New Garmin RV 760 GPS

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 64, low 54)

We survived the arctic blast that has covered most of the country.   Yes, the cold made it down here to Florida and even the Florida Keys had some pretty chilly weather. I think our blogger friends Rick and Paulette were in the only place that actually had warm temperatures.

Despite the prediction of record lows, that didn’t happen, although it was plenty chilly.  I don’t think our overnight low the past two nights was below 35 or 36, but you would have thought we were expecting below zero temperatures because of all the fuss that was made before hand.  

We started to get caught up in all the pre-cold front hype, until we remembered just a few weeks ago we were up in the mountains and lived through a few nights where the temperature dropped to 17 degrees.   We’re tough, we can take a little cold weather!

Now, by the week-end there is a possibility that we will be having record temperatures again.  Record highs!   The prediction for the week-end is 82-83 degrees.   It will sure feel nice!  Remind me not to whine about the heat, will ya?

 

We have been Amazon’s best customer lately.   Yesterday we got a new ladder for the boat and a new GPS for the motorhome.  It’s sure fun getting deliveries, isn’t it?

Our old GPS for the motor home was the Garmin Dezl 560 truckers GPS.    We liked it a lot, but after seeing Pat and Ron’s Garmin RV 760 GPS, we decided to upgrade.  Here is the Amazon link.   Please note, this is the one for RV’s, and lifetime maps is included.   I believe they also make a 760 that is not made for RV’s.

Some of the features:

Large 7" high-resolution touchscreen display: 800 x 480 pixels; WVGA TFT color display with white backlight

Includes free lifetime map and traffic updates - Provides RV-specific services and vendors, repair shops, truck stops and a comprehensive list of nationwide repair and tow facilities (including those offering after-hours road service)

Specialized RV routing based on customizable restrictions including height, weight, width and length

Cautions and advisories include risk of grounding, lateral wind, narrow road, sharp curve, steep hill, tree overhand and state borders

Voice-activated navigation means RV 760LMT responds intelligently to your verbal commands. Just talk to it. Comparable with Garmin wireless back up camera

 

The larger 7inch screen is nice in a motor home, since you’re not sitting as close to the dash as in a car.

You can see how much larger it is compared to our old Garmin 560 Dezl.   The old Garmin actually looks larger in the photo than it does in real life.

 

The feature that sold us on the upgrade was the fact that it’s supposed to guide you as to which lane you should be in.  In a large city, that’s a nice feature.   I’ll let you know how that works out when we test it out a little more. 

As in our Dezl GPS, it allows you to put in the length, height and width of your rig.  Hopefully, that will keep us from any low bridges or non rv friendly roads.

Pat and Ron love theirs.  Pat is the driver, and she says having this one took a lot of stress out of driving in big cities.   It has voice recognition, so you no longer have to program it with a keyboard.

I’m not so sure I love the voice recognition on the new 760.  It doesn’t seem to work nearly as well as my  Droid phone.   We’ll have to see how it works out as we use it more. 

One improvement Garmin made was their new “Garmin Express” link.   It registers the new product for you and then you can update the maps directly from there.   It works with all of your Garmin GPS’s.  I never downloaded the maps on the old unit, because it never would work for me.   I’m happy to say with Garmin Express I was able to download the new maps to both the new unit and the old one. Yay for me!

It also allowed me to download all our favorite places onto the new GPS.  Yay again!   

Here is the link for Garmin Express.  If you have an older Garmin, this will allow you to add it, and upgrade maps, or transfer your favorite locations to another GPS.  

 

We’re off to the gym today, and hopefully we’ll be able to take another kayak trip when it warms up this week-end. 

The Solution

Lutz, Florida  (high 91, low 70)

It’s HOT here!  I keep forgetting that it’s not summer time,  and when I read blogs about cool and cold weather, it brings me back to reality.  Our temps are about 5 degrees above normal and I wish it would be the opposite.

I sure wish we could head north, but we are staying around for a while because of Mom.  She has a few doctor appointments and I want to go with her to talk to the doctors and see what we can do to help her.

So…..nothing exciting to blog about.

Yesterday we washed blankets at the laundromat and then took a few things over to our storage shed.  We managed to trash a few things that were in the shed.  We plan on doing some serious purging in the motorhome soon.  It’s amazing how quickly things seem to accumulate.  Since we have a high amount of carrying capacity, we don’t worry about weight…so we tend to accumulate stuff!!

I started cleaning the motorhome yesterday.  It had gotten filthy from the wet roads when we left the Keys.  We had gotten a jug of  The Solution several months back.  It’s a waterless cleaner and wax.  Several of our Rv blog buddies used and recommended it, so we gave it a try.  You spray it on, and then wipe the dirt off with a microfiber towel.  I was concerned it would cause paint scratches or swirls, and was a bit leery of using it on our clear coat paint.  Previously, we didn’t use it when the motor home was very dirty.  We would hand wash the coach first,  then use The Solution to shine it up afterwards.  It worked very well and we never noticed any swirl marks….or I should say more than what was already there!

It also works great on bugs on the front end.  We try to give the front a quick cleaning each travel night, to avoid them baking into the paint. 

Yesterday, the coach was very dirty, so I tried a small area using The Solution to “wash” it.  It worked great,  and I didn’t notice any paint swirls or scratches.  I wiped gently and used a lot of the product.  I changed microfiber towels frequently.   I ended up doing the entire right side in a very short period of time. It did a great job with a minimum of effort.

So this morning I ordered another gallon jug.  We like the product for our cars as well.  It’s $40 a gallon and the shipping is free.  They send you a gallon jug and a pistil grip spray bottle.  You can use it for windows, rubber, plastic and leather (per the instructions) as well as painted surfaces.   I haven’t tried it on the leather yet.  We’ll see how that works.

Anyway, I just wanted to add my 2 cents and give recommendation on what we think is a great product. 

