Living Our Dream

Still Hangin' Around

Bushnell, FL - Events of Tuesday, Jan. 17 to Friday, Jan 21, 2012

Paul always likes to pull the motor home off the site once or twice during the winter and take it for a drive to get the motor up to operating temperature and to get all the lubrication flowing. We decided to do that last week. Paul does all the motor home driving when we're traveling, but Margery took the opportunity of last week's more leisurely drive to practice her motor home driving skills. She has only driven the motor home a few times, but she really has the hang of it.

Before we left on our short drive, Paul took a few photos in the morning sun of the parerwhite narcissus (or is that narcissi?) that Lora and J. Michael gave him for Christmas. They came as a kit preplanted in a decorative container. All Paul had to do was water them and put them in a bright location to get them going.

Paul used to force several types of spring bulbs to bloom in the dead of winter when we had a stick house up north so it would seem like we were having an earlier spring. Most spring bulbs have to undergo a period of about 90 days at temperatures below 40º in order for them to bloom. Paul used to pot up hyacinth and daffodil bulbs in the fall and put them in the spare refrigerator in our garage. Starting in January, we would take a new pot out of the refrigerator about every two weeks so we would have an almost constant succession of blooms indoors all the way until the spring flowers started blooming outside on their own.

Paperwhites are an exception and don't need the cold period, so they are perfect for us since we have no spare refrigerator and since we spend our winters in Florida where it is warm. The paperwhites Paul got for Christmas bloomed in only about three weeks, and their heady fragrance fills the whole motor home. Leave it to our thoughtful daughter to think of a perfect gift for her dad.

Speaking of Christmas, RVs have been steadily flowing into Blueberry Hill since we returned after spending Christmas in Pittsburgh. There are some empty sites, but the occupancy rate is higher than last year. People may be getting used to the "new normal" of high unemployment rates and are wanting to get on with their lives. Reduction of prices at Blueberry Hill to 2009 levels seems to have helped, too.

When we returned from Pittsburgh, we learned that Blueberry Hill had been sold to new owners, Sun RV Resorts. Although the sale won't be final until sometime around the end of January, the early word is that Sun is not planning any major changes. Sun also operates numerous manufactured home communities, but they reportedly want to increase the number of RV parks they own. It's possible they may bring in a few park model RVs (there already are several of those here), but we think they will keep Blueberry Hill pretty much the way it is. The old owners of Blueberry Hill, Morgan RV Resorts, caused a lot of bad feelings because there were so many inconsistencies in their policies, so we're hoping new ownership will be a change for the better.

A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about the brake problem we had with our car and about how the brake shop diagnosed a long-time, off-and-on whistling noise we had been hearing from somewhere under the car. The brake shop determined the noise was coming from the carrier bearing for the rear drive shaft for our all-wheel drive. They sprayed lubrication into the bearing, and the noise stopped. As they said it might, the noise came back the very next day, so Paul made an appointment to have the bearing replaced even though the noise quit again the day after that.

Chevrolet is doing the repairs on Saturns now that the GM has discontinued the Saturn line, so Paul called the closest Chevrolet dealer, George Nehaus Chevrolet in Wildwood, FL. Since our Saturn Vue is all-wheel-drive, and since very few of the smaller SUVs sold here in Florida are all-wheel-drive, Paul was surprised they had the bearing in stock. Unfortunately, they had to send the drive shaft out after they took it off the car to have the old bearing removed and the new bearing pressed on, so the repair ended up taking two days.

Paul was pleased to find out Nehaus Chevrolet has a courtesy car and driver who does little else all day but shuttle customers back and forth. The driver took Paul back to the motor home and picked him up again the next day after the car was done. The repair was expensive, but now we don't have to listen to the annoying whistling noise, and we don't have to worry about the bearing seizing up somewhere down the road. Needless to say, two expensive repairs within a few weeks ensures we'll be keeping the Vue a little longer.

We've really enjoyed having Pat and Mike as neighbors at Blueberry Hill this year. This past Friday, we went with them for an early dinner at Catfish Johnny's which is a few miles to the northwest of Bushnell.

Mike and Margery had catfish fingers (strips of fried catfish) while Pat and Paul tried beer batter shrimp, which is a new menu item. We all enjoyed our food. Although the shrimp was good, we thought the batter coating was a just a little too thick. 

We have several irons in the fire. Look for our next post to see which one gets hot first.

Motor Home Project: Repainting the Air Conditioner Covers

Bushnell, FL - Events of Thursday, Jan. 13, 2012

When we were in Summerdale, AL back in October and November, Paul repainted the radii at the edges of our roof due to peeling clear coat. Unfortunately, we had the same problem with our air conditioner covers. Like the roof edges, the clear coat was probably not applied heavily enough or wet enough, so the clear coat on the top surfaces of the air conditioner covers also began to peel after several years of exposure to the weather.

The covers were originally painted a tan color that blended with several Tiffin paint colors rather than a color that was an exact match for our motor home. Paul thought the covers would look better if they were painted to match our coach, so when he bought paint for the edges of the roof, he bought extra to be able to repaint the AC covers as well.

The process for repainting was similar to that for the roof edges. However, since the tops of the AC covers where the paint was peeling was relatively flat, Paul was able to use his Porter Cable palm sander to remove the peeling clear coat more quickly.

After sanding with 220 grit on the palm sander, he sanded the top with 400 grit sandpaper, then scuffed the side surfaces with a 3M abrasive pad to provide good adhesion for the paint. The next photo shows the front cover with the sanding completed.

Rather than take the cover down to the ground for painting and risk damaging the new paint taking the cover back up, Paul removed the screws that held the cover in place, draped a plastic drop cloth over the internal workings of the air conditioner, and sat the cover back into place on top of the drop cloth.

Since the AC covers are textured, some of the sanding went through the paint at the high points of the texture all the way to the base plastic. Therefore, Paul bought a spray can of primer for plastic to use before applying the color.

After the primer dried, Paul applied the base coat of color using a Preval sprayer as he did for the roof edges. The Preval sprayer is capable of spraying many different types of paint, including the catalyzed urethane paints used for most modern automotive finishes.

The next photo shows the finished base coat on the front cover.

The base coat dries to a satin finish, and the shine comes from the clear coat, so the next step was to apply two coats of clear. The photo below shows the finished cover for the front air conditioner after the clear coat had dried and Paul had removed the plastic drop cloth.

The weather forecast was calling for several cooler days, so Paul will finish the rear cover sometime in the future whe the weather warms up. Stay tuned for more from Bushnell, FL.

Suncoast Designers Part Deux

Bushnell, FL - Events of Friday, Dec. 2 to Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2011

Last year we stopped at Suncoast Designers in Hudson, FL to have four of our dual pane windows repaired. Fogging of dual pane windows is a fairly common problem for RVs because bouncing down the highway tends to break the seal between the panes of glass. Once the seal is broken, moisture can get in between the panes. As the glass heats and cools, the moisture condenses on the inside surfaces creating a foggy appearance. The presence of moisture not only is unsightly, but it reduces the insulating value of the window. If left unrepaired, the moisture can also eventually etch the glass making the repair even more expensive because you will then have to replace the glass or possibly the whole window.

Over the past year, we noticed that three additional windows had shown a little bit of fogging at one time or another, so we decided to stop at Suncoast again to have them repaired before settling in at our winter roost at Blueberry Hill in Bushnell.

Last year, we made the trek from Summerdale to Suncoast in two days, a drive of a total of about 10 hours. That is certainly doable, but we usually like to keep our travel days to four hours or less. We have also been spoiled this year with so many short travel days, so we decided to break the drive to Suncoast into three days.

The first night, we stopped in Fountain, FL at Pine Lake RV, which is located about 15 miles south of the interstate and to the north of Panama City, FL. We stopped there in March, 2010 on our way from Bushnell to Summerdale. Pine Lake RV is a Passport America campground with half price camping. Even with the discount, however, our site was still almost $20 even before tax because there is an extra $5 charge for 50 amp that isn't subject to the discount.

The roads at Pine Lakes RV are paved, but the pavement is quite narrow. It doesn't look too bad in the view down the road past our site in the photo below, but there are some tight turns where it is hard to keep your rig on the pavement. Fortunately, the ground is firm so there's no chance of getting stuck, but you do have to be careful of several trees close to the road and a couple of rigs that were parked with their back ends sticking out.

The sites are a combination of grass and sand, and most are long pull-throughs. The sites are a little close together, but the width isn't too bad for a private campground.

Some sites have 30-amp electric and some have 50 amp. Pine Lake has full hook-ups with free Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi signal was fairly strong, but the connection was way slower than our Verizon 3G and way, waaay slower than the 4G we had gotten used to in Summerdale.

There is some highway noise from four-lane U. S. Highway 231 that passes by the campground on the way to Panama City. There is also a railroad track a few hundred feet on the other side of the highway. Fortunately, there weren't many trains because the one or two that did pass rumbled by very loudly. Fortunately, there aren't any crossings near the campground, so we didn't hear any train horns.

We headed out the next morning and had a drive of about four hours to our next stop at Palm RV in Worthington Springs, FL. Palm RV is another Passport America campground, and the price was $18 a night with the discount. Palm RV consists of about a dozen RV sites in the large side yard of the owner's home.

Palm RV has full hookups, and at least some of the sites have 50 amps. Although the entrance driveway is paved, it is quite narrow; however, there are no obstructions to worry about once you get through the entrance gate, and the gate is plenty wide enough. The rest of the campground is grass except for a few sites that have a small, concrete RV pad. Most of the RVs there were older, and some looked like they were permanent.

The two-lane road that passes by the campground is surprisingly busy (including quite a few 18-wheelers) during the day, so there is some traffic noise. Traffic diminished to almost nothing later at night, and the campground was pretty quiet except for the rooster somewhere in the neighborhood that started crowing about 4:45 AM. Since we had crossed into the Eastern Time Zone, it didn't even start to get light until after 6:00 AM. How do roosters know morning is coming that far in advance?

The drive for the last leg of our journey to Suncoast was a little less than 3 hours, and we pulled into Suncoast shortly after noon on Sunday. Since Suncoast has a limited number of RV spaces and since we were arriving on Sunday when Suncoast was closed with no one there to direct the parking, we wanted to keep our last travel day short so we could arrive fairly early in the day. That was another reason for breaking our trip into three days instead of just two. Some of the spaces face the building. Not only is backing into those spaces a little tight, the sites facing the building are pretty noisy during the work day. Fortunately, we arrived early enough to not only get a space facing away from the building, we also got one on the end so we had a little extra room to open our slides.

Suncoast is an architectural window manufacturer that has also built a niche business repairing RV windows. You can remove the window yourself and drop it off if you are local, you can ship the window to them for repair, or you can stop by and they will remove the window for you and repair it. The price is the same - $250 for large windows (like the ones in the cockpit area of motor homes) and $200 for smaller windows.

Suncoast has about 15 RV sites with water and electric (50 amp only - 30-amp adapters are for sale in the office if you need one). There is also a dump station.

There is plenty of hustle and bustle during the day with workmen removing and re-installing windows, with machinery humming inside the Suncoast building and with delivery trucks coming and going; but that is to be expected because it is a repair/manufacturing facility not an RV resort. Fortunately, it quiets down after 3:00 PM when the workers go home.

On Monday morning, someone came to our door at 7:00 AM to see which windows needed to be repaired, then Paul went to the office to sign the work order to get us into the queue. Workmen came back around 8:00 and removed the three windows that needed repairing and covered the openings with cardboard.

When we were at Suncoast last year, we reported on the process they use to repair the dual pane windows. Click here to read our post from last year and to see pictures of the process.

We planned on spending two nights at Suncoast Designers because they tend to be busy this time of year. Although they can sometimes repair and replace windows in one day, there is no guarantee all of your windows will get done that quickly.

As expected, none of our windows were finished on Monday. The first window didn't show up until about 10:30 Tuesday morning. By the time the guys got the last window in, and by the time we paid our bill, got packed up, and hooked up the toad, we didn't get on the road until almost 2:00 PM. Fortunately, it was only a little over an hour to Bushnell.

Last year, we had a problem with streaks and smudges between the panes of glass in 3 of the 4 windows we had repaired, and Suncoast had to do them over. This year, we are pleased to report there were no streaks and that Suncoast appears to have solved whatever it was that caused that problem last year.

After stopping at Flying J to gas up and to top off our propane tank, we arrived at Blueberry Hill RV Resort in Bushnell, FL a little after 3:00 and got registered and set up on our usual site.

Blueberry Hill has two sections. The front section has paved, pull-through sites that are fairly close together. They usually use the front section for rallies and for people who are staying less than a month. The back section where our site is located has extra-large back-ins that are all grass. The next photo is another view of some of the sites in the rear section.

Blueberry Hill has full hookups with 30/50-amp electric, cable and Wi-Fi. There used to be a fee for Wi-Fi, but now it's free. The campground Wi-Fi seems pretty fast, and there are numerous transmitters around the campground so the signal is strong. We do like to supplement our Verizon usage with campground Wi-Fi when possible because we have a tendency to go over our 5GB limit. Unfortunately, the connection at Blueberry Hill is spotty. It's sometimes hard to get online and we occasionally get dumped off. It will probably get worse once the campground fills up and there are more people trying to use the Wi-Fi, so we'll probably stick to our Verizon Broadband, which we have been very pleased with since we switched from satellite internet back in October.

Blueberry Hill also has a heated pool, a large club house, showers, a laundry, shuffleboard, horseshoes, and a rec center with pool tables, a library and a card room. There is a new activity director this year, and there are already numerous activities on the schedule.

We'll be hanging out here at Blueberry Hill for at least the next three months. We'll be doing a little sightseeing, we'll be working on some projects, and we'll be eating out a few times. Our life will be a little more laid back than it is in summer when we're traveling and doing a lot of sightseeing, so our posts may be a little less frequent; but there will be periodic updates on what we're up to so stay tuned.

Printers and Paninis

Summerdale, AL - Events of Wednesday, Nov. 16 to Friday, Nov. 18, 2011

When we first started full-timing back in 2006, we bought a Hewlett-Packard all-in-one inkjet printer to carry around in the motor home with us. All-in-one printers can print, scan and copy. There are other models that also fax, but since we obviously don't have a land-line phone, we don't need that feature. The printer we bought was nice and compact, and it met our needs fairly well. The only problem was the printer was prone to paper jams. We had always had Hewlett-Packard printers at home and at work, and they had always been very reliable; but this one not so much.

We eventually ruined the printer by pulling jammed paper out from the front instead of clearing jams by the recommended method of removing the rear cover and taking the jammed paper out the back. Removing the rear cover meant we had to lift the relatively heavy printer down from the overhead cabinet where we kept it, so we took the easy way out and pulled the jammed paper out from the front. Apparently, that eventually stripped some drive gears so the paper feed no longer worked. The printer just sat there and clicked when you hit "print."

We replaced our first all-in-one printer with a different model HP all-in one. We hoped the newer model had solved the problem of frequent jams, but it hadn't. This time, however, we dutifully took the printer down from the overhead cabinet every time there was a paper jam (which was fairly frequent) rather than risk damage again by yanking the paper out from the front. The first printer lasted less than two years, but this one has lasted 4 or 5 years.

The next photo shows our second HP all-in-one printer in the overhead cabinet. As you can see, we also store paper and other office supplies in the cabinet, and much of that has to be removed every time we need to take the printer down to clear a jam.

Paper jams that would be an inconvenience if the printer were sitting on a desk become a major headache because of having to unload the cabinet and lift the printer down from overhead. In addition, we were not happy with the USB cable that hangs out of the cabinet and connects the printer to the computer, so we wanted a wireless printer (not yet available when we bought our prevous all-in-one printers) that would eliminate the cable and also make it easy to print with both computers. Therefore, even though our HP all-in-one printer still was still working, we occasionally looked at different makes and models of printers when we got to an office supply store.

When we stopped at Staples last Wednesday to pick up some office supplies, Margery started looking at color laser printers. Another thing we don't like about inkjets is the ink will run if you get the document wet. A laser printer would solve that, but most laser printers are too large for the space we have available. There are also very few all-in-one laser printers, and those are VERY large and quite expensive.

As we looked around Staples, we noticed an Epson NX430 all-in-one inkjet that boasted instant-dry, water-resistant ink. This printer is so compact they call it a "small-in-one." It prints, scans and copies, is photo capable, and has built-in Wi-Fi. We printed a test page, and, sure enough, the ink was very water resistant. We couldn't get the ink to run even when we took the freshly-printed sample page outside into the rain.

We went back to the motor home to make sure the Epson printer would fit in our cabinet and to look at online reviews. Because the paper feed is on the top of the Epson printer, Paul would have to modify the storage shelf that is in the cabinet above the printer; but, other than that, the Epson printer is actually smaller and much lighter than our old HP. Lighter weight means it will be easier to get down from the overhead cabinet when we have to change ink cartridges. Hopefully, we won't have to get it down to clear paper jams.

Most of the online reviews for the Epson printer were good. Margery's online research also turned up the fact the printer was on sale at Office Depot for $60 (regularly $100). The next day, we went to Office Depot to pick up the Epson Printer.

On our way back to the motor home, we stopped in Fairhope for a late lunch at Panini Pete's. We discovered Panini Pete's last spring after seeing it featured on the Food Network program Diners, Drive-ins & Dives. Panini Pete's features burgers and paninis that range in price from about $7 to $9. Included with the sandwich is a side of home-made shoestring fries, chips or the side of the day (usually a cold pasta salad). They are also open for breakfast and serve a couple of different kinds of breakfast paninis and beignets.

Panini Pete's is located behind a row of stores along the main street in quaint downtown Fairhope. There is outdoor dining on a nice patio surrounded by small shops and boutiques. Even though it was a little cool and breezy, we found a table in the sun and decided to eat outside.

Indoor dining is in a light and airy enclosure that looks like a Victorian conservatory.

We both had our favorite panini from last spring, which has house-roasted turkey, house-made mozzarella, roasted red peppers, baby greens and garlic aioli on fresh-baked foccacia.

The paninis were great! They were well worth taking a cheat day from our diet. As we usually do when we plan a cheat day, we try to just enjoy our special meal and not worry about the carbs and sugar. However, we do try to be extra careful with the carbs and sugar in our other meals for that day.

Speaking of our diet, we have been following the Belly Fat Cure low-carb/low-sugar diet for about 7 weeks, and we loosely observed some of the guidelines for about three weeks prior to that. Paul has lost a total of about 13 pounds, and Margery has lost a little over 7. We have our ups and downs; but the overall trend is definitely down.

It was fairly late when we got back to the motor home, so we decided to wait until the next day to tackle setting up the new printer. The setup turned out to be very easy. All Paul had to do was follow the quick-start setup booklet to get the printer ready and install the ink cartridges. Then he inserted the installation CD into the computer and followed the directions on the screen. Even setting up the wireless connection was a breeze. It was almost completely automatic. It even registered itself online.

After Paul got the printer working wirelessly with both computers, he started to modify the storage shelf he had installed at the top of the cabinet above our previous printer. After dragging his circular saw out of the storage bay and cutting down the old shelf and some of the supports, he realized the new printer was so much smaller than the old one that there was plenty of room for storage beside the printer and that the shelf was unnecessary. The next photo shows the cabinet with the new printer in place and with some of our office supplies stored beside it.

The new printer weighs less than 10 pounds while the old one weighs over 21 pounds. The Epson printer is noticeably slower in high-quality color printing mode than our old HP printer, but the black printing speed isn't too bad. We can live with the somewhat slower speeds. We're retired - what's our hurry?  The print quality is excellent, scanning and copying seem to be a lot easier and faster than with our old printer, the new printer is a lot smaller and lighter than our old printer and the ink doesn't run. We'll have to wait to see how long ink cartridges last; but so far, we're thrilled with our new Epson printer.

We don't have any firm plans for the remainder of our time here in the Summerdale area. We thought we might find some sightseeing to do, but we seem to be stuck working on projects for now.

Motor Home Project: Repaint Roof Edges

Summerdale, AL- Events of Friday, Oct. 28 to Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011

Last year on our way south, we stopped in Red Bay, AL to have the top of the front cap repainted due to peeling clear coat. The peeling was caused by the fact the original clear coat wasn't applied heavily enough or wet enough to the upper surfaces of the cap. Over time, exposure to the elements caused the bond between the clear coat and the paint underneath to weaken and the clear coat began to crack and peel off.

The vertical surfaces are easier to paint, and the upper surfaces of the motor home that curve away from the operators and are more or less horizontal are more difficult to reach to apply a good, wet coating of paint. When Paul was cleaning the roof and inspecting the caulk late this past summer, he noticed several spots on the upper surfaces of the radii at the edges of the roof were also starting to peel.

We contemplated stopping in Red Bay again this year to have the roof edges repainted, but since the radii at the edges of the roof are much less visible and are therefore less critical in appearance than the front cap, Paul decided to investigate doing the work himself to save money.

Paul checked out a couple of online sources that will custom match paint colors and put the paint into spray cans. They specialize in automotive paint, but one of them said they were sure they could get the proper matching code for one of the colors we needed for our motor home (there are two colors along the edges of the roof), and they hoped they could also get the code for the other color.

Paul wasn't too sure about the custom spray cans since they only hoped they could match the second color. Tiffin used Martin Senour paint on our motor home, and since NAPA Auto Parts is the distributor for Martin Senour automotive paint, Paul decided to check with NAPA when we were in Pittsburgh back in September. They said it would be no problem matching the original paint because even if they couldn't find the color mixing formula, they had a colorimeter that could do a custom match from a sample of the colors.

With the news that NAPA would have no problem matching the color, the only obstacle was how to apply the paint. We carry a portable compressor so Paul can keep the motor home and toad tires properly inflated, but the air volume output is marginal at best for spray painting. Therefore, buying an inexpensive spray gun to do the job was not an option.

Then in his online research, Paul came across the Preval Sprayer. The Preval Sprayer can be filled with almost any type of paint, including the two-part urethane that was originally used on our motor home. Paul was a little skeptical, but the Preval Sprayer got lots of good reviews. Since the edges of the roof are high and are not that visible, the appearance is not super critical. Therefore, Paul decided to give the Preval Sprayer a try.

The sprayer and aerosol power pack refills are available at most Home Depot stores and at Sherwin Williams Paint stores. When we were in Pittsburgh, Paul picked up the paint at NAPA (they had no problem finding the formulas for both colors), he bought a Preval Sprayer and a number of power pack refills at Home Depot, and he bought masking tape and sandpaper at Walmart. He planned to do the work while we were at Rainbow Plantation since we would be there for over a month.

Shortly after we arrived in Summerdale, Paul began preparation for painting. First, he sanded off all the peeling clear coat with 220 grit sandpaper to get down to sound paint. The damaged areas were then sanded with 400 grit paper and edges where the clear coat had peeled were feathered for smoothness.

Paul then sanded the entire radius areas along both sides of the roof, including areas that were not peeling, with 600 grit sandpaper to provide good adhesion for the new paint. Our motor home is 37 feet long, so there was a lot of sanding that took over a week to complete working off and on. Once everything was sanded, Paul applied primer to spots that had been sanded down to bare aluminum. The primer was also sanded with 600 grit.

Over the years, the caulk where the ends of the roof radii meet the front and rear caps had cracked, and Paul had applied more caulk to keep things sealed. After all the sanding and priming were done, Paul cleaned up all the old caulk buildup at the ends of the roof radii and applied new, paintable caulk that was also flexible in the hope it won't crack in the future.

With all the prep work done (sanding, priming and caulking), Paul picked a day for painting that wasn't supposed to be too windy and started out in the morning by masking off one of the roof edges.

He got all the paint and supplies ready. The two cans on the left are the two paint colors, and the tall can is the hardener. The Preval Sprayer is in the center, and that's the clear coat with it's hardener on the right.

Paul applied several coats of the first color. One fill of the 6 ounce paint jar of the Preval Sprayer was just about enough paint for one coat.

The paint dries very quickly, and shortly after finishing three coats of the first color, Paul was able to mask off the area and apply the second color.

The color base coat dries to a satin finish, and the clear coat provides the shine. After applying the second color, it was time for clear coat. The clear coat must be applied within 14 days or it may not adhere properly. The paint dries so rapidly, it was no problem finishing two colors plus the clear coat for one side all at in one day; but it was a lot of work. Paul started masking about mid morning after the temperature warmed up a bit and didn't finish cleaning everything up until after 4:00 PM. The photo below shows the final results.

Several days later, after waiting out a few windy days and couple of rainy days, Paul repeated the whole process on the other side of the roof. The second side was a little easier since Paul knew what to expect after having completed the first side. There was also a little less breeze for the second side.

While certainly not a full-sized spray gun, the Preval Sprayer did an OK job. There turned out to be a little more breeze than Paul had hoped, and the sprayer had to be held close to the work in order to not have most of the paint blow away. That led to a few runs in the final clear coat, but Paul was able to sand them out and restore the gloss with polishing compound.

