RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
If it's not raining, the top comes off my vette!! If it's cold outside, I just crank up the heat and turn on the heated seats and let her rip!!
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
When are you old timers heading down to Yuma? My bro-n-law just arrived there and said the temp was still around 102. I could sure use some of that heat as my bones are are just now starting to hurt as the weather gets cooler.
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
Got back from the Reno Air Races yesterday and had a nice flight down there and back. Just a little smokey haze from the fires burning from the west.
Good crowd. More than I expected given the economy. Appeared to be the same number of pilots like us who decided to fly themselves done there. The FBO's raked it in big by charging us $25/night tie-down fees, even if you bought fuel there.
Let me know if you guys decide to have coffee in Fife. I'm just down the street and can steal away for a quick cup.
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
Leaving tonight around 6pm to fly to Reno for the Air Races. It's an annual journey a group of us take each year. I guess it's the sound of thunder and the thrill to see planes racing 500+ mph, wingtip-to-wingtip, flying on edge around a pylon with their wingtip only 50ft above the ground at times. YEAH BABY!!
Going to use my SPOT gps tracker so my family can track our flight. Hopefully it'll be just for fun, but should something happen, they'll know exactly where to drop the wreath!
We'll be flying back home monday morning.
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
Kevin, did you ever put a thermometer in your refridgerator to see how much difference the fans made?
Yes, I used one of those frig thermometers frig but I was only concerned with whether or not the temp was within the "Blue" range. Before, it was always 10-15% above the blue zone. After adding that fan, it stayed within the blue zone for a couple of weeks 96-100+ degree days until it started to frost over inside. I didn't notice it until is was getting pretty thick and the frig temp rose above the blue zone. My wife chipped of the ice and than I turned the Humidity switch on and once again it stayed within the blue zone throughout our vacation.
I do have a manually switch for the fan I added inside the frig compartment. I turned it on when we left on the vacation and turned it off when we returned. Will probably never have it on while in Washington, unless the temps reach the high 90s.
We also have the Dometic fan, but it is controlled by the 165 degree switch and with my fan, it just doesn't get that hot in the chase. I did bring my infarred temp gun and it seemed the chase usually stayed within +-10 degrees of the outside temp. Without the fan, it quickly got to 135+ degrees on a 90+ day.
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
Kevin
How noisy is that fiberglass roof of yours? Come to find out our new TT has a thinner layer of rubber over metal instead of plywood like our old TT had and it's noisier when it rains.
There is very little noise at all, even in heavy Oklahoma & Texas thunderstorm down pours!. We went with the extra insulation package when we ordered the coach so that provided extra sound deafening qualities. Also, our roof has a reinforced pathway all around the roof with a non-skid surface texture so you can feel comfortable walking around on top without slipping and falling off.
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
A question for all of you guys......how often to you have you rv roof sealed?
Don't have too since I have a one piece fiberglass roof. :C
However, I do get up on the roof each year to inspect around the vents, etc to make sure the caulking is still good. I also check around windows as well. So far, no issues.
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
We made it home safely and got the kids back in school. Now comes all the catchup that one must perform for being gone 6 wks and NOT being retired.:E
We had a great trip, and as usual, we ran out of time and felt rushed in the end. We didn't get to hit the East coast and Gulf coasts like we had wanted, but than again it wouldn't have been much fun given the weather.
We did come up Hwy 101, but decided to get back on I-5 we we reached San Francisco because of a tire blowout on our CRV that caused some right fender damage. I pulled over immediately and my tie pressure monitor gave no warning. The tire simply exploded and all there was left was small pieces all over the road. The rim was destroyed because it dragged the distance it took me to pull over. I'm also seeing some weird cracks on my other tires and I believe I may have gotten a bad batch of tires from Les Schwab. I also thinking they may have siped them incorrectly causing weak points, which would explain the little chunks that were left of my right front tire. Oh, well...just add to the heap of things to get done!
BTW, for those who travel a lot, I highly recommend the SPOT Personal GPS Tracker. We used it on our trip and our family was able to see on a map exactly where we were at. It updated our position every 10 minutes when it was turned on. Didn't get a lot of calls asking where we were and what route we were taking.:C
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
Hi everyone,
Just pulled into a Walmart in Phoenix, AZ to stock up on supplies so I decided to stay COOL in the MH and catchup on emails, etc while the wife does some shopping. Outside temp gauge shows 110, but I find it reads 2-3 degrees high at times.
We'll be heading for Yuma once wife returns. I've never actually stopped the couple of times we flew through so this time we spend a few hours and maybe stay the evening.
Our six week journey is quickly coming to an end. Unfortunately, kids start back to school on 9/3 so we need to start heading home. I think we will drive 101 most the way since I'm total bored of I-5 since I done this CA to WA route 4 times in the last 1.5 years. Never did 101 so we'll give it a try.
Hope everyone is doing well. Roger & Terri, congrats on the grandchild.
Oh, if any of you travel through Amarillo, I highly recommend Oasis RV Resort. It's a new park and it's definitely a 5 star resort. Only cost us $27/night. Great facilities and they even have FREE laundry machines for you to use.
Kevin
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
Ok who's going where for the weekend???
Bigdog to Portland..(Tigard)
DavidG to Birch bay
Ahrens to Kennewick and beyond
Ron to Long Beach for a long weekend of trying to fly a kite..(Mebbee you should go smoke a pair of those pants and that might help..)
We're still in Dallas. Weather sucks. Rain and more rain. Supposedly the weather is suppose to get better for the weekend.
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
Bigdog,
Congrats on the new BBQ. Quick, go buy a lotto ticket. Maybe you still have some luck in you!!
Made it to Texas today. We are staying at Trader Village RV Park in Grand Prairie. Should be here for the next 10days or so.
