Red Bay Remix

With our Liquidspring repair and refresh in our rear view window, it was time to head back to Red Bay, AL for some repairs that had to be postponed back in January due to service delays brought on by unexpected winter weather and an unusually heavy amount of visitors for that time of year.

After 3 straight days of driving 300 or so miles per day from Florida to just north of Indianapolis, we stopped for a couple of days at Dad's Bluegrass Campground in Franklin, KY to give some leg pains that had been developing a chance to rest up and relax (more on that later), and to let our upcoming appointments with third parties in Red Bay get a bit closer. The folks at Dad's are always very nice, and have good pull-through sites available for people like us who just need a couple of days.

Franklin is just about 30 minutes down the road from where the classic America car – the Corvette – is made, and they have a really nice Corvette museum there to celebrate the history of this uniquely American sports car. There are some really clunky designs in the early years of the Corvette before the classic Stingray was introduced, and some really bland designs from the 1980's to see, but the number and condition of the cars is impressive to even someone like me who isn't a car guy.

A short drive southward gets us into Red Bay on a Sunday afternoon, and we're sitting in our usual place to stay – Convenient Campground – for 2 weeks. Sign up with Tiffin for some Express Bay service, hopefully in the first week, and then have a couple of third parties coming by on the second week. We park ourselves in Site #1, next to a pile of campground – stuff – waiting for it's owner to bring their unit back from some Sunday service.

Come to find out, our neighbors have been nicknamed “The Hoarders”. They have picked up a used early 2000's Tiffin Zephyr and have been putting more than $20k in repairs into it to get it road ready, but they are – different – to say the least. They are traveling with 6 – SIX! - adult cats (one of which loves to escape when they open their door), and at least 3 kittens! He's older than her, and is either on some sort of medication or has been socially stunted since birth. The – stuff - taking up space between our site and theirs is apparently the contents of at least 2 storage bays, and they don't appear to have any urgency to put it back in the bays, as it sits outside for the 12 days we're parked next to him. One day, I'm walking Grover and see water pouring out of their Zephyr onto the ground. I put Grover back in our home and knock on their door. I tell him about the water, a cat escapes, and he ambles around back to shut off the water he was over-filling his fresh tank with. Goes back inside without a word of thanks. And now more – stuff – has to come out of a couple of storage bays in order to dry out. Needless to say, we were very happy to see them packing up and leaving.

We did meet some new friends in the campground - Lynn and Ray Lindsey. Really great people. Proud owners of an Open Road 34PA, they were in town getting a few things fixed. I like to stop by and say "Hi" to fellow gasser owners in campgrounds, so we chatted, made plans to take them to some local eateries, and generally had a great time sharing stories. We hope to see them later this year after they move to the Cleveland, OH area.

 

A farewell picture before Lynn and Ray hit the road

We ended up having our first unsatisfactory service experience with Tiffin in more than 4 years. The guy who was doing our service in Bay 15 was finally able to get my rear basement bay door adjusted to close properly after being replaced a few years ago following an accident, but his efforts to replace some floor tiles along the length of our main slide fell far short of expectations. Due to some extremely high winds, we ended up bringing our main slide in and back out earlier than planned, and found his tile work popping back up when the slide rolled over it. It was a good thing the bad weather had come in, as we likely would not have caught this problem until the day we had to leave to head back to Georgia, so it gave us, and Tiffin, a chance to get it fixed right. Which they did in another service bay for free.

So it's now week two, and we're waiting for the nice folks at Lindsey and Winchester to repair a couple of shade rollers whose internals had broken, and Dillon Massey to replace a washer door seal, and the pain in my right leg which had appeared off and on following long travel days over the past year suddenly reappears – without any driving days! I had been using a walking stick to help me get around, but it seemed as if it wasn't getting any better even though we were stationary, so it was time to get me to the hospital while Barbara held down the fort waiting for our repaired shades to be reinstalled and Dillon to do his stuff (plus she needed to keep Grover company).

As hospitals go, Red Bay Hospital is small, but they have a very nice staff and a small 5-bay Emergency Room. What's nice about the small size is that they have all the equipment and departments needed to help diagnose my problem, without the wait times found in larger hospitals. Vitals were taken, blood was drawn, and I await the lone ER doctor to get to me so that he can order my CT scan with contrast and an ultrasound taken of my leg. They are concerned about possible clots being the cause of my pain. Scans come back negative for clots, but I do have some minor arthritis in the ankle and foot joint, but they don't think that's the problem.

