Winnebago View Motorhome Repairs and Modifications While On The Road

The other day, we pulled up stakes and went into the town of Jonesboro to run a few errands. We had broken a tiny spring in our latch on the screen door. 

We found out we could order the spring off Amazon, actually a pack of 10 of them. But that's kind of hard to do when you're traveling on the road and you don't know where you're going next. 

We swung by the local RV dealer to see if we could replace either the spring, or the whole latch. They had three different latches but none of them were the exact same design. I think we can function or bend a spring on our own. The latch is fine. It's just the spring that broke. We will see. But we left there empty-handed.

In the meantime, we fashioned a rubber band to help hold the latch up into place. It works good enough for now...

Steve is not one to leave things just half-arsed MacGyver'd, so he will fix it as soon as he has a chance to get another spring. 

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Also, while in town the other day, we swung into Home Depot to grab a few narrower profile pipe threaded nuts. We bought this wonderful thermostatic mixing valve for the shower in the motorhome. But the nuts that came with it were a little too thick to give us the proper clearance and the ability to correctly attach the water lines to the back of the faucets.

This thermostatic mixing valve will allow us to take showers without the cold water intruding into the length of the hose during the pause mode. Any of you RV people know that to conserve water, the pause mode is necessary. Basically, you get yourself wet and then pause the shower. Either by little button or a lever on the shower head. While you're busy soaping up your body, the pressure of the cold water is stronger than the pressure of the hot water. That means the entire hose fills up with cold water. When you go to release the pause lever, you get EEEEK ice cold water! Well then you have to waste more cold water until the hot water comes up through the hose again.  Wastes water when you are boondocking. 

Of course then when you hit pause to do conditioner in your hair or soap up the rest of your body or shave, again you are paused. And again you get a blast of ice cold water!!!

Not only that, while the shower head is hanging up in the holder you're getting a drip drip drip of ice cold water on you. The drip drip drip is necessary so the pressure does not build in the lines and it's some kind of safety feature.

Well, to avoid this, many people on our Winnebago View list are installing these European thermostatic mixing valves. It correctly sets your desired temperature at each of the valves on each side and prevents any other water from backing up the hose each time you use the pause lever at the end by the shower head.  It doesn't allow the cold to feed into the hot, or the hot to feed into the cold.

We ordered this one before we left and took it along with us to work on while we are on the road...

Steve brought along all the tools needed to do the swap out while we are on the road.

It's important that this one has the offset pieces of pipe so it can narrow down or widen up to the right diameter spacing between the faucets of the existing fixture. Well, Steve still had to drill out another hole to make it fit. Later we will cover the existing hole with a small cap. In the meantime we have a piece of elastomeric roof patch tape that we put over it. That will keep the water out of it until we get a proper sealed cap.

In this photo below, you will see that Steve tied the water lines that are down in the wall up to the grab bar in the shower. That is so the lines do not drop down behind in the wall and need to be fished up again. Also, he was careful to take out the tiny washers in each of the fittings so they didn't fall down into the wall. Those washers are necessary when screwing the lines onto the back of the new fixture. 

Steve got it all into place and it's functioning perfectly!

The diverter portion with the tub spout will be handy if we ever want to fill up a big scrub bucket of soapy water, fill a 5 gallon blue water jug for drinking or just filling the bigger dog dish that doesn't fit in the tiny bathroom sink. 

Later on we will put a little vinyl hole cover attachment next to the device. It will cover the old hole from the previous set of faucets. 

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While we were at Home Depot we also picked up some larger fender washers. The brackets on the cargo trailer holding up our lawn chairs had pulled through because the heads of the bolts were just a little bit too small for the spaces of the holes on the steel bars. 

By putting a fender washer behind each bolt head, they will now hold firmly and not pop up all the way through.

He reassembled all of the hooks back onto the steel bar. Using the picnic table as his workbench was very handy.

In no time he was fastening them back up inside of the cargo trailer where they belong. These are so convenient to hang our lawn chairs on each of the side walls, and the chairs are strapped securely at the bottom edges so they don't fall down on our bikes. 

A couple of the neighboring guys wandered on by to chit chat with Steve when he had his cargo trailer open. We have now dubbed it as "Steve's Garage"!!! 

The last thing we picked up at Home Depot were some extra little nuts for our lawn chairs. A couple have already fallen off so Steve bought some of the nylon locking nuts, or what are called aircraft nuts. These are just some cheap lawn chairs from Dunham's sports, but we like them because they fold up very flat and take up less space in our cargo areas. So by adding these new nuts, we will give the chairs a longer life. 

