Happy New Year

Friday, 31 December 2010

Our New Year’s Eve celebrations tend to be on the quiet side.  This year is no different.  Dinner is over; the table has been cleared.  I’m sitting by the fireplace, sipping a second glass of wine — which may be a mistake since more than one glass tends to make me sleepy.  Perhaps writing this blog entry while I wait for Mui to finish talking to friends in Turkey will help to keep me awake.

Mui’s the cook in our household.  For tonight’s festivities, he prepared a “semi-homemade” meze feast for just the two of us.  (For those not familiar with meze, think Spanish tapas with a Turkish twist.)

The menu consisted of: prosciutto-wrapped-cantaloupe; hand-wrapped sigara böreği (deep fried rolls of Turkish phyllo pastry filled with a mix of feta cheese and fresh parsley); barbunya pilaki (red kidney beans cooked with olive oil); köfte (Turkish meatballs); zeytinyağlı yaprak sarması (rice stuffed grape leaves [aka dolmades]); zeytinyağlı patlıcan dolması (eggplant stuffed with rice); fava (dip made with broad beans); and zeytinyağlı enginar (artichokes cooked in olive oil with rice and scallions, and garnished with peas and carrots).

(By the way, anything that has the “zeytinyağlı” designation in Turkish cuisine is served at room temperature.)

For dessert, we tried a recipe for what Rick (of Rick and Paulette’s RV Travels) described as a Napoleon Slice.  (Click here for recipe.)

New Year’s Eve Feast

Mui’s been saving this rakI for a special occasion; New Year’s Eve qualifies.

Now that Mui’s completed his call, it’s on with the next part of our evening — watching a holiday movie.  See ya later …

… Later

It’s only 10:30p, but I don’t think either of us is going to make it to midnight to ring in the new year.  My goal now is to stay up long enough to finish this post.

So, the movie we watched tonight was The Bishop’s Wife.  Netflix, describes the plot as follows:

This Christmastime angelic intervention sparkles with good humor.  Dudley the angel (Cary Grant) is sent to help a bishop (David Niven) and his wife (Loretta Young) survive their attempt to finance a new cathedral and the strain it’s putting on their marriage.  The film includes complex undercurrents, especially when the bishop sees Dudley as a rival for his job and his wife.

This holiday classic falls into the “oldies but goodies” category.  I’ve just added the 1996 remake, The Preacher’s Wife (starring Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston, and Courtney Vance), to my Netflix queue.  I’m curious to see how it compares.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Roughing It Not-So-Smoothly

5-6 November 2010

Roughing It Smoothly is the Tiffin maxim.  It’s usually the way our Phaeton adventures can be described.  Unfortunately, this weekend’s camping adventure turned out to be not-so-smooth.  We should still be at Pohick Bay Regional Park (PBRP) in Lorton, Virginia.  But no; we’re at home.

We had plans to spend a weekend at PBRP last month.  When we got word on October 18 that Mui’s father had passed away, we put those plans on hold and he hopped on a plane to Turkey instead.  (Campground deposits for Virginia state parks are non-refundable, but they allow one date transfer; so I moved the reservation to April 2011.)

As rig owners who live in cold areas well know, winterizing is essential to the wellbeing of a motorhome.  After Mui returned to the States at the end of October, we decided to take the coach out one last time before we had to put it to bed for the season … empty out the foodstuff and whatnot, and have a bit of fun at the same time.  So, I made a reservation at PBRP for this weekend.

Our weekend got off to a good start Friday afternoon.  We picked up the Phaeton, stopped at Fannon to top off the diesel, and were on the road by 3:45p.

Of the several alternatives available to us, we opt for the
Rte 234/I-95N combination to drive to PBRP.

After the deluge of rain earlier in the week, we appreciated having the rays of the sun streaming through the windshield of the Phaeton.  The 42-mile (67 km) drive was uneventful.  We were especially grateful that we weren’t heading south on I-95; traffic was at a standstill for at least 6 miles (10 km) in that direction.

