• 37 foot ( bus style ) Holiday Rambler Endeavor motorcoach
• Two 14.5K Air Conditioners with Heat pumps.
• Double Wide Fridge with ice maker - runs on both AC and Propane.
• Extra Large Convection Oven with Microwave.
• Leather Cockpit Seats with fully motorized  positioned controls.
• Heated Mirrors with internal controls.
• Furnace - also runs on AC and Propane.
• 5,000 watt gas powered generator - supplies 120 volts AC to all appliances when not connected to 50 amp AC.
• Satellite Antenna - ready for any dish service.
• The living room and kitchen area slide out by hydraulics more then two foot out and 16 feet in length to increase the living area greatly while parked. 
• The bedroom also slides out increasing the bedroom space greatly.
• 9 exterior storage areas allowing over 700 pounds of storage in each.
• All wood cabinetry and massive interior storage.
• full mirrored walk-in closet at the rear of the bus in the bedroom area.
• Full glazed glass shower with sun roof - to improve maneuverability while showering.
• Separate toilet - ideal for privacy and making the most use of the shower and sink areas.
• Queen Size bed and vanity area - the vanity makes a perfect computer work station.
• Tilt steering with cruise control.
• Tons of other things that make this a fully self contained home that is a full time RVers dream machine.
  

Starting a New Life on the Adventure Trail

If you have read any of our previous trips, then you know Tracey has the theory that if you can't take it ALL with you, then you'll wish you did later. The amazing thing about "The Bus" is it's massive storage capacity which roughly included 8,000 of lower compartmental storage and another 4500 pounds within the living area. Not even Tracey could pack this much content into our mobile home away from home, but she sure did have a feel for stowing what would come in handy under just about any circumstance.

We had spent a great deal of money on outfitting the bus with basic homey touches and even had a weeks worth of movies to watch late at night when not much else was happening. The idea of being high in the mountains seemed like a wonderful get away, but if the nights were too cool or rainy, then sitting out under a star filled sky might not have been a option. By time the night before we left came, our bus was loaded to the hilt and ready for the open road.

Without back-tracking too much, I had only driven the Bus about a hundred of so miles, most of those country and very few in tight city like traffic. I really didn't do many highway miles, and almost no parkway or interstate miles - so being ready for the TIGHT New Jersey Toll Booths to the Northern region of the state was always lingering in the back of my mind.

I remember well the movie the long long trailer starring Lucy and Desi and how he had feared the worse, but somehow ( many crunches and close calls later ) felt much more comfortable behind the wheel. My first experience was at the dealership where I had already signed the paperwork for the Bus, yet had not as much as driven it around the block. I told the sales man that I had NO PLANS leaving the parking lot without a copilot offering his vast knowledge on turns and general operating techniques. They gave me Darrell who was a nice enough guy and he drove the Bus out of the parking lot to the very first traffic light which was red.

Darrell jumped from the cockpit like a Chinese fire drill and said "Your Turn, make that sharp right at the next traffic light!" This was something akin to "Jump out of the plane and grab that shoot hanging on that tree branch on the way down!" but I popped it in gear, applied a little gas and felt 15 tons of monster bus start to move below my feet.

The first thing I noticed was that I was much closer to the while center line, and not just the bus either - I'm talking about ME being a whole lot closer. Vehicles were coming at me and only a foot and a half separated us if it was a rig as big as mine. Getting use to this "New Prospective" was going to get a bit use to, but still ahead was that tight right turn he told me to make.

