MCool

Highlands Hammock State Park, Sebring, FL is a great place to camp! Kids love it. River Ranch Resort is also great just east of Lake Wales on 60. The kids in our camping group ranked this better than Ft. Wilderness for them. The rodeo is fun. There is also clay shooting, golf (not so great 9 hole golf course), fishing, horseback riding, airboat rides, swamp buggy tours, saloon with family hours and more. Lots of places to ride bikes etc. The resort has a rental program for sites to rent. Don't confuse it with the River Ranch hunting camps. We also like CB Smith park in Ft. Lauderdale. It has a large waterpark for kids. It may sound strange going to Ft. Lauderdale to camp, but this is a great park.

We have a 2006 Monaco La Palma that had several leaks from the day we bought it -- used in 2009 with 7k miles on it. My guess is the previous owner traded because of leaks. The back slide was a seal and was the only leak which the dealer could find and fix. All the other leaks the dealer could not find. The first year we had the coach, it spent more time at the dealer than on the road. 1) Leak 1 was on the floor board by the entry door. The carpet under the dash by the stairs was alway wet. The dealer tried several fixes with no success. We finally had enough of taking the coach in. My husband took all the molding and wallboard down by the front window. He did a slow water test and found the leak. It was the door awning arm attached to the coach. Water was entering behind the bracket and traveling to the side post then down to the floor board. This caused some damage. We had to replace the styrofoam and wallboard behind the molding and carpet by the stair well.... our choice because I was afraid of mold issues. My guess is, this was too much work for the dealer to do to solve the problem by taking the interior apart. 2) Leak 2 was the roadside slide behind the driver seat. Again the slow water test showed it was coming in at the bottom in the track and where the cable for the slide retracts. My husband made a rubber extension to the seal which extends about 4" past the seal and starts above the cable. It acts as a gutter to move the water past the the track. This was an easy fix although we thought the water was coming from higher up. ...always start your water test low. 3) Leak 3 was the drivers side front corner near the brake pedal. This was a light that was not sealed properly. Again the water was traveling down the side post. 4) Leak 4 was the back slide which the dealer fixed. The first night we spent in the motorhome it rained. When I got out of bed I stepped on wet carpet. On the fourth trip back to the dealer, he put a double seal around the slide which fixed it. I wanted to post this in case others have phantom leaks that they cannot find. Water travels, so you have to track it down. It took us a year to finally find solve the leaks....actually one day for us when we decided to do it ourself. We are replacing the carpet just to make sure we do not have a mold issue. Oh one other leak when we first bought the coach. The waterline to the icemaker under the cabinet sprung multiple leaks. Under the cabinet in vinyl, but it did leak trough to the carpet.