Why A Fiberglass Egg (Continued)?

Today's Photo is of a Snowdrop. I must be hoping for Spring!

Continuing on my reasons for purchasing a fiberglass trailer, one of my first considerations was that it have a bathroom. That stems back to a 2:00AM trip to the bath house at a 500+ site campground somewhere in the midwest. Carol & I were wandering back to the campsite, still half asleep, when we realized we had walked back a lot longer than we had waked to the place. Yes, we were lost. We kept looking for a familiar landmark, but didn't see anything that would point us in the right direction. Finally, we found the dumpsters, and from there knew the route back to the tent.

After that I really decided that midnight runs to the bathroom should be a thing of the past! I really didn't have too many other requirements, however many of the options the different manufacturers made available looked pretty good.

Once I discovered the Escape brand of fiberglass "egg" I was hooked. The owners all seems to love their Escapes (although very few egg owners of any other brand complain about their trailers) and the owners of Escape Trailer Industries are very flexible in outfitting their trailers & very friendly people to talk to. One minor problem - these, like other fiberglass trailers have quite a waiting list. Since they are pretty much made to order, you can expect to wait months before your egg will hatch. I set my delivery late enough in the Spring that I would be able to avoid pulling it in the snow.

So, that is how I chose my RV. Now I'm going through my old tenting equipment to decide what to take, picking out other supplies, and trying to figure out how to fit them all in the back of the RAV4 for the trip to Chilliwack, BC to pick it up.

Why A Fiberglass Egg?

Today's Photo - My Favorite Chipmunk image.

There is an interesting story behind this guy. I have only lost one or two original image files out of the 40, 000 I have on multiple back up disks. I have has the opportunity to sell this image a couple of times, however you guessed it - it is one that the original disappeared. This is the highest resolution I have. I even managed to sell it once & have seen purloined copies many times on the web.

I thought I'd start today with the reasoning behind my choice of a Fiberglass Egg as an RV.

I have done quite a bit of traveling as a tent camper. My first was a 4 month trip to California in 1950 as a 5 year old. We traveled in a 1938 Plymouth pulling a home built camping trailer. I think that trip established my love for travel. Although I don't remember all of the trip, the highlights have stayed with me ever since. Among my favorite memories were the Firefall at Yosemite (They don't do it any more, but it was a magnificent sight - A history & Photo (not mine)). I also remember the view at the Grand Canyon, and playing with a bobcat kitten. I scanned some photos from the trip taken by my father: 1950 Trip.

Including that trip I have made 8 most of the way across the US. Again, all of these were either motels or tents. What ruined me was a 2001 trip to Pennsylvania we made in a rented Class A RV. Although it was a small, entry level RV, we quickly decided it had many advantages over setting up tents in the rain, attempting to dry them out the next morning before packing them away, the long set up & take down times, etc. Don't get me wrong - I would rather tent camp than go from motel to motel, but as I get older, the enclosed space becomes more appealing!

Our original plan was to purchase a small Class A RV when I retired, and not full time, but spend a couple of months per year on the road. Unfortunately, my wife developed emphysema as well as a heart condition, went on oxygen, and was not comfortable traveling. We did make a couple of trips to visit relatives & kids, but traveling across the country was out. Carol passed away in January of 2010.

My plan didn't, at first, change. I spent quite a bit of time looking at small Class A RVs on ebay, and even came to some conclusions as to what age, brand, etc I wanted. The first change came about when I realized I didn't really need all the space of even a small Class A. I started looking at Class B (converted vans) but soon decided that hooking & unhooking it every time I wanted to go exploring from a campground was almost as bad as packing away the tent (well, not really, but still a pain).

It was about that time I discovered fiberglass trailers. Light enough to tow behind my mid sized SUV (a Toyota RAV4) but big enough for one or two - Tight, but it solves the hooking & unhooking problem and is far better than a tent.

This is getting a bit long - I'll continue next time!

First Serious Snow

Today's Photo - Winter is Here!

Actually, the photo in todays post is from 2005, but we did get our first stick-to-the-ground snow this morning. Only 10", but not the usual lightweight lake effect stuff - this was heavy shoveling! As is typical with Oswego winter, one minute you can't see more than a couple of feet and 5 minutes later the sky is blue & the sun shining! We even has a 1/2" of Graupel (Wikipedia Definition).

