tbutler

South Texas is a lot closer to Michigan and further south than any of the above. In addition, there are a wide variety of parks and an equally wide range of prices. Generally the cost of living in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas is below average. You will find park rates that are quite reasonable for quality sites. Some parks fill but many have spaces available all season long. As a first time visitor I would encourage you to take some time to visit other parks near where you are. Even parks that are booked full this winter will welcome you to visit and see the parks facilities. The winter season varies, many people arrive in October and stay through March or April. Others wait until after a specific holiday, Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year. A month will give you a taste of the good life in the warmer south during winter. If you really like it, you may want to stay longer this winter or in future winters. For your first time south, you may want to do some traveling along the southern border of the US and try a variety of areas. Different areas have resources that may address a special interest you may have better than other areas. When we made our first trip south we didn't make any reservations and traveled around a bit until we found a place that was comfortable for us. We've been returning there ever since.

The bane of every motor home owner is maintenance. I'm a relatively handy guy and can handle lots of simple things but over time there are problems that occur that are better done by someone with more knowledge and experience than I can muster. As I've aged, the line that separates what I want to do and what I will pay someone else to do has moved. Part of that is wisdom, simply learning that my fix may not be the best way to repair something. Another thing that moves the line is my physical abilities. In my youth, strong and agile, I could lift things, bend around and under to get to places that my body now says are simply out of reach. Another thing moving the line is financial resources. When I was churchmouse poor I did all kinds of maintenance on my vehicles. Today I'd rather lift my wallet than lift a tire. Over the time we've owned our motor home, we've come to rely on a variety of shops for repair. One repair shop we have always used for the particularly tough problems is the factory service center. Originally, our manufacturer, Monaco operated a factory service center in Coburg, Oregon where their primary manufacturing facility was located. When you purchased a Monaco motor home you were invited to visit the factory service center to get the initial bugs out of the motor home. This served two purposes, it fixed problems for the customer and also gave the factory personnel feedback on things that were getting out the factory door in need of immediate repair. We returned within the first year of ownership and had a number of small items fixed. Later we would be invited to return and repairs were done at a much reduced rate or sometimes were complementary. We were also able to get service at Monaco "Come Home" rallies. The factory would shut down for the week and the company would bring the techs, a supply trailer and a fleet of rented golf carts to the rally. Each coach owner could put two things on a repair list and they would be done for the cost of parts. Such service went on for years but ended with the bankruptcy of Monaco in 2009. That is history. Monaco was taken out of bankruptcy by Navistar and operated under their corporate structure for several years. Today Monaco is part of the Allied Recreation Group (ARG). The ARG group includes Fleetwood, American Coach, Monaco and Holiday Rambler. The factory in Coburg is closed but the factory service center is still in operation in Coburg. There is also a factory service center in Indiana where the current factory is located in Decatur. Both facilities are doing warranty work and other repair work on the entire ARG line of vehicles. The factory service centers draw upon the technical people who were building the coaches. They know the coaches better than any general technician could. Our motor home is now 11 years old and we are once again at the factory service center in Oregon. We arrived on Monday evening and parked as directed in a vacant parking space. There is 30/50A power at the parking spot and also water. A dump station is available on site. Our motor home is picked up at 7:30 each morning and returned about 4:00 each afternoon. We arrived with a list of items ranging from a complete DC lighting circuit which was inoperative and a large power awning that wouldn't retract to an arm that broke off the drivers chair. There was a compartment door that wouldn't lock, another that wouldn't open. The auto-gen start function of the inverter wasn't working properly and the ABS light on the dash remained lit all the time indicating that the ABS function wasn't operating properly. I've been saving up, there were 17 items on the list. One by one our tech, Mike, has been working through the list and fixing or repairing each of our problems. It is now Friday morning and the last items on the list are being addressed. I've been called to the coach several times to consult on work in progress. I've seen more wires dangling and cabinets disassembled than I would ever have done. The DC circuit was a short which required replacing a wire to resolve the problem. Finding it was the reason for disassembling all the cabinets and fixtures. Mike consulted with the electronics guru to get the auto-gen start working again. He turned the broken chair arm over to the welding shop after disassembling the arm mounting hardware. We're going to drive away with everything working! I consider that a really successful repair trip. We've spent most of the week here but when everything is done we've reached our goal. There have been a dozen coaches worked on during this period of time and another half dozen from dealers that are being worked on as time permits. Some jobs are small, others really big. One couple had their full wall slide out removed so repairs could be done to the system that moves it in and out. We have visited with many of the people who are having repairs made and shared many stories of our travels. By Friday morning, most people have departed, we are among the few remaining. Next week a new group of coaches will arrive and a new set of problems will be solved. If you own a coach in the Allied Recreation Group you should take advantage of this excellent resource for keeping your coach in top operating condition. You can make an appointment at either facility by calling the following numbers. For Monaco and Holiday Rambler, contact 877-466-6226, American Coach contact 800-435-7345, Fleetwood contact 800-322-8216. Appointments normally are made months in advance but in emergencies they may be able to address specific problems on shorter notice. We made our reservation in July for this appointment in September.