The Preval Sprayer is probably better suited to smaller projects being done indoors; but overall, the results look good, especially considering how much money we saved. Based on what it cost to repaint the top of front cap last year, Paul figures we saved at least $500 to $600, and that's after subtracting the cost of materials. :>)

Paul has been working on the repainting project off and on for the entire 2+ weeks we have been at Rainbow Plantation so far. It's good to have the work finally done. Now we can concentrate on relaxing. We'll also be investigating more sightseeing opportunities and we're hoping to eat out another time or two. Stay tuned.

Tiffin MotorHomes

Tuscumbia, AL - Events of Wednesday Oct. 19 to Thursday Oct. 20, 2011

Holy cow! When we said there was a general cooling trend on the way, we weren't kidding. We awoke at Cedar Creek on Wednesday morning to temperatures in the low 40s, a stiff breeze, cloudy skys and drizzle. The high temperature was predicted only to be in the 40s. Driving 3 hours south to Tuscumbia, AL didn't help much. It was only about 47º when we arrived around 1:00 PM. Fortunately, the forecast was calling for an increase to the 70s by the weekend.

In Tuscumbia, we stayed at Heritage Acres RV Park. Most of the sites are back-ins, but they do have two pull-through sites in the back row. There are full-hookups with 30/50-amp electric as well as free Wi-Fi (good signal, and pretty fast) and cable. The photo below shows our site at Heritage Acres.

There is a little traffic noise during the day from the four-lane road that passes the campground, but it quiets down at night. Although there are several railroad crossings within earshot, we only heard occasional trains when we were there.

The sites at Heritage Acres aren't very fancy. In fact, there are essentially rows of sites on a gravel parking lot. However, the gravel is clean and fairly plentiful. As you can see from the next photo showing a view down our row, the sites are relatively close together.

As we said in our last post, we are now on Verizon Broadband for our internet access. Tuscumbia is a 3G area. We didn't run any speed tests, but the 3G in this area feels a little faster than our satellite internet. So far at least, we are happy with our decision to switch.

For the past couple of years, we have stopped on our way south in Red Bay, AL where our motor home was built and stayed in the Tiffin Campground. This year, we decided to take a slightly different route through Tuscumbia and not go to Red Bay. The lens on one of our fog lights is cracked, and Paul was going to order a replacement from Tiffin once we got to Summerdale, AL where we plan to stay at least a month before heading to Florida. However, since Tuscumbia is only 45 minutes from Red Bay, we decided to take a day trip to Red Bay to pick up the replacement fog light and to take a factory tour.

Some things about the Tiffin factory tour have changed since we were there last year. Red, who is the 80-something very southern gentleman who used to lead the tours, no longer does that because of his failing eyesight. However, Red is still there every day as the official greeter. He ushers everyone in the door and makes sure they sign in and get safety glasses, then chats with individuals until it's time for the tour to start.

There is now only one tour a day (9:30 AM) instead of two like there used to be. However the tour has been expanded to include the cabinet shop and the Powerglide Chassis assembly building in addition to the main assembly building that used to be the only part of the operation included in the tour.

There were so many people wanting to take the tour the day we were there (about 25 or 30), they split us into two groups. Our group went second, and our tour guide filled us in on some history of Red Bay while we waited about 10 minutes for the other group to get far enough ahead of us that we wouldn't be running into each other once we got into the plant.

When our turn came, we headed through the gate. Tiffin is building 10 motor homes a day (5 days a week), which is down a bit from the peak of 13 they were building when we visited in 2007, but it is up a lot from only 6 a day (4 days a week) they were building when we were there in 2008 when the high fuel prices first hit. We were happy to see there were lots of cars in the employee parking lot (left) and a good many motor homes sitting in the final inspection area off in the distance.

Tiffin employs about 700 people in the town of Red Bay, and 1400 to 1500 total in western Alabama and Eastern Mississippi. They are very important to the local economy.

Our first stop was the cabinet shop. For the second time in less than two weeks, Paul got to enjoy the aroma of fresh sawdust. The first was at the Loiusville Slugger factory. Paul was really impressed by the size and scope of Tiffin's cabinet-making operation.

We entered though the warehouse where we saw stacks and stacks of lumber. This lumber is first planed smooth, then inspected for defects, which are cut out. There were numerous work stations like the one shown in the photo below where boards were being cut to size for various components.

The components are milled to various shapes and profiles, which are then assembled into drawers, doors and other parts. The next photo shows a paneled door that had just been assembled.

And the next worker is assembling a large, decorative ceiling panel for an Allegro Bus.

After assembly, the wood parts are then sanded and finished. The photo below shows finished sections of kitchen cabinets. Rather than a flip-up counter extension, Tiffin uses a roll-out extension in the larger diesel pushers. Drawers are easy to reach since they roll right out with the extension.

From the cabinet shop, we entered the Powerglide Chassis assembly building. Tiffin builds a good many of its own chassis. They build all the chassis for the Allegro Breeze, Tiffin's newest motor home launched last year. It is a smaller, diesel pusher available in 28 and 32-foot lengths. The Powerglide Chassis is also available as an option on some of Tiffin's larger diesel pushers. The next photo shows a chassis for an Allegro Breeze.

The photo below shows Cummins 450hp ISL engines waiting to be installed in chassis for Allegro Buses.

In addition to building some of its own chassis, Tiffin also buys chassis from Ford, Freightliner and Spartan. All chassis go to the welding shop to have floor structures, storage compartment frames and other components welded on. The welding shop is not part of the tour, but the next photo shows a chassis that just came out of the welding shop. Next, it will go to main assembly.

When the chassis enters the main assembly building, workers begin installing components like water and waste tanks, wiring, flooring, interior walls and cabinets, appliances, exterior walls, roof and end caps. We wrote up a fairly detailed description of the assembly when we visited the factory in 2009. If you are interested in reading more about the assembly and seeing photographs, click here.

After the tour, visitors are invited to have a look inside any of the coaches that are parked inside or outside at final inspection. We looked in a few, but some were hard to see because there were several workers inside. We didn't want to get in their way, especially since we are not looking to buy.

From the Tiffin plant, we headed over to the service facility to pick up the replacement fog light. Unfortunately, the company Tiffin used to buy the light from either no longer makes it or is no longer in business, so Paul will have to try to find an alternative. In the meantime, the light still works - it's just the lens that's cracked. We never drive the motor home at night anyway.

Since we just happened to be in Red Bay on Thursday, and since Swamp John's has their catfish special on Thursdays, we decided to have a "cheat day" and stray from our low carb/low sugar diet and stop for the catfish special. The catfish special means the catfish dinner consisting of fried catfish, French fries, cole slaw and hush puppies is available all day.

Swamp John's is a no-frills restaurant that is located in an old gas station. The pumps are still outside, and the main part of the restaurant is where convenience store of the old gas station probably used to be.

We arrived at Swamp John's at the perfect time - 11:45. Tiffin employees have lunch from 11:20 until noon. Lots of people with Tiffin logos on their shirts were leaving, there was only one person ahead of us in the order line and there were lots of empty tables. One of the Tiffin sons was eating with some of the manufacturing employees at one of the few occupied tables. As we were finishing our meals at 12:10, the order line was fairly long and the restaurant was filling up with again with people from downtown businesses on their lunch break.

The catfish was yummy. There was more than we could eat, especially now that we are used to eating less. There were 4 strips of catfish, a hugh pile of French fires, a big mound of cole slaw and two hush puppies - all for $7.49.

Speaking of our diet, we are doing fairly well with our weight loss. We had a slight setback a few weeks ago when we both went up a little at our weekly weigh-in even though we had not cheated at all that week. However, in the couple of weeks since, we lost that slight gain plus a little more. Paul has lost a total of about 10 pounds since we started in early September, and Margery has lost over 6 pounds. This 'diet' is called the Belly Fat Cure which means that we get to measure our waist, too. Paul has lost 1½ inches and Margery has lost 2 inches. Taking a measurment and weighing in means we usually get to see a loss in at least one of those areas.

After lunch, we headed back to the motor home for an afternoon of relaxation (naps). As we keep saying, we have shifted into relaxation mode. However, we haven't stopped sightseeing completely, and there are still some things in Tuscumbia we want to see.

Shreveport, LA to Hot Springs, AR

Hot Springs, AR

We left Shreveport the morning following our visit to the American Rose Center Gardens and made our way north to Hot Springs, AR. We were originally going to stop in Murfreesboro, AR to try our hand at digging for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park. Because the state park has way too many trees for our satellite dish, we found Murfreesboro RV Park that didn't look like it had too many trees a couple of miles up the road from the state park.

We sent the campground an email to inquire about site availability, and we called twice and left messages; but we never heard back from them. Rather than continue to try to track them down, we decided the weather was going to be too hot and humid to go out into a field and dig for diamonds anyway so we went with Plan B, which was to head to Hot Springs.

It was about a 4-hour drive, including a gas stop. On the way, we were passed by a Walmart truck, and Paul quipped, "Look, they've sent out an escort. Their sales must be down, and they're wondering where we've been."

We pulled into J & J RV Park shortly before 1:00 PM. There was no one in the office, so we figured they must be at lunch. We unhooked the toad and walked into the campground to have a look around. Pretty soon, J. J. (the owner) drove up on his ATV and welcomed us. He told us to pick any site we wanted, and he would be around later to get our registration and payment.

There were some nice back-in sites that had a creek running behind them, but they were oriented so our windshield would have faced southwest. Since it was hot and humid, we picked a pull-though site where our windshield faced northeast so it wouldn't get afternoon sun.

J & J RV has full hookup sites with free cable. Since it was hot, we made sure our site had 50-amp electric. We're not sure, but it looked like all the sites had 30/50-amp electric. The road in the campgound is paved. The back-in sites are mostly gravel with a little grass, and the pull-throughs are all gravel. The gravel is all fresh and plentiful.

The next photo shows a view up the road past our site with the creek-side sites on the right. They got morning shade, but a lot of afternoon sun.

And the photo below shows a view looking up the creek behind the back-in sites.

As you can see, the creek isn't very big, but we could hear the water flowing over the rocks when it was cool enough to turn off the air conditioner early in the morning.

J & J RV Park seemed pretty quiet during the few times we weren't running the air conditioner. With the air off, we could sometimes hear a little traffic from 4-lane U. S. Highway 70 that passed the campground, but that's about it. Oh yeah, there were lots of night sounds from the frogs in the creek; but that's not noise, that's a serenade.

While we were on the way from Shreveport to Hot Springs, Paul noticed what appeared to be a stone chip on the windshield. We're not sure when we got it, but it was relatively small (less than half an inch in the longest dimension). However, it had pointed ends and a couple of fine cracks radiating out from it.

Even though the chip was small and not in a vision area, the sharp ends and the fine cracks are the kind of things that can make a small chip grow into a big crack. Therefore, in order to help prevent having to replace a windshield at some time in the future, Paul decided to investigate mobile windshield repair services. He checked the website for Safelite Auto Glass, and they had service available in Hot Springs. He called, and they said they could have a technician at our site between 8:00 AM and noon the next day.

The technician called about 8:30 the next morning and said he would be there between 9:30 and 10:00 AM. Sure enough, he showed up at 9:40. The repair consists of cleaning the area, attaching a vacuum cup to the glass, then injecting resin into the chip.

A UV light gave the resin a final cure, after which the chip was hardly noticeable. The whole repair only took about half an hour. Paul was impressed with the prompt service from Safelite and the efficiency of their process. Time will tell if the repair holds. The repair has a nationwide guarantee.

With the windshield repair out of the way by mid morning, we were ready for some sightseeing. Since we were in Hot Springs, we decided to first head into town to check out the springs. We'll give you our impressions in our next post.

New Batteries

Summerdale, AL

Paul noticed recently that he has had to add water to the house batteries in the motor home much more frequently than before and that there was corrosion building up on the terminals. That is a sign that the batteries are being overcharged either because of a problem with the charger or a problem with at least one of the batteries. When the batteries get old, there can be internal problems that prevent the batteries from accepting a full charge as they should, and the charger works harder trying to built up the charge. The extra charging drives off water, which necessitates adding water more frequently, and it drives off corrosive gasses, which cause corrosion.

A few days before we left Florida, Paul also noticed the tops of both batteries were beginning to bulge around the positive terminals. That plus the fact the batteries were 6 years old was a pretty good sign the problem was with the batteries, not the charger.

Our motor home has two 6-volt, deep-cycle batteries. Since the type of batteries we have is the same as what is used in golf carts, and with all the golf carts around The Villages in Florida, that would have been a good place to look for replacement batteries. Unfortunately, we didn't realize we needed new batteries until we were just about ready to leave, and Paul was still fighting a chest cold and wasn't feeling well enough to rush to try to find replacements.

Therefore, one of the first orders of business when we got to Summerdale was to look for new batteries. A quick internet search turned up a couple of golf cart places near Summerdale, but their websites indicated they were more geared toward sales rather than repair and they didn't indicate they stocked batteries. Therefore, we decided to stop at Camping World, which is only a few miles up the road in Robertsdale, to check their battery prices. The Camping World price for 6-volt Exide batteries of the same size and capacity as the ones we had was pretty good, so we picked up a pair.

Actually, picking them up was the hard part. Man, are they heavy! Getting them into a shopping cart was a tough job, but getting them out of the cart and into the car was even harder.

When we got back to the motor home, Paul donned his work clothes, a "do rag" to help keep sweat out of his eyes (it was 85º and 65-70% humidity), and a pair of rubber gloves and safety glasses to protect from acid residue. He took off his safety glasses for the photo as he started to remove the cables from the batteries.

The photo below shows Paul disconnecting the negative (ground) terminal of one of the batteries. You need to be careful when working with a metal wrench on the positive (hot) terminals not to touch any of the surrounding metal structure and cause a short. In fact, it's best to disconnect the ground first. That way, if you accidentally touch anything metal with the wrench while it's on the positive terminal, there will be no electrical path back to the battery.

Paul used a homemade battery strap made from nylon rope to lift the old batteries out.

In the next photo, you can see the bulge at the positive terminal on the right side. The filler hole on the right end behind the positive terminal was oblong so the cap wasn't sealing at all on that end.

The next step was to clean up all the corrosion in the battery compartment. Paul used a corrosion neutralizer he bought at Walmart, then rinsed with water.

After everything was cleaned up, in went the new batteries.

Paul double and triple checked the polarity before and during hooking up the cables. Then he turned the 12-volt disconnect switch back on, and we were back in business. Well, we were almost back in business. Paul couldn't get the refrigerator to turn back on. He went outside, and, sure enough, the over-temperature safety cut-off switch had tripped.

The cut-off switch is part of the latest recall for 4-door Norcold refrigerators that shuts down the cooling unit to prevent fire if the switch detects overheating of the cooling unit. The switch worked as designed when our old cooling unit failed a few weeks ago when we were back in Florida. The new cooling unit came with the cut-off switch already pre-installed.

Paul knew the cooling unit couldn't have overheated because it was off the whole time he was installing the batteries. Therefore, he figured the cut-off switch must have malfunctioned so he decided to bypass the switch to get the refrigerator back up and running, especially since it was the weekend.

First thing Monday morning, Paul called the mobile repair service in Robertsdale that did the original recall last fall, and they sent a technician out to the rig within an hour. The tech checked everything out and confirmed the safety switch had malfunctioned. Fortunately, the tech had a spare switch so he was able to replace it without having to order a new one and wait for it to come in. There was no charge for the switch, but, unfortunately, we did have to pay for the service call. It was worth it not to have to pack everything up, drive for service, wait around, then drive back and set everything up again.

After replacing the batteries, Paul got cleaned up, and we loaded the old batteries back into the car to return them to Camping World for a refund of the $10 per battery trade-in fee. Lead-acid battery prices are almost always quoted including a trade-in. Paul didn't remove the old batteries before going to Camping World because we weren't sure Camping World would have batteries in stock or that we would like their price. Therefore, so we had to make a second trip.

Since we were out and since it was late afternoon, we decided to drive a few miles south to Foley to the Shrimp Basket for an early dinner after dropping off the old batteries.

The Shrimp Basket is one of our favorite places for seafood. They have baskets of fried shrimp, clams, fish, chicken, and more. Most of the baskets cost $10 to $11 and include include slaw, hushpuppies and a side. They also have all you can eat shrimp and fish specials several days a week. Paul had popcorn shrimp with a side of new potatoes, and Margery had clams with potato salad. Everything was delish.

After our early dinner, we stopped at Walmart for a few items, then headed back to the motor home for an evening of TV.

Good Excuse to Eat Out

Bushnell, FL

Last Tuesday Morning, Paul was up early working on the computer when he was startled by the sound of our LP alarm going off. If you think he was startled, the alarm is under the bed, and Margery was asleep! Paul ran back to the bedroom to find Margery beating her alarm clock mumbling something about not knowing how to turn it off. Alarm clocks aren't used much around here since retirement! (LOL) In any case, he couldn't smell any evidence of a gas leak. He checked around the furnace and the front of the fridge - still nothing. He pulled the fuse to get the darned alarm to shut up, then went outside to check the propane tank and some of the storage bays that the gas lines ran through - nothing.

Meanwhile, Margery got up and noticed an unusual smell in the bathroom. Paul checked it out. It was ammonia, and it took Paul a minute to realize that it was from a leak in the cooling unit of our refrigerator. The refrigerator is next to the bathroom, so that's why there was a lot of ammonia ammonia smell in there. Unlike home refrigerators that operate with a compressor and fluorocarbon refrigerant, most RV refrigerators are gas absorption type that use ammonia as a refrigerant.

Paul took off the outside access cover to the back of the refrigerator; and sure enough, there was a strong ammonia smell and a hissing sound.

We have 4-door Norcold refrigerator, and there have been a series of fires associated with those models. Apparently, if coolant leaks out, the cooling unit can overheat and cause a fire. There have been several recalls; and last fall, there was another one that included essentially all Norcold 4-door refrigerators. For the latest recall, a temperature sensor was installed on the heat stack. If the sensor detects excessive temperature, there is a switch that irreversibly shuts down the fridge. We had the recall done when we were in Summerdale, and we're glad we did. We can report that it worked. The red light on the switch was on indicating that there was an alarm condition and that the switch had shut the cooling unit down before it could overheat.

If you haven't had the latest Norcold recall done on your 4-door Norcold, or if you're not sure if yours is included, contact Norcold or an RV repair shop right away.

The refrigerator was still cool inside, so there was no rush to try to find someplace to put our food. Our first order of business was to try to find someone who had a new cooling unit in stock (not likely since they're so expensive), or find someone who could get one quickly. Paul called several RV places we knew about while Margery searched the internet for more names. Most people said it would take two weeks to get a cooling unit in, but two RV repair shops said they would call around to look for one and call us back.

ProTech RV in Clermont, FL, which was one of the names Margery found on the 'net, called back within 20 or 30 minutes and said they could get a cooling unit in by the next day and come out to our site to install it the following day. Sold!

The next order of business was to try to save as much of our food as possible before the fridge warmed up. Paul went to Walmart to buy a cooler and some ice. Meanwhile, Margery called the campground office, and they said we could put our frozen food into one of the freezers in the kitchen in the clubhouse for a couple of days.

The photo below shows our stack of coolers. Paul bought the red one first, and we had the small one. When everything didn't fit, he went back for the cheap styrofoam cooler and more ice.

Since we had to clean out the fridge, we found a few "science projects" that we didn't know were in there. While it was empty, it was a good time for Margery to wipe down all the shelves and food bins. Paul got the job of mopping out the melted ice from the freezer.

We made do with leftovers that first night, but it is really a pain to have to search through the coolers for things to eat without letting too much warm air in. Not only that, all our frozen food was up at the clubhouse, and we didn't want to have to bug the people in the office to get things out of the freezer. So, the next day while we were waiting for the new cooling unit to arrive so they could come and install it, we went out to eat.

OakWood Smokehouse and Grill, where we went a week or so ago for the smoked beef sandwiches, had an internet coupon special for a full rack of ribs and two sides for $9.99 (regular $14.99), and this was the last day of the special. Not only that, but there was some sightseeing we wanted to do near The Villages where OakWood is located. We'll tell you about the sightseeing in our next post, but we want to finish the refrigerator story first.

Back to our dinner. We arrived a little before 4:00 PM, and they were already crowded. We retirees like to eat early when we eat out. They told us there would be a 30 minute wait, but it turned out to only be about 20 minutes.

Paul hated lima beans as a kid, but now he likes them. Margery still hates them, so since Paul never gets them, he ordered them with his ribs. He also had sweet potato fries.

Margery had a baked potato and onion rings with her ribs.

Everything was delish, especially Paul's lima beans. They were served with butter sauce and ham chunks. OakWood Smokehouse and Grill quickly became one of our favorite restaurants. We've both been there twice within a week, and Margery has been there three times in about 10 days...and it won't be soon enough to go back.

The following day, Rick, the ProTech RV Repair technician, showed up a little after lunch with our new cooling unit in the back of his truck.

Paul was surprised they only sent one guy because he knew the refrigerator would have to be removed to replace the cooling unit; and he knew the refrigerator weighs over 100 pounds - even with the doors removed. Although Rick insisted he could get the fridge out by himself, he gratefully accepted Paul's offer to help. After they got it down to the floor, Rick wrestled it into position in the middle of the floor onto a piece of old carpet he brought with him.

Since the fridge is too big to fit through most RV doors, they work on them inside. In the next photo, the old cooling unit has been removed, and the new one has been put into place ready to be fastened down.

After everything was tightened down and rewired, Paul helped Rick put the fridge back into place. Not only was it heavy, but there was barely clearance for it in the hallway.

After Rick hooked everything back up outside, he turned the fridge on, checked the operation on both LP gas and AC electric, and gave it a thumbs up. The next photo shows Rick after all the work was done.

We were very pleased with ProTech RV. They asked the right questions when Paul first called to make sure they could get the right part, they were very professional, and they did what they said they would do. Pro-Tech RV has RV sales, service, parts, and mobile service. In addition, Rick was a real gem. He was considerate, conscientious, thorough, efficient, and an all around nice guy.

We let the fridge run overnight to cool off again before transferring our food from the coolers. Gas absorption refrigerators are notoriously slow to cool and slow to recover if you leave the door open for an extended period. It took almost 36 hours to start cooling fully, but now it's back to where it was.

We mentioned we did some sightseeing when we went out to the OakWood Grill for dinner, and we'll tell you about it in our next post.

Brand New Year and Brand New Tires

Bushnell, FL

We're not big party people. We used to be in our younger days, but not anymore. We're usually content to just spend New Year's Eve at home watching a few movies and snacking. Blueberry Hill had free entertainment in the clubhouse for New Year's Eve, but we had already decided to pass on that. Then our neighbors from across the street at the campground mentioned a number of couples around us were getting together at the pavilion for a campfire and snacks, so we decided to join them for a while.

One of our other neighbors is into karaoke, and he brought his setup to the party. It took a little while for the karaoke to get going, but once the "lubrication" started to flow, the group of singers grew. Watching them was a lot of fun. They seemed to like the oldies from the 50s and 60s.

We had a good time watching the singers and getting to know some of the other people at the campground. About 12 to 15 couples showed up. Of course, campers can't get together without food, and there were some delicious snacks on the table in the foreground of the photo below.

We had already rented a movie on DVD from Red Box, so we left about 9:00 and headed back to the rig. After the movie, we watched the ball drop in Times Square on TV, then headed off to bed shortly after midnight.

After Christmas, there is usually a steady stream of snowbirds arriving at the campground. That's not the case this year, and there are still a lot of empty sites at Blueberry Hill and at most of the area campgrounds. We ran some errands down toward Tampa on the Monday after New Years, and there were plenty of RVs heading south on I-95. However, with only a couple of exceptions, most of the campgrounds we have driven past are nowhere near filled yet. It may be a lean year for many campgrounds and nearby businesses.

We replaced the front tires of the motor home at Tire Centers, Inc. (TCI) in Charlotte a couple of years ago. They were replaced under warranty because of premature sidewall cracking. Now, the tread on the rear tires was getting a little low (they have over 57,000 miles on them), and the outer duals showed a little cracking from exposure to the sun. We probably could have driven them safely for a while longer, but we decided our winter down time would be a good opportunity to replace the rear tires rather than trying to do it while we're on the road next summer.

When we replaced our front tires, TCI in Charlotte didn't have any our size in stock, and it took almost 6 weeks for the tires to come in. Motor home tires aren't big sellers, so Michelin only makes certain sizes at certain times of the year.

On Tuesday after New Years, Paul called TCI in Tampa to see about getting the tires on order to make sure they had plenty of time to come in. To his surprise, they had four of our size in stock, so we packed up the motor home on Wednesday and drove back down to Tampa to get the tires installed.

We got to TCI before 10:00 AM, and they weren't busy at all. We pulled right into the service area, and they got started.

The service area at TCI is outdoors under a big canopy. We see this a lot in the south, but usually at smaller auto repair shops rather than at big, commercial shops like TCI.

One of the things that amazes Paul is how these guys pop such large tires off and on the rims by hand with such apparent ease. After letting the air out, they whack the side of the tire with a sledge hammer to break the bead away from the rim, then they just work their way around the tire with large tire irons. They make it look easy, but those tires are really heavy.

