Lack of Camping!

New kitchen.
Visitors coming from UK.
Lots of late snow.
Lots of May rain.
This  has been an impossible Spring for camping. The poor Aliner sits in the driveway under its cover, and I even broke a sidelight opening the truck door :(

Heading for UFO Country - Roswell NM

The road from Fort Sumner to Roswell is absolutely desolate. If a UFO is looking for a remote, flat place to land, this is it! It's desert with its own variety of dry land flora. As far as animals go, there are plenty of vultures/buzzards, and herds of hardy-looking cattle just once in a while.

On to Billy the Kid

Bob got a little exercise before having to sit in the truck outside the museum. He doesn't mind though, he likes the truck. Give him a Kong or a chewie and he's happy. And if you don't give him something to keep him occupied, he'll find SOMETHING to rip to pieces - plastic bag, paper coffee cup ...

The Billy the Kid Museum is in Fort Sumner NM. It's worth a visit. There's lots of stuff about the Kid including photos, guns, newspaper articles, etc. But there are also antique cars, covered wagons, antique china, and lots more.

 This, apparently, is the last picture taken of Billy the Kid. He's fourth from the right.

Covered wagons/prairie schooners.

Every good Western museum has a jail!

Spring Break in New Mexico with Bob-the-anxious-dog for a week!

 First we install the trusty Wind Cheeta in case we encounter high winds while trying to unfold the Aliner.

It works on the same principle as a seat belt, and there's one on each side of the camper.

We started our trip by driving from Littleton CO to Las Vegas, NM. We were going to spend one night at Storrie Lake State Park. The night time temperatures were still at freezing or below, and daytime was cool, so we didn't think we would encounter too many other campers.

 We packed the camper carefully, trying to take as little 'stuff' as possible. This time we took a little cube of a space heater for night-times. As it turned out, that was our wisest decision.

 This sign was at the entrance to Storrie Lake S.P. - so if a person wants to go into town for dinner and come back out to their camper after
6 p.m., they are apparently out of luck! We did notice what looked like a check-in center for people on probation or parole nearby. I don't know if that had anything to do with it, or if they have trouble with partying college students from the town.

 The sites at Storrie Lake have nice adobe-style picnic shelters. Unfortunately the water wasn't turned on so there were no flush toilets or showers open. The vault toilets were very clean, spacious, and non-stinky though!

As you can see, we had the place to ourselves!

We met some family members, who happened to be passing through, at the Spic & Span Bakery & Cafe in Las Vegas. It's a big place with wonderful breakfast food. It's obviously a local favorite which is always a good sign.

SIMPLE Storage Solutions from a Non-DIY-Type!

Excellent small and skinny waste bin that I stick either under the dinette area, or up on a counter if the dog's around! I just put a recycled grocery store bag in it. From that wonderful Container Store: http://www.containerstore.com/shop/bath/wastebaskets?productId=10029993&N=72512&Nao=20

And here's the Eco Cocoon from the same store.

My sister and I discovered these after I had already outfitted the camper with containers, so I actually got some for my house. I really, really like the whole handle idea. Makes them so easy to grab hold of. Guess where from? Correct! The Container Store.

And these are my absolute favorites for the counter by the sink. They sit nicely at the back, and stack wonderfully. Plus they look nice! And they fold flat for de-camping. From that magical store again.

Here you see the bamboo shelves on the right, and they're strong enough to hold a small coffee pot, and hot water kettle. I was hoping I could get shelves that would fit the electricals underneath, but haven't found skinny shelves like that yet. 

That is the key word for the Aliner: 'skinny!'

I thought this nice corner shelf from Target: 

http://www.target.com/p/bamboo-3-tier-corner-shelf/-/A-13578924#prodSlot=medium_1_19

looked like a winner, if a little expensive at $29.99. I might get one one of these days.

On the right in my camper picture you can see this fabric bin, also from Target. I like to keep my iPad, Nook, books, pencil and pad in here where I can grab them easily at night when we're finished with being outside. We don't have a TV or a DVD player in the Aliner. We'd rather read with some quiet classical music playing. It's quite a luxury to have time to read!

