tbutler

When I take my Cummins 400 ISL in for service I will occasionally have them clean the engine compartment. In between their cleanings I'll spray out the compartment with a regular hose to remove dirt and debris. While in there spraying water about I also hit the radiator from the inside out to help keep it clean. I wouldn't eat off my compartment and working there I'll certainly need a shower and have clothes to be laundered but it isn't so bad that I can't check fluids without needing a shower!

Jack, You are correct that the shingles vaccine is a live virus vaccine. The virus is a non infectious variant of the shingles virus. This tricks the body into recognizing the virus as foreign material and creating antibodies to destroy it. Those same antibodies will attack the infectious form of the virus thus preventing the shingles outbreak. The body would produce these antibodies against the disease when it occurs but during the time the body builds up the antibody level, you are very ill. If you have taken the vaccine, your body will build up full defenses against the shingles virus before an attack by the virus. As a result, the disease never gets off the ground. You don't even know you have been saved from a disease which is a very painful and in some patients a debilitating even fatal disease. I've known several people who have had shingles and it is not a disease you want to have in old age. Joe, I'm going to temper my above remarks by saying that your attack on the President and Congress coupled with the implied misinformed vaccination information touched a nerve. My service in the Army Medical Service Corps and a subsequent career in science and health education has made me a strong defender of public health programs and of course our government.

Our last day in Canada, Thursday, August 27, was spent in the area of Leamington, Ontario. Among the features of the southern tip of Canada are Point Pelee National Park, the Heinz ketchup factory, beautiful farms with fields of corn, potatoes, and tomatoes, a huge greenhouse and floral industry, the shores of Lake Erie, and some of the most beautifully landscaped homes in all of Canada. We are traveling with Bill and Laura Fejfar and today Bill is doing the driving duties. Our day started with rain so we had raincoats and umbrellas while exploring Point Pelee NP. This tip of land which extends into Lake Erie is a major bird migration route, a kind of natural funnel that birds use as a jumping off place to cross the lake. Since the migration wasn't under way yet, the bird activity was quite subdued. We did see a group of marsh wrens hunting for food among the water lilies along the marsh boardwalk. One found a nice morsel and the others followed it everywhere, just like gulls! They disappeared into the cattails so we didn't find out how that one turned out. As we left the boardwalk area we saw a small group of turkey hens crossing the road and moving off into the woods. Later in the day we would enjoy a large flock of goldfinches high in the trees. At the visitors center we picked up the free shuttle to the tip of the point. Exhibits at the trail head detailed the nature of the bird migration. As many as 250 species of birds in a single year and about 350 species documented over time at this location. An avid birder may see as many as 100 species in a single day during the peak of the migration. Walking out to the tip we strayed from the large easy trail to get to the eastern coast where the waves were breaking large on the shore. With an incoming tide interesting things were washing up on shore. We saw several large very dead fish and watched a large driftwood log drift up onto the sand at the point. Louise managed to get her shoes wet in the wash from a large wave. We watched a group of small shore birds racing to and fro in the surf searching for food. This is my third visit to Point Pelee and as the park advertises, the tip is constantly changing. This visit we could walk out on the sand spit to where the waters from the eastern side lapped over the sand to the water on the western side of the tip. Our last visit we were only able to stand on the rocks and watch the waves, there was no sand spit at the surface to walk on. By this time it was lunch time. We looked for a restaurant in Leamington but ended up at Wendy's when we didn't find any more interesting. Wendy's was located across the street from the Heinz plant and we enjoyed watching the truck loads of tomatoes arriving at the plant. After lunch we drove east along the coast road to see some of the beautiful homes. Then we returned to our campground at Lakeside RV and Motel in Wheatley, ON. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing Rummy Cube before having dinner. Friday morning we were able to pack in the utilities and hook up the car in dry weather. As we arrived in Windsor the rain began. We crossed into the US on the Ambassador Bridge, driving from south to north into the US from Canada. A few questions at customs with rain dripping in the window. Then the agents came on board briefly to "check the refrigerator" before releasing us to continue on. We paid our toll and followed the signs directing us to I-75 South. As we drove on, the rain became more intense until we could hardly see more than a few hundred feet ahead. The Fejfars were trailing behind us some distance and we didn't see them until we reached the turn-off for a fuel stop. After Bill got his fuel we ate lunch at the IHOP then said our good byes. We had linked up with them July 26 for a month long caravan. After hugs and kisses, we reluctantly parted, heading for our RV's. We'd continue to talk as we traveled the last few miles south. Bill and Laura turned west on US 20, we continued south to US 24 which took us southwest to Fort Wayne and then I-69 on to Indianapolis. That entire drive was punctuated with periods of heavy rain and near continuous light to moderate rain. The roads were generally good and the driving wasn't stressful, the only stress is in my mind as I think about the wash job that I will have to do on the motor home and toad. We fueled at the Flying J in Indianapolis, getting just enough of the $2.759 diesel to get us to Missouri where the prices are $2.479. This was my first fuel since we filled our tank at Champlain, NY and then entered Quebec to continue the Canada trip. We spent the night at Terre Haute before finishing our drive to Foristell, MO. The really interesting thing for me was that we had driven just over 600 miles in the last two days. So here, in the center of the country, near St. Louis, MO we were just six hundred miles from Canada.

SkyKing8, You really had to see that yellow and green Cessna 152! With your credentials I'll gladly cede the left seat to you unless you want to give me a lesson! There have been several changes since my initial post. The FBO at Spirit of St. Louis Airport has gone out of business, another victim of the economic downturn. I'm seeing a trend toward less rentals and more flying clubs. The latter aren't appealing because they require a "dues" which doesn't work for a traveler like me. In May I got my glider pilot license at Mile High Gliding in Boulder, CO. I'll be back there in September and am hoping for good weather so I can get up and try out the new license. Now a glider, there is a beautiful flying machine. And they are so much quieter than those helicopters or jets!

In the US, the term retarder refers to an electromagnetic device within the transmission which magnetically puts drag on the transmission. This device is used on trucks, busses and could be used on RV's but is seldom found on any but the most expensive RV's. An engine brake is accomplished by changing the timing of the valves so that the exhaust valve is closed when it would normally open. This causes the piston to compress the air within the engine cylinder. Since the cylinder is tightly sealed, this is a very effective way to slow the vehicle. Some engine brakes have several levels applying the breaking to three or six cylinders to accomplish different braking power as needed. An exhaust brake impedes the flow of the exhaust from the engine in the exhaust pipe. Since the exhaust pipe seal isn't as positive as the seal in the cylinders in the engine, this brake is somewhat less effective. I have driven large RV's with the engine brake and with the exhaust brake. I find the engine brake to be a much more effective device than the exhaust brake. Both will do the job, one just does it better than the other. The reason that the retarder, engine brake or exhaust brake should not be used with wet/slippery surfaces is that these apply breaking forces to the roadway in a relatively uncontrolled way. When the retarder/engine/exhaust brake kicks in, it can happen suddenly and you have no control over how hard it slows the vehicle except to turn off the device. With the service brakes you apply the force you want, gently or strongly. The service brakes also are moderated by the anti-lock braking (ABS) devices on most newer motor homes. The ABS prevents wheel lock up. You can push the brakes to the floor and the ABS system will keep the wheels turning so you still have steering control and avoid a skid. With the ABS keeping the wheels turning you will stop faster than if the wheels lock up. So the service brakes have means to prevent skidding where the retarder, engine or exhaust brake do not.

So Joe, are you afraid of a little shot?? I'll gladly be the first to take any vaccine needed. All the fuss you hear about vaccines is quite simply a load of bull. People who object to vaccines are Luddites who are afraid of anything they can't understand and generally these people don't understand much. Vaccines save millions of lives every year and most people don't realize it because it has become so routine that it just seems the norm. Then someone comes along and makes a claim that a vaccine caused this or that and they don't want to take any shots. There are whole diseases that our children don't have to worry about because of vaccines. When was the last time you worried about getting polio? How about small pox? I have had the pneumonia vaccine and the shingles vaccine. When they come up with a vaccine for Alzheimer's or AIDS, I'll be first in line! And, oh yes, I am very confident in our President, his aids, his advisers, his cabinet and even our Congress. I just happen to think that the U.S. government while not perfect by any means is still the best choice on this planet.

