New Chairs

Linda and I have had the same camping chairs since before we went on the road and besides being big and bulky, they were getting a little beat up. On a recent visit to Camping World, a chair there caught my eye that was folded up really compact but I was on a mission for something else so didn’t take the time to open it up and check it out. I found the chair on Amazon but since they were almost $50 each, I put it on our wish list. After discussing it with Linda, we decided to buy two of them and try them out. When we went back to them, on the Amazon site, they had gone done $10 each so yippee, it was meant to be. On top of that, we had built up a bunch of cash back on our Discover card so the whole purchase was done using our cash back proceeds.
They are called an X-Press Lounger Director’s Chair and are made by GCI Outdoor.The carrying handle is part of the back rest. They are super compact….17.5” x 2.5” x 16.5”. They are really comfy and we think we’re going to store them in the car since they are super small. That way we’ll have them if we get to an event where we want to sit a spell. There are pockets on each side of the chair, for a cell phone or book or a bottle/can. Seems like some good thought went into the design of the chair. I was a little concerned that some of the people who had purchased them had problems with the chairs and needed to get a replacement. That’s why we got them from Amazon…we knew how good they are about replacing them if there is a problem. There is also a lifetime warranty on the chairs from the manufacturer. We’re happy with them…they take up less space and are comfy.

The New Rig

We arrived in Asheville, NC yesterday afternoon. Our friend Lindig is here….we worked together at Amazon in Coffeyville, Kansas. We set up at Bear Creek campground, which is only a couple of miles from her. We took the car to get her and went out to eat. Had a good meal at Stone Ridge Tavern just down the road a ways. Was great to catch up on what she’s been doing and have a laugh and drink with our good friend. After dinner, we took her back to our rig so she could see it. We watched a little HGTV and then took her back to her rig. It was great to see her. We stayed another day at the campground, as I needed to get some things done around the rig and we went out and did some errands.
Yesterday we got the Roadmaster Invisibrake installed at Camping World in Statesville. Turns out they were running a special on the installation of this particular braking system so we saved about $150, which was a wonderful surprise. The control box is under the driver’s seat in the car and a cable runs up under the carpet to the brake pedal of the car. When I step on the motorhome brake,it applies the same amount of braking pressure to the car’s brake. Only thing to hook up, when it’s time to hit the road, is the breakaway cord and a little cable that connects the motorhome to the car. That’s it….off we go. We picked this system since we move so often…every one to two weeks and we didn’t have to be crawling around on the floor boards, hooking up a braking system. We wanted a “set it and forget it” type of system. Hooking the car to the motorhome is fast too with the Blue Ox tow bar. We can be hooked up in just a couple of minutes and on the road. It seems so nice to be able to go out and shop and do errands in our car.






People ask us how we like the motorhome, as compared to the 5th wheel. Since we’ve never known anything different, we loved the Excel and truck. Now having this, the ride is so much smoother and so pretty looking out the large windshield. We love the set up inside the rig and I love having a garage for the trike. I can putter around in the garage, waxing the bike or whatever. Here’s some pictures of the rig…its hard to get much in the picture.
There isn’t a regular oven. It’s a combination microwave/half time/ and convection oven. Haven’t used anything other than the microwave yet. The microwave makes a weird buzzing sound and needs to be replaced but we have to know where we’ll be in 2-3 weeks so it can be shipped to an rv repair shop for install.
  Other than that, we haven’t found any other things that need to be fixed. That’s a good thing. Yesterday at Camping World, a guy came in with a Winnebago Itasca and he had a laundry list of items that needed attention…..a long list. Hope he brought his sleeping bag…he’s going to be in that waiting room a long time. The sleeping loft wouldn’t be something that everyone would care for but we like it. We call it the “tree house” and that was where Teagan (Linda’s grandson) liked to go to take his naps cause he could watch TV. We’ve never had a TV in the bedroom…is kind of nice.


I love the engine braking system and the tow haul mode. So far, with the hills we’ve encountered our fuel mileage has been running 6.8 miles to the gallon. The “info” gauge, on the dash automatically calculates the “number of miles to empty” based on the last 500 miles of driving. Nice feature. We haven’t really missed the 5th wheel or truck. There are a couple of things I liked about the 5th wheel that I wish we had with this rig but nothing we can’t live without. We’re really happy we made the switch. So easy to drive and easy access to everything while we’re driving. Even with the slide in, there is a large aisle down through the rig with full access to everything in the kitchen and we’re able to sit at the dinette (which we love) to play cards, eat or work. Next time I’ll tell you about the new wax I bought for the rig. Awesome stuff !

My cash cow is dry.....

