Welcome
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Back to School
My vest-making projects came to halt in late July, when I enrolled in an online course “Introduction to Photoshop.” My previous attempts to use Photoshop had been unsuccessful, despite doing the tutorials and watching YouTube videos, so my husband suggested I look for a class. The course was offered by www.ed2go.com through my local community college.
Little did I know that the class would pretty much take over my summer—I spent many hours completing each of the twelve lessons; however, I can honestly say that I learned a lot and now love creating artwork in Photoshop.
I knew from my past attempts to use Photoshop that some of the basic concepts were layers and masks. These features allow you to combine elements from different photos while leaving the original photo unchanged. I learned how to create a basic photo composite and then added complexity by applying various effects (filters) and adjustments. For example, when creating a composite you would need to add shadows to make the picture look realistic.
My primary goal was to improve the pictures on my blog and create a portfolio of my hand-made items. I found that many of my pictures had distracting backgrounds. By the end of July, I could successfully replace the backgrounds and create simple composites for my post A Year of Vests.
Other topics included photo editing and retouching, color theory, and the difference between raster and vector images (graphic files that are infinitely scalable, while raster files are composed of pixels so resolution is lost when scaled up in size). My favorite topic was digital painting, which I used to create virtual costumes for our dogs, which you can read about in my post Happy Halloween! I recently started using my new skills to design custom greeting cards for friends and family, as well as our annual Christmas card.
One of my other goals was to develop a new logo. I purchased my crown logo from Fiverr earlier this year, but I wanted to create a new logo that would combine the various elements of my website/blog. My new logo design started with the traditional railroad crossing signal (to focus on my father’s ALCO books I have for sale in my On Track Publishers Book Store). I created a more abstract design by eliminating the R R and replacing the yellow and black with custom colors to represent my interests in cross-stitch and quilting. I chose a triadic color theme using the mauve color from my crown logo. I am gradually introducing my new design to my blog and social media accounts.
About halfway through the class my new Apple MacBook Air finally arrived, so that made the class even more fun!
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Happy Halloween!
Virtual Halloween Costumes created using Adobe Photoshop During the past few years I have made very elaborate Halloween costumes for our three dogs. In 2019, our groomer wanted to turn Topper into a unicorn. She decorated Daisy as a rainbow, and I resurrected my rainbow costume I had made nearly 40 years ago.
In 2020 we adopted our third dog, Bear, and I was inspired to turn the dogs (and willing family participants) into Care Bears. My groomer also helped by painting the dogs and making the headpieces.
In 2021 I continued the Bear theme, this time recreating Winnie the Pooh (our nickname for Bear is actually Pooh Bear). I used a combination of store bought and hand made costumes. As you can see, no one (but me) looked too happy in costumes.
Halloween 2019 was a rain-out and there were no trick-or-treaters in 2020 and 2021 due to the Pandemic. Furthermore, most of the neighborhood kids have moved out or left for college. So this year, I decided to skip the hassle of dressing the dogs and posing for pictures by creating virtual costumes to post on Instagram, Facebook, etc.
Over the summer I had completed an online Photoshop class offered by ed2go.com through my local community college. I basically wanted to learn how to make composites for my blog, but the 12-lesson course was very comprehensive and I enjoyed learning a variety of techniques, such as digital painting and photo restoration. I particularly enjoyed digital painting, so I thought I would incorporate this technique into my Halloween costume design.
Our final assignment was to create a portfolio with a sampling of the projects we completed during the class, as well as any of our own work. My portfolio is available at https://behance.net/kingontrack.
During my online class, I learned about a website called Pixabay.com to search for free images (see note below). I searched “Halloween background” and downloaded the pumpkin image. I also searched on “haunted forest” for additional background ideas. Which background do you prefer?
For instructions click here.
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The Blog is Back!
After taking a break from blogging about our adventures (and misadventures) with our 2015 Roadtrek E-trek, I decided to reinvent my blog with a focus on my other interests, which include sewing, quilting, and scrapbooking, I have included the old blog posts, since RV travel remains very popular (although not for us) and people may still be looking for information about the E-trek. According to RV Lifestyle, there will be a huge demand for used RVs in 2021.
Although it has been four years since we sold our E-trek, we still keep up with the latest Class B Motorhome offerings. In 2020 we adopted a third dog, Bear, and we still have our “Etrek Dogs,” Topper and Daisy, who were featured in The Etrek Blog.
Daisy, Topper, and Bear During the Pandemic I rediscovered my love of sewing and purchased a new Janome sewing machine. After making a supply of masks, I moved on to various custom items, such as a car seat organizer for my husband’s car. I modified the seat covers we had purchased for our E-trek with pockets on the front to hold cell phones, masks, and sunglasses, as well as a hanging organizer for the dogs’ accessories. Eventually I hope to offer some of my custom-made items for sale and add them to my Etsy store.
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E is for Electric Bicycle
Happy Anniversary!
On September 28th we celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary. Rather than traditional jewelry–of which I have enough to open my own store after two dozen previous anniversaries, not to mention birthdays, Christmas, and Mother’s Day–Karl decided I needed an electric bicycle, so I can keep up with him on our battlefield rides (which sometimes become an actual battlefield when we are riding together).
