Sunday, July 31, 2011

Be Careful What You Wish For

Remember a few posts back...when I mentioned the insane number of vehicles in the driveway in the hopes that the husband would let go of a few of them. Well, we're down a vehicle...but not exactly in the way I was hoping. The husband and the teen were involved in an accident last week. I'm extremely grateful that no one in either vehicle was seriously injured, but we are down one big blue truck for the foreseeable future. They were on their way to pick up supplies at the marine store to finish building the teen's boat when they were hit...oh, the irony.

Repairs to the “King of the Road's” engine are complete and it's running very well. I think there is a good chance we'll make it to Maine problem free in a couple of weeks! Good news, with the husband out of town for work and me the single parent of 3 boys until then...I'll be picking out my lobster wines and loading them up before we leave!

The teen has learned quite a bit about spark plugs, oil changes and alternator belt adjustments:


He's actually pretty good at problem solving and has been a big help. But his favorite thing to do is start it up when it's time to test it out:

He better not get too comfortable in that seat...I've got 3 years left until I have to teach him to drive and I have no intention of rushing it!

We've also started to plan out our trip for next summer! I totally stole this idea from our Oswego friends because it looked like a super fun way to involve the boys in the planning stages:

We bought a great big map of the United States that includes all the capitol cities and National Parks. I mounted the map on a foam board, hung it on the wall, and let them stick map pins in wherever they want to go. It is kinda helping us to map out a route as we need to start making some reservations VERY soon. Apparently, many National Parks fill up nearly a year in advance. We've also decided to head south first, working our way toward the Grand Canyon, up the west coast, then back home across the northern states. At the moment there are way more pins and places marked than we will be able to see on this trip, so trips down the east coast and into Canada may be planned for the future. We can't wait to get started!!     

Thursday, July 21, 2011

One Step Forward...Two Steps Back

The husband has spent the better part of 2 days now underneath the “King of the Road” and we sure have found some interesting things. The list of repairs is growing and growing. In addition to the electrical problems there is also a problem with the hot water heater and the oven. Both are non emergencies, but need to be repaired before we head out next summer. The bright spot...when testing out the hot water heater we discovered that the fire extinguisher is in fine working order. Yippee!

After our weekend adventure we inspected things a little more closely on Monday morning. We found this:

Now, I'm no auto mechanic, but I gotta think that wire may have been part of the problem. The husband replaced the alternator and that wire, charged up the battery and by Monday night we were able to get the King running pretty well. We were revving the engine, turning things on and off, and the battery was holding a charge. The headlights still didn't work, but otherwise, things were looking up! Then, quietly, the engine died again. No warning, just silence. Then nothing. Bummer.

Our fabulous teacher friend came over today to crawl around underneath the motor home and offer his problem solving skills:

Working together the 2 of them chased down and followed nearly every wire and fuse the King could throw at them. Somewhere, on the passenger side, a bit behind the front passenger tire, they found this:

Again, I'm certainly not a mechanic, but that just doesn't look good. Our fabulous friend will be back tomorrow and they are planning on replacing that wire and the slightly charred connector it is attached to. If all goes well, this will solve the problem and we can move on to the flaming water heater. If all goes the way they usually do, the headlights still won't work and we will have to find more wires to chase.

While the men have been sweating it out in the driveway, I've been inside, surfing the web for information on just this type of vehicle. I found this website:
They have a theme song and I'm totally now following them on Twitter.  And according to their definition, The King is vintage. I don't no how I feel about that. The King was built the year I graduated from high school. If 1985 is vintage, what am I? The online dictionary I consulted gave 2 definitions for 'vintage' when used as an adjective, 1. Characterized by excellence, maturity, and enduring appeal; classic. And 2. Old or outmoded. I'm going with the first one.  

