I don’t like to look at garbage or even think about garbage, much less talk about garbage, do you? I bet not.
Rest assured that, after we discuss garbage here, I will post nice photos of a temporary trailer fix and I will show you a very nice, new piece of artwork inside the trailer. So hang in there, nice stuff is coming below.
Ok, now, garabage! I can’t believe how much garbage people leave behind them … in campsites … in parks … on the beach … people throw garbage out their car windows … people leave garbage everywhere! Why do people do this? Is that what they want to look at … piles of garbage?
It is rare that I pull into a campsite and find a clean campsite with no garbage. The Friends Landing campsite was an exception, and the Yakima campsite was an exception, maybe one or two others. But for the most part, there is always garbage, and I don’t mean just little itty bitty teeny tiny bits and pieces of things, I do mean garbage … plastic bags with stuff in them or plastic bottles or other unidentifiable plastic things, cigarette butts, an entire sandwich once. Some garbage is out in the open, but mostly it’s tossed in the shrubs right on the edge of the campsite. Campground employees cannot “police” everyone and they don’t have the time to clean up the whole campground every day, including rummaging through the trees. I just don’t understand why people think it’s ok to leave garbage behind them wherever they go. How hard is it to put your garbage in a garbage can?
RV-ing friends of mine carry plastic bags with them everywhere they walk in order to pick up other people’s garbage. I’ve taken to doing the same. I am amazed and appalled at how much I can collect in a one-hour walk, or around just one campsite.
Ok, that’s my rant. No photos needed … all of you know what garbage looks like. Just had to get that off my chest. I would ask all of you readers to carry bags (and maybe gloves too) on your walk-abouts and pick up the garbage that you find. Let’s make this a cleaner world for everyone.
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Now … on to the fun stuff. 🙂
I’ve had this Escape 21 trailer for two full seasons (2018 and 2019). This is my third season with the trailer (2020). I’ve had a problem with this trailer ever since it was brand new, but it has taken me this long to finally take steps to deal with the problem. Admittedly, they are temporary steps, but at least they are steps.
The problem with the trailer is me actually. It isn’t really the trailer’s fault. The problem is that the cover components of the Maxx fan (and vent) in the ceiling above the bed are translucent … they let light through. So when the sun rises in the morning, especially in the summer when the sun rises earlier than I do, then I am awakened by the light coming in through the Maxx fan.
I twist, I turn, I put the pillow over my head, I pull the covers up around my ears, but even closing my eyes does not keep the light out. I am awake! Grrrrr.
Notice how bright it is inside, even with the lights off.
Maxx fan does offer a dark “smoke” colored cover and that is what I ordered from Escape Trailer when I ordered this trailer. But that’s not the cover I got when the trailer was delivered to me. I communicated with Escape Trailer several times about this, asking simply for the other cover and saying I would install it or have it installed. Still they would not make it right. Well, some things you just have to let go of, right?
I’ve read online about all sorts of solutions to the problem of light coming through the translucent cover, but I couldn’t make up my mind what to do, so I did nothing. But I was so irritated by the light (and by my inaction) on this last camping trip, that I took action! I found a cardboard box of the appropriate size and I cut that box so that one flat part of it would fit inside the frame of the fan/vent, and I shoved the perfectly proportioned cardboard in there. Voila! Darkness. Sweet darkness. I even had to turn on a light in order to take a photo of it.
It’s not pretty, but it works. One of these days I’ll figure out and install a more attractive cover.
And now for the new art work …
I like the interior colors and style of my trailer, but I thought it needed some softer touches in places. I’ve been thinking about art work, but with the soft wall material that Escape uses, it’s just about impossible to hang pictures. (The Escape wall material weighs less than a hard material would, and the wall material is insulation itself, and it’s easy to clean, so it’s excellent stuff … it’s just soft, so you can’t fasten anything to it with a nail or screw or even velcro.) So I’ve been wondering how to add artwork to the trailer.
The other day, I found my first piece of artwork for the trailer and it’s installed. Can’t wait to show you. 🙂
A couple of months ago, I enjoyed a picnic lunch with friends in Sequim (remember when I camped there back in 2018?). On this more recent day, my friends and I enjoyed our picnic lunch in the park at the Jamestown S’kallam Tribal Center. After lunch, I visited the Native Art Gallery there. What gorgeous artwork! It took me some time, but I finally settled on one piece of metalwork to purchase … a red crab. The color fits the trailer decor nicely and my birth sun-sign is Cancer (the crab).
There aren’t many places inside the trailer where I can put artwork … and be able to see it from the dinette where I usually sit. The door to the bathroom worked perfectly for this piece.
Yes, the crab is not level. Everything else in the trailer is so geometric (and I like that). But I wanted to add some things that were more fluid. Besides, it’s easier to hang something when it’s purposefully not level, right?
Can you see how I attached it? What keeps it in place? I attached it so I would not need to remember to take it down every time I towed the trailer.
Nope, not magnets, though that’s a good guess, since the piece is painted iron.
Not velcro or glue, good guesses too.
Here’s a close-up photo …
To attach the piece, I used regular, very small, shiny-headed screws, but you can’t see them easily because I found the exact same red color paint and I painted the screw heads. I put two screws in places that would keep the crab from falling DOWN to the floor … I then put two more screws in places that would keep the crab from bouncing UP when the trailer is being towed. That red crab is solidly in place. And yet I can remove it any time, fill the tiny screw holes in the wood, and leave no damage to the door.