This couldn't be a simple 90 degree turn like 99.9999998% of all right turns tend to be, this had to be a much sharper angled turn that pointed me from West to North East. At that intersection were cars that were two lanes wide and clear out beyond the line where they are suppose to keep behind. Darrell said "Ok, you'll need to do a few things simultaneously now, but don't panic. Move a bit to the left, cheating a little and slightly cross the centerline if possible. Look in your right mirror and make sure that the entry door clears the telephone pole, then sharply cut the wheel right, but slowly move directly toward those cars at the intersection. As you turn, try to imagine a 3 foot wall between you and the sides of their cars and ride along that wall, not too close and not too far, this allows the rear of the bus to follow you closely in track WITHOUT worrying about excessive tail swing"

At this point I was looking everywhere including up toward God for a bit of luck and maybe some grease just In case I got some part of this beast too close to anything. The buss did follow along quite well and I cleared everything nicely. He commented on letting the bus retract into a straight path slowly, and he emphasized in the following statement "Your bus will need to turn a bit sooner on long turns, swing a bit wider on narrow turns, roll out of turns slower in most all cases and most importantly it will need you to pay as much attention to the mirrors and rear cam/video screen as you spend looking out the window. In other words, I need to use all eight eyeballs that I don't have at once.

That afternoon Darrell spend about 40 minutes running me, Tracey and Fred around a series of right hand turns, saying that these turns pose the largest threat to the new driver of a large un-articulated ( no joints like a travel trailer, 5th wheel or other jointed vehicle ) but I got thinking, lots of tight turns involving cars at intersections are toward the left and the dreaded "Tail swing" is just as important if I have another vehicle to my immediate right when I make these turns.

A good case example is when I filled the tank for the first time. I pulled into a Mobile gas station, after checking that I had lots of overhang clearance to park the Bus under. I placed the Bus about five feet away from the pumps and I was about 10 feet too far head of the pump so I needed to get back in and repetition the bus some so that the pump nozzle would reach. After topping of the Bus and talking to two people about the new right, it was time to pull out. I started moving forward and began to cut the wheel toward the left when "Tail swing" popped into my mind - I looked into the mirror and sure enough I had my rear end walking it's way quickly toward the pumps. Luckily, I straightened the wheel, moved further forward, clearing the pumps and then sharply turned and pulled out onto the highway. Although this simple momentary forgetfulness could have been a costly nightmare, some basic training tips from the owners manual helped me avoid a serious mess.

Time to Hit The Road......

I was told by one of my traveling buddies that the NY Thru-way could be a real mess and he had suggested that I leave as early as 3am, but that was something I was not ready to do - mainly because our check in wasn't until 1pm that afternoon and on the chance that we did get there early, I was NOT about to start my vacation sitting in the bus parked at a roadside stop for 4 or 5 hours. I had though intended to leave around 4:30am but somehow that became 5:30am and the sun was peaking up along the horizon at us. We tucked away all the life support stuff: cable TV coax, 50 amp power cable, lifted the stabilizer jacks, stowed the 2X8s used  under the stabilizers and did a final walk around to see that all the antennas, cargo doors and anything that should be stowed was placed and ready.

Now I must remind you that I'm a bit freaked by rattles and even with a moblehome filled with dishes, glasses, pots and pans, I still has a reasonable hope that this would be a rattles venture. I told Tracey and Fred that it was THEIR JOB to keep all the needless noises down and they both eliminated the majority of sounds that could be abated within the first bumpy 10 miles as we headed toward the Garden State Parkway and my very first tollbooth.

I did my homework and knew that it would cost 50 cents to get this Bus ( without car and 70 cents with car ) through the toll booths, so we had a bag full of change handy and a set of rules that involved a right side spotter at every toll booth. It's easy to see how much room I have on my side and I think subconsciously I you try to give yourself a few extra inches "JUST" to be safe - but the further north we headed, the tighter the booths became, so there was NO ROOM for luxury, so a spotter telling me "Keep more toward your side!" was not very reassuring, especially when I was already as far as I dare go. But somehow we cleared all the booths, although I did lightly tap the right side mirror while exiting on booth and I couldn't imagine trying to breeze through "Easy Pass" at 20 miles an hour with this monster.