I had been researching electric bicycles for a month or so, and although the pricing was definitely cheaper to buy direct, we both knew I needed to test ride a few before making a purchase decision. Similar to when we purchased our E-trek, we had to drive a considerable distance to find a bicycle store which actually stocked electric bicycles. We ended up going to a specialty bicycle store which had a good selection of electric bicycles and accessories. After discussing which models would be appropriate for our battlefield rides, we took three to test ride. I decided on the A2B Ferber. The first bicycle I tried felt too jerky when the pedal assist engaged, but the A2B was very smooth. I didn’t even try the third bicycle, since the ladies’ model was on backorder and I wanted something sooner rather than later.
We had planned to take an anniversary trip to Gettysburg for my inaugural ride; however, our dogs were sick, so we had to postpone our trip. Still, we enjoyed a nice ten-mile ride on our anniversary. For his gift, Karl wanted a massage chair insert–he had the idea when we were looking at the Chinook RVs at the Hershey RV Show which had built-in massage chairs. With an insert, he could turn any chair into a massage chair. We also got a foot massager, but ended up returning the massage chair insert since it wasn’t very comfortable to sit in (unless you were using it), and it was cumbersome to store. He ended up exchanging it for a smaller neck massager and small pillow massage.
Our joint gift was something I had been working on for a few months. I enlisted the help of my mother-in-law, who is a very talented quilter, to make a memory quilt out of a variety of t-shirts we had collected during our 25-year marriage. I included t-shirts from Gettysburg, Hersheypark, Disney MGM, Outerbanks (NC), Las Vegas, and Washington DC. Some of the shirts were quite worn, but were given new and enduring life in the quilt. I ordered all of the fabric and shipped everything down to her (she lives in Florida). For the border fabric, I chose a license plate design that included all of the colors of the various t-shirts. For the backing, I found beautiful National Park 100th Anniversary fabric which makes it perfect to commemorate the year (2016). The finished quilt is the perfect size for our E-trek!
Finally, last weekend, we were able to take a trip. Ryan needed his winter clothes, as Boston was suddenly very cold; we decided to make the trip through Saratoga as we did right before Labor Day weekend. After two years of trips to Boston, we discovered the best way to Boston was to take the NY Thruway to the Mass Pike and avoid Connecticut all together. Even though it adds 60+ miles each way, it can be even shorter time-wise since the traffic actually moves. Saratoga takes us even further out of the way, but when we can combine our trip to Boston with two 12-mile bicycle rides, it makes for a fun trip.
Friday evening we drove almost all the way to Saratoga (about three hours) and parked for the night at a Cracker Barrel near Albany. We slept very well–nearly an hour later than our usual 6:00 a.m. wake-up time. I purchased coffee to go from Cracker Barrel, we were on the road by 8:00, and we arrived at Saratoga by 8:30 a.m. On our previous trip to Saratoga, we had GPS issues; however, in the meantime I had obtained the GPS coordinates which we input into our Becker navigation system, plus we had Google Maps running, so no trouble. We did have the dogs with us, so we had to leave them in their crates while we went on our hour-long ride. I used the Manything app to check in on them periodically from my iPhone.
After our ride we had a quick lunch in the E-trek and were off to Boston about 11:30 a.m. and arrived at Ryan’s place about 3:15, having stopped along the way to gas up. We were only in Boston for about a half-hour to unload the clothes and see the furniture he had bought since he moved in last month. Ryan’s “animal house” was loaded with friends tailgating before a rugby game that evening, so he was anxious for us to be on our way. We called ahead for take-out at the Cracker Barrel in Sturbridge, MA (about an hour from Boston), where we fed the dogs and enjoyed dinner in our E-trek. After two more hours of driving, we parked at the same Cracker Barrel near Albany, where we had stayed Friday night. Somehow, after setting up the beds, taking the dogs out, and showering, it was close to 10:00 p.m., so it was time for bed.
We did have a few new modifications to test out. We had purchased an inexpensive spring tension curtain rod to prop the bathroom doors open to provide a private dressing area after showering. At the same time, we purchased a squeegee to help push the water down the shower drain, since we are rarely parked level when showering so the water tends to pool up–no fun to step in an inch of cold water when you get up in the middle of the night to use the facilities. Both purchases worked well, except for that fact that we had also placed a tub mat in the bathroom, and I forgot to open the drain before showering, so there was even more water pooled than usual. The tub mat did not help anyway–so it’s since been removed. We had also purchased a few new rugs and placed one outside the bathroom and the other one behind our chairs for the dogs.
Same drill on Sunday–coffee to go from Cracker Barrel, then back to Saratoga by 8:30 a.m. We had a more relaxing day, since we didn’t have the drive to Boston ahead of us, so we spent more time stopping at the points of interest along the tour route through the battlefield. It was coincidentally the anniversary of the Battle of Saratoga, so there was a lot of activity including a bicycle event, encampment, as well as the peak fall foliage to enjoy!
