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-Gramps-

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  1. -Gramps-

    Tips and Hints.

    By -Gramps-,

    Over the last seven years, Diane and I have learned, discovered, or otherwise stumbled upon a few things that have helped us during our adventures on the road.
    1. Velcro computer wiring straps (available from Wal-Mart of course) can keep your coach vertical cabinet doors from flying open while going down the road and hitting a pot hole or expansion joint or worst yet….rolling over a speed bump. Just slip one thru the cabinet handles and snick it down. They have saved our dishes more than once.
    2. If you have area rugs that you have to roll up to bring in your slide outs then roll them up around a pool noodle. This will keep the rug edges from curling when you lay them out at your next stop. They will lay flat instead.
    3. You can create a wine glass caddy to protect your glassware while traveling by cutting the bottom off a beer cozy (the soft collapsible ones) and slipping it over the glass.
    4. Carry a curved sail needle and some uv resistant thread….you never know when you might need to sew up a hole in a slide topper. Silicone uv resistant fabric spray is a good thing to have as well. A coating of that on your toppers will make them last a lot longer.
    5. Mount a paper towel holder somewhere in a compartment on both sides of your coach. It is good to have one roll near the wet bay and another on the patio side to have access to when cooking outside.
    6. I have found that the best thing to clean a really dirty rubber or fiberglass coach roof with is Murphy oil soap. Clorox clean up will help dissolve stubborn stains including sap. Seal and quick clean the roof with Murphy Squirt and Mop. This will leave a nice shine.
    7. Coach closets don’t get much air circulation, we put dryer sheets in them to help keep locked up clothes smelling fresh. A dryer sheet tossed in the dirty clothes bag or drawer is a helpful thing as well.
    8. Washing a coach can be a tiring pain in the neck and back. I use a long handle adjustable nozzle sprayer with a reservoir that allows you to soap down your rig and then rinse it (available at Wal-Mart for nineteen bucks). If you attach an inline water filter to the hose you will not get water spots. I use a carnauba wax car wash. I prefer ArmorAll Extreme Shine car wash solution.
    9. Turtle Wax Ice spray on synthetic wax is good stuff. You can use it on paint, chrome, vinyl, rubber and glass. In other words it’s good for the whole coach and tow car. It can be used as a cleaner even when you are staying in a campground with water restrictions. Spray it on, rub in with a terry cloth, and rub off with a second cloth. It leaves no swirl marks and blends in minor scratches. You are left with a slick, shiny coach when finished.
    10. It’s a good idea to once in a while go through all your basement compartments and storage boxes. You will find out that you are carrying around things you don’t need anymore and find things you thought you were out of that you do need, like wheel lug nut caps.
    11. Keep a cheap volt ohm meter in your electrical bay along with a flashlight and a gallon of distilled water. Makes it much easier to maintain your batteries and make them last longer.
    12. Things don’t roll around in your bay if you strap them together. These things include fishing rods, washing brushes and brooms, hoses. I found some adjustable ball and bungee straps at Lowes that work really well for this purpose.
    13. Always ask any campground or resort that has wifi if they provide wifi client security. This is more than just a password. Client security protects you from other logged on users. If the campground says no or they don’t know, then you must tell your computer you are logged on to a public wifi and turn off file and print sharing. If you don’t take this precaution you could get hacked by a fellow camper.
    14. I use a mixture of Pine-Sol and water to rise out and sanitize my sewer hoses and wet bay. It works just as well as bleach and doesn’t spot my clothes.
    15. There are cell phone repeaters that work. I use a Z-Boost with dual band uni directional antennas. One is for data, one for voice. I mount them to my ladder with pvc pipes coupled together. I can strap em together and store em in my pass thru storage while traveling.
    16. The moment you think that there is nothing wrong with your coach something will break….like a windshield wiper arm.
    17. If your toilet won’t hold water it could be that the ball seal needs cleaning. There is a groove in the seal that will clog and then it can’t well…seal.
    18. Try to take advantage of every space in your coach. I recently attached a piano hinge to the washer dryer plumbing compartment so that I could store things like grocery bags and collapsible crates in there.
    19. Consider placing a wireless thermometer in your fridge. It’s great for helping you keep your beer and stuff from freezing or getting too warm.
    20. When you find a good rv repair facility make every effort to go there when you have something wrong with your coach that you can’t fix yourself or isn’t an emergency repair. I am talking about things like broken air conditioners, body work, slide out repair etc. We take our coach to Terry Labonte RV service in Greensboro NC.
    That’s all for now but I am sure to come up with some more…after all one of my rules is
    “Owning a motor coach is a never ending learning experience.”
    Derrick
    “Gramps”
  2. -Gramps-

    It's a Wonderful Life!

    By -Gramps-,

    Diane and I just finished watching “It’s a Wonderful Life.” It is certainly one of our Christmas traditions each year, as it is with a lot of people, I am sure.
    We take it a bit further in our house than most. There are IAWL ornaments on the tree, some glass balls, some ceramic with scenes and lines from the movie. Some are small houses and buildings from the movie with a hole in the bottom to allow for a light.
    In my office I have the Bedford Falls Village on display. There are twenty one buildings set up on three shelves. Along with the buildings are the other things you would find in a Christmas village, including cars, figures, street lights, trees and a train. I pay careful attention to which buildings, such as Gower’s Drug Store, Anderson’s Department Store (the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan is located upstairs) the Bedford Falls Bank, City Hall belong next to each other as seen in the movie itself. It is a rather elaborate display.
    I have read the original script for the movie. I have a number of books that relate behind the scenes stories and anecdotes about the making of the movie. One of those books is a coffee table book and one is on my e-reader. I have an autographed picture of the closing scene of the movie. It is signed by Karolyn Grimes, who played George and Mary’s daughter ZuZu.
    I have watched the movie some two hundred times. I have watched a number of colorized versions on You Tube. I know each and every line by heart. I can watch the whole film in my head. It still chokes me up. I still can’t stand the scene where George loses it with his family after Uncle Billy loses 100,546.67 dollars (8000 dollars in 1945.) Let us give ole Billy a little lee way and say it was almost the year 1946. He still lost the equivalent of 92, 812.31 in today’s dollars. No wonder poor George freaked out and kicked over the bridges and buildings he had built. Those scale models represented all his hopes and dreams. He knew that the life he wanted was never going to happen.
    At that moment, George frightened his family and he became a walking dead man or so he thought. He believed he was worth more dead than alive.
    I understand why and how he came to feel that way.
    One Christmas some years back Diane and I threw a fancy “It’s a Wonderful Life” party for some close friends from our church that included a formal dinner. I sent out invitations with pictures from the movie. We came up with a printed menu with dishes like “Uncle Billy’s famous New England Clam Chowder” and “Mary Bailey’s Grilled Chicken with Mango Salsa” served with “Mom Bailey’s Sugar Snap Peas steamed in Balsamic Vinegar with Walnuts”. There was New York Seltzer and Cheese Cake for dessert. The table was decorated with little red plastic bells and fresh red rose petals. Some of our friends had never seen the movie (a shock to me) and they did not realize the meaning of the bells or the petals. They soon found out, but first I wanted them to know why the movie means so much to me.
    I told them the movie had saved my life.
    It happened twenty years ago now. I was finishing up my second year of being chronically unemployed. I had gotten fired from a job I loved ten years earlier, (that is a possible story for another day…..I will tell you this; I didn't deserve to loose that job and the ambitions of a man who wanted to be president of the United States had a lot do with it ending.) I had started a business that failed after forty two months. That failure was directly connected with the murder of my best friend who worked with me. I went to work for the people who bought my failed business but that didn’t work out either. I went to work for AT&T and lost that job a year later. I got a job that I thought would last with the local PBS station that I had worked for once before years earlier, but they had to lay me off due to state funding cutbacks. That happened in November of 1990. It was the last straw so to speak.
    So in March of 1991 at the end of a very bleak winter and with what looked like a very bleaker future, I found myself thinking the whole previous ten years had been a waste. I was a failure. No one would hire me because they didn’t think a man who had owned his own business would want to work for someone else. That is true if you have a choice. I didn’t think I had one. I sent out two hundred resumes because I thought I had to work for someone else or else I and my family would starve and I was extremely tired of being told I was over qualified for the positions I applied for.
    I did manage to find some temporary jobs. I installed microwaves for a military sub contractor. I helped install MRIs for a medical company. Diane demonstrated products at the local supermarkets. She was a gray apron lady which required her to hand out coupons and fry sausage samples. We subsidized our empty pantry from our church’s food bank. My kids qualified for reduced price lunches at school, well because we were flat broke. I refused for the longest time to apply for unemployment because I thought it the surest sign that I was out of hope. I finally did apply and received two measly checks before I went back to full time work.
    However something else happened in between. I could not make myself continue to look for a job. I did have a friend in the phone business offer me a straight commission position with a draw. I could not accept that. The economy was not in good shape and neither was the company making me the offer. They were just being nice to an old friend with a shared common interest, that being phone systems.
    I was miserable, lost and really didn’t care to live anymore. I didn't know how far down a dark road those feelings would take me, but it was far enough to worry my wife and kids.
    Diane started a prayer chain with the hope that if enough prayers were made my situation would change. The situation did change, but first I had to have a change of heart.
    One day I was home by myself. It was early in the morning. Diane was at our church where she was a part time secretary to the pastor as well as the church bookkeeper. I finished cleaning up around the house and decided that I wanted to watch a movie. I opened the cabinet where we stored all our tapes and an old cheap copy of It’s a Wonderful Life fell out onto the floor. I thought to myself why not?
    I put it in the VCR, sat on the floor with my back to the couch and proceeded to watch this old chestnut of a film for the umpteenth time on our thirteen inch television.
    Obviously I had a different viewpoint this time.
    Like George Bailey I was angry at my situation. I was depressed and felt that there was no hope. When George started yelling at his family something started to break in me. When he was in the bar praying I started to cry. When Clarence rescued him, I told myself it was only a movie but I hit rewind and watched it again, and I cried again.
    I sat there on the floor and viewed that movie four times. By the end of the forth time it finally sank in. Life was not as bad as I thought it was. I had friends, great kids and a loving wife. I didn’t think a bunch of people would show up at my door with gobs of money but I knew that all was not lost.
    Frank Capra and his cast helped me realize that I did have a wonderful life, and with the right attitude, some help from above, and with a lot of hard work, I could turn things around.
    I started my business a week later.
    I turned things around. It did take a lot of prayer, help from friends and family, a lot of hard work and we did receive a lot of help from above. There have been setbacks since then. Some have put me down, but not out and that is because I know that I have friends, most of whom drive a Motor Coach. Those friends make me remember that I am not a failure and I do have a very wonderful life.
    It is a Wonderful Life!
    And I hope that every one who reads this has a Very Merry Christmas!
    Derrick
    "Gramps"



