tbutler

Welcome to the forum Bud, We drove the Dempster in 2006. It was a truly unique experience. We stayed at a campground in Dawson City and left our motor home there during our trip north. There were plenty of people there doing the same thing. We stayed at the Bonanza Gold RV Park in Dawson City. We were paying regular camping fees while there though there may be some provision for parking there as well if you don't want to pay for connections. I remember that we had a wet and muddy trip north and when we got back I couldn't wash all the mud off the Trailblazer. After I returned from the car wash having given it a real thorough wash - I thought - a cube of mud about 6 inches on a side dropped from the running board! I had to laugh at that one. I suspect that we didn't get rid of the mud for months after.

Todd, I should have mentioned the other clips that show some of the more interesting moments. Thanks for adding that note. I'm getting a real kick out of seeing what is lying around the nest. Several days ago there was 2/3 of a fish. Yesterday in the morning the nest was covered in snow. There was even some snow on the adult. It's cool there this morning and the adult is all fluffed up. Great to be able to watch this!

Rg, Welcome to the Forum. A great deal of the value of the Forum is the open exchange of ideas. We'd all like to know the "right direction" so we can avoid taking a wrong turn. Unless someone requests information privately, I always post my information for all to read. Additionally, if you send a private message there is no need to put notice of that on the Forum. The recipient will receive notice via e-mail that a message is waiting for them.

We are native St. Louis area residents who lived there until we went full time ten years ago. We return there often so are in touch with the area. I would not worry about crime if you stay in the well traveled areas of the city. The attractions mentioned above are in areas that are relatively crime free. St. Louis has public transportation that can make getting around a little less hassle. The Metrolink provides transportation from the Casino Queen campground mentioned above across the river to downtown St. Louis where you can get to the Arch, Laclede's Landing, Busch Stadium, Forest Park with the Zoo, Science Center and Art Museum. Fares are reasonable and the trains are clean and well maintained. I second all the recommendations above. Within the St. Louis Zoo there is a Children's Zoo with a small admission charge. There are numerous opportunities to interact with a variety of animals in the Children's Zoo. On a typical day at the zoo you will also see docents walking around with animals to touch or hold. The St. Louis Zoo is a world class zoo. It is large enough that you can spend a whole day there and still have more to see. For the children, there is a train ride that circles the zoo (handy also for adults who are tired of walking) and a beautifully restored Merry-go-round with lots of animals to ride. Grant's Farm takes its name from U.S. Grant who farmed the area. It is the ancestral home of the Busch family and has many attractions to interest children. Among other things to be seen are the Clydesdale horses in their stables and pastures. There are exotic animals, goats to pet and feed, and much more. For the adults you can sample some Anhauser-Busch products (beer). If you are going to a Cardinal's ballgame, you might enjoy lunch or dinner in Laclede's Landing which has many bars and restaurants. During the day and week nights it is a fine place to take children. Avoid it on weekends and holidays as it attracts the young party crowd! Laclede's Landing is the old warehouse district from the early days of St. Louis role in bringing supplies to the west. The old warehouses are now remodeled restaurants along cobblestone streets. The Gateway Arch lies just to the south of this area. The Arch, Busch Stadium and Laclede's Landing are all in walking distance. In addition, you might be interested in the Magic House which is a highly interactive children's museum. The City Museum which is the most un-museum like museum you are likely to visit also rates high for hands on activities of all kinds. Both these museums will captivate a seven year old. In fact we have a hard time getting our young grandchildren to leave either one! We're generally on the third closing announcement before we are out the door! Another interesting museum is the Transportation Museum which has trains, autos and other transportation related exhibits. There is also an excellent Art Museum which is located in Forest Park right next to the St. Louis Zoo. Like the St. Louis Zoo, admission to the St. Louis Art Museum is free. Another Forest Park attraction, The St. Louis Science Center has an Omni-Max and a fine assortment of hands-on exhibits. The Missouri Botanical Garden has many special programs and a wide variety of gardens to be explored. Across the Mississippi River in Illinois is Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, the site of a huge city and an equally huge ceremonial mound occupied about 1250 AD. If you want to explore more of the outdoors and get some exercise, there is the KATY Trail which winds across the state from St. Charles toward Kansas City on the old KATY Railroad right of way. It is now a state park and provides a backbone for the bicycle and walking trails in the state. The trail in St. Charles runs along the bank of the Missouri River and further south and west you will find a number of wineries along the trail. The above site will take you to other state parks in Missouri as well. Most of Missouri's State Parks have no entrance fee and camping fees are quite reasonable. We've stayed at Babler State Park and it is a very nice rural park close to the city. St. Charles was Missouri's first state capital and many old buildings have been turned into restaurants, shops, and stores with antiques and artworks featured. St. Charles is the place where Lewis met Clark and the rest of the company to begin their exploration of the Louisiana Purchase in 1804. Other trails in St. Louis can be found on this site. There are four pages of trails listed, go to the bottom of the trail list to get to the other pages. On your way to Springfield on I-44 (Lots of Hwy 66 remnants along the way from St. Louis), you should stop at Onondaga Cave State Park to tour a wonderful natural cave. Nearby Meramec Caverns is much more commercialized. You might also want to spend a day on one of Missouri's Ozark Streams. There are many float trip outfitters but I recommend Ozark Outdoors which is right across the Meramec River from Onondaga Cave. They have full hookups for RV's and hundreds of tent sites. Best times for float trips in the summer are weekdays. Weekends and holidays attract huge crowds and your experience will be compromised by the noise and congestion. You have a choice of several streams from their location. You can fish, swim or just enjoy the sights in a canoe or raft. Hope you have a wonderful visit to Missouri.

