RE: Any Full-timers use a Wii for Exercise
Thanks for starting this topic. When we visit the grandkids, I've gotten to enjoy their Wii with the bowling, tennis etc disk. Good fun enjoying some sports I used to enjoy but that I'd not do "on the outside" anymore. Too much of a couch potato now. But one can really work up as much of a sweat as one wants and the first time I bowled a dozen games with it, I could hardly move my shoulder the next morning. Didn't know there were exercise disks etc. Will have to look into that. IMO the Wii is a great tool for motivating me into some real physical exercise in a fun way (Dianne, at this point in my fitness program :) :) :) I wouldn't find a 10 mile commune with nature to be in my immediate future) and a pretty compact way of having some structured exercise program in the small confines of a RV. I wish I had really thought about getting my own earlier. I'll have to have my SIL (a big box electronic store mgr) pick one up for me.
RE: Campgrounds Near The Everglades
Have never actually stayed at Midway but have driven through it, several times annually, for the past 6 yrs and have visited with friends and park volunteers that stayed there. Texan, your experience must have predated the past 6 yrs cause it's always been very pristine during those 6 yrs and I've always observed nice rigs there though I guess a nice rig doesn't necessarily equate to an endorsement. Thankfully though, I've never taken the character assessment, also implied by personal appearance, of a LEO as gospel truth either. :) :) If you had a doubt as to whether I was referring to a NP cg in my original post, I had provided a link.
RE: Awning stretched
Many times, even if a roller tuber doesn't break, it will bend. If that is the case, you need to be especially careful. If the tube is not straight it leaves a gap, when the awning is retracted for travel, between it and your rig's outside wall. That gap is an attractive 'hole' for a crosswind to get into when you are on the road. That hole will fill with wind and become a small sail. If that small sail force is enough, it will overcome the interior tension lock that keeps your awning from unfurling and as that tension lock gives a little bit, the awning unfurls another 1/2" creating a bigger sail putting even more pressure on the tension lock and so on. Soon you could have a full blown sail/awning over the roof of your rig. Ask me how I know. If yours leaves a gap between the roller and the sidewall, that's the time you need a positive lock on your roller tube to prevent it from turning under force.
I made myself one for under $15 and 10 minutes. PM me with your email address if you'd like directions for making one for yourself.
RE: Campgrounds Near The Everglades
Part of what is actually defined as "The Everglades" is the Big Cypress National Preserve. The Everglades Wildlife Mgt Area forms its eastern border and both the Gulf and Everglades National Park form the southern border. US41 (Tamiami Tr) bisects it E/W and I-75 (Alligator Alley) basically is the northern boundry. There are 5-6 cgs in Big Cypress and one of them, Midway CG, has electric hookups with drinking water and a dump station. It is located on the south side of US41 about 2 miles east of the Big Cypress Visitor Center, 25 miles east of SR29 (road to Everglades City) and 15 miles west of the Everglades Nat'l Park's Shark Valley Loop. More info here. A really fun area to explore and a good base camp.
About a mile or so either west or east of Midway is a northbound gravel road and about a mile north is an area used by Preserve volunteers to provide educational experiences/walking tours to the S. FL grade school kids. It provides you with a great natural area to take off your shoes and wade through the swamp - the Everglades the way it really is - sandy bottom and you can feel the southbound current in the 4-5" deep grassy/treed water and see some of the more interesting plants etc. Between SR29 and Midway, on both sides of Tamiami Trail, you will see a nesting/feeding area for the roseatte spoonbill - a most unusual bird. Throughout the area you'll see the different species of heron and egret and ahingas (commorants) drying their wings while resting on tree branches or power lines. On a sunny day, watch the canals along side Tamiami Trail between Midway and SR 29 plus 10 miles further west and you should have no trouble counting 50-100 gators swimming or sunning themselves on the banks.
If you are looking for full service campgrounds in 'civilization' but within an easy drive of all of the Everglades etc., you can also look at one of the many full hookup parks in Naples. Some pix of our park there are linked in my sig.
RE: Uh - Slip Sliding Away????
I'm not sure I really understand the question. Though on the road now for 11 yrs and getting older, my faded memory reminds me that stix & brix living, taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance etc. plus commuting or pleasure vehicle expenses, fuel, plates, ins., maintenance plus food, entertainment, occasional vacations and weekends out --- all those prior normal expenses we had more than a decade ago were more than our current FTing expenses, even with the 5 star resorts some deprecate here but we prefer and despite rising fuel costs. So I guess my question would be, if one can't afford FTing in one form or another, what's the alternative?
My FTing glass is more than half full.
RE: cook outs
Posted here, I'm presuming this would only be for fifth wheelers? If not, you might get more responses if you have the mod move your thread here
RE: on road between chemos
DW needs frequent bloodwork done - none of which is related to chemo - and it is no problem. Almost every employer now days does drug testing for new employees so most towns of any size have a medical lab. We have a number of different signed lab work orders scanned in the computer and when we need one, we select one that has the tests we need (or alter one to include the test she needs), type in a fresh date and print it. Haven't had to get a *real* new lab order signed in over 10 yrs. Labs accept our printouts and fax the results to whatever number we type on the work order. We've used hospital labs a couple of times but try not to. Many of those have inordinately complicated sign in procedures (as if you were signing yourself into the hospital).
When it's time for bloodwork, we check the yellow pages in a cg office under "medical laboratories" and then I drop their addresses, as well as the cg address, into the mapping pgm to see which is closest and print myself a routing. NBD.
RE: Sun or Shade??
We store ours...oops, we live in ours and we try our best to follow the sun. Been doing that almost 11 yrs now. What problems were we supposed to look out for?