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
I have a question about the aircard for wireless internet. Seem to have a time limit on Verizon and ATT. When I checked with AT&T/Verizon, they no longer have unlimted contract. They have a
5 GIG monthly download, that is $60.00 Do you ever exceed? What about the overage charges? That is my only concern. The rest seems like the way to go.
I was getting the "unlimited" plan for a couple of years and this year Verizon finally followed ATT and changed our plan to their "unlimited limited". Yes, they actually believe it's still a "Unlimited" plan until you hit the 5GB limit. Sprint now does the same.
I have not reached the 5GB limit yet. I have 3 laptops, the kids xbox & Wii, along with both of their PSP's all accessing the internet via our aircard. Just today I had to download a 2.5GB Map update file for my Garmin GPS, and I used the RV Parks's free wifi to download it so I would have to use my aircard access for it. It shouldn't e a problem and if you really need to download a HUGH file, there is usually a free wifi access nearby that you can steal some bandwidth from.
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
Our Northwood Owners Group RV rally has technical seminars at the Northwood plant. I vote we have Kevin do an electronic/communication seminar at our May 2009 rally! Not too technical for us dummies--just info on how to stay wired with stuff that doesn't cost more than our RV.
Great idea, I wouldn't mind doing a little demo on how our internet is setup. Maybe David could do a demo on how to get that map to appear in our signature block.:C
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
We would be interested in more rallies. We're never able to go to the mini rally because we are usually traveling at that time. New Years or other weekends would be fine with us.
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
Kevin, I have been to the Jack Daniels plant and it is located in a dry county of Tennesee. How did you get that case or should it be a secret??
Their legislature passed a bill allowing Jack Daniels to sell collector bottles. I was able to purchase bottle of their 1954 Gold Medal from Brussels, Belgium and their 1981 Gold Model from Amsterdam. The bottles are the same as they were when they won these awards.
Yes they are a dry county, but only because they don't have a large enough population to overturn the prohibition. I believe it's Federal law that a city needs to have a minimum of 1,500 registered voters to appeal. They unfortunately only have @300 people. That is why the Tenn Legislature passed that law using the loop hole of collectors items. They are only able to sell these two bottles.
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
Satellite Internet is really not practical anymore. You can get excellent internet coverage using air cards from your cellular provider. I happen to use Verizon, which I REALLY like. It's rare that I can't get on the internet. I'm paying $59.99 for unlimited data service.
Satellite requires you to purchase a dish that takes 20-30 minutes to setup each time or you can purchase a auto-tracking dish, similiar to what you use for satellite TV, except it cost a few thousand $$$$.
My recommendation is to purchase a air card service either from Verizon or AT&T. I prefer Verizon.
BTW, you can also do like I do and purchase a broadband router, like the Kyocera KR2 and plug the aircard into it. Now you can share you internet service to multiple computers either through Wifi or by cable. I have 3 laptops, network printer, and my kids xbox and Wii that all connect via wifi to get internet access. Cool stuff.:C
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
Just checking in. We are in Oklahoma City staying at the Twin Fountain RV Resort. It's a really nice park and a great place to stay when passing through. I say passing through because after living here for 6 years, I still can't find a reason why anyone would come to Oklahoma other than to visit family or passing through to other destinations.
We will be heading to Dallas area on Wednesday and will probably be staying at Trader Village. It's a RV resort that is attached to the largest flea market in the US. If you are every in this area over a weekend, you got to go to this flea market, it's awesome!
While in Tennessee visiting my Grandmother, we took a side trip and took a tour of the Jack Daniels Distillery. Great tour. Somehow I managed to walk away with a case. Not sure how that happened, but I blame it on getting intoxicated just smelling the stuff as we took the tour. Kids slept good that night!!
If anyone is interested, you can track our travels in real time since we are using SPOT, a satellite instant tracker. It updates our position every 10 minutes when we are moving. Our relatives like it because they can see where we are at. Send me a PM and I'll send you the link.
Wish we could be with you guys at the mini rally. Have fine, I know we are!!
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
We made it to Oshkosh! I haven't added up the gas receipts but I'm pretty sure we made it under $1,000, but not by much. We will be here for the airshow until next sunday, than we will be heading to Tenn so see grandma.
On the way here, we camped at Mt Rushmore and stayed at the Mt Rushmore KOA. Wow, what a great resort. Should you ever decide to visit here, you got to try out this park!
Tradewinds -- adding that extra fan for the frig appears to be working really well. I don't have the frig cranked to it's highest colling setting, but the temp is holding steady at below the blue line, which I believe is 34 degrees. Before, in the Oshkosh heat, I was lucky to hold 45. Now I need to stop somewhere along the way have and have that Dometic service bulletin taking care of. We called and we are subject to it...or is that victim of it???
Take care everyone!
RE: Northwest Spring Rally, May 15-17, 2009
We have the Coleman (Travel Buddy ??) that has it's own stand and shelves. There are times I like and don't. The none stick surface and drip pan is nice, but you always have to clean it and it's usually really messy. A regular grill just seems easier to use and maintain.
We leave tomorrow night for our big road trip. I spent all weekend servicing the MH and getting it ready. I added another fan to the frig that is manually controlled, instead of temp control, so hopefully it will handle to 90+ temps we usually experience.
Just got a Dometic recall notice and found out that our frig does fall under this recall. Apparently, it could blowup at anytime. We just got it stuffed with food and has rarely been turned off the last 3 yrs, so I guess it can handle it until we get to a place where we have time to get it fixed. Should you hear on the news that a MH self-destructed, well I guess we'll meet you guys at the big rally in the sky.
I check in from time-to-time and give you guys a progress report along with the fuel bill tally. That will probably discourage the rest of you from traveling.:(
