This second post, brings us to our purchase. We had in mind what we wanted, which vehicle, which years and a price range. There were a limited number of course that met our criteria or came close, and some were difficult to get to. We even went as far as deciding our next long vacation might be driving to places across the country where we could look at potential models we were tracking. We were spared that when someone in our previously mentioned Roadtrek RV group mentioned they had one for sale about 45 minutes from us. Our first visit confirmed it was what we were looking for, although we weren’t sure if we could negotiate a price that would work. On our second visit we brought a friend who is a certified RV inspector (a must for any used purchase) and went through all the systems and checked things thoroughly. He felt if we could agree on a price it would be a good vehicle, needing only a little initial work, including a set of new tires.
So we pulled the trigger.
It was a scary move and we’ve had some other adventures since, with things that needed fixing and getting other logistics figured out. We are fortunate – both for our Roadtrek RV group, who are not only great trouble shooters and idea people, and the fact we live within a reasonable drive of North East RV (NERV) the experts in fixing Roadtreks. They service other vans as well, but they are wizards in the Roadtrek world.
So I have left you wondering about the vehicle name. It’s finally time to explain. We spent the first weeks with our vehicle taking short trips and outfitting things the way we wanted while trying to pick the perfect name. Rumble Stiltsvan was high on the list, which is where Rumble came from in the final version. If you have ever ridden in a loaded RV, you don’t need to ask why. There is always something shaking and/or making noise.
The second name and the nickname we settled on is Spud. This comes from an old family joke about trying to find ways to build a transporter like in SciFi shows. The idea was, from the concept where you can use a potato to generate electricity like a battery (it’s real, look it up if you don’t know); you could use the energy in a potato to design a transporter for people and things. So now we use an RV to transport us and things from place to place, hence Spud.
The last part you should understand if you have read my earlier blogs. In order to get from place to place, I do the majority of the navigation, saying, hey there is something interesting over there, let’s take a detour. That morphed into the way we travel is by De Tour. And of course when people go on trips they take a Tour Bus, so the last part of our van’s very long proper name is the De Tour Bus. Mostly we just say Spud, but every being needs a full and proper name.
Our first venture was to a local campground Winding River, about 30 miles from home to do a shakedown test, before Steve took Spud to Northeast RV (NERV) for tires and service. We enjoyed the stay despite some slightly loud neighbors. We even got a few hours of kayaking in on our second afternoon.
Steve next took to Spud to NERV, they are the experts far and wide on Roadtreks, though I would take any RV to them for repairs. They not only do great service, allowing customers to spend a night or two in the lot if needed, hooked up to eclectric, but they also answer questions between visits and helped us overcome our Roadtrek specific issue with NJ inspection, saving us money on a local mechanic that would have not understood the issue.
Feeling safe to venture further from home with all systems checked out and/or repaired, we headed up to Doylestown, PA. Actually our plans were a little different, we were heading a different route to get to our stay for that night until the day before when we realized we needed a couple of parts for the RV, yes, it was just worked on but a hose in the waste management system started leaking, so a De Tour to Fretz RV seemed wise. They were great, we also bought a cover for a vent to keep bugs out and they helped us install it in their parking lot.
Next we needed a place for lunch, well we were in luck. My searching told me about a restaurant called Latin Pot that had ceviche. It became obvious quickly that they were related to El Tule, our favorite restaurant, which our original plan had included. Our server confirmed our suspicion and we were able to have our favorite foods after all.
I wrote before about our trip that included Fonthill Castle. On the same grounds are the Moravian Tileworks that were developed by the castle owner. The tour there was not quite as impressive but still interesting, especially talking to some of the artisans who still produce handmade tiles.
One of the first things we did after our purchase was to join a group called Harvest Hosts, which for a small yearly fee allows you access to all types of interesting places to stay. Although they have campground partners where you can get a discount, most are farms, wineries, breweries, other businesses and even some driveways of fellow RVers. Your stay is free, though they ask you to spend at least $30 on the products offered by the host, with some hosts offering extra amenities like electric for a charge.
Our first stay for Harvest Hosts was at Bishop Estates Winery, near Doylestown. We did a wine tasting and bought a bottle to take home. Returning to Spud we enjoyed the lovely evening, some food and listening to music coming from the performers across the fields.
The next trip was up to Battle Row on Long Island again to do some visiting and babysitting. Then home to prepare for our first long journey in Spud.
We also signed up for a few other memberships while working on reservations for different trips. We signed up for RV Life, which has a decent navigation system for RV safe routes based on the size and weight of your vehicle. It’s saved us a few times already, though like all gps, has some quirks. We were told by friends we needed to join the Family Motorcoach Association (now the Family RV Association), as they have among their many benefits a plan where if you become unable to drive your vehicle / pets home due to serious illness on the road they will take care of that for you. They also offer a discount on your first year of KOA rewards, and we needed that for a trip we are taking in November.
