tbutler

I've had paint jobs done at a variety of locations while we were full time. I've never had what I would call a bad job. Paint matching seems to be a given these days and the quality I've received have been very good. I just had a number of the storage doors that had been chipped or scratched repainted. The coach looks much better.

Yesterday Louise and I played golf. As we started the back nine, I noticed the last quarter Moon high in the western sky. You can see the Moon in the morning sky before sunrise. It will be visible in the morning sky and even in the afternoon for the next few days. As it creeps closer to the Sun, it will be more difficult to find, a smaller crescent in the brightest part of the sky, near the Sun. On Thursday morning the waning crescent Moon will be above and to the right of a bright object in the pre-dawn sky, the planet Venus. Look again on Friday morning and you will be able to gauge how far the Moon travels in it's orbit in one day. The Moon will still be above and right of Venus but much closer on Friday Morning. By Saturday morning, the Moon will be almost directly below Venus. You would have to look very closely on Sunday morning to find the thin waning crescent Moon. Not only will the Moon be just over 1 day's travel in it's orbit from the Sun, you would only be able to see it in the light of dawn if you had a near perfect eastern horizon. Any hills, buildings or trees will block your view. On Monday, eclipse day, if you are in that narrow ribbon where the total eclipse will be seen, you should be able to find Venus to the west of the Sun. Even those seeing a near total eclipse (partial eclipse) may be able to find Venus as the maximum eclipse occurs at their location. If you know where to look, the planet Venus is visible in full daylight if it is far enough from the Sun in the sky. If you can find the Moon during the day on Thursday you may be able to use it as a guide to viewing Venus during full daylight. There will be another planet easily visible during the total eclipse. That planet is the largest of the planets in our solar system, Jupiter. Jupiter is visible in the evening just above the horizon in the western sky. So Jupiter is east of the Sun. During the Eclipse you should see Jupiter east of the eclipsed Sun. Those with a deep partial eclipse may also notice Jupiter to the east of the Sun, not far away. If you are looking for the planets during a partial eclipse. Take off you eclipse glasses, block the sun with your hand, a piece of paper or another object. Be sure to keep the Sun covered as you search the sky near the Sun for Venus and Jupiter. Never look directly at the Sun without eclipse glasses. We are camped on the high plains in Eastern Colorado. Our weather has featured fairly frequent afternoon and evening storms. This has been pretty consistent since we arrived on August 1. Areas where we plan to go had thunderstorms early this morning. The forecast for now seems to be improving for those areas (Casper, WY or Scottsbluff, NE). As eclipse day approaches I'll be watching the weather, on my smart phone and tablet as well as on the weather channels (WEA - The Weather Channel and WN - Weather Now). For the moment, we are planning on a car trip from our current location but if we have to travel further for clear skies we may leave the campground on Saturday or Sunday. Given two days we could roam from western Oregon to eastern Missouri. That is what I want, maximum mobility and the clearest skies I can find. I wish clear skies and good viewing to all.

