July 4, 2009 by Rae

RV Appliances

This post is prompted by a comment left by 1001 Petals in reply to my post last night about my wildly successful pizza. She asked for confirmation that my stove runs on propane, which lead me to conclude that while I’ve hinted at this in the past, I’ve never actually explicitly talked about the RV appliances. So. 🙂

The Range

I have an Atwood ‘Wedgewood’ three burner 21″ range (stove top with oven). This appears to be the ‘top of the line’ model for this brand. It’s certainly the biggest! A lot of people complain about their teeny RV oven, but I find mine to be plenty large enough as my largest casserole dish fits in it (enough food to feed four to six people!).

The range runs exclusively on propane, so it’s great for boondocking. I’ve never tracked my propane usage in comparison to oven usage, but the amount seems to be negligible. Propane is so cheap for daily use (ie. other than heating) that I don’t ration it.

There is a piezo-type ‘sparker’ to light the range, but mine works intermittently. How it is supposed to work is you turn the burner knob you want to cook with to the ‘lite’ position, then turn the piezo knob to create a spark that will ignite the gas. Since my piezo isn’t reliable, I just turn the burner knob to ‘lite’ and then ignite the propane with a BBQ lighter or a match. The oven has two lighting options. You can keep the knob at ‘pilot’ and always have a flame ready, but I don’t like to do that. I’d always be worried that the flame went out and propane was building up in the rig! Instead, I turn the knob for the stove to the temperature I want and immediately apply a BBQ lighter or match flame to the propane.

The nice thing about baking with propane is that you get instant heat, so you don’t really need to preheat your oven. I’ve also noticed that things bake more evenly. I have a rack above the flames for baking and there is space to put a pan below the flames for broiling.

This model was eventually upgraded to make it practically impossible to drop food under the burners, which is my biggest pet peeve. Otherwise, I have no complaints. Cooking with this range is a joy, even if clean up isn’t!

The Refrigerator

Miranda’s fridge is a Norcold 9182, which also appears to be a higher end model. It’s built in and has decorative oak panels, making it very lovely! It’s also HUGE! I don’t have the specific cubic footage of this model, but it is significantly more than the average RV I’ve visited and much more than any other class C I’ve toured.

The fridge runs on propane or 12V power (ie. on the batteries) or on 120V power (ie. shore power). I find this to be quite misleading as it never runs just on propane. So, when boondocking, there has to be enough battery juice to run the fridge. It doesn’t need a lot of that battery power, but you don’t want to run out in the middle of the night! You also would not want to run the fridge on just the batteries as this would drain them very quickly!

I know a lot of RVers who dream of having a ‘house-style’ fridge in their RV, but I have yet to encounter any problems with mine that would make me have such dreams. Sure, an RV fridge can take a long time to cool (12 to 24 hours), but once it’s cold that’s it. I have not had any problems at all regulating the temperature; maybe I just got lucky with a better than average fridge? My favourite thing about an RV fridge is that it’s QUIET! Also, the fridge has thus far been very low maintenance. I haven’t even had to thaw it out yet! The size is also perfect for me. I was never able to fill a full-size house fridge and I have yet to get this fridge to capacity, but at least I’ve come close!

The Microwave

The microwave is a Dometic brand and operates like any other microwave I’ve had. I didn’t have a microwave for five or six years and since getting my first one I haven’t yet learned to rely on them. I use the microwave mainly to thaw bread, melt butter, make five-minute chocolate cakes, and bake the odd potato. I can only use the microwave when I’m on shore power and I have never missed it when boondocking.

Hopefully, that’s all a bit clearer now.

July 3, 2009 by Rae

Cooking in an RV

Cooking in an RV is not without its challenges. For me, the single most important challenge is the lack of counter space. I don’t let that stop me from making absolutely anything I want, even if I have to pile things on top of each other in order to get enough room to roll out some dough.

Behold tonight’s dinner:

Homemade dough crookedly rolled out and topped with jarred pasta sauce (Prego Onion and Garlic, if you’re curious (very yummy!))

The flash makes the dough look quite pasty, but it was actually perfectly browned. The cheese is a mix of ‘Mexican’ cheeses giving the pizza a real kick! I also added a diced orange pepper.

OMG

This was the best pizza I have eaten in recent memory!!! It was even better than the pizza I had in Whitehorse! The crust was that perfect mix of crispy and chewy, the sauce was flavourful, the cheese blend unexpectedly delicious. I had a hunch that a pizza cooked in a propane oven would be superior to one cooked in an electric oven, and I was right. I’m going to get a pizza stone!

July 2, 2009 by Rae

Winter Plans

The cat is out of the bag and I can now announce my plans for the winter! I will continue working in Dawson until the end of August and then return to Watson Lake for as long into October as I can stand it. I will then travel south to Vancouver Island. I had briefly mentioned this destination as being a possibility for this winter and one of my readers picked up on it. He offered me a great opportunity.

So, it is with great pleasure that I can say that for the 2009/2010 winter, I will be parked in Croft‘s driveway in Campbell River, house sitting for him and Norma by parking my RV in their driveway. Retired RVers go to Mexico for the winter while non-retired RVers housesit for the Mexico-bound. 😀 Their generous offer will give me a good chance to get my finances back on track, provided I can find a good contract or job in Campbell River! Thanks, Croft and Norma!

I will be able to take a different route to Vancouver Island than I took north from Vancouver, so my journey back to the Vancouver lower mainland and across the water to Vancouver Island will make for interesting blogging. Depending on the work situation on the Island, I should be able to explore quite a bit, if only in the toad. I also plan to fully utilize Croft’s workshop to make some much needed personalizations to Miranda now that I’m fully committed to full-timing in her!

With winter plans firmly squared away, I now know what I’m doing straight through to the late fall of 2010. I don’t think I’ve ever before planned so far ahead!

July 1, 2009 by Rae

Why I Like Working in an RV Park

My manager’s husband asked me today why I so obviously enjoy this type of work. This is what I replied:

I did a diploma with a focus on outdoor recreation and campground management, so working in an RV park is definitely ‘in my field.’ Why did I pick this field? Well:

1) I enjoy the outdoors and camping;

2) I like the social aspect of meeting people from all over;

3) Duties are varied and fast paced, making for days that fly by without being monotonous;

3) The work is both mental and physical, offering a variety of challenges.

Camp hosting is not my favourite way to work in this field, but in this particular location it works. I like to live near work, but not AT work! My first job in this field, I lived about 10 minutes from work and that worked out perfectly. Here, I am at least allowed a life outside of work, so living on site is not a problem.

July 1, 2009 by Rae

The Ridge Road Heritage Trail

Last night’s hike took us to just a few km from Dawson to the Ridge Road Heritage Trail. This trail used to be the first government-built wagon road in the Yukon. It was built in 1899 as a major supply route to the mines on Dominion and Sulphur creeks, not far from Bonanza Creek.

Quoting from the brochure:

Roadhouses, stores and freighting companies operated successfully along the route despite spring glaciers and a steep descent to the placer mines. Gold miners along Bonanza Creek ridiculed Commissioner William Ogilvie for supporting the project and lobbied for a more convenient route. After good roads were completed up Bonanza and Hunker creeks, the Ridge Road was abandoned in 1902.

This trail takes approximately two days to hike end to end and there are campgrounds within a day’s hike of each trailhead. We only got to about 3km UP the Jackson Gulch trailhead before the mosquitoes had us running back to the van for cover!