Maryland Day at Historic St. Mary’s City

Spent an enjoyable afternoon at St Mary’s City for the 376th Birthday Celebration of Maryland.  This is the site of the first settlement in Maryland and there is a nice historical interpretive site and museum there.  It’s also the home of the Maryland Dove; a replica of one of the ships that brought the settlers.  Lila and I are volunteers on the Dove.  We visited with some of the volunteers and staff and planned our upcoming volunteer time.

View Full Album

Can’t remember the re-enactor on the left but he says he’s making toilet paper out of the scrap of rope.  I’m not going on that voyage. That is Captain Will on the right talking to visitors.

Technorati Tags: Maryland,St Mary's City,Maryland Day,Maryland Dove

There was a nice ceremony for Maryland Day.  Rep. Steny Hoyer, the Majority Leader, gave a few short remarks.  Then the State Historian gave a very interesting talk about the history of the first colony.

View Full Album

The Roadtrek Arrived

Technorati Tags: Roadtrek,RV

Technorati Tags: RV,Coleman stove

Well, the camper-van arrived as scheduled.  Have been spending the last several hours checking out the storage compartments and learning the ins and outs.  There’s a lot to learn but it’s going to be fun figuring it out.  Have already read ‘The Dummy’s Guide to RV’ing’, so at least have an inkling of what to expect.  The generator doesn’t start, so that will be one of my first projects.  And figuring out the electrical system.  Now, where do I put the ham radio?? and the GPS?  and all that stuff that I camped with before.  The sellers gave me a nice Coleman grill/campstove with a griddle that will really be nice for pancake breakfasts.  I had the deep-cycle battery door off when I decided to take some pictures so that’s what’s lying on the ground.  

View Full Album

Waiting for the rain to stop

Need to move vehicles around today to make room for the Roadtrek delivery tomorrow.  Will take out the sleeping/storage platform from the MPV and remove the camping stuff to lighten it up for local use.  Might even re-install the seats I removed a couple of years ago.  Hope the mice haven’t taken up housekeeping in them in the garage.

I’m still just messing around with this blog to make sure I can use it effectively once on the road.  Will add a couple more pictures.  These will be of the Maryland Dove that Lila and I do volunteer work on.  We assisted with the fall downrigging where the sails, spars and rigging are removed for the winter.  They take it to a local boatyard and have hull work done in drydock over the winter, too.  It’s back in the water now.  Will visit it on Maryland Day this weekend.

View Full Album

Some cruise pictures

Technorati Tags: Royal Clipper,Star Clipper,Barbados

View Full Album

So, maybe this will work after all.  Now to figure out how to add pictures and maps…..

Okay, figured out the pictures thing.  These are a few from our Royal Clipper cruise out of Barbados in Feb 2010.  What a great sailing ship.  Largest sailing ship in the world.  About 200 passengers and great food and staff.

Welcome to my blog

I'm just getting started and hope I find enough interesting things to write about. Mainly I want to share my adventures with getting my Roadtrek camper and getting it checked out, prepped, tagged, and loaded for lot of camping trips. Bear with me and come along for the ride. There will be pictures, maps, trip notes and just general stuff about what Lila and I are seeing and experiencing. Hope you enjoy it and maybe we will get to camp out together somewhere.

So, to begin: I looked at a 2003 Roadtrek 190 Popular camper van a few weeks ago, along with looking at lots of campers online and negotiating a few scam deals in the process. My first bit of wisdom: If it sounds too good to be true, it isn't true! I had 2 different great deals that turned out to be scams. Anyways, I went to St. Michaels, MD which is only about 20-30 miles from me to look at at this camper. It's a 2 hour drive 'cause it's on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake and I'm on the Western Shore. But, anyways, I was a great camper. Drove nice. Had almost all of the features we wanted. (A bed that could remain made up, a nice eating area, a bathroom, decent galley, basic entertainment package, generator, and storage for moderately long trips.) We had also looked at VW Winnebago Rialta's but couldn't find any close by.

This one is being sold by an individual and we have had lots of emails and the nice visit where we had a nice test drive and no pressure from the seller. It's been a nice experience so far. We will have them deliver it on Saturday afternoon and do a systems check and then my money goes directly to Bank of America to pay off their loan. Then the bank will send them a loan release and I can register the camper. It already passed state inspection.