Where in the World am I

 

 

Here’s a closer view.

Unloaded at Clinton Lake

After getting all unloaded, I climbed in and slept for 8 hours. No dogs, no trains, no planes, no fire trucks, no trash trucks, no pounding musical cars, no races on the streets… just peace and quiet. I could REALLY get used to this.

The off load went with out a spec of trouble.

It makes me nervous way up there in the air like that.

I quickly got it down on the ground. Then put the pickup bed back together. I had the tailgate and the fabric cover in the back seat of the truck. It will be two weeks, so I put them on.

I have a few neighbors up the way. Showers and laundry up on the hill.

Took about an hour to get off loaded and set up. The whole process went extremely easy, even doing it all by myself. I have a nice pad,  backs to the west and the lake surrounded by trees on three sides. It is so quiet out here. A few full timers living here, a few weekenders too.

Permits Aquired

Saturday morning I got off work and headed out to the Clinton Lake. After meeting Terry and Linda, I bought my Kansas Parks and Recreation vehicle pass and ended up picking up the annual "All You Can Camp" pass for 2010.

Plan is to head out today and get a spot at the lake, unload the camper and spend the some time. Rules are I can stay in the same spot for two weeks, then I have to move to another campground down the road. Looking around the campground, I have my doubts they enforce that too strictly. Several units have some pretty permanent looking attachments. Here's a link to the campground brochure Clinton State Park.

I bought 2 Trojan T-105 batteries but have not got them hooked up yet. There is no where inside the camper to hold these 2 large 6v batteries. My plan is to build a cradle for them that will sit between the truck bed side and the camper basement. I need 10 feet or so of wire and connectors to put it together. It will be easier to build and set up with the camper off. So I'm going to get a site with electricity for now. Once I get my wires built, I'll set the batteries in the truck and hook them up when I'm there.

I plugged the Lance into the house current yesterday afternoon, the furnace is working great, the frig is down right cold, the lights and stereo are working fine. Haven't tried out the water system yet, I'm going to wait to be at the dump station before filling it. The previous owner said it was all fine, the pump does work, I'm sure it'll be fine. I need to pick up chemicals for the tank.

So much to do today, can't wait to get started.

Last Sunday at the Lake

Last Sunday it got in the high 50's so we had to get out of the house. We swung through a local fast chicken food retailer and headed to the lake for a picnic in the camper.

In Johnson County Kansas, Heritage Park Lake provides a nearby escape for the urbanites. Covering 20 acres, it it stocked with Rainbow Trout, Channel Cat, Black Bullhead, Crappie, Largemouth Bass, Green Sunfish and Wiper. Now I'd never heard of a Wiper, but this link will show you a photo (Wiper). In the summer you can rent canoes or bring your own, no motor boats allowed.

It was beautiful and there were hundreds of people out, families and kids just enjoying the warm weather. They had stocked the lake with trout recently, there was lots of fishing going on, but very little catching.

It was a blast being the only RV at the lake. As we sat eating, every so often, someone would drive by real slow and look in the screen door, checking out the rig.

After lunch we took the 2.5 mile walking path around the lake, a very slow stroll at best. We got back to the camper after an hour or more of fresh air and exercise. I promptly fell asleep in the dinette. Cheri climbed up into the bunk and did the same.

We woke up after another hour or so, and went back out and walked some more, the people had started thinning out. I still had chores to do at home to get ready for my 3 day shift at work. So we packed up and drove the 3 miles home.

And its rained everyday since.

I'm driving the rig the 75 miles a day to work and back I am getting a little water seepage coming in around the right front corner of the cabover. As soon as we get a dry day I'll get up there and seal it some more. I have driven in some real hard rain for long distances the last few days. Its not surprising some has leaked in. I thought I had resealed it pretty good last fall.

All in all a great day trip, even if it was only 3 miles away. The ducks and geese were out, the kids were flying kites and the sun was all over everything. Even spotted a hot air balloon on the horizon.

The Load

It's finally ON. The weather hit 50 on Friday and I was all over it. Went to a big box home repair store and purchased 2 sheets of 2" pink foam, got it cut and glued together to protect the 5th wheel rails. Works like a charm. Tested the electrics umbilical, it is insulated from the truck batteries when the truck is off, so good to go there.

It took longer to crank the legs up to clear the truck bed that it did to center it, back in and chain it down. Did that yesterday. Today its 50 degrees again and I got to take it for a bath and shake down run.

It fits in my local U-Wash-It bay but its very tight. I did fit under an 11' 6" height clearance sign, so I figure I'll call it 11' 5" from here on out. Kind of hard to get an exact measurement from the ground. Shakedown run... 30 minutes around town running errands, then a 30 mile round trip on the interstate at 70mph. The diesel doesn't even grunt, pulls like there's nothing there. I got more porpoising when I hit potholes than I was expecting. I can see a need for the Ranchero 9000 shocks in the near future. And/or a big fat swaybar. All in all, once at speed on the highway, it handled very well.