Épisodes

  • RelaxRV S2 E79 MD NJ MA NH and done

    RelaxRV S2 E79 MD NJ MA NH and done
    Jul 22 2022
    Season 2 Episode 797/22/22Gas prices vs running up and mountains. Instead of $100 fill ups we doing $150+ fill ups . Instead of 20 gallons we putting in 40 gallons at each fill up. Gas mileage went from 9 mpg to 4.5 mpg, so we were using twice the gas. Left Alexandria VA. Drove for 1.5 hrs. Got set up and started the AC. At 1030pm it was still 82 degrees. Love our AC. We found a winery close by so stopped by we're pleasantly surprised that they had a guy on the guitar playing. However even in the shade the 90° temps got the best of us we headed back to the RV. The next day we drove over to Harpers ferry West virginia. We were here two years ago just at the start of covid and everything was closed so we decided to revisit it. This time the exhibits were open so we walked around for a couple hours. However it was in the 90s so we did not redo the short hikes we did the last time. From here we headed to Gaithersburg MD to a Boondockers Welcome location. We got set up. And paid the $10 for 30 amp electric. We took a ride to Sugarloaf Mountain State Park and did a 2.5 mile beautiful hike. We think this BDW location will be our default place while visiting Brandon or DC. We then stopped at a winery near by and had a glass of wine. The next day we went to Patuxent River State Park and did a 5 mile hike. Then off to Maryland Beer Company in Elkton MD which is a Harvest Host location. We pulled in enjoyed a couple of drinks. Then walked around the town of Elkton Maryland. Really cute town and we would not mind revisiting. The next day we drove up to Barnegat New Jersey. We set up at a doctor's welcome location. Hooked up to our 20 amp. We walked around Barnegat by the beach and we're disappointed by the lack of shops. We then met my sister-in-law Jen for dinner. The next day we took a ride an hour south to Atlantic City. Along the way we stopped at Smithville. Trish visited his place a few times as a young girl with her parents. We walked around for about an hour looking at all the different shops. It was a nice little train for kids and merry go round. We then spent the day walking the boardwalk at AC and even winning a little bit of money at the casinos yay. Did you know that the game Monopoly is based on Atlantic city?The next morning we hooked up and drove to Old cedar Campground. We got set up Took a ride over and picked up a grandson kingston. We had planned on picking him up and taking him out to dinner however he surprised us with the home cooked meal which was delicious. We then headed over to the campground he wrote his bike for a little while we walked for a little while the next day you spent the day fishing and riding his bike and swimming in the pool so we had a nice relaxed day with him. The night played games outside of the RV. The next day packed up dumped dropped them off and drove home. The next day we unpacked the rig and I tinkered with stuff on the rig. We have been planning on going to Jim Thorpe Pennsylvania, so we made a reservation at a boondockers welcome location. But as the days drew near, the temps were going to be in the mid 50s and rain the whole time we were there. So we canceled that trip. Then in early July we went up to Massachusetts and New Hampshire for a few days. In August we have a 3 week trip through Indiana planned. We'll be visiting a bunch of state parks, visiting the Amish town of Shipshewana and doing a tour of the catacombs under Indianapolis. Over the summer I also took time to catch up with my Stress Management clients so I booked a bunch of days to work with them.And it's bittersweet, but I do believe this will be my last episode of this podcast. Been doing this over 4 years with just under 10, 000 downloads of the 78 episodes. I'm sure this episode will push the download total number over 10,000. I will be taking notes of our travels and posting those notes on my blog at: https://relaxrv.org/category/blog/I will continue to post pictures of our travels on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/relaxrvpodcast/And my videos on Youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzwH6GhSMBDJ7qKxsLng-TAAnd for now my Facebook Page will remain active at: https://www.facebook.com/relaxrvpodcast/So, be safe, drive slow and relax. So what do you do to help MANAGE your STRESS? Perhaps you or someone you know would benefit from listening to Stress Management Exercises? I have 3 FREE Stress Management recordings at https://relaxrv.org/help/If that ain't your thing, I have DISCOUNTS on my website to various RV related stuff.https://relaxrv.org/discounts/ I’ve made some videos about improvements and fixes I’ve done to the RV. Here’s a link to them on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzwH6GhSMBDJ7qKxsLng-TA Or you can watch them on my website at https://relaxrv.org/videos/Here’s a link to my RelaxRVPodcast Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Relax-RV-277623782811787/ I'm on Instagram as @relaxrvpodcast https://www.instagram.com/invites/contact/?i=hsxp0gjpugbz&...
