Tired & Belted

Leaving Ash Meadows we didn't get an early start. Instead of going east through Las Vegas and hot rodding our engines to pull steeper grades we went south to Baker CA. The plan was to cut through Mojave Preserve to I-40. But gentle headwind and uphill grade proved too much for

Grade School

Last year the old motorhome suffered a mechanical meltdown. It overheated on a long, steep pass. The engine siezed and died on the side of the road. Hard down. The fallout was a major pain between getting it towed and finding a shop to fix it. Plus a six week wait and a huge kick in the wallet. Suffice it to say that such a hard lesson motivates increased preventive measures going forward.

Since avoiding mountains altogether is not an option, the trick is

Power Trouble

The motorhome uses a typical 30A power cord. Sometimes that's not quite enough power. Recently we discovered it's just barely enough and apparently more often than we realized. Last night the microwave flickered and stuttered. No circuits tripped so I check the power post. There was arcing at the connection between

Rosie 3

At Death Valley National Park we had a special place in staff housing for community campfires. Instead of an open fire a 55-gallon steel drum had been turned into an oven. A tall flue pipe kept smoke out of our faces and clothes. Once fired up it radiated heat in all directions so we'd circle lawn chairs all around it. The closed fire barrel also

Brake Inn

Building on a digital thermostat mod I got two of four baseboard heaters installed before the holiday road trip. For now we still supplement these two 24" 400W cockpit units with a central space heater under the dinette table. But turning that down from HIGH to LOW is one step closer to making silent night a reality.

For the past five years on our watch this RV