Last week of August, 2009

Hi all, time to catch up because August is almost over and I'm another week behind. I want to remind you we ARE having fun, but here's the latest motor home story. We were ready to leave Charlotte, Michigan last Saturday, putting in the last slide, the BIG one and I noticed the locking mechanism wasn't working so after running the slide in and out several times and it still not working we called our roadside service where it took all day for them to come out to get us into a driving mode. Since we were still in our spot with electricity we lazed around and yaked with our neighbors and left the next morning. We were planning on driving to Celina, Ohio but with the new problem this meant we would need to travel to Decatur to have our newest problem worked on so back to Camp Decatur we went and it was Wednesday before service was able to fix a 30 minute problem. All they had to do was recalibrate the lock and we were on our way to Celina late that afternoon.

Thursday and Friday we had our new awnings added to the coach. We had two additional ones fitted over windows that didn't have them when we bought the coach, so now all the windows have them which we use when parked and the sun is HOT. Frank also had his new 'toy' added, a new remote system for the shore power cord. Now he can just push a button as he walks his power cord to where he plugs in. Sadly, my new shades didn't get shipped this week, big backlog, so we will need to come back here next week.

Attached are a few pictures around Celina.

Next stop: Shipshewana, Indiana to have fun....no motor home service we hope!!! Keep your fingers crossed please.

Charlotte, Michigan

Aug 17th we attended the 1st day of what I thought was a motor home driving school in Charlotte, Michigan but later learned that it was really a Spartan Chassis Owner's class. What comes to mind when you mention driving school, which I thought I was attending? Driving around the streets and hwys? Nope, when you attend the Spartan class you go to a very intense, detailed, structured classroom. We were first given a tour of the facility where our motor home chassis was built and it is amazing all the steps there are in creating these monstrous 'things' that you don't see, but carry our motor home down the road. Interesting, with the current economy not too many large motor homes are being built, but what we did see were lots of fire trucks in different parts of construction. All the fire trucks built by Spartan are customized for each city. Funny fact, there are 350 different colors of fire engine red to choose from!

After the tour we began our classroom studies where we were told and shown all the parts, from the air brakes in the front of the chassis to the engine in the rear. Lots of importance stressed on the need to know where parts are located whether you personally work on your coach or not. We were there for 3 days and the last half day we did drive our motor homes to the local high school parking lot where Frank and I both practiced stopping the motor home at given places, driving around cones in a serpentine pattern forwards and backwards and backing into coned off parking spots. I only ran over one cone, so Frank said I did very well. I just need to make myself drive down the road now.......

After our 3 days of class we drove to a few farm markets I found on line and one surprising place that we learned about where you wouldn't think anything like this would exist in Michigan was a shrimp farm. This farm is still in 'beginning' research and no tours are being offered as the owner doesn't want anyone to know the details of the operation as there are only 6 known operations like this in the US and the only one in Michigan. The shrimp are raised in salt water wooden tanks indoors as opposed to traditional outdoor farms. We bought a few pounds of shrimp and so far they have been very delicious grilled on our Weber Q.

Charlotte is in Eaton County and today there still exists 3 court houses, 2 of which have been turned into museums.

Next stop: Back to Celina, Ohio to have awnings, new shades and a remote system on the shore power cord installed.

Brown County, Nashville, Indiana

We met some nice folks, Jack & Paula in Celina, Ohio who recommended a place they had recently visited and thought we might like it too. So, we decided to check it out and stayed a week where we found this little town to be a 'jewel' in Indiana. Nashville residents are striving to bring back artists who make local and state made items. There are so many shops to go through located on Main Street and several streets off the main drag where old houses have been converted into stores. We just couldn't do it all in one week, plus, would you believe hot weather finally caught up to us! Yes, we had 90 degree days plus high humidity, so after a couple of hours we were drained. True, like most touristy towns there were stores that had tons of 'made in China' items, but all the stores had the same 'old fashion' theme from home made ice cream to artists at work that you could watch. We would like to come back here again, but we will try to avoid the month of August!

Next stop: Charlotte, Michigan for motor home driving lessons for Frank and myself...watch out Michigan, danger on the road (I'm referring to me)??