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    17 min
  • RelaxRV S2 E78 A Feud, Arches and Shakers

    RelaxRV S2 E78 A Feud, Arches and Shakers
    May 20 2022
    Season 2 Episode 785/20/22 We visited Bardstown. We hit the 1792 Distillery. They were the only distillery that offered a free tour. We parked in Bardstown and walked 20 minutes to it. They gave a great 45 minute tour and provided 4 samples and a piece of bourbon chocolate. We bought a few bottles and some if the bourbon chocolates. We learned they are ending the tour and gift shop in June 2022. We then walked around town and had Kentucky Fried chicken and cornbread which were delicious at Mammy's. We then checked a bunch of bars and only found 2 that were having live music but neither bands were playing bluegrass. So we went to McIntyre’s Winery. I liked their Corn Cob Wine which I had never heard of Lol. The next morning we drove for about an hour, dropped the rig and took the Jeep to the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. We figured we would spend an hour there. Well we ended up being there for 3 hours. We took a great tour and learned about the history of the Shakers. https://shakervillageky.org/Shaker We will return. We then went to Wildside Winery which is a Harvest Host location. We sampled a couple wines and bought a couple bottles. We are 60 miles from Church Hill Downs so we watched the derby on TV. The next day we drove to Callies Campground in Red River Gorge. We checked in got set up and then headed over to natural bridge State resort Park in Kentucky. This park is a part of the Red River Gorge geological area which is in the Daniel Boone National Forest which is part of the Cumberland ranger district. We hiked the natural bridge trail which was only about a half a mile but went straight up hill for 500 ft. This is really an impressive Arch. We hiked on top of the crossed over it and hike for another mile to more viewpoints overlooking the Daniel Boone National Forest. We did a total of 4 miles which was perfect. We then drove over to Miguel's Pizza. A few people have told us you need to eat there so we did. The amazing thing is with their pizzas and they have a list of around 30 different toppings that you can add to create your own. Us being from New York and New Jersey like a thinner crispier crust and our pizza but other than that this was delicious. We then stopped in at Gorge Outfitters. We got into a conversation with the owner who gave us tips on numerous trails and parks to see. Visit them, they are wonderful. https://gorrg.com/The next day we hiked the Auxier Ridge trail by recommendation from the server at Miguel's. The next morning we decided to stay in this park for an extra night. We drove over to Nada tunnel. We had this tunnel saved on our Google maps for about a year or so and we do know that NADA means nothing. So we assumed that not a tunnel but a tunnel to nowhere. However we found out that it's a hand carved tunnel that originated as a railroad tunnel way back when. Now it's a single Lane car tunnel that is really awesome to drive through. Here is a link to our pictures of those 2 hikes. https://www.instagram.com/p/CdWrLZHsTIG/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY= And hers pics of the nada tunnel https://www.instagram.com/p/CdWwUXcMqgM/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= We also learned that this area has the second highest number of arches in the US, of course the #1 area is Arches National Park. So after hitting the tunnel we drove around to the trailhead for the Auxier Ridge trail. We knew that this was going to be a 2.2 mile hike to the edge of the Ridge and then back. But we got to a beautiful overlook had a snack and a glass of wine and sore across the valley was twin Arch. So we pulled out our maps and we realized that there's another trail at the end of The Ridge trail that joins up and takes you to the twin Arch so we changed our plans and that's what we did. So it turned out to be an 8 mile beautiful hike. The next day we decided to stay an extra night to do numerous short hikes to give our legs a break. Beautiful ! Lots of arches.From here we were going to be staying at the Kanawha State Park in Kentucky we had the campground reserved and the campsite fit a 37 ft motorhome. we had reserved this a couple of months ago. Luckily Trish was looking on line and she saw a lot of people said you'll never make it up the road in a motorhome. We called canceled our reservation and they refunded our money. We then went to Roadside Park Port Of St. Albans. (304) 722-4625https://maps.app.goo.gl/ENR6t9DctNYY8dRU8And stayed there for one night. We'll never stay there again. Too many smelly factories and super loud traffic all night long. We got up the next morning and drove to Point Pleasant WV. To visit the Mothman Museum. And to see the Silver Bridge which collapsed in 1967 people in point pleasant WV kept seeing a winged creature around a bridge in town. Shortly after the bridge collapsed. Some people say he was scaring people away from the bridge and others say he made it collapse. That sparked the movie. Are the two connected? Here's pics https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdg1WMDpwY7/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=...
