On the Road Again - Fall 2020

In normal years Dorcas and I would leave home sometime early in the summer and wander around this great country of ours in our motor home, eventually landing in northern Minnesota for our annual trek into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW).  But these are not normal years.  As everyone knows we are experiencing a global pandemic, which has devastated many and turned normal living upside down.  Dorcas and I have been very fortunate.  None of loved ones have been effected and our livelihood is unchanged.   We have been merely inconvenienced.   

Our original plan this year had been to spend the summer in the Rocky Mountains, attending a rally in Rock Springs WY hosted by the Newmar Kountry Klub, the manufacturer's owners club for our new Newmar Dutch Star motorhome.  However, that rally was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving us to consider other options.  Early in the summer, most parks and campgrounds were shuttered, and it looked like we may be staying home.  However, we discovered that the US Forest Service was accepting reservations for entry into the BWCAW and for our favorite US Forest Service campground near Ely MN.  The National Park Service was also taking reservations for campgrounds in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and also in 2 other National Park units: the Buffalo National River in the Arkansas Ozark mountains and the Ozark National Scenic Riverways in southern Missouri.  

Thus we made a new plan.  We would do our customary wilderness canoe trip in the BWCAW in the late summer and travel to Minnesota via the Smokies, the Buffalo River in Arkansas and the Current River in Missouri.  Hopefully the pandemic would not worsen and force any of these parks to close in the meantime.

Our proposed route to Fall Lake MN

This would be the first extended trip in our new Dutch Star which we bought just before Christmas after the destruction of our beloved Country Coach Allure.  We spent much of July and early August tweaking and prepping the Dutch Star for the trip.  Finally on August 14 we left home.  Our first stop was in Morganton, my home town, where we lunched with our friend Donna.  Donna's husband Bob was a dear friend and passed in December.  Donna and Dorcas had being talking regularly, but we had not seen Donna since before Bob's death.  We met Donna at the Subway in Morganton, just off the interstate, and enjoyed a 3-hour lunch in the coach.  After lunch we continued westward and checked in on site F14 at Smokemont Campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park just outside Cherokee.  

The most visited US National Park

None of the campgrounds in the Smokies have electrical power at the sites, so we could enjoy the experience of boondocking in our new coach.  Unlike our old Allure, this coach is "all electric" meaning we have no propane tank and have a residential style refrigerator and cook top, which run on standard household 120VAC power.  When not connected to 120V power they run off the batteries via an invertor which converts 12VDC to 120VAC.  We have 400 watts of solar, as we did in the Allure, but our site at Smokemont received little direct sunlight.  Thus we had to run the generator 3-4 hours per day to keep the batteries charged and the beer cold.  Thankfully the cool mountain weather was comfortable, so we felt no need to run the air conditioners.

Our home at Smokemont Campground

Even the wildlife is COVID-aware

Elk were originally native to the Smokies but were hunted to extinction in the mid 1800s.  In 2001 the NPS  began reintroducing elk to the park.  There are currently over 200 elk in the park, most in the Cataloochee area, but a few reside in the Oconaluftee River valley outside Cherokee. We saw a few cows grazing along the road near camp but were unable to pull over and get a closer look.

Elk near Cherokee

One day we spent some time in the Museum of the Cherokee Indian.  A big part of the museum consisted of walk-through exhibits depicting the history, culture and persecution of the Cherokee.

Native Americans are also COVID-aware

Native Cherokee weaving

The Cherokee syllabary was invented by Sequoyah in the late 1810s and early 1820s to write the Cherokee language. His creation of the syllabary is particularly noteworthy as he was illiterate.

There was also a large exhibit with an extensive collection of traditional carved ceremonial masks.

Raven mask

Rattlesnake mask

Masks representing the Seven Clans of the Cherokee

Another day we visited Cades Cove.  A word of wisdom: never visit Cades Cove on a nice early fall weekend.

Solace in Cades Cove

Cable Mill in Cades Cove

Cades Cove

A cantilever barn in Cades Cove

Mill race at Cable Mill in Cades Cove

Old mill stones at Cable Mill

The trail head parking lot for the Chimney Tops trail and the Alum Cave Trail were filled to overflowing and hundreds of cars were parked haphazardly along the road for 1/2 mile in both directions at each trailhead.  Another reason not to visit the Smokies on a fine fall weekend.

The Chimney Tops

No visit to the Smokies is complete without a visit to Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  On this day it was clear down below, but became increasingly cloudy as we climbed to the summit.

There were crowds at Clingmans Dome too

The observation tower at Clingmans Dome

It is a 1/2 mile walk with 500' elevation gain from the parking lot to the summit of Clingmans Dome.  That used to be an easy trot for us, but not so much any more.  But we made it and enjoyed the marvelous views.