We really got a feel for the many natural phenomena's that occur while traveling the highways, including the natural air-waves that both pull your vehicle in and repel it away as large vehicles pass you at high speeds. This is where the rear view cam came in handy, I'd keep an eye on large 18 wheelers coming and ready myself for the inevitable suction that would come as the final 3rd of the truck passed on my left. It really wasn't much more than keeping a firm grip on the wheel and sometimes adjusting my lane position a bit using the wheel, but all in all it was interesting to see the airwaves do just as it had said in the books.

I had a double long tandem truck cruise on by my left and it was interesting to see what was going to happen as a Class C RV about 35 foot long also passed me on my right. The pull from the 18 wheeler won out, but only by a little. I kept my lane, set the cruise control for 65mph and let her do her thing.

I also got a chance to use my Garmin GPS while traveling the NY Thru-way. It was interesting to see upcoming lakes and parks as I made my way northbound on this newly traveled route. I became really comfortable about an hour into the drive and It was almost second nature getting the bus in the proper place along those narrow lanes and even when shifting lanes rather abruptly in construction zones.

Our First Stop.....

Somewhere just into New York State we decided it was time to pull over for a break. I saw a sign for a road side stop ahead and made my way to it. I pulled in and found a fairly level area between a bunch of 18 wheelers and a few larger motorhomes and parked. I jogged back to the bathroom for a quickie bladder break and wasn't happy with the levelness of the bus, so I lowered the stabilizer jacks and brought up the one side, meanwhile Tracey broke out the pans and whipped us up a couple grilled cheese sandwiches and a fresh pot of coffee.

We opened the windows, overlooking a few people sitting out on the park benches as we sat back and downed our eagerly awaited meal. I popped in a movie that Fred and I had started watching the night before and we took our time eating, watching and finally started getting cleaned up for the next leg of the ride.

When we first got the bus ready for this voyage, I took  Fred around and showed him that everything in the bus was spotless, especially the bathroom and I made it understood that it was to stay that way. I said "I only have two rules 1) I cleaned this toilet myself and know it is clean - so if you use it while moving or parked, you make a mess then you clean that mess. The second rule was almost as simple: I said eat anything you want, cook anything you want, but after you are done you will immediately clean your mess - NO MESS is to be found in the sink at any time. This went for Fred, Tracey and me! There is nothing worse than inviting bugs into the home you are living in and I can not stand to live around a messy kitchen or living space - a footnote, the bus was indeed kept clean and the trip was all the better for it.

Back on the Road......

It's interesting how you go through a series of mountains as you travel from central NJ to  upstate, NY. You climb a great deal of the time then level off for nearly an hour before climbing again. All in all you never get the feeling that you are high in the mountains and I guess as far as "Mountains" go, you really are NOT all that high. But it was a good way to test the climbing power of the Bus and I will say that it truly a climbing machine.

We ran into some seriously slow and merging traffic as we passed the Albany route 87 intersection. As best as I could figure three major roads intersected and all became route 87 the North Way. After getting past this snarl we only had an hour left to Lake George. Luckily, the hills started climbing again and we had some outstanding views of the lower roads and rivers that ran below bridges that we traveled. Sadly though, I didn't have much chance to look around, especially down because I do get some vertigo problems when doing this. I was happy enough to hear Tracey and Fred's explanation of what they were seeing.

Finally I saw the signs for exit 22 and knew that we were now just 2 miles from Lake George Escape Camping Resort. The web site offered a lot of great images of the RV Park, campsites and surroundings, so I almost had the layout of this area down after studying the map previously .

We arrived at 11am, a feat unheard of by a friend named Dube. He strongly suggested I leave at 3am to beat the NY State Thru-way traffic. I couldn't imagine handling this beast for the first time in the dark and driving through narrow toll booths. Even with my Garmin Color GPS mounted safely in front of me, I wasn't ready to take chances, so we let around 5:30am and hit moderate traffic all the way out of NJ and into Albany - where it got pretty heavy for about an hour.

