tbutler

Then there is the last minute thing. We hardly ever make reservations more than a few hours ahead of time. One time we were in California headed east on I-80. It looked like Reno was going to be our overnight stop so we called a park. They said that the "Hot August Nights" celebration was going on and they were full but the lady said they had just had a cancellation so we got a spot. We went into town, enjoyed the vintage car parade, enjoyed the crowd and got a good nights sleep. It doesn't work all the time but you just never know. As to the newbie tag, after you have made a certain number of posts, maybe 20 or 30 your tag will change. Newbie refers to your status on the Forum! Welcome JD and keep coming back!

We were in Coburg, OR last fall. There was a couple at the service center there having the same kind of problem you mention on a Knight. I don't know if it was exactly the same, I do know that they talked about the cable system being the problem. I'm certain that if you contact Monaco (877-466-6226) and can manage to get your coach to a factory service center they will resolve the problem.

We were in Coburg, OR last fall. There was a couple at the service center there having the same kind of problem you mention on a Knight. I don't know if it was exactly the same, I do know that they talked about the cable system being the problem. I'm certain that if you contact Monaco (877-466-6226) and can manage to get your coach to a factory service center they will resolve the problem.

I guess it was inconceivable to me that an escape window would be behind the headboard (covered by the headboard). Is there some kind of break away mechanism that would allow the headboard to be removed or lowered quickly? I don't know how the coach design could pass safety codes if the escape window is really inaccessible. While both Herman and I have Monaco coaches, ours has an escape window above the counter on the section with drawers for clothing. It is accessible and allows us to sit atop the counter to get into the window easily. It is on the same side as the door. We have an escape window in the living room above the couch that is on the opposite side from the door. I don't know what the exact regulations are for escape windows but it sounds as if each has to be on the opposite side of the coach which also ensures that one is opposite the door as well. By the way, when we take our grandchildren on trips the first thing we do with them is to have them open the escape windows so they not only know where they are but also how to operate them. It also breaks the "seal" so they open easily. That is something I try to do frequently. Regarding finding a replacement for your window, Papermaker, I would suggest contacting companies that do coach modifications. Look over the ads in the FMC Magazine. I've attended sessions at rallies done by some of these companies and they do amazing things. I'm sure that replacing a window with an escape window would be an easy fix for them if you find the right company. I don't have any name for reference but if you can't find someone in the FMC Magazine, try the internet. I seem to recall companies in Oregon, Indiana and Florida that do that kind of work. I'm sure there are others.

Our coach has the Aladdin System which monitors a number of items, tanks, engine, electric, etc. When we plug in at a campground one of the first things I check is the voltage reading. It normally shows up with the voltage in the 120V range. Then if it is air conditioning season I'll turn on both air conditioners to see what happens to the voltage. There have been only a few times this has caused a drop below 110V. One at a campground in Alaska and the other at a campground in Maine. In the campground in Maine it dropped to 90 with a single air conditioner. This can damage the air conditioner. We had no choice but to live without the air conditioner. We were there two days and then moved on. This kind of voltage problem won't melt the wiring in the breaker panel. That sounds like a grounding problem. Voltage drops are caused when the line feeding the post is substandard in size. If the wire is sized properly for the amperage and the length of run from the source, the voltage will drop only slightly as the load increases. If it drops too much, there is no immediate solution the campground can make to correct the situation other than possibly locating you to a different site. The only way to fix this is to re-wire the post to source. So I wouldn't purchase a special piece of equipment to solve low voltage problems. We stay at all kinds of campgrounds. We seldom stay in the high priced campgrounds. Even so, in my experience, the problem is very rare, not worth spending money to fix it.

