Our Mt. Rushmore Adventure(s)

When in South Dakota, it is a given that Mt. Rushmore, just about 27 miles from Rapid City in the west end of the state, should be a must-see on everyone's itinerary. The majestic carvings of four of our most influential presidents blasted and hammered out of a portion of the Black Hills is one of the most recognizable views in the entire world.

Gifted American sculptor Gutzon Borglum took an idea from South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson, and spent the last 14 years of his life bringing that dream to fruition, passing the torch to his son, Lincoln, who finished the monument as it stands today a year after Gutzon's death. Each head of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt stands 60 feet in height at an elevation of more than a mile at 5,725 feet. The visitor center itself is situated below, and even that is more than a mile up in the mountains. Additional heads have been suggested (Susan B. Anthony at the time of construction, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan in later years), but engineers in 1941 and opinions reinforced in later years have determined that the remainder of the mountain isn't stable enough to add any more. Probably a good thing.

Interesting little historical tidbit: The original design called for each president to be carved from the waist up, but topography and cost derailed that idea. You'll note in pictures that George Washington is the only president carved with more than just his head.

While establishing our South Dakota residency 5 years ago, we had checked into our hotel, had an early dinner, and had little to do that evening after a long drive to get to Rapid City. Just on a whim, we decided that we weren't going to be in South Dakota for just a single night and day without seeing something, so after dinner we drove the 27 miles or so to see one of America's national treasures.

Just by happenstance, we ended up at the monument at sundown, and were able to experience the end of day ceremony which entails a brief history of the monument, a summary of the presidential accomplishments which got their faces on the mountain, the playing of our national anthem, and the lighting of the monument just as the last strains of the Star Spangled Banner faded into the night. They asked if any active duty or veterans wanted to participate in the flag retirement ceremony at the end, but at the time I just wanted to be with Barbara to experience the end of day together.

Fast-forward 5 years, and it's time to renew our South Dakota residency and driver's licenses, both of which have to be done in person due to our being full-time RV-ers. Instead of a single night in South Dakota and a quick turnaround, we decide to spend three days in the area to recover from the 2-day, 24-hour drive from Georgia to Rapid City and back again.

That gives us three whole nights to revisit Mt. Rushmore, and this time I intend to volunteer to participate in the flag retirement ceremony at the end of the day.

Night 1: Our memories, backed up by some pictures taken 5 years previous, was that the ceremony started at sundown, so we found ourselves in the visitor center at approximately 7:30 waiting for sundown to occur at 8:08 pm. The appointed time rolls around, and no hint of a ceremony. It's getting darker and colder, and we're both beginning to wonder if the US Parks Service no longer performs the end of day ritual any more. Now understand, we had packed clothes for expected 90 degree weather based on forecasts. Well, as usual, the forecasts had changed on the way to South Dakota and we're now a mile up, it's dark, and it's also windy, and we don't even have the first layer of a jacket with us. Because . . . forecasts! 8:45 rolls around, and we decide to leave, still not sure when the ceremony was scheduled to begin. After all, we've got two more nights to get this done, right?

Night 2: Back at the visitor's center, this time a bit later. Find out the the ceremony is scheduled to begin at 9:00 and end at 9:30. We are at least wearing long sleeves this evening. Sunset is now 8:07, but in the distance, there is the ominous rumble of thunder. A quick check of our weather app shows a couple of storm cells working their way heading RIGHT TOWARDS the monument area. Now, if you've never experienced a Great Plains thunderstorm, you're in for a treat if you love bad weather (as I do) and a miserable time if you hate bad weather (as Barbara does). So, just when is this bad weather expected to arrive?

You guessed it: right between 8:45-9:00. We hang in for a bit in case it has plans to dissipate, but Mother Nature has decided to NOT cooperate this evening. About 8:40 rain spatters begin. Another check of the radar app and we know tonight is not going to be the night. Ceremony canceled. We do, however, get to experience the full fury of a Great Plains thunderstorm on our drive down the mountain in our Jeep, watching bolt lightning of astonishing power with little attenuation due to the higher altitude. Alas, no joy, but one more night remains.