We have 55F (13C) temps and partly cloudy skies for our drive.

We arrived at PBRP with plenty of daylight left to maneuver into the back-in site to which we were assigned (#60; 50-amp, full hookups; $42.52/night jurisdiction rate with tax).  The next several sites on either side of us were empty, giving us plenty of privacy.

Pohick Bay Regional park
[map courtesy of the PBRP website)

Site 60 is one of 10 sites with full hookups.
[map courtesy of the PBRP website]

Home away from home for the weekend.

Just a few rigs in the distance and that’s about it.

Before long, we had the furnace cozying things up inside while Mui warmed up the leftovers we had brought from home.  As day turned to night, we sat down to have dinner, and then whiled away the night reading and watching TV (39 local channels with the antenna).

So far, so good … right?  Well, not for long.

Around midnight, I sensed Mui moving about the bedroom.  When I asked him what was wrong, he said the inverter alarm was beeping.  A further check revealed that the batteries weren’t charging and the inverter was cutting in and out as the power management system tried to make adjustments.  Figuring there was a problem with the 50-amp pedestal, we switched to 30 amps instead.  Our efforts were for naught; we still weren’t getting power.  Seeing as how there wasn’t much we could do at that late hour, we shut down everything (including the furnace) to preserve battery power, and went back to bed, piling the covers over us as the nighttime temperature inside the coach dropped to 55F (13C).

We spent a fitful night, forcing ourselves to stay in bed until 7:30a when the first rays of the sun started to filter through the trees.  We didn’t want to bother the two campers across the road from us by starting the generator yet, so we used the next hour to take care of the packing chores on our list.  By 9:00a we were ready to crank up the diesel generator.  Our hearts sank when the generator refused to start at first, but a call to Coach-Net guided us through the start up procedure using the auxiliary button.  The low growl of the generator was music to our ears.

Next, we decided to bring the slides in while the Coach-Net technician was still on the phone ... just in case.  You can imagine how we felt when Mui pressed the buttons to retract the front slides and only the driver’s side started pulling in.  It was the same when he went to retract the rear slides; no movement on the passenger side slide.  Just as I was about to utter a few choice words, I caught a bit of movement in my peripheral vision … the front passenger slide was moving.  What the ?!?!  It turns out that the front passenger slide button had actually retracted the rear passenger slide, and the rear passenger slide button was doing the same for the front passenger slide.  Screwy, but at least the slides were in, and at that moment, that’s all that mattered.

After that bit of stress, we decided to go for a walk to clear our heads before heading home.  With Mui still under orders to take it easy while his tendonitis heals, we opted for the short .16-mile hike down the trail that leads to the edge of Pohick Bay.

The boat rental concession area is deserted.

Glimpse of Pohick Bay from the floating dock.

the kayaks are stored until the weather warms up in the spring.

With the rig’s electrical problems niggling at us, we dallied just long enough for me to watch a bald eagle flying across the bay to Mason Neck Wildlife Refuge.  Then, it was back to the rig where we had a quick bite to eat before checking out of the campground.  I wasn’t expecting a refund for our second night, but when I mentioned the reason for our departure, the manager processed a credit on the spot.  Good customer service!  A few more minutes to switch our reservation for next April to an easier-to-get-into site (#71 is apparently favored by big rig owners) and we were on our way home.

We’ve been having problems with our Atwood levelers and had them disabled in early October so that we could camp a few more times before winterizing the Phaeton.  We’re thinking that our electrical problems may be related to our leveler issues.  We’ve already checked around, and the earliest we can have both problems looked at is late November (not many RV service centers in our neck of the woods).  In the meantime, we’ll get the winterizing taken care of and keep our fingers crossed that whatever problems are in store for us don’t make too big of a dent in the wallet.

I’ll be back to tell you the results of the diagnostics and repairs when I know more …

Blast from the Past: Richard Gere Wasn’t There

31 October 2010

Happy Halloween!  Everyone is dressing up in costumes, so I thought we’d don our youthful guise and take a walk down memory lane.  The year was 1982 and we were living in Washington State.  One weekend in June, we went to Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend.