You can replace those by yourself but it is much easier to replace them with assistance. I've done it several times. Your assistant doesn't have to have any mechanical talent, just an extra pair of hands helps. If it were my motor home I'd replace the toppers and that is the perfect time to adjust the tension. When you get the replacement from Carefree of Colorado, they will match the size and color based on the serial number of the toppers. You will find that serial number on the roller. You can unroll the roller by hand with the toppers in place, simply rotate the roller to loosen the fabric until the bare roller shows up. Look for a label, usually on the other end from where you are standing on the ladder. Copy down the serial number and model number. The serial numbers will be different on the two toppers even if they are the same size. Contact Carefree of Colorado and they will ship replacements. You might want to have the dimensions of the toppers in hand just in case they ask for that information but my experience is that the serial number identifies the product in their records.They come with installation instructions and it is for the most part a screw driver and wrench process in my experience. You will need a good stepladder to allow you to get to the toppers from the side of the coach, it can't all be done from the roof in my experience. To adjust the tension, you will first remove the topper, slide it out of the rail on the roller and the rail on the roof at the same time. Before removing it you will block the roller so it won't unwind the spring completely (directions in their instructions). Measure the width of the old fabric and compare to the replacement. Any change in width will have to be taken into account when you make adjustments in the tension. If the replacement is longer (more to wrap on the roller), it will take additional and additional 1/2 or full turn to take up the additional fabric and the tension won't change. If the replacement fabric is shorter (less to wrap on the roller), the tension will be greater with no adjustment. With the fabric off, remove the block on the roller and give it an extra turn winding it against the spring tension then block it and install the new fabric. If it just needs a little tightening I'd just do a half turn. Most rollers have a two rails located 180 degrees apart. If you think it needs to be a lot tighter, give it a full turn. But beware, you can tighten the spring too tight which could 1) inhibit the ability of the slide to move out freely or 2) over-tighten the spring causing the spring to break or 3) both of the previous problems. You don't want the fabric so tight that you can use it for a trampoline, just enough to keep it taught in its extended position. After adjusting the tension then install the new topper. Before doing the second slide you could check to see if the tension is what you want and then make the same or a different adjustment with the other slide. You might hold off any finish work (caulking or sealing around screws, etc). on the first slide in case you decide you need to make further adjustments in the tension. That of course would involve removing the fabric and re-installing it. In addition to the reasons given by others, another reason I like the toppers (may not apply in the UK) is that they do a wonderful job of insulating the roof of the slide-out from sunlight and the resulting heat. They will significantly reduce your need for air conditioning in hot weather.

You might think you can't get out that escape window but you haven't really tried. There was a fire in a motor home that was parked just one space from ours several years ago. The two residents are older than us and much less mobile. Both got out of the emergency escape window. They were scraped up and bruised but they got out and walked away from a rig that burned to the floor. That was their only way out as the front of the rig was already fully involved when they woke up. If you really believe that you can't get out that window, you should think seriously about finding a solution. There are rope ladders which can be stored inside. You could leave a ladder outside that window every time you park. Maybe you need to shop for another motor home with a better set-up for an emergency window. I wouldn't want a motor home that I could not escape from in an emergency. It's not an item that is high on everyone's shopping list but it should be.

I don't know what fuel mileage I get going up hill, every hill is different! I don't know what mileage I get on any specific trip, I seldom fill up at the end of a trip except at the end of the travel season. I do know that my Alladin is better than Ray's, mine gives me 255.9 MPG (2 x 128 - its a function of the computer design, remember the early 64K computers ) down mountain grades! Sometimes I drive 70, sometimes I drive 50. I seldom drive faster than the speed limit. My target speed is 62 to 65 MPH on the interstate highways and slower on most federal and state highways. We have children and grandchildren in the Missouri, Colorado and California so we see our share of mountain driving. We've visited every state in the US (except the obvious Hawaii) and all of Canada with the exception of Inuvik and Newfoundland and we'll get to Newfoundland this year if the creeks don' rise! The rig described below gives me 8.3 MPG. That is 133,526.6 miles divided by 16,055.9 gallons of fuel over the life of the coach, not a readout of a computer calculation. Before this one we had a 38 foot 1994 Dynasty with a Cummins 8.3L. With 26,839.2 miles and 2960.8 gallons we got 9.1 MPG in the 2 1/2 years we drove her. In both cases we had a diesel generator that runs off the main fuel tank and I have not compensated for that usage. Louse likes to have heat or cooling as well as lights TV and Internet. We have 120 V electricity on 24/7 when we are in the coach on the road. What we don't get from campgrounds we get from the generator. The 7.5KW Onan generator on our current rig has 1690 hours on it since we purchased it. We put 103 hours on the 5KW Kohler generator in the Dynasty.

Talk to your doctor. If the prescription can't be submitted to the provider electronically, have him mail it to your mail handling service and then it will be forwarded to you. You may have to contact the doctor each month to provide the location where you prefer to pick up the medication if you are moving frequently. If you must physically see a doctor each month for this prescription, you may have to limit your mobility, staying in an area for several months at a time in order to make it easier. Working with the same doctor in each location for a period of time will help. Like all regulations, there are good reasons for the restrictions. There were some doctors who were known for writing prescriptions for huge amounts of pain medication. Many patients were addicted and the medications were being black marketed to support the addiction of those patients. Thank those who were abusing the system for the increased monitoring of pain medications. Here on the Texas border it is common for people to go to pharmacies across the border to obtain prescription medication. Many prescription drugs in the US are available without prescription in Mexico. For those medications that require a prescription most pharmacies have a doctor who can see you to write a prescription. You may be able to obtain prescriptions for more than a single month this way. Taking the prescriptions back across the border is not guaranteed but I've never had a check done the few times I've obtained medicine in Mexico. Medicine is cheaper in Mexico but the prices seldom beat what our insurance coverage would provide so we seldom used this source.

