Log 2014111901

This is a picture of me in my "Virginia is for Lovers" tuff guy shirt.  I secured my smartphone to my goose neck windshield mount and told the folks on Facebook that I was taking a "selfie with no hands."  What you can see somewhat in the back is my 2008 Chevy HHR LS with the back seats removed.  Taking them out was very simple, it only involves removing four nuts.  Since the car hauls "The Cramper," or my improvised pop-out camper, regardless of whether it's assembled or collapsed in transport mode, I removed the back seats for extra luggage capacity.

For those of you who navigated here from a search engine, The Cramper employs a 20ft tarp that I place over the outer shell in the back.  With bungee cords and 45° like folds going downward folds towards the back seat doors, I'm able secure it to the holes in my rear rims and the bars in my after market roof rack.  The roof bars have unused holes that pertain to different width roofs that the product can mount to.  I looped some paracord through outermost available holes so I'd have something to hook a bungee cord to that wouldn't slide across the bar in high winds, which is unlike looping the bungee cord around the pole and hooking it to itself.

Each side uses three bungees and then another 3 in the back.  I use two short red bungee cords and secure them to my trailer hitch.  Then I use a long yellow one with a red plastic end to secure the tarp from side to side under The Cramper's expansion floor.  It's a bungee cord where one end passes through a circular opening in the red plastic on the other end, then fits into a narrow channel along it, grips the cord and secures it in it's hold.  Most tarps looping holes will buckle and tear under the stress.  They need to be repaired from time to time and you can find replacements at a home improvement store, maybe even a hardware store (I haven't tried to find this there yet).

Log 2013100601

The flood stage at Grand Rapids is 15 feet. At the moment, I think its around 10' as the water there still below the marker.  But because of a nearby dam, the Maumee is 4' lower and the terrain is higher in the village.  It's the opposite where I'm camped, which is on the other side of said dam. The caRv and trailer are on standby to evacuate Thurston.
At the moment, WeatherBug reports that the rain will stop here in the morning and that the Maumee's headwaters in Indiana are mostly clear tonight. So the rain should be collecting in one river, instead of three now.
Several days ago, the site along the Miami & Erie Canal at the Six Mile Creek Trailhead was found to be an unsuitable campsite for The Cramper because the area is legally impassable to all but night fishermen during night hours at this time.
I installed the 12' x 16' canvas tarp this evening when I had a break in the weather just long enough to do it. And I had reason to believe that its not that long.  But I measured its approximate length using my arm span, which I mistakenly thought was 39", but I come to find that number only covers one arm, not the other, nor my 22" torso, either. 
It's a heavy duty tarp at 10 mil thickness that is water, mildew and tear resistant from Home Depot, SKU 333 610 and it's made in China.  The product comes with a flammability warning regarding the product coming in contact with an open flame. I think it is made by the same manufacturer as my previous smaller tarp.  If so, I was very pleased with that unit. 
Applying it to The Cramper was similar. Only this time, it has to be wrapped over the bike rack forks and cover part of the top rack and luggage bag.  It also needs to be folded diffrently on the sides to expose the doors.  The tarp needs to be weatherproofed at some point.  It may need to happen sooner, but I think I could do that back in "port." That's a word I use to describe were I can have access to a garage and power tools to do some of The Cramper's heavy retrofitting.   These things also tend to be a part of other projects that could take several days and keep me off of the trail in the process.