MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS *C* Caulking, Coleman Lantern and CB Radio and SNOW!

I am going to start off the new year with posting three of our motorhome modifications at a time. I will post repairs, modifications, or neato things we have found for RVing.  I have lots of pics in my files so I will do them in alphabetical order.

Underneath that stuff, I will post my regular daily stuff..... kinda sorta fun, eh?

So here it goes, we are up to the letter C now!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER C

Caulking:

A yearly project is to inspect and fill in all the little spaces along the three trim strips on our motorhome.  It has aluminum siding with three horizontal riveted strips that tend to lose their caulking over time.

Flexing with heat/cold changes seem to make these strips loosen up and allow water intrusion.  Especially the top most strip lets in the water that runs off the roof!  Most of the roof stains and leaks we see on other people's Safari rigs are from these strips.  So showing what to look for and what to use to seal them is our Public Service Announcement today! 

The best product to use is a clear silicone that is UV resistant and made especially for RV's.  It is called Pro Flex RV made by Geocel. Most RV shops carry it, and you can also get it on Amazon. It comes in white, almond, black and clear.  Of course, on the blue paint, we need clear.

 We learned to go over the ridges carefully and clean out any gaps. 

We cut the tip of the caulk tube for only a small bead on an angle,

and slide along letting it seep into the crack. 

Steve also noticed that our front marker lights in the overhead cap were leaking.
He removed each one and caulked around behind each one too, 

not just the plastic lens.
(note: this is his telescoping ladder we keep in the motorhome)

 Should last another 20 years??

CB Radio:

"Breaker Breaker One Nine, heading this ship down a concrete sea, catch ya on the flip flop!" 

Seriously, our motorhome came with a CB radio! We have used it on a number of occasions and sometimes turn it on when we are bored on a long stretch of trucking highway.  Listening to the truckers can be entertaining, but some of their language will make ya blush.  They give you up-to-the-second information on what is happening up ahead, or weather, or road conditions.  Especially on mountain passes when there is no cell or data signal to find out what is going on.  

It is a hand held unit wired in and hangs on a clip on the dash by Steve's knee.

Up on the roof is the wired in antenna....  

we check that yearly for leaks and have it caulked up pretty good, eh? 

We also have a hand held CB that operates on batteries.  It works well if I drive ahead in the Tracker into a campground to scope out the sites while Steve waits in the rig at the gate or office. Then he can specify the site and get us registered at the office or kiosk. We like this method if I can tell him the shortest route to get to our campsite instead of looping around and around trying to find a site with the big motorhome.  Also, we have used it with friends travelling in pairs to get ahold of us and not use up cell phone minutes. (back when we had a plan like that)  

We have also used it when Steve goes out in the boat, fishing with my brothers up north. No cell service up there in a lot of the places we like to camp. We can call the guys to come back up to the campground when supper is ready etc.  

Coleman Propane Lantern:

Remember those days of the big old lantern with the white gas, pumping up the little rod to pressurize it and turning the vent lever up and down for correct mix of air and fuel?  and the POOF when it ignites?  LOL... Also how many broken glass globes too?  

Well, Coleman did a bit better with this nice little lantern that runs on those small 1 pound propane cylinders or with a hose to a larger BBQ tank.  The globe is smaller and surrounded by a protective wire cage.  The glass is also thicker now and less prone to breakage.  (we haven't broken it yet)  It comes with a flat circle stand to set it on a table, and it has a small chain you can hang it up with an S hook. It only has one mantle, but puts off a bunch of light.  

