Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Motor scooters and RVs

Touring Yellowstone on scooters
We're planning to take our motor scooters with us when we set out on our RV journey. We'll use these for sightseeing instead of the truck. Our scooters get 100 mpg, the truck only 10 mpg, so it's a no-brainer.

A couple of years ago, we hauled them over to Yellowstone and spent a week touring the park on them. It was probably the best time I've ever had there. We also take our scooters on local camping trips.

Tips for taking your motor scooter along

Here are some tips if you're thinking about taking scooters rather than a towed vehicle:

Regulations vary from state to state on motor scooters. For example, some states require riders of all motor scooters to be licensed, while others only require licenses for scooters that are 50cc or more. Some states don’t require helmets or liability insurance, others do.

To be on the safe side, make sure you have a motorcycle endorsement on your driver’s license, have at least liability insurance and wear a helmet at all times. This way you’re prepared for whatever regulations a state has.

Always be prepared
If your motor scooter’s tires are tubed, always carry spare tubes and know how to change a tire. If a motorcycle repair shop isn’t handy, an automotive tire store can change the tube. They may not have inner tubes that small, so the spare will come in handy. They also probably won’t change the tire on the scooter for you.

Your motor scooter probably came with some basic tools. Always have them with you, as well as some multi-purpose bolts in your scooter’s size in case you need to make quick repairs when a repair shop is tens of miles away. Not everyone is lucky enough to be married to a retired motorcycle mechanic, but even he was challenged when my scooter lost a couple of critical bolts and none were to be had in the small town we were staying at.  (He ended up taking them from a place where they were used for decoration more than for function.)
 
 
 

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Tip for keeping dishes intact on the road

Our solution to keeping dishes safe
Accidents happen. Cupboard doors in RVs come open as you're driving down the road. Dishes fall out and shatter on the floor.
This happened to us a couple of times in our old trailer. What a mess!

When we got our new trailer, I wanted to avoid this from happening again. So I came up with the idea of securing a dish drainer to the cupboard floor, and my husband implemented it. It work great! It takes under an hour to do.