Going into a Camping World store seems to have almost the same outcome, for me, as going into Sam's Club. You can never seem to get out the door without spending a bunch of money. Yesterday we drove to Colfax to get a new ladder for the rig. When we first hit the road, in 2007, we had purchased one of those Little Giant knock-offs that you can buy at Sam's Club for about $100. You push the knobs on each side of the ladder, pull it apart, then it articulates upward until another set of knobs pop into the holes at the desired height and it's ready to use. It was heavy as the dickens to carry around the rig. Very sturdy to use but a work-out just to get it set up and tore down. We had carried it around on the back of the truck so not sure if rust had made the knobs seize up or what but I had my last wrestling match with it a couple weeks ago. It just wouldn't go back into its original form so it found its way out next to the garbage can, here at the campground. The ladder we bought yesterday folds up into about 4" square.
I love it !! Did some stuff on the rig today and it's now stowed away in the basement, ready for its next assignment. We also went and bought a matching battery for the one we got last weekend. Our friend, Tom, e-mailed us after the last post and reminded us that it's best to replace both at the same time as the older one will draw down on the new one, compromising it. So off we went yesterday to get a matching battery. Thanks, Tom....you are our RV maintenance adviser and we love it.
Last weekend we stopped by the local tire shop (they have a shop for automotive installations and another shop next door to take care of large trucks/RV's). Marvin is getting us prices on new tires for the rig. We will need them before we go back to full-timing. He's pricing out Goodyear's like we currently have on the rig and also beefier Michelin's that would require different rims. The new Excels come with the Michelin tires, which are holding up better than the Goodyears. Not sure which way we'll go...will depend on the price but safety and longevity are also considerations.

In Ahead of The Storm

Wednesday morning we started discussing the news that the Northeast had a storm coming in at the end of the week and decided to pack up and head for New Jersey. Our site was a giant mud hole (worse than it was when we got there). Backing out was the easiest way to get off the site since there was very little space at the end of the site to make a turn (I think the guy with the van next door would have noticed if the rear half of his van was missing).

We hit a little rain but had an
uneventful trip north, which is a wonderful thing. We stopped at Linda's brother's house to pick up our car. They were kind enough to watch it for us while we were down south. Kathie had a wonderful dinner waiting for us when we arrived. After eating, I headed out for our work site to check things out...making sure we could get in and get our rig in where it needed to go. Some of the Mini U sites are very tight and impossible to navigate with our rig.. This one had ample room to make it around the end of the buildings but the space where we needed to park was really tight to get in to. Linda and the current manager tried their best to get it in as tight to the building as they could but being pinned in between buildings on three sides made it impossible to get as close as they wanted. It will work for the time we are here but when we went to hook up to the power, found that even with 60' of cord, we didn't reach. Ughhhhh!!!!! No way to get closer either. Problem is that the usual RV parking spot is where the snowplow has to push the snow off the site. Dang snow and winter anyway. Soooo....we plugged a 110 v. cord into a nearby receptacle and fed the end into our bedroom window so we could plug the heated mattress pad in on our bed and stay warm. With the severe cold and winds, there is no way the batteries would have held with the on/off of the furnace all night. We ran the furnace till the inside temp was 70, then shut the furnace off till morning and climbed into our toasty bed. When we got up at 7:00 it was 49 in the rig..Brrrrrr.... Grabbed the computer...located the closest Camping World and off we went to get another 50 amp extension cord. The roads were slippery....snowy slush on them. Took us 1.5 hours to get there (usually a 57 min trip according to GPS). Got back and plugged in....Ahhhhh....heat, lights, all the comforts of home. Just in time for the huge storm coming our way. Possibly 14" of snow and 20-40 m.p.h. winds. Yuck !! Apparently my order for springtime temps and no snow fell on deaf ears with the goddess upstairs.....

We went into work and worked a few hours today. First official day is Saturday.

The scoop...

Linda has been picking up shifts everyday this week. Last night she worked an overnight shift in Harrisburg and then got a call to work 3-11 here in Chambersburg today so she took it. She works the same shift tomorrow night in Harrisburg again and that is all she has taken so far. They have asked her to work beyond that but until we know if we're leaving next week, the week after or a later date, it is hard to know what to tell them so she'll take it day by day. Nurses seem to call off pretty regularly so it has worked out well so far.

Yesterday before work we took a quick trip down to Winchester,VA to Camping World to look at some items. We knew that Linda was going into work later that night and considered going today instead but thought, what the heck, we'd go on Thursday. Turns out that was a good thing as there was a really bad accident on 81 south this morning that shut the highway down for 10 hours. A car collided with a tractor trailer and the truck, loaded with fuel, burst into flames and even spilled alot of the fuel on the highway. Area residents were evacuated and the driver of the car that caused the accident left the scene of the accident.

Not much else going on here. Had a clear, sunny day so I mowed the lawn where we have the rig parked. Watched a city worker out front of our rig this morning open up the manhole cover that I mow around so was curious what he was doing. Turns out it's a sewer clean out point and the top half of the sewer line has been cut away so he can put a high pressure water hose inside the line to flush it out. All of the waste water can be seen as it runs down the exposed pipe. When he turned the water hose on, wow, was it forceful....I stepped back as it sprayed up a bit out of the manhole. He can extend that line up to 500 ft up the street inside the sewer line and it cleans out all sorts of things. He said he's found sheets, towels and even watches come out of the line when he flushes it. I was surprised that it wasn't messy or smelly at all in there but I suppose it helps that he does this on a monthly basis to keep it clean. It was interesting to see and good to know. You never know when you might need access to a sewer line... :)

Camping World...

