Road Warrior Full Time RV Life: Learning New Things

Good morning from Greenbelt Maryland! We've been here since Tuesday and had some eventful times as we traveled from Connecticut to Maryland. The first thing that we learned is that it is important to stick to our original plan of traveling only 250 to 300 miles per day. When we left CT it was a little over 400 miles to Maryland and we decided that we could do that. Well, we accomplished it but were very worn down by the time we stopped for the night.

We learned that it is almost impossible to sleep at truck stops due to the high traffic and high noise. It amazes me that a group of people who do the same type of job have so little common courtesy for each other. They use their "Jake Brakes" while traveling through the parking lot, which is very loud, they slam doors, have discussions with their partner drivers or others right outside the rigs that have already been parked. I guess I understand if they have no respect for the Campers who are getting some shut eye, (not that I think that is okay either), but I can't understand the lack of respect for their fellow drivers. This is not meant to be offensive to any of the truckers out there - it is simply an observation - and perhaps not all drivers are this way. Rest areas are not much different, but with the addition of travelers who really don't care about others who may be trying to sleep.

However, we got the best sleep in a Walmart parking lot. There were several trucks there, as well as multiple RV's. we never heard a peep from any of them. They were courteous and quiet. To those who travel, please use common courtesy for truckers and other fellow travelers out there on the road. After all, if these people who are stopping to get some much needed rest do not get it, you may meet them out on the road and you wouldn't want their lack of sleep to cause and accident with you and your family.

Other discovery's made have been that the RV gets better gas mileage when running "high test." Yes it is more expensive and realistically probably does not change the final dollar amount when compared to the cheap stuff. But the rig runs better and has more power with far less "gas knock" which I assume is better for the motor.

When we left Hagerstown MD headed for Greenbelt, it was supposed to be an easy 50ish mile drive. We were going to get to the National Park by noon, set the rig up and relax until my son Jason got out of work. Well, we were driving along I-270 towards Washington DC and had a blow-out on the inside rear on the drivers side! When it blew we thought for sure the car had come off of the tow dolly and was rolling over and over down the road! It was LOUD! But once I heard the tire slapping against the fender well I knew it was a tire. Of course we were in the far left lane following the directions from our GPS which kept insisting we needed to be in the HOV lanes. Because of the GPS's insistence I felt sure that HOV lanes must branch off of the main highway and would therefore reduce the congestion of traffic. So, once the blow-out occurred I had to shoot across 4 other lanes to get into the breakdown lane. Honestly, I have no memory of what was around me but I managed to get across those lanes and come to a stop. I don’t know who was the unlucky person who was up my tail-pipe when that tire blew, but I bet they didn't like getting the chunk of tire in their windshield. Oh, and by the way… The HOV lanes never did branch off from the main highway! I think we become too reliant on the GPS.

Here is a picture of the blown tire. The Bang was impressive, and scared the hell out of both Tonya & I.

We called our Roadside Assistance program through Good-Sam's camping club and they dispatched someone who said they'd be there in 35 Minutes. We were quite impressed with this timely response and sat patiently waiting for their arrival. Meanwhile, cars, trucks, dump trucks, and about 15 police cars and 20 police motorcycles all passed us by without slowing, or moving over to give us room. This is why I didn't just change the tire myself! Each time someone would fly past us at 70 + miles per hour, the whole RV would roll side to side. My fear was that the traffic would blow the RV right off the jack! So we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally after an hour had passed I called Roadside Assistance again and had them check on the hold up. We received a call from the wrecker driver who stated that he could not find us. So I explained where I was again. I don't know if this Latino with a thick accent couldn't understand my Maine accent or what, but we continued to wait. After he called us back 2 more times he finally found us. He came over looked at the back wheel and said, "Hmm I don't know if I can change this!" I said "Huh???" He said, "well, lets see if I can." He didn't have a screw driver capable of taking off the deep seated hub caps that are on the rear wheels of our rig. I said "you hold on, I have tools." There was no way I was going to let this guy leave the scene before we got going again. So I went to work unstrapping my very large tool case that is strapped to the back of my rig. I found something that worked to remove the hub cap. I then presented him with the 1 inch socket that was required to remove the lug nuts and a breaker-bar to help. When the tow driver saw the tool box open he said, "man you got lots of tools there." I said "yeah, I hate to be broken down and not have tools to fix things."

So despite his tardiness, this young Latino man who must have had a death wish - because he never left any flashing lights going on his wrecker while he worked on the rig - worked diligently to change the tire. The rear mud flap was caught up in the tire and pretty much destroyed. He stated that he thinks that is what caused the tire to blow. I am not sure if I agree with him, but the mud flap was destroyed anyway so I handed him my hunting knife that I carry most everywhere now, (NCIS - Gibbs rule number 9 - always carry a knife - LOL), I warned him that it was very sharp. He began to cut the flap off and looked up at me and said, "you aren't kidding, this thing is sharp." The look on his face was hard to describe - sort of wondering why someone would be carrying a knife like this mixed with perhaps fear that he hadn't noticed that I was carrying it. It's probably a good thing that I was wearing my small hunting knife instead of my K-bar survival knife which is almost the size of a machete. LOL

So, after a 3 hour wait beside the road, we were on our way again. We drove (very carefully) to Greenbelt to the Greenbelt Park which is part of our Nation's National Park System, found our site, set up and paid the $96.00 for a 6 night stay. Now I began to worry about the other tires on the rig. Especially the front tires. They had great tread life left in them, but did show some weather cracking as did the rear that blew out. I made the decision that before we left Maryland, we'd have spanking new tires on the front of the RV. A blow out on the rear is bad enough, but I don't want to experience one on the steering tires. My oldest son Jason visited with us for a few hours after he got out of work and the following day I began searching for tire dealers who could set us up.