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This little device is handy!!!  Sometimes when an RV is parked a little bit off level, the bathroom door will swing one way or swing the other. By Murphy's law, it probably always swings the way you don't want it to!

I know we could always just leave the door shut tight and clicked with the latch into the frame. 

With this extreme cold weather, we like to leave the bathroom door open so it doesn't get too cold in there. But if the door is swinging out into the walkway, it's always in the way as we are trying to pass back and forth.

We saw this hint from someone else, it is a locking doorstop that can be set in any position to keep the door in one spot. It's spring loaded that you can push the top plunger down with the tip of your toe, and then a little side lever you can touch with the toe to release it. No bending over.

Steve had to reinforce it a little bit with a piece of stock metal to extend it down just far enough. These hollow core doors really don't have a lot of strength. So if you buy one, be careful where you mount it. 

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Now, just in case you think Steve gets to have all the fun doing ALL of the repairs and modifications, you may be wrong. I get to do them too!

A month ago, before leaving, I had decided that we needed a better shower curtain in our motorhome. I ordered this nice waterproof fabric pleated one. It was about 5 inches too long, so before we left home I carefully cut it off and zigzagged the edge. It frays very easily, so it needs to be zigzagged almost immediately after cutting.

Once we got the new shower curtain hung into place, I decided I wanted to get some clips or little tab catches down each side to keep the shower curtain snug to the shower stall. This would prevent any extra water from spraying over into the rest of the bathroom or damaging the wood or the flooring or the wallpaper.

The only problem was, inside of each clip are two little molded on plastic bumps. I'm sure these are to help snugly fit a thin plastic shower curtain. But the one I ordered was a thicker waterproof fabric one. Hmmmmmm what to do?

I took a serrated steak knife and very carefully sawed away at each little set of bumps in each of the 10 clips. 

It worked! And I didn't cut myself either. Now there was enough space in the clip to hold the fabric shower curtain. 

And there it is!

(The streak of color is a reflection 

from off the mirror)

It got rather chilly here overnight in Jonesboro Arkansas. It was down to 29° this morning. We have heaters on our holding tanks, and we never leave our water hose out. We fill the freshwater tank with the hose, and put the hose away. We have a supplemental electric space heater besides the propane furnace. We also pull in the living room slide for less area to heat, and less drafts or air leakage. It was really windy last night!!

And to top it off, we have an electric mattress pad on our bed. Comfy cozy!

We are staying here until the middle of the week, and from there we will meander maybe a little further south. The temperatures are supposed to be up in the '70s again, which is just the way we like it.

I told Steve that all that I'm asking for out of this entire vacation is to find nice quiet places in the woods, with tall trees, a beautiful view over water, and grass on the ground for the dogs. I think we are staying away from gravel or cactus or goat head spurs and the desert this time. I just want to relax and enjoy the nice weather without snow.

That's not a lot to ask for, is it?

Our Dogs Got Wheels!!!

If you read my blog back in January, you would remember this post about getting an InStep Sync bicycle trailer for behind our E-bikes:

https://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2024/01/gearing-up-to-head-south.html?m=1

We happened to snatch it up on clearance for only $25! Normally $150.00

It's made for children up to 40 lb. If we add together a little Binney at 21 lb and a little Nicholas at 17 lb, I think we have a pretty good total! 

We had a beautiful day on Thursday, with sunshine up in the mid '70s! It was time to give this thing a workout.... 

First, we need two sassy little dogs who want to go for a ride. 

The bottom of the trailer has just a piece of fabric, kind of like the floor of a tent. So we set a doggy bed in there, on a bottom tray from a collapsible dog crate. Now they have a solid floor to lay on. We had also removed the child sling seat and child harness.

Both of the dogs are harnessed up, and the handle ends of their short leashes are fed right through one of the top support bars of the trailer. Eliminating any possible accidental escape, and for keeping them close by in case of a problem or a wreck. 

We had let them sit in the trailer when we first assembled it last month in our home. But of course our ground was covered with snow and we weren't about to take them for a test ride back then. So this is the actual first time they are going to go for a ride. 

We got them all strapped into place, and then from there Steve carefully wheeled them around the end of the loop in the campground before we decided to actually go for a ride. I made a video of the process:

They did very well! We wanted them to learn that going for the ride wasn't just the process of the ride and coming right back to the camper. No. We wanted to stop somewhere and take them out so they would get the idea that this was a destination and the trailer was necessary to get there. So we stopped at another part of the park to let them out and do some sniffing. We also brought along their longer leashes, a water bowl and a bottle of water to give them some refreshment. 

