-Gramps-

For anyone who owns an 08 Monaco Knight with main slideout top seal issues I have a tip for you, (and Gary, this means you!) take a look at this link. http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/24441768/print/true.cfm

Contact Elkhart Service and Collision in Elkhart IND. It is staffed with former Monaco techs. I have taken my coach there and they do an excellent job. (574) 522-9000 is the number to call.

I just stick with the Murphy stuff. An RV tech told me that any roof treatment only causes more trouble than it prevents. Just keep the caulk in good shape and that is one of the reasons for Murphy oil soap...its good for any rubber.

Well as most of us now know...Navistar rv which includes the Monaco, Holiday Rambler and R-Vision line of RVS has been sold to ASV the parent company of Fleetwood. This took place on May 16th of this past month.

xctraveler: You are so right about that! We pack all our wine bottles in a saved wine case box or compartmentalized travel carrier...no bottles stored up high.

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”

It has been a peaceful two weeks since May 22, the day we left our brick house in Portsmouth. Once again we had to take our coach on the road for service before we could actually start our first long trip this year. The coach hasn’t been parked the whole time since our last long venture, which took place last September, I think. We made a fall trip to our spot at Deer Creek Motor Coach resort (the one in Virginia). I left Diane there while I made a trip back home in the car for work-related reasons (why else would I leave the mountains?). In October, we hoped to make a trip to Asheville, North Carolina, to celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary, but that didn’t work out, so we decided to go to Cape Hatteras, instead. We had a beautiful three days out of a planned seven, and then an uninvited guest named Sandy decided to crash our party. We had to pack up the coach and flee … as fast as we could. If we had stayed and tried to ride out a storm with an unpredictable potential for damage, we would have been stuck there for months; at least our coach would have been. We dropped the coach off at North River campground, which was the site of our next two group campouts, and then jumped in the car and made it home. Fortunately for us, Sandy decided that Portsmouth was not worth her time to visit. We sat in front of the TV, glad that we escaped all the wet, windy, destruction but at the same time feeling very sad for the people of New England. Between November and March we camped one weekend a month with either our Good Sam’s chapter or our FMCA chapter friends. This included two Christmas parties and three trips back to North River Campground (located near the Great Dismal Swamp) one to Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, and one to the Virginia Beach oceanfront. They were easy fun trips. Our close friends Gary and Janis, who relocated their coach back in Elizabeth City, were there with us which made the trips extra special. One of the great highlights of our last group campout was the fact that my brother Rod and his wife Sharon joined us with their brand-new 26-foot Forest River travel-trailer. It is a very nice rig, I might add. They love it, and Picard, their Saint Bernard, does too. April and May were dedicated to using the weekends to shop for parts and materials to refurbish our kitchen. That project left very little energy for motor coaching. We christened our almost finished new kitchen with a special Mother’s Day/Joel’s Birthday Brunch. I did all the cooking…which consisted of a really good French Toast Casserole, Spinach Quiche, and a fresh fruit including bannans, blueberries, strawberries, (I forget the grapes) and strawberry-honey flavored yogurt salad. During the week of May15 our new Kitchen floor was installed and then all was done. Now, we really had the bug to hit the road again. We needed to get the coach inspected, and it needed an oil change. On the way to the service facility I discovered that the dash air was on the fritz again. It was a hot day and all it did was blow nice, warm air. I hoped that all it needed was a bit of Freon, but it turned out to be a much bigger problem than that so we made an appointment to visit Terry Labonte RV service. The guys there always take good care of us and our unusual Workhorse chassis. We arrived at Terry Labonte's lot late in the day, spent the night, and the next morning the techs discovered that we needed a new compressor, which they had in stock. They had the coach repaired by five that afternoon, so we spent another night in the lot, had Chick-Fil- A for dinner, and hit the road early the next morning. This all brings us to the afternoon of Friday the 24, when we climbed up Route 89 to Edmonds Road and then soon arrived at our beautiful lot at Deer Creek. It was a bit rainy and cold, but we didn’t care a bit. Early the next day I received a last minute invite to play golf with three friends (including my good friend Gordy) at the Blue Ridge Country club. I didn't play as well as I would have liked but I have improved since the last time I played the same course, so I guess I am moving in the right direction. Gordy said so and his opinion is very valuable. The next eight days provided a lot of opportunities to do a lot of things we enjoy. We made a few day trips to the small towns we love to visit around here including Galax, Sparta, Mt. Airy, West Jefferson, and Elkin. Each town has its own personality and things we like. Galax had a fifties car show which was fun. While there we made a run to Lowes buy some small parts for the coach including parts to mount my Z-Boost cell booster antenna. Sparta