Smells Like A Little RV Park Etiquette

The very first time we were at a rv park I took the cap off the sewer pipe and threw down my tank hose and I thought it was ok. RV Newbie oops, not realizing if the wind is going away from my site and into the next they might smell the sewer. We've learned to wait till The tanks are full and need to be dumped. We also try to wait till the site next to me is away. NEVER! When their eating! There are special sewer fittings that keep the smell in if you hook up.

Foam rubber sewer seal. 

 What I've read and have heard is that if you wait till your tanks are full and you dump then you get a better flush from your tanks. You should never leave the black or grey tank open because the waste may not all get out. You are relying on the stuff to float and not stick to the sides. 

This is what we do, we wait and keep an eye on the levels of the tanks and when it's time,(usally for the 4 of us 2 days) we try to get it done when it's less busy or in the morning when nobody's next to us. 

1. We get our gloves on, hook up to the tanks outlet and sewer, we make sure everything is tight on the rig and drain. Don't want the sluge surprise!

2. We open the black tank till little or no water is coming out (we have a clear elbow to see. I know. Yuck! But it helps)

3.Then close black tank

4. Open grey tank this also cleans the hose that you're dumping through.

5. Close grey tank

6. Lift the hose while connected towards the sewer drain to get the rest of the waste water out. 

7. Unhook.

Great job we've just dumped the tanks.

To get a real good clean in the black tank they make a wand that hooks to a water hose (not your clean water hose) you slide down the toilet and it has two sprayers on it and it sprays the tanks walls. Some people fill there tanks 1/2 full and add ice and dump when they get to their next destination.  The clear elbow I was talking about has a sprayer on it that you hook up to a hose (again not your clean water hose) and it send a jet of water up to the black water tank. When using your toilet be sure to use a good amount of water. I know my kids don't so I add two bowl fills during the day. Just to keep everything from sticking.

 It's a gross job and it's one of those things we have to do if you don't want to use the parks facilities.  Take it slow and double check your connections and you won't have a messy site. This is the area for me that I don't want accidents (little funny there)  so I'm trying to get a routine down and Jenn is out there with me just in case something goes wrong and so she also knows how to do it if I'm ever not able to.  

Just remember to be considerate it's does smell, even on a windy day. Be courious to your neibours they're trying to enjoy the outdoors to. 

Safe Travels

C

* the reason for this blog is because we were at a park and just about everywhere we walked we got a wiff of sewer. It just so unpleasant. 

A lesson learned.

Well this weekend I learned not to forget or just get a cup with ice. When we arrived at the RV park my soda was warm...yup you know where this is going. I decided to put my can in the freezer, yes so I could have it after we visited the pool. Well we came back we started a fire,started playing ball and I FORGOT THE CAN!! Later that night I heard a pop in thought a ball had hit the camper or something fell in back and I saw nothing after checking it all out. The next day I was getting water to freeze to have cold water for the day opened the freezer door and guess what I saw OH YES! 

BOOM! 

I know we learn not to freeze a can of soda cause it may explode. What my lesson is I can't forget is  to not forget. Haha. My wife was nice enough to help me clean up this soda explosion. Maybe next time... I'll use ice in a cup. 

Safe, less messy Travels everyone. 

C

Down by Two Rivers

This trip took us to Roylton Minnesota to Two Rivers RV Park. 

Day1

Before we got to the park we just had to stop at 

Teasure City in Royalton

 it's about a mile past our exit but as kids Jennifer parents and my parents would stop there for a little treasure. There's usally something different to buy there. I picked up two shirts our son got a toy, and our daughter is into rocks so she got a treasure chest full. Jennifer decided against the bottled shark. 

  After we nab our booty we headed to the park do to a detour we had to go through some curvy roads which we all handled well and reacher our destination. It's at a dead end road so you're not going to miss it. When we arrived we were greated by fella at the gate you told us to give our license plate number to the check in and wait for the guy to show us to our site. I noticed plenty of trees younger ones and more mature trees. This park is in between well two rivers The Platte River and Missisippi it's on higher ground so flooding isn't a concern there is a lower area where you can camp but that was closed due to higher water concern. The majority of the park is on higher ground. The sites are fairly level grass sites (no mats), and spacious, fire pit, picnic table and full hook up. I always like to see how far the sewer hook from the site next to us is from our picnic table or fire ring is and it's about 16 or better feet. Just in case someone decides to open theirs it's nice to know you're not sitting on top of it. The garbage is across a parking lot well away from the sites, personally I like that. While we were setting up the bugs/bettles were jumping on us and just being a bear. We'd swat and stomp these things it was really terrible. Then we decided to walk the park and check out the playground which was really nice.

