tbutler

Earlier this year we purchased the Nintendo Wii. The basic unit (Wii console) came with Wii Sports, which has bowling, tennis, golf and other sporting games. A friend of ours was using the Wii Fit which is a fitness program that works with the Wii console. We purchased that and have been working out for a while. I think Wii Fit is an excellent exercise program for older adults and it works well in a motorhome. The Wii Fit program comes with a CD which is inserted into the Wii console and a balance board which is put on the floor. The display for all the Wii games is the TV. I placed the Wii console in the cabinet that has our other electronics. Our cabinets have a mesh front so communication is possible with the door closed. The console is on standby at all times so to conserve electricity when we are traveling I plugged the Wii console into a switchable power outlet. That way we an turn off the circuit when we don't have shore power. The balance board is used for most of the Wii Fit program. You start with a body test. Standing on the balance board, it first weigh you. Then it gives you several balance tests and then scores you by giving your Wii Fit age. Eat too much or get a little off balance and your age goes up. Lose weight and have good balance and your weight goes down. It charts your progress and gives you fitness tips. There are four categories of activities that you can do. Each builds strength and control in different ways. The Yoga exercises stretch and tone the muscles and build flexibility and balance. The balance board and a hand controller give feedback on your balance and scores you so you can see your improvement. These exercises or poses are not generally strenuous and you can choose your level of activity. There are several that my old body just won't bend to. Perhaps I'll be able to stretch out and do them someday but for now, I'll just have to skip them. The strength training builds muscle tone and control. These exercises range from easy arm toning exercises to push ups and ab crunches. Again, the balance board and hand controller provide feedback and scores you based on your performance. Skip those you can't do for now and continue to build your strength. Through both the yoga and strength training a trainer guides, encourages and chides you based on your performance. You'll get messages like, "You have great balance," "You put your foot down didn't you," "You have great strength." Aerobics have activities like step dancing, hula hoop spinning, boxing and running. These exercises will make you breathe hard. You can select the level of activity so you can start slow and then build as you get into shape. Instructions are given on the screen and your performance is evaluated based on your actions with the balance board and hand controller. The feedback is really helpful in keeping you on pace as you perform these activities. Finally there are the whimsical balance games. Stand on the balance board and shift your weight to move your on screen avatar (called your Mii) as it hits soccer balls with its head. Watch out for the occasional shoe as a line of little kids serves up soccer balls to you. You can also do a ski slalom, ski jump, a marble roll game, snowboarding slalom, a bubble floating down a stream, a penguin catching fish. All these activities help improve the muscle tone and control to improve your balance. How many of us seniors could use some improvement in our balance? Not a senior? Start working these muscles early and you'll reach old age in much better condition than many of us are today. With the holiday season upon us, perhaps the best gift you could give your family would be a Wii complete with the Wii Fit. Then get everyone into the fun of staying fit. I think you'll enjoy this and will feel stronger and more sure of yourself as you go about your daily activities. Get active, get fit, get Wii and use it to improve your life.

Jeeper, Welcome to the FMCA Forum. We have enjoyed our travel time in Washington. It's a great state! Your experience with Moab, Utah might help Gary-Val who were looking for information on Moab to help them plan a vacation for the summer of 2010. Take a look at the discussion at Moab Utah. It sounds to me as though you could make some good suggestions.

Mileage one gets with a given vehicle can vary tremendously. I recently loaned my Trailblazer to another individual (actually Pierre was taking us on a tour of his home town, Montreal). While Pierre drove my Trailblazer, the mileage was about 8 mpg. I normally get between 14 and 19 mpg from the same vehicle. Pierre was a former police officer and didn't mince any gallons to get where we were going. I drive differently, always thinking about stretching that gallon of gas. The next day I drove and the trip took us much longer than Pierre expected! When we left Pierre and Diane, his lovely wife, to go to our next destination, we were talking about the travel time. Pierre said it would only take a couple of hours to get there and then he laughed and said Tom is driving so it will take twice as long. The moral of the story is you get the mileage out of a vehicle you want to get. It isn't only the hardware, road, terrain, wind also affect your mileage. Other than hardware, the biggest single factor though is the nut behind the wheel!

This is bad news. If there are no fees, there are no funds to support our parks. If there are no funds, the parks will shrivel and dry up. I can't believe that the government would allow this to happen. I think there will be a solution before this all comes to be.