  3. -Gramps-

    The Candle

    By -Gramps-,

    In late November of 1990 I received my December issue of Reader's Digest. I read all the humorous parts of the magazine, and one cover story and then promptly stuck it on a shelf with all the other issues that I still had in my possession.
    Soon it was Christmas. At that time all of my three children were young. Christine was fourteen, Jeri was eleven, and Joel was five.
    It was a tough time for us. I was unemployed. I had been without work for almost two years. The country was in an economic recession and things didn't look too good for the coming year. I was not sure what to do. I was taking all the temporary jobs I could find. These jobs actually came from an agency that offered part time work to technical people. I installed a mri, worked for other phone companies installing microwave systems for the Navy, installed voice mail systems, whatever I was offered. Diane helped with the cash flow by working as a demonstrator for super markets, frying sausages, handing out flyers and samples of cookies, that kind of thing. Together the two of us were just getting by. Unemployment compensation was not something we were interested in, even if it paid as much as our combined pay checks.
    There would not have been anything for the kids if Diane and I had not decided to spend the traditiononal Christmas money given to us by Diane's dad on just them.
    The girls knew that our financial situation was bleak so they were not expecting much on Christmas morning.
    They awoke and were very surprised to find a brand new Nintendo attached to the TV.
    There were also some new clothes, Disney videos, Fisher Price Dinosaurs for Joel, and candy for everyone stuffed into stockings.
    We had to tear the kids away from the Nintendo for breakfast. After a meal of home made muffins, eggs and sausage (we had lots of that) and orange juice we went back to the living room for a reading of the Christmas story.
    We had a great morning in spite of being as poor as church mice or something like that.
    The morning was really good, much better than expected, but I was still anxious about the coming weeks. I was fighting discouragement.
    I was not sure why but I had the urge to read something for myself. I got up from my chair and and got the copy of Reader's Digest that I had stuck on the shelf weeks before.
    While Manheim Steamroller was playing on the stereo, I began to thumb through the magazine looking at the condensed Christmas story collection that it contained.
    I came across a story written by a prisoner in a Japanese concentration camp. After a paragraph or two I knew that I had to read it to the family. Silent Night began playing just as I started. It was amazing how the music fit the words as I read out loud. I began to think that this moment was not an accident.
    This is the story:
    The Candle
    "We were barricaded into a dank shed ringed with barbed wire in a Japanese concentration camp called Si Ringo Ringo on the east coast of Sumatra. Outside the tropical sun blazed by day and a huge moon filled the fantastically starry sky by night. Inside the shed was perpetual darkness.
    There were people living in that shed. No, 'living' is the wrong word. We were packed away there. Sometimes we could see beyond us little sparks, as sun or moon flashed on patches of barbed wire that hadn't rusted over the years. For it had been years now - or was it decades? We were too sick and too weak to care. In the beginning, we thought about such things as the day or the hour. Now, eternity.
    Beside us and in front of us, men died - from hunger, from disease from the ebbing of the last ray of hope. We had long stopped believing in the end of the war, in liberation. We lived in a stupor, blunted, with only one remaining passion that flew at our throats like a wild animal: hunger. Except when someone caught a snake or a rat, we starved.
    There was, however, one man in the camp who still had something to eat. A candle!
    Of course, he had not originally thought of it as food - a normal person doesn't eat candle wax. But if all you saw around you were emaciated bodies (in which you recognized yourself), you, too, would not underestimate the value of this candle.
    When he couldn't stand the torture of hunger anymore, the prisoner would carefully take the candle from its hiding place, a crumpled little suitcase, and nibble at it. He didn't eat it all. He looked upon the candle as his last resort. One day, when everyone was utterly mad with hunger, he would need it.
    To me, his friend, he had promised a small piece. So I watched him and his suitcase, day and night. It became my life's task to see to it that in the end he would not eat the entire candle by himself.
    One evening after counting the notches he'd made in a beam, another prisoner mentioned that it was Christmas. In a flat, toneless voice he said, 'Next Christmas we'll be home.' A few of us nodded; most didn't react at all. Who could still cling to that idea?
    Then someone else said something very strange: 'When it is Christmas, the candles burn and there are bells ringing.' His words barely audible, as if they came from an immense distance and a deep, deep past. To most of us, the remark had no meaning whatsoever; it referred to something completely out of our existence.
    It was already very late, and we lay on our boards, each with his thoughts - or, more accurately, with no thoughts. Then my friend became restless. He crept toward his suitcase and took out the candle. I could see its whiteness clearly in the dark. He is going to eat it. I thought. If only he won't forget me.
    He put the candle on his plank bed. What now? He went outside, where our captor's kept a fire smoldering. Then he returned, carrying a burning chip. This little flare wandered through the shed like a ghost. When my friend reached his place, he took the chip, the fire, and he lit his candle.
    The candle stood on his bed, and it burned.
    No one said a word, but soon one shadow after another slipped closer. Silently these half-naked men with sunken cheeks and eyes full of hunger formed a circle around the burning candle.
    One by one they came forward, the vicar and the parson, too. You couldn't tell that's what they were, for they were merely two more wasted figures, but we knew.
    'It's Christmas,' said the parson in a husky voice. 'The Light shineth in the darkness.'
    Then the vicar said, 'And the darkness overcame it not.'
    That night those words from the Gospel of John were not some written word from centuries ago. It was living reality, a message for each of us.
    For the light shone in the darkness. And the darkness didn't conquer it. We knew this not because we reasoned it out at the time, but because we felt it, silently, around the piercing flame.
    That candle was whiter and more slender than any I have seen since. And in the flame (though I'm sure I can never describe it, not really - it was a secret we shared with the Christ child) we saw things that were not of this world. We were deep in the swamps and the jungle but now we heard the bronze sound of a thousand bells ringing and a choir of angels singing for us. Yes, I am perfectly sure - I have over a hundred witnesses. Most of them can't speak anymore; they are no longer here. But that doesn't mean they don't know.
    The candle burned higher and higher, ever more pointed, until it touched the very roof of the dark shed, and then it went on, reaching to the stars. Everything became full of light. Not one of us ever saw so much light again.
    We were free, and uplifted, and we were not hungry.
    Now someone softly said, 'Next Christmas we'll be home,' and this time we knew it was true. For the light itself had given us this message-it was written in the Christmas flame in fiery letters. You can believe it or not; I saw it myself.
    The candle burned all night (yes, I know there is not a candle in the world that can burn so long and so high), and when morning came, we sang. Now we knew that there was a home waiting for each of us.
    And there was. Some of us went home before the next Christmas. The others? Well, they were home as well. I helped to lay them down in the earth behind our camp, a dry spot in the swamp. But when they died, their eyes were not as dim as before. They were filled with light, our candle's light, the Light that the darkness did not conquer." (The Candle, c'77 by Hollandia, printed in December 1990 Reader's Digest Magazine, pp. 69-71, ubp).
    I was so moved by the spirit of the man who wrote this story that I could not finish it without tears. I thought that if he could have this kind of faith in the middle of such dire circumstances, that I could have faith that our New Year would be better. I could have the faith that something would happen to change my family's fortune and circumstances.
    I was right. The following March I started a little company that I called LINK voice & data. It would be a struggle but we got it off the ground and soon it will be twenty years old.
    We still read The Candle at Christmas. Jeri reads it on Christmas morning in her home as well. It still makes me cry.
    Maybe you are going through a rough time now, or know someone who is. This is the day for remembering that the light of God can overcome any darkness. God can bring you, your friends or your family out of any situation you are in. He can bring you into the light!
    God bless and Merry Christmas!
    Gramps
  4. -Gramps-

    A Few More Tips and Hints

    By -Gramps-,

    1. I leave a baseball cap on the dash whenever I am driving the coach. I don’t wear it all the time but it sure comes in handy when the sun is low and shines thru the gap in our double automatic windshield shades.
    2. While we are on the subject of windshields. I replaced my stock Monaco wiper arms with ones with standard sized J-Hooks. I purchased them from Diesel Equipment Corp in Greensboro NC. Now I can use any length frameless replacement blade, easily purchased from an auto parts store or Wal-Mart.

    3. Rescue Tape works as advertised. I carry three rolls of it, Red, Orange and Clear. It can fix a hose, a broken patio umbrella and there are lots of useful reasons to have a roll in a drawer.
    Capillary action (sometimes capillarity, capillary motion, or wicking) is the ability of a liquid to flow in narrow spaces without the assistance of, and in opposition to, external forces like gravity.
    Do you read that? Water can go against gravity, flow UP, if the conditions are there. So here is hint number four…it’s a bit long but I suggest you read it.
    4. If you have a Monaco or Holiday Rambler coach with the rubber black gutters at the bottom of the side of each of your slideouts then you need to take a close look at the bottom of the floor of each slideout, especially the main one. That piece of rubber was installed to catch the water running down the side and not let it run under the slideout where it gets wicked up by the plywood floor. There is an exposed wooden edge underneath the main slideout that is well, too exposed. The rubber gutter helps to prevent a leak problem but it doesn’t quite do the trick. The gutter funnels a lot of water to the front bottom corner of the slideout causing the floor to delaminate and then it starts to soak up water and it swells and the cycle just gets worse until one day mushrooms are growing out the bottom of your slideout. Not good. I discovered this was happening to my coach. I had a lot of rotten wood which I blew out with an air compressor and then filled the void with spray in stop gap foam in a can. Then I glued a piece of rubber sweep over the edge of the slideout so the water could not defy gravity and run underneath any longer.
    If you discover you have this problem you can limit the exposed edge of the floor by running a line of deck screws through the bottom of the floor until they are flush! Don't leave any exposed screw head or it will get caught when the slide goes in and cause a lot of grief.


    6. Learn where your ice maker shut of valve is located. You don’t want to be caught by surprise and have to turn off the campground water to your coach because you can’t figure out how to turn off the water to the icemaker…not to mention the damage a leak can do to your fridge electronics.
    7. After you learn where your shutoff valve is, I suggest you replace the standard plastic tubing water supply line to your ice maker solenoid with a reinforced ice maker hose. Why risk a leak from a broken water line caused by the fact it moves when the coach moves? This part is available at Lowe’s for around 15 bucks depending on the length. I bought a six foot one. It took about twenty minutes to connect it. The line from the solenoid to the ice maker (the metallic blue in the picture) is not as critical. It is not under constant pressure.


    8. If your fridge was part of the recall and you now have the heat sensor relay box installed I have a hint for you. Those boxes are known for tripping and not resetting. When that happens your fridge will not turn on unless you bypass the relay. I learned a trick...you can reset the relay with a magnet. Just rub it on the back of the box until you hear a click.
    9. I have a rechargeable flashlight/night light plugged into a bathroom socket. Its in the middle of the coach and comes in handy during an emergency, like the dog needs to go out in the middle of the night and I don’t want to turn on the lights in the coach.
    10. I carry a CharGriller table top grill. It is a small kettle grill with cast iron grates. Best portable charcoal grill you can get. It fits in the basement but large enough to cook a mean six pound beer can chicken. This grill is available on line or at Lowe’s for around sixty nine dollars.
    http://www.lowes.com/pd_11236-49769-11236_0__?zipCode=23703&masthead=true&firstReferURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lowes.com%2Fpd_11236-49769-11236_0__%3FproductId%3D3049705%26Ntt%3Dchargriller%26pl%3D1%26currentURL%3D%253FNtt%253Dchargriller%26facetInfo%3D&catalogId=10051&catalogId=10051&productId=3049705&pl=1&findStoreErrorURL=StoreLocatorDisplayView&selectedLocalStoreBeanArray=%5Bcom.lowes.commerce.storelocator.beans.LocatorStoreBean%404f164f16%2C+com.lowes.commerce.storelocator.beans.LocatorStoreBean%4051c651c6%2C+com.lowes.commerce.storelocator.beans.LocatorStoreBean%4054765476%2C+com.lowes.commerce.storelocator.beans.LocatorStoreBean%4057265726%2C+com.lowes.commerce.storelocator.beans.LocatorStoreBean%4059d659d6%5D&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Dchargriller&Ntt=chargriller&langId=-1&langId=-1&URL=TopCategoriesDisplayView&mastheadURL=TopCategoriesDisplayView&storeId=10151&storeId=10151
    11. Do you have a dog that likes to spend a lot of time on the dash? Diane and I made a custom fit dash mat. We purchased comfort rugs…those things that usually go in a kitchen or laundry room and are designed to be easy on the feet. They are made out of the same thing that mouse pads are made from…urethane rubber. We trimmed the rugs to fit around the instrument panel and it looks really good on the dash. The rubber clings to the dash so it is not necessary to attach the two mats together. Our new dash mat is really easy to clean. I used the left over scrap material to make some matching coasters and a mouse pad for the coach.


    Well, that is all the hints I can think of at the moment. I suspect that some more will pop into my brain and I will add to this list if that happens.
    Gramps.
  5. -Gramps-

    Navistar RV Report

    By -Gramps-,

    I just finished listening to a large Navistar RV conference call hosted by Bill Osborne, president of Navistar RV. I was invited by email to attend this call some weeks ago. The purpose of the call was to quote: “discuss the direction the company is headed, put the story straight about industry rumors and answer any questions our owners have about the company.”
    The call was directed to current owners and after an opening statement there was a brief question and answer period. This was a one way discussion. Questions had to be submitted in advance. I did not submit one. If I had it would have been one specific to my coach and chassis and those types of questions were not answered during the call. Any questions submitted and not answered would be responded to by e-mail later.
    There were 350 participates and 180 questions asked. As soon as I heard that, I thought that there was no way they could all be answered and that was the case. The questions were grouped by category and answered as such. However, before I get to that let me give a synopsis of Mr. Osborne’s statement which included information about not only Navistar RV but Navistar International, the parent company as well.
    The rumors of Navistar, the parent company, going bankrupt or being sold are completely false. They have a new top management team in place, are currently meeting tailpipe emission standards, have signed a new agreement with Cummins for large bore engines for commercial vehicles. Most importantly they have over 1.5 billion dollars in cash on hand and are in the position to become profitable again this year.
    However Navistar is going to focus on the commercial truck business and to that end they will give consideration to any valuable offer for the RV side of the house. In other words they are looking seriously at selling Navistar RV. They are not looking at bankrupting the RV side of the house, dumping warranties and selling off the assets. That describes what the pre-bankrupt Monaco did, not what Navistar wants to do. They want to make Navistar RV, which includes the Monaco, Holiday Rambler and R-Vision lines a profitable, high quality product company.
    After the statement were the question responses. As I said they grouped the questions and answered accordingly.
    The first group had to do with quality control.
    When Navistar bought the old Monaco Company, they had a plan to turn it around. Mr. Osborne reports they are half way to meeting that goal. They introduced some new products at the recent Louisville dealer show including a new Dynasty coach and a new Vacationer. These products had great success along with the towables. Orders from dealers were up 69 percent for towables and 31 percent for motorized rvs.
    Navistar RV has three parts to their turnaround strategy
    Provide high quality product to their customers.
    Provide products that are innovative to the industry.
    Provide good customer service (during warranty period and aftermarket.)

