tbutler

We love this part of the country and have spent many happy days exploring the places you mention and more. We are avid hikers and I'll try to factor in your limitation on hiking If any transport (personal mobility device) is available, it will greatly enhance the trip. There is plenty of scenery any way you go. A caution, the desert area you mention, Joshua Tree, is likely to be quite hot when you are planning your travels. The mountains should be delightful. We loved Joshua Tree National Monument but the oasis and old gold mines are on the hiking tour. For scenery there are several nice drives into the park with short walks through cactus fields and scenic overlooks. For driving only, you can probably travel most of the roads in the park in a day or two. At Sequoia National Park you can drive among the giant trees and appreciate many of them from roads and parking areas near trailheads. Several days of touring there should also be sufficient for that stop. Note: When we do these parks we also plan some rest days so may stay for four or five days in the campground and be out in the park on two or three days.King's Canyon is adjacent to Yosemite and is a one day drive into and out of the park. Yosemite has roads with spectacular views in the main valley (one day by car) with waterfalls and spectacular views of Half Dome and other features. There are roads to the north and south that also enter the park. The northern one takes you into the mountains, alpine lakes and then into the desert at Mono Lake. I would plan at least three days there. I would recommend the Redwoods area in Northern California. The state park is spectacular, we stayed at Red Crest Campground, just north of Humbodt Redwoods State Park. Drive north on 101 from Leggett to Red Crest, there are a number of tourist sites and small groves of Redwoods, drive through trees, tree houses, carvers, etc. The Pacific Coast of California is spectacular but don't take the motor home unless you have checked with locals. Hwy 1 twists and turns in some places it can be difficult to get around some of the hairpins, great trip for the toad. Hwy 101 in Oregon is much more friendly for motor homes and you get many of the great coast views along there. Interesting towns and scenery, shops and stores along the way. The Tillamook Cheese Factory is along there, just south of Astoria. We really love the Astoria area. The Columbia River Nautical Museum is worthwhile. The bridge from Astoria over the Columbia provides a wonderful view of the Columbia River. Traveling upriver on the Columbia to Portland, OR and then on up the Columbia River Valley will take you to a series of scenic waterfalls where the water comes off the north slopes of Mount Hood. Many are accessible via a short walk from the parking lot. Mt. St. Helens off I-5 has a visitors center that will give you details of the 1982 eruption of the volcano and some nice views of the mountain. You might want to make a driving tour of the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic National Park. The logging museum in Forks is worth a visit. They have a logging tour that starts from the museum. It involves some walking, but check on it. We enjoyed visiting several of the native American tribes in the area near Forks. There is a nice museum at Makah Bay. These are just a few of our high points to get you started. Regarding wine, there are wineries throughout California. We have children and grandchildren near Murphys, a small community in the gold hills, east of Lodi, south of Sacramento. There are half a dozen wineries there, most don't charge for tasting. There are something like 90 wineries in the Napa Valley, a lifetime of wine tasting and most charge for tasting. There are also wineries in Oregon along I-5 south of Portland and you'll find wineries in Washington on the Olympic Peninsula in the area around Olympia up toward Port Townsend. These days you can find wineries almost anywhere and we enjoy stopping at them whenever we are able. You have a wonderful trip ahead of you, take your time and enjoy.

We have one of these in our park right now. It has Florida license plates but goes nowhere it isn't on a trailer here in Texas. They can haul it to the beach and drive it there. Otherwise they are driving it around the park as a huge oversized golf cart!

We've been towing our 2012 Acadia for four summers now, close to 50,000 miles with no problems. No dead battery, well once I left the key in the wrong position when we stopped overnight and I had to get something from the toad My fault. Hooked it to the charger and we were on our way in an hour. We don't use a battery charge line. See other details below. From descriptions above, the newer ones are easier to tow than ours. We have to pull fuses and start and run the engine for a period of time each morning and occasionally when stopping during the day for an extended period of time. We have our toad wired directly to the coach so the taillights and signals are just a matter of inserting a plug. It's a total Roadmaster system, base plate, tow bar, supplemental braking system runs off the coach air brakes.