Also from Target, after measuring carefully, I got clear bins for food storage under the sink. I wanted to be able to stack at least two larger ones, and two smaller ones next to them. It took some searching and shopping around with a tape measure, but I managed to get quite a nice fit in the end.

Target sells these stacking drawers in a few different sizes. I got some of all 3 sizes. The smaller ones sit on the floor while the Aliner's folded down, and on the counter next to the loo when we're set up. I have a bad back, and can't be constantly bending down to get things I need. With these drawers, they don't make the camper look dark, and I can use one for electrical cords, plumbing stuff, tools, tape, etc; one for plates, bowls, cups, silverware, utensils; and so on. The biggest ones stay in the back of the truck and we keep our clothes in them.

There are several things I really like about these TAGstore boxes from the Container Store. They are color coded and you can write or stick a label on the tags, but the best thing for me is that the lids are not tight and can be easily lifted off. Where I used them is in the cabinet between the loo and the bed. I keep things in them that I don't need to access very often like all of the manuals, a copy of the extended warranty, stereo faceplate wrapped in bubble wrap, etc.

Under one of the dinette seats we keep the Bal Leveler in a pizza bag that we got from Amazon.com, the crank for the stabilizers, the marine water hose, and stuff like that.

Under the other dinette seat is a big container, but we often don't use it because we tend to keep our clothes, towels, etc. in the back of the pickup truck under the tonneau cover, as mentioned above, rather than keep having to lift up those seats and dig stuff out.

Definitely one of the best storage ideas for a camper I've seen. I haven't implemented it yet because I haven't saved enough tic tac containers!

This picture and more details come from:

http://www.thekitchn.com/turn-tic-tac-containers-into-spice-storage-skruben-174664

I know that people have their own favorite storage ideas, but these are some of mine, not being a handy person and not being a person who can bend down a lot and needs things high up. If any of it is of use to you, I'm glad.

Cabin-A versus Aliner

Before we bought the Aliner Expedition in 2012, we had a 2006 Cabin-A, also manufactured by Columbia Northwest. We actually loved that little camper, but we were very unaware of the idiosyncrasies of these very lightweight caravans. If we had realized that it's par for the course to have to constantly screw things back in and reglue and tighten up, we would have done a better job of it. As it was, after 6 years, the poor thing had rattled apart inside, and we had to take it to an RV interior guy to fix it up (for $1,000!) so we could sell it. We made sure to spell out to the new owner what she needed to do to keep it up.

We're thinking that with the Aliner only having cabinets on the bottom level, it might be a slightly different story. The Cabin-A was not foldable, and had cabinets up and down. Of course the first thing to go was the microwave, shortly followed by the range hood!

I'm glad we joined the Facebook Aframe owners' page A Frame Campers. It's a great place for lots of information from people who have owned and modified Aframes for years. If something's coming apart or not working properly, someone on that forum will have an idea for a fix. Most of them seem to recommend shoring up or doing away with the microwave as, again, it is the first thing to work loose and fall out! Many people seem to like the extra cabinet space that removing the microwave provides.

The Cabin-A was a dream to tow, but was very tall so visibility was always an issue. Our Aliner is also too tall to see over when we're in the tow vehicle, but it's easier to see around. We still use the extendable mirrors, but could actually do ok with the regular mirrors on our Silverado.

Another issue with the Cabin-A was the bed situation. At night, the seats and table could be rigged into a full-size bed which turns out to be pretty small when you're used to queens and kings. So we mostly opted to sleep on the bench seats, one each, which were comfortable with extra foam place on top, but extremely narrow.

The Cabin-A did have an enclosed shower and toilet. We never did use the shower, but it was nice to be able to use the toilet in the middle of the night and have it in an actual room! On the other hand, the Aliner has a toilet in a cupboard that you open up at night, and if you want privacy, you'd have to rig some kind of curtain-thing up. There's certainly no door. There is an outside shower on the Aliner, but we try to camp at places that have showers anyway. The outside shower might be good to hose off a muddy dog or kid. We don't ever use the water heater anyway - any hot water we need is heated up in our electric kettle. It gives us enough to wash dishes and/or faces!