Night 3: This was it. Last chance. It's back to Georgia the next day. We arrive just before sunset, but this time, we're outfitted in some new fall-weight jackets and hoods to keep us relatively warm, which we had picked up at the local Cabela's earlier that day. No storms on radar.

As we sat along the display of every state flag lining the pathway to the overlook and monument, Barbara and I engaged in one of our favorite pastimes – people watching. I mentioned in my last post that we were in town during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, and a lot of bikers visited Mt. Rushmore each of the 3 nights we were there. One biker this evening walked by us with five live parakeets perched in each pocket of his denim vest and colors, while a cockatoo sat on his shoulder. I kid you not. We assume he had a cage or two strapped to his bike in order to get the birds to and from his destination, but who knows?

Finally, 8:55 rolls around, and an announcement is made that the end of day ceremony would begin shortly in the auditorium below the overlook, so Barbara and I headed about halfway down to some bench seats. The Park Ranger gave a very nice and accurate history of the monument and the reasons why each president was enshrined on the mountain. She then asked for military or veteran spectators to be recognized on stage, and between 25 and 30 of us headed further down.

Now it was time to ask for volunteers to retire the flag for the day. This entails the Park Ranger lowering the flag, and a detail of six of us to fold the flag into the traditional “tricorn” to present back to her. I was honored to lead the detail, and my fellow veterans and I did a credible job, given many of us hadn't done anything like that in decades.

The park ranger and I with the fruit our our detail's labor

 

They say that “third time is the charm”, and in our case that certainly rang true. I left the venue both honored and humbled to be part of something few people get to experience, and Barbara and I could now head back to Georgia satisfied that everything we needed and wanted to accomplish in our short visit was done.

If you're going to be in the Rapid City area, a visit to Mt. Rushmore is a must. And the TIME to go is at sunset, even if you have to wait a bit for the ceremony to start.

A South Dakota State of Mind

Five years on the road at the end of this month.

Lots of miles. Lots of smiles.

We've detailed the reasons for setting up our full-time residency in South Dakota in previous blog posts, and if you're members late in our journey you can find them in our early archives on this site. Needless to say, South Dakota is a wonderful state to begin with, and it's one of the best states in which to set up residency if you're going to go full-time on the road.

And with five years under our belts, it's time to renew, well – everything - to do with “living” in South Dakota as an RV-er. You have to show proof that you stayed in South Dakota for one night to renew your residency, and you've got to renew your driver's licenses after 5 years. As full-time RV-ers, we are NOT allowed to renew our licenses online as permanent residents can do, so since we had to stay our requisite one night in SD, we also had to head down to the nearest RMV from our county tax office to get new driver's licenses.

And instead of having our mailbox provider handle our annual vehicle registrations as they do every year (for the paltry sum of a $10 fee), we could also renew them at the tax office as well.

Finally, after seeing what my brother, Doug, went through earlier this year as executor of my Dad's estate (and having to establish power of attorney due to Dad's worsening condition before his passing), a lawyer friend of ours suggested that we have end-of-life documents such as wills, living wills, and powers of attorney originating in South Dakota so as to avoid any probate conflicts. Our earlier wills were rather dated (mine was more than 7 years old – Barbara's was significantly older than that) and had been established in our previous residency in Georgia, so we engaged a local Rapid City attorney to draw up new documents.

South Dakota – and Pennington County in particular – is nothing if not efficient. At the tax office, we were given a number and told we had a 35-minute wait. We were called in 20 minutes. Took the clerk at the counter 5 minutes to process our residency renewal and get our new tags. After a 15-minute drive to the RMV, we were alternated in between people who had appointments (we didn't - hey, we're retired!) and we were out of the building with a warm laminated driver's license in 25 minutes. Almost had a problem, as the guy at the counter asked for two pieces of mail to prove residency. Well, we don't have any mail because we don't get any bills (or most anything else), but when I pointed out that we are full-time RV-ers, he brings out another form for me to sign and we're good to go.

From the time we finished our late breakfast to the time we have everything done, including travel time, it was less than 2 hours.

So now that the important stuff was done, what to we do?