August 11, 1999 Louise and I traveled to Paris to see a total solar eclipse. The trip was our first adventure to Europe and was a wonderful adventure that helped convince us that there was much to see in the world. Our trip was a success, we saw the total eclipse briefly as the clouds parted during totality. The sight was spectacular, something that many people may live a lifetime and never experience. I had traveled with my family to Hawaii July 11, 1991 to see the total solar eclipse there. Spending the night alongside the highway in the desert on the western side of the big island, Hawaii, we were clouded out and sat through the eclipse in a light drizzle. Then, June 21, 2001 Louise and I traveled to Zambia in southern Africa to see the solar eclipse once again. It was another great adventure filled with African wildlife and many memorable experiences. Once again, we were successful and were able to observe the total eclipse of the sun. This time the sky was smoky as it was the season for burning off old crops in preparation for the coming planting season. I describe all this to emphasize the importance many people attach to chasing the shadow of the Moon. The total eclipse is only visible when you are within the total shadow of the Moon. You can see an eclipse in the partial shadow but it will only be a partial eclipse. I would never pass up a chance to view a partial eclipse but the real prize is the total solar eclipse. The thing about a total solar eclipse is that the full shadow of the Moon from which you can view the total solar eclipse is a very narrow band. For the eclipse in Paris, it was about 70 miles wide at its widest point. The eclipse in Hawaii had a shadow width of 160 miles at its widest point. The African eclipse was almost 125 miles wide at its widest point. To experience the longest possible time in the Moon’s shadow you must be near the centerline of the path of the shadow. Given all that, Monday, August 21, 2017 you will have a chance to see the Great American Eclipse. It has been many years since a total solar eclipse could be seen in mainland US. This eclipse will cut a swath across 12 states starting in NW Oregon at about 10:18 a.m. PDT and will exit the US at 2:48 p.m. EDT in Eastern South Carolina. Other states that will see the eclipse include Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, extreme northeastern Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, northeastern Georgia and the western North Carolina. You won’t have to travel to a distant country, this eclipse is coming to a state near you! All areas in those states won’t see totality, the shadow is only going to be 71 miles wide at its widest point. You will need detailed information to get as close to the center of the shadow as possible. In an article on the History of FMCA from May 2004 FMCA Magazine there is a reference to a meeting of motor homes at a total solar eclipse at Hinckley School in Hinckley, Maine on July 20, 1963. Out of this gathering of 26 “coach owning families” grew the present organization. That eclipse was one of a series of eclipses in a sequence that astronomers call a Saros. From one eclipse to the next in a Saros is 18 years, 11 days and 8 hours. It happens that this eclipse was number 19 of 77 eclipses in Saros 145. Its path came onshore in North America in western Alaska, crossed Canada and exited the continent as it passed across Maine. Alaska and Maine were the only states where the total eclipse could be seen. There have been several other eclipses in Saros, 145. In July 31, 1981 number 20 in that Saros crossed Russia. It was not visible in North America. On August 11, 1999, number 21 of Saros 145 crossed Europe, the Middle East and exited into the Indian Ocean from the eastern coast of India. Louise and I traveled to Paris, France to observe this eclipse. There were clouds around and we drove frantically across northern France looking for an opening in the clouds as totality approached. When I took a wrong turn at a roundabout and then attempted a U-turn on the road the wheels mired down in mud when I pulled onto the shoulder. We slid into a ditch. A passing couple from Belgium stopped and said (in perfect English) they would call a wrecker. We watched as the clouds parted and the partially eclipsed sun became visible. The wrecker arrived just as the shadow of the moon was within seconds of reaching us. We shared our Mylar glasses with them and then put the glasses aside to watch the total phase of the eclipse. We weren’t on the centerline but were well within the path of totality. It was our first total solar eclipse and we were hooked. During the total eclipse the corona or outer atmosphere of the Sun becomes visible and any prominences (loops of solar material) or flares will show up. All these can be viewed without eye protection. Looking at the rest of the sky, planets and bright stars will be visible. Being aware of other circumstances, the temperature will drop as if the sun has set, birds may sing and then grow silent as they roost for the short night caused by the eclipse. Right at the beginning of the eclipse and again at the end you may observe the diamond ring, the last glint of direct sunlight through a lunar valley as the rest of the Moon is surrounded by the faint light of the corona. If you are hampered by thin clouds you may be able to watch the shadow of totality sweep across the clouds. That brings us to the Great American Eclipse of 2017. This eclipse occurs on August 21, 2017. It is number 22 in Saros 145, 54 years and one month after the eclipse in Hinckley, Maine. This total solar eclipse will cut a swath across 12 states starting in NW Oregon at about 10:18 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time and will exit the US at 2:48 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time in eastern South Carolina. Do the math, that is about one hour and 30 minutes, coast to coast across the United States. At any given location, the eclipse will last for about two minutes to as much as 2 minutes and 40 seconds. Other states that will see the eclipse include Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, southern Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee and the northeastern tip of Georgia. All areas in those states won’t see totality, the shadow is only going to be 71 miles wide at its widest point. You will need detailed information to get as close to the center of the shadow as possible. You should make plans to see this eclipse in person. You can watch it on TV, view it a hundred times on YouTube but there is nothing like standing in the Moon’s shadow. Everyone in the US, part of Mexico and Canada will be able to see a partial eclipse but only those in the narrow total shadow of our Moon will see the total eclipse. That path is widest and the eclipse will last longest in western Kentucky. More important will be the weather across the country. Watching weather patterns as the eclipse approaches may give you a general idea where to set up to see the eclipse. Then plan to take the toad to the actual observing point. Expect to be joined by throngs of people from around the globe who are also scrambling to see this spectacle of nature. As the eclipse draws closer, I’ll fill in more suggestions for observing the eclipse. In the meantime, consult some of these websites to find information on your own. Some RV parks near the path of totality were already taking reservations for the time around August 21, 2017 last summer. References: NASA Accuweather Great American Eclipse Eclipse 2017

Nice article, good times. Thanks for writing, I'm looking forward to reading more.

That would be my recommendation as well. If you miss the recommended time for an oil change or lose the receipt that is your proof, the warranty company is off the hook on their contract. They have lawyers to enforce the provisions in the contract. If you are a very good record keeper and pay strict attention to your maintenance, it might work for you. For my money, I'll skip the extended warranty and pay for repairs. This doesn't even count the problems you have with repair shops that won't deal with some companies because they are slow to pay or won't pay except for certain parts in a repair, etc. So, yes I tried it once, never again.

It is an old but relevant post. Here is what I did with our coach.

Thanks for the shout-out Carl! Here is the link to my article which is mostly about Newfoundland but does include a little information on the maritime provinces. We made our major foray into the Maritime Provinces in 2005, before blogging had begun here so there isn't a record of our travels. We really enjoyed the MP greatly. What to see depends on what interests you have. We tend to focus on scenic, wild and outdoor experiences and they abound. Being into nature, one of the major things to see is the fantastic tides of the Bay of Fundy. From high to low tide the water level will change by as much as 50 feet. This creates some spectacular events to watch. At Hopewell Rocks you can walk around strange rock pillars they call flower pots because they have trees and other vegetation growing on the top. That is what you see at low tide. Wait six hours, yes it is worth the wait, and you will see islands with trees and people kayaking around them. You will also see many kids with mud well above their knees, they've been wading at low tide in the muddy bottom there at Hopewell Rocks. At St. John, you can witness a river flowing to sea running through rapids and falls then watch as six hours later the water reverses and sailboats go up over the area where the falls were. That is on the south shore of New Brunswick. Go to the north shore of Nova Scotia and at Truro you can watch a river flow upstream and can actually canoe or kayak on one. There are places where you can join the crowd and watch a tidal bore sweep upriver. At Burncoat Lighthouse (near Noel) you can walk on a rocky sea floor at low tide. You can wander way out from shore looking at what is living in little tidal pools. But don't wander too far, when the tide comes it it advances rapidly. There is a large pillar/island there that has a rope hanging from a tree. It is for people who get surprised by the tide, they can grab the rope and hang on to get to the top of the island if they are caught by surprise by the advancing tide. Tides are fun, there is so much more. The provincial museum in St. John is great, lots of seafaring history, boat building, etc. We stayed at Fundy National Park for several days and enjoyed hiking the forests and lakes there. We also visited Halifax, touring the fort there and walking the town. The cemetery with many of the recovered bodies from the Titanic is there. We had a nice lunch at a restaurant on the pier, watched a cruise liner turn around in the harbor, and had to laugh at the tug boat painted to look like a cartoon character. From there we headed to the eastern shore of Nova Scotia. Cape Breton is a must see. Spectacular scenery, moose, fog, cool but inviting. We made the whole loop through Cape Breton Highlands National Park with our 40 footer and car in tow. We stayed in several campgrounds in the park. There is much to see around Sydney Harour and Victoria Mines. A coal mine that goes under the sea, they have a tour and great museum. The Marconi site where the first transatlantic wireless message was sent or received, I can't remember. There is also the Alexander Bell Museum in that area. We returned to mainland Nova Scotia via the southern road, identified on my map as the East Bay Highway. It was barely a highway, you might skip that one but it is the shortest way back from Sydney Harbour. By the way, Sydney Harbour is the departure point for the ferry to/from Newfoundland. PEI is a different experience. We didn't stay long there. We took the ferry from NS to