New Dashboard Cover - Day at Mall

Seffner, Florida (high 82, low 72)

It was a pretty day yesterday, warm but not too hot.  What did we do?  Kayak?, hike?, Busch Gardens? beach?   No…we went to my least favorite place. 

The mall!  There doesn’t appear be anything wrong with the economy here in Tampa.  The mall was jam packed with people of all ages.  There were very few parking spaces and the stores were almost as crowded as Christmas.  Unbelievable!  Why are all these people in the mall when it was such a pretty day outside?

We don’t go to malls often, but Al needed a good pair of comfortable shoes, so off we went to the mall…..on a Saturday.  What were we thinking?

His feet have been hurting him a lot over the past few years and we decided to break down and see if expensive/good quality shoes would help.   He got a pair from The Walking Store.   They have a good arch support in them and are supposed to be made well.  We’ll see.  They were $109….which is the most either of us have ever paid for shoes.  I looked for some shoes, but never could find any that I liked well enough to justify the cost. 

 

One reason besides the free camping and rally, that we came back to Lazy Days, was to have a dashboard cover made for the motorhome.  We needed something to protect it from sun damage as well as kitty claws.

We had it made at Wade Rv, here on the Lazy Days property.  It ended up costing $375, which is more than we wanted to spend, but we couldn’t find anyone else that made a nice cover.  They do a lot of things from re-upholstering furniture, fixing tears in vinyl/leather, front window screens, mirror and wiper covers, roller shades.  We are happy with the work they did on the  dash cover, so we may use them again in the future.

Baxter liked it too.

 

They had a pattern for this particular motorhome, but he had to alter the pattern a little.  That is why they won’t make one up and mail it to you.  They want to custom fit it to your motorhome.

We decided to take off  the ugly fans on the dash and not put them back.  We rarely use them and they are unattractive….plus they got in the way for kitty naptime!

We had a  Mockingbird nest next to our campsite and they have been entertaining the kitties.  Here is the baby.

We extended our time at Lazy Days three extra days.  We got a 25% discount so we won’t have to leave until Tuesday.  Then I guess we’re off to Lutz (north of Tampa) for the month of May.  : (

We sure miss the Keys!

Silverleaf VMSpc Monitor

Zephyrhills, Florida  (high 82, low 58)

We had our friends Rhonda and William over yesterday for dinner.  Rhonda just got a new camera (traded for the one she got for Christmas that had a detachable lens).  She wanted one just like mine with the super (stalker) zoom.  She got the new and improved Canon SX 40 hs.  It looked exactly like my SX30, but I’m sure there was a difference somewhere.  We got it set up for her and a few Bluebirds came by for her to practice her new zoom.

It’s a pretty easy camera.  I’m trying to get her to use the eye piece instead of the screen to frame her shots….much better results for wildlife and close-ups.   A lot of people don’t realize you can adjust the eyepiece to your eyes.  If you look through the eye piece and its blurry…adjust it.  That is assuming you have an eye piece…a lot of the point and shoot cameras don’t.  The only time I use the screen it to view pictures.

I mentioned a few days ago about our new Silverleaf Electronics  motor home engine monitoring system.  You can actually download the software for free, and get an idea of what it is and how it works.  I encourage you to check it out.  I think it will turn out to be a good investment for us.

Of course, until you get the electronics and cables and hook it up to your coach, you can’t get any readings, but  you can get a good idea of everything it has to offer….which is pretty much anything and everything about about your engine. 

Once I got ours working, I found one of the gauges that told us the total amount of fuel that has ever been put into our  motor home,  the current  odometer reading,  and the average mph for the entire 65,000+ miles that is on this coach.  That total averaged out at 8.7 mph.  Good info to know.  I believe it can be set up to give you a running mpg….which might be helpful to find that sweet spot where you get the best fuel mileage.

We purchased ours from the  Rv Upgrades Store.  The cost is $306.  We were happy with the service we received from them.  I think it can be a useful tool for monitoring your expensive diesel engine.  I do not know if they make a product for a gas engine, but I think most vehicles have computers now so I would think there is something like this available for any type of vehicle.

Once I got to looking, I realized there was a lot of information available and you could get it the form of a graph, alarm lights, gauge or any number of ways. 

I then realized there were so many ways to set up the system I wish I could see how others have set their screens up.   Of course once I Googled it,  I found another blogger that had just what I was looking for.

Here is the link I found.  I am trying to copy his screen and get mine to show the same gauges and readings.  I can always tweak it later if I want to, but I think this is a great place to start.

The following picture is how I want to set ours up.

We will be using ours on my laptop.  A small 10 inch netbook would be great, but since we don’t have one, my laptop will do.  I’ll do the monitoring…and Al will keep his eyes on the road, so it can sit on the dash in front of me.

Has everyone adjusted to the time change?  Being retired makes the transition much smoother, doesn’t it? 

Do YOU Have a Weather Radio?

Zephyrhills, Florida  ( high 86, low 59)

The tornado outbreak the past few days has been really bad.  I hope all our blogger friends are safe out there.  I know a lot of you are making plans to leave Florida and start your summer travels.  Some of you have already started your journey and I hope you stay out of harms way.  I’m sure glad we’re staying put right now and I’m glad we’re no longer living in southern Georgia.

I hope everyone has a good weather radio and that you keep it turned on all the time!

This is what we have and it’s worked perfectly for several years.

They only cost about $50 and in my opinion everyone should have one, but most especially people who travel in an Rv.  What are you waiting for…..go get one!

 

The community yard sale is today, so I’m up early to have some coffee and computer time before we have to get started.  Al is still in bed.  He’s trying to sleep through it!

We gathered up quite a few things and hopefully we’ll be able to clear it all out.  Al doesn’t want to have a sale today…he wants to GO to other peoples sales, in case they might have some good deals…..and there is the reason we NEED to have a yard sale!

Our weather continues to be warm, but it looks like it will change tomorrow.  Thankfully, there is no severe weather here.  The high on Sunday is only supposed to get up to 65.  That’s about a 20 degree drop for us….and I’m looking forward to it.