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    50 min
  • RelaxRV S2 E77 Mammoth Cave an Arch and Waterfall

    RelaxRV S2 E77 Mammoth Cave an Arch and Waterfall
    May 6 2022
    Season 2 Episode 775/6/22 We left Johnson City on 4/25/22 and arrived in Pigeon Forge Tennessee an hour and a half later. We pulled into the campground they had no record of us reserving and paying for a spot for three nights via Passport America. But they said no problem. We asked that they received our package and they said it's been laying here for 3 days and we had no idea who Paul Sebastian was lol. We are in the south. Our package was a replacement valve for leveling jacks. Hooray our leveling jacks are fixed. We hooked up relaxed for a bit in the 86 degree temps and then drove around Pigeon Forge. The downfall to this town is it seems you really need to drive from place to place. Albiet there is a trolley you can take. It's amazing how many distilleries there are in this area and how many give you free samples, too many lol. We came back to the RV I set up the grill. One of our boondockers welcome hosts suggested cooking quesadillas on the grill. We had never done that but we did it today and I'll tell you what we are hooked. Here's the link to some pictures we took as we entered Pigeon Forge and walked around. You can see the Smoky mountains in the background ttps://www.instagram.com/p/Ccyny0WsvV3/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= The next day Trish did some laundry and I drove around looking for a place to buy propane gas line connections. When we first bought our first rig I installed an extended stay connection on the rig and ran a gas line for a grill and it worked fine. This RV has a quick connect in the back hooked up to the propane tank so I assumed it was going to be working good and it doesn't get as hot. Apparently the connection for the gas grill on this rig is after the regulator on the onboard propane tank so the Weber gas grill has two regulators controlling the propane entering it so it doesn't get so hot. So I'm looking around for connections to avoid the regulator on the Weber grill. Here's a link to the Weber grill we use and have used for going on 5 years now https://amzn.to/3LnQdzu During the night the rains came in and with it a cold front. 20 degrees colder today as compared to yesterday. The rain stopped around 1pm and we took a walk on the Pigeon Forge Greenway, a walkway that follows the West Prong LittlePigeon River. Here's a link to the walkways https://www.cityofpigeonforge.com/parks-greenways.aspx So we found Pigeon Forge to be an expensive area. And very touristy. If you have little kids definitely visit Pigeon Forge.The next day we visited Gatlinburg. We liked Gatlinburg a bit better than pigeon forge. Reason for this is you can actually walk from the store to store instead of having to drive. Either town if you have young kids teenagers or you like to hang out in bars these towns will work. We parked for $15. Walked one block and then went to Gatlinburg SkyLift Park. This was a bit expensive but we figured we'll never be back to Gatlinburg so might as well experience it. Basically take a chair lift to the top of the mountain is the skywalk which is a suspension bridge great views from the top that a gas fired fire pit with lots of sheets around it I would imagine in the summer it is mobbed but here it is late April and it wasn't bad at all. We then walked around town popping in and out of shops getting some free samples of wine. We then walked down to Hillbilly Golf and played a game of mini golf. We've seen this golf course 2 years ago when we're driving through Gatlinburg with our rig and said when we come back to Gatlinburg we got to play this. You take a small tram ride to the top of a hill and you have a choice of two different golf courses as you walk halfway back down the hill and then the tram picks you up and takes you back down to the bottom. Here some pics https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc5ZaPguDa9/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=After 2 and 1/2 days of over the top entertainment we hopped in the Jeep took a ride over to The visitor center of the Smoky mountain National Park and did a 4-mile hike into the cataract waterfall. Just what we needed. Back to the woods and move our legs. We drove back to the RV threw some shrimp on the barbie. Relaxed for the evening the next morning headed out.We drove 3hrs to Fall Creek Falls state park in TN. We are now in CDT .We arrived to our campsite $29/nite with w/e. Jacks work fine leveling. Yay and cheers ! Got set up and searched out a hiking trail on Avenza Maps. We found a trail that we could walk to from the campground to a beautiful waterfall and a bridge and then to a nature center. So we went inside we actually working there for suggestions for another hike and she gave us one with views of a few different waterfalls. So our walk turned into a beautiful six mile hike lol. The next day we did 2 different hikes. A total of 7.5 miles today. This state park was beautiful. There are breathtaking views on most of the trails and from some of the parking lots too. The next day we had a confusing 3 hr drive. We kept going from CST to EST. So ...