PEI, free and left via the Confederation Bridge which at the time had a lower toll than the ferry fare. We stayed at a small rural campground along the old rail route which has been converted into a bike and hiking trail. We rode our bicycles into Charlottetown and had lunch at a restaurant on the harbour then rode back home. We did a little exploring but not much more. The old rails to trail bike trail runs the length of the island. There is much more to see in the Maritimes. We had friends that ran a whale watching tour out of Grand Manan Island. We've taken the motor home on the ferry several times to visit them. They sold their boat last year but there are other tours from there and the whale watching is spectacular in the area. They had the best tours I've ever taken. We would drift near a pod of Humbacks for 20 or 30 minutes watching them surface again and again. Going to Quebec, Hwy 2 in NB along the Maine border is a spectacular scenic drive. Driving through the St. John River valley the scenery is one stunning view after another. That takes you to AUT-20 which skirts the southern shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Fleuve St-Laurent. You will learn a little French while in Quebec. The traffic signs are in French only! Drive slowly and read fast! We took our time on this drive as we made our way to Quebec City. We stayed on the south shore and took the ferry into the old city and spent a day there with friends. Reviewing the trip has been a joy, have to put a return trip on the calendar in the next few years. We always promise ourselves we'll go back to see this or that thing that we had to skip on this trip. Enjoy Canada, we love traveling there.

If the pressure remains low without the water regulator in place, it could be the backflow prevention valve at the shore connection. If there were no backflow valve where you connect the city water, then without the connection, water would flow out of the open connection. I've had backflow valves fail and give variable flow or very little flow at all. The water pump working from the storage tank isn't impacted by the backflow valve at the city water connection.

Yes, think about what would happen if you had jacks under your slide and the jacks on your coach lost just a little pressure. If your coach shifts and the jacks under the slide don't move with it, you would be lifting the slide with those supplemental jacks. I would never consider using slide jacks.

Yes, I was surprised by Herman's response. Our Monaco Windsor owners manual indicates slides move in and out at ride height and leveling comes after. Darn it, you just have to read the manual. Maybe you could get your wife to do that. Everyone knows real men don't read instructions!

It's trips like this that make me appreciate the good ol' USA. There are so many possible routes available that you should be able to work your way around most storms. We were in Australia several years ago, an island nation about the size of the USA. There are two roads from coast to coast, one along the south coast and the other across northern Australia. There is one road that connects the two from north to south in the center of the country. Not many choices about which route to take there. I'm sure that you know about winter driving conditions but it is always good to have a reminder. We have friends who were returning to our park in their Airstream, towed behind a nice conversion van. They hit black ice, went off the highway into a field, belly up, totaled everything. They escaped luckily with just a few bruises. You'll have significant weight behind you pushing you along so be really careful braking on slick surfaces. Use of the engine brake is not recommended on slick surfaces, you don't have the ABS system with the engine brake. Watch the overpasses, they all have warnings about freezing before road surfaces but after you've seen a hundred of those signs you begin to ignore them. A fog can put enough frost on the road surface on an overpass or elevated roadway to turn it into a skating rink. There are times when you have to just park the rig and hunker down until the storm passes. Beware of what they call get-there-itis in aviation, it can be fatal. Enjoy the drive, you'll get to your destination when you get there. Safe travels!

