Our Excellent Adventures

I tried the Rhino (http://www.ourexcellentadventures.com/2008/11/01/how-to-cover-your-rearhow-to-cover-your-rear/) step but it just doesn’t work with my hitch and bumper. Looks bad and you are likely to slip on it if you try to use it as it is too close to the bumper step.Not satisfied with one mistake, I ordered a short hitch extender which does not help either. I could leave this attached as kind of a stinger but I have hit my shin or knee on too many trailer hitches so I know better.

Back to the stock bumper/step combination with the hitch underneath. Closer examination shows the bumper is steel framed and the hitch is welded to parts of it. In fact, it looks like an integral part of a hitch/bumper assembly. It gives me a pretty strong rear end but, if I get hit with any force at all, at the minimum I will have to replace the bumper as the plastic will break. I know also that when I get around to moving the spare from under to being mounted just aft of the left rear door, that anyone hitting the spare will cost me the door and glass.

Given all the lights I have in the rear, I am willing to live with that. That’s why we pay insurance premiums - to take the worry away.

Nothing new about that I guess.

The latest, designed to help those whose house is worth less than they owe on it is pure crap. Especially since many of these people borrowed 100% + when they “bought” the house.

Some people are lucky enough to have their home paid for or aren’t behind on their payments. We watch our equity drop everyday and we are talking real money - it is paid for and now worse less than we paid - that is real money gone. OK, that’s just the way it goes but WHY should WE have to PAY for the people losing their homes. WE PAID for ours. It is not just, fair, good karma or anything except crap that we should also PAY for them.

We have one guy in Washington, Paulson, calling the shots. He talked Congress into giving him 750 billion dollars and now he is changing the way he told Congress he would use it. One guy, an X-Wall Street big shot. One guy, with a track record that is a big fat 0! One guy on a 750 billion dollar spending spree with our money.

Get a grip people. Tell your congress person you are NOT going to pay for this!

 
Thank you.

I don’t think anyone would want to follow us on vacation. Our Alaska trek was done not only when diesel prices were at their peak but during the coldest and wettest month of August that locals had lived through in years.

Two hundred years of glacial shrinkage in Alaska, and then came the winter and summer of 2007-2008.

Unusually large amounts of winter snow were followed by unusually chill temperatures in June, July and August.

Anchorage Daily News, http://www.adn.com/news/environment/story/555283.html

I think I will start watching Alaska weather a little closer. We are planning a 2010 jaunt into the Northwest Territories and Nunavut with the goal of spending a day in Tuktoyaktuk on the Artic Ocean. The trip should be in late August through much of September and the weather will be a major factor.

 It is great to be able to add to our trip history that we survived the summer of ‘08 in Alaska!

I used to winterize but there was not much to getting a Westfalia or Eurovan ready for winter. No grey or black water and the fresh water drains easily. Winterizing them meant packing more blankets. I also have had other RV’s that required planning and preparation for the winter.

I used a 30′ Executive in Colorado one winter. With anti-freeze in the holding tanks, I wrapped pipe warmers covered with insulation around the dump valves. If I wasn’t plugged in the warmers worked with the generator and all worked fine. I stayed at Park City in a parking lot for 3 days during Christmas and the only problem I had was condensation. I parked it in a unheated metal building but plugged it in

I kept a travel trailer at Steamboat Springs all one winter. I’d go up on weekends and when I got there, I’d turn the heater on full blast, go have supper and usually by the time I got back it was good for sleeping - just don’t let your back touch an outside wall during the night.

For the Sprinter, we’ll keep a bit of RV antifreeze in the holding tanks and thats about it. On the nights we get a hard freeze, I just put the heater on. I may close off a bit of the radiator to keep the engine running at a good temp but before I do that, I need more data.