Making coffee in the LG

We are admittedly coffee junkies so in the morning we want it NOW. We use a jetboil left over from our motorcycle camping days to heat the water and a French press to make it strong like we like it. Mmmmm good! And fast too!

Another Walmart

Walmart lots seem safe and they’re super convenient. We’d rather get groceries than eat in a restaurant. If you prefer restaurant eating then Cracker Barrel lots might be better.

We’re drawn to the grassy spots along the parking lot. Gives Simon a place to lay down outside of the car or Little Guy cab.

Deadbolt Problem

Needed to take the lock and handle mechanism apart on one of the doors today. Seems like the deadbolt key receiver is jammed with something in it so the key won’t slide in. Sort of like the pauls are misaligned or something. Also it won’t turn from the inside latch either.
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I called Edward at the LG factory before I started taking it apart (Susan made me call first). He told me it’s happened before and the only way to fix it is to install a whole new handle. It is possible, however to take it apart from the inside and move the deadbolt to the unlocked position. Edward is sending a new handle and locks to our Salida, Colorado address. For the rest of the trip that door won’t be able to be locked while we are inside. Guess if we’re someplace scary we lock it anyway and just use one door. Last night we found it was kind of inconvenient to have to climb over each other to get to the one good door.

Forgot to say make sure to remove that striker plate on the end of door first before the screws on the inside.

Door lock is stuck

Something is wrong with one of our Little Guy door bolt locks. The key only goes in half way, and the latch inside won’t unlock it either. It’s dark now so we’ll have to try and fix it on the morning. Anybody seen this before?

Made it to Mom’s

Susan tells me we forgot to mention our destination, Terryville, Connecticut at my Mom’s house. It’s the central location where my sisters and brother-in-laws sort of congregate.

Frankly when left Salida, Colorado we didn’t know our blog would actually be followed by real people. We just kind of thought of our blog as a sort of travel log for journal of our own trip with our new Little Guy. We didn’t know Joe and Scott were going to make us famous by putting our blog address on The Little Guy Facebook page. Now we’ve got followers wanting to know what’s up because we haven’t posted in a few days. That’s okay. We’ll just have to keep ya’ll updated and let you know when there’s going to be a dead space for a little while. We’ll be back on the road tomorrow afternoon with regular posts as we head back to Salida.

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This is where we’re parked for the last few days. It’s right outside my mom’s house. She said we could sleep inside the house, but we hated to have the family shift around and we actually are very comfortable sleeping in the Little Guy. Nice quiet nights and convenient.

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Trying to figure out a way to keep the windows open just a little bit rather than the whole way up. They don’t have enough friction in the sliding mechanism to hold them up just part way. I stuck this small plastic box as a block to hold it open enough to keep the ventilation going. We found out that they mean it when they recommend ventilating the cabin while sleeping. Condensation will build up on the windows and the star gazer window which can drip onto your head. I’m thinking it would be great to have an intake vent somewhere other than having to open the windows.

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Got to help my brother-in-law winterize their camper trailer. It took hours! Made me glad we’ve gone the small tear drop route.

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That’s Simon on the pool covering. He’s not supposed to be there and we had a hard time keeping him out of the water. Can’t let him in the backyard unsupervised; we’re afraid he might fall though. Uggg.

Best shower ever … Almost

We stayed in this resort campground for the peace, quiet and hot showers. The morning was chilly and clear – this is what the lake in front of the bathhouse looked like when I got there.

This is the front of the bathhouse – The light was hitting it just right. I was luxuriating in the hot water running through my hair when I realized I had forgotten my bar of soap and MY TOWEL! Damn! I spent the rest of this awesome shower wondering how I was going to dry myself off and my hair too before stepping out in the cold air. I also left my hair dryer in the LG. There was a turbo hand dryer that worked pretty good and just then Rick showed up. He too had forgotten his towel so he went back for it and my hair dryer . My hero! Needless to say, I still enjoyed the shower and clean styled hair all day.

This is the drive out of the resort. Beautiful grounds and a great nights sleep!

Tip: Don’t forget your towels.

Tried an Overnighter

Recently we thought we’d try using our Little Guy trailer a little differently. We’d just spend an evening somewhere in a campground near a hiking trail. Spend the evening relaxing then in the morning be near a hike we’d like to do.

The campsite set up quickly.  Just back in the Little Guy, unhook and put into position near the picnic table, open up the back, set up the awning, and voila!

Next morning we were able to be at our trail head nice and early. Enjoyed the great Colorado outdoors. We were home by 2 o’clock.

Shade/Blind Solution

IMG_5747I kind of discovered a solution to our need for blinds inside our Little Guy. In the car one day I was setting up the sun shades in the car windshield. We’d been wondering if we should order those blinds they sell on the Little Guy website store. As I set up the windshield shades I said to myself, “Hey, these might work inside the Little Guy!” As soon as I got home I tried to see if I could make them stand up somehow against the inside of the doors. The ones we have for the Subaru are just about the right size to completely cover the inside of the Silver Shadow doors. Cool! They’re even silver on one side so they match color perfectly. Still I was wondering how we could make them stay. Velcro, sew a button hole, hang a little string loop . . . ? But as we started to use them we found that one side fit into the handle of the door and the other side pushed up against the cup holder. Voila! They stay in position nicely while the door is closed. They can even be slid up or down to allow for ventilation or peeking out the bottom of the door. Also if you need to escape quickly they don’t impede the handles, so you can just open the door without a hitch. True, if you open the door, you have to reset the shade, but it’s so easy that it’s not an issue. Just pull it off, throw it to the foot end of the bed. Then when you get back in just put it in place.