the corners, we were able to screw the storage units to the inside of the doors.

Here's another one in the hanging locker in the saloon.

We also found this canvas organizer to hang on the saloon wall.

What are you going to do with those pesky pan lids? Here's my solution.

Then, of course, there were a few cosmetic items that needed attention.

The table, which is designed to drop down and make a bed, works fine, but it is a little hard to get around for some of us "less lithe" folks.

So, I made a round table to replace it. This is not the best photo, but you can see the table under the "stuff" on top. Notice the lighting in this photo. It is provided by some nifty LED tape that I found on Amazon.

Here is what it looks like installed. I have since installed a dimmer, so we can adjust the light to fit our mood.

Go back and look at the floor in the first table photo and compare it to the upgraded floor done with peel and stick vinyl tile that looks like hardwood.

Notice the drawer pulls in this photo of the kitchen. Don't they just scream, "1990's?"

We replaced them with these.

The cabinet that was designed to house a small CRT TV set had a slide out shelf. Since we put in a flat panel TV on a swing arm, the cabinet was of little use. BUT, it makes a great pantry with a little shelving added on top.

We also added some AC outlets: one in the dinette, one in the kitchen. And we upgraded three outlets by replacing them with combination AC/USB outlets. Now we can plug in all of our devices for charging.

On the exterior, I recaulked the windows, moved the fantastic fan from the saloon into the bathroom to make room for an A/C unit. There is some more caulking to replace on the roof, but so far no leaks.

Finally, I added a wireless rear-view camera above the door. It is powered from the license plate light, so it reminds me to turn on my lights when we take off. I know some don't like wireless cameras, but this arrangement has worked well for us, and it is so nice to be able to see what is behind us. 

I still have some exterior cosmetic things to attend to. Some of the graphics are faded and peeling. The whole camper needs to be cleaned and waxed, and the area that goes inside the truck bed is in need of some attention, due to delamination of the plywood. Stay tuned for more adventures with Topper!

Camper life, continued

One of our favorite "upgrades" I forgot to mention in my last post. The camper came with a frosted glass in the door. The idea is to provide light without compromising privacy , since there is no window blind on the door, and the screen door is on the inside of the entry door. On the other hand, the frosted glass greatly decreased the viewable area from our dinette.

Last week, I took out the old glass and had a new piece of tempered glass cut. I installed it and greatly increased our vistas!

It is hard to give a true idea of how much the change improved our "outlook," so to speak, but in this photo, the window in question is the one on the far right.  The privacy issue was easily handled by adding some snaps to the inside of the screen door and snapping a curtain on them to cover the window at night.

On another topic. We experienced a great deal of condensation in the camper our first couple of nights on this trip. It stands to reason that two humans and two canines and a crockpot full of white bean and chicken chili would put some moisture into the air.  With the outside relative humidity at 100% and the ambient temperature around 55F, we had what amounted to a rainstorm dripping off of the aluminum frame of the escape hatch above the bed.

It finally dawned on me that we needed ventilation. So, last night we left a window open about an inch and cracked the hatch above the bed so we could get some cross ventilation. It worked! Well, kind of. The outcome was we awakened this morning to no condensation; on the other hand, we were pretty cold in the night. 

I guess I should have checked to make sure that our summer/winter sleeping bag (called a Travasak) had the winter (more heavily insulated)  side up. We also have a couple of extra blankets we could have used, one of which is an electric blanket. Oh, well, we live and learn. Next time we will be warm AND dry; but that will have to wait for another trip. We are headed home later this morning.

A little R & R

This is our first getaway of 2014 in Topper. Well, actually, we spent New Year's day in Topper at South Beach State Park. The weather was amazing; more like June than January, but my point is that this is the first time we have left home with Red Ryder and Topper this year. The New Year's trip began on December 30th of 2013 and led to our first Topper homecoming in 2014, but this week is our first getaway.