Yesterday was spent on projects around here.  Al washed both cars and I finally got a “new” computer program to installed properly and working.  In November, we bought a computer program called VMSpc. 

It is a vehicle monitoring system, that plugs in to the diagnostic connection of our motor home.  It gives you all sorts of engine readings and much more information than your standard gauges.    

Some coaches have these types of systems built in and we first saw one on the Beaver motor home we looked at.  We  always remembered the nice VMS it had, and wished we had one,  but they are thousands of dollars installed.

So, in reading some Rv forums, I discovered one for around $300 that uses your computer monitor to give you the very same information the more expensive ones give.

It has a little box that connects to my laptop and the engine diagnostic plug. 

The following picture shows an example of what information I can get from the program.  It is completely customizable.  There are many, many things you can monitor, including, engine and transmission and  manifold temperature.

 

 

You can monitor your fuel mileage and MPG.  How much fuel you have until empty,  travel distance for the day or for the trip, not to mention any and every oil and temperature reading on the motorhome.

This is what the system looks like.  You use your computer monitor.

It is much more accurate than the gauges on the dash and there is a lot more information available.  These big diesel engines are very expensive and the more we know about what’s going on with them, the better. 

All this information is available for mechanics when you take the vehicle in.  They plug in their little computer and can get a lot of engine diagnostic codes as well as what has been going on with the engine.  This way, we can get the info ourselves while we’re traveling.  Of course, we need to know how to interpret them, but at least we’ll have the information at our finger tips.  It could be handy to give more info to a mechanic if we’re stuck on the side of the road somewhere.

I had not been able to get it installed properly until yesterday.  It turns out I needed to install some drivers and I didn’t know which ones, or where to find them.

I procrastinated getting it installed because I needed to make a phone call on a business day on a day when I could run the engine.  The problem with a diesel pusher is when you run the engine, the airbags inflate and then you have to deflate them and re-level.

Anyway, I got it done yesterday, and we just need to learn more about what information we want to see and then set the program to show us that information.  There is a LOT of information available. 

Have a happy week-end and go get your weather radios!

Cold Front, Rain, New Chairs

Zephyrhills, Florida  (high 75, low 49)

A cold finally made it’s way down to central Florida, bringing  rain and some severe storms to our south.

We got very little rain or wind, but the sun never did come out yesterday.   It was dreary all day, and we were both kind of depressed all day.

Our “cold” front is predicted to bring more seasonal weather, so we’ll be back into the low to mid 70’s for a few days.  Not a bad cold front, huh?  This certainly has been a wonderful winter in Florida this year. 

Al noticed  some neighbors had some nice patio chairs.  We found out that they  got them at Camping World last year.  After we checked them out for comfort, I ordered two chairs through Camping World online.  I don’t recall ever seeing them at the stores.  They have a high back,  recline, they’re lightweight aluminum and are made of the same fabric as we found at the fabric store the other day.  We figured they would be perfect for sitting under the awning, or taking to the beach.

Camping World offered free shipping so the total cost for two chairs  was $70.60.  We have the bag chairs and they really aren’t comfy.  We have bought several  other chairs over the years and can’t seem to find ones we like.  We always think we’ll like them, but after we have them a while, we find they are not comfortable. I hope these will be the ones.

We considered this type, but sometimes I want my feet and head up at the same time….besides they take up a lot of valuable basement storage.

I hope these will be the last chairs we buy for a while!  

It’s sunny today, and I can already feel my mood is better.  It’s funny how that works.

We haven’t gotten the tire covers done yet.  We needed some black spray paint and some pvc pipe. We just got that bought yesterday. Hopefully today will be more productive!

So glad to see the sunshine!  

Which Gps?

Not much going on around here.  Al has been working pretty hard trying to get all his pest control accounts done, so I haven’t seen much of him.  He’s finished now, so we have some time to get caught up on some things we need to do.  No play time this week!  We’ll be leaving a week from tomorrow for Fort Myers, so we need to squeeze a lot into this next week.

Al is planning on making a quick trip up to our storage shed in Georgia to bring some more stuff down here.    I sure wish we had never left all the stuff in the shed, but we just couldn’t get it all disposed of before the house closed.

Next Tuesday Baxter is going to the Vet to get neutered.  I can’t believe my little boy is growing up!   Poor Baxter. 

It was Al’s birthday today, so we went to Sam’s Club and got him a new gas grill, then off to Texas Roadhouse for a nice lunch.

We have been wanting a new Gps and have been looking at the Rand McNally 5510. 

What we are looking for is a Gps that knows we’re driving a motor home and will not try to route us someplace we shouldn’t go. 

The Garmin Gps we have now is made for cars, not large trucks or rv’s.  We want something that we can program in the length and height of the motor home.  We don’t want to be routed somewhere that we can’t or shouldn’t go.   Of course no gps  is perfect but anything we can do to help us might just be money well spent….another type of insurance.

The other Gps we are considering is the Garmin Dezl 560 LMT.   It’s made for truckers but also has an rv setting on it.  You can program in the length, width, and height of your rv, and it will take that into consideration before it routes you.  Hopefully it will keep us from going under a 10 foot bridge!

We have been using Garmin Gps for many years and are pretty happy with the brand.  We bought a Magellan unit for Geo-caching several years ago it was so bad we returned it immediately.  I’ve been real hesitant to buy any other brand, but the Rand McNally has caused quite a bit of interest in the rv community, so we decided to take a good look at it.  Of course you can’t really test any unit until you actually get it home and use it.

In my research I’ve seen some complaints about the screen on the Rand McNally being hard to see in the sun and that it locks up fairly often and has to be reset.  That’s pretty much made the decision for us, since one that is hard to see in the sun, and shuts down isn’t much help.

Do any of you have either units?  What is your opinion?

We are trying to finish buying “one time” items for the motor home.  I think the gps and a new dash cover will be about it.  Hopefully!

