Green Dragon

Sometimes the places near where you live are the places you don't visit. We, in fact, are guilty of that very thing. Well we corrected that for one place this week. The Green Dragon Market has been around for a very long time in Ephrata PA. It consists of a Farmers Market, Snack bars, and specialty items. Green Dragon is only open on Fridays from 9-9. 

If you decide to go plan on spending a couple of hours wandering throughout all the buildings and outdoor stands. You will find plenty of goodies to tempt you from Apples to Zucchini. If you happen to have a sweet tooth there are plenty of fresh baked donuts, fritters, cookies, pies, cakes and the famous Pennsylvania Whoopie Pies. 

Are you are looking for things other than food? There are plenty of vendors selling crafts, furniture, clothing, books, shoes and many other items too numerous to mention. If you are interested in going it is located at 955 N State St in Ephrata PA. Happy Eating!!!!!

Gettysburg

It was time to take our second weekend trip and since we love spending time in Gettysburg what better place to go camping. On this trip our son and his girlfriend joined us and although they used a tent to sleep in the Apex was roomy enough for us all to use it for everything else. We stayed at the Gettysburg Campground which was a very nice place and we will most likely stay there the next time we visit the area.

For us this trip was one of shopping downtown and visiting places on the battlefield we had not stopped at before. First stop was what is called the most famous bridge in PA. It is a covered bridge used by some Union forces on the way to Gettysburg and by the Confederate army as they retreated from there.

Another stop was a bridge that was built along Confederate Ave in the 1930's. Although it has nothing to do with the battle some of the stones they used had dinosaur fossils in them. Just a cool thing to see. BTW a quick tip if you go to Gettysburg anything named Ave was built by the parks dept. Anything named road was there during the war.

On our last morning there we check an item off the bucket list with a Horse Tour of the battlefield. If you go there and are looking for something special to do this might be the thing for you. It was a great experience and a view of the battlefield you don't get any other way.

Another one in the books but looking forward to our next adventure.

Keep it light

One concern many RV'ers have is the weight of the trailer they are hauling. For us that was and is a major consideration in our decision making process. The less weight the less wear and tear on your tow vehicle and for that matter the trailer. Here are just a few of the things we do to keep the weight down. I know not everyone would agree with all of this but they work for us.

Let's start with the kitchen. Our thought process here was simple, we are camping. Every thing needs to be light and if possible, keeping weight in mind, made of plastic. It is much lighter and since we don't have a dishwasher that is not a concern. We are not feeding an army therefore we kept it simple, service for 4. And if we do have more people to feed we get out the good paper plates. The Apex has an outdoor kitchen with a Coleman grill that will come in handy and reduce our need for lots of cookware. So in the kitchen we have two sauce pans and two fry pans all made of aluminum. We are trying to make memories, not gourmet meals.

I am sure there are some guys who will push back on this one. I have read and seen many recommendations about what tools you should carry with you. Some folks have enough to rebuild the trailer from the ground up. I was a Boy Scout and understand " Be Prepared" but there is only so much you can do on the road. I have the basics. A couple screwdrivers, a couple pliers, a hammer and a mallet, WD40, a couple extra hose washers and hose clamps, a small tube of caulk, grease for the hitch and a few other misc tools. Oh and don't forget the duct tape. This is all in a plastic tackle box to control the weight.

There are other things but you get the idea. Now we do not do off the grid camping so things like generators, extra gas, solar panels etc are not on our list of must haves. In fact I try to travel with empty dump tanks and only about 5 or 6 gallons of water. This is the same way we did it for 15 years when we had the Motorhome and survived that just fine.

What happened to my battery????

When we had our Motor Home back in the 20th Century we could park it for weeks and not have a problem with the deep cycle battery. It was waiting for us at almost full charge when we were ready to go. So when I put the Apex away for a couple of weeks I never thought about the battery. My Bad!

Turns out these newfangled contraptions have a lot of things that draw on the battery when you store it. Such things as the radio, smoke detector, CO detector and circuit boards on the refrigerator draw from the battery all the time. Enter the battery shut off.

This was a rather easy install. I started by drilling a hole in the top of the battery case to pass the top of the switch through. Than I drilled two small holes to bolt the switch to the box using a couple small bolts with lock washers and nuts. Before I attached the switch to the top of the box I applied some outdoor sealant around the hole inside the lid to seal out any water from leaking in.

Once the switch was installed I removed the negative cable from the battery and attached it to the switch. I then took a 12" cable and attached one end to the switch and the other to the battery. And there it was. For under $20 I can now shut off the battery when we store the trailer and have a good battery when we are ready to go again.

Why the Apex?

When we decided we were going to go back to RV'ing we took a look at when we wanted in a camper. The first priority was weight. Our tow vehicle could tow 6100 lbs and had a hitch weight rating of 610 lbs. We also had to look at the fact that it was a 1/2 ton PU so it's payload was a little over 1200 lbs. So to be able to actually tow with in the guidelines, and be able to put supplies in it,  we needed a trailer that came in below these numbers. The Apex Ultra Lite did that. It uses Azdel Fiberglass walls and Aluma cage construction. Our 215RBK comes in at under 4400 lbs.

After that we had certain things that the layout had to have. First and most important it needed a walk around queen bed. We are well beyond the age of crawling over someone else to get in and out of bed. That was fine 20 years ago when we had our Class C but not today. 

Next on the list we wanted a dinette and not the chairs that many couples campers have. One of our priorities was to be able to have our adult kids and their kids camp with us. To do that we needed to have place for them to sit and also the extra bed for them. The Apex had a U shaped dinette which was even better giving us more space to sit. 

A coupe other things that would not have been deal breakers had they not been there were the 3 burner stove, oven, large refrigerator and slide out for the dinette. Another great item was the sun roof in the shower allowing my 6 foot 2 inch body to stand upright. 

So there you have it. It hit on everything we needed and a lot we could have done without. Win Win.

 

Our Shakedown Cruise

Having been RV'ers many years ago the shake down trip was more to make sure everything worked and that we didn't forget to stock things than to figure out how it worked. So with that in mind and being brave grandparents we decided to take our grandson on his first RV adventure. We didn't stray that far from home going about 50 miles to a local Jellystone Campground. We figured that was a good place to go with a new trailer and an 8 year old in tow.

The new Apex worked as planned. Setup at the site was a breeze. Even though we had not camped for 15+ years it all came back to me somehow. I did have a checklist that our grandson checked off as I completed each task and proud to say we had everything we needed. He also helped with a lot of the tasks as he said he needed to know how to do it for the next time we go. (so after that we had to plan the next time)

Inside we also seem to have packed just about everything we needed with no major hiccups. The kitchen was stocked well with pans, dishes, glasses and everything else to make some great meals. We even had a 4" waffle maker for our first breakfast on the road.

All in all it was a great first camping trip for us and our grandson. We left ready for our next great adventure.