    To that end Navistar RV has initiated a comprehensive technician training program, has moved techs from the closed Oregon facility to Wakarusa. They have initiated a quality control program at their factories which includes bonuses for workers who stop defects from going out the door. This takes some time due to the fact that dealers have a 300 day inventory on their lots and so a lot of coaches are still being sold that were made before the new programs went into effect.
    New dealers and service facilities include what are called tier 2 facilities (dealers who don’t carry the product but will service) are being signed now.
    Platinum service plan is now being implemented and the first platinum dealer is Alliance Coach.
    Second group of questions dealt with Navistar RV's market exposure including dealers and products.
    New dealers are being signed. They are not located in all states and that has been a problem for service, but is being worked on. Products are being improved. New ones will be offered. The Monaco Signature series will be making a return. There is a possibility of a re-launch of the Safari and Beaver lines now that Navistar has the ability to find high bore engines for larger coaches. The Trip and Vista coaches, as of today, are being discontinued. The orders for those coaches have been disappointing and it is painfully obvious the market will not support that line any longer, (if it ever did, in my opinion).
    Next set of questions dealt with EPA emissions.
    All Maxxforce engines meet current EPA tailpipe emission standards either directly or through credits. All engines will be SCR in the future.
    There was a question about parts availability for older coaches. Navistar RV is committed to providing part support directly when possible. It is sometimes difficult because some part suppliers have gone out of business but alternative channels will be provided.
    Mr Osborne also addressed the reason that Navistar RV did not honor warranties for coaches sold by the pre-bankrupt Monaco.
    This is how I understood it.
    He explained that they were not allowed to pick up those warranties by judgment of the bankruptcy court. Each bankruptcy is an individual case and some RV companies that went bankrupt and were purchased along with those obligations. That did not happen in this case. Monaco ran out of operating cash. They did not own any debt to suppliers or financial institutions. Their liabilities were payroll and warranties and the court relieved them of both.
    That ended the question period of the call. The call ended with Mr Osborne once again assuring us owners of the company’s commitment to quality and great customer service. He appreciated our participation, informed us that he hoped to do this again in the future. He also told us the call would be available on the Navistar website soon.
    Gramps.
  6. -Gramps-
    This lesson is a continuation of using your eyes and your imagination.
    One of the volumes in my Time Life library of photography is called The Great Themes. These photography themes include The Human Condition (life as the camera sees it) War, Nature, Portraits, The Nude, and finally Still Life.
    I have captured a lot of nature shots. I have taken pictures of many humans including ones in love, sad, happy and just arrived in the world.
    I have not dedicated much time or effort to becoming a better formal portrait photographer. It is on my list to improve that skill.
    The Nude or figure study as it is sometimes called, has been a subject for art for as long as the human form has existed I bet. However it creates such a mix of attitudes and taboos that I have confined my eye behind the lens to pictures of my children when they were very, very young. You know the kind of image I am talking about, the standard bathtub shot that mortifies your now adult son or daughter when the image pops up in the middle of a family slide show to a chorus of DAD!....I can't believe you are showing that! I come back with a response of Look how cute she was. I will not be posting any of those shots here, not if I want any of my kids to keep speaking to me.
    I think some of these themes will make for new and interesting lessons.
    Lets talk about shooting things when they are still.
    This is a very challenging form of photography. I find the thought process that goes into picturing things to be at times difficult but at times satisfying when the final product looks, well, good, to me anyway. A still life takes time to design before the shot is taken. There is the object or objects to consider, the lighting, the angle, and the story that you want to convey. You might create the design or be someplace and find it already there in front of you.
    There are no hard and fast rules when creating a still life, except for the obvious one, the subject must be still! The image can be of objects you arranged, such as the common bowl of fruit. The image can be a form, a shadow, a light. The pictures don't always have to be good, all of mine certainly are not, but that is not the most important thing. The important thing is to try.
    Shooting still life pictures is a great exercise that uses a lot of what I have tried to pass on to you.
    I do have a suggestion. A tripod is a very helpful piece of equipment to own when making a still life image. Long exposures are common when shooting still life images, especially when using available light. I used a tripod when taking one of the following pictures, can you guess which one that is?
    Let us look at a few images.

    The below picture of the Chrysler Museum (a wing no longer there) won third place in the open category of the first photo contest I entered many years ago. The contest was sponsored by the Portsmouth Parks and Recreation Dept in partnership with local camera retailers.


    This picture won third place in the still life category. I was told by one of the judges it would have won first place and been up for best in show if not for one thing the panel of judges did not like. That one thing is not in this picture because I edited it. I will show you the original image at some point.
    I shot the next picture at a large flea market. I walked around for hours fighting with a malfunctioning camera but managed to take one picture that I rather liked.


    This dining room was just as I found it. The light was from one window, as is the next picture shot in the kitchen just off the dining room. It was a very small area. The picture was shot with a 24mm lens mounted on my 35mm film camera. My question for you is: What focal length would I use if I shot this picture with my APS-C camera and kept the same angle of view?

    I gave a lot of thought to the next picture...I shot it on a light table with my camera positioned directly above the image, It never came out exactly the way I visioned it. I think it would have been better if the background was not textured. What do you think? Oh, the answer for the question I asked above is 16mm.


    Just a simple image that conveys a message about time. I shot it using available light and hand held it as well.
    The next shot is very simple, just apples, but for some reason people like it. I should mention that that I shot it in the horizontal format. The blog uploading program likes it the other way. I find that interesting.

    I said that there were no hard and fast rules for creating a still life image...so one can be whimsical don't you agree?

    Last is the original image of my Third Place still life. It is really neat what one can do with a good photo editing software program. Check the comments at the bottom of this blog.
    By the way, I used a tripod when shooting the "bowl of fruit."
    Now I would like to make a personal observation. I have only received one response from viewers who are members of this site. That is a bit disappointing. I was hoping for a lot more than that! I was hoping for a number of reasons. One, a blog is a bit of work (Tom and Mike would agree I am sure!) and one likes to have one's work appreciated; that is just a vanity thing. Second, I would really like to know if I am encouraging people to take better pictures, just as I am my daughter (Christine does read this blog). Third, I was hoping to have a kind of simple photo contest. Maybe that is wishing for too much. Still, I have had fun creating these blog entries and there might be some more.
    Thanks!
    Gramps.
  7. -Gramps-

    Depreciation

    By -Gramps-,

    This subject pops up every now and then in the Internet forums where I hang about on a regular basis. It may be a post titled "Is your Class A a Money pit?" or "A motor home costs a whole lot more than you think it does!" The people who post these kinds of entries may or may not really have a problem with what a coach or any other large RV may cost. They might just be bored. It's Sunday night and the DW is watching "Desperate Housewives", so there is nothing better for them to do than post some sad story about how broke owning a coach is making them.
    The last time I saw one of these threads, I responded to it. I said that owning a motor coach is like having kids. You make a huge financial investment, with no return, but they make lots of good memories, are good for the soul, and will greatly improve one's life if you let them.
    I believe the RV lifestyle is underappreciated by most people who are not part of it and also by some who are. Becoming a Motor Coacher has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me and my wife. Has owning one depleted my bank account? I suppose it has, but then, maybe not.
    I might have put away the money that I spend each month paying for my coach. I might have put away the money I spend on trips, including gas and food and camping fees, but I doubt it. I would have spent all of my trip and fuel money on airplane tickets, hotel rooms and cruise ships, or something else. The chances are that even if I did save it, a lot of the money could still have disappeared without me spending a dime of it.
    The present economic situation has poked a whole lot of holes in a lot of financial balloons. I just try to take advantage of what our coach can do for us. I may have to spend money on gas, a new water pump to replace a squirting frozen one, new wiper blades to replace frozen ones, a new water filter to replace a cracked and frozen one, but considering what our coach does for us it is worth it.
    I can tell you this that minus the monthly payment, the two weeks and two days I just spent in Florida, which included eight nights at Disney World, didn't cost us much at all. Not when compared to what two weeks would have cost staying in fancy hotels and eating out. I wish I could have stayed there a lot longer. Responsibilities called me home.
    Home is a very subjective word when you own a motor coach. Home is where my coach is. I felt quite at home in Fort Wilderness. As a matter of fact, the guard who checked us in said, "Welcome home, Mr. Parker."
    It was home. We spent New Year's Eve in Saint Augustine and the next day climbed a lighthouse. My daughter was there and my son-in-law and my grandson. My wife was there and so was Teddy Bear. I had my favorite DVDs, my favorite beer, my favorite books, some of them anyway, and the things I like to eat the most. I also had great cable TV.
    At night we listened to music coming from the Disney Parks. We also heard the fireworks and, if we walked a little ways from our site, could see them, just over the tops of the trees. If we wanted to ride the monorail, we did. If we wanted to take a boat ride, we did that, too. We went to one park, and saw Cirque Du Soleil, followed by sushi at Wolfgang Pucks. We pin traded, we took Teddy to the Waggin Tails Dog Park. We basked in the 70-degree sunshine. We even had the pleasure of spending time with our friends Gary and Janis. What could be better than that?
    It was wonderful. It was wonderful until we had to say good-bye. We had to say good-bye to the warmth of our surroundings, our friends and our family. We said good-bye and then made our way back north. We came back to the cold, to work and to our son, daughter and grandsons, whom we missed a lot.
    It won't be long before we take our motorhome back out on the road and enjoy another great trip. We will make new friends and see new places.
    So, I don't worry about "depreciation" I try to appreciate the emotional and spiritual return I get from my poor financial investment. I hope that all my fellow Coachers and RVers do the same.
    Gramps
    1/23/2011
  9. -Gramps-
    When I was young My Uncle Jonah taught me about raising apples, tobacco, peaches, grooming horses and the danger of electric fences. He tried, unsuccessfully, to teach me how to milk a cow. He gave Diane and I our very first Christmas Tree. My aunt Helen, Jonah’s wife, and Diane like each other very much.
    All the members of the Parker family are very special to me. Which brings me to my Aunt Hazel.
    My Aunt Hazel ( a memory and a tribute)