Seems their diagnosis is that I suffer from tenosynovitis, which is an inflammation of the tendon and the sheath surrounding the tendon. What's interesting is that repetitive movement is usually the cause of tenosynovitis, but in my case it's after a day of driving where my leg actually DOESN'T move very much. So now that I'm back in Georgia I'll have my primary care physician at the VA take a look at it and see if she concurs, or has another diagnosis.

Needless to say, Barbara and I are concerned that this might impact future travel plans in the RV. Could this condition spell doom for Parental Parolees and the lifestyle we have come to love? Tune it to see what happens next.

I Sing The Praises Of Liquidspring!

As many of our followers on Parental Parolees already know, our Tiffin Open Road 36LA came with an innovative option at build; a Liquidspring rear suspension system. It replaced the old-style shocks and leaf springs typically put on large trucks with a hydraulic arm (among other things) which adjusts 1000 times per second to road conditions. It's designed to make these harsh-riding truck chassis ride smoother and more stable, and it has been a godsend for me as a driver of over 50,000 miles on America's sometimes horrendous roads.

Because the Liquidspring suspension is an active system (vs. a passive air bag system on most diesel motorhomes), it actually makes the ride on our gas motorhome better than a diesel. Not only do the arms in back smooth out the ride vertically over potholes and bridge transitions, it holds the house to the chassis horizontally, reducing side-to-side (or top to bottom) sway from crosswinds and 18-wheelers passing by at speed.

But on the (thankfully rare) times it doesn't work right, the full experience of our bad roads in America can be felt through my steering wheel, and things start bouncing in the back, making for very long, very tiring days behind the wheel.

Back in November of 2023, the control module beside my driver's seat began to flash red spasmodically rather than indicate Liquidspring's usual status of green and amber lights. Not for long, and it always came back to normal. Through December it got worse, to the point where sometimes the suspension wouldn't rise to it's normal ride height, and the ride became harsh with little or no control. Finally, on our drive from Red Bay, AL to our winter stay in Chiefland, FL, the system failed completely. Fortunately, we were going to be sitting for 2 months without moving the motorhome, so I called the folks at Liquidspring to give them the bad news.

They suspected that some moisture might have gotten into our Electronic Control Unit (ECU) underneath the chassis, and offered to program a new one and send it to us for me to install. Alas, the recent left hand break during last year's vacation and the location of the control unit made that impossible. Rather than head just a bit south to one of their authorized installers for the repair, I opted to set up an appointment in mid-March in Lafayette, IN - home of Liquidspring itself - to have the service done. While I have no doubt the folks in Florida would have done their best, I didn't want any issues with “We don't have the part(s) needed and have to order it” delays, and the techs at Liquidspring have computer diagnostics that their installers do not.

So, three days of about 300 miles each (about 6.5 - 7 hours driving each day), heading steadily northward with stops just south of Atlanta, southern Kentucky and finally Lafayette, Indiana, and we're plugged into a recently-installed 50A receptacle on the side of Liquidspring headquarters for the night, awaiting our technician the following morning.

After looking at our driver's controller, unplugging and reconnecting it in hopes that the system would recognize it for something other than a fatal error, our tech opts to forego the planned test drive because he knows the system is well and fully hosed. He seats us (with Grover – who had already wheedled a biscuit from a soft-touch at the door) in their comfortable lounge, and went to work at 9:00.

Two hours later (and after a refreshing nap on their comfortable couch) in comes two technicians with smiling faces. They've replaced the balky ECU with a newly-programmed one based on our specific chassis and Liquidspring unit, they've replaced our old ride height sensors with new ones that will provide better and smoother control down the road, and replaced the wiring harnesses for the ECU and ride height sensors. We take a test drive, and it appears that the system is working even better than it had previously!

This, after 4.5 years and 51,000 miles on the road.

We pull back into their parking lot, and they tell us we're ready to head back on the road. “No paperwork”? “Nope”. “Nothing to sign”? “Nope”. And more importantly, nothing to PAY.  Just like that, we're done and gliding down the road to our next destination.

THIS is what working with American companies used to be like; well-trained people who understand not only the technical side of their business, but the customer-service side as well. A company who doesn't hem and haw when it comes to supporting their product and standing by their warranty. A company that makes an outstanding product in the first place, then backs it up with something even better when an occasional problem occurs.

That's why I put their product on our home on wheels in the first place, and why I tell anyone with a gas motorhome who thinks they might want a better ride on the road to get their motorhome upgraded with Liquidspring.

Great product, great people, great company!

Snow Removal In January - In Florida !?!?!?