is an artist community with art galleries, good places to eat and clothing stores with squeaky wooden floors. We found some great clothing bargains there. West Jefferson is a very quaint and pretty place with a cheese factory and factory cheese shop located downtown along with an old classic movie house that shows first run movies for five bucks. There is a great old hardware store with a creaky wood floor where I found and purchased a handsome red handled Case pocket knife. The people of West Jefferson are some of the friendliest you will meet anywhere. We had lunch there, sitting outside with Teddy Bear. We devoured Bar-B-Que sandwiches, potato salad and fresh apple pie with ice cream for 7 bucks each. Remember, you can’t have good southern Bar-B-Que without sweet tea to go with it. That is a rule. We traveled back down route 89 so we could visit Elkin with our friends Bob and Wanda. We made a special trip to the Slightly Askew Winery, where you can buy some very unusual flavors. We love their wines and came back with a mixed almost case of bottles. From there we visited McRitchie’s winery and cider works for our second wine tasting. It was a beautiful day full of good flavors and good conversation with good people. The next few days were a mixture of coach washing, waxing, trip to Wal-Mart, more coach maintenance, and two more golf outings…both to the beautiful Crest View Golf Course just around the corner from Deer Creek. We met new owners, who will become friends, and we were reunited with already friends while attending the graduation party for Louie and Jesse, son and daughter of Laura and Barry, who built this special place. We enjoyed drink, food, fellowship and games. Memorial Day morning found us at a huge breakfast at Bob and Marlene’s beautiful site where there was plenty of smiles and food for everyone to get as much of both as they wanted. We made some new friends while walking thru Cool Breeze RV resort which is located right across the nine hole golf course next to our resort. We discovered a Holiday Rambler club chapter having a rally there. A new Vacationer caught my eye. It was a very late model one with a full wall slide and a great paint job. Eddie, the owner, happened to be outside trying to get his cable to work. A couple of other members were in the coach trying to figure out why there was no signal. This is the kind of think I love to figure out, so I immediately volunteered to help Eddie and his wife Sylvia, solve this electronic puzzle. I discovered that the TV antenna amplifier, which is supposed to switch to park cable when turned off, was not working. I made a temporary fix and advised Eddie that he should replace the stock amp with a more powerful Winegard digital TV antenna meter and amp. Eddie did just that, after visiting our coach to see how the same device works in our coach. It meant a trip to Camping World in Statesville, but it was worth it. That evening they invited us to be their guests at the club dinner out at the Mountain Surf Seafood restaurant, one of our favorite places, located just up the street from both resorts. We accepted, and as a result had a good dinner, and more good conversation with good people. Diane and I were also invited to join the club. We are giving that serious consideration. After dinner, we had dessert at the Cool Breeze meeting room. Before that Eddie and I performed a successful install of the new amp. We tested it and found that the park cable and off air worked just the way we wanted it to. We received another invite to attend a birthday dinner for Teddy, one of the owners and a golfing buddy of mine. We caravanned to Dobson, N.C., to a really fun place called The Depot, where I consumed a great half rack of baby back ribs with sweet tea, Cole slaw, sweet potato casserole, and hush puppies. We sat across the table from fellow owners Bill, his wife Connie and their son Mark, who was visiting from Washington, D.C. We talked about family, occupations, and the many things that’s go along with those two subjects. In other words, it was another evening of good food and good conversation with good people. Are you starting to see a pattern here? Diane and I drove back on our own and on the way we made a fortuitous wrong turn. We found ourselves missing our exit off I-77 to route 89 and so we took another road over to Fancy Gap where we turned onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, just as the sun was beginning to set on our right. It was a really pretty and peaceful drive back to our home. I opened the sun roof and let the mountain air blow in. Diane and I didn’t say much, we both were just enjoying the peaceful scenery. Diane loves the mountains just as I do. My roots are here. Diane’s heart is here, as it has been for years starting when we were young, in love, broke and sleeping in a tent. As we were driving she made the comment that our lives are like glasses of water and sand. Most of the time we have so many things happening in our lives that we are just shook up and the water in the glass is cloudy and brown. The mountains bring God’s peace and thoughts become calmer, our spirits become still. The sand in the glass settles to the bottom and things are then clear. I am not relating this the exact way that she expressed this, but the meaning is there I am sure. Tomorrow will find us on Route 89 and returning to our busy lives back in the big city. We do have friends and family there we want to see. Work is calling (literally) as well. We are taking some new clothes back with us, along with new pictures, but more important we are taking back new memories of this place, this special community called Deer Creek. We will be returning here. I say the sooner the better. Derrick "Gramps"

Exactly. I would be more concerned about tail swing and wheel cut than ratio.

Doesn't sound like true surround sound to me if all the speaker outputs from the DVD are not wired. When you use aux rear that seems like multi channel stereo not true surround sound. What's worse, depending on the dvd/home theater setup, you could be missing parts of the audio if it is feeding sound out say to the L Rear and there is nothing connected. I take it this Dvd player does not have its own speaker amp built in? So the outputs are line outs not speaker outs? The reason I ask is because I do a lot of home theater and background music wiring and modified my coach as well as others. What model radio and dvd player do you have? My HR has a switch in the overhead for dash/home theater. This switch controls a large relay box that switches six speakers, including the sub from one device to the other.I have true 5.1 sound. The two bedroom speakers always stay connected to the rear speaker output of the dash radio.

Using the cruise control improves the mileage as well. I get about a mile per gallon more when I use the cruise as much as possible even going up and down hills. I have the Allison 3000 tranny.

I promised some RV stories. Well I found a few. I doubt they are true, but they may bring a smile. A couple from Minneapolis decided to go to Florida to thaw out during one particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the very same RV park where they spent their 15th wedding anniversary a decade earlier. Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel dates. So, the husband left Minnesota alone with their fifth wheel trailer. His wife would fly to join him the day after his arrival. The husband checked into the RV park. To his surprise and delight there was a cyber cafe next to the recreation room, so he decided to send an e-mail to his wife. However, in doing so, he accidentally mis-typed one letter in her email address Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston, a widow had just returned home from her husband's funeral. He was a minister of many years who had died of a sudden heart attack. The widow decided to check her email, expecting messages from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she fainted. The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor and saw the message on the computer screen: To: My Loving Wife Subject: I've Arrived I know you're surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send e-mails to your loved ones. I've just arrived and have been checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. I look forward to seeing you then. Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was. P.S. Sure is hot down here! Ray, an RVer from Omaha, travels in his motorhome with a talkative but foul-mouthed parrot. One day in a campground near Gila Bend, Ariz., the bird's swearing got to be too much. So Ray grabbed it by the throat and yelled "Stop it!" But only minutes later, the bird was swearing again. The next day, the bird yelled so loudly that the couple next door in a big fifth wheel stopped by to demand its silence. Desperate, Ray locked the bird in a kitchen cabinet. But it didn't help: the bird kept right on swearing. The next day, the bird was even worse. So, as a last resort, Ray tossed it into his spacious Dometic freezer. After five minutes, all was quiet. Worried the bird might be freezing, Ray took it out. "I'm sorry," confessed the suddenly polite bird. "I promise to never swear again." Ray was astonished. He couldn't understand the change in attitude. "By the way," asked the parrot, "what did the chicken do?" Getting away from their high-stress jobs, a couple spends relaxing weekends in their motor home at a local RV campground at a nearby lake. When they found their peace and quiet disturbed by well-meaning, but unwelcome, visits from other campers, they devised a plan to assure themselves some privacy. Now, when they set up camp, they place this sign on the door of their RV: "Insurance agent. Ask about our term-life package." There was once a lady who was rather old-fashioned, always quite delicate and elegant, especially in her language. She and her husband were planning a week's vacation in Arizona, so she wrote to a particular RV campground asking for a reservation. She wanted to make sure the campground was fully equipped, but didn't quite know how to ask about the toilet facilities. She just couldn't bring herself to write the word "toilet" in her letter. After much deliberation, she finally came up with the old-fashioned term BATHROOM COMMODE. But when she wrote that down, she still thought she was being too forward. So she started all over again, rewrote the entire letter referring to the bathroom commode merely as the BC: "Does the campground have it's own BC?" is what she actually wrote. Well, the RV campground owner wasn't old-fashioned at all and when he got the letter, he just couldn't figure out what the lady was talking about. That BC business really stumped him. After worrying about it for awhile, he showed the letter to several campers, but they couldn't imagine what the lady meant either. So the campground owner, finally coming to the conclusion that the lady must be asking about the local Baptist Church, sat down and wrote the following reply: Dear Madam: I regret very much the delay in answering your letter, but I now take pleasure in informing you that a BC is located nine miles north of the campground and is capable of seating 250 people at one time. I admit it is quite a distance away, if you are in the habit of going regularly, but no doubt you will be pleased to know that a great number of people take their lunches along and make a day of it. They usually arrive early and stay late. It is such a beautiful facility and the acoustics are marvelous...even the normal delivery sounds can be heard. The last time my wife and I went was six years ago, and it was so crowded we had to stand up the whole time we were there. It may interest you to know that right now a supper is planned to raise money to buy more seats. They are going to hold it in the basement of the BC. I would like to say it pains me very much not to be able to go more regularly, but it surely is no lack of desire on my part. As we grow old, it seems to be more of an effort, particularly in cold weather. If you do decide to come down to our campground, perhaps I could go with you the first time you go, sit with you, and introduce you to all the other folks. Remember, this is a friendly community. Sincerely, (RV Campground Owner) An RVer in a motorhome got hopelessly bogged down in an unexpected muddy hole along a dirt road. After a few minutes, a passing farmer drove by on his tractor and offered to pull him out for only $20. After the motorhome was back on dry ground, the RVer said to the farmer, "At those prices, I bet you're pulling vehicles out of this mud day and night." "Can't," replied the farmer. "At night I haul water for the hole." A national park game warden stopped a man who was heading back to his motorhome with two buckets of bass . He asked the man, " Do you have a license to catch those fish?" The man replied, " No sir - Don't need one. These are my pet bass." " Pet bass?" the warden asked. "Yes, sir. Every night I take these here bass down to the lake and let them swim around for a while. I whistle and they jump back into their buckets, and I take them home." " That's crazy! Bass can't do that!" said the warden. The man looked at the game warden for a moment, and then said, " It's not crazy, I'll show you." " OK." said the warden, " do it!" The man quickly poured the bass into the lake and stood and waited. After several minutes, the game warden turned to the man and said " Well?" " Well, what?" the man responded. " Well, when are you going to call them back?" the game warden asked. " Call who back?" the man asked. " The BASS!" yelled the warden. " What bass?" the man asked. While on a road trip, an elderly couple stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch. After finishing their meal, they left the restaurant, and resumed their trip. When leaving, the elderly woman unknowingly left her glasses on the table, and she didn't miss them until they had been driving about forty minutes. By then, to add to the aggravation, they had to travel quite a distance before they could find a place to turn their motorhome around, in order to return to the restaurant to retrieve her glasses. All the way back, the elderly husband became the classic grouchy old man. He fussed and complained, and scolded his wife relentlessly during the entire return drive. The more he chided her, the more agitated he became. He just wouldn't let up one minute. To her relief, they finally arrived at the restaurant. As the woman got out of motorhome, and hurried inside to retrieve her glasses, the old geezer opened his window and yelled to her, "While you're in there, you might as well get my hat and the credit card." Gramps

One of my rules for owning a Motorcoach is Rule Number Two, which contains the following: Patience is not only a virtue but a necessity. Rule Two and Rule Five (my latest rule) work very closely together Rule Number Five: When owning a Motorcoach Don’t Forget to Laugh. You must be able to laugh even if it kills you. When you are an RVer, having a sense of humor and the ability to laugh at troubles, is as much of a necessity as owning a spare sewer hose. For example; I related a story about the first accident I had with our first coach when it was new. I bumped one corner of the coach into a tree. That upset me considerably, of course. Another RVer, who witnessed the accident, had some words of advice for me. “Hey, just go ahead and hit the other seven corners and get it over with!” The humor and the logic of this sarcastic statement was hidden from me at the time it was spoken, but I have owned a coach long enough to completely understand it’s meaning now. I should have understood it then; after all, I have used humor to get through life for as long as I can remember. I have been told I am a funny guy. I appreciate that, even if the person saying it did not mean it as a compliment. One of the first persons in my life to tell me that I was funny, even when it might not have been the best time, was my mom. She knew better than anyone. For example: One Wednesday afternoon when I was in the second grade, I brought home a note from my teacher. It was one of those notes composed with red ink, like the teacher wants the parent to think it is written in blood. The note said: “Derrick is still not working up to his potential. He daydreams constantly, and when asked questions during class responds with a joke or other inappropriate remark. I would appreciate your attention to this matter. Sincerely, Mrs. Mather.” Well, Mom read the note, and got a bit upset with me. I don’t know why, it wasn't like this was my first red note. I brought more than a few home the year before. “When are you going to quit goofing off in class?” she asked. “I am so tired of getting these notes. I should just knock you into next week!” “I wish you would,” I said. “I have a test on Friday and I ‘m not ready for it.” And that is when the fight started. Now that reminds me of another story, emphasis on the word story. One day a few summers ago I was driving down the road in my truck when one of those quick hard rain showers hit. The road quickly had pools of water and people were stopping short all over the place. A big black Escalade, in front of me, slammed on its brakes when it hit one of these slick pools of water. I could barely see with the hard rain coming down. I stopped just a bit short and tapped the rear end of the car. I got out of my car just as the other driver got out of his. He looked very mad, but that was no problem, he was a dwarf. He walked to the back of his car and saw his busted tail light. He looked up angrily at me. “I AM NOT HAPPY!" he said. I looked at him and replied: “You’re not? Then which one are you?” And that is when the fight started. What is humor, anyway? Where does this uniquely human ability come from? Wikipedia defines it this way: Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humeral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humors (Latin: humor, "body fluid"), control human health and emotion. People of all ages and cultures respond to humor. The majority of people are able to experience humor, i.e., to be amused, to laugh or smile at something funny, and thus they are considered to have a sense of humor. The hypothetical person lacking a sense of humor would likely find the behavior induced by humor to be inexplicable, strange, or even irrational. Though ultimately decided by personal taste, the extent to which a person will find something humorous depends upon a host of variables, including geographical location, culture, and maturity, level of education, intelligence and context. For example, young children may favor slapstick, such as Punch and Judy puppet shows (I preferred The Three Stooges) or cartoons such as Tom and Jerry. Satire may rely more on understanding the target of the humor and thus tends to appeal to more mature audiences. Many theories exist about what humor is and what social function it serves. The prevailing types of theories attempting to account for the existence of humor include psychological theories, the vast majority of which consider humor-induced behavior to be very healthy; spiritual theories, which may, for instance, consider humor to be a "gift from God"; and theories which consider humor to be an unexplainable mystery, very much like a mystical experience. I certainly believe that laughter and humor come from God. He obviously has a sense of humor as well; after all He created human beings. I can’t image that He was only looking to have a pleasant conversation. He has rules and doesn’t want us to misbehave but He must want to have some good guffaws along with all the tears his human children can provide. We are the same way with our children are we not? That reminds me of another story: (this one is true) When my daughters were very young I caught them playing with a few dollar bills that they lifted from my wallet. They were drawing beards and mustaches on the president's faces. Instead of getting mad at them for taking my dough without asking (the answer would have been no) I acted shocked that they would be defacing US Currency. “You can go to jail for defacing money! Diane what are we going to do about this?” “Maybe I should call the US treasury and report them!” At this point the girls started to tear up and begged us not to call. They tried to give the money back to me but I told them I couldn’t carry damaged, defaced money around with me. I left their room. A few minutes later I heard water running in their bathroom and whispers coming from behind the closed door. I walked into the room and found them with a sink full of soapy water trying to wash the ink off the bills. “OH NO, NOW YOU ARE MONEY LAUNDERING?!” They burst into tears…I can be so mean sometimes but I found it hilarious then and still do now. Of course the girls hate it when I tell this story. The Bible has many references to laughter. Most are about laughing at one’s enemies as opposed to laughing at some joke or circumstance, but there are examples of that in a few places. Ecclesiastes 3:4: A time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to morn and a time to dance. I don’t like to morn. I am not much of a dancer, but I love to laugh. Jesus once said in reference to how we judge others that how can you remove the speck from your brother’s eye when you have a plank in your own? I have always found that funny….a board sticking out of my eye. The story of Balaam’s donkey is humorous. The Bible uses the more ancient word for donkey but it will not work here. Anyway, Balaam does not want to curse the Israelites for this very rich enemy King, but changes his mind when the price to do so gets to be so big he can’t refuse. He rides out to do this dirty dead. He and his ***, sorry, donkey, are going down this tight mountain path when an angel with a very big sword appears and blocks the way. The poor beast sees the angel but Balaam does not, so he starts to beat the unfortunate animal when it runs the other way. The donkey moves back to the path but is so afraid of the angel that he starts to cringe against the mountain wall which traps Balaam’s foot. He starts to beat the donkey once again. The donkey has had enough so she lays down which really ticks the prophet off so he beats her once more but much harder. This time the Donkey speaks up…”Hey what have I ever done to you that would make you hit me three times?” The donkey not only talks but counts as well. The first book of Kings Chapter 18 tells the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Elijah and the prophets get into a contest over whose God is real. They meet on Mt Carmel for a fire from heaven shoot out. The prophets go first asking their god to send down fire and consume their pile of ox parts. They dance around, cutting themselves with knives and making an awfully loud racket at the same time. They did this for hours. Elijah makes good use of sarcasm and hurls taunts at them. “Hey shout louder! Surely he is a god! Maybe he is deep in thought or busy or traveling somewhere! Maybe you just need to wake him, or he stopped alongside the road! In other words the god of the prophets of Baal has stopped to take a pee. Elijah was not one for political correctness, that is for sure. And that reminds me of another story. Many years ago I told what I consider to be the best joke I know to a bunch of tired people on a plane in Chicago. We were stuck on the runway during a snow delay. I got bored with just sitting there so I decided to kill some time. I jumped up out of my seat and moved to the front of the passengers “Hey I want to tell you this story!" I had everyone's attention so I made the best of it. During World War One there was this private in the trenches waiting to be issued a rifle. They ran out of guns and bayonets before he could get his so he asked his sergeant what he was suppose to do. “Here take this” the sarge said as he handed the private a broom handle. “What do I do with this?” the private asked. “You point it at the Germans and go Bangity..bangity…bang!” The shocked private replied “That isn’t going to work!” The sarge said "you’re right" and he took the handle back and tied a string on the end of it. The Private said "what does that do?" "You point it at the Germans and go stabity..stabity ..stab, now listen to your Sarge and go out there and fight!” "Yes Sir! says the Private….he hits the trenches and there is a big bloody battle, bodies everywhere. The private points his weapon: Bangity Bangity Bang!….The private is amazed. Many Germans go down and as he Stabity Stabity..Stabs! and Banigity Bangity Bangs them over and over again. For hours they fight until the private thinks he is the only man left alive. Then he sees one German rising out of a trench on the other side of the dusty, smokey, battlefield The German comes towards him. The private takes a shot at him…. Bangity bangity bang!. The German keeps coming. Bangity Bangity Bang!. He still keeps coming and then he is on top of our brave private.He lunges at the enemy with all his strength...... Stabity Stabity STAB!.... Statbity Stabity STAB! It doesn’t work. The German plows over the poor private. The German breaks the private’s arm, his leg, and his back. As the private is lying in the mud and the German moves away, he hears the German saying: TANKITY...TANKITY...TANK! The Passengers all laughed until it hurt. Man I kill myself sometimes. My next entry will include Motorcoaching stories that you just have to laugh at. When that will be? I have no idea. The stories don't have to be mine. If you have a good one, send it to me. I promise to tell where it came from, unless you don't want me to. Gramps .

