A Little Camping, A Little Flying, and a $120 Souvenir

Sorry there hasn’t been a blog for the past two weeks. We just haven’t been able to get out and do much camping.

I did manage a solo camping trip this past weekend, but more on that in a little bit.

So this week’s blog is going to be a little of this and a little of that.

Mrs. Weeble also reminded me that I left something out of the story from our last camping trip.

Buster Takes Over as Co-Pilot

On our way home from Little Beaver State Park, Mrs. Weeble decided to take advantage of one of the nice things about traveling in a motorhome.

She was going to take a nap.

The Weeblemobile is set up so that when the slide is in, you can’t really use the regular bed. That leaves two choices if somebody wants to lie down: the overhead bunk or the dinette.

The overhead bunk usually stores some of our travel stuff. My telescope goes up there, along with the drone case and our outside table.

We probably could pack things differently so somebody could sleep up there, but I really can’t picture Mrs. Weeble climbing the ladder to get into it.

So that leaves the dinette.

You drop the table down, move the cushions around, and it turns into a bed.

That’s where Mrs. Weeble settled in for her nap.

That also meant the co-pilot seat was now available.

Buster quickly took over.

As I’ve mentioned before, Buster does not spend much time sleeping when we’re traveling. He likes to sit up and watch everything going on around him.

At one point we stopped at a red light, and a UPS-type delivery truck pulled up alongside us.

Mrs. Weeble was lying at the dinette looking out the window and said the driver in the truck looked over, saw Buster sitting in the passenger seat, and started waving at him.

Buster looked over at them.

Then he looked straight ahead again.

They started laughing and waved again.

Buster gave them another quick look.

Then the light turned green, and that was the end of visiting time.

He went right back to watching the road and taking his co-pilot duties seriously.

The Electricity Problem

We’ve been pretty busy this month, but I’ve still been trying to find us somewhere to go camping.

I may have created a bit of a problem, though.

Mrs. Weeble has gotten used to having electricity.

I’ll admit, when it’s hot, I really like having the air conditioning too. The microwave is nice, although I could live without it.

Mrs. Weeble really likes having shore power first thing in the morning because all she has to do is turn on the coffee maker.

Now, for the record, if we didn’t have electricity, she could plug the coffee maker into our APU and do the exact same thing.

Apparently that extra step is enough to make shore power much more appealing.

So now she would really like electricity at all of our campsites.

The problem is that many of the campgrounds I like are primitive sites.

No electricity and no water.

That’s common at a lot of National Park campgrounds and many state parks.

West Virginia has spoiled us a little because their state parks usually have electric sites, and some, like Little Beaver, also have water.

Of course, they cost more.

With my Senior National Park Pass, we can sometimes camp at a National Park for around $15 a night.

You have to love that pass.

West Virginia, running around $45 a night, isn’t too bad either.

Private campgrounds can be another story.

Some of those prices can make you wonder if you accidentally reserved the whole campground.

Trying to Get to Assateague

I started looking for a campsite at Assateague National Seashore.

There aren’t any electric hookups there, which was already going to require a little convincing on my part.

The bigger problem was that no campsites were available for the dates we wanted.

That really wasn’t much of a surprise.

Online services can watch for campground cancellations. You tell them where and when you want to camp, and if a site opens up, they notify you.

I tried one called The Dyrt.

I put in the dates we wanted and said we wanted the ocean side of Assateague.

It worked.

Sort of.

It kept notifying me about openings on the bayside.

I didn’t want the bayside.

I wanted the ocean side.

Eventually, I gave up on that plan, so we didn’t get to go anywhere.

At least not together.

A Solo Weekend at the RC Field

I did manage to get away for a solo camping trip over Labor Day weekend at the RC flying field.

This time I left Buster at home.

After his previous interest in chasing small dogs that apparently look like rabbits to him, I figured it might make for a more relaxing weekend.

I loaded up the airplanes and all the other equipment and headed north in the Weeblemobile.

Before I left, Mrs. Weeble had one small request.

She wanted me to stop at Rutter’s and pick her up some of their mint iced tea.

Now, stopping at a convenience store sounds simple enough when you’re driving a car.

When you’re driving the Weeblemobile, it becomes a little more interesting.

Convenience store parking lots are not always designed with a motorhome in mind. You have to think about where you’re going to pull in, where you’re going to park, and most importantly, how you’re going to get back out without turning the whole thing into a driving lesson.

Luckily, I found a spot that worked.

The Weeblemobile fit, nobody got blocked in, and I managed to get back out without having to ask someone to move a gas pump.

Most importantly, Mrs. Weeble got her mint iced tea.

Mission accomplished.

From there, I continued north.

I couldn’t take my normal route because of a low bridge, so I took the long way around.

I got to the field and set everything up without any problems.

I was a little nervous plugging into shore power after my last electrical adventure there, but everything worked exactly the way it was supposed to.

I had a great weekend and got in plenty of flying.

I only scared myself a couple of times.

Best of all, everything that went up came back down in one piece.

That isn’t always guaranteed in the RC airplane world.

Maryland Sends Me a Picture

When I drive the Weeblemobile, I tend to drive pretty conservatively.

I usually stay about five miles per hour below the speed limit on the highway, and I leave plenty of room between me and the vehicle ahead.

On our last trip to Little Beaver, I was coming down I-83 and merging onto I-695, the Baltimore Beltway.

I’m fairly certain there has been road construction somewhere on the Beltway since I first got my driver’s license.

I was trying to merge into traffic, and naturally everyone saw a motorhome trying to get over and slowed down to let me in.

Not exactly.

Eventually I got onto the Beltway, and we continued on our way.

A couple of weeks later, I got a letter from the State of Maryland.

Apparently they had taken my picture.

Unfortunately, they wanted $120 for it.

According to the notice, I was doing 59 mph in a 45 mph zone.

It turns out there’s a speed camera in that area, and the speed limit there is variable.

So depending on traffic conditions, the posted speed can change.

That’s helpful to know.

Especially after the picture has already been taken.

So yes, Maryland will eventually get its $120

But they’re going to have to wait until the very last day it’s due.

No reason to rush things.

Of course, knowing my luck, that’ll probably be the exact day the internet goes down.