Lake George, NY

So we checked in and slowly snaked the 37 foot long luxury saltine box through the narrow roads of this huge RV park. I passed tent sites overlooking the river, 5th rigs and travel trailers of all types and many class A vehicles like ours. Now I get chicken and I again am glad I have a pull through site and not have to backup this into a camping site - it really isn't any fun. I'm new at all this and feel like Ricky Ricardo and Lucille Ball in the Long Long Trailer - Speaking of which, we DID start a small boulder collection, where 1) none weigh over 2 pounds and 2) They don't travel anywhere with us but HOME.

First things first: I leveled the bus with the auto leveling jacks, extended all the canopies, plugged in electric, hooked into water and sewer and cable. First of all I have to say their cable is great, over 100 channels, all crystal clear. That is always a plus when away. Everything was hooked up in about 20 minutes or so, not too bad really.

You know I'm a bit compulsive and RATTLES drive me nuts - so everything is wrapped or bubble rapped or stowed where I cant hear it. The privacy door just past the fridge and the second door just beyond the bath area gives you lots of protection from the rattles in the rear. I had both Tracey and Fred shoving towels and restacking stuff for about 30 miles each way - lol. On with the trip.

Fred and I checked out a "WALKING PATH"  that was suppose to lead back to the camp store - well... no way mister, it dead ended half way there, I'm sure they are expanding the park. I really think the  Tenters have the best sites.

Checking out the RV Park

Half way to the camp store we found the rental place for the big wheeled trikes, they also had both swimming pools and arcade at this location midway to the general camp store. Fred and I played two quick games of pool and we continued on to the camp store. It was actually quite nice, although I'm sure every well equipped camp store probably looks a lot like this one. We bought some sun screen and marshmallows.  We bought some other stuff including a huge round grill that was perfect for barbecuing over the fire ring. Then got the scoop on the hourly trips by shuttle to Lake George Village.

I still had not gotten the navigation to  down while walking through the RV park, there were a dozen ways to get from our spot to entrance and back - we finally agreed to go the same way we pulled in using the bus - it really made it easy to meet each other at different locations without missing that person in passing.

The park had several ponds, one called Moose Pond was nearest us and on day 2 we fished it, without a single bit I might add. The larger Frog Pond had several tent sites  line its banks. I stand by my theory that tenters get the most scenic sites - mainly because RV Park owners can't possibly run sewer, electric and water to extremely located campsites - it's easier to make them for tenters, besides maintenance is much lower on natural  sites.

A good part of the property lines the shore of Lake Shroon which is where we go tubing on day two. The water does move slowly and flows into the Hudson River. We found out that it was $6 for a guided tubing tour of the mile or so of lake front.  A few people were fishing on the Shroon, but I didn't ask how anyone was making out - it seemed though that they weren't just blowing time, I had a feeling that they were in the middle of catching dinner.

We returned to the bus and hung ut for a while, it was a long day with few stops, so we were all a bit pooped. It was great so see that the Cable TV had such a great selection of channels. We have digital cable home with about 300 channels, but this cable had a good mix of stations and there was always plenty to watch. Besides, we had 5 movies to watch.

I hooked up my Infrared spy cam to show it to Fred. The cam I'm talking about was purchased at BJ's Wholesalers for $35 and is really fun to play with. This was actually the second one I had, the first burned out in the rain - my fault, I didn't read the USE INDOORS ONLY part of the owners manual - lol. BJ's took it back and replaced it with no questions asked.

The cam is a full color with sound camera with a 60 foot cord. The night vision works really well with 6 small LED sized lights that are hard to spot unless you are looking for them. I originally had my cam taped to the satellite dish on the roof of the bus - I could rotate it 360 degrees using the dish control knob inside the bus, and even tilt it from straight down to directly straight up.  I used it for basic property protection, nothing wrong with keeping an eye on the neighborhood, but the rain shorted it out and I haven't mounted it in a waterproof way yet.