We have the trailer hooked to Steve's E-bike. He said it's really not that hard to pedal with the dogs back there. Having the pedal assist electric feature on the bike is an added plus. 

There is just a little hitch bracket that needed to be screwed on the same bolt as the rear axle. The trailer then can disengage with a little hitch pin and safety strap. We are going to order a second hitch bracket to put on my bike. That way either of us could tow them. The entire trailer folds up and the wheels come off and it can be stored, taking up very little space.

I think they are going to enjoy going for adventures in this new vehicle. It will be a great way for us to get out and see things, and not just leave the dogs behind in the motorhome.

It was really cute as they were riding along, Nick was keeping a careful eye on me out of the back window. Binney was curled up in the front section and she just was watching out the side windows with a smile on her face. Can't you see it?

So far, we have been on the road for 16 days. The dogs are doing very well adjusting to RV life for a couple months. Nicholas spent the first week recovering from his neutering appointment. And now he is back to his normal energetic self this week. Watch this YouTube that I shot yesterday on the big lawn area next to our motorhome:

I watch that over and over, 

and just laugh out loud!!! 

My next blog post I have been working on a little bit here and there during the last 2 weeks. It will be chock full of different things that we have been modifying, repairing, or adding to our motorhome. 

Yes, even when we are traveling, Steve has all of his tools along. 

Days 15-22 Whewww Freezing Rain Sleet And Snow in Arkansas Overnight and Valentine's Day

On Monday, we experienced a pretty yucky day. It started out with rain and later as the temperatures dropped, it became an icy freezing rain and sleet and even snowflakes falling!!! 

Even here in Northern Arkansas, at Craighead Forest in Jonesboro, we can get some snow!  Got down to 29°. Our holding tanks are also heated. We have an extra space heater as well as the propane furnace. Above 40° or so the electric heat strips up in the air conditioner also work. 

We snuggled up inside, cozy and warm. We played some cribbage, and the loser had to bundle up to go let the dogs out! (It was Steve)

As the end of our 7-day stay here neared an end, it happened to land on Wednesday (which was Valentine's Day).

Steve asked what I would like for a Valentine's Day present? Well, I suggested to stay here one more week!

The people next to us on site 41 were leaving Wednesday morning. Their site is just wonderful and located at the end of the peninsula. It has about 180° view of all water. If we would park nose-in first, we would have water views out the front windshield, all the way down the whole side of the rig with our best windows, and also out the back window! So we went up and registered with the host for another 7 days for that site. 

For Steve's Valentine's Day present, I got up early and baked him his absolute most favorite coffee cake.

He did share some with me and the dogs. How nice of him. Sure made the camper smell great early in the morning with perking coffee and cinnamon coffee cake. We brought two pieces up to the campground host as a little gift. 

These two little cuddle bugs are becoming quite the pair. It's hard to believe that only a month and a half ago he was caught up in the woods on a snagged leash, and scared to death. He was skin and bones with barely any energy. The vet said he was dangerously close to death from dehydration and starved down to skin and bones. 

Back to our campsite:

Since we knew we had to pull in the slides and move the motorhome to the next site, it was a good time to run into town and replenish a few perishable grocery supplies. We were low on milk and bread, and we could use another dozen eggs. We are pretty well stocked up on everything else. I brought a freezer full of our own meat. We are keeping one extra tote down below in a compartment with extra canned goods and dry grocery goods to supplement our menus. 

We made a stop, in the pouring rain, at Walmart. We stocked up on a few more supplies and bought a couple cuddly fleece blankets for the dogs when they sleep down on their beds on the floor on each side of our bed. We found some cute little fleece blankets with doggy paw prints on them. How cute is that? Each dog has a little bed placed on each side of our bed. It's so funny, they share the one side bed together at the beginning of the night, and in the morning we will find them both curled up together on the other side on the other bed! 

Their doggy beds are actually two mattress pads from baby diaper changing tables! They are vinyl and washable, and fit just perfectly between our bed and the wall. 

I bought one more blanket and a big hank of elastic. I'm going to cut it in half and make two nice matching bed covers that are removable and washable. 

Speaking of sleeping, this Nicholas has a built-in alarm clock in his little head. His brain tells him when it is 6:50 a.m. on the dot. He stands up shakes his fur and jingles his collar tags. Then he launches himself and lands in a heap right in the middle of our bed between us! "GET UP GET UP! START THE DAY! WHAT IS EXCITING TODAY! BARK BARK BARK!!!" 

Okay, back to our errands in the town of Jonesboro. It was really really busy and we wanted to get the heck out of town and back to the campground. 