We were out of there in a little over an hour. On our way back to Blueberry Hill, we stopped to get the oil changed in the motor home, so we're now set to hit the road in the spring. We got back to our site and set up again in time for our afternoon snack.

Following our trek back to Pittsburgh, our errands on Monday, and major motor home maintenance on Wednesday, we are ready for some serious relaxation time. During our relaxation time, we'll be planning for some sightseeing, so stay tuned.

Sarasota to Bushnell, FL

Bushnell, FL

After visiting the Ringling Museum then relaxing around the rig for a day or two, it was time to head about 100 miles north to Bushnell, FL, where we are going to spend the winter.

We had previously had three of our dual-pane windows repaired at Suncoast Designers in Hudson, FL. We had to have one of the windows re-done before we left Suncoast because it had streaks and smudges between the panes of glass. When we got to Sarasota, we discovered another one of the repaired windows had similar, but fainter streaks that were also between the panes of glass. We called Suncoast and made arrangements to stop on our way to Bushnell to have the second window corrected. Suncoast said they would expedite re-doing that window to get us in and out in one day.

But there is yet another wrinkle to our window repair saga. While we were parked in Sarasota, we must have had the right (or wrong, depending on how you look at it) combination of cold overnight temperatures (it got down to 35º twice) and warm morning sun to make a completely different window fog up with moisture. This window had never been repaired before, and it had never had moisture in it before. Since we we going to stop at Suncoast Designers to get the other window re-done anyway, we planned to ask if they could squeeze in the repair of this newly fogged window, too.

We got an early start to give Suncoast as much time as possible to get our two windows done in one day. We were on the road shortly after 7:00 AM (a new record for us with the motor home) and pulled into Suncoast about 9:15.

Paul went into the office when we got to Suncoast and asked about doing both windows. They said it would be no problem and sent a couple of workers out to our rig as soon as we got backed into a space.

It was late when they finally got both windows done and came out to re-install them. Two workers stayed after their regular quitting time to get the windows back in so we could be on our way.

As they finished up, there was a triple uh-oh moment. The window they re-did looked great, but there were the faint streaks between the glass on the newly-fogged window they just repaired for the first time. Paul went back inside to give them the bad news. By this time there were only two people left in the building, and one was the owner. He came out to check the window and agreed it was not right. Since everyone had left for the day, we decided to stay overnight and have the window done again the next morning rather than to come back to Suncoast another time.

They were back at our rig the next morning at 6:45 to pull the window back out. The window was re-done and re-installed in short order. The shop manager came out to personally inspect the window and make sure we were satisfied. Suncoast offered to reimburse us for any reservation deposit we may have lost because of having to stay the night at Suncoast instead of continuing on to Bushnell as we had planned, but that wasn't necessary since Blueberry Hill just moved our reservation back a day allowing us to arrive a day later now, then leave a day later in the spring.

We were a little disappointed at the problems we had getting our windows repaired at Suncoast Designers. We had to have three out of four windows redone because of streaks between the panes of glass. We don't know if there was some peculiar problem with the way Tiffin manufactured our windows in the first place that made the old adhesive harder than usual to get off, or if we're just fussier than most people. The streaks were pretty faint for the most part, and if we hadn't seen the windows with the sun shining on them just right, we may never have noticed the streaks. However, the bottom line is Suncoast Designers were very responsive and they made everything right in the end. If we ever have window problems in the future, we will probably go back, particularly since their location is very convenient to where we spend our winters.

As a result of the problems we had, the owner said he was going to be reviewing their inspection equipment and procedures. Maybe they can find a way to detect problems right after the cleaning process instead of after the windows are reassembled.

As we said, they had our window repaired and reinstalled in short order. We were on the road to Bushnell by 10:00 AM. After stopping at Flying J to gas up, we pulled into Blueberry Hill about 11:30 and got set up.

Blueberry Hill RV Resort has over 500 full-hookup RV sites. There are approximately 100 pull-through sites in front that have paved pads. The rest of the sites in the rear are all grass and are very generously sized. There is free cable, and Wi-Fi is available for a fee.

The campground had a lot more empty sites than we remembered seeing about this same time in previous years. As you can see from the next photo, some sites are filled, but there are a lot of areas where the sites are still empty. Even with high fuel prices two years ago and the economy deteriorating last year, this year looks pretty sparse in comparison.

Of course, the economy is still pretty iffy, so a lot of people may have have been afraid to make reservations for this year. Margery heard from the hair dresser she went to in Bushnell (beauticians are always up on the latest gossip) that none of the local RV parks are booked up for the winter this year. The real snowbird rush starts right after Christmas, so we'll see what happens. Maybe they will get some last-minute fill-ins.

The weather certainly isn't cooperating to encourage snowbirds to come to Florida. For one thing, there were early snow storms in the north that closed roads and airports. We don't have snow here in Florida, at least not yet, but is sure is COLD. We always hit a cold spell or two during the winter; but not like this, and not this early.

In past years, the cold spells didn't come until January, not in December. We had two nights in the low 20s earlier this week. We also had several days with highs only in the 40s and sustained winds of 15 to 20 mph. Our weather station recorded a maximum wind gust of 36 mph. The ol' motor home was rockin' 'n' rollin'.

The weather is finally starting to warm back up, and the wind has died down, so it has gotten a little more pleasant. Paul got the bikes out of the car, and aired up the tires. We always like to ride our bikes around the campground to get a little exercise and to see how many new arrivals there are. There is also a very nice bike trail nearby.

We usually slow down during our winter stay in Florida, so our posts may be a little shorter and a little less frequent; but we do have some sightseeing and other things planned, so keep looking for our posts.

Sun-N-Fun Resort

Sarasota, FL

We got a late start leaving Suncoast Designers after getting our fogged, dual-pane windows repaired, but as we said in our last post, we deliberately planned only a two-hour drive just in case we got delayed. We pulled into Sun-N-Fun Resort in Sarasota, FL, about 4:00 PM.

Sun-N-Fun is a large RV resort with over 600 sites. There are many amenities and activities like a day spa, restaurants, a pool and hot tub, a doggie bathing area, fishing, a woodworking shop, mini golf, tennis, and more. It reminded us of Ocean Lakes in Myrtle Beach, except without the ocean. The price is fairly high at $44 a night, but they were having a special good until December 15 where you pay for 5 days and get 2 days free. That brought the price down to $30 a night, which is still on the high side, but it's not bad considering how nice the resort is and its location in southern Florida.

There is a good bit of shade at Sun-N-Fun, so in order to accommodate our request for an open site, they graciously placed us on a premium site at no extra charge so there would not be a problem with our satellite dish. These sites are also bigger than the standard sites, which was a bonus.

Our site was close to the 4-lane road that passes the campground, but the traffic noise wasn't bad, and it was primarily noticible only at rush hour. The little privacy fence along the front of the campground must have been doing a good job at blocking some of the sound.

In addition to standard and premium sites, Sun-N-Fun also has deluxe sites. Standard sites are all grass, premium sites are a little larger and are grass with paved patios, and deluxe sites are the same size as premium sites and have crushed shell pads and paved patios and are the only pull-through sites. All sites have full hookups with 30/50-amp electric, free Wi-Fi and cable. The next photo is a view of more premium sites down the road from our site.

Sun-N-Fun also has vacation homes (park models) for sale and for rent.

It wasn't a long drive to Sarasota, but since we got a late start, it was late by the time we got set up. As we went to put our sunscreens on the front windows, we had a double uh-oh moment. Now that we were parked with another one of our newly-repaired dual pane windows facing toward setting sun, Margery saw streaks similar to those on the window Suncoast Designers had to redo. She thought she saw a little haze on the window earlier, but Paul convinced her it was just a little dirt on the outside. On closer inspection, and with sun shining right through the glass, we saw this window also had streaks between the panes. They were less noticeable than on the window we had redone while still at Suncoast, but the streaks were definitely there.

Paul made a call to Suncoast first thing in the morning. They were very apologetic. They said to bring the motor home in anytime we wanted, and they would make time for us and expedite our repair to get us in and out on the same day. We'll stop in about a week when we're on our way from Sarasota to Blueberry Hill in Bushnell where we'll be spending the winter. Sarasota to Bushnell is a fairly short drive, and the detour to Suncoast is only a few miles out of our way. If we get an early start and if Suncoast gets us in and out quickly, we should be in Bushnell in time for our afternoon snack.

Once we got the window repair rescheduled, we headed out to Publix and Walmart for some groceries. With our shopping done and our pantry restocked, we'll be doing some sightseeing. We'll tell you about one of places we went in our next post.

Suncoast Designers

Hudson, FL

Fogged dual pane windows are an ongoing problem for many RVers. Bouncing down the highway can eventually break the seal between the panes of glass and allow moisture in. Once there is sufficient moisture between the panes, it will begin to condense on the glass and create a foggy appearance. Not only is the condensation unsightly, but the presence of moisture also lessens the insulating value of the dual pane windows.

We had 5 fogged windows replaced back in 2008 at the Tiffin factory under warranty. Now, we had three additional windows that were fogged. Paul has read a lot of positive things about Suncoast Designers in several of the forums that he participates in. Suncoast manufactures custom architectural windows, but they also repair fogged RV windows. We planned to stop at Suncoast in Hudson, FL, to have them repair our fogged windows.

We left Summerdale the Monday after Thanksgiving and made an overnight stop at Big Oak RV Park, which is a Good Sam park in Tallahassee, FL. Big Oak has mostly back-ins with a few pull-throughs. You can hear traffic noise from the 4-lane road that runs past the campground; but fortunately, the pull throughs are at the back of the campground so the traffic noise is less. There are full hookups with 30/50-amp electric, free Wi-Fi and cable. The roads and pads are gravel, and there are paved patios. The sites are kind of narrow with a strip of grass between.

The photo below shows some of the other sites in the campground.

 

As the name of the campground implies, there are quite a few large live oak trees. Fortunately for us, the pull-through sites had the least shade so we were able to get good satellite reception. We rarely find a campground that is not able to accommodate our request for a site with an unobstructed view of the southern sky as long as they are not in a heavily shaded area.

The large live oak behind our rig in the top photo has been dated at over 350 years old. It was magnificent with huge arching branches that bent down and touched the ground. To get an idea of size, the pavilion near the trunk toward the left is at least 8 feet tall.

We were on the road from Tallahassee before 9:00 AM, and we arrived at Suncoast Designers by mid afternoon. We had an appointment for our window repairs for Wednesday. Suncoast has 15 or 20 RV parking spaces with electric (50 amp only) and water hookups. Their web site says they have a dump station, but we didn't see it. The spaces are narrow, but you can stay for free if you're having windows repaired, so you can't really complain. After all, it's a repair facility, not an RV resort. When we arrived on Tuesday after Thanksgiving, the place was packed, but we got a nice spot on the end.

To have windows repaired at Suncoast, you can either remove the windows yourself, drop them off if you live or are staying nearby, and pick them up in a few days; you can remove the windows yourself and ship them to Suncoast if you are farther away; or you can go to Suncoast, and they will remove the windows for you, repair them, and put them back in (usually the second day). The price for the repair is the same if you remove the windows or if they remove the windows. Large windows cost $250, and smaller windows cost $200.

There is a fair amount of hustle and bustle during the day with RVs and delivery trucks coming and going, but Suncoast is nice and quiet at night. At least it's quiet until the workers knock on your door before 7:00 AM to start removing windows. :-)

They put a temporary cover over the opening.

After they got our windows out, we went out to run some errands. When we got back, almost all the RVs that were there when we arrived had left, and only a couple more rigs had arrived. Apparently, there was a big rush on Monday and Tuesday with a lot of people stopping on their way home from the holiday weekend and with early snowbirds heading south after Thanksgiving. After a brief lull, Suncoast will be busy until June with snowbirds coming in to have windows repaired.

Suncoast conducts tours of their facility at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM. Since we got back from our errands in time, we headed up to see if we could get an afternoon tour. The photo below shows the building where windows are manufactured and repaired.

Since most of the RVs had left, we were the only ones on the tour, and it was easy to get a good look at anything we wanted to see and to ask questions. When the windows come into the building, workers remove the glass from the frames, then cut the rubber spline that seals the two panes together.

Once the glass is separated and the old adhesive is removed, the panes go into a machine that washes and dries the glass. The drier conveys the glass directly to a clean room where it is reassembled with a new spline.

Once the two panes are reassembled, they are fed into an oven which quickly heats the glass to soften the adhesive on the new spline. Pressure rollers at the outlet of the oven make a final seal and compress the spline to the proper thickness. Different manufacturers make their window panes to different thicknesses, so it is important to match the original thickness so the panes fit back into their frames properly.

 

A few windows get finished in time to be reinstalled on the same day. Two of our three were put back into the openings, but the workers had to apply tape as a temporary seal because it was late in the day.

The next morning, right after they finished removing windows from all the newly-arrived rigs, they stopped by and began sealing and cleaning the two windows they had started to in stall the afternoon before.

Uh oh, the window at the rear of the slide had streaks on it that were noticible with the morning sun shining through the window, and the streaks weren't cleaning off. The streaks were between the panes. After the workers remove the old spline, they sometimes wipe the glass with solvent to remove any remaining adhesive. Somehow, that window didn't get completly clean from that solvent wipe when it went through the cleaning machine. They had to pull the window back out and re-do it.

After lunch, they brought the window back, reinstalled it, and finished up the job. We finally got on the road about 2:00 PM. We deliberately planned a short drive of only about 2 hours just in case we got hung up at Suncoast. We'll tell you where we went in our next post.

Summerdale, AL, Part II: Up on the Roof

After a storm moved through the area, the hot, humid weather finally gave way to several days of cool, windy weather. It was a good time to stay indoors and finish getting our photo files straightened out after our external hard drive crash the week before. We're very grateful nothing appears to be missing after the data was recovered by Tech Advanced Computers in Pensacola. Paul also spent time setting up and running a backup of our computer files. The software is now set up to run a backup every week, but we may do it more often when we're doing a lot of sightseeing and downloading a lot of photos.

As we said in our last post, this is a good reminder to back up your computer NOW. It's not a question of if you'll loose data, but when. Paul with his engineering mind put off backing up the files because he was evaluating how best to do it under our circumstances. He evaluated just a little too long this time.

The day after Paul got the computer backup finished, the wind died down. Since it was still cool, he decided it was a good time to go up to the roof to check the caulking and to clean up the roof. The surface of the fiberglass gets chalky because of exposure to the weather, and rain washes the chalky residue down over the paint on the sides. Wiping down the roof and applying a coat of wax a couple of times a year helps. Paul just needs to remember the roof can be a little slippery if he goes up there again in the first few weeks after the wax is applied.

Paul had to climb past our new weather station that is mounted on our rear ladder on his way up to the clean the roof, so it was a good reminder that we hadn't mentioned our new toy in our blog. Back when we were in Pittsburgh, we ordered a Vantage Vue weather station from Davis Instruments.

We have been considering the purchase of a weather station for quite a while. We always want to know how cold it got last night or how hard the wind is blowing or how much rain we got. We put off the purchase because Paul couldn't decide which weather station to buy. Then when we were at the Escapade back in September, our neighbor had a Vantage Vue. When Paul researched the models from Davis Instruments and compared them to those from other manufacturers, he found the ones from Davis were consistently rated more reliable and more accurate. We bought a flag pole mount from a vendor at the Escapade so we could mount the sensing unit on the ladder.

The next photo is a closeup of the sensing unit.

We can now get all kinds of interesting information about the weather like temperature (inside and out), humidity (inside and out), wind speed and direction, rainfall, barometric pressure, heat index, wind chill and more. We can get current conditions, max and min over the last 24 hours, and max and min over the last 25 days. If we program the GPS coordinates into the weather station at each stop, the Vantage Vue will also estimate the time of sunrise and sunset.

Another interesting piece of data from the weather station is the rain rate. During the storm that moved through the area when the hot, humid air moved out and the cool air moved in, the rain rate was over 5 inches per hour at one point. Thankfully, it only rained that hard for about 10 or 15 minutes, but we did get over 2 inches of rain during the storm.

Since we're on the subject of weather, the forecast is calling for bright sun, temperatures in the 70s and little wind for the next few days, so we'll finally be doing some sightseeing. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.

 

Red Bay, AL

As we mentioned in our last post, we stopped on our way south in Red Bay, AL, to have the awning on our motor home repaired and to have the top or our front cap repainted where the clear coat had started to peel. The service coordinator began making the rounds of the new arrivals on Monday, and he got to us early on Tuesday morning. He told us the awning repair would take less than three hours which meant we would get into an express service bay within a day or two. However, he told us there would be a long wait to get into the paint and body shop, and he recommended a body shop in town where we could get the painting done much quicker.

Within an hour, someone from McKinney RV Body Shop stopped by our rig to take a look at the area of the front cap we wanted to have repainted. They gave us an estimate, and we made an appointment to take the motor home to their shop in town on Friday.

In the meantime, we investigated the cost of replacing the entire awning. Although the fabric of the old awning wasn't torn, it was discolored in several places, and the stitching along the top where the weather shield was attached was pulling out. Since we weren't happy with the condition of the awning fabric, and since we knew repairing the awning would be fairly expensive anyway, we decided to bite the bullet and replace the whole thing.

Since we were going to be scheduled for an express bay for our awning repair, Paul went to the service department to make sure replacing the awning would still fall into the three-hour repair category, and it did. He must have asked at just the right time because within minutes of his return to the motor home, someone came to the door wanting to know if we could take the motor home to a service bay right away.

Once Paul pulled the motor home in, the two technicians got to work quickly removing the old awning. Awnings are heavy and awkward; but obviously, these guys had done this before. In the photo below, workers use long support poles remove the awning while another guides the awning out of the awning rail from the ladder.

It took 2 1/2 hours to get the old awning off and the new one installed. The new one works better than our old one ever did. It operates much more smoothly, and the new fabric looks great.

We can't stop in Red Bay without taking a tour of the Tiffin plant. One of the reasons we like to do the plant tour is you get to see what's new because they let you go into any of the motor homes sitting in final inspection. The day after our awning replacement, we decided to go over to the plant for a tour.

Several years ago, the plant produced a peak of 13 motor homes a day. When we were there two years ago when fuel prices were sky high, they were only building 6 motor homes a day and working 4 days a week. Last year, they were building 7 motor homes a day and working 5 days a week. This year, they are still working 5 days a week, and they are building 10 motor homes a day. We're glad to see things are continuing to progress upward.

The tours start out with a short video in the visitor center outside the main gate of the plant.

The tours are still being led by Red, who is 83 or 84 years old, and who is still sharp as a tack. He is a former business owner from Red Bay who was recruited out of retirement years ago by the Tiffin family. He has delivered motor homes, he has represented Tiffin at RV shows, and now he leads the tours. Red is in the center of the photo below.

Inside the gate, there was definitely a lot more hustle and bustle going on. There were a lot more motor homes lined up, and there were more cars in the employee parking lot. Parts were also being shuttled back and forth by fork trucks like the one in the photo below.

Inside the plant, there were lots of workers scurrying about, there were lots of motor homes on the production line, and there was lots of noise. Red, who is very soft-spoken, has a microphone, and all on the tour are given headphones in order to be able to hear over the din.

Last year we described the basic steps in the production of a motor home in our post about Red Bay. To see our photos and read about that manufacturing process and about last year's visit to Red Bay, click here.

Last December, Tiffin Motorhomes created a big buzz at the RVIA national RV trade show by introducing a new compact, fuel-efficient, rear diesel motor home called the Breeze. The Breeze has recently started in production with a 28 foot model, and we saw two of them in the plant. The one on the photo below was getting the finishing touches to the interior, and was scheduled to go to the paint shop in a couple of days.

As full-timers, the Breeze is a little small for us; but we could definitely see buying something like a Breeze if we were to settle down somewhere when we're a little older and travel only part of the year.

As usual we were able to go into the motor homes sitting in final inspection at the end of the tour. We'll probably never be able to afford a new diesel pusher, but it's fun to dream.

Swamp John's is a restaurant that is quite well known around Red Bay for its catfish special. The special, which is available all day on Thursdays, includes 4 pieces of fried catfish, two sides and a drink for $7.00. Swamp John's is located just outside town in an old gas station. Most people eat inside, but you can dine on picnic tables under the canopy among the old gas pumps.

The inside is nothing fancy, but the catfish is good, and the price for the Thursday special is excellent.

We got up bright and early on Friday so we could get the motor home to the body shop as soon after 7:00 AM as possible. They were ready for us when we got there about 7:10, and they quickly began sanding and masking off the upper area of the front that needed repainting.

In chatting with the guys at the body shop, Paul found out peeling clear coat on the top happens occasionally because not enough clear coat was applied during the original paint job. Unfortunately, the problem usually doesn't show up until after the warranty has expired.

After Paul watched for a while, we took about a 25 mile drive to the Walmart in Russleville to stock up on groceries. When we returned, we stopped by the body shop to put the cold things we bought into the fridge and to check progress. Then we went over to the Tiffin customer lounge to hang out for a while.

The customer lounge is very comfortable with sofas, easy chairs, TV, microwaves, and vending machines. Often you can see people sitting around a table playing cards, dominos, or putting together one of the many jigsaw puzzles sitting around. Pets are allowed in the lounge, so Margery was able to get her 'puppy fix.'

When we returned to the body shop a little after 1:00, they were waiting for the last coat to harden a bit more so they could do some final buffing. The end result looked outstanding with an excellent color match and a good-looking, glossy clear coat. By the time we got out of there and got set up back at the Tiffin campground, it was around 3:00, and were were starved.

We were both hungry for Chinese, so we decided to try City King Chinese Restaurant in town.

We both love General Tso's chicken, and they had lunch specials for $4.95 that included General Tso's chicken plus fried rice or a spring roll. However, they also have a fairly extensive lunch buffet for $5.89 that also had General Tso's chicken plus numerous other entrees and side dishes, so we decided on the buffet.

The selection was great, and the food was pretty good for the price for a small southern town like Red Bay. By the way, you really know you're in the south when a Chinese restaurant serves sweet tea.

We got all the work done on the motor home done in less than a week, which was excellent considering the work included painting. We talked to people who were told the wait would be up to three weeks for body work and paint. Since ours was paint only, it wouldn't have taken that long, but using McKinney Body Shop was a good suggestion from Tiffin that probably saved us a week.

As we said earlier, we heard the Tiffin service facility gets busier the later it gets in October. We arrived on Saturday, and there were several rigs in the dry camp sites by Sunday Night. We left a little over a week later, and there were 20 rigs in the dry camp area by Sunday night.

Red Bay is in Alabama just over the state line from Mississippi. For our next stop, we're heading south and just back across the line to Meridian, MS, to do a little sightseeing.

Pittsburgh to Red Bay, AL

Just about the time we left Pittsburgh the weather finally warmed back up. It was in the upper 60s the day we arrived, but then the highs dropped into the 50s with lows in the 40s for the whole time we were there. It was also cloudy, rainy and dreary. When we left, the 5-day weather forecast was finally calling for partly to mostly sunny with highs in the 70s every day. Oh well, that's Pittsburgh weather for you.

In spite of the fact it was getting warmer again, we still headed south. Our first stop was at Caesar Creek State Park where we stayed Labor Day weekend. We arrived on Thursday, and as is usual for the middle of the week, we had the campground pretty much to ourselves.

As we described in our earlier post about Labor Day at Caesar Creek, the campground has electric only hookups (30 amp) and the sites are widely spaced.

The final destination for this leg of our travel was Red Bay, AL, which is where our motor home was built. Our electric awning had been acting up and frequently balked when we tried to deploy or stow it, and some of the clear coat paint on the top of the front cap had started to peel. We could probably get any RV dealer to repair the awning, but we wanted to stop at the factory repair facility in Red Bay to have the top of the cap repainted before the peeling got worse.

Tiffin Motorhomes (TMH) has a campground with about a hundred full-hookup sites adjacent to their repair facility. We have stayed there several times before - once to have fogged dual-pane windows replaced and a few times to tour the factory. We know from experience the campground empties out somewhat on Fridays and fills up again by the middle of the afternoon on Sunday. Once the full-hookup sites are gone, there are a couple of electric-only sites, then you get to dry camp at the far end of the campground. 

Because Margery had one last doctor appointment on Wednesday, we couldn't leave Pittsburgh until Thursday. Therefore, we had to make tracks to get to Red Bay on Saturday in order to have the best chance of getting a full-hookup site so we wouldn't have to dry camp with the highs in the upper 80s that were being predicted for Red Bay for the following week. That meant driving about 5 hours a day for three days in a row. We could have taken our time and arrived the following Saturday, but we hear the repair facility gets busier and busier as it gets later in October because early snowbirds stop for repairs on their way to Florida.

Our second overnight stop was at Bluegrass Music RV Park in Franklin, KY. Bluegrass Music RV has full hookup sites, some with 30-amp electric and some with 50-amp only. There is free Wi-Fi, the roads and pads are gravel, and there is sparse grass between the sites. Most of the sites have decent spacing for a private campground.

