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GrampaDennis

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  1. GrampaDennis
    Cherry Hill Park is located next to where I-95 meets the Beltway, north of Washington, DC. They have a bus stop on the property, where Metro busses pick you up. In the morning, they run several express busses to the College Park station on the Green Line subway. The campground is neat and clean and appears to be very well managed. They have a very nice store, with lots of RV parts and supplies. We had heard good reviews on this place, and we agree with them. Highly recommended!
    Using the Mass Transit System is easy. I bought our SmartTrip passes at the campground store - Two Senior passes for us older folks and one regular pass for our grandson. These passes work like a prepaid credit card. You add money to them using vending machines at any subway station. You touch your card to the reader when you get on the bus, when you enter a subway station, and when you leave a subway station. Most of the readers in the stations also tell you how much credit is left on your card. The Washington Metro subway trains are fairly comfortable and are cleaner than they are in some cities. While you see all kinds of people, we didn't encounter anyone who was really scary. We did not have a car on this trip and we only took the MH out of the campground once during our stay (because we needed to leave before the first bus).
    Being in our late 60's, it was a little different experience taking a 10 year old on our trip. It's been a few years since our kids were that young. Our grandson was a good sport nearly all of the time and we had only a couple of difficult moments. We let him bring his PC and his portable videogame system along, to help with some of the long hours riding. (This kid has not yet learned the fine art of relaxing!) We really enjoyed his amazement at the large bridges we crossed, at he subway system, and at the sights in Washington. He said that he really enjoyed the National Zoo much more than the Museum of Natural History because "stuffing all those animals was just wrong!" He would far prefer to see them alive. He also said he enjoyed Mount Vernon much more than the White House because, "at Mount Vernon they let you see the whole house." If you have an opportunity to take a grandkid on a good motorhome trip, I recommend it. It will make you feel younger!
    Wednesday
    On Wednesday, we went to Representative Chellie Pingree's Office first, because it was our understanding we had to pick up our tickets for the White House tour there. That turned out not to be the case - the paperwork they sent via e-mail was all we needed. One of the interns was Hope, a very nice college student from Camden, ME. Hope offered to take us on a Gallery Tour in the Capitol while we were there. We took her up on her offer. (We're glad we did, because we missed our "official" Capitol tour on Friday.) The security in the place is a bit of a hassle, but we got accustomed to the routine. You have to leave your electronics, etc in a numbered bin at the security station on the way to each gallery. You then have to go through a metal detector and take off our take out anything metal that would set it off - similar to airport security. The Senate wasn't doing much when we first went in the gallery. Some Senator was delivering a speech to a TV camera and a nearly empty room. Grandma and I were kind of disgusted to see that operation. In knew that was what happens, but it's not pretty to see.
    We then went to the House Gallery, where nothing was happening, then back to the Senate Gallery, because they had a vote scheduled. The vote didn't happen quite like I expected. Silly me, I thought they would all come in and take their seats at the appointed time, then they would have a quick and orderly vote. Instead, the Senators came in, two or three at a time, gave the clerk their vote on the issue, visited with each other, and perhaps some staffers, then left. There might have been a dozen of them in the room at any one time. A very few of them sat in their seats briefly to look at some paperwork or something, but most just stood around chatting, until they decided to leave. We watched quite a while, but the vote was not finished. It probably took over an hour. I believe it was some nomination they were voting on.
    After our visit to the Senate, we returned to Rep. Pingree's office to pick up the backpack we had left behind, then we ate in the cafeteria in the basement of the Longworth Building. We did not get to meet Rep. Pingree. That's just as well - she and I are on opposite ends of the political spectrum anyway.
    Our next stop was the Natural History Museum. Joey had seen the "Night at the Museum" movie, and I had hoped he could see the big T Rex skeleton. However, that exhibit was stored away for renovations. They did have the big elephant, the blue whale and lots of other stuffed animals. Perhaps it was because it was very hot, and the AC wasn't working very well, but I didn't enjoy this museum as much as I had years ago.
    Thursday
    On Thursday, we visited the White House. We had an 11:30 tour time, but arrived over an hour early. When we reached the gate, we found quite a line had formed. It turned out that these were the 10 AM and 10:30 folks. We went to the Visitor Center, where there was AC, and watched the introductory movie. When it was our turn to check in, we had an unwelcome surprise. The "guest list" had Grandma's birthdate listed as 2003, which is our grandson's birth year. I don't know whether I had trouble with the online form when I applied for tickets, or somebody mixed things up when they transcribed the information. They put Grandma and Joey in an area that I called the "penalty box" and Grandma later called the "Group W Bench" (some folks our age will understand). I was told that I could wait for them under a lamp post farther up the sidewalk. Soon, there were others joining me, whose family members had also been detained. A Park Ranger came by and told us we could proceed into the White House and wait for our folks inside where it was cool. I wasn't about to do that! I could see my wife and grandson from where I was. I was prepared to leave with them, if they were turned away. After quite a wait, they decided that Grandma and Joey were for real and weren't terrorists, after all. There was another checkpoint yet to go, but they just called back to the first one when they also discovered the discrepancy in Grandma's birth date. We each went through a body scanner, then were allowed inside the White House. We saw a library and a reception room on the way in, then we saw several rooms in the main floor. We did not get to see the Oval Office. Was it worth the trouble? Barely. You could buy yourself a good picture book and save a lot of hassle.
    On the way out of the White House grounds, I asked one of the guards for a recommendation for a good, reasonably priced, lunch spot. He recommended the Corner Bakery, a few blocks away. This place had a BBLT (like a BLT, but twice the bacon), which was great. This place is apparently a chain - sort of a more upscale version of Panera's.
    After lunch, we walked to the Washington Monument. It turned out they only let people go up it in the evening (when it's cooler) and we would have had to wait for tickets. Joey had wanted to go up, but I was relieved that we couldn't. We stopped at the World War II memorial, then walked the shaded path along the Reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial. Thank God for the shade! We also got an ice cream bar from a vendor cart along the way. At the Lincoln Memorial, I read his 2nd Inaugural Address, which is inscribed inside the north wall. It made me think about what our country went through in the Civil War.
    We walked from the Lincoln Memorial to the Metro station at Foggy Bottom, near George Washington University. That was quite a hike, and it was mostly uphill. Our train was held up for a track problem two stops before L'Enfant Plaza, where we planned to transfer to the Green Line. We got off the train and walked to the Archive Station. I think we saved some time that way and we were moving - not sitting in a stopped train! We certainly got our walking exercise in on this day!
    Friday
    On Friday, we went to the National Zoo. Both Joey and I got some nice pictures of the inhabitants - a few of which are included in the album that I have posted here. We had hoped to tour the zoo, then get to the Capitol for the 3PM tour that I had tickets for. We didn't pull away from the zoo soon enough. It was a long walk to the subway station, and a long walk from the station where we got off to the Capitol. We went there anyway, hoping to get in to see the inside of the Rotunda. It turns out that you can't just come in off the street and do that (Like we had once in the early 1970's). I asked a guard which was the nearest subway stataion, and he said "Union Station" We did a very quick walk-through of Union Station while looking for the escalator to the Metro. I'm glad we got a peek at it. It was quite impressive. Grandma was almost totally out of patience by this time, so we didn't linger.
    Saturday
    One of the women in Grandma's exercise group had recommended the boat trip from the waterfront in Washington to Mount Vernon, George Washington's home. We took this trip and it turned out to be one of the highlights of our vacation. I bought tickets online, for boarding at 8:00 AM on Saturday morning. When I checked with the Cherry Hill staff about when the earliest Saturday morning bus left, I learned that we could not get a bus early enough to take the subway ride and make our boat trip. Their first suggestion was a taxi. I wasn't confident in that option. On Friday night, I asked the staff whether they thought I coud park the motorhome at the park and ride lot at College Park station. They weren't sure about that, but said that some of their customers had been able to leave their coach at the Greenbelt Park and Ride, which is at the end of the Green Line.
    On Saturday, we got up early and drove the coach to the Greenbelt Station. We found that they do not charge for parking on weekends. We were more than early enough to catch the first train, at 7 AM. We got to the Waterfront station, and walked a few blocks to the Spirit Tours dock, in time to pick up our tickets and board as soon as they let us on.
    We had great weather for a boat trip. It was another hot day inland, but comfortable, with a light breeze, on the Potomac. They have done a great job of restoring and maintainng the buildings at Mount Vernon. In the house, almost everything is original. GW planned and organized the place very well. Thinking of that helps you realize what a great man he was. George Washington was considerably more than just someone who was in the right place at the right time. There was more to see here than we could take in during our 4 hours there. I would like to go ba again, perhaps when it is a bit cooler.
    When we got back to Greenbelt Station, we found our motorhome unmolested. It was a little hot from sitting in the sun all day, but fine otherwise.
    Sunday
    On Sunday, we stayed at Cherry Hill Park, trying to rest up before leaving the next morning. I finished reading a novel on my Kindle. We all went to the pool in the forenoon and Grandma took Joey to the pool again in the afternoon. In the evening, we hopped on the tractor-drawn wagon ride around the Park. The tractor was a Farmall H. I had a lot of hours operating one of those when I was a kid.
    On Monday, we left for home. I definitely would like to stay in Cherry Hill Park and visit Washington again. I noticed that they are open year-round and have heat tapes on the water spigots. We didn't make our trip to Florida last winter. Maybe we'll do it this winter and stop at Cherry Hill on the way to or fro (maybe both).
  2. GrampaDennis
    Our 1998 Southwind was overdue for a roof rehab - see photos 1 and 2. The original top layer was almost gone in places and we were having a lot of trouble with chalking and grey streaks forming on our windshield, windows and side panels.

