Luray Weekend 3: April 10-12, 2015

This weekend in Luray, we got to meet a bunch of the seasonal campers. We're the "new kids", so it was a good chance for us to see how everyone interacts & see where/how we fit into the group.

We also:

Finished up water heater check valves.
Installed a gas lock on the propane tanks.
Finished up battery box.
Got new hose between spigot & water filter at the local co-op.
Put up SmartTiles in bathroom.
Replaced the shower curtain and bath mat.

Some random pictures to go along with those things (I need to get pictures of the gas lock & battery box):

The tent sites

David just loving life

Mmmm, maple dijon pork tenderloin with a greens & pear salad

Oh Afton Mountain Winery, how we love you

SmartTiles

Bathroom before

Bathroom before

SmartTiles next to the shower

SmartTiles behind/next to the sink

The old shower curtain. We never really loved it, but especially with the SmartTiles.

New shower curtain - much better!

Luray Weekend 1: March 27-29, 2015

We headed to our trailer, which was nicely settled in it's spot, in Luray this past weekend. It was such a great feeling to drive out there, knowing we didn't have to do a full set up when we got there!

This trip was a little different for a couple of reasons:

1) It was going to be below freezing a good majority of our trip which meant some special equipment.
2) We were bringing both the cat (Wendy) and the dog (David) with us. Wendy's never been camping and her car rides usually only lead her to the vet.

Wendy did really well in the car. A little bit of crying, but nothing major. David didn't puke! Victory on both! Once we got to the trailer, it took Wendy a little time to warm up to the idea of the trailer. When she did, she managed to find a hiding place, enjoyed the sun a little, and even let David be on the bed with her for a while. That last one is HUGE! These two fight like... well... cats and dogs.

David was so excited to see the trailer again. He really enjoys it. Plus, the Luray KOA has a nice dog park. He had so much fun running around like crazy!

On Friday afternoon, we got the water set up. This is where the special equipment comes into play. We got a heated hose, on recommendation of a friend of ours. It was totally worth it! We also bought a heat gun (Black & Decker runs about $30), which was also totally worth it. Everything was insulated/heated except the spigot, which made for quick defrosting in the mornings. Jon decided not to put the pressure regulator on so he wouldn't have to defrost it as well. (This turned out to be a fatal flaw in our plan.)

David loves drinking from the spigot instead of the bowl.

First of many sunsets this season

We also restrung the day/night shades in the dinette area. When I took the valance/shades down to recover the valance, the shades got all crazy loose & needed to be restrung. It's probably for the better because we need to do the ones above the bed as well - and that's before the valance comes down!

We made trip #1 to the Super Walmart to get food for the weekend & a couple of other things we needed. Back to the trailer & I made dinner while Jon did something else set up all of his internet things.

Saturday morning, Jon got up and defrosted the spigot with the heat gun. It worked, yay! Running water is a good thing. We chilled out & surfed the web until about 1pm, when we went to Harrisonburg. We decided to check out a luxury apartment complex that's being built, just to see what's in the area. After that, we went to the AT&T store to pick up a hotspot, cause Jon's a geek. Really, he has to explain all that, but let's just go with the geek thing.

Jon and Wendy enjoying breakfast.

We headed back to Walmart, because what's a camping trip without at least 2 stops at Walmart? We picked up everything on our list for this trip and headed back to the trailer.

Once back at the trailer, we figured out that BOTH propane tanks had run out of propane. Of course, it was just after the office closed, so no propane refills were happening on that end. Jon decided to take both tanks to see if he could either replace them or refill them. He tried the gas station across the street and thankfully, both tanks could be exchanged for "normal" gas grill style tanks. YAY! With those set back up, we were back in business.

They were actually playing nice! 

Tasty dinner!

We managed to mount the WiFi Ranger to the wall & get a couple of other things done. Around bedtime, we decided to start watching Turbo. We got a bit into it and then decided to sleep instead. We were both pretty tired.

Sunday, Jon got up & defrosted us again. It took a little longer Sunday morning than Saturday morning. It was also a bit colder on Sunday morning. Once the weather got a little nicer, we took David down to the dog park & let him run for a little bit. We're still trying to teach him to fetch a ball. Guess that's a project for this summer.

