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<\/p>\nI arrived home yesterday morning from a two night camping trip to the west desert in my new camping trailer. That trip had two primary goals of roughly equal importance – bird photography and to work out any kinks in a trailer I’d never camped in prior to taking it on much longer trips where any failures in equipment or planning could result in anything from minor inconvenience to disaster.<\/p>\n
I essentially failed in my first goal. I found few birds and none of them were particularly cooperative.<\/p>\n
The success of my second goal depends on how you look at it. Yes, I found several “kinks” and one of them was about as major as they come so that purpose of the trip was fulfilled. But I’d much prefer to have not found any at all.<\/p>\n
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Electronics in modern camping trailers are complicated and prone to everything from quirky performance to downright failure. This is the control panel for utilities such as three water tanks (fresh water, gray water and black water), batteries, water heater, tank heater (so water systems don’t freeze up), lights, awning operation and furnace. This time of year when nights can be very cold it goes without saying that a properly functioning furnace is essential, especially for old guys like me whose tent camping days are far behind me.<\/p>\n
Well….. the furnace worked but apparently the controls (the thermostat) did not. The furnace goes on when I turn it on but when the trailer reaches the temperature I’ve set and shuts down it won’t automatically come on again. I have to turn it completely off and let it sit for a while before it will fire up again – which makes it inconvenient during daytime but close to worthless at night.<\/p>\n
The first night it got down to 31\u00b0 F. both inside and outside of the trailer – way too damn cold for me so I got very little sleep. The second night was slightly better because it only got down to 35\u00b0 and I got up several times to fiddle-fart around with the thermostat so I was able to get a few bursts of heat. I found a few other less serious kinks too so I’ll be taking the trailer in for a tune-up before my next trip.<\/p>\n
If this had been one of our week-long trips to Montana we’d have been screwed. At the end of summer I’ve seen temps there as low as 11\u00b0 and in the Centennial Valley we’re many, many miles away from any sort of repair facility.<\/p>\n
I’d much rather find the kinks on a short trip close to home than on one of my much longer trips to MT, ID or WY!<\/p>\n
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I did accomplish one thing on this trip though. I added hundreds of pounds of mud to the weight of my trailer and pickup. It rained for days before we arrived at our dispersed camping site so the dirt roads were gumbo. Only one time in the past have I pulled a trailer on muddier roads than this. It isn’t any fun.<\/p>\n
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Don’t feel too bad for me though, we did have a good time overall. We saw lots of spectacular country including Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge. It’s a beautiful area and we even saw a fair number of birds but at this isolated refuge most of them stay far out on the ponds whenever there are vehicles on the road.<\/p>\n
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And in many areas the desert floor was covered with a dense blanket of wildflowers as far as the eye could see – many thousands of acres of them. This may be a type of mustard but I don’t know the species for sure.<\/p>\n
It was good to be home and sleep in a warm bed again but when I get my trailer tuned up I’ll be taking more and longer trips – you can count in it.<\/p>\n
Montana is calling me…<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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PS – I also pulled a couple of real boners on this trip. I forgot to bring margarine\/butter. Corn on the cob and sandwiches without butter leave a lot to be desired. And here’s some advice – don’t drop your only spool of dental floss in the toilet if you’re as addicted to flossing as I am. I won’t admit publicly whether I used it anyway. Or not.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’d much rather find the kinks on a short trip close to home than on one of my much longer trips to MT, ID or WY!<\/p>\n