End of the Season

All good things must come to an end. This weekend marked the end of the 2013 camping season and the RV is tucked away waiting for spring. This year while we didn't get out as much as I would have liked, but did have some fun trips and hit a few new favorites. 

We had a number of issues this season...everything from a awing taking flight and nearly putting a hole in the roof to a hub fire from a wheel bearing that let loose. A new axle and 4 new tires were also needed for a defect in the original axle. It was an expensive season for sure. Even with over $1500 in repair bills, fuel and camping fees I still think it is an asset for our family. Being able to spend time with my kids un-obstructed from the leashes of cell phones, videos and endless TV shows is worth a lot more to me than money. Standing at the edge of a lake with morning fog blanketing the area with a little boy skipping rocks across the smooth surface is a good thing. Talking a walk at night and looking up and realizing that the sky is really peppered with stars you didn't know existed is a good thing.  Sitting by a fire so hot you think that your shins have caught on fire is a good thing. The more you learn and plan, the more you find out that by traveling with an RV you really can have your own lakefront property for a few days for what others pay thousands or even millions for...being able to share this with your family is a good thing. 

Big things planned for next year. Started the process of planning our longest trip to date to Table Rock Lake. It sounds funny, but the next few months you should start planning trips for the spring especially if you want to go during weekends...By the end of December most of our season will already be in stone. In terms of improvements, I am seriously considering dropping the bulky husky hitch that is a pain in the ass for something that preforms a bit better and is easier to use. 

New Camper Name....Fireball.

Finally we were ready to head out for a short trip up north with the camper. Weather was shaping up to be decent with the possibility of a few storms but that didn't matter. Its been a while since we spent some time together. As luck would have it, it was over before it started. Just literally before we were to turn and get on I-70 some nice guy pulls up and tells me “hey, your wheel is on fire!” I was able to pull through the intersection and grab the fire extinguisher that was in the door and put out the fire with no damage to the camper itself. It seems that the Bearing had seized and the friction of a few miles was enough to ignite the grease in the hub. I was able to pull the camper back down the service road to Bill Thomas RV sales and Service and there it sits. The group that installed the axle that failed obviously did something wrong and it appears they did not put a cotter pin back in the castle nut. I am going to give them a chance to make things right before I name who it was. As in any business, problem calls are just as much as an opportunity as a new sale. We will see what happens. Could have been much much worse. Had we gotten on the Hwy the wheel would have surely come off causing at minimum a TON of damage to the camper Valves, Plumbing, side skirts and thats the minumum. A 100lb chunk of rubber and metal bouncing down the road at 65mph would have surly caused a crash or at minimum an insurance claim. Scary right? 

As if it could not get any better...since we were not camping this weekend, I took the opportunity to take the truck in for a strange noise that was happening more frequently and it really does not sound good. They still have the truck and I think it will require an extensive repair. Great. 

So far this this weekend has cost a Trailer hub, Bearings, Axle, Seals, Brake Shoes, Brake Magnet, Brake Drum Camping Fees, 1 Fire Extinguisher, Rental Car Fees, Food purchased for camping trip and a little pride. Oh Well. Thats how it goes I guess. Sucks.

Start of Summer....

Memorial Day! The official beginning of summer is almost here. For my family this summer will be a bit different as we are staying with my parents while we wait for our house to be built. We are slowly settling in and it’s becoming more normal. Lots of things are planned for this summer and some unplanned. First off…didn’t think we would have sold our house as fast as we did. I thought it was the unsellable object that would haunt us forever (Hence the living with the parent’s thing). June is birthday month for the boys and Sam starts school in August. We also have a short vacation planed in August for just Ali and I. Max should hit a few milestones this summer as well. Assume he might be walking and at least talking abit. He currently has his own language now but I think will really come into his own in the next few months. His 1 year birthday also means NO MORE FORUMLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would like to at least take the kids camping a few times this summer…we have a few trips scheduled for next weekend and for the 4^th of July. I also re booked the lake site for late in October. That should be a good trip for sure.

Doing a big cook this weekend hopefully….Have a few gadgets that will be delivered that hopefully will gain some more consistent results. I purchased a temp controller for the weber that helps maintain the fire at a consistent heat level and also helps to conserve fuel.  More detailed review will follow on this once I have time to mess with it.

 On the Menu this weekend:  

1.       Pork shoulders

 If you are going to go through the trouble of firing up a cooker you might as well cook a few butts.  Once you shred em’ and cover em’ in sauce they freeze very well for consumption within 6 months. Doing this actually is great for camping meals and quick last minute weeknight meals. 

2.       Chicken Thighs

Going to try something a little different…want to brine them overnight and see how they turn out with a little light smoking in the cooker. Update to follow.

3.       Ribs cut to St. Louis Style

With the temp controller these should turn out  a little better than usual. I don’t think I am going to do anything special….but we will see.

I will post the results next week!

 

April is Here

I have let another week slip by without posting anything on this site....I really do want to get in the habit of doing this at least once a week but it’s hard to find the time. I typically burn though a lunch hour writing these things but for some weird reason I think I enjoy it.