    I researched various treatments in forums, ads and websites. I wanted something long-lasting and relatively easy to apply, since this would be a do-it-yourself venture. I was tempted by an expensive two-part liquid roof system, but the cost would have been over $1,000. Following up on an ad in one of the magazines, I found Ultimate Roof, from RV & Marine Technologies. Theirs is a one-part acrylic laytex rubber that is applied with brushes and rollers. They use a fabric reinforcing strip over joints and seams. You apply two heavy coats of this material. It is supposed to last 10 years or more. Because you put it over all your existing caulking, they say you don't have to caulk again. Their website is www.rvroofing.com. They sell the materials and application kits, or you can hire them to do the job for you. The materials and application kit for my 33 ft coach cost approximately $650.

    I got started late last fall on this project, which turned out to be a problem. I was trying to do this in early October in Maine. I didn't get enough warm weather and sunshine to cure the material before the dew started. We also got frost, then a heavy rain that washed off much of the uncured rubber from my edging job. I cleaned up and recoated the damaged areas, but I could tell that I was fighting a losing battle. We called our warehouse and made arrangements to get the MH inside immediately for winter storage.

    This spring, I was doing another project at home in my "spare" time, so I was a bit late getting back to the MH roof rehab. Today, we finally finished it. Yea! I think it came out well. Check out the photos.

    Now, I can give the coach a good thorough outside cleaning and it should stay much cleaner than it used to. Our coach has never had water damage on the inside. I think we can keep it that way for a good while yet!
  3. GrampaDennis
    Since I wanted to avoid the NJ Turnpike, we went home via I-476/Pennsylvania Turnpike, west of Philadelphia. This is an OLD turnpike, which is very narrow. Much of it is under reconstruction - it should be better when finished. The right lane had bumpy drainage structures in it, so I drove mostly in the left lane. Meanwhile, the signs and their supports, that were mounted on the median barrier, were scary close. The only thing about this route that was better than the New Jersey Turnpike was that you had to put up with the misery for a few less miles.
    Heading north on I-476, we saw warnings about a tunnel coming up. We got off at a rest area to study alternative routes. It turns out that the tunnel in question was just north of our intended exit to I-78 anyway. Heavy rain and thundershowers were in the forecast. We found them just east of Allentown, PA.
    I had searched our Woodall's directory for a campground along I-78. I found Jugtown Mountain Campsites. While this campground is fairly easy to find and get to from I-78, and has quite a RV and Trailer parts store, it does not have much else to recommend it. When I checked in, the guy circled an area on the campground map and said he thought I could find a space somewhere in that area. Most of the area he indicated was filled, but I did find a site. This place was poorly maintained and the pool was closed. There were several older trailers there that looked like they were abandoned. There were no signs indicating where the dump station was. I found it by exploring. I went into one of the restrooms. It was filthy - the worst I've ever seen at a campground. It's too bad, really. With some maintenance and proper management, this could be a nice campground. We had more heavy showers in the evening. I was glad we had stopped relatively early. I guess the best I can say about Jugtown Mountain is "Any port in a storm." I recommend you avoid this place. I later found some online reviews. I'm not the only one who had negative comments about Jugtown Mountain.
    While at Cherry Hill Park, I found a copy the RV Gypsy Journal. One of the articles in this paper reported on free places to park overnight. One of these was the Danbury CT Welcome Center. Since we were going through Danbury, I decided to check it our for possible use in the future. This was basically a rest area. There was a building there with rest room and vending machines. No gas, no restaurant. However, then had a nice parking area for RV's and Busses that was separate from the truck parking area (though a couple of trucks were using it when we got there). They even had a free RV dump station! The place was neat and clean. Nice! We just may overnight there on some future trip.
    The supply of food in the fridge was getting low, so we decided to eat lunch out. We had a bit of trouble finding a restaurant in Danbury where we could park our RV. We went by a steakhouse with adequate parking, but that was not the type of place we were looking for. Eventually, we found our way to the Danbury Mall and a Panera's. The parking lot was not the best for maneuvering the MH, but we made it.
    While we were eating, the rain started again. There was another very heavy thunderstorm as we left Danbury.
    We stopped for gas in Chelmsford, MA. We chose a station close to the exit. It was OK getting in, but it was hard to get out of. If we had been towing a car, we would not have made it. I had to back up twice in order to make the turn to the exit.
    We were hit by more heavy thunderstorms, with wind gusts, as we left Chelmsford. They continued as we traveled through NH, and into Maine. The old Southwind was more solid feeling in the wind gusts than I would have expected. I had to react them some, but considering how bad the weather was, I did OK. We saw a couple of trees that were blown down. On past trips, we have had a few problems with a loose connection on the module that controls the windshield wipers. I thought maybe I had that licked, but we did lose the wipers for a minute or two. Then they came back. I've got to see if I can do more about that issue.
    Somewhere on I-95 in New Hampshire, the "Service Engine Soon" light came on while driving in the heavy rain. The engine continued to run fine. I did find that upshifts from 3rd to 4th were a bit rougher than normal. I'll write another entry about what that turned out to be.
    We arrived home about 7:20 PM. The entire trip was 1,395 miles.
    Our daughter cooked supper for us, and had it ready soon after we arrived. I was a great trip, but it's always good to get home.
  4. GrampaDennis
    We left our home in Readfield, Maine at 8 AM on July 7th. We made 2 rest and lunch stops and 2 fuel stops along the way. We were in a long rolling traffic jam on I-495 in Massacusetts, north of State Route 2. Traffic only stopped completely one brief time, but was just crawling for miles. I turned on the CB for a while. I got a bit of useful information from the truckers' chatter, especially about where the traffic opened up again. However, I could have done without the profanity. It was a construction lane closure that had everything messed up. It could have been worse. We arrived at Black Bear Campground in Florida, NY around 5:30 PM.
    Black Bear is a very neat and well-maintained campground. I recommend it. It's a few miles off I-84, but worth the diversion. The campsites are up on a ridge and the pool is down near the store and office at the entrance. If you don't have a toad or a golf cart, plan on a good hike down the hill and back up again, if you want to use the pool.
    On the 8th, we got going a little slow and rolled approximately 9 AM. We made 2 rest and lunch stops and one fuel stop along the way. We got to Cherry Hill Campground around 4:15 PM and were set up on our site by 4:45 PM
    I learned some things about the MH on this trip:
    While running both air conditioners at home before the trip, on a 20amp circuit, I forgot I was so overloaded and started the vacuum cleaner as well. That tripped the breaker in my garage. When I went to hook up the shore power on the trip, I found that I had melted the plug adapter. I had to pry it apart, then cut off some rubber remaining from the adapter, and clean one of the prongs of my 30 amp plug. Maybe there's a reason my manual says not to run both air conditioners on a 20 amp plug.
    While plugging in a night light for my grandson, I discovered that the outlet under the table didn't work. I thought "that's funny - it always has worked." I then checked and reset most of the 120 volt breakers. No problems found there. I checked the outlet on my side of the bed and that was dead, too. Next, I checked the bathroom outlet, which is one of those GFCI units, with the Test and Reset buttons. It was dead also. I pressed the reset and it worked. It was then that I had an "Aha moment!" The other dead outlets are wired through that GFCI outlet! Sure enough, the other outlets worked fine after the GFCI was reset. Grandma was observing my frustration with the outlets and confessed that she "may have" blundered into the test button on the GFCI outlet earlier. I should have diagnosed the problem sooner. At home, we have several outlets wired through a GFCI outlet the same way.
    This Spring, I paid a goodly sum to have the dash AC fixed in the motorhome. On this trip, I got some return on that investment! The temps were in the low to mid 90's. With the dash AC blowing on me, I was comfortable most of the time in the driver's seat. However, the rest of the coach was getting quite warm. During rest and lunch stops, I started the generator and ran the two rooftop AC units. On the last leg of the trip in the afternoon, I let the generator and the rooftop AC's run while driving down the highway. I have read in the forums that some other folks do this. It helped to keep us cooler, and it didn't seem to use a lot more gas. Besides, I understand that it's good for the generator to run it under a good load occasionally!
    I'm not sure if it is due to a problem in the ductwork, or a problem with the AC unit itself, but the front rooftop AC (actually closer to mid-length) does not push much air to the front two sets of vents. The rear AC, over the bedroom, will freeze you out. Some day, I may take things apart enough to find out if there is an obstruction in the duct.
    Other comments:
    The EZ-Pass is fantastic for paying tolls! We have a lot of toll roads and bridges in the Northeast. All of them on this trip took the EZ-Pass. Several toll stations had high-speed lanes that read the EZ-Pass at full speed!
    I am getting somewhat used to driving the MH in any lane, with traffic and big trucks all around me. It's still a little tense, but I can manage. The NJ Turnpike was the worst driving. I decided to take another route on the return trip.
    It is my understanding that some of the diesel pushers handle much better than our 33 ft gasser. That would be nice - especially for the kinds of driving we have had on this trip!
    As I am finishing up this entry, we are back home and I'm back at work (some day, I'll REALLY retire!) I plan to write a post about our time in Washington and another about our trip back.
  5. GrampaDennis
    This past weekend (June 20 - 22, 2014), we camped at Paradise Park Resort, in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. Years ago, we had tried 2 or 3 other campgrounds in the OOB area. We liked this one the best of any we've tried. It's a tad expensive, compared to the places we normally stay, but worth it. The pricing is similar to other places in OOB. This campground is VERY neat and clean and has the best restrooms we've seen. The location is on a side street across from the upper end of Old Orchard St, where Route 98 meets Route 5, and is within a reasonable walking distance of everything. If walking is not your thing, they also run a shuttle service on a stretched golf cart.
    On a trip home by car a few weeks ago, we took a side trip off I-95 to check Paradise Park out. We inspected the place, picked our site, and made our reservation on that stop. Even though the selection was a bit limited, due to making the reservation late, we got a nice site on a corner. Our site was a bit larger than most. We'll definitely keep this place in mind for a future fall or spring getaway, when the rates are lower and the crowds are thinner.
    Close to half of their sites are seasonal setups. However, these are all very neat and well done, unlike some of the seasonals we have seen in our travels. As with most of the OOB area, our French-speaking neighbors from Quebec are well-represented. There was a mix of all types of tents, all types of trailers and all types of motorhomes. This is a family atmosphere, where folks are quiet and respectful of others.
    One of my pet peeves in life is the tendency to hype products by giving them names that are impossible to live up to. Having stayed at Paradise Park, I must say that the name is not all hype. It IS a little bit of paradise!
    Now, a little bit about how the motorhome went. This was our first outing since I had an alignment done and new Bilstein shocks and steering stabilizer installed. These improvements made a definite difference in the ride and handling of our 33 Ft Southwind. It still steers a little too easy, and you have to be especially watchful in crosswinds, but it recovers from bumps better, and has less tendency to wander. I had the work done at a truck and suspension shop in Waterville, ME, which has a good reputation - Harry J. Smith & Co. While there, I had the annual State Inspection and a chassis lube as well. (I had done an oil and filter change last fall.)
    In a couple of weeks, we are headed out to Washington, DC. I'll let you know how that goes.
  6. GrampaDennis
    Before our fall foliage trip, Grandma had heard from friends about a road to scenic lookout near Rangeley. She had heard it was a gravel road, but in good condition, and that the view was spectacular. She said it was "Quinn Road on Route 17." Well, Grandma is a bit dyslexic sometimes. It turned out to be Quill Hill and it was on Route 16, between Rangeley and Stratton.
    When we found the sign, the gravel road off Route 16 looked a little steep, but was well graded. I decided to try it. It turns out that some of the landowners and contractors in the area improved a route along previously existing logging roads, to create access to the top of Quill Hill, which some might call a small mountain. The story is that there was no government money involved. There was no toll, either. How about that? If Obama visited, he would probably tell them "You didn't build that."
    As we went along, there were signs saying "12 minutes to the top," 9 minutes to the top," etc. The middle part of the route wasn't too steep. When we got to the steeper part, we had already gone most of the way. At that point, I was reluctant to turn around.
    The road was just wide enough in most places to meet opposing traffic, if both drivers were careful. On the last of it, you had to pick your spot to pull over as far as you could when meeting someone. Near the top, there was an area where the road split into two one-way paths. At the very top, there was a one-way loop around, and plenty of parking. This was a near-perfect day and lots of folks were going up there. However, we were the only crazies doing it in a Class A Motorhome! The Southwind, with its Chevy 454 engine, made the climb OK, but the climb is not the only problem. Once you get up this hill, you've got to descend it!
    The view was all we expected and more! See the photos. You could see miles and miles in all directions.
    When we started down, I kept it in low gear and still had to use the brakes. A little farther down the hill, I could go in 2nd without using the brakes all the time. In the middle, more gentle, area, I got it up into 3rd. When we went down the last pitch to Route 16, it was back to 1st gear with brakes again. As I turned on to Route 16, I smelled my hot brakes!
    Fortunately the route from there to Stratton was gentle. I drove that stretch without touching the brakes, keeping my speed low and downshifting when coming into curves. I stopped at a rest area just north of Stratton, got out an sniffed the brakes. They were no longer hot.
    Should I have driven the motorhome up that little mountain? The answer is NO. I shouldn't have. I got away with it, with no harm done, but I wouldn't try it again. This experience helped me to understand and respect the limits of my motor coach. From now on, I'll be looking for other transportation when I want to do any motorized mountain climbing.
    We don't yet tow a car with our motorhome, but it would have been handy to leave the coach at the foot of the hill and go up with the "towed" vehicle.
    How about you? Have you driven your coach any places you shouldn't have?
  7. GrampaDennis
    On Memorial Weekend, we camped at Beaver Brook CG, in North Monmouth, Maine. This place is beyond the end of the pavement, and our Garmin GPS had the directions wrong. Fortunately, I knew the area somewhat, had been there years before, and had studied my DeLorme Atlas before going. Yup, I'm an Engineer and a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy. Actually, the unpaved portion of Wilson Pond Road wasn't too bad. I've seen paved roads much rougher.
    Our site was on the far side of the campground, at the top of the hill. The road going up was rocky, uneven and narrow in places, with a few tight turns. I was able to navigate it OK with our 33 ft long Class A Southwind, but I'm not sure I would recommend it for a larger rig. (If you've read my previous posts, you already know that I have sometimes driven this thing where people with more sense would fear to go.)
    When I made the reservations, I was offered the choice of a few sites that supposedly would accomodate our rig. When I got to Site 353, I had to reset a couple times to avoid the trees, but got in OK. I had less than a foot left over on the driver's side with the slide out, and about a foot left on the other side with the awning out. We couldn't use the fire pit (no big deal to us), because it was within 2 ft of my rear bumper. During our stay, we marked several sites on the map that would have been better for our coach.
    During Friday night, the CG water system lost all pressure. Fortunately, our onboard tank was more than half full, so I just switched on the pump. When I spoke to the office staff the next morning, they said they had found and fixed some leaks and were refilling their reservoir tank. In the afternoon, they had water again. However, we lost water pressure again on Saturday night, and once more on Sunday night. In our case, this was no real inconvenience, because we just turned on the pump and used our own water. I normally carry water in the fresh water tank anyway. This trip just reinforced my "be prepared" attitude about it.
    Overall, I have mixed feelings about Beaver Brook. I think the Good Sam/Woodalls ratings of it are on the generous side. The pool is nice, the store is fairly well stocked. The restrooms are "fair" at best. The roads are a little tough in places, but Ok in most areas. Some of the sites (including ours) are tough to get into because of trees in the way. On the plus side, the forest setting is nice, there are some amazing large boulders and some very interesting stone walls that the early settlers put a lot of work into, There are several lakefront sites, there is a group of very long pull-through sites with sewer connections. The property has a very picturesque brook running through it (which I forgot to take a photo of). There are several activities for kids, as well as horseshoe pits, a wooded disc golf course and a run-down mini golf course. There is a hall, which featured a rock band on Saturday night and karaoke on Sunday night.
    There were very few motorhomes here. There were trailers of all ages, sizes and descriptions, as well as a few tenters. Perhaps it was the time of year, but the crowd was almost all Mainers. There were several seasonal setups, some of which were "park models."
    We walked a lot, and enjoyed the exercise. If you camp here, especially up on the hill, you better be prepared to walk uphill and down. If you are restricted to level ground, this place is not for you.
    They had free, unsecured, wi-fi near the store, but none elsewhere around the CG.
    Would I camp here again? Yes, but I would not be expecting first-class accomodations. At $36 for a water and electric site, it was an OK deal for a 3 day weekend (I dumped once, on the way out). I don't think I like the place well enough to pay the $50 that they charge for a sewered site.
  8. GrampaDennis
    It's finally Spring in Central Maine! The leaves are opening up and camping season has begun.
    When I retrieved the MH from storage in late April, the engine battery had run down, even though I had used the disconnect switch. I used the battery interconnect on the dash to boost from the house batteries. It started right up. That's a handy feature!
    I got all of the systems going without much trouble. I did have to play with the burner adjustment on the water heater though. On our last outing in the fall, it got a little sooty. I adjusted it a bit then, but apparently didn't get it right. This spring, it was blowing itself out. After a couple of trials, I now have it working well.
    I went through my funnel collection and found one that sort of worked for catching the anti-freeze out of the water heater. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, this rig doesn't have the WH bypass setup, so I had filled the entire 6 gallon WH with RV anti-freeze. Some spilled oun the ground, but I captured about 3.5 gallons for re-use next fall.
    The in-dash AC system in this 1998 Southwind has not held freon since we bought it last year. I had tried the refill kits, and gotten the AC to work, but it promptly leaked down again. Since we are planning a summertime trip to Washington, DC, we decided to get it fixed. I took the MH to a local radiator and AC shop, thinking I just had a leak somewhere that would not be too expensive. It turned out that the leak was in the most expensive part - the compressor. The AC guy recommended a new compressor, as opposed to a rebuilt, which might have been $100 cheaper. He also urged that we replace the drier, which he said should be replaced anytime your are into an automotive AC system this old. The compressor arrived the next day, but the drier came a couple of days later than expected. The shop had the MH from Monday to Friday, and the bill was just under $900. Grandma and I better enjoy the cold air!
    Originally, we had planned for our first outing of the season to be with the Maine Wheels in Dixfield, Maine on 5/16 through 5/18. However, a memorial service was scheduled on 5/17 for a relative who died in Florida a few weeks ago. So, we adjusted our plans and camped at my sister's place in Parkman, Maine. The MH ran well and we enjoyed the AC all the way there. I saw several cousins and friends that I have not seen for a while. On Saturday night we had real pork and beans - not the kind you buy in a can. My sister and bother-in-law had raised the pig and grown the beans. They were cooked all day in a slow cooker. There was plenty of lean meat in this pork and beans dish. It was accompanied by some excellent home-made biscuits. Yummy!
    Things worked out pretty well for a rainy weekend!
    We have made reservations for Memorial Weekend at Beaver Brook campground. This place is quite nearby, so I will drive the MH and Grandma will follow with the pickup, hauling our two kayaks in the back. We have camped at this place before - about 30 years ago! It's grown quite a bit since. We have invited our 10 year old grandson to come with us, but he has another offer - to visit with friends his age. We think we know which one he will choose.
  9. GrampaDennis
    Today, Grandma and I visited our "Cottage on Wheels" in its winter storage, inside a warehouse of a former lumber yard. Due to some health issues now being evaluated, we have decided to forego our previously planned winter trip to Florida. Therefore, the MH will stay in storage until April sometime.
    When I parked it, on Nov 16, I used the "battery disconnect" switches, but did not physically disconnect the batteries. I was pleased to find that I had ample battery power today. The engine started right up, as if it had only been shut down for a day. The generator required about 3 tries, but it does that in the warmer weather, as well. I also turned on the propane at the tank, and on the inside switch, bled out the air at the cooktop, and started the furnace.
    Several boats had been angle parked along the path between our MH and the door. While they did leave just space enough for me to drive out, I decided against it. I would have had to carefully back in again, threading the needle between all the trailer tongues. I just opened the big doors fully, to provide ventilation while we ran our engine and generator.
    Everything looked to be in good shape, with no harm or vandalism during storage even though I had neglected to lock the driver's door.
    After running long enough to bring the engine temp gauge halfway up (and dash heat coming), I shut it down again. I ran the generator long enough that the oil filter felt warm, but not hot. I know some folks would say I didn't run either engine long enough to really drive the vapor out of the oil. However, I didn't want to waste too much gas, and didn't want to run it too long inside (even though we were in a large building with a huge door open). I think I ran long enough to gain on the state of charge in the batteries.
    I shut off the propane (with the switch and the valve on the tank), used the battery disconnect switches, and locked both doors this time.
    I look forward to getting the MH out in the Spring, and installing the neww Bilstein shocks we bought for it.
  10. GrampaDennis

    Winter Storage

    By GrampaDennis,

    Today, I parked our "Cottage on Wheels" in its winter storage spot. It will be dry and out of the weather - see photo.
    A former lumber yard in our area has converted some of their buildings to storage, and advertised locally this fall. After confirming that they could accommodate a 32' Class A, and that it could be parked such that we could take it out for a planned winter excursion (more on this below), we sent a deposit. We also checked with others who store a MH, and found that the price was about right.
    A few weeks ago, as our Maine weather started to dip below freezing, I winterized the coach. I'm not totally new to this. We've had trailers before. One frustration was that this rig has not had a water heater bypass installed. I would have put one in before winterizing, but the water heater plumbing is not very accessible on this rig. I thought of a scheme where I could pump anti-freeze in the hot side first, then drain and recover some from the water heater, reusing it in the cold side. When I looked things over, i found that the gas plumbing runs in front of the water heater drain in such a way that it would be difficult to rig a drain extension hose, or even a funnel, to catch the pink stuff. So, I just put in more RV anti-freeze and filled the whole thing. Using the leveling jacks, I tipped the coach up so that the inlet from the water tank was definitely the low point. That allowed me to pump from a small quantity of anti-freeze in the water tank, without sucking air.
    After I had confirmed how much I needed, I went back to Wal-mart and bought enough more RV anti-freeze to re-winterize on the way back from our winter trip to Florida. That way, I won't have to be searching for it on the way. Wal-mart sells an off-brand RV anti-freeze for $2.97 par gallon, and Prestone brand for $4.97 a gallon. Given that I use quite a bit of the stuff, and I'm just going to throw it away anyhow, I buy the cheaper brand. Both claim they're good to -50 F.
    When I got to the old lumber yard/storage place, I had a few minutes to snoop around while the proprietor was waiting on another customer. I didn't like the looks of some of the buildings, and some of the doors did not look wide enough or tall enough. I was very pleased when it was my turn, and the man led me to one of the newer buildings with a huge door and a nice concrete floor. Honoring our request, he had saved a spot for me where I can drive right out.
    On the way home, Grandma commented that we could store the MH for more than 10 years for what it would cost to build a shed for it on our property. She's right, though I do like the thought of having my own storage, with at least an electrical hookup. As a compromise step, I may someday make a nice level parking space next to our garden shed, then run electricity to the shed, with an outlet for the coach.
    In mid to late January, we'll pull the MH out of storage and take it to a shop about 25 miles from here that does truck alignments and suspension work. I have already checked with them to confirm that I can have them install the new Bilstein shocks that I have purchased, while I have it in to them for an alignment. I'll have them do a chassis lube as well. I did an oil and filter change myself, less than 200 miles ago. I also have a steering stabilizer on backorder, which will be installed at the same time.
    My part-time work slows up in the winter, so it's a good time to take off. We are going from Maine to Florida, where we plan to spend about a month. We haven't nailed down our departure date. It will depend somewhat on the weather, but will be at the end of January or the first part of February. I have to be back for some work-related training in the last week of March.
    Later, I'll post about the Florida trip, and perhaps about how our chassis handling improvements worked out.
  11. GrampaDennis
    In early September, we got a "Welcome to FMCA" letter from the Maine Wheels chapter, inviting us to join the chapter and to attend their rallies. They meet once a month,from May through October. We had another commitment on the weekend of the September meet, so we decided to join and attend the October rally.
    The Maine Wheels met at the Pumpkin Patch RV Resort in Hermon, Maine (near Bangor) on October 11-14. We drove there on Friday evening. This is the first time I have set up the motorhome on a campsite after dark. It turned out to be no problem. The staff led me to the site with a golf cart. The site was a pull-through and was almost perfectly level. Our coach has lights in the lower compartments, which were very handy for hooking up. I almost didn't need to use a flashlight. Another first - this place had cable TV at the sites. I had thrown in a piece of coax for just such an occasion. Soon, we had the TV's set up to receive the cable channels.
    After setting up, we went for a walk and found the Maine Wheels group at the meeting hall. They were very welcoming. They had already put their food away, but got out some cake, ice cream and cider for us. They had a "Yankee Swap" gift exchange, which we watched as we started to get to know people there.
    Soon, we discovered that the Membership Secretary grew up in the same very small town that I grew up in. We both had the same first school teacher. She knew some of my relatives and I knew some of hers. Because she was a little older, and her immediate family moved away, I didn't know her while growing up.
    The Maine Wheels had two seating times reserved for breakfast on Saturday morning at the adjoining restaurant. We joined the later group and enjoyed our conversation with a nice family from Moncton, New Brunswick, who are members of the Perfect Circle chapter. I think there were 2 or 3 coaches attending from Perfect Circle.
    After breakfast, several of us carpooled to a Civil War museum in Bangor, where we had a very nice guided tour. We learned a lot about the sorry state of the medical care that the wounded soldiers received. If you were shot, and still had a bullet in you, your chances were far better if you left it there. Surgery almost always resulted in infections, which were too often fatal.
    We decided to rest on Saturday afternoon, rather than partake in the group activity. However, Grandma prepared a batch of chili, which we brought to the pot luck supper. After the supper, Maine Weels had a business meeting, during which they finished settling the details of the 2014 schedule.
    The Maine Wheels had a breakfast on Sunday morning, which we skipped because we entertained a guest for breakfast in our coach. One of my old friends, who was also a college roommate, lives in Bangor. The time that fit his schedule for a visit was Sunday morning.
    We did manage to say goodbye to a few of our new friends before we left for home on Sunday. We may not make all of the Maine Wheels events next year, but we'll take in some of them. They are a good group of folks.
    If you, like us, are not sure you care to attend the big FMCA rallies, you might give a local chapter a try. Maine Wheels is quite low-key. It's just a bunch of folks who enjoy their motorhomes, and enjoy getting together.
  12. GrampaDennis
    On the way to PEI, we had taken a northerly route from Moncton, via Rotue 15 by Shediac. To see something different, we decided to take the southern route by Sackville. Grandma was navigating and she suggested we take Route 106 through Dieppe and Moncton, thinking it would save some distance, compared to TransCanada Route 2 around the north side of Moncton. It may have saved us distance, but I don't believe it saved any time, as it led right through the heart of the city.
    As we were coming to the west side of the central part of Moncton, we were suddenly confronted by a low overpass. I stopped and decided there was no way I would risk going under the thing. Fortunately, there was a left turn available from where I stopped. I took that and we felt our way along until we got back on Route 106. Grandma and I decided that she had not done a much better job of navigating than Bess (the GPS) had on PEI.
    I had been searching our big, fat, Woodalls campground directory for a place to stay between Moncton and Saint John. We found a place called "Three Bears." When we got there, at 6:30 PM, the store and office was closed, but the gate was open. There was a nice couple sitting out on the deck of their seasonal site near the store. I talked with them and they suggested I just come in and pick a site. They would call the owners for me. I picked a full hookup site and got set up, but the owners didn't return the call. The nice folks said the owners were usually there by 9 AM, so I said I would just settle with them in the morning.
    We had a nice walk around the campground in the evening. We could tell by the shape of the main building that it had once been a KOA. This place was heavily settled by seasonal campers. There were a lot more sites than what appeared from the entrance area.
