People who are not RVers seldom comprehend the lifestyle appeal.  Perhaps only those who are living it and enjoying it, understand.  For me and for most RVers, the seeing and experiencing of new places and adventures is the main drawing card but add to that the meeting of new people and making friends and you get the bigger picture.

For instance, I recently had a delightful daylong visit from the Van Aukens from California. We’ve kept in touch through Christmas letters (Now you know why I like those!), and rare visits during their vending days at Quartzsite.  We exchanged “You didn’t!” and “Have you ever been to…” traveling and family stories.  We met in a parking lot in Connecticut in the late 1980s.

Arline (Chandler) & Lee Smith were in the SKP campground for a week. Arline and I are both writers and we taught seminars at Life on Wheels so poor Lee didn’t have a chance in the conversation department.  The women did the whole service on Presbyterian Women’s Sunday that we attended.  Since the pastor is part of the praise band that plays ahead of the service, Pastor Paul fit right in by wearing a wig and a skirt.  My Baptist friends got a kick out of it, too.

God Bless until next time.

Web site:  www.full-time-rver.com

Comment (0)

If your RVing adventures take you into the Palm Springs area be sure to investigate the slots. The slots I am talking about are free and the payoff is priceless! Head east from Palm Springs on Interstate 10 to Indio, then southeast on Hwy 111 to Mecca. On the way you will pass by casinos with slots that require money to play, skip those. The slots you are looking for are hiding nearby in the Mecca Hills. The slots I am referring to aren’t money sucking machines, but beautiful slot canyons that can be enjoyed for free. No players club card or pocket change required. Plus, everyone that spends time to play these slots hits the jackpot! Ladder Canyon is one of the slots you will play, as you work your way up through the twisty canyon via a series of ladders. The jackpot is the great view over the valley when you reach the plateau at the top of the canyon.
Just like those casinos that host slots and let you camp for free, Ladder canyon allows free camping too, just with different amenities. Sorry, no asphalt, painted parking stalls, parking lot security lights or 24 hour traffic. At Ladder Canyon you will have to settle for spacious, beautiful campsites and dark starry nights. I guess us adventurous RVers will just have to suffer!

For complete information, check out: http://rvlife.com/index.php/Travel/ladder-to-the-sky.html

Entrance to Ladder Canyon                                Climbing for the Jackpot

Jackpot!

Comment (0)

Where can you find a conch train, conch fritters, conch shells, and the Conch Republic (pronounced “konk”)?  They’re all located in the same two-by-four-mile island community of Key West, Florida!  If you’re thinking of heading south for spring break this year, or you're already snowbirding in that direction, consider going all the way—to the southernmost point of the Sunshine State.

It’s true, touristy Key West is overflowing with beaches, bars and shopping boutiques, but this remarkable port city also offers plenty of other fun-in-the-sun options— city tours, historic homes, museums, and of course, key lime pie. It’s especially easy for history buffs to get acquainted with Old Town Key West’s real character, because much of its entertaining history and highlights are within walking distance of each other.

Conch Tour Train.  Does riding an open-air train through the charming streets of Old Town while listening to stories of bone-bleaching Indians, Spanish explorers, and cigar barons sound like your idea of exploring? Take the 90-minute Conch Tour Train. To say it's fully narrated is an understatement. Knowledgeable train drivers expertly tell the tales and lively legends of Key West as the train passes more than 100 points of interest. Learn what gingerbread has to do with architecture and which former U.S. president wanted to move the U.S. capital to Key West.

Hemingway Home & Museum.  Need literary inspiration for writing the next best seller? Visit the tropical home and gardens where Ernest Hemingway penned a good number of his greatest stories. Built in 1851, the Hemingway mansion-turned-museum still contains original antique furnishings used by “Papa” Hemingway and his family. Guided tours are as entertaining as the six-toed felines that inhabit the place. Over sixty cats, descendents of Hemingway’s original furry friends, make their home at this National Historic Landmark.

Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society and Museum.  Intrigued by thoughts of gleaming shipwreck treasure once lost for centuries at sea? You’ll find gold doubloons, dazzling jewels, bars of silver, cannons, and much more at the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. Take a self-guided tour and learn the long and sometimes tragic story of the Fisher family’s struggle to locate and surface one-of-a-kind artifacts and riches. Collections from the 1700’s English merchant slave ship Henrietta Marie and the 1600’s Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha are on display in this maritime museum. Jewelry and coin replicas are on sale in the Trade Goods museum store, along with nautical-themed books and videos.

Still have energy to spare? Hope so, because there’s much more to conch-er in Key West! Check back next week to learn about “Flager’s Folly” and to find out when to visit Mallory Square.

Comment (0)

On 9/11/2001, I landed via ferry at Juneau, Alaska, about six hours after the attack.  During that week, I missed much of what was reported on the news.  I had never heard the story that Tom Brokaw reported recently of Gander International Airport and the incredibly generous people of Newfoundland.  Two hundred and forty flights were rerouted to Canada, 39 to Gander during the freezing of US airspace on 9/11/01.  If you did not see this, find it on the Internet.  It is an amazing and heartwarming story of people who were being the best they could be when our country was attacked by those who were being the worst they could be.

For two nights and three days following 9/11, approximately 7,000 marooned and frightened passengers and flight crews with no luggage and therefore no clothes, prescriptions, etc. were processed, fed, housed, clothed, and comforted by kindhearted and compassionate “Newfies.”  Even striking school bus drivers came back to work to drive these unexpected visitors wherever they needed to go.  The stories are many and extremely interesting.

My experience with Gander International Airport was in June of 1998.  I watched a video from 12/12/1985.  A DC-8 landed for refueling on a journey from peacekeeping duties in the Middle East to a destination at Fort Campbell, KY for Christmas.  On takeoff, it crashed and the 248 American soldiers, mostly from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, plus 8 crewmembers, were killed.  That story also told of the amazing cooperation and compassion between Canada and the United States.  A Silent Witness Memorial at Gander commemorates “the precise moment when 256 dreams ended and the hearts and imaginations of an entire world were captured.”  

These are only two stories involving our friends with whom we share the world’s longest undefended border.  There are many.  God Bless until next time.

Comment (0)

In recessionary times, finding free camping spots helps stretch your RVing budget. Free camp spots are even better when they are private, out-of-the-way and in a scenic location. The very best free campsites of all are the ones that pay you for camping there! Yes, that’s right pay you and in GOLD! Join a local or national gold prospecting club and you will soon find out what I am talking about. Prospecting clubs maintain gold claims all across the western states. The majority are on public land which typically allow up to a two week stay. While camping on public land is available to everyone, membership in a prospecting club gives you access to gold claims behind locked gates. Federal mining laws guarantee access to valid mining claims. Club members, being part owners of the claim, have access to the gate keys held by the department of natural resources, forest service or BLM. Now that is a private camp spot! Thousands of acres of public land and you literally hold the key that grants you access with your RV. Once settled at your private camp site, break out your gold pan or other gold recovery equipment and see what golden treasures await you. At over $1,100 per ounce it doesn’t take too many specks of gold to make your free campsite that much more valuable. If “free is good”, “better than free“ is great! Who knows you may even find enough to pay your fuel costs for the weekend? Even if you don’t find any gold, the real treasure is the time spent out in God’s Creation, getting some exercise and spending some quality time RVing in a quiet, out of the way place. To find the prospecting clubs in your state, Google “your state” and “Prospecting clubs”. In Washington, your state wide club is Washington Prospectors. You can visit them at: http://washingtonprospectors.org/

Behind Lock Gates.

Gas Money!

Comment (0)

Do you have a question related to alignment, steering, handling, braking, fuel economy, tires, safety and maintenance of your RV? Robert Henderson, the president of Henderson’s Line-Up Brake and RV and SuperSteer/SuperStop products in Grants Pass, Oregon, is available to answer questions from readers. You may send your questions by e-mail to editor@rvlife.com.

Question:
"My 28-foot Ford E-350 Class C motorhome is constantly warping the front rotors. What can I do to eliminate this problem? The rear drums hold up just fine."

