Traveling RV Blog

Welcome 2012

2012-01-02T09:53:00.000-08:00

2011 was an interesting year for us. We brought in the year while hosting at Andersen's RV Park in Long Beach Washington. We had a blast enjoying the beach and learning about the ocean and razor clam fishing. We worked with some fantastic friends and look forward to returning to the area someday. There is so much to see and do in the area. The Lewis & Clark trail, Columbia river, lighthouses, Astoria, and our first tsunami warning after the earthquake in Japan.

From Washington we moved to the fairgrounds in Grass Valley California. We had been trying to land a job there since we started full-timing. There are very few workamper opportunities in the area we retired from and where our grandchildren live, so we were thrilled to be able to return to northern California. Unfortunately we had to leave the job early due to our Norcold 1210 refrigerator quitting in July. Lucky for us our condo was not rented at the time and the decision was made to move out of the RV and setup the condo. We had already started remodeling the condo and expected to move in after completing our commitment at the fairgrounds, but the failed refrigerator forced our hand. We felt bad for not completing our commitment, but as things turned out it was a good move. It took 3 months for our dealer to work out a replacement Norcold with our extended warranty company. The total cost for the new refrigerator was over $5,500.

The coach is now at an indoor storage facility. We need to finish cleaning it up, both inside and out, so it will be ready for us when we decide to go. We both have a bad case of hitch-itch. Since Jan is not having much luck with her real estate business I have been busy looking for a great location to spend our summer. We like the pacific northwest so will probably focus our search in that area.

2011 was also the year I finally took the amateur radio license test and received my call sign, KJ6RGX. I've been wanting to do this for many years. My main interest is meeting fellow hams and getting involved with emergency communications. I also became a certified Skywarn Weather Spotter for my county. They also use ham radio during severe weather spotting so it is a good fit.

Happy New Year. Stay safe out there.

Neewollah...

2011-10-31T15:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Neewollah...that's Halloween backwards! We learned all about it while working at Amazon.com in Coffeyville Kansas in 2009. We were living at the Elk City State Park that happened to be heavily involved with this local tradition.

I am happy to report that I am now a member of the local amateur radio club. It took awhile to receive confirmation but it's official. I have also joined the local Skywarn® group. The national Skywarn® Recognition Day is happening in December and includes a tour of the National Weather Service offices. Should be a fun filled 24 hours.

Jan and Oscar participated in a local dog parade and got their picture in the local newspaper.

Oscar was in the top 10 judging out of 40+ dogs entered and they had a great time. I also posted some video's to my YouTube page.

No word yet on the Norcold replacement for the coach. I know the new refridgerator was shipped and arrived in Grass Valley at DeMartini, but apparently they are backed up with too many rigs needing service and haven't been able to get the work done for us. I was hoping they would get it done so we can bring the coach back to town, get it in storage, and finish the work we want to do on it. Mostly cleaning and removing all our personal property. Since we aren't full-timing anymore we don't need to carry everything we own in the coach. I'd also like to get the wheel rims polished up, and I'm sure the coach needs a bath after sitting out on the dealers lot.

That's it from California. Be safe out there...

Norcold 1210LRIM & Ham Update

2011-10-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

I received a call this morning from my RV dealer, our new refrigerator has arrived. But they are swamped with work and not sure when they can get our rig into a bay to work on it. Once again I told them "No hurry". When will I learn. So I figure maybe another week and we will have our coach back. I'm very glad we decided to move out of the coach and into the condo. It would have been a very long summer trying to live in the coach with no reefer.

We had a visit from Paul & Denise. They finished up there summer job in Washington and were on their way to Calistoga. They had an issue with their rig not wanting to start so they brought it over to Yuba City to get worked on and we were able to get together a couple times and get caught up and play some cards. It was great to see them and Duke again. And on top of that it was Paul's birthday. Here's a picture of Paul blowing out the candles on his cake.

Still not transmitting on the amateur radio yet. I did get my license and bought a radio. But I had to wait for approval from the condo association to allow me to put up an antenna. The board meeting was Tuesday night and they notified me they approved my request. I haven't purchased the antenna yet, a member of the local ham club makes them and sells them. But we haven't been able to meet so I could actually see the antenna so I know what I need to mount it. And the RG-8X RF cable I bought came with no connectors so I had to run over to Radio Shack today to get the connectors I need. So it's all coming together, just taking longer than I expected.

I did join the NorCal Skywarn out of Sacramento. I won't know if I can hit their repeater until I get my antenna put up. I also recently purchased an HT handheld 2M radio so I can go mobile easier (since I plan to use my mobile radio as a base station). That should be delivered tomorrow. No word yet from the local ham club (Yuba Sutter Amateur Radio Club (YSARC)) about my membership application. It's been almost 3 weeks since I sent them my dues and paperwork and have not heard anything. I had hoped to meet up and get to know them and possibly ask for some help...now I'm not so sure that's a good idea. They seemed very active and responsive when I was looking for a test site, but now it's totally different and I can't get anybody to respond. Hope I didn't just waste $20 on them.

I also received my Skywarn(tm) packet from the National Weather Service with my spotter number. So I think everything is done and I'm official. We don't get a lot of severe weather around here so don't know how long it might be before they activate us for something.

I'd like to get involved with the local ARES club, but so far I have not found a POC for the club or any reference online. I know they have a net meeting on Tuesday nights since I listened in with the scanner. Maybe once I get my radio's up and running I can call them direct and get some information on how to join, get trained, whatever...

I think that's it for this entry. For those of you on the move to your winter locations or job, be safe out there.

Changes Again...

2011-09-24T07:42:00.000-07:00

As usual we have changed plans again. With Jan getting back into real estate and me taking up a couple new hobbies, we decided our best plan was to settle down for a few years. It is going to take a while for Jan to get her business going and I don't want to drag her away from it until she is situated. So rather than escape for the summer to do workamping somewhere we have decided to stay put, let the business get going, and then think about taking short trips for vacation.

That also means we will sell the coach. There's no sense hanging on to it if we aren't going to use it. The plan is to shop for a smaller coach that will enable us to camp out for 2 or 3 weeks at a time. So if you know anyone who is looking for a very nice class A diesel pusher please direct them to:

http://wdworldmap.com/MonacoForSale.htm

I made that page fairly quickly but I will change the pictures into a better format, as well as more pictures, posted shortly. Also, the coach is still in for repairs. I received a call from DeMartini yesterday and they are talking with the extended warranty people to just replace the Norcold refrigerator. The cost of all the replacement parts is almost the same as a new fridge. Should know more next week. Since we are selling the coach we decided to stick with the Norcold rather than install a residential fridge as the new owner might want to boondock more than us. The residential fridge would require a major renovation of the cabinet, would most likely stick out further, so we opted to just stick with the Norcold. I have heard the new units are better built and do not suffer from the same problems as the older units, so replacing it will be a good thing.

I finally got off my butt and took the license exam for ham radio. I've been trying to do this for a long time but something always seemed to get in the way. I passed the exam and received my license, KJ6RGX. Not sure where this is headed. I also attended training for being a weather spotter for the national weather service out of Sacramento. The program is called Skywarn(tm). At the end of the training one of the other attendees mentioned a local ham club that is affiliated with the same program. So it looks like I will be able to make a connection between weather spotting and ham radio during bad weather. It doesn't require any storm chasing, just reporting local conditions from the neighborhood.

That's it from here...stay safe out there...

Getting settled in for the winter...

2011-08-29T05:24:00.000-07:00

We are slowly getting settled into the condo. The new carpet is installed and looks very nice. The company did a great job of removing the old carpet and installing the new. Once they were done Jan and I put the TV stand and computer desk together. Then we bought some furniture from friends who were buying new stuff. We also bought a new bed, a California King of course. And I finally gave up researching TV's and just went to Sams Club and bought a 47" Vizio. I was trying to make an informed purchase, but I found out that TV makers don't follow a standard when publishing claims of what each TV can do. I was going nuts trying to figure out what to buy. I managed to get everything I wanted on the TV except LED back-lighting. The model I bought has LED edge-lighting and that will have to suffice. And no 3D, I didn't think we needed that luxury.

No luck finding a summer job yet. The KOA park in NY we were hoping to work at didn't seem very interested last time I talked to them. So as it stands right now we are looking for Montana or Idaho for next summer. We've been to Idaho and really enjoyed it and wouldn't mind going back again. Montana is on my bucket list and I know eventually we will find a job there.

The RV went into the shop on Wednesday. The Norcold 1210LRIM quit working, it forced us to move into the condo before we were ready. As of Friday they still hadn't worked on it. I never should have told them I wasn't in a hurry. I kind of expected it, the service manager that always took good care of us recently quit to be closer to his sick daughter. Even though I had an appointment, he explained they sold a bunch of new coaches that needs PDI's done. I know they don't have enough technicians working there, and of course they have plenty of coaches waiting to be worked including ours, so things were really backed up. I'm just glad we weren't living in the coach and had the option to just drop off the coach. I have the feeling this is going to take awhile.

We watched the progression of Hurricane Irene for 3 days on The Weather Channel. My folks live in Richmond VA. and I was a little worried. I called them as soon as they predicted the hurricane was going up the coast and we made plans on how to contact each other if communications went out. Luckily we didn't need to use any of those plans as they were fine. The building they live in has emergency generators and they had stocked up on groceries to be able to manage for a few days if needed. But they came through the storm unscathed.

That's it for this edition. Stay safe out there...
'

Fast Internet

2011-07-23T09:16:00.000-07:00

We have moved into the condo, at least partially moved in, no real furniture as we wait for the new carpet to be installed. But I did get cable TV, internet, and phone, the Xfinity bundle from Comcast. After almost 4 years on the road and using RV park WiFi and our Sprint air-card...and putting up with limits on how much data we use, and slow speeds and interruptions in service, I have to say how impressed we are with cable. Man is it fast. I ran one speed test so far from dslreports.com and the 2Mbit upstream and 17Mbit downstream speeds blew my socks off. By far, this is the fastest internet we have ever experienced.

We are currently using a 32" analog television that doesn't do HD, so I can't comment on the quality of the cable signal for viewing as compared to DirecTV. Another one of those items waiting on the carpet install. Once we get it setup I will blog a comparison.