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    36 min
  • RelaxRV S2 E76 Mayberry Galax and Tenn

    RelaxRV S2 E76 Mayberry Galax and Tenn
    Apr 24 2022
    Season 2 Episode 764/24/22 So on the last episode I mentioned our leveling jacks were acting wonky. When leveling if I pushed the button to extend the right jacks, the left front would also extend. I called Lippert the their tech support guided me through some testing to ascertain where the problem was. It turns out our Cartridge Valve was bad. The transferred me over to their parts department and the leading parts said we do have it in stock and it's $165.00. Then she said it may just be the coil which is the metal around the valve. She said to check to see if that is magnetized or not. She also said to take out the cartridge valve and use an air compressor and blow it out and sometimes that gets it working. Amazing she's in the parts department and gave us advice on how to avoid buying a new part smh. Unfortunately our coil was magnetized and I borrowed a guy's compressor blew out the valve and it didn't work so we went on to e-trailer dot com and sore that they had the same valve for $128.00 so we ordered that and had it delivered to a campground we had previously reserved. So we hooked up and traveled south for an hour and a half to Walnut Cove North Carolina. We pulled into yet another boondocker welcome location it was going to be near freezing that night so the gentleman offered for us to pull the motorhome into his huge garage which we did. This is the first time we ever camped in our RV inside lol. We hooked up to his 50 amp service. We then found the local park and did a short walk and met Kathy a nurse that I used to work with years back. We had a really good dinner and sat for about 2 and 1/2 hours catching up. We then headed back to our rig had a very quiet night. The next morning we took a ride over to hanging Rock State Parkhttps://maps.app.goo.gl/ZZrcHAWDxBDFTFti7 and did almost 9 miles of hiking. Beautiful. The next day we had a 1.5 hr drive to Galax VA. We got set up and I tinkered with the rig for awhile then we walked for 2 miles on the New River Trail. The next day we went to Creek Bottom Breweryhttps://www.cbbrews.com/lil-bottom/ because we saw they had a band playing. Wow! We walked in and saw only 2 empty chairs and they were at a table for 4. We asked the couple sitting there if we could join them. The band was fantastic! And in a few minutes we were engaged in great conversation with Raymond and Danielle. We made new friends. And we learned that Galax has a fiddlers convention every year and that Mount Airy NC wasn't far away. This is where the Andy Griffith show is based on and it is home town. This wonderful couple invited us to stay with them on their property the next time we were in town. An excellent night ! The next day we visited Mount Airy NC and were pleasantly surprised. Here's a link to our pictures from our visit to Mayberry https://www.instagram.com/p/CctNwhsJD1b/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= And here's a link to Mount Airy NC https://www.visitmayberry.com/ We then pulled in to Thistle Meadow Winery. Again wow. This is a Harvest Hosts location and our home for the night. We went in and sampled some wines and bought a bottle of their chardonnay and a block of cheese from Holly. We meet a bunch of their employees and were welcomed by each of them and the owner. Here's a link to my discount page if you want to check out Harvest Hosts RelaxRV.org/discounts The next day we headed out to Buffalo mountain park. We heard that there was great hiking and views up there. We learned it was about a half hour before we would arrive at our next Harvest Host location. So we drove through the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee which were beautiful rolling Green hills and mountains. We got to the road taking us into Buffalo mountain we drove up the road kept getting smaller and smaller with sheer drop offs. We got to the top and there was a sharp right hand turn it took you up a road that showed on the map as kind of like a roundabout or a lollipop. I said I am not taking a rig up there so we unhooked Trish took the Jeep up to turn around I backed the rig up that windy road just enough to turn around. There were people coming up with their cars to go hiking and they all expected me to move out of their way unreal. We got down off of that road only to find that we needed to go through a tunnel which gave us three inches of clearance on the roof and 3 inches of clearance on either side of the rig not a very comfortable long tunnel. We made it through without a hitch LOL we drove 10 minutes to the Tennessee hills Brewstillery. They said that they had a two spots for two rigs. It was in their parking lot and their limit was 30 ft long. Our rig is 30 ft long so as I was backing into the spot Trish said if we park here and somebody else comes in we will not be able to get the slides out. So we went in we talked to the host / manager he said no one else is coming in so you're free to take both spots which we did. We then went in and enjoyed a couple of cocktails which were delicious. And ...