Had an appointment, at Camping World, at 8:30 this morning to get valve extenders put on the inside of the dually on our truck. We resorted to this after trying to install several different ones ourselves. Holy Cow, what a tight space ! Not only was it near impossible to get anything in the slim opening between the outer and inner tire but then to screw something onto a valve stem that is pointed at an awkward angle....whew..our fingers were not tiny enough nor nimble enough and I was creating way too many new vocabulary words in trying to attempt it so I made an appointment to have the "pros" do it. Don't ya just hate having to pay a "professional" to do something that you feel you should be able to do ?" Just burns me up but like Clint Eastwood says, "A man's got to know his limitations" and I sure know mine...if something's gonna work, it will usually be on the third attempt.I gave this three tries and it wasn't workin'.

So, the task that they told me would take thirty minutes took about an hour and a half. At least I didn't have it as bad as the guy I was sitting and talking to from North Dakota...he had made this morning's appointment last week but when he showed up this morning they didn't have him on the schedule. Mind you this is on top of them "attempting" to order the parts for him two different times and him having to wait close to six weeks to finally get the parts in for his truck (getting new helper springs on his pick-up. He had an appointment, like I said for 8:30, but at 9:15 his truck will still sitting where he had left it out front. They finally took it in. He was still sitting in the lounge when I left. Nice guy....learned about the great game in N. Dakota...pheasants, deer, elk, turkeys...but no bear.

The job on the valve extenders seems to be fine but I wonder how common the problem is that my fellow RV'er had this morning. Failure to place orders for parts that a customer orders...failing to call the customer when the parts come in...not putting the customer on the schedule. Not a good way to create "happy campers" in your customers AND perhaps a contributing factor in why Camping World (as part of Affinity)is on the "bottom rung" report with a high likelihood of failing within the next year. Hmmm....time will tell what happens to them. Maybe they should contact AIG and see if they can help them out.

Quiet Day...

We spent most of the day just hanging around the house. Linda had a nursing webinar at 1:00 so after that finished we headed to the post office to check for mail and then we decided to drive around. We went in the opposite direction, from where we had driven before, to check things out. We found the Camping World store....which our friends Bobbie and Jim had taken us to when we first arrived but since we were new to the area when they took us, we didn't realize it was up this way. Went in and bought a couple things and continued on up the road. Drove through Robertsdale where we saw a Habitat for Humanity Restore....a store where building supplies are sold for a lot less than you'd pay in a regular store. These supplies come from contractors, demolition crews and stores who donate the items to Habitat. Habitat uses the funds, from selling these items, to help fund their building projects for needy families.

We bought some ice cream and ate that while we drove back home. Another great day weather wise....might be some rain coming by the weekend.

Linda is still waiting to be confirmed for the job in Natchitoches, LA. I got some good news yesterday. My fingerprints came back from FEMA clear so I can be deployed any time now. 81 days till the official start of hurricane season but that isn't the only disaster we cover. Roughly 90% of the disaster work is due to floods. On PB's website, you can see the states where there are active declarations. Even though considerable time has passed in some of these states, it can take a while before an area becomes "inactive".
We're watching the show, "Lie to Me"....an interesting show about body language and the art of telling whether someone is lying or not. It's a great show ! Hope you had a great day and have an even better one tomorrow.

Fort Morgan, Alabama

Today Linda and I took the motorcycle to Fort Morgan, which is down near Gulf Shores....way out on the tip of the coast. As a coastal fort it was designed to control the main ship channel into Mobile Bay. With its star shape it could put a heavy concentration of artillery fire on an enemy fleet as it approached. There are only a few structures that remain of the 100 structures that existed in its heyday. Construction on the fort began in 1819 and it was completed 15 years later. The fort was even used during WWII but after that was deactivated in 1946.

It was a gorgeous ride out to the Fort, which is 37 miles from our campground. The temps were in the 70's today...blue skies and a light breeze. Since the fort is located on the coast, we walked down to the beach after we toured the fort. This is not a public beach so no groomed white sand....actually there are still washed remnants of recent hurricanes on the beach. As you look off the coast, there are lots and lots of oil platforms as far as you can see.Standing on top of the fort I counted at least 20 platforms that I could see. I wonder how many of them are operational since I know some of them were impacted by the last coastal storm to come through here.
When we left the fort, we headed back towards Summerdale and stopped at the Coleman camping Outlet, The Old Town Pottery store and the Gulf Shore tool store. Had fun looking at gadgets and gizmos in all the different stores we went in. Got home around 5 p.m....
Tomorrow our friends leave so we got to spend a little time with them this evening before they pull out in the morning. We wish them safe and wondrous adventures ahead !!