tbutler

Source: Casper to Gillette

I have run your off-interstate trip through my Garmin Topo Map and it shows a distance of 134 miles starting elevation at Casper of 5165 feet which goes to a maximum of 5698 feet in the first 19 miles. From there, elevations are up and down but the maximum slopes seem to be on the order of 120 feet per mile. The second climb goes from 4893 feet to 5490 feet in 10 miles to give you an average 60 feet per mile but there are stretches in there where you will reach 120 feet per mile. From there it is downhill to 5038 feet and then right back up to 5455 feet, a change of 417 feet in 7 miles or about 60 feet per mile again and there are once again stretches where you will approach 120 feet per mile in that section. The remaining 66 miles are pretty much downhill to an elevation of 4590 feet at Gillette. There is one short climb and just before you reach Gillette but that pretty much describes the elevations. We're coming from the south and will leave I-25 at Douglas and take 59 all the way. The distance is 114 miles and it looks pretty much similar to your route. From 4841 feet at Douglas we will climb to 5363 feet in the first 10 miles, 53 feet per mile on average. We will descend to 4641 feet and in the next 32 miles we'll climb to elevations near 5069 feet four times, Two of those climbs are about 430 feet and two are less than 200 feet. The end of our trip will have a descent to 4527 feet and the short climb just before reaching Gillette. I checked AARoads for information on Highway 59. It indicates that 59 is a desolate road from Douglas to Gillette. It also indicates that recent coal and natural gas development in the Powder River Basin (well north of Gillette) has increased the truck traffic on this road and bills it as one of the busiest roads in Wyoming along the stretch from Garner Lake Road to Gillette which is north of Gillette and should be of no concern to us coming in from the south. There are photos on this site as well though most of them are in Douglas. The one rural photo is from north of Gillette but it looks like good quality road with miniscule shoulder. Go to the home page for AARoads Home to look up other roads throughout the US. Another resource I found with a Bing search on the internet is the Wyoming DOT. Here is the search page where you can enter the road and get current conditions and some pictures if available. Looking at this information, if you like the wide-open west, you will love this route!

I have driven the motor home without my navigator beside me before but never quite like this trip. There have been a few short trips to repair shops. The only long trip was from St. Louis to Houston. On that trip Louise was following me in the toad as I returned a tow dolly to its maker. On that trip we had radios for communication on the road and we stopped for rest stops, meals and overnights together. On Monday of last week I dropped Louise off at the airport. She was on her way to Denver to be with her daughter during and after surgery. I had to remain until Tuesday afternoon for the final follow-up doctor visit following my cataract surgery so taking Louise to Denver in the motor home was not an option. We had the motor home loaded and ready to go before Louise left. My appointment with the doctor was late in the day and they were running behind schedule so it was really late when I left the office. When I got home I packed the last few things in the car and called it quits for the night. Wednesday I hooked up the toad and got underway headed north from Edinburg, Texas to Denver, Colorado. I was prepared to take longer than usual for this drive as my usual navigator/stewardess/chef/housekeeper was not with me. I know the route, we've traveled it before. We drive a 40 foot coach with a toad and the team effort makes it much easier. When the GPS tells me to turn somewhere, Louise will check the map and say we do or don't want to go that way. When we need to stop, she can scout various sources of information for rest stops or just watch the road for picnic areas or large parking lots. If I want a snack she can make a run to the refrigerator. Louise usually prepares meals. Normally at overnight stops we divide the work, I do the outside work, wash the bugs of the windshield, check tires and the toad. Louise sets up the interior, attending to slides and leveling and then securing everything before we are underway in the morning. Doing all this by myself means extra stops and doubles the time spent taking care of the coach at each overnight stop. Louise has several jobs as we travel through large cities. First, she is on constant watch for those exit only lanes that pop up from time to time. Next, she is reading the highway signs and keeping me posted on any coming lane changes or exits we need to take. Finally, she is checking the map to confirm that the GPS instructions are what we really want to do. Our local knowledge or our preferences are difficult to program into the GPS. Sometimes we prefer an interstate highway, sometimes we prefer an alternate that may be better at a given time of day. When traveling through large cities we have a running conversation going related to our route and all of the above things. When she drives we switch roles easily. Either way it is almost always a two person operation. This trip I am responsible for doing all of the above, no help except the GPS. I got derailed in San Antonio on the early side of the afternoon rush hour. I decided to take the I-410 loop west around San Antonio to keep me out of downtown but hadn’t looked at the map before making the decision. For a while the GPS was fighting me until I finally gave in and followed its directions. By the time I was outbound from San Antonio, the rush hour was definitely building. Anyway, an hour later I was clear of the city traffic and rolling along the road nicely. Later when I was able to stop the map clearly showed that staying with I-410 would have worked fine. I should have checked the map before making my decision! I stopped for the evening in Ballinger, Texas. There is a city park with hook-ups but it definitely isn't for big rigs. I circled through the park and felt lucky to get away with all my paint. So it was the Wal-Mart that night. Nice people, they welcomed me to park in the gravel lot next to the small store lot. I was joined by an empty hog truck that parked about 30 feet away. He was gone by morning and I slept soundly. I took my time getting ready to go. Wal-Mart had a sidewalk clearance sale and I found a few bargains. I had breakfast, washed the bugs off the windshield and got the interior ready to roll. To be continued …

Yeah, like you had to fool me to beat my score! Sorry you won't be with me for the trial run at the Monaco International Pre-Rally in Gillette. Can't wait to see how far I can see the golf ball now. I may go out and play a round here in Denver sometime next week.