Customer service in the area of our Nation's Capitol sucks! (Another lesson learned). I called about 8 places for tires and got pretty much the same reply. "We don't stock that size." Not, well let me see if we can get them. They simply were not interested in working that hard. A couple of places asked for my number to call me back… I am still waiting to hear back from them 2 days later! Finally, I called a place in Marlow Heights Maryland called AC Tire Company. I spoke to a gentleman named Lou. Told him what I was looking for, but I mis-quoted the tire size. He said, "that can't be right." Of course now I am frustrated because of all the other calls I had made and was somewhat short with him and stated, "well, that is the size stamped into the sidewall of the tire." This guy, Lou never missed a beat, he continued to talk to me like I hadn't been a rude jerk. He said let me cross reference and get back to you - what's your number?" I gave him my number (of course thinking I'd never hear from him), and he said "I will call you back in 15 minutes."

So as I sat doing a slow burn, angry about how difficult it was proving to be to find tires for this rig. I got up and looked at the tire size again - I had mis-spoke, Lou had been right I had mis-quoted a number on the tire. So I called him back and he said, "Yeah, I found the tires, they are ordered and will be in tomorrow can you come in at 1 pm?"

The following day, we made the rig ready for travel. Tonya and I left at 11:15 am for what was supposed to be a 30 minute drive. Not knowing the area we wanted to ensure we got there on time. The short trip went without a hitch and we arrived a full hour early. I went inside and the guy at the counter said, "your tires just arrived." I stated that I knew I was very early and that I didn't expect them to take it in until they were ready at 1 pm. I was told that they were glad I was early and that they would start work on it right away. I asked if they could fit in an oil and filter change while they were at it. He said that would not be a problem. I had them replace the oil with full synthetic oil as I've read that it improves gas mileage by up to a couple of miles per gallon. So two tires and new synthetic oil and we were on the road again. The RV handles much better than it had and it runs smoother after having the oil changed.

As a side note: I was planning to keep the extra dis-mounted tire for a backup. Tonya walked by the rig while it was being worked on and noticed the tire had chunks missing from it in places where it was showing steel belts. Whew we were lucky that we didn't blow a front tire!

So I am so very impressed from the level of service a AC Tire Company that I want to be sure to tell everyone. If you are traveling around our Nation's Capital and ever need your car, truck or RV serviced - give these guys a call. They are great people all the way from management to the techs that do the actual work. They were courteous, fast, and will meet your needs. I can't say enough about them. Thank you Lou and the rest of your crew at AC Tire Company their address and phone info is here:

A.C. Tire Company 4424 Beech Road Marlow Heights Maryland 20748 Telephone: (301) 423-4424 Tell them Scott & Tonya sent you.

So we drove back to Greenbelt Park, emptied our holding tanks, topped off with our water reserve and re-leveled the rig for a few more days. We will be leaving Maryland on Monday October 6th. We will drive to Dunn NC and spend an overnight at a friend's place and leave the following day and continue on our journey to Florida. We expect to visit friends in Jacksonville on the 9th and morning of the 10th, then continue south to Zellwood to Jam at a Reunion Concert on the 11th with our friend (and great guitarist) Dennis Moro. We will stay overnight on the 11th and leave the morning of the 12th to head into Mississippi or Louisiana. (Although, we are considering a possible additional night in Jacksonville to re-visit our friends there since we won't have much time with them the first time). Once we hit New Orleans we will probably stay for a day or two before continuing west to Texas - our final destination for the winter.

We have also learned some things about the RV itself. We were having trouble with keeping our battery power charged and had to start the rig every 4 hours to re-charge. The Generator is not charging the batteries when it is running. This is an aftermarket gen set that is not hard wired into the RV - I am thinking this may be the problem. It seems that I have found a work around until I can get a friend with lots of electrical knowledge to look at things. As I had stated in a previous post, I had replaced the House Battery before leaving Maine. However, I kept the old house battery. So I have wired them in together following the instructions that came with my power inverter to double the energy that we have available.

And finally, I have learned that I can make my batteries charge time last FAR longer by unplugging a power strip that we use to charge laptops, cell phones etc at night. I unplugged (as opposed to just turning off) the power strip last night and the house batteries charge lasted throughout the night. I am sure we will continue to learn these little things as time goes on. Give us 6 months and we'll be old pro's.

When we first arrived at the Park, we had a gentleman stop and ask if there were any full hookups here. We informed him that there were not, and that you could not run generators after 10 pm. He asked how people are supposed to stay warm. We laughed as we stated that we were from Maine and the low this night was supposed to be 61 degrees. We told him that we considered anything over 40 degrees to be a heat wave and typically wore shorts in that weather.

Speaking of weather; it rained the first night here and on Friday night. The days have been warm but not hot, the nights have been mostly in the 50's except for Saturday night into Sunday morning. It got down to 40 degrees - a little crisp in the early morning, but tolerable for sure.

Pics of Greenbelt Park: