pattie1tom

It is a Coleman a/c unit on our 2011 hurricane. The thermostat is a Coleman mach ar7807, 12 volt thermostat. House hold thermostats are 24 volt thermostat systems. I was reading one article that says you can use a 24 volt thermostat household unit as long as it has battery backup.

Hello all I was wondering if any one has ever replaced the standard slide style (analog) a/c thermostat with a digital thermostat and what make/model you used. Thanks Tom Forcier Pattie1tom@aol.com

Getting in the right frame of mind to start putting the three-week-long summer trip together. We are still in debate over location and are in the process of pouring over pages and pages of travel guides. With the price of gas so high, we may be staying a little closer to home than usual, but our adventurous spirit is aching to get going. We loved Tennessee last summer and really enjoyed Kentucky's Mammoth Caves the year before. Weren't too thrilled with Arkansas, but then again, we didn't travel much into the Ozarks. We are thinking maybe a lingering journey toward New England and over to Niagra Falls or up into Nova Scotia, but then we are looking at logging a lot more miles than initially thought. The excitement is in our bones and school is almost out for the summer. Tom has to take vacation days and we will be set to go around mid-June. Anyone have suggestions on location? We know it's always about location, location, location.

Thank you to the writers of the Family Motor Coaching Magazine. We were frustrated with a lack of family inclusion in the magazine. We spoke to the editors and see a marked effort to include families beyond the one summer edition. I look forward to seeing more ways to bring the travelling/camping families back into our association.

I agree. Share your information anywhere people will read or listen. There are enough people around the country that read reviews prior to visiting a site that it is important that we feel comfortable evaluating the different locations. This is super important when we are far from home and need the advice of others to help guide us. However, if you do choose to review, remember to go back and review in the positive manner for another location so these sites don't become just a location to vent frustrations.

It's LoveBug season on the west coast of Florida and if you have ever been travelling during this time of year, you understand the difficulty this presents. Imagine driving through a snow storm of orange headed, little black bugs, flying in pairs, attached at the butts, and ultimately landing on your windshield with a splatter. After just a few minutes of driving, the windshield becomes covered in tiny black carcasses making it very difficult to see where you're going. To make matters worse, you can't use your windshield wipers on them because that just adds a blurring haze on the window as the bugs schmear across the glass. Upon reaching our destination, the casualities must be in the millions. There is very little space on the front of the coach not touched by bugs. How can we get them off before we make the return trip home? We start by brushing the dried bugs off and then proceed to repeatedly wash the window and front of the coach till we can see through the glass again. After about two hours, we are done. It's a daunting process that will need to be repeated again after our return trip home. Can't wait for the next season of Love Bugs!

Anyone know of a good online camping journal or ap that can be used for record and memory keeping? I have looked at a few but can't decide which to consider. I want easy and user-friendly. Thanks for your help! Pattie

We have been feeling the same way. Although we are not full time rv-er's, we do have a class A and travel with our children, two girls ages 8 and 4. We joined, looking for families and chapters devoted to families, only to find we are a very small percentage of members. We have been in contact with the editors of the magazine to find ways to embed families into their articles and talked with the new President who is verbally devoted to finding ways to bring families back to the FMCA. I also contacted the editors of the webpage who promptly added a motorhoming with children page to their forum. Only being members for the last two months, I am proud of the efforts they are making and I am looking forward to working with them as the year progresses. We have been advised that we could start our own chapters and are considering it. We are just unsure of how to proceed. If you are interested in talking, we could see if it is something to tackle together. Best wishes on your travels. Pattie

We just traded a 30 foot class B plus that I would drive often and sometimes by myself with my daughters for a class A and the difference in driving it is significant. I find the wind and big trucks push and pull it around the road a lot, especially when travelling interstates at top speed. Although I don't have advice yet, I will keep watch on the post for advice on maintaining stability through wind and trucks. Best Wishes and see you on the road. Pattie

I am mid 30's as well as my wife. We have two girls under 10. Cheers Tom

Hello All We live in Sarasota county Florida and try to get out in the rv at least every other week. Due to work schedules, it is almost always leave Friday after work and return Sunday. We try to stay within a 2-hour drive. Some of our favorite places that are family friendly are: 1) Ft Desoto State Park, St Pete: The campground is on the bay and most sites are on the water. There are several awesome beaches within a mile bike ride and the fishing is great. Plus the campground has several playgrounds for kids. 2) Riverside RV Resort, Port Charlotte: This park, though booked solid in the winter, has plenty for kids to do. Weekends have candy bar bingo, karaoke, pool games, arts&crafts, they have two fishing piers, plenty of space in the summer for kids to run around and have fun 3) Oscar Shear State Park, Nokomis: Great state park. One of the few that has swimming. It has fishing, and is located next to the Venice-Sarasota Rails to Trails bike path. It also has great hiking and a perfect place to nature watch with birds, bobcats, etc. 4) Sun&Fun, Sarasota: Though this tends to still be heavily occupied with retiree's, it does have a very large swimming pool and water slide. It has movies by pool side at night. Fishing in two of the ponds as well as plenty of space for biking. It has mini-golf, game room, etc. And of course, Ft Wildreness Campground, Disney. What more can you say, it's Disney and as a Florida resident you can get some good deals. Let me know what your favorites are. Anyone in the Southwest Florida area with kids want to meet up one weekend? Cheers Tom

We travel with a 4 year old and a 9 year old. We put our 4 year old in a car seat seat belted in but in a position where she can still be involved with the trip. As for the 9 year old. we require her to always be seated but not necessarily buckled up. However, it situations of heavy traffic or rainy conditions, anything other then sunshine and open roads, we make her buckle up. Cheers Tom

Thanks Tmoning!!! I look forward to this forum! Cheers Tom

Greeting All Thank you to all how have replied. I have spoken personally to Ms. Czarsty, FMCA Acting President, for over an hour. She was in agreement with my forum posting that FMCA has lost its focus. She was very polite and wonderful to speak to. She agrees that FMCA needs to return to its roots when it was first founded and be about families. We discussed several issues and ideas and concepts to attract more families to this organization. The topic of families and the ability to draw in more younger RV owners will be a topic at the executive meeting in the next few weeks. She agrees that Florida's chapters are designed more with the snow bird population in mind, which is evident in that there are no chapter activities or rallies in Florida between May and Sept-Oct. From this conversation, our family will continue to work with Ms. Czarsty and FMCA to try to bring more family friendly activities to the organization. She then forwarded our information onto the editors of the magazine. We spoke with the editors for an hour to discuss magazine articles and concepts to make the magazine have some percentage dedicated to family activities. With this being said, it is time for all of the younger FMCA members with children to voice their opinions about what we want to see from FMCA. This also goes out to you Grandparents out there who are looking for activities that you can take your grandchildren, too. So, if anyone has ideas, or thoughts or knows of great family campgrounds or activities, the time is now to speak up. Also, if there are any folks out there with children who RV in Florida and would like to form a kid-friendly chapter in Florida, let us get together and form one. Thanks. And let us speak up and be heard!!! Cheers Tom