What I like BEST about it, is that it is not so NOISY!  Ya know... that noise the old lanterns used to make?  Kinda a whooshing buzzing vacuum sound?  This one is pretty danged quiet and makes it much nicer to use out in the quiet woods. One small propane cylinder can last all night for these if you wish to keep a light on. 

~~~~~~~~~

It's Saturday and we are FINALLY getting some *SN*O*W*!!!  Not much yet, but supposed to amount to 3-5".  This is so strange because we should be buried underneath at least 2 feet by now this time of year. 

I walked around with my coffee cup this morning, and snapped a few pics...

From the bedroom window through the screen,

the road down below is starting to get covered.

I came down the stairs to the foyer

and looked out the leaded window on the stairs...

Yup.. it's snowing on the driveway! 

Went out in the cold front porch for a "look see", it's up to 18 degrees outside, better than the below zero stuff the last few days.  I left up the bittersweet wreath from Christmas because I felt it was still kinda wintery and festive. The little cardinal is from my friend Vicky. 

 Empty planters, naked weeping cherry tree, 

and dried hydrangea bushes

are waiting for spring

I turned around to see these two goofballs 

who followed me out on the porch. 

Wondering: "What's Up?"

Steve was busy inside the house, trying to use the solar calculator in the dim morning light on a cloudy day. LOL!  I told him he could use the calculator on his laptop just as well.... he never thought of that he said.  Silly man.

These two snuck back inside as well,

and curled up on the couch.  

They watch everything I do.

They know they got it good, staying inside and cozy warm.

Yup... it can snow all day if it wants to.

I have nowhere to go today.

Steve has a few projects he wants to work on. I don't think they need my Gopher Assistance, as far as I know. But I wait for his "beck and call" come and help if he needs me.

Now I am going back up to my sewing room and work on my quilt.

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS *C* Caulking, Coleman Lantern and CB Radio

I am going to start off the new year with posting three of our motorhome modifications at a time. I will post repairs, modifications, or neato things we have found for RVing.  I have lots of pics in my files so I will do them in alphabetical order.

Underneath that stuff, I will post my regular daily stuff..... kinda sorta fun, eh?

So here it goes, we are up to the letter C now!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER C

Caulking:

A yearly project is to inspect and fill in all the little spaces along the three trim strips on our motorhome.  It has aluminum siding with three horizontal riveted strips that tend to lose their caulking over time.

Flexing and heat/cold changes seem to make these strips loosen up and allow water intrusion.  Especially the top most strip lets in the water that runs off the roof!  Most of the roof stains and leaks we see on other people's Safari rigs are from these strips.  So showing what to look for and what to use to seal them is our Public Service Announcement today! 

The best product to use is a clear silicone that is UV resistant and made especially for RV's.  It is called Pro Flex RV made by Geocel. Most RV shops carry it, and you can also get it on Amazon. It comes in white, almond, black and clear.  Of course, on the blue paint, we need clear.

 We learned to go over the ridges carefully and clean out any gaps. 

We cut the tip of the caulk tube for only a small bead on an angle,

and slide along letting it seep into the crack. 

Steve also noticed that our front marker lights in the overhead cap were leaking.
He removed each one and caulked around behind each one too, not just the plastic lens.
(note: this is his telescoping ladder we keep in the motorhome)

 Should last another 20 years??

CB Radio:

Breaker Breaker One Nine, heading this ship down a concrete sea, catch ya on the flip flop!~ 

Seriously, our motorhome came with a CB radio! We have used it on a number of occasions and sometimes turn it on when we are bored on a long stretch of trucking highway.  Listening to the truckers can be entertaining, but some of their language will make ya blush.  But they give you up-to-the-second information on what is happening up ahead, or weather, or road conditions.  Especially on mountain passes when there is no cell or data signal to find out what is going on.  

It is a hand held unit wired in and hangs on a clip on the dash by Steve's knee.

Up on the roof is the wired in antenna....  

we check that yearly for leaks and have it caulked up pretty good, eh? 

We also have a hand held CB that operates on batteries.  It works well if I drive ahead in the Tracker into a campground to scope out the sites while Steve waits in the rig at the gate or office. Then he can specify the site and get us registered at the office or kiosk. We like this method if I can tell him the shortest route to get to our campsite instead of looping around and around trying to find a site with the big motorhome.  Also, we have used it with friends travelling in pairs to get ahold of us and not use up cell phone minutes. (back when we had a plan like that)  

We have also used it when Steve goes out in the boat fishing with my brothers up north. No cell service up there in a lot of the places we like to camp. We can call the guys to come back up to the campground when supper is ready etc.  

Coleman Propane Lantern:

Remember those days of the big old lantern with the white gas, pumping up the little rod to pressurize it and turning the vent lever up and down for correct mix of air and fuel?  and the POOF when it ignites?  LOL....  Also how many broken glass globes too?  

Well, Coleman did a bit better with this nice little lantern that runs on those small 1 pound propane cylinders or with a hose to a larger BBQ tank.  Then globe is smaller and surrounded by a protective wire cage.  The glass is also thicker now and less prone to breakage.  (we haven't broken it yet)  It comes with a flat circle stand to set it on a table, and it has a small chain you can hang it up with an S hook. It only has one mantle, but puts off a bunch of light.  

What I like BEST about it, is that it is not so NOISY!  Ya know... that noise the old lanterns used to make?  Kinda a whooshing buzzing vacuum sound?  This one is pretty danged quiet and makes it much nicer to use out in the quiet woods. One small propane cylinder can last all night for these if you wish to keep a light on. 