My trailer needs one or two more pieces of artwork to soften the space and add more color, but I’m not worried about finding those pieces. They will appear when they are meant to appear.
After those two trailer projects were completed, I tidied up and put everything in my garbage, neat as a pin. 🙂
And now for the best part … I’m heading out camping again! This time to Washington Park campground near Anacortes, on Fidalgo Island. Sleep well, and stay tuned.
Sleep well, indeed!
Great solution for the vent/skylight/nature’s alarm clock.
They say light from a skylight provides much greater illumination than from window set into the wall of the same size…… but not great news when morning comes as early as it does during camping season!
I’ll bet even the cardboard cuts down on heat gain in the daytime, and heat loss on chillier nights, but that is a great temporary fix, as the vent is also a necessary feature in a trailer.
Too bad the solution about people littering isn’t as easy to fix!
Enjoy Fidalgo Island. Would you be able to give us a quick lesson, please, on pronouncing it?
I am still practicing Sequim.
Thanks for the great comments Robin. I tend to go camping in mild weather so am not too concerned about heat gain/loss, but that’s a very good thing for some folks to consider.
I’ve started composing the first Anacortes/Fidalgo camping blog post, and might have forgotten to include pronunciation of the names Fidalgo and Anacortes. It shall be done!
We have left quite a few dollars at that gallery. Our home is graced with a number of art works from there!
Oh that place and its contents were gorgeous. I had my eye on a second piece but held off, might have to go back.
Great fix on the ceiling fan, Ann, and you even did it without duct tape! Professional! 🙂
Tim, I have to admit I DID use duct tape! But I hid the duct tape behind the cardboard so the duct tape doesn’t show. 🙂
I’ve seen garbage left at camping sites, luckily not a site I was moving into. Mostly the sites I’ve been in have been fairly clear, though I have to say the last one I was in I spent my three days there picking up bottle caps, cigarette stubs, and, believe it or not, hundreds of pistachio nut shells. They were everywhere. And Katie, the sheltie-girl kept thinking they were treats and I didn’t want her eating them. Even the last day there I found more. It was aggrevating. Obviously someone didn’t feel a need to pick up after themselves. And you know what I think is the most disgusting thing I find regularly? Those little teeth cleaning things…with the dental floss in the little holder. Why would anyone leave those on the ground? I carry garbage bags and gloves with me whenever I camp, just for cleaning up stuff like that. A lot of my state parks have park staff that run around after people move out of sites inspecting and picking stuff up, but they can’t pick up all the little stuff that I find under picnic tables and around the edges of the sites. Sigh.
On a happier note, your crab is wonderful and looks so nice in your rig with your bedspread. We often find artwork when we travel. We brought home a couple small paintings from Italy, and we had shipped to us a larger painting from Albaqurque last time we were out there. We often find art instead of other stuff to remember different places…but I can see your issue with having no way to hang it. I have seen some people use one of those digital screens that has a slide show and they take pictures of art and of photos of family and places they love and just have those pictures scroll by when they’re camped and plugged into shore power. One woman said that getting rid of her art collection to go full time RVing was the hardest part and she did that, took pictures of it all before she sold it, so that she could still enjoy it.
Ah well…glad you’re getting back out there to camp soon! Here, with my tent, I think we’re beyond camping season for this year. 🙁 I missed the last couple of weeks of warm weather because we were all sick here. Now we’re better, but it’s freezing at night and that’s just no fun in a tent! Even Katie-girl thinks there’s a limit to camping for us.
Yep, dental floss, and other “personal items” … they really make me angry. What do these people think they are doing? I just don’t get it.
Great idea about taking photos of things you must sell … and then putting the digital photos on one of those devices. I carry a good-sized laptop with me in the trailer so I could simply use that monitor to scroll photos on. I hadn’t thought of that. My dog, my boat, etc … I can see what I’ll be doing this evening, ha! 🙂
Camping season is over here too now. It was 34 degrees the other morning at 7am … not my cup of tea even with a heated trailer. Here’s to spring!
I hear you about the garbage problem, Ann. It’s not just your area. We live near, and love hiking, the Red River Gorge. But since the pandemic started, droves of people flocked to the trails and brought their dirty diapers and beer cans with them. Just disgusting. We do the same as you, we bring bags and gloves when we hike, but it’s discouraging how much trash is discarded. My hope is that when things get back to normal (whatever that is), these low lifes will crawl back under their rock. My goodness, that was a rant, wasn’t it!! I guess I feel strongly about people who litter.
Love the crab, if you mounted it square, it wouldn’t look like it’s scuttling across your door!
That is disgusting! My momma raised me to be considerate of other people and take my garbage out with me, or at least put my garbage in a garbage can. A friend of mine who travels a bit tells me this problem is much worse in the USA than anywhere else. There really is no excuse for it. Thanks for doing your part and cleaning up what you find. Let’s keep spreading the word.
Virginia, I love that … “scuttling across your door” … I love that! 🙂
In England we don’t seem to have the problem with litter that is prevalent in the USA. I’m so very glad of that as I walk quite a bit. I do hope it changes in the USA. It is so very pleasant to walk out and not see litter.
A friend of mine and I spent a few weeks in England and Scotland a few years ago. It’s just as you say, Henry. We saw no litter. Maybe the citizens of the USA need a reminder from the rest of the world.