The fort is on Point Wilson, an area discovered by Captain George Vancouver in 1792.  The first fort, constructed in 1855, was named Fort Wilson.  Its mission was to protect Port Townsend from the Indians.  The fort was abandoned in 1856, and remained so until the 1900s when it became part of the harbor defense system for Puget Sound.

Fort Worden, along with the heavy batteries of Fort Flagler and Fort Casey, guarded the nautical entrance to Puget Sound to prevent a hostile fleet from reaching such targets as the Bremerton Naval Yard and the cities of Seattle, Tacoma, and Everett.  The fort was named in honor of Admiral John L. Worden, the commander of the ironclad Monitor in the Civil War battle with the Confederate ship Merrimac.

Fort Worden is the only army installation
named for a naval commander.

In modern popular culture, the fort is known as the locale for some of the scenes from the movie An Officer and A Gentleman (Richard Gere, Debra Winger, Louis Gossett Jr).

Battery Kinzie (1912-1944) was part of
the harbor defense of Puget Sound.

But it’s not that we walked in Richard Gere’s footsteps that brings a smile to our lips when we think of our weekend getaway.  At the time, we weren’t even aware of that little tidbit.  Rather, it’s that we camped in our car!

We pulled into a campsite, surrounded by camping trailers of varying sizes, and proceeded to set up camp.  We hung sheets inside the car for privacy; built a campfire; grilled hot dogs for dinner; and even made scrambled eggs for breakfast the next morning.  Smaller in stature, I slept on the front seat; Mui had the more spacious back seat as his sleeping quarters.

Welcome to our campsite!

Until our visit to the park, we’d never
seen a beach littered with driftwood.

Taking a stroll to the lighthouse.

Wilson Point Lighthouse (built in 1870).

Enjoying a cold brew on the pier.

How do you like our tabletop grill?

Would we repeat the experience now that we are older and wiser?  Definitely; but we’d do it in a bit more luxury.  In fact, I think this state park would be the ideal location to start our full-timing life in our “condo on wheels.”  After all, we did start our bricks and sticks married life in Washington State.

Westmoreland State Park

8-10 October 2010

We had plans to take the Phaeton out for a spin in September, but those plans were back-burnered when a family emergency had Mui hopping on a plane to Turkey instead. So, we transferred our reservation at Westmoreland State Park (WSP) in Montross, Virginia to October. Our weekend getaway has now come and gone, and we’re back home after a relaxing and fun time (achy tummy notwithstanding) in our condo on wheels.

To say that we had spectacular weather for our getaway would be an understatement. The sky was blue; the sun shined brightly. The temps, ranging from 60F to 80F (15.5C to 27C), were a cross between fall and summer. With none of the stickiness that usually accompanies high temperatures around here, even at the height of the day, it was comfortable enough to be out and about.

The stop-and-go traffic on the way down to WSP was a bit of a pain — to be expected since it was the start of the 3-day Columbus Day weekend. Our alternate route, by-passing I-95, made the drive less painful and didn’t add any appreciable difference to the distance.

Taking I-95 on the way back cuts just a bit off our drive.
[88 miles (141 km) vs 93 miles (149 km]

WSP is set in a heavily-forested area, which makes for a great shade canopy. In addition to three campgrounds, there are cabins for rent, as well as a retreat area. The 155 campsites (42 with water/electric hookups) are a mix of tent and RV sites, with the latter restricted to 40 feet (~12m) or less ... with good reason.

The red star marks the location of B17.
[map courtesy of the WSP website]

We were assigned B17, a pull-through site located conveniently near the entrance to Campground B. The narrow lane and the tight turn to get into the site was tricky, and some tree branches did scrape against the top of the Phaeton, but we made it in OK — this time. I’m not sure if we’d be able to do so after another season of tree growth. The 30-amp electricity was sufficient for our needs, but the water pressure was very low. If we were to go back, we’d fill the water tank and rely on that instead. (Rate $25/night + tax.)