~~~~~~~~~

Well,, I am not going to write a lot more tonight.
I picked up a flu bug while visiting at the hospital
and it is taking over pretty strong this evening.
I spent most of the day in bed,
and I am going back there now.

Nighty Night!

Motorhome Modifications - back to the letter C again

Yup, we got some snow, but not nearly as much as they predicted.  It was supposed to snow all day today too, but it looks like the storm moved on.  I think we got about 5-6 inches, but with all the blowing around, it's hard to tell.


Now back to the letter C....  

First on deck is a Collapsible Bucket.  We picked this up last year on a sale, and it sure is handy!  I think I paid $5 for it.  

The extending windshield squeegee fits inside it for washing the windows on the outside of the rig.  When dried out, it collapses down and slides into the little nylon sack for storage.  Takes up a lot less room than a five gallon bucket we used to use.  The only reason a five gallon bucket is nice to have along (if you have room)  is that it can do double duty as a step stool or a seat when turned upside down.

Good for Steve's s rig-washing brush, or even just a bucket to hand wash something with a rag. 
We have used it to soak sweet corn in before grilling. 
We have used it to haul water for filling my canning kettle. 
We have used it to haul apples picked off a tree on an abandoned farmstead. 
We have used it to scoop up dog food from a broken bag in the storage compartment. 

We have used to carry toddler toys to the beach, juice boxes and sunscreen too.

So that was a little handy hint for an easy RV accessory that has multiple uses.





Coleman lanterns, of course, are a staple among the camping crowd!  Especially when you camp in rustic campgrounds without hookups or boondocking out in the boonies. No streetlights for miles.   It is one of our favorite camping toys!

A small lantern from Coleman, SOOO much better than hauling around those bigger camping lanterns, breaking their glass lens, or their fragile mantles.  For many many years, since I was a child, we had those big white gas lanterns with the thin glass circular lens.  Can't tell you how many we broke, usually while in transit.  We even had the big maroon cases to help with breakage on the large propane versions.  But  we saw this one being used by our camping buddy, Bob Senior.  We had to go out and get one right away for ourselves. This one has kept the same mantle going all summer. 

I LOVE clearance Sales at our local Shopko store.  They had these neato containers that are rectangular in shape instead of circular.  Think... on a shelf... flat sides of containers stack next to each other better than cylindrical.  So we get more storage and less wasted space.    I bought a set of 8 of these great containers from Gourmet Living.

MY CABINET BEFORE                             MY NEW CONTAINERS 

They have vacuum seal lids by flipping down the little ring type levers on the lids, which create a suction.  We use the larger ones for flour, sugar, brown & powdered sugar etc.  The smaller ones for coffee, rice, pancake mix etc.  Less cardboard boxes and bags in the cabinets is good to avoid bugs when travelling in the southern states.   Here they are, all filled up and lined in a neat row. 