There, now that that is settled; we are having a ball in Pacific City at the Cape Kiwanda RV resort.  We arrived Sunday afternoon amid rain sprinkles and were assigned a space toward the back of the park. There are a number of trailers parked nearby, but they are permanent fixtures and mostly not occupied. It is almost as if we have the whole park to ourselves.

Monday was quite rainy, so we didn't get out much, but we did take the dogs for a walk around the park. Today, however, was quite different. The rain ended during the night. When we got up, the clouds were thinning, and by mid morning, there was a good deal of blue sky and sunshine. The east wind was blowing, which seems unusual for the Oregon coast.  Usually, the wind either blows from the northwest or from the southwest.

The outcome of this unusual wind was that we were able to walk on the beach with an uncharacteristic lack of sea breeze.  Instead, the ocean was very calm, with the east wind blowing spindrift off of the tops of the low breakers as they lapped at the shore.

The girls had a wonderful time running and playing on the beach without  leashes!  Jill and I had a most enjoyable stroll and picked up a couple of dozen sand dollars in perfect condition. That is something we have only been able to do one other time...and that was here on the same beach!

After our walk, we returned to Topper for a short rest. Then we left the girls aboard (they were both sleeping!), and went across the street to the Pelican Pub for lunch.  The feature for today was a triple chowder plate. In three small bowls, we were treated to the Pub's famous clam chowder, corn chowder with bay shrimp and a smoked oyster chowder that was unbelievably delicious. The Pelican never disappoints. We sampled their local, award-winning beers as well.

We returned to Topper to find the girls awake but not too energetic. I think they burned up a lot of energy on the beach this morning. One of the high points of the afternoon was discovering that the wi-fi service had been restored. Ergo, I can blog!

We were excited for this trip, since we have been making some changes in Topper. We changed out the rectangular table for a round one that allows us better access to the sofa. We also added some shelves on the slide out in what was originally intended to be the TV cabinet. Our TV is mounted on the wall, so the cabinet (designed for a CRT TV) was empty. By adding a shelf on top of the slide out shelf, we were able to make a nice pantry.

We also added some LED light tape above the dinette and over the counter by the stove. This gives us a nice even, soft light in these areas which previously had either no light or harsh light.  Finally, we changed out the brass and porcelain drawer and cabinet door handles (which screamed 1990s) for some contemporary oil rubbed bronze handles.

 
Eventually, we intend to redo the floor with some vinyl tile that looks like hardwood and replace the white laminate counters with something a little more interesting. As Jill says, we are feathering our nest.

Tomorrow, alas, we must go home. But we are very happy tonight to be having a mini-vacation from day to day cares.

Oh, by the way...

I mentioned in an earlier post that Red Ryder is too tall for Topper to sit in the bed without also lying on top of the cab.  This is not a good thing, because it rubs the paint off of Red Ryder's cab top and Topper's cabover bottom. 

I got on the RV forum online. The guys there always have a lot of opinions, and often a solution for the problems that we share when RVing. It turns out that I'm not the only one who has this problem with my Ford F350. 

The best solution was as follows: I got a piece of 4' X 8' X 2" dense foam insulation and put it under the camper. Voilà, problem solved. The advantages of this solution are as follows: 

1. Light 
2. Cheap
3. Easy
4. Quick

Thank you RV forum guys. You're the best!

The next installment...

The fishing trip happened. The fishing happened. The catching was the only thing missing. Well, in truth the biting was missing, too.  All of this might have been acceptable, were it not for the fact that I stood by the Alsea river (where we are camped) this afternoon and watched a couple of guys net about a 30# salmon.  So, wrong river, wrong day. What are you gonna do? At least the weather was gorgeous.

 

Today was not a total loss, though. I got to have a date with my honey.  We "did" Waldport, a cute little town on the shores of Alsea Bay.  There are a handful of fun little shops. Our favorite is the flea market which, true to its name, is a collection of interesting and possibly useful second hand items. 