B17 is home to the Phaeton this weekend.

After settling in Friday night, we made short work of dinner (leftovers from home) and spent the evening relaxing. Much to our surprise, the TV antenna picked up 10 HD stations, but the signal was so-so. Instead, we watched a Netflix movie (Kevin Costner’s Swing Vote … I’d have to rate it as “ehhh”) and made a dent in the stack of magazines we had in the Phaeton.

We were both up around 5:00a on Saturday, but it took us a while to get going. We had breakfast; we read; we poked around the Phaeton. I had a bit of a tummy ache, but I wasn’t about to let a little thing like a virus ruin the day, so around 10:00a, we headed off to hike the .4-mile (.6 km) Beach Trail.

The name of the trail is a bit of a misnomer in that it runs through a heavily-forested area atop the cliffs. But it does eventually lead down to a beach on the shores of the Potomac River.

The trail is level, until ...

… you get to the stairs that…

… Lead down to the beach.

Even though it was mid-morning on a summer-like day, the beach was not yet crowded. As we strolled along the golden-sand, we came across fishermen bemoaning the fact that the fish weren’t biting and a few other couples like us enjoying the quiet morning. At the Osprey Boat House, kayaks were laid out on the sand for a group of youngsters who arrived while we were treating ourselves to a couple of ice cream sandwiches. For a few minutes, there was a hub-bub of activity as they readied to shove off. Soon they were gone and we were left to quietly enjoy the company of a lone great blue heron.

if you’re on the beach, you’re in Virginia; if you go in the water,
you’re in Maryland — where does that leave me?

The kayaks are ready for a day on the water.

Fish, fish, where art thou?

Eventually, the parking lot near the boat house started to fill up. That was our cue to stroll back towards the trailhead. We were hoping to walk to the Horsehead Cliffs at the far end of the beach, but we were deterred by a sign reading “beach closed due to dangerous slides.” The cliffs were indeed heavily eroded, with the tangled roots of many of the trees exposed to the elements.

A tribute to “Potomac ness.”

Remember the stairs we had to climb down to the beach? Well, yes, we had to climb up them to get to the top of the trail and back to our rig. It was slow going, but we made it without huffing and puffing too much. A simple lunch; an hour or so of reading and relaxing; a few Phaeton checks; and by 3:00p, we were ready to check out another trail.

the tires meet the specs.

This time, we headed in the opposite direction and hiked the .69-mile (1.1 km) Big Meadow Trail. Like the Beach Trail, this one also runs through a heavily forested area and there is a drop down to the river level, but it isn’t as sharp of a drop … a good thing, since there are no steps to help ease the descent.

American beautyberries are considered to be a powerful
insect repellent by gardeners.

The trail dead-ended at Fossil Beach, which was crowded with families searching for shark teeth and other ancient fossilized remains. Visitors to WSP are allowed to sift through the sand and legally take away any fossils they might find, but digging into the Miocene Era cliffs is STRICTLY prohibited. Understandable not just because of the erosion factor, but also because of the geological history that could easily be damaged or lost. In fact, it was from one of these cliffs that geologists unearthed an intact skeleton of a 15-million year old whale, which, we were told, is on exhibit at the Smithsonian.

Though we had sifters, I wasn’t feeling up to rolling up my pants and digging around the cold river water. Instead, we sat on a tree trunk, basked in the sun, and watched the action around us.

On one side of the beach, fossil hunters …

… on the other side, a lone boy fishing.

Back at the Phaeton after our hike, Mui grilled chicken for dinner and served it with a side of artichokes and rice, and a green salad. Afterwards, it was another quiet evening at home for us.

We both had a rather restless night thanks to my tummy cramps, which led to a later wake up time on Sunday. I was feeling better and ready to get on with our plan to hike one or two trails before our planned 2:00p departure. Not so fast; once I had a bit of food in my stomach, the cramps were back. Granted, they weren’t as bad as the day before, but we decided it was time to break camp and head home instead.