The side to side clearance is a very important factor with the rear duals. There must be sufficient space between the two tires for cooling and also to prevent "kissing" at the point where the tires are on the pavement and bulging at their greatest. Kissing can destroy tires in a short period of time. Poor cooling will destroy the tires over a longer period of time.

Chevracer, Seems the simple answer to your problem would be to run through the local truck scales and get a recent weight ticket and keep it handy if there are any questions. Last time I weighed at a truck stop it cost about $7.

I just checked a tire chart and 5 extra pounds buys you an increase in load carrying capacity of about 180 pounds per tire. Times 4 tires that is 720 pounds, and you have a 900 pound bike plus the weight of the lift and that doesn't even take into account the calculations from the information Walt provided. I would strongly advise running your exact numbers and looking up your tire pressures from the tire manufacturers tables. You could load it all up and weigh to see what your rear axle is carrying. If you can get individual wheel weights the information will be even more accurate. I'm guessing you might be surprised by the results and not in a good way.

Ray, Yes, we are at the Factory Service Center. This isn't where the factory was years ago but is nearby, still in Coburg, 91186 N Coburg Industrial Way. This place is now known as the Allied Recreation Group Factory Service Center and they are working on Fleetwood, American, Monaco and Holiday Rambler coaches here. The crew is mostly if not all former Monaco factory workers so they do know their "stuff!" We're mainly getting repairs done, all the things I can't fix or don't want to. I am really pleased with the work they are doing. They have water and electric sites and a sewer dump on site. We're in the coach every night and in the lounge/reception area during the day. Yes, they do upgrades, remodeling, alterations. If they don't, there are numerous shops here they can direct you to for additional work. We made our reservations in July and this was the first date they had available. I had one problem that was going to take some time and they indicated if I came back during the winter they would give me a discount on the work so obviously the winter season here is their slack time. You can get an appointment by calling the Monaco Customer Service Number: 877-466-6226

Thanks Brett, I've noted this in my files. We haven't had any engine maintenance this spring but I'll check in the near future to make sure any filters are not in this batch.

Thank you Executive 45. I'll be traveling through Arizona in about a month and if I wasn't aware of this I might just pick up the wrong hose and get ticketed. The main point here is that there is a potential for confusion and out-of-state motorists may well make an innocent mistake if they aren't carefully watching for the difference in the two hoses. It helps to have this information on the forum, everyone reading should be able to avoid a ticket.

I don't know about your coach but on ours, the bulb assembly (socket and bulb) can be removed from the back side of the taillight assembly (try a quarter turn counterclockwise) and the bulb replaced and then the socket and bulb can be reinserted into the taillight. I think this is common in newer taillight assemblies. Our cars have had this kind of arrangement. If you can get to the back of the assembly, try this. You shouldn't have to remove the entire taillight. Our headlights are replaced the same way.

Lowe's and Home Depot, other large hardware dealers have filters that can be cut to size. I can't remember the brand now but you will find them with other furnace filters. I purchase one of these and cut them to fit our rooftop air conditioners. The ones I get have a two stage filter, particle and carbon filter for odor. The filters we use come with a plastic grid that can be cut to size and provides backing for the filter to keep it in place if necessary. There are also filters like this for allergies. Remember if you put in a better filter it will collect more material. You will need to replace the filter more frequently to allow the air to move freely through the air conditioner. I replace ours about 4 times a year depending on how much time we are traveling.

I use the tires and the accelerator if the temperature gets into the teens. Get me out of there!