[Added 9/24/11] The HD cable is not as good as DirecTV. It's close, but I can see minor differences, especially while watching football games. Also, when people are talking their lips are out of sync with the audio. Not sure yet if this is a problem with cable or the TV.

We did purchase a TV entertainment stand and computer desk, but they are still in the box. The less I have to move for the carpet the better. We also purchased a bed that can be delivered as soon as the carpet is done. We also have a friend who is buying new furniture and is going to sell us their couch and loveseat and kitchen table. So the only items still on the list is the bedroom dresser and drawers. Whew, not bad for rushing to get out of the RV.

The RV is currently stored at an indoor boat & RV storage facility. I can get to it whenever I need to if I want to work on it, and the price was right. I am so happy to be able to store it inside and out of the sun.

Still trying to line up a workamping job in New York for next summer. It's a KOA park so I know we will need to learn yet another reservation program. Good thing Jan has plenty of computer experience.

That's it for now...stay safe out there...

Coach Modification

2011-07-16T11:48:00.000-07:00

After talking to a local RV friend I decided to make a couple modifications to the coach. Jan has been wanting me to light the grab handle next to the entry door. Not a difficult job, but I knew one of the mounting screws was broken and would need to be removed. As luck would have it, when I removed the handle there was just enough of the screw sticking out that I could grab it with vise grips and remove it. But, I found another screw that was broken when I removed the handle. This screw was broken in the middle and the head was tight in the threads so I never noticed it before. I tried to drill a hole in the screw shaft so I could use a screw remover tool, but the drill bit would not stay centered on the shaft.

Luckily my friend has a lot of experience in fiberglass so he is going to show me how to punch the remaining screw out and repair the hole. While a messy job it's apparently not that difficult.

The other project is I want to add another courtesy light on the entry steps. We have 3 steps, but Monaco only installed 2 step lights. About a year ago I tracked down the company that made these lights for Monaco. I needed a replacement light bulb. These lights use what is called a festoon bulb. They look very similar to the old style glass fuses that used to be used in cars before the current style of colored fuses. Very difficult to find the correct size for my fixtures. Once I contacted the company who made them and ordered some replacement bulbs I also ordered another fixture so I could add the missing 3rd step light.

And we continue to work on the condo. The new carpet is ordered and should be here next week. Once the carpet is installed we can start furnishing. We have some friends who are buying new furniture and they offered us there old couch and love seat and a 32" analog old style 4x3 TV that will work for the bedroom. Jan has her eye on a bedroom set she likes. So all I need to find is the main TV for the living room (without the Netflix app) and a dinette set. In the mean time we still need to paint the kitchen and bathroom, both of which have cabinets that will require sanding the wood, removing the handles, primer paint, and then re-assembly.

I can't believe the idiots at Netflix. Earlier this year they raised the rate to cover the cost of including streaming video with the DVD package. You could still get your DVD's in the mail, but they also have some movies you can stream directly to you via the internet. Granted, none of the good stuff is available for streaming, but when you are waiting for the next DVD to arrive in the mail it was nice to be able to watch an old movie. This past week Netflix announced they are now going to charge for streaming separate, meaning if you are now paying $7.99 for one DVD by mail, and you want to continue to stream movies via the internet then you need to pay another $7.99. Now I cancelled our Netflix account when we arrived in California so it didn't matter to me. But yesterday I received a "We want you back" email from Netflix. The problem, the email was for a streaming account, but the "look" of the email made it appear to be for the regular DVD type account. Very misleading if you didn't pay close attention. With all the negative press they are getting over this change, if they can get a small percentage of people to "fall" for this ad campaign it will boost the subscriber numbers for them. You've been warned!

We are enjoying the Worldfest party in the park. Lots of people watching, some great music, and all the problems that go with hosting such a large event. Keeps us busy.

Until next time, stay safe out there and safe travels.

Where's travelingrvwx.com?

2011-07-13T04:19:00.000-07:00

I have been swamped with emails asking what happened to travelingrvwx.com, so to make it easier on me I decided to make an blog entry rather than respond to individual emails.

Whenever we re-locate to a new host position I always ask my new employer if it is okay to use the name of their RV park (and sometimes their logo) on my website and webcam. It normally is not a problem, they get free advertising for their RV park, and customers can visit the business "virtually" before they commit to making a reservation.

When we arrived at our present location I didn't ask for permission. We have never hosted in this type of RV park before so rather than ask for permission I decided to omit the business specific data I usually include on my website.

This park had some concerns with my website, webcam, and blog entries. I was asked to shutdown my weather site and webcam, and, to refrain from mentioning this park in my blog.

If you visit the page now you will see a link that will take you to the Weather Underground site where I share my weather data. Or if you prefer, you can visit the National Weather Service to see my weather data.

Travelingrvwx.com will return once we move to our next location around the end of August (or when the condo is finished). So far we haven't found a hosting job in a location where we want to spend the winter. I did contact Amazon.com about working the rush in Fernley, just over the hill from us in Nevada. But I suspect we will stay in the condo and make plans to travel to New York next summer for a hosting job near Chautauqua Lake and my old stomping grounds. I have contacted an KOA park there to see if they would be interested in hiring us as hosts. They also sell/rent park model RV's and we are thinking about purchasing one that is already on site and setup so we can spend our summers in N.Y. and winters in California. As usual, no decisions have been made yet, and all plans are written in jello. When we know I will post here.

Until next time, safe travels...

Just an update on us...

2011-07-11T11:58:00.000-07:00

Jan and I are spending most of our free time remodeling our condo. We have painted the bedroom, hallway, and living room. Those rooms were first on our list as we want to have new carpet installed in those areas. We figured it would be better to paint first so we didn't have to worry about spilling any paint on the carpet. We ordered the new carpet Friday and hopefully it will be installed after the 20th of July.

We still need to paint the bathroom and kitchen. Since both have cabinets it's going to take longer to patch, repair, and paint. There are lots of handles that need to be removed and in some cases replaced. I can't remember the last time the condo had a new coat of paint. The renters we had took good care of everything but there are still some areas that I want to repair.

Once the new carpet is in we can start shopping for furniture and moving some stuff out of the RV. I did find a place in Yuba City that offers indoor storage for RV's so we are now re-thinking selling the RV. Since it's paid for, broken in, and all setup we think it might be a good idea to keep it rather than try to sell it in this economy. My main concern was storing it outside. Now that I know I can store it inside I think keeping it may be the wise choice.

We survived the Blue Grass festival. Lots of great music and people. And we had what must have been thousands of cars for the 4th of July fireworks. We are now starting the Worldfest Festival. Click that link to see what that's all about. Should be another fun week and lots of great entertainment.

Safe travels.

Back in California

2011-05-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been 2 months since I posted to the blog! First off, we moved to California. Our winter job in Long Beach Washington is over. After sitting on the coast for 7 months we packed up the coach and hit the road.

We had a few problems getting packed up and moving. The coast was very abrasive on the coach. First I had to get under the coach and clean up the leveler rams. They were showing signs of corrosion and I didn't want to raise them until I could get them cleaned up. I knew the rust would tear up the seals if I didn't get it taken care of. The problem was the rust remover I bought required air temperatures above 50 degrees and the weather was not cooperating. When we finally had a decent day with no rain and warm temps I got under the coach and cleaned them best I could, then sprayed the rams with white lithium grease to protect them. I'm glad I didn't wait any longer as the damage was extensive. They cleaned up pretty good, but I am sure I will need to monitor them constantly now to ensure it doesn't start happening again.

On moving day I discovered the entry steps would not retract. More corrosion. We sprayed the joints with silicone and managed to get them retracting most of the way. When retracted they were sticking out about an inch, but as we kept exercising them it got better.

Once we said goodbye to everybody and hit the road I wanted to fuel the rig. I was worried about algae in the diesel fuel since we had not purchased fuel for our trip from Elkton Oregon in October. So we stopped in Long Beach and put $200 worth of diesel in the tank and made plans to stop at the truck stop south of Roseburg.

The trip to Astoria was smooth, but the road to Longview where we picked up I-5 was interesting. We drove through rain, fog, snow and sleet as we followed highway 30 along the Columbia River. It was a pretty drive and very little construction.

Once we hit I-5 we stopped at the first rest area to do my walk-around and make sure the Jeep was tracking okay and still hooked up. I discovered the air brake hose had fallen off from the Jeep connection and had dragged on the ground for a short distance before wrapping itself around the tow bar. But the dragging had ground about 1/4 of the nipple off the connector. It will need to be replaced but there was enough left that I managed to get it seated without a leak.

I also had to secure one of the basement panels that was open. The screws that hold it shut must have worked loose and were missing. Luckily when Monaco designed the doors they mounted them so they open back-to-front, so even if they are loose the wind while moving down the road will hold them closed. The panel that was loose covers the access to the holding tanks. I was able to locate a screw that fit. I secured the door and we continued our trek south on I-5.

We couldn't decide where we wanted to stop for our first night. It was a toss up between Sutherlin and the 7 Feathers Casino. We decided to see what the weather was like when we reached Sutherlin, and how tired I was from driving, before we made a decision. The first day on the road is the worst for me since it usually entails an early morning start packing up the remaining items, stowing the hoses, and getting the coach ready to move down the road. So by the time we reached Sutherlin I was ready to park it and get some rest.

We decided to stay at the Umpqua Golf Resort and RV Park. For $25/night it turned out to be a great deal. We had a great view of the hills so could watch the rain coming up the valley. Unfortunately the lawn mowers on the golf course woke me early in the morning, and the log trucks jake brakes made sure I didn't fall back to sleep.

I had been watching the weather reports and noticed they had chain restrictions on the Siskiyou Pass. The ODOT webcams showed they had a couple inches of new snow. The weather report looked better for the following day so we decided to spend another night in Sutherlin and not press our luck trying to get over the pass.

Now that we had an extra day we decided to drive over to Elkton to visit friends at the Elkton RV Park. It's a beautiful drive that follows along side the Umpqua River. We were able to meet up with Pat & Marv at the park and do some catching up with them and their winter in Elkton. I think they had almost as much rain as we did on the coast. I was surprised to hear that Marv put their awning in just before a big wind storm hit. During the summer Marv never pulls in their awning even when I warned him about high wind warnings.

