Lucky Number 13......

Happy Saturday afternoon everyone.  We're camping at the New River State Park once again.  We hope everyone is having a great weekend.  Give us a minute and we'll explain more about the title to this Post.

You see Rob's niece Jessa flew in from her home in Seattle to visit for the week.  Jessa's other grandmother and some other family members live in the Jefferson, NC area.  So a plan was hatched to bring Jessa up to visit them, along with a short weekend camping trip.  

Our trip up Friday afternoon was uneventful until dropping Jessa off at her aunt's house.  Then about a mile from the campground we were run off the side of the road by an on-coming 18-wheeler.  Once arriving at the campground the power switch on the tongue jack self-destructed, and the only sandwich fixings we had packed were a loaf of bread and a bottle of Honey Mustard dressing.

What did we do? Well we fixed scrambled eggs, fried some bacon, and baked some WHOP biscuits for supper.  It sure was yummy.  

This morning we headed out to Shatley Springs for breakfast but wound up at Bojangles instead (too many people at Shatley Springs!)  Went by mountain outfitters in West Jefferson for a t-shirt for Trisha and stickers for Rob.  Then by Lowes for a few items and a special screwdriver so Rob can fix the power jack.

The weather is just perfect, Trisha is doing progress reports, and Rob will soon be reading.  

Here's a picture of our campsite....

Here's Trisha hard at work on Progress Reports.....

And finally, here's a close up picture of the Power Jack....

Thanks for checking by today.  This is going to be a lazy weekend for us.  The campsite next door does  have a Cub Scout Pack so it's been fun watching all their activities.  We hope they have a great time!!!

Until next time, stay safe out there......-R,T, but no J.

Oh yeah, the number 13??  Why that's our site number.  :-)

I'm All Legal Now......

Happy Saturday afternoon from here in North Carolina.  It's Pod posting again today.  Trisha took her Mom and Dad to Charleston, SC for her niece's wedding.  Congrats to Emily and Chuck!!  Rob has taken some Advil and has gone to lay down.  He told me I could make today's post as long as I didn't tell anyone why his back was hurting.  

As y'all may or may not know, I am a 2010 model year Pod.  It seems the people at Forest River that built me made a small mistake and didn't put lights on my fenders or three lights high up on my back.  They've since fixed that problem on all my newer Pod cousins, and have also fixed a bunch of my cousins who didn't have this required lighting.  

One of my first major mods was when Rob added running lights to my fenders.  In fact, if you click right here you can read about and see pictures of this mod.  The other item was the lights up high on my back.  When my recall letter came last summer, none of us wanted to miss any camping trips, so we just put the job on the back burner.  Then next thing you know, it was spring and time to go camping again.  So when we were at the F.R.O.G. rally in August, Rob asked Susan T. for a light bar, telling her he'd install it at some point in time.  

Well since today was a beautiful day, Rob decided this would be a good afternoon to install my new light bar.  It only took him about 1.5 hours, and that was him working by himself.

Here's a "before" picture......

See no "up-high" lights.  First Rob started by taking the end cap off of the molding track and taking out the molding strip.....

Here is a picture of the molding cap.  Just one screw and a bit of caulk and then the molding strip will pull right out of the track.

The molding strip is easy to pull out of the track.  Rob said to just take it easy so you don't accidently tear it or anything.  

Next, Rob used some rubbing alcohol to clean and de-wax my surface so the caulk and adhesive strips would stick like they are supposed to.  Rob also measured and marked how high the light bar was to be.  He said he wanted it be level, I said, "Well yeah!"  

Then Rob cut a small notch in the molding strip.  This is were the wires will go.  If you look closely, you can see the pencil mark he made so he knows exactly where to cut .

If you look closely in this picture, you can see the "channel" the wires have to go in so the light bar will lay flat on my roof.  

In this picture, Rob has used Gorilla Tape to secure the wires in the channel.  He said he also left some wires in a loop to allow for some slack in case the light bar has to be removed for some reason.

Here is the light bar laying on Truck's tailgate.  (Thanks Truck for your help with this project!)

Rob has all the wires secured, and has run a squiggly line of caulk all the way around the underside of the light bar.  He said this will help seal the light bar to my roof.  All he needs to do is to remove the red film from the adhesive strips and he will be ready to but the light bar into place. 

Now if your wondering how Rob held that long light bar in place, he did have some help.  He used a short piece of dowel rod and some more Gorilla Tape to make a "stop" for one side.

Before I knew it, Rob had the light bar in place.  He then worked to carefully press down the light bar on the top and bottom to make sure there was good contact between the light bar and my roof.

Rob had some left over stainless steel screws with the tops painted white from some other project a few years ago.  These were perfect for the three screws needed the light bar's end pieces.


At this point, all that is left to do is screw the end pieces in place, caulk the top seam of the light bar, run the wire and molding strip back down my side, and re-attach the molding end cap. 

Here's  a picture showing the wire loomed and caulked in  place.  Now Rob says the wire loom isn't necessary, but the caulk definitely is!!

Here you can see where Rob did the "tie-in" for the wires.  He also didn't cut the length of the wire, he just coiled it up.  He said that was just in case the extra was ever needed for some reason.  He quickly tucked everything away, and put the stuff he took out of my storage compartment back to be ready for my next trip.

This is the caulk he used.  Rob said it was non-silicone, and for outdoor use.  It will seal, bond, and fill as it dries. 






And finally, here's the finished project......

Now that just looks too awesome (even sexy).  If your wondering how Rob can make my lights turn on with Truck parked beside me, well that's another story.

