Friends Don't Let Friends Buy Motorhomes

For all two of you who may have read last week's post from Lake Keowee, you will recall we sprung a leak in our water heater during our first ever on-grid camping experience with on-site electricity and water.  It would have been such a glorious experience on the lake were it not for the perfectly-orchestrated drip...drip...drip followed by the larger stream of water trickling through our coach.

While still at Lake Keowee I could determine that the source of the leak was somewhere near the electrode for the electric function of heating the water (we have a combination Gas/Electric water heater that allows us to select either method of heating the water, whichever is most advantageous at any given time.) However, as you can imagine in a coach of our size, space is limited and access to installed utilities is tight, if not nonexistent.

The only way to diagnose and remedy the problem was to fully uninstall the water heater from its "cubby" to find the source of the leak.  After a day or two to reflect upon how mad I was about the procedure I had to undertake, finally on Sunday, January 26th, I extracted the device.

Removal left a gaping hole in the side of our rig.


Peering out of the hole, there's the water heater in all of her aluminum glory.

You can see the water that had leaked from inside.

We nearly destroyed the styrofoam insulation surrounding the water heater in the process of removal.

Preparing for pressure testing to find the source of the leak.

After pressure testing with water, we could see a pinhole leak on a weld where the heater had been previously repaired.  If you look very closely, you can see a very faint but strongly pressurized stream of water spewing from the center of the blue highlighted circle.

With the source of the leak pinpointed, we needed to find someone to patch the pinhole with the ability to weld aluminum. After some calling around to neighborhood friends, we spoke with Tom who owns a performance radiator fabrication facility in north Georgia.  They work with aluminum all day, every day.  He merely had me drop the water heater off at his house about 100 yds away, and he took it to their facility for mending.  Three days later Tom brought the repaired water heater back and dropped it off at our door.  Many thanks to Tom and the staff at Griffin Thermal Products for taking care of us!

On Friday, January 31st, I was able to reinstall the mended water heater and perform the necessary tests to ensure proper function.  It took nearly a week, but we are now back in business with a dry water heater compartment and the ability to take hot showers!

Not-So-Sporting Dual Sport

After our work at Camp Courtney was complete, upon returning home I decided to take a shortcut through the neighborhood using the "old road."  This is the dirt road that led into this plot of land before it was a subdivision, and offers a few hundred feet of offroad fun.

Unfortunately, it proved to be just a little too much for the Green Streak this day, as the back end of the bike became very squirrelly and it was soon discovered we had a flat tire.

I had to push the bike home the rest of the way, and remove the rear wheel to have to inner tube replaced.  Fortunately, we were able to get it fixed quickly and the bike was back on the road within 2 days.

More Farkle...New Top Case!

Farkle: (noun.)

1.) Accessory. Generally accepted to mean a combination of "function" and "sparkle", hence, farkle.

Motorcycle enthusiasts may install accessories, called farkles (also spelled farkel), to customize their machine.  The term is well known in the sport touring community.

An enthusiast may be in the process of "farkling". The completed motorcycle would be all "farkled up". Radar detectors, Global Positioning System receivers, heated grips, and satellite radios are some of those farkles. Other accessories could be aftermarket seats, side and/or top cases or bar risers, which make the motorcycle more suitable for long miles.

2.) F.A.R.K.L.E. -- Fancy Accessory Really Kool Likely Expensive

After some online shopping, we were able to hone in on the top case (trunk) we wanted for our motorbike. It was the perfect combination of function, style and value. Fortunately, we were able to locate a used one on ebay in excellent condition for less than half the price of a new one, including shipping. The Stlun (now sold under the brand name Emgo in the US) topcase is very durable and receives very high reviews from owners, and ours also included a Kolpin auxiliary fuel tank holder (additional $25 farkle) which I have since removed and saved for later.

We are very pleased with our latest accessory, and wasted no time loading it up with paint cans and supplies to perform some repairs on Monday following roof completion at Camp Courtney.  For a grand total of $42.xx spent, we have some pretty sweet saddle bags and top case that are as stylish and functional as those who spend $100's on Givi's...

Camping at Lake Keowee in South Cove County Park

We spent our last night out, prior to heading back to Anderson to check on the roofs, at the South Cove County Park on Lake Keowee.  The setting was beautiful.  

This was the first campground we stayed at with water and electricity hookups.  We were so excited, we almost didn't know what to do with ourselves!  We hooked up to the electrical and water outlets and were living large.

I made some sandwiches for lunch and we were enjoying them when we heard the unmistakable sound of water dripping.  Suddenly we jumped from our seats ripped the couch apart.  Sure enough, there was a small puddle of water.  George tore open the cabinet under the sink and began hurling things out of the cabinet and a lot of curse words out of his mouth.  He stripped off my wonderful tape job around the water heater while I sopped up as much of the water and moisture as I could.  In his haste and animated anger he nearly pummeled me with an elbow!

I peered under the water heater and saw one of the pipes leaking.  We think the pressure of the city water was too much for our poor little pipes to handle.  I guess we weren't going to be living large tonight after all.

We tucked some towels underneath the water heater and put the van back together.  When we return to Anderson we will need to take it apart and see if we can fix it.  Let's hope it will be an easy fix!

Blue Valley Camp

We found Blue Valley Campground in the Nantahala National Forest.  So we set the GPS coordinates and followed the route shown.  Unfortunately, the road our GPS led us down is no longer a serviceable road.  Instead we ran right into Glen Falls.  We still had some daylight left so we decided to hike down and see the falls.

This was the path that led to the scenic overview and the falls.

This was the view from the top of the mountain.

This was the view from the top of the falls.


It was so cold that there was snow still on the rocks by the falls.

When we returned the car we studied the map to see how else we could get to the Blue Valley campground.

We figured out an alternate route and headed off.  This was our camp at Blue Valley campground.

That night we made fajitas on the fire.  We did not have any raccoon visitors.

Highlands, NC

We left Grapevine campground and headed towards Highlands, NC.  It's a nice little town with upscale shopping and dining.

We walked around the town a bit then headed off to Blue Valley Campground.

Stumphouse Tunnel, Issaqueena Falls & Dinner Guests

We got our motorbike down the first morning we spent at Grapevine Camp and rode out to see Stumphouse Tunnel and Issaqueena Falls a few miles away.

Here we are at the entrance to the Tunnel park.

There is still an old flatbed freight car outside the tunnel.

I'm standing in the entrance of the tunnel.  The tunnel cave photographed nicely at the expense of my face!

This was the view from inside the tunnel.

The Issaqueena Falls is just a few hundred feet down the road from Stumphouse Tunnel.

That night we made a campfire and George cooked some chicken over it.

The smell of the chicken cooking brought an unwelcome dinner guest.  I was in the van making a salad when George came in and said, "darling, pass me my gun.  There is a raccoon out here trying to steal my chicken!"  I laughed so hard.  When I finally came up for air, I made sure George wasn't going to actually shoot the raccoon.  He assured me that he would only use the gun to scare it off if it would not leave his chicken alone.

I didn't want raccoon blood on my conscience so I took the salad out and sat by the fire with George and kept watch.  Fortunately a little yelling and throwing rocks in its general direction managed to keep it away long enough for the chicken to finish cooking.  We had to forego eating by the fire.  Instead we ate our dinner in peace in our van.