Few things have happened in the last week or so…Record snow fall and our first camping trip of the 2013 season. If you live in St. Louis you are aware of the 15” of snow that fell last week. Pretty cool really. I don’t think that I have ever seen this much in my lifetime in a single event and it was impressive. There was even the elusive “Thunder Snow” that makes St. Louis Meteorologists piss their pants with joy every winter season.  For some reason I thought that this would be a good time to smoke 20lbs of pork shoulder….actually it turned out good surprisingly. However, I almost had to throw it all out due the temps in the cooker dropping off severely overnight.  You can throw a lot of things weather wise at the Weber smokers….Snow, Rain , sleet, heat and subzero temps and it does a great job of maintaining temps but a constant wind really throws the whole thing off kilter. It seems to stoke the fire to the point it burns much faster and hotter than typical and that’s exactly what happened.  Few more hours un attended, it would have all gone in the trash…but it all worked out.  

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

Applewood Smoked Pork Shoulder

Frozen and Ready for the Track

Made up a season’s worth of rub as well…

 

Also this weekend was the first season opener for the camping season. All in all it went very well and everything worked just fine. It was good to spend some time with Sam. Max and Ali roughed it at home as Max is not quite to the point where it’s enjoyable for really anyone when nap time comes around. Having a full hookup campground literally one exit down the highway has its benefits for opening and closing the RV. Unfortunately, I had to go through the process of winterizing the entire thing again due to the freezing temps expected this week. That sucks.

 

I even got to play with the new LED lights

 



 

Few things on tap for sure this year are a Lake Ozark trip in May, a trip with a co-worker and his son Sam’s age, I am sure at least one Cuvier River Trip with everyone and for sure the April Race in Kansas with friends.

April is going to prove to be very busy around here…this upcoming weekend is our first trip to Houston (I was just there Wednesday for work) with everyone. As much as air travel sucks alone, it sucks even more with 2 kids, 2 car seats and luggage. If you think going to the grocery store with a 3 year old is anxiety inducing….try an 1800 mile round trip. Not looking forward to this one at all.

The rest of the month is filled out with other things as well such as the already mentioned spring Kansas race…a 5K race that Ali is in and at least another attempt at opening the camper up most likely on the 13^th. I also need to start riding my bike again…

Still no action on the house….bummer. Today we need to re-sign for our lot and cross our fingers for a sale in the next 3 months.

 

Winter Approaching Quick

I sometimes forget about this Blog and the things I have written on it. It is nice to go back and see all the little things that I have written over the last few years…almost a time capsule of sorts. The last year has brought some unique challenges and while I have attempted to keep track of them in the cyber world there is a lot that gets missed. Our newest addition, Max is adapting fine to his new world. He is a totally different experience than our first….They are really polar opposites in terms of behavior at this stage. Life has become more routine and not so much of a panic. The one thing that I have learned through the whole process of becoming a parent is to have patience with everything.

Sam has gotten to that pivotal point of losing his shit on a regular occasion and the "time outs" have started with frightening frequency. Since the last update not much has changed in our lives other than we now are getting better sleep…still waking up in the middle of the night but typically that is short lived. I am now to the point that I can officially say that I hate diapers. All types. Sam has started to go on the potty a bit more so things are looking up to some degree.

I have been struggling at work to find the time in the day to get things done. It seems that I am doing a lot of things for free these days….Normally this does not bother me much as you typically are working towards an order but lately it seems we are doing a lot of damage control for projects that have been mis managed or dropped entirely by our project managers or applications people. Our lead time are starting to get drawn out further and further and getting things in a timely manner is usually a major issue today. I guess that this is a good thing as it indicates that the economy is picking up and things are improving.

With the housing market picking itself off the floor in the last 6 months the talk at our house has already started about possible trying to sell again and get into something bigger that makes better since for our family. With the finished lower level it's hopefully going to bring a different set of buyers to the table as we can now sell it as a 3 bedroom. With 1500SQ/Ft of living space it seems that it should be more attractive to potential buyers. Also the builders now in the neighborhood are putting up more and more homes of our size on postage stamp size lots…with cheaper materials and much less quality. That should help us hopefully. We have lots of must haves for the next house and not entirely sure that we will stay in St. Charles. More to come on this topic as the winter winds down.

As far as BBQ is concerned… I have not had much time to get into it with everything that went on this year. It was a pretty busy summer for us and spare time has been at a minimum. I still grill out at least 3 times a week but there is still something special about an all day cooking event….You do need people to eat it however and time to sit back and enjoy it. Something I have noticed is that Lowes and Home Depot tend to not stock charcoal in the winter months which is nuts. For our family there is never an off season of grilling. Rain, Sleet Snow or any other weather event is fair game. I think possibly Christmas Ribs are on the menu this year.

 

 

I put the camper to bed for the winter this week after a much more active Season that I expected. I along with a few other friends went back to KC a few weeks ago to attend the fall race at Kansas Speedway. It was a good time and the drinks were poured heavy. It was nice to do something for myself for a few days…again not much time to do those sorts of things anymore. The racing was a bit more entertaining this race than in April but the night time enterintment was a bit less in the campground this time. Not as much rowdy parties and what not. This could be as the Fall race is more a family oriented event as I learned. We rented scanners to add to the experience and it was well worth it. I anticipate that I will be buying season tickets and the camp spot again next season. I also took the rest of the week off of work and stayed home for the first time ever. Typically when I take vacation time it is to go somewhere and being at home with Sam, Max and Ali was actually up there with one of the better vacations I have had. I was able to spend time with the kids without a schedule or Sunday night approaching as it always does. We went to the Zoo, Bowling and the pumpkin patch along with our final weekend of camping at Cuiver River State Park. I really like that place as its only 45 minutes from home and it feels like a world away. Sam is really getting into it too…it's good to see.