Well, it is supposed to get down to 18 degrees tonight around here. I have the wet bay heater running. I bypassed the snap fuse and replaced it with a 30-amp auto fuse. There is a 120-volt heater running in the cargo bay next to the hot water heater. I have 4 inches of insulation stuffed in the fridge access, with the ice maker water supply disconnected. I have insulation in the wet bay and more in the fresh water tank compartment. A second ceramic heater is running in the coach with all the cabinets and shower doors open. The furnace is set at 40 degrees. Right now it is 35 outside and the coach is at 69 inside. I think I should be safe. I don't want to loose my water pump and ice maker solenoid again, so I decided to stay ahead of this cold snap. Gramps

As a follow up...I received another email from Mr Osborne with a telephoine number and access code for anyone who wants to hear the conf call. 888-266-2081 and enter access code 3791706

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.

My Dad just read this story. He and I had a phone conversation about it and he told me a couple of things that he remembered. He used to take me out on the Ocean View course a lot. The Green for hole 5 was about thirty yards away from the tee at 3. One time when I was nine, Dad suggested I take a shot to the green at 5. I was about to tee up a ball when a couple of players showed up. Dad told me to get out of their way but they said go ahead. I took my nine iron, took my swing and put the ball right in the hole. The two gentlemen players who were watching me take the shot, looked at my Dad and said that they should put me on their team. One day, I was playing softball in the street with my Greenview Lane friends. Joel, who lived next door, was up to bat when we heard "FORE" coming from a golfer at tee 3. The ball was hooking our way over the chain link fence right at Joel. He swung at the ball, made contact, and put it back over the fence where it landed in the fairway some one hundred yards from the hole. The guys on the green started whistling and the player who hit the hook yelled "Thanks Buddy!". I wonder how he scored that hole.

Thanks, Tom! Hopefully the next one will come a bit sooner. If you ever decide to come out VA way to the Blue Ridge, I promise you all the golf you can stand.