If you head west on I-90 you can literally do a drive through of Badlands National Monument. The main road parallels I-90 and there are numerous places where you can pull out to get out and stretch, view the scenery and then continue on your way. Stop by Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monument near Custer, SD. The monument is under construction and there is a nice Native American history museum on the grounds and a restaurant as well. While in the area you may want to drive through Custer State Park. Most of the roads in the park are motor home friendly and you may find yourself driving through herds of Bison. From there you can drop south on smaller highways toward Scottsbluff, NE where you can pick up a little of the Oregon Trail and Mormon Trail history and early prairie history as well. Drive south from there on smaller highways and you'll come to I-80. From there, the easiest way to Utah will be on I-80 across Wyoming. Coming into Salt Lake City on I-80 you will have an extended curving descent to the valley floor. Use your engine brake and stay within recommended truck speed limits. Then go south out of Salt Lake City to I-15 and then I-70. That will take you right to Zion National Park. Camp nearby, don't try to take the motor home into the park. From there you can visit the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We stayed at a Forest Service Campground at Jacob Lake. No hookups but nice large sites, come with full water empty waste and plan to run the generator. This is the less visited rim of the canyon. Tourist activity on the south rim is a summertime mob scene. I wouldn't discourage you from a visit to the south rim but it is very busy. Bryce Canyon from there would be a good choice. There is a road from Zion to Bryce, Hwy 9, goes through a curving tunnel with an arched roof. Large vehicles have to travel the center line to get through so they require reservations, there is a fee and you are escorted through at a scheduled time. From Bryce we enjoyed the drive toward Capital Reef National Park. Continuing on east will take you to the area around Moab, UT and Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park and a host of others. You can access I-70 from there but you will experience some serious mountain driving on your way east into Denver. It certainly isn't impossible but will require all your attention, stay with recommended truck speeds even when the trucks are passing you. I would recommend a visit to Mesa Verde National Park in SW Colorado. There are spectacular cliff dwellings here, some require a bit of walking and in a few cases, climbing ladders to get into and out of them. Tours are ranger escorted in most cases. We stayed in a park that is right across the highway from the entrance. Not far from there is the Four Corners monument, a small fee, marker at the junction of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. There are many Native American vendors there including some artists with quite nice carvings and other work. We came away with some interesting works purchased directly from the artist. Just east of Mesa Verde is Durango, CO, the home of the Durango to Silverton Railroad. From there you can make your way through Colorado with some mountain driving or continue on east on US 160 to I-25 at Walsenburg which involves little driving that could be described as mountain driving. One alternate would be to stop by Great Sand Dunes National Park and then continue on north coming into Denver on the SW side of town. That route has some mountain driving but the pass really isn't that high. I-25 through Denver is very busy and a real challenge at rush hour. Take the bypass on the west side to I-25 on the north side of town. Another alternate of taking I-25 north into Wyoming and returning that way would be to turn east at Pueblo, CO and take US 50 into Kansas and across southern Kansas, visit Dodge City, Wichita on your way to I-35 north. I haven't recommended much in the way of campgrounds. We use RV Park Reviews on the computer and the AllStays Camp and RV app on smart phone/tablet to find the kind of parks that we like. Summer travel can be a challenge near the National Parks and the more popular they are, the busier the nearby campgrounds. Weekends tend to be busiest so we always try to find a park near where we want to be with an arrival on Thursday and stay through Saturday or Sunday night. Traveling to and from, you will have less difficulty if you aren't near a popular recreation area. Given that you are traveling with two large coaches you may want to make reservations in advance to get the sites that you want.

Always glad to see another face on the forum. Welcome, and don't hesitate to join in, the more the merrier.

Monaco customer service phone number is 877-466-6226. Call, ask for the parts department. Be ready to give them your coach number. Your coach number is the last six digits of the coach serial number. That is not the VIN. Look on the label on the wall behind the driver's seat. Find the serial number and write down the last six digits. That is the key. They can look up all the specifics of your coach and if parts are available they can supply them. If parts are not available, the salvage yards are a good choice. The price will be better, condition may be good or OK. There are many salvage yards located throughout the country and they do ship materials. The link above is an exhaustive list of salvage yards. Bookmark it for future reference. It is an invaluable resource for those of us who are maintaining older coaches.

We have the same. I'll get around to removing it some day. For now, if you stand back about 20 feet you will hardly notice the cracks in the Diamond Shield. For casual observers from a distance, they can't see it at all. I have had repairs done and a body shop will not take the patience to remove the Diamond Shield without simply sanding it off and repainting. You could just have them do it, mine would need repainting anyway. I have a friend who has removed his Diamond Shield, also on a 2004 coach. His finished job looks great. It will be worth the effort either way. Without some protection, there will be chips. Even with it, my paint has chips. Travel long enough and you will pick up some serious hit that will chip your paint.

I would agree, it suggests a hostile working environment and I would walk away from that job offer. If it were the only job available and you really needed it, or if the compensation were really way above other offers you might get, maybe it would deserve some consideration. I would tell them no and tell them why. Polygraphs are notoriously unreliable. If I'm not mistaken, they are not admissible as evidence in court.

For both our new members, welcome. Poohbear, you should come to south Texas, there is a great full service campground just across the street from the south tip of South Padre Island. Isla Blanca County Park is just a short walk to the beach. It's a great place to spend the winter if you like the beach! Windsurfing, deep sea fishing, and seafood restaurants are just a few of the attractions. A tip of the hat to Sharon and Linda. We have known a number of women who have taken on the RV lifestyle and enjoyed it. We'll wish you more than just luck, we hope you find your trips to be filled with the same enjoyment that we have.

