Catching up on 2010

This is the sort of post that’s best written around New Years’ Day, summing up the last year. Well, I’m a few weeks late for that.

Without the drive of a big epic cross-country trip, the motivation to post regularly to the blog has dropped. And the renovation of the Argosy has come in big chunks rather than a continuous ebb and flow. (I have a pro work on it, and I spend my time waxing and checking tire pressures.) But it doesn’t mean we haven’t been using the trailer.

I sat down with our trailer logbook. We camped in the Argosy for 35 nights and towed it 4850 miles in 2010. That seems pretty good.

The year started with a big renovation at Frank’s Trailer Works. The work there included needed frame repairs, sealing leaks, and installing a lovely new Marmoleum Click floor.


Then we were off. Trips to Vermont, upstate New York, and four days at a huge Airstream gathering called the Birthday Bash weren’t enough. We took the trailer for 15 nights to Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. It was a lovely trip with some great campsites:

On the side of a hill in Whycocomagh Provincial Park in Nova Scotia. (Suffered a field mouse invasion here. No pictures of the carnage.)

And on top of a bluff on an island in Graves Island Provincial Park, also in Nova Scotia.

Through it all, the trailer has performed wonderfully with few problems. Black tank surprises have been happily rare. There have been guest tow vehicles as well:

A Lincoln MKT, whose Ecoboost twin-turbo V6 was fabulous (pictured at Promised Land campground in PA)

And a Jeep Grand Cherokee V8, here at Salisbury State Reservation just outside of Boston on the ocean. (It was a cold October trip where we learned the beauty of electric blankets when "camping.")

And finally, there’s a new “official” tow vehicle – a 2010 Odyssey to replace the 2005 one that took us almost cross-country with the T@B. It looks sad in the background.

Lots more to come for 2011. There has already been a bunch more repairs done by Frank’s Trailer Works. And we have a busy camping calendar planned. Just as soon as all of this snow melts…

Bye-bye T@B

Let's say that I procrastinated at this post because I was choked up with emotion at selling our T@B. That sounds better than "I was busy doing other stuff."

As soon as we bought the Argosy late last August, we started to try and sell the T@B. Selling a fairly expensive tiny teardrop trailer with no bathroom = meeting lots of um, interesting people via Craigslist. And that's not mentioning the scammers. We gave up trying to sell it during the fall and reposted it in early March.

Things went much better this time around. Maybe having camping season just around the corner helped. (Maybe dropping the price helped too.) The T@B found a happy new home in Portland, Maine. We towed it up to its new owners, giving them time to sort out their tow vehicle and giving us time to spend a half-day eating our way around Portland.

It was kinda sad to see the T@B go. We had a lot of fun with it on our big cross-country trip. But our affections shifted very quickly to our big painted chunk of aluminum (with a bathroom!) in the driveway. Plus, the longer we kept the T@B, the more things started to break, so it was time.

Now the T@B will visit bluegrass festivals and will give its new owners camping fun. Can't ask for much more. Good luck little T@B. You served us well.

New cushions!

The fabric on the gaucho and dinette that came with our Argosy was, ah, rustic. The covers weren't good quality either, with uneven seams. At least the foam was in good shape.



So the renovations begin. We found much-discounted fabric and Ultraleather (a very expensive, very high quality, very soft faux leather) online at newtoto.com

We played off of the orange countertop with the orange dinette fabric. A little orange dot in the fabric picks up the orange cushion bottoms.

The covers were made by a local shop that specializes in boat upholstery. They weren't cheap, but they did a very nice job.

You can see the floor color we're having installed in a few weeks - it should brighten the trailer up, and sweeping out dirt from the Marmoleum will be easier than from carpet. (You can also see the remaining plaid on the front edge of the couch - I can recover that myself.)

Wintertime prep

Buying the Argosy meant there is a lot more stuff to take care of than the T@B. One big example: I need to really winterize the trailer.