The next morning we got an early start hitting the road by 0800. I wanted to see if we could make it to our destination in one day. We stopped for fuel south of Roseburg and topped off the tank. The sun was shining and it looked to be a beautiful travel day.

We made our usual 2 hour stops for Oscar. He doesn't actually need to stop every 2 hours but I do, so we blame it on Oscar. I need to stretch my legs and use the restroom. And Oscar does enjoy getting out and smelling everything. I was surprised to see all the rest areas open and offering free coffee and cookies. I didn't notice who was running the coffee stands but I know it wasn't the state. I suspect some volunteers stepped up to keep the rest areas open.

We made it through the Siskiyou Pass with no problems and the view of the mountains was spectacular. Shasta Lake looked to be almost full as we passed by, much better than when we passed by going north. Once we reached Red Bluff the wind picked up but luckily it was a tail wind and did not affect driving the coach. But when we reached our turn off to highway 20 and started heading east the wind was broadside and made the remainder of the trip interesting.

We did stop in Browns Valley and put another $200 worth of fuel in the tank before we headed up the hill to Grass Valley. It's always nice to be in familiar territory again. We reached the RV Park just before 1700 and had the coach setup in a few minutes.

So we are back in California and enjoying the warmer weather. We had a few days of warmth that had us turning on the air conditioner. Then it cooled off and we had snow and rain for a couple days. We were lucky enough to arrive before spring was over and summer starts. Spring is my favorite time of year in northern California. The hills are green, flowers and trees blooming, and rain. Once the rain stops everything turns brown and the temps start to go up. One year we went 139 days with no rain.

That's it. We have completed our move from Long Beach Washington to Grass Valley California. Stay safe and safe travels.

One of those days...

2011-03-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

Just took a long walk on the beach, it's such a beautiful day today. We get a lot of what we call "Washington sunshine" that most people would call rain. So it's kinda special when we get a day of real sunshine. Truth be told, it did rain a little this morning, and chances are it will rain more this afternoon, but right now the sun is shining and hardly any wind.

We know there are worse places we could have spent this winter. So many places have been hit with floods, tornado's, extreme cold and snow, that we feel lucky to have found this gem on the coast. We've never spent a lot of time at the beach before, usually just day trips. We have learned so much about the area, the ocean, the climate. And there is a bunch of history here with the Lewis & Clark trail, the tide rail road, and even kites. The kite museum located in Long Beach is dedicated exclusively to the thrill, joy, art, science and world history of kites. Betcha didn't know that!

Some video from today...

Stay safe out there...

Snow at the beach...

2011-02-26T09:37:00.001-08:00

There's just something wrong with snow at the beach. I know it's winter but I expected the ocean to keep us out of the snow and freezing temperatures. Obviously that isn't happening since we received between 1" and 2" of snow, and the overnight temperature last night hit 19.2 degrees. Luckily I opened all the water spigots in the park yesterday afternoon to prevent broken pipes.

Having grown up in south western New York we actually enjoy a good snow once in awhile. You know those big flakes, nighttime, and it's dead quiet. Used to love taking a walk when it was like that...what I don't miss is shoveling the stuff or driving in it.

Hope everyone is having a great winter...stay safe out there.

Three Years on the Road

2010-12-31T11:05:00.000-08:00

We started this new life style on 26 December 2007 and here it is 3 years later. We still love it but changes may be on the horizon. More on that later.

I still remember the day we purchased our coach. It was the holidays and we were having trouble getting the money from the bank to our dealer. The dealer would not let us take the coach until the funds were confirmed. With it being close to Christmas the banks were having a hard time talking to each other, I guess they were playing phone tag. And then, the day after Christmas everything finally fell into place. We had made arrangements to take possession of the coach in Reno and finalize the paperwork and notarize everything to make it all legal.

When we arrived in Reno it was snowing. I had only driven the coach once, a test drive, and here we are in Reno, at a shopping plaza, and it's snowing. On top of that, my parents are with us as we are going to take them to Virginia, and right now I need to figure out how to load their car onto the tow dolly we borrowed for the trip. Did I mention it was snowing?

Loading the car was not a big deal. I've used tow dollies before and had no problem getting their car loaded and ready to hit the road. We get back in the coach and start it up. What am I doing? OMG! I have to drive this huge bus out of this shopping plaza and get on interstate 80, and it's snowing. Talk about scared...

Well we made it and we didn't hit anything. Turns out these big vehicles are not that hard to drive and maneuver. Of course I didn't know that then, but the further we traveled the more confidence built up, and I was learning using the baptism-by-fire method. Luckily the snow stopped a few miles south of Fernley NV. and the rest of the first day proved to be uneventful. We managed to get in and out of a Texaco gas station that sold diesel, and we found a very nice RV park for our first night in the coach.

Here's a picture of our new rig in Wilcox AZ. that shows my parents car on the tow dolly.

I mentioned that changes may be on the way. We are discussing moving into the condo we own in California. It's paid for but not furnished. We are thinking about using it for a home base since our grand kids are nearby, and our doctors complain if we don't come see them at least once a year. So we thought we could use the condo for a home base, sell the big bus, and purchase something smaller so we can still travel and do workamping jobs in the summer, and then spend most of the winter in the condo. No decision has been made yet, but having a home base sounds appealing. Winter workamping jobs are not a lot of fun in an RV. Life becomes more complicated trying to keep the rig warm and not freezing water hoses and tanks. And keeping the propane tank filled is a real pain. I did finally install an extend-a-stay on the propane hookups and purchased a 40# tank. But it always seems to empty at the worst possible time. Like yesterday, with the outside morning temperature at 27 degrees and the inside of the coach showed 52 degrees. Yikes! The electric blanket worked great and I had no idea the furnace wasn't working until I got out of bed. And of course the water hose froze, but I always keep the fresh water tank full so we had water. But it shows how winter living is different from summer.

Jan has been thinking about getting back into real estate (she kept her license current) so this would allow her to work part of the year and give us the opportunity to travel, do workamping at cool places, or just stay home. 3 years on the road has shown us that we can do this, and, we know there are more places in this country that we want to experience. But having a home base should allow us to settle down the pace and spend more time picking and choosing the places we want to see.

So there you have it. Another year in the books. Stay safe out there.

December on the beach...

2010-12-13T10:51:00.000-08:00

Here it is the middle of December and I haven't made a blog entry yet...geesh! I've been spending a fair amount of time trying to touch base with everybody via email or Facebook. I'd lost track of a couple friends and wanted to find out what their up to this winter. Some friends have been working at Amazon.com this season, and since Jan and I did that last year I have been interested to hear how everybody made out. So far I haven't been successful in getting anybody to share their experience. Hopefully that's because they are just to busy to write, it's either that or they hate us for making them aware of the opportunity to work for Amazon.

It's been an expensive month making repairs to the coach. The 1st thing to break was the Atwood hot water heater. Apparently the electric heat element decided to quit. Wasn't a big deal as propane worked, kinda. I didn't think about it, but both the electric and propane use the same thermostat to determine when heat is needed. I managed to get the propane to fire up, but I knew something was wrong. Called the local mobile RV repair guy, Ashlin from Mobile West (360)929-7721, and he replaced the electric element and the thermostats and everything is working again. Luckily our extended warranty covered the repair costs or it would have run over $500.

Then our front TV video finally died. It's been going bad for months, taking up to 30 minutes in the morning to sync the video. So we were expecting it to die eventually. On a Sunday morning I called the local TV repairman, Bill Rayburn from Premium Technologies (360)642-4993, who came out in 30 minutes. Honestly, I didn't know what day of the week it was until Jan asked me if he was coming out to take a look at it on Sunday. I apologized when he arrived but he said it was okay. We pulled the TV out of the overhead cabinet so he could take it to the shop to find out what was wrong with it. He called me back and said he could repair it for $500, or, we could get a replacement TV for $300. Since the replacement TV was the exact same TV only 3 years newer we opted to replace the TV. He told me the problem we had was heat. Because the TV is mounted in an enclosed cabinet and is close to the roof, when the sun beats on the roof it get's too hot in the cabinet causing connections to come loose inside the TV. He said any TV would suffer from the same issue and the solution is to add exhaust fans to the cabinet. So I am now searching for some muffin fans.

The next problem is actually the worst...a water leak. Anybody who owns an RV knows that water is your worst enemy. I woke up the other night and it was raining cats & dogs. I walked into the living room and I could hear water dripping. After a quick look around I discovered the entry door was leaking some serious water from the top seal on the door itself. After troubleshooting I noticed it only leaked when the rain was coming down in buckets. The rain let up, I dried up the area and went back to bed. It took me 2 days to find the problem (with help from Ashlin). When Monaco built our coach the cutout for the door is not exactly square. The seal on the top of the door is not touching the door jam and there is just enough room for water to make it's way inside the door. But where was the water coming from? We have a door awning above the door so I knew water was not coming off the roof and down the side of the coach above the door. While standing there looking at it the rain started, and then it started to really pour...and that's when I saw it. Our fiberglass roof is peaked to help water flow off the roof. And of course we have the curb side awning like most RV's. So all the water on the roof that flows to the curb side of the coach "hits" the mount for the awning and must go to the front or rear of the awning before it can exit the roof. Well the end of the awning in the front is just behind the door. Heavy rain causes a LOT of water to flow towards the front of the coach, and that little gutter can't contain all that water, so much of the water overflows and goes down the side of the coach between the door and the slide out. When enough water is flowing down the side it hits the enclosure for the door awning, then continues to flow under the awning until it exits above the door. And that's where the water coming in the door is coming from.

The problem has been there from day 1. But it took the heavy rain in Washington to "show" us the problem. The correct fix would be to remove the door and build up the top edge so the seal contacts the top of the door jam and seals out the water. But with the weather here I can't allow Ashlin to take my door. And I can only imagine how much that would cost. So I have decided to install an small roof over the door but under the awning that will prevent water from reaching the door seal. While not ideal, for $100 I know it's a lot cheaper that repairing the door.