Despite my rather achy tummy, we enjoyed our weekend at Westmoreland State Park. Whether we go back to camp there again is to be determined, but there’s nothing to stop us from driving down for a day to enjoy the hiking trails and the picnic facilities. As well, we can visit the birthplaces of two figures who have played an important role in history — George Washington and Robert E Lee.

Follow Us … to Alaska

4 September 2010

We go away on vacation and come back to four followers. Thank you for joining us on our “Phaeton Journeys.”

I wish I had some exciting trip in our condo on wheels with which to regale you. Alas, I do not.

As great as the weather forecast is for this weekend, we would like to be in a campground somewhere, enjoying the Phaeton right now. Having just returned from a two-week trip to Alaska a week ago, however, it seemed like a better idea to stick around home and tackle chores. (OK, OK … we did try to go away, but all the campgrounds within a reasonable distance were already booked … sigh.)

So, while I’m doing chores like laundry, ironing, and cleaning at home (and yes, blogging too), Mui’s at the storage facility, giving the Phaeton a good wash and wax so it will look great when we take it out for a spin next weekend.

Got to keep the rig looking shiny clean.
[taken with the blackberry]

Mui does a gleaming good job!
[taken with the blackberry]

A portion of the top of the rig showing the skylight over the shower,
the TV antenna, the two Fantastic fans in the lav area, and one of the two
A/C units. The other A/C and the DirecTV satellite dish are forward of this area.
[taken with the blackberry]

I mentioned that we were in Alaska just a week ago. It wasn’t a Phaeton Journey; that’s simply going to have to wait until we're retired. It was a great trip nonetheless. Here’s a teaser photo …

Yummmmmy!

If this image whets your appetite, hop on over to Two to Travel, our non-RV travel blog, and follow along. You can start with this post. I had no time to blog while we were traveling, so you have plenty of time to catch up to our adventure as I write all about it. (All of the posts will show up in the August archive where they belong.)

Chores and R&R at Bull Run Regional Park

23-25 July 2010

Friday

We’re hanging out at Bull Run Regional Park (BRRP) this weekend.  We drove a mere 16 miles [26 km] to get here from the storage lot.  Even if you take into account the 22 miles [35 km] from the house to the storage lot, the distance is negligible for a camping trip.

I can see you all shaking your heads and wondering if it was even worth disturbing the Phaeton.  We still have some housekeeping chores to do, so the answer is: “Yes.”  I see no reason why we can’t have some fun while we take care of this and that around the coach.

Filling up with freshwater before we leave the storage lot.

Had we driven from home, this would have been our route to the park.
(the storage lot is further west; we backtracked from there)

We’re in site 27, a 50-amp pull-through.  They do have full hook-ups available, but we wanted to see how the tanks hold up and test the water pressure using just the water pump, so we opted to book an electric-only site.  As we live in one of the regional counties, we get what’s called a “jurisdiction rate” — $31.50/night.  (That’s a $2 discount over the regular rate for this site.)

Glimpse of the perimeter loop.

The Phaeton looks comfortable in Site 27.

The campground is laid out in an oval of sorts, with concentric rows of sites.  It pays not to be part of the inner circle here; our location on the outer edge offers more privacy. We have a heavily-wooded area on the passenger side, with a picnic table, a fire pit, and a grill.  A paved road separates us from the campsites on the driver’s side.  Since the sites are off-set slightly, our view on that side is of a wooded area as well.  The rest of the campground is hidden behind the tree line on that side.

Note location of #27 on the perimeter of the campground.

No bugs to pester us, but it’s much too hot to eat at the picnic table.

It was almost 5:00p by the time we were settled in our site.  The temp was still reading a humid 103F [39C], so we put off grilling tonight.  Instead, we fixed some rice and lentils for dinner; quick and easy.  Then it was time to just kickback after a busy work week.  The trees block satellite signals, but we’re getting good TV reception from the antenna.  Between that and the DVDs we brought with us, we have plenty of entertainment for the two nights that we’ll be here.  Speaking of which, time to watch one of those DVDs.  More tomorrow …

SATURDAY

Can you say HOT, HOT, HOT?  I know I sound like a broken record, but that’s what we have here — record-breaking hot temperatures.