Both of us had random stuff we needed to do around the trailer. Right before doing said "stuff", I went into the bathroom... and found water around the base of the toilet. At first, I thought it was coming from the toilet. Then I found more water near the wall of the bathroom... next to the water heater. NOOOOOOO. We immediately checked the water heater and sure enough, it's leaking! Crap.

The piece at the top & the one at the bottom are check valves. The one at the top was cracked.

Thank goodness for the Lance owners forum. The check valve was cracked & it's pretty much a known issue. Now, to get that thing out of there & replace it with a brass check valve. The parts are on order & we've bought what we hope will be the correct wrenches to get those things out! We'll update more on that later.

After we determined that we wouldn't be getting the water heater fixed on Sunday, we drained all of the water, black tank, and gray tank, and got on with our other projects.

I unpacked a bunch of stuff we brought from home. Jon started to install the battery box we bought. I helped him with what I could (read: what he'd allow) and left him to the rest. We still need to actually connect the battery & Jon had to order another part. I'll let him do a separate post about that (and a few hundred other things).

Battery box - day 1

Eventually, it got to be time for us to need to head back home. So, we packed up and headed out. Overall, a good weekend. Something always goes wrong on the shakeout trip. We'll get it all fixed and it'll be good!

Trailer Update

We moved the trailer to Luray this past weekend. It makes me so happy to have it in it's spot.

We finally got the valance back up over the dinette. It looks so different! We love it.

Before

After

Trailer Cushion Covers

What a labor of love.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I started sewing again all because of these covers. Yes, I know I said I started the quilt first. Well, that's been sitting off to the side. I finally got in touch with the owner of the campground we're going to do our seasonal at this year and we have a date when we can move the trailer. With that date came a deadline. So, I figured it was time to get moving on these!

I'm absolutely horrible at writing directions for something like this (if it was a technical process, I could do it, but these? Probably not.) so, I'm not going to try. In fact, I'm pretty sure I did each one differently.

I'll just share pictures & a list of things I used.

2 fabrics - stripes (about 9 yds) & circles (about 5 yds) - I had too much of each fabric
Make-a-zipper - gray

All 5 fabrics I bought for this project. I'm not sure I'll use them all in the trailer.

The two fabrics for the cushions.

Best invention ever. I couldn't find zippers the sizes I needed. This stuff saved the day at a fraction of the cost.

Once I finally got all of the supplies, I started measuring out the cushions. The measurements were actually on the tags of the cushions, but I wanted to be sure. A couple of them were curved, so I had to take that into account when sewing those. Two of the cushions were actually sewed together. We decided it was best to go ahead and separate those. So, the seam ripper and I spent some time together doing that.

The smallest and easiest one to cover. I started with this one.

Kitty Wendy decided to get in on the action.

I did a "walk through" with some plain white fabric. I didn't do a walk through zipper and pretty much said "once is enough".

This was probably the 5th time I wrote the measurements.

Measure twice. (See the beginnings of the quilt back there?) 

Laying it all out.

I'd say the hardest part of these was the corners. Just getting everything to line up was kind of a pain.

First and second ones done. A little before/after type of thing.

All done!

We found these pillows at Costco. They match the color scheme perfectly!

I was anxious to get the cushions back to the trailer to see what it looked like. Jon wasn't thrilled with my "need to get these there today!" mood, but we went anyhow. I also wanted to pull as much of the stuff that's screwed in as I could to get it done as well. 

Not the best "before", but you get the picture.

What a difference! 

Now to pull that cornice/valance down

The caps on the dinette (before)

One after/one before. Can't wait to see these back on! Thank goodness for a staple gun!

I've still got all of the valances/cornices to do & the strip on the bottom of the dinette. The strip will have to wait until March when we move the trailer. As will the headboard & 3 of the valances/cornices. I still need to figure out which fabric to do them in!

Sneak Peak

I've started recovering the cushions for the trailer! (Ok, I only got 1 done so far.)

Here it is:

Before (really, can RV manufacturers use anything but brown?!)