    We didn't hurry about getting up in the morning. When I was unhooked and ready to go, it was 9:30 AM on Friday morning. The owners had still not showed up and the door to the store was locked. The neighbors that greeted us in the evening were not up and around, either. I wrote a note, including my address, and put $40 with it. We drove out the gate and started to look for a place to leave the note and money. At that point, we saw someone in the store. Grandma got out and approached the service window. The person in the store first said that he didn't work there, and couldn't help us. He said he was just peeling carrots and potatoes for a community dinner later that day. Grandma convinced him to take our note and the money to give to the proprietors. It was a reasonably nice campground, but a strange way to run a business.
    Back in 2001, I had attended a conference in Saint John. In fact, I was there during the 9-11 attacks. One of the things that impressed me about Saint John was their indoor Marketplace Mall and City Market. These are built in a series of old and new buildings, connected by enclosed walkways over the streets. It looks like a great place to shop in the winter! I wanted to show this place to Grandma, so we found our way to the area and eventually found some on-street metered parking big enough to accomodate our Cottage on Wheels.
    We had a nice tour of the shopping area and ate in a seafood restaurant that looked out onto Kings Square. We also looked at the olympic swimming pool and training center that is attached by another ovehead walkway. Saint John is nice. I recommend a stop there.
    We had a little rain and fog, but not much wind as we completed the trip across New Brunswick via the southern coastal route, TransCanada 1. We skipped making any scenic stops, due to the weather and our desire to get back into Maine for the night. We crossed th border from Saint Stephen to Calais. We expected that we might be searched, at least somewhat, but we weren't. The US Customs agent did ask to come in to the coach, but once in, he just handed back our passports and wished us a nice day.
    We drove back along the Airline Road, Route 9. Along the way,our windshield wipers quit during a rainstorm. I stopped and managed to get them going again, though the wiper park function wouldn't work. Grandma said "don't touch them as long as they are working." (I later discovered that the problem was a loose connector on the electronic module that controls various wiper functions.) There are no campgrounds listed in the Woodall's directory for that route until you get almost to Bangor. However, there are 2 or 3 small places that are not listed in the directory.
    We stopped at a semi-rundown store/motel/restaurant/campground in Beddington. It turns out that this is a favorite place of the ATV crowd. Most of the campers there were using it as a base for their ATV trips. All of the sites with working hookups were taken, but they let us dry-camp in a nice corner of the place for $10 plus tax. There was another couple in a motor home doing the same thing.
    The next morning, Saturday, we drove to Bangor and did a little shopping at the big mall there. We arrived home in the early afternoon.
  13. GrampaDennis
    During the week after Labor Day, we took a trip to Prince Edward Island, Canada. It was the longest trip with our "Cottage on Wheels" so far. As I'm typing the story, it's getting a bit long, so I am breaking it into two parts. The attached album includes a few of the many photos I took.
    We left home on a Friday evening, after I got done work. We stopped at a Wal-Mart in Newport where we hosted a visit by friends. As they left, our friends pointed out a slack tire. I had just checked the pressures the night before! I found that I had a loose valve stem extension. We got air from one of those wimpy coin operated compressors at a gas station nearby. It cost me 3 or 4 bucks to fill the tire! Instead of continuing on to Bangor, as originally planned, we decided to stay overnight at that Wal-Mart and recheck the tire in the morning. On Saturday morning, the tire pressure was still up. Tightening the valve stem extension did the trick. (Side note - I have since bought an air compressor to carry in the MH with us. Now, we have air readily available.)
    We went a bit out of our way, to Mars Hill, Maine, where we had a nice visit with friends that we have not seen for a while. After an overnight there, we crossed the border at Houlton, ME and traveled across New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island. It was mostly good road, with many long hills. There were a few scenic spots, but much of the journey across NB was wooded, without much else for scenery. This is like driving to Northern Maine, but more so.
    When we got to the Confederation Bridge, the visibility was not great. It was foggy, with occasional light rain. We could only see about 3 spans ahead of us. We were headed for Twin Shores Campground in Darnley, which is in the northwest corner of the central section of the island.
    We decided to let "Bess" (our GPS) guide us to Twin Shores. Bess did OK for a while. She led us along lightly traveled secondary roads through beautiful farming country and small villages. As we were abut 2/3 of the way across the island, Bess told me to turn left, off the numbered route we were on. I followed the instruction, but found that this road was almost all patches and a bit rough. Just as I was hoping for it to get better, it got worse. Up ahead was a long, steep hill with no pavement, just a couple of wheel tracks in the red clay. To complicate matters, it started raining harder. As we reached the end of the pavement, I was looking for a good place to turn around. I passed about 3 driveways that were steep downhill from the road before I found one that was nearly level. That one had wood rail fences on each side, but I managed to back in without hitting anything. We got out of there, but found out later that we had picked up a good coating of that famous PEI red dirt!
    After that little GPS mis-adventure, we ignored Bess and navigated by the map for the rest of the way to Twin Shores. I've had cases where the GPS wanted to take me on a direct route over a bad road before, but none as inconvenient as this was. Maybe one of those new, more expensive, RV specific GPS units would be worth the price. They claim that they analyze the routes and only put you on roads that are suitable for your RV.
    Twin Shores was huge! They have around 800 campsites. We stayed in an older section where there were spruce or fir trees planted as hedges between the sites. Each site was a semi-private nook, well separated from the neighbors. The store, laundromat and other facilities were nice, though not everything was operating this late in the season. There was a lot of acreage involved. The newer sections were more open, but with great views of Darnley Basin, grass-covered dunes and a large open field. We did a lot of walking, and just plain relaxing at Twin Shores.
    On Wednesday morning, we set out toward the eastern shore of the island. We stopped at several scenic turnouts, parks, and a couple of pottery and craft shops along the way. At the entrance to one of the parks, there were a couple of foxes by the road near the entrance. They were not bashful about traffic. In fact, they appeared to be begging for food. We didn't feed them. Generally, we agree with the philosophy that feeding wild animals does them more harm than good.
    We had heard of a beach with "singing sands" that make a tinkling sound or something when blown by the wind. It's near the northeast corner of the island. We didn't get that far. While we were stopped at Basin Head, there were dark clouds coming and we decided to look for a place to camp. We had recently passed Red Point Provincial Park, which had "Camping" listed on its sign, so we turned back there.
    Red Point was a gem! Being late in the season, the park was far from crowded. I picked a site high in a field, where we had that corner of the park to ourselves and a panoramic ocean view. The only thing missing was the surf sound which we would have heard if we picked a site close to the water.
    Wednesday evening, the weather forecast warned that the remnants of a tropical storm was coming on Friday, with heavy rains and high winds. We did not want to be crossing the Confederation Bridge in our motor home in high winds. Therefore, we decided to cut our tour of PEI a bit short and get back into New Brunswick on Thursday.
    Thursday morning, we drove directly to Charlottetown. There, we got off the main highway and wended our way to some metered parking alongside a park near the downtown area. I fed two meters with enough coin for a couple of hours, then we walked into the central part of town and to the waterfront. We ate at a second floor restaurant with a nice view of the harbor, but the food was not that great. We treated ourselves to "Cows" ice cream, which is supposed to be PEI's premium brand. Mine was OK, but I've had better.
    From Charlottetown, we drove to, and across, the Confederation Bridge. The wind had not come up yet. The visibility was better than out first crossing, but still somewhat limited.
    I'll finish the trip in Part 2.
  14. GrampaDennis