No, this is not discrimination! It is good medicine. If you read the article it says and the news stories also say that the H1N1 virus is affecting mostly young people. School age children seem to be most vulnerable. Older people have at least partial immunity to it due to possible previous exposure to similar viruses. When older people do get it the H1N1 flu is not so severe and seldom causes death. So the Center for Disease Control has said that IF there are limited supplies, the groups that are most vulnerable should get the vaccine first. The article does indicate that senior citizens in poor health or with certain conditions should receive the vaccine. Here is the text of the article with references for further reading: Who should get the H1N1 vaccine? The latest information provided to the area Health Departments says that the following groups of people are the first who should get this vaccine: * Pregnant women * Household contacts of infants less than six months old * Children from six months to 24 years old * Adults from 25 to 64 years old if they chronic medical conditions * Medical care providers There is no rank or order in this listing. If there is less vaccine produced and shipped than expected, a priority grouping has been developed, which includes: * Pregnant women * Household contacts of infants less than six months old * Children from six months to four years old * Children from five to 18 years old with medical conditions * Medical care providers who have direct contact with infected people. Again, in this list there is no required rank or order. However, if the supply is very limited, area health departments may be directed to only provide the vaccine to this group of people who are at higher risk of contracting H1N1. This information may change as the situation develops. Who decides this? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publishes these priority list as they receive them from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group of 15 medical professionals who are considered experts in the field of immunization. Senior citizens are regularly told to get flu vaccines; why are they not listed? With the regular seasonal flu, senior citizens are one of the groups that are at a much higher risk of being infected and getting sick. Most of the deaths from influenza each year in the United States are senior citizens. With H1N1, this has not been the case. Senior citizens so far have for the most part not been personally affected by H1N1. It appears that those over the age of 50 have some immunity to H1N1 from past exposure to other, similar influenza viruses. It also appears as if this virus targets younger people, rather than the usual groups that seasonal flu affects. If this begins to change, the recommendations will change. Where can I find more information about H1N1 and the vaccine? The most up-to-date information can be found at flu.gov, a Web site set up by the federal government with input from the Department of Homeland Security, the Health and Human Services, and the CDC.

Yes, there are several choices for the AAA for autos version for motor homes. Coach Net is one such service. You can find information about Coach Net on this web site or at www.coach-net.com Good Sam also has ERS (Emergency Road Service). I have used both in the last 8 years. They work well in most circumstances but you will encounter the occasional glitch if you use them often enough. I wouldn't go without having one if you are going to travel far from home frequently. I've had a broken oil line, flat tire, engine breakdown, and deep mud several times. The most difficult was the broken oil line which right on Carson Pass in the Sierra Nevada in California. I had to drive the toad 3 miles to get cell service. Then if I had to call again I had to go through the whole mess again to talk to someone. Eventually it was resolved satisfactorily but it was a process. These services will provide a wrecker for a tow and will identify the nearest place you can get your repair done. So they will get you there, then it is up to you to deal with the repair process. They can also provide information on where to get repair even if you don't need a tow to a shop. If you are a trained RV service tech and a trained diesel mechanic you will be able to determine the validity and/or necessity of repairs! If you aren't both of these, then you'll have to do like the rest of us and read manuals, be active on web sites and talk to several dealers or repair shops. Ask lots of questions and evaluate the answers. Sometimes you just have to trust people, even mechanics and technicians. As to finding someone for a pre-purchase inspection, you need to find someone you can trust. I would go with an individual, perhaps a tech for a dealer as an after work job or a retired tech. If you buy from an individual then you are at the mercy of any dealer you go to for service. If you buy from a dealer and have a problem somewhere away from that dealer you will be at the mercy of any dealer you go to for service. Our experience has been that there are dealers who are very willing to take in any motor home and give a fair deal. There are other dealers who won't give you a service appointment unless you have purchased from them. Some dealers give priority to people who have bought from them but will service others as time permits. We bought from a dealer and then they went out of business about a year after we purchased our motor home. Service for a motor home is not an easy thing. The engine goes to the engine dealer shop or an independent mechanic shop for service. The chassis problems go to the chassis manufacturer or a truck chassis shop. Most of the rest of the things go to a dealer or RV service center. The other possibility is appliances which usually need to go to a certified repair shop for the manufacturer of the appliance. The TV goes to Sharp, the dish goes to KVH, the toilet goes to Thetford, a broken windshield goes to a glass shop, etc, etc, etc.

The black water tank is not a sealed tank in any RV that I know. I have heard some cautions about opening the toilet before having the black water tank pumped out so I guess there may be some tanks that are not vented. I would think they would be very old RV's as current codes require a vented tank. The black water tank must be vented to the roof just as the gray water tank is. I routinely turn on my flush and can hear it spraying the inside of the tank before I dump the tank. The exception to this would be if I know that the tank is nearly full. If the tank is nearly full, I'll dump and turn on the flush after the flow down the drain has started. My black water flush stopped up one time, I think it was a bug that got into the piping. I put a vacuum cleaner hose on the input and sealed it to the input with my hand. After leaving that on for several minutes, I tried the flush and it worked fine. As a matter of practice, I allow the water to drain from my flush system after use and then close off the opening so that nothing can get into the pipe. The one time I had an obstruction I had forgotten to close off the input opening. Draining it also should take care of the mineral build up since there will only be a small amount of water left to evaporate.