  10. -Gramps-
    Today I am thinking about one of the things in my life that I am passionate about, something that goes well with owning a coach.
    That something is Photography.
    When I was a young boy I took pictures with a Kodak Brownie box camera. While attending broadcasting technical school in Washington D.C. in 1972, I tried my hand at shooting transparencies (slides) with my dad’s old Agfa 35mm rangefinder with a bellow lens. I had some success with it, during daylight hours anyway. When the first Panda Bears arrived from China at the Washington National Zoo, I attended the acceptance ceremony, hosted by Pat Nixon. I was up in the press stands snapping away. I still have those pictures.
    A few years later I found myself high in the mountains above Nogales, Arizona. As a network news cameraman (videographer), I was there to tape the assembly of one of the first network broadcast satellite dishes built in the southwest. I was running around with a heavy shoulder mounted portable video camera, with a battery belt strapped to my waste and carrying a three quarter inch video tape recorder. I taped the building of the dish, which was mounted on a platform overlooking a five hundred foot drop. The techs building the dish, one was my brother, had to strap themselves to the dish legs to keep from falling to the rocks far below. I captured on tape a number of beautiful sunsets and sunrises. My brother did the same with his Olympus OM-1 35mm SLR film camera.
    Later, after watching my recordings and knowing what was on his exposed film, I decided that I had to get my own 35mm camera. A few months later I visited a catalog showroom in Norfolk, Virginia where I purchased a Minolta XG-1 SLR along with an accessory package that was composed of a bag, a cheap 135mm lens, a flash, and a lens cleaning kit. This purchase started a long love affair with photography which would include many more cameras, and lenses, lots of reading, including the 16 volume Time-Life photography library (which I still own), and one day a complete color darkroom set up in my wife’s laundry room. I stored mixed chemicals and boxes of paper in the refrigerator. This was not always popular with all members of my family.
    I became a semi-pro photographer. I use the term semi-pro because I did not do it to make a living but I did make money at it. I made money shooting weddings, portraits, and other special events. I also made money selling my pictures at art shows. I was one of the photographers at the PBS television station I worked at. My function as video engineer, both in the studio and on remote locations, gave me an opportunity to shoot still shots behind the scenes. These shots were displayed in bank lobbies and libraries around this area and I sold copies to various people who saw them. My pictures were also published a few times in the local paper. The money I made went to feed my habit of taking pictures. It paid for film, chemicals, paper, and new equipment. I also entered a number of photo contests sponsored by local camera shops and cities. I won a few prizes, none of great monetary value, but winning meant a lot to me. The contest gave me the chance to meet other shooters, some of which became friends, and I learned a lot from them.
    I had my darkroom for about four years and then the opportunity to start my own phone business presented itself. I then had to make a decision about what was going to get most of my time and energy. I thought about what the head photography curator of the Chrysler Museum said to me when he was judging the photography at one of the local outdoor art shows where my work was on display. He asked me if I really took the pictures. He was pointing to one in particular when he asked this. Taken a bit back I answered with an emphatic Yes. He then told me I did good work and to keep at it.
    To make a really good picture took two shots, one in the field and one in the darkroom. To give up my darkroom meant giving up my ability to make the kind of finished art I wanted to make. However, I needed to make money to take care of my growing family, so it was a sad day when I sold my easels, large darkroom timer, trays, color developing drums, really good Saunders C760 dichroic color photo enlarger and watched them go out my back door.
    I went into film withdrawal. I threw myself into the phone business and didn't touch a camera again for months.
    Eventually I did get back into it. I purchased a new Minolta 550si Auto Focus camera. I took pictures with that camera as my telephone business took me around the world. I shot pictures of my kids, of the mountains, the sea. Not having a darkroom, I concentrated more on making a better picture inside the camera. I intensified my study of light, depth of field, the capability of different lenses, the best techniques for using a flash. I purchased a Minolta Dimage digital rangefinder camera when that technology was new. I was disappointed. I liked the instant picture, but I found the quality to be very lacking compared to film, so I stayed with that medium for quite a long time. I did scan many negatives and slides for posting on various picture hosting sites. I did post production work on some of those scanned images using different software programs including PhotoShop and others. In other words I was dabbling into the world of digital photography. I dabbled around the edges anyway, but I still could not see a real compelling reason to buy a DSLR.
    One day about seven years ago my daughter Jeri called me and said she was getting married. Jeri and her fiancé Tom would be hosting the event at the Little Switzerland Lodge and Resort on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Marion, North Carolina. The lodge had a staff photographer and as part of their wedding package, he would take pictures during the ceremony. She wanted me to take all the before and after and some during the wedding before I walked her “down the isle”. She wanted my shots, like the staff photographer’s, to be digital. She then informed me she would buy the camera for me. This presented me with a very interesting opportunity.
    I purchased the ten mega pixel Sony Alpha 100 DSLR. This camera had just hit the market a few weeks before Jeri’s call. The bundle included the camera body, 18-70 zoom lens, battery and charger. It cost one thousand dollars. I had a hard time with that price, but considering all my Minolta AF lenses would still work with the new camera, the cost was worth it. However, I could not allow Jeri to spend that kind of money so we split the purchase. I had a few days to learn the ins and outs of the camera. It wasn’t that hard. I took a couple of classes at the Ritz camera store where I bought the camera. I tried, but I found the classes to be a waste of time. I could have taught them, plus I got tired of hearing that the only camera you should own is a Nikon. That is a most silly untrue thing for someone who works in a camera store to say.
    Jeri and Tom were married on October 7, 2006. I took some shots before the ceremony started, then sat aside my camera (and my cell phone) to walk my daughter down the stone pathway to the side of her soon to be husband. I wished I could have been in two places at once. I really wanted to shoot her walking down the isle. Maybe I needed a small drone to hover in front of us and I could have used a remote control? Just kidding.
    My daughter Christine recently started taking a digital photography course at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. Christine enrolled to pick up some, what she thought, would be a few easy credit hours. She found out the class is not that easy and she also found out she likes it. She likes taking pictures with my Sony Alpha 100, a camera that meets the class requirements. The two of us have spent quite a bit of time on the phone discussing photography, including the various parts of a DSLR, lenses, and how they all work together. We have also talked about techniques, how to develop an “eye” for a good shot. Christine grew up around photography; it was a part of her life just like computers and telephones. Now photography is a part of her life again and I have enjoyed helping her.
    Working with Christine started me thinking.
    I thought I could provide a few lessons in digital photography, specifically Digital SLR photography here. If you want to get into taking really good pictures, something a lot more than a snap shot, then I can help. I will provide lots of information, both basic and advanced, about choosing and using a DSLR. To make it really interesting I may provide some tasks for you as well, that all depends on the responses I receive here of course.
    Shall we begin? Today’s lesson is a bit of an introduction.
    In order to become a better photographer you need to know two main things.
    1. How to use your equipment.
    2. How to use your eyes.
    What is a DSLR? It is a Digital Single Lens Reflex camera. It combines the optics and mechanics of a Single Lens Camera with a digital sensor instead of film. The term SLR or Single Lens Reflex, refers to the fact that light, passes through the lens, hits a mirror which turns the image right side up and displays it on the viewfinder focusing screen. When the picture is taken the mirror flips up (reflex) as the shutter opens, the iris in the lens closes, and the sensor is exposed. The final image looks very close to what was seen in the viewfinder.
    The best DSLRs have interchangeable lenses. They can have an optical or electronic viewfinder. My newest Sony DSLR has an LCD viewfinder. It is technically an SLT not an SLR. The mirror is translucent (T) which allows light to the viewfinder and exposes the sensor at the same time without the mirror moving during the shot. There are many advantages to this that I will tell you about later. In all other aspects my camera is still a DSLR
    A DSLR with interchangeable lens provides you with almost total control over the image you want to capture. You can adjust the exposure of the shot. Exposure is a combination of the sensitivity of the sensor to light, the speed of the shutter, and the aperture or opening of the iris of the lens. These three things all work together.
    Exposure starts wit the ISO setting. ISO is also known as ASA or DIN. These acronyms are so old no one remembers what they stand for anymore. They are the acronyms of the original folks who set the standards for film. What does this have to do with digital photography? Digital photography still uses those standards. Those standards are used to determine how to set the camera to capture a correctly exposed image.
    The exposure process is a combination of three things…ISO number, which sets the sensitivity of the internal light meter, shutter speed, which determines how long the sensor is exposed to light, we are talking hundredths of seconds here, and the aperture setting or F-stop which determines how large or small the opening of the lens iris.
    A DSLR will set all the above for you automatically or you can decide for yourself. You do have control. You can set the camera for shutter priority meaning you choose the shutter speed; the camera sets the correct lens aperture or F-stop for you. You can reverse that and set the aperture yourself and the camera sets the shutter speed. The third choice, and it is the one that most photography instructors want their students to use, is full manual. You set it all using the camera’s meter.
    Let me give an example. The camera is set for an ISO of 200. The f-stop of the camera is set at 5.6; the shutter speed will be at 125 hundreds of a second. How do I know that? because the meter in my camera tells me. Now if I want to set it myself then there will be an indicator in the viewfinder to let me know when I have the correct exposure. Each manufacturer or camera has its own way of doing that. There might be a vertical or horizontal scale with an arrow or pointer that needs to be set on zero. Older film cameras used a ring and a needle… you adjusted the shutter and F-stop until the needle was in the ring and then take the shot.
    Typically film cameras had an ISO setting as low as 25 to as high as 6400 or more. These settings matched the speed of the film which was on the canister. For example: Kodak Kodachrome daylight film could have an ASA of 25. This was a great film for taking bright colored and very sharp slides in bright daylight. Kodak Ektachrome 400 was good for taking pictures in low light without a flash.
    The higher the ISO the less light you need to expose the picture. The lower the ISO setting the more light you need. So why not use a high ISO all the time? Well that sounds reasonable, but because of the way the other parts of the exposure process work the final picture may have results you don’t want.
    Film has an emulsion consisting of fine grains of silver halide salt particles suspended in a gelatin. These salts based on size determined the sensitivity of the film to light, the more sliver particles the less light, the less light the higher the ISO. The more particles the film contains the grainier the film. This translates to a grainer picture from the developed negative or slide. The bigger the picture the more noticeable this grain becomes. Digital photography experiences the same thing only the grain is called noise. The higher the ISO setting the less light you need but the noise, or digital grain, increases. Some cameras produce more noise at higher ISO than others. The older Sony A100 is noticeably noisier at ISO 400 than my newer A57 SLT.

    Now the question changes to: why use a higher ISO if it increases noise? The answer is because it increases the shutter speed as well.
    Why is that an advantage?
    Simple answer is that a faster shutter speed makes it easier to hold the camera steady and capture the shot. In other words, a faster shutter speed reduces or eliminates a thing called blur. With a fast shutter speed you can freeze your subject. You can catch a bird in flight; freeze a baseball pitcher's curve ball in the air. With a fast shutter speed you can take multiple pictures per second as you pan and follow a track star or a horse racing with its neck outstretched as it passes the winning post.

    A high ISO setting allows for hand held shooting in low light…to a point anyway. I love shooting in low light. I prefer the term available light. If the light is really low then your exposure setting could require a slow shutter speed and as I said that could make it hard to hold the camera steady during the exposure. One way to reduce camera movement is to hold it properly. Elbows tucked in against your body, left hand under the lens with palm up and cradling the lens. This type of hold also helps to keep your fingers from getting in the shot. Another way to reduce camera movement is to take advantage of DSLRs that have built in anti shake. Sony has named this function Steady Shot. Sony built this function into the camera body, some camera makers build it into the lens. I prefer Sony’s method because it reduces the size and weight of their lenses.

    The best way to avoid camera shake when shooting a long exposure is to use a monopod or even better a tripod. Both of these pieces of equipment are essential to the serious photographer.
    I think this is a good start to our online photography course. Next time I will discuss in further detail the relationship between lens settings and focus range also known as depth of field. Controlling DOF is a great advantage that DSLRs provide over the conventional point and shoot camera.
    Gramps.
    http://community.fmca.com/blog/62/entry-1382-depth-of-field/
    Lesson Two.
  11. -Gramps-

    Matters Of The Heart

    By -Gramps-,

    Diane and I have a saying that started after our grand boys came along. We used it on them (and they would use it back if necessary) if one of them or I (Diane has complaints but never whines about anything) mumbled and groused about something. “Whining is not attractive” Matters Of The Heart Blog Post

  12. -Gramps-

    Gadgets For Christmas!

    By -Gramps-,

    Well, Christmas is only ……days away. You can fill in the blank yourself. I thought I would mention a few things that I would want for Christmas if I didn’t have them already and some things I don’t have that are on my list. These things are almost always gadgets of some kind.
    1. Winegard GS-wing Wingman Antenna upgrade. I have one of these. It attaches to an existing Sensor head with no tools required. It is supposed to increase UHF signal gain up to 100%. I am not sure it has done that for me but it has helped pull in stations that are far away, up to a point. You still have to rotate the antenna of course, which I find to be a real pain. If your digital TV has a viewable signal strength meter that helps.
    http://www.winegard....ngman/index.php
    2. Wingard Sensar Pro TV signal meter. I do have one of these installed in the overhead video cabinet of my coach. This direct replacement for a Winegard preamp is a helpful thing to have. It allows you to seek and peak digital TV signals before you run a channel scan on your TV. It helps you to aim your RV antenna with a numerical scale…the higher the number the better your aim. It provides 10db of gain, which will pull in that big game just enough to stop the picture from freezing and breaking up into those irritating squares.
    http://www.winegard..../sensar-pro.php
    3. Crossfires. This pair of gadgets is invaluable. Crossfires are a dual tire pressure equalization system. They provide a number of things. You have a window that quickly tells you if your tires are at or near proper inflation pressure. You have one point to inflate both tires. The most important thing is that the Crossfire system moves air back and forth between the two tires depending on which one is taking the most weight or if one has a leak the other tire will loan air for as long as it can, until the low pressure shut off activates. These things will add life to your tires and pay for themselves. I have been using them for seven years and they are a very good investment.
    http://www.dualdynam...res/index.shtml
    4. Rechargeable Family Radios (walkie talkies). No coach should be without a set of these. Hand signals alone or depending on a rear camera when parking the coach just don’t cut it if you ask me. You can go hog wild and buy a set of headsets or just go for a good set of handhelds, but do your self a favor and get a pair. You can always use them to keep up with the grandkids at Disney World. Store them close to the front door of your coach. Wal-Mart sells a whole range of them.
    http://www.walmart.c...ch_constraint=0
    5. Wireless thermometers with multiple remote transmitters. These things are great. Put a transmitter in your wetbay, one in the fridge and anywhere else you want one. It is always good to know if your beer is getting too warm or your water pump is getting too cold.
    http://www.acurite.c...hermometer.html
    6. A remote controlled AM/FM CD weather band dash radio. The remote is important. The co-pilot can use it to change the station so that the driver doesn’t have to look down or reach for the buttons. I am ordering the remote control for my Magnadyne today.
    https://recreationna...m9900cds-remote
    7. Cell booster/repeater. This is a great gadget. I have helped install them and my wife keeps complaining about the fact we don’t have one for ourselves. It is on my list. This device will find a cell signal and repeat it inside your coach where it would normally be weak. This helps to prevent dropped calls or helps you make a call in the first place. The key is to buy the correct system for your coach. I don’t recommend a tethered repeater. The best way to go is to have a multi user repeater that is wireless.
    http://www.wilsonamp...245-soho-rv-kit
    8. A GPS that is designed for RV/Coach use. My Droid phone has two gps programs. My Droid Tablet has one. I have GPS software installed on my Windows 7 tablet. I have a Garmin as well. None of them are going to keep me from driving under a too low bridge or taking the coach down a road that is too narrow. They are also not going to tell me where to find a campground or a big rig accessible gas station. Rand McNally has two RV friendly GPSs. I hope to find one under the tree for me this year.
    http://store.randmcn...CFchgTAodX2npKQ
    9. An air compressor is not exactly a gadget but it sure is nice to have for obvious reasons. You can keep all your tires both the coach and the tow inflated without have to negotiate gas stations, that is, if you can find one that has an air pump. I carry an older Huskey that I bought from Home Depot. It is on wheels, light and has enough horse power to fill my coach tires. The new model has a large compartment for hose and attachment storage.
    http://www.homedepot...ssor-91581.html
    10. A Brita water pitcher/filter. Sure beats carrying a lot of bottled water around plus you can keep the pitcher in the fridge.
    http://www.brita.com...water-pitchers/
    11. A Kindle for the co-pilot. There are not enough words to describe how much my wife likes her Kindle, the keyboard model. She is always looking for the deal of the day and free books to read. She uses it as we are going down the road. Hers is the keyboard with WiFi version. I sure was the hero when I bought it for her along with a leather case with built in led light. The light gets its power from the Kindle itself.
    http://www.amazon.co...sl_1h7nrm5wtl_b
    12. A Droid Tablet with Keyboard. I own one. I happen to have the Asus Transformer with keyboard/usb/ extra battery docking station. It is great. I can web browse, Skype, take pictures and videos, blog, take care of email business and download books to the Kindle ap or other reading aps installed on my tablet. I am also addicted to Angry Birds. The nice thing about it is that it is small, portable and still makes a great laptop at the same time. I did the midnight Black Friday thing and bought one for Diane as well. She loves it. The Asus Transformer is the best pad you can get, better than an Ipad 2. The new one coming out on the market is the Asus Prime. It is very light very thin and very fast. It also costs more than the Transformer.
    http://www.asus.com/...nsformer_TF101/
    13. CharGriller Table Top Grill and Smoker. This is not a gadget but deserves to be on the list. I own one of these and it is great!. Smokes, grills and makes everything taste better. Along with the grill you need a cover, a cast iron grate lifter, and an apron. You will cook and look like a pro with one of these grills. I know because I won an FMCA GEAR rally grilling contest using this beauty.
    http://www.chargrill...uemart&Itemid=2
    14. Dyson Ultracompact Vaccum. My wife owns the DC24, which was the predecessor of this vaccum. It is light, compact, so that you can hide it in a corner or store it in the basement. It works really well. It sucks up a lot of dirt off any type floor. There are no bags of course. Great attachments so you don't have to carry a dirt buster and a vacuum.
    http://www.bestbuy.c...8&skuId=8728736
    These are just a few gadgets that I think will improve your time in your coach and, in turn, improve your life!
    Gramps
  13. -Gramps-
    For most of the month of February the three of us were parked on a live oak covered lot at Sunshine RV Resort, an Encore Park in Vero Beach. We choose to stay there because we wanted to see our daughter Jeri race in the Publix Florida Half-Marathon in Melbourne.  Months 2,3,4 and Another Magical Day

