Christmas Eve Eve

Well yesterday was Christmas Eve Eve in Florida.  We have Jenni in from L.A.  Jake got snowed in, in Madison Wisconsin.  7" of snow slowed traffic from Madison to Milwaukee enough that Jake made the prudent decision to cancel his flight.

Well in Florida it was partly cloudy and in the low 80's.  Perfect weather for a little trip down the Anclote River out of Tarpon Springs to look at the barrier islands that protect the ICW.

Here we go...

We saw 4 different pods of dolphins and the weather was spectacular.

 After the boaty boating, we had lunch at our favorite Tarpon joint.  Water-front it was beautiful.

Merry Christmas to all......

Laying low in Hudson

Well, about 12 days ago I started experiencing pain in the instep of my foot.  It slowed me down an bit.  After about 4 days, the pain had dissipated and I went for a mile or so walk for a little exercise.  The next day the pain returned..but worse.  Well after 10 days of hobbling around, I went to a Podiatrist.  He diagnosed it as a stress fracture to the 2nd Metatarsal.  He suggested a foot immobilizer for several days.  So here I am..layin low in Hudson.  So much for Scout travel in the near term.

However, I have a great new book.  White Fire, by Lincoln and Child.  This is the latest book in the Pendergast series.  My second favorite series, is the Aloysius Pendergast series.  My favorite is the Travis McGee series by the immortal John D. MacDonald, but I have read each of those books at least 5 times each over the last 20 years.

I also have a new toy to play with.  It is a Nexus 7 tablet.  I have had a first generation Ipad for several years and it was "just O.K."  It was a little too large and a little too heavy.  The Nexus 7 is just right in size.  Of course we could all use to loose a little weight :) When you are a tablet you can not be too thin or to light ;)

When you team the Android operating system on the Nexus with the google Chromecast your web/tablet /tv world comes alive.  In fact with Netflix/Pandora/Google Play and other streaming tv, I am considering adding a HD Antennae and cutting the cable cord.  More on that later.

I am having a little trouble adjusting to Florida weather.  It just does not seem like Christmas.  I am not complaining.  I do NOT like snow.  It is cold wet and messy.  It just does not seem like the Christmas season without that cool weather near-hibernation status that I entered into this time of year during my last 30 years in the midwest.  To top it off, the weather announcer just came on and said "Saturday is the first day of winter..we expect a high of 82 on that day...

Well here is a photo of our Scout trip to the Badlands last summer...Scout daydreaming...

A little test trip to St. Joseph Peninsula State Park

Scout it taking off this morning.  Destination...St. Joseph Peninsula State Park.  This is a wonderful Florida State Park, located in the panhandle region.  It has miles of sugar white sand beaches.  More to follow...

Well I am updating this about 3 weeks later.  And I am trying to figure out how to use Flickr with Blogger.

Well as you can see below, I figured it out.

Of the three nights that we spent at St. Joseph Peninsula, only one night had great sunsets.  The photos are below.

The No-See-ums were thick again this year and quite vicious at dusk and dawn.

Other highlights of this outing...having lunch at the Hole in the Wall Bar at Appilachicola.  They shucked the oysters in front of me and took them into the kitchen, and fried them.  Can not get any fresher oysters than that.

We stopped at the Bay of St. Joe Buffer Zone.

  http://www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/sites/stjoseph_buffer/

The curator explained a lot about the bay to me.  She also told me that during scallop season which runs July 1-September 10 only the bay is perfect for gathering bay scallops.  She said that it was like an easter egg hunt looking for bay scallops in the sea grass.  She advised that the best time to go is after the kids are back in school.  So...the first week in September looks good to me.

Lunch on day two was at the boat docks in Port St. Joe.  We stopped at the Piggly Wiggly, purchased a pound of shrimp.  The store steamed them for free.  We went to a picnic area overlooking the bay and dined on our still warm shrimp.

The Diesel Hydronic heat worked fine...so that issue seems to be behind us for now....