Welcome back to the States Brett! If you want to see eagles in the wild the absolute best place to view them is along the Mississippi River in the dead of winter. In Northern Missouri and Central Illinois along the Mississippi River there are the navigation locks and dams that allow barges to travel north from the Gulf of Mexico to Minneapolis. When the river freezes over in the winter the only open water is a small area below each of the dams. Eagles gather there in unbelievable numbers. At Clarksville, Missouri, one of the best spots for eagle watching, I have counted close to 300 white heads in a single count. It is not uncommon to see several dozen eagles sitting out on ice flows eating fish or just resting. The Corps of Engineers has viewing platforms for watching the barges progress through the locks and they are perfect for viewing the eagles. They are great fun to watch. I've seen eagles pull a fish, stunned from the trip through the dam, lift it into the air and simply be unable to hold a fish that size long enough to get it onto the ice. They drop them and go back for another. The only down side to this is that the very best times are the coldest. I'm talking -10 degrees or better. We would stand out on the platform watching until we just couldn't stand it and then go back to the car, thaw out and go back for more. If you are ever in that area in the winter (not my plan anymore), don't miss this show.

If you haven't already picked up this information elsewhere, there is an ongoing reality show on the web. A nesting pair of bald eagles is raising three hatchlings (hatching on April 1, 3 and 6) and it is all on the web. Check out the Eagle Cam to see this spectacular event. I've found if you click on the play button on the lower left you get the advertisement free version of the eagle cam. If you click the play button on the picture you end up on You Tube and you get plastered with advertisements over the eagle cam view. There are so many people watching this that you may find times when the server can't handle the web traffic but keep trying and you'll get some great looks at eagles. The best time of day to view is in the morning when they are most active but you know kids, they are active all the time. This morning it is or has been raining in Decorah, Iowa and the eagle cam has big water drops on the lens but that will change. Even through the water drops I was able to watch the young eagles being fed. Both parents were there for a while. Then mom settled down, herding the chicks together and sitting on them. Decorah, Iowa is in northeastern Iowa. I've visited there several times and it is a pleasant town to visit.