Once they saw the pool & kiddy pool it was on!

The pool 

This is the first time the kids got to hit the pool at a park. There's a kiddy pool that has to little fountains in them and it was about 1 1/2 feet deep.

 The kids found out if they plug on fountain with their feet they make the other one powerfu. It was a riot to see the other get an in suspected shot of water. The pool started to get some of those bettles floating around and I asked a lady what they are and she called them potatoe bettles. I've never heard of them till today.  After the pool we head back for some food. Just as the grill started warming up it started to rain. So I shut down the grill and Jennifer warmed up some brats in the microwave. The rain stopped and we decided to start a fire and have the newly found treat campfire cones.

We noticed that the rain knocked out those darn bettles and it was nice to sit by the fire. Then a small shower started and we headed back in. It stopped we went out and the rain shower came again. 

With off and on rain we decided to shut down and just go in and watch a movie for the rest of the night. 

Day 2

This morning we wanted to try something different thing in our dutch ovens, a Monkey bread and a egg bake. With the wind and the clouds looking like it's going to rain we weren't sure how this was going to turn out. We lite the coals anyway and got started.

The bread took about 45 min and the egg bake took hour and 15 min. Man the smell from the bread was amazing!! 

Times up on the bread and oh my was it good!! The top got crunchy and the middle soft like bread. We couldn't stop! Was there even going to be room for the egg bake which was the main meal.

At the end of cooking in the oven.

The second or eighth one, who's counting? Even our neibour liked them. 

Then the egg bake was done. We had to start another batch of coals the wind just was not in my favor today they burned quick. This was the first time doing both of these and we weren't disappointed. These will be on the menu from now on. 

It was a great start on day two at Two Rivers RV Park. After we cleanup we headed to the park to wear some of this great food off. I actually ran into one of my cousins here who has a season site. It was getting to be lunch time so we headed back to do some cleaning before my parents and brother came for a visit. (It's $5.00 per guest in to the campground) They brought us lunch which was awesome. We set up out canopy cause of a few rain drops. While we were hanging out our canopy blew over and got bent not the one attached to the rv but our portable one. The wind didn't seem a problem at the time we put it up. (Note to self stake it in)  and then the kids wanted to hit the pool again. This time we let them hit those slides and we let them go up and down as much as they wanted. When the kids finally had enough we headed back to relax and talk. Jenn and our son read a book while grandma and our daughter played go fish. My dad,brother and I stayed outside. The clouds started to move and they decided to get out while they could. We had to dump the tanks and just as we were the rain down poured! We got soaked. Then after about 10 minutes it cleared up. This is been an on and off weekend as far as the rain. We decided to grill those burgers. What would rving be without burgers and beans. The salad is just to even things  out.

 To end day two we started the last 5 pieces of wood we had and just relaxed. The kids and Jennifer hit the park one more time and when they got back glow stick time. Then it was off to bed it was a busy day.

Day3

Dump & Roll

We took our  time on the last day since check out wasn't till 3:00 but we were going to leave a little earlier than that. It was a beutiful day out but the wind was still blowing heavy. We got up cleaned a little, ate some left over monkey bread and egg bake. Then we headed to the park, the kids love the firemans pole. Then we went back to the site picked up and did the usual dump and roll. We always do walk around make sure nothing is left behind and make sure that the compartments are closed. The wind on the way home way crazy it felt like we were all over the place. When we got home we unloaded and clean the inside of the rv, and all before 3:00. This was a very fun trip and we'll definetly be back to Two River RV Park. Check it out at. 

http://tworiverscampground.net/

Safe travels 

Campfire Cones

We saw this online and had to give it a try. 

What you need

Sugar Cones (I'd use waffle cones next time)

Chocolate chips

Marshmallows

Bananas 

Tinfoil 

Now you most definetly can add more. Some friends suggested carmel. You could add nuts different fruit or really whatever else you could think of. We got the campfire going and they had a swing grill on it so it was a little bit easier to warm them. I let them sit above the fire for about 5 min just to melt the chocolate and marshmallows. My family loved them we will be experimenting with more add in on the next trip. Have fun and safe travels everyone

We took a gamble in Hinckley

Day 1

We loaded up and headed out to

Hinckley Minnesota, to the Hinckley Grand Casino. We wanted to try this park well yes the casino but also we've heard good things about the rv park. We took highway 101 to highway 23 to interstate 35 right to the casino. The road through Mora is really bumpy and we didn't care for that very much. The kids of course slept through the whole ride which is ok. 