I haven't encountered any toll roads that charge by tire, all that I have seen charge by the number of axles and that wouldn't change. I don't think I have seen trucks running with the super single anywhere except with dual axles. In that case, after a blow out three tires would remain and would keep the trailer from going down to the rim if stopped in time. Also, a blow out on a truck doesn't cause the kind of damage that a blow out on a motor home can cause. I would hesitate to go to a single tire with our coach, we only have one set of duals on the rear and no tag so a flat would leave us running on the rim in the rear. With that weight I would imagine that it would destroy the rim and who knows what else. We had a flat (blow out) on the rear last year and it took out about 15 feet of fiberglass around and behind the wheel position. I think I'll stick with the duals.

We had a leak in our coach when it was new, the cabinets in the bedroom slide would take on water. It wasn't a huge amount but it couldn't be tolerated either. We were under warranty and took the coach back to our dealer. They put a heavy sealer tape on the corners from the outer wall to where it joined the coach and that took care of the problem. The tape is still there today and we are still dry. Later we had a problem with water at the junction of the coach wall and the same bedroom slide. That was resolved by adjusting the slide. An examination of the slide and the opening showed that the slide wasn't centered in the opening. Once adjusted, we had no more leaks. These were pretty simple fixes for water problems. I hope your problems are fixed as easily.

