As with Mordor, one does not simply walk in to the RV mechanics'

 I came into this entire situation knowing that there was a great deal that I didn't know.  I knew that I didn't have a functional knowledge of how to work every system in the operation of an RV-style vehicle.  I've made progress on a lot of it, and for the most part it is all under control.  I also knew that I was operating from behind on mechanical issues, which was fine to me.  That's why you have van doctors, right?  So you might think. If you were to think that, you would be, like myself, sadly mistaken.  Apparently my contractual obligation window sticker was a bit of self-fulfilling prophecy.  With regards to the van doctor, one does not simply walk in.

Mortal Peril: Driving The Titsworth Through Stevens Pass

I took The Titsworth to the van doctor this morning.  "Well that's strange, didn't the van just get a doctor's visit recently?" you may ask yourself.  You would be correct if you have made this connection, but today's visit is equal parts prep for a trip for my birthday next week and reaction to the trip we took just after the repair trip that I last wrote about.  What did the van do in between you might ask?  Sitting.  Lots of sitting.  We are part time RV types ya know.

(it makes sense to jump here to keep the main story all together. Do it. You know you want to.)

Catching Up: What has The Titsworth been up to?

 The Ballad of Left Elk and Right Elk was so epic that it needed to breathe. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Looking at the activity for that post, I can tell that both of you enjoyed it mightily.  Related to The Ballad, in spite of what I might have insinuated, Sir David Attenborough's new joint has nothing to do with my story.  Sadly.  It was surely going to be my ticket out of obscurity into the harsh lights of fame and fortune.  Or something.  

Realistically, on top of sheer laziness (which is going to continue to be a challenge for something I'm just doing for the fun of it), Laurie and I had a bout of concern as COVID touched as close as hit has done up to this point.  We've been careful enough that "as close as it has come" equates to essentially a tertiary level of possible exposure to me and a secondary level for Laurie.  It's all good and everyone is clear, but one worries.  So, let us catch up on what has been happening with The Titsworth.

Titsworth Tales: Stories From The Road (Episode 1 - The Ballad of Left Elk and RIght Elk)

 Joining Sir David Attenborough (RIP Boaty McBoatface) already in progress:  The cows are attended on this plain by the dominant bull elk.  For clarity as the story unfolds, we will call him Right Elk.  Right Elk is happy.  We can count at least 8 cows in his group.  A young elk enters the picture.  He is hopeful that at the very least Right Elk will share.  The young elk (whom we shall call Left Elk for clarity) is bugling his heart out.  Combined with the visual, it is a lonely, sad song.  Right Elk is not at all concerned with the new arrival, the pretender to the throne.  His concern levels are such that he is stood over to the right of our plain chewing on grass.

As well, the cows have taken no notice of Left Elk.  Life on the right side of the plain is the same as it ever has been.  Safe.  Secure.  Under the complete control of Right Elk.  Left Elk continues raising a ruckus... hopeful that he will woo some of the cows to his side of the plain.  He tries at the top of a hill.  He tries in a little valley at the foot of the hill.  He tries close to the bank of the stream that runs through the plain.  He decides that maybe he didn't say the right things from the crest of the hill, so he tries again.  Still no cows have taken notice.  Neither has Right Elk.  

A COVID Home Companion: The Maiden Voyage of The Titsworth (Part II , Day VII Arrival and Docking)

 When last we spoke, The Titsworth was moored at Wolf Lodge Campground outside of Couer d"Alene, Idaho.  Couer d'Alene essentially sits on the Idaho/Washington border so the final leg of the trip was essentially the width of Washington and around Lake Washington to home.  As we were leaving the campground and getting in to the swing of another travel day, we passed a swimming area on a river that was clearly visible from I-90.  This kind of sparked a desire to swim (which we had not even done once during the trip despite plans to have done so).  This would prove to be the largest challenge of the day.  