Regarding the drop needed for your hitch to the tow dolly, there really isn't what you would call a formula. Place the tow dolly on a level surface and prop up the hitch so that the arm to the dolly is level. Typically these are in an S shape so level the portion of the arm that attaches to the motor home. Check your owners manual for exact information on how to level the tow dolly. Measure the height from ground to the bottom of the dolly hitch. Next, with your motor home on a level surface and the air bags or other suspension raised to driving level, measure the distance to the top of the hitch receiver. The difference in the two measurements should be the amount of drop that you need in your hitch. There may be some leeway in this measurement. Check the owners manual for the tow dolly to see what the tolerance from level is permitted. The closer you can get to the preferred level, the better. Before you get too far into this project, you may want to investigate whether you can load the bikes on a hitch and leave clearance for the car on the tow dolly. The type of bicycle hitch you get may determine whether this will work. Your assessment of ladder bike racks is correct. I haven't had much luck with them. I used them when transporting our grandsons bicycles for a trip several years ago. They really don't work very well. One other possibility might be to go with a "trunk hitch" and put the bikes on the rear of the Mini. I don't know how or what would fit for you but that might be another solution. We use a rear hitch to carry our bicycles on our Trailblazer which is flat towed.

I was reading a recent editorial article in which the writer had Googled himself and found that he was dead! So, perhaps I should add to my blog lest I end up with the same fate. After all, if you don't stay active in the "net" world I guess someone could conclude that you are deceased. Why else would you not BLOG? For the last five months we've been living in our new mobile home (yes, some people don't know the difference between a mobile home and a motor home). Ironically, a mobile home isn't really mobile at all. The wheels are gone and I can't imagine what it would take to cut it all loose and move it - though they do that all the time. It usually only moves one time after it's initial installation. So now I have a lawn mower, a string trimmer and a host of other lawn tools. I'm planting landscaping shrubs and watering a lawn. These are all things that I haven't done in 10 years. There is a long list of things to be fixed and improved upon and I'm tackling them one by one. Still, we're living in a place we have stayed for the last 10 winters. This is one of the great benefits of traveling in a motor home. We have been all over the US and have found a place "fits." We tried several parks on our way south our first year and then we found our current home park. It just felt like a fit and each year we made more connections, solidifying our decision to make this a permanent home. At least as permanent as any home can be. Meanwhile, the road is calling. I can't wait to get the motor home on the road again and live the carefree lifestyle we had before. Is it possible? Only time will tell...

What a beauty of a truck. I hope it lives up to your expectations. Be sure to stay within the towing recommendations for the original truck - brakes are as important as springs and engine. If your years in retirement are as spectacular as ours you will have a lifetime of happiness in just a few years! No matter what "group" you belong to, we're all part of the "living the dream" culture. Go for it!

I just went to my personal listing to look up my previous posts and couldn't find more than three or four of the most recent. I selected just posts started by me and found only two. Eventually I was able to view the posts under the category of Motorhome Modifications and find the post for which I was searching. As you know there should be an extensive list of my postings and the number that I have started is vastly more than just two. Somehow, a good deal of history is missing or at least very difficult to find in some channels. I see that the search is limited to March 15 2010. My first post on replacing the TV in our motorhome often cited by others and should be listed in any search.

Check the specs on the TV. We purchased a 26" LG TV which specified that the TV was not to be mounted in a tilted position. When I looked at the mounting holes, they were entirely in plastic and were part of the plastic cover on the rear of the TV. The 32" Sharp TV we purchased for the front TV had metal threads attached to the TV metal frame. We've had no problem with the front TV. It is mounted on a steel frame that I had fabricated from 1" box steel to fit the TV and the cabinet. A local welder did it for about $70. It is not adjustable but fits the cabinet perfectly. That TV has traveled many miles over several years without any problems. I mounted the rear TV on its base as a result of the information about mounting it from the rear. I don't know if all LG TV's are constructed this way or if it was a matter of the smaller size of the TV. It took me several tries to find my initial article with the pictures, etc. Here is the link to Replacing Analog TV