Yeah, what's up with that?

Once a year, I'm guaranteed to have to do snow removal during our travels. Guaranteed. No matter where we are. This year, it was in Florida. Sunny, warm Florida, and I'm removing snow from our motor home.

But not to worry; the world hasn't turned upside down and the climate hasn't changed. But this is a very rare form of snow.

Tiffin Snow.

Tiffin Snow is generated by just one thing; a hard ride down bad roads. Our roof is assembled in the Tiffin manufacturing plant upside-down. The fiberglass top layer lies at the bottom on a large table, then the Styrofoam layer of insulation is added, wiring and lights and air ducts are put in place, then finally our padded ceiling is placed on top. The whole assembly is secured, flipped over and carefully lifted onto the completed exterior walls of the motor home as it works it's way down the assembly line. So with each hit of a bad pothole or poor bridge transition, Tiffin Snow is generated by little pieces of that Styrofoam insulation breaking free, getting caught in our air vent system, and finally being deposited in the little light disks covering our LED ceiling bulbs.

No, that's not a bad picture of a full moon. It's a light cover full of Tiffin Snow.

So every year, I have to unscrew over 30 glass disks that have a VERY tight seal, and dump my collection of Tiffin Snow. Otherwise, the collection gets large enough in some of the disks to block some serious light - especially if an errant bug managed to be attracted to the light and ends up getting trapped in one.

It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

This is what it looks like when the cover is removed.

This year's haul of Tiffin Snow.

Snow removal in January - the Parental Parolees way! Now I can get back to relaxing in the resort's hot tub . . .

Handling Winter In Our Motor Home

Winter of 2021. NOT fun!

OK, so the first rule of thumb in handling winter in your motor home is to move to warmer weather! After all, it's a MOTOR home!

But sometimes, family obligations get in the way of chasing 70 degrees or more, as it just did recently where we had to be in Massachusetts for more than a couple of days to take care of my Dad's transition to another level of elderly care. And as it does every year over the holidays when spending time with kids and grandkids is important. Now, North Georgia in winter (our usual haunt in Nov. and Dec.) isn't New England by any stretch of the imagination, but in December and January their weather is remarkably similar. Usually just less snow, but temperatures are within a few degrees of each other on average.

As we've written about before, most campgrounds in MA, NH, VT and ME close for the season no later than Columbus Day, sometimes due to state regulations, other times due to owners who want to spend their winters in Florida or Arizona, and sometimes just because of the hassle of keeping campgrounds open in sub-freezing temperatures.

But a rare few stay open all year 'round, mostly to take care of their permanent residents who live in RV's that frankly can no longer move from place to place, as they've sat for so long in ONE place. Or in the case of Field and Stream RV Park in Brookline, NH and Circle CG Farm in Bellingham, MA, to accommodate the occasional traveler like us when emergencies arrive.

So first off, providing water is a problem up north. Unlike homes, campground infrastructure is shallow, plus the water supply doesn't come into a nice heated basement, but to an outdoor spigot exposed to the cold. Now, in North Georgia, some campgrounds will wrap heating elements around their water supply, while others just cover their spigots in insulation for the rare sub-freezing events. Not so up north. If the temperatures get much below freezing for more than a day, the campground shuts off their water, and depending on the size of the campground, keeps it off until nightly temperatures remain above freezing for a while.

So how do residents and visitors get water when the temperatures go low up north? Deliveries! Both campgrounds mentioned above have trucks on-site with tanks that are filled from the main water supply (with heated infrastructure), and they go from site to site every other day and fill everyone's fresh water tank. In our case, our Tiffin comes with a gravity fill that can be unlocked as needed, then a hose from their water truck is inserted, and we're good to go with normal operations for the next two days using our onboard water pump. Our 70 gallon fresh water capacity is more than enough to handle a couple of days.

So that covers water, but what about keeping the interior warm? The easy answer would be propane, as our Open Road 36LA comes with two propane-fed heaters, But propane is expensive, and unless you want to move every week or so to a propane filling station on-site (packing up and disconnecting everything each time you need propane), it's also inconvenient. Field and Stream RV in NH can set you up with a “buddy tank” that can be filled by the local provider, and if you have an external connector as we do, the need to move goes away. But it's still expensive. We end up setting our propane furnaces to kick on if internal temps get below 63 degrees.

So we rely on propane in extreme low temperature conditions (for an RV anyway), usually below 23 degrees or so, but employ a variety of resources whenever possible, and let the campground pay to keep us warm.