**UPDATE**  It's running and we have headlights!!  The alternator is also charging the battery.  

Sunday, July 17, 2011

The Maiden Voyage

This weekend we finally took the plunge and broke in the motor home! We had it running pretty well and had replaced the tires...at $300 a pop. Why so expensive you ask. Well, that's because 26 years ago 16 ½ inch tires were standard. Now they are rare and almost impossible to find, so the tire guy suggested replacing them with 16 inch rims AND tires, which are much easier to find and much less likely to leave us stranded in the middle of nowhere should one go while we are, well, in the middle of nowhere. In case you were wondering what a $300 tire looks like, here you go:

Shiny! Six tires later (ouch) we were feeling pretty confident about taking our show on the road. I packed the jumper cables and purchased some essentials :

Our friends were hosting their annual downhill derby:


so we decided to build a car and rent a camp sight.  We packed up and headed out late Friday morning. I had filled a cupboard with lots of board games, we had snacks on board and the husband was ready to get on the highway and “see what this baby could do!” We had only been on the New Your State Thruway 5 minutes when 2 cars honked, waved and held up their thumbs. Clearly they were either A.) impressed by the awesome soapbox style derby car tied to the back of the motor home or B.) trying to warn us that something had come loose and was about to fly off the roof. If you've seen this thing up close you'd know that it could go either way...

We reserved a campsite at Sutter Creek campground.


This sure turned out to be a wonderful decision! Our campsite backed right up to Sterling Creek and the boys quickly grabbed their fishing poles and were off!

Our hosts, Dave and Lynn, could not have been nicer and the campground and facilities were immaculate. Around dinner time we got the teen busy building a campfire:

And the husband and I christened the beginning of our new adventure:

We made pizza pies in the pie iron for dinner. These are super easy and really tasty. All you need is a loaf of bread, pizza sauce, cheese and whatever toppings you like. And a pie iron like this one:

Heat the pie iron in the hot coals of the campfire while you assemble the pizzas. To assemble all you do is make a sandwich with sauce, cheese, and whatever toppings you like. Open the pie iron and butter both halves, place a pizza on one half, close the pie iron and place it back in the hot coals for a few minutes. I usually turn the iron once while they are cooking:

I've made these with all different types of fillings. Reubens are also really good. We sometimes bring along cans of pie filling and make pies for dessert too. The kids loved 'em:

Great day, beautiful campground with a creek to wade and fish in and playground to play on. All was going well, until it got dark and the husband and I declared it was time to clean up and go to bed. We had spent the night before at the drive in for the midnight premier of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows number 7 part 2 and had to be to the derby early the next morning. We were all waaaaaaaay overtired, it was after 9:30 and just plain time to call it a day. The newly minted teenage child did not agree. This is when I realized that while this motor home looks huge in the driveway, put 5 people in it and it becomes a small enclosed space with no privacy whatsoever. After telling him for the eleventy billionth time to bequietturnoffthelightandgotosleepallready he loudly proclaimed, “There is no way I'm spending 8 weeks in this thing with you people.” Luckily by the next morning his attitude had improved. I'm blaming the sleep deprivation and teenage hormones.

The next morning we had breakfast and packed up, ready for a day of racing. The husband got in the drivers seat turned the key and...nothing happened. Where the morning should have been filled with the sound of a revving Chevy 350 “King of the Road” there was complete silence. Instinctively, I reached for the jumper cables while the husband went to the campground office for help. He returned in a golf cart with Dave, our fabulous campground host, who attempted to give us a jump. They hooked everything up and turned the key. The “King of the Road” mocked the golf cart battery with more complete silence. Dave went back to the office and returned with the Hemi:

It took a few tries, but we did finally get it running again and headed to the derby! The boys had a fabulous time racing their car down the hill:

