3-8-2019 Dosewallips State Park
Got on the road at 4:30, which puts us in federal Way/Fife/Tacoma at 5:00pm on a Friday. That added and hour to the drive. Also, it destroys any chance at ‘reasonable’ gas mileage. Came to a stop in Federal way just at the I5/SR18 interchange. It was a crawl at best clear to SR16. The temp gauge pegged at 3/4 and the engine idled up to 1200RPM to make the fan move more air. Flushing a toilet attached to the engine would have used less gas. The drive over, 107 miles, used all but 1/8 of the 19 gallon tank. Maybe 16 gallons? That’s just over 6.5mpg. Ouch.
On the bright side, I installed some very bright reverse lights (LED) under the bumper. I hooked into that ridiculous backup beeper that the old man had installed. (The first thing I did to the truck was unplug that thing. So annoying) backing into the camp spot at 8pm was no problem at all. Those things are bright!
3-9-2019
Hung out with David and family. Wandered down to the tidal grasslands, took a nap, had a beer. Maybe not in that order. David made chili, he does a good job. It was really cold. High 20’s at night. We had full hookups so I ran the electric cube heater. It did reasonably well, maybe the fan was a bit loud. The camper isn’t insulated well enough for much of that though. I emptied the holding tanks because they are on the outside. I crammed a bunch of 2 inch foam around the low point drains and the toilet supply. That worked rather well. Not running the catalytic heater kept the condensation down a lot.
3-10-2019
Got a late start. For some reason I sleep in late on the second night. Watched David hook that 32 foot trailer up to his Tahoe. I guess it’s rated for the weight, it still scares the crap out of me. We got stopped at Hood Canal for an opening. First time ever. When I filled up in Kent I calculated 7.5 mpg. Not great.
I had started the truck to get it warmed up before we left the campground. Went to the bathroom, and when I came back saw coolant dripping on the ground. Not a good thing. Turned out that the hose clamps on the coolant system were loose. I just changed them last year and I guess the rubber shrunk or something. Tightened them up and all was well. Mental note: tighten the clamps on the smaller heater core hoses.
It was a good first trip of the year. Our schedule it rather tight this year. Might be a slow camping year like last year.