These are normally $15-20 a container ---  WHEW!  But they had a set of 8 pieces, all in the sizes I wanted for the mere price of $89.99  ... so that is down to $10 a container....  still a WHEW! --- You know me, a cheapie shopper.   Well, the set was on sale for only $39.99.  Plus I had a $10 gift card.  So $29.99 final price.  That comes out to less than $4 a container.  More in my budget range, teeeheeee  I just googled now and they are on sale again!   Here is a link to them:   Gourmet Living Containers at Shopko

Well, that is my three C's of Motorhome stuff for the blog post today.  

For a fourth C... Chelsea!   She is feeling better today, and has her 2 year old checkup this afternoon with the pediatrician.  Erin will get more reassurance from the doc that it will be okay to have the birthday party tomorrow.  She will be so happy to see all her cousins and little friends, and all the loving grandparents, aunts and uncles too.  

After her party, we are going to take the grandson, Jameson, back to our house for an overnight!   His mommy and daddy are having a romantic date night, so we are keeping him here.  Our Christmas gifts to all our kids/spouses were gift cards to a nice dinner out at a locally owned steak house called Mackinaws  http://www.mackinaws.com/   and then we included gift cards to a movie.  Of course, the gift also stipulated that they get free overnight babysitting too as part of their date. 

I am looking out at the snow, and yes, it looks nice to cover up all the yucky brown ground.  A few flakes are floating down here and there, but basically I think it's done for the day.  The river is starting to ice over again.  

Yes, Winter is here.    

Sigh. 

Campground Review - Lake Ottawa - Ottawa National Forest Aug 2009

(this is one of series of posts of various campgrounds we have been to over the years... I am going through my files in alphabetical order and posting past camping trips in my blog.... something to do over this long long winter---- sigh)

Here are the links for the information on Lake Ottawa:

Lake Ottawa campground information

All of the campgrounds in the Ottawa national forest in this district

Well, here we are again at our favorite campground one more time for the summer in 2009.  This time it was in August.  We took a different site, because my sister doubled up with the folks on site number 17.   This one is across from those sites, we are now camped on the lake side.

 

Yup, the lake is kinda down the hill on a path through the trees.  Not up close like some campgrounds.  This site is the one my sister usually takes, as they can keep the boat down there moored to a tree and just walk up and down to the boat.  Sure beats launching the boat and having to load it back up at the boatlanding each time.  Plus, our guys like to walleye fish at night, so they can just pull in to where my sister leaves a lantern burning along the shoreline.

We were enjoying these two little lads who were back and forth in front of our campsites as they rode bikes, played with water toys and found lots of mischief to get into.  We didn't know who they were, but by the end of the weekend, they were our *buddies*  LOL
 

They said they were playing Cowboys and Indians. and those are targets on their backs!

Mom's picnic table was covered with craft stuff, because the county fair was coming up and they were making and gathering items to enter.  Mom and my sister both usually enter 50-60 items each year!  They get a big fat check from their winnings too.   Mom entered two of my handwoven towels, a knit hat and booties, and some other crafts I had done.  I let her keep the prize money, tee hee. 

 

Ahhh  they roped me into helping them! 

 
The guys are busy working on something, so we women occupy ourselves with plenty of crafts, cooking and companionship.  Seeing as I live 150 or so miles away from them, this is our only time to get together on the weekends.  Wait till you see how we canned pickles at the upcoming review for Runkle Lake!   --- gotta wait till I reach the letter R for that one, so far we are only on the O's for campground reviews.



Here is Senior's camper   (I talked about him before in other posts)  He got rid of his older Class C motorhome and treated himself to a nice new travel trailer!   Now he has a working fridge and everything else... the Class C was getting tired and things were breaking left and right.  Time for the post man to reap the rewards of his retirement... and camp in style!