We were just about to declare this our most successful trip ever, when on the drive home we noticed a familiar message on the dash display: CHECK DIESEL EXHAUST FLUID, accompanied by the service engine light. Fifty miles later, we received the warning tone and another message stating we had ten starts remaining. We had recently experienced this message in May on our way to Boston and had learned it was caused by faulty sensors, not by a problem with the Diesel Exhaust Fluid (as the Mercedes-Benz Owner’s Manual suggests). At the time of the first occurrence in May, our mileage was approximately 7,800 and about 2,000 miles later we had the same problem. It is definitely not the Diesel Exhaust Fluid–we had it topped off at Mercedes-Benz on August 30th. At that time, Karl purchased a case of the Mercedes-Benz Ad Blue Diesel Exhaust Fluid and he topped it off again before we desparted on October 7th. We have contacted Mercedes-Benz regarding this recurring problem and are anxiously waiting for a reply. To be continued…
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THE HOTTEST DAY OF THE SHOW
On Wednesday, September 14th we attended the Hershey RV Show. Last year we were unable to take our E-trek, since it was being serviced at the Roadtrek factory, so we were very excited to take it this time. We packed our lunch, filled up the fresh water tank, and dropped off the dogs at a nearby kennel for the day. There is on-site dog care at the show, but we were afraid to risk that the “barking lot” would be full, since you couldn’t make a reservation–it was on a first come, first service basis.
We were on the road by about 8:30 a.m.–Hershey is about two hours from our home. We stopped to fuel up and were making our way to the gates by 11:00 a.m. It was quite hot, so the first thing we did was try to locate the Roadtrek/Erwin Hymer display. Finding your way around the show is not easy–the tall Class A’s block your view and it is hard to find your perspective when you are surrounded by them. A number of people were looking just as perplexed, staring at their maps, but finally we found the Roadtrek fleet.
Once again, we confirmed that we chose the right floor plan (e.g., RS Adventurous), and there seemed to be little difference with the newer model, other than the Ecotrek (lithium) battery system. We are happy with our AGM batteries–they are performing great since we had the battery balancer installed and we have no trouble keeping them charged up, even when running the AC at full blast, as we confirmed over the summer.
We were just about to leave the area when we spotted a familiar couple: Mike and Jennifer Wendland were just arriving in preparation for Mike’s live Roadtreking podcast. Karl snapped a picture of Jennifer and me, and Jennifer was kind enough to corral Mike so someone could take a picture of the four of us. A crowd was forming, so we were glad we had a chance to introduce ourselves and tell them we are fans of the Roadtreking Podcast and Blog.
We were making our way towards the Giant Center to get out of the heat when we spotted some other Class Bs. The manufacturer was Chinook and they were introducing their stunning Countryside model. Also built on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter chassis, the Countryside has an impressive array of features, including massage chairs, built-in iPad Mini to control various electronics, two televisions, and a high-end camera security system. As you can imagine, it has a high-end price tag. Chinook does not produce an all-electric model; however, they did offer the upgraded suspension and they were suitable for year-round use. Although rich in features, we still feel we have the best of all worlds with our E-trek, so we won’t be upgrading any time soon.
We had spent about an hour at the Chinook display and at 1:00 p.m. it was the hottest part of the day, so we decided to make our way back to our E-trek. We couldn’t stay for the live Roadtreking Podcast, because we had to pick up the dogs by 4:00 p.m. We turned on the AC, ate lunch comfortably, and by 1:30 p.m. we were on the road. After a full day of play time, followed by bath-time, the dogs were exhausted–and so were we!
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ORGANIZING TIPS: BUJO AND TRELLO
In my previous post I mentioned that I have been using a new app called Trello to organize my trip planning. Trello is actually one of two methods I have been experimenting with to stay organized and feel like I am accomplishing something. Over the summer, my son noticed I am always making to-do lists, and he introduced me to a system called Bullet Journal (aka BuJo), which uses indexing and migration methods to keep track of daily, monthly, and ongoing tasks.
At the beginning of the month, you create a Monthly Log, which contains an overview of all the tasks you hope to accomplish that month. Tasks assigned to a future date go in a Future Log, and you keep track of your progress using Daily Logs and something called rapid logging. Anything that doesn’t get accomplished from a Monthly Log gets migrated (denoted by drawing an arrow through the bullet) to the next month or a Future Log. You number the pages and everything is kept track of in an Index in the front of the journal. You can read about it or watch a video by the creator, Ryder Carroll, on www.bulletjournal.com.
I started my BuJo in July, joined a Bullet Journal Facebook group and started following several BuJo enthusiasts on Instagram and Twitter. What I found was that many BuJo bloggers, such as www.tinyrayofsunshine.com and www.bohoberry.com, embellish their lists and charts with elaborate artwork. While I consider myself a creative person, in my limited leisure time, I love to cross-stitch and scrapbook, so I don’t need yet another creative outlet, so the beautiful artwork was out. Plus I was already using other methods (e.g., my FitBit app) to keep track of things that many of these beautiful BuJo notebooks included. Finally, I found that I wasn’t very good at migrating, one of the major components of BuJo. Nearly my entire August Log list was unfinished at the end of the month, so it just didn’t make sense to copy everything over. Plus I had a new list for my September Log!