I'll mention our heat pump only in passing, as it ceases to be effective below 40 degrees, so most nights up north it's useless in keeping us warm.

So, what remains are both Tiffin-supplied and other purchased heaters. The first is the fireplace that came with our 36LA. Made by Furrion, is has the capacity to heat up to 500 sq. ft. of an area. Technically, it could heat the entire living area of our home, but it doesn't handle the extreme ends of the motor home very efficiently. It IS very effective at warming up the main galley / living area, but should only be run for up to 5 hours at a time according to manufacturer specs. We never leave this on at night when we're sleeping, but do use it during the day.

We have a 1 1/5 foot-tall Lasko oscillating tower heater we plug into the front passenger area, as that plug is more robust than the plugs in other areas of the RV. This keeps the plug from heating up and potentially damaging the electronics of the heater and reduces any fire risk. We can run this heater pretty much all day or night. This heater handles the front of the coach closest to the main door, and also provides heat to the “thermister” thermostat right below it. This keeps the propane from kicking on too many times at night, as the front appears to be warmer to the Spyder control panel than the rest of the main cabin.

In our bedroom we employ the most efficient heat source known to mankind – a lemon-beagle named Grover. If there is a must-have heater for your RV, it's a beagle! The only trouble you can get into is that beagles are not UL listed . . .

 

He's not UL listed, but he's more efficient than any heater on the market!

For especially cold nights, we turn on a small oscillating cube heater in the bedroom that sits easily on our dresser's shelf. With Grover and the cube heater, we can maintain temperatures in the low 70's all night long.

Now, a point of caution: the inverter that comes with our Tiffin (and many other RV's) can only handle so many heat-producing devices being on at one time. That means heaters, microwaves, hair dryers, toasters, etc. We've found 3 to be the maximum before the inverter's circuit breaker kicks off. Your mileage may vary, but not by much.

Final point to surviving in cold weather is to make sure you take care of your wet bay. Use a heated hose if you are able to attach to outside water. Make sure that there are no plastic filters attached to your water hose that cannot conduct heat – make sure it's metal from spigot to internal water hookup! If no attachment is possible because of water being shut off, coil your heated hose up in your wet bay, but keep it plugged in – preferably to the campground's power pole via a standard 120V outlet. This will keep your wet bay warm, and prevent your water pump from freezing up overnight. Plugging it outside to the power pole removes one heat-producing source plugged into your motor home and protects your inverter.

Bottom-line, while it isn't preferable to spend time in colder weather in an RV, it can be done with just a little bit of thought and planning. And unless you have to go outside, it can be tolerable. Having a beagle just makes it easier and more enjoyable!

If you have your own hints and tips on surviving colder weather in an RV, or have any questions or want more detail about this post, feel free to use the comments section below, or drop us an email using the Contact section on our blog page.

Milestone Mileage !

While not as productive a trip as we had hoped it would be in getting my Dad settled into his new digs at a rehab / long-term care facility – he's a had a tough last 6 months physically and mentally at 94 years old – the trip produced one significant highlight in our full-time RV journey:

Ding, ding, ding, ding!

Our 2020 Tiffin Open Road 36LA just surpassed 50,000 miles driven since we picked it up new 4 years and 4 months ago!

 

While we had high hopes with our decision to go full-time RV-ing more than 7 years ago, I don't think we ever imagined seeing and experiencing all the sights and destinations we've encountered in these past 50,000 miles. Twenty-five states visited for more than a simple overnight stay, with about 1/3^rd of them visited multiple times for different reasons. If not for COVID-inspired cancellations and delays, we'd probably have added 3-6 more states to that total.

Memories made with our grandson, Jace, hopefully which will last for a lifetime with him. Barbara started having Jace write in a journal every day on his last trip so he can refer back to what he saw, and we've added pictures of those encounters to help him remember the things he's enjoyed. He's visited almost half of the states we've traveled to, racking up more than 2 ½ years of motor home living with us.

We've met incredible people on our journey as well. Many are fellow Tiffin owners, but others who travel in some other brand of motor home or in 5^th wheels and travel trailers. Many we've met just by stopping by and saying hi (we greet as many Tiffin owners as we can), but we've also met so many people through our beloved lemon-beagle, Grover. He's too stinkin' cute for his own good, and he's always a conversation starter. Some folks we keep in touch with through this blog or on Facebook, while others we've managed to travel with on multiple occasions when our destinations and schedules coincide.