Progressive Industries

Flagler Beach, Florida

We’re off to Jacksonville Naval Air Station today for their air show.  We expect lots of traffic and people. 

We’re hoping there won’t be any rain, but a shower is possible.  A cold front moved in last night and it’s only 59 degrees, but warming up to the low 70’s.  Love this cooler weather. 

 

It seems that good customer service is rare nowadays, and I wanted to mention a company that still believes in customer service.

Back in July, when we got the new motor home, we bought a Rv Power Protection system, from Progressive Industries.  They are sometimes called surge protectors, but they are really so much more.  They protect you from high or low voltage, open ground, open neutral, reverse polarity, and much more.   I know there are a lot of people that don’t think they are necessary, but we think it’s good  and relatively cheap insurance.  Some of the campgrounds we’ve been at lately are pretty old the pedestals look like they have seen better days. We’ve been glad to have it.

Anyway, when we go to a new campground, the first thing Al does is to plug the unit into the pedestal to check for any issues.  If all is okay, he then plugs in the motor home.  It takes about a minute and a half for it to check everything out and give you power to the coach.

Twice, we have gotten an initial error code “10.”  In a few seconds that goes away and it gives us the go ahead to plug in the motorhome and everything seemed fine, and the bad error code went away.

We decided to double check and Al called Progressive Industries yesterday.  They weren’t really sure what was going on because it was something they’ve never seen.  They decided to send us a new unit, just to be safe.   We will send the old unit back once we get the new one.    We still have some power protection, but there may be a problem.  It’s good to know they stand behind their merchandise.  I had heard good things about this company, and that is the main reason we purchased it from them, verses the brand they sell at Camping World.

Our time here in Flagler Beach is winding down.  We have really enjoyed this area and plan on coming back soon. We’re leaving Tuesday, and are still hoping to get a site at Blue Springs State Park. 

Meeting Blogger Friends – New Clothesline

We have been corresponding with fellow bloggers John and Carol Herr and finally were able to meet them in person.  Their blog is Our Trip Around the Sun.

They are new full timers, and are definitely enjoying their new life style.   They sold their home in May but had to wait a few months until they could retire.  They finally were able to start traveling in November and have been going ever since! 

We finally were able to arrange our schedules and we got to meet them on Monday.  They were staying nearby at the  Lazy Days Campground, so we met over there on Valentines Day and took advantage of the free lunch!  We’re still trying to make up for that $652 bill for the slide topper awnings :)  Lunch was meatloaf, green beans, and rice and strawberry shortcake for dessert.  It was pretty good!  Carol warned me not to take the strawberry shortcake because she had a red velvet cake at the rv…but I couldn’t resist those fresh strawberries.  I was sure I could muster up the room for the cake (and I did). 

Carol and John

They gave us a tour of their beautiful Newmar Dutch Star.   This model is just what we want and would be perfect for us.  We loved everything about it from the colors to the layout.  It’s a 40 footer and we’re thinking that is the perfect full timing size.  Yes…we had a bad case of “rig envy.”

Carol and John have a sweet dog named Jimmy.  He’s  a King Charles Cavalier.  Isn’t he cute?

We spent several hours with John and Carol and really enjoyed getting to know them.  It’s amazing how much you find to talk about with people you never met before!  They are quite busy this month and are now in  Ocala, which is just 100 miles north of us.  They had read my blog about paddling the Silver River and were anxious to try it.  We were going to try to get together and meet them there, but we’re not sure we can make it.  If not, we’ll find another time to paddle with them I’m sure.  They’re heading to Georgia for the Perry FMCA rally in mid March, so it’ll have to be before that.  After that they will head towards Colorado where they will be working in Cripple Creek.  I’m sure looking forward to reading their blog as they explore about that area. 

Thanks Carol and Joyn for the good company and cake….we really enjoyed meeting you!

 

New Clothesline

Our neighbor behind us had made a handy little clothes line that hooks right onto the ladder.  The t picture below is their clothesline.

I convinced Al I needed one and me made it for me.

Here is a picture of the one Al made for me.   The long arms hook over the ladder step and the square pvc part rests on another ladder rung.  Clothesline is strung back and forth so that you can hang quite a few items.

Our neighbor had pvc pipe left over that he gave us so all we had to buy was the connections.  It is nice for damp towels and some clothes that I don’t like to put in a dryer the entire time.

Yesterday, I spent the day taking Mom to her doctor appointments.  She had an appointment with a Pulmonogist.  The doctor listened to her breathing, asked a few questions and recommended she get a lung function test.  He felt she had COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease).  She has never smoked but has lived most of her life with a smoker.  She also had a severe case of sleep apnea.  The doctor told her she had “the perfect storm” to cause COPD. 

She was able to get the lung function test done yesterday, but we had to go over to the hospital for that.  Evidently it’s a treatable condition, so we’re hoping this will help her.  She has been a little better since she got the CPAP machine for the sleep apnea, but it may take some time to reverse some of the problems the sleep apnea caused.  Anyway, we are a little more optimistic now.

After my day running Mom around with the doctor appointments I came home and felt real tired and I ached all over.  Uh oh.   I went to bed early and was hoping I’d feel better this morning.  Unfortunately this morning I didn’t feel much better so I took a few aspirin and popped some Echinacea.  I think the aspiring has helped, so hopefully I’m not getting sick!  I don’t have time!

Our cool spell is over and we’re expecting temps up to 75-80 the rest of the week.  Careful now…I don’t want to have to turn on the a/c!  The weather is just too nice to be sick.  I am not sick.  I am not sick.  I am not sick!

