X-Stitch: Seaside Lovers

I’ve always enjoyed crafts. I’ve tried my hand at ceramics, knitting, crochet, and cross stitch. Cross stitch was my favorite; specifically, the counted variety where there’s nothing printed on the fabric. I liked seeing my creations come to life on a blank canvas. The smaller the fabric count the better as far as I was concerned.

Alas those days are over. My near-sight isn’t what it used to be, and doing detail work, though not impossible, is more difficult these days. As well, over the years, other hobbies have started to vie for my attention — photography and blogging come to mind. And to top it off, we’re planning to downsize after retirement, living for a while (at least) full-time in our “condo on wheels.” So after much debate (with myself), I’m putting this hobby on the shelf.

For a while now, I’ve been wanting to take images of my “art” and include them in the blog. That way, they’ll be with me no matter where I am. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not giving up what I worked so hard to create. There just won’t be any new projects in my future.

So here it is … Seaside Lovers — my last cross stitch project; first to be featured in the blog.

If you’re wondering how this has anything to do with “travel.” Well, in many instances, a trip we took was the inspiration for a pattern that I later stitched. Take this one for instance … it reminds me of the many beach strolls we’ve taken in years past.

Update – February 4

Mom was working on the same cross stitch pattern. Her project turned out just as beautifully. She stitched the gold thread frame around the scene, whereas I opted to skip it; she added some birds in the sky — the pattern had some birds but they blended into the clouds, so I opted not to stitch them; mom got frustrated with the back-stitch beach grasses and came up with an alternate solution. The framer suggested they not do a mat; since Mom did the stitched frame, I think it works. So here’s another version of Seaside Lovers — this one hangs in my sister’s living room.

Home Away From Home

Saturday, 29 January 2011

The plan was to pick up the coach and take it to storage on Wednesday, the 26th. But Mother Nature played a trick on us, dumping 8 inches (20 cm) of wet, heavy snow on the area. (Click here to read about our first real snowstorm of the season.) So, we postponed getting Phae to her home away from home until today.

We headed to Restless Wheels bright and early this morning. The temperature was just above freezing, but considering it was in the teens just a week ago, we weren’t complaining. When we arrived at 9:00a, they were just unlocking the doors. The coach had been stored inside the shop during the snowstorm, so it was snug as a bug in one of the service bays.

It’s time to get this baby home.

First on our to-do list was to make sure the levelers were functioning properly. After all, that was the reason why we’d brought the Phaeton to Restless Wheels in the first place. After positioning the landing blocks he had made the previous weekend, Mui dropped the levelers. We held our breath as the legs slowly moved down and came to a stop. When we noted that the indicators were flashing green, a cheer went up. Our pleasure was doubled when the levelers retracted without a glitch.

The blocks will reduce the distance the leveler legs have to drop.

The source of the problem — a fried control board.
(be glad your noses are being spared the burnt smell.)

After nearly two months, the coach was ready to go home. One of the technicians drove the Phaeton out of the shop and positioned it so that we could hook up the toad. Under the watchful eye of Paul, who’d installed the towing system and trained him last week, Mui went to work running cables through the d-ring and connecting them as he’d been instructed. He gets a gold star for getting it all right!

here she comes.

Mui gets to work hooking up the toad.

All hooked up … and this time, we have somewhere to go.

I have to admit to a bit of a trepidation as we slowly moved out of the parking lot and made the turn onto the street. After all, once 40 feet (12 m) in length, we were now 59 feet (18 m) long with the toad attached. Mui was confident that we’d do fine; he was right. It felt good seeing the toad in the rearview camera display on the dashboard. Our camping horizons have now expanded considerably.

There's plenty of snow still, but the roads are clear for our first towing event.

the toad obediently follows behind the coach.

On our way to Restless Wheels, we’d checked to make sure that a tree that had been blocking the road to the storage lot had been cleared. Sure enough, it had been removed overnight. So, seeing a bunch of utility trucks ahead of us as we neared our destination came as a total surprise. The workers were equally, if not more, surprised to see a giant motor home bearing down on them. A quick conversation with the foreman, a few orange cones repositioned, and we were past the work area.