If there's one question we're always asked when speaking with RV-ers and non-RV-ers (besides the usual “How have you managed to not kill each other in that time frame?” - just kidding), is “What has been your favorite place to visit”? And while many stand out for very different reasons – the quirky places like Roswell, NM, The Thing museum just over the AZ border on I-10, and Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska – Barbara and I both agree that two places make our “must-see” places to visit when traveling in the US, whether you're in an RV or not:

The Black Hills of South Dakota, especially the Rapid City / Custer State Park area, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

So many things are must-see places to visit in South Dakota. The obvious one is Mt. Rushmore just outside of Rapid City. But for us, it's not THAT you just go there; it's WHEN you go there. As in what time of day you go there. Barbara and I found this out completely by accident when visiting the area to get our South Dakota residency established before buying our motor home. We only had a day in Rapid City, and had checked into our hotel for the night and had our dinner at a local restaurant. With nothing else to do and wanting to see the sights, we decided on a quick drive up to Mt. Rushmore about 20 minutes away.

Our timing couldn't have been better. At the end of the day (this was more than 4 years ago, so I hope they still do this now), they ask active-duty military and veterans if they want to participate in the flag lowering out front. At the time I wanted to spend this visit with Barbara by my side, so I declined the offer. Then as the sun starts to go down, they play the Star-Spangled Banner, and as the last notes of our national anthem fade away, they bring the lights up on the monument. It's a very moving ceremony, and something every American should experience in their lifetime.

So the moral of the story is if you're going to see Mt. Rushmore, time your visit for about a half-hour before sunset for the best view of this national treasure.

Also be sure to take in Custer State Park and Wall, SD while out west. Sure, Wall Drug is a tourist trap, but if you're an RV-er, you have to try to get a spot on some BLM land just south of Wall at a place called 'The Wall At Wall'. It's prime boondocking land overlooking the Black Hills where you park on the edge of a cliff looking out over 300 feet above the Badlands. The view is spectacular!

The Outer Banks of North Carolina gets our vote for a couple of reasons; first, in one day we watched the sun rise up out of the water (the Atlantic Ocean) and set in another body of water (Pamlico Sound) with no land in either view. Pretty cool!

You're also close to Kitty Hawk, where the Wright brothers made their first powered flights. The Outer Banks also features one of the most annoying accesses to any area we've been to; namely, the Washington Baum bridge. It's a slab bridge more than a mile long built in 1994, and the architect and builders should be horsewhipped. We call it the 'Porpoise Bridge' because each slab is not joined smoothly, making the front end of the motor home bounce up and down for more than a minute. The slabs are timed wrong for longer vehicles like ours, and as I said, it's annoying to drive.

Finally, these 50,000 miles wouldn't have been as easy and enjoyable as they have been without the skilled craftsmen and women at Tiffin Motorhomes. Not that our Open Road 36LA is exactly the same as it came out of the factory in August of 2019. With upgrades to our bedroom slide mechanism and interior cabinets, our home on wheels is better than even we imagined it would have been when we started this journey.

All-in-all, a great milestone and a great decision. Here's hoping for many more relatively trouble-free miles in the next 4 years!

 

Oh, the driving we've seen . . . .

When you've spent as much time on the road as we have (50,000 miles behind the wheel of our motor home in the past 4+ years), you get to see a LOT of bad driving. And sure, every state has their bad drivers, but some states go out of their way to prove THEIR drivers are the worst. And to be fair, some of the really idiotic things we've seen drivers do probably have something to do with attempting to get out from behind or around our motor home (we've learned that NO ONE likes to be behind an RV of any kind), but you can tell that a great many of these people have practiced these moves before encountering us!

So here's to the really bad drivers in the good old USA!

Merging onto a highway

I've written a bit about this is the past, but this is a skill that apparently isn't taught in Driver's Education anymore. Two things to remember; it's an ACCELERATION lane, but there's a yield to highway traffic at the end. So if you don't get the first part right, the second part – especially the timing of the yield – becomes very important. Add in the fact that no one wants to get behind an RV, and you have a ready-made recipe for disaster waiting to happen dozens of times on an average drive day.

And what is it about certain drivers being unable to see the big blue 38-foot motor home coming right up beside them?!?!

Case in point: A rainy afternoon heading northbound on I-75 in Florida. I'm tooling along in my preferred spot in the right hand lane doing my usual 58 MPH. It's courteous and fuel-efficient, because everyone can pass me on the left, and I'm getting pretty close to 8 MPG at that cruise speed. Checking to the right, I see a young guy in a white pickup truck heading onto the highway, as he's probably done every day for months. But he's looking STRAIGHT AHEAD, and for some strange and unfathomable reason he has no peripheral vision, because he just keeps moving at EXACTLY my speed up the ramp way. Now, of course I have the option of slowing down and letting him in, but I'm just enough ahead of him to make that unwieldy for me, not to mention anyone driving behind me, so I hit my horn to get his attention. His head turns, he hits the breaks - resulting in his fishtailing on the wet pavement – and suddenly he has a reason to head home to change his pants!

