I have shared places to explore and camp along the Columbia River Gorge in previous entries. There is another place in the gorge I have wanted to share with you, but unfortunately, it has been inaccessible due to the devastation caused by the September 2017 Eagle Creek Fire. That place is Wahclella Falls along with […]
About Dave Helgeson - Adventures in RVing
An Easy Way To Clean Your Patio Mat
I suspect most every RVer reading this carries some form of patio mat with them during their travels. While many of you spread them on concrete, asphalt, grass, or other relatively clean surfaces, occasionally we deploy them on rather ugly surfaces to make our “patio” (space under the awning) a bit more appealing than the […]
Leave Your Next Campsite Better Than You Found It
In our last post, we were camped with friends at North Carlson Lake near Ryder, North Dakota. We were camped in a free county-operated campground nestled between three lakes. Campground amenities include BBQ grills, a boat ramp, fire rings, beach access, picnic tables, restrooms (suitable for tornado shelter) and trash cans/dumpsters. Noticed I bolded the […]
Our Close Encounter With A Tornado Storm
We had just finished dinner and I was picking up trash left by less thoughtful campers around our campsite at North Carlson Lake, located in the rural farm country of western North Dakota, when a truck passing by circled around and approached me. The gentlemen in the truck informed me that a large thunderstorm was […]
How We Found A Boondocking Spot In An Unconventional Way
My wife and I were set to rendezvous with our RVing friends on the way to North Dakota recently. Our friends were several hours ahead of us with the plans that they would find a boondocking spot along our route for the night and we would meet them there. However, things didn’t go quite as […]
12 Tips For Home Safety While You’re Away
Several times I have shared tips on how to keep you and your RV safe from criminals while on the road and in the boondocks. As I shared, statistically, you are very unlikely to have an issue while RVing. Unless you are a full-time RVer, the next concern is how safe is your home while […]
How To Run Your RV Air Conditioner On 2,200 Watts
In my last two posts, I shared how I reinforced my battery rack in order to carry a heavier generator and how I designed a “table” to carry the generator above the rack. For years I have traveled with a 1,000-watt Honda generator that was sufficient enough to run my wife’s hairdryer on low and […]
How To Carry A Generator Behind Your Trailer’s LP Tanks
In the last entry, we looked at how I reinforced my travel trailer’s battery rack in preparation for carrying a heavier generator behind my LP tanks. Several readers requested information on how I mounted and supported the generator over the battery boxes, which I will cover in this entry. First, a short recap on why […]
Reinforce Your Trailer’s Battery Rack To Carry More Weight
In our last post, we looked at the cracked travel trailer frame I discovered while working on the A-frame of my RV. The reason I was getting up close and personal with my trailer’s frame was that I was designing a system to help carry the load of a heavier generator behind my LP bottles. […]
Why It’s Important To Check Your RV’s Frame
I was recently sitting around the campfire while camping with some friends, and as it typically does, the conversation turned to RVs. One friend mentioned that he had studied RVs at length before he purchased one himself. He had looked at RVs built by the same manufacturer as my travel trailer and discounted that manufacturer, […]
How To Use Historical Imagery To Find Boondocking Locations
I have been using Google Earth satellite imagery to locate boondocking locations for at least ten years now. The images quite often show where others have camped in the past, indicated by an RV in the image, the presence of a fire ring, or both. For the past 5+ years, Google Earth has been updating […]