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone, I can see all obstacles in my way Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind It’s gonna be a bright, bright Sun-Shiny day. Those are some of the lyrics from I Can See Clearly Now, by Johnny Nash. It is one of my all time favorite songs and I've been whistling it a lot lately. What follows is a detailed description of my encounter with a common eye condition, cataracts. If you have cataracts and have had them surgically removed, you know the story. If you have them and haven't had them removed, you should read the detail. In many cases, the surgery can give you good vision again. But first, I've got to share with you some conditions that may alert you to your failing vision because this comes on slowly and as with all small slow changes, you hardly notice. My apologies to Jeff Foxworthy for what follows. If you think newspaper ink has become almost the same color as the page, you might have cataracts. If your birdie putt disappears but didn't go into the cup, you might have cataracts. If the screen on your GPS on the dashboard is getting fainter so that you can hardly see the map, you might have cataracts. If you have noticed that there are more hazy days lately, you might have cataracts. If road signs have become impossible to read from a distance, you might have cataracts. If the left turn arrow of the traffic signal is too faint to be seen, you might have cataracts. If your nose is touching the computer screen, you might have cataracts. If you've quit reading books and magazines, you might have cataracts. If you haven't seen a sky filled with stars lately, you might have cataracts. If you are seeing fewer birds, you might have cataracts. In 2002 my optometrist advised me that I had a small cataract in my left eye. There was an area of cloudiness in the lens of the eye. It didn't seem to be causing me any vision problems so he said we would monitor it to see if and how it progressed. At each biennial exam he would comment on its progress or lack of progress. It didn't seem to be much of a problem. This past year I have noticed more and more difficulty seeing (see the list above), but the problem seemed to be my right eye, not my left. In March I was back in Missouri and stopped in to see my optometrist. He found a severe cataract in my right eye. He said the left eye had progressed some but was still borderline. I wasn't staying in town long so I would have to find an ophthalmologist when I got back to Texas. I started with the internet, learning about cataracts and cataract surgery. I found out that cataract surgery is the most common surgery in the US. I also learned that it is 98% successful and that the most common complications are relatively minor and affect people who have other serious health problems. The web site was an excellent source of independent information. All the types of replacement lenses which are available are described with their benefits and limits or problems described. There was one very interesting entry, a description of his own cataract surgery by an ophthalmologist. There are numerous articles which address many aspects of eye health, cataracts are just one topic on that site. The site is operated by Access Media Group, a healthcare publishing company specializing in eye care. The company's primary business, All About Vision®, is a website providing information to consumers about all aspects of eye health and vision correction. A friend, a retired optometrist suggested one way to find a good local ophthalmologist would be to consult professional organization web sites so I went to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). Entering my zip code gave me a list of a half dozen ophthalmologist within 30 miles of our home. I also found a listing of local surgeons on another web site, Eye Surgery Education. Finally, I asked my physician for a recommendation. I now had three sources and a number of possible surgeons. My physicians office made an appointment with their recommended physician. When I arrived for the appointment I learned that the doctor wasn't in, hadn't been in all week. I was welcome to see another doctor in the group. I wasn't happy with that arrangement, after all they had called to confirm the appointment only a few days before. I left discouraged, it would be another week or two before I could get an appointment with another doctor. The second doctor I chose had an office which was definitely high end. He was a very professional doctor but had one particular premium lens that he liked to install and talked down all others when I asked about them. Then we were sent to a scheduling consultant who reminded Louise and I of the worst used car salesman we could ever imagine. He exaggerated, misrepresented, and exhibited an alarming lack of knowledge about lenses. He informed us of the doctors fees which were well above the charges that web sites indicated for premium lenses. It took me about ten minutes of this to walk out on this sales pitch. I still can't imagine that doctor sanctioning his presentation. It would be another two weeks waiting for the next appointment. I went back to my list and picked a doctor from the AAO list. I read about this doctors background, education and years of experience. Everything looked promising but I was now leery of the whole genre of ophthalmologists. When I arrived at this office I was first tested by an assistant who did an excellent job of explaining the testing and measurements she was taking. Then I went to see the doctor and she completed her exam and we talked lenses. I told her what my concerns were and what I expected from a lens. I wasn't after the most expensive, nor the most convenient. Some lenses can allow you to do away with glasses entirely. Some have different focusing zones, others are flexible like the body's natural lens and can be flexed to focus on different distances. The lens I chose is a fixed lens which will give excellent distant vision but will require reading glasses for close vision. Dr. Alexander agreed with me that given my concerns that was a good choice. We set up surgery dates for both the right and left eye, one week apart. By the way, both of the doctors I saw agreed that I needed cataract surgery on both eyes. The left eye didn't have the spot that was in the center of the right lens but it was generally cloudy throughout. We planned to do the surgery on my worst (right) eye first. Surgery was done in a surgery center. Prep included about 4 dozen eye drops, some to sterilize the eye, some to numb the eye and finally the ones to dilate the iris. I had an IV with a sedative to relax me. Then I was wheeled away to the operating room. Dr. Alexander came in and began to work. She works through a microscope for the entire process. I am pretty much immobilized by a protective cover on my eye which is fastened to the bed. I can see light but can't feel a thing, no pain, no pressure. The light keeps moving and Dr. Alexander requests one thing or another from her assistants. I have read about the surgery and seen movies simulating parts of the surgery so this all sounds familiar. Soon she announces that she is finished with the surgery and everything is fine. I am wheeled out to recovery where I get some juice to drink, the IV and heart monitor are disconnected, I am put in a wheel chair and am on my way home. I have a clear cover on my eye, I can see but I'm looking through plastic. It has holes around the edges for ventilation and the central area is transparent. I can see, everything is blurry and way too bright, sunglasses help. At home I am able to eat for the first time since midnight. Slowly through the day my vision is improving. I notice that the houses are really white, the grass is green and cars are really colorful. I'm like a railroad crossing signal, right eye, left eye, right eye, left eye. Wow, my left eye is really bad! It is just the first day and I'm looking through a plastic cover and I'm seeing better with my right eye than with my left. Following surgery I have to continue eye drops and sleep with the patch on for a week. There is no pain following surgery, no discomfort, only the steady improvement in my vision. The next day I have an appointment with Dr. Alexander. The plastic cover is removed from my eye and I can really see how clear my vision is now with the new lens in place. I'm on restricted duty, no lifting or bending so I catch up on some of the light work around the house and on the computer. Later in the week I do some painting that we'd put off for some time. By the weekend I'm able to mow the lawn. The following Monday, May 20, I'm back to the surgery center for the left eye. The story is much the same, I remember more of the operation this time but the results are the same. I'm writing this just hours after the plastic cover has been removed from my left eye. I have a pair of reading glasses purchased off the rack at Walgreens that function as my reading glasses for now. I can see clearly now. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home this afternoon and the experience of walking through the produce section was amazing, the colors are now so bright, vivid compared to what I was seeing only two weeks ago. It is as if I am seeing the grocery store for the first time. I am amazed how far down the highway I can see, even reading signs from distances I could only imagine a few weeks ago. I can see all obstacles in my way. The old hazy gray world I was living in is now gone. Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind. It’s gonna be a bright, bright Sun-Shiny day. Have you had your eyes checked lately?