John Holod

I have been a big fan of John Holod's RV videos for several years.  You can see his collection at www.rvadventurevideos.com

I was poking around on you tube and found a very short video of his best secret for RV travel in Alaska.  You can see it here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou2fwXrHomk&noredirect=1

Basically John, is saying that you catch the Alaska Marine Highway back from Haines to Prince Rupert.  More on this will follow in future blogs.

I sent John an email asking him about the necessity of reservations.  Within about 2 hours I had a great reply from him.  I followed this up with a phone conversation which added even more color.

That has helped a lot with setting the itinerary more firmly in my mind.

A big shout of thanks to John for your help with this....

The shelf in the hanging locker project

Scout came with a small hanging locker by the bed.  We do not take hanging clothes when we are out.  In the bottom of the locker we keep our toaster oven.  Scout has a microwave but no conventional oven, so we carry a toaster oven for the likes of bagels, toast, pizza, baked potatoes, etc.

There is a shelf above the space that we keep the toaster oven.  and it is tall.  It was designed for hanging clothes.  It also contains a 110v outlet that is connected to our inverter.  This project is to add space and provide for a place to charge phones while driving, or camping.  While driving, we can run the inverter off of the Diesel motors alternator.  The Mercedes Sprinter came equipped with a 220amp alternator.  This is enough to run our refrigerator on AC from the inverter and power the phones while not reducing the batteries charge.  When dry camping we can also run the inverter.  We have 220 amp hours of battery capacity, so we have a fair amount of backup power at our disposal.

Here is what the hanging locker looked like before.

See the space above the toaster oven.  Here is how much space that locker uses....

Down  at the bottom of the locker to the right of the tape measures bottom, is the 110 outlet.

I crafted a template for the shelf from cardboard.  The locker is kind of a one sided trapezoid and the outside wall bends in.  The result is the farther up we go, the smaller the shelf becomes.  Another consideration is that the documents on the left side of the locker provide the weight limitations of the Mercedes Sprinter and should be accessible and not be removed.  So we had to work within those constraints.  The ultimate goal was to provide a place for dry clean towels, clothes that have been worn, but are not dirty and will be worn again, as well as provide a secure place to charge phones, tablets, laptops, etc.

Here is the shelf in place.  You can see the outlet on the left.

And here is the finished product.

I added a couple of bins to hold the phones.  These are held in place by velcro.  I am not really that happy with those, they may be replaced.  The light that you see is a Mighty Brite reading lamp powered by 2 aaa batteries.  That may or may not stay.  I am pleased with the fit of the Belkin usb charger/ac outlet/surge protector.  The shelf is unfinished plywood.  That may or may not get stained and varnished depending upon how ambitious I become :)

Cell Phone Charging

We have been charging our cell phones, kindles, and tablets using two Amazon USB power modules attached to a power strip.  The cord is plugged into an outlet above our galley counter with the power strip component resting in our window sill.  While heading down the road, we turn on the inverter and power the phones.  The major problem with this, is where the phones reside they make it difficult to close that window shade.

With the new shelf project coming along, it seemed like a good idea to move the phone charging station into the wardrobe.  The wardrobe has a 110v outlet in it.  Rather than using the amazon power modules, I located a combination surge protector 110v and usb power strip by Belkin.  I was concerned that the Belkin unit would draw power when plugged in.  I took out our Kill-a-watt meter and tested this.  The Belkin draws NO power when a device is not attached.  The Amazon modules draw .3 watts each for a combined of .6 watts.

It seems like the Belkin is the way to go, so the next step is to engineer that into the shelf project.

Above left to right are the Kill-a-watt meter, the Amazon Power module and the Belking usb/110v power strip surge protector.

the photo below shows the power strip that we currently use to charge the phones.

As you can see it gets the job done, but blocks the window.  As part of the shelf project on the next blog, I will address this as well, as adding a shelf to enhance storage space.

The Big One B.O.

For quite a while now, we have been thinking about taking Scout to Alaska.  The trip is a go for next summer.