Enter Trello, an app I read about on www.quickanddirtytips.com, a website I follow on Twitter. With Trello, you create boards, on those boards you create lists and to the lists you add cards. It is based on a system called kanban, as you can read about in the article, The Case Against to-Do Lists. The recommended lists are Backlog, To Do, Doing, and Completed. Backlog is used for items which may or may not ever get done. For my blog, I use lists titled Wish List, To Do, In Progress, and Completed. (In my opinion, Wish List sounds more optimistic than Backlog!) You can move or copy the cards to other lists or boards. For example, on my board named “Blog,” I moved the card for Blog Post-Boston/Saratoga trip earlier this month from the In Progress list to Completed list, after I posted the article on September 11th.
To the cards, you can add attachments, such as photographs, PDFs, or website links. You can also create checklists. Below is a screenshot of the Blog Post–Saratoga/Boston card which shows the checklist of all of the topics I wished to cover. As I edited my post, I checked off the topics.
For our RV trips, I have created boards for all upcoming trips. Each trip board will have a Master List, which includes the packing list (checklist) and manuals (attachments). I add lists for Places (at each destination) as well as Route Notes. The picture at the top of this article is from our recent trip to Boston and Saratoga. Below is the board I am using to plan our upcoming trip to Gettysburg.
Below is an example of a card I added to my Gettysburg board, which includes a link to the Hershey RV Show Website as well as information about the on-site dog care. (Originally we were planning to coordinate the trip to Gettysburg with a the Hershey RV Show, but ended up attending the show that as a separate day trip.) I attached last year’s photo, which appears as my “cover photo.” However, my blog post about the show is still on the In Progress list on my board titled “Blog.”
I get a great deal of satisfaction from moving the cards to the Completed list. Trello provides a great visual for seeing what is accomplished. I still use my BuJo for to-do lists, but not to organize projects that have a lot of parts. I use it to write down small tasks such as phone calls to make, food prep, and errands. I also use my BuJo for note-taking when I listen to various Podcasts, such as Roadtreking and Grammar Girl, all of which are added to the Index so I can refer to them later.
Two warnings about using Trello: as with any website, avoid uploading any information you consider private, since there are frequent data beaches on widely-used websites. Also, using Trello requires Internet/WiFi so using it will impact your data charges. With BuJo, as long as you don’t misplace your notebook, you are safe and secure!
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SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER
Tunnels and Traffic and Bins, oh my!
We were in no particular hurry to leave on Thursday, September 1st. Ryan’s off-campus housing was being professionally cleaned, so he didn’t want to start moving his stuff in until late in the afternoon. We took our time packing up Thursday morning, and were on the road at 2:30 p.m. Our first mistake was taking the Saw Mill Parkway to Route 684. There are several low-clearance (8’8″) arched tunnels—fortunately, Karl reacted quickly and moved to the left hand lane where the arch was at maximum height—but we were holding our breath as we went through. I guess the “No Trucks” sign should have been a clue!
Then, when we got to Route 84 we were in stop and go traffic for several hours throughout Connecticut. We should have been in Boston by 7:00 p.m., but we were still an hour away, so we stopped at our favorite Cracker Barrel in Sturbridge, MA. We called ahead for takeout, which we ate comfortably in the E-trek while the dogs had their dinner. Karl had recently constructed a new tabletop, so we were able to try that out. As anyone with an E-trek knows, the tables that come with the unit are very cumbersome. We had hoped to make the egg-shaped table, but we could not find anyone with a jigsaw, so we improvised with a laminated wooden shelf we found at our local hardware store. It works.
We finally made it to Ryan’s new place at 9:15 p.m. Sending him up early on the train turned out to be a great plan—usually there is a lot of yelling (Karl), crying (me), and attitude (Ryan) as he procrastinates packing until the last minute. He overloads the bins so the unsecured lids open and contents spill when carried, and he throws in random clothing and other belongings at the last minute that slide around the back of the E-trek.Before he left on Tuesday, August 30th, he laid out his clothes on the bed, so I could pack them neatly. We had time to bubble-wrap the other electronics. He brought his duffel with clothes and necessities plus his backpack, so he could survive for a few days. Plus the unload was painless, since his new housemates were more than happy to lug in the bins. Last year, Ryan’s dorm room was on the fourth floor with no elevator and he had twice as much stuff!
After a brief tour of his off-campus house and neighborhood, complete with loud music and college students everywhere, we were back on the road a little before 10:00 p.m. and back in Sturbridge by 11:00, where we settled in for the night. Daisy and I slept on the new mattress, which was quite comfortable, while Karl and Topper enjoyed the sofa bed. We didn’t need the air conditioner–in fact, we even put the heat on when we woke up to a chilly Friday morning.
Our drive to Saratoga Friday morning was much more pleasant. We had considered a scenic route through Vermont; however, decided to take Route 90 all the way to the NY Thruway. We wanted to maximize our time at Saratoga and still avoid the Friday afternoon Labor Day Weekend traffic on the trip home. The scenic route would have added close to an hour and after sitting in traffic the previous day we decided to save that route for another time. There are several Vermont State Parks along that route that I noted that would be nice to visit if we had more time–perhaps on the way up to Boston for Parents’ Weekend next month!I am using a new app called Trello to organize my ever growing collection of trip notes. By setting up various boards, I can attach PDF files, links to websites (such as National and State Parks), as well as create checklists. I can easily view the Trello boards on my iPhone, iPad, or MacBook Air, so I don’t have to worry about printing out a lot of paperwork or trying to write things down while riding. I also use the Trello boards to make route notes such as rest stops, RV dump stations, places to visit, as well as places to avoid (such as Route 84 and the Saw Mill Parkway)!
