Friday, June 27, 2014

Maiden Voyage of the Guppy

Tuesday we took the motorhome and went to a state park and spent two nights in the campground. It was a test run to see how we would live in the motorhome and to figure out what all we may need to stock in the motorhome.

The pollen from the pine trees reminded us of when we lived in Hot-Lanta.

























There's a leak in the propane system, so we weren't able to use the stove for cooking. We brought along a microwave (it got pitched because some things on the touchpad didn't want to work, it was only a little over 20 years old so don't know why it didn't want to work properly now), a hotplate, and an electric kettle for heating water. It worked out pretty well altho we figured out it would be good to have a power strip to plug all the electrical appliances into. It was a pain in the ass to have to unplug something in order to plug in another thing that you want to use.

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The part of the park that is most used is beyond the main entrance by the beach at the lake’s east end and the two campgrounds . The park was named after Dr. Paul Van Riper, who was known as Champion’s frontier doctor. The Van Riper State Park beach was known as a favored swimming spot for many Champion residents. Dr. Van Riper had helped the town to acquire the beach through his position in politics as the town commissioner. Local legend has it that Dr. Van Riper did so after local kids observed him in the act of changing into his swimsuit and made up chant about it that was not very flattering. His first order of business was to make sure that the new park got areas for people to change in immediately.
This is the beach in the park at the lake. It was a summer day the last week of June and nobody was there. Don't know what the water temp was, but the air temp was in the sixties, maybe seventy
I guess the geese didn't read the sign that said, "No animals or glass containers beyond this point"!!

We bought a new 19 inch TV for the motorhome, it works on AC/DC and has a built-in DVD player. We were hoping to get a couple of channels, but were only able to get one with three sub-channels. Will have to look into getting a new digital antenna for the RV. Also figured out I need to come up with some way to hang the TV where we can see it better. Had it on the bunk over the cab, but the picture didn't look right when we were looking up at it. It has a good picture when you are looking straight at it, when it is on the same level as your line of sight. I have an idea on how to hang it, but I need to figure out what type of screws I need for the mounting holes on the back, are they metric or SAE??

We went to a RV sales place and bought a few things for our RV. Man, the stuff there is expensive!!  Bought a new latch for the screen door because the one on it was broken. It cost $30!! They say a boat is a hole in the water that you throw money into, wonder what the equivalent is for RVs??????

The campground had electrical hookups for 20-30 amp and 20-30-50 amp. Figured out we only need the 20-30 amp as 30 amp is the type of plug on the motorhome. There was a dump station so I was able to empty the holding tanks on my way out. The gray water tank I can empty at home by just letting the water run out on the ground, but the tank for the toilet is another matter!!

About the title of the post. My oldest brother had a class A motorhome and The Old Lady called it a Leviathan, ours is a class C and smaller so she calls it "The Guppy".

6 comments:

  1. Where is that park from L'Anse?


    Ron

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  2. West Marquette county. About half way between L'Anse and Marquette on US-41.

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  3. I don't take a tv or microwave.

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  4. The Old Lady is talking about living in the RV for a month or more at a time. If we are going to be living it it that long, might as well have as many of the comforts of home as possible. The microwave got left in a dumpster and will probably be replaced with a toaster oven.

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  5. I think I commented to you earlier that while parked in an Alaskan campground we actually had the RV next to us actually explode due to a gas leak...it destroyed the RV and blew out our window and dented our door. The woman survived but had to be flown out by air rescue.

    Have your LP system pressure checked by a professional. It is small insurance.

    the Ol'Buzzard

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  6. Ol'Buzzard, just out of curiosity, what type of fuel did you guys use to cook with in your travel trailer?

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No Anonymous comments,it's not that hard to think of a nom de plume.