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    23 min
  • RelaxRV S2 E75 Lancaster PA and Shenandoah National Park

    RelaxRV S2 E75 Lancaster PA and Shenandoah National Park
    Apr 18 2022
    Season 2 Episode 75 4/18/22After dewinterization the day before our trip, I noticed low water pressure in the bathroom sink. And I saw a small leak underneath it. So after some research I saw the aerator was clogged. I tried to clean it to no avail. So we bought a new one and put it in. The next day we finally got on the road for our Kentucky 2022 trip.Our 1st stop was in Lititz, PA. A 3 hour drive from home. Remember we limit our travel days to 4 hours. We stayed 2 nights at a Boondockers Welcome location. We also plan our stays at a 2 night minimum unless that says driving is very short or we are staying at a Harvest Hosts. So we pulled in and plugged into their 50amp electric. Set up our grill. And headed over to intercourse PA. and did some shopping. We then headed back to the RV and cooked shrimp skewers on the grill.The next day we went to Lancaster for a little bit then to Turkey Hill experience where the ice cream is made. It was definitely not our cup of tea LOL however for a young family it looked like it would be a lot of fun! We then drove over to the Utz potato chip factory. We took their free tour which was okay. Then we hit their outlet store and bought a few bags of chips and pretzels. Then back to the rig again for dinner tonight was tilapia and asparagus on the grill. So this was our first experience using the heat strip up on the roof that I installed in the air conditioner last year. I'll tell you what it worked beautifully. It was around 50° at night and the RV was kept around 70 to 72 all night long. We like this much better than space heaters because this system heats our rig in its entirety. Previously we were using two space heaters so those two areas were warm but the rest of the rig was cold. Prior to that we were using the gas furnace and we learned rather quickly after a few weeks on the road that electric space heaters are much more efficient for us then propane. And with the electric heat strip we don't have any condensation on the windows LOL. Here's a link to our heat strip that I installed. https://amzn.to/3uUjhsy And unfortunately we need a new thermostat when we installed that control the heat strip the gas furnace in the AC. Here is a link to that thermostat https://amzn.to/3iANi9M When we were using our space heaters we did buy thermostats for them. That worked beautifully especially at night we would put a space heater in our bedroom set the thermostat to 68° in the space heater would kick on and off appropriately. Here's a link to the space heater thermostat. https://amzn.to/3xBaVHO The next day we hooked up and drove South to Winchester Virginia. But on the way we saw Lindt chocolate factory outlet on 81 South in Pennsylvania. So we had to stop and pick up some delicious chocolates. Then we pulled into our house location. Met our host hooked up to their 50 amp. We then headed out to Old Town Charleston Virginia and walked for a bit. Then we stopped at James Charles winery. After that we headed back down to Old Town and enjoyed some live music at the Wine Room. We reached out to our host to see if they wanted to meet us there. They did and we had a great time conversating with them. And didn't get to bed till near 1am. Typically we are in bed at 1030pm lol.The next day we headed to Sky Meadows State Park. Wow. They had the best trail marking system we have ever seen. At every intersection the color coded trails were listed with the level of difficulty. We hiked 4 miles and loved it. Afterwards we hit a gas station, bought our National Park Pass and then an Aldi's then back to the rig to relax. We have the next 2 nights booked at wineries via Harvest Hosts. However we started talking and we thought about the need to make a purchase at the wineries which we usually do a bottle of wine and we would have to drive out of the park to the winery then drive into the park the next day versus staying in a campground in Shenandoah National Park. The next morning we said goodbye to our hosts and headed south. Our goal for the day was to do hikes in Shenandoah National Park. The campgrounds are first come first serve so we decided that morning we would drive through Skyline Drive and stop in at the campgrounds to see if there was vacancy. And there was. We dumped and got set up. We went to the visitor center and got info on hikes. We then hiked to a view and enjoyed sandwiches and a glass of wine. The next day we did a 4 mile hike to Rapidan Camp. This was developed to be the "Camp David" by President Hoover. Then we did a 3 mile hike up Hawksbill Mtn. Which is the highest peak in the Shenandoah National Park at just over 4,000'. Then back to the rig. Talk with a couple in the next site then took out the grill and had a great meal.The next day we headed south through the Shenandoah National Park I'm about 3 hours to Wirtz VA. For the next two nights will be here at a boondock was welcome location that has 15 amp. The next day was a was a cold rain-filled day so while Trish ...