It has been just two weeks since we crossed the border with Bill and Laura Fejfar into Canada at St. Stephen, New Brunswick. We've seen whales, incredible scenery, the great St. Lawrence Bay and River, Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. We've enjoyed the long and narrow fields of rural Quebec and explored Quebec City. There were small towns with delightful homes and buildings. We wished there had been parking places for large motorhomes but had to settle for a drive-by. When we did stop we were an object of spectacle. We were photographed and videotaped. Even RV park personnel remarked on our 40-foot Class A diesel motorhomes. Don't hesitate to come to Canada with your large motorhome; just be ready for the reaction. You may not think of yourself as a millionaire, but clearly others do. At la Pommerie, our friends Raymond and Francine shared their world with us. We enjoyed playing tennis with Francine for the first time in almost two years. Their park was relaxing after days of touring. Louise and Laura enjoyed several afternoons of cards while Bill and I had time to tend some tasks around the motorhomes. We loved the natural beauty of Quebec and found the people to be welcoming and friendly. We were escorted by friends Diane and Pierre through Montreal and to the ski resort, Mont Tremblant. Pierre is a former policeman from Montreal, so I gave him the keys to our car and he showed us the town. Diane made us feel as welcome as anyone could be. We visited many other friends while in Canada and enjoyed seeing all of them. We buzzed through Toronto last night on TC 401, one of the best traffic patterns we have seen. Get on the express lanes and just ride on! No sharp turns, no sudden left exits, just a great traffic flow. Tonight we are camped on the shore of Lake Erie at Lakeside RV and Motel in Wheatley, Ontario. We'll explore the southern tip of Canada tomorrow and then bid good-bye to Canada for another year. We enjoy traveling in Canada but are always glad to be back in the USA. Our cell service for phone and Internet are once again unlimited and I can get local weather conditions from the Weather Bug! And oh, yes, there will be Wal-Mart Supercenters, eh!

No preference on a particular brand but recommend a CB as a definite asset in an RV. When traveling in city traffic or when in traffic jams, they can save you huge amounts of time. We've had incidents where just listening to truckers saves us many minutes if not hours waiting in a traffic jam. We seldom talk but often listen. One of our early incidents alerted us to a sudden stop coming around a curve. We slowed and were able to stop in time whereas without the radio we'd likely have shifted our entire contents to try to prevent a rear-ender. Also useful when traveling in caravan. If you are a serious RV'er, you should have a CB as well as the above mentioned FERS and/or GMRS.

The environmental laws are a patchwork, applied in some places, not in others. It seems unfair but what is really being done is enforcing stricter rules in places where they are needed and not enforcing those rules where they aren't needed. If the same laws were enforced everywhere then you would have many more rules to deal with because there are even stricter rules in other parts of the country. In California, the rules are really strict because the air pollution problems around cities like Los Angeles are extremely bad. Thus they have many controls including special requirements for automobiles sold in California. Where I lived near St. Louis we had these vapor recovery systems on the gas pumps. If you lived far enough from the city your pumps didn't have them but in and around the city (50 miles or so), all the gas pumps were required to have these recovery systems. They cost the stations plenty to install and maintain but they help keep the air cleaner in the metropolitan area. Every automobile in the area had to pass a pollution test to get a license plate. I was in the Lake Tahoe area a few years ago and couldn't get my engine cleaned (steam washed) because the local laws prohibited it. This was their way of ensuring that Lake Tahoe wouldn't be polluted. Farmers all over the US are being required to install waste collection and purification systems for feed lots and hog/chicken confinement areas. Compare the cleanliness of our streams to those of third world countries where there are no restrictions. Where would you rather go fishing? These environmental laws will only get stricter as the population density increases. States like Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas with very little population have very few regulations. Meanwhile, the Octomom in California has 14 children. Individually your 400 miles of motor home mileage is insignificant but the law applies to all diesel vehicles in the Colorado Springs, Denver and other population centers along the Front Range. If you can't file for some kind of exemption, your only other choice is to move out of the area. Since that is likely not desirable, consider the cost of the inspection to be just another cost of living in a very desirable area, just like higher property taxes and high priced housing. You could get the motor home out on the road for a few more miles each year and then when you amortize the cost of the inspection over the increased mileage it will be a smaller percentage of your cost of operation! You might even have enough fun that you can almost forget about the aggravation and cost of the inspection.