So for those of you who are more interested in where we went than my RV ramblings (not rumblings), the goal of our first long vacation was Maine. When we did the plan and the reservations we were still in the 100 degree days of this Summer and wanted to head North for cooler weather. As it was, the weather broke the day we left and we’ve had lovely cool days for the trip (and mostly good since then).
We planned the first day and a half of the trip to visit our grandson and his parents again, enjoying time together and being outside showing our grandson cars, trucks, and animals in the park. We had some meals at our local favorites but tried two new interesting places, Burgerology for dinner and Alkemy Ice Cream, for dessert, where they use liquid nitrogen to create ice cream, both dairy and non dairy to order.
We then headed toward our next Harvest Host, Joseph Preli Farm and Winery in Connecticut. When we made the reservation we didn’t realize they would be closed the day we arrived, so we wouldn’t be able to buy wine or other things. I reached out to the host and asked about arriving later, since they weren’t open, he said it was fine and he’d meet us in the morning.
We stopped at a beach, Sherwood Island State Park part of a park right of route 95. If we had known about the entrance fee we probably wouldn’t have bothered for the short visit, but I was driving while Steve did some project on his computer and I wanted a break from the highway. The beach was lovely and we took a short walk to explore before heading out again.
Since we couldn’t cook dinner outside and although we have an air fryer / oven, we decided to check out a local take out that sounded interesting, MEXIPHO. Arriving at the winery, we found it was a small place, at the least the lot where we parked had room for only a few vehicles, but was nice and cozy for our van, with the gardens spreading out from where we parked and the buildings on the other side, we sat out in the lovely weather enjoying a peaceful dinner. The next morning, we met up with the farmer, who had us sample a few wines, yes, for breakfast, but hey we were on vacation. We bought two bottles, one a tomato wine (not what you’d think), and also some amazing peaches which we cut up for various meals throughout the trip.
We couldn’t leave the area without checking out Dee’s One Smart Cookie, which turned out to be an amazing gluten free bakery. We both bought ourselves two treats, one for breakfast and one for later. This was the one rainy day of the trip, so besides driving, we made a stop at Welfare Records in Massachusetts, again scouting for items for our daughters upcycled art. (you can check out what she does at HillarysHandmade.com)
Later the weather was a bit better and we decided to explore the town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We wandered the shops and saw a bit of the waterfront, though a lot of the scenic views were blocked by buildings and such. We had a late lunch at The Green Elephant, which wound up being a very tasty, slightly upscale bistro.
We returned to our van and found a citation on the window. We had used Park Mobile to pay, adding the license plate for our new vehicle. I won’t get into the whole story, but want to take this opportunity to say that Park Mobile customer service is awful. Despite admitting (sort of) that their system didn’t add the new tag right away and therefore reported the payment to the wrong tag, even days later, with calls, emails, etc. they wouldn’t help us with documentation to provide the City. With the pictures and evidence we provided Portsmouth did forgive the ticket, but I want to urge you, when you have no choice but Park Mobile to be cautious and review every step and the email confirmation for accuracy – time, location, and license plate number.
We arrived at Spacious Skies – Walnut Grove Campground in Alfred, Maine just before dark. We joined the Spacious Skies rewards program, since we were staying three other nights at one of their other properties on the trip, and we made up the cost of membership with their discounts. The campground was nice, not spectacular but pleasant enough. Unfortunately, with all the dry weather there was a burn ban for the entire State and also in Vermont, so it was a fireless trip.
We learned another van lesson with help from the group following our stay there. Our instant hot water for the sink would not get hot for the second time in the trip. We didn’t need it for showers but for rinsing dishes. I finally boiled some water, but what we learned is the pressure is different when hooked up to the “city (campground) water” and that can affect the water heater. Haven’t had a problem since, just run the water from our fresh water tank.
Breakfast on the trip, especially without campfires, was usually cut up fruit, veggies, vegan cheese and gluten free bread or bagels, occasionally left overs and maybe we cooked one breakfast on the stove.
Leaving Alfred, we got a leisurely start, as most mornings, and headed toward a friend’s farm. An old Philadelphia friend, now lives on what is actually her son and daughter-in-law’s farm in a remote Maine town. She still splits her time in the Philadelphia area, due to family, but we caught her at the right time. Her and her granddaughter gave us the tour of the farm, it’s inhabitants and taught us about the things they raise there. It was a lot of fun catching up and seeing our city friend in her countrified life. We met not only our friend’s granddaughter but also another farm raised child later in the trip, it’s refreshing to see the interest in things many children aren’t accustomed to these days. They love the outdoors, they feel confident wandering around, they know how things work and where they are, and are really lovely little people.