  14. -Gramps-

    The Death of XP

    By -Gramps-,

    Windows XP is now 12 years old. It has been one of the best, if not the best, operating systems to ever be installed on a hard drive. I personally think it is better than Windows 7. However, it is now officially at it's EOL stage.

    EOL stands for End Of Life.

    Let us not morn for it quite yet. As Mark Twain was once reported to have said: "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

    The above is a misquotation. Mr. Twain actually said: "The report of my death was an exaggeration."

    In other words, he wasn't dead yet, even if he, or as the case may be, his cousin, wasn't feeling all that well.

    XP is not feeling all that well in the eyes of its creator. However, that does not change the fact that it is still running on a third of the world's computers, including half of the world's business machines and 90 percent of the ATMs. Some of these machines run embedded proprietary application software that will not migrate to Windows 7 or Windows 8. I have yet to see any Windows 8 computers sitting on a desk belonging to any of my customers.

    If so many computers still run on XP or embedded XP, why the big push to move away from it? I can sum that up in a couple of words: Phones and Tablets, or to use a different two words: Touch Screen. Touch screen devices have a much greater ability to deliver great new experiences. These new experiences, or to call them by what they really are -- apps -- cost money. You either pay to get them or pay to play them, or both.

    What does this mean for all of us XP users? Does this mean our XP pc is going to just one day quit? Does it mean we have to run out a buy a new computer if we want to read our email, stream our favorite movie, shop on Amazon, Skype our grand kids, or do any of the things we love to do? Some people selling computers (and a certain home shopping network will go unnamed here) want you to think so.

    You don't have to do a thing if you don't want to. Well, there is one thing you might have to do: Update your antivirus program to one that has very good real-time protection.

    If you are using Microsoft Security Essentials, the antivirus malware protection that Microsoft offered for free, then you need to replace it ASAP. Microsoft sent out an update for MSE users about a week ago warning of the immediate end to the support of this program and then two days later started supporting it again.

    Now I have learned that virus definition updates will still be available until July 2015. This does not mean you have total protection from hackers. Then again, you never did! I know that for a fact. The thing is, updates for your other programs, such as Microsoft Office, including Outlook, will still come your way. If any of those programs have a security flaw and Microsoft makes a fix, you will be able to get the update.

    So here is what you should consider doing if you want to keep rolling happily along with XP residing on your desktop or laptop. Purchase a copy of a good antivirus Internet security anti Spam program from Norton, or Kaspersky or MacAfee. All of those software makers have promised to continue supporting the system. I am used to using a very good free program but it didn't kill me to move from MSE to a three device license of Kaspersky.

    I installed it on my very old self-built XP workstation and on my wife's new Windows 8.1 touchscreen laptop.

    Yes, I did run out and replace her old Compaq. I did not do this because it had Windows XP installed on it. I did it because it ran or walked or crawled on Vista Home Premium. Now, there is an operating system with a built-in reason to replace it with something better.

    If you really are looking to upgrade from XP -- some use the word "upgrade" with a bit of reluctance -- to Windows 8.1, then I have a few suggestions on how to go about doing just that. Before I do, let me tell you that I think Windows 7 is not a bad operating system; however, you will not find many or depending where you shop, any new consumer devices with that operating system any longer. It is still the system of choice for business workstations. With a bit of shopping online you can possibly get a personal device with Windows 7, but I suggest that you just move on to Windows 8.1.

    Here is my first and most important suggestion. When you buy a laptop with Windows 8.1 installed, make sure the laptop has a touchscreen. There are some features of Windows 8.1 that a mouse just cant use, not without a lot of trouble anyway. One of those features is closing an application. There is at the present no X at the top of the window, so you close an app or Internet site by dragging the window down from the top with your finger until it shrinks and then spins around backwards. I kid you not. I have not figured out how to do this with a mouse.

    Windows 8 also has a feature named the charm bar. This little ditty of a program appears on the right side of the screen after a swipe of the finger that begins off screen and to the left. The charm bar, or charms menu, has a search button, a settings button which includes the power button, Wi-Fi connections, control panel and a bunch of other icons. The candy bar/charms menu also has a shortcut to the start screen, which displays all those big pretty tiles.

    The charm bar is the intersection of all that Windows 8.1 does and you need your finger to get there, so a touch screen is necessary. Also many of the free games and not free games you can download from the Windows store are touch games. Diane is addicted to one called Tap Tiles and I am finding myself playing a quiz game called Logo and killing a lot of time in the process.

    Second suggestion: The laptop you buy should have at least four gigs of Ram. Windows 8.1 is not the easiest program to manage the memory it takes to make it work. It is too hard to shut down a program and it continues to run in the background eating up resources. This can happen with a smart phone as well but there is a feature in settings called force stop. Windows 8.1 does not make it easy to force stop a program, not without thinking about it. My wife's laptop has eight gigs of RAM and Window 8.1 can use almost half that memory doing nothing but looking pretty.

    Actually I find Windows 8.1 to be quite intriguing. There are some aspects of it I like a lot and some I don't. It has retained enough of Windows 7 to make it possible for me to find my way around deep inside of it and at the same time its metro aps page and start page look good and make it easy to find and start programs.

    One other thing to do: when you buy a new pc, remove all the bloat ware from it. This takes a bit of time but it will make the machine run better, which will make you feel better.

    Remember, if you do decide to migrate to Windows 8.1 then get a touchscreen laptop with at least 4 gigs of ram, but more is better. By the way, if the pc you buy has Windows 8 on it, you should update it to 8.1 before you do anything else. Did I not mention that before? The update is free and some retail places like Best Buy will do it for you.

    In conclusion, if you have an XP laptop right now, don't panic. It isn't going to blow up or refuse to boot up. If you don't have one installed already, then you should purchase a good antivirus program if you intend to keep it for awhile longer. You can take your time looking for a new computer if that is what you want to do. XP isn't really dead, not yet anyway. It is still lingering around.

    Derrick
  15. -Gramps-
    I suspect that some of you that have read my first three lessons are thinking that getting deeper into digital photography and purchasing a DSLR is just TOO much. It is too complicated and too expensive. Why bother when my cell phone or inexpensive point and shoot camera works just fine?
    Well, it all depends on what you want from the experience of shooting pictures. If I can use an analogy, you can take a vacation, stay in a hotel in a great location that you drove or flew to, or you can travel there in a coach and really get to know the place while still feeling at home. Okay, maybe that isn't a great analogy…but it is true.
    A DSLR and its ability to control the exposure and the array of lenses it offers opens up a whole new world for you to see and record. With the right equipment you can throw yourself into it. You can think big, wide, small.
    Imagine you are walking in the woods near a campground in the mountains. You worked hard to make the time and the money to get there and now you are experiencing the first day in a long time that you don’t have to think about work, taxes, and bills. Your camera is hanging around your neck, the birds are singing, the sun is making interesting shadows on the path in front of you. Just stop and look, turn around slowly…what do you see? Look down at the path, what is growing there? Stoop down; look closer! What do you see? Imagine looking at anything you see from a different angle, from below or behind, and if you can move there, look through the viewfinder, take a breath, and press the button! What do you see? What do you think of the image you just captured? How does it make you feel? Did you see the picture before you took it? No? You will. Do you think it is a good picture? Do you want to make it better? You will.
    Lesson Four,
    Using Your Eyes and The Rule of Thirds
    The rule of thirds is not really a rule. It is really more of a guideline. Look at any photograph. Now imagine a grid on top of it. This grid is like a tic-tac-toe board. It is composed of nine squares all the same size. When you compose a picture, you will give it greater impact if you place the subject at the intersection or lines of these squares.
    For example: you are shooting a sunset. You look through your viewfinder; the sun is dead in the middle of the screen. Don’t leave it there. Move the sun to the right third or the top third of the frame before you take the shot. You might move it to the bottom third to show more sky. In other words don’t just focus and shoot, let go and move the camera before you take the picture. Think about what you are looking at. Don’t always keep the horizon or a person’s eyes dead in the middle of the picture. Notice I used the word always, I didn’t say never.
    Look closely at the following pictures. Image the nine square grid on each one. What is the main point of interest of each one? What attracts your eye first? If the picture has a horizon, where is it?





    Like many rules, the Rule of Thirds is made to be broken, but I suggest that it is better to really know a rule before you decide to not use it.
    The rule of thirds was first written down over two hundred years ago by artist John Thomas Smith, who thought the rule should be applied to the balance of light and dark in a picture more than content. It proved to be a very hard rule to follow for painters, but photographers learned to use it to improve composition. They, we, use it to place emphasis on light, angles of perception, and strong points of interest.
    This rule makes a picture easier to look at because it takes advantage of how people view images. It takes advantage of natural lines. Those lines are there. A sunset has lines; a flower garden has them, as does a person or group of people. Using this guideline helps to balance the picture, which makes the whole frame help tell your story.
    Can you see in the pictures below how the RoT was used to make the photographer (me) think outside the frame and create a better picture?


    The change in perspective does not have to be as dramatic to still make an impact.

    Just a simple zoom out and a bit of a pan to the right, move the "subject" to the left third:

    The rule of thirds doesn't have to be obeyed or used at the time you take the shot. You can also use it later by editing the picture. Notice the dramatic change in these two pictures.


    The Rule of Thirds is a guideline to help you think and see sideways, to get you to see "outside the box." The ROT helps you with your composition to change your perspective, and to use the lines that naturally occur in the shot. However, we have only scratched the surface, both with this lesson and the previous three.
    Next lesson ...Composition! Using, Stretching and Breaking both Depth of Field and the Rule of Thirds.
    http://community.fmca.com/blog/62/entry-1396-compose-the-picture/
    Gramps
  16. -Gramps-

    Better Than New!