Another possible cause could be an inaccurate gauge. In our coach, the analog gauges feed from a sensor installed by the motor home manufacturer. I have had problems with a number of these gauges. When I view the data directly from the engine sensors installed by Cummins, everything is fine. What gauge are you using for this data and what is the source of its input? If you don't have access to the engine data itself, you should be able to go to Cummins and get a read out of the engine codes which should let you know if the engine is actually overheating. Usually when things like the temperature are way out of spec, the engine computer will shut down the engine.

Herman, you don't sound so grumpy to me! Thanks for the information, if I get another occurrence I'll have the information I need. If it doesn't occur before I get to Cummins for regular maintenance I'll bring it up to them at that time. Great to have the information.

Doc Mike, It is a wonderful part of the country. Louise loves the sea food, I'm more a see food fan. We both really love the coastal scenery and enjoy watching the tides in the Bay of Fundy. We even looked at land, thinking of a summer parking place where we could see the sea! North of Acadia NP, the land prices are cheaper and the scenery is excellent. But our children are in the mid-west and west to California so Maine is not a place we can go every year. If you've never seen the view from Cadillac Mountain on a clear day, keep that on your to-do list. We watched the Cat, the catamaran ferry to Yarmouth on its return run into Bar Harbor. It was quite a sight to see such a fast moving boat. Interesting that we were both covering pretty much the same area. Tom

Our first motor home was a 7 year old diesel coach. The mileage was about 50,000. We had only a few problems which were serious. The previous owner had replaced the original alternator with a different alternator (truck alternator) which was rewired to make it work with the motor home. I'm sure it saved him money to use the truck alternator but it didn't last long and we had to have the wiring restored to the original plan with the proper alternator. That took us a week to figure out and then fix. We had other minor problems, pac brake failure, replacement shocks, a holding tank fix, an air conditioner that failed, and replaced tires. Then the engine ate a valve and we had to replace the cylinder, piston, head and turbocharger. OUCH! This was at about 80,000 miles. Even if a diesel engine will go for 1,000,000 miles or more in full time trucking service, the run/store/run/store nature of motor home life will shorten this lifetime. Shortly after that, we traded for a new (our current) motor home. Our unit has depreciated much more than what we put into the old used rig. OUCH! We still have occasional things that need fixing. But now I know the complete history of the vehicle and know that it has been maintained properly. Yes, we had all the repair receipts on the used rig. That was how we finally figured out that the alternator wasn't the proper replacement. Our current motor home has 80,000 miles and is in excellent running shape. I expect this motor home to last us until we have to give up full time RV'ing. By the way, our first motor home was a 1994 Monaco Dynasty, going to a motor home that was 10 years newer but a step down in the Monaco line gave us a coach that was immensely superior to the old motor home. Larger engine, larger cargo capacity, much better systems for leveling, satellite, slides, generator/inverter, and on and on. Ten years is a long time in motor home development. Look at all the systems in the used model compare them to the systems in the new models to decide what will be comfortable for you.

You are correct, the larger motor homes won't fit into most national and state parks. Besides site considerations, there are often tree limb complications and narrow sharply turning roads that make these parks difficult if not impossible for large RV's. We have been full time in our 40' motor home for eight years and have stayed in only a few national parks. We've had better luck in Canada than in the US with the national parks. If you want to stay in national and state parks over the private parks, your choice would be limited to the 35' motor homes or less. There are good reasons for staying in the park rather than near as we do when we visit the parks. Many parks have far better facilities than private parks. Their campsites often are larger and the electrical system will be up to code. Generally the settings in the national and state parks are much more attractive and their rates are usually lower. Many national and state parks do not have sites with sewer service so take that into consideration when looking at motor homes. Of course, you can shower and use the restrooms at those parks and if you don't mind doing that, the sewer connection becomes less necessary. Living in our motor home, we like the conveniences of home and use our shower, toilet and washing machine and thus always prefer full hookups when we can get them.

