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Friday, March 05, 2010
Regarding the manufacturer's logo's along the bottom of this website: someone suggested I'm trying to get people to come here in order for me to make money. Oh if that were only true! I'll admit when I created this site that thought was in the back of my mind, although it was more to cover the monthly hosting costs (about $25). However I've never followed through and set anything up with these suppliers - in fact I'm not even sure they would be receptive!

I just list companies who I feel make a decent product that I typically have patronized. (The exception is Honda since I've yet to pick up a generator - are you listening?). The web hosting stuff on the right side of Welcome tab does earn me points if anyone signs up with Alentus; but frankly the possibility of me actually getting any help defraying the hosting costs is pretty slim.

So to answer those who think I'm shilling for these companies - nope! The reason I frequently post a link to something on this site on the various forums I follow is simply out of laziness: why spend the time to write up a bunch of stuff when someone can come here & see it in detail complete with pictures! No sense reinventing the wheel all the time! I think anyone who visits this site regularly will realize I’m giving out a lot more than I receive!


Wednesday, March 03, 2010
New! Website improvements: Added anchor/bookmark generator links to Trip Reports tab.

Monday, March 01, 2010
The previous greeting statement has been combined with the update log to create a workable date-stamped blog! Expect to find comments about website updates, recent trips, product reviews, and anything else that comes to mind here!

Coming soon:

  • Product reviews of Fastway Zip Breakaway cable & Flip Jack Foot!
  • Trip report for the Port of Newport RV Park!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Added Grayland Beach State Park trip report.

Added Benton Oaks RV Park trip report.


Thursday, August 20, 2009
Added Belknap Lodge & Hot Springs Resort trip report.

Friday, July 31, 2009
Added Cape Disappointment State Park trip report.

Added Xantrex Technologies 851-0178 XPower 175-Watt Micro Inverter product review.


Monday, July 06, 2009
Website improvements: Added bookmarks with links for Modifications & Product Reviews so I can provide URL's directly to an entry.

Added Lower Bridge Campground trip report.

Added Replaced bedroom vent with Fan-Tastic 6600 Fan modification.

Added Pure Comfort Mattress Topper product review.


Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Website improvements: Forums are now active.

Monday, April 13, 2009
Added Premier Lincoln City trip report.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Your Hosts: Dave & Kristi Smith, Portland, Oregon, USA

Hello and welcome to our camping blog! This site is intended to chronicle our adventures with “Wally”, our Tango travel trailer and give me a place to document some of the things I've done to (hopefully) improve it! We gave up trying to keep a separate trip diary, photograph libraries, product recommendations, campsite reviews, etc. and instead just stuffed it all here! That way anybody can browse to their heart's content and all we need to do is send them the URL!

As you can see in the Links tab I built a similar site for our previous trailer and people really seemed to enjoy it; so hopefully this new one will achieve the same level of success! You'll quickly discover I'm a fairly active DIY guy and pretty much fearless about tackling nearly anything (often to the dismay of my better half), This trailer is my latest creative outlet and I enjoy puttering around with the modifications nearly as much as actually camping!

Some background: Kris & I are both in our mid-fifties and have been camping in the Pacific NW from a young age - I was about five when my family started dragging me out to the woods! We've been married 30+ years and tent-camped the first 25; then got tired of sleeping on the ground so we moved up to a Chalet folding A-frame trailer in 2004. After enjoying the hell out of that little rig we wanted some more civilized creature comforts (i.e. bathroom, full-time bed, clothes storage, etc.) so last year we bought the Tango at the Spring Portland RV Show. In retrospect it probably wasn't the ideal time to take this plunge because soon after gas prices went through the roof and then the economy tanked; but we're not looking back and have a full itinerary of trips planned this year!

So feel free to look around! I try to keep this site up to date often and always welcome your constructive feedback. I'll even try to keep my acid comments to a minimum.

Enjoy!

PS: for you technical types, this site is a data-driven (SQL) Reentrant Active Server Page that allows online additions & editing. That basically means everything you see is stored in a series of tables - text, URL's to links & pictures, code for the little widgets, etc. - and is rendered into HTML when you view the page! So theoretically once I finesse the core code that performs all this magic I can update this site from anywhere in the world (with an Internet connection of course) without having to remember a bunch of programming. And God knows how hard it is for an old duffer like me to keep up with that stuff (in web years I'm like 118)! Of course, since this is about version 20 that may be more of a goal than reality!

PPS: Wally got his name because of a tendency to…well…wallow as we motor down the road! Seemed like a natural to us…

 
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