A utility crew is hard at work restoring power, but there’s
enough room for us to get by.

After successfully negotiating the unexpected hurdle, we continued a few more miles to the storage lot. Knowing that the side road to the lot was not completely cleared of snow, we stopped just outside the gate to unhook the toad on dry pavement. Then, I followed Mui to the Phaeton’s new home away from home.

A handsome pair — now unhitched!
(the coordinating colors weren't by design.)

Living in a townhouse in the suburbs of Washington DC, we have no choice but to keep the coach in storage. When we brought the Phaeton from Oregon to our neck of the woods, we found a storage facility in Manassas. As it was the only place with an open spot, we took it; but kept our eyes open for something closer to us. Coincident with the installation of the towing system, we got a call from a facility where we’d put our name on the waiting list. Needless to say, when they told us that they’d recently expanded and had room for us now, we jumped on the opportunity. Too bad it’s not covered storage, but in this area, that would be a miracle — with a price tag to match.

we would have preferred not having snow today …

… but the Phaeton gets through without any problems.

It turns out that the corner spot we picked for the great maneuverability that it offers is just a tiny bit short for us. We left the coach there temporarily until Mui can consult with the lot manager and pick another spot. We’ll be back tomorrow to relocate the Phaeton.

Tow-Ready

Saturday, 22 January 2011

First off … I see we have some new followers.  Thanks for joining us.  Haven’t been posting for a while as I haven’t had anything to write about on this blog.  That’s not to say I’ve been silent … followers of our non-RV travel blog can attest to that.

Last November, we brought the 2010 RV season to a close with a “roughing-it-not-so-smoothly” adventure at Pohick Bay Regional Park.  (You can read all about it here.)  Shortly thereafter, we took our Phaeton into Restless Wheels for a check-up to determine the source of our problems.

As anticipated, the issue was a fried control board.  So, that was replaced.  While they had the vehicle, we asked them to take care of a few other things, including winterizing it.  Then, Mui had the bright idea of having the towing system installed while the Phaeton was still at Restless Wheels.  We asked for and got a quote, and an order was placed for all the parts and pieces.

Long story short, first our Caribbean cruise and then the holidays intruded into the schedule.  So, it wasn’t until today that we were able return to Restless Wheels to bring the Phaeton home.  Ooops, not so fast.

Mui’s smiling; he wants to bring the phaeton home.

We picked up the keys, and went out to the motor home to test the levelers and the slides.  First, we turned on the generator to let it run since it had been idle for longer than optimum.  Then we turned on both furnaces.  With the outside temp hovering around 19F (-7C), the heat flowing out of the vents was most welcome.  Soon it was cozy inside the Phaeton.

Finally, it was time to test the levelers.  Mui turned on the ignition and hit the button.  Everything looked to be working fine — until the rear driver’s side leveler refused to come down.  Oh no!  The technician came over and started poking around.  Alarms went off and were silenced.  Levelers went up and down, but not without problems.  Nothing to do but take it into the shop for more diagnostics.

So, onward we moved to learn how to set up the tow.  The CR-V was pulled up behind the Phaeton and another technician demonstrated the process of hooking and unhooking the toad.  I had the video camera out to tape it all for posterity, but the batteries didn't survive the excessively cold temperatures.  Oh well!

Mui was a quick learner and was soon flying solo …

For those interested in the nitty-gritty, we chose the ReadyBrute™ Elite with a Demco base plate, and of course, a break-a-way system in the event of an emergency.  The 8,000-pound (3,600 kg) towing capacity is twice what we need, so we should be good to go.

We already have a call from Restless Wheels that the diagnostics are completed and the levelers are operating normally.  I’ll report back when we go to pick up the Phaeton next week.  We’ll be towing for the first time, so keep your fingers crossed for us.

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 …