As Bill Adams said, the right turn is the greatest challenge. Your rear tires are a significant distance behind the front tires. When you turn, the rear tires will be inside the line of the front tires as they turn. That means wide right turns. In traffic, on city streets, I'll fudge over to the edge of the right turn lane or even if traffic is light I'll take some of the next lane. This is necessary when your are turning into a single lane. If it is dual lane, the two lanes should give you plenty of room for the lane if you can use both lanes (no other traffic). Turning into a single lane if traffic is light you can use the opposing traffic lane or a left turn lane if one exists and this will make the right turn easier. I never rush to make a right turn. If I'm in the way of other traffic, they will wait. Sometimes the need to use another lane means waiting for traffic to clear, just be patient you will get a break in traffic. Many times, other drivers are considerate and will stop well in advance of the intersection to allow you to make the turn. I do the same when approaching an intersection if there is a large truck or motor home in a similar situation. We tow four wheels down, no tow dolly. The car will track just a little bit inside the track of the rear tires of the motor home so you will want your rear tires well clear of the curb or other obstructions. Many years ago I got into a situation where traffic was directed through a narrow single lane U turn in a parking lot. The lane was bordered on both sides by a standard 6" curb and also had some large boulders on the inside of the curve. The rear wheels of the coach cleared the curb, the boulder got the running board on the SUV. I should have stopped and disconnected, lesson learned. We towed with a tow dolly for one year, our first year. I don't recall that towing with the tow dolly was that much different from the four wheel down mode. Both will track slightly inside the rear wheel track in any turn, left or right.

We replaced the cordless pleated hades on the side windows in our Windsor in 2011. We have the MCD pull down shades, day and night, all around, except the front (driving area) windows. They are working well and still look like new. I love a dark room for sleeping and they fit the bill perfectly. We still have the curtain on the front windows because I haven't seen something that really excites me. MCD does make a power shade that covers the whole front window but it is quite expensive. It would also complicate the access to the panels under the cabinets. I've had several times I needed to get into the space above those panels to get access to the rear of the cabinets. Any time you want to change electronics in our coach, rerouting or changing cables and power cords involves access to the rear of those cabinets. Right now, it is difficult enough to have to remove all the curtain hardware. I would hate to have to take down the entire one piece shade. We do have the external sun screens on all the front windows and I highly recommend them for reducing the heat coming in those windows. They give us privacy while allowing us to see outside during the day. For now we're still using the curtains at night. I'll be following this discussion to see what other suggestions and ideas there are for replacing curtains.

Jim, What brand and model of awning do you have? Does it have a remote control? Is it the only power awning you have?

No extended warranty for us. When we purchased our first (used) coach, we purchased the GS plan. First call for work came several months later. First response, well you haven't had your plan very long. I canceled. If you read the contract carefully, there will be a clause regarding maintenance. It will specify that you must follow the manufacturers suggested maintenance. Which means that you not only have to follow the maintenance schedule, you have to maintain proof that you have followed the schedule. Receipts have to be kept. Receipts have to show the date and mileage. Miss one and they could have you on a technicality. They have actuaries (who calculate the frequency of the various kinds of failures and their cost) to figure their risk to the nth degree. They price their product not to cover their risk but to cover the risk and make a profit. They have lawyers to challenge any large claim. Everything is neatly stacked against you. What do you have? Fear. What if... And they play on that to sell you their product. If you can take a hit and still keep going, you are OK. If your finances are thin and a big hit would put you out of business, you likely need the insurance if you can afford it. This is especially true if you have a large balance on your motor home loan. You could end up making payments on a motor home that you can't use because you can't afford the repairs.

