We did end up having to spend a few days in Oskaloosa, and all is still good.
Kelderman’s didn’t have the sway bar we needed, so we drove to a picnic area in the nearby Keomah State Park where I’d walked the dogs earlier and made sure we had okay cell reception. Tom got on line and found a place that had the sway bar, and that could ship it to Kelderman’s in two days. The other option was to ship it to Chicago so it would be there when we get there, but the state park was really nice, and we had some things we had to catch up on anyway, and we figured Kelderman’s would have tools and assistance if Tom needed it, so Tom decided to ship it to Kelderman’s and we would spend two nights in the park.
Kelderman’s didn’t have the sway bar we needed, so we drove to a picnic area in the nearby Keomah State Park where I’d walked the dogs earlier and made sure we had okay cell reception. Tom got on line and found a place that had the sway bar, and that could ship it to Kelderman’s in two days. The other option was to ship it to Chicago so it would be there when we get there, but the state park was really nice, and we had some things we had to catch up on anyway, and we figured Kelderman’s would have tools and assistance if Tom needed it, so Tom decided to ship it to Kelderman’s and we would spend two nights in the park.
We made good use of our two days in the Keomah State Park. We had a lot of little projects that needed doing, that we just hadn’t made the time to do since we hadn’t stopped anywhere for more than a night since Texas. For example, we had bought TV in Texas, and finally took the time to mount it.
We’d also been having problems with the escape hatch vent opening when we drive, which strips the crank screw, as well as letting water in if it’s raining. We tried blocking the crank, which didn’t work, and we tried tying it down, which sort of worked until it sawed through the string. Tom finally got clever and dug out the old crank lever and sawed a notch in the window frame, and we now secure it with a cotter pin through the old crank, which disappears when we crank the window up with the new crank. We both find this really annoying, because we had this problem on both of our 80s vintage campers, so in 40+ years the vent manufacturers haven’t managed to fix a known problem. This is probably by design, since a new crank is about $20, which doesn’t break the bank, but I’m sure it adds up for the window manufactures since they must sell thousands of the replacement cranks.
Tom tackled the sliding bathroom door yet again, which fixed it overnight, until we moved the camper all of about 2 miles today. He made a pin so it couldn’t roll while we drive, but the flexing of the wall must be what pushes it off the track since it didn’t roll, but was still off the track when we stopped. His next tactic is to add a wheel or two to the top of the door to see if that will keep it in the track. The good side effect of the temporary door fix is that having the door out gave us a chance to give the bathroom a good cleaning while we had room to move.
It’s been sunny and dry here, so Tom also took the opportunity to caulk the holes through the ceiling and into the rail from the electrical box. We found this leak way back in Merida, stuffed it with towels, and it hasn’t leaked since then, but this stop seemed like a good time to permanently fix the problem. We don’t have any rain in the forecast for a day or two, so the caulking should have time to dry. And, in the line of fixing leaking things, the kitchen faucet had developed an annoying drip, so Tom went under the sink and fixed that too. This probably all seems like a lot of maintenance for a new camper, but we keep reminding ourselves that we are driving around in what is essentially a prototype. Some of the things like the bathroom door and the vent holes were a bit of “let’s see how this works” from the beginning, and some, like the kitchen faucet, were a case of getting what was available in Belize for a reasonable price - like a kitchen faucet for about $20 - and planning to replace it with a quality part when we had access to quality parts for a reasonable price. The $20 faucet is still good for now, but it will probably eventually be replaced by a Moen for about 25% of what it would have cost us in Belize.
It’s been sunny and dry here, so Tom also took the opportunity to caulk the holes through the ceiling and into the rail from the electrical box. We found this leak way back in Merida, stuffed it with towels, and it hasn’t leaked since then, but this stop seemed like a good time to permanently fix the problem. We don’t have any rain in the forecast for a day or two, so the caulking should have time to dry. And, in the line of fixing leaking things, the kitchen faucet had developed an annoying drip, so Tom went under the sink and fixed that too. This probably all seems like a lot of maintenance for a new camper, but we keep reminding ourselves that we are driving around in what is essentially a prototype. Some of the things like the bathroom door and the vent holes were a bit of “let’s see how this works” from the beginning, and some, like the kitchen faucet, were a case of getting what was available in Belize for a reasonable price - like a kitchen faucet for about $20 - and planning to replace it with a quality part when we had access to quality parts for a reasonable price. The $20 faucet is still good for now, but it will probably eventually be replaced by a Moen for about 25% of what it would have cost us in Belize.