Frankly, after two 12-hour driving days from Georgia to South Dakota, it's nap time for me. After all, we have an evening date with the end of day ceremony at Mt. Rushmore to attend. More on that in another post.

Our second day was the obligatory trek to Wall Drug. Wall Drug is appropriately named for the town approximately 50 miles east of Rapid City, Wall, SD. It's the epitome of a tourist trap. In fact, if you look up the term “tourist trap” in the dictionary, there's a picture of Wall Drug. Cheap t-shirts, relatively inexpensive Black Hills gold jewelry, bison burgers; you name it, it's somewhere in the twenty or so buildings which comprise downtown Wall, SD. We had two goals; trinkets and trash for the grandkids and finding more brass state ornaments for our Christmas tree. We are about eleven states shy of having ornaments from every state we've visited, and Wall Drug has a display of all of them. After our visit, we just need six more to catch up with our travels!

We also made the obligatory drive thru Custer State Park. Some bison were spotted in the distance, but they tend to cross roads earlier in the day. We did however, get to feed carrots to the wild burros who hang around in the same spot waiting for generous tourists like us to drive along. Found out the Jeep could navigate all the tunnels in Needles Pass, but it sure had a LOT more room when we took the Mini through them 4 years ago!

Barbara talked to the burros a lot. Mainly because one in particular kept following her no matter where she went. That burro was a pig!

It's hard not to smile when feeding these burros. Some are shy, some are very forward, but they're all cute.

One semi-sour note to the trip. Don't schedule your visit to the Rapid City area during the first two weeks of August. Three words:

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

First off, IF you can find a hotel room, they will be double the usual price. Local businesses love Sturgis; local residents – not so much. Second, while there are many fine people riding motorcycles across the country, not all of them come to Sturgis. Sixty-something men and women showing way too much heavily tattooed skin, excessively loud bikes revving all hours of the day and night, and - let's face it - were beard braids ever really in style?

This picture below sums up the 7-day trip in numbers pretty well.

 

Overall, the roads to and from were in good condition, except for Illinois. Despite five years of construction, the same stretch of road between the Kentucky border and Missouri is still a mess.

Next up in Parental Parolees – Our Mt. Rushmore adventure(s).

Jace's Summer Vacation and Camper Trash

With end of summer fast approaching, and Jace's summer vacation coming to a close, it's time for a not so brief update on our travel-less summer of 2024.

New grandson William continues to grow into toddler size, well before he's supposed to. If he keeps growing as fast as he has, he'll be a linebacker in about, oh – 3 years or so. Alicia is still recovering from the C-section, but improving steadily.

While Jace didn't spend the full 8-weeks of his summer break with us as he usually does on one of our extended trips, he has spent a great deal of time with us at Bolding Mill COE campground while we've been camp hosting. He got to ride in the Kubota a few times and helped a little bit (a very little bit) in keeping the campground bathrooms clean, but most of the time here he spent on his new scooter or at the lake beach.

He spent a LOT of time at the lake beach.

He met a few kids visiting for the day and got to play with them in the water, got to release a catfish a guy caught near the shoreline, and generally improved on his swimming and floating.

One night we took Jace and Grover out to the local Bruster's for some ice cream. While Jace loved his cone, Grover REALLY appreciated his pup cup, which Barbara complained had the same amount of ice cream her adult cup had – and Grover got the added biscuit!

Jace's summer vacation also included a visit to Great Wolf Lodge with his Auntie KK and her friend Shane. Huge indoor water park and a Magi Quest adventure to keep everybody entertained.

Great set of bunk beds in the spare bedroom of the suite Kristen and Shane booked. Of course Jace took the top bunk!

Jace, Auntie KK (Kristen) and her friend Shane.

At Magi Quest, you're issued a magic wand to use to help you find things. But of course, it's also just a stick . . .

When at Great Wolf Lodge, one must wear the obligatory wolf ears!

 

One day near the end of his vacation, he was able to see his good friend Amie, who we met a couple of years ago while staying in another campground. These two are really good friends and enjoy each other's company so very much. Their faces light up when they see each other. Anyway, we have lived in North Georgia for more than 30 years, and in all that time we never took a tube ride down the Chattahoochee River in the Helen, GA area. It's kinda the thing to do here.