Speaking strictly from an arithmetic perspective, looking at what we have spent on our current motor home, $270,000 and the current value, we've spent (or lost if you prefer) about $200,000. Amortized over the 14 years we've owned the motor home that is about $14,000 per year. The initial investment amount includes loan interest for the purchase of the motor home. Would I do it again? Absolutely. Now, what did we get for our $200,000? Yes, there are experiences, read my blog for a few. We also got freedom. Freedom that is hard to imagine until you experience it. Let's imagine taking a trip from home to Alaska. Most people will go for a week or two, perhaps a little longer then return home. There are the expenses of going to and from, expenses while in Alaska including a place to stay, a rental car, food and fuel. Meanwhile you have the utilities, upkeep at home, mortgage (if you have one), insurance, etc. Somewhere in the back of your mind is the condition of your house. Is the air conditioner still working? There was a storm in the area are there any wind damages? I hope that our friend Joe remembers to pick up the mail. Will our son have time to cut the grass? I wonder if I left the iron on... Meanwhile, the time you leave home until you return you are on the travel treadmill. You have plane reservations, hotel reservations, special tours or events, all scheduled. So you methodically go from one experience to the next. Along the way you learn about an interesting event nearby but, too bad, you have reservations in another location tomorrow. Want to go back to Alaska another time? You have to plan another trip. Will you do it? I'm betting against it. There are so many other places to go. So likely, that trip to Alaska becomes the only time you will be there in your life. Now imagine that your motor home is your home. As you travel, your expenses are just part of your ordinary budget, food (we eat most meals in so it is groceries, not restaurant bills and we control our diet), fuel, campground fees (when not boondocking), maintenance, insurance, mortgage, etc. Your expenses will rise slightly on the way to Alaska and while there simply because the cost of living is higher in Canada and Alaska. So the expense of taking that trip is not significantly different from your normal living expense. We spent three months on that trip in 2006. We were able to see and enjoy things that most people traveling from home can not experience. All the while, we had not a care about anything related to a permanent house. Along the way you learn of a nearby experience. No problem, we'll extend our stay for a few more days (or relocate to an area close to that experience). Our trip planning is done on a daily basis. If we like a place, we'll stay longer. If we've seen all we're interested in we'll head on down the road. If a campground is full we'll find another. We did this in Anchorage. The campground had a site for us for three days. We did what we could, then went down the Kenai Peninsula toward Homer. Before we left, we made reservations for two weeks in Anchorage and would return to stay there later. Our travels are flexible in a way that is almost impossible when traveling from home. From time to time, no matter where we are, we'll just take a day or two and stay at home. We have no compulsion to be out running at full speed to see everything. We aren't on vacation, we are living where we are. The freedom of not having a schedule is hard to understand if you haven't experienced traveling that way. On the way to and from Alaska, we explored British Columbia in depth. Also on our way to Alaska we spent several weeks visiting our daughter and her family in California. This was just one summer out of the 9 1/2 years we were full time. We continue to live in our motor home for six months of the year. We now have a winter home, a mobile home in a park in Edinburg, Texas. So we are in the motor home full time each year from about the end of April until the end of October. I would have been happy to remain living in the motor home full time but marriage is a partnership and Louise said she needed to have a home again. She had done 9 1/2 years on the road, how could I say no to that request. At this point she still relishes the freedom of our summer travels and at the same time looks forward to returning to our winter retreat. As to health care, we had employer based health care for the first 11 years and had to return our original home location for health care except for emergency type care. Emergency care would be "out of network," and was covered with a higher deductible. Once on Medicare, our insurance became nationwide. Since we had children near our original employment, we combined family visits with medical care. We are both in good health and an annual visit was all we needed generally. I had both knees replaced in 2011 while we were parked in my daughter's driveway. Recovering in the motor home was at least no worse than in a regular house. The distance to the bedroom and bathroom was much shorter than in a real home and just outside my door was plenty of are to walk for exercise. I even used the outdoor steps to their basement to build strength and flexibility on stairs. Follow-up home care visits were also easily accomplished in the motor home. The nurse/therapist simply came into the motor home for my check and treatments. Now, to your most recent inquiry. We have been out of our motor home for maintenance only one time while full time and that was a single night when the coach was in the paint shop overnight. We've had painting done and not been out of the motor home overnight but this one shop wasn't able to accommodate us. We routinely have service done at Cummins, Freightliner and other shops and have never, repeat never, had to spend a night in a hotel. Both Cummins and Freighliner have RV friendly locations but we've visited their regular truck facilities also and never been refused overnight accommodations in our own coach. In many cases, they will pull it out of the shop in the evening so we can have the coach until the next morning. If one case, we had a valve dropped in our first coach. Cummins had us towed to a spot in front of one shop door, the coach stayed outside while they ordered parts and repaired the engine. We never left the coach. They allowed us to use their bathrooms during the day and we weren't there long enough to fill the black water tank. The gray tank could be emptied into a nearby drain. I used a bucket to take several gallons at a time and pour it down the drain. We just had a water heater replaced at American RV in Evansville, IN. They had electric hookups for us, we came in the night before, plugged in and were ready to go at 8:00 a.m. They worked through the day, brought the coach back out for the night. We plugged in and stayed until they finished, doing the last remaining work while the coach was on the lot. There have been two major body work repairs on our coach. In both cases we were able to return to our now winter home and we took the coach to the shop and left it. So, those might have worked as above but we didn't have to try to stay in the coach. We did have some body work done on the coach and were able to stay in it through the whole process.

