2024 special posts

While most of the posts on this blog are about modifications, travel, campgrounds, and attractions, I sometimes post about other topics. This is a summary of those posts from 2024. (See also those from 2023 and those from 2022.) These posts have the special category (with earliest or latest posts at the top).

As with previous summaries, for each I include a link to the corresponding blog post, and a sample picture; see the post for details.

Sinclair Trails QR codes:

Map, QR code, URL

Third anniversary of buying our motorhome, with an updated tour of the interior:

Living area

U-Haul to move stuff from a storage unit to a shed:

U-Haul pickup

The shed:

Shed

ENGWE Y600 830W electric scooter:

Scooter

Follow Sinclair Trails on Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, Micro.blog, Facebook, YouTube, and more:

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Preminder app for iPhone helps remind you when to book RV parks:

6 months before

Preminder app for iPhone helps remind you when to book RV parks

It occurred to me that I should share this with the RV community. You may know me as the admin of the Tiffin Allegro Bus 2016-2018 Owners group on Facebook, or poster of our travels at Sinclair Trails, but I’m also an indie app developer for Apple platforms; my company is called Dejal.

A common situation my wife and I have as we travel around the country in our motorhome is that RV parks only allow reserving sites a certain time period ahead. We like to plan our route a year or more in advance, and try to book popular places as early as possible, before they fill up. So given the date we want to arrive, we need to add a reminder six months or 90 days (or whatever their booking window is) before that.

We used to ask a digital assistant like Amazon Alexa or Apple’s Siri to calculate the date for us, but this is such a frequent problem for us that I decided to write an app to solve it. The result is Preminder, a simple and free iOS app to add a reminder to Apple Reminders some number of days, weeks, months, or years before another date.

The app is useful for more than campgrounds, though. Some exciting gadget going on sale in 30 days? Add a reminder. Hard-to-get concert tickets becoming available? Need to buy birthday gifts? Add a reminder, easily.

6 months before Date picker Remind before

Give it a try:

Get Preminder 1.0 now — it’s free!

Follow Sinclair Trails on Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, Micro.blog, Facebook, YouTube, and more

Sinclair Trails is now on the Mastodon and Bluesky social networks, joining Micro.blog, Threads, Facebook, YouTube, and of course the blog and its RSS feed.

On Mastodon, follow @sinclairtrails@mastodon.social.

On Bluesky, follow @sinclairtrails.com.

On Micro.blog, follow @sinclairtrails.

On Threads, follow @sinclairtrails.

On Facebook, follow @dejal (my personal account, where I cross-post Sinclair Trails posts).

On YouTube, follow @SinclairTrails for travel timelapse videos.

Of course, the Sinclair Trails blog

In a RSS reader (like the excellent NewsBlur, that I work on), follow sinclairtrails.com/feed.

New posts appear first on the Sinclair Trails blog and RSS feed, then on Micro.blog, which cross-posts them to Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads.

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ENGWE Y600 830W electric scooter

We bought electric bikes a couple of years ago, which we mostly enjoyed, but Jenn didn’t find her one very comfortable, so in due course we sold it, with the idea of replacing it with a trike or something.

A while back we had the idea to try an electric scooter instead, as a more compact alternative.

After some research, we decided to buy a ENGWE Y600 830W electric scooter (see that link for the price and stats).

One reason we chose this model is that it comes with a seat, but it can be removed and replaced with a foot guard, if you always want to stand while riding. We wanted both options; it’s easy to both stand and sit while riding.

Here are some photos of unboxing it:

Carton

Unboxing

Unboxing

The assembled scooter:

Scooter

Scooter

It folds up fairly small, with the seat and handlebars folding down:

Scooter

And easily fits in the back of our truck:

Scooter

Scooter

Charging port:

Charging port

Fold down seat post latch:

Fold down seat

Fold down handlebars lever and lock:

Fold down handlebars lever and lock

Brake, head and tail light switch, turn signals, horn:

Brake, head and tail light switch, turn signals, horn

Display with gear, speed, odometer (or other values), and battery level, plus power and mode buttons and throttle lever; a second display with the battery voltage and key:

Display with gear, speed, odometer (or other displays, and battery level, and lever to accellerate; a second display with the battery voltage and key

For now we have kept my ebike, and have the scooter as a second option. So either we each ride one, or I can quickly get the scooter out when exploring the campground or taking out the trash, etc. The scooter isn’t as useful as the bike, since it doesn’t have any cargo capacity (like a trash bag or when picking up packages), and doesn’t have any exercise benefits, but being more compact and easy to set up are big benefits.

In due course we’ll decide whether to keep my bike and buy a trike for Jenn, or sell my bike and get a second scooter, or just keep both options, or some other variation.

Shed

As mentioned, we bought a shed for our Washington home, to store stuff we want to keep for the future, but not carry around the country with us (storage space even in a 40 foot motorhome is limited!).

We got the shed from Home Depot, a 10 x 8 foot wooden shed with shingles on the roof. The purchase included delivery and installation, since we would not be home at the time; we wanted to have it ready for when we arrived.

Here’s the shed as installed, unpainted:

Shed

Shed

With the doors open:

Doors open

Inside:

Shed

Roof rafters

Window in door

Door latch

I caulked the joints:

Caulked

Then Jenn and I painted it, starting with the main color:

Painting

And the trim:

Shed

Nice.