A new neighbor pulled in - it was a older husband and wife couple who had a Class A bus style like mine, but they were arriving late in the day, so it seemed they would wait until tomorrow to setup camp.

Lake George Village

We took the 6:00pm shuttle to the village. It wasn't the quaint village I had hoped to find. Instead, it was a collection of cramped craft and head shops, squeezed in between other craft and head shops. Occasionally a eatery and even a lame wax museum and alien museum across from the Fort Henry entrance of the 30 mile long Lake George.

Tracey was bored and disappointed quickly, she tried to catch the bus back to the RV Park, but was about 5 minutes late, she ended up staying with Fred and I until the 9:15pm shuttle returned. Fred and I went into the Frankenstien Wax Museum, I can only say one good thing about this place, it had a BLACK HOLE exhibit: it's a rotating horizon drum that you walk through. The drum has stars painted on it and you walk on a catwalk type platform - note: the platform is flat and does not move, yet YOU believe that the entire drum ( you and all ) are rotating in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION of the stars. It really is a wild feeling, you swear you are about to slide right off of the tilting catwalk as it rotates around, but it is ALL an ILLUSION.

We walked down to the lake, saw a bunch of crap floating in the water as the tiny waves splashed onto shore. A few people swam here, but mostly boat traffic maneuvers this part of the lake. There are touring cruises, eating cruises, fire works cruise, paragliding and skiing all along this southern most part of the lake. But Lake George is hundreds of feet deep and miles wide at one point, it's no little lake like most of us think of. The other huge lakes we've been to were in Madison, Wisconsin.

The end of this first night was a return trip to the RV Park and a long dark walk back to the campsite because we forgot to bring a flashlight. We popped a DVD into our 5 DVD/CD changer that I have in the living area of the bus on a 27 inch TV. Tracey showered and went to bed and Fred and I watched movies until he fell asleep. I finished the one movie then went to bed myself. The first day was an ok day, we got to put almost 300 miles worth of driving in on the bus and everything went well along the trip. I was pleased at the way the bus handles at highway speeds, it really did keep up with the traffic well. You could hear the traffic riding on rt. 87 and rt. 9 from our camping spot, but neither ruined the overall quietness of this family friendly park.

Day Two

After a peaceful sleep we all started waking around 7am. The only one who can handle a breakfast when She first wakes up is Tracey, so we put off the food for about an hour and a half. It was cool out all night and we had a nice mountain breeze coming in through the windows. The first thing I had noticed was that we had another neighbor, this fellow somehow sneaked in around 11pm - the absolute cut-off time for driving to your campsite at this RV Park.

Tracey made this our big breakfast and the table was slid out to accommodate all the plates of sausages and pancakes with bacon strips and a mound of scrambled eggs. That and a fresh jar of  Patti Page maple syrup and we were set for the day. A friend of mine knows Patti Page, the singer known best for "How much is that doggy in the window" . He hunts using bow and muzzle-loaders for turkey and other creatures on Patti Page's property. He said you walk forever through a forest of trees with all their taps bored into them. The containers filling up right before your eyes. The sap only flows after temperature falls below freezing the night before - but when it does you can get gallons a day. It takes about 40 gals of raw sap to be boiled and condensed into 1 gallon of maple syrup.

Where was I - lol. Oh, breakfast was great and we started planning what to do that day. Mind you Tracey has a combo washer/dryer machine - that's one machine, you toss in dirty close and dry clean clothes come out. She was happy to play washing machine all day, Fred and I went for the Inner Tubing. We walked to the Teddy bear House and bought the $6 tickets for the wagon ride to the drop off spot up stream a bit on Shroon Lake. We sat in the sun for way too long in that wagon waiting for our guide to arrive.