If your coach is 30A there will be no advantage to installing a 50A box unless you think you might upgrade to a 50A coach in the future. No matter what you plug into, your coach will only have 30A. Your 30A coach should handle a 1500 W heater without a problem. Having 50A at the outlet, you will still have the same problems running the heater and the microwave that you would with a 30A outlet. Using 100' of wire is a concern. The longer the wire, the heavier it must be to deliver the full current at the other end. A wire capable of handling 30A may deliver only 110V instead of 120V at the outlet after 100' of wire. This web site has all the information you need for planning your external power outlet. Be sure to look at the information about wire length and recommended gauges. A #10 wire will support 30A with a 25' wire, it takes a #8 wire for a 50' wire and #6 for 100' wire length according to the table on the web site. Every job is different. I have installed underground line to a remote pad at my daughter's home and an installation on the side of the garage at my mother's home. Surge protectors are made to be weatherproof if they plug into the outlet at the post in a campground. If you want the surge protector inside, you'll have to build a shelter to accommodate that. Get dimensions for the model you want to install before building anything.

Considering what we put these coaches through, it is a wonder they hold together at all! Just driving down the road is like an earthquake! It is a vehicle and a house and you have the problems of both. We're in the shop right now and will be here for a while. I fix the things I can and hire some to fix the rest. Right now they are working on the rest. We have what I consider a high quality coach. It is not without problems but we have nowhere near the problems the OP listed. With 130,000 miles over 11 years, our coach has performed pretty well. We've had days in the shop, some normal maintenance, others fixing things that I wish hadn't broken but they did. I turned over a list of 17 items to the shop today. They've already fixed two of my top four before lunch time. We had a DC lighting system failure which knocked out all the 12V lights in the front half of the coach. When I went to view the progress the cabinets were all disassembled, wires were hanging out everywhere but the tech had found the problem. All the lights are working and he consulted with me as to how to route the wire patch to permanently fix the problem. It's going to cost me a bundle but I'd have never known where to begin to look to find the problem. One of the drivers seat arms fell off last year. I tried my own fix and it didn't work so we'll have the techs take a look at it and make recommendations. The existing seats, driver and passenger are showing their age so we may replace both. The list goes on. The long and short of this is even a quality coach is going to need upkeep and it won't be cheap. If you are looking at coaches, look at the full spectrum of coaches. Attend an FMCA National Convention where you can walk from one coach to another and make many comparisons in a single day. It is easy to see the quality differences in coaches. Look at plumbing fixtures, open and close drawers and cabinets. You can test drive coaches, see what they sound like and how they handle. When we did this at a recent rally, it was easy to see the vast range of quality. Quality has a price tag and if you want a motor home with the best furniture and best quality cabinets you will have to pay for it. By the way, the factory service center here in Coburg, Oregon is now the Allied Recreation Group facility and they are fixing Fleetwoods, American Coaches, Monaco and Holiday Rambler products. The techs here are the same people who built many of these coaches and they can tackle the really tough problems and solve them for you.

You are near Elkhart, Indiana which is a center of the RV industry in the US. There should be a number of facilities in that area. I've attended workshops at rallies that featured remodeling companies and heard several from that area however I don't have names.

We seldom make reservations at campgrounds but on occasion it is necessary. We just came from a campground that had almost exactly the same cancellation policy, word for word. We haven't had to pull out of a park ahead of schedule for quite a while. If I had to pull out of a park with that policy, I wouldn't say a word to anyone. If they didn't know you were gone for good they wouldn't be able to rent your site to someone else until your term expired. You can at least deprive them of the double rent they would get from turning the site over to someone else. Park owners and campers should be two sides of the same coin. We need each other. In markets where there are more campers than campgrounds, park owners hold the upper hand. They can set restrictions as above and raise prices higher than in other locations. In areas (or seasons) when there are more campgrounds than campers, park owners have to compete to attract campers to their parks. They have to charge lower prices and be friendlier to campers to encourage them to return. In these cases campers hold the upper hand, we can pick and choose campgrounds with better rates and/or policies.

On our coach the light on the dash is labeled "Wait To Start." When it goes out we can start the engine. That gives the heater time to warm up.