Having passed up the opportunity to stop and swim (looking back memory suggests that the "swimmin hole" was on Banks Lake, but I didn't specifically note it down, so it could be anything), we were well on our way with the co-pilot scanning ahead for potential destinations to access water at least a little bit.  Beyond that – to which we will return in a moment – it bears noting as this is a blog concerning the driving and use of an RV van that we should speak about the actual driving of the van instead of the quest for swimming. 

 For the first time in several days, there was an amount of challenge in the actual driving of the van during the morning time as we passed through several wind farm areas.  It turns out that they put those things in places for a reason.  Being an old hand at the breezes by now, I managed to minimize the substantial cross breezes for the most part with the combination of wind from semis and cross breeze in combination providing the biggest challenge.  

A COVID Home Companion: The Maiden Voyage of The Titsworth (Part II, Day VI - The Long Voyage Home)

 Hello, I know it has been a couple days since this really should have happened, but you see, it's been smoky here and I just couldn't see my ass doing it.  Literally.  At least that makes a good story.  The sad reality is that ultimately the reality of these last two days of the trip is much less interesting.  By design, we were splitting the drive into two days, but in all other ways driving it straight through.

When last you saw us, we were staying the night at Bakers Hole Campground following a last minute change due to overbooking.  Our story resumes here.  748 miles and two days from home.  The adventure started in the middle of the night on this particular leg.  As we were trying to stretch mileage, we were using less a/c and had rolled the windows down.  File this away.  As it was, we gassed up leaving West Yellowstone in preparation for the next morning [ed. note, previously I said that you could have seen us on a live stream through West Yellowstone, but in actuality the stream is from Jackson Hole.  Speaking of Jackson Hole, there is a stretch of land heading out of town that is supposed to be Elk Central.  We have been there 4 times and never seen elk one.  Not even this time when we watched the compelling Ballad of Left Elk and Right Elk.].  Seeing as how we were heading to our next campground in Couer d'Alene, ID (6 hours, 42 minutes and 4 gas stops), we were going to head out fairly early in the morning.  But first.

For the most part, we both had a restful night of sleep.  Perhaps this was in part due to the cryosleep situation that we managed to achieve in the van through the genius lack of rolling up the windows.  When I say cryosleep, I am only marginally exaggerating.  I even hiked around the campground looking for sun in order to thaw out a little.  This, being self inflicted, isn't even the most noteworthy part of our Bakers Hole experience.

A COVID Home Companion: The Maiden Voyage of The Titsworth (Part II, Day V - The Long Journey Home)

 While the entire trip was essentially "for" us, we had built in a day specifically for us to do things specifically for us.  This day was that day.  Leaving our Harvest Host, we headed up to the Grand Tetons for a short amount of time to be followed up by a visit through the west side of Yellowstone.  The total amount of driving was our shortest day in terms of distance between one campsite and another although the time invested was going to be significantly longer.  It had been years since I had been through the Tetons (did I mention at any point yet that the Tetons are my favorite?) so I was quite excited.  It's sort of funny, I think... I prefer the Tetons but appreciate Yellowstone while I think Laurie would tell you that she prefers Yellowstone but appreciates the Tetons, so the day was a win-win.

The Plan for the day was a 185-mile drive (short!) from Freedom, ID to Rainbow Point Campground.  Essentially.  In a somewhat amusing twist, I guess, it wasn't to be that easy, but we'll get to that soon enough.  Probably the most notable part of the drive itself is this: had you, not on the drive at all, known exactly when we would have been passing through West Yellowstone, you could have seen us on The Internet... YouTube specifically.  My isolation experience has introduced me to the wonderful world of live cameras on YouTube.  I have spent a great deal of time watching Great Lakes cargo ships, the Washington State Ferry Terminal at Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands, and a camera that inexplicably points in the general direction of the town square in West Yellowstone.  If you've been there before, the camera points roughly in the direction of the antler arch.  It also shows the left turn out of town towards the National Parks, which is where you could have seen us.  You know, if you knew when to look for us.

