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Member
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 63
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First Trip In My 2015 194HW
I got back from my first trip with my A194HW yesterday evening!
The trip was from Austin, TX to Lake Wales, FL for the Wings Over Winter paramotor fly-in event that Aviator PPG puts on. It was about 1160 miles one-way, and my 2017 Toyota Tacoma handled the trailer pretty well. I think my average fuel economy would be in the 14-15MPG range. Power was more than enough, even if she had to downshift a lot to get to it!
The weather was COLD. Keep in mind, I'm a Texas boy. It was about 30 degrees when I left the house at 1AM on Thursday morning. I think about the time I got to Mississippi, I had to stop almost every hour to pee. I'm only 41 years old, I can't be having old man problems like this! Stopping to pee, stopping for gas, stopping for meals... it was slowing me down!
I started getting pretty tired by late afternoon. My original plan was to make it to Tallahassee, then eat and camp at the Cracker Barrel there. Well, I didn't make it that far. By 6pm, I was still a couple hours away, so I stopped at a WalMart. Went in to check that it was OK (I checked overnightrvcamping.com beforehand, which said to check with the manager), and picked up a six pack of donuts for the morning. I think it was about 35 degrees, or less at that time. I popped up the camper and fired up the furnace. It got quite toasty inside.
I found that the furnace will warm it up quite nicely inside, but once it shuts off, the temperature drops maybe 10 degrees or so before it turns the furnace back on again!
The full size air mattress I brought fit the back bed area perfectly... except it lost a lot of air overnight. I didn't have any other problems, but couldn't sleep for more than about 4 hours... so by about 12AM, I was up. I made some coffee (using my Moka pot... it makes great, strong coffee!) and then hit the road. I didn't make it to my final destination until about 10:30AM. The lot next to the airfield was pretty darn full! Campers and RVs of all kinds! I think there were over 150 pilots registered.
Set up the camper and fired up my generator to get the fridge going. I think it was near 50 degrees that afternoon (Friday). I bought a cheap little space heater at WalMart before I left. Since my generator is pretty new, I wanted to run it a bit, so I ran it for a few hours until I was ready to go to sleep, then switched over to the furnace.
Again, since I'm a southern boy, I only got one flight in that evening. It was cold... the gloves I brought didn't work well at all.
Sleeping again wasn't bad, but the wide swing in temperatures kinda sucked. By morning, my air mattress decided it only wanted to be a plastic bag. Oh well, I've had it for years and it's been in the closet almost all of the time. I ended up picking up another one at WalMart when I went to find some better gloves. The new air mattress also only wanted to be a big plastic bag.
Since the weather was cold, I didn't put water in the tank, water heater or the toilet flush tank. I used a 3 gallon jug to flush, and a bunch of 16oz water bottles, since I'd gotten a ton free over the last year. Local store chain gives coupons for a free 16 pack or even 32 pack of bottle water once in a while.
Saturday was a little warmer... but not much. I got two flights in that evening, but the temperature was dropping again. A couple buddies from home were going to head up to Panama City Beach on Sunday to see if they could get some beach flying in, so I decided to join, since the weather in Lake Wales was going to be too poor to get any flying in. I packed up and left that morning.
The beach was SO NICE!! The temperature was a bit warmer, maybe 62 degrees... but the wind was wonky, so we didn't get to fly. We had dinner, and the other guys left for home since they were rotating drivers... I was alone, so I didn't want to try that full stretch at once. I set off to get to I10 and see how far I wanted to go.
I made it to Daphne, AL (just east of Mobile) and hit the Cracker Barrel there. I got some pancakes as a quick meal, then set up the camper. All went well, except the wide temperature swings with the furnace! It rained a bit overnight, and I didn't see anything leaking, so that's great! Luckily it lightened up as I was ready to break down and hit the road again. I made it home by about 8PM.
All in all, it went well. The trailer towed and handled well. I had no major problems - nothing broke or failed. The only issues I had were the thermostat thing, and the latch on the fridge wouldn't hold the door closed. I found that jamming a little folded wad of paper towel held it well. I also found that the table/bed deal doesn't like to stay in place, nor did the pads, or my sleeping bag or blankets that I threw back there. I'm going to need to come up with a way of securing those things. One of the slide out drawers doesn't like to stay in either... and once the sliding box under the stove slid out about half way. I'll have to get a little bungee cord to hold the doors close for that bit.
I had a good time, and look forward to future trips! A lot of the local paramotor pilots like to go down to the Texas coast and fly, usually Galveston or Corpus Christi. I definitely want to go down there and camp overnight! Warmer weather will be nice, so I can fill up my water tanks and possibly even shower in the camper if I need to.
Sorry this was a bit long... figured I'd give an account of my trip. I also realize I was pretty darn derelict at taking pictures... so I don't have many I could post. I may try to add some later. For now, it's late and I want to sleep!
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