In one week we have traveled from New York through Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick and we are now just outside the city of Quebec. We have visited Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor. The weather was cloudy and threatening rain but we never got more than a light sprinkle. The view from Cadillac Mountain always amazes me. From Ellsworth to Calais we took a different route than in past trips and this rewarded us with new and interesting scenery. In New Brunswick we stayed on Grand Manan, visiting friends and went on several whale watching trips. With very calm seas, we were able to see quite a few North Atlantic Right Whales. The folks at Whales-n-Sails on Grand Manan really know their whales and were able to get us quite close to them without disturbing the whales. We traveled north from the ferry landing at Black's Harbor to St. John and then on to Fredericton and Edmundston in New Brunswick. Like the roads in Maine, this was new territory for us. The whole trip is along the St. John River and the scenery is quite spectacular. It is always a pleasant surprise to find wonderful scenery when traveling from one place to another on schedule. It makes the trip so much more interesting. From Edmundston we continued north into Quebec Province. Every mile brought more signs of the French culture. When we crossed the border into Quebec, the English language disappeared. Given a little time, I can usually figure out what the French signs say but at highway speeds sometimes that isn't good enough. We managed to stay on the correct route but it took some mental work. Louise helps a lot, she is much stronger with languages than me. Reaching the St. Lawrence Bay, we took the smaller highway 132 southwest for a better look at the bay, the wonderful small communities, and rich variety of beautiful and unique homes. Unfortunately, there are very few places to stop with a motor home along this route and if you are looking for space to park two motor homes it is even more difficult. At one stop, we pretty much blocked off the entrance to an ice cream shop. A motorist stopped and walked back to take a picture of our two motor homes at that location. There aren't many motor homes even in the RV parks here. All of Quebec seems to be on vacation, just as the French do in Europe, August is vacation time. We saw numerous garage sales and flea markets. The RV parks were full and there was no indication anyone was going home on Sunday afternoon! We've passed up many interesting places on this trip. Our pace doesn't let us delay for long. We'll return to see more of the area in the future. For now, we're just glad to be able to keep the wheels turning!

We toured a number of the coaches on display at the FMCA International Convention in Bowling Green. One of the things that struck me is that there is a tremendous difference in the amount of cabinet storage among coaches. Some coaches seem quite roomy but when you start looking at how space is used for storage, those less roomy coaches may have much more cabinet and closet space. For a full timer, I'm looking for storage in the coach and in the basement. Being all American, I can never have too much storage space! If as you indicate, you'll be using this more for short trips and vacations, storage may not be as important. In that case you'll be happier in a roomier coach. Those Prevost conversions sure are roomy but the storage areas with the exception of the basement are pretty slim. Brett is right on about the durability of items within the motor home. You pay more for quality construction and materials but they will last longer. No motor home, no matter how well constructed is going to be trouble free. Don't spend a lot of money for a high quality motor home with the expectation that you will never need to have anything fixed or repaired. Everything wears out eventually, it is just a matter of time. When it comes to full wall slide outs, I am a real skeptic. In our motor home the refrigerator is in a location that blocks movement from the front to the rear when the refrigerator door is open. Now the refrigerator door isn't open that often but it seems I need to go from front to back every time the door is open. A full wall slide fixes that problem. Newer floor plans are also solving this design flaw by relocating the refrigerator away from the hallways. We started with no slides, now have two and may someday have four but for now we are quite happy with two slides. Of course we are just two people most of the time. We had eight for conversation a few days ago and everyone was comfortable. I figure that the bigger the slide out is, the heavier it will be and greater force will be required to move it. Thus this could mean greater problems with the slide out. Another factor is how that full wall slide affects the strength of the coach. Not to be Johnny Raincloud, but if there were an accident, how would the full wall slide affect the damage sustained by the coach and its occupants? How do you envision using your coach? Will it be where you spend most of your time? Or will you be out fishing, hiking, exploring, going to museums and just eating, sleeping and driving in the coach? The less time you expect to stay in your coach, the less important the roomy factor could be. Don't pay for space that you don't really need. For years I camped in a tent with my children, traveling in a station wagon. We ate at the picnic table and only got in the tent to sleep. The rest of the time we were out in the big wide world with plenty of space. In those days, I'd have considered a nice Class B to be a wonderful way to travel with the family! As it is, my children are taking their children tent camping just like dad did. I'm betting someday they will all own an RV, but for now, they are getting out and traveling any way they can. How do you travel now? How do you expect the coach to affect your travel patterns? Make a list of pros and cons and count them up, divide by two and... Just kidding! A careful evaluation of your expectations could help focus your search. Stay away from the sales people for a while and decide for yourself what you need, not just what you want.