After leaving we stopped for another late lunch, picking up some gluten/dairy free mushroom pizza at Wander Pizza Company, in Augusta Maine and took it to a waterfront park in Hallowell, Maine. We picnicked and then explored the small town a bit. Again, we arrived at that night’s campground in Abbot, Maine. This was the other Spacious Skies Campground, known as Balsam Woods. We planned three nights there as it is a dark skies site, though with less view then some. We had a lovely campsite and Steve took advantage of the pool one night. There was some hiking right from the campsite, but with our wanders in the next days we never actually did the hike to the pond.
Moosehead Lake where we had visited many years ago during May was just about a half an hour from the campground. So the next day, we headed up to Moosehead Lake. We picked a hiking area at Baxter State Park and parked at the beach. We took a lovely walk, checking out their campground for a future visit, noting the sites right along the lake edge. As we returned to the beach area where we parked we decided to take a swim, just because we could, having our bathing suits in the van. The water was a little cool, but it was a fun diversion. Once we were dry again, we headed into the town to see what was there. Not finding a suitable place to eat, we headed back to the campground for the evening.
We had checked out the possibility of canoeing on Moosehead Lake while we had been in town the day before, but we decided it was going to be too hot with no shade on the big open lake. Instead we drove into Bangor, the closest “big” city. We headed for the Bangor Farmer’s Market, not realizing until we got there that it was only Saturday and the market was on Sunday. Some quick research showed that there was a smaller market in a close by town, so we checked out their offerings. It was bigger than the day before in Greenville, near Moosehead lake, but still lacked a lot of options. Then heading back toward Bangor proper, I saw there was also a “European Farm Market” attached to a small shop there. It was close to closing for them, so a lot had sold out, but it was very interesting. We bought a few items for our food stash from one of the friendly vendors.
Next we parked by a waterfront park and strolled the city streets. This umbrella art installation was really cool, with no real explanation.
We were ready for lunch and decided to go back to Sea Dog Brewing Company, right near where we parked. It offered a nice view of the river from it’s back deck and had a decent number of gluten / dairy free options.
Back at Balsam Woods, we spent our last night there relaxing, wishing we could have a fire, but wildfires were raging elsewhere in the State so we were fortunate just to be there.
We had two more nights and three days to look forward to. We headed slowly south, through New Hampshire and Vermont. We stopped at a touristy row of shops in Vermont with antiques, souvenirs and llamas. The llamas were the best part.
Down the road was Quechee Gorge in Vermont, a spot we remembered as lovely, but with the dry weather it was less spectacular than usual. Still a good diversion. Then we headed into Woodstock, VT to browse the shops of this once familiar town. Steve actually found a replacement flip flops that he had been looking all over for at home, obviously, they were waiting in Vermont. He calls them his “1,600 mile flip flops” because that’s the round-trip distance we traveled to get them 😉
We couldn’t find a great choice for lunch so we headed through to Rutland, VT, passing Killington and some favorite spots from our more frequent skiing days. For some reason, there was no snow this time. In Rutland we had a yummy lunch at Taco Fresco, a restaurant whose philosophy includes trying to make food accessible to people with dietary restrictions.
Pleasant Valley Campground, a small family owned campground in East Rygate, Vermont was our destination for the night. The woman there had picked a spot for us, but then seeing our van, said it might not be the best fit and offered for us to look at several open spots and choose. We chose one from the map with her recommendation and it was lovely. It would definitely be a place to spend a few nights on a future trip.
The next day, on our way to our final Harvest Host and last night away, we stopped for a walk at Pondicherry Wildlife Refuge. We didn’t see much wildlife but had a good walk and even found a few geocaches.
This time our Harvest Host was an organic farm, Pleasant Valley Farm, in the Hills of Argyle, New York. The friendly family including one small boy welcomed us, showed us their farm, answered out questions and picked the produce we purchased from them fresh off the plants in the morning. Paul, the patriarch, even knew our local organic farmer, Bob Muth as they had attended school together. Again, we had the area they used to let RV’s park all to ourselves and sat outside to enjoy the evening and our breakfast the next morning.
Heading South in the morning toward home we made a stop in Saratoga Springs, NY. We explored the area with some of the springs before heading into town.
Next we walked the town a bit. We ordered lunch from Bare Blends a cute little vegan restaurant and took to a nearby picnic spot.
The next lesson came when we were almost back in familiar territory. We were using our RV Life GPS, which took us through a local highway, with stoplights every block and traffic. That was followed by a bunch of very quick turns and lane switches. We wondered why it didn’t take us the usual Garden State Parkway to the NJ Turnpike. We looked it up and found that the Southern part of the GSP is open to vans and trucks, the upper part is not. Something we would have never considered without the RV version of GPS.
We decided to stop for a small meal and ice cream in Princeton at some of our favorite spots, Mamouns Falafel and The Bent Spoon, to wrap up the trip on a sweet note.
Since then we’ve taken Spud on lots of short De Tour adventures. I won’t write up everyone in depth, but will soon publish “notes from the De Tour Bus”, so you can see something about where we have been going and we can have a journaled list. In the meantime, the weather is prefect to get out and do your own exploring. Happy Trails!