Many years ago, I read the book "Airborne" by William F. Buckley.  It covers the planning preparation and trip across the Atlantic in his 60 foot Schooner Cyrano.  When communicating to the members of the voyage, they referred to it as the Big One or B.O.

From now going forward the Alaska Trip will be called the BO, in deference to WFB.

The orientation of this blog will now be redirected to cover the planning and ultimately execution of this journey.  In the past, we have used this more as a travel log of our trips in Scout.  This will cover more about Scout, prep for the journey, planning for routes and destinations and trial runs around the area to try out new modifications and equipment.

What we know about the trip so far:

This will be an extensive undertaking.  Leaving from Tampa Bay and heading to Anchorage and back will cover around 11,000 miles.  That is without adding a lot in for side trips.  At this point we plan on leaving in mid-June and returning sometime in mid to late August.

So that having been said.... we have two mods/fixes to Scout.  First, we have had trouble on and off with our Espar Diesel Hydronic heating system.  This provides our heat and hot water.  It runs off of the Diesel fuel in our main tank.  The promise of a system like this, is whisper quite heating and instant on hot water.  We have not had a huge need for this while running around Florida, due to the abundance of natural heat :) and camp showers.  As we prepare for more boondockng in cooler climates, this will be a necessity.

A few weeks ago, we took the Coach to RV World of Lakeland to have the system looked at.  They found that the main holding tank for liquid used to transfer the heat was empty.  We do not know why, but they filled it and the system seems to work.  We will be testing this extensively over the cool weather trips this winter.

The second modification is to add a shelf to our small armoir in the back of the van.  This cubby has one shelf and could use another.  Photos to follow.  We have measured the space and have cut a shelf to fit.  The project today is to mount that.

Next week we will take Scout out for a test run.  We will be heading to St. Joseph Peninsula, one of our favorite spots on the panhandle coast.

Trip to Turtle Beach

One of the many nice things about living in the Tampa Bay area is that some great camping locations are very close to home.   Turtle Beach Campground, located on Siesta Key, in Sarasota County is 2 hours from home.

With all of the miles and miles of shoreline on the Gulf Coast of Florida, there are only 3 campgrounds that are on the beach south of Tampa.  One of these is Turtle Beach (or TB for the rest of this blog post).  It is owned and operated by the County of Sarasota.  The Campsites are pretty close to each other, but the walk to the beach is easy and it is a very nice beach.

Here is a view of the campground.

Scout tucked into her home for the night.

On the way to TB we decided to wander down and look at a couple of beach communities.  We purchased the book "BeacHunters Florida Gulf Beaches and Access Guide" by David Mcree.  This is a very good book that provides a thorough description of the beaches and beach communities on the Gulf Coast.  With this book in hand we went exploring.

We have various friends that have stayed at Anna Maria Island,  Longboat Key and Casey Key.  We wanted to see these first hand.  Here are my impressions.  Anna Maria, is kind of a funky beach community with a GREAT beach at Manatee County Public Beach.  Crystal clear water, great white sand, easy parking.

 Longboat Key itself is kind of stuffy.  Serious money here which often equates to private gated estates.  The residents have worked very had to give the illusion of beach access.  There are little blue signs that say "Public Beach Access".  However, there are no parking spots within miles of these access points.

Lido Key is next down the line.  It kind of resembles Longboat Key from a residential real estate perspective, but has one notable difference.  Ted Sperling Park at South Lido Beach.  This is a very nice beach with tons of shaded parking.  Thumbs up to the fine folks at Lido Beach.

Casey Key.  Casey Key is like Longboat Key on steroids.  Serious money here.  I have found in life that sometimes spending excessive amounts of cash does not necessarily enrich life, but tends to serve more to simply isolate people.  That sums up Casey Key.  However, at the far south end of Casey Key there is a tremendous beach.  Nokomis beach.  Great pavilion, crystal clear water, great bathrooms and outdoor showers.