A COVID Home Companion: The Maiden Voyage of The Titsworth (Part II, Day IV - The Long Journey Home)

 With reservations still made for the KOA on the previous night and our next stop booked through Harvest Hosts for this night, we were pretty well locked in, and so (as I mentioned previously) we acquired some local beers for the night and prepared for our first leg in earnest driving The Titsworth towards home.  These two ideas are not necessarily related... it's just that they both happened.  I did link my untappd in yesterday's post and it didn't quite do what I envisioned.  If you happen to have an untappd account, you can see without much difficulty.  If you don't, you can make one... if you want.  Ultimately, we shared two beers from Rock Cut Brewing in Estes Park and then also had a bottle each from Estes Park Brewing which will be the one I share for entertainment's sake if you don't want to have an untappd account.  If you've been playing along, you know that we had gone on day 3 to the Stanley Hotel (The Shining, etc.), so of course we had to acquire the bottle that we shared - Estes Park Brewing's Redrum Ale.  In subsequent revisits, it is a big, malty red with a good and multi-layered hop character in it.  If you all want at some point, I could do a deeper dive on the beers of the journey, but they're really not the point, so we move on.

As we learned, we were doing a better and better job of getting ourselves in positions to get good rest.  In fact, for the most part, we never really did ever feel poorly rested during this journey.  At this point, we had added the air mattress which was meant for the cab over area on top of the fold out couch, which we would continue with as it yielded plenty good enough results.  We had dumped our black and gray tanks for the first time yesterday, so after we woke, we scrounged some breakfast, dumped our grey tank again and headed for our next destination: a ranch just past the Idaho border in the vicinity of Yellowstone which we had booked through Harvest Hosts.  This day, by design, was the longest of our planned drives as we were going to spend a little time in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone before we made a bee line for home (ish).  As we had an effective range of 100 miles (+/-), we had spent a good amount of time before going to bed planning our gas stops rather meticulously, so we were on the road with a very clear view of what the day would look like.  

Pulling out of the KOA and heading generally northward, we had some significant climbing to do, which would be some good learning time right away... straight into the frying pan as it were (like when the propane was actually working, not when it was not.  That particular frying pan would have been very easy to deal with.)  In addition to the climbs, learning how to counteract the wind and deal with a rear-wheel drive vehicle was more than enough to keep me entertained.

A COVID Home Companion: The Maiden Voyage of The Titsworth (Part II, Day III - The Long Journey Home)

 August 25, Day Two at the Estes Park KOA.

We got off track a little here because I had a project on the house that took a couple of days and also that my recollection of the day's events felt hazy in the first place so I needed to get my ducks in a row with Laurie to make sure I didn't have things twisted because, well... even though you wouldn't know, I would and well.... if I'm doing a travelogue type thing, the pressure of being accurate is internal but real. So anyway.  

In addition to the stove challenge (it's a recurring theme in the trip), at some point there had been some damage done (rodents, probably?) to one of the fuel lines.  Of course it was to the line to the larger of the two gas tanks on the van, rendering it useless as you couldn't pump gas into the tank at all.  So parts of the previous evening and this morning were spent trying out various auto parts and hardware stores seeking a part to fix the hose – even if it were a temporary fix – to give us a range for the drive home greater than 100 miles.  Ultimately, it did not come to fruition, but the time searching did get us close to the Stanley Hotel, so we did drive up to it and get some photos in front of the Shining Hotel.  

Although we had made the appropriate reservations for a return trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, the circumstances overall prohibited it, so the Stanley was the morning tourist stop.  Following that, we grabbed some food and headed back to the KOA to eat and check out the last-ditch effort to get a patch for the fuel line.  The former was successful, the latter not, and the fast forward was that instead of extending their stay in the hotel in Estes Park, Laurie's parents decided to head back home a day early, so we spent the time up to their departure at the campsite.  