After (with our kitty's tail in the way)

I slipped it on directly over the original cover, so it's easy to switch back if we ever need to. Looking forward to getting the other 6 (one of them is in 2 pieces) done and getting them back into the trailer to see what they look like. I need to figure out what fabric to use on the edge of the dinette. Guess that will somewhat depend on what I have extra of.

Votes: stripes or circles on the edges of the dinette?

Keeping the Lance

There has been much debate in our house lately. Upgrade the Lance to a bigger trailer? Upgrade the truck & get a 5th? Upgrade completely to a class A?

After many discussions about what our ultimate plans are, we've decided to keep the Lance for now. We love it & just need to change a few things in it to make it more "us" and functional.

Upgrades we're thinking about:
Backsplash in kitchen

We'd like something a little lighter & more "tile" like.

Cabinets in kitchen - Maybe paint them?
Add shelving in bathroom
Cover for the water heater buttons

Right above the blue towel are the buttons. Too easy to hit.

Papertowel holder
Add real shelves to the pantry closet
Expandable shower curtain - Need to order from Lance
Upholstery changes - Still need to decide on a fabric to lighten the trailer up!
New flooring?


Upgrades we've recently done:
New vacuum - We got a Dyson
Add internet boosters - We went with the WiFi Ranger (below) & flag pole for mounting
Move the pantry items to one of the larger closets - We moved it all to the closet next to the door. We'll see if I'm still happy with it as next season goes on.
Move the other items to above the kitchen - I do like this!


Internet/WiFi Booster:
https://www.wifiranger.com/solutions-mobileti/rv-wifi-mobileti

Flag pole for mounting WiFi booster:
http://www.rvmobileinternet.com/resources/flagpole-buddy-ubiquiti-nanostation-gaining-altitude-directional-antennas/

Misty Mountain Halloween Trip, Charlottesville, VA - October 31 through November 2

This is long overdue!

Since I've already done a pretty detailed review of Misty Mountain Campground, I'll just blog what we did.

Upon arrival, we checked in & were directed up the hill. There's now a passcode & gate to get up the hill. I'm guessing they were having some issues with non-paying guests going up there, but it's just a suspicion that I never asked about.

The sites at this campground are definitely not level. We haven't really had to worry about leveling (too much) all season. We had some disagreements on where to put the trailer on the site because of how tight the sites are at the top of the hill. We'd definitely prefer the bottom area if we were going to stay here again.

Lil Lance all tucked in for the weekend

After we got the trailer put where we wanted it, we discovered a bolt on the weight distribution hitch was completely cut off. That side of the hitch has been giving us problems for a while, so it's not super surprising, but it scared the daylights out of us. We took a trip to Home Depot and got new nuts & bolts for that side of the hitch. We also got 2 extra sets of them, in case this happens again and we're not near a Home Depot/Lowes/hardware store.

Once we were done with our side trip, Jon was doing stuff outside & I started prepping dinner. We had friends of ours coming over (they were staying in the lower section of the campground). I had pre-made most of dinner, but needed to make the salad & heat up the main entree. In order to do the main entree, we had to use the oven. I made Jon light the pilot light. I was impressed about how well it worked!

After dinner, we made a campfire & did s'mores. Yum! I also gave the kids a Halloween present, especially since trick-or-treating was taking place the next day (the day after Halloween).

The next day, we took David down to watch the agility dog event that was going on. After that, he got a "bath" in our shower. That was an adventure! Then on to the awesome grocery store near the campground to grab lunch and then head over to Afton Mountain.

We did a wine tasting at Afton Mountain & then had lunch. Thank goodness they had just put up the "tent" coverings in their picnic area. It was WINDY and pretty cold.

We headed back to the campground & chilled out a bit before heading down to our friends' site for dinner.  Jess kept telling me I was paranoid about the dogs being in the trailer. I decided it was too quiet for 2 dogs to be in there. Their oldest daughter checked & sure enough... I was paranoid for good reason! Ah well, it was easily taken care of.  David decided to make himself at home, so we ended up washing their comforter for them.

After dinner, we headed back up to our site & headed to bed. The next morning, we got up, cleaned the trailer, winterized it (sad!), and headed home.