It’s a stupid game. A famous person described it as a good walk spoiled. Someone else said it is a lot of walking, broken up by disappointment and bad arithmetic. I am talking about the game of golf. It may be a stupid game, an opinion shared by David Feherty, who played on the European Ryder Cup team a few decades ago, but it is also my new passion. I guess that means that golf is my new stupid passion. In my opinion I am terrible at it. My best game so far is a round in the high 80s. Now, in fairness to myself, that score was the result of a round of golf on a regular-size course. When I play 18 holes on my “home course” at Deer Creek Motorcoach resort (the one in Virginia), my score can be as low as 54. FIFTY FOUR! Wow, you say. Well, it isn’t all that remarkable considering it is a nine-hole pitch and putt with the longest hole sitting a mere 125 yards from the tee. Then again, maybe it is remarkable. The greens are the size of pot holders, the fairways narrow as a 1960s era men’s dress tie, and there are numerous hidden water traps along with some that are obvious to the eye. In other words, my short game is not bad. Put me on a large course with big greens, and the story changes. I cannot drive worth the time it takes me to hunt for a lost cheap ball. Someone once said that if I hit it right, it’s a slice; if I hit it left, it’s a hook ; if I hit it straight it’s a miracle. That pretty much sums it up for me. I am an active member of the Lambert’s Point Golf Course Ball Exchange Program. Lambert’s Point is a nine-hole golf course in Norfolk, Virginia, that is built on top of what used to be a huge landfill and garbage dump. It sits in the elbow of the Elizabeth River and so it is surrounded by water on two sides and a driving range on one side. I tend to lose balls off the first tee into the river on the right side. I just can’t leave my 1 wood in the bag! I have a very fast back swing and an even faster down swing, but somewhere in the process of going up and down, my arms just seem to get confused. As a result, my hands are pointing in the wrong direction, which opens the club face and I hit this very long and ugly slice. I joke that my slice is so bad that a soft drink is named after it. On the rare occasion that I don’t slice, it is usually because I skull the ball and stick it in the mix of marsh grass, blackberry bushes, and cattails that surround the course. So the hunt begins. I lose one ball and find three. Not a bad exchange rate, if you ask me. I keep working at it. I shine my clubs thinking that will add some polish to my game. I blow through buckets of balls at the Portsmouth City Park Links driving range. I watch training videos and take advice from all the guys I play with. So far, not much has helped. David Feherty said that Jim Furyk’s driver swing looks like an octopus falling out of a tree. An octopus has some coordination, some fluidity, and some intelligence. So in comparison, my swing must look like my driver is falling off the back of a moving truck. My second shot shows some promise. I can take a fairway wood or a hybrid and knock the crap out of the ball. It just too bad that the crapless ball tends to go left. On occasion, however, I have hit the green on a par-five hole in two if I aim right. Once on the green, I can putt decently. My playing companions seem to have a higher opinion of my game than I do. I am improving. I know which club to use based on distance from the pin. I have learned the terms of golf and I can now drive well at the range when loading up the tee from bucket number two. The key is shooting straight from the first tee and hitting the green in regulation. Although I have been golfing for only two years, I am not totally new to the game. I spent the last 10 of my first 12 years living next door to the Ocean View Municipal Golf Course in Norfolk, Virginia. Our two-bedroom bungalow house was located at 609 Greenview Lane, right across from hole number 3. I used to wade in the ditch that ran parallel with the fairway and look for golf balls. We could be sitting at the dinner table and hear “Fore!!” and a couple of seconds later a ball would hit the roof of our house. My brother Rodney and I would charge out the back door and hunt for the ball to add to our sizable collection kept in buckets in our car port. We would clean them up and sell them, possibly back to the golfers who lost them, for a tidy profit. We would cut the covers off damaged balls, slice the rubber band inside and watch the ball hop like some crazed animal all over the carport pad. I used to stand for hours, peering thru the 30-foot tall chain link fence, that semi-protected our street, and the kids who played on it from the errant balls that hooked left. I watched the carts pull up at the tee. I was fascinated by the clothes the golfers wore, and the clubs they used. I watched the balls fly down the fairway. I heard the congratulations and sometimes the swear words coming from the golfers. I so wanted to play on that course. I wanted to be a golfer and play on the course for real. I had a couple of clubs. One was a shortened persimmon wood driver, the head held on with masking tape and glue. I salvaged that club from a water hazard. The other club was a nine iron that the pastor of our church gave me. I would sneak out onto hole 3 just before dark, wait until I knew no one was going to find me, and I would tee up a ball for myself. I could hit it hard and straight. I could par hole 3, a 369-yard par four, the only hole I played, with that old driver, that also was my putter and my nine iron. Why can’t I do that now?! Just a few weeks ago I got my 50-year-old wish. I played Ocean View with my friend John, a retired school principal and a good golfer. We formed a foursome with a couple of ladies, who like us, had no reserved tee time. It was fun but at the same time a bit surreal. John drove a cart with our clubs while I walked with the ladies who were playing nine holes on foot. When we hit the tee at 3, I looked to my left and saw my old home, the 609 easy to spot on the front of the house. I could almost see my Mom coming out the front door to check if I had sneaked out onto the course. I thought about those days. Now here I was 50 years later playing for real. I teed up my ball, coiled up for the hit and sliced the ball into the fairway of hole 5. CRAP! Why do I keep playing this stupid game? I will tell you why. I play for the memories, for the time I spend with friends, including my motor coaching ones, and for that great shot that I make every now and then. I play for the green grass, the blue sky and the cheap clubhouse hot dogs. I play it in spite of that shot off tee 3 that went so far right that Teddy Bear, my Cocker Spaniel, couldn’t find the ball if it was wrapped in bacon. I sort of fudged that last line from Feherty. He won’t care. Fudging is allowed in golf. It may be a stupid game. My wife sure thinks so, but golfing is now as much a part of my life as motor coaching is. They are intertwined. I have two sets of clubs, one for the coach and one at home. In the months and years ahead, I hope to drive my coach to somewhere new and find a beautiful golf course that has a good ball exchange program and is looking for new members. Then, again, maybe I will make that miracle shot and hit the greens in regulation. Derrick

I suspect low fuel....the line may not be deep enough in the tank.

I forgot that we had an earthquake the same week.

I hope one day to take my coach to the PNW. I have been there many times by plane and ship for a short while each time. Beautiful up there.