A COVID Home Companion: The Maiden Voyage Of The Titsworth (Part II - Day II - The Long Journey Home)

 August 24.  As I mentioned we ended up reserving the Moraine Park Campground for just the one night.  At the time The Plan was made, we had allowed for the three days in the Estes Park area, with the second two camps spending the night at the Estes Park KOA.  It's not that we were bent on staying at the KOA but The Plan required two nights of RV + tent capability and after contacting about a half-dozen campgrounds, it was the only place that would be able to facilitate.  In fact some of the RV campgrounds we contacted flat out forbade tents.  It was all still cool, though.  The first night at Moraine Park had provided us with a night off the grid, as it were.  It also got us a guaranteed entry into the National Park (we had reservations on the 25th but 23rd had been full up... except to campers in the NP).  

We also were introduced to another head-scratcher with the van on the morning of the 24th.  We had acquired breakfast foods with the idea to do them on the propane stove in the van.  Sitting at 8,160 ft above sea level (idk, maybe that's relevant, maybe it's not) it may have been my highest elevation sleep ever.  Don't hold me to that, but.... I think.  probably.  So history up to this point for anyone who may be a liquid propane (LPG) expert:  The van had sat for a while before it's shakeout journey to meet us.  At least 2 years at the home of Mr. Titsworth from whom we purchased it and idk time at the previous owners'.  Anyway, somewhere in the junction of all the moving parts, we were unable to get the stove lit on that morning.  While the altitude may have been a factor, the challenge intermittently persisted through the duration.  The grounds host at the KOA suggested that if the van had been sitting, it could be that the lines had dust or cobwebs that may be causing the difficulty... but we are ahead of ourselves here.

I want to spend another minute inside Rocky Mountain National Park before we head on our merry way.  Laurie and I spent that first night in the tent, and in the wee small hours we heard another elk bugling down in the small field that our campsite overlooked, so that was pretty cool.  Also of surprising note to both Laurie and myself, we saw a bunch of Magpies at and near the camp.  Neither of us could call to mind a time that we had seen Magpies stateside.  We did see a bunch of them over in the northeast of England (Newcastle, specifically), but also specifically not in RMNP the previous time we had been through it.  None of them helped to install my contractual obligation sticker though.  Bastards.  

 

(I know jumps on blog posts are so 2014, but well I kinda wanna keep the main page somewhat tidy, so just go on ahead and click that title up there to see the rest.  Also, if you didn't before, try it on the others.  You may have missed something.)

A COVID Home Companion: The Maiden Voyage Of The Titsworth (Part II, Day I - The Long Journey Home)

 Let's start at the very beginning.  In the Original Plan, we had decided to transport our tent, sleeping bags, and camping mattress on the plane (we are mileage plan members, so we get one free checked bag each) for use the first three nights which overlapped with Laurie's parents' stay after driving the first leg.  It was easy enough to accomplish in theory after we ordered bags large enough to deal with the length of the tent and the size of the mattress.  In theory.  Approximately 18 hours before our flight was scheduled to lift off, the Very Large Online Shopping Site cancelled one of our bags, leaving me in a small scale panic with regard to The Plan.  While it would certainly have been more optimal if we had received the roller bag that we wanted, we could get a second bag just like the other bag that did come same day delivery.  It then became a matter of principal to remove the same-day delivery fee as we were not the ones to cancel the bag in the first place but did, in fact, need a bag for successful execution of The Plan.  In the end not much was lost save for several hours waiting for the new bag to arrive which could have been used for a much more comfortable packing experience.  Ultimately it was no harm, no foul however as we, the tent, the mattress, the sleeping bags, and snacks to last until the apocalypse were packed and made our morning flight to Denver International Airport (AKA The Home of the Lizard People).  

It never ceases to amaze me, given how much we have traveled,  the extent to which we can push time to its utmost limits and still somehow manage to comfortably catch our flights.  I suppose, however, it is what it is and must be accepted as it certainly shows now signs of changing.  It's fine though... we made the flight with everything we meant to take and were wheels up to Denver.