Stocking the trailer - inside & outside - UPDATE

When we first got the trailer, we did some massive amounts of shopping for the inside and outside of the trailer. Since then, we've done a bit more shopping. Here's what we've been up to:

Inside:

Velcro dots - Amazon

Swiffer (wet) - Costco or Target

Large utility totes - Thirty one (We put these under the bed where it hangs over)

Mini utility bins - Thirty one (For on the "night stands" next to the bed)

Baby wipes - Costco

Shoe storage - IKEA

Mini broom/dust pan - IKEA

Paper towels - Costco

Paper towel holder - Target

Marshmallow skewers - Amazon

Outside:

X-chocks - Amazon

Picnic table cloths - Target

BAL Stabilizing Pads - Amazon (square ones)

I'm know there's stuff I'm missing and hopefully Jon will add to this soon. 

Planning the next trip

So, we've learned quite a few things about the trailer based on our first camping trip.

1) It's going to take us a while to figure out the most efficient storage inside and outside of the trailer
2) I don't like where my clothes were and would prefer them to be closer to the bed
3) The underbelly of the trailer could've been organized better
4) We're loving the 3M Command products

Numbers 2 & 3 are easily rectified.

For the clothes storage: I'm planning on getting a tote (maybe 2?) from Thirty One to go under the bed where the sofa folds down to add a little more storage. I'll probably put clothes in them. If not, they'll hold kitchen stuff so that I put my clothes in the overhead storage next to the bed. We'll see how this works out.

The underbelly of the trailer: We reorganized this to make a bit more sense the last time we were at the trailer. Now the tire stuff is closer to the tires and the water/power stuff is on the side of the trailer that has the hookups. Makes more sense, doesn't it? :) I have a feeling there might be a couple of more changes, but we'll get to those whenever we feel like we need to.

I'm also DEFINITELY getting velcro dots. In fact, I should go ahead and order some now. It'd be nice to be able to know things will stay in place when we're moving. We found the remote for the sound system on the floor next to the door instead of where we put it.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out what to plan for meals for our next trip. I'm not even 100% sure when our next trip is yet, but I'm still trying to figure out meals. Maybe I should be more focused on the actual logistics of our next trip!

I'm sure we'll have even more lessons as we prepare for & go on our next trip. Looking forward to them!

RV Organization Tips

Today, I was reading an article called "20 Tips to stay organized in your RV", which can be found here.

A few of my favorites are:

1. Pack safely by layering bubble wrap or non-skid liner between your dishes. Can koozies will help protect your favorite glasses, too.
2. Store grains & pasta in airtight containers, and keep hidden away in a cool microwave or oven when not in use. This is a great way to keep out unwanted critters and utilize unused space.
3. Easy-to-remove hooks from 3M won’t leave residue on your walls and they’ll come in handy for your bathrobe, kitchen tools, cables, and other hangables.
4. Recycle old plastic jelly & mayo containers to hold beans, rice, flour, and sugar.
5. Keep baby wipes on-hand for easy stain removal, and re-purpose the plastic container for storing everything from small documents to makeup, to kitchen gadgets, and a first aid kit.
6. Keep moths and other insects at bay by taping Bay Leaves inside your cabinets.
7. Use a pop-up laundry hamper or laundry bag that can be folded flat when not in use.
8. Wipe counters frequently to reduce ant trails. Ants will be attracted to water in your sinks and tanks, so make sure they’re emptied when not being used.

We currently do #3, 5, 7, and 8. We're especially loving the 3M Command Stick products. We even found a shower caddy by 3M. Love it!

3M Command Shower Caddy - it even has a hook for the loofahs!

Have any suggestions that are missed in the article?

Stocking the Inside of the Trailer

I don't even know where to begin this post. I knew that stocking the inside of the trailer was going to be a lot like stocking a new, albeit mini, home. I just wasn't prepared for how much we were going to hemorrhage money!

We needed things for the bedroom, kitchen, dining room, and bathroom. Not to mention storage and cleaning supplies.