Bluegrass Music RV is a Passport America campground, but we thought the price was a bit high at $23 a night after the 50% discount. Some PA campgrounds discount their entire camping fee, but others discount only the base camping fee, then add on chargess for things like sewer hookups and 50-amp service at the full price. We're not sure because we didn't get an itemized bill, but we're guessing Bluegrass falls into the latter category.

The entrance to Bluegrass Music RV is between a Speedco truck service garage and the Pilot truck stop; and even though the campground has a large sign across the road from the entrance, the entrance is a little hard to see. We almost ended up on the truck scale at the Pilot. The campground is far enough from the road there wasn't any noticeable noise from the Speedco or the Pilot. If there was any noise from Speedco or Pilot, it was drowned out by the noise from the interstate.

The drive for our third day took us on Natchez Trace Parkway. Natchez Trace Parkway is under the juristiction of the National Park Service. It follows the approximate route of Natchez Trace, which was a Native American trail that was later followed by traders in the 1700s and early 1800s. The traders would take flatboats down the Mississippi, sell their cargo and sell the boat for its wood, then follow the trail back north. The trail ran from present-day Natchez, MS, to Nashville, TN.

Natchez Trace Parkway is a slower-paced, scenic drive that has a 50 mph speed limit for most of its length. Commercial trucks are not permitted, and there are no stop signs, no traffic signals, and no towns directly along the road. We drove it this time on a Saturday, and there were lots of bicycles and a little more traffic than usual, but it was still an easy road to drive. The road is lined with woods and farms, and there are pull-offs where you can see and walk the historic trace.

We arrived at the Tiffin campground in Red Bay in the early afternoon and got one of the last 4 full-hookup sites. The campground is intended to be used by those waiting for service, not as a destination campground, so it is nothing fancy. The sites are close together, and although most of them are pull-throughs, they are too short to leave your toad attached. But the campground does have full hookups, free Wi-Fi and cable; and at a price of only $10 a night it's a pretty good deal.

The campground is located on the site of an old airport, and the main road of the campground is the old runway. The rest of the campground is somewhat dusty gravel. The photo below shows our site at the Tiffin Allegro Campground.

There are occasionally one or two motor homes in the campground that are not made by Tiffin, and we even saw a 5th wheel there once. Those people probably were making a one or two night stop for a factory tour rather than waiting for service. Staying here is like suburbia where all the 'houses' look the same. You'd better remember your site number since it would be easy to park by the wrong RV!

The campground is pretty quiet on the weekend except for new people pulling in. By Sunday evening, the electric-only overflow sites were filled, and new arrivals were starting to use the dry-camp area. On Monday the bustle starts when employees begin arriving about 6:00 AM. Rigs start pulling out of campsites and into the service bays around 6:45. There are over 40 service bays.

There are two ways to get service for your motor home at Red Bay. You can make an appointment ahead of time and get right in on your scheduled day. The problem with that is the appointments were running almost a year out. They recently started a new system where appointments are made on a quarterly basis. We're not sure exactly how that works yet.

The other way to get service is to just show up and wait for an opening. This is what we do, and it also seems to be what most other people do. A few years ago, they designated some of the service bays as express bays for work that is estimated to take less than 3 hours. A lot of work falls into this category, and customers with small repairs can get in and out in a few days.

The paint and body shop at Red Bay is always very busy. Tiffin works with a couple of body shops in town, and they recommended one of those to us to get the top of our cap repainted. Since our peeling clear coat was a simple job of sanding and repainting, using the body shop in town would save us several days of waiting. The body shops in town are used by Tiffin all the time, and they are familiar with the Tiffin paint formulations.

Our awning repair fell in the under three-hour category, but we still had to "hang loose" to find out exactly when we would get called to a service bay. We'll tell you all about the rest of our stay in Red Bay in our next post.

Provo, UT

For our next stop we had about a four-hour drive where we cut across the mountains from Panguitch to I-15, then headed north to Provo, UT. We stayed at Utah Lake State Park, which like most state parks, has widely-spaced sites. The roads and pads are paved, and the sites are grass. There are 30-amp electric and water hookups, but no sewer.

Most of the sites are back-ins, but there are a few pull-throughs that are parallel to the road like the ones on the left in the photo below.

Although you can't see the lake from the campground, there are nice views of the snow-capped Wasatch Range to the east.

The campground was fairly quiet. There was no traffic noise, and only a few very distant trains that you could barely hear. Even on the busy July 4th weekend the campground wasn't that noisy. The campground wasn't full, but we ended up across from a very large group that took up two sites. On their two sites there were 6 vehicles, 2 boats, 4 tents, and at one point there were at least 20 people. Even so, they weren't that noisy. There were no loud radios, no barking dogs and no late-night parties around the campfire. Of course, it helped that it was hot and we ran the air conditioner during the day.

We scheduled a 5-day stop at Utah Lake State Park without any real plans for sightseeing. It just seemed like a good place to sit out the busy holiday weekend and relax.

We started off our stay on our first full day there with a late lunch at Burgers Supreme. In addition to numerous varieties of burgers, Burgers Supreme has a fairly complete sandwich menu that includes several types of chicken, gyros, hot dogs, steak, BLT, and more.

We were both in the mood for a good burger, so Paul had a green-chili cheeseburger, and Margery had a blue-cheese bacon burger. Both were yummy, as were the sides of onion rings and fries. Below, Margery is dipping into 'fry sauce' which is unique to Utah. Invented over 45 years ago, it is offered in nearly every eatery in the state.

 

During our stay, Paul worked on a couple of minor projects like making a door to cover the new opening he had to cut in the closet wall to work on the washer/dryer and installing a second support strut on one of our outside storage bay doors. The door originally came with only one strut, and the door was just heavy enough that it would sometimes blow closed in windy weather. Since we could find nothing in the rules about not washing vehicles, Paul gave both the car and the motor home much needed baths. We also made a Walmart run to restock our groceries.

On one of our days at Utah Lake State Park we decided to walk over and take a look at the lake. At an area of over 150 square miles, Utah Lake is the second largest natural freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes. Lake Tahoe is the largest in the west at 191 square miles. The Utah Lake has only one outlet - the Jordan River that flows into the Great Salt Lake. Although Utah Lake is considered a freshwater lake, the water is slightly salty. The outflow from the lake is restricted, and therefore much water is lost to evaporation resulting in the slight salinity.

The lake was a very popular boating destination, especially since it was a holiday weekend. The parking lot was filled with trucks and boat trailers, and many more were using the numerous boat launches.

Although there were a few jet skis, most of the boats were larger inboard/outboards with families on board. Sometimes there were even several generations with an older couple, a younger couple, and numerous kids.

There is a large harbor/launch area protected by a breakwater. We walked all the way to the end of the breakwater to watch a steady line of boats heading out into and back from the lake. It was windy, and the lake itself was fairly choppy, but that didn't seem to deter the boaters. There was plenty of wake-boarding and tubing going on.

We had a nice, relaxing stay at Utah Lake State Park. With the 4th of July on Sunday, most people had Monday off. Normally, we would have stayed until Tuesday and watched everyone else leave. However, our next stop was north of Salt Lake City at a new, relatively expensive campground. We decided we could economize, at least a little, by getting a weekly rate. Because of some of our future reservations, getting a weekly rate in North Salt Lake City meant we would have to leave Utah Lake on Sunday.

It was a short drive of only about an hour to our next stop, so we took our time in the morning. Unfortunately, when we tried to dump on our way out of the campground, we discovered the dump station was plugged up. There was a Flying J nearby, but since they are now charging $10 to dump and since it was out of the way, we decided to just wait until we got to our next destination. We don't like to travel with the extra weight of the gray water and black water, but the campground we were headed to in Salt Lake City had full hookups and was only an hour away.

Our next few posts will tell you about what we discovered in Salt Lake City, so stay tuned.

Las Vegas, NV, Part I: Toad Trouble

We had a fairly long drive of five hours from Yucca Valley to our next stop in Las Vegas, NV. Paul always likes to gas up the motor home before we stop, so pulled into the Flying J just north of Las Vegas. As we made the turn into the station, we heard a crunch and scraping noise coming from the back. Paul glanced at the rear view monitor just in time to see the toad drifting off to the side of the motor home all by itself with entire front fascia missing. Fortunately, we were going very slowly, and the car rolled to a stop by itself.

We jumped out of the motor home to find the base plate (the part that is bolted to the car frame that the tow bar attaches to) had failed, and when it failed, it pulled the front fascia off the car. The failed base plate and the front fascia were still attached to the tow bar, which was still attached to the back of the motor home.

We were stopped right in the entrance to the gas station, so we quickly unhooked the tow bar from what was left of the base plate, gathered up all the pieces, and pulled the car and motor home off to the side.

Fortunately, the motor home is OK except for a minor scuff on the back corner that can be buffed out, but the car - not so much. Actually, it looks worse than it was. The fascias of most cars these days are plastic and are held on with snap tabs and plastic snap-together rivets so they come off fairly easily. There were some minor scrapes on the fascia, and a couple of the snap tabs were broken off; but other than that, the parts looked to be reusable. We'll have more about the re-assembly later.

Actually, the whole ordeal could have been a lot worse. God was watching over us. We had just gotten off the interstate with fairly heavy Las Vegas traffic, and if the car had broken away there, who knows what might have happened. It may have crashed into the back of the motor home, hit another vehicle, or hit the median barrier; but it certainly wouldn't have rolled to a stop in a few feet on its own.

We use an auxiliary brake in the car so the motor home brakes don't have to do all the work, especially if we would have to stop fast. The brake system has a break-away feature that is supposed to stop the car if it becomes detached from the motor home, but the break-away switch was attached to the fascia so the the wires ripped off before it had a chance to work. Paul relocated that switch to the car frame when he did the re-assembly.

There is more to be thankful for. We were also glad the mishap occurred in a larger town where we could get parts and repairs more easily than in a smaller town. On top of that, the Flying J wasn't crowded so we didn't cause a major problem for them when we were stopped in the middle of their entrance. The few cars coming and going could easily get around us.

The car was drivable, so Margery followed behind the motor home as we headed to the campground after picking up the pieces and gassing up. We stayed at Roadrunner RV Park located on Boulder Highway east of the Strip. Roadrunner has full hookups, paved roads and paved sites. The sites are a little narrow and a little short, but at least they have a strip of shrubs between the sites. The campground has mostly pull-throughs, which are a little longer, with back-ins around the perimeter.

Boulder Highway is a busy road, and there is construction going on in front of the campground. The only open site in the back of the campground was a back-in site in the last row. We weren't real crazy about the cement block wall behind the back row of sites separating the campground from the mobile home park behind, but we had had enough traffic noise and backup beepers at Yucca Valley so we took the site in the back row. We  don't know if it was really any quieter or not because the highs were in the 90s and 100s and the lows were in the 70s, so we ran the air 24 hours a day while we were there.

As soon as we got set up, and while Paul was outside examining the loose parts, Margery got busy online looking for RV dealers nearby who might have a replacement base plate. There is a Camping World about 10 miles down the road in Henderson, NV, but they don't carry Blue Ox products. Blue Ox is the brand tow bar we have, and it was the brand of our old base plate. Margery found an RV dealer about half a mile up the road whose web page said they carried Blue Ox so we hopped into the car and drove to the dealer.

Not only did Findlay RV carry Blue Ox base plates, they had one to fit our car in stock, and they could install it the following day. Paul headed up to Findlay first thing in the morning, and got the base plate installed. Afterward, back at the motor home Paul worked on re-assembling the parts of the fascia. Having a site in the back row worked out well because it enabled us to pull the car in head first and work on it more discretely than if we had a pull-through site. All the original wiring on the car was OK, but the plug and the wires that connect the car lights to the motor home lights for use while towing were ripped off. Paul spent the afternoon tracing and splicing wires.

The next morning while it was cool, Paul put the fascia back on the car. Everything has to line up just right to get it to fit back together, and it's hard to see what's going on if things aren't going together right, especially when some of the tabs are missing or bent.

The passenger side finally went together.

On to the driver's side.

In the end, it was almost as good as new. There are a few scrapes on the black air dam that can hardly be seen because they're way at the bottom, and there are some scuffs on the paint that Paul will be able to buff out. Some of the black marks on the paint that look like scrapes in the above photos were actually splattered bugs, so it really isn't bad at all once Paul got everything put back together and cleaned up.

 

Our fabric tow shield helped cushion the fascia from getting too many scrapes when it hit the pavement. In the process, the tow shield suffered a few scrapes of its own, and the bungee cord that runs around the perimeter to keep it taut broke in two places. We have a little fabric left from when we made the new tow shield last winter while in Florida, so Margery will get out her trusty Singer Featherweight sewing machine sometime soon to sew in a patch. In the meantime, Paul spliced in a new piece of bungee cord. Fortunately, we had some of that left over, too.

Getting the new base plate installed, putting the car back together, fixing the tow shield and doing the wiring took the better part of two days. With all that work done, it was finally time for some fun so stay tuned.

Simi Valley to Yucca Valley, CA

After we left Simi Valley we had a relatively short drive of about 100 miles to Riverside, CA. Simi Valley is located to the northwest of Los Angeles and Riverside is located to the east, which meant we had to drive around LA. Therefore, we scheduled our departure from Simi Valley for Sunday so we could avoid the infamous LA traffic. Even on Sunday traffic was heavy, but there were no tie-ups.

At Riverside we stayed at Rancho Jurupa Park, which is yet another county park (Riverside County). There are new and old sections in the campground. The old section (Lakeview) has no-hookup, partial-hookup and full-hookup sites, and it has gravel roads and pads. The new section (Cottonwood) has all full hookups with 30/50 amp electric, cable and free Wi-Fi. It has paved roads and pads with nice grass between the sites. The new section has recently been completed. In fact, it is so new they are still working on parts of it.

When Margery made reservations, she thought she was reserving in the new section; but when we got there we found out our site was in the old section. Since we arrived on Sunday, the campground was pretty empty so they were able to switch us to a site in the new section. The price is a little higher, but the sites are much nicer. There are some pull-throughs, but most of the sites are back-ins. The sites are nicely spaced and extra, extra long.

Margery's parents had friends from back in Pittsburgh who moved to Riverside years ago. Margery's parents kept in touch, and so has Margery even though her folks have both passed away. We visited Birdy and Bob when we were in Riverside back in 2007, and we made plans to stop again since we were so close when we were in Simi Valley.

Margery's mom was Swiss, and so is Birdy. We had a nice visit and a delicious lunch of a traditional Swiss dish called raclette. Raclette is both the name of a cheese as well as the dish that is made with the cheese. The cheese is served melted over small, boiled potatoes. Originally, the round of cheese was placed in front of the campfire or the fireplace. As the cheese on the surface facing the fire melted it was scraped onto the diners' places and eaten with the potatoes.

Margery has also been in contact with an old high school friend who lives in the area. On another evening we met with Herb and his wife Gloria at a nearby restaurant called Polly's Pies where they treated us to dinner. In addition to being famous for delicious pies, Polly's has great sandwiches and dinners. We both had chicken pot pie, which is one of their specialties.

Riverside is a nice town. It isn't too big, and it's away from the congestion of LA. The downtown has a lot of picturesque Spanish-style architecture. It also has a quirky restaurant we noticed one day driving through town called Tio's Tacos. We didn't eat there, but we did stop for some photos. They have whimsical sculptures and fountains all over the grounds. The next photo shows the one that first caught our eye. It is a wire cage in the shape of a man sitting on their balcony. The cage is filled with beer cans.

 

At the entrance to their parking lot was a similar figure, except this one was a two-headed chef filled with oyster shells. The buttons on his smock are hard to see, but they are smashed beer cans.

 

Behind the restaurant is a very large patio that has sculptures everywhere. Some of them are 20 or 25 feet high. Among the sculptures there are numerous areas for outdoor dining. The entire patio is a mosaic made up from pieces of marble and ceramic tile of various colors. One of the more unusual features was a beer bottle chapel that was similar to the glass houses that we saw recently in Rhyolite and Calico Ghost Towns.

When we left Riverside we only had about a 75-mile drive to our next destination at Yucca Valley, CA, where we wanted to visit Joshua Tree National Park. On our way to Yucca Valley we would pass near Redlands, CA, which is the home of Redlands Truck and RV. Redlands Truck is a contributor and sponsor of iRV2.com, which is an online RV forum in which Paul participates. We needed to have the oil changed and the radiator flushed in the motor home. Redlands Truck has a reputation for doing good work, so we decided to support one of the forum sponsors, and we scheduled an appointment to stop on our way by.

When we dropped the motor home off, they said it would take most of the day so we headed off to Walmart and to run a few other errands. We also stopped for lunch at Qdoba Mexican Grill, which is one of our favorite chain restaurants. It wasn't too hot, so we ate outside.

We took our time getting back to Redlands Truck. When we got there, they told us the serpentine belt was pretty badly cracked, and they recommended replacing it. The serpentine belt runs the power steering and the water pump, so if it goes you're not going to get too far. We didn't get out of there until their closing time at 5:00 PM, so we were glad we only had another hour and a half or so to drive.

By the time we stopped to gas up, we didn't get to Yucca Valley until almost 7:00, which is way later than we normally arrive at our destination. We had reservations at Yucca Valley RV Park, so we called ahead to tell them we would be arriving late.

Yucca Valley RV is a small campground with only about 15 sites. The sites have full hookups with 30/50 amp electric and cable. The road is paved, but the sites are all gravel, and they are all back-ins. The sites are a little narrow, but most of them are fairly long. Backing into our site was a little tricky because of the close spacing of the trees and the permanently fixed picnic table and charcoal grill, but we made it with no scrapes.

 

The campground is right on a 4-lane road that is a major route for north-south traffic between the Palm Springs area and Barstow, and it is also the east-west route from Twenty-nine Palms with its big Marine base to the LA area. Therefore, there is a fair amount of road noise in the campground.

There is also a ready-mix concrete plant behind the campground, and you can hear the piercing backup beepers of the trucks and front-end loaders in the morning. The beepers start at 5:30 AM.

The main purpose for our stop in Yucca Valley was to visit Joshua Tree National Park, and we headed there the following morning. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.

Red Bay, AL 2009

After we left the Memphis area, we stopped in Red Bay, AL, like we did last fall. Red Bay is the home of Tiffin Motorhomes, and we wanted to take another plant tour to see the new 2010 models. Even though we weren't having work done on our motor home like last year (click HERE to read that post), we stayed at the Allegro Campground again because it's conveniently located right at the edge of town and it's cheap.

The Allegro Campground has full hookups, 50-amp electric, and free Wi-Fi. The campground is built at an old airstrip, so it is all gravel, except for the main campground road which is the old asphalt runway. The repair facility, which has 40+ repair bays, is right next to the campground. The sites are pretty close together, and there is a fair amount of commotion between 7:00 and 8:00 AM when everyone is taking their coaches over to the repair facility. But, like we said, the campground is convenient to town, it's cheap ($10 a night), and it's also fun to see all the Tiffin motor homes all lined up in a row and to talk to some of the other Tiffin owners. The photo below shows our site at the Allegro Campground.

The Allegro Campground does not accept reservations, and it fills up by Sunday night or Monday, especially during the snowbird migration, with people coming in for service. Therefore, we timed our arrival for Saturday to avoid the rush and found the campground only about half full when we pulled in around noon.

We headed into town to Tiffin Motorhomes on Monday for the 10:00 AM tour. There is also a 2:00 PM tour; but since the workers go home at 2:30, there isn't as much going on during the afternoon tour. The tour starts at the visitor center outside the main gate.

Red, who is now 83 years young, is still leading the tours. He is very well informed about Tiffin Motorhomes, and he is sharp as a tack. If someone makes a joke, he will pick up on it immediately and join in with some good-natured banter of his own. He knows all the models and all the floorplans; and if someone asks a question to which he doesn't know the answer (which is rare), he will usually find the answer by the end of the tour.

As we walked through the plant gate, we were heartened to see many more motor homes sitting around than there were last year and to see a good many employees' vehicles in the parking lot. Back in 2007, Tiffin built 13 motor homes a day; but when we visited last year when fuel prices were so high, they were only building 6 motor homes a day and they were only working 4 days a week. This year, even with the weak economy, they are working 5 days a week and producing 7 motor homes a day. There are still a lot of lay-offs, but things are on the upswing and they said the number of motor homes will soon be increased to 8 a day. The next photo is the view inside the main gate. Motor homes waiting for final inspection are in the distance, and a portion of the employee parking lot is to the left.

The tour includes only the main assembly building. The chassis shop welds the beams that support the floor and other brackets and components onto the chassis. The chassis then enters the main assembly building under its own power (notice the temporary seat to the left) where workers begin installing wiring, holding tanks, storage bays, and plumbing under the floor.

Workers then install the floor, the carpet, and the tile. Wires and plumbing are fished up through openings in the floor.

Interior walls and appliances go in next. More wiring and plumbing are added.

In another area of the plant, exterior walls are being fabricated. Slabs of polystyrene foam are cut by CNC (Computer Numerical Controlled) routers to hollow out slots for the aluminum frame.

In the next photo, pieces of pre-cut, square aluminum tubing are being installed into the slots in the foam at the table on the left. On the right, the pieces of aluminum are being welded into a strong, solid frame.

After the frames are welded, an outside skin of fiberglass and an inside skin of thin, wallpaper-covered plywood are laminated to the foam. Workers then cut openings for windows, doors, and slide-outs in the walls. The completed wall leaning against the ladder in the photo below is waiting to be hoisted into place on the motor home behind it.

A foam ceiling assembly is fastened down on top of the walls in the bay with the overhead walkway to the left in the photo below. A one-piece, molded fiberglass roof (stacked on the floor) is lifted by the overhead, yellow-frame hoist with vacuum-powered suction cups and placed on top of the foam.

Workers then install slide-outs. A few, smaller Tiffin motor homes have two slide-outs. The rest have at least three slide-outs, and most have four.

Next, the workers install storage bay doors, interior cabinets, furniture, trim, front and rear end caps, and miscellaneous items. When the assembly is complete, the motor homes are driven a few miles north to Belmont, MS, to the paint shop. All Tiffin motor homes get full body paint. The units are then returned to Red Bay for final cleaning and inspection.

After our plant tour, we stopped at La Estancia Mexican Restaurant, which is right down the road from the campground. The food was good, although not as good as our favorite Mexican restaurant Cozumel back in Greensburg, PA; and prices were reasonable. We both had Lunch Special #1, which consists of a chili relleno, a taco, salad (guacamole was extra), and refried beans. Margery substituted rice for the beans. In the next photo, Margery is about to take a bite of her taco.

When we got back to the Allegro Campground, we stopped in at the surplus store. Tiffin sells furniture and other components leftover from older models in a warehouse-like building adjacent to the campground and repair facility. We didn't find anything we needed this time, but you never know what they may have.

We stayed in Red Bay a week, but other than taking the plant tour and eating out once we didn't do much. We stopped at the local grocery story to pick up a few necessities; Margery got a haircut, read, and did some budget work and travel research on the computer; and Paul ran over to the local hardware store, washed the car and motor home, and did a little puttering around the motor home. And to help with the puttering, all the men on the Tiffin plant tour got a gift of a 10' tape measure with the Tiffin logo. It was the best promotional gift he could have gotten. You know men and their toys...big and small.

From Red Bay, we had a short drive to a new destination where we planned to relax some more. Look for our next post, and we'll tell you all about it.

Cape Flattery, WA

After a two-night stop at Mount St. Helens RV, we had a very short drive of less than 45 minutes to Centralia, WA, where we had an appointment to have the oil changed and some other precautionary maintenance work done on the motor home at Brazel's RV Performance. Brazel's is a sponsor of the iRV2 RV Forum that we frequently read, and Brazel's is always very helpful on the forum with members' technical questions and problems. Since they appear to be very knowledgeable, it seemed like a good place to have service done, especially since we were passing right by. They also have a campground conveniently located right next to their repair facility, and there is a discount if you stay there while having work done on your RV.

We arrived before 10:00 AM, dropped the motor home off, and headed out to run some errands. We needed to take Molly to a veterinarian to get some medication for a recurring skin problem. We have found Banfield Veterinarians located in many Petsmart stores to be a valuable resource with our lifestyle since Petsmart stores are located all over the country. They offer appointments but also have walk-in services three days a week for routine needs.

By the time we returned to Brazel's, they had finished the work and had pulled the motor home onto a vacant site in the campground for us. We paid our bill, hooked up the utilities, and chilled out for the rest of the day. Brazel's campground has water and 50 amp electric, paved pads, and grass between the sites. A dump station is available. The photo below shows our site at Brazel's.



From Brazel's, we headed west toward the coast, then north on U. S. Highway 101 to Forks, WA, on the Olympic Peninsula. We stayed at Forks 101 RV Park. They have some back-in sites, which are gravel, and some pull-throughs, which are all grass. Although the back-ins are a little narrower, the pull-throughs are nicely spaced. Forks 101 RV has full hookups with 50 amp electric, free Wi-Fi, and cable. The photo below shows our site at Forks 101 RV.