What a great event this was! Great friends, great fun, great sportsmanship! The kids all got along well, we got to visit with friends that we don't get to see nearly as often as we'd like to and our friends had a battery charger for the motor home. We spent the day racing and playing, had a wonderful cookout, and then it was time to head for home. It was around 6:30 and home was 3 hours away. Still not sure what exactly was causing the battery problem but suspecting trouble with the alternator, the husband decided to keep a closer eye on the voltage meter. Now, you'd think we would have tested the headlights out before we left home, but the “King of The Road” had a current and valid New York State inspection sticker on it when we bought it and well, 3 kids can keep you kind of busy and distracted. As twilight approached the husband flipped on the headlights and the voltage meter dropped like a rock to a crazy scary low level. And the lights didn't come on anyway. With some new insight into what we will be repairing this week our journey became a race for the driveway before dark. We pulled in just as the last bit of daylight evaporated on the horizon. Whew!!

The husband will be traveling for work the first part of August and we leave for Maine right after he gets back. His “to fix” list should keep him pretty busy this week...

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Cleveland Rocks

We met up with some cousins in Cleveland last weekend! We did not take the motor home as we are still working on the tire situation...more on that ordeal later. We did use up a couple of free nights we had at the Hyatt and had a great time sightseeing and hanging out with some cousins. We went to the Great Lakes Science Center and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday and the Cleveland Zoo on Sunday. We had been to the Rock Hall at New Years to see the Bruce Springsteen exhibit and wanted to return to see the Women Who Rock exhibit. Both were excellent...but I think I enjoyed Bruce a little bit more. The Women Who Rock exhibit has a lot of costumes, including Lady Gaga's meat dress, but doesn't go into a whole lot of detail about their careers and musical influences. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful day and good time was had by all! We snagged a passerby to take our picture in front of Johnny Cash's tour bus:

We also went to the Great Lakes Science Center to see the steamship William G. Mather. Here are the boys in front of the steamship:

We've been to lots of museums with the boys and this was our second trip to this one. It is an excellent museum to take your kids to. There are lots of different exhibits and you can touch everything!! The men serving as guides on the steamship were very knowledgeable, although not as knowledgeable as our own personal tour guide, Uncle Pete. By the end of our stay the tour guides were asking him questions! It was a great day that ended back at the hotel with swimming, pizza, board games and a Harry Potter movie marathon.

Sunday we spent at the Cleveland Zoo. Lots of fun, lots of walking, lots of cool animals. It is a beautiful zoo with a very nice new exhibit for the African Elephants. But perhaps the most interesting thing that I personally enjoyed the most was the live music. The African Elephant exhibit had an African Drum band playing, singing and dancing and the Australia pavilion had a trio playing songs from the Australian outback. It made for a very enjoyable afternoon! Here's a picture of my little dude feeding the lorikeets:

So, here's my very first tourist tip...go for the membership. I can't begin to add up how much money memberships have saved us over the years, and as a family of 5, memberships are usually only 20-30 dollars more than the price of a one day admission. I bought a membership to the Rock Hall in October when I was there for a girls' weekend. I used it for my admission twice that weekend and we've now been back twice as a family. We also have a membership to our local science museum and local zoo. We've used the science museum membership twice in Cleveland and also at 2 museums in Chicago in the last year. We got into the zoo on Sunday for ½ price. I'll be renewing memberships before we hit the road next summer.

Finally, one last picture of the Rock Hall, because it is such a cool building:

Friday, July 8, 2011

Addiction

My husband needs help. Serious help. In the form of a support group or 12 step program or an intervention. He has a “problem.” A “problem”, so I am told, many men his age struggle with. Surely there are other wives out there who will sympathize with my predicament when I say his “problem” is affecting our lifestyle. It is taking over our home and making it difficult to carry out certain tasks. You see, my husband is a boat-a-holic.