She finally made it and we rode the mile or so to the drop off point. We both grabbed the larger inner tube so that we had room to stretch out. I fell out getting into mine, I was barely 20 feet off shore. Fred jumped out of his several times while some your 15 year old girl was showing herself off to Fred as she stood on top of her tube and diving off. She did indeed put on quite a show, Fred of course inched his canoe closer and he did a pretty good job at casual chat. I told him that he should invite her to the pool at 6:00pm that night for a TEEN ONLY pool party. He chickened out and we never saw her again.

I was a nice ride down stream, the current took you slowly around the bends and the perfectly tempered water was revitalizing. The whole trip lasted about 50 minutes and it was a high light of the trip. We never made it back to Lake George Village, instead we had a wood fire in our fire ring and we toasted them marshmallows over the coals - it was cool out that night, but it felt good knowing it was 15 degrees warmer home and humid. Tracey and I sat under the stars and Mars was shining high and bright as it tracked the moon this late Summer. Fred had crashed early and we had a quiet hour to ourselves.

Reflection on being sick

I thought about what else we did that day and I was a bit disappointed when I realize that I'm missing some details of those days, it comes from having a Lymes Meningitis  attack to my nervous system. The true effects are becoming clearer, but they are far less than they could have been.

Many of you know how ill I was and that I've recovered and am doing ok. My main concern in short term memory loss that I am experiencing. I can only say that I was a bit sharper before getting sick and I miss the speed at which I connected things in my mind, now I still get the job done, but at a slower pace and with a bit more thought involved.

The last day and the trip home.

We had to be out by 11am and we were. I started closing up all the awnings, filling the water tank with 100 gallons of FRESH MOUNTAIN SPRING WATER  to take home with me. I also dumped and flushed out the BLACK TANK which is for SEWAGE WASTE and drained out the GRAY TANK which is used for storing water from your sinks and shower. These are kept separate and when you dump the tanks, the black tank is dumped first, then a hose which is mounted to a special hose fitting on the bus sends clean water into the black tank to help assure it is relatively clean. Then the black tank dump valve is shut and the gray tank valve is opened.

The gray water then flushes out the hose very well with your waste soapy dish and shower water. Finally, the hose is disconnected and you rinse it with your GARDEN HOSE - note: you also have a potable water hose that is NEVER connected to anything except for a fresh water supply faucet and to the potable water connection on your bus - all other hose duties are performed using a NON POTABLE standard garden hose. Keep your tap water safe at all times and never assume the person before you  cared as much for sanitized living, because some people just don't understand what they are doing and they could easily infect their water system or the next campers water system.

What worked out good was this was to be a laid-back weekend off in the middle of the week and it was. We didn't do a whole lot, which makes my wife shake her head when she reads me type this epic adventure - kinda like a Seinfeld episode, it was a story about doing nothing :)  Actually, we had fun and we did get to see Lake George and give the bus a real work out. The bus by the way did handle the hills wonderfully, the 500 horse power gas engine really knows when to shift gears and mix fuel electronically, so it really has power or speed when needed. It can actually pass, but I need a good long run to do so, much more than the car - imagine, I'm about as long as 3 small cars bumper to bumper and ALL that length has to pass and clear the passed vehicle - it's a bit more of a project than with my Mercury Grand Marquis which can pass anything, anytime any where - lol.

So we waved to the neighbors and stopped briefly at checkout to make sure our bill was clear. We then pulled out and made the right up the single steepest hills in this entire trip - it's a massive camel hump in the middle of a straight road. I climbed and descended it - lol, then we passed the Twin Towers Memorial that was built in scale using thousands of christmas lights and wire skeleton. I pulled onto 87 South and made our way to the Lake George Outlet Mall - this is actually 4 buildings typical outlet shops and very few eateries - we were there about an hour, bought a cute rooster and hen pot holder set and a few other decorations for the bus.

We left there and pretty much had a slow trip home. Traffic was terrible neat the Raratan Bridge, but it did move mostly. I will say this, the bus is a big vehicle and needs to shown who's boss - you have to pay lots of attention, all of the time. But when you get where you are going, you just spin your chair around and you are sitting in your living room - can't beat that.