    By -Gramps-,

    Click on any thumbnail above to see a lot more pictures!
    Gary, Janis, Diane and I are good friends. We travel together and we both own the same coach. It is a Holiday Rambler Vacationer XL, model 38PLT built on the Workhorse UFO chassis. The UFO has the engine in the rear and it is gas not diesel. We get a lot of comments when we pull into a campground together or separately.
    For example:
    "Man, your coach sure is quiet, what's wrong with it?"
    (Nothing)
    "Well, it sure is a funny sounding Diesel."
    (That's because it isn't a diesel, it's a gas pusher.)
    "No Way! Nobody makes one of those!"
    (Well, Holiday Rambler made mine.)
    "Are you sure it's gas?"
    (Well, it was the last time I filled the tank.)
    "Man I have never seen one of these going down the road."
    (You may have, you just didn't know it.)
    "That's crazy, a gas pusher? Where's the engine in it?"
    (Ahhh...I think it's in the rear.)
    Is this that UFO thing I have heard about?
    (Why, yes it is!)
    "What is a UFO anyway?"
    (It is a diesel coach that runs on gas.)
    Jeff Daniels says "Always remember and never forget; you're not a real American till you've been behind the wheel of a Recreational Vehicle."
    I agree with that but let me add this: People sure think you are an odd American when you tell them your Recreational Vehicle's gas engine is in the rear. Even the techs in Elkhart thought we were an unusual group of coach travelers. Personally, I think one of our coaches should be in the Elkhart RV Hall of Fame one day. We have been there and I know just where they can park it.
    Better Than New! Pilgrimage to Elkhart Days 5 and 6
    Tuesday morning came early. It was cloudy and cold. Gary and I had our coaches ready for their short trip to the service bays by seven twenty. Roger and Walt were there to pick them up ten minutes later.
    We told the guys how pleased we were with their work so far. I asked Roger if he would repair the second hole in the bathroom floor, and he said he would. He had cut a piece of vinyl from the floor inside the plumbing compartment next to the washer dryer to fix the first rip. That was a small square. He wanted to replace a whole section this time. I felt sure he could figure out something.
    I also added recalibrating my leveling system, and would they please inspect the roof (another thing I forgot to tell them the day before. It seems I misplaced my list and was going from memory).
    Walt told us that Ed from BAL still had some work to do on the slide outs and that Tim Belle the tech support manager wanted to meet with us in about an hour. I had had a number of very helpful phone conversations with Tim and was looking forward to meeting him in person.
    Roger hopped into the drive's seat. I asked him what he thought of the UFO chassis.
    "Yesterday I almost started it twice. I noticed that the tack was moving so I didn't, it's just amazing how quiet it is." He said
    I told Roger that I often turn up the rear camera microphone to listen to the engine.
    I have almost started the engine twice myself. I can only imagine what kind of terrible grinding noise that would cause. I hope I never hear it.
    Our rigs were moved back over to the service bays. I informed the ladies they would have to wait in the car, if they didn't want to wait inside because we needed to meet with JD and Tim and I wanted to take some pictures as well. That was all right with them.
    Gary and I walked over to the shop to see JD Adams, the manager of ESC. JD had talked to us both on the phone and I meet him briefly the morning before. He met us in the shop and introduced us to Rod and Mike, whom we had not met yet. We then went into Gary's coach where Ed from BAL was hard at work on Gary's main slide out.
    We chatted with him and with the other guys until Tim arrived. Tim told us what they had done so far which included installing new cables, all new standoffs (the bracket on the outside of the slide out that the cable attaches to.) and most important a bigger high torque motor that would move the big slide out much faster. What they planned to do today was change the seals on the outside. We told him how much we appreciated it.
    Walt had some questions about repairing Gary's basement door, and Roger had already started repairing my bathroom floor.
    I could have hovered around there for a long time watching these guys work.
    It is easy for me to loose track of time when I am with a bunch of technical guys. With my wife and the dog just sitting in the car on a cold morning; I could loose enough time to get myself in trouble. I suggested to Gary we take pictures and then rescue the ladies.
    We took pictures and then rescued the ladies. Diane was sitting and shivering with the car engine running. She was looking more than a little cold.
    "You okay?"
    "Yeeesss," she said with chattering teeth. "Can we get going now?"
    "Sure, the museum doesn't open until ten anyway so we would have just been sitting there."
    "I'm okay."
    I was relieved to see she wasn't obviously upset with me.
    Just before we pulled out, our neighbor from Quebec pulled in, truck and trailer. I didn't even notice he was gone. Before he could get more than a few feet off the road his truck died. He had pulled his fifth wheel around to the other side of the service building to fill his water tank.
    Well, Gary and I couldn't just leave him stranded like that so we spent the next fifteen minutes trying to jump his truck and get it moving again. We started it, but it wouldn't run long. He had to unhitch the trailer and move the truck to where he could plug in a trickle charger.
    That was the best we could do for him, so we headed off for the Elkhart RV/MH Hall of Fame Museum and Conference Center.
    Just for your information the MH stands for Manufactured Housing not motorhome.
    When it came to sightseeing in Elkhart, this was the highlight of the whole trip.
    We were the first people through the door that morning. JD had given us three free passes and we expected to pay for one ticket but the two gentlemen curator/guides who met us at the door said that would not be necessary. We signed the visitor's registry and the self guided tour began.
    The museum is divided into four main halls. One is the supplier's hall, the Go RVing hall which has new rigs on display and the RV Founders and Ingram Halls which have a fantastic collection of antique housecars and house trailers.
    Diane and I visited the supplier's hall first. There we found displays of towing equipment, RV appliances, including some that are also residential, along with displays from RV clubs and campgrounds. There was also one from Workhorse. It was a display of the UFO chassis. Of course I had to gravitate toward it. There was a video that I watched that showed some of the first people who drove the chassis and the first owners. I found it fascinating. I had to tell Diane about it so I went to get her. She walked over, looked at the video for about ten seconds.
    "That's nice" she said. "Let's go look for Gary and Janis."
    Feeling somewhat deflated, I followed her to the Go RVing hall. I walked past everything and went straight to the Damon Avanti that was parked near the front window. It is a small Class A with Euro Styling and is powered by a front engine Navistar diesel engine. Nice rig, but we didn't look at it for long. Next we visited the Founders Hall.
    I was amazed at the assortment of Motor Houses. I looked at the older towables but I really wanted to spend more time looking at the motorized rvs. I was impressed the most by the Mae West Mobile and the Tennessee Traveler with its pot bellied "furnace". I know that most of us are used to a lot of comfort. I have to wonder what earlier House Car-ers, who drove with their backsides resting on wooden benches would think of our plush seats and air ride. I bet they would think we are all a bunch of motor homing weenies.
    We left the museum sometime around twelve thirty. I remember because I took a phone call just before we left and I noted the time. It was the only one I had the whole day. A miracle!
    Our next stop was Das Dutchman Essenhaus in Middlebury. It is this large complex with an Amish style restaurant, an inn, shops, and bakery. They serve lunch home style; some may call it country style. We had about a half hours drive to get there, because we planned on taking the scenic route trough Amish country. We arrived forty minutes later and ready to eat.
    The restaurant is a huge place. It must seat three hundred people or more. There was hardly anyone there. I guess the tourist season had not geared up yet. We told our server we were there for the home style lunch. She informed us that would include fried chicken, home made egg noodles, green beans, mash potatoes and gravy, corn and our choice of pot roast or ham. We chose the pot roast.
    It wasn't the best country style food I have eaten. That distinction is a toss up between the food served at the Daniel Boone Inn in Boone North Carolina or a little hole in the wall called Lazy Susan's in Spruce Pine North Carolina. As I said it wasn't the best but is was still very good. For desert I had fresh strawberry pie with ice cream, of course.
    After lunch we explored the place a bit. It had this big meandering country store that took up the four outside walls of the inn. We also visited some other shops and climbed the stairs to the top of a grain silo that had been converted into an observation deck.
    Sometime around three thirty, quarter to four we were ready to head back to Elkhart.
    We took the interstate back so it was a rather quick trip. Once again our coaches were parked in their spots, power connected, jacks down and slides out. Once inside, I soon discovered that my tank was full of water. I would not have been surprised to find mints on our pillows.
    The bathroom floor looked perfect. I went outside the coach to check the main slide sweeps. They had been replaced. I checked the roof and saw that my big bedroom skylight had been resealed. There were a couple of other spots that looked like they had been touched up as well.
    I visited Gary's coach and we inspected the work done on his slide outs. We could tell that Ed had extended a couple of cables instead of replacing them. Gary and I had talked about doing this a couple of times ourselves. However, we were not confident in how to go about it or what type of connector to use. Now we knew, but of course we hoped we would not have a reason to do it. Gary told me that Walt had blocked off a heating vent behind his loveseat. The hot air trapped itself back there and was virtually baking the couch so at Gary's request Walt took care of it.
    We had given the techs a long list of things to do. It appeared they had done them all and they repaired the damage from my encounter with the telephone pole.
    It was obvious that after two days with ESC our coaches were now better than new.
    The four of us visited for awhile, talking about the trip and what we had accomplished so far. We were all in agreement that it had been worth the journey, no doubt about that. The last thing we discussed was what time to leave in the morning. I said we can't leave too early, not until we pay our bills.
    I had my doubts about coming to Elkhart, it was a long way there and I always get nervous about leaving my business for long stretches of time. Of course I never really leave my business; it follows me wherever I go, but I was sure glad we made the trip.
    I knew that I had a good coach, and now with its many problems fixed, I could start to really enjoy it.
    Diane and I ended our evening by driving to the Elkhart Riverwalk Park. The park runs right beside the river, on both sides, and twists itself around for two miles. It is a great place to stretch one's legs and that is just what we did. Nickolas loves to take walks like this and he led the whole time. Diane and I talked Galax. We looked forward to being back there in just a couple of days. We talked about the trip, things back at home, just simple stuff that old married couples, who travel in a motor home, chat about.
    By dark we were back at the coach. After dropping Diane and Nickolas off at the door. I drove to a dollar store to buy some bottled water. While there I purchased a set of sheets, after calling Diane to ask her about them, some snacks and a few housekeeping items.
    While paying for my goods, I struck up a conversation with the young lady cashier. She had seen our coaches come down the street. She also told me her husband was a framer for one of the trailer makers. They were very busy. They had an order for 700 rigs and were working overtime to get them done. I thought that was great news. I hoped that the class A market would soon do as good.
    Back in the coach, Nickolas and I shared a bag of kettle cooked potato chips while watching NCIS. Not long after that it was bed time. Tomorrow it was back on the road. We would be stopping at a KOA somewhere near Canton, Ohio and we hoped to be out of Elkhart around nine.
    Day 6
    As usual Gary and I were up early. We were getting our coaches ready to hit the road. Gary had hooked up his tow car the night before. I was under the hood of my car pulling the ignition fuse which is the last thing I do when I tow the car. As I was closing the hood Roger walked up.
    "Are you guys leaving now?" he asked. "I hope not, because we aren't quite done with your coaches yet."
    They still needed to change my rigs oil. The day before, due to supplier problems the shop couldn't get the correct filter, but it was being delivered this morning. Gary's coach still had a wiper park failure error code. Walt hoped to get that cleared up this morning as well.
    Gary and I both figured that we came here to get things fixed so let the guys keep on working.
    About an hour and a half later my oil was changed and my bill was paid. During the time my coach was being worked on, JD, Gary and I were sitting in JD's office just shooting the breeze. I learned that JD had helped set up the Monaco service facility in Wildwood, Florida, then transferred to Elkhart where he worked for Monaco both in the coach and towable divisions. As the economy started to put holes in Monaco's ship, he was asked to come to ESC and had been there a good while by the time Gary and I first started talking to him. I also found out that ESC shared its facilities with a graphics company that custom painted new coaches. What that meant was that for the most part ESC could take care of about anything.
    Walt came in and mentioned that they were having trouble clearing Gary's wiper park failure alarm. They had done what the Workhorse techs had suggested which was to disconnect the chassis battery, do some kind of ground, and then connect it. I suggested that they call a service manager at Workhorse and ask him for help. His name is Eric and I have him on my speed dial. He knows more about the UFO then anybody I know.
    I think JD was a little skeptical that a regional rep would take his call. I told him to tell Eric that Gramps said to call him. So he made the call and I could tell that Eric answered. JD said that Gramps said to call, and I could tell that JD got a pretty good response from Eric. They talked for awhile and the conclusion was that the coach really needed to go to a Workhorse Service Center where they would have the latest and greatest diagnostic software. We all agreed that would be the best thing to do. At that point Eric asked to speak to me. We had a pleasant catching up kind of conversation. I told him the coach was working great and the guys at ESC were really taking good care of us. Eric was actually going through airport security somewhere and we made plans to talk again.
    Roger let us know that he was finished with my coach.
    We said our good byes. I once again hooked up my tow car and we were on the road again.
    That was it. Our coaches were now in really great shape. Gary had the wiper problem, but that will be fixed eventually. Later there was one thing that Diane wished we had asked the guys to do. She would like to fasten hinges to the solid stove top covers so that they could just be folded back when needed and not be a falling hazard. (See my blog about turkey soup).
    We would like to make a trip to Elkhart again. When we do we will be visiting JD and his crew. I don't think they will have any problem with taking care of Diane's wish.
    We drove until lunch time and stopped at a Flying J's for sandwiches and gas. Not too many hours after that we drove back into the hills behind Canton Ohio and soon we were at the local KOA. It was in a remote spot but it was also a very scenic spot. We sat up camp and Gary fired up his grill. We cooked hot dogs and sausages. We used the coals to start a camp fire. We just sat there staring at the fire and counting the stars. All of us were thankful that it had been such a successful trip.
    The next day would find us splitting up our little caravan. Gary and Janis would head east on I-64 to Charlottesville while Diane and I would stay on I-77 to Galax. I looked forward to that. I wanted to relax and play some golf, actually a lot of golf. I had a new to me set of clubs. Diane and I also wanted to visit with my parents and see our friends again.
    But that is another story.
  17. -Gramps-
    Diane and I camped in a tent for 30 years before making the huge jump to a motorhome. There was no step in between.
    Over the years, we talked about getting a trailer or a pop-up a few times. We had friends who purchased one, and then the discussion between the two of us would begin.
    I was not interested. If it had to be towed, then it needed to be registered. And if it had to be registered, it would be taxed by some government somewhere. My tent cost me nothing and I liked it that way. Besides, I was proud of my ability to rough it. I thought I pitched a pretty good campsite. I had lots of experience at it, that was for sure.
    A few weeks before Diane and I were married, we were discussing where we would be living. Would we rent a house or an apartment? Would we consider a house trailer? There were quite a few of those scattered around the mountains of North Carolina, the place where we were heading.
    Just for the fun of it, we decided to visit an RV dealer in Virginia Beach. I knew something about small trailers and pop-ups. I sold them during the summer while working for a large hardware and lumber store. I assembled bicycles, lawnmowers and grills, and I demonstrated Apache travel trailers.
    It was always fun when a new load of them would come in. We parked them in the front of the store and it was my job to set them up for display, show them to customers and, hopefully, sell one or two a week. I don’t remember what they cost in 1972 dollars, but they were not cheap.
    Neither were the trailers and fifth-wheels at the RV dealer, either. They cost a lot more than a house trailer. I don’t know if you could finance them for up to 20 years back then, I never asked. I was impressed with the miniaturization of things inside, including the furniture, the bathroom and the kitchen. I was also impressed by the way a travel-trailer took advantage of all the space it had for storage and how it could be pretty self-supporting.
    I was also impressed by the price ... way too much for two 19-year-olds to start a life together in.
    Flash forward a couple of years. Diane and I were living in Charlotte, North Carolina. During that time President Ford started his “Whip Inflation Now” program, which included a substantial tax rebate. This was a real rebate, not a loan from one year to the next. The president encouraged people to spend this money, not save it or pay off bills. He wanted to keep the economy from going into a deeper recession -- go buy something nice for yourself and your family, was the idea.
    It was a good amount of money, for us anyway. The question was, what to do with it?
    Some days before the checks were due to arrive, some friends of ours whom we worked with at PTL suggested we buy camping gear. David and Brenda were active campers as well as being a fisherman and fisherlady.
    They told us about the campsites along the Blue Ridge Parkway. They told us how beautiful it was up there and how you got to know the area so much more by staying there as opposed to driving through on your way to some hotel somewhere.
    Diane and I were convinced, so with their help we shopped for a tent, sleeping bags, stove, mess kits and all the tons of little things that made camping more enjoyable.
    We took to it like ducks to water. From then on if we had a weekend free, or a vacation, it was spent in a tent. As our family grew, we shopped and bought a bigger tent to hold everyone. We had some great times and adventures, including a bear attack, visits from skunks and food poisoning that put me in the hospital in Boone, North Carolina.
    We have been caught in huge thunderstorms that blew our dining canopy down, subfreezing weather and unexpected snow storms. I don’t know if our kids learned to walk in the kitchen at home or on a trail in the mountains. They all spent a lot of time in a baby backpack on my or an older sibling’s back while hiking in the woods.
    Things changed after our girls turned into teenagers, so we purchased a second tent for them. The day came, however, when a tent, cold showers and no blow dryer and no swimming pool, no longer appealed to the kids. We found ourselves taking the traditional hotel motel vacation.
    When the kids spent the weekend with friends or family, Diane and I would once again hit the road with our camping gear and give the woods another try.
    Like I said, I was proud of my double-walled tent, my dome dining canopy and my ability to pack all our equipment (most of which we still have) into our van. It could get pretty tight in there. Joel would be surrounded by sleeping bags with a large cooler under his feet.
    Yes, sir, I was a rugged man who made fun of people who camped alongside of us in their fancy white rigs, some of which looked almost as big as our house.
    We called Rvers "city slickers" and made up jokes about them. It was a play on Jeff Foxworthy’s red-neck jokes.
    Ours went something like this:
    If you have to call Terminex to kill the bugs at your campsite, you might be a city slicker.
    If at 6 p.m. you have Chinese food delivered to your site, you might be a city slicker.
    If the first thing you do after parking your big trailer or motorhome is to cover your site with lawn ornaments and plant your own flowers, you might be a city slicker.
    If you have to use a hair dryer while on a camping trip, you might be a city slicker.
    If you have to turn on a generator to use your hair dryer, you might be a city slicker.
    If you go hiking in the woods on a strenuous trail wearing sun screen and flip-flops, you might be a city slicker.
    If your charcoal grill is all-electric, you might be a city slicker.
    If you have a screen room next to your rig with a TV, refrigerator, giant electric fan, big boom box, and a wine chiller, you might be a city slicker.
    If you use designer luggage to carry your clothes into your rig, you might be a city slicker.
    If you use a blow torch to start a campfire, you might be a city slicker.
    If the sound of a smoke detector comes from your campsite, you might be a city slicker.
    I think you get the picture.
    Then came a back injury, followed by a pit bull attack, and our tent camping days came to an end.
    As I said, I didn’t believe it when Diane said she wanted to look at RVs. I saw no possible way to buy one of those things, not a large one anyway, and I saw no real advantage to a pop-up over a tent.
    One day, soon after Diane had recovered from her injuries, she asked me to walk with her. She took me to see a motorhome that was for sale in our neighborhood. She knew the owner, Doc. Doc, who would become our friend and traveling companion, took us on a tour of his Fleetwood Flair. Not many days after that, we went to an RV show, at Diane’s suggestion, and looked at trailers and coaches. You see where this is going, don’t you?
    A few days later, I found myself at a dealer's lot signing the paperwork to purchase a gently-used 2004 Fleetwood Bounder. I took it home a few days later. I had never driven one in my life.
    And that is how it started for us ... or should I say, how it started down the road for us. (Read my Rules for Owning a Motor Coach, Number 2 if you want to know more.)
    Now I am thinking about full-timing .... If the day comes when Diane wants to do that, well, I think you can see what will happen. Then this city slicker will really will have something to blog about.
    Gramps
  18. -Gramps-