Happy New Year! Another year, 2016, is coming to an end. We are happily ensconced in our winter home here in Texas. I’d say deep in the heart of Texas but it is more like the tippy-toes of Texas, way down south almost on the US-Mexico border. We had a light shower this morning so my outside work is delayed until the ground and grass dry. I’m enlarging the patio in our back yard and adding a walkway alongside the house to replace the path I’ve worn in the dirt. The lawn needs mowing and I need to check the roof after a particularly windy night earlier this week. None of this was necessary when we were full time!!! I just picked up my iPad to check the weather. What an amazing device the iPad is. It’s a second computer that I can grab and get information from almost instantly. Handier for checking information than opening a document on my computer. Pop it open and get an address or phone number, open a map and zoom to any area you want in just a minute. The world at my fingertips. I like to reference it while driving the motor home but of course I can’t so I turn that duty over to Louise. She is less a fan. I need to talk her through step by step to get the information that I want. Occasionally, she will agree that it is helpful to be able to zoom in on a map and see road detail that isn’t in the trucker’s atlas. We use it to search for cheap diesel, find rest stops, overnight parking, and campgrounds. It saves us money and makes life on the road much easier. Several years ago, I took the training to get my certification as a Texas Master Naturalist. It is similar to the Master Gardner program. The focus is on all of nature, not just plants and gardening. In fact, the Master Naturalist Program began here in Texas when some Master Gardeners became adventuresome and were introducing many fringe areas to the Master Gardner meetings. They were bringing in bugs, birds, butterflies, soil science, water conservation, native plants, invasive species and a host of other topics that were related to gardening but not quite part of the Master Gardner area of focus. So, they started something new. It has grown from a single chapter in San Antonio to over 40 chapters state-wide and is now found in many other states. I mention this because when we return to Texas I pick up the mantle of a Master Naturalist and dig into volunteer work at some of the local nature and wildlife parks here in the Rio Grande Valley. January is the beginning of our annual class for certification and we have 24 people lined up for the training in our local chapter. I will have the stage at the orientation session as I describe the program, it’s history, purpose and the training program which starts them on the path to certification. I will mentor three of the new trainees, giving them encouragement and advice to help them reach their goal. I also do the website for the chapter. My favorite volunteer activity is to assist a local high school teacher, a trained wildlife biologist, with his bird banding. It has expanded my experience with birds and pushed me to learn new skills. There is nothing like having a bird in the hand. What amazing creatures they are. Of course, there is the occasional Cardinal that will get it’s beak on a bit of a finger and it won’t let loose until it draws blood. Putting bands on birds is real research, helping us learn more about the birds, their migration patterns, their longevity, their patterns of movement and much more. On our return to the RGV in late October, we stopped north of Houston so I could attend the Master Naturalist annual meeting in Montgomery. I enjoy these meetings. We stayed at the KOA in Montgomery, a nice very large park with strange KOA rules. Louise is happy to have some time to read and relax outside in the sunshine while I’m spending the day in meetings. There is always something new to learn and this meeting was no exception. Meeting other TMN’s and learning about their activities is inspiring. There were over 300 TMN’s from all over Texas in attendance. One of my friends received an award for 4000 hours of volunteer time and the corresponding Presidential Volunteer Certificate of Recognition. This is the program started by President George H. W. Bush, his “Thousand Points of Light.” Her husband received an award for 5000 volunteer hours. That is some real dedication to the community and its nature parks and centers. Our motor home has spent the last two months in the shop. There were several things that needed work on the motor home and some body damage from an ill-advised backing maneuver so we decided to get all the work done at one time. We didn’t anticipate it taking two months but ordering parts takes time and then I think of one more thing and that takes another part so here we go again. I’ve already moved it from the RV shop to Freightliner for some chassis work, brakes, belts and more. That was done while waiting for one of the last parts to be ordered. Then I found that the step cover that slides out to keep the grandchildren from falling into the stairwell wasn’t working. That means another part… When the RV shop releases it, I’ll take it to the flooring shop to get new carpet. We debated going to tile or other flooring product but finally decided the simplest thing was to simply replace the carpet. Once it returns home we will do a complete restocking. We cleaned it out completely before turning it over to the RV shop. That is something that hasn’t happened since we moved into it in November of 2003. I’m guessing more than a few things that we removed won’t go back. It needed a good housecleaning. Here’s hoping that 2017 finds all well with you and that the coming year will bring you good fortune and happy travels.