Without pictures, it is difficult to offer help. I'm not familiar with your motor home and even if I were, I'd be shooting in the dark. I removed my old analog TV and replaced it with a new LCD TV about this time last year. In doing so I talked with another person in our park who had the same model and year as our coach. He wanted my help. I started describing the process and he took me to see his cabinet. Mine has a removable louvered section on the back that provides easy access. His did not. It surprised me but motor home manufacturing is such that not everything is standardized even on motor homes in the same model year. They are constantly changing and varying things. I suggested to him that he could cut a hole in the rear of his cabinet and then construct or have built a louvered door to cover that hole when he finished his project. That is one possible solution I could offer. Of course you would be cutting blind into the cabinet and might catch a wire or cable. Use as short a saw blade as will cut through the wood to minimize this chance. In my motor home I was able to easily remove the frame that covered the front of the TV using the process GreenBeaver describes above. I found two screws in the bottom of the cabinet that anchored a wedge to which the TV was anchored down with metal straps. That allowed me to remove the straps and pull the TV from the cabinet. The two screws on the bottom weren't covered with the wood buttons but had filled over with wood putty and stained to match the cabinet. Once this was done, I found the whole cabinet to be screwed together with no glue so was able to disassemble the cabinet for modification. Another possibility might be to see if there is access through a cabinet on one side or the other of the TV cabinet. You might have to disassemble quite a bit of stuff to get there. The rear of my AV cabinets are only available by removing the vinyl covering on the base. To do that I have to remove the curtains and power window shades. It also requires that I remove part of the plastic covering the side windshield post! Then when I'm finished I have to put it all back. If you can take some pictures and put them in the photo section, then direct our attention to them in a reply here. I would think someone could give additional help.

Mike, Wendy and Gordon, So glad you weren't hurt in this accident. Sorry about Barney. He took quite a punch in the nose not to mention his behind. Hard to believe it didn't damage your motor home. Hope you have better luck with your next toad. We've driven that stretch of I-5 many times and have encountered the stop and go traffic in and around Sacramento. We do our best to stay out of it but sometimes there is just no escaping the traffic tie ups.

I've had Bilstein representatives tell me that the shocks on my motor home should last "forever." As an old auto fan, that is hard to believe. Shock absorbers reduce the shock of rough roads and make the ride smooth. You can tell when shocks are worn and need replacing when you go over something like railroad tracks and the coach makes more than one up and down bounce from the change in surface. One time up and down is the most you should experience before the coach stabilizes and stops bouncing if your shocks are in good condition. The same is true with side to side roll. The kind of thing you experience when exiting a driveway. If the coach continues to rock and roll, it's time to replace the shocks. Sometimes you'll see old cars hit a bump and bounce up and down three or four times or even more. Those shocks are nearly useless. If your shocks are worn or worn out, when you replace them, you'll notice that the ride is smoother, the motor home recovers from rough spots in the road more rapidly and the ride will be safer as the control of the motor home improves significantly.

Like Brett I was going to suggest that you attend a convention or at least a local rally before you give up on FMCA. I think one rally will change your mind. I checked the mileage from Waskom to Albuquerque and it is close to 1000 miles. That would be the best place to get your "feet wet" with FMCA. After we attended our first national convention, we were hooked. As to the forum, it is lamentable that there isn't more action in the class B category. I had hoped your participation would draw out others to respond and get involved in the forum. There are many who are lurking but not participating. We could have a grand free-for-all if everyone joined in. We have prior plans so won't be in Albuquerque but hope to see you at a convention in the future.

There are always benefits when joining any owners group or chapter of FMCA. Not everyone sees the benefits the same way. Some don't see them as very valuable and don't take full advantage of the advantages offered. Maybe there is a newsletter. There is always the social side of meeting with other people who have the same rig you have. When you run into a problem you may find someone who has had the same problem and can give you some shortcuts to get to the root of the problem and fix it. I'd say join the group and see if their interests match yours in any way. If they do, you've found common ground and that is a benefit of membership. If you can't find anything in common with the group, you can move on having lost only the cost of dues for a year.