Follow the Google Maps Route!
Since we were without our Becker Navigation System (see previous post), we were running Apple Maps on the iPad we have mounted between our seats , Google Maps on my iPhone, plus I had printed out instructions from Google Maps before we left the house. I noticed that both the time to destination and miles to destination on my iPhone (Google Maps) instructions were longer than those on the Karl’s iPad (Apple Maps). The destination address was the same, so I concluded that the shorter route on the iPad (Apple Maps) was the better route. However, even though the address appeared to be the same, this route did not take us to Saratoga National Park–just some random old building in the middle of Stillwater. Fortunately, I had my alternative Google Maps route on my iPhone, which showed we still had four miles to go, and sure enough, about ten minutes later we were turning into the park.
At the very nice Visitor Center, I reported the problem with the address and she told me they were well aware and had been working on it for years. Searching for Saratoga National Battlefield Park on Google Maps works, and she also provided the GPS coordinates if we are using a navigation system that allows input of latitude and longitude. I believe our Becker System does, but we will have to wait until it is working to test it out!
I was not able to join Karl for a bicycle ride this time, because we had to deliver Ryan’s bicycle to Boston, there was not room for my bicycle on the rack. So I just enjoyed a nice walk with Topper and Daisy while Karl went on the eleven mile ride around the park. The weather was perfect! After he got back, we drove around the tour route a bit before heading home Friday afternoon. The ride home was smooth, and we were happy to be done with our pre-Labor Day weekend travels!
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AUGUST ANGST
Updated 9/17/16
Other than a few local errands, our E-trek was parked for nearly the entire month of August; however, we did have a few issues to resolve with our unit before the end of August, since we were planning several trips for September, including driving to Boston on September 1st. We also hope to attend the Hershey RV Show in mid-September, and possibly combine that with a trip to Gettysburg.
Mattress Mayhem
Originally we had planned to take a trip earlier this summer with our son, so in anticipation, we decided to set-up one of our front mattresses to make sure everything worked as expected. One of the primary reasons we selected the E-trek with RS Adventurous floor plan was the ability to sleep more than two people, which you can read about in our very first post. However, we had never actually set-up the front beds, so imagine our surprise when we found that we could not rotate the captain seats as pictured in our E-trek Owner’s Manual. According to our manual, both the front and second row captain seats were supposed to face the side doors; however, it was not possible to rotate the front captain seat, as it was blocked by the B pillar. We tried various other configurations, but nothing worked, so we promptly e-mailed our friends at Roadtrek.
The Roadtrek/Erwin Hymer folks responded quickly that we could possibly have the wrong instructions or the wrong mattresses or both. In keeping with our “what could possibly go wrong?” theme, it was both. Apparently the pedestals on the captain seats had been updated on the 2015 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter chassis, which made the instructions in our manual obsolete (i.e., some 2015 E-treks were still built on the 2014 Sprinter chassis). Although there were a few miscommunications along the way, we finally received the correct mattress and set-up instructions. The very nice customer service manager even refunded us for the mattresses we originally purchased to compensate us for our troubles. As it turned out, we were unable to schedule the trip with our son for different reasons, but we were looking forward to trying the new mattress on our upcoming trip to Boston.
One lesson I learned from this experience is that is definitely worth checking the manufacturer website periodically to see if there are updated manuals. I discovered not only was there an updated E-trek Owner’s Manual from the website that had the correct instructions for setting up the front mattresses (although we still would have been out of luck with our original mattresses), there is an E-trek Supplement as well, with additional details about the electrical system. There are also new instructions for VoltStart–apparently you need to reset the counter by running it for one cycle. This provides insurance that the doors are closed and nothing will prevent the VoltStart from engaging if necessary. Roadtrek responded quickly to our inquiries; however, I could have saved myself (and them) some trouble if I had just checked their website http://www.roadtrek.com/support-contact/.
Antenna Antics
The second issue was that sometime after our trip to Boston in May we discovered that our GPS had stopped working. Typically we have all of our navigation systems activated when traveling–Google Maps, Apple Maps, as well as the Becker Navigation system that came installed in the E-trek Even though we were back in New Jersey, the Becker system seemed to think we were still in Boston. We were hoping to avoid yet another trip to Mercedes-Benz, so we tried troubleshooting the removable module by hooking it up to our PC and updating the firmware, but still no signal. So finally we decided to schedule service with Mercedes-Benz the day before we were due to leave for our September 1st trip to Boston.
