Head West not so young Man

   / Head West not so young Man
  • Thread Starter
#551  
Stafford Virginia, right off Rt 95

you are very, very welcome. I don't like taking pics the way I do using my small camera held up in the air. But at least some come out. Nice drive today, heading East and North. Lots of changes of roads, the lady in the gps was barking orders at me constantly. Yes Ma'am! I will not print however what I often say when I want her quiet...:D

there is an older Prevost motorhome in this place I have to walk over and get a pic of. Now that is a rolling castle. Looks like about 25% of it is covered in chrome. Not that I have to see...;)

My last night aboard. Will post some thoughts on that later.
This rv campground is the closest to D.C. Wonder if any of these big motorhomes are rolling NSA data gatherers... I'm using my allegedly "secure" Verizon mifi and it has worked remarkably well.
But secure? not in this town...

On this drive I pretty much drove the road and not the speedometer, having enough seat time to know within 5mph how fast I'm going. So I got into a nice 62-64mph run behind a semi and then another motorhome, which slowed down so I went slowly past. Still too many tall hills to run on cruise all the time, plus I got to speeding up a bit down the hills, like Ron said, and keeping it floored in fourth gear which usually kept me above 60mph until I got to the top of the rise and could ease off the pedal. If it downshifted to third, then it revs way over 4000 rpm and that's just silly, so I back off and force the upshift and then try to keep it full throttle in that gear without pushing too hard, which of course then creates a downshift which I didn't want. If this vehicle had a diesel engine, most of these motor issues goes away, they can pretty much keep their speed up hills, but they'll be downshifting too and most folks don't want to rev their engines that much. Just get into the torque peak zone of one higher gear and try to hold it. Boy I would have liked steering wheel shift paddles today, and the ability to hold it in a gear of choice. However I'm sure the computer in the unit is smarter than I am, but often it shifts, mostly to go faster, when I'm happy slowing down a bit. These roads are too hilly and too curvy to try to maintain the speed limit like in a car. Most but not all trucks did not speed.

yes, forgot to put the laptop away. did so at a rest stop shortly after.
in VA, you just go by one picturesque farm after another with those black cattle out there. Very pretty.
 

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   / Head West not so young Man #552  
The old boy in front pulling a Ram! Great! Virginia farmland is beautiful country all right. Driven through the a few times. Well daug, ye getting a fifth wheel, eh? Or that's ye plan? No matter wha', ye have to tow something! I'm on my third travel trailer now, a smaller one, but trailer seems to be the cheapest way for us to go. I always have a truck anyway, so it works great. If you don't go huge on ye fifth wheel, I'd check out the F150 Ecoboost towing package. I read a lot on truck forums too, and the boys with those things really praise the towing power they have! Forget so called mpg when towing, hey, ye're having fun! Nothing is gonna get so good towing. Oh well, about to get sidetracked!

Now we have to wait for "Head west, Part II", which I am looking forward to reading.
 
   / Head West not so young Man
  • Thread Starter
#553  
well my walk over to the Prevost was well worth it. An old girl but what a queen of the fleet.
Bet that has some nice Italian leather furniture in it. And a lot of glitz, mirrors, and ornamental stuff.

guess I'm going to leave the a/c fan on tonight, right close to 95, and something is being built right next door, so a little noise interference is in order. I enjoyed the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's God Bless America and America the Beautiful as i wound my way through the Virginia hills and boy was that enjoyable. Everything around me was so pretty.

And tonight is my last night so I'm cooking a nice dinner since I have plenty of time, getting in early on purpose. Salmon and smoked sablefish for dinner, courtesy of my sister from some organic supermarket, some home shucked and frozen corn, and probably polish off the last of the ice cream for desert. That sounds like a fine plan. And I've gotten into a new book, Inferno, and it will be my evening's entertainment. And I could have been dancing in Dallas. I will, mark my words.
but I am where I want to be right now, and have a six or seven hour drive tomorrow, so it's time to relax and just screw around. I'll be plenty busy tomorrow and the next day.
 

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   / Head West not so young Man
  • Thread Starter
#554  
The old boy in front pulling a Ram! Great! Virginia farmland is beautiful country all right. Driven through the a few times. Well daug, ye getting a fifth wheel, eh? Or that's ye plan? No matter wha', ye have to tow something! I'm on my third travel trailer now, a smaller one, but trailer seems to be the cheapest way for us to go. I always have a truck anyway, so it works great. If you don't go huge on ye fifth wheel, I'd check out the F150 Ecoboost towing package. I read a lot on truck forums too, and the boys with those things really praise the towing power they have! Forget so called mpg when towing, hey, ye're having fun! Nothing is gonna get so good towing. Oh well, about to get sidetracked!

Now we have to wait for "Head west, Part II", which I am looking forward to reading.


first I thought it was a full size Ram but did they make smaller one look like that?
but that isn't the prize. About three days ago a seriously large 45+ foot tag axle luxo barge pulled out one morning with a Suburban in the rear. Must be a lot people in that rv...you think?

and so many people are out trying to fix things with their rvs. These things are apparently not very reliable. A guy yesterday told me his rear ABS sensor went bad and he was stuck there waiting for parts. In a nice diesel pusher. No one seems to be immune.
 
   / Head West not so young Man #557  
Very timely thread... recently retired friends have been motor home shopping... it's been their dream for years to spend a year traveling North America and they wanted only to buy new with all the warranties and customer assistance in place...

Reading your thread has given them pause...
 
   / Head West not so young Man #558  
Well, just to be realistic, it seems that no one has a problem free trip. I have a friend who was extremely careful to properly use and maintain his RV trailer. Every trip had problems and it spent as much time in the shop as he did on the road...maybe more. I guess if you cram an entire house, roof, floor, walls, plumbing, hot water heater, AC, dryer, washer, stove, heater, electrical wiring, generator, gasoline, propane, lighting, doors, cabinets, septic, water source, etc. into a tight space, choose parts for light weight and non standard sizes with relatively low production volumes, then shake everything all around all the time, then something will go wrong....and apparently sooner than later... and be hard to get to and find replacement parts for. And, simple things can compound...for example, he had a tire blow out which spun the tread around in a flap, which tore up the underside of the trailer, including septic, wires, pipes, other stuff under there, and ripped the fender off....all significant expense to fix....and took something like 5 months...and dealer had to reorder the fender 3 times to get the right one...
 
   / Head West not so young Man #559  
That campground near DC has to be Cherry Hill park. That is a real nice campground, a little pricey, but I think it is worth it. We were there about 4 years ago and stayed there for 3 days while we went into DC. We are planing on a return trip in the near future, 3 days is not nearly enough time to see everything you would like to see. The Smithsonian alone will take over 3 days.

Sorry you had so much trouble, but you have touched the heart of a lot people and you will be remembered and looked for again. As I said before maybe the wind will blow right and the stars will align and we will meet on the road somewhere, that would make me a better person to meet you.
 
   / Head West not so young Man #560  
I've traveled a few times with a rented motorhome... lots of fun with only one glitch.

The cruise control would not disengage and the 460 motor easily overpowered the brakes while my 18 year old cousin was driving... I reached over and told her to keep both hands on the wheel as I turned the ignition switch back a click to turn off the motor and not so far as to lock the steering wheel...

Pulled the wires going to the module and the next 3500 miles were uneventful as were several other trips...

At least we had a good story to tell when we got home...
 

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