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    52 min
  • S2 E74 Broken Awning and Bed Motor

    S2 E74 Broken Awning and Bed Motor
    Mar 23 2022
    Season 2 Episode 743/23/22I had gone to the RV show at Rockland county community college in suffern New York back in February. It seems like a lot of the new rigs out there are getting rid of valances and putting up curtains. It also seems like there's a lot more rigs out there with outdoor kitchens. Which got me thinking our first rig did not have one our second one does. And we don't use the outdoor kitchen very often. Also I noticed not one rig or camper had a topper on its slide. We love our toppers. I finished putting up the curtains in the living room which meant removing the valence and moving the light switch. A beautiful decision. Here's a link to the before and after pics https://www.facebook.com/277623782811787/posts/1115125672394923/I went to put out my awning and nothing. I then tried the over-the-cab bed also not working. All else working. Tried it on shore power, 12v batteries and generator. Same issues.I checked 12v fuses, all good. Are these 2 issues related? I'm sure they are. The first thing I did was I went to the fuse box the over the cab bed and the awning are on the same 15 and fuse. I tested the fuse and tested good but I replaced it anyway. Nothing. I called Thor support line. And so the headaches began. There was a recording that they were very overwhelmed and I wouldn't lose my spot and what I like a return call. I figured sure why not. Later that evening somebody was asking a question about Thor service so I told them my experience that I just mentioned. About an hour later I received a private message from a representative that Thor and she is assured me that she would start a ticket for me and have somebody call the next day. She also told me that I need to register the rig at Thor this way I can be notified of recalls etc. Here's the website she gave me to do that: warrantysupport@tmcrv.com The next day I did receive a call from a tech support at Thor. But for over an hour she had me looking for the over the cab bed controller. I couldn't locate it she said she would get back to me that afternoon. A couple hours later she emailed me that there is no controller and I needed to replace a relay I found four of them I took a picture of the one I thought it was. I emailed it to the tech and she said yes that's the one you need to replace. I went online I ordered it it arrived at the house a few days later. I swapped out the relay the problem continued. I emailed her back and let her know this and she had me hook up an amp meter to different connections on the relay and I emailed her the results. She's then conferred with another tech for a couple of hours and got back to me and said the relay I replaced was not the right relay. She sent me the description and a picture of the correct relay. That was inaccurate there was no other relay underneath the bed. I then sent her an email about my frustration because this has been going on for almost a week now. And I told her if she cannot resolve my issue I want to talk to the service manager. Well that never happened. So after 9 days of dealing with Thor tech I finally gave up. Our choices were to either bring it to a shop, Thor in Indiana, or call George Fry. If you listen to my previous episodes especially early on I've mentioned George's name a few times. George is a local mobile tech here in the Hudson Valley of New York. He helped us diagnose a problem with our solenoid operating our BCC battery control center on our last rig. When he found that problem he recommended we take it to four to have them fix it being a built it. And when our generator failed on our last rig he explained to me about finding the fault code and tracking down the problem while we were on the road near Canada. Here’s the episode where I talk about the BCC and Generator issue: https://www.spreaker.com/user/relaxrv/relax-rv-episode-5_1Then about a year later I burst my hot water heater here's a video on that.https://youtu.be/Ttkn2dYAh8YHe suggested at that time I order a water heater myself and once it arrived here he installed it without an issue. I've talked to George numerous times regarding my furnace that wouldn't light here's my video on that. George is a phenomenal resource. Here is his website: http://tlc-rv.com/ tell him I say hi. So when I gave up on Thor tech for this issue I called George he came over that afternoon. He explained to me that the relay that Thor tech said I needed to replace was not the correct relay. So he did some testing and come to find out that relay that Thor diagnosed as the culprit ran the macerator pump for our outdoor kitchen. SMH. He then started pulling out the switches for the bed and for the awning he traced wires. How he knew which wire to trace is beyond me I'm not an electrician. He then ran some jump wires to diagnose where the brake was. At that point he crawled underneath the rig found the wire that he needed to trace and traced it all the way from the front wheel on the passenger side to the back wheel on ...
