Journal — The Greatleys

After our time in Vermont, with a quick visit to Montreal to grab some poutine, we headed back to Baltimore to get a few odds and ends finished up on the Airstream.

On the way back, we stopped in Ithaca again because ... well ... why wouldn't you stop in Ithaca if you have the chance? It's gorgeous.

While backing into our spot, I managed to jackknife the trailer a bit and tweak our fancy ProPride hitch. Notice the frame bracket under the tongue is a little off-center and one of the spring bars is bent.

I took some pictures and fired off an email to Sean Woodruff at Propride at 5:47 PM on a Sunday, not expecting to hear back until Monday. No rush, since we booked a week at the campground. 5:57 PM, he sends me an email back, confirming my suspicions, "Yes, just center the frame bracket and you'll be all set... A bent spring bar will work fine." Fifteen minutes with some wrenches and I had the frame bracket centered and the bolts re-torqued.

I can't say enough about how good my experience with the ProPride hitch has been. I have never experienced such incredible customer service as I have consistently gotten from Sean. And the hitch itself tows like a dream -- I'm not even sure I know what trailer sway even feels like.

We took a short walk around Cornell's campus, which turned out to be continuous waterfalls for a good half mile.

I've been studying my National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms (note: that's an affiliate link -- if you buy, I might make a small commission) for the last few months, and have finally gained the confidence to actually eat some wild mushrooms.

These are all edible mushrooms, though I didn't harvest and eat all of them.

I also found some mayapples. Too early to harvest, unfortunately.

I did harvest and eat these chanterelles.

Back in Baltimore, and it's straight to work on some Airstream projects, and continuing to downsize our possessions.

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I mounted two Surecall Omnidirectional antennas on the Airstream -- one for our Pepwave Soho router that we'll be using for a wifi repeater, and one for our weBoost Drive 4GX-RV cell phone signal booster. These should help Leanne and me work on the road with fewer interruptions. I plan on also purchasing a Verizon jetpack at some point to complete our digital connectivity setup.

If I had planned this better, I would have installed the antennas when I had the interior skins out, and I could have run them inside with the solar wiring. As it stands, though, the combiner box is all sealed up, so the best spot to penetrate the roof is going to be just above my electronics cabinet in the bathroom. I used this entry plate, stainless screws, and a ton of Sikaflex 221 to seal the roof penetration around the two wires. It's not the seamless install that I'd like, but it's not easy to see from the ground, and I'm confident it won't leak.

I also built and installed the range hood cabinet with the Camec range hood that I picked up from eBay, shipped from Australia.