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Water Troubles!

November 19, 2014 Drew

We are continuing our journey south, and have booked a few nights at a “RV resort” outside Savannah. Last night was the coldest night yet – it was also the night the hot water heater decided to spill its guts!

Coming from Chicagoland, Noelle and I are definitely not afraid of a little freezing temperatures every now and again – remember when the bus fell apart in the below zero temps last year?! Tonight they said it was going to get really cold – a whole 25F, brrrrr. I wasn’t too worried about the pipes bursting or anything, but those thoughts were lingering in the back of my mind as we went to sleep.

I woke up sometime in the night to the sound of gushing water – “Oh shit!!” I hopped up and ran to the back of the camper – ice-cold standing water, the carpet runner is soaked through, the sound of a massive amount of water gushing from behind the wall. I scramble to find my pants. You can never find your pants when you really need them, amiright!

I ditch the search for the pants, run outside and shut off the water. At this point I’m thinking either the pipes froze and burst, or the water pressure was too much – either way, we got’s ourselves a problem! But it’s 4 in the morning, I’m going back to bed.

The harsh light of day reveals a bigger problem – the water was actually gushing from behind the control panel of the water heater. The metal had corroded away over time, and the o-ring had failed. The flowing water shorted out the electrical, tripping the GFCI outlet that powers the heater and the fridge – good thing that was there!

We headed 30 minutes down the road to the closest big-box hardware store for a replacement. I gave us a 60% chance of needing to return to Lowes a second time for this project – Noelle just shook her head and said “Nope 100%.” We get back to the campsite, pull the new unit out of the box only to discover that the plastic housing is completely cracked and falling apart – she was right!

So two trips to Lowes, a few hundred bucks, and about four hours later, I have the new water heater hooked up and pumping out luxurious amounts of piping hot water – Success! I also made the fittings out of flexible faucet pipes that can be easily disconnected 10 years down the road when this happens again.

While it’s never fun to wake up in disaster mode like that, I’m really glad we’ve got this rat-tastic 60’s camper. Pretty much everything can be fixed with a wrench, or a screwdriver, and none of it is rocket science – ‘cause I can’t be thinkin too much for them rockets and such!

We celebrated the return of hot water by setting up our new $8 mini air hockey table from the Cracker Barrel. Noelle won… both games… so fun!

Road Trip, South Carolina

Congaree

November 17, 2014 Drew

The first stop on our route south is Congaree National Park. This place is beautiful, and adds another unexpected and awesome location to the list of great travel experiences that we are slowly but surely accruing.

We also survived our first thunderstorm in the camper! Coming from the Midwest, I am definitely no stranger to some decent severe weather. While this storm really wasn’t all that severe, it was interesting to feel the thunderclaps rumble through the whole camper. We got boatloads of rain, and thankfully only one leak in the corner of one of the windows. I think I see where it is coming in, so I’ll be caulking that asap.

After the rain subsided, we headed out for Congaree. This National Park is the largest “old growth” cypress and hardwood forest in the US. The visitor center was closed today, and we didn’t see another person the entire time we wandered the boardwalk trail.

The trees are among the tallest in the world, and the park has a nice little self-guided tour that provides some information and context. The pictures don’t really do this place justice. Noelle and I were both left feeling a little bit in awe of nature after doing the 2 mile loop through the dense forest.

She is such a creep!

They say the polar vortex is coming and it is supposed to get freezing cold – hope we make it!

North Carolina, Road Trip, VW

Camper Regroup

November 15, 2014 Drew

Our camper shakedown cruise is officially over! We completed our round-about circle through the backwoods of North and South Carolina, and headed back to do a little house sitting for the in-laws.

It was certainly nice to have a stationary roof over our heads for a little while, but I’m also really happy with how our first bit of camping experience went. All the systems seem to be functioning properly on this thing; we didn’t really have any major mechanical troubles – sweet!

It was fun to do some catching up with the kitties – we’re very thankful that Norm and Carla are taking care of them while we are on the road!

We also got to do some catching up with the bus. You know… that stupid rotting VW bus that started us on this whole wingdinger of a trip!

I mentioned that I had decided to “outsource” the bus work to a shop in Charlotte before we left for Amsterdam. Unfortunately, they didn’t actually have the capacity to do anything either, so the bus just sat outside for a couple months. I would rant more about car shops and how worthless each and every one of them is, but it’s just not really worth it.

The drive back from the shop went really well – the bus fired right up! I almost took a wrong turn down the on-ramp to I-85 which was fun, it was really cold with no windows, but the thing drove beautifully. We made it an hour or so up the road, and it’s now tucked away nicely in the garage – success! (kind of).

I’ve got a camper project list a mile long, but at this point nothing is critical. We’re planning on heading south next – hopefully we’ll find a beach soon!

Road Trip, South Carolina

Ninety Six

November 6, 2014 Drew

Ninety Six is the name of the site we visited today. This Revolutionary War era National Historic Site is steeped in pretty a violent and bitter history. The place is basically just a bunch of earthen mounds (the remnants of a star shaped fort and attached town) with a visitor center at this point, but the story that they contain is pretty intense!

It was decently warm, but raining this afternoon, and there weren’t really any other visitors to the site. We checked out the little museum, watched a very well put together video, and went out to the site.

Ninety Six started as a popular Cherokee trading route. Some early pioneers built a trade post, and a town eventually formed. Then everything fell apart. The gist of the story pits one group of Americans (the Loyalists) vs. their former friends and neighbors (the Patriots) in a strikingly similar, mini precursor to the later Civil War. It’s a story about people fighting each other over a site that very soon afterwards lost any real significance, and is now essentially non-existent.

We felt the graveness of the battlefield, we imagined the struggles of the people that used to live there… then we found ourselves down the road shoving our faces full of greasy fried chicken and sweet tea. Such is life on the road in South Carolina!

We’re staying in the Greenwood State Rec area, and got a sweet site on the shores of Lake Greenwood.

Road Trip, South Carolina

Georgia Guidestones

November 4, 2014 Drew

We left the beautiful tree lined shores of Lake Keowee, and headed further south to Lake Hartwell. We finally made it to a sight I’ve wanted to see for quite a while – the Georgia Guidestones!

Lake Hartwell is a reservoir between South Carolina and Georgia. This thing is big too – if it were summer, I think we would be staying here for quite a while – there is so much to do!

But it’s not summer, and we are here for one thing only – the Georgia Guidestones. I’ve wanted to come see these things since we saw them on that awesome conspiracy show “America Unearthed”. This big granite “American Stonehenge” was erected in 1980 by a mysterious group of people, and aims to provide some rules on how to rebuild society in a new “Age of Reason.” A crazy New World Order conspiracy and big monolithic stones – sounds like a good time to me!

On the way back from the monument site, we stopped at another little roadside attraction: “The Center of the World.” When I first heard about this little sign, I thought for sure it was yet another example of our lovely American way of thinking the world revolves around us. It’s actually a reference to an old Cherokee meeting ground and trading center. I guess it’s crazy to think about how some small patch of land in tiny-town rural Georgia used to be the center of things for a thriving, well-developed society – interesting stuff!

Back at the campsite, we discovered that we had new neighbors. They were a really nice couple from Florida, but it was their first time camping, and they had a brand new rig. They had some troubles getting it all set up, so soon enough I found myself over there, flashlight in hand inspecting the multitude of pipes and switches that were to run their hot water. Noelle has taken to calling me Macgyver due to the many times she finds me tinkering away with a variety of tools spread around me. She even has a nice little song to go with it – isn’t she nice!