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    44 min
  • S2 E73 Removing a valance and a lock

    S2 E73 Removing a valance and a lock
    Feb 20 2022
    Season 2 Episode 732/20/22Welcome to all you new listeners and welcome back to all you long time listeners. Each month the number of episode downloads just so thank you So I had just finished recording the last episode and I went to go move the RV so we could bring firewood from our backyard to our house. And the lock on the RV broke. I climbed in the window took it apart from the inside and here's a video of this easy way I removed this broken lock.https://youtu.be/NERHUQKgbNg On our last rig we had the same issue except I needed to disassemble the lock to get the door open so it took many hours here's what we did the first time on lock broke.https://youtu.be/qgLsNSM9mdg But, when the lock broke this time I just took a deep breath let it out and said I'll deal with it as it unfolds.So I ordered a replacement lock from etrailer, installed it in a few minutes, problem solved. However I contacted them about fitment and they didn't answer my questions. It is slightly smaller than the original and the only way to lock it from inside is with the deadbolt. Oh well. I started ripping out the valance in the living room. We had replaced the bedroom valances with curtains and loved it. So we figured we would replace the one in our living room too. For this room we went with a heavy insulated curtain. Why? When we sit in the recliners in the cooler temps we feel a draft so we figured why not. But, as always it's never an easy fix with a rig. When we bought this rig we had moved the light switch so Trish could reach it. I had mounted it on the valance LOL. So now I need to rewire that light switch again. It will be a surface mount light switch so I needed an extension box to hold the switch off of the wall. And it was no easy task finding a 3 way switch to work with the extension box. I also needed to get conduit channels to hide the wires. Now all the alterations that we needed have been delivered so in between our snowmobiling trips I've been working on the electrical switch movement. Next will be the removal of the valance, remounting the pull down shade to the wall and the installing the curtain rod. Speaking of snowmobile trips we went up to Forestport New York for a few days and loved it. https://www.instagram.com/p/CYujA6LprXs/?utm_medium=copy_link The reason we went upstate was there was no snow by us. We but then did a day trip to the Catskills for snowmobiling with the loved. We then went over to New Jersey to Ringwood State Park and did a day of snowmobiling there. I did a day of snowmobiling at Stuart field in Newburgh. And another day in Montgomery New York and The Promised Lands State Park in PA. Then we saw the Adirondacks was getting dumped on 11 inches of snow so we planned a 4-day trip to Lake George New york. https://www.instagram.com/p/CZp6XW5M3cF/?utm_medium=copy_linkWe realized our snowmobiling trips or much like our RVing trips. While are being if we stay in one area too long we get very bored so we've learned for us what works is two nights at any one location and then extended from there depending on how much to do in the area. So we cut Lake George short by one day so we spent three days instead of four there. And then in the middle of February we went up to Tupper Lake New York where we had four nights booked at an airbnb. But we changed it to three nights. Again a good choice. So now it's time to await more snow so it's back to the valance replacement. We are in the planning stages of our Spring trip in April to Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and who knows where else. Yay, we can't wait. Here’s a link to a short video explaining how we plan our trips https://youtu.be/m17giRxNVs0 So what do you do to help MANAGE your STRESS? Perhaps you or someone you know would benefit from listening to Stress Management Exercises? I have 3 FREE Stress Management recordings at https://relaxrv.org/help/If that ain't your thing, I have DISCOUNTS on my website to various RV related stuff.https://relaxrv.org/discounts/ I’ve made some videos about improvements and fixes I’ve done to the RV. Here’s a link to them on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzwH6GhSMBDJ7qKxsLng-TA Or you can watch them on my website at https://relaxrv.org/videos/Here’s a link to my RelaxRVPodcast Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Relax-RV-277623782811787/ I'm on Instagram as @relaxrvpodcast https://www.instagram.com/invites/contact/?i=hsxp0gjpugbz&utm_content=5h4872a My podcast can be found at https://www.spreaker.com/show/relax-rv-podcast If you would like to support my efforts to help others, please feel free to do so at:https://relaxrv.org/support/ Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something from one of our affiliates, we receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. Thanks for helping to keep our podcast running!