    Watch out overhead!

    By GrampaDennis,

    One of our early expeditions involved working on a family project. Our son is building a house in Bow, NH, and had rented a house near the Merrimack River in Hookset, NH, to live in while building. Grandma and I took the MH to New Hampshire so she could live in it for two weeks while painting interior rooms in our son's new house. Because I still work about 3/4 time, I traveled to the New Hampshire project on weekends.
    It was dark when we arrived in Hookset. I knew that there were overhanging oak and maple trees at the driveway to the Hookset house, and along the street there. I stopped while brushing some smaller branches, fortunately before getting into the heavier ones. One of the neighbors came rushing out to warn me about them. My son is now 39 years old and is a good driver and equipment operator. He wanted to back the MH into the driveway while I watched the tree branches. This was due to the fact that there were mailboxes and other obstructions and he had planned how he was going to get it in there. We made out fine, with respect to ground level obstructions and the tree branches, avoiding the larger ones. He had the coach almost to his chosen spot, when all of a sudden we heard a CRAACKKK!! He and I had not realized that the utility wires leading in to the house were lower than the height of the Air Conditioners on the roof of the MH.
    My son stopped before tearing the wires off the house or the utility pole, but one corner of my rear AC shell was in pieces. Perhaps it was a good thing that this AC shell was already cracked and brittle. Considering its already poor condition, I was pleased that it was the point of failure. I had already priced new shells online at Camping World.
    My son felt really bad about doing the damage, and he patched the pieces together with the very sticky wide tape that was being used to seal around the doors and windows of his new house.
    When I got home, I checked again online and found the MAXair AC shells for Coleman air conditioners were on sale. I ordered a pair of them.
    Lessons Learned: Always be careful to watch out for overhead obstructions, but be doubly careful at night, especially in an unfamiliar location.
    We should have looked harder at the overhead situation before backing in!
  15. GrampaDennis
    My sister and one of my uncles both have properties on Ripley Pond in Maine. In past years, I have taken our camper trailers in to my sister's place. However, our MH is a good bit taller and I was concerned mainly about the overhanging trees. My uncle's place isn't so far in. We did some reconnaisance and found that, with a little tree trimming, we should be able to get in. My uncle said "Sure, trim anything you need to."
    On the weekend after we finally got our new tires, I put a pole trimmer and a brush lopper into the storage compartments and we headed for Ripley. There was another little complication. We had been having lot of rain in July, and the ground was a bit wet (maybe more than a bit).
    One of the consequences of the Law of Gravity is that lakes and ponds are almost always located at the bottom of a hill! My uncle's lake lot is a beautiful spot, but it was downhill getting there, and it seemed twice as uphill getting out!
    On Sunday of that weekend, my aunt and uncle came over to the pond and had a nice cookout with us. My sister and some of her family visited as well. There was an overhanging wire across the driveway. On the way in, I had gone around it through the fieldish lawn. My brother-in-law helped me tie the wire up with a rope, so I could go out the driveway, which was harder ground.
    When we were ready to leave, I found I could not get enough traction to get started up the driveway. The first thing my uncle and I tried was to steal a few shovels of gravel from a pile along the road to put under the rear tires. That wasn't enough. My uncle said "let's get my tractor." It was at his house, only about a mile away.
    There are no tow hooks on the front of my MH. There is a fiberglass "bumper" that looks pretty and holds up the fog lights, but is not good for much else. To make matters worse, this false bumper extends down below the frame. I hooked the chain to the frame and used wooden blocking to hold the chain down under the fiberglass. I succeeded in not ruining the fiberglass piece, but I bent up one of the battery boxes, pushing up on it with the blocking.
    We made 40 or 50 attempts to pull the MH with the 4 wheel drive tractor. We found the driveway too steep and went back to the field route. We almost made it back to solid ground, but had to give up. My brother-in-law has a small track-mounted excavator, which he brought over. This excavator has a small dozer blade on it. He could set the blade, pull with the bucket, then reset and do it again. We made it back into the road that way, but not before he had thrown a track off the excavator. We had to get that back on before we could continue.
    All in all, it took about 4 hours to get the MH away from Ripley Pond! I offered my BIL money for his fuel and trouble. He wouldn't take any. I owe him big-time, and will certainly do anything I can if I have an opportunity to help him. It was a hard day for my 80 year old uncle as well.
    Needless to say, if we go with the MH to visit my relatives on Ripley Pond, we'll park at the house on the main road (with a level parking area) and either walk or borrow a vehicle to get to the pond!
    Lesson Learned: A Class A motor home is NOT an off-road vehicle. (In fact, it's pretty helpless in tough going.) I'm sticking to paved or hard gravel roads from now on!
  16. GrampaDennis

    Tires

    By GrampaDennis,

    I wrote about our tire purchase in one of the forums a while ago. I'll put a brief version of the story here as well.
    From reading the Good Sam forums and the FMCA forums, I learned about the Michelin Advantage tire discount program through FMCA. One of the other FMCA members from Maine posted about the savings he got. I sent him a PM and found out which dealer he used.
    Grandma is a great believer in comparison shopping, so she called around. Sure enough, the best deal to be had on Michelin XRV tires was through the FMCA program. That was the lure that caused me to join FMCA. It only cost $50 to join and we saved $120 per tire (x 6 = $720), compared to what the same dealer first quoted.
    The dealer said he had 6 tires in stock. From the forums, I knew enough to ask about the date codes. At first, he said they were a year old and that they had been ordered for a customer who backed out. To compensate for being a year old, the dealer was going to match the FMCA price and throw in free mounting and balancing. I said I would take that deal. However, the dealer called back and said they rechecked and had only 5 of the year-old tires in the warehouse and had one that was 4 years old. I said I did not want a 4 year old tire. We wound up ordering a new set. That caused almost a two-week delay in getting ready to travel, but the date codes on the tires were only 3 months old when I got them.
    We had a minor hickup because the dealer didn't fill out the paperwork completely at first. We got that straightened out, and I was charged the amount promised.
    Thanks, FMCA, for the great tire discount program! I recommend that anyone needing tires for their coach look into it.
  17. GrampaDennis

    First Trip

    By GrampaDennis,

    So, we had the "Cottage on Wheels" home, and basically functional, but it still had the original fifteen year old tires. I was looking into tires (a subject for another entry), but we wanted to take a little shakedown cruise. We decided on Meadowbrook campground, in Phippsburg Maine. It is less than 50 miles from our home, can be reached on two-lane roads. I didn't dare take this thing up to 70 MPH on the old tires. Also, Meadowbrook is not far from one of our favorite places in the world, Popham Beach.
    I blew the tires up to a little more than the recommended pressure. My belief is that the heat caused by too much flexing in a slack tire would be the worst thing for old tires. I crossed my fingers and said a little prayer and we headed out. Actually, I was more worried about the old tires than I admitted to Grandma.
    Getting to Meadowbrook was a bit interesting. There is more than one possible route, but any of them traverse a network of very narrow and twisting roads (typical for side roads on the Maine coast). We also had to look out for overhanging tree limbs and branches. I clipped a couple of them, but don't think I did any damage.
    Meadowbrook was not fancy, but nice enough. The WiFi worked at our site. In addition to walking on their campground roads, there was a nice nature trail through the woods. They had an outdoor Karaoke party in the evening. Much to my wife's embarrassment, I did a song and murdered it badly! (First time I ever did this, and I didn't know the song well enough).
    We left Meadowbrook early on Sunday and motored to Popham Beach State Park. Being seniors, and Maine citizens, we were allowed in free. They didn't even charge for parking the MH, and they sent a man to show us a nice parking spot where we wouldn't get blocked in.
    I had enough beach, and needed to use the facilities, a little sooner than Grandma did, so I went back to our rolling cottage. I put one of my nice old country music cassettes in the player and semi-snoozed on the sofa until Grandma returned. I could get used to this!
    A little side note. I'm sort of glad our rig is old enough that it has a cassette player instead of a CD player. Now, I can play my collection of old cassettes! Maybe someday, I'll upgrade the music setup. I would like to be able to play both.
    We prepared and ate our lunch in the beach parking lot, then rolled home, stopping for ice cream along the way.
    The first trip was great! Everything worked well, and the tires held up.
  18. GrampaDennis