The Cabin-A's door was in the back of the coach, which was great in some ways, but also meant that it was very hard for 2 people to pass each other in the gangway. The Aliner's door is in the middle. One person can be cooking or washing dishes and the other sitting at the dinette, going in an out as he or she pleases. Sometimes though, the side doorway is on the wrong side to be convenient at some campgrounds.

I liked the curtains in the Cabin-A. They pulled open and closed and there was some Velcro involved. The Cabin-A has pleated blinds on the bubble windows that already look terrible. We probably left them down at some point when we closed up the camper, and squashed them. One day I'll get around to replacing them.

We did have a leak in the bubble window of the Cabin-A, and got it fixed. It took a few years to develop. The Aliner leaked just a few months after we bought it - through the apex of the roof. I'm sure that's going to be a problem with any foldup camper sooner or later. I'm not impressed that it was sooner though.

The Cabin-A cost us $13,000 on clearance (new) in 2006, the Aliner was a pretty much fully-loaded model, also on clearance in 2012 at $21,000. They're not cheap!

There are obvious differences in convenience between parking and hooking up the Cabin-A, and having to unfold and fold the Aliner. It just depends what you want to be towing around.

We were definitely emotionally attached to the Cabin-A, but we're enjoying the Aliner just as much, and will even more when we get our Wind Cheeta wind kit installed for extra peace of mind when unfolding and folding in a wind, and just being camped in windy weather.
http://www.aframewindkits.com
I have no financial interest in this wonderful invention developed by Randy Floyd. I just think it's an awesome gadget that gives an Aliner owner a lot of added security.

I hope the woman who bought our Cabin-A has enjoyed it. We certainly did. Now we plan to make many happy camping memories in the Aliner in the future.

Boyd Lake and the Double Decker Bus

Camping at Boyd Lake with the Brits and Their Bus

May 2013

I'm not being a very good blogger when I forget to write about the most interesting camping trip of the year ... when we went to Boyd Lake and met the Brits with the bus!

Boyd Lake, Loveland CO, is a nice quiet campground in the Spring. There were only a few campers there, and we had a great spot as close to the lake as we could get. The showers and bathrooms were great - really big and clean. Being a state park we had to feed a machine with quarters to take a shower, but the water was hot and had great pressure.

We set up the Aliner, went for a walk, and when we came back we saw, of all things, a double-decker London bus parked by the shower building. Driving the bus across America for an adventure were two young British guys from Kilburn, London. They showed us around the bus which had already been set up for camping when they bought it on the East coast. 

I assumed that they would be blogging about their experiences, but no, they had thought about it, but not actually done anything. One of them said he thought he would write a book when he got back to the UK, but I'm not sure he was even journalling or taking any notes. I encouraged him to write and make some money off this very expensive trip. Even though the bus ran on diesel, it still used plenty of fuel, especially going up some of the passes they had to negotiate. They had come over Raton and of course the dreaded Monument Hill.

The top of the bus had been chopped off, and they told us all double deckers had to have this done to meet U.S. height requirements for bridges, etc. Even so, they had to consult a guide that let them know which roads and highways had bridges that they could actually go underneath without getting stuck! They had a specially made tarpaulin that hooked over the top of the bus, but they discovered it didn't really stop the driving rain during a really bad storm in Atlanta. They said there was a river running down the spiral stairs! 

We drove the 'boys' into Loveland for a couple of hours. We met them for coffee before going back to the campground. It wasn't exactly easy for them to explore the local towns when they were camping. A double decker isn't the easiest vehicle to get into a parking lot! They told us that when they reached Seattle they were going to try and sell the bus before going home.

I had a phone no. for a while, but then changed phones and lost it. I often wonder what happened to them ... if they made it all the way, if their money held out, if they felt like it was all worth it. Did they get to a stage of being sick of the sight of each other? Did they feel unsettled when they went home? Did anyone ever start on that book?

We had a snowstorm in May in 2013, so it was still quite chilly at Boyd Lake. I don't think we used the heater though. But we did wear layers of warm clothes, and plenty of comforters and hot coffee!

It was an interesting trip - almost surreal for me, a Londoner by birth, to wake up in the morning, look out of my window, and see that London bus in the middle of Colorado. Quite nostalgic really.