Recycling is a noble cause and I support whenever I can. The problem for campground owners is that there is no payoff for them to recycle. Other than a little money from aluminum, most other materials are collected without reimbursement. If the local community has recycling pick-up, that takes the cost of transporting the materials to the recycling center. There is still the space, containers, and the labor to keep it clean so it doesn't become a health hazard or an eyesore. At our winter campground we have had volunteers who carry out the recycling program. These are dedicated individuals who live here who willingly donate their time, their vehicle and their fuel to make the program work. They have to haul the materials to the cities recycling center which is about 8 miles from our park. Once there they have to unload their vehicle and physically carry the materials into the center and deposit them in the proper portal. If people don't follow recycling instructions they have to sort before depositing the materials. You get the idea. It takes time and lots of labor and fuel to make it work. New owners a few years ago decided that they could eliminate one dumpster (of two we used to have) by providing a vehicle and the fuel for volunteers to transport materials. They also set up a nice enclosed recycling area. Materials are bagged and transported twice a week to make this work. All this to cut down on the amount of trash we throw away and their reward is a savings in their trash collection bill so they get some pay-off. We all recycle our aluminum with the program as the proceeds of the aluminum recycling are used to support the activities program at our park. As individuals, we can at least ask at the office if they recycle any materials and if not, where we might take our recycled materials. If you make a run to the recycling center, bring back some brochures that describe the materials collected and the hours of operation an usually include a map or directions to the center. Ask the campground owners to make those available to campers who are interested in recycling their materials. If enough people ask, it may encourage them to provide some recycling as a service to campers. Other than encouraging our members to do something like this, I can't think of a way that FMCA could do more to encourage campground owners to recycle. Perhaps the publishers of campground guides could include a recycling symbol by each campground that provides some recycling services to campers. That might provide encouragement to become part of the solution.

As I recall, the seven dwarfs whistled while they worked. Perhaps your water heater was manufactured by dwarfs!

When Louise and I moved to Texas, we went to the license bureau, stood in line for an hour and a half and then presented our South Dakota drivers license, a regular drivers license like every car driver in South Dakota has. The kind lady at the counter called someone and verified that it was indeed the required license to drive a Class A motor home over 26,000 pounds and we were given a Texas Class B Non Commercial Drivers License, no test, written or driving. We could have had a Class A if we wanted but didn't need it to tow our car. You only need a Class A if what you are towing is over 10,000 pounds. So if you are from out of state and have the proper license for driving your motor home in the state you are coming from your license will translate into the license you need in Texas without all the testing. I know it sounds crazy but that is Texas!

We replaced our Norcold 1200 with a Whirlpool refrigerator in 2011 and have traveled with it since. Summer and winter, it works great. We haven't altered the original 4 x 6V battery setup that came standard with our rig. The refrigerator runs all night with no problem. If we're using the furnace the batteries will be ready for a full charge in the morning but on a normal temperature night it is no problem. I wrote up the whole process in detail complete with photos. See http://community.fmca.com/topic/2606-replacing-a-norcold-refrigerator/ in this forum for details. I'd never have a coach with anything but a residential refrigerator again.

One night on my way home from calling Mexican bingo at Flip Flopz, the community building in our park, my cell phone fell out of my pocket. I got home, noticed it missing and retraced my route. Turning a corner I saw something in the middle of the street and it was my phone. Unfortunately, someone had run over it with a golf cart. It wasn't destroyed but was damaged. I tested it and it worked. Within a week it became apparent that it was not fully functioning. I was getting static during calls and missing a word here or there. So it was time to replace the phone. This was a dumb phone, just basic functions, call, talk, voice mail, With the standard numeric keypad you could text if you were really patient, I wasn't. I started searching for replacement phones and found few as simple as my old one. A trip to the phone store and I'm looking at one that has a slide cover that functions as a keyboard for texting for about $80. On the other hand there is an iPhone 4 that is offered for the grand sum of $0.99! Yes, the iPhone 4 was yesterdays nifty gadget but I like old stuff so I jumped in. Now I have a smart phone. For a whlie the phone was smarter than I was. I still don't use it like the kids do but it is growing on me. We left our winter retreat in extreme southern Texas in mid-March to head north to Missouri. We do a stint every spring taking care of grandchildren while their mother, our daughter, is working as a tax preparer. Who decided that tax season would be a good time for spring break anyway? As we traveled north I found the iPhone handy for checking on weather. I had installed the Weather Bug app soon after getting the phone. With the iPhone, I can open the Weather Bug and it knows where I am located and gives me the weather for my present location! Tap the radar icon and there is the radar for my location. You can do this with the computer but you have to tell the Weather Bug where you are located, name a city or put in a zip code. With the iPhone the phone tells the Weather Bug where it is and you get instant (under a minute) local weather information. Cool I said, I could learn to like this phone. Now it is late on the first day, we have been rolling nearly constantly and we are north of Dallas, heading into Oklahoma. It is getting dark and we should be finding a place to stop. The Next Exit does no good on US 75/69 so I tell Louise to pick up my phone and lets see if we can use it to find Wal-Mart! She knows zip about my iPhone so I'm driving and talking her through the App Store. She has searched and found something on Wal-Mart when we spot one! So the search stops there and so do we. Next morning we're heading for I-44 east of Tulsa when our son-in-law calls and says that snow is expected in Springfield, Missouri after noon. With constant driving we'll make Springfield by noon so it looks like a horse race between us and the weather. Check the iPhone to see where the storm is now. We're ahead of it but not by much. As we clear Springfield we see blowing snow but are quickly clear of that flurry. By nightfall we are at our daughters home near St. Louis. It's great to see the grandkids and we're on duty the next morning. During our stay we sit through a monster snow storm, about a foot of snow accumulates on our roof and all around us. It was Sunday so we just sat inside and enjoyed watching the storm. We went through 70% of our full propane tank in a 12 day trip. Boy were we glad to be headed back to Texas! We left Friday afternoon as soon as our son-in-law got home and made it to Joplin shortly after dark. By this time I had downloaded the iPhone app which allowed us to look for Wal-Mart stores near our current location. Louise Identified the exit and guided me into the Wal-Mart where we spent the night. The Weather Bug indicated a big storm complex coming in on us, likely in the early morning. I slept too long. By the time I got outside to check tires and the toad it was already raining lightly. I put the get-away in high gear and we were on the road in a steady rain. As we hit the Will Rogers Turnpike the rain started coming down in earnest. Pretty soon it became a regular frog strangler. Then the wind hit, fierce winds blowing across the road in a driving rain. That lasted for about five minutes before giving way to the standard thunderstorm. We departed the turnpike at Big Cabin and headed south on US 69, retracing our steps south. Louise was keeping me posted on the storm using the iPhone. We stopped at Wal-Mart to have breakfast and then continued on our way, trying to outrun the storm. We finally broke into clear weather about 50 miles north of the Texas border. My goal was to clear Dallas late on Saturday afternoon and be well south for the start of the final day of driving. We made that easily and then consulted the iPhone again. I had updated the Wal-Mart app to a full-featured app, Allstays Camp and RV. This is the greatest thing since the Swiss Army Knife, sliced bread and/or peanut butter! The Wal-Mart app is just the beginning. The full Camp and RV app has rest stops, it will display them on a map, not just any map, the map moves as you drive. Zoom in and you can watch yourself zipping down the road. Of course I never looked at it while driving! You can choose what you want to see on the map, rest stops, Wal-Mart, Cabellas, truck stops, gas stations, pick what you want. If you are headed south, indicate you want the southbound rest stops and that is what it shows. I knew there was a Cabellas south of Dallas so Louise looked for that, Louise took me to the correct exit and we were able to pull in to spend the night. Looking for a place to stop and eat? Name it and it will find the nearest one for you. I've got a GPS, new last year, can't find a fraction of what the iPhone does and the GPS is really old technology when you try to find something. It turns out it was my lucky day when someone ran over my old phone! I love my new iPhone. This is going to be great for traveling in the motor home.