Karl waited five hours at Mercedes-Benz (hence the photo of the original Benz Wagon), but the technicians had difficulty diagnosing the GPS problem. Then the display lights started going haywire and Karl had to drive home in a loaner car. We were in the process of figuring out a Plan B for our trip to Boston (Ryan had taken the train up a day earlier, but he was waiting for us to bring his belongings), when Mercedes-Benz called and said they did a master reset and the unit was okay to drive. It did however, need a new antenna for the GPS, which they would have to order. After driving back to Mercedes-Benz in the loaner, we were back home with the E-trek–eight hours later, but still no operable GPS, plus we had to pack up for our departure the next day. Fortunately, we had already sanitized the fresh water tank, so later that evening, we drained and refilled the fresh water tank. Since the battery was fully charged due to the hour-long round trip to Mercedes-Benz, we turned on the battery disconnect to start cooling the refrigerator in preparation for our September 1st trip.
The Plot Thickens
Tuesday after Labor Day, Karl drove the E-trek back to Mercedes-Benz to replace the antenna, and the courtesy car driver took him to work. When Karl finally heard from the service tech late that afternoon, the technician said the antenna had been sheared off at the base. This seemed very strange, since we didn’t see how we could damage the antenna without also hitting the top of the E-trek (i.e., the air conditioning unit), even considering our tendency to drive through low clearance tunnels. Furthermore, we were convinced that the GPS had stopped working during our trip to Boston in May, and when I looked back at some photos of the E-trek from April (our trip to Antietam), the antenna looked exactly the same as it did in May. To make matters worse, the new antenna was not covered by warranty and would total more than $600 for parts and labor. So now we really wanted to get to the bottom of this.
I went back through my pictures and I saw that in a picture from December 2015, we definitely had an antenna.
The next pictures of the E-trek were from February, and the antenna was gone.
We did not take any trips, but we did have a huge snow storm at the end of January, so we can only assume that something must have happened.
It still seemed strange that the antenna was sheared off at the thicker base (not just the thin antenna mast). Even stranger, the service tech said another Sprinter he had serviced recently had the same problem. Why he couldn’t determine the problem last week is also a mystery to us, since all he had to do was look up. Since so much of our time had been wasted waiting and making two trips, Mercedes-Benz agreed to reduce the bill and charge us cost for the new antenna (no labor) and for topping off the DEF, which for some reason cost $143. So the money refunded to us from Roadtrek, was promptly spent at Mercedes-Benz!
Our lesson from this experience is now that we know what damage one snow storm can do, we need to focus on purchasing some sort of storage unit for our E-trek. Although the January storm was certainly one of the biggest in recent memory, we don’t want to risk more costly damage. At a minimum, we will find out if the antenna can be removed for the winter, because even if you have a cover, I imagine the snow could still pile up and put enough pressure to bend/break the apparently fragile antenna mast.
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THE HOTTEST DAYS OF THE YEAR
We have been experiencing classic summertime weather throughout the month–hot, hot days, broken up by occasional rain and thunderstorms. We have not taken any trips to speak of, other than a few day trips. On July 3rd, we drove to Princeton Battlefield, about an hour from our home. To call it a day trip is an exaggeration–we left about 11:00 AM and were home by 1:30 PM. However, we did pack lunch and eat in the E-trek, so at least it was worth filling up the fresh water tank! Plus, the dogs always enjoy an outing!
We ended the month just as we started–with a day trip. On Sunday, July 31st, we went to visit our son Ryan, who is working as a camp counselor at Blair Academy again this year. We packed lunch and left about 11:30 a.m. After about an hour of visiting with Ryan, we were on our way about 1:30 p.m. and home by 2:30 p.m.
Putting the AC to the test
The hot weather did give us an opportunity to test the battery performance while running the AC. Since having our E-trek serviced at the Roadtrek factory last September, we had never officially tested the AC. We take most of our trips in the fall and spring, when the weather is moderate, so we didn’t really need to use the AC for more than an hour or so. While parked at home, we keep the E-trek cool with our new sunshades, and we also open several of the windows.
With temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, we wanted to see how long the AC would run, now that we have the battery balancer and VoltStart. In previous trials (e.g., E-trek Battery Log-May), the AC would run between 3 and 4 hours; during the fourth hour, the inverter would alarm signaling that the batteries were too low.
Last Saturday, after nearly 5 hours, the AC was still running. Even when the battery strength was at 11%/21 VDC, the VoltStart did not turn on the engine nor did the inverter alarm sound. At that time (approximately 4:45 PM), we turned off the AC and shut off the inverter, because we did not want to keep running down the batteries. We plugged in the E-trek to shore power (20 Amp), and the batteries were fully charged by the next morning.
We recently learned that there are additional instructions for activating VoltStart, so we are planning to retest with the new instructions, now that we have the updated manual. We will follow up shortly with new test results…
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THE E-TREK DOGS’ HEALTH UPDATE
DIET
Last September we changed the diet of our dogs, which you can read about on our page titled Traveling with dogs–feeding the dogs. Both Topper and Daisy were due for some shots in April, so they both had a check-up. They received rave reviews from our vet! Both were at their ideal weights and the vet was especially complimentary of their teeth, which Karl brushes nightly before bedtime.
HYGIENE
Both Topper and Daisy need to be groomed every 4-6 weeks. Although Topper is a Goldendoodle, his hair is very curly like a Poodle, so we keep his hair short to avoid matting. We have a grooming table and equipment set up in one of our bathrooms, as well as a “Utilitub” (an oversized tub with shower head hose) in the laundry room for bathing the dogs. Daisy needs a bath often, as she gets dirty running around in the wet grass. At a minimum, both dogs need at least a foot bath once per week. Daisy has always been a challenge to groom, so we have been taking her to a professional groomer that works at our vet’s office.