Another case in point: Heading northbound on I-985 in Gainesville, GA; again doing my usual 58 MPH thing. I see nobody in my side view mirror as we're passing the on-ramp. Now, I'm fully PAST the on-ramp, when suddenly I hear the sound of rumble strips; you know, those grooves they cut into the pavement to wake you up if you fall asleep driving and veer off the road? I check to see if I might have somehow strayed from the straight and narrow, but of course, I'm perfectly fine. But now the sound of the rumble strips get even louder and closer! Looking out Grover's doggie window on the passenger side of the motor home, I see a pickup truck zipping UP THE BREAKDOWN LANE so that he could get in front of me! Then he cuts out into my lane so quickly he almost takes out my front end. (I guess the rumble strips were getting on his nerves)

Final merging point: I have lost count the number of times I have had to slam on my brakes to allow people to merge onto the highway because they won't accelerate fast enough, or refuse to yield the right of way to oncoming traffic. And in case you didn't know this, it's hard to suddenly stop or slow down a 28,300 lb motor home towing a car behind it.

Weaving in and out

I can't really chalk this one up to people who don't want to be behind a motor home, as this happens in front of us and on each side of us. I basically chalk this up to people who think their time is more valuable than anyone else's and don't give a damn about the safety of those around them. I also think there's a certain sense of indestructibility in some people; individuals who think nothing bad will happen to them no matter how reckless they tend to act.

Case in point: What is it about motorcyclists in Connecticut? I'll cite one instance, but it's happened multiple times as we've driven on I-84 through the Nutmeg State. The overall traffic speed is moving well above 65 MPH, so we're looking as if we're standing still in the right lane. All of a sudden, a series of at least 20 bikers pass us on the left (not unusual), but over the course of nearly 5 minutes, these bikers – all well spaced out and not in a group – begin a series of death-defying weaves in and out of all three lanes at speeds that had to exceed 80 MPH! They were routinely cutting in front of cars that only had about 4-5 car lengths between them, while a couple of them even used the breakdown lanes ON BOTH SIDES of the highway to get their thrills. I just don't get it.

And cars are not immune to the weaving bug. While not concentrated in any state like the above example, we routinely see high-end BMW's and Jag's looking for any opening they can take to get a few car lengths ahead of the great unwashed. And again, they feel pretty sure that I can stop my motor home before hitting them if they have miscalculated their timing and distance estimates. One of these days I'll be very mad and they'll be very surprised that I could not.

The 4-lane change to get to an exit

This happens more often than you might think. And some of this can be attributed to an RV blocking the view to the right of many drives. After all, we're about the size of a billboard, and we're not sitting way up 40 feet or so above the freeway. We're right on your eye level. Now, this doesn't excuse bad behavior; in fact, it SHOULD make more drivers conscious of their surroundings so they can take time to plan their moves accordingly. But they don't. Instead, they make their way over to the fast lane, then find themselves between a rock (us) and a hard place (their exit). At this point, survival mode kicks in and they dive towards their exit like a hawk after a mouse, literally not caring one bit who they have to cut off.

Bad Truckers

This has been the most disappointing aspect of our full-time travels. Growing up, truckers were professionals who were careful of those around them, followed the rules of the road, and more importantly, they were polite drivers. Not so these days. I still think the majority of truckers are professionals, but that percentage has dwindled. And I get it; car drivers don't make the roads easier for truckers. Frankly, some RVers are also to blame, with RV's taking up valuable parking spots in small rest areas and truck stops that force truckers to park on ramps and breakdown lanes near rest stops. We find Walmarts, Cracker Barrels, Flying J's and even the occasional Camping World just to avoid taking up spots in rest areas. Oh, and I still flash my lights to tell a trucker when it's safe for him to move over in front of me.

Construction zones

Do American drivers read anymore? I ask this because some of the worst driving offenders are the people who will approach a construction zone and ignore the lane closure signs until the very last minute. These days with electronic signs being installed on most major highways, the amount of valuable information has never been greater. Usually construction zones are announced 5 or 10 miles beforehand. Bright orange signs telling you which lane is being closed begin at the 2 mile mark, and are repeated at the 1 mile, half mile and so many feet in advance. Yet tens of thousands of American drivers will drive right up to the cones marking the lane closure, and try to get into a line of vehicles that have been patiently waiting – sometimes 15 minutes or more – in the correct lane that is remaining open.