This discussion is ill considered on the part of all parties. We all have reasons for choosing the type of motor home we have purchased. There is no reason that we all have to have the same type of motor home. Nor does someone choosing a different type of motor home constitute an insult to those who have other types of motor homes. Louise once told me that her idea of roughing it was spending a night in a Holiday Inn. When we went shopping for a motor home we chose a Class A. I've managed to keep her happy in a motor home for 16 years now. Louise and I have at times made adjustments in our travels. We almost always try to limit the miles we travel to save money. That means we plan our summer travels so we aren't driving willy-nilly all over the country. Sometimes it works better than others but it has always been our habit to avoid back and forth trips. We use Gas Buddy to find the cheapest fuel and I have a credit card that gives me 5% cash back on fuel purchases at any gas station (Kroger, Safeway and Costco are exceptions). During the years of the highest prices we tended to stay longer in campgrounds and travel less often. That works great for places like Yellowstone. A person could easily spend a month at Yellowstone if they wanted to see it all. Making cavalier statements about people owning motor homes not caring about the price of fuel is not honest or helpful. If you are truly that rich, you are boasting, not a noble trait. Several years ago we traveled to New Zealand and Australia. We spent four months touring those two countries in a very small Class C. It had the sleep-over cab but in all other respects it was the same as a Class B motor home. As we traveled, we realized that all the things we were used to doing when traveling in the US in our Class A had prepared us very well for the extended experience in this smaller motor home. By the way, we saw 1 Class A motor home in New Zealand and we saw 1 Bus Conversion in Australia. Everything else is Class B or C or the much more common trailer. The rental motor home was affordable for us, it fit our travel perfectly. We seldom spent more than two nights in one place. The set up consisted of putting it in park. The take down consisted of putting it in drive. If we needed to shop for something we did it on the way from one location to another. We could park in the grocery store parking lots which were in some cases difficult in even the small Class C. Fuel was in the $2 per liter range for diesel fuel and we were getting 16 miles to the gallon with the diesel engine. We were very happy about that. Yes, I can do the conversions and they are correct, in both quantity and distance for fuel and in the currency conversion as well. My point is that just because you have an RV that suits your needs doesn't mean that everyone has to have the same RV. Let's face it, if everyone purchased just one kind of RV, manufacturers wouldn't offer so many different kinds. This is the USA, we live in a country where if you can find a few hundred people who want to purchase something, someone will manufacture it and it will be on the market. Some of us remember the standard black telephone. When the monopoly was broken, we started seeing phones in different colors, smaller phones, wall phones, Princess phones, portable phones, flip phones, smart phones, who knows where it will end. The French have a saying, "vive la difference." Long live the difference! Now let's get on with it and start trying to be helpful to each other. It's what families do.