Bedroom:
Sheets - JC Penny
Pillows - IKEA
Blankets - IKEA (and one I "stole" from our closet at home)
Alarm Clock - WalMart (I have a thing for needing to see what time it is... all of the time)
Clock Batteries (for wall clock & alarm clock) - had at home

Kitchen: (you name it in your kitchen, we needed it for the trailer)
Mini Keurig - Bed, Bath, & Beyond (gotta love those 20% off coupons!)
Eating utensils - IKEA
Various cooking utensils/gadgets - IKEA
Steak knives - IKEA
Cooking knives - IKEA
Cutting boards - Bed, Bath, & Beyond
Paper plates - Costco
Paper bowls - Costco
Ziploc bags - Costco
Aluminum cooking trays - Costco
Pots & Pans - pilfered from our camping supplies; bought at LLBean and REI last year
Collapsable strainer - Bed, Bath, & Beyond
Collapsable bowls - Camping World
Kitchen Mat - WalMart

Dining Room:
Napkin dispenser - IKEA
Place mats - IKEA
Cloth baskets (for things like fruit, etc) - IKEA

Bathroom:
Shower mat - IKEA (this was actually hard to find one that fit in the space)
RV compatible toilet paper (yes, there is such a thing) - WalMart
Shower caddy - WalMart
Shower curtain - JC Penny (Yes, there's one already in the trailer. It's also fabric... and we've been known to hit them while they're wet and then they'll leak all over the place.)
Towels - JC Penny and IKEA

Storage:
Silverware holder - IKEA
Knife holder - WalMart
Storage bins - WalMart
RV compatible closet hangers - Camping World
Collapsible hamper - from our house (bought at Target a few years ago)

Other:
Door Mats - WalMart
Outdoor rug - IKEA

Cleaning Supplies:
RV black tank chemicals - WalMart
Lysol wipes - Costco (also pilfered from my stock at home)
Windex - WalMart
Simple Green - WalMart
Dryer Sheets - WalMart

I'm not even sure if this is a full list - but you get the picture. I kind of wish I would've started buying things a while ago so that it would not have hit all in one month. I also recognize that some of this is purely "nice to have" and not necessary. We just wanted to have the trailer as stocked as possible before we went on a trip.

Why Lance?

As I previously stated, we had several features that we really liked in many of the RVs we walked through and/or had seen floor plans of online.

• Dry bath
• Walk around queen bed
• Bench dinettes
• Kitchen in the front or back of the RV
• Trailers around the "18" range
• Power awnings
• Flat, fiberglass sides
• Bathtub instead of corner shower
• Slide-outs

Over our many discussions, we also decided that we really liked these other things:

• Optional solar power
• 4-season rated to do cold camping, if we wanted
• Heat & air conditioning
• Power jack
• LED lighting
• Sink in the bathroom
• Stove
• Microwave
• Separate refrigerator and freezer
• Lighter interior

As we started to narrow down our choices (and kept dreaming), we decided that we needed to put things into "must have" and "nice to have" buckets. We looked at what we felt like was every. single. manufacturer. It was exhausting, quite honestly.

After going through a million and a half models at different RV shows, we eventually narrowed it down to a couple of Forrest River, Kodiak, Lance, Dutchmen, and Heartland models.

The one thing that made the Lance stand out was the 4-season rating. Another big deal for us was the construction that Lance uses: all aluminum framing, smooth fiberglass sides, and lightweight composite woods.

Beyond that, from looking at the pictures online, Lance just seemed to be the most high-end (outside of an Airstream, which we had decided wasn't for us, mostly because of price) of the "smaller" trailers we were interested in. The interiors were so light when the windows were open. So many of the other RVs were so dark.

We REALLY liked their layouts, trim, and color options. For us, the only debate we were really having was the 1885 or the 1985. When we decided to go look at the Lance, we both knew we'd be happy with any of the 3 interiors. That's saying a LOT. Most other companies, we were going to have to order our trailer so that it had the interior we wanted.

Lance 1885

Lance 1985

The day we went to look at the Lance's, we looked at the 1575, 1685, and 1885. We didn't even look at the 1985 (they didn't have any on the lot).

The main difference between the 1885 and 1985 is the door placement and where the fridge is. There's about a foot more in length and the storage setup is completely different. We ultimately decided that the shower tub wasn't worth the door being right next to the bed. There was just something about it that we didn't like.