Louise and I were invited to dinner Friday night. The campground owners here at Sandpipers Resort where we have stayed each winter for nine years now invited 14 of us to dinner. It was seven couples who have assisted them in improving the resort in one way or another. Most of them were involved in the construction of a new shower house for the resort this past summer. Louise and I contributed other skills. Louise is writes the publicity materials for the resort and occasionally has articles published in magazines or newsletters. I have been the camp photographer for a number of years providing publicity photos and doing photos for campground documentation and history. This was a gourmet dinner for 16 people. The chef for this magnificent meal was our neighbor in the park last year and we got to know him well then. Chef Robert is from Quebec. He and his wife, Lucy, have returned for their second year. Chef Robert worked for a major airlines at their Canadian headquarters, preparing food for the airline executives. He began preparing sauces and other parts of the meal on Wednesday. All day Thursday and Friday he was in the kitchen, chopping, peeling, cooking. When Friday evening came, the community room had been transformed into a fine restaurant. Chef Robert was busy making the final preparations for this nine-course gourmet meal. His assistants, Lucy, and another long-time campground resident, Marijanne, were servers bringing each course of the meal to us in turn. The meal started with a little wine and appetizers, an assortment of bitesize crackers, breads, cheese and various additions from peppers to seafood. Then there came Crouton with Camembert Mediterranean, which was listed as each item was on the menu in French with the English translation below. We had Les Antipastos "Sandpipers," Comcombre farci aux crabie et cury (Stuffed cucumber with crab meat curry), soup garnished with pears and carrots, asparagus au gratin. Then came the salade of Padre Pius. The main course was a choice of salmon with side dish, chicken with pink pepper or pork bourguignon. Finally there was desert, a bananas Foster, ice cream, cake combination. Just naming these preparations hardly does them justice. Each involved intricate preparations and were presented in a beautiful arrangement on their own plate. Sauces provided flavors that were spectacular. I summed it up at the end of the meal saying, "I have never had such a sophisticated meal." So this is how the other half lives! Wow! We were all satiated. The meal, three days in preparation, had been served over almost three hours and we had ample time for conversation in the meantime. I chuckled to myself as we left, thinking that most people would never expect to get such a marvelous meal at a campground. Even more amazing is that the talent for preparing such a meal was right here in the campground with us. But that was the point of the meal. Gary is a retired carpenter and contractor. He has his own wood shop here at the campground. He helped me with my TV remodeling last year. Tony and his wife, Sherry, are in charge of general maintenance, landscaping and mowing, etc. Jamie and Tonya have constructed a wonderful gate and entrance for our park. Jamie did much of the custom metal work, including custom made heavy duty stalls in the shower house. Tonya works on landscaping and grounds maintenance on a regular basis. Bill helped with the carpentry and his wife, Karen, has created a variety of campground logo merchandise. Garland was also a carpentry assistant. Together all the carpenters constructed and shingled the roof of the shower house, built storage shelves, etc. Roy has been the electrician for the project and for other work in the campground. All these amazing talents and more right here in this community of mostly retired people. What a wonderful community we have. The owners, Karen and Jay, have plans for more of these dinners for others in the park who have contributed their talents. It is a community where everyone pitches in to help with meals, entertainment, social events, recreation activities and so much more. There is the fudge lady, the blogger, the wine experts, the DJ, the bike ride leader, golf organizer, water volleyball leader, sound technician, plumber, computer expert, welder, truck driver, Spanish teacher, charity organizer, and blood drive organizer. Everyone brings talents and willingly shares them with the community.

Louise was cooking several days ago and the windshield fogged up (all the others are thermal windows and never fog). I opened a vent for an intake and turned on a different vent fan and the window fog was gone in ten minutes. It was raining and cold (low 40's) outside and this still works. I'd much rather use the vent fan, low cost operation, doesn't take up any additional space and it works fast. Ours came with the motor home (in fact we have three of them) so there is no additional expense. You bring in a little cold fresh air (not a bad thing) and the furnace ran once. We sat down to a good meal and had a nice view! This process works if the temperature is 20 or 0. In fact it works faster and better the colder it is outside. The colder the outside air is, the drier it will be. And, yes, even if it is raining or snowing, the outside cold air will dry the air in your motor home when it replaces the moist warm air the vent fan is removing. When you warm up the cold outside air, the relative humidity in that parcel of air drops like a rock. Cold air holds hardly any moisture and warming it increases its capacity to hold moisture, thus the amount of water in the air compared to its capacity to hold water becomes very small. It becomes very dry air. It will quickly pick up any moisture off windows and other cold surfaces thus drying out your motor home. It is not necessary to leave the vents open or to run the vent fan continuously. Moisture in the motor home is event driven. You take a shower, the moisture level goes way up. Open a vent, run a fan and the moisture goes back down to normal levels. Turn off the fan and close the vent. Cook a meal and the moisture goes way up. Open a vent, run a fan and the moisture goes back down to normal levels. Turn off the fan and close the vent. You come in with wet clothes or wet towels from the campground showers and the moisture goes way up. Open a vent, run a fan and the moisture goes back down to normal levels. Turn off the fan and close the vent. I'm not anti dehumidifier, I'm pro vent fans! Vent fans are a cheaper more environmentally friendly solution (made of less material and use less energy) to moisture in a motor home.