Sure, I had to winterize the T@B last year. But all that required was pumping some vodka through the water pump into the sink, removing all of the water. (This year, the water pump died in the T@B, so winterizing that was done by replacing it with a pump from eBay. Ugh.)

It's not the same with the Argosy. There is a six gallon hot water tank, two waste tanks, the fresh water tank up front, and lots of plumbing all connecting it.

But at least it meant I got to buy a new toy:

We went to Sears Columbus Day weekend and picked up a small compressor that was on-sale. It's more than big enough for what I would do, and it had a big enough tank and enough power to blow the water out of the trailer's lines.



We went to a local RV shop and found a nice brass blow-out fitting. Screw it onto the "city" water hook-up, pump air into the system, then go inside and open a valve.

That takes a while when you consider all of the various water valves and faucets and the hot water heater.

Then I pumped RV antifreeze into it all.

Success!

This process wasn't that bad. It took about 45 minutes in all, spending probably 10 pressurizations for the hot water heater, and then draining the water from the sink faucet in the kitchen and bathroom and the showerhead. I also drained the fresh water tank through its own drain valve.

Hopefully we'll survive the winter without any leaks in the plumbing. (We know we have a little leak in the ceiling over the galley...)

Our first rally - sort of

There is something ironic to the fact that our first rally with the Argosy wasn't an Airstream rally. Rather, it was a T@B get-together on the shores of the Battenkill River in Vermont, just south of Manchester. We had met the organizers at the Vintage Trailer Jam this year, and they invited us even though we had moved on trailer-wise. (Turns out we had other T@B friends who moved on to a lovely Sprinter-based Roadtrek -- they also attended the rally, leaving their T@B at home.)

This time, towing involved going up and down Route 9 in Vermont, a very hilly trip, complete with truck runoff ramps. (They look like fun, but I'm not about to try one, even with one of the company cars.) The van pulled like a trooper, and we had plenty of braking power and stability. It's a very well behaved trailer set-up.

Since we're without a furnace, we've been tending to camp where there is electricity so we can use our beloved electric catalytic heater. (Some time, some year, we'll get a propane catalytic installed - but I'm not doing that myself in fear of blowing up the trailer.)

Juliet had, at one point, questioned the value of a oven in a trailer. (Me, having seen Frank bake pies at the Vintage Trailer Jam, thought otherwise.) But the oven has proven to be a great asset, if only for making toast. We used it for reheating homemade cornbread for the evening's potluck as we reheated slow cooked pork and baked beans on the cooktop.

Once again, the hot water heater proved great - except for the time I didn't turn the knob quite past "on" at night, leading to it not quite fully lighting. The incomplete combustion left a big soot mark up the side of the trailer that I didn't spot until the morning. (It waxed right off at home - I do love painted trailers.)

We had a good time. Went to a farmers market (we love farmers markets) in Bennington in the morning. Going to Manchester proved to be a waste of time - lousy outlet shopping - but at least we had a great lunch. Dinner and campfire time with the T@B folks was lots of fun. It poured rain Sunday morning, the first time we slept in the trailer in the rain. No leaks (well, they all leak, but none that dripped on us).

The problem tally so far: one popped exterior rivet (by the door), a tear in the banana wrap (probably was there when I bought it), operator error by not closing the black tank valve all the way (not going to post how or where I discovered that), and the water heater mishap.

Too bad it's the last trip of the year. Next - winterizing and doing some fixes.

Tom

Let the camping begin!

Not long after towing the Argosy home from Canada, we put it to good use.

First trip was Labor Day weekend. We spent three nights in Vermont at a lovely private campground at Harvey's Lake Campground in West Barnet. Despite our normal habit of changing campsites on arrival, we lucked out this time, with a lovely site on the banks of a creek.