The last problem was the Norcold 1210 refrigerator. We had problems with the fridge section freezing when we were in Branson. Ever since then I have kept an thermometer in the fridge so I could monitor the temperature. It started doing the same thing again, only this time I noticed water collecting on the roof of the fridge and the rear fins were all ice. I called Norcold and they agreed to send me another thermistor assembly and they also said I needed to shim the doors as they have a tendency to droop towards the bottom. So I shimmed the doors and installed the new thermistor and the fridge is back to working as it should. Good thing that worked since Ashlin won't work on Norcold units...he wants to sell me a Dometic refrigerator to replace my Norcold. I asked him about installing an residential refrigerator but he doesn't do that kind of work, says it is not complaint with the RVIA standards. So for now we are sticking with the Norcold until we return to our dealer in California to see about replacing the Norcold.

Yep, an expensive month, at the worst possible time with Christmas coming up quickly and grand kids that need presents from Grandma and Grandpa. Luckily the extended warranty covered some of the repairs and we were able to send the presents out for the kids.

One last bit of news...we have our summer job lined up. We will be returning to California to host at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley California. We were hoping to take a job in Idaho but decided since we haven't seen the grand kids in almost a year, and, we haven't seen our doctor in almost a year, that we had better get back to California.

That's all for now. Merry Christmas to everybody from Jan and I and Oscar. Stay safe out there.

Winter in Washington

2010-11-18T11:02:00.000-08:00

Wet...very wet. It's a real change from Oregon and California. Seems it rains all the time. And being on the coast we get plenty of wind to go with the rain. Luckily where we park the coach is a little sheltered from the wind, but we get our share. We have pulled in the short slide-outs due to the wind flapping the awning toppers. I just can't sleep when they are making noise. Our rig floor plan allows us to have full access to everything in the coach until we pull in the super-slide. But even with the super-slide in we have access to everything except on closet and the washer/dryer. So far we have only pulled in the super-slide 3 times. That means wind gusts expected over 35 mph. Having a weather station really helps us decide when to pull the slides in or leave them out.

I have found one possible solution to the awning topper problem. The AirWedge is one possible way to prevent flapping. Unfortunately they only come in one length and color. And I doubt they would prevent the fabric from tearing if the winds are high enough to cause damage. But if anyone is interested I am providing the link.

A picture of Jan and Oscar on the beach. It was a clamming weekend here in Washington so there were a lot of people on the beach. There were clammer's as far as we could see in both directions. We haven't tried clamming yet but we did go out and talk to some folks who were very nice and explained to us the whole process. Then when we came back to the RV park we saw some folks cleaning their clams so we stopped and talked to them and watched them. Jan does not think she will clean any clams, much to messy for her.

We have also been looking for our summer job. A park in California emailed me and wanted to know if we were interested in working there next summer. Then we had a call from Branson wanting to know if we wanted to come back and work for them again. Then we heard about a possible opening in Idaho that we sent out our resume to see if we could come work there next summer. One nice thing about workamping, there is always plenty of choices when it comes time to find work. We haven't made any decision yet but the Idaho job looks interesting. Way back when we were thinking about living full time in an RV we spent a week in Arco Idaho looking at possibly purchasing our own RV park. We loved Idaho and would love to get back there again.

We hope all our friends who are working at Amazon this fall are having a great time. Friends are located at the Kentucky, Kansas, and Nevada centers this holiday season and all report they are having a good time.

That's it for this entry. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. Stay safe out there.

Winter Location 2010

2010-10-11T05:14:00.000-07:00

We've left Oregon and moved up to Washington to our winter workamping position. We had a great time this summer at the Elkton RV Park. We worked this same park in 2008 and we liked it so much we wanted to return. It was a great decision. Many parts of the country were HOT this summer and Oregon turned out to be a blessing. We had a few days in the 90's and we only used our air conditioner a handful of times. I think 3 or 4 times for high temps, and 3 or 4 times for allergy abatement. The park has cottonwood tree's and they shed twice a year. Jan and I both had problems with the pollen this year so we used the air conditioners to filter the air in the coach.

When we left Elkton we made plans to meet Charles and Connie on the coast as they headed south on their return trip from Alaska. We met up with them in South Beach, Oregon at the Whales Rest RV Park, a Thousand Trails Leisure Resort. We aren't members, but we were able to stay as their guests. We did some local sightseeing and here are a couple pictures.

We had a good time exploring the local town and viewing sea lions, tidal pools and lighthouse. Oscar wasn't sure what to do with the sea lions. Here's a short video showing the sea lions.

After spending a couple days with Charles and Connie we continued our drive up to Long Beach Washington to Andersen's RV Park. Jan was "encouraging" me to find us a host position on the coast. I tried to talk her out of it saying the weather was harsh, cold, windy, etc. but she wasn't buying it. When this job was posted and I asked her if she wanted to go she didn't hesitate.

I have to admit, so far it's been great. Yes, it's wet and windy, but we've also had some near perfect days. And exploring this coastal town and all the touristy shops will take us most of the winter.

Stay safe out there.

Season End

2010-09-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

We have both worked our last day at the Elkton RV Park. We are now getting the RV ready to hit the road. It has been absolutely beautiful here this summer. Very little rain and temperatures that remained mild all summer. We are very happy that we were able to return to Elkton and it is still our favorite place to stay. We made some new friends, revisted old friends, and did more sightseeing in Oregon. And of course Jan and Oscar had plenty of trips to the Ocean to play in the waves and run in the sand.

We leave here next week to head up to South Beach Oregon to spend a couple days in a Thousand Trails Resort visiting friends who are on their return trip from Alaska. It will be fun to see them again, and we get a couple days to unwind before heading up to Long Beach Washington for our winter job. Long Beach is one of the few places where they allow vehicles to drive on the beach. The only other place I have been to that allows that is Daytona Beach Florida. I'm just hoping it doesn't rain all winter.

That's it for now. Stay safe out there, I know a lot of our RV friends will be moving to winter locations/jobs.

Hitch-Itch

2010-09-11T10:28:00.000-07:00

It's almost time to move on to our next job. Labor day is passed and the campers are thinning out. Nights are getting colder. Leaves are starting to drop from the trees.

We are starting to feel the hitch-itch feeling. It seems to start right after the next job has been accepted. This year we decided to work over the winter and will be moving to Long Beach Washington at the end of the month. We have never spent more than a day on the coast so we expect this to be a learning experience. I don't know how busy the park is during the winter months, but we have heard it is the best time of the year to enjoy the ocean.

We are making plans to visit some friends of ours who are on their return trip from Alaska. They are heading down the coast and we want to meet up with them as we head north. And it will give us a few days to relax before starting the next job.

For those of you who do workamping jobs, I ran across a site today that may interest you. The main theme of the site is for workamper reviews of places you have worked. I joined today and almost immediately discovered that it has been around for a while but has very few posts. And it appears to have server issues as after I had been on the site for about 15 minutes I started getting time out errors. I think it could be a great resource for workampers, but only if people get involved and share their experiences. It's free to join. The URL to the site is:

http://workcamper-reviews.proboards.com/

Today is the 9th anniversary of 9/11. We will never forget.

Stay safe out there...

The perfect full-timing rig revealed...

2010-08-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

Winter Plans

2010-08-10T10:45:00.000-07:00

Jan and I have accepted positions to work in Long Beach Washington this winter. Jan has been bugging me to find a job on the coast so when a job advertisement showed up in the workamper hotline I sent them a resume. To complicate the search we wanted a paying position. As workampers know, finding a paying host/manager job in the winter is near impossible. We need to make some traveling money to allow us to travel to New York next summer for my 35th high school reunion. The costs to drive the RV coast-to-coast means if we don't generate some income we won't be able to make the trip. As luck would have it, this is a paying.

Since we also need to return out west after the summer I've also been busy trying to find a host job. We plan to spend the entire summer in N.Y. so if we can cut the cost of the RV park out of the mix we should be able to save up enough for the return trip. To my surprise, there are not many RV parks near my hometown. I grew up on a lake and I just assumed there would be numerous RV parks around the lake to accommodate summer campers. But that's not the case. There are very few RV parks and lots of mobile home parks. But I was able to find one park that is thinking about hiring workampers (for the first time) next summer and I'm waiting to hear back once they make a decision. If they decide not to hire workampers I doubt we will be able to make the trip since their monthly rate for a FHU site is $625 and includes electric.

We are enjoying our summer in Oregon. The Umpqua River is a wonderful place to sit and relax and listen to the water rushing through the rocks. The fisherman have reported fantastic fishing, and the kids love floating through the channel in the rocks and swimming. Even Oscar is getting in the act trying to catch fish in the shallow pools of water. At night the place is so quiet that the sounds of the river fill the park and will put you to sleep. It just doesn't get much better.

That's it for now. Jan and I hope your enjoying your summer. Stay safe.

Yachats Oregon

2010-07-08T06:52:00.000-07:00

Jan and I took a day trip to Yachats to visit the Sea Perch RV Resort to look at RV park models they are selling. They had 3 for sale, 2 of which are brand new. The park appears to be new, or at least recently renovated. The layout of the park is not ideal (all sites do not have a view of the ocean). They have a few choice sites that face the ocean right on the beach, a middle section of the park where all the sites are parallel with the beach, and a few sites in the front facing the ocean. The front of the park is on the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). All sites appear large enough for a park model, but the sites on the beach will probably not be eligible for a park model as they try to preserve the ocean views.

Here's a short video that shows most the park:

As you can see in the video there was a marine layer of clouds that severely impacted our view of the beach area. We could only see about 500 feet. We want to make another trip to the park and will coordinate with them to make sure it's clear before we go. With the limited view we have no idea what was up or down the beach.

Here's Oscar playing on the beach:

Oscar loves chasing the waves. He doesn't know exactly what to do with them...but it doesn't matter. 2 video's I took, or thought I took, didn't get saved. Some how I thought I was taking video but really was just watching live video. The Flip is simple to operate, but the screen is small and hard to read and I didn't realize it wasn't recording. Bummer. I lost the 2 important video's, the inside of the park model, and the outside showing how far it was from the RV to the beach. There was about 50 feet of grass/yard between the RV and the beach access path. This RV is about as close as you could put it to the ocean.

The park has a very nice club house that includes a formal type sitting area, big screen TV's, workout room with equipment, and a full kitchen for preparing meals. Due to poor cellular coverage they provide a private room for making phone calls worldwide and a computer hook up. A lounge upstairs provides a quite sitting area with big windows looking out over the ocean.