These two always have huge smiles on their faces when they get together. Such great friends.

 

You basically get yourself a very comfortable tube with a head rest if you're an adult, or a smaller tube sans headrest if you're 12 years old or younger. If you're smart, you bring a stout 5-foot stick with you or you purchase one for $5 bucks at the tubing location to help you push off rocks or the shoreline as you travel downriver. It can take a LOT of work on very slippery rocks to extricate yourself from danger if you forego the stick. The $5 investment is well worth it!

If the water is running fairly well (as it was that day), you can take a 2-hour trip down the river, or if there has been little or no rain, you're bussed to a departure spot a little closer to the end of the adventure. Fortunately for us, we had had some recent rains (after a VERY dry summer), so the 2-hour ride was available.

Now, because Jace is 8 years-old and Amie is about a year and a half older (so both are under 12), they had to have their tubes strapped to an adult tube for obvious safety reasons. This does a couple of things: First off, the tubes move much slower together than a single tube does, and the tubes spin in an axis at random intervals, keeping the driver (me) from facing forward to control the course. Having 8 or 10-year-olds acting as lookouts or navigators isn't what anyone would call optimum. Thus, Jace and I and Amie and her mom Elizabeth ended up getting stuck in some precarious places. I ended up getting out of the tube 4 times, slipping underwater 3 times just to get us free from rocks. Jace had to pull us out from a tree which blocked our path.

Barbara had her own difficulties traveling by herself, getting caught in a water chute between rocks and going underwater for too long a time for comfort.

Meanwhile, Amie and Jace were desperately trying to hook up our tubes into a foursome by holding onto each other's tubes, making navigating even more challenging.

Still in all, it was a nice morning adventure that I know both kids would love to repeat again real soon. For my money, I hope they can both wait until they turn 12 so they can travel alone!

Jace having a ball on the Chattahoochee. That's Amie and her mom in the background. As you can see, Amie is desperately trying to get back to Jace while he mugs for the camera.

 

As for us, Barbara continues to work 2-3 days a week at the local West Elm store. It keeps her busy and relatively sane, and brings in a few extra dollars each month. She's earned more than enough thus far to allow us to pay cash for the six new motorhome tires we're going to have to buy this winter while in Florida, and we still have 5 months to go on this camp hosting gig.

The camp hosting isn't strenuous, but it can be frustrating. The biggest thing is the cavalier way all-too-many campers treat their campsite. I mean, let's face it; it's the outdoor version of your living room at home, right? So why would you just discard things on the ground that you wouldn't do at home?

The most annoying things thrown on the ground and never picked up?

Twist ties from bread or roll packages.

Zip ties just cut off from products and left on the ground.

Bottle caps, especially beer bottles.

Cellophane straw wrappers from juice boxes or bags.

And the worse violators?

Cigarette butts. The worst part is when campers use their fire pit as an ashtray for their 2-week stay. Even many smokers don't like to get to a campsite and find their fire pit full of someone else's discarded butts! Non-smokers absolutely hate them! We cleaned up one camp site only occupied for a week, and we policed more than 5 dozen cigarette butts in and around the campsite!

Well, we do get a free campsite with sewer in a Corps of Engineers park for our troubles, but Barbara and I have figured out that this is not an experience we want to repeat anytime soon. After January 8th, it's back on the road for us, and somebody else can clean up other people's messes.

Travel-wise, the RV is staying put until January, but we have a short one week trip in August to South Dakota in our Jeep Cherokee to renew our residency, pay our annual vehicle registrations in person, and renew our driver's licenses after 5 years of being residents of that great state. Full-time RV-ers have to provide proof we stayed at least one night in a hotel or campground once every five years to maintain residency, and we have to renew our driver's licenses in person as opposed to actual residents who can renew by mail. It's no big deal, as we enjoy the state immensely, even if it's just for a short visit. And the paperwork takes us less than a half a day to get everything done.