Rv Sunshades, Manatees and Rv Lots

Sweetwater Rv Park – Zephyrhills, Florida
It was a cold Tuesday night and  when we got up yesterday, it was only 39 degrees.  The past few weeks our overnight lows have mostly been in the 60’s, so it felt pretty cold.
It was supposed to only get into the low 60’s yesterday,  so we didn’t think we’d try to go kayaking.  Al has a pest control account he needed to do on the Homosassa River.  We had wanted to take our kayaks  and take a paddle while we went up there.  These are our friends and we had permission to do so.   We decided we had put it off long enough and he needed to spray the house so that was going to be on our agenda….minus the kayaking.  That turned out to be a mistake.
I wrote the other day about a place locally that sold fabric for rv sunscreens and rugs.    Our neighbor told us about it but she wasn’t sure exactly where it was located or the name of the place.  She finally found a business card this morning and we got an address.  It’s in Center Hill, Florida  which is near Bushnell and Webster.  It’s called Beasley Manufacturing.  Our GPS took us right there.  Here is their business card.  You can also order this fabric and even with shipping, it’s very inexpensive.  Their store is only open through April 30th, but they can meet you there by appointment after that.  They are in town, but don’t get much business after the snowbirds leave!

This place had tons of fabric and it was $1.50 a linear foot for the first quality rolls.  They also had seconds and remnants for $1.00 a foot.  There was about every color and pattern you could imagine, including florescent orange and pink!
This fabric works great as a sunscreen on the front windshield.  It blocks the sun/heat.  You can see out but no one can see in during the day.  Of course at night people can see right in…so close your curtains!  It protects your interior from fading from the sun and helps to keep you cooler inside.  It’s used also to block the sun on tires, windshield wipers and mirrors.  We just bought some mirror covers for $20, I think.  I could have easily made them if only I would have known about this place!


They sell a few premade rugs and patio shades.  The edges are sewn and complete with grommets.  They were a lot more expensive and we felt we could get by without the stitching and we could anchor the rugs if we needed to. 
They mostly sell  just the sunscreen fabric, but they do have a few pre-made mats/rugs and  shades that you attach to your awning and then anchor down.   A lot of people in our rv park have these shades attached to their awnings.  It provides privacy and a sun block also.  That may be something we will get at a later date. 
They sell suction cups, grommets, rug anchors and a few other things so that you can make your own projects.

We were told this fabric makes a real nice patio rug.  It doesn’t kill the grass, lays down flat and doesn’t blow away.  Our neighbor uses the fabric for a rug and loves it.  She said it’s much better than the Camping World Rugs.  We decided to give it a try and got a nice textured medium brown rug that’s 16 feet long. It was only 4 1/2 feet wide, so we got two and set them down with a few inch overlap.  It actually looks very nice.  It’s smooth lays flat down on the ground.  You can barely tell where the two pieces meet.
Here is a picture of our new patio rug.  You can barely see where the two sections meet.  At 16 feet, it’s plenty big.  So far, we like it!


We also got an off white piece to make tire covers.  We’ll cut them to size, attach them with suction cups and roll the bottom in a pvc pipe to weigh the fabric down.  We bought a little clip to keep the pvc attached.  I’ll post some pictures when we get them done.  It should protect the tires from the sun.  We were told this fabric can be cleaned with any kind of chemical and it wouldn’t hurt it.  Our 6 year old sunshade is still like new.
Our next stop was to Homosassa Springs so that Al could spray his account.  It kept getting warmer and nicer out and surpassed the 62 degrees that was predicted.  Dang…where were those kayaks??
The Homosassa is a spring fed river and there are usually manatees there this time of year.  Manatees head to the springs from the Gulf of Mexico during the winter months because the waters are a “warm” 72 degrees year round.  It’s much warmer than the gulf waters.  Cold weather kills many Manatees each year, but by far their biggest threat is boaters.
While he was spraying I went out on their upper deck and watched manatees swimming by.  The first ones I saw were a mother and calf.


The river is pretty wide here and there was a fair amount of boat traffic.  Manatees are frequently injured and killed by propellers and there are usually no wake zones when Manatees are present.
This next guy was speeding.

These guys were seeing the river the best way!

Manatees can get upwards of 10 feet long and weigh over 1000 pounds, but they are slow moving and no match for a speeding boat.

I was glad to see that the manatees were staying out of the main channel and were hugging the shore.  One even swam right under the dock I was standing on.  We were sure sorry we didn’t bring our kayaks because it ended up getting up to 73 degrees.  Sure would have liked to have  gotten in the water with those manatees!  We ended up seeing at least a dozen manatees swimming right by the dock.  What a beautiful place they have!





Our final stop yesterday was to Chassa Oaks Rv Resort.  It’s also in Homosassa, Florida.  It’s on the Gulf coast, just north of Tampa.  It’s a beautiful part of Florida with lots of beautiful spring fed rivers and close access to the Gulf of Mexico.  This area and Crystal River is one of the best places to see Manatees.  You can even swim with them.   We’ve done that many times and I can tell you, it’s an amazing experience being up close and personal with these amazing and gentle giants.  The babies are like big friendly puppies and love to get their belly’s scratches.  Of course there are strict rules about swimming/diving/touching/following these animals because they are endangered.




At the Tampa Rv show, we picked up a flyer from Chassa Oaks resort.  They sell lots and if you came by to look at the resort, they would give you two free tickets to Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. 

Since we’ve been planning a visit there, we decided free tickets would be nice!  We’ve been there many times, but always enjoy it. 

Chassa Oaks was a new rv resort and very nice. We took the tour and there was absolutely no pressure or hard sell.  We walked around the place and had a nice conversation with the caretaker/salesman.  The lots are about $50,000.  In our opinion most of the lots were a little small and close together.  The few larger lots were sold.  They will soon be opening up a new section with larger lots and more amenities.  You still have to pay association fees and property taxes, so your monthly fees would be around $200.  We may end up with an rv lot some time in the future, but for now, we were just looking.  He invited us to stop by anytime for a couple nights free if we were traveling through!  Nice guy!  We enjoyed our visit, but it was time to head home after a long day. 

It turned out to be a beautiful warm day and we sure regretted not taking the kayaks.
Today, we awoke to rain, but warm temps.  We aren’t nearly as concerned about rain now that we have the new slide toppers.  No water leaks….so far… knock on wood :)

Motor Home Dash Cover : (

The dash cover came today. 