If you've ordered the motor home and it is being delivered to you in Louisiana the battle is likely lost. You could try making the move to South Dakota and register the motor home there immediately then keep it somewhere outside Louisiana. You don't mention where you live but if close to a the state line it might work to store it in a neighboring state. We were registered in South Dakota for almost 10 years. It worked well for us. A couple of days in South Dakota and you can have your drivers licenses and sign up with a mailing agency. We used My Home Address, Inc. in Emery, South Dakota. I highly recommend them.

And I'll reinforce Brett's answer. We've been here for 14 winters now. We occasionally get temperatures overnight that get down to 32 or maybe even a few degrees colder. We actually had several inches of snow on the ground Christmas morning where we are in Edinburg. I think that was 7 years ago. It lasted until about noon before most of it was gone. On South Padre Island, the temperatures are more moderated by the Gulf of Mexico so you shouldn't expect freezing temperatures there. By the way, October is a great time to be here. The temperatures are coming down from the extremely warm summer temperatures and October brings some very nice days. Plan to stay for a few days before returning to Wisconsin.

Whallam has a point. Not one that I agree with in this case but it is a fact that safety is always balanced with economics. On any issue there are basic things that can be done to reduce costs of an accident. At some point, 90% chance, 95% chance, 99% chance, the economics say that the cost of making an improvement of 10% or 5% or 1% in the safety factor become prohibitive. This applies to the way your tow bar is designed. It is built to specifications that are safe enough but it isn't made of 3 inch thick stainless steel. It is made just strong enough to do the job without failing in most situations and still be light enough for you to lift! The designers may design it to be twice as strong as necessary without too much expense but as the costs rise they make a decision that it is strong enough. Buildings are built to be just strong enough to stand up to normal stresses. Bridges are the same way. We can build buildings and bridges to be resistant to collapse in an earthquake. We're learning how to do that better all the time. Each earthquake teaches us lessons. Someday there may be a major earthquake in Texas but we don't worry about making the buildings in Dallas earthquake-proof, not like they do in San Francisco. We are taking a risk in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio because we haven't had any large earthquakes in these places in human memory. It doesn't make sense to design every building and bridge in the world to be earthquake-proof. Where earthquakes are common, every building should be built to withstand earthquakes. Laws are made to specify what measure need to be taken. After the earthquake and fire in San Francisco in 1907 many laws were passed to improve safety. This happens with hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and road accidents. Each disaster teaches us lessons and we learn how to improve safety. Laws are passed. You can argue about whether the improvement in safety is worth the expense which is what Whallam is doing. Some people are more concerned about accidents and want to prevent as many as possible. Others are more concerned about being pushed around by decisions made by others (laws) and/or about expenditures they have to make because of laws. Towing laws in many states are dependent on the weight of the vehicle being towed. In Canada, supplemental braking is required. I don't think that they check that at the border but if you are in an accident they surely will check. Motor homes aren't checked at weigh stations because truckers would go ballistic waiting behind one or two motor homes being weighed. There are few enough of us that traffic regulations are written to exempt us from weight checks. But the vehicle does have a GVWR and if you exceed that and are in an accident, you can be issued a ticket and/or held liable and/or your insurance may be voided. The same is true if your braking system doesn't comply with the law. Towing a vehicle, on a trailer or four wheels down, you have an opportunity to have more wheels braking. That is a good thing in my opinion. As to the question of the fluids in the tanks and equipment on board, they have no means of adding to your braking ability. It is physics and there are times when you will want to stop as quickly as possible. Even if it isn't required, this is one where my decision is to add the brakes.

My preference is to wait for the air pressure to rise enough to stop that annoying buzzer (at 90 PSI on our coach), then let the pressure build to about 115 PSI and engage the air bags. That way when the pressure drops as they inflate it won't go below 90 and the buzzer isn't heard from again. I don't think it makes any difference unless you do have some kind of air leak problem. If there is an air leak, it should be addressed as soon as you can get it fixed

I suggest that you talk to a lawyer. The easy solution is to move your legal residence to where your mailing service is, Florida. If you can't find a mailing service in Virginia and you want to stay there for your residence, you are muddying up all kinds of things. Because of increased security measures, driver's licenses must be connected to a physical address. Some mailing services can do this for you, others can't. Many people get by without being completely legal but if something happens they are in a real bind. If the address on your gun permit does not match your mailing, legal or physical address and someone checks on this, you have a problem. If the address on your driver's license doesn't match your mailing, legal or physical address, more problems. When we went full time we "moved" to South Dakota. It was our mailing address, our legal address (we went to a lawyer to discuss) and the mailing service was a physical address (not a PO Box). Our vehicles were licensed there, our driver's licenses were there, we voted there and we had our wills, health directives and estate papers redone there. There were still occasions when I had to take extra time with issues to resolve them, even with all these things in alignment. At one point I had to go to the FAA to resolve an issue. They wouldn't accept the mailing service address (with a PMB) as my legal address. It took several back and forth messages to resolve this but they finally understood my situation and accepted the address. There were several agencies and businesses that would flag the mailing service address as a commercial address and refuse to accept it as my personal mailing address. Toward the end of our full time adventures, I was seeing less of this. Generally you are dealing with people who have little or no experience with the vagabond lifestyle of a full timer. It doesn't fit their pre-conceived notions of how things should work. You have to be patient with them and carefully explain your situation. Regarding voting, we voted in South Dakota. We only voted in national and state level elections, not local elections. We were subject to jury duty but when called, and we did get called, they excused us. That was the practice in that county. They had almost as many full time RV'ers as residents as they had physical residents. They were glad to have us, we increased their tax base and their population numbers without all the demands that physical residents make on their services and resources. So they made concessions for us. That is one of the nice things about using South Dakota as a legal residence for full timing. It is a small population state and a few thousand RV'ers can make an impact on the local level. Even at the county court house and the driver's license office they were well aware of full timers.

Don't forget that you may be traveling with the waste tanks full and the rear axle weight should be adjusted for full tanks if they weren't full when you weighed. Water weighs 8.3 puonds per gallon so a tank with 50 gallons waste (mostly water) would weigh 415 pounds. Every 50 gallons in your waste tanks adds another 100 pounds to each rear tire. For our coach that is 200 pounds per tire. I add the 5 to 10 percent for the errors in tire gauges and to allow for minor temperature differences from day to day. I calculate in the heaviest possible weight (considering full tanks, more groceries, extra clothes, etc) when looking up the data from the tire chart.

If I understand this correctly, you are saying that when you first turn on the water heater it heats a tank of water just fine. When you use the water or it sits for a while and cools then it won't automatically restart. That sounds like a problem with the control board or the temperature sensor that the board reads to tell it to restart. This is where I take it to a tech for repair!

You haven't indicated when you are taknig the trip. Is this a summer adventure? Are you plannig or wanting to do sightseeing along the way? How much time to do you want to spend along the way? As far as roads and getting there, this looks as good as any. At one time or another we've driven all these with the motor home. For shortest route and getting there quickly, it looks good. There are no high mountains on this route, another plus. These are well traveled roads and you will see plenty of traffic along the way. The Great Plains and Midwest can be stormy in the next few months. When we plan a trip I always have an alternate in mind if we need to divert in the event of a serious storm. If this is a summer trip, the route will be a very warm trip. A more northerly alternate might be to Las Vegas then Salt Lake City and I-80 to Cleveland.

Sounds like a great trip. We've covered this country several times, motorhome and toad. I have never traveled directly from Moab to Albuquerque so can't say how US 550 from Durango to Albuquerque would be. It looks like a pretty lonely road. I avoid I-70 into Denver because of the extreme elevation change from the pass into Denver. I would suggest heading south out of Moab, on US 191. Then take US 491 East toward Durango, Colorado. There you will pick up US 160 which will take you across Colorado to I-25. Take I 25 South through the Raton Pass where you will pick up US 64 East. This takes you gradually from the elevation of the pass down to the western plains without the extremely long and steep descent into Denver on I-70 and it is a more direct route toward Florida. Once on US 64 you have choices. I would drop south toward Dalhart, TX and Amarillo, TX. Pick up I-40 in Amarillo and then take your pick of intersatate highways to your destination. The roads to I-25 and then from I-25 to Dalhart are two lane roads but generally in good condition. Depending on the timing of your trip you may experience delays for road work but that is the most direct and easiest route. You will travel a little slower but make up for that with the direct route and easier driving on less traveled highways.