The most comprehensive site I've found for trailer and towing supplies is etrailer.com

I've been looking at motor homes on the highway and I see lots of changes. They are small changes, but if you look at the newer coaches, you will begin to see some significant differences. Not all manufacturers are making changes but some have made their coaches more aerodynamic. Some of the changes I've seen is that many have eliminated or minimized the number of awnings. There is a trend to tinted windows instead of awnings. Window fittings on many coaches are smooth on the outside of the coach, no indentation and if they do open the opening glass is very closely spaced to the fixed glass. When coaches have awnings, which I like for their effectiveness in eliminating heat from the coach, the awning support arms are much smaller and more streamlined and the awning roll is smaller and more sleek. Slides on many coaches fit much more seamlessly into the sides of the coach than on older coaches. I haven't noticed significant changes in the aerodynamics of rooftop features but that may be happening, just a little harder to observe. I know there are coaches without rooftop air conditioners. We know that more modern engines are designed for less pollution but they are also more efficient with electronic fuel injection and other design features that improve fuel mileage. We will always be a consumer of the over the road power train components because as Bill said, we are not a very large market. In fact I suspect the size of our market is becoming smaller, not larger. I believe that all manufacturers have a strong incentive to make their vehicles more efficient. As fuel prices continue to rise, many buyers are factoring fuel efficiency into their purchase decisions. Of course one of the major factors affecting fuel mileage is the operator and that is beyond the control of the manufacturers and designers. They have given us tools to improve our mileage, it is up to us to learn to use them the best way possible to improve fuel mileage. As you may have noticed, many trucking companies have their truck regulated so they can't exceed a set speed. Others monitor their drivers with GPS equipment to assist with route planning and to monitor speed compliance with company policy. UPS has their GPS units set for only left right turns where possible. Are we ready to accept any of those changes? This change is in our hands, all we have to do is follow accepted industry practices for increasing fuel mileage.

Having traveled the country for 14 years in a motor home there are many places mentioned in the news Louise and I have visited. They become more than just abstract names of places in the news, they become familiar territory. In the news in the last few weeks, Phoenix, Lake Havasu, Tuscon all had major flooding and damage. We stayed in RV parks and visited friends and relatives in those cities. Today Joshua Tree National Park was in the news with flooding also. We've hiked many miles in Joshua Tree and thoroughly enjoyed the desert scenery and the trails to old gold mines and oases. Weed, California is in the news today. A ferocious fire has destroyed over 100 buildings in the town. My history with Weed (the town) goes back more than 30 years. Weed is a small town along I-5 in northern California. It is a few miles northwest of Mount Shasta, a beautiful composite volcano. Mount Shasta is in the Cascade Range of volcanoes that include Mount Ranier, Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens among others. The whole range is active though the activity at any one volcano may be hundreds or thousands of years between major eruptions. Active in this sense is a geological term more than a human term. Still any one of these volcanoes could have a significant eruption at any time. I mention that because it was the framework for my first encounter with Weed (yes, still the town). We (my first wife and I) were on summer vacation with our two pre-teen children, We had been to Crater Lake which is a caldera from a collapsed Cascade volcano. These were our tent camping days and grocery stops were frequent. The whole family, our camping equipment and clothes fit into our Chevrolet station wagon so the quantity of groceries was pretty slim, a small ice chest and a box of what we needed for the next two or three days. So we pulled off I-80 at Weed and found a grocery. After a swing through the store we lined up at the cash register to pay for our food. When it came time to pay for the groceries I wrote a check (remember those days?) and was asked for my identification. I dutifully produced my Missouri drivers license. The clerk, a young woman, took a look at the license and noted that it was from Missouri. She looked at me and asked, "How do you live there with all those tornadoes?" I told her it really wasn't that bad, we had never been affected by one. She said, "I could never live there." I shrugged it off and we loaded our tucker (an Australian term I learned this year meaning grubstake or food) into the station wagon. Then we were off to return to I-80. As I pulled onto the entrance ramp to the highway I looked at the road ahead and there straight ahead was Mount Shasta with the cinder cone Shastina on its northwest flank. So here we are in the shadow of an active volcano and the clerk is worried about the danger of tornadoes. I had to laugh at that. For years I incorporated this story into my Earth Science classes. The 8th graders always laughed when I mentioned Weed, I can't imagine why. I used the story to help them understand that almost anywhere you live you will find some danger from nature. In some places it is tornadoes, other places have floods, earthquakes and tsunami's are common in still other places. You might wonder why anyone would live near a volcano but people do that also. It is just one more of natures dangers. Fast forward to 2002, the first summer of our RV travels. We started in southern California in the early spring. We visited deserts, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, and others. We tromped our way among the trees of Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks. Further north we stopped to explore Mount Lassen, the most recent active volcano in the US (before Mount St. Helens) and yes, a Cascade Volcano also. Traveling further north we pulled into Weed and found a very pleasant RV park there as our base to explore Mount Shasta. I am a volcano junkie, I love to explore volcanoes of all kinds. We stayed there for a week, partly to just rest and partly to do some climbing on Mount Shasta. We found many interesting hikes to other areas nearby and enjoyed the entire area very much. We've stayed there again and explored the area since. So Weed, California has for me many pleasant memories. It is a town that has been in my lexicon and in my memory for almost half my lifetime. A sleepy little town along a major highway. Now Weed is a smoky disaster area. We'll make a swing by Weed on our trip this year. I hope that the RV park is still there and that we'll be able to find a place to stay for at least one night. I'm sure there will be sadness to see an old friend in its despair. Perhaps we can lend some support to those by our presence. Travel makes life so much more vivid. These aren't just names in the news, they are places. Places with personality; parks, homes, forests, bike trails, mountains and people. When you know them, the news is so much more than just a story. Now Weed, in the shadow of the mighty Mount Shasta, has fallen victim to a forest fire. Mother Nature is beautiful but very dangerous.