Here are a few of the things that we have found interesting in the NE states. The St. Lawrence Seaway in NE New York, Hwy 37 has some spectacular overlooks on the seaway. There are pull-through roadside parks that are right along the seaway. Traffic is light. We spent an afternoon and stayed over night in one of these late in the season and saw no one after about 6:00 p.m. You can watch the sun set over Canada! We started our drive with a stop at the Eisenhower Locks to watch one of the Great Lakes ships pass through the locks. Then we saw that ship again at our overnight stop. We saw the same ship three years later when we were in Duluth, MN. How cool is that? You can continue on south and west on Hwy 3 and Hwy 104 which will give you a good look at Northern NY, a very beautiful rural area. You are right along Lake Ontario and can get to the lake for some beach time or fishing if you desire. We stayed at a park near Henderson, NY which had extensive boat docks, right on Lake Ontario. Eventually you reach Niagara Falls which is several days of exploration if you take in the US and Canadian Falls. We enjoyed touring the Maine Coast which gets less traveled and more interesting as you go north of Acadia National Park. There are some great rugged coastal views and lobster is available everywhere. Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor are worth a stop perhaps for several days depending on your interests. The Maine coast is a fine place to spend a hot summer or part of a summer. The weather is comfortably cool. We briefly considered buying some land there for a summer parking spot but then it was about as far from our families as we could get and we were still enjoying exploring other parts of the country. We stayed in western Maine at a campground near Dixfield. From there we explored some of the waterfalls (we sat out Hurricane Katrina as it passed over Maine - one day of heavy rain) which were putting on a roaring good show. We also went moose "hunting." Ask at a local campground for places to go in the evening to see moose. There are numerous Revolutionary War sites to visit around Boston. We walked the Freedom Trail which is like walking through a Revolutionary War textbook. One day and you can see a whole lot of American History. There are so many sites, forts, battlegrounds, etc. that I would suggest you search the internet or visitors centers to get a few suggestions of where to start. We enjoyed touring West Point several years ago. I would put that on my list of places to see. Cape Cod is worth a visit though you'll want to stick with the car for daytime travel as the traffic can be heavy. Provincetown at the northern tip of the peninsula has a nice monument to the pilgrims with a tower that overlooks the town and the Atlantic Ocean. The Cape Cod Canal provides a short cut from the Atlantic to Buzzards Bay. It is traveled by some spectacular yachts! There is a bike trail along both sides of the canal if you like to ride nice bicycle trails. We stayed in Connecticut one year and took the train from Hartford into New York City, touring on our own we had a good time. Then several years ago we went back with friends. We stayed at a campground in Florida, NY which about an hour west of the city. They had a tour that operated out of the park several days each week. We were in a van with 4 other couples and a genuine New Yorker who gave us the New York treatment. We got to see a lot more of the city in a short time as he kept hustling us from place to place. In New Hampshire/Vermont there is Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, Dixville Notch (first polling place to close in the US), Mount Washington which is a drive to the top and a museum and weather extremes. There is also a "cog railway" ride to the top or if you really want adventure you can hike! We spent several days at Newport, RI where you can walk the seawall trail which goes behind some of the late 1800's early 1900's mansions of the famously wealthy of the time. After you walk the seawall trail, you can walk the street and see the front of those same mansions and also those across the street from them. Many of these are now open for tours. And yes, the camping season is short in the NE. Basically the campgrounds are fully functioning from Labor Day to Memorial Day. Outside of that window you are well advised to check for status before planning your stay. You will find campgrounds in your directory that list 100's of campsites but you will find only a few available for transient campers. Many of these campgrounds have huge populations of people who stay or maintain permanent sites there. You will find many families with children who summer or weekend in these parks. This is much different than we have found in other areas of the US. Finally I would mention that when you are on the Maine coast, you are a short ferry ride or a short drive in some places to get to the Maritime Provinces of Canada. These are worth exploring as well...