We went to Vermont to mountain bike the Kingdom Trails network in East Burke. I've mountain biked in some fabulous places (Grand Canyon, Oregon), but this is the best network of trails I've ridden. They're relatively smooth - a rare thing in rock-laden New England - well marked, and a whoop-de-do roller coaster blast to ride. It doesn't hurt that there is a fine Saturday morning farmer's market in St. Johnsbury on the way.

Towing the Minuet is pretty easy. Handling-wise, you barely notice it behind the minivan. You do notice it on hills, of which there are many in Vermont. The Odyssey pulls it fine, but mileage suffered, hovering around 13-14 mpg.

Living in the Argosy is quite a step up from the T@B. It is luxury to have amenities like a toilet, hot water (I do love hot water, especially not having to boil it on the stove for dishes), two comfy beds, lots of overhead lighting, a big refrigerator with a freezer (that boggles the mind), and tons of storage.

Maybe the ultimate expression of trailer living luxury was after we biked Monday morning. We were dirty and stinky, with a five hour drive home. But the trailer was attached behind the van in the overflow parking lot. We fired up the hot water heater, took a shower, and freshened up for the drive back. Lovely.

The only issue: the fan switch for the stove vent gets hot to the touch, and the fan cuts out intermittently. I even managed our first dump station visit successfully! Good times.

(OK, that wasn't all. We didn't latch the wardrobe door well enough, so we saw that swinging open and shut as we drove. We pulled over to shut that, since it was blocking the view straight through out the rear trailer window. Good thing we did - the frig had opened up. We took the heavy stuff out of the door (duh) and rejiggered the bungee cord that holds the frig shut. Classic RV newbie mistakes, although we avoided all of those with the T@B...)

The Inside Tour

Here's a tour of some of the highpoints inside the trailer:



The dinette in the front of the trailer. The table folds down flat to make a bed. It's great to have this large table to eat at. Not super comfy for lounging during the day though, but an OK compromise. Seen here in the ugly current fabric.

Sleeping up there is like being in the best treehouse ever, since the panoramic windows give an awesome view (especially if you don't block the view by parking the van there.) Juliet has claimed this bed - better for me since it's about four inches shorter than the other bed.



The couch ("gaucho" in trailer speak) along the streetside of the trailer. Two windows above it give great light and ventilation. There are reading lights at one end.

Notice how we "reupholstered" with an old stripy tablecloth. Hey, it works.



Here is the couch pulled out into a bed. There is another foot-wide section to make the bed larger, but it almost fully blocks the aisle when used. Since we don't try to sleep together on this sub-double bed, we leave that part at home.



Love the orange countertop! Up front is a 2-way Dometic fridge - it runs on propane or AC. It works very well - slow to cool down, but it lights easily (from outside - the inside lighter is a PITA) and keeps stuff cold.



Small two-well sink with matching orange covers. They really do work to expand the worktop space.



Three burner stove with an oven and broiler. Works well - faster than the cooktop in the T@B, and we can broil toast! (I'm tempted to bake something, but Jules is wary.)



The shower. Tiny. Best to use the handhold sprayer rather than hanging it up. But it does work pretty well, and we have managed to use it without spraying the entire interior with water.



The business end of the bathroom. So nice not to have to go outside in the middle of the night. Sink has running hot and cold water. The water from the sinks goes into a gray water tank, but the shower drain design is below that tank (it's in the bottom of a closet) so that drains straight out. (We catch it in a basin.)



There is storage everywhere in this thing, a big advantage over newer models who often emphasize style over function. The entire length under the gaucho is storage. We store our bedding here (in the packing cubes) plus fit in our folding chairs and stools, plus a fan. And there's still some room left!



More storage, with a wardrobe closet. We put in hanging IKEA "shelves." Pure luxury compared to keeping most of our clothes in the van when we camped in the T@B.



Amazingly, all of the overhead tambour doors work smoothly! Lots more storage here, including our matching tableware from Target.

And how does it all work when camping? Next post.

Tom