The first thing I noticed was the box was much lighter than I expected, and much smaller.

I opened it up and the color was not what I envisioned.  I ordered vanilla and it was not my idea of vanilla, but okay.  I could live with it. 

It was much thinner of a material than I thought it would be and very light weight.  I was wondering if if would even protect the dash from kitty claws.  There are strips of Velcro and you attach it to the dash that way.

Just looking at it, I really didn’t think it would fit, but we took it up to try it out.  Well, it didn’t come close to fitting…by no stretch of the imagination.  I was very upset.  When I ordered it and was told someone else had already shipped it back, a red flag went up.  I should know to listen to my red flags, but I didn’t.

I called the guy I ordered it from and explained the situation.  The sales receipt had the wrong model of motor home on it, so I could understand why we got the wrong one.  Anyway, he was very nice and said to return this one and he would order a new one from the factory in Arizona. 

I asked him about the thin and lightweight material.  He said you don’t want anything too thick (like carpeting) because when your front window sweats, it would get the mat wet and the lighter weight would dry out faster and not grow mold.  Okay.  I asked about the vent holes.  There were none.  He said since vent covers can frequently be in slightly different locations, they leave the cutting of them to you.  You take off the black covering of the vent, cut out the mat and then screw the vent cover back on top of the mat.  Okay. 

I then asked about my laptop desk that is raised.  He said to cut the two sides and flap it back when you’re using the desktop and then when you’re not, lay the flap back down and it would not show.  okay?? 

He also said that there is no rubber backing on the back.  I would think a rubber backing would help it to stay in place. He said you don’t want rubber backing because when it gets hot, it can become glued to the dash. 

The cover does appear to be made well, but since it didn’t fit, it’s hard to tell what it will be like.

I hope I didn’t just make a $150 mistake.  He said it would take about 2 weeks to get the order from the factory.  I’ll let you know.

I tried to take a picture of the mat sitting on the dash of the MH, but it didn’t come out well.  I’ll try to take a few more pictures so that you can see what the mat looks like.

Arkansas Campground Floods-What Would You Do?

I'm sure everyone has read about the horrific and deadly flash floods in the campground in Arkansas. Our hearts go out to all of those affected.

Weather is one of my biggest concerns about living in an Rv. You're in an area that you are not familiar with, you don't know the weather patterns, or when they normally have severe weather. You also may be in "vacation" mode and be enjoying your travels so much that you let your guard down.  You are much more vulnerable while traveling than when you are at home, in my opinion.

The people in Arkansas were enjoying a wonderful camping trip when seemingly without notice sudden heavy rains caused the flash flooding of the rivers. Tents, Trailers and Motorhomes all washed down the river.  One body was found 8 miles down stream. I believe 18 people, many small children are confirmed dead and dozens more are missing.

It happened in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep. The rivers rose several feet in minutes.

How could this have been prevented?

What would you have done?

Would you have gotten any warnings ahead of time to move to higher ground?

Would you have known where to go in the middle of the night?

A weather radio may have saved some lives.

I heard on the news that a "flash flood" warning was issued before the flood, but since people were sleeping they didn't know about it.

With a weather radio, it sounds a very loud alert to warn you before the event.  You would not sleep through it...I guarantee it.  Those people in Arkansas would have had some warning and it may have saved lives.

How many people take a weather radio camping, or tent camping?  Not many I would imagine, but I think they should.  We take ours with us when we travel and bring it back to the house when we come home.

This is the type of weather radio we have.  It's an Oregon Scientific.  It's portable and uses either electricity or 2 double A batteries.  That's nice because if it's storming, you frequently won't have electricity.  One night we spent an hour in a campground bath house because of a tornado warning.  We had the battery operated weather radio with us and knew when the danger had passed.

This is the exact kind we have, but there are lots of others. I believe we paid $50 for it.  It looks like the price has come down :)   I would not recommend the one they sell at Radio Shack though.  We had several of them and they worked a few months and then quit.  We actually had a tornado come pretty close one night and that was the night the weather radio decided not to work...again.  We've had this Oregon Scientific radio for several years and it always alerts us to severe weather.  We've gotten many warning for "flash flooding" but I don't worry because of our location.

They can be annoying because they will tell you there is a severe thunderstorm...usually I've figured that out by that time:)

The main issue I see for travelers is that you have to get a "code" for the area you are in.  You get it on the internet or you can call an 800 number.  You then key this location code into the radio so that it knows the area you are located.  I wish it had some type of GPS locater to know where you were at automatically.

If you don't have a weather radio, I urge everyone to get one.  You can find them at Home Depot and Lowe's during hurricane season down here.  The cost is minimal for peace of mind and to potentially save your life.  I have no doubt it would have made a difference in Arkansas.  They sell them at Sam's Club, and I think Ive even seen them at drug stores.  Of course you can always get them online.  I would never buy another one from Radio Shack though.  We had 5-6 of them and they all failed!

 

Karen  shared her  her link to NOAA Weather SAME Codes  She keeps a printout with her, of areas she frequently camps.  

You need to know the county you are in and then key the code into the weather radio. 

Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)

I just love good customer service and Truck system Technology Systems  has provided it.

If you remember, we purchased a Tire Pressure Monitoring  System from Camping World about a month ago.  I had done some research online and liked the TST system, mainly because of the good reviews and the fact that it monitors not only tire pressure, but temperature.

The problem was when we got the TPMS they only had one available and it only had 6 sensors.  We needed 10 for the Motorhome and tow vehicle, but we figured 6 would be better than nothing.  The system was easy to set up and the directions were in English!

We had been trying to get the additional 4 sensors for a while now.  Camping World had them on sale for $74.99 for two, but were out of stock.  I checked their online site again today and now they don't even show these sensors.