Plasma TV's have gases trapped in tiny little cells between the glass layers of the screen. They are essentially tiny little fluorescent light bulbs. When electricity is applied they light up. When you change elevation, the pressure of the air outside changes and this affects pressure on the gasses inside these cells. Most manufacturers of plasma TV's have an elevation range or limit they specify for proper operation. Since we are constantly changing elevation in our motor homes we would be constantly "stressing" these cells. If your travels take you to the west you would likely find yourself frequently outside the specified range of operation. Even if the set was not in use, the pressure difference would be stressing the cells. Plasma TV's use more energy than LCD TV's. As stated above, they also produce quite a bit of heat. The screen is glass and tends to be very reflective so they work best in a room with limited light. The image of a plasma TV is not as bright as an LCD which you would notice in an RV in the daytime. They are heavier than LCD TV's and somewhat bulkier, having a thickness that is several times that of an LCD TV. Plasma TV's do have a wider viewing angle than LCD TV's but in an RV, that isn't likely to be a major factor. These are probably all reasons why plasma TV's are not commonly installed in RV's.

The first time we traveled this area I was amazed at how little traffic there is on the roads in West Texas. There are so few vehicles on some of these roads that the professional truckers wave at you! Now that's a rare experience! I would just second all of the above. We've been to Big Bend several times and would enjoy returning any time. If you have a 4WD vehicle there are remote areas to be explored. We spent a whole day driving the "road" that parallels the Rio Grande. There is spectacular scenery and an old mining site along that road. This area is virtually inaccessible any other way. Like RooDriver we enjoyed the hiking. There are many spectacular areas to be explored.

If you get a chance, you should attend one of Tireman9's seminars. I attended his seminar in Bowling Green, OH several years ago and it was very enlightening. He is a serious researcher with a long professional career in tire engineering. He is aware of research techniques and understands the statistical problems with a small sample. I've sent my data to him directly and I encourage others to do so as well. I think an additional bit of information that would be useful is to do a survey at a convention to find out how many people had corner weights for their motor home. I'm afraid that this information would be shocking. Getting corner weights is difficult. Only those who are serious about tire safety and understand the need for knowing the weight on each tire position are going to take the time to locate a place to do this and then get it done. I would bet that the percentage of motor home owners who have corner weights is less than 5%. MikeV I would like to know where you were able to rent the digital scales for weighing your coach yourself. That might help some people get their corner weights. How much did it cost and did they provide recent calibration information for the scales?

A digital magazine makes sense for many RVers. I was recently offered a digital review of a publication that I receive in print form now. The digital form was difficult to read and maneuver on my computer screen. It was not the answer to my desire for a digital magazine. The magazine format does not fit a computer screen. If you shrink it to fit a computer screen it is so small that it can't be read. If you enlarge it you have to surf all over the page to read an article and then if it goes to page 42, you have to find page 42. There are ways to address this but it means reformatting the magazine for a computer screen so that it can be read easily (by older RVers). As of this time, I haven't seen a publication do this well. Advertisements present another challenge. They invariably slow down the loading of pages due to their complex graphics that sometimes include multiple pictures or motion which adds another level of frustration for those of us who don't have high-speed Internet access. I'm all for eliminating paper, but it has to be better than just putting the print magazine online. Some people would be able to use a digital magazine and it could be offered to those folks, and as the shift to digital increases, the format of the magazine could also shift to a digital-friendly format. As to life memberships. I have been a member of organizations that offer life memberships. To make the membership pay for an organization, the cost of the membership must cover the dues that would come in for some time into the future. If the organization doesn't calculate this correctly, life memberships can be a costly mistake. They can be a real bargain for an individual, but that doesn't benefit the organization. Forecasting future costs is, as many of us older adults have learned, a very risky process. For this reason many organizations have decided against offering life memberships. FMCA does offer extended dues purchase. You can renew your dues for up to five years ahead, I believe. In that way you can get somewhat discounted dues which can be forecast over a shorter period of time and thus more reliably cover member costs to the organization. Keeping the renewal period at five years allows the organization to revise the dues structure on a continuing basis without the great risk associated with life memberships. If life memberships are offered, they likely would be so expensive that only a few members would be willing to put forth the required payment.