 

The Maiden Voyage of The Titsworth Part I (The Plan)

 So we have a van. And as a result of one of the suggestions from my first post, it was found in Independence, MO and currently resides even further away than that. The total distance between Laurie and I and The Titsworth currently stands at 1,922 miles.  Laurie's parents have generously become (been roped into?) part of the Transfer of Van Power and will be meeting us near Estes Park, CO to facilitate the transfer (as well as get some of that sweet, sweet Rocky Mountain action!).  So that calculates up to 728 miles for the van until the transfer neighborhood... and 1,291 miles for us to get into the neighborhood to pick her up.  It's cool though, thanks to the modern marvels of one-way flights and "return somewhere else" rental cars. And so we subtract 1,020 miles give or take from our travel docket, which leaves us a number of hours and 271 miles (+/-) from the van.  That sounds better, right?

As with any plan, there are requirements.  On our end, this included a) staying at a variety of campsites with regard to hookups, dumping, acquiring water, using shore power hookups, etc., b) seeing cool stuff, and c) matriculating the van towards home.  With those goals in mind (as well as trying to schedule in cool stuff for Laurie's parents out of gratitude), we went to work.  The easy part of the plan was the initial "where"  The east side of the Rocky Mountains is convenient for driving from the east (transferring prior to having to drive a Vanhemoth in the mountains proper, us flying in to transfer our own personal selves into the van, and routing us through the mountains and home.  Perfect.  There was some degree of discussion based on what would be easiest, recommendations, and whatnot (discussdiscussdiscuss) and the Estes Park area became the focus.  Fast forward, we wanted to stay at least a night in the National Park, so we are.  It is also going to give us our first opportunity to "dry camp" with only the freshwater tank and onboard generator to provide for our most immediate needs.  Straight into the fire.  Except not really... there's a burn ban, ya know.

Estes Park exists between Denver and Rocky Mountain National Park, so it became our "home base" for that leg of the trip.  After the first night in the park itself, we were able to find a place in Estes Park itself.  Not only that, it puts us in a situation with hookups (which in my limited focus had not been as big of a consideration as it maybe should have been with the electric requirements of the group as a whole), but the end result is that as of night 2 and 3, we will have had opportunity to use shore power hookups, use the water system, and dump our black tank. So straight into a different fire, I guess.  Day 4 will see the complete and utter transfer of The Titsworth from her current custodians to us.  

In my loads of fiddling around/researching after the van was technically ours, I ran across a really cool subscription program called Harvest Hosts.  Harvest Hosts is a nationwide collection of breweries, distilleries, museums, public attractions, and farms that allow for you to stay on their land for one night free with the loose suggestion that you support your host by making a purchase during your stay.  As I mentioned, this is a subscription service and as the ultimate payoff is a free stay (so long as you have a self-contained situation with toilet and kitchen), so no, I can't share where the next stop is, but I can tell you that the next stop for us is in the vicinity of West Yellowstone.  If you know us, you know we moved across the country almost yearly for a while.  Each of those took us through Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons.  If you know me, you know Grand Teton National Park is one of my favorites.  So the next stop is cool on two levels.  It's a chance to use Harvest Hosts (and almost pay the yearly subscription based on RV park prices in the time and place) and a chance to see the Tetons again.  Score.

Since we will be in the area and the Harvest Hosts stay limit is the one night, we keep matriculating the van towards home.  But one does not simply drive through the Tetons, wave, and move on.  Our second night in the West Yellowstone are will see us shifting and staying near Hebgen Lake, so same general area, same access to what we want to see, but slightly different geolocation.  This will see us switching again from a non-hookup situation to a hookup situation as well as potentially dumping again if we need.  But also, you guys, The Tetons.  It has been years since we were able to get over to the Tetons at all, let alone spend a couple days.  In one way, this is why we have The Titsworth.  One of the other reasons to have a Van is the freedom to chop up drives however you want with more flexibility than having a motel reservation hanging over your head.  From Hebgen Lake to home is like 11.5 hours, so sure you could maybe dedicate a day to driving, gassing, etc., but do you know what?  We don't have to.  We don't want to.  So one final huzzah before we drive across the state to home.