I sealed both. Not only does it allow outside air in, it also provides openings for insects. The Norcold had a seal on the front of the unit where it met the cabinetry so anything that got inside would only be in the refrigerator compartment. The residential refrigerator doesn't have that tight a seal, not only would the sides be a problem but no residential refrigerator I know of has a tight seal around the compressor compartment and the floor. The roof opening was sealed by putting insulation above a board screwed into the ceiling. The outside vent is still on the roof and this allows going back to a RV refrigerator if a future owner wanted to. I sealed the wall vent by sealing the vents in the removable panel. I used insulation and duct tape to block those openings. I can still remove the panel if I want access to the rear of the refrigerator and the outlet. This panel could also be used for an RV refrigerator again if desired.

It is always a good idea to consider the area where you are parked. With heavy rain comes flooding. If the campground is near a stream, be it river or creek, it could be subject to flash flooding. If you are parked in an area subject to flooding, pay special attention to weather conditions. Watch the sky and listen to weather forecasts carefully. Consider also the conditions before a storm. If the ground is already saturated in the area the danger of flooding is greatly increased. The recent and impending rains and flooding in the SW US are an example. This kind of thing can happen anywhere water flows. Sometimes in urban areas it is difficult to tell where the streams are as they may be hidden behind buildings or landscaping. In severe flooding the extent of flooding may surprise even residents who have lived in an area for a long time. Campgrounds are often on or near low ground because that is flat and easy for construction of utility supplies. In the event of threat of flooding, evacuate. If you have time and can do that by moving the RV, do it. If you don't have time, save your life, get to high ground. Heavy rain may also make steep hillsides unstable and landslides and rockslides can be a danger. If the campground is at the base of a mountain slope or a large hill, pack up and leave before the storm arrives. This shouldn't be a concern with normal rains but storms like the ones approaching Arizona today should definitely put you on the road for drier conditions. We sat out the remains of Katrina as it passed over Maine in 2005. Even that far away we had a full day of heavy rain. The next day we enjoyed touring the waterfalls in the area. They were all in full flow. Fortunately, our campground was on ground which was high enough to be safe for us. If high winds are forecast, look around the campground for things like trees which might have large branches that could be blown down. Look for large trees and dead trees that may blow down. Consider also the debris that may be blow around. Are there loose trash containers or equipment near other campers that may be blown around during a storm? Round up all your loose items and ask your neighbors to do the same. Consider also the fact that you may encounter bad weather on the road. This brings up a whole new set of responses. You may want to find a place to park when winds become strong and controlling the RV becomes difficult. By just timing your travel you may be able to avoid stormy weather. When traveling, watch weather forecasts for the next several days along your route. A slight change in route or just delaying travel for a day or two may help you avoid traveling in bad weather.

Just a question. On what are you basing the age of your tires? Is this based on the date of purchase or on the date of manufacture?

We only have air leveling, no jacks but that may be even more convenient. I can dump air on one side of the coach and raise the other using the manual leveling. That way I can tilt the coach with the high side to the pump (we can fill from either side) and that allows me to fill the tank as completely as possible. When finished filling, I return the coach to travel mode as I record the mileage and reset the fuel statistics on the Aladdin system.

