Today's Errands 09/04/2018

A couple days ago, I signed up for a membership at Midtown Fitness in Woodsfield of Monroe County.  Today, I canceled my membership at the YMCA in Marietta of Washington County.  While I was in the area, I purchased a used microwave on the Facebook Marketplace for $10.

I got some cleaning supplies and a case/ Bluetooth keyboard for my tablet.  Since the Verizon Wireless, mobile hotspot that I'm using to send an Wi-Fi Internet signal has a 15GB limit, I'm planning on using the tablet now for Internet communications and entrainment like Pandora, or YouTube.  If the data is used on my the tablet or smartphone only, then those have unlimited data.

My front overhead cabinets were screwed into the ceiling.  But as I was driving my motorhome to this area, I heard what sounded like "broken glass."  The windows are still in fine shape, but the top screws to this overhead cabinet stripped out of the ceiling.  I got two pieces of 1/4in wooden molding strips.  And I'm going to Gorilla glue them into place.  I'll then screw those away from the stripped out holes, then rock the cabinet back and screw them into the strip.

While I was at the home improvement store, I purchased six bags of gravel to help level the motorhome's right side in my oil and gas campsite.  About a week ago, I got my Rhino ramps out of storage and was going to use those to level the right rear duallies, but the gravel under the wheels isn't very good.  I have leveling blocks back there now, but one on one tire.  I didn't have enough blocks to level both on the right side duallies and the front tire.  And with the air conditioning having been run for two months, all the water goes off to that side and has made it muddy at times.  I felt that parking those wheels on bags of gravel was the best solution since that side of the motorhome needs to come up by a lot.

I was ahead of schedule today and was about to go out to eat when I realized that I could make the post office in Woodsfield of Monroe County in time to open a new PO Box.  I zipped across the backcountry and got there in more than enough time.  Because I've been through two of these in the recent past, I filled out two change of address forms.  And for Adventurer's Project, I found out that this post office does in deed have a community cork board and I made a record of it.  Before, I eliminated this location because I thought that it doesn't have one?  The post office in Woodsfield is a general delivery location, but it's way off of the Road Fork Section - Buckeye Trail (North Country concurrent).

Now that I have a local PO Box, I can now order two new RV electrical outlets.  These have special plastic backplates that fasten on to it.  My guess is so something in the wall doesn't touch the wires in the backside and catch the motorhome on fire?  Either that, or these don't need mounting plates, which could require more depth than a RV wall can accommodate?

Also, I need a new box of 20lb paper.  The office supply stores around here are distant, like an hour in every direction.  Out here, I'd rather make an Internet order and have it shipped.  After I was at the post office, I had dinner at a nearby restaurant called "Traditions."  It's an Ohio State Buckeyes themed restaurant.  Then I went to the gym and got all my seating and equipment positions recorded in my workout spreadsheet on my smartphone.  In recent years, I've worked on on weight machines, so getting the correct postures and proper range of motion is very essential to them working right.

Trail Promotion Flier Routes

Adventurer's Project's trail promotion flier strategy consists of three loops, three areas and six routes covering about 13 of it's 14 counties.  The remaining county is where only 3/4ths of one township is closer to the Whipple Section, which is covered by the project.  For the most part, it's been seeded to Little Cities of the Forest Chapter of the Buckeye Trail Association.

The bad news is that I went through the post office lobby and library hours and determined a "least common denominator" as far as what days they're not open.  Until things change (like if these least common denominator locations is eliminated due to lack of flier support), two of those routes can only be executed on Monday's only.

Flier, Rack Card and Brochure Posting Opportunities

Not including speaking engagements, this is the total preliminary count for flier, rack card and brochure posting opportunities in the 14 county area that Adventurer's Project covers.  The gas stations are the most theoretical and that number should start coming down when I drive out to those places find that it doesn't have flier support.  But what I can tell you is that it isn't much more than that number. 

Post Offices :
17 near the trails
94 beyond 3 & 4 miles from the trail
111 total post offices

Libraries:
5 near the trails
27 beyond 3 & 4 miles from the trail
32 total libraries

Gas Stations:
254 count

Grociers:
64 count

Coffee Houses:
11 count

Miscellanous Posting Opportunities:
18 catloged

High Capasity Flier Location:
6 catloged

Rack Card/ Brochure Locations
14 count

Log 2016082901

I was getting ready for trail promotion.  And one of those means concerns where to place a flier?  I know from experience that post offices, public libraries, government buildings, coffee shops and some other places have community cork boards.  In order to devise a route and even consider where they'll be deployed, I started mapping the post office locations in 9 counties in Ohio and West Virginia.  Right as I got done, Google Earth crashed and I lost about 5 hours of volunteer work.

Log 2015042301

- I attempted to reorganize the supply point, but I realized that I need to pack the car and trailer to do it and that won't get done until tomorrow.

- Since the photos files didn't transfer to the laptop, I am revising my maintenance stratedgy.  I plan to use the National Forest Service's "Lane Farm" Campground and begin working on Whipple Section, Pts. 05 - 06 in the counter clockwise direction. Now that I'm unable to determine which items are "priority," I'm going to start with my hardest hit area, which is in a low growth forest and along the Little Muskingum River.

- I now know that I need something different than the unit that I have to sharpen my ax. It's dull right now, but it's blunt force should suffice for what I need.

- Two days ago, I spoke to the post master in the unincorporated community of Whipple in Washington County about maildropping water.  And she informed me that it should be no problem as long as the bottle(s) are sealed by the factory.

- According to mine and OTHR's standard, the off-road trail on The Wilderness Loop is projected to be a 15 mile per day. Under that standard, no more than 3 miles is justifiable to come off trail to reach an amenity.  It's unfortunate because both the Scenic River Trail and it's on-road equivalent exceed that. I know this because I tracked it on the GPS yesterday. However, if T420, or an old remnant of it somehow intersects the Scenic River, it may still provide a more direct route that might just do the trick.

- I've got a full tank of gasoline in the car and more in the budget to spare.

- At the supply point, the weed eater didn't have much gasoline. And upon starting it, it didn't turn over with what it had, but it was promising. With the help of some mid grade gasoline, I think I can get it started.