   We arrived at the park around 6:00 pm it's about 2 hours for us to get there. We checked in and found our site. This was the first time backing into a site for me so Jennifer jumped out to give me another set of eyes as we parked. The site is a level asphalt spot with a picnic table and a fire ring with a grill on the pit,

 the usual hook ups water,sewer and electric. A new feature for us was cable! I now see why people buy those portable satiilite dishes it's nice to have a little variety. There's about 5 feet between the picnic table area and the other site. There sewer and hook ups are to the left of that about 8 feet from the table which is alright. There are some trees around the park and some ponds with fish in them. Which if our state bird wasn't the mosquito it might be a great spot to get next time, unless they don't  spray for them. 

   We had dinner & went to the small kids park they have.

 They've got a rock climbing wall for the kids which was great to watch my little guy climb over the wall.

 We forgot to stop at the firewood are and grab the firewood and I went in and told the checking lady and she got someone to grab it for me so we decided to have a little campfire and relax. About 9:00 that evening I decide to walk the grounds and check it out. There's a bath house with vending machines and a path that leads to the casino. I mapped outy walk around the park and it clocked in at over a mile of road. I believe I saw 400 sites. Time for bed. 

Day 2

We got up and headed out. We promised the kids we'd hit the arcade the next day after breakfast. They have a shuttle that will pick you up when you put up your flag next to your number at your site *free and bring you to the casino. We got to the casino and had a big breakfast and head into the arcade. I love arcades that give you tickets and the kids love it to. This was a great arcade plenty of games for any age. I personally liked Sixgun Select, cause it had Fast Draw on it. 

We turned in the tickets and got the kids prizes and candy then the kids and I headway back on the shuttle to the rv park and Jenn stayed at the casino for some adult arcade time. The guy from the site next to us lent us his bounce ball game and we talked for a bit. Found out on Labour Day his trailer blew a tire and it broke from his truck and the trailer rolled and was totaled. So scary! After we played that and Jenn came back and we all just hung out for a while. Then my son and I decided to go try and find a geocach while we were here only to get skunked but still had fun walking the grounds. We just laid low for the rest of the day and then headed back to the casino to eat dinner and hit the arcade again. We had a beutiful day and a lot of fun. To end the day we tried these cone filled campfire treats. They were good. 

A fantastic way to end a fun trip. Sunday will be the normal dump & roll and can't wait for the next one. Be sure to check out Hinckley Casino RV Park when you're in Minnesota or need a little getaway. 

https://www.grandcasinomn.com/grand-casino-hinckley/where-to-stay/rv-resort-and-chalets.aspx

Till next time safe travels everyone.

C

 

Whatzee? Munzee!

What the heck is a Munzee

It's a QR Code. 

What the heck is a QR Code?

QR code noun

trademark

noun: QR code; plural noun: QR codes

1. a machine-readable code consisting of an array of black and white squares, typically used for storing URLs or other information for reading by the camera on a smartphone.

   "they were the first retailer here to offer QR codes in their advertising"

   
   

   

   I'm always looking for fun stuff to do with the kids either after work or on our trips. Much like geocaching it's a scavenger hunt to find these codes. Some are hidden really well & actually if your looking for a geocach there can be some Munzees close by. Which adds to the fun. I use my iPhone and if we're at a park or camping I'll pull up the map for both just to see what's out there and usually there's a lot. As with geocaches you can deploy your own and seeing that there small you can place them anywhere. You can print your own or buy them. There's other stuff like that you can buy of course it costs $30 for a year. Since I've always got my iPhone with me it didn't seem that bad when you stumble on one and you just scan it with the app and you get points. You get points when you capture,deploy & when someone captures your Munzees. 

   Whats on the app? 

   There's a map of where Munzees are located it uses your GPS so have a spare battery. A achievement page of badges and special Munzees you've caught. Your capture page were you scan Munzees you find and a page for your Munzees, ones you've deployed. It's fun it gets you out and walking around searching.

   Our First Capture

   We were hanging out at one of our parks here and my son and I decided to look for a geocach so we were walking and there was to many muggles around. I decided to turn the Munzeeapp on and there was on just a few feet from us. So the hunt was on we searched little while and there it was the code. (Location won't be compromised) we both were pretty excited when we found it.  

   It's nice to add to the arsenal of fun stuff to do outside. So go check it out at

   http://www.munzee.com/

   and have some fun!