SUPPLEMENTS
It is allergy season, and we noticed Topper had been licking one of his paws so much that it was red and raw. He had actually pulled the hair out from between the pads, so we scheduled another vet appointment last week. The vet has recommended Zyrtec twice daily and we are also supplementing his dinner with Omega-3 gel capsules, which are supposed to help reduce the itchiness. He seems to be feeling better now and the paw is much better.
BEHAVIOR
We are trying the Adaptil collar on Daisy, as she has been especially prone to barking since Ryan came home from college last month. Every little sound seems to startle her, and with Ryan home, there is a lot more activity than usual. The collar is supposed to respond to the dog’s temperature and release pheromones. The reviews were mixed on Amazon, but we will give it a few more weeks as recommended. If not, we can get a refund. We also have “Thundervests” for both dogs, which we purchased especially for fireworks season. We live near a minor-league baseball stadium that has fireworks several times a month during baseball season, and the vests are supposed to have a calming effect. Mainly they just look cute!
TRAINING
On the subject of barking, Ryan has also been helping me reduce Topper’s demanding bark when I am preparing the dogs’ dinner, as well as both dogs’ barking to be released from their crates when I get home from running errands. Both Topper and Daisy have attended training classes and I have also worked with a private trainer; however, barking has been a persistent problem for both dogs. I have the Citronella spray collar for Topper, but the few times I used it he was so traumatized that I cannot bear to put it on him. Even if he sees the collar he gets starts pacing (although he does stop barking too, so I guess it does work). Basically, I have been too lazy to consistently train them, and they generally get their way (e.g., get let outside when they are barking at a deer in the yard), but Ryan has put a stop to that and has been training me to train them. Topper is getting better at waiting for his dinner, because whenever he barks I stop preparing his food. Daisy is not as food-focused, but yesterday it took nearly a half hour for Daisy to stop barking before she could be released from her crate. She would stop barking, but as soon as I would approach the crate she started barking so I would turn around and head back down the stairs. Topper, on the other hand, took only a few minutes to stay calm in his crate, so he was released quickly. They are catching on!
POOL SAFETY
We also decided to get Daisy a swim vest because she has fallen in the pool a few times. She runs very close to the edge when she is chasing her ball. If we bring her in to the pool, she swims well, but when she falls in, she struggles and can’t get going with her swimming. Both Karl and I have had to rescue her just before she goes under. Although she is always supervised when outside, we don’t want to take a chance that we can’t get to her in time.
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Our Analysis
Listed below are links to Excel spreadsheets we have created to organize our research and findings.
We created RV Analysis to weigh the pros and cons of the different RVs we were considering, as discussed in our first post, Making the decision to purchase the RV.
To keep track of the battery strength we created Etrek Battery Log which is referred to in our post Our 2015 Roadtrek E-trek.
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NEW SUNSHADES FOR OUR E-TREK
This post was inspired by a reader question regarding how to install the privacy curtains that come with the E-trek. We will answer his question and also an explain a possible alternative: SunShades.
If you have been following our blog, you know that we typically head out after dinner and arrive at our first destination sometime between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. We are usually pretty tired, and after taking the dogs out we just want to climb into bed (which we always make up before we leave).
However, first we have to hang the privacy curtains across the front and side windows. The curtain that covers the sliding door is simple–it just slides across the rod; however the other curtains take more time. They are in three pieces that connect via Velcro. We leave our three pieces connected. The Velcro at the top of the curtains follows along from above the driver door window, around the handle and visor, behind the mirror, around the passenger visor and finally the passenger door window. The visors should be lowered to keep the curtains in place and help them conform to the shape of the front windshield.
About a month ago, when we were still deciding whether or not to sell the E-trek we purchased SunShades from Amazon, to protect the interior of the E-trek from the sun and heat. They are custom-made for the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 3500. We hadn’t opened them since we were still debating about whether we would be selling the E-trek, but it was recycling week so we decided to take a look, so we could get rid of the shipping boxes. We are going to try them as a replacement for the privacy curtains on our next trip.
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BOSTON DEF OR DIE
Mother’s Day came late this year. We were supposed to pick-up our son from college on Mother’s Day, just as we had in 2015, on the hottest day of the year. This year, however, Ryan wanted to stay an extra week to spend time with some of his friends who were graduating on May 15th. Originally I had planned to stay home with Topper and Daisy, since the dogs (and me, apparently) add a layer of complication to college drop-offs and pick-ups; however, when I started to load up the E-trek with food and provisions for Karl, I decided to invite myself and the dogs for the trip. We got a last minute reservation for doggy day care at the Pooch Hotel near Boston, and somehow we were all packed and ready to go before 6:00 p.m.
We had several stopover choices: multiple rest areas along Route 84, Cabela’s in East Hartford, but we made it all the way to the Cracker Barrel in Sturbridge, MA by 9:30 p.m. There were a few other RVs in the lot. It had been raining for most of the drive and was markedly cooler than our trip last May–in fact, we finally turned the Webasto heater on after freezing for most of the night. (We had it set for hot water production only.)