Is it arrogance? Stupidity? Inattention? Or is it just the “I'm too important to wait in line” syndrome? Either way, while I used to let these people merge in front of me, I no longer do so, moving my RV partly into the next lane on occasion to thwart their efforts to gain entrance. In addition, they now get to sit behind my big 'ol RV for a mile or two through the construction zone and have their view blocked for a long time. Serves them right.

Anyway, now you know that it's not just your state that does these things, but virtually every state (or at least the 25 states we've been through in the past 4 years). American drivers are bad, and they're getting worse.

Wine Country Safari – One of our best trips ever!

This idea began almost 2 years ago, when Barbara and I were heading back east from a winter in Arizona and New Mexico. Tired of traveling on I-10 through West Texas, we hopped off the interstate, eventually finding ourselves traveling on Texas Route 290 through one of the most quaint and restored small towns in America - Fredericksburg, TX. Our drive-thru was during their Founders Day celebration, and bunting was on every storefront and crossing their main street. It was also remarkable that it differed from virtually every small town we had traveled through in the previous 2 years; as it was vibrant, with nary a storefront boarded up or closed down. Every parking space occupied and people walking everywhere.

As we headed out of town, we began noticing wineries dotting the countryside. The place was LOADED with them. Barbara began some cursory research, and we found out that Texas has a designated “wine country”, and we were driving through the heart of it. While Barbara and I don't drink a lot, we do enjoy the occasional glass of wine. We put a pin of Fredericksburg, vowing to head back some day soon.

A year later, and we're meeting with fellow RVers Byron and Lynn Hill at the Tampa RV show, and we mention our intention to head back to Fredericksburg, TX sometime in the Fall. Both thought it was a great idea, and expressed a desire to meet us there, so we set a tentative date in September which coincided with their plans to visit friends and family in nearby San Antonio. Also during that stay in Florida, we met back up with other fellow RVers Dan Bachrach and Jodi Dominguez, whom we had helped earlier in the winter when their motorcycle experienced difficulties. After mentioning the planned trip to Fredericksburg, it happened to coincide with their planned 5-week trip up and down the great Midwest, so they adjusted their plans to meet us the last week of September in Fredericksburg.

Wine Country Safari was on!

What was interesting is that all six of us prefer sweet wines; the sweeter the better. We're definitely not wine experts, but we all know what we like and that's all that counts. As the time grew nearer, I began reaching out to various wineries in the area, inquiring about tasting opportunities and expressing our preference for a sweeter set of wines. Interestingly enough, one of the first wineries I was able to get in touch with admitted they didn't have what we liked, but recommended another winery for us as a much better experience. Frankly, that doesn't happen very often these days, so kudos for Becker Vineyards for doing so. We actually stopped by before heading out to buy one of their sweeter wines as a thank you for being so helpful and forthright.

Byron and Lynn had found a municipal park about 10 minutes away from downtown Fredericksburg, which actually featured a “buy 6 nights, get the 7^th free” deal. Typical Texas park with grassy separations between crushed gravel sites, and few trees of any significance. Lady Byrd Johnson Municipal Park also featured a golf course (wish my hand had healed from it's earlier break in July, but it wasn't ready to swing a club yet), a couple of playgrounds that Jace and Grover would have drooled at, a pool (sadly closed for the season), and miles of walking trails.

It was also situated right next door to the runway at Gillespie County Municipal Airport. More on that later.

Everyone showed up within a few hours of each other, and we met to plan out our first few days of tasting and sightseeing. A meal was planned at our site for two nights later, and our first tasting opportunity was scheduled for the very next day.

Planning sessions are easy when you have a sunset like this one.

 

Fiesta Winery has three separate locations around Fredericksburg, but their tasting room on Texas 290 is the best place to go for a tasting experience. Charles was there to assist us with various flavored wines, with a handy sheet that you marked off with the six wines that interested you. He then poured sometimes “generous” samples of wines for everyone in our group, starting with the less-sweet wines and moving to the very sweet wines. Didn't matter if we chose different wines for each pour; he had each of us taken care of with every wine we had marked off. He spoke about the wines, the area, and places to visit while we were there. At the end of the tasting, we each enjoyed a glass of our favorite wine outside using the complementary wine glasses that came with our tasting. All-in-all, a wonderful first experience.