We were impressed with this park. You can purchase a spot and use your own RV, or you can put in a park model to either live in or rent out. They will manage your spot for you. The owner wasn't available during our visit so we didn't get all the financial details.

After our visit we headed back down to Florence for lunch before heading to Winchester Bay so Oscar and Jan could take another romp on the beach before heading back to Elkton. We weren't in a hurry to get home since the temperature in Elkton was forecast to hit near 100 degrees. The coast was in the low 50's when we got over there at 11 a.m. and when we left around 4 p.m. it was only 65. It's amazing that 35 miles later when we arrived in Elkton it was 94 degrees. But the afternoon breeze had started and it quickly cooled off to the mid 70's by 9 p.m.

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer. Stay safe out there.

Independence Week End

2010-07-02T19:19:00.000-07:00

WOW! The park filled up in a few hours today. Something tells me these folks didn't work today and drove to the RV park instead. Good for them. Today is cool with the high temperature of 66 today. Yesterday only hit 70. We did have a splash of rain but not enough to register in the rain gauge. Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be mostly sunny and warmer. Should be perfect.

I hope all our friends stay safe this weekend and enjoy the holiday.

What a Summer...

2010-06-29T16:34:00.000-07:00

Watching weather reports from other parts of the country this summer I can safely say we are glad to be in Oregon. Many parts of the country are experiencing hot weather, tornado's and flooding. And now we have tropical storm Alex heading for possible landfall in south Texas.

We have had 2 days this summer (so far) that broke 80 degrees. We have had our share of rain, but the river is back to near normal levels and we have had some fantastic weather the past couple weeks. Daytime temps in the mid 70's and overnight low's in the lower 50's. Just about perfect. I don't know how long it will continue but we will continue to enjoy it while it lasts.

We have begun our search for a winter position. I've sent out resume's to jobs in Washington, California, and Texas. We haven't decided on any particular state, but I would like to get back east at some point. Jan has been looking at manager job's at a couple locations. And I'm just looking for a small park somewhere with pleasant winter weather.

We've also been looking for property in N.Y. (where I grew up). I am hoping to find something on Chautauqua Lake or with canal access to the lake. It's been so long since we were last in N.Y. that we don't have a good feel for the market. But it's fun looking at listings online and dreaming about returning someday. We would really like to find a small lot with a old mobile home on it that we could remove. Then we can drive our motorhome up for the summer and park it on the lot. Just have to be sure to get out of there before the snow flies.

That's it for now...stay safe out there.

Oregon Weather

2010-06-05T07:47:00.000-07:00

Like most of the country, it seems the weather is anything but normal. California provided us with a very mild winter while it was snowing and cold in Florida. Now that we are in Oregon the strange weather continues. In the month we have been here I think it's rained more days than not. The usually calm Upmqua River is a raging torrent of water right now. The overnight flow rate hit almost 40,000 cfs. when the norm is usually in the 3000-6000 range. Flooding is not a concern yet, the flood stage is 33' and it's at about 16' now. I don't think there is enough snow pack left to melt to cause flooding concerns, but the rain pattern for the next few days means the river level will be very slow to drop. Here's a short video I shot to show how mean the river is right now...

And a couple pictures...

The rain has also kept us cooped up in the coach except for when we work. We haven't had many campers due to the low temperatures and wet conditions. We've had one group that came for the holiday weekend, a few drop-ins and fisherman, and one young family from Holland who are doing a 2 month western USA trip in a rented class C motorhome. You meet the nicest people in RV's :)

Stay safe out there...

Argh...enough winter already...

2010-05-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

Here it is almost Memorial Day weekend and the rain and low temps just won't quit! It's been raining almost all day here and the daily high temperature didn't even hit 60. The weatherman says it will warm up this weekend, but only around the average temp of 67 so not much improvement. What a strange winter it's been this year.

Luckily me and the guys managed to get all the grass mowed and everything weed whacked and picked up to make the park look good for the expected busy weekend that starts the camping season up here in Oregon. We had one rally group last weekend and the weather wasn't real bad, some rain with periods of sunshine.

Oscar has re-acclimated to the park and the river. He has shown no fear of the water, and even though it's cold water he still get's his feet wet.

Jan has settled down since our trip to the coast. We still need to make a trip down to Brookings later this summer to look at some park model RV's for sale. We decided to wait until she get's anxious for the coast again before we go.

That's it from Oregon. Send sunshine. Stay safe out there...

Oregon Coast Day Trip

2010-05-14T20:30:00.000-07:00

Jan and I were chomping at the bit to get over to the coast, it's always great to see the beach and waves. But this trip was planned so we could check out a possible workamper job and sneak a look at some RV park models for sale. We've been discussing a possible purchase to use as a home base, either winter or summer, or possible both. The Oregon coast would offer us that opportunity.

The plan was to leave early and travel directly to Gold Beach to visit the Turtle Rock RV Park. We had inquired about a winter workamping job there and wanted to meet the owner and look the place over.

Here's a picture of Jan and Oscar at the visitors center in Port Orford...

We arrived at Turtle Rock RV Park and met with the owner who explained the job and answered all our questions and concerns. We then looked around the park and took a look at 2 different park models they have for sale. Most of the park models are not owned by the park but they do rent them for the owners.

We then walked out to the beach. We had the place to ourselves! Oscar chased waves for 30 minutes before he ran out of energy. He had a blast. Unfortunatley we both forgot the camera and the flip video camera. You'll just have to take our word for it when we say Oscar was in heaven.

We then began the trip back up the coast. It was now early afternoon and the wind had really picked up. Sure made the trip back to Reedsport seem a lot longer than the trip down the coast.

We decided to make one more stop to look at more park models at the Osprey Point RV Park. The park is located on Ten Mile Lake and has both an RV park and what they call the village. The village is where they sell deeded lots. We saw everything from nothing but an RV pad parking place, to an interesting arrangement where you build a small structure around your RV. Here's a picture that shows some of the sites:

By this time we were both worn out from the trip and headed back to Elkton. We learned a lot about park models and will continue the search for the perfect location. And we decided not to work at Turtle Rock this winter.

Stay safe out there...

Oregon Arrival

2010-05-02T16:55:00.000-07:00

We made it back to Oregon! We ended up spending 2 days in Grass Valley at DeMartini RV getting work done on the coach. We made it to our appointment on time, but they didn't have anybody available to work on the coach until after lunch, so they didn't get everything done in time. Not a big deal, they have RV spots available and there were 2 or 3 other coaches spending the night and we met some nice people.

We got a late morning start for Oregon but managed to make Yreka by 3:30 pm. The drive up I-5 was breezy but it was mostly a headwind. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and very little haze in the valley made for severe clear conditions. The RV park in Yreka is a little expensive but we like the location, it's a little over half way between Yuba City CA. and Elkton OR.

We left Yreka and it was partly cloudy, or partly sunny depending on how you look at things. As we approached Mt. Shasta I had to take the above picture as Jan took Oscar for a walkabout. As we headed for the Siskiyou Pass we could see the clouds were enveloping the peaks. We we finally got up there visibility was low and wet. I didn't know the air temperature so I drove very cautiously until we finally dropped down into Ashland and visibility improved. That was the only rain we saw all day.

We discovered they added an Arby's to the Loves truck stop just south of Roseburg OR. so we stopped to fill up the diesel fuel tank on the coach ($3.29/gal) and have some roast beef. There used to be an Arby's in Grass Valley but it went out of business. We didn't know that and tried to go there for lunch. Arby's are hard to find in NorCal so we didn't want to pass up an oppourtunity to grab some giant roast beef sandwiches.

That's it for this entry. I have had a request for pictures of the RV park here so will work on that for the next entry. Until then, stay safe out there...

Are you looking for a summer job?

2010-04-16T10:39:00.000-07:00

I received an email from some friends who are working in Wyoming this summer and they are looking for another couple. If anyone is interested just contact the park directly.

http://www.snakeriverpark.com/

Jan and I are waiting for the condo sale to close on the 26th of April. And I have an appointment with the RV dealer on the 28th of April to finish up some work they didn't get done last visit because they had to order some parts. Once these loose ends are tied up we can hit the road for Oregon. We have a bad case of 'hitch itch' and are anxious to get back to the Elkton RV Park on the Umpqua river. I need more practice with the fly rod since I haven't done any fishing since we left there in 2008.

Hope everyone is healthy and happy. Stay safe out there...

Summer Plans

2010-03-30T13:01:00.000-07:00

Plans have begun for our trek back to Oregon this summer. Our first workamping job was in Oregon along the Umpqua River in Elkton. It is still our favorite place and we are excited to be heading back for the summer of 2010. We plan to leave early May and head up PCH/101 to check out some RV parks I saw a couple years ago that had park model RV's in them. We are considering altering our lifestyle, at least the full-timing part, and setting up a home base. I envision down sizing the RV to something that gets better gas mileage but we could be comfortable in for up to a month. Like I say, we are just in the talking/research phase and it may or may not happen. But it gives me something to do and think about.

Stay safe out there and enjoy your summer.

2 Years on the road...and counting

2010-03-20T18:23:00.001-07:00

Not much happening out here in sunny California. The weather has been perfect the past few days. Upper 70's during the day and upper 40's at night. The tree's are blooming and the grass is still green. By far this is the best time of the year to be here. Once the rain stops everything will turn brown and it will get hot.

Work has been fairly light. I tried to get them switched over to using Campground Master software, but no luck so far. Now that our time here is getting short it might be a good thing they didn't purchase the software. I have learned that not everyone is good with computer. I'm not sure that if they made the switch now I would be able to get the system setup for the park and get the people trained on using it. With the busy summer schedule it might be a disaster to try and switch now.

Jan and I have been reminiscing about our first workamping job at the Elkton RV Park in Elkton, Oregon the summer of 2008.

Even though we had been "full-timing" since December 2007, it wasn't until we headed to Oregon that we truly felt we had finally left our old lifestyle and started a new one. It brought to a close everything we had been doing to make the switch. Empty the house of all belongings and outfit the new RV. That in itself was a major undertaking. All the emotions of selling just about everything we owned and deciding what to keep with us in the RV. We had already spent a few months in the new coach and made a cross country trip from California to Virginia to visit family. We were waiting on our house to close escrow and I was still employed with Lockheed Martin until that happened. I didn't dare give up my job until all the loose ends had been tied up.