Ron
Lynnwood, Washington

Answer:
Thank you for the excellent question.  This is a problem we run into quite frequently. I’ll list a couple points that contribute to this problem.

1. Disc brakes are more susceptible to vibration because of the clamping forces generated in a disc bake. It transfers into the steering wheel even if warped as little as three- to five-thousandths of an inch. A drum brake may be 20 to 40 thousands out of round and a person may not notice due to its design.  

2. The larger piston volume of a disc brake causes fluid to push back against the fluid in the caliper. This in turn causes the pedal to pulsate.

3. If the rear brake shoes are not as aggressive in holding back the weight of the coach, it puts more load on the front brakes. When getting a brake job done on a vehicle that has drums on the rear and disc up front, it is often a good idea to replace the rear brakes as well, because the rear brakes may be getting hard and glazed over. This causes them to lose their coefficient of friction.

4. I don’t know what year your coach is but the earlier Fords had a load-sensing valve that restricted fluid flow to the rear brakes on the vehicle. The idea is that if the vehicle is heavily loaded it will sit low in the rear, thereby opening up the flow through the load-sensing valve. This is all well and good until someone puts on airbags or overloads to raise the rear of the vehicle up. We used to disable the load-sensing valves to get full pressure to the rear brakes.

5. If you have the earlier rear anti brake skid system (or RABS for short) used by Ford in the early ‘90s, I have noticed some of the same problems with them as well. There is not a recommended way to disable the rear brake antiskid on these vehicles.

6. Every time you turn a disc brake rotor it has less material to dissipate the heat, thereby increasing the tendency to warp once again. You have to pay close attention to the minimum machine to tolerances. I would recommend replacing the rotor once you get close to the minimum machine to spec, not just the discard spec on the rotor. It takes knowledge of both of those numbers.

7. Cheap rotors may warp sooner than a quality well cast rotor. We use the Performance Friction rotors wherever possible. They offer better cooling and better metallurgy than many rotors on the market. I hope this helps. God bless you.
Robert Henderson, president of Henderson’s Line-Up, Brake and RV and SuperSteer/SuperStop products of Grants Pass, Oregon, regularly answers questions on RV steering, braking, handling, fuel economy, tires, safety and maintenance online at the Chassis Solution blog at rvlife.com.  Send questions by e-mail to editor@rvlife.com.

Comment (0)

Halfway between Reno and Las Vegas, at U.S. 95 and U.S. 6, Tonopah is a perfect place to learn about Nevada’s rich history. Silver was discovered here in 1900, sparking one of the biggest mining booms in the state. In fact, over a 40-year period, five million tons of ore (silver, gold, copper and lead) were pulled out of the district’s many mines. At current market prices, that equates to $1,200,000,000!  If those figures make you feel “a day late and a dollar short,” you’re not alone. But you can still strike it rich today— when it comes to learning about mining history, that is— at the Tonopah Historic Mining Park. Located on the site of four of the very first mines, it is here you will discover how these original claims turned Tonopah into the “Queen of the Silver Camps.”

Prepare to get your boots dusty wandering as much of the 110-acre park as you care to cover. You’ll find a vast display of restored and preserved mining equipment as well as original structures—a grizzly (ore sorting house), an assay lab, the last remaining trestle from the Tonopah & Goldfield Railroad, hoist houses with all original equipment, and head frames. These are not “pretty” museum exhibits. They are safe to explore, but definitely sitting in a state of weathered decay. You can even follow a burro tunnel that leads to a steel viewing cage suspended over a 500-foot mine stope (vertical shaft). Surrounded by such a vast amount of authentic mining artifacts, you won’t need much imagination to get a real sense of what it was like to work in a turn-of-the-century mine!

Before you poke around the remnants of the Silver Top Mine, Mizpah Mine, Desert Queen, and others, watch the introductory video inside the visitor center. You’ll “meet” Jim Butler and his wife Belle, and learn how their silver strike put Tonopah on the map. Right from the start, Tonopah's mines were consistently high producers. The biggest year was 1913 when almost $10 million in gold, silver, copper and lead was mined. The Depression brought a slowdown, and by the end of World War II, all the major mining companies had left the area. The true end to the mining era came in 1947 when the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad folded and its rails were removed.