I can’t really tell you where my mind has been the last two months. The summer has been blazing hot and my creative writing juices seemed to just dry up. So, as a result, I have not posted a new blog entry since April something. Now it is time to fix that. It has been a hot summer so far, and a busy one as well. My biggest project has been installing the background music wiring and speakers, point of sale network, telephone system and computer network for a new restaurant in Colonial Williamsburg called the DoG Street Pub. The Pub, as I have come to call it, is a British Pub Fare restaurant with an American twist. They serve lots of craft beers, on tap and in the bottle, along with comfort food like fish and chips, bangers and mash, Scotch eggs and lots of other good things. The Pub opened to the public in June after a delay of about ten days. The goal had been to open Memorial Day, and that was why I was working so hard; to finish my part of it. In the early morning hours of Memorial Day, two days before opening, the interior of the place caught on fire. The fire started in a new light fixture that had paper in it. Not a good thing. I found out about the news online, and made a quick phone call to the project manager, who asked me to come make an inspection of all my work. At that point no one was sure what caused the fire, so I needed to make sure it was not some fault in my wiring or equipment. I drove to Williamsburg and spent the next few hours inspecting the wiring. Many speakers had to be removed because of water collecting in the ceiling. Remarkably the damage was minimal considering the extent of the fire. The sprinkler system extinguished it very quickly. None of my work was damaged. Seven days later the Pub had its soft opening, guests by invitation only. Diane and I drove our coach to Williamsburg, set up camp at the Anvil Campground, changed into some party clothes and drove over to the Pub by Six O’clock. We mingled with friends and strangers as the kitchen and wait staff brought sample after sample of the good food they had created. We had crispy Calamari Fingers, Fish and Chips, homemade split pea soup with lots of real bacon, crab and lemon, prime rib, lots of really good cheeses (I found out that I like Stilton cheese), steamed mussels, and of course really great craft beer and British cider. We left the pub stuffed and happy. The next morning we headed up 64 west to 81 south. Our home at Deer Creek MotorCoach Resort was waiting for us The DoG Street Pub is a gorgeous place with great food. I was very pleased to be a small part of it coming to be. If any of my fellow motorcoachers are planning a trip to Williamsburg, make sure you make a visit to this fine establishment part of your trip. You will not regret it I fell in love with the Dog Street Pub….this was fall number three for the year. What was fall number one and two you ask…..? Well, I am about to tell you. I will pick up where I left off in April: Diane, Teddy Bear and I left Greensboro just after lunch with Savannah, Georgia as our next destination. We hit Interstate 85 and drove through Charlotte on the way down south. Diane and I lived in Charlotte for about four years many years ago. We drove past our first apartment building complex which is visible from the interstate. It wasn’t a bad place as long as no one was shooting at us. We only lived there a year before we felt it better to move to a quieter area of Charlotte. Our trip took us around the city, past Carowinds. I was shocked at just how big Charlotte is now. Once leaving Charlotte, it was smooth sailing to the Oaks Campground just outside Savannah. We were fortunate to book an available spot there. Diane made a quick reservation by phone, just a few miles and a couple of I-95 exits from the site. Earlier we had discovered that all the KOAs and any other campgrounds that we knew about were all booked. It was Good Friday and the snow birds were heading north from Florida and they were packing the campgrounds. We drove the access road to the campground. It was a winding narrow thing deep into the moss covered woods. We arrived about five, checked in and happily discovered that there was a chef there selling very good bar-b-que from a place called Jacks’s that apparently is pretty famous in the area for making excellent pulled pork. Diane bought the last two plates he had while I set up camp. It really hit the spot for us. We had a quiet evening and left early the next morning for Jacksonville and points further south. I don’t remember anything eventful happening during our trip to Melbourne. Then again it has been three months and I am lucky to remember what happened last week. We decided (actually Diane decided) that we should stay at a place called Wickham Park in Melbourne. I had never been there before but Diane had scouted the place during a previous trip. The park has electrical hookups, water and a dump station. The back in sites are huge and grass covered. We backed up to a large cat tailed surrounded pond. Next to us was a disc golf course. I had no equipment to play with but if I did I bet I would be better at disc golf than standard golf. Our first view of the area around us was nice, but we didn’t spend any time sightseeing, we wanted to see our new grandson and his parents. We set up camp, settled Teddy down with a treat and headed out the door. A few minutes later we were introduced by his proud, happy parents to Gavin Thomas, our new grandson. I fell in love with my new grandson, just as I did with all my grandkids, but there was something very special about this occasion. Gavin was so small and so cute. I was mostly a quiet observer of Gavin in the arms of Jeri, his mother, and in the arms of Yia-Yia Diane, his Greek Grandmother. I grilled steaks for everyone. We had a very pleasant evening. Dylan, Gavin’s big brother, played Mario Cart with me. I also introduced him to Angry Birds on my tablet. It was Gavin, however, that was the center of attention and everyone, including Dylan, was happy with that. About eight o’clock we headed home to the coach. We didn’t want our visit to tire the baby and his mom. Diane and I had a great time with Tom and Jeri, Dylan and Gavin. We made it a point not to make our daily visits too long. They would have liked it if we stayed around all day, but I get tired of myself after about eight hours (and there is nothing I can do about that unless I am sleeping!) so I knew when to call it a day. There were some special moments. Tom and I went golfing at the local city nine hole course. We played eighteen holes and had a very good time. Tom thought it was funny that I always put sunscreen on my knees first…I don’t know why I do that. We all went together for baby’s first excursion to Del’s Freeze, a great ice cream shop. We spent five days and six nights in Melbourne and then it was time to head back north. Diane and I spent most of those five days with the family but we also spent some time (and money) on ourselves. We made a trip to the local outlet mall and filled the back of the Vue with shopping bags. We hated to leave Melbourne. Tears were shed by all but we needed to get back on the road. Originally Diane and I had planned on visiting Jeri and family then moseying across the state to Tampa Bay with a side trip to Tarpon Springs. We both enjoy Tarpon Springs and all the Greek folks that live and work there. We really like the restaurants and bakeries. We usually come home with a lot of pastries and cookies. This trip to Hela’s, our favorite place of all, would have to wait for another time. We lost a week on the