We all got set into our respective campsites for the weekend.... It was warm and sunny and dry

 

I think I had this on my modifications page.  But I will post it again. These are small single mantel lanterns by Coleman, and we can either screw it onto a 1 pound cylinder with a plastic foot base to keep it from tipping over, or else hang it from the awning and use a hose and a 20 pound tank.   Sure puts out a lot of light for a little portable lantern.  The big ones we used to have were so fragile, and often we would end up breaking the glass lens or the mantles too easily.  This little one is very durable and we have not changed the mantle in it for about 3 years since we bought it.  I wrap it in bubble wrap (when it's cooled off)  and store it in a plastic tupperware container for storage.  Just one of those things that make rustic camping much easier.  Remember, this campground has no electric, so that means no street lights to see by.   When it's dark is VERY dark in the  thick tree-filled woods.  Even with the moon or stars, it's very dark.  

My brother Butch came out for a visit, he decided to not camp this time.   So here is his newest bike.  

This is my sister and her husband, Schmoo and Fuzz  (Linda and Michael)   

posing for a shot after a long day of fishing.  

(psst!!  He actually didn't catch it, it was floating on top of the water dead - he later disposed of it) 

This is August... sooooooo  it's that time of year for roasted sweet corn!  YUMMMMM  I can almost taste it now by looking at this next picture.    

When I was a child, our family had run a corn roast for a city-wide festival.  Nobody in our part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan had ever seen roasted corn before!   They would walk by our booth and go "ewwwww it's burnt" and walk away.   Finally when the first batch was done, Dad peeled back the husks, dipped the golden perfect ear of corn into a big coffee can of melted butter, shook on salt and handed them out to all of us kids.  We had to walk around the grounds, eating our corn and exclaiming how GOOD it was!   Folks would ask where we got that, and we would lead them back to our booth.  Heh heh  

To roast the corn, Dad took a big metal culvert - the kind for ditchs under driveways.. and cut it lengthwise in half.  Then he welded on legs to the bottom to make a long U-shaped grill to fill with charcoal briquettes.  On top for the cooking grids he used the metal racks from a bread delivery truck.  He and the crew of guys would walk back and forth, up and down the row, turning the cobs over till they were done.  Mom and the other ladies would peel them back and help folks dip into the butter (no double-dippers allowed)   and collect the money.  We children were the free advertising team!  LOL

Our corn roast booth was in high demand for every festival and civic event after that!

To make grilled sweet corn, we soak the cobs about half a day in salt water before tossing them on the grill.  When the outside is all brown and black, the inside is done perfectly!  It steams itself on the inside.

Steve uses the stick to keep tapping the grill portion, to keep it slowly rotating over the fire for even cooking of the corn.   It's a tough job, but someone has to do it!   Usually there is a beer in the other hand to keep him occupied in between pushes on the grill.



See, although there is a cooking grid on this type of cast iron fire ring from the National Forest, it's too low to cook over without burning your food.   So we swing it out away from the fire and use our tripod instead.

(In a past blog, I had a pic of the type of fire ring we DO like in the National Forest Campgrounds.. that make more sense to cook over, as it's adjustable....    CLICK HERE   here for that post)

Ok... once the majority of the corn is done, it's time to start the rest of the meal.  We set the corn to the side to keep it warm in the roasted husks, and then set on the "Shishes"    we made up beef/chicken/shrimp kabobs on the fire.  They were marinated ahead of time in a big dish pan, and then skewered up for the fire.





Of course, my little buddy Autumn is here again!   Her grandfather, Senior, is camping with us across the road, so she can spend all weekend with us.  Otherwise she has to beg and beg her daddy to haul her out to the lake when we are up camping.   This weekend we worked on painting rocks!   Her friend, Jenney, came along for a camping sleepover.    


We pick out nice round or oblong stones, and paint them to look like mice, bugs, frogs or whatever strikes our moods.  I always have bottles of craft paints and brushes in my motorhome.  This is a great rainy day project and keeps kids occupied.

(we super glue little black leather tails to the mice)

As usual, when camping at this lake, some friends and family came out to visit.  Some come, some go.  But there is always someone stopping by.   Sitting around the campfire, enjoying a few beers, cooking a nice dinner.  That is what weekend relaxing is all about.  Also we take nice walks, go swimming, go fishing, work on repairs to various family's campers or vehicles and just all in all relate to each other.

And thus ends another review of a camping weekend for the Pfundtners....