At the Monaco International Pre-Rally for FMCA 2017 in Indianapolis, Louise and I looked at a nice used coach. It was a 2008 Monaco Signature in beautiful condition. Louise loved it, very nice inside and out. I really liked it also but the price, the age and the 45 foot length were a problems for me. We ended up walking away from the deal. I told Louise that I now had a huge budget for making “home improvements” on our 2004 Windsor. So, I started by ordering something I had seen on the Signature. It had two pass-through storage bays, just as our coach does. Both those bays had slide trays. We have one slide tray and I have often thought about adding a second. At the FMCA convention I found one vendor offering slide trays for storage compartments. I talked to them, got prices that didn’t scare me away. I went back to our coach, measured carefully, and then went back to the SlideMaster booth and placed an order. It arrived on Tuesday, a freight shipment, on a huge 18 wheeler. Slide Master coordinated the delivery with the Emerald RV Park in Fort Morgan, Colorado where we are currently staying. The truck driver very generously agreed to unload the slide tray alongside our coach. So, there it sat, 229 pounds shipping weight including the 42” x 8’ pallet. I unwrapped it, operated the slide, looked at the hardware supplied, and began moving it toward its eventual home. Everything had to be unloaded from the compartment. Piece by piece I moved everything from the compartment. With the slide extended, the opposite end was easier to lift. I set it into the open compartment. Then I moved the slide to the opposite end, making the far end from the coach lighter and lifted it, sliding it into the coach. I scooted it this way and that way until I had it positioned so it would slide both ways with the desired clearances. In specifying the vertical position, I had given them the height of the lip on the storage compartment, 2 ¼ inches. The sliding tray needed to clear that lip. They supplied 2 inch aluminum block shims for each mounting hole and also one ¼ inch aluminum block for each mounting hole. Unfortunately, the desired shim that was needed to elevate the sliding tray was 1 5/8 inches and there was no way to get to that with the shims they provided. I ended up using a wood 2x2 plus some 1/8 inch stock that I had on hand. I wrestled the 8 foot 2x2 under the rails on each side of the tray. I drilled holes in the 2x2 shim and through the compartment floor at each end of one rail and anchored the tray in place. A check confirmed that everything cleared the doors, the position was good. Everything that fit in the compartment had to be stored for the night (we’ve been having frequent rains) so I reloaded the compartment. Good news, everything fit just as before. The next morning I’m off to Ace Hardware for bolts, nuts and washers. The two 3 inch bolts I used the previous day seemed too long so I got a set of 2 ½ inch bolts. I set about drilling holes at each of the pre-drilled locations. The first bolt went in the hole and it was too short. Back to Ace Hardware, longer bolts. When I drilled the holes, the standard 3/8 inch drill was too short, I made do with the 5” bit by inserting the bit only as far as absolutely necessary to get enough length and even at that the drill chuck was contacting the rail of the slide tray. I forgot to get a longer drill bit so it was back to Ace Hardware. Before the project was complete I was on a first name basis with the checkout clerk. I finished inserting the mounting bolts on one side of the tray on the first day. Day two I unloaded everything in the compartment – again. I crawled back into the compartment and began working on the other side of the tray, drilling holes and inserting bolts in those holes. I’m working in and out under the storage compartment doors. The slide tray has cross members so I’m laying over the cross supports and maneuvering in limited space. Every move is twisting and stretching, craning my neck to see through my glasses, using the mini-vacuum to clean up the drill shavings. Once all this is done I have the bolts in place. I can put the nuts on the lower side of the end bolts myself, working the top of the bolt inside the compartment and putting the washer and nut on under the coach. I even managed to do the second on one end of the tray. The rest will require Louise working from above, holding the head of the bolt stationary while I put the nut on below. So now I’m underneath the coach on pads, pinned between the gravel below and the coach above. I’m putting silicon caulk on the washers to seal the hole from the bottom. Maneuvering a caulking gun is never easy for me but doing it laying on my back under the motor home, well, let’s just say I was in danger of being caulked permanently to the motor home. I can maneuver all the way to the center but everything is limited, stretching, trying to see what I’m doing all the while. We got it done, the whole thing is in place and bolted down, ready for use. So, I reload the tray, everything back in place. “So, what does this have to do with Yoga?” You ask. Louise loves to watch Rachel Ray each morning. This morning Rachel Ray had a guest on the show. She was young and an author. It was a promo for her book on Yoga. She loves Yoga and she was demonstrating Yoga moves that you could do while reading a book, watching TV, vacuuming the house and many other ordinary situations. At one point while watching the show, I mentioned that this reminded me of my last few days of working on the slide tray. I said, “RV Yoga.” Louise laughed and said, “The topic for your next blog.”