U-Haul to move stuff from a storage unit to a shed

Ever since we started preparing for our current RV lifestyle, we’ve had a storage unit in the Portland area, somewhat near our old homestead. But paying for ever-increasing storage rental was getting old. So we bought a shed for home, and one of our projects during our annual visit home this year was to move the contents of the storage unit to the shed.

To do this, we rented a 15 foot U-Haul truck near the storage unit:

U-Haul pickup

U-Haul pickup

U-Haul pickup

At the storage unit, before loading the truck:

At storage unit

(Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of the loaded truck; it was full, just big enough.)

The truck at our shed:

At shed

Looking in the empty truck after we had unloaded it:

Empty

Not too hard. Nice to have our stuff at our Washington home.

Third anniversary of buying our motorhome

Today marks the three year anniversary of purchasing our 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP motorhome!

Check out the one year anniversary post for a tour of what the coach was like when we bought it, and the two year anniversary post for some more exterior photos.

To mark this anniversary, here’s an updated tour of the interior; much has changed since we bought it. Check out the links to related blog posts.

Entry steps, with a “Home Sweet Home” sign, internet devices, dash cover, and carpet:

Entry steps

The driver area, with a table over the steering wheel, potted plants, a barrier cushion underneath, and a new GPS:

Driver area

Cat tower, litter box and waste receptacle, cat carrier, and boxes for Paladin to sleep in (even with many other options, sometimes one can’t beat an Amazon carton with crinkly paper!):

Cat tower, litter, boxes

Custom desk with a pull-out surface and monitor on a televator:

Work setup

Theater seating and custom side tables:

Theater seating and side tables

Dining table and chairs, and Paladin with his food and water fountain, and another nest:

Dining table

Kitchen / galley area, with convection microwave, double sinks, automatic paper towel dispenser, coffee stuff, drawer dishwasher, pull-out countertop, etc:

Kitchen

Another view, showing the induction cooktop:

Kitchen

Fridge/freezer and wooden map with stickers and pins:

Fridge and map

Half bath, with hanging broom and mop:

Half bath

Bed, Spyder panel, and photographic artwork:

Bed and art

TV, air cleaner, and yes, another cat bed:

TV and air cleaner

Bathroom sink; I replaced the faucets in both bathrooms, and all three soap dispensers, too:

Bathroom sink

Shower, with liquid dispensers etc, replaced rain head, towel rail outside the shower, and toilet:

Shower and toilet

Washer and dryer:

Washer and dryer

Looking from the back to the front (with the upgraded Spyder control panel and thermostat visible):

Looking from the back to the front

Looking from the front to the back:

Looking from the front to the back

An overview of the living area:

Living area

I hope you enjoyed this tour of our home. It’s compact, but spacious for an RV that travels around the country. Follow along on our travels!

Sinclair Trails QR codes

I recently generated a QR code for the Sinclair Trails blog; scanning this code will take you to a variation of the About Sinclair Trails page, that introduces the blog and gives background info about us, our coach, and truck:

QR code

I bought a couple of large stickers with that QR code from a seller on Etsy (the same one I used for the big Sinclair Trails logo sticker), and added the smaller one between the states map and URL on the side of our slide-out:

Map, QR code, URL

From further back:

Map, QR code, URL

The QR code can be read from this far back (or a little further). Here’s a screenshot of the iPhone Camera app reading the QR code:

Camera app

I also added a larger sticker on the back of our coach. I have a ladder, but it was easier (and more stable) to back up our truck to the rear of the coach, and stand on the tailgate:

Truck backed up to rear of coach

Here’s the big QR code on the rear of our coach, so passengers can scan it while passing us on the road:

QR code on rear of coach

Second anniversary of buying our motorhome

Today marks the two year anniversary of purchasing our 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP motorhome!

Check out the one year anniversary post for a tour of what the coach was like when we bought it. One day I’ll get around to doing an updated tour; much has changed.

Here are some previously unpublished pictures of the exterior of our coach from when we first saw it and paid a downpayment, contingent on an inspection:

Our coach

Our coach

Our coach

Our coach

Our coach

And at our first campground with the coach, on the day we paid the remainder, and took possession — two years ago today:

Our coach

Our coach

We’ve certainly put lots of miles on the coach since then! We’ve explored a lot, and changed a lot of things on the coach. What will the next two years bring? Follow along on our travels!

Where I have been

Lots of people on Micro.blog have been posting lists of places they’ve been, so I thought I’d join the fun.

Despite living full-time in a motorhome, I actually haven’t been all that many places yet. But we’re working on it.

My list, with emojis inspired by Jean’s much more impressive list:

  • 🇳🇿 New Zealand
  • 🇨🇦 Canada:
    • 🇬🇧 British Columbia
  • 🇲🇽 Mexico
  • 🇺🇸 United States:
    • 🏜️ Arizona
    • 🏄‍♂️ California
    • 🏔️ Colorado
    • 🏛️ DC
    • ☀️ Florida
    • 🥜 Georgia
    • 🌈 Hawaii
    • 🥔 Idaho
    • 🎣 Montana
    • 🎰 Nevada
    • 🌶️ New Mexico
    • 🗽 New York
    • 🦫 Oregon
    • ⭐️ Texas
    • 🏝️ US Virgin Islands
    • 🐝 Utah
    • 🌲 Washington
    • 🤠 Wyoming

We have a map on our coach for places we’ve visited since buying it, which is a shorter list — Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas:

Map

Map

We’ll pick up 10 more states later this year — North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas. Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida (I’ve been to Florida before, but not in the coach):

Timezones 2023