A heavier fabric will make a slightly larger roll when the slide is retracted. As long as there is room on the roller, I'd go for the heavier fabric. I don't think they make a fabric that will stand up to a hail storm though so if you get caught with your slide out in the hail, you'll likely have the same problem. Maybe it will take larger hail to damage a heavier fabric! I would definitely contact A&E for instructions on how to do the removal and replacement. The springs that wind the rollers are strong and if you let it get away, they can be dangerous. With CofC they insert a locking pin in the roller when it is wound tight (slide fully extended). Then you bring the slide in part way to release the tension on the fabric and remove it. The roller remains locked by the pin until the fabric is replaced. I've seen several queries about increasing the tension on the fabric on the slide out. For those who are interested in increasing the tension on the roller, it is possible to get a good grip on the roller and remove the pin and put an extra half turn or full turn on the roller to increase tension on the fabric. Remember that this also puts an increased pull on the slide out and will increase the work load on the motor moving the slide out. It might seem like a small force but could lead to problems if the motor is not strong enough to move the slide in all conditions with that additional load. Also be aware that it simply may not be possible to put enough tension on the fabric to keep water from collecting on the cover and sagging (a common complaint). Let us know what you finally end up doing with this. Good luck.

Thank you Ambyn! It is good to get a first hand account on your repair job and the information of how it was handled including the amenities at the company. So many of these threads end with no information about how a problem was solved. I wish more people would share their success (or failure) stories as a thread progresses.

The awnings on our slides are from Carefree of Colorado. We went to them (their dealer, they don't deal directly with the consumer) with the serial number off the roller and got a replacement cover that was an exact match for the original. I consider dis-assembly pretty easy. If your covers are CoC, they have the instructions on-line if you don't have the original documents for the awnings. It gives step by step instructions which are easy enough to follow. Tools needed included a set of socket wrenches, screw drivers, a cotter pin or nail. You might use a little silicon spray to slide the bead on the awning out of its slot. You'll want a little caulking to seal the screw that locks the awning in the slot. Treat the spring apparatus with respect, follow those instructions to the letter. I took both our slide awnings off and took them to a repair shop when they were ripped from wind during travel. Just wear and tear over 4 years of continuous use. Put them both back on a few days later and have since replaced one with a replacement awning. It is about a two hour job to remove one and replace it. Maybe a little more if it is your first time. Taking them off can be done single handed but putting them back on it helps greatly to have someone to assist. A friendly neighbor in the campground where we were helped me with the first job, I had Louise on the roof to help pull on the new awning while I was on the ladder pulling the awning onto the roller. That was one of only a hand-full of times I've managed to get her on the roof of the motor home in eight years!

We've been over the Top of the World Highway in our 40' Windsor in 2006. In Canada the road is high and wide and mostly gravel with good shoulders. In the US, the road narrows and is all gravel. I met a tour bus on a section of the road in the US where there was a big drop. The tour bus (by the drop off) wasn't giving me any break, stayed a good 3' from the edge but I made it by between the bus and the hillside with no problem though I was going real slow! You would have to remind me of the Taylor Highway, I don't think we took that route but I can't remember. I posted another response about Alaska recently see North to Alaska for more information about our trip. I'm going to add something after reading the post from Chickadee. The Taylor highway is a paved road and is in good condition but when we traveled it, it had been raining so we pulled off at a rest area/scenic overlook and trail. When we pulled off we noticed a wrecker approach and stop just down the hill from where we were. The wrecker proceeded to extract a pickup truck with fifth wheel trailer from the brush along the downhill side of the road. They pulled him out in one piece and once on the road, the pickup with fifth wheel drove off. He had flattened several hundred feet of brush but apparently nothing too large since he was able to drive away. There was damage but nothing too serious. I'm sure once in Tok he went into a shop to get everything checked. My point is even good roads can be hazardous. I don't know if the driver fell asleep or was dodging a moose or bear or just took a turn too fast. Maybe he hit a wet spot and lost control. We decided to stay the night at the rest area rather than continue on in the dusk and rain.