Well back to Turtle Beach.  This beach is famous for it's sunsets.  The last time that we were here, they signaled sundown by blowing a conch shell.  Well that did not happen this time.  Possibly that job was determined to be non-essential and furloughed as part of the government shut down ;)

Here are some pics of the sunset.

And breaking Dawn the next day...

Well that wraps up this short trip.  Home for a week as we get hardwood floors installed and then it is off to Disney for a few days.

Scout is Off to turtle beach this morning.

Well in order to continue our flat out dead run in seeing this area, we are firing up Scout this morning and heading to Turtle Beach.

We found this place last winter.  It is one of the few places that you can camp right on the beach.  Yes, as long and irregular as the gulf is, there are only a few places that you can camp right on the beach.

We are only staying one night.  We have to be back on Monday morning.  Our last bit of carpet is being replaced that day with hard wood laminate.

Here is a youtube video of Turtle beach, we did not film the video, but you can see what it looks like from this.  As you can see the sunsets are stunning.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z5cEUrG1HU

Shell Key

Yesterday, we took a boat out of Treasure Island and proceeded down the ICW to Shell Key.  What a beautiful little island.  This island is only accessible by boat, so the crowds are thin.  The water is bahamas like clear.  See for yourself.

This is a view from the island looking northeast.  If you squint really hard, while looking at the photo, you will be able to see the Hotel Don Cesar on St. Pete Beach.

 We anchored about 20 feet off of the beach in about 4 feet of water.  As we were setting the anchor, we watched a school of small manta rays, flitting about the boat.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch aboard the pontoon and then set out for a little walk and shell hunt on the beach.  While walking the beach we spotted a large black shape about 50 feet of the shore.  This creature had to be at least 6 feet long.  It was moving slowly parallel to the shore and leaving a wake.  Being newbies to this area, we surmised that it had to be a large shark.  No more shore wading for us.

We walked a little farther and saw another large shape.  It however breached the water and snorted.  Ah Ha!  It was a manatee swimming in the gulf.  I waded and swam out to about the 5 foot depth level and was about 10 feet from the creature.  I gave it a chance to approach me, but it did not, so I retreated to the shore.  The water temp was about 80 degrees, so it was a very nice swim, even if the manatee did not want to come play.

Here is the view of the beach looking west.

 After this, we took the boat, a 23 foot pontoon with a 70hp Yamaha outboard, out into the gulf.  We passed out the channel till we reached the channel entrance marker and turned north.  We set a course of 345 degrees and opened up the throttle.  With a light chop of 1 foot or less we crossed the 6 miles of open gulf in about 20 minutes.  We reached the marker for the entrance to the John's pass entrance and entered the bay.  It felt a little strange having a pontoon boat out in the open gulf 3 miles or so off of shore.

This area continues to reveal to us very cool and little used areas.

After the Florida Move our first little Scout Jaunt

We have been very busy over the last month and one half.  Closed on the lake house.  Moved full time to Florida.  Looked at boats.  Furnished the Lanai.  Looked at boats. Took a 4 day trip to Daytona Beach.  Where we had great sunrise views.

 Looked at boats.  Selected a contractor to convert the remaining carpeted flooring to hard wood.  Joined a boat club.  Took a 4 day trip to visit friends in  Ft. Lauderdale, the Keys, and Naples.  Here is the view from our friends condo in Key Colony Beach.

Passed through the Big Cypress Preserve on the Tamiami Trail.

Used the boats at the boat club.

And got one of the worst haircuts of my life.  I have not had a buzz cut like this since the summer that I was 7 years old.


So now Scout is heading out this weekend for a little jaunt to one of our favorite beach camping areas.  Turtle Beach near Venice (Florida that is).

Laying Low at Lotawana

Hello,

We have been laying kind of low at The Lake for the last couple of weeks.  Our Lake Home is under contract to sell and we have been doing some serious downsizing.  The plan is to head to the Florida Home at the end of the month with only vital possessions in tow.  The Lake House is scheduled to close at the end of the month.  After a period of readjustment in Florida, we will take off in Scout for a minor or major trip in September or October.