The coast of Washington is known for its rugged, rocky beauty. Friends recommended Cape Flattery Trail to us, and since the weather was clear, we headed there our first morning in the area. Cape Flattery Trail is located about an hour north of Forks at the northwestern-most corner of Washington near the town of Neah Bay. Neah Bay and the surrounding area including Cape Flattery Trail are part of the Makah Nation. The Makah are a tribe of Native Americans with a rich history as skilled mariners, and the Makah still gain their much of their livelihood from the sea. The photo below shows one of the many fishing boats docked at Neah Bay.

A $10 permit is required for visitors to the Makah Nation. We stopped at the Makah Museum to pick up our permit, then drove out to the parking area for the trail.

The trail is about a half mile one way, and there are some sections of the trail that are a little steep. Wooden boardwalks and cut sections of logs like those Margery is standing on in the photo below make up much of the trail.

 

There were several overlooks once we got close to the ocean. The rocky cliffs are very picturesque and are well worth the drive and subsequent walk.

 

 

 

Down over the cliffs, we could see several starfish clinging to the rocks. This one kind of looked like a hand grasping the rock.

The rocky islands that sit offshore are called sea stacks. They are formed when the sandstone headlands are eroded by the waves. Some have been eroded into unusual shapes, including some with arches. The sea stacks are constantly changing - old ones are worn away, and new ones are continually being formed.

As we approached the overlooks at the end of the trail, we could see a fog bank a little way offshore. The next photo shows us at the most northwesterly point in the Continental United States, and you can see the fog in the background rolling in.

Our timing was perfect. We arrived in time to get some photos before the fog rolled in, and also we got to see the cliffs and sea stacks in the eerie fog.

 

The sea stacks took on a ghostly appearance.

As we walked back toward the car, we could see waves of fog rolling through the forest. We saw the multi-trunked tree in the next photo silhouetted against the gray, foggy sky. It looked like a giant candelabra.

Paul stopped to check out one of several trees with openings all the way through the trunks.

The coastal area of Washington is very picturesque. We're glad we got to experience it in both sun and fog. We prefer sun, but fog also brings out the beauty of the coast in a different way. In our next post, we'll tell you about our visit to the western side of Olympic National Park.

Dallas Part I: Trade Days USA

After our one-week stay at Rainbow Plantation near Mobile, AL, we continued on our westward trek with a one-night stop at Lakeside RV Park in Livingston, LA. We stayed at this campground our first year of full-timing.

Lakeside RV is a Passport America campground. The Passport America discount doesn't apply to pull-through sites, so we unhooked the toad and took a back-in. The photo below shows our site at Lakeside RV.

Lakeside RV is a very nice campground with full hook-ups, trash pick up at your site, and fairly widely-spaced, paved sites. Some of the sites are right on the lake.

About the only thing negative about Lakeside RV is the traffic noise. The campground is far enough from the interstate to eliminate noise from that source, but the road that runs past the campground has quite a bit of truck traffic during the day. Sleep was no problem, however; because traffic appreciably diminishes by early evening.

From Lakeside RV, it was on to Ajax Country RV Livin' in Marthaville, LA. The folks at Ajax are very friendly and accommodating (they even pruned the small tree at our site so we wouldn't drag against the branches when we pulled out), and the campground is a member of Passport America. The campground is a little older, but it seems to be well cared for. They have full hook-ups and some sites have 50 amp power. Roads are gravel and sites are grass with a little gravel. Ajax has mostly extra-long pull-through sites with some back-ins. The photo below shows our site at Ajax.

We opted for a 50 amp site because it was close to 90 degrees the day we were there. Running the air cooled us off and diminished the saw mill noise from across the street. 

The saw mill wasn't operating by the time we left around 9:00 AM the next morning. It was Friday and maybe they only work a four-day week. We were heading toward our next stop at Hickory Creek Corps of Engineers Campground in Lewisville, TX just north of Dallas.

Shortly after we got on the interstate, a car sped passed us. After it got well ahead of us, the driver pulled off onto the shoulder, got out of his car and began gesturing toward us. We knew he was trying to tell us something was wrong, so Paul immediately began to check the rear view monitor and the mirrors. He saw that the steps were out, so we pulled onto the shoulder.

The steps have an interlock so they retract automatically if the key is in the ignition and the door is closed. However, when we raised the jacks, the steps were still extended and touched the ground when the motor home dropped down. This caused the steps to bind and to not retract as they should when the door was closed right before we departed a few minutes later. When we pulled over on the interstate and opened the door, the steps were free and retracted as they should, so all was well. We're very grateful to the fellow who pointed out our problem. Had we hit a dip in the road, the steps could have dragged on the pavement and could have been torn off or severely damaged.

The rest of our trip was uneventful - at least until we arrived at Hickory Creek. When we tried to unhook the toad, the battery was dead. You're supposed to pull a fuse to prevent the battery from being discharged while towing. Paul installed a switch under the dash to make things easier so he wouldn't have to open the hood every time to pull the fuse, but he forgot to turn the switch off again after running the engine of the Vue that morning. Running the engine for three minutes is a required procedure for towing the Vue. We are very thankful to the camp host who brought her car over so we could jump the battery and get the car started. We let the engine run while we completed our set up, and the battery recovered and was fine afterward.

The photo below shows our site at Hickory Creek.

 

And the next photo is the view of the lake from our door.

The first thing we noticed when we initially got to our site was how windy it was. The wind was coming across the lake and hitting the motor home broadside so hard the motor home would shake even with the jacks down. When we took a walk later on, we discovered we had just about the most windy site in the campground. Our site faced a fairly wide part of the lake, which also happened to be the same direction the wind was coming from, so we were completely unprotected.

Fortunately, the wind was hitting our passenger side. Both our slides are on the driver's side, and if the wind is coming from that side, it gets up under the slide toppers and causes them to billow and flap risking damage.

The wind died down to a stiff breeze at night so we were able to sleep, but it picked up again the next morning. Although the wind built up again the next day, it wasn't as severe as the day before.

Our stay in the Dallas area happened to coincide with Trade Days USA held one weekend a month at Texas Motor Speedway, which is north of Ft. Worth. We always like a good flea market even though as full-timers we don't usually buy much. The Speedway was only about half an hour away so we headed there on Saturday.

Unfortunately, it was a cloudy, windy morning and the market didn't have a very good turnout of vendors or customers. But we were curious so we decided to go anyway. The next photo shows some of the vendors close to where we parked.

The market had a lot of the usual flea market stuff, but there was also a lot of merchandise that had a western flare that we had never seen before - like the decorative longhorn steer head on the table in the next photo of wrought-iron lawn art.

There were also these rocking horses (the dark one on the left is a bull)...

 

...these Texas-themed storage bins...

...and these bird houses made from cowboy boots.

 

Margery particularly liked these children's chairs and rockers by fatratfamily.com.

 

Even though there wasn't a big turn out of vendors, we still got to see a lot of interesting things. We stopped at Walmart to restock some groceries on the way back to the motor home and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. We'll be out and about again soon because we still have a lot to see in the short time we will be in Dallas.

Tampa RV Show

As we mentioned in our last post, one of the things we have been doing here in Florida is riding our bikes around the campground. As we ride, we like to look at license plates to see where people in the campground are from. If we go up and down all the roads, it's about 2.5 miles. The roads are nice and wide, they are level, and they are all paved so it's easy riding; but it does get us moving and provides some exercise.

We love our Dahon Espresso Folding Bikes, but one of the things Margery found very uncomfortable about our bikes was the low handlebars. Serious cyclists say handlebars should be lower to allow better leverage for pedaling and for less wind resistance. We're certainly not racers, and most of our cycling is on relatively level ground, so we really don't need to have maximum pedaling power. The low riding position hurt Margery's neck and made her feel she was off balance and didn't have good control of the bike.

While driving through The Villages one day, we passed Santos Bike Shop and stopped to see if they might have replacement handlebars with a higher rise that would provide a more upright riding position. They recommended an extender for the stem (the part that holds the handlebars) as an easier way to increase the height. We took Margery's bike back to the bike shop with us on our next trip to The Villages, and they had the stem extender installed in about 5 minutes. Margery was thrilled with the results.

The photo below shows Margery's riding position without the extender...

 

...and the next photo shows her more upright position with the extender. Who knew raising the handlebars only about four inches would make so much difference?

Paul liked the new riding position so well, he asked Santos Bike Shop to order him an extender, too, since Margery got their last one. There are a couple of bike trails in the area, and now that we will both have more comfortable bikes, we plan to go try them out.

Santos is a full-service bike shop that caters to all types of bikers, from racers to mountain bikers to the active older adult who feels more secure with three wheelers or a cruiser that has a very low center bar that enables someone with bad knees get on the bike easily. We were very impressed with the customer service; and with Mike, the technician, who helped us find the right solution for Margery's bike. His comment was, "There's not a bike that we can't customize for someone's comfort." We also found out the store manager was former Pittsburgher.

For those not familiar with The Villages, it is a planned retirement community about 30 minutes northeast of Bushnell that caters to active retirees. There are numerous "neighborhoods" in The Villages, and there are different types of housing in many different price ranges. There are integrated shopping areas, health care, golf courses, swimming pools, and activity centers. They have many educational, sports, cultural, and social activities.

There are a lot of bicyclists in The Villages. There is a club of more serious cyclists with 250 members. There are bike trails in the area, marked bike lanes along many of the roads, and The Villages has miles and miles of golf cart paths that can also be used for cycling. You can get from almost anywhere in The Villages to almost anywhere else using the golf cart paths. They even have tunnels where the paths cross major roads so you don't have to contend with heavy traffic.

In The Villages, golf carts almost outnumber cars. Many people use the carts for golfing, but The Villages was designed specifically for residents to use them for local transportation. We both think it would be a fun way to get around, and it would certainly save on gas! The photo below shows one of the shopping areas of The Villages called Lake Sumter Landing. There are some cars parked on the left; but, except for one car, the entire right side of the street is parked with golf carts.

 

After being back in Bushnell about two weeks, we sold Margery's scooter. There was a fellow who had just come into the campground who had lung surgery and who has difficulty breathing. He can hardly walk anywhere without getting winded. In fact, he would cough and wheeze just standing there. One of the campground employees who escorted him to his campsite and who helped him hook up remembered we had a scooter for sale and brought him by our site. The man was only eligible for partial payment for a new scooter under Medicare, so he was in the market for a used one. He took a quick look, asked a few questions, and said, "I'll take it." We're glad the scooter has a new home with someone who can make good use of it.

Last year we went to the big RV show in Tampa. Although we are still not in the market for a new RV, we went to the show again this year since it is less than an hour from where we are staying. Paul likes to see what is new in motor homes. With all the changes going on in the RV industry because of the high fuel prices last summer and the economic problems going on now, he was curious as to what kind of changes were being made to RVs.

Workhorse (the company that manufactured the chassis on our motor home) has several new, somewhat smaller chassis that are powered by a front diesel engine. The diesel engine is supposed to give better fuel economy. The large, 8.1 liter (496 cu. in.) V-8 gas engine we have in our motor home will only be available for another year or so, so it's only logical that it would be replaced by a front-mounted diesel engine. The photo below shows Paul checking out the new Workhorse W20D chassis with 20,000 lb. gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR).

 

With the high oil prices of last year, there was a definite emphasis on downsizing at the show this year, especially in motor homes. The photo below shows a 32' Damon Avanti motor home on the new Workhorse W16D front-diesel chassis. The W16D chassis is similar to the W20D shown above except it has a 16,000 lb. GVWR and a slightly smaller engine. They are claiming over 14 mpg for this coach, which is unheard of for a Class A motor home. We felt the Avanti was too small for full-timing, we didn't care for the Euro-style interior, and we thought the price was a little high for what you got; but it looks like motor homes like this may become more popular in the future, especially if fuel prices rise again.

 

Although there were plenty of full-size Class A motor homes and 5th wheels on display, we also noticed there were many, many smaller Class C and Class B (van campers) at the show this year. The photo below shows just some of them lining both sides of the aisle.

 

Tiffin has a new Allegro diesel pusher motor home that was very interesting. The Allegro is Tiffin's entry-level model; but with amenities like full body paint and solid-surface counter tops, it is nicer than a lot of manufacturers' higher-priced models. The Allegro had been available only as a front-engine model, but Tiffin now has one floor plan available as a diesel pusher.

It looks like Tiffin is trying to make their diesel pushers a little more affordable. The new Allegro Open Road diesel pusher is a very nice coach for the price. It has air bag suspension, four slides, huge pass-through storage bays, and a decent cargo carrying capacity. There were lots of people looking at it and we're guessing that particular coach would be sold before the end of the show. The photo below shows Margery coming out of the Allegro pusher.

After visiting Workhorse, Tiffin, and taking a quick look at the Damon Avanti, we walked around the indoor vendors who were selling accessories and promoting campgrounds and resorts. At the end of one building was a sand sculpture in the shape of a map of the United States including Alaska, Hawaii, and the Florida Keys with the 7-mile bridge. There were little sculptures on the map representing various parts of the country. If you look closely at the photo below, you may be able to see sun glasses in South Florida (in the foreground), the space shuttle farther to the north, a peach in Georgia, the Capital Building, the Liberty Bell in Pennsylvania, the Statue of Liberty in New York, Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, an oil well in Texas, etc.

 

In spite of all the dire economic news, there seemed to be a good turnout for the RV show. The crowds were bigger this year than we remember them being last year, although the fact the weather was sunnier on the day we went this year may have had something to do with it.

It was sunny the day we went to the RV show, but it was a little cool; and it got even cooler in the days afterward. High temperatures were only in the 50s and low 60s with lows all the way down to the upper 20s. It was still better than most areas in the north where temperatures were in the single digits or even below zero in some places. Several areas of the country broke decade-old records for low temperatures.

We experienced a few cool days last year in Florida, but the cool spells only lasted a day or two at a time. This cold snap is predicted to go on for at least a week. They (whoever "they" are) say it's because of global warming. Let's see, if it's warmer than normal, it's due to global warming; and if it's colder than normal, it's also due to global warming...hmmm.

We found some interesting things to see and do within a day's drive of where we are staying, but we'll have to wait to see what the weather does before we decide what we are going to do next. Even though the air temperatures are cool, the sun is out most days. The sun makes it feel much warmer, so we are hoping to get out for some sightseeing soon.

Back in Bushnell

When we left Bluebberry Hill for our holiday trip to Pittsburgh, the front section of the campground had only a few RVs in it and the back was about 60-70% filled. Now, after New Years, the front is about 50% full (although this section is more transient, and RVs come and go), and the back section is about 80-90% filled as more Snowbirds arrive every day. Interstate-75 is filled with southbound RV's now. There's a steady stream, but the occupancy of Blueberry Hill seems to be running a little behind what it was at this time last year. Maybe the economy has brought about some cancellations, or at least some reduced lengths of stay.

When we went to Pittsburgh last spring, we dropped off Margery's mobility scooter to store for a while. Now that her knees are doing so well, we picked up the scooter during our Christmas trip and brought it back with us to try to sell rather than just leave it in storage for the batteries to deteriorate. When we got back, Paul cleaned it up, made a "For Sale" sign, and parked the scooter in front of our site. We'll see how it goes. The scooter served us well, and now we're hoping it will provide mobility for someone else with difficulty walking.

During our Christmas visit with Lora and J. Michael, we got to sleep on our old mattress. Lora and J. Michael took some of our furniture when we went on the road; and, since the mattress wasn't very old, they have it on the bed in their spare bedroom. The mattress in the motor home was always a little soft for us; and now that it was over three years old, we knew it was getting a little too mushy. However, we didn't realize how mushy until we spent a week on our old, very firm mattress back in Pittsburgh. Ahhhhh.

That prompted us to go mattress shopping when we got back to Florida. A lot of RVs have what are called "short queen" mattresses. These are standard width, but are 4 to 6 inches shorter than a standard queen mattress. Although the shorter length allows more walking space in the RV, it limits the choices for replacement mattresses, and it can also be uncomfortable if you're taller. Sometimes you can replace a short queen mattress with a standard one; but if the bed is part of the slide-out and the slide-out was designed for a short mattress, there probably won't be room for a longer mattress when the slide is in for traveling.

We have a standard queen mattress, so we were able to shop at a regular bedding store. It was a good time to shop - seems there were New Year's mattress sales everywhere. We found a nice, firm, Simmons Beautyrest on sale for a good price at the Mattress Giant store up near the Villages. It was delivered to our motor home first thing the next morning. Wow, what a difference! We have always liked a firm mattress to help eliminate back pain. We both slept comfortably the first night.

We do most of our grocery shopping at Wal-Mart because we feel they generally have the best prices. Here at Blueberry Hill, that is really easy since there is a Wal-Mart right next door. However, Wal-Mart doesn't carry a full selection of grocery items, and we sometimes need to stop at another grocery store for special items. One of these items is chicken hot sausage that Publix Markets usually carry. We took a half-hour drive to the Publix in Inverness, FL. We were able to stock up on the sausage plus a couple of other items. Low-fat products are not abundant in Florida or anywhere else in the south, so we're always happy to find some of our favorites.

The route to Inverness passes through Floral City, which was founded in 1883. Although it only has a population of around 5,000 people today, Floral City was once the largest city in Florida because of phosphate mining in the surrounding area. Henry Flagler started building his hotels and railway on the east coast of Florida about the same time, but Floral City grew faster in those early years because of the mining. The mining was shut down during WWI and was relocated farther south near Tampa after the war.

A beautiful feature of Floral City are the Spanish-moss draped live oak trees that line both sides of County Road 48 heading toward the main intersection in town. The trees run for about half a mile.

 

We gave Molly a bath before our trip to Pittsburgh, but we thought we'd leave her coat a little longer for the cold weather and save grooming her until we got back to Bushnell. Soon after our return, we went about the task of grooming. As you can see from the photo below, she wasn't too happy about it and tried to hide in the bedroom.

 

Trying to hide is typical, but once we start grooming, she is usually pretty good and only gets a little impatient toward the end. She has been getting groomed every few months since she was about a year old, so she's used to it. But for some reason, she really put up a fuss this time. She wouldn't stand still and kept trying to sit and lie down. However, we eventually got the job done (more or less) - she's still a little shaggy in a couple of spots, but we'll fix that next time. The photo below shows Molly in a little better humor after the grooming.

 

We took it easy during our first week or so back to Florida. We got caught up on grocery shopping and a few chores like doing laundry and grooming Molly. We also got a new mattress, rode our bikes around the campground numerous times to try to work off some of those Christmas goodies, and played a few games of pool. We're also investigating interesting things to do and see in the coming weeks. Check back soon to see what we come up with.

Myrtle Beach 2008 Part II

The storm system that passed by offshore the first part of our stay took almost three days to move on. By the end of the third day, the clouds finally started to break up, and the following day dawned bright and clear. We sat on the beach a little while enjoying the warm sun and watching the waves...no two are alike and they're mesmerizing to watch.

 

A gull stopped by and checked us out. Since we didn't have anything to eat, it didn't hang around too long.

 

We also watched a couple of sandpipers flit up and down the beach. As a wave would flow out, they would run down to the edge of the water pecking at the sand as they went looking for whatever it is they eat. As the next wave would come in, they would run back up the beach as fast as their little legs could carry them staying just ahead of the advancing wave. Then they would repeat the process as that wave flowed back out. Occasionally they would stop beyond the reach of the waves and stand on one leg to rest.

Later in the day, while Margery was cooking dinner, she realized that Paul had "disappeared." Following her instincts, she walked down to the beach and found him.

He loves watching the sunset. Even though the beach faces east and the sunset is behind you as you look out into the ocean, the water and sky still take on an unusual, luminous quality just as the sun goes down below the horizon. The photo below is looking up the beach toward downtown Myrtle Beach. There is a plane in the pink glow just to the right of center coming in for a landing at Myrtle Beach International Airport.

 

With the return of sunny weather, we were also able to resume our bike riding. Ocean Lakes has several miles of internal roads running among the camping areas and winding among the beach houses. The photo below shows some of the beach houses lining one of the lakes at Ocean Lakes Resort.

 

Outside one of the beach houses there was a lantana still in full bloom that was covered with butterflies.

On Saturday, we went to the Golden Corral for the breakfast buffet. The price isn't cheap ($7.49 for adults, $6.99 for seniors over 60), but it is one of the most extensive breakfast buffets we have seen. In addition to a full array of the usual breakfast items (scrambled eggs, bacon, several types of sausage, bacon, ham, several types of potatoes, sausage gravy and biscuits, hot cakes, French toast, fruit, etc.), they also have made-to-order omelets, made-to order waffles, corned beef hash, creamed chipped beef on toast, two types of quiche, fried chicken, and so much more we can't even remember it all. They even have deserts (pie, cake, cookies, and soft-serve ice cream with sundae toppings) for breakfast! Golden Corral's dinner buffet is pretty good, but we like breakfast better. We usually go later in the morning for brunch.

After brunch, we stopped at the Myrtle Beach Flea Market. It's a nice, little, indoor flea market with 50 or 60 vendors...lots of t-shirts, beach blankets, and beaded jewelry.

Myrtle Beach is a big tourist town, so there are plenty of places to tempt us to eat out. After the Chinese/seafood buffet and the breakfast buffet within a few days of each other, we had to be careful with our budget and our waistlines. We did, however, eat out one more time.

We don't get steak often, but when we do, we like to go to Texas Roadhouse because we think their steaks are excellent. We also like Texas Roadhouse because most of their locations have a "two-fer" early bird special between 3:30 PM and 5:30 PM. The special includes a choice from 7 or 8 entrees, rolls and honey butter, two sides, and all the peanuts you can eat for two people for $15.99. We usually get the 6 ounce sirloin steaks, salads, and mashed or baked potatoes; and that turns out to be just about the right amount of food for us. If you're interested in trying the "two-fer", check to be sure the restaurant at your location has the special and what the hours are.

While Texas Roadhouse is a national restaurant chain, Myrtle Beach also has a couple of restaurants called Texas Roadhouse Grill. As far as we know, these restaurants are not part of the Texas Roadhouse chain, and they do not have the "two-fer" special.

During the rest of our stay in Myrtle Beach, we groomed Molly, rode our bikes a little more, and walked on the beach. The day before we left to head south, Paul checked tire pressures in preparation for our departure. Oops! The pressure of one of the rear tires was down about 10 psi. Tire pressures can drop when is gets colder; but it wasn't that cold and when one is down that far and the rest are OK, it's a pretty safe bet there is something wrong.

It was a rear outside dual, so it was easier to see than an inside dual. And fortunately, it wasn't one of the new front tires. Paul got out a small mirror and looked around the tread. Sure enough, there was a small piece of metal (it later turned out to be what was left of an 8d nail) sticking out from between the tread. Paul called Coach Net, which is who we use for roadside assistance, and within about 20 minutes a service truck from Mason Tire Co. in nearby Surfside Beach showed up. The mechanic had the tire pulled, dismounted from the wheel, repaired, and remounted in about half an hour.

This was the second time we had a flat while stopped and the second time we have used Coach Net to get the tire repaired. The way roadside assistance works is they cover the cost of the service call, but the customer still has to pay for whatever repairs are necessary. If repair along the side of the road is not possible, then roadside assistance pays for towing to the nearest facility capable of making the repair. We are pleased with the response we got from Coach Net both times we used them.

After the tire was repaired, we took one more bike ride, then packed the bikes in the back of the car and took one last walk on the beach.

A little way up the beach, we ran across several surfers trying to take advantage of the waves the wind was kicking up. Although the waves weren't all that huge, the surfers would occasionally get a nice, long ride.

There were also several groups of horseback riders on the beach. We found out the Heart Association sponsors an annual 20-mile ride on the beach from Lakewood Camping Resort, which is the next campground to the north, to Myrtle Beach. The annual Jack Monroe Beach Ride, which is a 5-day event, is in its 27th year. It's fund raising goal for this year is $330,000. Last year over 1,300 horses and riders participated! That's a lot of horses AND manure! In addition to the beach ride, the weekend also includes live entertainment and dance, a silent auction, a mechanical bull, vendor row, a costume contest, and a parade.

We talked with a local lady who was on the beach with her horse, and she said it is a great family event. Not only are there adult riders, but some families also bring in miniature horses that their children ride.

The event was scheduled for the weekend, but a number of participants had arrived early and were already out riding.

Some of the horses had never been to the beach before, and their owners  were getting them used to the surf. The surf was a little heavy; and, although the rushing water and noise made a few of them skittish, the horse in the photo below was fairly calm.

It was getting dark as we finished our walk. We headed back to the motor home for dinner and to finish our preparation for departure the next morning.

Back to Charlotte

From Holmes County, OH, we headed back south toward Myrtle Beach. We had planned to explore another area of South Carolina before going to Myrtle Beach, but we needed to stop again in Charlotte on our way through. We are really getting a lot of practice being flexible.

Paul is very conscientious about checking tires and tire pressures. A blowout on a 24,000 pound motor home at highway speeds can be a real disaster, and that is something we want to avoid. This spring, Paul noticed some small cracks in the rubber on the sidewalls of the front tires. Exposure to UV light (sunlight) and pollutants in the air will eventually cause aging and deterioration of rubber. There are additives in the rubber to prevent this, but all tires will eventually deteriorate. Most car tires will wear out before this happens; but cracking is more common on RVs since they are usually driven less. Even though our tires are less than four years old, the rubber in the front tires seemed to be aging prematurely.