By the time we left California and headed for Oregon the house still hadn't closed. The paperwork was signed but hadn't recorded. Realtors have a saying, "It ain't over until it records". But we were confident and decided to leave. We ended up staying in an RV Park in Yreka in extreme northern California. The next morning, as we were packing up to leave, we received the phone call that the house had recorded. What a relief that news brought. I still had to submit my termination to Lockheed, but the house was the long pole in the tent and it sure felt good to know it was official.

And now here we are, 2 years later, and we're headed back to where it all started. We love the full-time RV lifestyle and our only regret is that we didn't do it earlier. Removing all the burdens of what we call the "Rat Race", mortgage payments, utility bills, and that 4 letter word we hate, "work".

It's been a fantastic 2 years. We have learned a lot, made some fantastic new friends, and visited some great places. If you have time, down at the bottom of this page, is a map showing all the campgrounds we have visited and will give you a good idea of our travels.

Take care and be safe out there...

2010 Census and Escapee's Members

2010-03-18T11:15:00.000-07:00

I received this notice from Escapee's today:

Important Alert!
Stand Up and Be Counted

It was announced in the March/April issue of Escapees magazine that a 2010 Census form would automatically be placed in Escapees Mail Service members' files.. Apparently, the process was not properly cleared through the U. S. Census Bureau attorneys and they have decided that we WILL NOT receive forms for our mail service.

As you can imagine, this is incredibly disheartening due to the amount of time and effort we have put into educating folks on the importance of the census. It's also extremely frustrating that they waited until the last minute to tell us this information. We have contacted our federal representatives but have not been able to change the decision from the Census Bureau.

The Census office in our building will be opening this Friday, March 19, and will remain open for approximately six weeks. If you are in the area, please do come by the office to pick up a census form so that you may be counted. Please remember, it isn't our city's or county's fault that the process changed at the last minute, so please do make an effort to be counted correctly.

If you are unable to come by our office, the only other way to be counted is to wait for a census worker to stop by your campsite (wherever you may be) so you may be counted in person. You will then be counted in that state/county.

The good news is that the forms are very simple to complete. There are only 10 questions for the person filling out the form and seven questions for each additional person in your household.

We agree the process is exceptionally flawed and our hope is that we can educate our federal reps about what changes need to take place for the next census (in 2020).

Life's Journey

2010-02-24T13:16:00.000-08:00

"Most people can look back over the years and identify a time and place at which their lives changed significantly. Whether by accident or design, these are the moments when, because of a readiness within us and a collaboration with events occurring around us, we are forced to seriously reappraise ourselves and the conditions under which we live and to make certain choices that will affect the rest of our lives".

--Frederick F. Flack

Harvest Hosts

2010-02-21T16:34:00.000-08:00

Harvest Hosts is the first membership program of its kind in the United States to provide RV owners with FREE overnight stops at wineries and farms across the country.

A 2010 Founding Year Membership in Harvest Hosts is being offered at the discounted price of only $20.00 for the annual membership.

Wanted to share this info...I know when we're traveling I would love to have a nice place to spend the night and possibly get some bottles of wine.

I don't know why they don't share the exact locations of the hosts...would make me more liable to spend my money on membership. But I like the idea and think it may replace Walmart as the choice of RV'ers.

Anger Management

2010-02-12T13:54:00.000-08:00

Anger Management

Sometimes when you are angry with someone,

It helps to sit down,

take a moment to cool off,

and think about the problem.

(Click image to view full size)

Drew Barrymore's RV Trip Across America

2010-02-07T11:04:00.000-08:00

Hope this works...Drew Barrymore discussing her RV trip across America...

Some news...

2010-02-03T09:43:00.000-08:00

Some of the camp sites that are farthest from the WiFi repeater were not getting a strong signal. Part of the problem is that in general, RV's are made of metal and tend to attenuate signals. And the distance from the WiFi repeater and trees were not helping matters. So I asked the manager to order an upgrade antenna for the Meraki repeater. Meraki says this antenna will almost double the range of the repeater. Considering we only needed to extend the range about 50 feet I felt spending $30 for the antenna was a good solution. The alternative was to spend $200 for another repeater plus the cost of additional items to provide power where ever we decided to mount the new repeater. We aren't that busy right now so I don't know if the fix is working or not. I do know that our campers rely heavily on the WiFi in the park and they waste no time letting me know when it's not working.

I talked to a guy yesterday who stopped by to inquire about the open position the base was advertising for FamCamp. He seemed to like the answers I gave him as he said he was going to apply for the job. If they hire him then we will work only 1 day a week since they will have all the positions filled. Of course we still handle phone calls and late arrivals after the office closes.

I have been filling my time by getting everything working in the park. Lots of light bulbs burned out. I spent most of yesterday replacing bulbs and cleaning the covers. I found plenty of dead bugs and spider webs in the light fixtures. I think just by cleaning them out I doubled the light making it out of the fixture.

I have 3 open work orders to get some other items fixed. I suspect FamCamp is fairly low on the priority pole for jobs CE (Civil Engineers) do around the base. Not much I can do about it except ask the manager to elevate our requests.

Still very slow here. We have a few long term campers and get 1 or 2 travelers during the week. It's impossible to go any direction from here and not hit mountains. And mountain travel, in the winter time, and in an RV is not a good thing. So I think folks are waiting for the weather to improve before venturing out in the RV.

Thats it from here...ya'all stay safe out there.

Amazon cuts ties with Express Personnel

2010-01-20T09:08:00.000-08:00

Sad news, I just received this letter from Mark Keys, owner of Express Personnel in Independence Kansas.

January 20, 2010

Dear Valued Workamper:

It is with a heavy heart that I inform you that we received termination notice yesterday of our contract with Amazon to hire Workampers for the 2010 peak season by an e-mail from them. I was stunned, to say the least, that they didn’t handle this situation with a face-to-face meeting or even a phone call. To add insult to injury, we heard from some of you yesterday that Amazon is in Quartsite, AZ right now recruiting Workampers for themselves!

We have worked with Amazon since opening our office in 2004. Through blood, sweat and tears, we found a solution to their staffing problem – YOU! The Workampers, although many of you were not treated with the respect and dignity you deserve, were actually a God-sent to Amazon, obviously, now that they are recruiting you themselves.

Kym and I would like to personally thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to Express as you worked exceedingly long hours in an extremely difficult work environment at Amazon. As I am sure you noticed by your local co-workers, you made our life so much easier these past three years by having people we could count on to show up and do their jobs. We cherish every acquaintance and friendship we have made by knowing all of you.

Please feel free to use us for a reference in any of your Workamping jobs and please give us a call or stop by to see us if you are ever in our part of Kansas. We would love to hear from you again!

Meanwhile, we have another company in our franchise territory that may benefit from Workampers as well as another one in a territory nearby and hope to be able to offer you another Express job by next fall. We will keep you posted.

Thanks again for your support, your kindness and the great job you did for us this past peak season.

Kind regards,

Mark and Kym Kays

Sad news as Mark and Kym did a fantastic job of managing all the workampers in Coffeyville.

Stay safe out there...

Winter in California

2010-01-19T10:10:00.000-08:00

What a week in California. Rain, wind, fog. Yep, that's winter on the west coast. Almost 2 inches of rain so far this week with more expected. And with the jet stream taking aim straight out of the pacific the wind this week has been unusually strong. They say we have one more day of this before things calm down.

I wasn't able to position my weather station in an ideal location so I am not getting the best wind readings. I always have problems when at Beale due to the huge radar station about 3 miles away. My weather station is wireless and the radar signal seems to kill the communication between the sensors and the console. It's so bad that even my solar sensor that is positioned about 2 feet away from the console has a hard time sending it's data. So I am doing the best I can given the situation. Unfortunately it means I have to keep the outdoor sensors very close to the console.

The location I selected for the outdoor sensors is not picking up the wind gusts. I know we had some gusts yesterday over 40 mph. The wind was enough to blow over garbage bins and move them across the ground. So if you looking at my weather data keep in mind the wind is under reading.

We are hunkered down and riding out the storm. Stay safe out there...

Weather Station

2010-01-13T19:17:00.000-08:00

I spent the day working on my weather station software. I have been trying to move the software from my PC laptop to my iMac computer so I can use the laptop for other things. The software I use, called Weather Display, is one of the few (perhaps only) program to run on the Mac under OSX and collect data from a weather station. I spent a lot of time helping the author troubleshoot and test the software. Once we had it working and a few other people were successfully running the software on their Mac's I went back to using my PC laptop. The iMac only has 3 USB ports and I didn't have an expander to give me more ports. With my magicJack phone and time machine backup drive I only had 1 USB port available. So I moved the weather station over to the PC until I could expand the Mac USB ports. I also didn't have any pressing idea's for the PC so I wasn't in any hurry to purchase a USB expander.

Now that I have the expander and I want to use the laptop for other projects I decided to move the weather station to the iMac. But I ran into some problems that are preventing me from making the move. Currently the software is not picking up my solar sensor. Without solar the software is not able to determine the sky conditions. I hate having to rely on outside sources for my data, ie. metars from airports. I prefer to generate all weather data from my sensors and keep things under my control.

Weather monitoring is a fun hobby. If you have any questions please post a comment...

Safe travels.

Email from Monaco

2010-01-10T15:53:00.000-08:00

'Monaco and Navistar Video and Links'

Just received this email from Monaco. They showed the Diplomat and Cayman models in the video. I also checked out the new 42' Diplomat tag axle gallery and video, very nice. It's good to see Monaco getting back into making coaches.

Here are some other links you may enjoy:

Lifestyles Magazine
Monaco Coach Website

Walmart in Lodi California

2010-01-09T21:50:00.000-08:00

Homeless told to leave Lodi Wal-Mart parking lot

I saw this on the local news last night and wanted to share. I don't know anything more than what I saw on the news and what is contained in the article. I would not be surprised if there are hundreds of these type stories every month around the country. With the economy and housing market the way it is I imagine there are more and more people falling into RV'ing as a last hope to keep a roof over their heads.