Check my blog here on the FMCA forum. I posted this after a visit to the WW I Memorial and Museum in Kansas City, MO. I highly recommend a stop there. The Truman Library and Home are there as well. We stay at Campus RV in Independence. A small but very nice park, reasonable rates, friendly people and an occasional train at night to help you sleep. While in the St. Louis area you might be interested in Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Illinois. Within sight of the St. Louis Arch is the largest Native American mound in North America. There are a series of mounds built by a large community that existed in the St. Louis area. In fact, St. Louis is sometimes called Mound City because of the mounds that existed west of the Mississippi. Those were destroyed by early settlers before their significance was appreciated. We regularly run from the St. Louis area through KC and on into South Dakota on I-29 If you are musically inclined, a stop at the National Music Museum in Vermilion, SD would be worth your time. Vermilion is just off I-29 a few miles. If not before, hope to meet you in Gillette. Enjoy the trip. Why not keep us all up to day with your own blog here on the forum...

Yeah, what Herman said. And I'm with Carl, I have no idea what dumping cables are. Maybe a picture or further explanation would help.

Looking for campgrounds? Check RVParkReviews. Put in the state and the community or a nearby community and get listings of parks and reviews from people who have stayed there. We use that and also the AllStays Camp and RV app on our smart phone/pad. My recommendation would be to look at Windsor in Ontario, Canada if you are willing to cross the border in your motor home. We stayed in a nice park on the east side of town, I can't remember the name but found it on AllStays, Windsor Campground Inc., 4855 Concession 9, Windsor. It is just off the 401 (freeway) near the airport. Crossing the Ambassador Bridge, you are on Canadian Hwy 3 which runs right into the 401. You would need to go through customs going into Canada and when returning to the US. The area around Windsor is beautiful. The area was settled by many loyalists during the American Revolution and their English gardens and landscaping show that heritage. If you go south from there you can visit Point Pelee, the southernmost point in Canada. And as an added bonus, crossing from Detroit into Windsor you will be driving south into Canada. While in Ontario, you might enjoy visiting the towns of London, Cambridge, and Stratford. Stratford is on the Avon River and they have a Shakespeare festival. We enjoyed walking along the park along the Avon River and saw several swan nests, with hatchlings that actually all left the nest in a parade to the water and then swam away.

Yes, that could be one opinion. What were the criteria? The article says, "By far the most important criteria for selecting an RV club is the cost savings possibility." Given that criteria, Passport America which isn't really an RV Club by my standard qualifies here. I'm guessing that many of the "savings" programs that FMCA has were not considered. There are so many and they are very specialized, discounts for tires, roadside service, etc., they were simply too many and too varied for them to consider easily. Some of our benefits save money but they are hard to evaluate, Stopping Spots, FMCA Assist, FMCA Forum, so many more. So if your criteria is saving money, this is their list.

I didn't know this until I attended a Freightliner workshop at the Monaco International Pre-rally in Celina, OH this summer. Freightliner Custom Chassis (their motor home chassis division) has service centers that are called Freightliner Oasis Dealers. The link will take you to their dealer finder. With 90 service centers being Oasis certified, specializing in motor home service, you should be able to find one along your route. If you don't find one along your route, call their contact number, 800-FTL-HELP. We were told that if you had a specific problem they might be able to refer you to a shop that has experts in certain aspects of chassis service and repair. I see your Freightliner dealer in Forest City is an Oasis Dealer. Otherwise, you probably couldn't do better than TRUCK CENTERS, INC., 2000 Cassopolis Street, Elkhart, IN 46514, Phone: (574) 262-3441,Toll-Free: (800) 686-7364.

The Howell Observatory is operated by Mississippi State University. In Flagstaff, the Lowell Observatory is the location where Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. They have a great program there including telescope tours, astronomer talks and evening observing for guests if the weather permits. The view of Flagstaff at night from the Observatory is quite beautiful. We do much of the above I-10 drive each fall as we return from northern California or Oregon. It is boring if you drive it many times as we have but if it is your first time, it lets you see a variety of landscapes. It is the shortest route and it is as Byron said, there are no challenging grades along that route. If you need some entertainment driving west Texas, you can count the dead deer along the highway. Doing that will convince you not to travel in twilight on that stretch of I-10.