Pat, I'll add a few things to what has been said above. We have been doing all this with no problem for eight years now. During that time, things have gotten much easier with the almost universal use of the internet by companies for bill paying. All the companies I deal with have on-line billing and automatic payments available. Cell phones, satellite TV, internet service provider and credit cards are all anxious to have you go green and do on-line billing. They save huge amounts of money by not having to mail a bill to you. I simply look up the bill, verify the services being billed and then record the amount of the payment in Quicken. Many banks and credit unions offer bill paying service where you authorize them to pay certain bills for you each month. The payments are authorized by you and the bank transfers the money electronically. This eliminates the delay of mailing in a bill. So you could still receive the bill by mail forwarded to you and then authorize the bank to pay. I used this for companies that weren't set up for electronic payments from individuals for years before we went full time in the motor home. It works well with the water company, other utilities, mortgage payments, etc. if these companies don't have the ability to accept electronic payments. We use direct payment authorizations to a credit card or by bank draft for all the regular payments like health insurance, car/home/RV insurance, and other payments that don't vary from month to month. On my computer calendar I have a record of when statements are due so I can check them as soon as a payment period closes and then I can authorize payments like credit cards as soon as I get the statement. All my CC companies allow scheduling payments so I schedule the payment as soon as I have the statement on-line. If I don't get internet service for a week, I don't have to worry about paying a bill on a given day, I have the payment already authorized to be paid on the due date. They don't get the money early, I don't have to take it out of my account until their due date. All I have to do is check statements to make sure everything is paid as expected. I don't even have to wait for statements to see this, I can check current activity at any time on all our credit card and bank accounts. Finally, if you aren't using Quicken or a similar accounting program to track your accounts, I strongly recommend you begin doing this. There is no better way to get a handle on your finances than to begin tracking all your expenses. It takes some work and there is a learning curve to be overcome. It will seem incredibly difficult to begin with but once you get the hang of it, it gives you incredible power to manage your finances. You can post each payment you schedule and see how it affects your cash flow before the bill is actually paid. Brent mentions mailing services. There are numerous companies that can do this for you. You'll find a few advertising in Family Motor Coaching. In the case of a summer's travel, you could have the US Post Office forward your mail to your mail forwarder then let the mail forwarding service know where to send your mail when you want it. We have our mail sent every week unless we are in Canada or some other place where forwarding might become more complex. In that case we just have them hold the mail until we reach a place in the US again. A tip we got years ago was to have the mail sent to: Our Names, General Delivery, Florida, NY 10921 (for example). The receiving PO will hold that mail until you walk into the post office and show identification and request the package of mail. Pick a small town for this as large post offices often have to search among a large pile of general delivery mail. In large towns there may be multiple PO's but there will be only one that handles general delivery mail. You could end up chasing all over a city to find the post office that has your mail. So we always go for a small town for our mail. We sometimes pick a town along our route rather than one where we will be staying. We always allow an extra day or two to be sure the mail is there when we call for it. We pay to have our mail sent via Priority Mail (2 to 3 day delivery in most cases) to be certain of the delivery schedule to expect. This helps us plan the pick up. Now here is a catch for you with the mail forwarding. The US Post Office forwarding is very slow so the mail that is addressed to your house may take a week or more to get from your home PO to you mail forwarder. They will in turn accumulate that mail until you call them to request delivery to a certain post office. You could pick up your mail to find letters and bills that are two or three weeks old. Being full time RV'ers, we don't have this problem because all our correspondents send our mail directly to our mail forwarding service. Our address is their address with a PMB number (like an apartment number) added. So we don't have the US PO delay in our delivery schedule. Our mail arrives at our mail forwarding service and sits there only until we give them a forwarding address. Under normal circumstances this will be at most a week plus the 2 or 3 days for Priority Mail. You won't want to have everyone change your mailing address for a temporary (summer) period. As a result, a simpler solution may be to have a relative, friend or a trustworthy neighbor collect your mail from your mail box and do the forwarding thing for you. You can call them or e-mail them with instructions on where to send the mail. Pick up some Priority Mail flat rate envelopes and give them to the person who will do this for you. Put your home return address on the envelopes so that if you miss a pick up somewhere it will be returned to your home. Make it as easy for them to get the job done as you possibly can. Discuss with them before hand what your plan is and let them know how you will advise them of where to forward the mail. Stress the importance of being able to count on when the mail is sent so you can plan where you pick up the mail. If they delay two or three days in getting the mail to their PO, you may end up waiting several days for your forwarded mail arrive. Also, when thinking of your schedule and planning your mail pick up be sure to include holidays in your planning. A holiday can delay mail deliveries for a day or two beyond the normal pattern. No matter who you use for your forwarding service, you should be able to tell them to forward only certain kinds of mail. For instance if you use a friend or neighbor, they could simply store all the magazines, catalogs and junk mail so you don't have to pay to ship this to you each week. You'll be able to use smaller envelopes and save mailing expenses. Plan the PO where you want to get your mail by going to www.usps.gov/ where you will find a tab at the top labeled "Locate a Post Office". Put in the name of the town and state and you'll get a selection of PO's in and near the town you requested. That is how you get the zip code. You'll also get hours of operation, a map and/or directions to the PO and a phone number (they won't tell you if your mail is waiting for you). By the way, the PO should hold General Delivery mail for two or three weeks before returning it if not picked up. Using our mail forwarding service we have had only a handful of problems in our eight years on the road. Enjoy the planning and good travels!