Rich, To understand the problem you have to understand the inverse square law. That is, radiation decreases with the square of the distance from the source. Written mathematically that is 1/d2 This is due to the fact that the radiation is being radiated in all directions. So it spreads from the source outward and becomes weaker as it goes. The visible example of this is light which is also a form of electromagnetic radiation. A flashlight shining in your eyes from a foot away is a blinding light. Seen at a mile away you can probably detect a flashlight pointed directly at you but it certainly won't make you squint. A phone against the side of your head has a distance of somewhere between 0 at your ear and 10 centimeters from the center of your brain. A tower at 1/2 km away (about 550 yards or a third of a mile) would have its radiation reduced by 1/5000 cm 2 = 1/25,000,000 of the radiation at 10 cm. So if the tower signal is 175 watts that converts to 0.000007 watts or .007 milliwatts at your ear. So a tower with a signal strength of 175 watts is nowhere near the level of radiation for an individual compared to the cell phone next to your head. At 0 cm (pressed against your ear, your ear is receiving 300 mw in your example. At 10 cm, the center of your brain is receiving 1/100 of the radiation or 3 mw assuming the intervening tissue absorbs no radiation. Still much more than the .007 mw. In fact, 300 mw is almost 43,000 times stronger than the .007 mw radiation received from a tower broadcasting a 175 watt signal a 1/2 km away. When you think about it, we are being subjected to a constant barage of radiation (in very tiny doses) from a multitude of sources. Each TV and radio station is broadcasting a signal. If you can pick it up on your TV or radio, it is penetrating your home at a level that the sensitive receiver in the TV or radio can detect it and convert it to a signal. The same is true for satellite TV and radio. It doesn't matter whether you have the TV on or off, it doesn't matter whether you subscribe to the satellite service or not. Weather and aircraft radar services add to the mix as do all the objects in your home which communicate wirelessly with one another or with the outside world. In all cases, the closer you are to the source, the greater the concern about the hazard. Is all this radiation harmful? We know that if you are close to the source it can be dangerous but in tiny amounts even considering multiple sources, no one has been able to establish that there is a harmful effect on human health. Of course studies will continue but for now, we haven't been able to identify any clear danger from any of these sources.

In December 2003 we made a pilgrimage to Kitty Hawk, NC to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight. Each state had a plane flying the state flag to Kitty Hawk as part of the Aircraft Owners and Pilot's Association (AOPA) celebration of the event. Our plans were shared with fellow pilots at the Missouri Pilot's Associaton meeting and the pilot who was flying his plane to Kitty Hawk asked where we were staying. When I told him it was our motor home and he was welcome to join us, he accepted. They were RV'ers, having traveled in their own trailer. We planned to have them sleep on the couch but Les was a little too long for the couch so slept on the floor in a sleeping bag! Les was a retired airline pilot and flew with the US Air Force. He became our guide through all the festivities at Kitty Hawk. He knew people I wouldn't have had a chance to talk to. We got behind ropes and talked to experts in aviation. He gave us personal recollections as we watched air shows. In short, it was like having our own VIP guided tour of the four day event. We enjoyed their company and they enriched our experience at the event. I'm sure lucky to have mentioned our plans at that meeting and the motor home made it all possible. In 2004 we planned to travel the route of Lewis and Clark. This was the 200th anniversary of their departure on their exploration of the Missouri River and on to the Pacific Coast. We planned to start the trip in Louisville, KY across the river from Clarksville, IN. We had driven and enjoyed the Natchez Trace the fall of 2003 so decided to take that as our route from Texas to Louisville. En-route, one of the stops we made on the Natchez Trace was the site of Meriwether Lewis' grave. We didn't know where it was located. We were just beginning our journey and were focused on the river trip. The encounter with the grave site and the story behind the death of Lewis made the trip across country even more signficant knowing that Lewis suffered from severe bouts of depression. We checked to see where Clark was buried and visited his grave site in St. Louis, not far from where I lived my whole life. So a chance encounter added much to our planned summer trip. In 2008 we were in the Winnipeg area during the summer visiting friends and found there was a Viking Festival in Gimli, just north of the city the weekend we were there. Louise has lots of Norwegian heritage and enjoys being a Viking so we wre off to Gimli. We had a great time at the festival. As an aviation enthusiast (private pilot) I had read about the Gimli Glider (Google it) which was one of the miracle stories of aviation. So we visited the airfield where the Gimli Glider landed. Just a tiny bit of bad luck, there had been a reunion of the crew and some passengers just a week before we were there. I'd have loved to been there for that. Later in that visit our friends took us to Fort Garry where there was a celebration for the anniversary of a treaty with the First People (Canadians respectful name for Indians). We were welcomed and treated to a sampling of a meal from the period of the treaty signing. There were various demonstrations throughout the grounds. One of them was a performer who was doing a hoop dance. The performance was beautiful and quite amazing to see the footwork involved and being done on a grassy surface which wasn't exactly smooth. When the performance was over, our host Irwin took us behind the pavilion to visit with the performer. It turned out Irwin knew the man, they had worked together in the fire department! We got to visit with and learn more about this native performer who travels the world demonstrating his skills and sharing his culture with others. We were in the Olympic Peninsula (Washington) in 2012. We were touring wineries. While tasting wine and talking motor homes (there was a Prevost parked beside the winery) with our host, she asked if we were visiting to see the Potlatch. There was a Potlatch (meeting and exchange of gifts) taking place near there the next week. Pacific Coastal tribes were gathering for this event and they would be arriving by canoe in Olympia that weekend. We found information on the event and arrived early in the morning at the docks for the ceremonial arrival of the canoes. It was the most spectacular event I could imagine. Over 100 canoes from as far away as Alaska, having traveled for many days, some as much as a month, to reach this spot. These were the large ceremonial canoes, with dozens of paddlers, some in costume, others in T-Shirts but all welcomed in their native language over loudspeakers. We were welcomed as observers and thoroughly enjoyed a day watching and participating in this magnificant event. We had no idea this was going on when we planned the trip. Just really good luck being in the right place at the right time, meeting the right person to tip us off. This was a wonderful introduction to the native tribes of the Olympic Peninsula. We spent two months on the peninsula (first time visit) and visited many of the tribes forming a particular close bond with the Quilute Tribe at La Push. We commissioned a small souvenir totem with an artist there and a year later visited him in Olympia to collect our very dear souvenir of our spectacular summer visit to the Olympic Peninsula. These are just a few of the big things. There have been innumerable other experiences. Sitting through the remeinants of Hurricane Katrina in Maine then exploring waterfalls for the next few days! Seeing the northern lights while staying overnight at a rest area in Yukon, CA on our return trip from Alaska. We've formed a bond with a lake freighter. In 2005 at the Eisenhower Locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway we watched the lake freighter Algowood pass through the locks. She was a beauty and we enjoyed watching her continue on her way west leaving the locks. That evening we camped at a roadside park on NY Highway 131 overlooking the St. Lawrence Seaway. As we were eating dinner a freighter passed below us on the seaway. In binoculars I could read the name, Algowood. The next day we stopped for lunch at Cape Vincent where the seaway opens into Lake Ontario. As we ate a picnic lunch in a lakeside park, a freighter exited the seaway into Lake Ontario. We watched as the seaway pilot was transferred and the Algowood proceeded into Lake Ontario. Fast forward to 2008, We are parked in the marina campground in Duluth, Minnesota on our way to the FMCA Convention in Minneapollis-St. Paul. A lake freighter is passing through the High Bridge coming from Lake Superior into the Duluth harbor. It was the Algowood! Maybe not luck, more like spooky! On a whim we diverted a trip across country into central Wyoming, Lander to be specrific. We'd seen I-80 across Wyoming too many times and we had some time to spare. We arrived the the weekend of the One Shot Antelope Hunt. This is a high priced, big name antelope hunt that kicks off the antelope hunting season in Wyoming. Hunters are invited by the govenor to participate. The museum has pictures and momentos from actors, astronauts, politicians (former VP **** Cheney was there that weekend - we never saw him). Louise's father had talked about this event all his life and now we were here. We saw a few of the hunters, toured the museum and had some great hikes. Again, we knew nothing about this until we drove into town and saw the banner over main street. That same stay we camped at a park just outside Lander. When we arrived we were told to pick any site. We pulled into a site and the tree was too close to the motor home, we couldn't get TV. We were also parked next to another motor home and there were plenty of spaces so we moved over one space, more room for all and we had TV. The day we were planning to leave. The motor home we had parked next to caught fire. If we had been parked next to them, I'm sure our motor home would have burned also. lf you've never seen a motor home burn, and I hope you haven't, they burn faster and hotter than almost anything you can imagine. Neither the propane or fuel tank were involved and it was still a dreadful fire. We were very lucky that we didn't stay in that first campsite! Both people got out of the burning motor home but they saved nothing including their toad and their pet cat and dog. Our planned Lewis and Clark trip was interrupted when we had to make an emergency run to Lake Havasu to take care of Louise's mother. We ended up clearing out her house and moving her to Denver to live with Lousie's youngest sister. After that event, we decided to resume the trip and headed north to the Mouth Rushmore area, South Dakota. Camping in Custer we decided to visit the Crazy Horse Monument. Arriving at the gate they told us that admission would be free tomorrow with a canned food donation and we could do the Volksmarch to the outstretched arm of the Crazy Horse carving in the mountain. We returned the next day with our bag full of cans and did the hike. Wow, what an experience. We've taken friends and grandchildren on the hike. We've done the hike three times now and will be looking for the next chance to catch the event. Speaking of friends. Our first year out we stayed for the winter where we are living now. It is a wonderful park in a unique part of Texas. We were at a BBQ event in the park, everyone brings their own meat to BBQ and a picnic ensues. We were introduced to Dakota Bill and his wife Laura. We told them we were South Dakotans also! Of course we were just registered in South Dakota but they responded with enthusiasm and we've been close friends ever since. We visit them during the summer, we've caravanned with them on numerous trips, we've gone to FMCA Conventions with them, they have become our closest friends. They still stay for winters in the same park and just purchased a mobile home here. In our camper van in New Zealand we camped next to a couple from Austraila. We visited over a bottle of wine that evening. Australia being our next destination, Ian and Debbie invited us to vist thm in Melbourne when we got there. We did and built a friendship that resulted in their coming to spend a few days with us at our house in Texas last fall! So which of these is my favorite? You pick, I can't. They are all part of the wonderful experience that has been owning a motor home. You just never know what surprise you will find or who you are going to meet around the next corner. I love the RV life. One of Louise's favorite sayings attributed to Rosalind Russell, from the movie Auntie Mame seems to be appropriate here, "Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death."

I've been fighting this battle for years as a full timer. We're more settled now but still using mobile internet as we travel for about 6 months of the year and we can't get a data line in hour home at the present time. I've had T-Mobile service from the early days of PRS (package radio service) in 2002. I've been through half a dozen or more USB devices with T-Mobile over the years. They still have good service spots but have been severely passed by Verizon and AT&T. Which service works where you are varies so having a single source is not really feasible if you are doing a lot of traveling. Campground WiFi is a total crap shoot. I get the feeling that most campgrounds are never going to have anything near adequate service. Of course the definitation of adequate service keeps changing. The days of just picking up and sending e-mail are long gone for most of us. So I still have the T-Mobile. Their hot spot came with unlimited data contract which means 5GB at normal (pretty fast) speed and then they drop the speed to very low. They had the cheapest 5GB service I could find at $40.00 and that is the bill every month. I got a Verizon hot spot with 5GB package for $50 plus taxes, etc. You can up that another 5GB for $40. Verizon works much faster than T-Mobile where we are at our house in the southern tip of Texas. We have two laptops (his and hers) and a desktop computer. Keeping the software updated we were continually hitting the limits of our service contract. That is where the T-Mobile limited service came in handy, we could use the slow service for a few days until the month rolled over on one of the two services. Even so, when new software had to be downloaded or a major upgrade came, we needed to add the additional 5GB to the Verizon contract in order to meet our needs. The T-Mobile was too slow for major downloads, they would terminate mid-way through the process and then we had to start over. So I bought an iPAD Mini in December for my aviation hobby. Paper charts for navigation are almost impossible to find. You can mail order them but that requires way in advance planning and sometimes you just need to fly somewhere. VFR Charts are good for about 6 months so it is extremely expensive to have all that you might need at any time. With an iPad there are several companies that supply charts which are kept current by subscription and provide a host of other flight planning and in flight information services via the iPad. This by the way is the full service iPad, 4GLTE with WiFi capability as well. I'm clearly in love with this device. It runs most of the apps I use on my iPhone and the screen is big enough to really see detail. Within a month of getting my iPhone I was using the apps for RV travel. Having weather radar live with a pin in it for your location sure beats stopping to get Weather Channel information for your location. We could find Wal-Marts that allowed overnight parking and the phone would show us on the map to drive there. Need a campground, tap the phone and you've got a list of those that are near you. Now I've got it all on the big screen. So I purchased the iPad through AT&T which is also our phone service. I combined our two iPhones and the iPad Mini on a 10GB data plan for $100 per month. Now if you are thinking that is a lot of money, you are thinking what I am also. But here is the thing. The iPad with 4GLTE is like lightening as a hot spot. It beats the 4GLTE Verizon hot spot by a mile. And T-Mobile isn't even in the race. But that is where we are located now. There are places where we have traveled that T-Mobile has absolutely no service. ND, SD, KS, NE, MT, WY are just a few states where you will be out of luck. Verizon is pretty good but also doesn't cover some of the really interesting remote areas. Where we stay with our Grandchildren in California, Verizon has no useful service. You can't even get voice messages on a Verizon phone there and it is within a half hour drive of I-5. After years of enduring that I switched phones to AT&T. AT&T has good service in most places where we travel. There are really remote spots where AT&T doesn't have service (US 50 across central and eastern NV, US 20 in eastern Oregon). I haven't traveled with the iPad in the motorhome or used it as a hot spot anywhere other than where we are now but it seems to me to beat everything hands down right now. AT&T had a promotion last fall, offering a 15GB plan with rollover for the same $100 and that is what I now have. I'm finally in fat city for mobile internet service. My definition of fat city doesn't include video phone or movie downloads. For those you would need way more capability in speed and/or data limits. We'll travel this year and see how things work out. The T-Mobile service is likely gone by the end of the summer unless I find some significant hole in the Verizon or AT&T service. If we find areas where AT&T isn't cutting it or if the service isn't as good in other places as what we have now then we may keep the Verizon at it's minimum contract. A summer of traveling across the country should give us a better idea of what works best for us. Notice I haven't said anything about Consumer Cellular. I have no idea what kind of coverage, speed, or rates they have in comparison to what I have described above. I'm sticking with the majors because of their service areas, the quality of service and the quantity of their data packages. I am looking forward to the day when I can travel anywhere using any one of the services and have all the internet service I need at a speed that doesn't have me playing games while things are downloading. That day may never come but I'm betting it will, it just seems a long way off because I'm so anxious to find that solution. We've come a long way baby!