Since the tire manufacturer warrants the tires against defects such as premature deterioration for five years, Paul called Michelin while we were staying near Charlotte before the NASCAR race. As expected, Michelin wanted us to take the motor home to a truck tire dealer in Charlotte to have the tires inspected. Michelin sent us to TCI Tire Centers, which is a nationwide chain that specializes in truck and commercial tires. Some of their tire centers also sell automotive and light truck tires. We stopped by on our way from Ebenezer Park to stay at Yates Family Camping for the race a few weeks ago.

The service manager at TCI said, although the tires were still safe, they should not have cracked that soon and that Michelin would definitely make a warranty adjustment (the price of new tires would be prorated according to the amount of tread left on the old tires). Unfortunately, they did not have the RV tires in stock. When Paul called before we stopped by, they said they could get the tires the same day if they didn't have them. However, we found out once we got there it would take at least 5 business days to get the tires in because RV tires came from a different warehouse. We knew we would have time to stop in Charlotte again on our way back from Pittsburgh to Myrtle Beach, so we told them to go ahead and order the tires.

On our way back south after leaving Holmes County, OH, we decided to stop again at Fort Chiswell RV Park in Max Meadows, VA, where we stopped on our way north. The photo below shows the site we had at Fort Chiswell on the way back to Charlotte.

We ran into rain on our way to Fort Chiswell, and it rained off and on the next day. Our research didn't turn up many sightseeing possibilities, so we just chilled and did our weekly cleaning and a little laundry. We watched the NASCAR race on Sunday and flipped back and forth between the latter part of the race and the Steeler game. The Steelers gave away the game in the fourth quarter and lost to the NY Giants.  :(

Fort Chiswell RV Park seems to be uniquely positioned as an overnight stop. Every day we were there, the campground would empty out in the morning, then begin to refill around 1:00 PM. During the peak arrival time between 3:00 and 5:00 PM, there would frequently be up to 3 rigs in line waiting to check in. As soon as one would finish checking in and move to their campsite, another rig would pull in from the road and join the end of the line. The campground is conveniently located about a half a mile from the interstate exit where I-77 and I-81 intersect. The pull-through sites at Fort Chiswell are also a plus for one-night stops.

The plan was to stay at Fort Chiswell and relax for the weekend and then travel the rest of the way to Ebenezer Park in Rock Hill, SC, where we stayed before the race. Because Ebenezer Park doesn't accept reservations and since the locals use tents to save sites for themselves and their friends, it seemed hard to get a good site. Therefore, we thought it would be best to arrive early in the day on a Monday.

When we got to Ebenezer, there was hardly any site available, much less one where we could get our satellite dish to work. As we said, the locals have it pretty well locked up. So it was on to Plan B.

Up the interstate a couple of exits was a KOA where we figured we could surely get a site. The good news was the KOA is closer to the tire dealer, but the bad news was it is considerably more expensive than Ebenezer. They did have sites available, and it looked like we could have found several where we would have had a clear view of the southern sky for satellite. However, they told us to stay away from the far right corner of the campground because that's where their haunted house was and it could be noisy until 11:30 PM or so. We're not fond of Halloween in the first place and we really didn't want to take a chance on crowds and noise, so we told them, "Thanks, but no thanks," and went on to Plan C.

Up the highway one more exit (and even closer to the tire dealer) was Carowinds Amusement Park, and they have a campground. The amusement park is only open during weekends in the fall, but Carowinds Camp Wilderness Resort is open year-round. The prices at Carowinds Resort are similar to the KOA in-season but their off-season rates were more reasonable at $30/night. With the park being closed during the week, the campground promised to be a lot quieter (except for being under the flight path for nearby Charlotte Airport).  Since the campground was fairly empty when we arrived, we didn't have any problem finding a site that was good for satellite reception even though there are quite a few trees.

Camp Wilderness has some of the most spacious sites we've ever seen in a private campground. The sites are as big as in many state parks. Although the campground roads are a little narrow, they are paved as are the pads. There are full hookups and free Wi-Fi. The photo below shows our site at Carowinds Camp Wilderness Resort.

 

As it turned out, the tire warehouse didn't have the RV tires in stock either and had to order them directly from Michelin. Instead of taking 5 business days to come in, the tires took almost three weeks. But the tire dealer called and assured us the tires would ship to arrive in time to be mounted before we had to leave for our reservations in Myrtle Beach.

While waiting for the tires to arrive, we decided to take a drive up I-77 to nearby Mooresville, NC, which calls itself Race City USA, to see the North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame. The NC Auto Racing Hall of Fame has items on display from other forms of racing, but they concentrate on the history of stock car racing since they are in the heart of stock car racing country.

Stock car racing has its roots in bootlegging during Prohibition. Cars would be modified to carry moonshine and to improve performance to outrun police. From the outside, they would look like regular cars so they wouldn't attract attention. When Prohibition ended in 1933, many Southerners still had a taste for moonshine. Drivers continued to deliver moonshine, and they continued to modify their cars to escape the "revenuers" who wanted to tax their product. The photo below shows how a car was modified to carry 'shine.

 

By the early 1940s, drivers were racing their cars for bragging rights and for profit. The stock cars were regular street vehicles that were lightened, reinforced, and whose engines had been modified for more power and speed. Stock car racing was great entertainment in the South.

Bill France, Sr., who was an auto mechanic, got the idea that more people might enjoy watching stock car racing; but he realized that to become popular, the sport would need more organization, uniform rules, and a more regular schedule. France met with other influential racers to discuss organizing stock car racing, and on Feb. 21, 1948, NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Racing) was born. Today, NASCAR racing is the second most popular spectator sport in the U.S. after NFL football.

The NC Auto Racing Hall of Fame has some very interesting displays of racing memorabilia, racing art, driver profiles, and cars. In the photo below, Margery is looking at some of the older stock cars on display. Today's stock cars are specially built for racing from the ground up and bear only a slight resemblance to anything available in a new car showroom. In the old days, regular production vehicles were stripped, reinforced, and modified for racing.

 

From the Racing Hall of Fame, we drove about 20 minutes farther west to find the Bird Brain Ostrich Ranch. The ranch showed up on a search of things to do on the internet, and we wanted to check it out because they supposedly had tours. We were also curious about the ostrich meat available for sale. Unfortunately, their "season" must be over because when we got there, there didn't seem to be anyone around. We did walk behind the house to take a quick look at the ostriches, though.

 

After the ostrich ranch, we drove to the quaint downtown business district of Mooresville where we stopped at D. E. Turner Hardware. Although there are lots of nostalgic items on display, they also sell many of the things you expect to see in any modern hardware. The store itself has never been remodeled and looks pretty much the way it did when it first opened in 1899. Margery is checking out some of the merchandise at the hardware.

 

From there, we drove a couple of blocks to the Mooresville Ice Cream Company. In 1914, the Mooresville Co-Operative Creamery was started by a group of local men to produce milk. In 1924, the Mooresville Deluxe Ice Cream Company began operation under the co-operative and continues today. They have about two dozen varieties of ice cream available that is made on site. Margery had low-fat black cherry and Paul had low-fat peach. Both were delish.  :)

We finally got a call that our tires were in so we got up early in the morning of our last scheduled day in the Charlotte area and drove 17 miles into town to the TCI Tire Center. We got right into a service bay and they immediately began removing the front wheels.

The guys here really work hard wrestling the big truck tires around and muscling them off and back onto the rims. They obviously have had a lot or practice because they actually make it look easy. A swing with a sledge to break the bead free from the rim and a couple of pulls on the over-sized tire iron and the tire was off. A couple of more pulls on the tire iron and the new tire was on.

In about an hour, we were on our way back to Carowinds Resort. Paul thought the price of the tires at TCI was very reasonable. In addition, we got a discount from the already excellent price as a warranty adjustment based on the amount of tread remaining on the old tires. If you're in the market for tires for your RV, pickup, medium duty truck, or heavy duty truck, check out TCI Tire Centers. Because they specialize in commercial tires, call ahead to make sure they have or can get the tires you need. We don't know if the prices are as good at all their locations, but we thought the prices were great at their Charlotte tire center. All the people there were also very friendly and helpful.

We got set up again back at Carowinds and we puttered around the rest of the day and got ready to take off for Myrtle Beach in the morning.

Red Bay, AL Part I: Tiffin Motor Homes

We left West Memphis for the three-hour drive to Red Bay, AL, home of Tiffin Motor Homes. We pulled into the Allegro Campground shortly after noon and got set up. The Allegro Campground is owned by Tiffin and is right next to their new 105,000 square foot repair and parts facility, which has over 40 repair bays and which is shown in the photo below.

The campground isn't much to look at, but it has full hookups with 50 amp electric and free Wi-Fi. It is built on an old airstrip and consists of 3 rows of about 80 pull-through sites that are rather close together. There is another small group of "overflow" sites in back with water and electric only and there is more room for dry camping beyond that at the far end of the old runway. The main campground road, which was originally the runway, is paved; everything else in the campground is gravel. Unfortunately, the gravel has a lot of the fine stuff that gets tracked into your rig easily. The photo below shows our site at Allegro Campground.

Although we did see quite a few Tiffin motor homes at Tom Sawyer's RV Park in West Memphis, we have never seen anything like the Allegro Campground. Looking up and down the rows, all but one or two of the rigs were Tiffin motor homes; and, although there is some variation from model to model and year to year, almost all had similar paint schemes and colors.

The campground is a bargain at $10 a night. They will give you one complimentary night if you come for a factory tour, and your stay is free if you are there for repairs during the one-year, basic warranty period. Most of those at the campground are waiting for service in the adjacent repair facility. Consequently, there is a fair amount of hustle and bustle early in the morning and later in the afternoon as rigs pull in and out of the service bays; but the campground is still surprisingly quiet most of the time considering the close proximity to the repair shop.

We have had very few problems with our motor home since we first bought it in 2005. There were problems with our hydraulic jacks back in late 2006 and early 2007, but those were handled satisfactorily by HWH, who is the manufacturer of the jacks. However, a little over a year after we picked up the motor home, we noticed the dual-pane window in the kitchen was fogged indicating the seal between the panes had failed.

Over the next 6 months, three more windows fogged, including the very large (and very expensive) side window by the passenger seat in front. There was a one-year warranty on the motor home itself. Because the windows fogged after this one-year warranty period and believing we would have to absorb the potentially high cost of replacing them, we figured we would have to live with the faulty windows.

Then, when we were talking to a fellow Tiffin owner parked next to us last fall, the subject of problem windows came up. He had a 2006 Phaeton that was built early in the new model year shortly after our Allegro Bay, and he said he had the same problem with some of his windows. Tiffin realized they had a problem with their process around that time (Tiffin makes their own windows), and they replaced his faulty windows at no cost after almost two years under an extended warranty.

Paul continued to drag his feet about the windows thinking our motor home, which was then 2 1/2 years old, couldn't possibly still be covered. Besides, it seemed we were traveling extensively; and it would be inconvenient to stick around near where a dealer was located for several weeks while they ordered the windows and none of our travels took us near Red Bay to have repairs done. Finally, Margery decided to take the bull by the horns and called Tiffin herself. By this time, a fifth window had fogged.

We found out Tiffin had extended the warranty on the problematic windows to two years for parts and labor, and they would cover the cost of parts only for the third year. Unfortunately, our motor home was then about six weeks over the three-year limit. However, since it was such a short time over the limit, Tiffin agreed to cover the cost of the windows.

Tiffin has a reputation for going the extra mile to service their customers. That's one of the big reasons we bought a Tiffin in the first place, but this was beyond our expectations. We arranged our travel schedule to pass through Red Bay after Labor Day on the way back east. Our next, firm campground reservation is November 1 in Myrtle Beach, so we would have plenty of time to have the repairs done.

There are two ways to get service in Red Bay. First, you can call and request an appointment, but it can take up to a year to get scheduled. The good thing about scheduling an appointment is they get you in right away on your scheduled day. The second way to get service is to just show up, and wait until they can fit you in. This can vary from a few days to over a week, depending on what you need to have done and how busy they are when you happen to arrive. We opted for the latter method since our short-term schedule was flexible.

When checking into the campground, they give you a service number if you're there for repairs. Norris, the service liaison, will stop by your site to see you, get any necessary details on the work, and give you an estimate of when they might fit you in.

A total of 55 rigs came in over the same weekend we came in, so it took Norris two days to get to us; but he said our work would take less than three hours so he was going to schedule our rig for the express bay. Although he said he thought we would get in the next afternoon or the following morning, it turned out to be the end of the week.

While we were waiting to get called over for our repairs, we headed into town to tour the Tiffin plant. We had already taken the tour on two previous occasions, but we wanted to see what was new for the 2009 models. Margery couldn't help but think about our first visit in May of 2004 when owning a motor home and going full-time were still only a dream. What a difference four years can make. We are grateful for the way God has ordered our steps.

The photo below shows the visitor center where tours start.

And the view below is of some of the factory buildings. The tour is through the main assembly building, which is to the far right.

As you can see, there are very few motor homes sitting around. The areas inside the fence to the right and left of the entry drive are usually lined up with motor homes awaiting final inspection and delivery. In fact, there weren't very many motor homes in the factory either. The high oil prices are taking a toll on the RV industry and motor homes have taken the biggest hit. Across the RV industry, motor home sales are more than 50% below what they were last year. At least five RV manufacturers have gone out of business in the past year.

Even though Tiffin has had the #1 selling motor home model for the last 2 or 3 years (Phaeton) and the #1 and the #2 selling motor home last year (Phaeton and Allegro Bus), they have not been immune from the big sales drop. Tiffin used to produce 13 motor homes a day. Now they are only producing 6 a day and only working 4 days a week.

One thing we did notice on the plant tour was that most of what was on the assembly line was either Allegro Buses or Zephyrs. These are Tiffin's two highest-priced motor homes. Even though they are selling fewer motor homes, at least a fairly high percentage of the ones they are selling are the high-dollar units.

The tours are led by Red, who is about 82 years young. Red is a soft-spoken, Southern gentleman who came out of retirement and has been leading plant tours for the past 7-8 years.  He is very knowledgeable about Tiffin products; and if there is something he doesn't know, he will find out for you. If you ask a question, Red may lead the tour off in a new direction to show you the answer.

Although Red has his usual route for the tour, he will go almost anywhere in the main assembly building anyone on the tour happens to want to go. In fact, on our tour in 2004, the motor home order for a couple on the tour was scheduled to be on the line. Red spent time tracking down their order and finding their unit under construction. They had the opportunity to go into their motor home before any of the interior cabinets had been installed. It's like they don't take your order for granted and, realize it's a big deal to the customer.

After the tour, we headed back to the motor home to play more of the waiting game. Paul walked over to the parts department and bought a new fog light to replace the one whose lens was cracked, undoubtedly by a rock thrown up from the road. We also went over to the surplus sales warehouse. There are chairs, sofas, carpet, wood trim, TVs, and leftovers of all kinds from previous model years that are no longer needed by the parts department that are for sale to the public. There are also scratch and dent items. It's a fun place for a "do-it-youselfer" to poke around.

We arrived on a Sunday and finally got called over for service on Friday. After the work on the motor home was done, Paul went into the office to pay. To our surprise, there was no charge for either the parts or the labor. When Paul questioned this, they told him we would have had to pay for labor if we had the work done at an RV dealer; but the service manager decided since we came all the way to Red Bay, they would cover the labor as well as the parts. What a surprise...and a blessing!

Even though there isn't much to do in Red Bay, we did find a few things to occupy our time. Check back in a few days for our next post to see what we found.

When we drove to Mount Dora to meet our friends and tour the Dora Canal, we passed through the small town of Yalaha. In Yalaha there is a rather large, German bakery that is known for their breads and desserts. We read in the newspaper that Yalaha Bakery had outdoor entertainment every Saturday. Being big fans of breads and desserts, we hopped in the car and headed out there.

Outside, they had bratwurst and sauerkraut to eat and a bluegrass band for entertainment. This little bakery out in the middle of nowhere was packed! We have found that music is a big drawing card for snowbirds in Florida. In the photo below, you can see part of the crowd gathered to listen to bluegrass.

Inside the bakery, the delicious-looking baked goods were also a big draw since customers were lined up 4 deep. It was hard to get a good photo between all the people, but here is a small part of the selection.

We had a difficult time deciding what we wanted, but we ended up with a loaf of kalamati olive bread, a piece of Black Forest cake for Margery, and a piece of Sacher Torte (chocolate torte with apricot filling) for Paul for dessert. The desserts were as good as they looked. As you can see, there is already a bite missing form each piece because once we got them out of the box, we couldn't even wait until after the photo to try them!

After the surgery on Margery's left knee at the end of January, she had a lot of difficulty getting comfortable in the recliner in the motor home. The seat just hit her wrong in the back of the thigh and knee. Although it was a nice Flexsteel recliner, we lamented almost from the beginning that we didn't get Ultraleather instead of cloth for easier cleaning. Now that she was finding it uncomfortable, we started searching online to see what else might be available. We noticed most of the newer motor homes are using a Euro recliner with an ottoman instead of the larger, all-in-one recliner like we had. A lot of people that replace recliners in RVs go to Lazy Boy, but we couldn't find one near us. We did, however, find a company about an hour away near Tampa that did RV makeovers and that carried replacement RV furniture so we took a drive down. Well, they only had one REALLY comfortable recliner they called a "stressless" recliner from a company by the name of Villa. The only problem was that it was REALLY expensive.

That prompted more online searching, and we found another company from Norway called Ekornes that also made a recliner they called stressless. There was a store in the Villages that carried Ekornes so we drove there to take a look. They had a really good selection and we initially looked at the entry-level model with the basic leather upholstery. To make a long story short, they had a floor model recliner that was a couple of levels up from the entry-level model and that had a better grade of upholstery. They offered it to us at a very good price wanting to make room for new merchandise. Although it was still more than we originally intended to spend, it was too good a deal on a VERY comfortable chair so we couldn't pass it up. There goes the tax rebate we don't even have yet. As a bonus, Paul used our bathroom scale to weigh the old recliner, which we ended up selling to our neighbor here at the campground (who just happens to a snowbird from Leechburg, PA), and it weighed 112 lbs. The new chair and ottoman together weigh 53 lbs., which is a weight savings of over 50%! The photo below shows Paul enjoying our new chair.

On February 26, we headed down to Largo Medical Center at about 5:00 am (yikes!) for the surgery on Margery's right knee. Her left knee was well on its way to complete recovery after surgery 4 weeks prior and it was able to handle the task of now being the "strong" knee after the surgery on her second knee. The right knee got partial resurfacing as planned. The photo below shows Margery in her hospital room shortly before we checked out.

And here she is arriving back at the motor home about 24 hours after surgery.

Again, the first week was the hardest; but the experience with the first knee has helped us know what to expect, how to better manage pain, and how to better reduce bruising and swelling. As with the first knee, Margery ditched the walker after about 3 days. We put the walker out front of the motor home with a "Free" sign on it and it was gone within the hour. Paul is so proud of how well Margery has done through all of this. She has been a real trooper and has been very diligent with exercises and is committed to rapid recovery. And from Margery's point of view, Paul has been so supportive. He's been a great caregiver and coach.

While taking time for Margery's recuperation, Paul cleaned out and organized a couple of the outside storage bays, replaced a leaking support strut on one of the storage bay doors, modified a pair of replacement windshield wiper blades to fit the motor home, climbed up on the roof to remove and clean the roof vent covers, and inspected the roof joint caulking while he was up there. Margery continued her daily exercises and gradually increased the length of her daily walks.

At the beginning of March, some of the snowbirds began leaving the campground. For the most part, however, their spaces were taken by others who were just arriving so the campground remained pretty full. Although some of the new arrivals only stayed a day or two (they are probably on their way north from somewhere farther south in Florida), most had patio mats, chairs, and grills spread out and they stayed a week or two. Some of the new arrivals seemed a little younger and were probably not yet retired. There were even some younger kids, probably on spring break, visiting grandparents. During the winter, the campground is a 55+ park, but youngsters are allowed to visit. By the middle of March, there were a growing number of empty sites as many of the snowbirds began heading home in time for Easter.

We originally extended our stay in Florida from the beginning of March until just before Easter because of Margery's knee surgery. However, the week before Easter, Paul was hit with the respiratory version of the flu that was NOT covered by this year's flu shot so we extended our stay until after Easter. Paul tried his best to count his blessings...like he didn't have to push himself to go to work and we we weren't currently 'traveling'...but five days in bed and 9 days of feeling really crummy made it difficult. This was a stubborn flu that hit a fair number in the campground. We are so grateful that Margery did not get it, too. We used copious amounts of hand sanitizer and antiseptic wipes.

As Paul's flu subsided, we were finally in a position where we felt like making our spring travel plans, which included a leisurely drive north and a swing through Pittsburgh at the end of April for a short visit with Lora and J. Michael and a few doctor appointments we weren't able to fit in last August. However, shortly after we had made our doctor appointments, we received word that J. Michael's father, who had been recuperating from a bone marrow transplant in his second battle with acute leukemia, suffered an irreparable brain hemorrhage. An e-mail sent out by Lora stated: "The whole family and some friends were there the rest of the afternoon and through the evening. We sang, listened to the Word, told stories, and cried. It was a painful, but precious time. He slipped away with his loved ones gathered around him. We rejoice knowing that he is whole and with the Lord, but he will be greatly missed."

We spent a day evaluating our options in light of our original plans to arrive in Pittsburgh in late April. Do we leave the motor home in Florida, share the driving in the the Saturn to Pittsburgh for the funeral, stay with Lora and J. Michael a couple of days, then return to Florida and start a more leisurely journey north in the motor home? Or, do we hurriedly pack up the motor home and have Paul (who was still not feeling his best) do all of the 20-hour drive over two days, arriving a few weeks before spring. Economics, combined with our love for traveling with all the comforts of home at our fingertips, caused us to opt to check out of Blueberry Hill 12 hours later and leave for Pittsburgh with the motor home. We experienced God's grace in so many ways...the well-known, end-of-March spring break/snowbird exodus from Florida wasn't too bad traffic-wise, we made excellent travel time in pretty good weather, we found easily accessible campgrounds that were open, and Paul had the stamina to make the drive. We made a one-night stop just north of Charlotte, NC and made it to the KOA in Washington, PA, mid-afternoon the next day.

As we write this, we are so happy we made the effort to be here for the funeral. J. Michael's father was a simple man who loved people and loved the Lord. He lived a life of service and touched many lives, not only in the Life's Key Prison Ministry he founded with his wife, Mary Ann, but also as a teacher of God's Word. What a rich legacy he leaves. He was not only a servant of the Lord but a fun-loving, wise, devoted, and caring husband, father, and grandfather. He will be missed by all who knew him.

We plan to stay in Pittsburgh for the memorial service on Saturday. It will also give Paul a chance to continue his recuperation. We then have three weeks before we're due back in Pittsburgh for our previously scheduled doctor appointments when we'll park the motor home at Lora and J. Michael's. We are researching where we might go in those three weeks to re-capture spring and bring it back with us.

We wish you all the richest of blessings in 2008.

We took time back in July to reflect on our first 12 months of full-timing and at the start of 2008 we again thought about our travels for the last calendar year. If we had retired when we originally planned, we would be just finishing our first six months on the road. It's amazing to think that with our early retirement, we have been traveling full-time for 18 months now. For us, we're glad the first year is over. Now don't get us wrong, it was a year of amazing adventures and incredible sights, but the comfort level in our nomadic lifestyle is much higher with one year under our belts. In 18 months, we logged 19,851 miles, stayed in 98 different locations and traveled through 24 states. Everything we read about this lifestyle encouraged us to take our time...it's a lifestyle not a vacation. But we couldn't help ourselves! It took us a year to slow down. We now make it our goal (for the most part) to spend a minimum of one week at each stop.

After spending our requisite one week minimum at Lake Louisa State Park to visit Disney, it was only about an hour drive to the northwest to our next stop in Bushnell, FL. Last year, we stayed in Florida only through Christmas because we wanted to go to Quartzsite, AZ for the big RV gathering in mid-January. We also wanted to check out other possible winter locations in Arizona and south Texas because we knew the west was less crowded than Florida and campground prices were generally lower.

After checking out the west, however, we decided we would spend most of the winter in Florida this year. Although we liked the southwest, we liked Florida better as a location where we would be spending several months at a time. Margery was the most reluctant about wintering in Florida but there are a number of things which have changed her mind. Here in central Florida, we're in a rural, agricultural area so it's not crowded and very pastoral. Because there are so many live oaks in this part of Florida, the trees are still green and the Spanish moss make it feel very "southern" along with the occasional palm trees. The pastures here are, for the most part still green, too. Being so far south, even on the shortest day of the year, it still stays light until almost 6 p.m. To top it all off, the local community is already signing up youngsters for baseball. Ya gotta love it!