Saturday morning the weather was clear, so after coffee and filling up with fuel, we were on our way to Boston. However, we noticed a message on the dash “Check Diesel Exhaust Fuel See Operator’s Manual” along with the “Check Engine” indicator lamp lit. After a brief freak out (me) and cursing the day we bought the E-trek (Karl), we pulled into the next gas station. Karl remembered a tip during our initial walkthrough at the dealer regarding not letting the DEF get too low (more on this later), and had fortunately stowed a 2.5 gallon jug of Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) in the rear of the E-trek. Karl added the DEF hoping that would clear the message. (It did not.) Also, since the “Check Engine” light was illuminated, the manual suggested that “the DEF may have been contaminated, diluted or not compliant with ISO 22241.” Our first thought was when we refueled at a poorly-marked diesel fuel pump (just before leaving Sturbridge), we put regular gas in the E-trek. Furthermore, the manual warned, thatAfter the first message and under normal operating conditions, you can drive on for up to approximately 50 miles Then a warning tone sequence sounds and the engine can only be started another 10 times.
Needless to say, we were perplexed and tried to calculate how many times we would need to stop the engine: one start already used when we stopped to add the DEF, another to drop off the dogs, a third after loading up the E-trek Ryan’s dorm, another when we pick-up the dogs, and so on. Suddenly ten starts seemed pretty limiting, so we decided to let the unit idle during each stopover. Furthermore, it was Sunday morning, so the likelihood of contacting Mercedes-Benz service was slim to none. There was a Mercedes-Benz dealer in Boston; however, they would not open until 11:00 a.m. and the service department was closed.
Another shock occurred when we got a text from our son asking what time we would be arriving. It was 9:00 a.m. and he was actually up and allegedly packed! We had just dropped off the dogs at Pooch Hotel, and got to his dorm at 9:30 a.m. I stayed in the idling E-trek while Karl and Ryan brought down bin after bin, many electronics, five coats, two suits, two fans, and numerous other belongings that somehow fit in his closet-sized dorm room. The last step was to mount Ryan’s bike on the new rack we had assembled and installed the day before. (We had recently purchased a new rack that could accommodate Karl’s ElliptiGO, which he has been wanting to take on one of our battlefield trips. It will hold an ElliptiGO and a regular bicycle, or two bicycles.) Forty-five minutes after arriving, we were ready to go. Now if only the E-trek would make it back to New Jersey…
Topper and Daisy were ready to nap after playing at the Pooch Hotel for a couple of hours. We had driven well over 50 miles without any sort of warning tone. We hit a bit of traffic as usual, on the Mass Pike, but overall the drive home went smoothly despite the ominous message. The “reserve fuel” light went on just as we approached our road, so we knew we were home free. Disaster averted.
Naturally Karl called Mercedes-Benz first thing Monday morning. The service technician’s initial diagnosis was that we had let the Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) get too low and we would require a service appointment to reset the message using their fancy computer diagnosis system at a cost of $400 and not covered by the warranty. According to the Mercedes-Benz, the initial DEF supply should be good for 20,000 miles and we were at about 7,600 miles when the message appeared. The service technician said that idling accelerates the use of the DEF, and since we often idle the E-trek (i.e., to charge the batteries via the underhood generator), the DEF had gotten too low. Unfortunately, there is no way to check the level of DEF (as you can with oil), which is why the dealer recommended having DEF on hand.
Something still didn’t seem right–we had never gotten a message that the DEF was low, and according to the manual, there should have been two warning messages: one when the DEF was below 1.5 gallons and another when it drops below .8 gallon. We certainly didn’t want a $400 repair bill for something that wasn’t our fault. When Karl called to cancel the appointment so we could do more research, our case escalated to a high level customer service manager to resolve this issue, so the Tuesday appointment went on as scheduled. Sure enough, the problem was not the DEF level but rather multiple fault codes that had triggered the error message:
- Upstream Turbo Temp Sensor faulty, needed to be replaced and reassembled
- AdBlue System Faults, so AdBlue (the Mercedes-Benz brand DEF) was topped off
The bottom line is that we were not at fault, so there were no charges for the service at all, although they first said they would be charging us to top off the DEF, but Karl protested and they waived that charge as well.
So you may ask why we would share this tale of woe when we are trying to find a buyer for our E-trek. After two successful trips ( the DEF message notwithstanding), we are reconsidering and feel we may regret selling the E-trek without giving it more of a chance. Even though we have not fully embraced the RV lifestyle, we do benefit greatly from having the E-trek available for our occasional weekend road trips. We could never fit all of Ryan’s college belongings in our pick-up truck–we need the E-trek to get him to and from college. It makes the drive to Boston much more pleasant when we can break it up and park overnight with our own bathroom and food supply. The E-trek gives us the most flexibility since it is all-electric and we don’t have to plug in or run a noisy generator. Plus, we do like to include the dogs in our outings–they get so excited when they see us loading up the E-trek. Finally, it continues to amaze and amuse us that we have so many issues and makes us wonder: did we jinx ourselves by using the tagline “What could possibly go wrong?”