I called TST to order them, but they were listed at $100 for two sensors, but they said they would honor CW price, even though they were no longer doing business with Camping World.  Anyway, I ordered them and my total cost was $150...no tax and free shipping!  They are to be shipped today, so we'll have them by the end of the week

Having those sensors gives you one less thing to do at the last minute before you take a trip. The tire pressure is constantly being checked, so you don't have to worry about that.  I feel much more secure driving that big motorhome knowing the shape of the tires.  Sometimes the peace of mind is worth the cost.


That is one more thing to check off of my list of things we want/need when we start full timing.

We Weighed the Motorhome

I'm a little embarrassed to say that before now we had never had the motor home weighed.  We knew we should do it, but just never seemed to got around to it.  Also, it's a little confusing and somewhat intimidating.

We were told it is best to not only weigh each axle, but each wheel, to make sure you aren't carrying too much weight on any side.  If your front axle is rated for 7,000 pounds and you have 7,000 pounds, that is fine,  unless you have 5,000 on one side and 2,000 on the other. Tires need to be inflated to a pressure that will handle the weight they will carry, and not to exceed the tire's maximum tire pressure.

We checked around and found the best place to weigh rigs is on a certified CAT Scale.  This is a good link to a certified scale near you.

Cat Scale Location

I just found out that there is a video on this website to explain exactly how to weight your RV.
 

It turns out there is one near our house, but when Al went there, he was told they couldn't weigh each individual axle and certainly not each wheel.  We think the guy he talked to was misinformed and didn't know how it all worked.

When we were in Keaton Beach, we found a Cat Scale in Perry, Florida, when we went into town one day.  We decided to go ahead and weigh the MH when we were loaded up and ready to leave.  We had the toad attached, and all the things we normally take when we camp.

We had 1/4 tank of fresh water, 3/4 tank of fuel, empty gray/black water tanks.  They kayaks were loaded on the back of the truck, so we felt we had a pretty accurate weight.  The only thing we didn't get included was me...as I was outside trying to push the button that was up in the air twelve feet!  So we figure, we'll need to add another 125 pounds  :)   ha ha

For those of you who haven't weighed your rig and may have been intimidated, like we were, it is very easy.

There are several distinct sections on the scale.  You need to get your front tires on one section, your rear tires on the next section, and your toad on the third section.  I read since that it's best to try to center each axle, but we didn't know that then.

There are instructions there.  They tell you to let off the brake, hit the button for service, then come inside the store/building for your ticket.

I went inside to ask the lady to start the weigh because the button was too high to be reached from the ground and Al couldn't reach it from the MH either.  It is geared more towards truckers.  The lady inside asked me my "number."  She didn't specify what number she was talking about....my tag, my home telephone...what???
I'm not sure she really knew either, but she finally just keyed in a number.  I now think this is the truck number and they also wanted the name of the company.

Anyway, I paid the $9 while Al parked the MH.  I got my little yellow ticket.


It read as follows:

Steer Axle   -   6,380 pounds
Drive Axle   - 11,780 pounds
Toad        -       3,700 pounds

Gross weight - 21,860 pounds.


According to the paperwork we have on our motorhome, we cannot exceed 7,000 pounds for the front axle, so we're goo there.

Our rear axle cannot exceed 13,500...okay there too.

max total w/o toad should be no more than 20,500...okay


max total with toad, no more than 25,500

The way I read this is.... WE GET TO BRING MORE STUFF!!

Interesting post-check it out

I just read an interesting post from May 8th,  at Rick & Paulette's RV Travels  website. It's concerning a new? Rv website called RV There Yet, that lists RV travel blogs.  It sounds good at first until you realize, if you link to it, people will be able to read your blog without going to your site.  Any adsense revenue would go to them, not you.  I hadn't heard of it before today, so am not linked there, but I noticed a few other blogs I am familiar with that are there.  I have noticed a few blogs I recognize listed there. 

Nothing much going on here today.  We are trying to work out another trip, but haven't nailed anything down yet.  We have always camped at state parks and preferred them to RV parks, but now we're getting spoiled having sewer connections.  Also at Old Pavillion Rv Park, their Wifi was real nice as we could stream Netflix movies through our Roku!  We have gotten hooked on the tv series,  Friday Night Lights.   It was nice with the Wifi, to be able to watch it.  If you haven't ever seen the series, rent the first season and watch it.  It's a great family show.  It's about a small town in Texas that is crazy for their high school football team.  It has a lot of different story lines going and the actors are all wonderful.  It has enough football to keep Al interested and not too much to bore me!  It's a GREAT series, but evidently has struggled in the ratings, probably due to the fact that is aired on Friday night!

We did go and buy a little 19 inch Phillips LCD TV at Walmart yesterday.  We (can always justify) now have the main one mounted where it belongs, so until we hit the road, we have no decent TV for the bedroom.  We don't watch much TV there, but I do like to turn it on a few minutes before I go to sleep.  Anyway, we figured once we go on the road, it would make a good outside TV.   I know, it's a big much having 3 TV's in a 32 foot rig....but we wanted it :)  And it was on sale!

Why Get a TPMS

This post on Rv-Net Forum was what finally convinced us to bite the bullet and buy our Tire Pressure Monitoring system. It is a sad story, but one that can help educate us all and hopefully prevent others from the same fate.

Some of you may have missed it, so I decided to put the link here.   They determined the rig blew a right FRONT tire,  lost control, the coach burned and the three people inside were killed.  Very sad story, but it gives us something to think about and possibly learn from.

Some people suggested Steer Safe System



or a Safety Plus Front Stabilizer   may have helped keep the MH on the road in the event of a tire failure.  I checked two different systems out, and that will probably be something we will eventually have installed.  Of course all this takes money.  Evidently these systems help to keep the MH on the road in the event of a blowout or even an accident.

After reading about this accident, I wondered,  if  they had a TPMS on their coach,  would it have given them enough time to realize there was a problem and prepare for it?  Even a second or two could make the difference.