After leaving Disney last year, we stayed at the Escapees Sumter Oaks Campground in Bushnell. Sumter Oaks is a nice enough campground and the camaraderie of fellow Escapees is always great, but Sumter Oaks is at least 60% shaded. As we have said before, we like sunny campgrounds not only for our satellite, but also for warmth in cooler months.

We drove by Blueberry Hill RV Resort many times last year (it's right next to Wal-Mart), and on the recommendation of fellow RVers we met in Mission, TX in March, we decided to investigate Blueberry Hill further. Well, we liked what we saw and the prices were roughly comparable to Sumter Oaks so we made reservations through February. Because we made reservations at a fairly late date, we unfortunately couldn't get one site that was available for the entire time. Therefore, we will need to change sites in the middle of January. On one hand, that's an inconvenience; but on the other hand, Paul is a little uncomfortable leaving the motor home sit for such a long time. Since we have to pack up to change sites anyway, we just may drive up the interstate an exit or two and exercise the drivetrain of the motor home and maybe stop by the local LP dealer and fill the propane tank if we need to.

Blueberry Hill is right off I-75. That makes it very convenient when we want to go anywhere, but there is some traffic noise from the interstate. However, the interstate is to our west and if there is a breeze from the east (which there is much of the time), the traffic noise is minimal. We are in the back section of Blueberry Hill, which has very wide, grassy sites. The front section of the park has paved, pull-through sites, but they are fairly close together. We heard the reason the rear sites are extra wide is because they were originally intended for park models. While there are a few annual renters with park models at Blueberry Hill, it looks like the idea never really took off and the majority of the sites have RVs on them. The photo below shows our current site at Blueberry Hill.

As expected for a snowbird campground, Blueberry Hill has plenty of planned activities for the winter months. We aren't big joiners, but we have participated in a few activities and we're trying to meet new people. We went to a Christmas carol sing-along and to a white elephant gift exchange. The gift exchange was a lot of fun. It was a good excuse get rid of a couple of things from the rig that were still in good condition, but that we never really used. As your number was called at the gift exchange, you could either choose to open a wrapped gift from the table or "steal" an already-opened gift from one of the other people who had gone before you. If someone "steals" your gift, you can take another turn and either open another wrapped gift or "steal" a gift from someone else. It was fun to see what items turned out to be popular. Some of the items changed hands at least a dozen times. Who knew so many people would want that ceramic cookie jar shaped like a cardinal or that rubber alligator with the bikini! Margery ended up with a wallet and Paul got involved in a series of wild exchanges and ended up with a can of cashews. Yum! :)

Margery also joined the morning water aerobics class. The pool is heated, so the class is held as long as the air temperature is 60 degrees or above by the 10:00 AM starting time. Those who have been around in previous years say it usually warms up quickly enough in the morning that the class only gets canceled infrequently. Water aerobics is a good way for Margery to get some exercise without putting unnecessary strain on her knees. It's also a good way to meet people and to find out some of the latest campground news. The photo below shows Margery in the pool.

Speaking of the weather, it has been fantastic! The normal highs are in the 70s with lows in the 50s. The weather pattern seems to be that a cold front comes through about every two or three weeks and the highs drop to the 50s and the lows drop to the upper 30s for about two days. Then the temperatures pop right back up to the 70s.

When the first cold front was predicted about a week after our arrival in Bushnell, Paul got to work on a little project we had been planning. We picked up some acrylic sheet at Lowe's, and Paul proceeded to cut it to fit the screen door. It is held in place with some little plastic turnbuttons. With the plastic in place, we can keep the door open on cool days and enjoy the extra light while keeping out the cold air. The plastic can be removed and stored behind the couch in warmer weather.

With the door open, we were able to watch these blue birds flit around outside the door.

When the second cold front came through, the weatherman predicted the low might drop to the lower 20s. The citrus growers and farmers really had to scramble to try to protect their crops. Fortunately, the temperature didn't go as low as expected and the farmers' hard work paid off so there was very little crop damage. Here's Paul outside our favorite roadside stand where we get fresh-squeezed orange juice. We stopped the day they were preparing for the predicted freeze.

We spent a quiet Christmas. In the morning, we opened the gifts that Lora and J. Michael had mailed to us. Here is Paul opening chocolate-covered orange rinds - one of "Candyman's" favorites.

Margery got a wine sampler from a winery Lora and J. Michael discovered in Gibsonia. The bottle is actually three smaller, uniquely-shaped bottles that nest together and look like a regular wine bottle.

In the afternoon, we went to the Christmas dinner put on by the campground. They served ham, scalloped potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans, with cupcakes for dessert. The price of the dinner was reasonable, there was plenty to eat, and the food was pretty good. We enjoyed meeting a couple from Nova Scotia and hearing about their cross-country adventures on a motorcycle last year before they put their house on the market and went full-time. We didn't realize that Canadians are limited to 182 days visiting the United State each year.

One of the great things about living in an RV is that it's such a small space, we don't need many Christmas decorations. It took us all of 4 minutes to take everything down and put it away. About half that time was spent getting the plastic bin out of and back into the outside storage compartment. The photo below shows Margery packing away our three or four decorations.

In the week between Christmas and New Years, the campground really filled up. On Christmas, probably over one third of the sites were still empty. A couple of days after Christmas, RVs started streaming in. By New Years eve, about 90% of the sites were filled. The campground expects the rest of the sites to fill up during January and, except for a few possible cancellations, they are booked solid for February.

Blueberry Hill sponsored a New Years Eve party that had a live band that was supposed to be quite exceptional, but we held on to our own New Years tradition. For at least the last 15 years or so we have rented a bunch of movies to watch at home. We have our own quiet little party with a few special snacks. We struggle to stay awake until midnight, watch the ball in Times Square drop, wish each other a happy New Year, then head off to bed. This year was no different.

Since the holidays, we have been riding our bikes around the campground fairly often. The campground roads are not only all paved, but they are wide and level, too. After our ride we sometimes stop by the game room for a couple of games of pool. There are four tables that are seldom used so we never have to wait. In the photo below, Margery is lining up a shot.

This is our longest stop in one location, and it is a welcomed change. It's also afforded us the opportunity to research and plot our 2008 travels with renewed enthusiasm...kind of like vacation but at a slower pace. :)

As we left Raccoon Valley in Tennessee, the weather had turned a little cooler. On our way to Myrtle Beach, we made an overnight stop at Magnolia RV Park (a Passport America campground) in Kinards, SC, where we once again caught up with the warm weather. Although Magnolia is a former KOA, the sites are surprisingly large. There are numerous trees, but the owners were very accommodating and gave us a site that would be good for our satellite. The sites and roads are gravel.

The owners are new and they seem to be making efforts to spruce up the place, not that there is really anything wrong with it. Right outside our door was a little park-like area with a pond, waterfall, and benches. We loved hearing the water trickling. It reminded us of the water feature we had in our stick house.

The next morning, we got up and took our time packing up. Ocean Lakes Campground in Myrtle Beach, our destination, has a 3:00 check-in. Although we didn't expect our site to still be occupied that late in the day in the middle of the week and in the off-season, we still weren't in a big hurry. As Paul made his final walk-around before leaving, he noticed a problem. The right rear outside dual was completely flat. He called our roadside assistance (Coach-Net) to come and repair the tire. While waiting for them to arrive, he went outside to investigate the tire further and found the head of what turned out to be a 1" long bolt sticking out from between the treads. The road service truck arrived in about a half an hour. It turns out they were located just at the end of the road at the interstate exit. The tire was dismounted and quickly repaired.

We know the Lord was watching out for us, and we are very thankful. We obviously picked up the bolt somewhere near the end of our previous day's travel. We are thankful it was not somewhere farther up the interstate where we could have been stranded on the road. We didn't even know about the problem until the next morning after the tire had time to go flat overnight. Thankfully, it was an outside dual that picked up the bolt where the flat could be more easily seen than if it were an inside tire. We weren't in a hurry so Paul was able to take his time doing the outside walk-around noticing the flat before we got on the road again. We are also thankful the service truck was located right up the road and arrived very quickly. Last of all, we are thankful the tire was repairable, and we didn't have to replace it...a savings of as much as $500! :)

With a little over an hour delay, we were on our way. We had paid for our Ocean Lakes campsite in advance so we got an express check-in packet that included our windshield pass. That meant we were able to drive right in without having to stop and stand in line to check in. That's a nice feature even in the off-season, but it would be almost a necessity in the summer when the campground is very crowded.

We really liked Ocean Lakes when we were there in November last year, and we had reserved the same site. The sites are relatively large and have full hookups including cable and telephone. Some sites are concrete, but they cost an extra $5 a night so we get a sandy site and put out our patio mat.

The photo below is the view out our window.

On November 1, Ocean Lakes goes to reduced winter rates, which are a lot more affordable. The campground is nowhere near full, and it's usually easier to get a site near the beach. We like falling asleep to the sound of the ocean. The weather is usually still warm enough to walk or sit on the beach and for Molly to swim. Dogs are allowed on the beach in the off-season. Here, Paul and Molly are checking out some boats passing by.

And here is Molly enjoying the water. She almost looks like she is trying to body surf.

Ocean Lakes is like a small city. They have their own garbage truck, their own security force, their own RV dealership, a huge laundry, a well-stocked store, a golf cart rental agency, a restaurant, and their own real estate company to handle sales and rentals of their beach houses that are on the premises. As much as we like Ocean Lakes off-season, we don't think we would be happy there in the summer. It's just too big if they would be anywhere near full. We have read a lot about kids and teens running around and the large number of golf carts. This would be a nice safe environment for kids to have fun, meet new friends, and hang out; but since our kid is grown, we generally like things a little more quiet and peaceful.

While in Myrtle Beach, we didn't do any sightseeing. The only thing we needed to do was go to Costco to have new tires for the Saturn Vue mounted. We had ordered the tires online while we were still in Knoxville. Our rooftop internet satellite continues to be one of our very favorite traveling accessories! :) They were on sale so that even with having to renew our Costco membership which we had allowed to lapse since going on the road, the tires were still cheaper than what we could find at a discount tire retailer. Margery was particularly happy to have the membership so she could get her super-sized (4 lbs.) of Walkers Shortbread which Costco carries prior to the holidays every year.

In addition to our Costco stop and a stop at Camping World to pick up some caulk for the motor home roof, we rode our bikes and sat on the beach a several times. We just had a good time relaxing. Paul especially enjoyed the beautiful sunrises over the ocean.

Then it was on to Charleston, only a little over a 2-hour drive from Myrtle Beach. Even though we didn't rush, we pulled into Lake Aire RV Park  fairly early at a little after noon. Lake Aire is about 20 minutes southwest of Charleston's historic downtown district. There is a combination of open and wooded sites, although many of the wooded sites appear to be seasonals. We, of course, got an open site for our satellite dish. Satellite aside, we actually prefer open sites because we like grass as opposed to the dirt and leaf debris usually found in shaded sites. The sun is also quite welcome on these cooler fall days. Most of the sites are decent size and we got an extra-long pull through.

Lake Aire is a Passport America campground, which means the base rate is discounted 50%. There are some extra add-on fees that are not subject to the discount, but the price was still fairly reasonable for full hookups. The only negatives are the somewhat dusty internal gravel roads and the trains. The tracks are only a few hundred yards away, and the trains run every hour or so blowing their horns at the nearby crossing.

On our first full day in the Charleston area, we visited the Charleston Tea Plantation, which is located on Wadmalaw Island in South Carolina Lowcountry. The 127-acre Charleston Tea Plantation is the only place in North America where tea is grown commercially. Tea plants (camellia sinensis) are from the camellia family. The South Carolina Lowcountry location provides the warm temperatures, humidity, and rainfall necessary for the plants to flourish.

The plants at the Charleston Tea Plantation are from cuttings from plants that belonged to a tea operation in Summerville, SC owned by Dr. Charles Shepard, a wealthy scientist and philanthropist. The first plants date back to 1888 and came from China and India. The original plantation, the Pinehurst Tea Plantation in Summerville, lay derelict from about 1915 until 1960 when it was purchased by Lipton and moved to its present location on Wadmalaw Island. Lipton sold the plantation to tea expert Bill Hall in 1987. In 2003, H. W. Bigelow, Inc. purchased the plantation from Bill Hall and worked with him to modernize it and make it visitor friendly. Bigelow is known for their Constant Comment Tea. However, Constant Comment is not produced in Charleston. Today at the Charleston Tea Plantation you can take a plant tour and a trolley tour of the fields. The photo below is a field of tea plants with the harvester in the foreground.

Paul and Margery strolled out to one of the fields near the parking lot.

Even though the harvest is over for the year and they are no longer processing tea, we found the factory tour fascinating. There is a glass-enclosed mezzanine overlooking the production area. They have several wide-screen TV monitors set up that show the tea processing while the narrator explains what is going on. The process is not too complicated; but even though we drink iced tea almost every day, we had no idea what the plants were like, how they were grown, or how the tea was processed.

Tea is harvested from May through September. The plants are dormant the rest of the year. The harvester shown in the photo above has a sickle-bar cutter that cuts off only the top new growth of the plants every 2 to 3 weeks. Immediately after harvesting, the leaves are brought into the factory and they are fed onto the withering bed where they spend 18 hours on the mesh conveyor. Air circulates through the 12" deep bed of leaves to remove some of the moisture and prepare them for the next step. The photo below shows the withering bed.

The leaves are then fed through a shredder to rupture the cell walls and expose the liquids in the cells, after which the leaves undergo oxidation. The amount of time the leaves spend in the oxidation beds determines the type of tea produced and its flavor. For black tea, the most popular, leaves spend 50 minutes in the oxidation bed resulting in full-bodied, dark orange tea most of us are used to seeing. Oolong tea, which is the amber tea usually served by Chinese restaurants, spends only 15 minutes in the oxidation bed. Green tea, which is pale amber and which is said to possess some health benefits due to anti-oxidants contained in the tea, does not undergo oxidation.

The oxidation process is stopped by drying the tea at 250 degrees for about 25 minutes. From the start of the process, the tea leaves will have lost 97% of their moisture and 80% of their weight. That means it takes 5 pounds of tea leaves to produce 1 pound of tea. After drying, the tea undergoes additional cleaning to remove stems and fiber and then goes to packaging.

The sample of iced tea we had at the gift shop was DELICIOUS! We usually drink decaffeinated tea, but the tea produced at the Charleston Tea Plantation is all regular caffeinated tea. We were advised that it is heat that releases the caffeine in tea so if we were willing to make "moon tea," we would be able to enjoy a low caffeine version of their delicious tea. Moon tea is similar to sun tea since is not brewed with boiling water, but the name moon tea refers to the fact it is steeped out of the sun since the sun does heat the water somewhat. So we bought our box of 48 tea bags and soaked 5 of them overnight in cool water and voila - the tastiest iced tea we have had since we don't remember when! The moon tea was so good, we went back and bought a couple more boxes of tea bags.

We stuck around the motor home for the weekend and left the sightseeing to the weekend warriors. We did our weekly cleaning, Margery did some laundry, and Paul washed the motor home. On Sunday, we watched some of the Steeler game after church, switching back and forth between it and the NASCAR race, and we grilled some delicious local shrimp for dinner. Yumm! In the south, there are many roadside shrimp/fish vendors around the coastal cities.

Speaking of laundry, we're getting a lot of use out of the clothes drying rack we hang on the ladder on the back of the motor home. We purchased it from an RV entrepreneur when we were in Mission last March. Drying clothes on the line is something we have always enjoyed, and now we have sun-kissed, fresh-smelling sheets (and jammies) again. Drying clothes in our combo washer/dryer works fine, but there are a lot less wrinkles in our clothes if we hang them out to dry. A few campgrounds prohibit clothes hanging outside your RV, but we use our clothes rack every chance we get.

On Monday, we drove into downtown Charleston and took a narrated tour of the historic district. We chose a tour company called "Doin' the Charleston." They are unique because they have a monitor inside their bus on which they show photos of some of the historic people, places, and events connected with Charleston. They also show photos of the interiors of some of the historic homes.

In 1663, King Charles II of England granted the Carolina Territory to eight of his loyal supporters who became known as the Lords Proprietor. The first English settlement in the area took place in 1670. Although the City of Charleston has now grown to include quite a bit of surrounding area, the original city, formerly called Charles Town in honor of King Charles II, was located on a peninsula bounded by the Cooper River to the east and the Ashley River to the west. The rivers are named for Lord Ashley-Cooper, one of the original Lords Proprietor. The mainland and numerous large islands extend out into the Atlantic beyond the peninsula forming a large, protected harbor area. By the mid-1700s, Charleston had grown into a major trade center and was the largest city south of Philadelphia and the fourth largest port in the colonies behind Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.

During the Revolutionary War, Charleston was the target of two major British attacks because of its status as a major port, but we'll touch on this later. After the Revolution, Charleston continued to grow as a cultural, social, and trade center. In the early 1800s, Charleston became increasingly devoted to state's rights. At that time, a large portion of Federal funds came from import duties and since Charleston was a large port where many imports came ashore, they felt they were paying more than their fair share. In 1832, South Carolina passed an "ordinance of nullification" by which they could repeal a Federal law. This ordinance was directed at the tariffs being charged on imports. Soon, Federal troops were sent to Charleston and began collecting tariffs by force. A compromise gradually reducing the tariffs defused the immediate situation, but the ongoing debate over state's rights continued to fuel the fire that eventually erupted in the Civil War. On Dec. 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union.

Charleston was the location of the first shots fired during the Civil War. After South Carolina seceded from the Union on Dec. 20, 1860, the cadets of the Citadel Military College located in Charleston fired on a Union ship entering the harbor on Jan. 9, 1861.

Charleston was also the site of the first battle of the Civil War when on April 12, 1861, Conferate troops began bombardment of Fort Sumpter, which was occupied by Union forces. Although the Union troops returned fire, Fort Sumpter is located in the middle of the harbor and was surrounded by Confederate batteries so it didn't stand much of a chance. Union Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort after 34 hours of bombardment.

In downtown Charleston outside the Charleston Museum is a replica of the first successful submarine, the CSS H. L. Hunley. The Hunley was built in Mobile, AL and shipped to Charleston by rail. It was 40 feet long and was powered by a single screw turned by a long hand crank that ran almost the entire length of the inside. There was a crew of eight - seven to turn the hand crank and one to steer. The photo below shows Margery checking out the hand crank through a viewing window in the side of the replica of the Hunley.

A long spar on the bow carried a torpedo. The submarine would ram the enemy vessel sticking the barbed torpedo into the side. The Hunley would then back away and fire the torpedo by means of a cord.

On Feb. 17, 1864, the Hunley attacked and sank the USS Housatonic; but soon afterward, the Hunley also sank drowning all eight crew members. The Hunley lay at the bottom of Charleston Harbor for over 136 years until it was recovered on Aug. 8, 2000. The eight crew members were identified and buried with full military honors. The real Hunley is currently submerged in a specially designed tank at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center near Charleston. The replica, which was built before the actual submarine was recovered, differs slightly in appearance from the real Hunley.

The Civil War and the defeat of the Confederacy destroyed the prosperity of Charleston. However, the city eventually bounced back with renewed vitality and population growth. Today, Charleston is a great tourist destination, a major port, and a fairly large industrial center. Although Charleston has had numerous major fires, hurricanes (the latest was Hugo in 1989), wars, and an earthquake in 1886 measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale, many historic buildings remain. It is these buildings that add to the charm of the downtown area. The photo below shows some of the quaint homes in historic Charleston.

The style of home that typifies Charleston is the single house. Because the lots in old Charles Town were very narrow, the houses were built only a single room deep and several rooms wide. In order to fit the house on the lot, it was turned with the narrow end facing the street. Porches, better known locally as piazzas, were usually built on all stories of the house and ran the length of the house. The piazzas faced south or west to better catch the prevailing breezes and to shade the windows on that side from the hot afternoon sun. There is a false wall with an entry door on the end of the ground floor piazza, but the main entry to the single house itself is at the side of the house in the center of the piazza. The street entry door of the single house shown in the photo below is partially hidden behind the small tree. The entry to this particular house is actually in the middle of the second story piazza.

One of the interesting facts we learned on our tour of Charleston was the history of the dance of the same name. In 1891, Rev. Daniel J. Jenkins, who had previously found four homeless African-American boys huddled together, received a building from the city to house his orphans. Within 4 years, the orphanage started by Rev. Jenkins housed 500 children. Rev. Jenkins taught the children trades and they received education from local teachers. Rev. Jenkins also taught some of the children to play musical instruments. Soon the orphanage became famous for its band and the children toured all over the eastern U. S. On one of the tours, the band picked up a little dance step they did to the music. Soon, the white girls of Charleston began imitating the dance and the Charleston was born. The dance rocketed into the mainstream when it was featured in a Broadway show called Runnin' Wild in 1923.

Our 90-minute tour of historic Charleston stopped by the Battery, which is at the tip of the peninsula looking out over the harbor. At this location, cannons were trained out into the harbor for protection. Although the very first shots on Fort Sumpter at the start of the Civil War came from a different location, there was much bombardment of Fort Sumpter from the Battery. Onlookers gathered on the rooftops and piazzas of nearby houses to watch. The photo below shows some of the houses adjacent to the battery.

After our tour of Charleston, we took a drive across the new Cooper River Bridge heading for Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island. The new bridge was completed in 2005 and features two diamond-shaped towers and graceful steel suspension cables as shown in the photo below.

On the way to the fort, we passed Shem Creek. In this area near where the creek flows into Charleston Harbor, the creek is fairly wide and is a picturesque spot where a number of boats are docked and where there are several restaurants. We ate at one of these restaurants when we visited here about 15 years ago on a business trip for Margery to attend a computer software seminar. We couldn't remember which restaurant it was (maybe it isn't even there anymore), but we picked out one called Red's Icehouse that had outside seating by the water and that didn't look too expensive. We ordered a crab cake sandwich and a shrimp po' boy to share. Both sandwiches were good, but the po' boy was outstanding. A po' boy is essentially a submarine sandwich frequently made with fried seafood. The photo below shows Margery waiting for lunch to arrive.

This is the view down Shem Creek toward Charleston Harbor.

After lunch, it was on to Fort Moultrie, a series of forts built on Sullivan's Island to protect Charleston Harbor. The first fort was still incomplete when the British attacked it on June 26, 1776. The original fort was built of logs cut from the trunks of palmetto palms. The green logs were soft enough that they absorbed the impact of the cannon balls causing some of the shots to even bounce off. After 9 hours of bombardment, the British ships gave up and sailed away. The fort was named in honor of its commander during that first battle, Col. William Moultrie. It is from this battle and the strength of the palmetto logs that the state of South Carolina took its nickname, the Palmetto State. In 1780, the British finally captured Charleston and after the Revolution, they abandoned the fort. The fort lay neglected, damaged by hurricanes and stripped for building materials by the local residents.

In 1793, when war broke out between England and France, Congress decided the shoreline needed to be protected and passed a bill authorizing the building of 20 forts along the Atlantic coast. By 1798, a second Fort Moultrie was completed. However, this fort was also damaged by a hurricane and fell into disrepair along with many of the other Atlantic coast forts. A second series of forts was authorized and by 1809, a third Fort Moultrie was completed. This time the fort was built from brick.

In December of 1860 when South Carolina seceded from the Union, the Union forces abandoned Fort Moultrie and moved to the newly built, stronger, and unoccupied Fort Sumpter in the middle of the harbor. As mentioned previously, the firing on Fort Sumpter by Confederate forces marked the first battle of the Civil War. The view below of Fort Sumpter from Fort Moultrie gives you a good idea of how close it was and why the Union forces at Fort Sumpter were forced to surrender after 34 hours of bombardment from Fort Moultrie and the other forts and batteries around the harbor.

After the Civil War, Fort Moultrie was modernized and updated several times. Today, the fort represents a blend of historic periods. The photo below shows Civil War-era cannon.

Below is a view of a portion of Fort Moultrie looking toward Fort Sumpter. Fort Sumpter is the slightly darker area just about at the horizon toward the left of the photo.

It seems the most dominant period represented at Fort Moultrie is WWII, probably because it is the most recent. During WWII Fort Moultrie was not only a major means of defense of the harbor from potential submarine and air attack, it was the command center that controlled the movements of all ships entering and leaving the harbor. After WWII, as we entered the age of nuclear armament and guided missiles, the fort became completely obsolete and was turned over to the National Park Service.

After several days of sightseeing around Charleston, the nighttime temperatures again began to dip into the mid to low 30s. It was time to head farther south. :)

We try to travel on Mondays or Thursdays. We LOVE to sit around on Sundays, watching the NASCAR race and saying goodbye to the weekend warriors as they pull out. It wasn't that long ago when WE were weekend warriors and would say to each other, "If we didn't have to go home, where would you go from here?" Arriving on Thursdays gives us more of a choice of campsites before the campground begins to fill up on Friday. We pulled into Rose Valley RV Ranch in Silver City, NM (elevation 6,000 ft.) on Thursday. As the name suggests, Rose Valley RV Ranch has a western theme. The office and shower buildings are designed to look somewhat like storefronts from the Old West. There is a wooden water tower and old pieces of farm and ranch equipment sitting in some of the open spaces between sites. Although Rose Valley has some of the widest campsites we've seen at a private campground (most sites were at least 50' wide), there were also strategically-placed fences made from old barn wood and corrugated metal between sites. In addition to adding to the privacy, the fences also added to the rustic atmosphere. The campground is pretty quiet, although there was some minor traffic noise from US 180 (the main route into town) and from weed-whackers from the neighboring cemetery.