Ultimately, the Lance 1885 was the right choice for us, for what we want to do with the RV now and for (hopefully) the years to come. We are really looking forward to the trips we are planning to take with it!

Narrowing Down the Trailer

As I mentioned before, we struggled to narrow down our requirements. We had visited a couple of RV shows in the area and saw so many things we liked and so many we didn't.

For instance, we found that we liked:

• Dry baths
• Walk around beds
• Bench dinettes
• Kitchens at the front or back of the RV
• Trailers around the "18" range (the interior being about 18 feet, not necessarily the exterior)
• Power awnings
• Flat, fiberglass sides (on the outside - easier to clean)
• Bathtub instead of corner shower
• Slide-outs

We found that we didn't like:

• Wet baths
• Beds with one side up against the trailer
• U-shaped dinettes
• Dark interiors
• Entertainment center at the end of the bed

These are all things we learned just by walking around RV shows. The biggest lesson we learned? That you'll have to make some compromises in the RV you end up buying.

From our list of "we like", we started to narrow down what were must haves, and what weren't. Many of these things will depend on what you can get in the trailer you can tow. Jon will write the tow vehicle post, but our "final" decisions came down to two we could tow with our V6 SUV and one we couldn't.

We went back and forth so many times about what to get and when. For us, it came down to the fact that I do triathlons and we're constantly traveling during the summer. We wanted something we could do together for long weekends & week-long vacations regardless of season, and we wanted something we could do with friends & family. (A few of our friends & families have RVs/travel trailers/pop-ups.)

We narrowed our choices down to four VERY different options (none of which we had seen in person before coming to the decision of these four):

Sylvan Sport Go - Tent/pop-up trailer that could be used as a toy hauler, could be kept in our garage, and could be towed by the SUV with NO problems. Also the cheapest option. The biggest compromise of all of the options.
Forest River R Pod 177 - Teardrop trailer with hard sides, wet bath, small kitchen, bed up against the side of the trailer, but could be towed by the SUV. The biggest compromise of the hard sided trailers.
Lance 1575 - The biggest of the trailers that could be towed with the SUV. We really liked the Lance brand when we saw found it online. The biggest draw-back to this one was the bed.
Lance 1885 - The trailer we really wanted, but meant we'd need a new tow vehicle. We weren't crazy about the u-shaped dinette or the corner shower, but the space inside meant the bed was turned around so that it was a walk around. Big plus!

We contacted Sylvan Sport to put us in contact with the people who live locally to see one of theirs. They don't have stores, so they use their customers to help make sales (essentially).

Shortly after, we went to a local dealership and saw the R Pod.

Dinette with the table down

Kitchen

Bed against side of trailer - dark linens

Wet bath

Fridge & microwave

We liked the unit enough that after talking about it, away from the dealer, we decided to go ahead and order one. We weren't thrilled with the dealer though. Well, they never got back to us. Their loss... and a confirmation that we were right to not be thrilled with them.

While we were waiting on the Sylvan Sport owners to get back to us, we decided to go ahead and look at the Lance 1575. Well, in the week between the R-Pod fiasco and going to see the Lance, we ended up talking a lot about the 1885 and our tow vehicle. We liked the vibe we were getting from our dealer, which was a good thing! After buying a new tow vehicle, we ended up looking at the Lance 1575, 1685, and 1885.

Here are some pics of the 1575.

Bed against wall

Kitchen with microwave below stove

U-shaped dinette

Fridge & freezer

We liked that the 1885 was all season, and has the ability to add solar panels to it to charge the batteries. Here's the Lance 1885:

With the couch out

Folding the couch down to have the bed out

Kitchen - with microwave & oven!

Bathroom with corner shower and sink

Kitchen storage under the sink

We decided that we would've been "ok" in the 1575, but we were glad that we had the ability to go up to the 1885. We've been looking for about two years and when we walked into the 1885, we just knew that it was the one. It was pretty much everything we've been looking for that we were willing to tow. We were able to decide what we were willing to compromise on. The biggest things we compromised on were the corner shower and the u-shaped dinette.

Sure, we could've found EVERYTHING we were looking for in a bigger model, but we didn't want to go too long for our first trailer. We have some room to grow into this trailer and we hope to have many adventures in it!