Doesn't seem that long ago we were driving up there in our old Mini Cooper convertible to get ready for full-time RV living by establishing ourselves as residents there. We've probably driven more than 100,000 miles in the motorhome and both tow vehicles since then. Gas was much cheaper for the most part, much more expensive (post-COVID) for a while, and the Jeep is less fuel-efficient and less fun to drive than the Mini ever was, but it's certainly more comfortable and quieter than the Mini. With new tires all around on the Jeep, the trip should be much easier on our ears and rears than it was 5 years ago.

Camp Hosting at Bolding Mill COE

Over the years, Barbara and I have spoken to many fellow RVers who have taken on camp hosting duties. Their reasons vary from wanting to earn some extra money while on the road, to wanting to save on campground fees by staying in one place for an extended period of time, wanting to visit a particular area or enjoy a particular campground, or like us, to be able to spend time in an area for family reasons.

Camp hosting, or work camping, usually entails doing simple chores around the campground, like cleaning bathrooms, policing campsites when people check out, performing simple maintenance functions, or working in the campground office. It all depends on the campground and the contract being agreed to. All get you a free camp site for the duration of your contract; some pay a minimal stipend for hours worked. All with have a number of days and hours per day expected of you to work.

In our particular case working for Hall County, GA, who has a contract to manage a few Corps of Engineers campgrounds on Lake Lanier, we get a free camp site that has full hookups including sewer, which is not usually available in COE campgrounds, but no addition stipend. We have four days on duty and four days off, with a maximum of four hours per day we're expected to work. So it works out to be a maximum of 16 hours of work every 8 days on average. Frankly, that's a really nice deal, especially on a lake park with sewer hookups.

Our duties thus far are:

• Deep clean the two bath houses once every weekend day, with a cursory clean on a weekend early evening

• Cursory clean the bath houses on Tuesday-Thursday (deep clean if needed). The maintenance guy (Antonio) deep cleans the bath houses on Friday and Monday before and after each weekend as part of his regular duties.

• Once the busy summer season is in full swing, we'll be expected to deep clean them every day and a cursory clean each early evening.

• After Sunday checkout time, we check each camp site for trash left, or things left in the fire rings that don't belong there.

• I've taken to adopting the dump station as my own, as I have always hated a dirty dump station (especially after a rain) when you can't help but track in mud after dumping your tanks. So I sweep or blow the dirt and pine straw off to the side.

We're also expected to serve as camp ambassadors, walking or driving the park in the provided Kubota work vehicle, stopping by camp sites to say “Hi” and ask how their stay is going, and offer help if needed. Sometimes we gently counsel the occasional violator of a camp rule. If we don't enforce the COE rules, the county might lose their contract if the park ranger sees we're not doing our job.

I personally love the camp ambassador part of the job, and do it even on days I'm supposed to be off. The walk is good for my physical health and the socialization is good for my mental health.

Do we miss the road sometimes? Sure. We had a very nice summer vacation planned for Jace this year, hitting some western states we hadn't visited yet, but there's always next year. We've already been able to attend Jace's school's field day, and watched him expend a ton of energy on some pretty frenetic indoor games. Barbara gets some additional William Oliver time when Alicia needs some help with him, and we're available to take her to and from doctor's appointments until she's able to drive on her own again.

Cleaning the campground bathrooms (there are two of them at Bolding Mill) isn't so bad – yet. We fully expect them to be in worse shape as the park becomes full during the summer months, but for the most part, they've been pretty clean during our daily visits.

As for the campsites being vacated, we get a list from the office and check out each one after checkout time to make sure they're ready for the next occupant. I have yet to figure out why some people think the fire rings on each site are trash receptacles. Or that you're supposed to make sure the coals in them are completely out before leaving.

 

47 camp sites vacated on a Sunday afternoon. This is the trash take from all 47 of them. Some people are pigs. Just sayin'.

And why do people think they can just toss used teeth flossing instruments on the ground instead of in a trash bag? What's up with that?

Anyway, with just a couple of exceptions, sites have been left in pretty good condition for the next camper.