While Gramps is fighting off the cold I thought I would highlight the joys of traveling south for the winter as do those of us fortunate to be free of the attachment to a job. It is Saturday and today I spent the morning getting our motor home ready for a trip to the shop. We blew a tire, outside dual on the drivers side, and it took a bunch of fiberglass off the left rear of the coach. It has been ten weeks since we got an estimate from the shop and they ordered parts. Ruby from Bert Ogden RV called yesterday and said I should bring it in next week. So I'm getting everything ready to be parked on their lot for several weeks. While I'm doing this, Louise volunteers at the local Food Bank on Saturday mornings. After a morning of hard physical work, she is taking a nap to restore her strength. She is part of the crew that gathers boxes of food from the bulk stores. These boxes of food are then distributed to those in need of assistance. Our temperatures are in the 70's right now. We've had a few nights in the 40's. I think it may have dipped into the 30's once or twice. We can get freezing weather here but it is almost always a single day or two when the temperature dips below freezing for several hours overnight. So I don't worry about winterizing the coach. I keep the furnace on, set to 50 degrees and the coach is parked right next to the house and has pretty good shelter from the cold north wind that usually accompanies our coldest nights. If it is going to be real close to freezing I'll turn on the winter heating system which warms the fresh and waste water tanks not that they are filled, just some residual water and connecting pipes which may not be completely drained. Tomorrow I'll play tennis in the morning with several of our friends. Monday looks like a great day for golf with temperatures starting in the 50's at tee time but it won't stay there very long. The high for the day is forecast to be 74 degrees. Most everyone wears shorts and short sleeve shirts under a light jacket. It is just glorious playing golf on a fine 60 to 70 degree day in the sunshine. I've been able to walk the course this year and am really enjoying being able to do that for the first time in quite a while. I used to walk all the time but my knees became so painful I had to stop. Since my knee replacements the summer of 2011 I've been able to get back to the activities I love like tennis and golf. Louise usually plays golf with me but has been practicing for a dance number in a production here in the park. They practice on Monday and Wednesday mornings after Zumba. Tuesday Louise and I lead a bicycle ride for our park. The forecast for Tuesday matches Monday's forecast so we should get a good group to go with us. Our destination this week is Anzulduas County Park and Anzulduas Dam which is the last dam on the Rio Grande River before it reaches the ocean. The dam produces electrical power for Mexico. We'll also visit La Lomita Mission, one of the string of missions started by the Spanish missionaries who served the first settlements in this area. The town of Mission gets its name from this humble mission and its small chapel. The Alamo was also a mission started by the same group of missionaries. Tuesday evening I am in charge of training classes for the Texas Master Naturalist program in the Upper Rio Grande Valley. I have an excellent committee to support me as we take a group of 20 volunteers through three months of training to become naturalists and volunteers for the many parks and nature areas here in the RGV. I don't have to do the instruction for the most part, just facilitate the classes. We meet at Bentsen State Park one night a week and also have field trips on the weekends. Wednesday is an open day for me. If I can get on the tennis courts, I'll play tennis. Occasionally someone in our golf group will get together a foursome and if they are short one player I'll join them for another round of golf but this doesn't happen too often. Thursday I put on my volunteer hat as a Texas Master Naturalist and spend a most of the working day at the Edinburg Wetlands and World Birding Center. Most of the work there has been working in the plant nursery taking care of the plants that are being grown to transplant on the grounds of the facility. Almost all the plants at the facility are native plants and many are attractive to birds and butterflies. On a warm spring day the park is absolutely alive with critters of all kinds. Photographers regularly patrol the park looking for photo opportunities. Sitting in my car taking a lunch break this last Thursday I watched a blue grey gnatcatcher working its way along the chain link fence picking bugs (maybe spiders) from the joints in the fence. Behind him in the trees a nuthatch worked its way up and down the tree trunks looking for bugs. I was startled as a buff-bellied hummingbird zipped up to my windshield to see his reflection, or was he also hunting bugs? He hovered less than two feet away from me through the glass and then, zip, he was gone. Friday morning Louise and I bowl in a Winter Texan league with a large number of our friends from our park. As with the bike ride, part of the fun is stopping somewhere for lunch after the activity. After lunch we are off to the HEB grocery or Wal-Mart to shop for our weeks supplies. We always meet some of our fellow bowlers or other friends from our park who are doing the same thing. Saturday is another opportunity to play tennis but during the Texas Master Naturalist classes it will be a field trip day with the class. Sometimes on Saturday or Sunday mornings I have been volunteering, helping a local teacher with his bird banding research. This is also a Texas Master Naturalist activity. Mark considers me in training, mostly putting up and taking down the mist nets and transporting the birds that are caught once they have been removed from the nets. It is really exciting to see the birds up close and interesting to learn about them from someone who knows them in detail. Over time, I'll be one of his assistants who removes the birds from the nets. I get practice at that now, keeping the nets clean, picking sticks and leaves out of the nets. Last Saturday was really special. Louise and I joined two others from our park to participate in the Port Isabel to South Padre Island 10K Causeway Run/Walk. I gave up running years ago but enjoy hiking and walking. So we walked the distance with one of our friends. Our other companion is a runner and at age 74 he took top honors in his aged division with a 10K time of 53 minutes and a few seconds. I really wish I could do that but my body is no longer up to that punishment. My last blog entry had to do with the necessity of keeping active to maintain good health. This is my attempt to show that I'm not one of those people who say, "Do as I say, not as I do." I greatly enjoy the intellectual as well as physical activity that this lifestyle gives me through the winter. As Louise likes to say to those who are still working, "We are the light at the end of your tunnel." We wish everyone a a Happy and Healthy New Year. Keep active no matter where you are or what your are doing.

