Saturday, August 20, 2011

Missing piece.

When I picked up the trailer, my tech Kevin pointed out that my truck should have come with a Relay for the trailer that he couldn't find. The relay allows my truck to charge the trailers batteries while it is hitched and we are driving. Without it the only time the trailer will charge is when we are attached to a outlet at a campground. The batteries will power all the important systems of the trailer including the breaks (very important if the trailer comes unhitched unexpected), the lights, the water pump, the heat, the fridge and the TV or other "regular" appliances pluged into one of the several inverter outlets.

Anyway my relay was missing, since we were just waiting around I gave my dealer a call and got the run-around about the missing part. I swear 3 of the 4 people I talked to had no idea what it even was. After I got home from that trip I made a big stink via email to my sales guy and he supposedly ordered me a relay. I think it did come in but I have never gone down to get it because the dealer that sold me the truck is over 50 miles away and I found a solution right in my owners manual. It is a tiny part they should have just sent it to me.

As it turns out there are a number of these 12 Volt relays in the fuse box, one of which only operates the rear defroster so I cannibalized that one and placed it in the slot for the trailer charger! There isn't much chance I will need both to charge the trailer and defrost my rear window at the same time.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Two nights is too short...

... but we made the best of it. We spent a great day yesterday at the river and today are luck enough to have no one coming for our site and can stay till 3 PM (for an addition 8$). This is a nice luxury as we can do some fun stuff today.

Nearby the campground was the Newfane Flea Market. Normally it is a crazy zoo of people but the weather was threatening to rail and it scared off a lot of the visitors and vendors.

There was still a lot of cool old junk, which I love. I never buy any of it but I think it is fun to look through.

This guy had tons of tools and odd thing to sift through. That was probably my favorite stall.

After the flea market we went back to the campground ate some lunch and started getting ready to leave. The rain did drizzle on us but not too bad. We managed to get hitched and packed and dump before it got going.

On the way home we had to stop at the Grafton Villiage Cheese Company to get some cheese and venison pepperoni. We stop here on almost every trip to the Brattleboro VT area.



I didn't even bother to try and navigate the truck and trailer into their parking lot (which is actually big enough).

Besides the truck looked cool parked on the road with the river and hills in the background.

After the shopping and lots of free samples we got some coffee and hit the road for home.





It wasn't too bad driving in the rain, actually on the drive home from NJ when we first got the trailer we had to drive in torrential downpours. Bad enough down pours than people were pulling over and waiting it out.

Airstream Log: This trip 252 miles and 2 nights . Lifetime 1274 miles and 9 nights

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Rock River, VT

Woke up to a very dew covered trailer, made some coffee and took a nice walk around the campground. Not too many people were up and about and it was nice and quiet.

The were a couple other Airstreams at the park, both large older models that looked like they hadn't moved in years. Plus a lot of flatbed type "trailers" as well.

After breakfast we packed up some sandwiches and headed out to Rock River to spend the day swimming and hanging out in the river. Normally when we come up it is a long day trip. Much nicer to know the comfort of our trailer is just 10 minutes away. Ran into some friend at the River and made plans to meet one of them for dinner at the Marina, a place we always wanted to try but never had enough time a day trip. Dinner was great, specially the company, the view and the beer.

We have officially slept an entire week (OK not at once) in the trailer.

Airstream Log: This trip 126 miles and 1 nights . Lifetime 1148 miles and 7 nights

Friday, August 12, 2011

Townshend, VT

It has been a few weeks since we went to main we were busy with some other stuff but it was time to get back in the trailer and take a short weekend trip to VT. There were a bunch of state parks in VT we would have liked to stay in but unfortunately they don't allow dogs.  Instead we found a small campground called West River Camperama.

Although this campground was mostly seasonal/owners we got lucky and got a nice riverfront site due to a cancellation. This was our second mostly seasonal park and the residents were very friendly.

Almost immediately a lonely kid (dropped off to spend the weekend with his grandmother) started following me around asking questions about "The baked potato" which is what he thought our Airstream looked like.


The sites were very nice and flat, this was the West River view we had from the site. Our fire ring was right by the water making for a nice relaxing place to hangout.

We got in early enough to get settled and have a relaxing dinner and some local VT beers.

I tried baking some cookies in the convection oven and it didn't go so well. The cooked too long ended up a bit on the burnt side, not to mention creating a bit of smelly smoke inside the trailer. Our Airstream only came with a combination Microwave / Convection oven which they say people love but I think I would rather have the real propane oven and a small microwave. Although at home I use a small convection oven all the time. My biggest worry is not really having as many options for cooking when we don't have a electric connection.

 Airstream Log: This trip 126 miles and 0 nights . Lifetime 1148 miles and 6 nights