Perseverance

[KCStudly]

Thanks.

 

[tomhawk]

So far the trailer is working out well for us. We have spent nearly a month and half camping various places. We have continued to have social interactions stimulated by folks who ask us about our trailer. In one case, it was challenging to explain things to a group of folks from Quebec who were not at home speaking english but I think they got the general idea.

Whatever direction you go on this, the hatch props need to lock it in the up position so a gust of wind doesn't catch it and take it over the top.

This is definitely a concern! The hatch is almost a parasail. Here is a quick and dirty fix that adds a lot of safety in moderate wind. It consists of nylon cords attached to the bottom hatch edge and to the trailer chassis. It is a nuisance to step around it so I only use it when there is some wind.

If a derecho strikes again, I would at least make sure the hatch is closed.

In a related hatch issue, note the horizontal ridges on the garage door in the above photo. I parked the trailer near the garage door. I opened the hatch for some reason and then must have backed the trailer a bit closer to the closed garage door. Not paying attention, I opened the garage door.
One of the horizontal ridges caught the edge of the opened hatch and ripped the hatch off its hinge.

I was able to repair things after applying some wood glue and screws so not a catastrophe.
My advice to my future self is: Don't do that!

 

[tomhawk]

This is an update on a forest service campground we stayed at in Nebraska I mentioned earlier. My beef with this campground was the ATVs that other campers incessantly rode around the area and produced a lot of noise. Except for the ATVs, I thought this was a pleasant campground.

I read that in time since we visited, one of these ATVs crashed and then ignited a fire that destroyed nearly 1/3 of the Nebraska national forest!

I suppose one could argue that the natural condition of the great plains area where this occurred is prairie land. Prairie is composed of mostly grasses that have in fact adapted themselves to periodically burn. This forest is composed of trees planted by the Forest Service during the last century that replaced this prairie. Maybe a forest in the middle of Nebraska is not meant to be.

Nonetheless, in the newspaper articles I read about this event no one seemed to think maybe ATVs have no place in a national forest either.

Tom