Graduation Stay on The Zumbro River

We had two graduations this year my neice and my nephew down in Zumbrota Minnesota. We decided to try out Shades of Sherwood outside of Zumbrota on the Zumbro River

http://www.shadesofsherwood.com/

We had heavy traffic on the way down which was ok the kids decided to take a nap and Jenn and I got talk on the way down. Just off of Hwy 52 down a wooded dirt road as you approach the park to the to the right is a big swimming pool with bouncy stuff in it which I heard is deep so you you can jump in it. As we pulled into the main enterance of the park there's the office and we noticed a second heated pool, a bounce house, mini golf, a bounce bubble thing and a ton of kids on peddle cars. The road in paved for most of the way and then turns to dirt, found our site which was all grass with a fire ring. We backed into the site so the campfire was just outside the door.To Jenns credit she guided me in straight & level.

 We quickly ran off to our nephews graduation. When we left the graduation we headed back and started a campfire and relaxed. We all slept in on Sat, when we finally got up we noticed nobody parked next to is so we kinda had a big yard to play which was really pleasent. In front of our site was a berm that lead to more sites on the river. My son and I walked down the the river and took a look at it. 

The River video

http://youtu.be/GpZ8BnN1m5E

At the end it was calm but as you walked up it ran faster and I noticed some site backed right up to it. I almost fell asleep standing there listening to it. We headed back and had lunch with the girls then we went to the park.

 I would've liked to have a place to sit. Still the kids had fun. My sister in law and our niece were coming over so we set up the outside kitchen (my kitchen ha)

 we were having Bacon Wrapped Chicken from the dutch oven. My favorite way to cook next to the grill. We ate the. It was time for s'mores!!! 

Then it was time to back up we heard bad weather was coming and knew that we weren't going to be lucky at night or Sunday morning. Man were we right, at 12:30 am the lightning & thunder was crazy the rain was coming down hard. I'll i could think about was that river until the lightning seemed to be real close. Not having bought a surge protector yet I decide to run out and unplug from the park. No air conditioning was fine with me as long as nothing shorted out....or fried. We were fortunate just as we were cleaning up the tanks hit full both black & grey. With the four of us we get two days on the tanks. Which we found pretty good. We still want to see how much clean water we use in two days just to experiment and see. We'll try it when we are at a full hook up place. All in all the weather held out till Sunday and stopped raining when we were headed back. I'm looking forward to the next adventure.. Two Rivers in Royalton MN.

Geocaching

So last year in the fall I found a neat hobby that we could do on our walks it's called geocaching. What is a geocach you ask. It's can vary in size from micro to a ammo size box with trinkets.

 They will always have a log in them so they know you found it and you go to geocaching.com and log it in. You can use your phone or a GPS to find these treasures. I use my iPhone so I can log it in right away. You can get a beignet account for nothing with just a few caches or 30.00 for a full year membership with all the caches and the app for my phone cost 10 so 40 dollars in total but I find it worth it. 

This weekend it was beautiful weather 40-50's so we had to get out and walk and find some caches. These were mostly just log ones where you write down your handle & date which can be tricky to find.

 

One was a drilled out log with the cach it. With the snow finally melting we plan to find some large caches which I think will be more fun for the kids. It's really a great thing to keep your walks more interesting & gets you to see some places you may never get to. Caches are everywhere we actually had one at the end of the block so their close. Want something fun to do try 

Update: as of this spring we are at 12 caches and we've had a blast doing it. This spring we hit it hard while the bugs and Mosquitos weren't out and it's taken me the adult it the sides of hills. It's very very fun, I love to see the faces of my kids when they find one.  Geocaching  http://www.geocaching.com/

Wonder if there's on other outside treasure hunting game out there.....

Lake Maria State Park MN a small hike?

We didn't take the rv to Lake Maria State Park http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/lake_maria/index.html we actually drove the truck, it's not to far from the house. We've been meaning to get to this park for awhile but had to wait for the kids to get a little older cause we didn't know what the trails were like. One weekend we decided to head out not for a long walk, (so we thought) and just see how the park is. It's actually really nice with wide dirt trails moderate hills

and pleanty of water for frogs, birds,turtles  and loons.

 We headed in and we decided to just do a loop (so we thought).  My kids after seeing a map decided to go see the lake they didn't realize how far it was but we decided to keep going. When we can down the hill to the lake was a dock and canoes that were padlocked up also a bench and a picnic table to use. We sat and watched a loon and his buddies swim around and catch some food. 

 After a little rest we hiked on followed the trail out. There are primitive campsites all around with a food box, picnic table, and a campfire ring with a swing grill on them. There are outside primitive outhouses. One cool thing I found out is they have small cabins to rent. The running toilets and water are in the resources building near the parking lot. We definitely will go back out there for a outing next time we'll pack a lunch and toilet paper. 