    Bicycle Built for Four

    By -Gramps-,

    Last Friday morning I headed out to Lowes to buy a couple of things. I needed a flush valve seal for the low flow toilet in the bathroom next to our bedroom. I put off getting one for days just because I hate anything to do with plumbing. Plumbing is wet and it leaks and it frustrates me. However, a water bill that is bigger than it should be due to a bad toilet frustrates Diane so I found myself at Lowes buying the seal, some light bulbs (the old fashioned kind). I also picked up a Roman Shade for the coach bedroom door window.
    Diane didn’t want me to get one of those yet, not until she could shop with me. I wanted one right away because we were leaving later that afternoon in the coach with our grand boys for a little weekend camping trip to the Virginia Beach KOA. We needed the shade because Teddy Bear tore up the mini blinds that use to hang on the bedroom door. We had accidentally closed the door before we left Teddy alone in the coach while we took a trip to somewhere. He likes to sit in the bedroom chair and look out the window. He tried to open the door and in the process bent the blinds beyond repair. It didn’t matter that much, because we never liked them.

    So I came back with a shade. Diane was going to hang the dog blanket over the window for some privacy but the shade was on sale so I hoped the low price would compensate for a color she might not like. She frowned at me when she saw it, and reminded me that we were supposed to look together but she also said that it didn’t look all that bad.
    So I avoided that problem, and then tackled the leaky toilet. I did manage to fix it pretty quick so we packed up the coach and waited for the boys to arrive.
    Christine, Rob and little Brooklyn along with Carson and Austen pulled up around two in the afternoon. By two thirty, the car was hooked up and we were on our way to the Beach.
    It took about forty minutes to get parked on the site. The boys went exploring while I hooked up the coach and set up our patio. Then I hung the Roman shade. Diane actually thought it looked good. I was relieved.
    Once that was done, I went looking for the boys and found them on the basketball court. We played Cow, then Bird, and no matter what I could not beat Carson. The old man can’t out shoot the eight year old.
    They talked me into trying the giant jump pillow. This is a very large air filled trampoline. I gave it a whirl but I didn’t stay on it long. I figured if my knees gave out my butt would take a big bouncing whack. Actually, it was fun. You can get quite a bit of height, enough to do flips (Not Me!) and there are no springs to trap you and then break your leg.
    I fired up my Char-Griller kettle and I put chicken breasts with rice and mushroom soup wrapped in foil on the coals. Forty minutes later when had tender chicken, with rice and steamed broccoli for dinner. I used the coals to start a fire in the ring. Austen had procured the wood from the camp store earlier. We roasted marshmallows and made smores.
    After all the dinner stuff was cleaned up the boys came into the coach to watch “Back to the Future’ part one. They had never seen it before. It was fun to watch a movie with the boys about 1955 set in 1985. All of it was a trip to the past for them, big video cameras, Sony Walkman cassette tapes and all as well as Mr. Sandman and black and white television sets. The line in the movie “Who the heck is John F Kennedy?” is ironic for a number of reasons. They want to watch part 2. They will both find out the future, now their present, didn’t turn out exactly like the movie predicted.
    Saturday morning arrived clear and cool. It was going to be a glorious day. We all had sausage and egg biscuits nuked in the microwave, except for Teddy Bear of course. Then the boys took off for the jumping pillow on their scooters. I decided to make some minor repairs to the coach.
    I climbed up on the roof with needle and thread and repaired one of the bedroom slide out toppers. Then I waxed and buffed a section of the roof. I had some samples of RV wax-cleaner and I just wanted to see what they would do. Not that much it turned out. That reminds me I need to climb back up their and buff that stuff off.
    After my trip to the roof, I tightened up a loose bolt that holds the bay heater element wire to the snap fuse. I think that it being loose was the cause of the heater not blowing warm air last winter. That resulted in a frozen water pump. I would like to avoid replacing it again this winter.
    Diane and I let the boys set their own schedule for the morning. We figured as long as they were having fun…then we could have some time to ourselves. Both of us opened e-books and read most of the morning. I was trying to get through “Endeavor in Time” a Christian novel about time travel. It wasn’t written very well at all. The author borrowed from the TV series “Quantum Leap” and I think he should have left it alone. I finished the book and parts of it were okay but that is the best thing I can say about it. “The Door into Summer’ written in 1955 is a much better book if you want to read a time travel novel. It too has some predictions about the future that didn’t work out the way the author envisioned. That is part of what makes it fun.
    We read until lunch time which was the same time the boys came back to the coach.
    After lunch, all of us piled into the car and headed for the Virginia Beach boardwalk. After we parked we walked to a bicycle rental stall at 11th and Atlantic. We rented a surrey, one of those four person pedal cars. Diane had a coupon for the rental and we bought an hour for half the normal price.
    Carson and I took the front seats, Diane, Teddy Bear and Austen sat down in the back. We set off down the bike path.
    Pedaling that thing was hard work, plus the brake didn’t function. We could only stop the rig using the Flintstone method.
    I found out real quick that Carson was not much help propelling the coach as he could not reach the pedals. Teddy Bear was not comfortable riding on Diane’s lap so we decided to rearrange things a bit. Carson and Diane switched seats, Teddy went in the baby seat all the way up front.
    That worked out really well. The dog seemed to like being in the basket and he got lots of attention from the people we passed. Carson could stand up on the pedals in the back and so he became more than just dead weight. He became the afterburner. Whenever I called for "Turbo power", he would hit the pedals and give us a sudden burst of speed that didn’t throw us back in our seats but still moved us along at a much faster pace.
    We pumped that thing for an hour. It wore me out, but it was a lot of fun for all of us. As we were pedaling along we watch people horse back riding, and kite flying. We saw one person on an electric unicycle. We passed other surries and gave the passengers a big wave as we went by. We sang as we rode. It was a good hour.
    We returned the bike and then went to the closest grocery store for some ice cream. While there I bought some of those packaged adult juice boxes….Mar-Go-ritas or something like that. You put em in the freezer, until they get slushy and then serve them. You have to squeeze them to get the good stuff out. I bought them for all the adults coming for a cook out that night.
    Once we were back in the coach I served up some pretty good coffee ice cream to Diane while the boys and I had some Chocolate Truffle. Then Carson and I hung a string of rope lights that had been on the ground, from the patio awing. About the time we finished Christine showed up with sleeping Brooklyn. They left her with me while everyone else went back to the bouncing pillow.
    As soon as all were gone, Brooklyn woke up and started screaming at me. I guess she might have been hungry but there was nothing I could do about that. I couldn’t find her always near pacifier either. The only bottle I had was in the freezer and it contained booze. I thought about it but I figured if I drank a Mar-go-rita, it would only dull the pain in my ears for a second or two. So I paced around and patted her little bottom until help arrived.
    Christine took her from me, laid her on the dining table to change her and Brooklyn immediately shut up and began to smile.
    If I had known that putting her flat on her back and letting her kick her feet was all she wanted well, I could have done that.
    We all sat around and talked for awhile and then I fired up a chimney of coals for the grill. Joel and his girl friend Ashley were planning to come for burgers and baked sweet potatoes.
    I threw some Bubba Burgers on the grill, started a camp fire and put the Beatles in the coach CD player.
    When Joel and Ashley arrived I handed them each an adult juice box. Ashley, who had never been in the coach before, got the ten cent tour.
    Dinner was good. The conversation was good. Smores afterwards were good to.
    The evening flew by and soon the boys, Diane and I were left alone in the coach. We hit the bed around eleven.
    Sunday was simple. We packed up and were out of the KOA by noon. Home by one, boys gone by three. A quick weekend but it was really nice. Carson and Austen loved it. Christine got some time to herself, as much as you can get with a newborn daughter. Diane and I got to spend time with our grandsons.
    There is nothing wrong with that. I look forward to taking them out again.
    -Gramps-
  19. -Gramps-
    We have all had them, those moments when we are so overjoyed to be motorhome owners and those other moments, the ones where you take a deep breath and ask yourself:
    "Why did I ever buy this big blasted thing?"      Not So Good Coach Moments

