Greeting the 2021 season

Last year we waited until May to dewinterize Qubie. Our first trip was planned for late March, but the covid-19 pandemic was crushing everything in its path and our state park was doing rolling cancellations. Times are a bit better this year as we climb slowly out of the pandemic hole and our first trip to Jordan Lake arrived and was greeted with open arms. Qubie! Our lake!

It started with a bit of drama as many good things do. I couldn’t get out of my spot at our storage facility! This is a problem I’ve run into on more than one occasion but never quite to this extent. There’s a steel beam at my driver’s side front corner that I have to get around so I can’t cut too early so when one of my lot neighbors pokes their vehicles out of the spot too much I get a bit stuck. This was the worst I’d ever seen… he was fully 6 feet out past the end of his spot. I literally could not go that direction and was forced to go “against the grain” and go the wrong direction out the parking lot. I’ve had the guy next to him poking out by about 3 feet and could just squeeze past… but not this time. The lot manager was apologetic and called the person who was also apologetic and moved it by the time I returned Sunday.

But then all was dandy. I brought her home for a quick dewinterization. I figure there’s enough description of that process on the internet so no one particularly needs my input. I’m personally just always nervous and very glad when I complete it and the fresh water system doesn’t spray from somewhere it isn’t supposed to. Well, I escaped catastrophe again this season and have a fresh water system that holds pressure. Phew!

Back to our home away from home

Jordan Lake State Recreation Area is an easy 20-minute ride from our house or storage facility. Given that, it has definitely become our “home away from home” for the last 5 years. We’ve probably had about 50 trips to the lake since we bought Qubie in 2015 and it never fails to deliver a measure of peace and tranquility.

We’ve honed our site selections carefully and I keep an eye on the reservation window to ensure I get us booked at our favorite sites throughout the year. It was a bit early in the spring for swimming or paddleboarding and I only cast a few times for fish. But it’s never a bad time for a campfire or soaking in the natural ambience.

Continuing projects

We feel fortunate that Qubie has been mostly trouble-free for us recently. I try very hard to notice and appreciate these problem-free times… not because they’re necessarily rare but because of the common perception that RVs are problematic money-pits. So, chalk one up for Qubie as I had to do absolutely nothing this trip outside the ordinary.

That said, I did take the passenger captain’s chair out while Qubie was in the driveway so I could reupholster it. Last year we noticed that the driver’s seat was rapidly flaking and cracking. This is a very common complaint with these Flexsteel seats, and Tiffin knows all about it. I decided to contact them about 1 month after our 5 year anniversary with Qubie, mostly about how to source replacement fabric. Tiffin asked for photos documenting my damage and then authorized free replacement upholstery for both chairs. Within the month I had a big box on my front porch with complete skins. Tiffin does a lot right… a large part of why we chose to buy one.

I decided to wait until the off season to actually do the replacement and, as things sometimes happen, I pushed it off a bit too long to the brink of the actual season. I got the driver’s side done — and I’ll give a big shout-out to Tony Ragusa for his video showing the process — before the season started, but waited a bit too long for the passenger seat. I’ll likely get it done in the evenings this week so we can have a full complement of seating on our next trip.

What’s coming?

Our spring and summer are becoming a bit clearer now and we’re very much looking forward to making plans for once we’re vaccinated and can get around a bit more. Julia is working full-time over the summer so I don’t think we’ll be able to have any grand trips as we’d long hoped, but her work is worth it. She’s due to start college in the fall and Cat and I definitely plan to drown our sorrows in some exploration. We have a few BIG changes coming for Qubie to help us get her ready for our expanded traveling itinerary and we’re also looking to start getting some videos going as we do so… if for no other reason than to start documenting what we do for our own amusement.

Join us next time!