In the meantime, Scout has been re-assigned to function as Chief Schlepping Officer.

Scout is resting up for her next trip

Well, the lake house is under contract to sell.  Next trip in Scout...heading to Florida with a trailer full of stuff latched to her.  She needs the rest for that trip.  Will keep you posted in the next several days.

On to Van Buren

On the road again

Destination johnsons shut-ins

Lunch today at Tic Tac Cafe, California, Mo

Blasting across Nebraska - Sand Hills

Yesterday, Thursday June 28,  we started out at first light from Alliance NE.  Destination, Lake Lotawana, 600 miles away.

We passed through the Sand Hill region of Nebraska.  This is a vast sparsely populated area of rolling hills of guess what..plant covered Sand.  For miles and miles no crops are grown.  Occasionally a small herd of cattle will be seen grazing.  As an indication of the vastness of this area, a search reveals that this section of Nebraska contains 530,000 head of cattle.  However, you can drive mile after mile and see no sign of the existence of cattle.  This section of Nebraska sits on top of the Ogallala Aquifer, and small shallow lakes appear sporadically.  The rivers in this area run clear with sand bottoms.  But the overwhelming feeling is that of desolation and vastness.

We passed near the Nebraska National Forest.  This was a curios site.  It was sparsely populated with trees, but would not be considered a "forest" in other parts of the country.  After being home and having the luxury of high speed internet and a trusty browser, was I able to research this and find that it was an experiment, created in 1902 to determine if a forest could be created in the treeless plains.  The result was a 20,000 acre human planted forest.

Scout performed flawlessly during this course of the trip.  This is an amazing machine for long distance travel.  We change drivers every 2 hours and only stop for fuel.  With a cruising range of 400+ miles those stops are pretty infrequent.

Later, I will post figures for miles, mileage, and cost of the venture.

For now Scout is back and at rest.

The above photo is of the Nebraska National Forrest  

Spearfish Canyon to Alliance NE

We traveled through Spearfish Canyon Scenic Drive today.  Very scenic a lot like Colorado, with the road following  a crystal clear rushing stream. We decided to start heading back via the Nebraska Sandhills.  Very desolate.

We made it as far as Alliance NE.  Dusty,  hot and appears to be very poor.  At the Sunrise Motel and RV Park.  Dirty nasty place, but it does have electric, so we can run the A.C.  Highlight of Alliance.. Car Henge....need I say more?

Dispersed Camping

Last night we stayed in the Black Hills NF.  We were in a Dispersed camping area.  Translation.....drive down a gravel road..find a spot to pull over...voila...free camping.  Our spot was in a meadow surrounded by rocky hills.  Very quit and calm.   Did I mention free?  We awoke this morning to cattle graising outside the rig.   Off to Deadwood this AM.  Then who knows where.

Badlands

Last night we stayed at Sage Creek Campground in the Badlands

Mt Rushmore

Wind Cave NP. Hot Springs SD

Visited the above.  Saw more bison.

See photos.

I
Tomorrow off to Mt Rushmore.  Then into the wild.  Black Hills NF is huge and has 29 NF campgrounds and thousands of acres of dispersed camping.  A briefing...NF campgrounds are typically small say 9 sites and have little or no facilities. .say a pit toilet or so.  The price is right about $10 per night.

Dispersed camping is free, you just find a level soot and settle in.  Fourteen days max.

Photos if they load are bison at Custer SP, and a waterfall in downtown Hot Springs.

Off the grid for a couple of days, catch you on the flip side.

Monday...Change of plans

We are a little road weary this morning.  To rest up a little, we are going to spend another day at the Spokane campground.  Taking it easy this morning, we are going to venture out in a little bit and head south to Wind Cave National Monument.  After that we plan on heading to Hot Springs SD.  I would swim/wade/wallow in the warm water.  We also need a few supply items if we are going to head up into more desolate country in the Black Hills, so we need to do some shopping.  Basics wine/water/coffee...what more do we need.