While we were there, we stopped at the local Ace hardware store. We had looked up online and saw that they had a nice little portable dehumidifier. Since the rainy icky snowy sleedy slushy day earlier in the week, we did have a lot of moisture building up on the single pane windows on the inside. We had used up a few towels mopping the windows and the wallpaper below of wetness and run off.  Our last motorhome had dual pane windows and we really weren't used to this during humid damp cold weather. 

So this little portable dehumidifier was our Valentine's Day present to each other. Lol! 

We got back to the campground around 10:00 a.m. The neighbors had just left and pulled out. We waved to them as they were heading to the dump station. Then we were able to slide right into the spot that they had vacated. Which of course, we had already paid for with the host earlier that morning. 

Once that weather had passed, by Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we were in a beautiful stretch of weather with sunny skies and temperature in the mid '60s!

The skies turned bright blue. The temps were climbing and we were going to have an absolutely gorgeous day. 

Just look at this view all around the end most site of this peninsula. I really think it's the best campsite in the entire park!

This morning we woke up to an even better weather forecast. This time up into the '70s! This is the view out of the kitchen window because we had pulled in nose first to the site. Yes, I know it means our power cord crosses over underneath the rig to reach the post. But it's worth it. 

Here's the view out the front windshield. There's a little cove in the woods where the water comes into a little inlet. The Canadian geese seem to sneak up in there to sleep at night. 

Here's the view out the bedroom window and around the back. I just can't believe we get a water view about 180° in this campsite. There is a narrow walking path along the edge that people walk past. But mostly it is just like a big huge yard, just for us. 

We decided to take out the e-bikes and try out some of these trails. We want to try the new little bike trailer for the dogs, but first we wanted to go on the trails ourselves. 

Here is our little cargo trailer with the bikes and all of our extra gear arranged inside. 

The easiest trail is about 3 miles around the lake. The entire trail is paved and smooth and only one major hill up and down. 

With the e-bikes and the pedal assist, it's pretty easy to tackle those hills and not even break a sweat. 

We made it around the entire lake in about 20 minutes. Even with a little stop on the bridge for a Valentine's Day kiss. It's just over 3 miles. 

Since we bought these bikes back in November, we haven't put that many miles on them because of the snow and the cold. It feels so good to get out and use them now. 

One of our neighbors came over to ask about the bikes, and he is considering ordering one himself. He is thinking his wife might like the trike version. These are the Lectric brand bikes and we are really happy with them. 

Today we decided to pop the dogs in to the little trailer that we bought. I will put that adventure in my next blog.

CAMPGROUND REVIEW- Craighead Forest, Jonesboro, Arkansas

Since we are relaxing at this campground, I have a little time on my hands to do a proper campground review!

We found this place due to a series of great reviews on the Campendium App. It's one of multiple apps that we used to find camping spots. We also look on the USDA Forest Service app, Recreation.gov app, and the Dyrt. I also have a lot of campgrounds downloaded with POI, (points of interest), on my Streets and Trips program on the laptop.

This city park is located just on the southern edge of Jonesboro, Arkansas. 

This is from their website:

https://www.jonesboro.org/199/Camping

Craighead Forest Park opened when the Young Men's Civic Club began work on the lake in 1937. It is now a city owned park that is situated in the scenic beauty of Crowley's Ridge. This 692 acre park offers many recreational opportunities for the public to enjoy.

Craighead Forest Park is located at 4910 South Culberhouse Road in Jonesboro Arkansas. The park offers a variety of outdoor activities including:

• Basketball
• Bike/running trails
• Bird watching
• Camping
• Disc golf
• Fishing
• Horseshoes
• Playgrounds
• Softball
• Volleyball

RV Camp Grounds

The RV camp grounds at Craighead Forest Park boast 41 sites, all with water and electrical hook-ups (50 amps). All sites have access to a personal table, patio, fire ring, and grill. We do offer handicap access. The Campground also boosts a modern bathhouse with toilets and showers, as well as pay laundry machines. There is a dump station for all guest and we offer non-guest paid dumping.

We also offer tent sites and a primitive tent area. Pets are welcome at the park and are free to take advantage of the many trails (if properly leashed) or even take a jump and a swim at our dog jumping pier. 

Camping at Craighead Forest Park is now available all 365 days every year. Our Campground is currently set up as first come first serve. We do not offer reservations at this time.  

If you would like more information about camping at Craighead Forest Park you can call us at 870-933-4604 .

This is me now:

The rate per night is $25 which includes 50/30/20 amp electric and water at your site. They also offer a senior rate of only $15 a night. If you choose to stay an entire week, then it is reduced down to $90. That comes out to $12.85 a night!