Hey, we had a 1994 Dynasty, fond memories. I suggest that you call Monaco Customer Service and talk to someone in technical support. They should be able to help you including referring you to a suitable repair place for repair or replacement. The Monaco Customer Service number is 877-466-6226. Have your coach number ready when you make the call. The coach number is the last six digits of the Unit Serial Number (look on the wall beside the drivers chair). Despite the passage of 20 years, a bankrupcy and subsequent sale to another company, the records of Monaco still survive and you can get customer service from some of the same people who worked for Monaco when your coach was built. Congratulations on purchasing a new-to-you motor home. I hope you enjoy your Dynasty and the freedom a motor home brings as much as we have.

We left Wounded Knee with a desire to return on another day. Early morning on Sunday and a holiday weekend as well are not the best time to visit most any site. Driving on west we passed through the town of Pine Ridge the largest community of the Pine Ridge Reservation. Entering town it looks to be a pretty typical community. As we turned south and left town we saw the underbelly of the community. It was a sad site to see many older native Americans living in poverty, I have added a link for the American Indian Relief Council for those who would like to join us in holding out a helping hand to those in need. A short distance south of town we entered Nebraska. This is a state which never held much interest for me until I discovered some of the interesting and amazing features of the state. Several years ago we took our grandsons on a tour through Nebraska and South Dakota. We visited the State Museum on the campus of Nebraska University in Lincoln, Nebraska. The state has numerous paleontology sites and this museum administers all of them. We visited several sites with the boys, Ashfall Fossil Beds with the most amazing collection of fossilized rhinoceroses you will ever see. The other site was the Trailside Museum of Natural History at Fort Robinson State Park. The latter has some amazing mammoth skeletons as well as some interesting history from the American Indian Wars. We have driven US Hwy 20 across northern Nebraska and enjoyed the relaxed trip through the Great Plains. This time we would drive Nebraska Highway 87 and 71 to I-80 and then on to Cheyenne, Wyoming. One of the newly discovered surprises was the scenery of the Nebraska Sandhills around Scottsbluff. We made a pass through the area but will definitely return to see more of the scenery here on another trip. The weathered sandstone hills and cliffs are beautiful and deserve some additional scrutiny and photography. This route connects to I-80 just a few miles east of Cheyenne which was our destination for the day. We stopped to fill the diesel tank before reaching the campground. I put 112 gallons of diesel in our 127 gallon tank, by my records the emptiest it has ever been! The RV park we had selected for the night was AB Camping and RV Park just south of I-80 and east of I-25. As we pulled into the park we could smell the barbeque. This wasn't just a fellow camper preparing a meal, this was real restaurant BBQ. We were parked by their restaurant. We registered, parked and returned to the restaurant for a fine BBQ meal. We enjoyed a quiet evening and then left mid-morning for the Denver area. I inquired about a place where I could wash the motor home as we had been driving for several days on wet roads. We had no luck so had to roll into the next park looking pretty ragged and dirty. The toad really looked terrible. We arrived at South Park in Englewood, Colorado about 2:00 in the afternoon. The office was closed on Labor Day but our parking assignment was posted on the office door. We pulled the sheet and unhooked the toad. South Park wasn't our first choice, it is on the south side of Denver and everyone we know lives on the north side of town. Staying in this park meant that we would drive across town each time we visited family. For this reason we planned to stay here only six nights before moving to another park. When we made reservations this was the only park we could find with a site and then only for the six nights. Fortunately, our preferred park, Dakota Ridge, had space available starting on the seventh night through the remainder of the length of our stay. I found out later that we were not only looking for a site in a large city on the end of a holiday weekend but there was also a PGA Golf Tournament in town. It ended the day we were able to move to Dakota Ridge so I believe that the golf tournament may have played a roll in the scarcity of campsites available the first week of September. One of the pluses that we didn't expect with South Park is that they allow washing vehicles. The toad went to a car wash but I spent Wednesday morning washing the motor home. It was a quick wash but made a huge difference in its appearance. So we left South Park on Sunday morning with a clean motor home and a clean toad. At Dakota Ridge we have additional elevation and a view of some of the hogback ridges that make up the Front Range of the Rockies. We also have a little more wind and we've had our first snowflakes of the fall. The furnace has had several nights of heavy duty work as temperatures hovered just above freezing. Today the temperature was in the low 80's. The forecast indicates that we will have fair weather and warm temperatures until our departure on Wednesday.