This article is based on a fixed home as opposed to an RV. That said, their considerations are worth considering. I believe that the hot water usage of RV'ers is much lower than the typical family home. Not only that, the typical RV usually has 2 occupants. Families traveling are in my experience relatively rare except for a few months in the summer. The cost factors would have to be re-evaluated based usage differences and on the cost of an RV water heater vs. the cost of a similar sized model tankless heater. The concerns about the fluctuating water temperature due to input water temperature would be the same when drawing directly from the city line but when using the on-board fresh water storage the incoming water temperature wouldn't fluctuate as much. Quality of water and how it affects the life of the tankless water heater are a concern and as the article mentions, a water softener is the likely solution there. Since moving about we encounter all kinds of water there is only one answer there, we would have to protect the investment and install some kind of water conditioning system. The advantages as I see them is conserving weight and possibly space. Both these would likely be offset by the need for a water softener. But you would get an endless supply of hot water.

Here is a reference for a previous discussion on cloudy windows that has some specific references with company names. I located this by using the search function above. Look for the button next to the Help button in the second menu line at the top of this page. I had to search for windows and go through three pages of discussion to locate this one but search can be helpful in finding one of the many previous discussions on any given topic.

Being full time for 9+ years, we have used both services and found them to be good at times and then you get the service agent who really isn't familiar with RV's or just isn't very helpful. I'm sure they are busy sometimes and juggling several customers, etc. Anyway, this fall we were on the road in Alabama, just north of Montgomery. It was Sunday night and I ran over some junk on the shoulder where we were forced to drive on the shoulder due to road work. The outside rear dual tire went down quick. The Pressure Pro alarm went off and I could see where the problem was. I pulled off as soon as an additional lane opened up and when I got out of the coach I could hear the tire hissing! I had picked up a cargo hook and it ruined the tire. I called Coach-Net which we've been using for the last 4 years and they had someone on the way with a used replacement tire. The service man attempted to repair the tire but it wouldn't hold so I ended up having the replacement tire mounted. It wasn't an exact replacement, the size was close enough for temporary use. So I had to buy a tire which would be worthless to me when I got to a tire shop. Since I had driven for a short distance with the other tire carrying most of the weight, it would be replaced as well. I was back on the road in about an hour and a half and considered that pretty good service for a Sunday night. The next day we drove to Jackson, Mississippi on the replacement. I had called Wingfoot (Goodyear Commercial Service) and found two new G670's to replace both tires.

Or you could just abandon the old AM/FM for Sirius/XM Radio. You'll find news, sports, talk, weather, traffic reports, and plenty of music. Find your favorite stations (chose from over 100 stations) and listen to them wherever you travel (except N Canada and Alaska). There is an initial investment in the radio receiver and the monthly charge (about $10 or $12 depending on the length of contract). We love ours.

And do you have any auto-start equipment on your generator? Our inverter auto-gen-start behaves this way.

I broke one of our cabinet doors several years ago. Low cabinet, left the door open for a minute to pick up something and stumbled against it, broke it apart completely. I took it to a local cabinet shop (recommended by my daughter) and they reassembled it like new! It looks to me like your damage is more than just moisture. I think the door may not have been glued together properly to begin with. Anyway, I think a cabinet shop will be able to make quick work of it and have it good as new.

Thanks for the invite Herman. We'll wait for a while before heading your way! We frequently head up US 75 north out of Dallas. I don't think we are going that direction this spring but perhaps next fall. I'll certainly keep your invitation in mind as we travel.

And from extreme south Texas, Edinburg, the low last night was 32 with 22 expected tonight. We may even get some snow Wednesday night. We're racing to get all our plants covered. Farmers here are facing disaster, the citrus and sugar cane crops are threatened. We'll still have lows at 32 on Friday so this blasted cold weather isn't going away any too soon. I have the furnace set at 55 in the motor home which is parked next to our house. I have a remote thermometer in the motor home so I can monitor the temperature from inside the house. The cabinets with water pipes are open and the winter heating package for the waste and fresh water tanks is turned on. Down here we really don't complain, all we have to do is turn on the Weather Channel to see what we're missing! Most of us can still recall the feel of the snow shovel in our hands and the crisp sting of snowflakes on the face. Think warm thoughts!