When we arrived in Silver City we were faced with hydraulic jack failure for a third time. This time the problem was the same as the first - one jack would not go down. From troubleshooting the previous failures, Paul could tell it was another burned out solenoid, the same as the cause of the first problem and a relatively complicated fix. A call to the manufacturer (HWH. Corp.) resulted in a very quick callback from someone who obviously had more authority than the usual tech reps that had assisted with the problems before. The person who called back was very upset that this was the third problem with their system and proposed replacement of all 4 solenoids as well as both rear jacks (all still under warranty). He went so far as to call ahead to our next stop and help schedule an appointment with a mobile repair service that would come to us. He would also air ship the parts. Although we were disappointed with a third jack failure, HWH really stepped up to the plate to try to remedy the situation once and for all. We were looking forward to what was, hopefully, going to be the final fix.

Silver City, bordering on the Continental Divide, was founded as a silver mining town. A tent city sprang up in 1870 with the discovery of silver nearby. Within a year, over 80 buildings had been constructed. Butch Cassidy and his gang spent time in Silver City and worked at a nearby ranch between robberies. Billy the Kid spent his early years in Silver City. We have found small, local museums to be very interesting, well-done, and worth the time. Silver City's museum, shown below, was no different.

We had read about the 55-foot-deep canyon that runs right through town. Between 1895 and 1906, floods gutted Main Street creating what is call the "Big Ditch." Margery was looking forward to seeing the effect this had on the town, turning some of the downtown buildings bass-ackwards: the storefronts--once facing Main Street--now face the ditch with access from the backside. However, as often occurs, things rarely look like what we imagine from a written description. Although it is now one of the strangest municipal parks ever created with picnic tables, walkways, and bridges in this deep arroyo, the "Big Ditch" was a disappointment...not at all what Margery had imagined. In fact, there are so many trees, it is hard to see the ditch at all. The main street of the downtown area has now moved one street to the west and the buildings have been either rebuilt or totally remodeled. The main street looks much like any Victorian/Southwest town of old. The "Big Ditch" is immediately behind the buildings to the right in the photo below.

On our way in to Silver City we passed an open-pit copper mine. This area is in the heart of the Central Mining District of New Mexico. There are several open-pit mines in the area, but the nearby Santa Rita Mine is one of the largest in the world. The Santa Rita Mine is owned by Phelps-Dodge and the pit is almost 1,500 feet deep and over a mile across. The photo below is from an observation point overlooking the pit.

From the earliest times the area attracted Native Americans who used naturally-occurring copper for ornaments, tools, and weapons. In the early 1800's the Spanish mined copper in this area and in 1853 ownership passed from Mexico to the United States as part of the Gadsden Purchase. The early copper and silver mines were underground mines, but open-pit copper mining began in the early 1900's.

Higher-grade copper ore is treated in a concentrator. The rock is crushed and processed from the naturally-occurring 0.6% copper to 25%. The concentrate is shipped by rail to a smelter in Arizona. Low-grade ore is treated by a solution-extraction-electroplating process. A weak acid solution is dripped through the ore and dissolves the copper. An electric current is then passed through the solution and the copper is electro-plated onto plates called cathodes.

One of the major problems with open-pit mining is all the over-burden that must be removed to get at the ore. Since 1910, more than 2 billion tons of material have been moved. The over-burden is stockpiled along with tailings (what remains after the ore is processed to remove copper). Phelps-Dodge has begun aggressive reclamation work at the nearby Tyrone mine.

They are redistributing stockpiles, constructing water-control channels, capping the area with soil, and mulching and seeding. They plan to move the reclamation project to the Santa Rita Mine in 2008.

About 40 miles north of Silver City is Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. The Gila Cliff Dwellings are surrounded by the Gila National Forest and are on the edge of the Gila Wilderness. The Gila Wilderness is the nation's first wilderness area. The wilderness designation means the area will not be altered by the intrusion of roads or other evidence of human presence.

The Gila Cliff Dwellings are said to have been the home of a band of 40 to 60 Mogollon (pronounced muggy-own or moe-go-yone), an agricultural and deeply religious people from about 1280 to the early 1300's. There are 7 caves in the face of the cliff, but only 6 have evidence of human activity. The 7th is small and fairly inaccessible. In the caves are one and two-story stone structures.

It was a one-mile round trip up the path to the dwellings. Once again Margery was a trooper and made the hike up and back using the trekking poles.

And here we both are resting during the climb.

There's so much that we're not able to see because of the hike required to reach those off-the-beaten-path locales. However, it seems a mile is doable and maybe even farther if the trip is more level.

The volunteer interpreter at the entrance to the dwellings was interesting. After over 5 years of research and interpretation, he advanced the theory that these and other so-called cliff dwellings were not really dwellings at all, but were actually purely ceremonial sites. The Mogollon were agricultural and usually lived near riverbanks. Although the cliff would have provided good protection, the riverbank would have been a more logical choice for daily living and there is evidence of habitation from this time period along the nearby Gila River. Whether the Mogollon actually lived in the cliffs or on the banks of the river, they were attracted to this area by the reliable water supply of the Gila River. No one knows why they left. See Photo Album 018: New Mexico II for more pictures of the Gila Cliff dwellings and the Gila National Forest.

After a week in Silver City we moved on to Elephant Butte State Park at Elephant Butte Lake near Truth or Consequences, NM. Elephant Butte Lake is named for a butte that is said to look like an elephant. The butte is now in the middle of the lake which was created by a dam constructed across the Rio Grande River in 1916. The lake is about 40 miles long and has over 200 miles of shoreline. It is the largest lake in New Mexico.

The campsites are spacious and most have at least a partial view of the lake, although the lake is quite far from most of the developed RV sites.

Elephant Butte State Park is a very popular park, as we found out since we were there over Memorial Day weekend. The park was fairly quiet when we arrived on Thursday and again on Tuesday after the holiday, but it was a zoo over the weekend. Being the largest lake in New Mexico and being relatively close to Las Cruces, NM, Albuquerque, NM, and even El Paso, TX, it attracts large crowds. In addition to the developed campsites, dry camping is permitted on the beach. RVs were lined up end-to-end along the beach and tents were crammed in wherever they would fit. Even in the designated RV sites there were multiple families sharing sites. The 2 sites in front of us had 2 RVs (one on each site), 5 tents, at least 5 or 6 vehicles (it was hard to tell because they kept coming and going), at least 15 people (they kept coming and going, too), at least one motorboat, and one large pontoon boat. They left the pontoon boat in the water most of the weekend. That way they could use the trailer as a drying rack for all their towels and wet bathing suits. We were glad to see the holiday end.

The town of Truth or Consequences, NM (T or C for short) was named for the radio (and later TV) game show of the same name. In 1950 on the 10th anniversary of the Truth or Consequences radio program, radio and TV producer Ralph Edwards (1913-2005) said he wished some town liked the game show enough to change its name to Truth or Consequences. Hot Springs, NM (as it was known then) heard Ralph's proposal and decided in a special election (1,294 for, 295 against) to change its name to try to take advantage of the publicity to increase its tourist activity. For many years, Ralph Edwards and his Hollywood friends came back to T or C to celebrate the anniversary of the name change.

The mobile RV repair service showed up bright and early the morning after we arrived and completed the repairs to our jacks in a little over 2 hours. The jacks now work better than when they were new, so we hope this is the end of the story on the jacks.

We spent our time at Elephant Butte working on some projects around the motor home and relaxing. Paul built a small bookshelf to take advantage of some unused space between two cabinets in the motor home.

He also climbed up on the roof and cleaned the outside of the vent covers. The other thing we did was to work on our itinerary for the summer. Margery plotted a number of possible travel routes, calculated travel times, and researched possible campgrounds. For the near term, we will be heading for the Grand Canyon and will then tour southern Utah and Colorado.

Our next stop was Bluewater Lake State Park located about halfway between Grants, NM and Gallup, NM. The campground is fairly remote with 30 amp electricity on only 14 out of 149 campsites. Bluewater Lake is a relatively small lake, although they say you can water ski. The campground filled up on the weekend, but we didn't see many with boats. All in all, it's relatively quiet and not a bad spot for a stopover.

Some of the sites could use a little fresh gravel and fewer weeds. Most of the sites and the interior roads are lined with large rocks so you need to be careful backing and maneuvering some of the tighter turns. There are several Native American sites and pueblo ruins in the area, but they are a fair drive from Bluewater Lake so we decided to just spend our time relaxing and enjoying the clear New Mexico skies.

Our next stop will be Flagstaff, AZ. We're meeting family to explore the Grand Canyon and Sedona area together.

We had spent almost three months in Texas, and it was time to leave Kerrville and the Texas Hill Country and head for New Mexico. We headed west on I10. Not too far off I10 in west Texas is Davis Mountains State Park where we stayed back in February. We liked the stark beauty of the area and the remote, peaceful feeling of the park, so we stopped again on our way back west .

Our visit started out daja vu. We got our favorite campsite, but as we started setting up, we once again had a hydraulic jack problem...just like last time back in February on this very same (not very level) campsite.  Last time, one of the jacks wouldn't extend. This time, none of the jacks would extend. Although the last repair couldn't be made until we reached Mission, Paul was able complete this fix himself with the company over-nighting the part to us. This fix was still under warranty, too. :)

Paul was sick the whole week we were there. However, he didn't have to go to work, could nap when he wanted, and had the beautiful Davis Mountains for a view. Things could have been worse. :) We decided to skip traveling to Big Bend National Park this trip and stay put for the week.

When Paul was feeling better, we headed about 35 miles north to Balmorhea State Park. The campground consists of pull-through sites with 50 amp, back-in sites with 30 amp, and tent sites with water only. We opted for a 30 amp back-in site because we thought the views and privacy were better than the pull-throughs.

Balmorhea State Park is built around San Solomon Springs. Water for the spring comes from an underground aquifer and flows at the rate of about a million gallons an hour. Native Americans and early settlers used the springs for crops and irrigation. In the 1930's, the CCC built the state park which includes a 77,000 square foot swimming pool which is popular with scuba divers. The end where the spring is located (to the right and to the rear in the photo below) is 20' deep.

Today the area also includes a reconstructed desert wetlands and a canal which are the home to several species of endangered fish. From the wetlands and canal, the water flows to irrigation canals and to Balmorhea Lake.

After a relaxing few days at Balmorhea, we headed northwest to Carlsbad, New Mexico. We had spent almost three months exploring Texas, and there's still much more to see! However, after 8 1/2 months and  about 12,000 miles on the road, we finally have been able to travel in a way that is not only leisurely, but also more economical. Spending at least one week in a location, particularly a private campground, enables us to take advantage of a weekly rate. Traveling no more than 4 hours between stopovers (and often less) we find the pace of travel, exploration, and life in general is more relaxing. We're starting to get the hang of this retirement thing. :)

Our stay at Brantley Lake State Park was our first experience with the New Mexico State Park System. Brantley Lake is along the Pecos River just north of Carlsbad and at the northern edge of the Chihuahuan Desert. The sites are widely spaced, although some of the parking pads are short and could only be used by tenters. All sites have covered picnic tables. There are 3 sites with sewer hook-up.

South of Carlsbad is Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The park contains over 33,000 acres of rugged, Guadalupe Mountain wilderness. This is the view from the back side of the mountain where the Visitor Center is located.

There are approximately 100 caves in the park, but most are closed to the general public and some are being preserved for research. The world-famous Carlsbad Caverns, however, are open for tours. There are ranger-guided and self-guided tours from either the natural entrance or from the bottom of a 750 foot elevator. Because of Margery's knees, we opted to ride the elevator and take the shorter, Big Room Tour. The Big Room covers an estimated 600,000 square feet and is the largest known natural limestone chamber in the Western Hemisphere. It is 25 stories high at the highest point. The Big Room tour is about 1.3 miles and takes about an hour and a half. The trekking poles really help Margery walk, and she did really well. However, she was happy to get to the end. She was done! :)

Carlsbad Caverns are said to be the most beautiful caverns in the world, and it's not difficult to see why. Inside the cave there are formations almost everywhere.

Lighting is low-key and was done by theatrical lighting professionals. Although the lighting sometimes takes on different hues in photographs, it is all done in natural colors. Stalagmites tower up to 60 feet from the floor and stalactites - some massive, some broadly conical, some delicately slender - hang from the ceiling. Sometimes stalagmites and stalactites meet to form a continuous column from floor to ceiling. There are even delicate stalactites called soda straws that are actually slender, hollow tubes. With a little imagination, you can see different shapes in the formations, and we had fun pointing them out to each other. See for more of the interesting formations at Carlsbad Caverns.

Paul was looking forward to visiting Roswell, NM, about 60 miles north of where we were staying to find out what all the UFO hoopla was about. On July 4, 1947, something crashed in the desert near Roswell. There has been much controversy over exactly what it was that crashed. The official government position is that it was a top-secret weather balloon, but credible reports indicated it might have been something else. The UFO Museum and Research Center presents information about the so-called Roswell Incident with copies of newspaper articles, government statements, and affidavits from local citizens. The rancher who was the first to find the 300 yard wide by ¾ mile long debris field claims to have collected some of the debris including unusually lightweight metal pieces - some of them which had strange violet-colored markings. A local nurse even claims to have seen the bodies of several of the aliens. The museum presents both sides of the story and more or less allows the visitors to draw their own conclusions. Frankly, we could not reach a conclusion one way or the other, but we found it to be very interesting.

Our next “port of call” was Alamogordo, NM, where we stayed at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park located at the base of the Sacramento Mountains. The park provided spectacular views of the mountains to the east...

...and the Tularosa Basin to the west.

The campsites are widely spaced and surrounded by Chihuahuan Desert vegetation. We were blessed to arrive with spring in full swing with wild flowers, ocotillo, agaves, and cacti in bloom. See Photo Album 017: Caverns to Nuts in New Mexico for photos of the beautiful desert plants.

The main reason for going to Alamogordo was to visit White Sands National Monument. The white sand dunes cover 275 square miles, but only a portion of that is the national monument. Most of the remainder is White Sands Missle Range, which is the birthplace of America’s atomic and space programs.

The white sand is actually gypsum, which is a mineral used to make plaster and drywall. Gypsum is contained in the limestone layers in the surrounding mountains and is soluble in water over time. High in the mountains, rain slowly dissolves some of the gypsum. The dissolved gypsum is normally carried by rivers to the ocean, but gypsum that finds its way to the Tularosa Basin is trapped because no rivers drain the basin. During the wet season, water carrying the dissolved gypsum collects in low spots and shallow lakes, the largest of which is Lake Lucero. As the water evaporates, the gypsum forms crystals called selenite. The wind breaks off the soft crystals, and they begin their tumble across the desert becoming grains of sand. The tumbling also produces the scratches on the surface of the grains which changes the appearance from clear to white. Because of the arid conditions in the basin, the gypsum does not re-dissolve.

The sand dunes move across the desert like waves on the ocean in ultra slow motion. In areas where the dunes move rapidly (the dunes can move up to 40 feet a year!) there is no vegetation. The moving sand simply smothers anything that tries to grow. These areas reminded us of giant snow drifts. In fact, they have to plow the roads to keep them open. The photo below shows Margery hiking up a sand dune. Her trekking poles make it look like she is cross-country skiing.

In areas where the dunes are moving slowly and in between the dunes, there is vegetation. Those areas reminded us of the North Carolina shore where we visited last fall. Imagine the blue of the mountains in the distance in the photo below is ocean.

Although there are 60 varieties of plants that live in the dune field, most are found in the areas between the dunes. Only eight varieties of plants have adapted in ways to allow them to survive in the moving sand. The Rio Grande Cottonwood can survive partially buried in the sand. The Soaptree Yucca can grow its main stem rapidly in order to keep its leaves above the level of the sand. However, after the dune passes, the stem will collapse under its own weight and the plant usually dies. Other plants such as the Skunkbush Sumac and the Rosemary Mint grow dense masses of roots that hang onto a clump of sand. The plant will be left standing on a sand pedestal like the one in the photo below.

The route from Carlsbad to Alamogordo takes you across the Sacramento Mountains and through the village of Cloudcroft. Unfortunately we missed Cloudcroft on our way into Alamogordo because our computer mapping software took us on a supposedly shorter route. Then, because we missed a turn, we ended up going 50 miles out of our way through the Lincoln National Forest. However, when we checked later to see where we went wrong, we found missing the turn was actually a blessing because the computer route would have probably been too steep and narrow to safely travel in our motor home.

Anyway, Cloudcroft looked like a quaint mountain village from a brochure we had picked up so after visiting White Sands we decided to take the 15-mile trip back up into the mountains to visit Cloudcroft. In the 4,600’ climb (8,600’ above sea level) up the mountain, the temperature fell from 82 degrees to 48 degrees! Cloudcroft was indeed quaint...

...but since we were dressed in shorts, we didn’t stay very long. We did, however, experience some spectacular views coming back down the mountain. The white streak far in the distance in the photo below is White Sands.

We had passed several pistachio farms on our way into Alamogordo, but we decided to visit Eagle Ranch Pistachio Grove because they offered daily tours. Pistachios are native to the Middle East - Iran,Turkey and Afghanistan. In the U.S. they are grown primarily in California, but in 1974 Eagle Ranch Pistachio Grove was started in the Tularosa Basin in New Mexico. The climate and altitude are the same as in Iran and Turkey. Today, Eagle Ranch has 12,000 pistachio trees. The photo below is a view of part of their grove.

Pistachios are harvested in early September. The nuts have an soft outer skin called the epicarp which covers the hard shell. The photo below shows clusters of young pistachios with pinkish epicarp.

When the nuts are ripe, the epicarp will turn light tan, and the hard shell underneath will split. Pistachios do not have to be roasted for the shells to open. After initial cleaning to remove the epicarp, the nuts are put into cold storage to be processed later as needed. This makes the tour particularly interesting, because you never know what operations you’ll see. The processes include sorting, flavoring, roasting, and packaging. Eagle Ranch sells flavored (green chili, red chili, lemon-lime, and cinnamon), salted, unsalted, shelled, and in-the-shell pistachios. They are the best pistachios we have ever tasted.

We’re not big on visiting gift shops since we downsized to the motor home, but the Eagle Ranch gift shop was particularly nice. While we waited for the tour to begin, we were able to view a video of the pistachio processing. In addition to samples of all their pistachio products and selective gift items which were not your usual souvenir fare, they also offered wine tasting. This summer they plan to build a winery next to their vineyard, which is down the road.

Pistachios seem to be an ideal crop. They do not require a lot of space to process or store and they are harvested all at one time and held in cold storage to be processed as needed. Pistachios don’t need a lot of water and tolerate saline water found in many desert locations. If we ever wanted to start a business (which we don’t), we would want to do it the Eagle Ranch way.

We enjoyed our time in Alamogordo but headed further west looking forward to our next stop, Silver City.

Within 1 1/2 hours of our home base, we could find both the spires along Needles Highway and the desolation of the Badlands.

Located in the Black Hills, Needles Highway curves and winds through 14 miles of magnificent rock formations called 'needles.'

On the other hand, the Badlands are a moonscape on earth that includes jagged cliffs, deep canyons, and sharp buttes a portion of a giant salt water sea whose floor was pushed up by volcanic activity.

Just before entering The Badlands, we visited an original prairie homestead built by a "sodbuster" in 1909. One of the few sod dwellings intack today, sod homes were built into a hillside with walls made of prairie buffalo grass because of their densely tangled roots. These homes were built by homesteaders following the enactment of the Homestead Act. The original act  declared that any citizen or intended citizen could claim 160 acres - one quarter square mile - of surveyed government land. Claimants must "improve" the plot with a dwelling and grow crops. After five years, if the original filer was still on the land, it was his property, free and clear. Although there have been many changes over the years, we were surprised to learn that it remained in effect until it was repealed in 1976.

We  could only imagine the hardship that these strong, independent people endured living on the edge of The Badlands...especially in the early 1930's. However, we were struck, too, by the civility of their homes. There are additional pictures in the photo album showing a wall-papered "living room" with a Singer sewing machine in the corner. Although the livingroom had a wood floor, the kitchen/eating area with a  bedroom behind had a dirt floor...all the while with china dishes on the table.

It wouldn't be a trip to The Badlands without a stop at Wall Drug...so named because it was built on the edge of the northern extension of the "badlands wall." Their claim to fame (besides the Wall Drug bumper stickers you can find just about anywhere in the US) is free ice water and donuts. We had two people tell us "you have to try the donuts." They were good but nothing spectacular but as I think about it...for 85 cents who wouldn't have a donut on somebody's recommendation? :) So the legend lives on. :)

We were surprised when we actually walked in to a real drug store (if you can call one two-sided shelf with aspirin and sundry other items a drug store), but in all fairness, it does have a pharamcy and a soda fountain. The rest of Wall Drug is actually an indoor mall designed like a typical western town and full of souvenirs, leather goods,a boots and western clothing shop, a bookstore, and even a traveler's chapel. And you know why you see so many Wall Drug bumper stickers across the U.S.? They're free!

I can't help but contrast the pioneers like the Sodbusters who homesteaded and Ted and Dorothy Husted who opened Wall Drug...both on the edge of the Badlands... with Paul and me. We are pioneers of a sort since our lifestyle is a bit unconventional. However, reading about these pioneers, the  common theme is a desire for independence and freedom.

It has been thought provoking to reconcile this drive we have with the sermon we heard on Sunday...that our true freedom is in Jesus Christ and independence is a dangerou illusion. We need to  embrace the truth that as God's son and daughter, we are secure and safe in our Father's heart and therefore we can trust His plans for us.

One more posting should wind up our time in South Dakota. Today we were able to relax and get some things done around "home." Molly got a much needed grooming, (she no longer looks like a melted hot fudge sundae!), Paul got the cell phone antenna booster installed in the motorhome which required drilling a hole in the roof! Yikes! and we took a bike ride on a nice trail that runs through the campground. I'm really enjoying being able to bike ride since my bad knees make walking pretty painful. The new folding bikes we got are great...although Paul misses his mountain bike...but as you can see, it's challenge to put the bikes back in the car when were done. :) Pray that we'll find a easy way to do it...Paul's threatening to put a "For Sale" sign on his! :)

Until next posting...blessings.

Paul and Margery

"Here4Now"

So many things to see, we opted for Mount Rushmore for our first day of exploration. Based on the recommendation from the host at the visitor's information center in Mitchell, we chose the scenic approach up Iron Mountain Road because we would pass through tunnels that would frame the faces.
It looked good in person, but it was hard to get a picture between all the traffic coming and going.

As a whole, experiencing Mount Rushmore was, unfortunately, less than satisfactory. Each face is approximately 60 feet from chin to top of the head (about six stories). However, we could never get close enough to grasp the magnitude of the sculpture. What we saw in person looked like what you saw in a picture. I guess I needed a real person next to a face to get a handle on its size.

Interesting Fact: Mount Rushmore was named after a New York lawyer, Charles E. Rushmore, who was in the Black Hills in 1885 researching mining claims for area mining companies. When he asked his guide the name of the singular feature, he reportedly got the answer that immortalized his name on the landscape. "Never had none. But hereafter we'll call'er Rushmore, by Jingo!" Just goes to show ya....never be afraid to ask a question...you could go down in history!

The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, chose the mountain because it faced southeast toward the morning sun, and the natural lighting throughout the day makes for a fascinating view of these four presidents who represent 150 years of American history including the birth, growth, preservation, and development of this country.

Interesting Fact: Ninety percent of Rushmore was "carved" using dynamite.

A walk along The Presidential Trail is the closest you can get to the sculptures. By scooter, I was only able to go so far but here is an interesting picture Paul captured from the Trail.

A "surprise" we discovered as we left Mount Rushmore, was the ability to see the sculpture from the backside.

If you would like to read more about Mount Rushmore, here is a link to the official parks website:
National Park Service: Mount Rushmore.

Sightseeing via the motor home is the best. Molly is enjoying spending the day in her "den" (the bedroom) where the air conditioning and closed blinds keep her comfortable and oblivious to what's going on outside...of course, her deafness works in our favor now, too. :)

Ordering the motor home with a combined washer/dryer was something Paul thought would be valuable. I was indifferent...but not any more! We do about a load of wash every other day and we are easily able to keep up with that chore.

Running your life "from the road" has some hurdles which must be overcome, but one of us thinks that adds to the spice of life. The other? Well, let's just say it took him a year to adapt to our new environment/routine when we first moved to the North Hills. :) We were locked out of our checking account and it will be a week before our mail catches up with us with a new password. Learning the "rules" while trying to get a prescription filled with a new insurance company has been interesting, too. However, it's fun to strategize the problem solving (for one of us, anyway) and certainly doesn't make for any dull days. :)