Summer 2009

Well, we are on the way! We left home around 6:15 AM and got to the trailer storage facility at about 7:30. We had to get the refrigerator started and put the frozen and refrigerated food in it. The back seat of the truck was overflowing with clothing and other items that we needed for the trip so we stored some of these items in their place in the trailer and figured we would put the rest of the "stuff" away when we got to our first stop.

We finally got the trailer hooked up and headed out on the road around 8:15. The drive was relatively easy... Interstate highways all the way. Our original route plan was to take I-84 to I-81 and the latter to our destination, Natural Bridge, VA. That plan was developed using a mapping software on my computer. My GPS had other ideas... it routed us back down the NY State Thruway to I-287. I-287 took us to I-78 which ends in I-81. I opted to follow the GPS and it turned out to be good routing. Traffic was reasonably light for the entire trip. The weather on the other hand, was not so great. We started with fog and mist and didn't see any breaks in the clouds until we go well into Virginia. At least it didn't rain. Ten hours after we left home we arrived at our first night stop.

We got a real scare with our equipment. Those of you who followed us on our trip to Atlantic Canada will remember that our refrigerator broke down on the first day and cost us time and a more than a few dollars. When stopped for lunch, we noticed that the lights in the trailer were dim and heard a clicking noise from the refrigerator. My first thought was the refrigerator was bad again and caused the battery to be drained. There was nothing we could do in the rest area so we continued on to the campground. The first thing I did once we had the trailer hooked up to campground power was test whether it was the refrigerator or battery. The refrigerator works on 12 volts and propane when we are on the road. The 12 volt power is supplied by the battery and is used to open the gas valve and ignite the flame whenever the thermostat calls for more cooling. In the campground, the refrigerator operates on 110 volts. I manually switched the refrigerator to propane and it worked fine. The 12 volt power is supplied by a convertor. So, it seems the problem is the battery which was not fully charged. The 110 to 12 volt converter also acts as a charger and we will know tomorrow morning if the battery will take the charge or if we need to find a replacement. Hopefully, this is the biggest equipment problem we will have on the trip.