  21. -Gramps-

    The Richmond RV Expo

    By -Gramps-,

    I have two installments of Eighteen Months to write, but I need a break from it. I feel the need to post something about Motor Coaching.
    Our coach is still stuck in the driveway. Not literally, but figuratively. Weather and time constraints have conspired together to keep it parked right where it is for some two months now without moving an inch. Boy, do I have the itch to (notice the word inch and itch are very close) to get away.
    With the idea that going somewhere is better than nowhere and looking at motorhomes at a show may be better than just staring at ours through the window, we decided to make a day trip to Richmond, Virginia. We made a visit to the 25th annual Richmond Camping and RV Expo at the Richmond Speedway.
    We left around 10 a.m. this past Saturday for our 90-minute drive up north. Just before we finished breakfast it started snowing, again. We spent a few minutes browsing the weather reports online just to make sure we would not get caught in some weather we could not get away from. The reports all said this was just a short snow shower, so we took off with our supply of water, energy bars and dollar-off admission coupons.
    We arrived just at 11:30. We drove through the gate and found ourselves in the Vendors area close to the main entrance. The vendors parking lot was nowhere near full, so based on the number of vehicles around us, I had no real idea if this show would be all that busy.
    We walked through the cold to the ticket booth, paid our sixteen bucks (including our dollar off each) passed through the glass doors, showed our tickets and had the back of our hands stamped with the word FUN in blue ink.
    There were quite a few people there. The main entrance was crowded with people around a tall counter. They were filling out some kind of sweepstakes coupon, the winning prize being twenty five grand, and the consolation prize being a call from a time share organization. I declined to enter the drawing.
    I was more interested in exploring a couple of class A coaches. One was a new small Class A made by Winnebago. The Itasca Reyo (or the Winnie Via) is a 25-foot-long class A with one slide out that due to its size and floor plan feels more like a Class C than an A. The coach we visited was the 25T model. It has twin beds in the back that can be converted to a queen. There is also a queen bed over the cab. The cockpit area, which has a class A view, is lower than the rest of the coach but the chairs can be rotated and raised 6 inches so they become a part of the living area. Good thing too, because there is only one small couch/dinette that serves as seating. Diane and I both agreed that the Reyo appeared to be a well built coach, with a yacht like interior, functional and attractive at the same time. However, it's tight and lacking in storage that she and I are very used to.
    The Reyo is built on the Dodge Sprinter Chassis, normally a C chassis. It is powered by a 154-hp five speed Mercedes diesel which I suspect adds twenty thousand to the overall price.
    The Reyo had a show price tag of 119,000, just a few thousand less than the sale price of my 39-foot rig.
    Parked next to the Reyo was an Itasca Sunstar, an entry level class A, with a one piece windshield and traditional interior styling. It had the fit and finish, with muted colors, and the pleasant interior that Winnebago is known for. I did notice that the basement doors were not the full size flush fit doors, but were the old style hatch covers. That is not a look that I care for all that much.
    Also on display was an Encounter 30SA. The Encounter is Fleetwood's new entry level Class A coach. The Encounter replaces the old Fleetwood Flair. I don't know how Fleetwood manages so many models with multiple floor plans each; then again I don't know how Winnebago does either.
    The Encounter 30SA appears to be a comfortable coach. The coach body was standard, no full body paint, and like the Sunstar, the retro look basement doors. It is what Diane calls a side isle coach with the bed, bath and kitchen all on the curb side of the coach. The dinette and the fridge are in the main slide out on the road side. We would have given this coach a lot of consideration when we first shopped for one, if it had been available then. It had a show price tag of 88,000 which I considered a very good price. I heard more than one visitor to the coach saying they thought it would sell quickly at that price.
    Across from the Encounter was a Tiffin Allegro Open Road, a Four Winds Hurricane and a Tiffin Phaeton. The Hurricane is a nice coach. A bit plain on the outside but pleasant on the inside. Nice big dining booth, pull out bar, a comfortable coach. The Phaeton was the highest end coach at a show obviously geared to mostly entry level rvers and as a result the coach was crowded with curious lookers, not shoppers. It was a nice coach, no doubt about that, good looking woodworking, wonderful choice of fabrics and colors, great lighting (and that is important to me) and with four slide outs, plenty of room. The only thing that left a bad impression was a bit of wood framing on the ceiling. It really didn't add to the overall look of the interior.
    I finally made my way out of the Phaeton and visited the Allegro Open Road. Maybe I should have visited them in reverse. I was not overwhelmed by the Open Road. It is a good entry level coach, particularly for families with kids. It has a bunk bed option and with most of the floor space covered in vinyl, dirt and water being tracked into the coach is not a big problem. I think a bit more ambient lighting and a few more mirrors or pictures would warm it up a bit. This coach was built on a Ford Chassis.
    We took a look into a couple of Born Free Class Cs. Nice rigs but a bit pricey.
    That brings up an observation. There were not a lot of Class As at this show. The majority of the Class A coaches on display were in the 30 to 34 ft range. As I mentioned the Tiffin Phaeton was the highest end new coach there. Camping World had a couple of used late model Monacos on display, a Knight and a Diplomat.
    There was also one new Meridian parked outside the main entrance. All the gas class As except one were built on the Ford Chassis. The one exception was a Damon Challanger (nice coach with comfortable interior) built on a Workhorse chassis and that coach had a sold sign on it.
    There were a lot of sold signs on trailers. More than I remembered seeing last year. I took the opportunity to chat with one exhibitor and he informed me that the show was one of the hardest to stage, due to the snowy weather, but it was a very busy show with many serious shoppers. He said sales were much better than last year, not only at the show but for the year as well.
    I gathered from him and from others I spoke to, that the RV market was showing signs of recovery. The RV industry may be recovering, but it has also changed. The dealers were not pushing large coaches. The show was packed with trailers. The show gave the strong impression that the dealers believe the RV market now wants smaller, less expensive, kid friendly RVs be they trailers or coaches.
    We visited the vendor area, chatted with some campground and resort folks, and then grabbed an overpriced lunch before visiting the second building. We caught the shuttle bus, and found out it would have quicker to walk. This building belonged to one dealer exhibiting Forest River, Four Winds, Damon and Winnebago products. It was packed with trailers and there were about 25 coaches, equally divided between As and Cs with a couple of fancy Bs.
    We visited two or three Damon Challengers. All were pretty basic coaches, not bad.
    We left the show around 3 p.m. and made our way home. We stopped at Outdoor World in Hampton just to see if anything was on sale and then we visited BJ's wholesale nextdoor.
    By the time we arrived back home, we were beat. The rest of the evening was devoted to Pizza and the Olympics, although I think I have seen all the snow I care to look at.
  24. -Gramps-
    2017 has been a very busy year, at least for the first three months. The Fourth one has been wet, very wet, but more about that later.  The first one was good. Diane and I are finding out that retirement and being Snowbirds ain't bad, ain't bad at all.
    January and Disney World

  25. -Gramps-

    Compose the Picture!

    By -Gramps-,

    I think photography is in my DNA. One of the things that fostered my interest in becoming a shooter is the fact that my Dad was one for many years. He shot thousands of pictures of places he traveled to while serving in the U.S. Navy, both at sea and shore duty. His pictures also included travels at home, to the mountains of North Carolina and Virginia as well a trip to Canada in 1967. Dad’s camera was always recording images of birthday parties, holidays, and trips to the beach.
    Now my daughter is learning as much as she can about digital photography. My brother shoots, as does Charity his daughter. Charity happens to be a really good photographer of children, in my opinion.
    I think that when you go to a studio and have a portrait of yourself or your family taken, you have a record of what you looked like at that time.
    When you capture a picture yourself, you create a record of what your life was like at the time you took it. You also create a record about what you are like as a person.
    A photograph says as much or more about the photographer as a painting says about the artist who puts brush to canvas. Just as a painter leaves his work behind, so does the photographer.
    Just something to think about.
    Lesson Five, Compose the Picture!
    This lesson will expand using depth of depth and the rule of thirds. We will also learn how to use framing and take advantage of diagonal and converging lines.
    First though, let us shake things up a bit and talk about breaking the rules.
    I will, on occasion, break the rule of thirds by the way I use lines.
    I talked earlier about how the rule of thirds adds interest to a picture by using points of interest that can have natural lines. Lines can also be man made. Multiple lines that converge together or come close to one another can be a great way to lead the eye of the viewer into a shot. These lines can cross the dead center of the frame, which technically breaks the rule.
    Look at the following picture. What line or lines of the picture does your eye automatically go too? Does the location of that element break the Rule of Thirds?

    The placement of the lines of the railroad track breaks the rule but takes advantage of it at the same time. What makes that possible?
    Is the rule of thirds still used in this picture as well as being broken?


    The position of the butterfly blatantly breaks the rule, however I used a shallow Depth of Field to create a final effect which I think makes the picture better than if I had kept the rule.

    Whether you adhere to the rule or not is determined by the total picture and how you frame it. Framing is composed of two parts. First is the extreme edge of the picture itself ...where it ends. Second is also what is in the picture along any edge. You see a picture before you take it and you think it will make a good image to capture, but have you really looked at it from the best vantage point? Can something be added to "frame it" and make it more than just a good shot.
    I believe you will see what I mean with the following two pictures. The first one is a good picture. It incorporates the rule of thirds. Notice the position of the four lines in the picture, the rock in the foreground, the fence line, the path in the distance, and the mountain ridge. Notice, too, the little bit of tree on the left side of the picture.

    In this next shot I kept the same four lines but I moved my position, which added an object to frame the original image, and the whole picture changes.


    I told you that back in my film days, making a really good picture took two exposures. One in the camera and one in the darkroom. Well I still have the opportunity to make that "second shot."
    I can do that using my computer and a good photo editing program. I will show you what I mean.
    This picture was originally supposed to be a shot of the geese. I was just learning to use the camera at a William and Mary cross country event, and while I was playing with the focus I saw the Georgetown girls track team come over the hill. This is the final product.


    This is the original shot before I edited it.

    The original image placed the girls almost dead center of the frame. The edited picture made better use of the rule of thirds, which creates a more dynamic picture even with the track team out of focus. This also exhibits once again how a shallow depth of field contributes to the picture.
    Knowing how to use lines, the rule of thirds, depth of field both wide and shallow and looking at the framing of your shot is going to help you create a good, and sometimes great, shot. You never know when you might need to use knowledge of all the above to create one special picture.


    Did I use convergent lines? Did I use the rule of thirds to position my subject? How does the depth of field of my wide angle zoom contribute to this shot?
    Not bad! Right?
    Next time we will learn how to use the brains behind the camera to help us capture that still moment in time.
    http://community.fmca.com/blog/62/entry-1400-when-things-are-still/
    Gramps
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