road because of the coach breakdown so we decided to substitute a couple of days in Savannah instead. We arrived at the somewhat crowded (snowbirds still on the move) Richmond Hill KOA about five in the afternoon on Friday. Diane fixed some frozen PF Chang’s for dinner. We watched some TV and at nine called it a day. Both of us read in bed until we could not keep our eyes open any longer. The next morning, after a breakfast of microwaved Jimmy Dean sausage and egg biscuits, we jumped in the car and headed to the historic district of Savannah. We pulled into the parking lot of what I think is the Railroad Museum and saw a bunch of trolley busses parked there. Diane had already informed me that we would be taking a trolley tour. Okay, no argument here. We bought tickets for the Old Town Trolley tours and got in the boarding line for our seats. Once on board, we sat there for a while and our tour guide provided us with info about the tour. We were on a hop on, hop off, tour. There were a lot of stops and we could get off and on whenever we wanted to. There might be a short wait for the trolley to come by and of course we could end up with a different driver, but that is okay. We finally took off and started seeing the city with all its squares. We heard about the history of the district and about the movies made there, including one of my favorites, Forest Gump. I am crazy about that movie and I do a pretty good Forest impression. We found out that the park bus bench that Forest sat on is in a city museum now, which we did not visit, but we did visit Chippiwa square under the church spire where the movie was filmed. That reminds me. I found a white feather stuck in the door of our coach a couple of days earlier. How is that for a coincidence? We really enjoyed the tour. At lunch time we visited the Six Pence Pub. I picked that place because I wanted to sample their pub food. I suppose that the DoG Street Pub was on my mind. The Six Pence Pub was a location for the movie Something to Talk About starring Julia Roberts. We were invited to share an outside table with a couple from New York City. We ordered lunch. Diane had a thick corned beef sandwich and a glass of wine. I had Beef and Guinness stew served in a bread bowl with potato salad. I also had a tall glass of Strongbow Cider. Not bad. The conversation with our dining companions was fun. We talked about where we all were from, where we were going. They found it interesting that we were traveling in a motorcoach. We all admitted that we found Savannah fascinating. I told them one of my nephews was attending the Savannah Creative Arts Institute which had a large presence in the historic district. We talked about Forest Gump (how could we not?) and the significance of the film. I switched on my Forest Gump accent and impressed them as well as our server and she has heard a lot of people try to talk like him. She said I was channeling Forest Gump. We finished lunch, said goodbye and happy travels. Diane and I hopped back on a trolley and continued our tour. We visited a lot of places and were so smitten that we decided to come back the next day and just walk around on our own. I shot many pictures with my old but still good Alpha 100 dslr and then the unthinkable happened. I dropped my camera on the trolley deck. I have never dropped one like that before. It was on my lap without the strap around my neck. I stood up and it slid off and landed hard. That was it. It would not record any more images. I was heartbroken but we continued on with our tour for another hour and then we returned to the car and headed home. Back in the coach I tried to reboot my camera. No luck. Sony Tech support was helpful, but my camera was DOA. I had fallen in love with this wonderful city with its moss covered live oaks and its very friendly people and wonderful architecture. I was not going to miss this picture taking opportunity. I logged onto the KOA very slow wireless and did a bit of online research. I found a new camera at the Savannah Best Buy and then made a quick drive to purchase it before the store closed. I had no idea that I would be buying a brand new model Sony that had limited availability. The camera was not even officially available from Sony’s web store. I successfully bought the camera (the sales person had to get it out of the warehouse) drove home and spent the next few hours learning how to use it. Morning found us back in town, but not where we wanted to be. Somehow our old Garmin took us to the wrong end of Henry Street and we got stuck on small one way streets. Thank goodness we were not in the coach. Actually the houses we were driving by were quite beautiful After about an hour we finally made it to the place we wanted to be and parked the car in a garage. From there we just started walking towards the river. What a wonderful place Savannah is. I really had no idea. I had visited River Street over twenty years earlier but I did not remember it being so charming. The place was packed with people visiting shops, and eating in one of the many great restaurants. We roamed around, I took pictures and shot a couple of movies (my new camera also shoots video) and then we decided to look for a place to have lunch. We found a small take out place almost at the end of River Street called the Olympic Café. I walked in and heard the people in the kitchen and behind the counter speaking Greek. I looked at the food being served and knew we had come to the right place. "Kalispera" I said. The cooks all looked at me and answered "Kalispera!" "How may we serve you!" I ordered Greek Fried Calamari and Tiropitas, enough for two. I also ordered a bottle of good Greek Beer. There were tables inside, but Teddy Bear was with us so I carried our plates to a small table just outside the door. Man, it was all good. Diane stepped inside and I could hear her chatting with the owners, using a few words of Greek. She came out with two fat pieces of Baklava. We devoured them. She said it was the best she had ever eaten. I went in and bought four more pieces. So much for missing Tarpon Springs. We spent a few more hours on River Street and then made our way back to the car. We drove home. We were all tired out but we had a wonderful day. It was one of the best we have ever had on the road. We knew we would be coming back to this place one day soon. We had a small dinner, watched a bit more TV, and took a short stroll around the campground. We hit the sack early. The next morning we took off for the Smithfield, North Carolina KOA. We would spend one night there and after free waffles the next morning we would be four hours from home. I love Gavin. I am smitten by Savannah. It will be awhile before I see my grandson again and who knows when Diane and I can visit Savannah once more. In the meantime the DoG Street Pub is not far away. Derrick "Gramps" Posted from Deer Creek Motorcoach Resort.

Wayne, it has been a long while since I wrote this story. Thanks for your response and I hope that you are doing well.

Tom, I can't believe I have not caught your latest entry before now. Good to see your words back on the screen. I hope you find the road to be smooth and your cab cool! I look forward to your next post. In the meantime, now that my fingers seem to be working again, I hope to post one myself. Derrick "Gramps"

You have to keep all your batteries, house and chassis, filled with distilled water, which means checking them on a regular basis, like once a week. The house batteries, usually located under the stairs, will set of the propane detector alarm if they get low on water.