The basic problem, as my husband sees it, is merely one of space. Currently, the motor home occupies ½ of our driveway. We park my van and his truck next to the motor home on the other ½ of the driveway. The motor boat, a 1971 MFG Westfield, sits on its trailer in the grass next to the vehicles on the other side of the basketball pole. At the moment, you truly cannot even see the front of my house. If you could, you would notice that there is in fact a fully attached 2-car garage, and you would perhaps suggest that we park the vehicles or the boat in there. A fine solution if the garage was not already home to 2 canoes and 3 kayaks, all of which he has built himself. For those of you counting that's 6 boats. But that's not all. There is a seventh boat, in the backyard, under a tarp. A late 1950's Sailfish that he garbage picked from the neighbor of a colleague about a year ago.

As you can imagine, the congestion in the driveway has made garbage night a blast and a half. Our municipality provides homeowners with totes that fit on the back of the truck to decrease the manpower needed on garbage day. The tote is just a smidge too wide to fit in between the vehicles and the motor home. So, we have to scoot it out the corner of the garage and drag it carefully around a flower bed and across the front lawn. Each morning begins with a game of motor vehicle roulette.  I have to admit a few times I have just given up and taken off in the husband's truck just so I wouldn't have to figure out how to back my van around the motor home.  The boys have also added several new scrapes and dings to both vehicles while navigating their bikes and scooters through the maze. Here is the view of my front yard:

In his defense, the husband is a fabulous woodworker. The boats he has built are beautiful and we have used and enjoyed every one of them. The Westfield is a very nice little motorboat, perfect for fishing, tubing and water skiing. He's cleaned it up and restored the top and even found a classic Johnson engine to tinker with. The boys love it:


Two of the kayaks he built for the boys when they were smaller. They are called “Kid-yaks” and are designed for children up to 100 pounds. One of them has a mount for a fishing pole on the front. Our youngest is a mad paddler and loves tooling around Saranac Lake in his but sadly, the two older boys have outgrown them, so we really only need one:

This canoe is the husbands pride and joy, and it really is quite beautiful. He keeps the wood rails varnished and caned the seats himself. It is a gorgeous boat to paddle:

The sailboat still needs a lot of work. Since it was free I didn't mind buying a new sail for it. He has sanded it off and sealed it up and we did take it up to Saranac Lake last summer to test it out. Although not yet fully restored it does float and our oldest son had a great time whipping back and forth out on the lake in it last summer:

Finally, we have the “works in progress.” The husband is in the process of building me my very own cedar strip kayak. It's planked and he is now applying the fiberglass. He hopes to finish it up this summer. And this week he started another canoe with and for our oldest son. So far that one is just some oddly shaped pieces of marine plywood laying on the garage floor. They tell me it will start to look like a boat in a few days:
If you happen to be reading this and are in the market, he may just be willing to part with one or two to ease the congestion in the driveway...give him a buzz at 1-800-edhastoomanyboats.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm

Well, it took me a week but I've completely emptied out and wiped down every surface inside the motor home. I was slowed down a little bit by an allergic reaction, I'm pretty sure to some cleaning product I used, and spent a day in a bit of an antihistamine fog. Good times, good times. Found a few interesting things too...my favorite being this lovely sparkly headband, probably (hopefully?) left behind after a child's dance recital.

We also found a fun little fire hazard. A bunch of papers and this slightly melted cutting board:

They were shoved down between some drawers and the furnace. The papers were mostly coloring book pages, but we did also find a rabies certificate for a German shepherd mix named “Pepsi” and a New York State Insurance certificate from 2005:

I also found 2 bottles of this:

It's called AQUA-KEM and is apparently a “concentrated liquid holding tank deodorant.” According to the bottle it “eliminates waste odor” and “liquifies waste/digests toilet tissue.” I'm trying hard not to think about this part of the trip...

The boys have also now all camped out in it overnight, in the driveway of course. We hope to have it ready to go for an out of town overnight in a couple of weeks. It needs 2 new tires before we can take it anywhere and we are having some trouble finding the right size tires for it. We've also reserved a week at a campground on the beach in Maine for later this summer.  I'll post more pictures as I get things put back together!