Some repairs

We had a couple of smallish to-do's to get done...

When we hooked up the Jeep in New Hampshire, one of the rear lights on the Jeep was not working correctly...

... so when we got to Vermont, Carl pulled into the assembly -- we found that it worked "sometimes", and decided that there was a wire that looked like it had some wear, so we should replace it.

Carl actually did the replacement of the wire the next night (when we were in Quebec), and it now seems to be working well.

We had also read on a Newmar Owner group that someone was asking how to get into a compartment if the lock would not unlock and there was not a neighboring compartment that gave access. Someone indicated that they put a pull-wire on their locks so they could unlock it if needed. 

We had saved the zip ties from when we got our bikes and they seemed to be just the right size for the task...

Open up and get to the latching mechanism....

Put the zip tie around the locking mechanism...

... run the loose end down to the bottom of the door.

Replace the cover over the latching mechanism. The end of the zip tie extends a short distance below the bottom of the door (but is hidden) so someone "in the know" can unlock the compartment door if it isn't unlocking through normal means.

It creates less security on access to the bays under the rig (if any of you reading this come to Gracie, you could potentially unlock our compartments without having a key!), but, since the lady who was having difficulty accessing a locked compartment was locked out of her wet bay (so could not hook up to water or dump), we figured it would be a good idea to have an alternative way to unlock.

The locking and latching mechanism on the bay doors is rather poor quality on these motorhomes. We have heard that the new mechanisms are better and plan to invest in a couple when we are at the "mothership" (aka factory) in August.

On to Vermont

On Friday, we left Dennie and Jim's "camp" and continued on toward Vermont...

"Welcome to Vermont"

We soon arrived at our Harvest Host location for the evening, Happy Hill Maple Farm, where Karl taught us about the process of making maple syrup.

They started the maple syrup collection and bottling just a few years ago. Karl's son "taps" about 21,000 trees each winter. They have tubing through the woods that the taps feed into, and which eventually comes into their farm building...

... to a vacuum pump that pulls the sap into the pump house...

... where it goes into these big vats. When the sap comes in, it is only 2% sugar.

It is fed through a reverse osmosis system that removes 75% of the water from the sap, collecting the water (distilled water) that is then used to clean all the items in the process that need to be cleaned, while passing the resultant liquid (now about 25% sugar) along to the next process.

Part of the reverse osmosis system.

Holding tanks (above) for post-reverse osmosis liquid.

The liquid then goes into the oil-fueled Leader Evaporator - the resultant syrup is 66% sugar.

It takes 45 gallons of raw sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup.

Additional barrels for holding syrup - the wooden barrels are from either rum or bourbon distilleries that allow them to make specialized syrup products.

Packaged product

Gift shop...

More items in the gift shop

Information from their website: https://www.happyhillmaplefarms.com/about-us and https://www.happyhillmaplefarms.com/making-syrup

We always enjoy learning things as we travel!

Visiting friends in New Hampshire

We continued our journey west on Wednesday, 

... entering New Hampshire near Freedom, NH (we were on a county road so there wasn't a big "Welcome to New Hampshire" sign).

We were going to visit Patti's former co-worker and friends, Dennie and Jim. They have a beautiful spot on Leavitt Bay off Ossipee Lake that has room to pull Gracie in to visit!

Sunset off their dock on Wednesday evening

We enjoyed visiting and combining resources for dinner.

On Thursday, Dennie took us out for a boat ride all through the bays tied to Ossipee Lake...

... it was a *beautiful* day!

Couldn't have asked for nicer!

This was in one of the river portions that connect the bays and lake.

Dennie has been coming to this "camp" (the house that her grandparents built there) since she was a babe, and knew the lakes and bays and could share so much with us!

We were blessed to get to have such a wonderful personal tour!

And to see such beautiful scenery!

Back at the dock

A picture on the deck of their "camp" - Jim, Dennie, and Patti - what a peaceful spot!

One last picture on Friday morning before we headed out.

We so enjoyed our visit with Dennie and Jim... and we're hoping we'll get to see them again in the Mesa area this winter!

How quickly...

A couple of weeks ago, we saw some posts on various Facebook RV groups of a motorhome that had been crushed by a tree falling on it... The original posting was from the Montgomery Volunteer Fire Company and included this text:

Wednesday night training started off with loading the barriers down at the park from the fireworks and then ended when we were dispatched to a call for a tree on a camper. One of the owners was in the camper at the time. Thankfully he managed to self extricate and was just a bit stiff and sore.

Text from the fire department: The owner was located here when the tree came down and managed to self extricate from where the drivers window used to be prior to our arrival

The fire department later updated the posting:

ETA and answer some repeat questions: This is the borough of Montgomery in Pennsylvania. There was no wind or storm that day.

We were horrified to think of this happening to someone's rig. We had figured -- there must have been some kind of wind storm -- but the later fire department edit to the post said that there wasn't. We were thankful that no one had been hurt.

Later in the day, one of the folks that we met at the Newmar group during the Tampa RV Supershow posted:

A very large silver maple tree fell on our motor home. I heard it begin to crack and screamed to Don who was inside the motor home but it was too late…it came down fast and hard. It crushed the motor home and pinned Don to the floor. After a couple of minutes I was able to hear Don say he was okay, but he was trapped. After several more minutes, Don was able to extricate himself with the help of a few campers. It was a miracle that Don was not hurt!!! The motor home was completely demolished from the cockpit through the kitchen, dining room, and living area…the only room that was spared was the bedroom. Please pray for us as we try to put our lives back together. My family lives here and they have been such an incredible help for us!!!!!

Robyn and Don were at the RV Supershow in their rig -- she was finishing up her last semester of teaching at a Christian school before they would be completely retired and leaving to be fulltime traveling in their beautiful Bay Star rig. They had been living in it for a little while on the campus of the Christian school where she had been teaching, and were looking forward to starting the traveling part of their fulltime RV living.

Robyn posted the next day:

Now that the tree has been removed…this is what our motor home looks like. We have been trying to salvage our belongings. It will be a “one day at a time” process for the next few months. Pray for us as we try to figure this out! Thanks for all the kind comments, you all have been such an encouragement! 

A couple of days later, Robyn posted:

Don and I want to say a huge thank you to all of you who are praying for us! We feel your prayers! We also want to thank my niece Jen and her husband Matt for all their help! They are letting us stay at their home and use their garage for storage. I also want to thank my other niece Brooke and her husband Greg and their daughters Addison and Madalyn for all their help and support. My mom and my sister Suzie have been there helping us throughout this whole ordeal. I don’t know what we would have done without them! God is good!!! Keep us in your prayers!

More recently, Robyn posted a before and after:

It just a reminder of how quickly things can change. We are so grateful that Robyn and Don are okay, and we're continuing to pray for them to have wisdom on how to proceed.

Just yesterday, Robyn posted:

Update… we ordered a new motor home this week. It is a Newmar Baystar and will be the same as our last one. It is already on the production line and will be ready for pick up the middle of September. We are going to rent a car to travel out to Denver for Justin and Sarah’s wedding (which is September 16th) and then fly back to Pennsylvania to pick it up. We are excited!!! Thanks for all the prayers!!!!

We are thankful that they are able to continue on!