I didn't spend much time working on the trailer today - that will have to wait for a later post. Till then...

Trailer Musings Continued

Today's Photo - A 2004 Winter Day on Lake Ontario

Well, we survived yesterday's rain - 1" of water in the garage & Lakeshore Road is flooded at Snake Swamp.

Still working on trailer options. Electricity is probably going to be another area to ponder. I know I'll probably use more than most small trailer owners. With all my gadgets, maintaining lakeshoreimages.com, a somewhat busy collection of web pages, and the fact that I expect to spend quite a bit of time in the Southwest where air conditioning is likely to be necessary, I'm not going to be able to depend on the solar system to keep things going. Although it might be able to keep up with lighting & some computer use, the MacBookPro draws around 85 watts. At that rate, every hour on the computer and a realistic estimate of what a 95 watt solar system can produce, will take at least 2 hours of good sunlight to replace. Add the router, cell phone amp, general housekeeping, etc & a few cloudy days will likely put me in the dark.

I am looking at adding a small inverter generator. According to Escape, a 2000w inverter generator does not have quite enough output to run the A/C they supply with the Escape 17. That's too bad since the larger generators get much heavier. One possibility is to go with two Honda 2K generators & a paralleling kit. The advantage is you only need one when you are doing anything but the A/C, however the disadvantage is the storage volume of two generators & the cost. Storing the generator(s) is also a consideration. I am towing with a Toyota RAV4. With a truck throwing the generator in the back is no problem. Putting a gas filled generator in the enclosed RAV4 is something I'd rather not do.

One possible solution is to purchase a generator(s) converted to run on propane. They run much cleaner, and I already have a dual tank system planned. Still, they use quite a bit of propane - a gallon of gasoline contains more energy than a gallon of propane. Something to think about!

Welcome to December!

Today's image - a cascade at Ricketts Glen State Park, PA.

Not a lot going on today. I am still deciding how to configure my phone & internet capabilities with the trailer. I already have a MacBookPro as my main portable machine & a iPhone (a 8 GB 3G). The computer is up-to-date, however the phone is a couple of generations behind.

Since I'll be traveling quite a bit in the Southwest, I'd prefer Verizon since they seem to have better coverage in that area. Of course, the problem is that AT&T is the only carrier of iPhones, and, despite the raves of Android users, I still prefer the iPhone. Then again, there are rumors that towards the end of the year Verizon will be offering the iPhone. Since my contract with AT&T is long gone, I have no problem switching. Then again, I am on the unlimited data plan with my current phone. If I upgrade to a new iPhone from AT&T, I can keep the old unlimited data plan. Then again, if I want to tether through AT&T, I have to give up my unlimited plan & start a new 2 year contract with one of their new plans.

Then again, do I want to tie up my phone to tether to the laptop? I could go with a Verizon USB data card plugged into a Cradlepoint router & provide WiFi to both the phone & laptop. I don't use the phone as a phone all that much; Skype would cover most of the needs for contacting family & friends...

I might even go with a system that adds an inside phone antenna that retransmits the signal collected by the outside antenna, but if I want to include the ability to cover Verizon's emerging 4G coverage which will use the 700Mhz frequencies, I'll have to wait for antennas & amplifiers that cover them. Most current equipment does not deal with the new Long Term Evolution (LTE) frequencies. Since much of the data I'll be posting to my main website will be images, the faster upload (as well as download) speeds of the 4G network would be appreciated. Then again, it will be awhile before the 4G towers cover the areas I expect to be traveling.

I fully expect to use a combination of cell connections & free WiFi - I have been keeping track of my normal data usage, and despite the fact that many people state 5GB per month is more than enough, I find over the last couple of months I am averaging well over 7GB. I'm sure the photographs I am uploading as well as the many photo websites I visit are the cause, but I suspect I'll do the same while traveling.

So many decisions & then agains! I can put them off for awhile, but since the Escape trailer builders start putting together the options & equipment for the new trailer about 3 months before the delivery date (April 20th) I'm going to have to decide soon.