Thanks for checking by today.  I'm out of here, and I need to check on Rob to see how he's doing too!

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-Pod!

Butt Stickers.......

OK everyone, when you through laughing, I'll explain more.  It's Pod here again today.  Trisha is gone to the Beauty Salon and Rob is washing Truck, so I snitched some more computer time.  

I just had to share a link to Cousin Splash's blog about her new Butt Sticker.  If you click right here, you will be magically transported over to her blog to read all about it!  I also had to show you a new sticker I got in the mail yesterday.  

Seems last weekend when we were all camping in the mountains, Trisha and Rob saw this neat Dachshund window sticker on the back window of a car.  So Trisha did some searching on her iPhone and soon found out where to get one (or four in our case).

So in the mail yesterday there it was, the package with the new stickers.  Now when Rob came out to the Pod-port last evening to put one on me, I told him I thought I had quite enough stickers on my butt!  I mean just look below.....

Don't you think enough is enough!  I did manage to convince Rob to find a new place for this latest sticker.  Here's a picture of it, what do you think?

He put this new sticker on my large side window.  Jackson loves to sit on the back of my sofa when he is camping with us and look out.

So anyway, thanks for checking by today.  I think Rob is just about through giving Truck a bath so I need to scoot.  

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-Pod

r-pod Swag......

Happy Tuesday everyone!  It's Pod here.  I just had to do a quick blog post today after the UPS truck made a delivery.  I've gotten pretty good at knowing when a package is something for me!  hehe

Anyway, just look at the cool r-pod swag Rob and Trisha bought for me.  Well, OK, it's actually for them to wear, but you know what I mean.

Doesn't this look just grand!  Thanks for checking by today, but I got to go now.  I think I just heard Truck pull in the driveway, so Rob must be home.

Until next time, stay safe out there......-Pod

Happy Labor Day.....

Happy Labor Day Monday everyone.  We are back home from camping on this three day weekend.  It is the last "official" 3 day or longer weekend we have until Thanksgiving Break.  

Rob said he was sure our internet connection while in the moutains involved carrier pigeons.  Since today is the opening day of dove season, he said we should wait until we get home to post anything.

We were up, broke camp, dropped tanks, and pulled out of Raccoon Holler by 9:30 this morning.  Of course we just had to drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway for a little part of the trip home.  

Rob says no matter how many times he has driven the BRP, he never knows what may be waiting around the next bend in the road.

And pulling out onto the Parkway always presents you with a choice....

In our case this morning, South was the longer way home, with North being the longest way home, so South it was.  We did manage to make a quick stop by Camping World in Statesville since we drive right by the place.   Only two things followed us home from CW today.  One we knew we needed, the other one, not so much.

And since we never did post an official campsite picture, here it is....

We did firm up a trip (made reservations actually) for a November trip.  We are also discussing an October trip, so you'll have to check back on the trips page to see where we may be going.  

At any rate, have a great week and check back often.  You never know what we may be up too.

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T,&J.  (J says he's glad to be back home with G-Ma and the cat posse!)

If It's Raining......

Then we must be camping.  Happy Sunday afternoon everyone.  We sure hope your enjoying your Labor Day weekend.  As long as you don't get too bothered by a little rain, ours has been great.  

We started this morning with a breakfast casserole and "whop" biscuits.  Then we got ourselves together, visited with our neighbors who are T@Bbers, then rode over to West Jefferson to Mountain Outfitters to get each of us a "Life Is Good" t-shirt.  

About the time we left the campground, the rains came.  We drove through a pretty good rain shower, but the rain was mostly gone by the time we got to West Jefferson.  Unfortunately, Mountain Outfitters had a sign on their door, "Close due to Computer Problems."  Rob said they just wanted to take the day off!  We did stop by Pizza Hut to pick up a pizza to take back with us for lunch.

We promised to tell you about Rob's exciting Saturday morning.  Well it seems just after Trisha left for the bathhouse, Rob decided to put a pot of tea on the stove to make sweet iced tea.  Rob dug a pot and lid out of the cabinet.  When he turned on the hot water tap at the kitchen sink, he had an instant water fountain.  Since it was the hot water tap, he said the water was getting warm fast.  

So Rob tried to put the water tap back in the faucet, but he very quickly realized this wasn't going to work.  The next (and only other plan) was to put the pot he was holding over the water fountain to try and contain the damage, and dash out of the camper and turn the water off!!

Needless to say, we had a mess!!  By the time Trisha returned from the bathhouse, Rob did have it all cleaned up, a clothes line strung for all the wet towels to dry, and had even tried to repair the faucet.  So we carefully tried the repair, which was a failure, meaning a trip to Lowes was in order.

Here's a picture of the factory faucet.  You can see it is now a "two-part" faucet, which isn't good.

Here's a picture of the faucet we bought at Lowes.  It was $68.00 plus tax.  We looked at the faucets the same color as the factory original, but they cost twice as much.  They were also for a 3 or 4 hole application.  The pod's counter top only had two holes drilled it.  Rob didn't want to buy a hole saw to drill the third hole since he has a perfectly good one back home in the shop.

The new faucet does have a lifetime warranty (whatever that means these days).   It only took a few minutes to disconnect the old faucet and remove it, then install the new faucet.  A quick leak test and all was good.

We are back in business with a bright shiny new chrome faucet.  As Rob told a new pod owner over on Facebook, this has been the most "dramatic" parts failure we've had in our four seasons camping with Pod.

Thanks for checking by today.  We will be winding up this trip tomorrow when as we go back home.  Even though this as been a somewhat damp weekend, it has been a fun one.

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T,&J.