Camping trips with a 1959 Comet Camper: July 9, 10, 11

Miles: 520

From: Corning, NY

To: Roy McCluskey’s Farm in Hamilton, OH

Important sites seen en route: One eyed dude in a low-end supermarket in Angelica, NY

So we learned a few things on the drive from Corning, NY to Hamilton, OH. For one thing, we learned that rain sucks ass. Also, that hills kill gas mileage. Our gas mileage increased on the flats after upstate, NY to 12 mpg. That’s not much, but it’s the right direction.

Western NY was very pretty, but the constant rain was pretty hard on us. We needed a break and the kids had been eating nothing but junk so we decided we’d make dinner in the camper. We found a gas station on Binh’s GasBuddy app and pulled off I70.

Problem: gas station closed. So we turned around, something I never relish with the camper, but getting easier. We drove to the next station only to have someone pull into the pump stall just ahead of us. Frustrated, we pulled to the side of the service station to cook some Mac and Cheese. Naturally, the camper was flooded. The door to the camper opens to the front and the lip of the door was catching rain. My suitcase was the only one that fell to the floor and soaked up all the water.

This put me in really awesome mood. So it started to rain harder. Like Ark-building torrents of tears from the many gods trying to wash away the scourge of humanity from the Earth kind of rain. And lighting. And thunder.

Finished with our home cooked meal of mac and cheese and a can of peas and carrots, we drove another 1.5 miles to a gas station where we filled up and a nice lady told me she loved the camper.

Back on the highway where we realized we wouldn’t reach Roy’s farm until 10pm. No, make that 11pm since at 10pm we were literally stopped in traffic outside Dayton because of construction. Yes, it was that kind of day.

Finally, we arrived at the farm, simply pulled into the field next to the Manse and got into the trailer to sleep. Max slept in the SUV with the seats folded down.

In the morning, we found Mr. McCluskey in the kitchen, front door open, coffee ready. It was a glorious, sunny, crisp morning, a decent counterpoint to our rainy day driving before.

ROY’S FARM AWESOMENESS

At the farm, we toured Roy’s collection of classic automobiles – currently comprised of many porsche’s in various states of repair and an awesome Dodge Charger, et al.

So we all put on water shoes, swimsuits and sunscreen and waded up Four Mile Creek, looking at the ancient fossils exposed by the erosion of the stream bed. I grabbed a small bit of sedimentary rock for myself – perhaps I’ll have the smallest rock collection in Lexington.

We also visited Jungle Jim’s which is something like, as Max says, a marriage of Canobie Lake Park and Trader Joe’s, on steroids. I got overwhelmed and had to cry in a corner for 15 minutes when faced with a beer aisle containing ….wait for it…1,000 kinds of beer.

The cheese section was simply overwhelming.

The butchers, however, didn’t know the term “steak tips” or they were fucking with us. We bought “kebob meat”.

Back at the farm (always wanted to say that), we grilled meat, ate great cheeses, drank beer and worked on the Pilot and the camper.

The next day (June 11, today), we got up early and did diddly squat for a while. I then went out to buy angle aluminum at the Lowes in Hamilton so I could attach it to the trailer to block water from streaming into the door.

We mowed lawns, cleared fallen trees, worked on cars, shot BB guns and generally had a rural good time.

Roy is simply the host with the most.

Car Repairs: (If you don’t want to read about car repairs, skip this section)

Some backstory: before this trip I had a few problems with my car: windshield wipers, ignition key, brakes, etc. I had gone to Cambridge Honda which had given me an estimate of nearly $4,000 after adding on a dozen unnecessary repairs. This kind of pissed me off so I vowed to never use them again. I ended up doing the brakes myself for $20 in parts from Autozone and the help of my neighbor Ray using YouTube videos.

My key was sticking in the ignition but fixing that myself seemed a bit too difficult so I took it to Mal’s in Arlington, MA. I also asked them to fix the wipers and a leak in the power steering fluid. Normally, I don’t badmouth service providers. Everyone makes mistakes and if they fix it then no harm no foul, but in this case I think mentioning that Mal’s kind of fucked up the repairs deserves a note:

The power steering leak was not fixed after they said it was. They did fix it the second time.
The windshield wipers were not fixed the first time. Had to come back and pay more to fix them the second time.
The battery fuse they replaced was the wrong amperage. The fuse box says 120 amps. They put in a 100amp fuse.
The Mass inspection couldn’t be done on my first visit because they disconnected the battery before doing the inspection (requires driving 100 miles to reset the computer to provide a valid inspection). They should have done the inspection before any repairs that required a battery disconnect. Then they did it again. Third time they were able to inspect the car. They charged me twice after saying they wouldn’t.
They replaced the ignition switch, giving me two new keys to start the car. They didn’t, however, re-key the door locks and didn’t tell me this, so I was locked out of my car when the driver’s side door locked failed a few weeks later.
Didn’t change the oil as requested.
Couldn’t repair trailer lights – I did it myself.

In every single one of these cases, I probably was partly at fault for not checking their work. But. Fuck. Me. I really need to learn to walk away from idiotic vendors when they fuck up.

Anyway, the reason I say this is because I specifically asked them to change the oil in preparation for this trip. When I got to Roy’s we checked the oil and it was low and clearly not changed. I could have lost my engine in Iowa. Roy changed the oil for me. Dang.

Roy also suggested we check the cabin air filter – the one that filters the AC air we breathe. Naturally I didn’t think it needed to be changed since Cambridge Honda had done the required service at 60,000 miles and 120,000 miles on the car.

Nope. The cabin air filter had never been changed SINCE THE CAR WAS NEW. How do we know this? Because in order to change the cabin air filter on a Honda Pilot a plastic protector must be cut away. This only needs to be done once. It had never been done on my Honda Pilot. Maybe changing that filter isn’t part of normal maintenance…maybe.

Cambridge Honda – fuckups.

Mal’s – fuckups.

UPCOMING

Calculating our upcoming mileage, we realized we have 1700 miles to drive in the next three days, or nearly 600 miles per day. At our current rate, we figure that could be 3 twelve hour days in a row. Ouch.

We were going to stop in Hannibal, Missouri to see Mark Twains home, but that’s now been scrapped in favor of making some mileage. And since the web site for Mark Twain’s home has a live web cam, we figure we can sort of say we’ve seen it…