I know before we started full-timing in our RV the stories I would see on the news about homeless people really upset me. I was always trying to think of a way to help. Now that I am a full-time RV'er I find myself upset about these people getting kicked out of Walmart, who by the way did not mind the RV'ers staying in their parking lot.

I think it's going to get worse before it gets better. Please keep these folks in your prayers.

Safe travels.

Foggy California

2010-01-07T21:31:00.000-08:00

Another yucky day...cold, damp and foggy. Humidity is high, temperature barely moves, and the dew point is hanging right at the air temp. Yep, that's winter in California. I'm not complaining. I know the south is experiencing a freeze this week, the mid-west has high winds and snow to go along with cold temps. From reading forums there are a lot of RV'ers trying to cope with this sub-freezing weather. Please be careful if your using one of those propane space heaters in your RV. Change the batteries in your cO2 and smoke detectors and verify they are working.

Today I spent some time setting up my radio scanner. I have been into scanning and searching for years but since we started living in an RV I have drifted away from my hobby. One of the changes I made when we moved to the RV was to switch from PC's running Microsoft Windows and bought a Mac computer. One of the side effects was that all my radio software only runs on a PC platform. I still have an laptop that is running WinXP but it is currently hosting my weather software.

I have been trying to switch the weather software back to the Mac platform but have not been able to get everything working. I am working with the author to fix the problems but he is in New Zealand and it's summer time down there so he is spending a lot of time with family.

Once I get the Mac version of the weather software working it will free up my laptop for handling the radio software. It's a lot of fun using the computer to control the radio and it simplifies the search process when looking for new signals. Like everything else in life the radio people come out with new ways of hiding their signals and it won't be long before my radio is a relic and not able to handle the technological advances. But until then I will continue to monitor the airwaves.

Please be safe out there...keep the propane tanks full and stay warm.

FCC Regulation of Satellite TV Service

2010-01-06T14:27:00.000-08:00

So what did I do today? I have been experiencing problems every time I call DirecTV (DTV) to change my programming, and each time I call I get different answers. So I decided to try and research what the FCC documents really say...fun fun fun.

Here's a couple of links to what I have found so far...

US CODE: Title 17,119. Limitations on exclusive rights: Secondary transmissions of superstations and network stations for private home viewing

SHVA

Here's a snip of the info:

(12) Service to recreational vehicles and commercial trucks.—

(A) Exemption.—

(i) In general.— For purposes of this subsection, and subject to clauses
(ii) and(iii), the term “unserved household” shall include—

(I) recreational vehicles as defined in regulations of the Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development under section 3282.8 of title 24 of the
Code of Federal Regulations; and

(II) commercial trucks that qualify as commercial motor vehicles under
regulations of the Secretary of Transportation under section 383.5 of
title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

(ii) Limitation.— Clause (i) shall apply only to a recreational vehicle or
commercial truck if any satellite carrier that proposes to make a
secondary transmission of a network station to the operator of such
a recreational vehicle or commercial truck complies with the
documentation requirements under subparagraphs (B) and (C).

(iii) Exclusion.— For purposes of this subparagraph, the terms “recreational
vehicle” and “commercial truck” shall not include any fixed
dwelling, whether a mobile home or otherwise.

(B) Documentation requirements.— A recreational vehicle or commercial truck shall be
deemed to be an unserved household beginning 10 days after the relevant
satellite carrier provides to the network that owns or is affiliated with the
network station that will be secondarily transmitted to the recreational vehicle
or commercial truck the following documents:

(i) Declaration.— A signed declaration by the operator of the recreational vehicle
or commercial truck that the satellite dish is permanently attached to the
recreational vehicle or commercial truck, and will not be used to receive
satellite programming at any fixed dwelling.

(ii) Registration.— In the case of a recreational vehicle, a copy of the current
State vehicle registration for the recreational vehicle.

(iii) Registration and license.— In the case of a commercial truck, a copy of—

(I) the current State vehicle registration for the truck; and

(II) a copy of a valid, current commercial driver’s license, as defined in
regulations of the Secretary of Transportation under section 383 of title 49
of the Code of Federal Regulations, issued to the operator.

(C) Updated documentation requirements.— If a satellite carrier wishes to continue to
make secondary transmissions to a recreational vehicle or commercial truck for
more than a 2-year period, that carrier shall provide each network, upon request,
with updated documentation in the form described under subparagraph (B) during
the 90 days before expiration of that 2-year period.

The SHVIA document defines what and RV is, and, how DTV documents our waiver. It also states that RV's (with a waiver) are authorized to receive local-into-local programming. That's the first piece of the puzzle answered...

So far I haven't been able to find the regulation that guides DTV and allows them to change our service address. This is the other piece of the puzzle that I need. I am tired of calling DTV and getting told I can't change my service address. And I don't like getting the east coast DNS HD feed when I am in California.

I do not know if anyone else has undertaken this subject before, geared specifically for the full-time RV'er. I see lot's of complaints and posts in online forums so I know I am not the only one experiencing these problems when calling DTV. I want to know what rules are so I don't have to rely on DTV...they just don't seem to understand us RV'ers.

As I find more information I will update this blog entry. I don't plan to stop until I have all the answers...stay tuned...

Addition: A new reference I am reading that might shed more light on this topic:

Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act of 2010

Winegard Wingman

2010-01-05T11:34:00.000-08:00

Having been to the Beale AFB FamCamp many times before we knew watching over-the-air television would be difficult. It's only about 30 miles from Beale to Sacramento, but it is near impossible to pick up the Sac stations. The problem is not the distance, Beale has a big radar site called Pave Paws. It's so powerful that it disrupts channels on cable TV in base housing!

I had been reading about the new Wingman from Winegard but reports were conflicting. Some people reported that it made a big improvement and others said it was a waste of money. I didn't know who to believe.

As expected, when we got setup at Beale I raised the bat-wing antennaand did some testing. I aimed the antenna towards Sacramento and did a channel search. The TV reported that it found 39 channels. However, when I tried to watch TV I was not getting any audio and the video was pixelated. About every 3 or 4 seconds I could see the signal from the radar site splash across the screen. Apparently this interruption was enough to stop the audio from buffering. So without audio and the video messing up I determined that over-the-air TV was out of the question.

Now that I had a baseline I headed to the local RV shop and spent $30 for a Wingman. I figured it was a lot cheaper than other frivolous items I have purchased for the RV, so even if it didn't help I wouldn't be out a big chunk of change.

Installing the Wingman was simple. You crank up your bat-wing and remove the rubber feet on the bottom. Then you place the Wingman under the antenna and use the included replacement feet. Just line up the holes, insert the plug, and push it in until it clicks. That's it, no tools required. Took me less than 5 minutes and that includes getting the rear ladder out and climbing onto the roof.

I then repeated my search for channels. My results, while not scientific, show that the Wingman does work. I am now picking up 45 channels and most of them are watchable. Digital TV is unlike analog, there's really no middle ground. You either have the signal or you don't. The powerful radar still messes with some of the channels, but at least I can watch the local stations and the audio is working.

So is the Wingman worth $30? After seeing my results I say YES. The Wingman is an inexpensive add on that under normal conditions should improve reception of the UHF signals. Will it work in all conditions, of course not. But if you find yourself parked in a fringe area and you have at least some signal I think the Wingman will improve reception.

Here's a link to help with aiming your Winegard antenna. Just enter your zipcode and it will list all stations and the direction to those stations.

Aiming Winegard.

FamCamp WiFi

2010-01-04T19:04:00.000-08:00

Spent most of the day troubleshooting the park WiFi system. I did an upgrade on the system almost 2 years ago to boost coverage to the entire park. But right after we arrived in December the cable modem decided it was time to quit. The LinkSys WRT54G was almost 4 years old and had been supplied by Comcast. I called Comcast and they sent out the commercial accounts repairman and he installed a new commercial grade router/modem.

It wasn't until after he left that I started noticing problems with the WiFi network. It seemed to be working, but I was getting complaints from campers reporting they couldn't get anywhere on the internet. To complicate things, the camper who was parked in the spot that provides power to our repeater decided to unhook and take his coach into town. Rather than just turn off the 50 amp breakers he decided to pull the big handle that supplies power to 8 sites. Took me awhile to figure out why the site had no power...but once I figured out all the sites were without power I found the problem.

But re-applying power to the sites and the repeater didn't improve the situation. The repeater was on, and campers could connect to the hotspot, but they couldn't access the internet.

I finally decided to call Comcast and they performed some tests on the modem and determined it was working fine. I then asked them if the modem had a firewall and they said yes it does. I asked them to disable the firewall so I could do some testing. I discovered everything worked great with the firewall turned off.

I then contacted the company that manages our network and received a list of ports that need to be open for the WiFi to operate. I will be making the needed changes to the modem and restoring the firewall. But for now the campers are happy to have internet access back, and I am glad the phone has stopped ringing.

One of my former co-workers and fellow full-timer Steve stopped by today to say hello and get caught up on what we have been doing since we last talked. Steve is selling his Dutch Star RV as they have purchased a home.

2001 Newmar Dutch Star Class A - Diesel For Sale - Yuba City, California | RV Trader @ RVT.com

Posted using ShareThis

Steve is a certified RV technician and his coach is very well maintained. Anybody looking for diesel pusher should take a serious look at this class A.

The weather in California has been very nice. Daily temps in the mid to upper 50's and overnight low's in the low 40's. Much better than the reports coming out of the deep south. It's strange to be seeing forum posts from the RV'ers in Florida asking about winterizing their coaches.

Just another day in the RV Park. Ya'all stay safe and warm out there.

Holding Tanks and Level Gauges

2010-01-03T11:04:00.000-08:00

Today I dumped by black tank. Not a big deal, right?

We are full-timers...that means we live in our coach 365 days a year, having started our adventure in December 2007. For the first couple of months we had no problems with our holding tanks. Our 2008 Monaco Diplomat came with a macerator. For those that don't know what a macerator is, it's a device that you hook up to your holding tank dump and, by sending all material through a propeller looking blade it does 2 things...first, it turns solid waste into a slurry liquid, and second, it acts like a pump to force that slurry down the hose. The output hose is a 3/4" size hose just like your garden type hose. My macerator is rated to be able to pump the slurry material 200 yards horizontal and 20 feet vertical. That means you don't need to park your rig close to the sewer dump, and you don't need to carry 50 feet of stinky slinky hose. You can use any 3/4' garden hose up to 200 feet in length.