We had a little RV excitement last night.  We were cooking a Stouffers frozen dinner in the microwave.    The box instructions called for about 20 minutes of cook time.  At about the 15 minut mark the microwave just stopped.  No attempts to restart it worked.  Frustrated/confused and hungry, we made it to the camp store and picked up a pizza.  Not bad pizza, I might ad for being basically 30 miles from any civilization.

It appears that the problem was that I was running the shore power off of a standard extension cord.  I added a smaller, lightweight power cord for connecting when we did not plan on running the air conditioning.  It appears that the high level of resistance in the cord upset the microwave and it choose to retaliate mid supper.  We switched the cord to the heavy duty 30 amp cord.  Let the microwave settle down and it now appears to be working.  These are the types of problems that come up periodically when you are out on the road.  We plan on heading up into the Great Lakes region for a month in August and we plan on taking two months in 2014 and heading up to Alaska.  Hence, we see this as kind of a shake down cruise for the big trips ahead.  So this morning all is good and Scout seems to be happy.

Sunday at the Badlands

Last night we had a very sudden storm pop up.  30+mph winds, pounding rain.  I really felt sorry for the tent campers in our area.  Scout was very comfortable and secure.

Woke up at sunrise and headed out.  Destination the main area of the Badlands.  At about 6am at the Sage Creek overlook, we encountered the main herd of Bison.  I estimated that there were 200 or so of these creatures milling about, blocking the road and generally acting like they lived in the area.  A ranger later confirmed that the herd is 900 strong.  Hung out at the Park most of the day and pointed Scout to the Black Hills.  Arrived at Spokane Creek Resort and Cabins.  Nice clean place, $15.75 for the night with Passport America Savings.

Tomorrow, we are heading up the Iron Mountain Road and hope to do some camping in the dispersed area of the National Forest.  We will be most likely out of internet range for the next day or so.  We will try to update this when we are back in civilization.

http://www.spokanecreekresort.com/

http://www.ironmountainroad.com/

The above photo is of Scout and I in the Badlands.  Scout apparently does not color within the lines.

Lincoln NE to the Badlands Via Niobrara State Park

Today is Sunday.  We have been out of internet range for a little while.  Friday after watching the KU car compete at Formula SAE Lincoln (the KY team finished 4th out of 80+ cars) we ventured north.  We ended up at Niobrara State Park in northern Nebraska.  Pretty views of the Missouri River.

Saturday, we left and ventured across the Southern part of South Dakota on US 18.  That is called the Oyate trail.  You can read about it at http://www.oyatetrail.com/  Very desolate country.  Final Destination was Badlands National Park.

At Badlands we travelled about 15 miles on dirt roads to the Sage Creek dispersed camping area.  This area was very remote.  We watched as a group of 4 Bison wandered along a creek bed in the distance.  This was a very nice camping area.  I would highly recommend it if you like remote settings.  An added bonus...it was free.  This is the view from our campsite for the night.

In case you doubt that I live on the ragged edge, this is proof that I do.  The sign states "past this sign is wilderness"  See wich side I am on?

Formula SAE - Lincoln

Go KU

Lincoln NE

At home with the other big rigs

Wilbur Nebraska

At the American Legion Park.  Nice shady spot on grass.  Showers and electric.  Price is way right.  $7 per night with Passport America card.  Hot.  95 and glad to have the air on.  Wilbur is the self proclaimed Czech Capitol of America

Hello all, we leave this morning for our first adventure of the summer.  We have Scout loaded up, and will be heading north.  This is a small outing, week to 10 days or so.  The general strategy is to head north slowly to the Black Hills area, from the Kansas City metro.  We plan to visit the College Formula Car Competition in Lincoln NE.  This event is called Formula SAE West http://students.sae.org/competitions/formulaseries/west/

Also on the agenda, are to travel the Oyate trail through South Dakota and return via the Nebraska Sand Hills region.

Journey on!

This blog is about our journeys in Scout our 2013 Great West Van Legend SE