Cell phone signal is pretty good, and about 30 or so broadcast TV stations on the antenna. We do see other people with portable satellite units set out in open spots to reach the sky. 

The 41 campsites are all spaced along a single lane with a turnaround loop at the end by the water. The only people that really drive down here on this road are the people actually camping here, or the park staff. It's very quiet. You can see the distance between each of the paved sites in the photo below. If you are going to leave your site for the day, the host will put out a red cone to make sure nobody else comes to take your site. As you can see the one in the foreground of the camping van next to us. They just got back from a grocery store run. 

Up near the top of the lane, the campsites are spaced a little closer together. The people there seem very social and came out to greet us as we walked by with the dogs.

And FREE firewood!!! 

--Take what you need, use what you take--

The restroom / shower / laundry building is fairly new and extremely clean and nice. There's additional parking in front of the building if you want to drive there. The building is conveniently located in the center of the camping sites rather than up at one end or down at the other.

This is the women's side, with nice hot showers, and plenty of room in the stalls with changing benches, and hand dryers and outlets on the wall for hair styling appliances. 

The restroom side also has a nice bench to keep your things up off the floor. I noticed the floor is beautiful terrazzo type flooring, which is clean and well kept.

In the front of the building is a small laundry area. Two washers, and two dryers. Someone also left a full bottle of laundry soap in case you forgot your own. How nice is that? So $1.50 to wash and $1 to dry. Our load was finished with only one round of quarters so we did not need to use multiple coins to finish up our laundry.

This is the space between us and the site next to us. We are very appreciative of the green grass this time of year. The dogs moreso than us, appreciate having a place to go. Of course, we pick up after every episode. Each campsite also has a large city plastic refuse bin. Really makes it easy to dispose of your waste and we have noticed there's not any litter around anywhere within the campground. 

The camping loop is on somewhat of a little peninsula with a bay shape overlooking to another pavilion area. This is the view out our front windshield because there's nobody directly across from us. Even though we are not on a waterfront site, we have gorgeous views out the side in the front of our rig.

At the end of the campground loop, there is this beautiful little dock with two benches on to sit and enjoy the waterfront.

We were serenaded by some elegant Canadian geese, and there are some mallard ducks as well as a few domestic ducks that have found their way into the park! 

I brought down some leftover popcorn from our movie night. I'm not sure if I was supposed to feed them or not, but they seem to enjoy the little bit of a treat. 

Here's the map from their website of the park and all of the facilities that it offers. 

There are myriads of trails all around through this entire 600 plus acre park. They are rated by difficulty. Most are paved, some are gravel for mountain biking and one specific section is for ATVs.  We have not gotten out our E-bikes yet to go for a ride, maybe later this week when things warm up in the sun comes back out. 

We did walk on some of the trails with the dogs. This was quite interesting sight back in the woods near the campground. We found this very interesting burl on a tree. 

I believe there may have been some nature directed courses being held here because there was some very interesting log benches erected nearby.

This is one of the many trails that loop around through the park. They are nice wide clean asphalt lanes, with markers to clearly identify the crossroads so there aren't any mishaps.

The sky cleared up the other day and we were able to get out and take a walk around some of the park. We met a few people here and there, but it is not crowded at all. Considering this warm weather we are having for February, even the local newscasters say this is unusually warm to have 60 plus degree days.

I really enjoyed the natural setting and that the park is not overly manicured or completely recreationalized. The reservoir of water which makes up Craighead Lake, ebbs and flows around throughout these little bays. 

There is a walking trail completely around the park that is about 2 mi right next to the shore. Steve walked at the entire way around including across the levy, or dam, which creates the lake.

As far as the other things that most RVers would want to know, within five or six miles are all the major shopping stores, restaurants, chain stores as well as some interesting local shops. We did do a run this morning to a local RV dealer for a replacement screen door latch, stopped at Home Depot for a couple little doodads, and hit up the Walmart to stock up on some of our grocery needs. The Walmart Murphy oil fuel station had diesel for $3.59 a gallon. We topped off the tank so when we do leave here later this week, we are ready to roll. 

All in all, I would recommend this park for a great overnight stop that's only a few miles off the interstate. It's also nice to stay for a week or so and explore the area like we are doing. There are a couple large 40 ft motorhomes here as well as a few small tab trailers and even two or three sites with tents. They are enjoying the use of an electric post with a heater inside of their tent I am sure. Someone actually did an overnight of "car camping"  in the tenting area of five rustic sites. We spoke to her and she was also appreciating the nice hot showers and laundry facilities that went along with her camp fee. 

We would come back here again, for sure if we were in the area!