Let’s just get to Labor Day
Hello from Camp Hatteras, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina! (Yes, arriving after dark means my windshield is a horrid landscape of dead bugs, including one that’s smack dab in the center of my line of sight. Stupid bug.)
It’s funny. We’ve gotten to the point that we miss Qubie. Sure, we love our house, but in so many ways Qubie is just nicer and more fun. It’s the fun bus. Now when we get some spare time we’ll take a little trip out to Jordan Lake in Qubie. It’s easy enough to get her there, easy enough to set up. Why not?
“I think I’m done… HAH.”
I finished a few more projects. I’d said I was done but that’s just silly talk. I installed a better surge protector that protects from more than just surges to the electrical system unlike the stock one. I installed the clamp that Tiffin sent to secure my recliner during travel so it doesn’t slide around menacingly.
An alignment is performed
I think Qubie handles quite well. I’d read some horror stories about people who find themselves “white knuckling” their RVs and terrified of driving them. I can drive Qubie one-handed in most circumstances.
But.
I do think I have to correct her more than I should. Not just from wind or being passed but rut-tracking and just “wanderiness”. I decided to bring her in to an alignment shop. Of course, not just anyone performs alignments on RVs but I found a place and scheduled one, then drove Qubie there on the appointed day.
Yes, she was out of alignment. In every respect. Toe-in, camber, caster, all were out of whack to some degree and some worse than others. After correction, she does track straighter with fewer corrections. Thankfully, I learned that Tiffin will reimburse for an alignment in the first year so that’s helpful.
Finally, Labor Day
We’ve had this one planned since before we got Qubie. Camp Hatteras, a fairly good sized campground at, you guessed it, Cape Hatteras. We’d hoped to get on the road fairly early — by 4 maybe? — but a comedy of circumstances prevented it meaning we actually got out of the neighborhood at about 5:45. Not ideal.
We wanted to bring the bikes on this trip and I’d gotten us a bike rack to do it. Stupid me never did a test fitting. I got the rack mounted on Qubie — my drop receiver for towing Subie has a second hitch receiver on top for a bike rack — and got the bikes installed with no problems. We got out of our cul de sac and Cat followed me to an adjacent road where we could more easily get Subie hooked up for towing. Got that done fairly quickly, did the light checks and brake checks and got Cat back in Qubie to hit the road. I pulled forward and… something didn’t sit right. I put the brake back on, hopped out, and went to look at the setup one more time.
And saw the problem.
This will be hard to describe, but the crux of it is that the lever that’s actuated to apply the brakes on Subie was blocked by the bottom of the bike rack. That lever when it got lifted by the pressure Subie applies would hit the bottom of the bike rack, either damaging the lever or the rack — my money’s on the lever — and, of course, not allowing the brakes to be applied.
Great.
So I decided we’d put the bike rack on Subie instead. Fair enough! Undo the bike lock, undo the strap, get the bikes off one at a time, unlock the bike rack, pull it off. Now, let’s install it on Subie… no. Doesn’t fit. Oh, that’s rich.
So, we loaded our bikes in the back of Subie along with the bike rack, Julia road hers back to our house, we unhooked Subie and Cat drove back home where she took the bikes out. No bikes on this trip. Then they came back and we started the tow hookup process again. I’m getting good at it at least.
We got on the road later than we desired. Which, of course, meant getting to our campground long after dark. I’ll just say it wasn’t my favorite drive. The vast majority was fine, really. It’s only when we neared the coast that things got more tense.
First, wind. Cape Hatteras always has wind. And wind plays with RVs. I’m glad I’d aligned her before we came, because fighting a bad alignment and fighting wind would have been fun.
Second? Bridges. I had a bad dream about bridges a while back. It therefore creates a bit of irrational angst in me to deal with bridges. I can keep it under wraps but it’s this little creeping dread that slowly builds before I tamp it down. However, now let’s add wind. For giggles, let’s throw in utter darkness over the edge so it looks like an unending pathway over an abyss. Yeah, not my favorite drive.
Things went perfectly fine, of course. We didn’t go careening over the edge of a bridge. Hell, I never even really departed the center of my lane. But I came closer to white knuckling than I’ve ever been. I could still one-hand, but I chose to use two most of the time.
Anyhow, we got to our campground right around 10:15, were warmly welcomed, got set up in about 10 minutes flat, and are now… relaxing.
Now if I can convince our neighbors to not play a loud and vibrant cornhole game at midnight tonight I’ll be happy. Guess it had to happen sooner or later.
Shallow Roots 