I'm sure we'll be chomping at the bit come January to get back on the road to a warmer destination, but we've committed to the first week of January to get Jace back into school after his winter break is over. They'll be some blog posts regarding day trips on which we'll be taking Jace, and of course updates concerning William Oliver. This will also be the first year we will not be taking the motorhome up to New England to see friends and family, breaking a four year tradition; thus proving that the only constant in life is change.

More to come.

Catching Up With May Travel

Lot's of travel, just not in the motorhome.

Usually, I'm writing about some destination in a state we've never visited before, or an interesting spot we think you should try out for yourselves, but this May brings a mixture of joy and sadness in the Richard family. In the span of three weeks time, Barbara and I will drive from our home base of Gainesville, Georgia down to Ocala, Florida for a weekend wedding of our last nephew, head back to Gainesville for a couple of days of rest, then drive 1,100 miles to Massachusetts to say a final goodbye to my father who passed away in late April, then rush back to Georgia for the birth of our second grandson!

Every mile done in our Jeep Cherokee.

Yeah, no RV. Strange beds. No comfortable captain's chairs to ride in.

Now, could we have done this travel in our Class A? Sure. And we had earlier intended to do the Florida portion of this travel doing just that. But our nice cozy and comfortable camp hosting spot at Bolding Mill COE, where we are nestled between and under tall pine trees with a lake view and including full hookups, was just too good a spot to be leaving and backing into for just a couple of days stay in Ocala, Florida.

The wedding was very nice, the room accommodations at the Howard Johnson – not so much. We ended up leaving a day early.

 

Me, Barbara and Kristen at the wedding

Our next travel was slated for a couple of days later; a scheduled two-day drive to Massachusetts for the memorial service for my father, and again, it was determined to be better handled in the Jeep than in the motorhome for a number of reasons. One, we could do the 1,100 miles in two days in the car, where it would have taken three days in the RV due to the slower speed I drive in the RV. Two, there are no campgrounds near the location of the church service and the friends and family we would need and want to see. And three, the cost of gas in the northeast made it cheaper to drive the Jeep and get a deal on a hotel than to pay for the campgrounds we'd need to use and the much lower miles per gallon cost of fuel for the RV. So time, money and convenience worked against us in taking the motorhome up north this trip.

We'd also have an additional passenger in the Jeep; our oldest daughter Kristen, who would be able to help out with driving duties (yay!) but would also be staying in our hotel room (boo!).

Oh, and for those Grover fans out there, he would be staying with our younger daughter, Alicia, and our grandson, Jace, back in Georgia, getting spoiled rotten as usual while she waited to deliver our next grandson. So Grover was just fine, thank you, while we were gone.

The memorial service for my Dad was quiet and reserved, as befitted his nature and his wishes, and his ashes were interred next to my Mom's in the church's memorial garden. He had almost 95 years on this earth, 94 of them pretty good years, so he owed no one anything. It was great seeing friends and family who took the time to come out in support and love.

The Hampton Inn Billerica /Bedford where we stayed was top-notch, with a very spacious room and a great breakfast every morning. While staying up there we were able to check off our Massachusetts meal destinations for Chinese food, seafood and roast beef sandwiches before having to head back South.

 

At the Wu Loon Ming. Cousin Gary and wife Lisa up front, Kristen and sister-in-law Tracey next, Barbara and I after that, and brother Doug all the way in back.

Due to an emergency in Kristen's boyfriend's family in the middle of our drive day back, we decided to forego the overnight stop in a hotel and push through for a single-day drive, doing the 1,100 miles in 18 hours and 45 minutes. Fortunately, I tend to wake up around midnight after 3-5 hours of sleep, so we had gotten on the road early enough to finish the day's drive to Georgia while it was still light outside.

Two days later, William Oliver Ashley made his grand entrance into the world. Now, the delicate balance of helping Jace bond with his new baby brother while giving him the one-on-one attention he needs begins. As always, he'll be spending a lot of time with us in the RV for his summer break, but no big trip to far away destinations this year so that he can be at home with his brother. We'll see how THAT goes . . .

 

Barbara's grandmaternal instincts have already kicked into high gear concerning William Oliver!

Coming up next month – The Joys of Camp Hosting!

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!