We loved the north shore of Lake Superior. The drive on Hwy 17 takes you along the lake from time to time. There are numerous waterfalls to see and other sites as well. There was a park where we pulled in for a lunch stop. We were able to walk along the lake shore for a good distance after lunch. Can't remember the name of the park but it was near an Indian reservation, gift shop store where we bought some nice moccasins and a few other things and some cheap liquor (cheap for Canada). Not far from there was a place where you could take a short walk and see some petroglyphs. Thunder Bay was a delight. We spent an afternoon walking around the waterfront. We returned to the US in Minnesota and enjoyed Voyagers National Park and a stay in Duluth at the marina campground right by the high bridge that admits the lake ships to the harbor. We also went to Winnepeg and visited the Canadian Mint, Fort Garry, the Viking festival in Gimli and a number of other sites around Winnepeg. Then we drove up to Ashern where we saw the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride. They perform all over the country during the summer, if you get a chance be sure to catch the show. In Regina we visited the RCMP training center and got a tour of the facilities. Then we were off to Edmunton and Jasper. We stayed in the National Parks in Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff. All three have spectacular scenery. At Lake Louise we were treated to a Tyrolean Horn concert lakeside at the big hotel. We drove down the eastern side of the Canadian Rockies through Lake Louise and Banff and on to Calgary. From there you can drop south to Yellowstone. We loved driving through Saskatchewan. The old wooden grain elevators are still there at each town along the railroad tracks. One of the real fun things was the penchant that Canadians have for the largest thing. In Wawa you can see the largest Canada Goose! We saw the largest Pysanky (I'll let you figure that one out!) and a whole bunch of other big things. Near Calgary they have a dinosaur museum at Drumheller and also the largest Dinosaur. If you take a side trip out of Sault Ste Mare to Sudbury you can see the big nickel. Enjoy Canada, it is a lovely country well worth exploring. We've explored all of the provinces except Newfoundland/Labrador and Nunavut. We'll return every several years to see more.