Back to the subject...after 3 months of living in our coach I started to notice that my tank gauges were no longer reading empty after I dumped the tanks. My first thought was that it was a one-off and the next time I dumped the tanks they would return to reading empty. But that didn't happen, in fact it got worse. Instead of reading 1/3 full when empty they started reading 2/3 full, and finally 3/3 full. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. My black tank has a sprayer and I used it every time I dumped, so how come the gauges aren't reading empty?

I went online to search for answers. Almost all of the responses I received said "Welcome to our world, our gauges haven't worked right for years". I thought, you've got to be kidding, my rig is only a few months old and your telling me this is normal?

I also received other friendly advice to try the Geo method or use water softener in the black tank. I tried both of these ideas but I wasn't able to get my gauges reading empty. The only thing I didn't try was putting ice cubes in the tank. Since my problem involved both holding tanks and there is no way to get ice cubes in the gray tank I ruled this idea out. While it may work for the black tank, I needed a solution that would work for both tanks.

While I was at my dealer getting maintenance work done I mentioned the problem I was having with my tank gauges. They recommended a modification to my black tank sprayer that enlarges the holes in the sprayer head that allows more water to spray into the tank. They also dumped some Thetford Level Gauge cleaner in my tanks and told me to dump my tanks as soon as we got back to the RV park and got hooked up.

From the dealership to the campground was a drive of about 40 miles on twisty roads. I did as instructed and was surprised to see both my tanks reading empty, and relief in knowing my gauges were working.

What have I learned from all of this? First, I have modified how I dump my black tank. You can't just open the valve, turn on the tank sprayer, let it run for 5 minutes, then shut it off and close the valve. I have found the best routine is to open the valve, turn on the sprayer, and when the tank empties I close the valve, wait 10 minutes to allow the tank to accumulate water, I also flush the toilet with a full bowl of water 3 or 4 times, then open the valve again and dump the tank. I continue this cycle until the gauge reads empty. Usually takes doing it twice, but I don't quit until the gauge reads empty. Once the gauge reads empty I close the valve and let the tank sprayer run 2 more minutes (to ensure there is water covering the bottom of the tank), then turn off the tank sprayer. I have been using this method now for over 18 months and my blank tank gauge still reads empty.

The gray tank is another story. When parked I usually leave the gray tank valve open since we have a washer/dryer and do loads almost every day. But while in Kansas I wasn't able to do this as the sewer hookup was higher than the tank drain. It didn't take long before the gauge wasn't registering empty after dumping.

I have discovered that the Thetford Level Gauge cleaner doesn't work as well when the coach is not moving, or if it's below 60 degrees outside. In Kansas I knew I had to drain the tank every day, so I didn't really need the gauge working. But when we got ready to leave Kansas I dumped the tanks and then added Thetford Level Gauge cleaner to both tanks and filled both tanks to about 1/3 full with water.

2 days later, in Amarillo, when I attempted to empty the gray tank I opened the valve and nothing came out...something was blocking the dump drain. When I snaked out the tank I found the problem. Apparently the Thetford Level Gauge cleaner combines with the leftover soap scum in the tank and causes some kind of reaction that makes the soap into a crystal type material. Because I didn't dump the tank after at the end of the 1st day, those crystals formed a layer of hard material when it settled on the bottom of the tank. Once I broke through the material it started draining, but I had to flush the tank for the next 3 days until I was able to see clear water draining from the tank. If you decide to use the Thetford product I recommend only adding it when you will be driving the coach, and, empty it the same day, do not allow it to sit overnight.

As a side note...if your wondering what I used to snake the tank...this is easily the best $10 I have spent for an item for the coach. It's called a closet auger. If you don't have one I highly recommend it. I have used it for the clogs on both my holding tank drains and my toilet. My toilet is not located directly over the black tank, so there is a 90 degree elbow below the toilet to the tank and I have had clogs in the elbow from flushes with not enough water to push the material all the way to the tank, about 10" from the elbow. I bought the 3 feet model auger, but they do come in longer lengths. My tanks are very close to my dump valves, but if yours are father away be sure you get the longer auger. In my experience you need to be able to snake all the way into the tank.

In closing I just want to say that my gauges continue to show empty after 2 years on the road. I use chemicals in my black tank to help with breakdown of solids, and no chemicals in the gray tank. I have also heard arguments against macerator's saying that because they dump the tank slowly you can't get the tanks clean. All I can say to that is I use my macerator all the time and have not had any problems keeping my gauges working and the tanks clean.

To anyone who has gauges that are not reading empty I hope you find this information useful in correcting the problem.

[June 2010]
A friend of mine highly recommends this product:
http://uniquemm.com/rv-digestit.html

Would be nice to get some feedback from others on this post. I have linked this article on a few forums and I would like to know if anyone found this info useful.

Stay safe out there...

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T14:37:00.000-08:00

Jan and I welcome the New Year and look forward to meeting new friends and catching up with old friends. We start the year hosting the FamCamp at Beale Air Force Base in northern California. We are working 2 afternoons and all day Saturday until the Outdoor Adventure Center gets up to full capacity. Once they have the positions filled we will only be "working" on Saturday and helping campers who arrive after the office closes.

Some news...when we started full-timing in December 2007 we wanted a video camera. We have a Kodak digital camera and it works fine for taking stills, but we wanted to be able to shoot video. So I have been keeping my eyes open for a good deal but just never found what I was looking for, namely, a simple to operate, easy to edit/upload, and able to create stills from video frames, and I wanted a small form factor and under $500. I could never find a camera that I felt would fit the bill.

The I read a post online about the Flip. I did some researching on this camera and it seemed to meet my criteria. What really caught my eye was the price and that it shoots high definition (HD) video. The more I researched the more I liked it. So for Christmas this year Jan and I decided to buy this camera.

I must say I am impressed. For less than $300 we have a video camera that is small, making it easy to carry anywhere, and it will take up to 2 hours of video. I can plug it into any computer with the flip-out USB connector and I can load the software from the camera to the computer that will allow me to edit, email, post, to just about anywhere. The software also allows me to make still photo's by selecting any frame of video. And, I can make movies with the included software, or I can export the raw video to a quicktime file and use my iMac to create very professional looking movies.

The only cons I can find with the unit I bought, the MinoHD (2nd Generation) is that I can't expand the memory to allow longer video recording time, and, the battery is not replaceable. (The LI battery is charged when you connect the camera to any USB port). The small size of the camera means if your holding the unit while shooting video you will see some shaking. I bought the tripod stand for mine so I can set the camera just about anywhere and it will take shake free video. And lastly, the zoom on the camera is not great. It does provide some zoom but if you need to shoot long range and expect the zoom to help you will be disappointed.

The size, smaller than most cell phones, makes it easy to carry the camera all the time. After you push the power button on the camera you can be shooting video in 3 seconds. And not having to carry around a big video camera means we will shoot more video.

That's it for this post. Stay safe out there...

End of 2009

2009-12-30T19:45:00.000-08:00

Another year is just about over and to all the naysayers...we still love the RV lifestyle. For those of you contemplating the RV lifestyle I hope you get the chance to experience the freedom.

We didn’t work over the winter. The plan was to spend the winter in Arizona and not worry about that white stuff you have to shovel. But we found out that even in Arizona it snows. New Years found us in Benson Arizona at the Escapee’s Saguaro RV Park.

While the daytime temperatures were above freezing, the temps at night occasionally dipped below freezing. We had one small storm that dumped about an inch of snow, but it melted shortly after sunrise. We also had a few days of rain but for the most part the weather was great. We did one awesome GeoCache out to the Dragoon Mountains, and we visited an old friend of mine who took us to Tombstone. I wanted to visit an observatory but found out you need to make reservations months in advance.

In February we moved to Deming New Mexico to the Dream Catcher RV Park, another Escapee park. The weather was good, but they have more wind than Arizona. I wanted to visit the Gila Cliff Dwellings but they don’t allow dogs. We will have to save that for another trip. We did manage to a visit to the Rick Hound State Park to look for gem rocks. We didn’t have the necessary tools so we just hiked the trails. I plan to go back there and hook up with one of the local clubs.

From New Mexico we started to head towards our destination, Branson Missouri. We made a 3-day stop in Amarillo Texas so I could get the state vehicle inspection done on the coach, and from there we made our way to Oklahoma City for a month. I thought we might get to see a tornado, but the storms always seemed to go around our location. That’s not a bad thing, especially when you live in an RV, but it’s one of those things on my bucket list. I still managed to learn about dry lines and tornado behavior watching the weather man on TV. I couldn’t believe they chase tornado’s in their helicopter.

From Oklahoma we made the one day trip over to Branson. We met the managers of the city owned RV park named Branson Lakeside RV Park.

The park is right on Lake Taneycomo and Branson Landing, a beautiful shopping strip with Bass Pro Shops was our neighbor. The lake is stocked with trout and fishing was excellent. If your in Branson and need a nice park to stay at with great rates I recommend Lakeside. Here's a picture of Jan, Oscar and myself at the entrance to the park:

Our next stop was Coffeyville Kansas. We signed up to workamp at Amazon.com. They hire workampers to help with the busy holiday season. We worked there from September through November. Our original plan was to work at Amazon through December and then return to Branson and manage that park over the winter. But Jan had medical issues and our insurance would not cover the costs so we were forced to return to California to our primary care doctor to get needed tests. So far they have been unable to find the cause but more tests are scheduled. Jan is doing fine and has not had a relapse.

We didn’t know what the status was for hosts at the Beale AFB FamCamp so when we arrived back in California I called and found out they needed hosts. I sent them our resume’ and they offered us the job. We plan to be here through May when we will head to our summer job in Oregon.

We also made a visit to the Grass Valley Fairgrounds RV Park and talked to them about hosting for them in the future. Because we return to California often to see our grandkids it’s nice to have a place to work and not have to pay for our site. Hopefully we will be able to find work and not have to pay for a site.

That’s the short version of where we have been this year. Jan and I were blessed to make many new RV friends this year and look forward to seeing all of you again in the future. Safe travels and tails winds.