Wonderful vistas from atop Clingmans Dome

Cow parsnip

Yellow Jewelweed

Who was that masked woman?  I wanted to thank her!

Mingus Mill is an historic grist mill built in 1886.  The mill is powered by a cast iron turbine as opposed to the more conventional water wheel.  

Mingus Mill

There are two mill stone sets and grinding operations at Mingus Mill, one for wheat which is a hard grain and one for corn which is relatively soft.  Each process uses a different style of stone and grinding settings. 

Inside Mingus Mill

A typical highway tunnel in the Smokies

 

After 3 relaxing days in the Smokies it was time to move along.  We planned an early departure, but fate had other plans.  Our new coach has air bag suspension and hydraulic leveling jacks.  When you park and level the coach, it is an automatic process.  I press a single button on the leveling control pad and first, the air bags are emptied, lowering the coach body to the frame, and then the jacks extend raising each corner of the coach until a state of levelness is achieved.  When preparing to travel I press a different button on the control panel and, first the jacks retract, and then the air bags are filled, raising the coach back to ride height.  Usually ....  On this day the air bags refused to fill.  I cycled the leveling and unleveling process a number of times but each time failed to air up the coach.  Thankfully, due to an onboard cellular booster and a barely usable cell signal, I was able to call Newmar, who patched Freightliner through on the line as well.  After about an hour and a half on the phone with all this technical expertise, we still could not air up the bags. We tried a number of things and cycled the leveling process a number of times.  The Freightliner tech believed that either the leveling control pad was not sending a signal to the air valve, or the air valve was not receiving the signal to raise the coach, or that the air bag valve had just plain failed.  That's good to know but not really helpful.  He directed me to the nearest Freightliner service center, about 40 miles away in Canton, and said they could provide mobile road service and get us on our way.  A call to Canton revealed they did not have mobile road service and that it would be 2 days maybe 3 before they could look at our coach, provided we could get a tow to their shop.  CRAP!

After having no success on the phone I decide to drive the coach a few hundred yards and see if that would un-stick the valve.  Believe me, if the valve could be unstuck, driving it with the body riding on the frame stops would likely do it.  Imagine driving your car with all four tires removed from the rims.  But that still didn't work.  I called once more and eventually talked to a Freightliner tech who was actually helpful.  She described a process to bypass the normal leveling logic and raise the coach manually.  She admitted she wasn't supposed to tell me this, because it involved crawling under the coach and activating one of two switches near the front axel. One switch would enable air to enter the bags, and one would release air from the bags. It is extremely dangerous go under a coach with air suspension and fiddle with the valves unless the coach is supported by hard jack stands.  Do the wrong thing and one could be crushed.  Well the coach was already down as far as it could go, so it was unable to drop any further.  In any case I was unable to get my body under the coach to reach the switch, in fact it was so low I couldn't even get my head under.  Luckily I had a 4-foot stick I used for a fireplace poker that was just long enough and just stiff enough that I could reach under and press the switch.  Remember, there are 2 switches, one that raises the coach and one that lowers the coach?  50/50 chance, right?  As you may well guess I first pressed the switch nearest the driver side: wrong.  I went to the other side and pressed the switch on the passenger side. VIOLA!  There was a pop and a hiss and the bags slowly began to fill.  Yea!!!!  After a few moments we were up to normal ride height and could safely drive the coach.  The tech had said that by performing this procedure it might clear the problem for good, but there was no way to know for sure until I leveled and then raised the coach again.  I had no desire to check that on this day, so we'll find out later if we still have a problem.  If it turns out the issue has not been corrected, hopefully I can repeat this manual leveling procedure until we can schedule service at a Freightliner facility.

When we pulled out of the campground I found out we had another problem.  The Dutch Star is equipped with a proprietary steering assist system known as Comfort Drive.  Comfort Drive is a computer controlled motor mounted to the steering column that assists the normal power steering function.  It reduces steering effort, helps to control the coach in cross winds and automatically returns the steering wheel to center.  While trying to resolve the air bag issue, one thing I had done was to disconnect the chassis battery.  That apparently bewildered the Comfort Drive computer such that it would not function.  This was not a show stopper; I still had normal power steering function, but it was one more thing I would need to deal with.  I later learned there is a procedure to reset the Comfort Drive, but I would need to deal with that later.

About 1:00 pm on August 17 we were off like a herd of turtles, 5 hours after our originally scheduled departure time.  But at least we were rolling.

Life is good again.

This guy has two flat tires. And I thought we had all the bad luck

Stay tuned for our next installment.