Derrick, I was too busy to be part of the call and appreciate your excellent reporting of the proceedings. There weren't too many surprises there. The willingness to sell is news, glad to see a commitment to keeping the quality high and continue to improve the company in the meantime. There are those who sell off companies for parts and take the money and run. We were at the repair facility in Oregon this past summer and the techs who do the work are excellent. I hope they can keep a good core of technical people through this process. Thanks again for the report. Tom

Two years ago studies came out that identified one of the most dangerous items we use daily. It is an item that we all enjoy and doesn’t seem that dangerous at all. It isn’t cigarettes or liquor. It isn’t fast cars or fast women! One of the most dangerous things for people is the chair you are sitting in right now as you read this. Yes, I too am sitting in a chair as I write this. We all love to sit in chairs. Chairs are in front of TV’s and that is a glorious reason for sitting in a chair. Chairs and couches turn us into potatoes and there lies the danger. Overweight and inactivity are sure paths to an early end. Today as I was sitting on the couch watching football, I saw the NFL logo and the slogan, “Play 60” on every field. One of the NFL adopted causes is Play 60, a program to encourage at least 60 minutes of activity for children in school. When I was in school, I didn’t need an advocate to promote 60 minutes of activity in a day. I didn’t have the distractions that face our children and grandchildren today. I rode my bike to my friend’s house. We played sandlot ball. We climbed trees and played at various games. I remember spending many days exploring the mystery of the woods behind our home, following a little trickle of a stream for great distances to see where it went. Young people today have many forms of entertainment which do not involve physical activity. The variety of electronic devices that entertain our children today competes directly with physical activity. Once you fall into the trap of sitting, physical activity becomes more difficult. Muscles atrophy and weight increases. This all makes moving more difficult, if not painful. It is a disaster for our children to start out so early in life with this challenge. It is an unfortunate truth for those of us who are now retiring to find out that what we have dreamed of all our lives will end our lives before our time. I don’t know about you, but my idea of retirement always involved a picture of relaxing in a rocking chair. I am guessing that came from seeing my grandparents sitting in their rocking chairs. It sounds like a great life to sit and watch the world go by, but it really isn’t that great. That rocking chair will kill you. It doesn’t matter what you do to exercise. If you can manage any motion at all, you should engage yourself daily in some activity. Walk, swim, garden, bowl, golf, yoga, Wii, Pilates, or Zumba, it all counts. It all raises your metabolism, burns calories and helps to keep your muscles, heart and lungs in good working condition. Cold weather is settling in across the country. I love our Wii Fit program. The exercises are not exceedingly strenuous but do work on basic challenges for older adults. As you and I get older, the small muscles in our legs lose their strength and flexibility. Our ability to balance ourselves slowly deteriorates. We don’t notice it until our ability to maneuver and balance becomes a serious hindrance to our movement. Doing yoga or playing the balance games on the Wii helps to restore the strength and control of these muscles. The Wii gives good feedback, indicating the level of your success at each activity. We take the Wii with us in the motor home and try to use it as often as possible. Even if you can’t be outdoors, you can benefit by using the Wii or other exercise programs indoors. The point is, don’t just sit there. Now the disclaimer: Before starting any exercise program, consult a physician. The New Year is coming and many people put exercise programs into their list of resolutions. Often this results in a brief period of activity which results in abandoned equipment and a feeling of failure when the program is abandoned. Start small with your exercise program and fit it into your regular daily routine where it fits best. Ten minutes of activity on a regular basis is better 30 minutes a day for several weeks which ends when your schedule no longer fits that much activity. All exercise programs wax and wane. Schedules change, injuries occur, enthusiasm lags. The important thing is to stay with it as best you can for as long as you are able. Live long and prosper. Have a happy New Year!

A number of commercial operations in SD offer street addresses and it functions as a true address. I believe that Escapees in Texas has the same, a street address with a PMB, that will be acceptable to DHS. We had our passports renewed using our PMB in SD and the same was true for my pilot's license. We were straight up and down SD residents while we were there, voting, drivers license, vehicle license, taxes, etc. I could have produced cell phone bills, internet, satellite TV bills as well as bank and credit card statements with that address. If you start to split all these pieces between several states then you are creating problems for yourself. You may get away with it for a while but eventually it is going to catch up with you. Besides, I've had personal friends forward mail and they did a good job but nothing works as well as a commercial operation. We did have to change our brokers, not the firm, just a broker licensed to work in South Dakota when we made the move from Missouri to full timers. Now with our move to Texas we have a "home" address at our mobile home in our park. Again, we moved everything here, taxes, license, voting, investments, will, etc. The old days when you could be footloose and fancy free evaporated with the paranoia following 9-11-2001 and the creation of DHS. Remember when you could walk anywhere in an airport, meet your friends as the walked off the airplane? Good luck walking into your grand children's school without a note from their parents! Some of our real old timers may remember when you didn't even need a drivers license to drive!!!! Things change and we have to change also. That's life and I choose life!