The other thing we got done was laundry. The whole idea of having an on board washer hasn’t worked out like we envisioned, mostly because we didn’t think through the whole problem. We designed the electrical system so it could support the running of the washer, but we didn’t think about how we would need access to a fair amount of water, and a place for that water to drain. We’ve done fine with laundry so far this trip, since we’ve made enough stops at friends’ houses who have offered the use of their washers and dryers. We also have stayed at a few places where we could use our on board washer, when the weather was good enough to hang out the clothes to dry. Drying the laundry isn’t really a problem since we have lines in the bathroom and in the garage over the bikes, so clothes can dry while we travel, but it’s definitely nice to let the laundry dry in a few hours on an outside line at a campsite. In any case, we caught up with laundry over the past couple of days, so we’re good to go for a week or better.
One of the best things about the Keomah State Park was the hiking trails. There’s a trail all the way around the lake, which winds through woods on the park side of the lake, and goes through people’s yards on the village side of the lake. The going through yards thing is a little strange, but we talked to a few of the home owners as we walked by, and they all assured us that they’re quite happy to have the lake trail running through their yards, which all slope down to the lake. The nice things about walking through the yards is that there isn’t any vegetation on the shoreline besides a few large trees, so it’s easy to see all the birds on the lake, which included lots of Canada geese, blue herons, and even a swan. We asked the lake shore residents if it was a wild swan, and while none of them were certain, they all said that they believe it is.
On the park side of the lake, we saw lots of deer and rabbits and squirrels. Coming from upstate NY, this wasn’t much of a thrill to us, but our Belize dogs were plenty excited since we don’t see many of any of those animals in Belize. Tom and I, however, were quite excited because we had a close encounter with a bobcat and her kitten (cub?) on the trail, although I wasn’t fast enough to get a photo. The dogs all surged forward, and caught sight of the youngster quickly climbing a tree. We started towards the tree to see if we could see the baby bobcat, when we heard a growling from a few feet into the bush. We looked, and the mama bobcat was about 10 feet away, and not at all happy to see us. We backed up, and she came out on the trail and stared straight at us and continued to growl. We didn’t move, except for me fumbling to get my phone out while trying to hold the yanking Kismet, and within 30 seconds she gave a last growl and stalked back into the bush. We watched for a few more seconds, and the baby came down the tree and followed her. When they were both out of sight, we continued our walk. We talked to a fisherman a little further down the trail, and he told us that there are a lot of bobcats in the woods there, and the state has even opened a hunting season for them where each hunter can take one bobcat. However, he said he spends a lot of time in the area and has never seen one, so we should consider ourselves lucky.
On the park side of the lake, we saw lots of deer and rabbits and squirrels. Coming from upstate NY, this wasn’t much of a thrill to us, but our Belize dogs were plenty excited since we don’t see many of any of those animals in Belize. Tom and I, however, were quite excited because we had a close encounter with a bobcat and her kitten (cub?) on the trail, although I wasn’t fast enough to get a photo. The dogs all surged forward, and caught sight of the youngster quickly climbing a tree. We started towards the tree to see if we could see the baby bobcat, when we heard a growling from a few feet into the bush. We looked, and the mama bobcat was about 10 feet away, and not at all happy to see us. We backed up, and she came out on the trail and stared straight at us and continued to growl. We didn’t move, except for me fumbling to get my phone out while trying to hold the yanking Kismet, and within 30 seconds she gave a last growl and stalked back into the bush. We watched for a few more seconds, and the baby came down the tree and followed her. When they were both out of sight, we continued our walk. We talked to a fisherman a little further down the trail, and he told us that there are a lot of bobcats in the woods there, and the state has even opened a hunting season for them where each hunter can take one bobcat. However, he said he spends a lot of time in the area and has never seen one, so we should consider ourselves lucky.
We finished cleaning up at the campsite this morning, and drove back to Kelderman’s where the sway bar was supposed to be delivered by UPS around 10am. Tom had been tracking it online, and it was recorded as being loaded on the UPS truck in Oskaloosa at 8:40am, so he figured it would be at Kelderman’s by 11. When we pulled into Kelderman’s, Tom talked to the women in the office, who told him that the UPS truck had already made its deliveries, and the sway bar wasn’t there. Tom then checked with the guys in the shop, who told him that the UPS driver had told them that he had one more package for them, but it was buried in his truck and he couldn’t find it, and he would drop it off on his way back through in the afternoon. Of course that “one more package” was our sway bar. So, we are now parked on a concrete pad, and Tom has loosened the stock sway bar that’s in the truck, and we’re waiting for the new heavy duty sway bar to be delivered. Tom assures me that it will be a less than 30 minute job when it arrives, so I’m using the time to get the blog updated up to the minute. With any luck, our next blog post will be from somewhere farther down the road where we will have driven uneventfully with our new sway bar.
