Our new digital radio

We had an old style radio and no way to play anything off a digital device. There isn't much radio reception in the mountains and we wanted something to listen to while we drove. Our new one is pictured above. I'm sure it was quite cheap but it seems to do the job and I don't think anyone would be tempted to break in to steal it.

Demystifying the dash switches

When we got the RV there were all these dash switches with cryptic labels on them. I would look them up in the manual and completely understand what they did, for about an hour. Then I would forget again.

This year I just looked at them and groaned at looking up the meaning again. I figured I should know this stuff by now. But then I realized I wasn't the problem. It was the labels on the switches. So I got out our labeler and put some more descriptive labels on them. I also did a bunch of the unlabeled switched around the RV.

Adventures in de-winterizing

Since we got the RV last year this is the first year we have dewinterized. We had no leaks or rodent intrusions so it was nice to pick it up and find it pretty much just as we left it. Also it appears to be very airtight. There was no layer of dust on top of everything.

I must say I continue to be absolutely thrilled with the quality of the RV. We tested everything except the fridge and it all still works flawlessly. We will test the fridge on our first trip since our driveway isn't level enough to run it.

However, being newbies we made some mistakes. When we put water back in the system we didn't realize the shower head in the storage compartment was open. So we took everything out to dry and put a box fan in to dry out the carpet.

When I tested the furnace I didn't turn the off switch all the way off, I just turned the temperature down. I didn't realize it but last year I wasn't throwing the off switch all the way over either. However, I was doing it enough to break the contact. This morning I took the temperature controller apart to see why it didn't go off I saw that there is a little plastic bump that it has to go over to completely break the contact.

At night the fan came back on and ran all night. Surprisingly it didn't deplete the batteries much. And it allowed us to test a new solar panel we bought to hook up to the battery to charge it. Luckily I had turned off the propane after testing everything so at least we weren't heating the outdoors all night long.

Doghouse sound proofing looks great

When we pulled the RV out of storage yesterday one thing we did was inspect the engine and that gave us a chance to look at the doghouse sound proofing we installed last year.

It was a piece of cake to install and does a wonderful job keeping the engine noise out of the RV.

We used American Mat sound proofing foam, cut to the right size with scissors and/or a box cutter. The foam people recommend those electric carving knifes but we don't have one.

You can read about and buy the foam here.
http://www.soundproofingamerica.com/america-mat.asp

To adhere it to the dog house we used an automotive headliner spray adhesive that we bought at an auto parts store. It has been on a whole year and through the heat of summer use and the freezing cold of Colorado winters it has held.

The first pic. shows a side view. The foam is pretty thick.


The second pic shows more of a front view. You can see at the top where the foam is compressed a little from fitting on the dog house seal. We trimmed that off this year for a better fit.

************************
2018 Update - The soundproofing is still intact but is starting to dry out and shed fine particles. I checked the left over material in the basement and it is doing the same thing. So the question is do we try and get it off as it seems to be stuck on good and will probably make a royal mess or just leave it. It doesn't seem to be doing as good a job as before at quieting the noise.

Carter Lake - hiking and scoping out camp spots

We had another nice Sat. so decided to check out Carter Lake about 40 min. from our house.

We decided to start with a hike. The trail was very nice. Hardly anyone on it and it had very nice views.


Sunshine loves a good hike.


Blossom likes to hike also.


Blossom loves to swim. She only went in deep a few times. I think it was pretty cold water.


Sunshine prefers the rocks.


Blossom is always interested in a good rock pile.


Maybe a critter went here?


Poor Blossom wants to go out deeper but Max didn't want to get wet.


Sunshine pauses to admire the view.


Blossom and Max took a different route along the rocks.


Everyone is back together again.


It was a very pretty day. After the hike we went to check on some camp sites.


They were pretty nice. A bit more crowded than we would like but still acceptable. I think we will do our first camping of the season at Carter Lake.


Quite a few had views of the water.


We also drove into the National Forest and found one boondocking location but I don't think I want to take the RV over the road to get there.

Estes Park Hermit Park Campground exploration

Were itching to go camping so since we had record high temperatures here this weekend we decided to go check out one of our intended destinations this summer.

We found some great places! Can't wait to go and stay for a while. Sunshine our younger dog does not care for new experiences and hates the RV but he normally likes to walk in the forest as long as no bears are around. He hates bears.


Once we extracted Sunshine from the car he seemed to relax a bit or at least show an interest. However he was still pretty frightened.


He's still not thrilled to be here.


Sunshine: This is more my style. Lets get away from the road and go through the forest.


Sunshine: Back to the roads again, I guess I have to make the best of it.


Sunshine: I love the rocks!


Sunshine: Ok, we'll keep moving.


Now this is more like it says Sunshine. He likes exploring rocks and natural areas. He just doesn't want to see anybody else or anything man made like roads, cars, picnic tables or fire rings.


Sunshine: Yep, could do this all day.


Sunshine: Mom says we have to look at camp sites. Bah humbug.


This one looks promising says Sunshine.


Sunshine: Or this one.


The dogs: We both like this one.


Max marks one with a level parking area and a good view on the GPS so we can find it later.


Sunshine says, I'd rather explore.


Blossom just loves it all!


Blossom runs and runs until her tongue is dragging.


This is a good one!


Not sure on this one, but I'm going to jump in that snow says Miss Blossom.


This one looks good too.


Sunshine says a wild critter went by here.


Sunshine: Ohh, ohh, I wanna go down this trail but Mom won't let me!


They are all starting to all look pretty similar say the dogs.


Sunshine: But we keep looking.

He seemed to enjoy exploring a bit but he really wanted to go off in the wilderness and not follow the roads to look at the spots. All the campgrounds we looked at are still closed so we parked outside and walked the roads to take photos of ones we thought we'd like. I'm not sure how far we walked but the dogs were exhausted afterward.

We try to make any outing fun for Sunshine by stopping at McDonalds and getting him a burger with no bun or sauce and this always seems to perk him up.

It was hard not to think how much our two recent foster dogs would have loved this outing. Thankfully I think they both went to couples who will take them hiking and camping so they should be getting their own outings. I hope Sunshine starts to enjoy these more since it is difficult to force him to go along when he doesn't really seem to like it.

Visited the RV today

We visited the RV today. It was our second visit since winterizing it.

Wow! The RV looked great. The engine ran great, the generator started right up, we ran both ACs and we drove it about 25 min. There were no leaks or musty smells. In fact it was fresh as a daisy inside. There was no evidence of rodents or anything else amiss. I can't wait until we can do a trip again.