Last weekend we had our “shakedown cruise” for the season in the A-liner. Two new additions (mods) were well tested and proved to be just great. First was the futon frame that I made for the bed so that it could be pulled up into a couch during the day. This worked out just fine and was very comfortable. The only small glitch to is that the little prop legs on each side that hold it up do not swing into place freely and have to be persuaded down by hand. No big deal really.

The next addition was an idea that Pat found on another A-Liner blog site. It is an “Over-the-toilet” rack that we have shortened to fit into the space over the stove to hold daily-sue items such as coffee, tea, sugar, cups etc. When on the road we simply take these items off the shelves, stow them in boxes, and put the boxes between the shelves where the rack is put on the floor under the front table. It worked out just fine and is one of the handiest adaptations that we have made so far.

We camped at Sampson State Park on the East side of Seneca Lake in NY. A nice State camp ground, and a huge lake right there. Learned that for old fogies like us it is WAY better to do our camping during the week days rather than at the weekends. Thursday and Friday nights were pretty quiet, though there was considerable more noise on Friday than on Thursday, but by Friday afternoon most of the campers of our age group (60+) were heading out due to the expected noise that the younger group would make.

We were woken up early each morning by the #$%^*$#%#@ crows! There is a healthy and boisterous group that must be employed by NY State as clean up detail, judging by the efficiency with which they patrol every unattended camp site for scraps.

Here is one of our favorite additions to the A-Liner…..a hanging lamp. We saw some really nice lamps in a bar in Old Forge, NY, when we were camping there during the fall of 2013 and thought that one of those would look and work great in the camper. However, we could not find one anywhere. We bided our time, knowing that we would eventually find the right light, then out of the blue one day we found it at Home Depot. At least we think it is the perfect light for our camper. I did a little more wiring and added a toggle switch at the front of the sink and it was done. It ruins on the 12V side of the system and takes a regular large base screw-in bulb, but in 12 V and 40 watts. It gives tons of light for cooking, entertaining, reading etc, but when we are just sitting talking or relaxing, we still use the smaller ceiling lights.

Summer of 2015 is finally here!

Wednesday 7/1/15

What a long, long, winter we had! But we are now into summer and the Aliner is all prepped and ready to camp. Finally have the clearance from the Dr. for Pat to travel after rotator cuff surgery so we are now planning some trips. The big addition to the camper this spring was the Futon frame that we made. So far, testing only in the driveway, it seems to work just fine. It pulls up into the couch configuration with a nylon strap attached to the top center and a small prop leg at each side drops down into a slotted base to hold the back in position. Putting it back down into the bed configuration is achieved by pushing the props back out of their notches with a short dowel. Not the best arrangement, but it works and gives us much better use of that area as a couch, especially when we have company to visit.