RE: Buyer Beware Rant
Whether in real estate or vehicles or any major purchase, I would never consider myself as having a deal until there was a binding contract. Tell me, Nedra, if something dire had happened to you in the past week, like announcement of layoffs that included you all, would you have just said, 'oh well, I told them I wanted to buy it so let me just get out my checkbook'? What if you were unable to get any financing at what you considered a decent rate, would you have just sucked it up and paid whatever exorbitant rate just so you could 'keep your word.? As you said, your "DEAL" was so up in the air that it hadn't even been completely priced yet.
RE: recommending sites to see!!!
Really think you should see site #21 :) . It's a nice level large site with W/E and best of all it backs to a great stream. You have to look hard to see your nearest neighbor.
RE: back roads help from the people who know
We did the trip west to WA last summer and picked up US 2 (in MI's UP). US2 was a great drive and nice road with many camping opportunities. Thoroughly enjoyed the drive. To get to the UP, I'd run up either shore.
RE: Furniture...tough one
Our recliners and couch were built to 'break' into 2 pieces with the back coming off the seat. Look them over carefully to see if there is a catch or bracket that you can disengage which will allow you to separate the parts. The LaZBoys we bought as replacements also have a catch which allows the back to be slid off the seat.
RE: Debit or bank bill pay, which is better/safer
What we've been doing for the past 10 yrs is having all (well there aren't that many) of our recurring bills charged automatically to a reward paying VISA charge card and the VISA charge card is set up to automatically debit our bank account each month for the full balance. Only the bank issued VISA then has access to our account. We never have any worry or concern about 'remembering' to function a payment from our bank nor do we ever have a concern if we don't get mail for a month, that we might miss a bill or have to go on line to find the amount. In addition to the rebates from the CC company, we also get the advantage of the float in that the auto debit from the CC company can be as much as 50+ days after the charge.
Those rare time when we change a vendor and wish to cancel the auto charge to the VISA, we simply put the request/cancellation in writing via mail or email. Should a future unearned charge go through, it is so so simple to dispute the charge to VISA and provide a copy of the notice and the charge is reversed with no hassle.
In fact, we never use cash for anything over $5.00 but charge instead to the same account. The rewards can add up significantly and the need to carry cash is almost nil.
RE: Tire Blow-out - Damage Claim
Have had several GY's go on ours over the past 8 yrs with this 5ver. GY has paid each and every time for the tire and 5ver damage. Always involved a GY owned (Wingedfoot) store and they took care of everything.
RE: Slide-out awning cover
We FT and so our slides are out all the time when not actually moving and have been for the 10+ yrs we've been FTing. Our slide topper over the large slide also accumulates water. Does not stretch the fabric in that there is still slack wrapped around the roller so the water just unrolls the roller an extra turn or so. The water evaporates in the sun or a slight breeze will cause it to dump and when that happens, the roller takes up the slack. If we're breaking camp and there is still water on the topper, I just take the slide in till about 6" from being fully retracted. Then I run the slide back out a foot or so and all the water dumps at which point I fully retract the slide.
This is how the topper is designed to operate. Many people have come up with all kinds of things to put between the topper and the slide roof to 'arch' the topper - beach balls, swim noodles etc. What a pain in the a.. to have to put that stuff in and get it back out! Some mfrs, noting that RVer will spend $ and time to 'arch' their topper have decided that the PT Barnum rule is in effect and come out with a product ($$$$) that will automatically put the arch in the topper. America's way to part the $ from the consumer's wallet, IMO.
Anyway, our toppers are still in fine shape, doing what they were designed to do, even after accumulated countless gallons of water over the years.
RE: Fulltime for life?
Horsedoc: One possibility is SKP's CARE facility - assisted living where you stay in your own RV with dining, nursing etc provided to your rig.
RE: Running from a hurricane with the 5er
We've evacuated from hurricanes 4 times since we've been FTing. The first time, we waited and waited to see if we'd absolutely have to leave. When they issued the mandatory evacuation order (Myrtle Beach), we left and we were sorry. After 4 hours on the road, we could still see the cg entrance in the rear view mirror. Since then, we've paid attention to the forecasts and probability maps and left early enough to beat the rush.
RE: Volvo TV
:( on the dial up. We FT and a few years ago that was all we could count on. Sure do like the air card! Anyway, another site you might want to poke around on is the MDT Club (SKPs) pages. I know your post was triggered by a Volvo that you see for sale, but a well powered MDT would also be a good alternative to your 350. It's big enough to "rule" the 5th and TV braking is good enough to stop the 5th quickly even if your 5ver brakes fail.
We considered the HDT but DW is disabled and the steps up and down would have been too much for her. As our TV is our only vehicle, she puts on 2 miles shopping for every 1 mile I drive. She was also concerned about her ability to handle the HDT. Personally, I don't think she'd have had a problem but...
Anyway, we got an IH low profile MDT with 2 steps to the cab. I have had an small foot step installed under the 1st step as an assist when needed. She finds our truck easier to get in and out of than a Honda or other small car. She finds it extremely easy to drive and can park that sucker in any shopping center parking space in the country if there's a 'sale.' She finds it entertaining to drive too. She continually comes back with a grin and tales of the guys who drop their chins on the ground when she and her cane or walker gets out regaling her with comments of "you drive that? or Can I look inside? or What kind of engine is in there?":B
With its tight turning radius, it's easy to parallel park in downtown city locations and with it's lower cab height, it'll even get in many parking garages. Since the chassis and engine config is so common around the country - school buses, ambulances, beer and other delivery trucks etc., service and parts are easy to find anywhere.
Just food for thought. BTW, we've really enjoyed our stays in your fair state. More people ought to give it a try!
