The Family Camping Blog

One year and five thousand miles later (4,998.9 to be exact) it was time to change the oil on the RV again. I stopped by the local Ford dealer and picked up oil and air filters ($31.39 incl. tax), and then off to the local Kragen for six quarts of 5W-20 Mobil 1 oil ($42.80 incl. tax). I stick with Ford’s recommended 5,000 mile oil changes even though I am using oil that is probably good for twice that. I do not think it would be a good idea to go two years between oil changes and beside, it is a $50,000 vehicle so what is another $75 for fresh oil and filters?

I picked a strange day to work on the RV; it hit 100 degrees before noon and by 2:00 we had a few rain drops and a lot of thunder and lightning. Luckily the E450 is very easy to work on, and I was done long before then (and drinking a lot of water). There is plenty of room underneath the vehicle and everything is easy to get to.

One thing I did, after changing the oil, was to pop the engine access cover inside the cab and find the Auxiliary Input on the back of the Jensen VR185 radio (removing the access cover lets you see up under the dashboard, behind the radio). Sure enough, there were left and right RCA jacks on a short pigtail cable labeled “AUX IN”. I attached a cable for an MP3 player; secured each connection with electrical tape, and now we can enjoy music whenever we want!

Posted to Camping Tips at 05:46 PM |Permalink | Comments (0)
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Out of Australia, an article on how it is legal to camp anywhere you want in Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland), provided you keep 70 meters from houses and stay out of gardens and cropland.

This privilege dates from a time when travellers needed all the help they could get to cross a wild and sparsely populated region, not to mention allowing those marauding Vikings easy access on their way to raping and pillaging the rest of Europe.

Thankfully their descendants are a little more placid (and egalitarian - every woman has the same right), but they haven't lost their enthusiasm for a tradition that typifies the socialist outlook of Scandinavia. Every weekend families camp, ski, hike, cycle, canoe and swim, anywhere they like. Only Denmark forbids it, being more urban than its northern neighbours. In Sweden it is even enshrined in the constitution, and the country's environmental protection agency has been known to remove fences if they are deemed to obstruct public access.

Posted to Camping News at 07:03 PM |Permalink | Comments (0)
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