There were some other posts explaining what to do IF you have a front tire blowout.  I was a little surprised that they advised to stay on the accelerator!   After reading  this, and thinking about it, we are trying to keep this in our mind.  Please take the time to click on the above link and watch the video.  It was very informative! 

So Margie, maybe this is something you could show Roger to help him come around to your way of thinking about a TPMS!  They are on sale now at CW for $299 for 6 tires.  That would cover the MH and the toad can be seen in your rear view camera.  Al says what he thinks will be nice on the TPMS, is that he won't have to check the tire air pressure before we go on a trip. He will know what the air pressure is at all times!

Installed TPMS

We purchased the Truck System Technology Tire Pressure Monitoring System from Camping World yesterday.

Today we decided to install it, and were pleasantly surprised to find it was easy to install!  Sometimes this type of gadget can be tricky to understand the directions.  We went with this brand because it has a temperature reading as well as tire pressure.  We felt this was important for safety reasons.  A hot tire is a dangerous tire and we prefer to know it before there is a major problem, or blowout.

The system comes with an antenna, and 12v adapter.  You can use the monitor with or without the 12 v adapter.  The monitor has a built in lithium battery that has about a 3 hour battery life.  It recharges when hooked up to 12v.  The monitor can be taken out to tell what the pressure is when you are adding air to the tires. 


This is the monitor and two of the sensors.  They just screw onto the valve stem by using a special tool.  They are not completely theft proof, but you need the installation tool to remove them or put them on.  Better not lose it!  They highly recommend metal valve stems. 

The system we bought only has 6 sensors in it, so we will need to order the extra four.  We need 6 for the Motorhome and 4 for the tow car.  The TST system is on sale at Camping World for $299 with 6 sensors.  The other 4 sensors will cost $150.  It's not cheap, but we feel it's good insurance.

One thing we found out about all of these TPMS is that the sensors have a battery with a life of about 5 years, and the battery is not replaceable.  You have to purchase new sensors when the battery goes.  I feel this is something they could resolve, but I guess it keeps them in business!  I believe more people would buy them if they didn't face replacing sensors every few years.  One thing I learned though, was that the sensors don't all go at the same time, so you can replace them gradually :)  When the vehicle is stored for a period of time, if you take the sensors off, you will save battery life. 

Anyway, as far as installation.  You just turn on the Monitor and program in each sensor.  The sensors each have a specific number on them and you program that particular number into the corresponding tire position showing on the monitor. You give it a minimum and maximum setting for pressure and a maximum temperature.  When Al was putting on the sensors, he let a little air out, and the tires were a few pounds low to start with.  So when we programmed the tire in, it gave us an audible alarm and flashed a red light that the tire pressure was low!   I guess it works.  The temperature of the tire was also there.  I need to do some research and see if exactly what temperature we need to have as a high temperature warning.  The tire temperature will change with the weather and movement.  I don't want it beeping for just normal heat.  The RV-Net Forum is a great place to find that kind of information.


We decided until we get the other 4 sensors, we'd put 2 on the motorhome front, and two on the outer rear tires, and two on the toad front tires.  That would give us a pretty good warning on the most dangerous tires.  We don't have a backup camera on the MH, so if the toad blew a tire, we might not know about it for days :)

Memory Foam Mattress

If anyone is wanting a memory foam mattress for their home or RV, go to  Bed In a Box  and become a "Fan" on Facebook.    They are giving away free mattresses and pillows!  They are trying to build their business through the internet and each time they hit a certain number of "fans" they have a give a way!   They also have sporadic give-a-ways and I'm trying to win another one for the house!

Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)

We went to Camping World today and found the Truck System Technologies tire pressure monitoring system on sale for $299.  It only included 6 sensors though and we will need to order 4 more for another $150.   It was basically the same price as we could have gotten it through their website, but it was there at Camping World and we are planning another trip, so we went for it.

It was the one we had decided on after researching several different systems.  The main thing that sold us on this was the fact that it not only monitors tire pressure, but temperature.  If you should have a sticking caliper, which I hear is fairly common if the MH sits for a little while, then the temperature sensor will let you know before you have a problem. There are many things that can cause the temperature to rise and I would prefer to know about it as soon as possible.

Anyway, tomorrow I guess we will see how easy/hard it is to install.  When we were coming back from our last trip, I wondered how long it would take us to realize it, if the toad had a flat tire!  Hopefully, we won't have any blowouts or other problems, but it is just a little piece of mind.

We bought another little gadget at Camping World, but I'll go into that later. 







 

Streaming Movies Through Wii

We just got our disc for our Wii Player that will allow us to stream movies directly from Netflix. It' works similar to the Roku box we have, but it was free!

I was able to easily set it up without aggravation!

You can use your Wii remote to select and watch movies that you have chosen through Netflix.  It works well.  You can still stream movies from Netflix by connecting an HDMI cable, but you have to use your computer to select, play, pause, and stop playing.  The Wii or Roku box is so much more convenient.

You initially go to Netflix through your computer.  There are some 10,000 movies, TV series, documentaries, or Imax programs available. You select as many as you want and Netflix will offer suggestions, based on what you choose.  You find programs you never knew existed.

Then you use your Wii remote to select and play the movie or program you want.  Once you have these movies set in your "Queue" you don't even have to turn on your computer...they're just there in your Wii or  Roku  box  and all for only $9 monthly!

We found a Tv series we had never watched, but have gotten hooked on.  Friday Night Lights.  It's about a small Texas town that is addicted to high school football.  It's kind of a soap opera with football.  The football part got Al interested and now we are both hooked on it.  The nice thing is we can watch an hour show in about 45 minutes (no commercials) and we can watch the next show whenever we want...not having to wait until next week.  Come to find out, it's been on a few years and I think Netflix has 4 seasons available to stream :)

Still haven't figured out how to bring it with us when we go camping though!  It's not like we watch a lot of TV, but after a day hiking and kayaking, it's nice to watch a little Tv before we pass out!

Just found a Randy Travis concert on Netflix that I'm now watching!  He's always been one of my favorites.