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    22 min
  • S2 E72 RVing the Peaceful Way

    S2 E72 RVing the Peaceful Way
    Jan 16 2022
    Season 2 Episode 72 1/16/22 RVing the peaceful wayHappy New Year everyone.We decided to install a heat strip in our roof AC. I saw that adding the heat strip wouldn't be too much work and not a ton of money. So I confirmed that our AC could be adapted. I had emailed Airxcel at rvpsupport@airxcel.com and gave them my AC model number, they replied the next day saying it could be modified with a heat strip but I would need to swap out out my controller and thermostat to have it work. They gave me the model numbers for the parts. So for $190 and about 2 hours of install work, we now have electric heat throughout our whole rig. Yay, that will save us a lot of money as compared to propane for our furnace heat.I learned this while installing the solar on my 1st rig:Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs- Henry FordI recently came across this gem of a book where I found that quote. 365 Quotes to Live Your Life By https://amzn.to/3t77fv8 It truly follows how I strive to live life. I created a friendly Facebook group for RVers, share and join if you like to share, learn and teach is a calm peaceful group. But without the drama, this group will never take off. https://www.facebook.com/groups/604984417456152/?ref=shareWe heard the upstate NY was getting a lot of snow. We thought about towing our snowmobile behind our rig and doing some camping while sledding. But the temps we going to be around -15 at night so we decided not to push our luck with our rig, so we rented a air bnb towed the sled behind our Subaru. We stayed at an AirBnB. Great host. We rode our sled (snowmobile) over 100 miles and loved it ! We booked another Airbnb in Tupper Lake New York and then another one in Pennsylvania over the next one month. Riding a snowmobile has a lot of learning curves just like rving. After all snowmobile is an RV LOL. We had her mishaps while riding like getting stuck in a pond after we broke through some ice and rolling over while going up the hill. Thank goodness no injuries to us or the sled.There are many times in life and in RVing that things don't go exactly as we hoped and planned. I believe that the key to happiness is flexible and accepting of situations that come up that we do not plan nor desire. I remember years ago passing a church and outside was a sign that said those who are flexible will not be bent out of shape. And that too reflects my philosophy on life. Now trust me I haven't been like this my whole life. There's a reason why I became a Stress Management consultant, I did not like the way stress was affecting me. And so I began the process of changing my reactions to stressors. All of this just happened to coincide with me becoming a nurse. As a nurse I could see the effects of stress on the body. I remember back in 2019 when in the middle of a cold night our furnace died and our batteries died. I took out my phone and I videoed what was going on with the rig and here's the link to that video, https://youtu.be/PzLN9qV0bu8 and a friend of mine watched that video and said he could see the despair on my face and he also said he would not have handled it so calmly. When he said that to me I reflected on how fast are stress response happens. It happened so fast to me in that video he could see the effects. However that night after making that video, I crawled into bed pulled up the down comforter and fell asleep. We cannot stop the instantaneous response to stress. But we can change how long that initial response lasts. This is why I encourage everybody to practice relaxation techniques. Here is a link to my free recordings Relaxrv.org/help One of the ways I've changed, is how I hike. When I first started hiking my Pace was fast to cover as many miles as possible. Through the years I've learned to slow down and enjoy just being present. Now some of my favorite time in the woods is when I cover the least amount of miles. That means my pace has slowed and I find myself more relaxed. I remember about 20 years ago, wow where did the time go? I was telling a co-worker about mountain biking in Harriman State Park in New York. She laughed and said did you go racing through the woods? And I said well I was very familiar with the trail so parts of it especially the downhills I was going really fast, but there are a couple of spots where I like to sit and reflect on that trail. So I was very happy to see when I returned to my car, that ride took me longer than usual because of all the breaks I took. She said, ha now that sounds like you, Pauly Wallie.. (which is what she liked to call me. Hi Lydia if you're listening. Now of course there are times that I do want to cover miles more quickly. I remember in 2018 when Trish and I were hiking and glacier National Park and we realized we were on the trail that was closed because of bear activity. Somebody or some animal had ripped down the signs at the trailhead. After hiking about two and a half miles I realized that this trail was actually ...
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    26 min