Peggy, I've stayed in and around Cincinnati on several occasions but not where there was fishing at the campground. I've done a little research (Trailer Life) and found several suggestions. Little Farm on the River in Rising Sun, Indiana, just across the border looks like it might meet your requirements. It has both a lake and is on the Ohio River. Cincinnati South Rose Garden Campground, Crittenden, KY, 859-428-2000 lists fresh water fishing. Indian Springs Campground, North Bend, OH, 888-550-9244 lists a lake and freshwater fishing. All of these are commercial campgrounds and do not list any restrictions on length of stay. They also are more expensive than the state parks but those all have length of stay restrictions. I just wanted to give you a few examples of what I could find. I would suggest that you purchase a copy of Trailer Life or Woodall's Campground Directory if you don't already have one. It's a great resource to have handy even if you aren't on the road frequently. Good luck, I hope you find something that you like.

Good spot 'em Green Beaver! I have taken a look at the proposed directives and have submitted a comment by following the link provided. I'm posting my comments here to encourage others to jump in and have their say. Feel free to use any of my ideas but please add your own concerns as well. My comments completely filled the allowed space. My comments on Document ID: FS-2009-0001-0001: Proposed Directives for Forest Service Concession Campground Special Use Permits As I read the provisions of these proposed directives, they would increase the fees charged for senior citizens for "camping" facilities and then further down I find that if they increase income for the concessionaire they would increase the rental rates for the concessionaire. So in effect the directive suggests that the concessionaire needs more income so the rate increase (reduction in discount) should be instituted. Then it says if the concessionaire makes more money, they will have to pay higher rental fees to the government. It looks like this is pretty clearly a pass through provision which means the concessionaire won't make too much money and the government ends up the big winner in it all. As a senior citizen (I just got my senior pass in the fall of 2008) it looks to me like the rug is being pulled out from under me just as I qualified for this discount. Yes, there are going to be lots of us seniors qualifying for the discount in the coming years and yes, younger people (who are working) will be subsidizing the discount, just as I have done all my working life! Why now that I qualify do you suddenly realize that someone is in effect subsidizing my discount when you never noticed it when I was doing the subsidizing? It seems to me that it is finally my turn to collect a benefit that I have been contributing to all my working life and now you are changing the rules. Personally I never was a fan of the commercialization of the park/forest service concessions. For my money, you can close down all the commercial operations in the park/forest service. Then they won't be complaining about not making enough money. As to the incentive (or lack thereof) for off season utilization, that is completely bogus. Most seniors I know prefer to visit our parks and national forests during the off season when the crowds are smaller and the atmosphere is quieter. In fact, I'd bet that most concessions would close off season if it weren't for senior citizens.

Since we've been full time we've used My Home Address, Inc. in South Dakota. It is a commercial company and like Escapees, they provide a home address. Unlike Escapees, they provide vehicle registration as well. It is set up to be a home address so you will need a South Dakota drivers license for vehicle registration. The costs are very reasonable and the web site will give you some good reasons for choosing to register in South Dakota. They will ship your mail when/where you want. They ship mail via first class or priority mail (whatever you want to pay for). They will also forward only those classes of mail you want forwarded. If you tell them to forward only the first class mail, that is what you will get. We send them the mailing address to use via e-mail or you can call on their 800 number. There are several other companies out of South Dakota. Alternative Resources in Sioux Falls and Hart Ranch in Rapid City are two that I have on file. One other resource for mail forwarding is storefront operations in most medium to large cities, Mail Boxes, Etc. or other similar operations. These are available nationwide if all you want is to have the mail forwarded. One of the considerations in choosing a mailing service for full timers is the choice of state of residence. Going with a full service program allows you to establish residency in the state where your mail is handled. If you do this, you should look at all the costs, registration, property tax, drivers license requirements, inheritance laws, etc.