Indiana and Ohio

Surprise, I'm back, 2 days in a row. We have been zig zagging back and forth between these two states. We left Kettle Falls, WA and made a dash to Decatur, Indiana to attend the American Coach Association pre-rally (about 90 coaches) which lasted for 4 days. The rally was held at the local high school and we enjoyed getting acquainted with the people there, attending seminars and ending the day with meals provided and gift giveaways. We always hope to win a nice gift and this time we were the proud winners of a fan. I first thought, whoop-pee, but later when the weather warmed up, this fan which is approximately 14 inches, turned out to be very nice to use in the living room area of our coach...and amazingly quiet!

From Decatur, we drove to Bowling Green, Ohio for the FMCA International Rally (about 2800 coaches) for the 4 day event where we stayed on the grounds of Bowling Green State University where we could hear the clock on campus each hour. The Rivoli Revue, a husband-wife team, entertained twice while we were there and we caught both shows. They have performed on the RV rally circuit for several years. You might be familiar with them from email's with their You Tube hit "Press 1 for English".

After Bowling Green we drove north to Oregon, Ohio near Toledo and stayed at the Maumee State Park located by Lake Erie. Here we attended the Spartan Rally (approx 40 coaches) and found this small group the friendliest bunch of people. A smaller group proved to be more enjoyable with the people and once again meals were provided at the RV park. Arrangements were made for the group to have lunch one day in Toledo at a Hungarian restaurant, Tony Packo's, lots of good food and entertainment provided by a local Sweet Adeline group...hadn't heard that type of singing for ages and we had a great time.

After Maumee, we drove to Celina, Ohio where we started having some extra work done to the coach. I'm not even going to bore you with the problems we have had with the coach since we left Malibu, but between service work in Decatur while at the pre-rally and another trip to Decatur after Celina we think most of the problems have been fixed. Decatur is where the motor home was built and the experts are there so our time at Camp Decatur turned out to be longer than we planned, but we will have to go back there to complete some of the work as parts had to be ordered (what's new??)

Anyway, after Celina, (with a trip to Decatur, IN in between) we drove south and back into Indiana and traveled to Brown County where the town of Nashville is located.

Kettle Falls, Washington

Hello all, how many of you have been waiting for my next blog? Hope you haven't been holding your breath as I still haven't gotten up to any faster speed. Let's pray I can get this written without losing anything this time.

After a week on the cold coast of Oregon we drove inland to Kettle Falls, WA to visit with friends Bob and Barbara Rodreick who have a lovely home high above the Columbia River which forms Lake Roosevelt. Normally, we are visited daily by several turkeys in the area, but not this time as Bob and Barbara cut off their food supply and they have left the area. Do you blame them? Even though we missed not seeing them again I know that Bob and Barbara are very glad to not have all the mess and droppings, if you know what I mean.

As usual we were treated with some fine meals, a late celebration of the 4th of July and enjoyed our visit with Bob's brother, Bud and his wife, Marlene who live nearby. We spent 3 days in Kettle Falls, which is the home of "1650 Friendly People and One Grouch". The town nominates one grouch each year and this year's winner works at the local bank....the only bank of Kettle Falls.

The weather was a little warmer, but surprisingly it was much cooler than normal and there was rain several times while we were there. Actually, I thought I saw sleet for a few minutes.....you sure this is summertime?

Where have we been? Newport, Oregon

Sorry, everyone, I'm not doing very well with this blogging starting with just not doing it and then when I try to post everything disappears!!! Maybe I should do this more often so I can add to my skills in mastering this blogging business. This time before I edit and post I'm going to copy and paste into word so at least I don't have to write again....whew!!

Ok, where was I before I lost everything, we left Malibu, headed up I-5 through central California. Saw the dry orchards and farm fields from the lack of water in that area. Very sad situation, the folks that have their fields and orchards must have their own wells to be able to water. What started out as a great day turned into a day of concern as we lost our 12 volt system in our motor home. No 12 volt means no power to the refrigerator so we had to run our generator and we found out that if we leave the power off too long then we had problems getting the generator started. No problems keeping power as long we left the generator on or plugged into power at the rv park that 1st night. No sleeping at Wallyworld for us!!

We arrived at Newport, OR the next day and met up with our friends, Ken and Sylvia, who saved us a spot right next to them. What great people, they had our dinner ready to go on the grill and we began our week of fun with them. My favorite place was down on the harbor in the old part of town where there are old quaint buildings and wonderful seafood restaurants. I walked the beach one day, but it was just too cold to enjoy walking in the freezing wind even though I think I managed to have a smile on my face for the picture. I know I heard from several people if I wanted warm weather why didn't I just stay in Las Vegas. All right then, we left the cold northwest and drove inland to Kettle Falls, WA where it was a little warmer.