We were in South Dakota for about ten years, finally put a mobile home on a lot in Texas so we are there now... South Dakota was convenient for us and the tax and voting situations were easy to deal with. We worked with My Home Address in Emery, SD. Very small community, even in the county seat they were familiar with the RV lifestyle. A regular driver's license is good for any motor home, Class A, B or C, diesel or gas. That translated into a Class B in Texas with no test, written or driving. We voted in state and national elections, renewed our vehicle licenses, etc. without having to visit the state. We did have to return every 5 years to renew our driver's license, a minor inconvenience easily incorporated into our regular travels as it could be done for a long period of time before the renewal was due. Most of all, we were dealing with a small office, they knew us when we called. We would request mail sent to a small post office a week or so in advance and then pick it up at that location either en-route or at a destination. Small post offices were recommended because of the ease of finding them and their ability to locate your mail easily. Use the USPS web site to get details of which post offices handle general delivery mail. In larger metropolitan areas, usually there is one post office that handles general delivery mail. In ten years, we had only a handful of snafus with our mail. We have wintered in Texas ever since retiring in 2001. That is why we chose to put our home in Texas. Vehicle registration is significantly higher in Texas, property taxes are low - though we had no property taxes when we were full timing out of South Dakota. Texas does require a special driver's license if your motor home is over 26,000 pounds GVWR. It is helpful if your regular travels will take you to or near your state of domicile though it can be done mostly without being in the chosen state. We followed advice from references we consulted that strongly recommended that everything be done in one state, driver's license, registration, voting, mail, etc. We had our estate papers drawn up in South Dakota and when we moved to Texas had the same done there. If you start to divide up these items, you open yourself up to challenges to the legality of any or all of them. More a problem for your heirs than for you should that become a factor. There are a number of web sites with advice for choosing your state of domicile. Previous discussions on this forum can be found using the search box at the top of this page. Look for references that give you a comparison of a variety of states. Alaska, Nevada, Vermont are a few others that offer advantages to those who chose them for a domicile. You may need to consider estate laws and how it would affect your heirs.

We rent by the season in south Texas. Rent for an RV lot here runs about 2500 to 3000 per year, depending on the park and the amenities. Much better than buying in my estimation. We RV'ers are a mobile lot and when you decide to pick up and move there is no problem selling your lot. No interest to pay, per day rate comes out to about 500 dollars a month if you stay for six months. Electricity is the only additional charge. Plus, if you buy a lot you may be paying property tax, depending on the local laws. You are given a chance to renew each year before the lot is put up for rental. Different parks, different rules. I would never pay the rates that some parks are charging for buying a lot unless I planned to stay there for the rest of my life.

Lake Havasu in late May will be HOT. Northern Arizona, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde will be cool in all likelihood. Being from Florida, you may want to bring oxygen for the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde (high elevation but great experiences). June and July in the lower elevations will be HOT and muggy through the central plains into the northeast. Expect the campgrounds to be more rustic than in Florida. You shouldn't have any problem getting full hookups in most places. You will find it difficult to get close to places like the Grand Canyon. We stayed in Williams, AZ last year for the south rim. The north rim has a campground but you need to make reservations now, otherwise, there is a forest service campground with no hookups, Jacob Lake. You can use your generator for electric there. The north rim is remote but is also quite spectacular and despite what I've just said, it is much less populated than the south rim. We tend not to make reservations as we travel but in the summer with families out on the road, any popular attraction you can name will have lots of people there. If you don't want to commit to a long schedule of reservations, we call several days to several weeks in advance to make reservations. It saves complete disappointment at the end of a long drive. If you can't get reservations in one place, just put it on the list for the next or another trip. Out of Lake Havasu, Flagstaff, Arizona (camp at Williams) has the Lowell Observatory. This is an excellent visit if you have any interest at all in astronomy. They run a full series of lectures every day, all the way into the evening. Then after dark they have telescopes set up for viewing and they even have a very large (24" diameter, 28 feet long) refractor (lens type telescope) that is impressive to see even if the skies are cloudy. Now one of the things that would help us help you is to let us know what interests you. Are you an old car buff? We can send you to those museums, if airplanes, you have the museum in Dayton. Enjoy a train ride, the train to the Grand Canyon out of Williams or the Durango to Silverton railroad out of Durango takes you to the old mining town of Silverton where the streets are still dirt roads. You can stay at one of two campgrounds just across from the entrance to Mesa Verde (cliff dwellings that will knock your socks off) and visit Durango also. If you are interested in musical instruments, the national musical instrument museum (yes, there is such a thing and it is spectacular) is located in Vermillion, South Dakota (off I-29 south of Sioux Falls). You get the idea, we can tailor our recommendations to fit your interests. If what you want is parks and sightseeing then you have a pretty good list already. Buy a National Park Pass and start browsing the National Park website. Stop when you enter each state at the visitors center and pick up information, ask the staff for their suggestions. If you are lucky, you will stumble into a nice local festival or celebration. Look for evening concerts in the park, campfires in National Parks, enjoy yourself, don't drive yourselves into the ground. Travel slowly and enjoy the road.