I would suggest that you find a park that will allow your pet and then come on down. Make a reservation for a week and once here, spend your time visiting some of the parks you are interested in before you settle down someplace. I checked one web site which lists over 50 parks here in the RGV. They stretch from South Padre Island to Mission Texas and are pretty evenly distributed throughout this area. The range of parks is amazing and you may find a location near a town, a specific park for dog walking, near your favorite restauants or that meets some other interst you have. The rates here are very reasonable so you may prefer to go with a high end park for what seems like very reasonable rates. If you have the Trailer Life directory, all those parks listed on the above referenced web site should have detailed descriptions to get you started. My sense is that most parks have space available at the present time. They will fill after New Year's but recent years with reduced travel have seen many sites open at most parks throughout the winter season. We're in the middle of a drought here but tonight it is raining, a good steady hard rain for the second time in several weeks so we may be finally seeing an end to the dry weather. The temperature here is in the 70's and will drop into the upper 50's tonight. It will get somewhat colder during December and January but freezing weather is rare.

From the original post I assume that the replacement battery should not be a rechargable battery. The best battery for this application is probably the Lithium Ion battery. Lithium Ion batteries are best for applicatons where the battery is on stand-by most of the time and is used only briefly and/or infrequently. They hold their charge for a long time. The are not best suited for constant use applications such as toys or radios. AA Lithium Ion batteries are available at Wal-Mart and other battery supply stores. They are more expensive but well worth the expense for the appropriate application.

We tow an '02 Trailblazer and there are two fuses that we have to pull before towing. The towing instructions list the two fuses, I don't remember the numbers and they may be different for your model. They are 40A fuses. We have never had a problem with the battery going dead.

Rich, I got your diagrams and have downloaded them. The Windsor diagrams are for different year but I think they are closest to what we have for our year. We were on the road yesterday and in the shop today at Cummins getting the engine and generator serviced so it is ready to go for next summer. We should get home this evening and then we have all the getting the house back in order and unpacking the motor home. I'll try to get to the alarm situation after I get caught up with everything that needs to be done. Give me a week and I'll get back to it, maybe sooner. I will verify the dash light and alarm sequence again. I believe that the alarm works normally when the system is coming up to pressure with the alarm going off as the system reaches about 95 pounds pressure. Then there is no alarm until the transmission is taken out of neutral and into gear. Normally releasing the parking brake will shut off the alarm but now that doesn't work, the alarm keeps sounding. I have replaced the sensor/switch on the parking brake release valve with a new one from Monaco. Unless that one is also faulty, that would eliminate the sensor/switch as a source of the problem.

Rich, Yes, the dash status lights go through the normal test sequence, everything that should come on does come on. After starting they all go off. So the lights are indicating normal conditions but the alarm is going off. That would seem to indicate some kind of ground problem with the alarm or am I wrong about that. I have the diagrams and have looked them over. I can't see a connection between the parking brake light and the alarm, guess that comes directly from the pressure reading to the alarm and then to the light. I do see a low air pressure light connection to the alarm. By the way, I'm looking at the diagrams and they are for the Signature, Executive, Navigator and Dynasty. We have a Windsor. The electronic subsystem diagram is specifically for the ISC and ISM. We have a ISL. Given those difference, the diagrams should be useful for general guidelines but may not be exactly what I find when digging into the spaghetti.

Wow, that is what I was afraid of! I'll try to get through this in the next few days. I thought this alarm was for other items also but since it occurs with the shift into gear as the brake alarm normally does I assumed that was the cause. There are no warning lights on the dash that light up, not the brake light or any other indicator. So I'll look at the electrical on the pressure switch and the alarm. Then I'll go looking for the sending unit on the front tank. I don't have the chassis service manual. Thanks DD69 and Rich. I really appreciate all the hard work.

With electronics this is a real problem. Manufacturers of motor homes purchase quantities of supplies that will last several years to get discounts that make their profits better. If they sell fewer motor homes the supplies may last for more than two years. I'm sure many manufacturers have old supplies in the current economy. Electronics today go out of date in several years and there they are with outmoded electronics. Even if you get the latest electronics installed in your coach they are likely going to be out of date in a matter of two or three years. I replaced our CRT TV's several years ago as the conversion to digital TV took place. We still have a VCR but who uses them anymore? Your post brings to everyone's attention one aspect that buyers should question closely before making a purchase.

The parking brake alarm is going off on our coach. This first occurred when we left our campground. We hooked up the car, pulled away and everything was fine. At the first stop sign the alarm went off as I pulled away from the stop. The parking brake was not engaged immediately before or during the stop at the stop sign. I pulled over and disconnected the alarm as there was no drag on the coach so the parking brake wasn't engaged. The system air pressure was functioning fine, I watched it carefully and no indication of failing pressure ever occurred. I just replaced the sensor at the drivers brake release valve with a new one. I have done this before and it has solved the problem. This time it didn't stop the alarm so I assume the sensor is good. I have disconnected the alarm again and now am looking for the next thing that could be defective. I guess it could be the alarm itself. How would I test the alarm to see if it is functioning properly? What else could I look for that might be setting off the alarm? The alarm sounds when I put the coach in gear and will not stop when the brake is released.