Your trip figures to be 1339 miles via I-10. My numbers below won't add up exactly due to manipulations necessary to get segment mileage with my planner. Three nights, four days travel means about 300 to 350 miles per day. Below are four segments that will give you an idea of where each puts you. From there, you can add or subtract to fine tune your trip. I could name parks along the way, each of these locations has some parks available and they also have Walmart stores. In addition there are rest areas if you are inclined to stop at those. You haven't specified your specific interest as to stopping accommodations so I'll leave that to you. We use RV Park Reviews (computer based) and AllStays Camp and RV (the mobile phone/ipad app) to find places to stop as we travel. In cases like this trip we usually set a mileage per day goal and then see how we feel. If we're slow getting away the first day we'll make it up on a later day. If the weather is good and we have plenty of daylight we might extend another 50 or 100 miles to find a better stopping spot. I like to avoid rush hours when navigating cities like Phoenix, Tucson and El Paso. Tucson is the easiest of these three. Phoenix is very busy most of the time but becomes near impossible during rush hour times. El Paso has a kind of N bypass that might be worth it if you don't mind a little mountain driving coming in Woodrow Bean TransMountain Road (near Canutillo, NM) over to the 375 Loop in Texas. I dislike traveling through El Paso but when on I-10 I'll do it if I can avoid rush hours. We frequently will try to drive through a large city in the evening just before sunset so that we are leaving the city as the morning rush hour traffic is coming into the city. The other alternative is to pull up an hour or two short of the city and then plan to get through after 10:00 a.m. the next morning. Day 1 Victorville to Phoenix, AZ = 356 miles Day 2 Phoenix to Las Cruces, NM = 391 miles Day 3 Las Cruces to Fort Stockton, TX = 284 miles Day 4 Fort Stockton to San Antonio, TX = 312 miles

As to the life of the batteries, yours are approaching 5 years. My experience with 6V wet cell batteries has been they die in about four years. In my experience, they never gave me any warning, just quit taking a charge and went dead. I switched to the sealed AGM batteries in 2014. This is the fourth summer on the road for those batteries.

Good luck, hoping for clear weather all across the country.

Look up at the sky tonight or any night in the next few days. The brightest thing in the sky is the Moon. Our Moon will play a key role in the coming total solar eclipse. Between now and the 21st of August, the Moon will move from its current position, slowly closing in on the Sun. On August 21 the Moon will slide between Earth and Sun, casting its shadow on Earth. You can watch this drama starting right now. If you look at the Moon in the next few nights, you will notice that shortly after the Sun disappears below the western horizon you can turn to the eastern horizon to see the Moon rising higher into the sky. Continue to watch every night, you will notice that the Moon is closer to the horizon each night at sunset. Next week if you look for the Moon it won't be in the sky until after sunset. At the same time you will notice that the Moon changes in appearance, becoming fully lighted, full Moon. A few nights later the Moon will begin to darken along one side and you will have to stay up later to see it in the sky. All of this can be quite mysterious until you think about what is happening in three dimensions. At this point the show becomes much more exciting. You will be able to see the Moon in the morning sky before sunrise. Watch carefully each day as the Moon moves closer to where the sunrise is occurring. In the days just before the total solar eclipse, a thin crescent Moon will be poised in the eastern sky above the sunrise point. You will have to look very carefully to find it in the eastern sky on August 19. Few people will be able to find the Moon on the morning of August 20 but if you have been watching you will have a real good idea where it is hiding in the glare of the Sun. On August 21 the invisible Moon will slowly reveal itself as it slides between Sun and Earth. Of course we won't be seeing the familiar Moon we are used to seeing. During the eclipse we will see it's silhouette as it moves between us and the Sun. If you are fortunate enough to be within the ribbon of totality, the Moon will slide across the face of the Sun and for just a few precious seconds the Moon will fit exactly over the Sun. Then just as fast as it moved in front of the Sun it will retreat, slowly exposing the full face of the Sun. Once more, the Moon will become invisible. By the evening of August 23 or 24 you will once again see the Moon in the night sky. When it makes it's reappearance, be sure to give it the applause it deserves. That wonderful total solar eclipse you saw was brought to you by the greatest supporting actor of all time, our Moon. If you watch each night and morning until the eclipse you can also challenge yourself to think in three dimensions about what you are seeing. See if you can keep track of where the three actors in this play are each night. Earth, Sun, Moon in a dance of the centuries. The show never ends. Follow it every night, just as your ancestors did.