My sweet bride found a copy of her favorite piano sheet music book. It is one that she already owns, except that her copy belonged to her mother and is suffering from being overloved through the decades. Translation? It's in tatters. She was thrilled to have a "new" copy.

I found one thing to buy and another that I am still thinking about. The item to buy is a new hat for my sweetheart. It is not like anything she has, nor would I expect her to pick it out for herself. But I fell in love with it the moment I laid eyes on it. See what you think.

 
The other thing I found was an Aladdin's Lamp. No, no, not the kind you rub, the kind that burns kerosene via a mantel. It is in good condition and priced about $100 below the cost of a comparable new one. Still, the price was enough to give me pause, since my plan for the lamp is to use it in the event of a power failure at home. That is not a regular occurrence, so...

After our exploration of downtown, we went to the Grand Central restaurant. It is a funky little place with a varied menu.  We wanted chowder, and Grand Central delivered a serviceable example. On the other hand, we have been trying to eat lighter of late, so we ordered a bento.  The two made a wonderful combination, which we shared and thoroughly enjoyed.

After lunch we crossed the Alsea Bay bridge and explored a housing development on the peninsula that forms the north side of the bay. The homes are modest, but the location is the kind for which people pay big bucks. Apparently the CCRs don't allow for any landscaping except with the use of native plants.  Mostly, the houses are surrounded with dune grass. We found it a little depressing, especially knowing what kind of money people must have paid for these lots. 

When we got back to our Topper, we took the girls for a walk/run on the wetland that is part of Chinook RV park. Lulu, especially, loved being off leash and scampering about at full tilt. On the way to the wetland, we spotted, perhaps, the largest toadstools that I have ever seen. Alice (in Wonderland) would be proud!


Tomorrow, alas, we must head for home. It has been a lovely visit, and we will return to Waldport some time in the future. You ought to put it on your list of places to visit.

We're at it again!

We had a wonderful worship service this morning at Grace Community Church.  Our new pastors are doing an amazing job of glorifying God in our Sunday services.

After church we went home, had a snack, and then we hit the road for Chinook RV Park in Waldport, OR. 

RV Park Reviews gives this place very high ratings, and so far, we are agreeing with the reviews.  Neal and Gillian, owner/operators are very personable and helpful.  The park is located on the Alsea river, and although the RV sites are not situated with a river view, a very short walk takes you to the river's edge and an open area where the dogs can run off leash.

The only downer today is that we had a mishap along the way.  It was a rookie mistake, really. Early in our drive down highways 223, 20, and 34, which by the way was gorgeous, we heard a clunk in the camper, as if something had fallen. I wasn't concerned, but I should have been. 

We quickly forgot about the clunk, but when we got parked and opened the door to Topper, we found a half gallon of milk, a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jam, and a jar of habanero pineapple salsa on the floor. The peanut butter and salsa were intact. The jam had leaked a little here and there (it obviously had rolled about on the floor). 

And then there was the milk. The unopened paper carton (1/2 gallon size) had split. Thank goodness, it landed with the split side up, so only about 2/3 of a 1/2 gallon (I make that 1/3 of a gallon) of milk had spilled out and run around the floor as the camper rocked and rolled along the road. The ENTIRE floor of the camper was covered with a thin layer of milk. Welcome to your mini vacation, Tom!

It turns out that I had failed to fully close the door of the fridge to the locked position, after putting the last few items in before we left home.  It didn't take too long to clean up. There is a lovely laundry at the park, where we washed the throw rugs. We thanked God that we have vinyl floors, instead of carpet, as we had in our motor home! So, now everything is back to normal.

Tomorrow, the old blogger is going to go salmon fishing with a couple of buddies, who happen to be in the area. It has been years, nay decades, since I fished for the wily Oncorhynchus. Wish me luck. Jill will be joining one of the wives for a day of shopping and lunching in Newport, one of our favorite towns.