This is one happy group of RVing wine tasters!

 

While Barbara and I prepared our group meal for Wednesday, the others headed out to various points of interest that day. The early Fall weather cooperated and cooled down nicely that day, so we ate outside in our Clam shelter to keep any bugs at bay.

Barbara and I love to eat at local diners and Mom and Pop restaurants during our travels. It helps out the local economy and the quality of the food and service is usually off the charts. Dan and Jodi had eaten lunch at a downtown diner only opened for breakfast and lunch called the Texas Sunrise. We both decided to head there in the morning, as Byron and Lynn were seeing friends for lunch that day. Really great breakfast, and a different feature, the kind of something that attracts us to local places in the first place. They tacked donated money to their ceiling, and people can buy a raffle ticket held once a year to win all the money tacked to the ceiling.

Dan and I had expressed a desire to see the National Museum of the Pacific War (not something you'd expect to see in the middle of Texas), and as with everything in Fredericksburg, it was just a short walk away. Dan is a Marine, and I'm Air Force, so our veterans status got us inexpensive tickets to two different museums. Fredericksburg is the birthplace of Admiral Chester Nimitz, who commanded the Pacific fleet during World War II, so there was a very well-done museum covering his life and service. The main Pacific War museum was one of the better detailed museums we've ever been in, and one where all the audio/visual displays actually worked. Barbara figured that it was because this was not a museum geared for little kids, so the displays were treated better.

Plans were made for a breakfast at the Airport Diner on the other side of the runway for the next morning. As a former flier, I knew that in many cases, airport diners also served some of the best food you can find in a particular area. The Airport Diner didn't disappoint. Afterwards everybody went their own separate ways for the day. Byron and Lynn had more company visiting them, Dan and Jodi took their motorcycle into San Antonio to see the Alamo, and Barbara and I took a nice walking tour of downtown Fredericksburg.

Full bellies from the Airport Diner make for big smiles!

 

Our final day of Wine Country Safari before heading out was Saturday. Byron and Lynn's son and daughter-in-law were visiting, so it became the eight of us to visit the Fat Ass winery and brewery, located just a bit further out Texas 290. For $30 per person, you got either two separate 5-wine tastings (one at the brewery side and one at the winery side), or a sample of 4 beers and a 5-wine tasting at each site. Barbara, Jodi, Dan and I opted for the wines, while the Hill's opted for the beer and wine experience. It's a short walk from the brewery to the winery sides, but Fat Ass provides a winemobile to take you from one side to the other. Even their windshield wrap screams 'Let's have some fun!"

Dan Bachrach and yours truly waiting to board the Fat Ass winemobile. Oh, and it's driven by a 14 year-old! (photo courtesy of Jodi Dominguez)

So here's the thing; when you are at a place called “Fat Ass”, the people who work there are naturally more friendly and outgoing, adding to your overall experience. When you add in five 1-ounce pours on one side (with one wine having a 13% alcohol volume!), another five 1-ounce pours on the other side, PLUS a full glass of their Sangria “slushie”, everybody is having a VERY good time. Fortunately, there was a food truck on site, so Dan and I each got some excellent chicken bites and fries to contribute to some group alcohol absorption while listening to a DJ provided by Fat Ass. I also managed to remember Barbara's and my favorite song to dance to (Kenny Rogers' 'Through the Years'), and got that request in. I then dropped $120 bucks on some wine for us and our friends back in Georgia, earning my “free” Fat Ass t-shirt.

A point to note: Fat Ass features some very interesting flavored wines. Two of our choices on the second side of our tasting (each side featured separate wines so you got a really good sampling of their product) were very different - their PB&J and their Chocolate wines. While I probably might not ever buy a bottle of either, I enjoyed them for the simple reason that they absolutely NAILED the two flavors. You could smell the peanut butter and taste the separate flavors in the PB & J wine, and their Chocolate wine included a hint of cherry cordial in it. Oh, and their Sangria was to DIE for! Bought two bottles of that.

Interesting side to this adventure is that both wineries ship to about 33 states across the nation, so while we will probably come back to Fredericksburg again some day, we don't have to wait to get some really great tasting wines.

Just a (very) small sample of the haul that was taken at Fat Ass winery. And of course the obligatory T-shirt!

 

This trip epitomized what RVing is all about; meeting new people, reconnecting with friends you've met on the road, and realizing just how friendly many people who do what we do truly are. Aside from some Jace time on certain vacations, this was the best trip we've taken in the motor home since starting this adventure 4 years ago.

One I believe our little group will cherish forever.