Wayne, You are correct, plenty of hot air but hot air rises to places where the bowling ball doesn't (or shouldn't) go!

David, I'll bet you were awake last night! Wintry north winds hit us at 3:00 a.m. We're in our mobile home and the wind woke us up. Had a small trim piece on one of the bedroom windows come loose and had to take it down so we could sleep. We haven't slept in the coach here in the RGV since we put our mobile home in. Wind is a constant companion here in the RGV. The norm where we are, about 80 miles inland is 10-15 with breezy days being winds to 25. I played tennis yesterday in those nice warm southerly breezes. My flying experience gives me an edge as I am used to thinking about the wind direction and speed constantly while flying. When you think about it, there are many sports that are affected by the wind. The only sport that I play that isn't affected by the wind is bowling! Our coach had slide toppers that were flappers when we first got it. I replaced them due to wear and tear several years ago and tightened the spring by giving the spindle an extra turn when the toppers were off. That took care of the problem without having to deal with things like ropes and straps. Using straps might work for someone who doesn't move frequently and parking for the winter falls in that category but if you remove the toppers and give the spindle a turn to tighten it, the replace the toppers, you have a solution that works every time you extend the slides with no additional thought or effort. This also worked to help the rain to drain properly off the slide cover instead of pooling and then dumping periodically. There is one caveat for my solution. An additional turn makes it a little harder to extend the slide. On our coach that was insignificant but on some coaches it could be a concern. Anytime we leave our coach for a day or longer, we will bring in the slides. We don't do this for trips out and back in a day, just when we are going to be leaving the coach overnight. It reduces the load on the heating or cooling system and it makes the coach a little smaller, less likely to be hit by flying debris or falling tree limbs or as I observed one time a lawn mower with a roll-over bar that hit the underside of an extended slide out. I would not bring in the slides for day trips, the wear and tear on the slide moving mechanism might be much more costly in the long run than replacing the slide toppers.

Sometimes you don't have to click on anything, the auto renewal is in the fine print and you have to click to stop it. With Sirius/XM Radio auto renewal is auto matic! Caveat Emptor! Let the buyer beware! This is why you should get on-line and check your credit card charges frequently. Don't just pay the bill, check the charges carefully when each bill arrives.

You might be surprised, the living here is definitely metropolitan. I-2 stretches from Brownsville to Mission and the population of the area is about 1,250,000. There is a brand new, just opened, Performing Arts Center in McAllen, right next to the Convention Center. We have a major shopping mall which is expanding, adding about 60 stores. This time of year you can hardly find a parking spot and a significant number of license plates are from south of the border. There is an huge outlet mall, also popular with our neighbors to the south. You will find all of the major restaurant chains well represented throughout the valley and there are dozens of mom and pop restaurants with specialty foods from all over the world. We have great restaurants for fine dining and real Texas BBQ, Tex-Mex to genuine Mexican fare. There are college sports and basketball, hockey and soccer minor league teams. A new soccer stadium is almost finished in Edinburg. There is an agricultural field behind our park and I can drive 30 minutes, even in heavy traffic, and be in downtown McAllen, population of 130,000. Edinburg, where we are, is just north of McAllen and has a population of 77,000. Mission, just west of McAllen, has another 70,000. Pharr to the east of McAllen has another 70,000. These are all part of one large metropolitan area that continues on to the east with little or no break between communities. You have all the great things a city offers without the extreme traffic congestion we all associate with large cities. Traffic is always busy here but seldom comes to a stop As Wildbill mentions, the distances in Texas can be daunting. There is four lane divided highway all the way from San Antonio to either Edinburg/McAllen (I-37 toI-69C/US 281) or Harlingen/Brownsville (I-37 to I-69E/US 77). The drive from San Antonio to the RGV will take between 3 and 4 hours. Going north you will pass through a US Customs and Border Protection checkpoint about an hour north on either route.

