Shine bright like a diamond

Refurbishing a fiberglass Scamp 13.

After overhearing a friend tell his wife that "Gary has a cool little camper, but boy does it need a bath." I decided it needed more than a bath. The gelcoat of the Scamp's fiberglass shell had become dull and caked with dirt and grime and tree sap etc.

I have been following various threads on restoring the shine to a fiberglass boat or camper, and the consensus is that it is a three step process. Clean and degrease, remove the "chalk", coat with floor polish.

Floor polish? ( See what happened two years later below)

Apparently through years of experimentation or desperation people have discovered that ZEP Hi-Gloss wet-look  floor finish will make your fiberglass shine.



Now for a confession: I skipped step two. After power-washing the Scamp and scrubbing most of the grime off the next step is to scrub some more with Barkeeper's Friend. It is a powder, like Comet, but safe for fiberglass. this seemed like it should require power tools, and I promise I will get to it soon, but I wanted to see if the $30.00 gallon of floor polish would really work as advertised.

Before washing:

What do you think? The picture shows only one coat. Since I'm going to scrub it off I stopped at one coat, but the blogs say to use several thin coats for maximum shine. Check back in a few weeks to see the final 3-step results.

Fast forward a few years...

The Scamp is looking a bit worse for the wear. A year left uncovered under pine trees has left a huge amount of sticky black mess on the roof. And I noticed that the floor polish had begun to fail. It looked as though it was delaminating. This I don't have pictures of, but imagine if you will someone peeling after a bad sunburn...  Anyway  the clean part you see is about an hour's worth of power scrubbing with Barkeepers Friend and a green scrubby pad. I used a variable orbit car polisher, so as not to put too much pressure on the gelcoat.  After Cleaning I applied a coat of a marine paste wax. It will need another coat.

Opening day!

Nothing is more exciting than opening day. Whether it be baseball season or hockey season or camping season, opening day is often a rush. Rush to get tickets, rush to get a campsite.

I will be camping in August. I know that because I had to make reservations in February. My June trip will be booked this week, but a friend tells tales of calling at least 50 times on opening day for reservations at the same campground! Which brings me to my topic. With all the internet possibilities, and services like http://www.Reserveamerica.com, why is it that some campgrounds still do things the old fashioned way? The campground in question is run by the town where it is located. You can even go to the town's Web site and see all sorts of information about the campground, (however, oddly, there is no site map), such as hours of operation, phone numbers and even their AOL email address... Ah there's the problem. Is AOL even still in business?

The only way to make a reservation is the following:
1. Call the campground during business hours.
2. Mail a deposit check.
3. wait for confirmation in the mail.

While it has never happened to me, they truly will not confirm the reservation until they receive the check. They do not take credit cards.

As I said this method has always worked, but what if you are in the middle of a road trip? You are hundreds of miles away from your mailbox, and you want to make a reservation??

Let's fix this. If you run into a similar situation let them know this is the 21st century, let them know about ReserveAmerica.com or the KOA. Maybe they are not aware of the options out there.

UPDATE: due to their luddite ways I was shocked to find out that they had moved me from my reserved spot, which was near friends and away from the bath house, to a spot right next to the bath house. When I was signing in I assured them that I would not have reserved that site. They insisted I did... NOT. I later found a confirmation that I had in fact reserved the site I wanted.

Has any campground intentionally changed your reservations without notice?

Get on the bus!

Look familiar? Not the iPad, the USB plug and that little adapter that you can use to power and charge USB devices from 110V outlets. USB (Universal Serial Bus) devices are more numerous now than 12v devices. You can get anything from a USB powered coffee maker to a USB powered Christmas tree. I'll bet you have a phone, tablet, or other device that requires USB either to run or to charge. In fact I just purchased a nice little portable AM/FM radio by Meloson that uses rechargeable battery that, you guessed it, charges off of USB.

UPDATE. The Meloson has been updated and now has a slightly longer battery life. This is due primarily to the ability to turn off the backlight on the LCD display. Yay!

I do have a DC to AC inverter that has a USB plug, but it is inconveniently located on the fascia of the lower bunk. Considering that at any one time I would have at least two or three USB powered devices I have decided to add an additional combo 110v and USB outlet.

Newer Technology and others offer this outlet to solve most homeowners' problem of having too many cables and not enough plugs. For about $15.00 you can replace a standard 110v outlet with one that also offers two USB ports. I chose this one because it has technology that senses a full charge and cuts off the USB power. Hopefully preventing any damage to my devices. The additional two 110v outlets will also solve the problem of having my only 110V plugs adjacent to the dinette/bed.

UPDATE: The Newer Power2U has one major drawback; some larger power plugs, and most all wallwarts block access to the USB ports. I may suggest sacrificing one of the 110v outlets and going with one of these... http://www.amazon.com/Cooper-Wiring-Devices-TR7740W-K-Combination/dp/B007NC5GI4/ref=pd_sim_hi_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0XPR97X5XFFTS1BFYNBK

Welcome to 2018 and USB 3.0 and High powered charging.

I have decided to upgrade my USB /AC outlet with a newer one capable of charging USB up to a full 2.4 Amps.  Apple's new iPhones, and a few other devices that offer high speed charging can take advantage of the higher USB power. Charging twice as fast as before.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IAZIU5Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1