    First Scare

    By GrampaDennis,

    In the process of the delivery and our purchase, the seller picked up a new chassis battery and I agreed to split the cost with him. However, he delivered the coach on the old battery.
    I installed the new battery. I consider myself mechanically proficient, and I have changed batteries on dozens of vehicles over the years. This battery has the GM type side terminals. I thought I had them tight, but I am also concerned about over-torquing things (don't ask me why).
    I had no electrical problems driving the coach over to ALT RV Service for the brake work, etc. They had checked out the electrical system as part of their "100 point inspection." They test-drove it 2 or 3 times before everything was done and we picked up our new-to-us motorhome.
    After we had paid the bill, I headed home with the coach, followed by Grandma in her car. At the top of the hill on Rte 202 in Winthrop, I got into the left lane, preparing to turn left on my way to a gas station. Suddenly everything went dead! No engine, no restart, no power steering, no power brakes. I did not want to end up with a dead coach on the left side of the road! I checked the mirrors. Fortunately, Grandma was well behind me and there was no one else really close. I yanked the thing to the right and still had enough momentum to get across the highway and coast to a stop on the right side of the road.
    Grandma pulled in behind me, quite concerned about "what the **** happened." We called ALT RV Service and the mechanic came over. As we were checking things over, we found that the problem was that the ground terminal on the battery had loosened. With a computer-controlled, electrically fuel-injected engine, things come to a halt immediately if battery contact is lost. Some of the older engines would keep running on the alternator, but not the current ones! As it turned out, the problem was really my own fault. I have not had the problem again in about 1200 miles. You can bet that I will make sure those battery terminals stay tight from now on!
    Years ago, when I took pilot training, my instructors taught me to always be scanning for a place to make an emergency landing. I think the same advice applies while driving a truck, bus or motor coach. Actually, this incident wasn't the first time I have had a vehicle suddenly quit on me. However, I must admit it was a little scary in this big coach which I was not totally used to driving yet.
  19. GrampaDennis

    Purchase

    By GrampaDennis,

    In June of 2013, Grandma and I got serious about our quest for a used motor home. We were shopping somewhat on the low end - under $30K. We browsed our local classified ad magazine (Uncle Henry's), Craigslist, dealers' web sites, and any other sources we found. We looked at 16 coaches in 8 days! Only 3 or 4 of those met our standards at all. We had one near miss where there was a very nice coach for reasonable money, but someone put a deposit on it about an hour before we called.
    On June 21, we made a deal with a private seller on a 1998 Southwind 32V, on a Chevrolet P32 chassis, with the 7.4L gas engine. It had less than 29,000 miles and was in very nice condition. We agreed to have the seller deliver it to our home and that we would pass the money and paperwork there. This turned out to be a wise decision.
    On June 25, the seller delivered the coach, but he had trouble with the brakes along the way. It turned out to be sticking calipers. I won't detail the renegotiation, but the result was that the seller reimbursed us for half of the cost of the brake work. Considering that we are now starting out with new calipers and pads on all 4 corners, I think this was fair.
    We had a local RV shop (ALT RV Service in North Monmouth, ME) recommended to us and we arranged to have them do the brake work and some other things on our list. They have been very good.
    I'm writing this in October, during what will likely be our last trip this Fall. I want to briefly describe some of our other adventures. I'll close this entry by offerring some advice to other newbies:
    Have patience in your shopping. You may chase down a lot off false leads, but should eventually find a deal that fits for you.
    Either drive the coach, or insist that the seller deliver it to you. If there are mechanical problems, you are in a far better position if they are discovered before you take ownership.
    Realize what you are getting into for taxes, registration fees, insurance, etc., and budget accordingly. Also, budget for substantial repairs and maintenance - brakes, shocks, tires, etc.
    There is no such thing as a low-cost motor coach. Besides the brakes, we have replaced the front air bags, all 3 batteries, 6 tires and will soon be replacing the shocks. Within the next year, we will be recoating the roof. At some point (we may be there), you end up with more money invested in your rehabbed coach than you could get out of it if you sold. In our case, we intend to use it and enjoy it. We are still coming out ahead of some of the newer, higher priced, units and we have no loan payments.
  20. GrampaDennis
    On September 28th and 29th, Grandma and I took a weekend trip to some very scenic places not far from our home. After watching our grandson's Saturday morning soccer game, we headed up Route 17, which passes through our town, and continued to its end in Oquossoc. From there, we took Route 16, through Rangeley, to Stratton. From Stratton, we headed north up Route 27 to Eustis, where we stayed overnight at Cathedral Pines CG. On Sunday, we followed Route 27 south through Bigelow and Carabasset to Farmington. From Farmington, we followed Routes 2 & 27 east to New Sharon, then south on Route 27 to Belgrade Lakes, then Route 135 to our home in Readfield. The foliage was almost at its peak in most of the places we went. I am attaching an album of a few of the photos I took. I'll add a few words here about the places we stopped along the way.
    We were pleasantly surprised to find gas advertised at $3.439 at a Cumberland Farms store in Livermore Falls. I have one of their SmartPay discount cards (10 cents off), so I topped off the tank.
    Coos Canyon, on the Swift River in Byron, was a great stop. We pulled into a rest area and had a super view of the little canyon from our table in the MH while we had lunch. After some sightseeing, on a short and easy hike, we explored the store and rock shop across the street. They have all kinds of rocks, minerals, gems and jewelry there and the prices seem reasonable. There's a small amount of gold in the Swift River and this place caters to rock hounds and amateur prospectors. You can buy or rent your gold panning equipment here. By appointment, you can get lessons as well. They also sell books on the subject. They had several jewelry items made with actual Swift River gold nuggets in epoxy or tiny display cases. Some of these were priced under $100. One of my photos shows a guy panning in the river. There is also a campground here. One of these days, I may go back and try my hand at panning!
    Route 17 climbs up a ridge called "Height of Land" We stopped at the Height of Land scenic turnout, which offers a fantastic view to the north and west. Mooselookmeguntic lake is the big one in the foreground. Some of the mountains you see from here are in New Hampshire.
    A few more miles up the road, another scenic turnout looks north and east, over Rangeley Lake. This was a very nice view as well.
    We didn't actually stop in Rangeley, though there are some interesting restaurants, shops and museums there.
    Between Rangeley and Stratton, we went up Quill Hill. I wouldn't do that again with a Class A motorhome, even though the view was tremendous, I'll do another post with more detail on Quill Hill.
    Cathedral Pines Campground is on the North Branch of the Dead River, which flows into Flagstaff Lake. This CG is in a large grove of tall red pine. All sites are shaded much of the time, which would be an advantage in hot weather. The campsites are very generous in size and spaced out well. Many of them would be big enough to take 2 or 3 RV's, if you were traveling in a group. They have very few sewered sites, but have 3 dump stations. Our site had water and 30 amp electric. The campground is very neat and well-maintained. I have heard from friends that they have a special area for larger groups, across Route 27 from the main CG. There is a general store within sight of the campground entrance. We went there first. This store is quite well stocked with food items and other necessities. There is no store in the campground itself.
    We didn't stop much on our way home on Sunday, though we passed the entrance to Sugarloaf Ski Area and went through New Portland, where the historic Wire Bridge is located. Though we didn't stop at the Wire Bridge this time (been there before), it's definitely a stop I would recommend. It is one of the very earliest suspension bridges in the country, and it is in a very pretty setting on the Carrabassett River.
    We stopped for lunch at an old truss bridge on the Sandy River, off Route 2 in New Sharon. This bridge is barricaded off, but the old section of road was a convenient place to park the MH while we had our meal.
    We got home early enough on Sunday that I had time before dark to wash the Quill Hill dirt off the MH. We are fortunate to live in an area where such a nice trip is doable in less than a full weekend!
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