We spent our first December in San Antonio. On New Years Day our stay at the park was over and we decided it was too cold there. We decided to head south to the "Valley" that a lady in Spring Texas had told us about. A lovely land with golf courses and RV parks everywhere. She wasn't far wrong. When we got to Edinburg, the temperature was about 30 degrees warmer, the staff at the park was most welcoming and friendly. Even our fellow campers were going out of their way to welcome us! How could we leave? We paid for a week, before the week was up we paid for a month and by the end of two and a half months there we paid for the next season. Been here ever since. We've had dry winters, wet winters, windy days are common and sometimes even long cloudy periods that give us all the blues. Our plan is for them to carry us out of here feet first! Unfortunately, that is far too common when you live among all these retired old people. Did you know that Amarillo, Texas is closer to Bismark, ND than it is to Brownsville? No wonder that Fort Worth is in the frigid north!

Unless you are going to need it, drain your fresh water storage tank for the winter. You will want a fresh tank of water when you leave in the spring. It will be easier to rinse and sanitize your fresh water tank if it is empty for the winter. Depending on the surface you are parking on, you will likely want to put some kind of pads under the tires. Definitely the case if on soil, grass or gravel. We use cutting boards from the cheapest source you can find (Walmart, Dollar General, etc.) Wood is another alternative and there are specific pads you can purchase from camping stores. Be certain that the pad will support the entire "footprint' of each tire. Critters are active all year round here in the RGV. One year I looked under our coach and there was a termite tower about 8 inches tall coming through the asphalt parking surface. We paved the pad with concrete shortly after that. Ants are also active in the winter months here, treat the area around the coach for ants and watch for their activity. The cooler winter weather drives mice indoors and RV's are often an easy target so block all entries into the coach basement. Wasps and birds build nests very early in the spring. Look for their nests starting in mid-February. Warmer weather and humidity can cause batteries to show corrosion fairly quickly. Periodically examine and clean as needed to prevent early failure.

Bill's advice is right on. Here is a link to a reply I gave here on the forum about a month ago. The information is current. Take a look at a map and you will see how much further south we are than all but the southern tip of Florida and the Keys. We have cool weather but nothing like the cold weather in San Antonio. Our temperature today is currently 85 degrees with south winds at 15 with gusts to 22. This is a little warmer than we would expect this late in the year but it will be like this again later in the coming week. Then the end of next week the forecast is for high temperatures in the 50's. We play golf all winter long. By February, temperatures usually start warming up.

Louise loves the microwave/convection oven and does everything we need with that combination. It all depends on what your wife wants and is comfortable with. The easy solution is to put in the microwave/convection oven (takes up the same space) and if that works, you are done. If it isn't satisfactory then you can explore a regular oven. We use our microwave frequently and the convection oven feature only occasionally. Everyone has their own special needs and preferences for cooking and preparing meals. Yours may well be different than ours and in that case you may find this information irrelevant.

We have stayed at campgrounds which are wired as Brett mentions, both of the hot feeds are coming from the same source, not opposite phase sources. Each will test 110/120 against the neutral or the ground but when tested against each other, they will test zero if from the same phase source and will test 220/240 volts when tested if the hot feeds are opposite phase. The Intellitec system reads this as a 30A system. There is no way to defeat this when it occurs, it is not a defect in your Intellitec system, simply the way it is designed. The only real impact is that Intellitec will limit your usage to 30A, shutting down excess usage (above 30A). Complain to the park owners, report it when you rate the park on RV Park Reviews, move on to a better campground, those are some actions you can take.