I’m sure we exceeded the forecasted high of 100F [38C] very early in the day.  Let’s not even think about the effect of the high humidity on that temperature.  Thanks to the tree canopy shading our site, we never got above 97F [36C] here.  I’ve never actually stepped inside an oven, but I’m sure it would feel similar to the way it feels outside the Phaeton at the moment.

Up early as usual, we went for a stroll around the campground first thing this morning.  We didn’t get far.  Though the temp was only 77F [25C], the high humidity made it feel oppressive and sticky.  We checked out the Atlantis Waterpark ($4/adult for campground guests), figured out where the dump station is located (we’ll need it when we leave tomorrow), and headed back to the Phaeton in short order.

Breakfast was followed by chores left from last weekend — cleaning and organizing the cockpit cabinets, rinsing out the ceiling vent filters, etc.  Mui managed to get the diamond shield on the front of the Phaeton cleaned and polished before the humid heat drove him inside.  Organizing the basement will just have to wait until another time.

The house batteries could use a drink of distilled water.

Since it was way too hot to hike either of the nearby trails, we went to Plan B for the afternoon — learning the ins and outs of our MacBook Pro laptops.  We’re new to the Apple Family and our first impressions so far are positive.  With one exception: there is no equivalent of Windows Live Writer for Mac.  I’ve tested several offline blog writing packages so far, and they’re all sorely lacking IMHO.  (You hear me Mac app developers?)  I just might have to partition a bit of the hard drive to run Windows just for this one software.

this is a posed photo, but it’s not far different from
the way you would have found us this afternoon.

A DVD or two; a bit of reading; a glass of wine … suddenly it was dinner time.  It really was much too hot to be grilling, but the alternative of having to take already thawed steaks and shrimp back home wasn’t too thrilling either.  So, Mui braved the elements and lit the grill.

Adding heat to a hot evening.

Shrimp and steak on the barbie.

Yes, we grilled; but we enjoyed our meal in air conditioned comfort.

And so another day of “soft” camping comes to a close.  Time to watch one of the DVDs we brought with us — a retrospective of our polar bear adventure in Churchill, Canada (read about it here).  If nothing else, just seeing all that snow and remembering the daytime temperatures that dipped down to –31F [-35C] might mentally cool us down!

More tomorrow …

Sunday

Today’s forecast was for cooler temps in the 90F range.  We were up early, hoping to hike one of the trails.  Though the temp was a reasonable 79F [26C], the high humidity dashed hopes of any enjoyable trekking.  Instead, we spent the morning relaxing — something we don’t do nearly enough when we’re at home.

Since I didn’t get to take any photos from the hiking trail today,  I’ll share a few from our first visit to BRRP.  It was April 2008 and the Bluebell Trail was a bit soggy from overnight showers.  But the flowers for which the trail is named were in full bloom and spread out like a carpet everywhere we looked along the trail.

Seeing these photos again reminds me of the fun we had that day.  We’ll have to come back and camp here next April so we can enjoy the trail again.

We left the campground shortly before the 11:00a check-out time.  After dumping our tanks, we found a spot clear of trees.  Mui’s been wanting to do a real test of the satellite reception, and this was our opportunity to do so.  The satellite locked onto a signal and we did get reception, but it was in B&W.  We suspect we might need to swap out our box for an HD receiver; will check with DirecTV.

By the way … a short housekeeping note.  The tanks held up just fine; and the pump-provided water pressure was more than sufficient for morning showers.

Dumping the tanks!

Once we arrived at the storage lot, it took us a bit longer than usual to put the Phaeton to bed as we will not have occasion to go out during the next six weeks or so —  we need to direct our trip planning time to our long-awaited return visit to Alaska.  Not a road trip this time, but that too is in the works for when we retire.