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho sits nearly on the Washington border and provides the setting for our final destination before getting home.  Just out of the west side of the Lolo National Forest just east of Harrison Slough (sloo for those of you pronouncing at home), and barely east of town itself, we will make camp one last time at a campground with hookups (so that we can make sure that we have things in an appropriate state of order prior to getting home. read:try to dump our black tank before home).  I'm not entirely certain what we will do with the non-driving portion of this day, but ultimately I am sure we will find something to do.  And so we then wake up, make some coffee and hit the road to home, which is a manageable 4 hour-ish drive at that point.  Home to 2 sweet dogs and 5 great cats who will think we were never coming back and will be SO glad to see us.  

Ultimately and understandably these things run in a sort of "this is where we have been" and not a "this is where we are going" so far as specifics go, so look for a trip debriefing in a little over a weeks' time.

Special thanks to my brother-in-law Mark for his roll in the acquisition of The Titsworth, my sisters for their roles, Laurie's folks for driving the van out to us, and my mom for playing the intermediary when it was needed.

This post was not sponsored by Harvesthosts.com.

A COVID Home Companion print edition

In the pre-pandemic days, there were so many great ideas and plans.  Maybe some day we get the dog a puppy.  Wouldn't it be cool if we had a camper van some day?  They seemed like reasonable thoughts and as Washington was entering Stay Safe Stay Home territory it additionally seemed like good timing for some of these things to happen.  Turns out that bringing home a puppy the literal minute that she qualified for separation from her litter was maybe not the slam dunk awesome timing that it might have seemed at the time.  When you can't get away from her and she from you, it poses a unique challenge.  That, however is a different story.

Early in the days of COVID, I took advantage of a puppy nap to go to the grocery store.  My car's battery was long in the tooth and – especially with the lack of driving – was struggling with life.  Long story short, the battery full-on died and I had to replace it.  I'm not the finest mechanic out here so accomplishing the feat was challenging and rewarding when the car actually started.  It turns out, however, that the starting was a fluke.  Feeling accomplished and proud, I parked behind Laurie secure in the fact that my car started and I could move out of her way when she needed to get out of the driveway to go and be an essential worker.  Cue the lack of starting again.  This is also not the point, but does get us toward the big point, so cut to the chase, through a small amount of google searching, I decided two things: the first being that I had an ignition problem and the second that I had no interest in learning how to fix it.  Oh... three things. The third, I need a new car.  Here is where we connect to the point (I know).  "If you're going to get a new vehicle, let's get a van".  Naturally.  I had been monitoring the van market in Seattle (and Portland because it would have been easy to train down and collect the van if it came to that), so stepping up the efforts was not a big deal, but it does bring us to the point.  I learned several lessons that I mean to share with you (and anyone who may find themselves in the market for a camper van and find themselves looking for advice of someone who has done it.)  

Before we get to the good stuff, I think it may be prudent to establish what the print Companion is *not* going to be.  As near as I can figure, Laurie and I will not at any point be selling our house to become full-time van lifers.  That's cool and all, but definitely not for us, especially now with 5 cats and 2 dogs. And one 1989 Ford Econoline 250 framed Coachmen Class B RV.  As such, this will be more about enjoying the benefits of part-time "bug-out" type camping and definitely not be another of the "WE'RE LIVING IN OUR RV" type sites.  There will be no YouTube component.  There may or may not be regular #content, there may or may not ever be a twitter account associated with this blog and there is not likely to be a lot of "van tutorial" kind of stuff. The van that we purchased is in good repair and has been refinished to a certain degree inside (by design).  As such, this will not be a "LOL We got a van now we have to fix it! LOL" type thing.  We're going to make blackout curtains for the van.  We're going to install a fancy CarPlay compatible stereo for navigation. And a backup camera. But there are no plans to do any appliance changing or anything like that.  We're just going to put together a bug-out bag so that we can leave at the drop of a hat and hop in the van and get out of the house occasionally.  Cool?  Cool.  So let's start at the very beginning: