Our Little Guy Travels

This our spot at Hecla Junction. Not very far from home, but a nice spot right now. We imagine this cp ground will be packed with rafters and fishermen soon. This was a good shakedown cruise for us. We kept notes of all the stuff we need to remember on our trips.

Stuff on our list to remember

• Towels
• Small Boom Box (for speakers and AM/FM radio)
• Simon’s bathroom bag (brush, scissors)
• Personal bathroom kit
• Throw away old containers of butane and propane and replace with new ones
• Benadryl (just in case)
• Dog treats
• Flashlight for walking
• Dry coffee creamer
• Batteries, AAA & AA
• Water container (5 gallon self standing to fit next to cooler in galley)

A while back Beachman asked us what we use for a canopy. I mistakenly commented on the post where he asked rather than click on “Reply” to his comment. I think if we click on reply the commenter gets notified, so in this case he didn’t know I answered his question. Have to watch that in the future. Sorry, Beachman.

Here’s a copy of my comment: “We’ve found that while we stay one nite there’s not much need to set up a canopy, but if we’re going to stay more than one nite we use a 9×9 canopy. See this post https://ourlittleguytravels.com/2013/08/21/tried-an-overnighter/.”

We got our canopy from Walmart. I think it cost about $50 or $60. It was one of the cheaper ones. I wanted one that set up and tore down simply. I have no experience with others so I don’t know if this is one of the simpler ones, but it is pretty simple. It’s not very heavy and a bit smaller than others we looked at, but I thought lighter was better and it’s big enough. Here’s a picture of it in the container it comes with.

It’s 5′ long, which is why I was looking for a tongue box that was 5′ wide. Since it doesn’t fit in the box I strapped it to my bike rack on top of the car. It stayed there our whole trip without being used. I had anticipated using it during the 3 or 4 days we were to stay in Connecticut, but never did set it up.

John asked about the black box we have on the tongue of our LG. Here’s some pics.

I actually wanted one as wide as the LG. That way our canopy would have fit into it. We keep our folding chairs, small broom, backpacks, power cord, bags of tie downs and bungee cords, tools, camping stuff, spare bottles of propane. I got it from Murdock’s here in Salida. I think it’s made by DeeZee.

There were times on this trip we used Siri (the information assistant on Iphones) for help with directions etc. We found her (or him since I changed the voice to “male” on my phone) pretty helpful and then sometimes, not so much.  If we were looking for a town, he or she would direct us to the mid point of that town.  We followed the directions right into a neighborhood once wondering why we were going there.  If we were looking for Walmart or Cracker Barrel or a state park, we were directed right into the parking lot.  So we had to pay attention up to a point and then turn Siri off when we got close to our destination or we would end up not where we wanted to be.  Oh yeah, and if we decided to stop before the destination, Siri sort of freaked out and started demanding that we turn around, make u-turns or do something to get back on the course.  Pretty funny and we had a few laughs “messing” with Siri.

Made it home about 3:45. Here’s our LG still hooked up. Within minutes we had it unhooked and spun around into it’s parking spot. Unload was quick, especially remembering what it was like to unpack from a tent camping trip.

We spent 16 days and 15 nights on this trip. We are super happy with our ability to pretty much stop and sleep about anywhere. I think we’re going to compile some statistics, but mostly we stayed in Walmarts, and state parks. There was one night in a Cracker Barrel, a couple of different nights in truck stops, and three nights in my Mom’s driveway. Then there was that night at the Lehigh Velodrome which was more like staying in a state park. Truck stops are noisy, Craker Barrel felt unsafe, Walmarts were “well lit.” State parks felt safe, were quiet and peaceful, but cost a little.

Thanks all for following us and making comments!

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!

photo 115

photo 215

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.