Honeymoon Week Two: Douthat State Park

After much deliberation, we decided to head south into George Washington National Forest to spend some time in the mountains and hopefully see some awesome stars.  Douthat State Park had a lot of recommendations and had hookups, RV friendly spots, and things to do with the dog.  Luna was SUPER excited to come with us this time:

I was a bit nervous about driving through the mountains, but the route we choose was pretty straight and avoided the steep grades and switch-backs nearby.  

We were in the Whispering Pines Campground, which is far away from the rest of the park and other camping loops.  All the sites were far from each other, with a large gravel pad, picnic table, and campfire ring.  It was really quiet and peaceful.  

We spent the week exploring the park, hiking trails, and relaxing.

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Curtains, and a Toasted Wall

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We returned to pick up the dog from the care of my parents, and Dan decided to build the bathroom wall/headboard over the weekend while I figured out where to go next.  

Dan got some cedar boards, and gave them a toasted finish.  First, he cut the boards to fit the space.  Then, he used a blowtorch to char the surface of the wood.  To bring out the texture and character of the wood, you want to burn deep enough that you get some good blistering on the top layer.  Finally, he used a wire wheel on his drill to scrape away the soot, and we were left with a beautiful deep brown color and nice wood grain texture.  So pretty, and instead of smelling like wood stain, our house smells FANTASTIC!

We've got a curtain up for a door right now, but soon Dan will be building a real door (design pending...) You can also spot the curtains I made in this  picture, and our amazing handmade quilt that was a wedding gift from Dan's mom.

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It had been super bright in the mornings, and while I love the light during the day, I wanted a way to cover the windows at night.  There's also that issue of living 10 feet from your neighbors, or right on the street that makes curtains essential.   The curved wall of the Airstream made curtains particularly challenging.  We didn't want any hardware to stick out too much, or curtains to be so long that they would drape on our future kitchen counter top.  In the end, I got a light-blocking curtain panel from Target, cut it up, hemmed the edges, and then installed snaps on the four corners.  We bought this snap kit from Amazon, and had more than enough for the three windows.  

When we got back, we had a pile of packages, most of which were wedding gifts from our wish list (thanks everyone!) One of the first things I did was vacuum all that $%*& sand out of the house.  We are super excited to use all our new things next week with electric hook-ups, a working fridge, AC, and the dog! 

Luna says: Let's go! 

Luna says: Let's go! 

 

Our Maiden Voyage: Cape Henlopen State Park, DE

Dan and I have both taken off about a month to spend some time together NOT doing work, exploring the great outdoors, and testing out living in the airstream.  Dan has been working non-stop to have the airstream be road legal with a passed inspection and registration, but we still have a few months of work to go before everything is completed.  By the wedding, we got the floor, woodstove, bed, toilet, and curtains finished.  The AC and fridge are also in and work when we have an electric hookup, but otherwise, it's a big fancy metal tent.  For our first trip, we packed up and drove out to Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware.  

Cape Henlopen is at the corner of Delaware, right where the ocean meets the bay.  It's about 15 minutes from Rehoboth beach and historic Lewes.   The park is an old military base, with two beach areas, lots of bike trails, dunes, and pine forest.  Cape Henlopen is dog friendly for camping, even allowing dogs on the beaches!  We weren't sure what to expect on this trip, so we left the dog at home this time.  :(  We'll bring her if we come back again. 

We got over to the park a bit later than we hoped, but were able to catch this awesome sunset on the longest day of the year:

Sadly, the weather was not as cooperative for a week at the beach as it had been for our wedding (pics coming soon).  On Tuesday we saw three thunderstorms, and Thursday called for the same thing.  Temps stayed around 80 all week, not quite warm enough for us to go swim in the ocean, but otherwise very pleasant! Tuesday and Wednesday we hung out at the beach until Dan got tired of all the biting sand flies (who were ignoring me).  Dan also attempted to install some screens in our windows with limited success.  On Thursday we caught a movie and drove over to a local Starbucks to soak up some WiFi and charge everything up while placing an Amazon order for a few essentials.  We also poked around Rehoboth, found an awesome coffee shop in Lewes, and got ice cream at a dairy farm. 

Things we've learned:

  • We need a vacuum.  The sand got EVERYWHERE, and no matter how much I swept, it kept coming back.  
  • We are super reliant on our electronics and the internet.  With just a tiny battery and no electric hook-ups all week, our phones, computer, and other gadgets were left uncharged so we could run more important things like the lights and the fans.  Dan even tried to power the airstream battery with his truck, but it didn't work.
  • There are zero Targets in Delaware.  Zero. 
  • Dan is apparently super attractive to sand flies.  I'd be jealous, but mosquitoes feel the same about me. 

We are very grateful for our new hitch (thanks parents!) Didn't blow off the Bay Bridge! 

Also, Luna was very happy to see us again. We'll be taking her on our next week long trip out to the mountains!  Stay tuned!

Umbilical Replacement

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Something had to go wrong at the last minute, and here it is.  Plugged in to test drive and my running lights don't work.  Turns out the truck end of the umbilical is corroded and falling apart.  You can purchase a new umbilical locally, but it doesn't include the bit that plugs into the trailer.  I was able to reuse my old one, but if you need a new one, VTS has them here.

1974 Airstreams did not use the same wiring convention as current 7-way plugs, so you need to ignore the directions on the back of the plug, and wire like so:

The above picture uses a standard RV cord.  But not all cords use the same color conventions.  In fact, the standard 7-way cable and the extreme cold weather 7-way cable from VTS are both different from the one I used, and both different for each other.

Looking at the back of the trailer side connector (as pictured above) with the notch facing up, here's where the wires go:

POSITION    FUNCTION    AIRSTREAM   MY CABLE   VTS STANDARD   VTS EXTREME

CENTER       (+) AUX           BLU                BLK               ORG                    RED

12 o'clock     (-) GND          WHT               WHT             WHT                     WHT

 2 o'clock     REVERSE        BLK                YEL               PUR                      BLU

 4 o'clock     BRAKE            YEL                 BLU               BLU                      BLK

 6 o'clock     L TURN           RED                RED               YEL                      YEL

 8 o'clock     RUN/TAIL       GRN                GRN               BRN                     BRN

10 o'clock     R TURN         BRN                BRN               GRN                      GRN