Belly Tree, I found my nature brother. 

Just thought a close up was cool. 

Time to go

We finally made plans to take it to the campground that we stayed at last year, St. Cloud Clearwater Campground, http://www.time2camp.com/ and make sure there wasn't going to be anymore surprises. We like this park because it close and if anything were to happen my parents live in town so we've got another place to stay. We got here early this year they were fixing the pool and putting in a new mini golf course. They have pedal carts for the kids and a playground. We pulled in on Friday evening set up and had dinner. We usually just hang out that first night. We got up Saturday morning and decided to go for a walk to the Clearwater River. We took the bike/walking path.

We had to walk on the county road just a short distance to get to the start of the path. 

It is a really nice paved path to the damn. When we got there was a bunch of peopl fishing in the river. I use to bike down here with a school friend of mine when I was much younger and they actually cleaned it up since then. They have picnic areas and brige that goes to a small park.

It was a really nice day to go exploring. Here's a video of Clearwater River 

http://youtu.be/i9RyIxwcAIA

We headed back because we heard that there maybe some weather coming in and we didn't want to be caught in it. Here's a time-lapse video of the walk back. http://youtu.be/RbmMmqKdWl4

When we got back we all kinda crashed my daughter passed out in the back I fell asleep in my wife's reclining chair and Jenn and my son just hung out. It was time to eat we started the campfire 

And we roasted hot dogs we felt a few warning drop of Mother Nature and headed in. Just as we were eating it down poured for maybe 30 minutes. They campfire was still going so we decided if it stops it's s'more time. It stopped it's time to eat again.

After the s'mores we just hung out by the campfire and just stare at it, it's the best reality tv there is. We turned in a little early slept in on Sunday. After breakfast we cleaned out the RV and drain the tanks. Then we look around the site to see if we left anything do the walk around  to make sure all the doors are closed and  make sure that antenne is down. What a great start to 2014! Next trip is to Shades of Sherwood in Zumbrota Minnesota. http://www.shadesofsherwood.com/

For my neice and nephews graduation parties. Hope it doesn't rain.........

A little TLC after a hard winter.

Man the winter was terrible! First we had some of the coldest days in Minnesota in awhile and then of course the snow seemed to never stop and all we could think about is travel and finding campgrounds. When it was finally time to go get it the snow was gone and we had great weather. We didn't dewinterize it till a few weeks later. Cause of a late snow fall we had we thought we'd wait.

We decided to dewinterize it and open it up. When we got the slides out we saw what the winter has brought our new six wheel cabin, a linoleum split from the kitchen to almost to the cab. YIKERS!!!

Called for Jenn to come in and give it a look and we sat and gave it a thought. We decided to go to the hardware store and grab some liquid nails and glue it down. We glued it down and placed some bricks on it and didn't take them off till midday the next day. We were surprised how well it turned out.

We will add a rug over the spot just so nobody clips an edge and peels it up. All and all the winter wasn't to hard on the motorhome just that one little tweak. We feel we may have lucked seeing that the winter was rough. We did bring it to Campingworld for a inspection and got a few thing taken care of but that's cause of normal use. Now we have our first stop if the year......

RVing Josie's idea?

One day after I picked up the kids from daycare my daughter saw a camper and said to me Daddy we need one of those and go camping. My wife and I have looked at them not seriously but looked at them non the less. So the next week one mentioned to Jenn what my daughter had said. Then we started looking at floor plans, types and what we wanted in the motorhome. We were at a local Rv lot and were looking at used ones and we saw a new 2014 Winnebago with BUNKS! At this point bunks were a must. We looked and looked for used ones to no luck for at least a week or so and then online there it was. The soon to be six wheel cabin a 2008 Winnebago Access 31J low miles & BUNKS!

So we headed over to that lot and it was gone, rented to a family for their vacation they tried to get my wife to see another one and she said no we want to see the 31J, and said we'll be back. A week later it all started, we went and saw it with the kids and we all liked it. Then came the adult part of the adventure negotiation and planning which is never the greatest part but it's a must. We got the payments where we we were comfortable and a week later we picked it up. We only got to take it out four times in 2013 and we didn't go far just because it was so new to is and we wanted to learn se of the ins and outs of the motorhome. The first black water tank (poop holding tank) was the most careful I think I've ever been. It's a scary process the first time but after the turd one it's a lot easier. Then unfortunately it was time to put it away for the winter. We had birthdays and school to get ready for. I winterized it the best in could had a buddy come over and check it out then we brought it to our families for storage for the winter. What a winter it was....