For six consecutive years, 2002 to 2007, Readers of Nevada Magazine named Tonopah Historic Mining Park the “Best Museum in Rural Nevada.” You won’t be disappointed if you, too, come and take a self-guided walk in the footsteps of the old-time hard rock miners. But since the park is at an elevation of 6,200 feet, pace yourself accordingly!

Tonopah Historic Mining Park

520 McCulloch Avenue

Tonopah, Nevada 89049-0965

(775) 482-9274

April - September, 7 days a week from 9:00am - 5:00pm

October - March, 7 days a week from 10:00am - 4:00pm

Walking tour prices are $5 per adult • Veterans & Active Military FREE

Children under 6 FREE •  $3 ages 7 - 12

For those staying overnight in Tonopah, deduct $1 off your tour price

Comment (0)

Most Class "A" coaches that are more than a year or two old have a couple items in the cockpit that are really outdated. Tube Televisions and pleated fabric curtains are both bulky and generally less than attractive. An LCD installation along with The MCD American Duo cockpit shades can really clean up the front end. In many cases to install the front power MCD shade we will also need to do the flat screen installation to make it work, as the shade often needs to go right through where the old Tube TV box was. That was the case with the coach featured in the pictures below. The rear TV box had to be built accordingly to allow for the shade. The front shade is powered and controlled by two switches located on the dash panel, the side shades are generally manual, but can be powered if the customer requests. Custom valances are built to cover the top portion of the shade and finish off the factory look. On the side windows we replaced the old fabric window treatments with custom built solid oak valances and installed the MCD shades as well.




Thanks again for visiting our blog!

David Ast

Dave & LJ's RV Interior Design         360-225-7700                www.customRVint.com

Comment (0)

            Did you hear the Canadians sing their national anthem?  At every medal presentation, the Canadians really sang out.  I couldn’t hear anyone singing when the Americans received medals.  Are we not teaching our children and grandchildren our national anthem?  When I have had occasion to sing it, it is usually more of a solo.  Sometimes people join in if I am singing it loud enough to cover their voices…and I usually am.

            I noticed fewer emotions when their country’s flags were raised.  That has always been such a passionate moment for the medal winner representing any country.  But that’s o.k., I had happy tears for each one I watched, no matter from where they hailed.  I contributed sad tears and prayers for the one who was killed, for the one who was gravely injured training for the Olympics and thankfully recovering, and for the one who lost her mother just before her competition. 

Surprisingly, I have enjoyed all the various venues, including the snowboarding.  However, I realize that I need to bone up on their terminology.  When they did a “Corkscrew,” I thought they were going to jump out of a bottle.  Instead, it is “a sideways rotation.”  My grandson eats “Pop Tarts” for breakfast, but in this case, it is “an aerial move where the rider goes up backwards and lands going forward.”  In my book, a “wet cat” is not “a 900-degree McTwist,” it is a very angry, smelly feline.  Oh well, it takes time to learn a new language.

God bless until next time.      

Web site:  www.full-time-rver.com

Comment (0)

Are you a fan of Google Earth? I am. Google Earth allows you to inspect areas to explore before you arrive. You can determine which dirt roads are best to travel, view ruins of forgotten places and find boondocking campsites. The best part of Google Earth are the “Blue Squares” which indicate pictures posted by other users. Clicking on the blue squares reveals areas of stunning beauty, hidden canyons, old ghost towns or something else out of the ordinary.  Most of these places are worthy of a visit.
Use blue squares to enhance your next RV trip.
After planning the route for my next RVing Adventure I always check out the blue squares on Google Earth to see what else lies along the route. When I find something that appeals to my sense of adventure, I load the coordinates provided on Google Earth into my GPS receiver and them I am ready to find and enjoy the site when I am in the vicinity. Need some examples: for a unique adventure check out the plethora of blue squares at 33 37.034N 116 00.150W in the California Desert. Discover a rarely visited covered bridge in Oregon at 43 45.506N 116 00.150W

Plan a blue square adventure on your next RV outing and enjoy!

Comment (0)