Sometimes we are carried along by circumstances beyond our control. The joy of this lifestyle is that it gives us the freedom to do just that. Being able to be there for family when we are needed is priceless. Perhaps we'll be able to do some of the things we planned for this summer someday in the future, perhaps not. In the meantime, we're making the best of what we have. Hope you have a good winter and can do some of the travel you plan for next year.

With any popular national park, the best time to be there is the off season. Go for a time when few people are on vacation and the schools and colleges are in session and you'll find smaller crowds. It gets powerfully cold on the rim of the Grand Canyon in late fall through winter into the spring. The elevation of the rim is about 7,000 feet above sea level. Be prepared for some cold weather any time of year. In addition to Zion, I would include Bryce Canyon. Canyonlands National Park has some good 4WD roads that allow you to explore canyons. There are a whole host of other geologic wonders in Utah. Arches National Park, Natural Bridges National Monument, Capital Reef National Park, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area are just a few of the biggest attractions. There are native American cultural areas all over the area if your interests lie there. If you think that you see one canyon you've seen them all, you will change your mind after you explore a few of these. Each of these canyons gives you a totally different look.

When we first went full time we took Louise's car on a tow dolly from one end of the country to the other. After about 14 months of that, we bought a vehicle we could tow with four wheels on the road. If you watch the highways for toads, you'll see that there are very few tow dollies out there. Life is much simpler with a toad that rolls on all four. Here are things I would recommend if you are going to tow with a dolly. 1) Try loading your car on a dolly before making a commitment to purchase. Our car couldn't be loaded because the front bumper was too close to the road and the ramps were too steep. Blue paint on the front bumper. We ended up carrying a number of blocks of wood to extend the ramps so we could get the car on the dolly. 2) Check the tire size and then go to Wal-Mart and other tire stores to find out how many carry that tire size. Trailer tires can be very difficult to find. We had to purchase a tire and wheel to get one when we had a flat tire. I never could find a tire company that stocked or could even order that size tire. 3) Install a tire pressure monitoring system on the tow dolly and your car so you can tell when you have a flat tire. We had a flat tire and didn't know it until a passing motorist flagged us down. 4) Look at the lights and wiring system. Are the lights sturdy? Is the wiring shielded from road debris and tires in the event of a flat tire? Are the lenses and bulbs easily replaceable? 5) How difficult will it be to get the braking system to work with your motor home? We had a surge brake on ours. It would compress the tongue of the tow dolly and apply the brakes. It required no additional wiring other than the lights. Unfortunately, the system proved to be quite fragile and broke several times. We finally took the tow dolly back to the factory. To their credit, they exchanged it for a new dolly which I immediately put up for sale. I recovered about 2/3 of the original purchase price. 6) We found the number of models available for examination very limited. Take your time shopping, try to see as many different dollies as you can before you decide. Search the RV magazines and the internet to find models and dealers.

Our travels this year have been delayed by family illness, a trip with grandchildren, a broken awning, a Monaco International rally and the FMCA International Convention. So it was almost the end of July when we began our summer travels. We will have to return to Missouri to take care of painting the awning we had replaced. We'll head west to California by the end of September and be in our winter resort by the first of November. So we get about six weeks of travel this summer. Like all people, we fall into habits. We're used to traveling at a leisurely pace, doing sightseeing for a day or two and then just spending some time around the campground to do laundry or fix a problem item on the motor home. We've learned to rest once in a while just to catch up on sleep. A good rainy-day do nothing day never upset our schedule in the past. There was always something to do indoors. We never had a definite schedule, just a general agenda for the summer. In a good summer we would even tack on an additional stop or two between family visits. We hardly ever play golf in the summer but we've played once a week for the last month. Tennis is a winter sport for me but I've managed several matches in the last month. Louise has had several days of card playing. It has been fun but not our normal pattern. In past summers we visited a few friends for a short while then resumed traveling. This summer we are visiting at least 10 of our friends and relatives. When we travel we seldom visit cities. This summer we'll stop in a string of large cities, we are outside New York City right now. Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa are all on our itinerary. So this summer we'll experience travel in a different way. I think of it as vacation mode, travel for those whose time is limited. I know real vacationers would love to have six weeks but we've modified our travel plans several times to fit in as much as we can while keeping the quality of our travel. When we read the blogs of others on this site, we feel extremely lucky to be able to travel at all. We are, after all, among the most fortunate people on earth to be able to live this lifestyle. Carpe Diem

Gramps, Think of more rules! I really enjoy reading your blog. Tom