OK, I thought maybe the Frosties Chapter was the opposite of Snow Birds and Winter Texans! We're feeling pretty frosty right now with 40's in deep south Texas but relief is on the way. Golf on Monday promises to be in the 70's. Enjoy your Frosties guys and we'll stop to visit when we see all the motor homes parked around a Wendy's!

We bought our coach in 2003. It has over 130,000 miles of road experience. I wash with a brush. I sometimes use a microfiber pad and a detailing solution to remove dust and rain spots. Is the finish perfect? Pretty close to it. I'm a lot more concerned about the chips from rocks and scratches from trees and the cracked 3M coating. Our coach is used, well used. It's been all over the US and Canada and its still running strong. It isn't a museum piece, it's my biggest toy and I like to play with my toys.

For full timers, this is a constant challenge. Since we didn't have a home, we had to wash in parks where we stayed. Many parks don't permit washing but they will allow a bucket wash. When we are on the road I use a bucket, sponge and shammy to wash away the worst dirt. For the whole coach wash I use a long handled brush with hose attached, roof and sides. I've never used a commercial wash. I did visit a school car wash one time, after FMCA in Hutchinson, KS in 2002. We were pulled out of the mud. I had the kids wash the wheels and tires! They got a real kick out of tackling the muddy mess of the motor home! Not the usual charity car wash fare. On our way to and from and while in Alaska we found that many parks had wash facilities. Some were pay, others were "free," obviously included in the park fee. A few would allow washing on the campsite. The trip through Canada to Alaska was a very dirty trip to say the least. The year we went we were on wet roads frequently and washing was necessary most times we moved from one location to another.

We purchased a motor home from a Canadian couple in 2001. It was our first motor home and became our home as we full-timed. The motor home was a 1994 Monaco Dynasty and was manufactured in the US. As such, it was exported to Canada where it was sold to the original owner. Since it was manufactured in the US, we didn't have to pay any import taxes. We did however have to get a statement of compliance with US vehicle laws as of the date of manufacture from the manufacturer before we were able to get an import certificate. Most motor homes are manufactured in the US but if the motor home was manufactured in Canada or another foreign country, you will likely have to pay import fees. We could not register the Canadian title in the US without an import certificate. With many manufacturers out of business in recent years, that certificate of compliance may be difficult or impossible to obtain. I strongly suggest that you check with US Customs regarding requirements for importing the motor home you are thinking of purchasing. Assuming that the certificate of compliance with US laws is still required, you may want to contact the manufacturer and obtain that certificate. Once we had the compliance certificate, we filled out the import application and submitted it to Customs. There were no problems with Customs, it was a routine transaction. With the Import certificate in hand, we were able to get a US title issued and get our license plates. Although our motor home was manufactured in the US and complied with US standards, it did have a metric odometer/speedometer. The MPH numbers on the speedometer were too small to read easily so I created a MPH scale overlay for the speedometer. I also used a spreadsheet to keep track of the kilometers and do the conversion to miles. When we traded the coach for our present coach, it still had the metric odometer/speedometer. It also had daytime running lights which are required in Canada.