Where the hell have you guys been for the last month?

or good times, cold times, and sad times.

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Time to do a little catching up...

Since we last wrote (Belle Isle State Park), we have been to Verona, VA with our friends Bruce and Carol, Fort Chiswell, VA, Blountville, TN, Gilbert, SC, and now Hardeeville, SC.  In between all of this I (Roger) have taken three trips to present to my fellow diabetics how to better control their diabetes. 

We have had lots of freeze your butt off cold weather and now that we are near Savannah, GA, very pleasant weather.

And we lost our 4 footed friend and third child, Gabi, to old age and cancer.  

Verona, VA

We got a chance to catch up with long time RVing friends Carol and Bruce from Aylett, VA.  We met Carol and Bruce camping at one of our favorite campgrounds - Country Waye (now the KOA-Luray, VA).  After Mary guided me into a tree branch and we unloaded the dogs (Bailey and Gabi), Bruce figured we might be people they wanted to meet.  Bruce and Carol also have a lab, Mercedes, and, as we found out later, Bruce grew up in Southern California like I did.  It was inevitable.

We stayed at the Shenandoah Campground near Verona.  This used to be a KOA but the management decided that it was too costly to continue.  We know from our friends who own the Luray KOA that KOA has been imposing standards on their franchisees to upgrade their campgrounds to minimum KOA standards.  The Shenandoah Campground has gotten a little old and utilities and campsite sizes haven't really kept up with the market.  Not well suited for big rigs who want full hookups and 50 amp sites. I'm thinking that the required upgrades were too expensive and hence the dropping of the KOA affiliation.  

Anyway, Carol and Bruce love Virginia wineries as we do.  Our usual get togethers involve a winery tour and this trip was no exception.  So off we went to CrossKeys Vineyard for lunch.  We didn't do a tasting this trip but did have lunch sitting out on the patio on a warm Fall day.

Lunch with Bruce and Carol at CrossKeys Vineyard

What Shenandoah Campground is famous for - wild domestic rabbits.

Fall in the Shenandoah Valley

Fort Chiswell, VA

Our favorite half-way point campground.  We were invaded by Canadians and people from the the Far Northeast states who were all on their way to Florida.  We are as well, but we are taking a far slower route.  Coming in at 5 pm and leaving at 7 am just doesn't appeal to us.  

Blountville, TN

We spent two weeks at Rocky Top campground in Blountville, TN.  Why?  Well it is close (5 minutes) from the Tri-Cities airport and I had to fly places for my speaking engagements.  So I was there for a week and Mary was there for 2 weeks.  Strange, but November is National Diabetes Month and my organization is busy, busy, busy.  

We had a great camping spot but we got buried in falling leaves and experienced some really cold weather.  We also had our first inkling that Gabi was starting to have some real health issues.  She decided to take a flying leap off the top step and injured her hip.  As usual, I was out of town and Mary had to deal with the emergency vet visit.  Our neighbors were really helpful in getting Gabi loaded in the car and to the vet.

Nice trees - all those wonderful leaves landed on the roof and slide toppers.

Our plans were to leave Blountville and head to Asheville, NC for a week but the weather report said - Go South!  So we headed to Columbia, SC.

Columbia, SC
We had planned to stay at the Barnyard campground but SEC football displaced us to Gilbert, SC and Mr. Z's campground.  A rather funky little place but cheap and right on US 1.  I still need to be close to an airport so it worked out well.

What didn't work out so well was Gabi's health.  Since her great leap in TN, her appetite had begun to decline and increasingly she would throw-up her food or even water.  Gabi has had a mast cell carcinoma growing on her left foot for over a year (a common cancer in Labs) but, because of her age, she was not a candidate for surgery (usually amputation of the limb).  So we knew it was a matter of time before this thing invaded other organ systems.  Last Friday (Nov. 15th) she took a real turn for the worse.  Of course, I had the car as I was off on another trip and Mary had to enlist the aide of our next door neighbor to rush her to the vet.  I didn't even have a clue anything was going on until I checked my emails when I landed in Charlotte.

When the ultrasound showed a large intestinal mass and evidence of renal failure, we knew it was time.  Gabi was euthanized on Saturday morning.  At 13 1/2 she was physically elderly, gray as all get out, but still mentally sharp and all lab.  She is missed.

Gabi and Sam had formed a special bond early on.  They used to chase each other around the house.

A favorite pastime in the new motorhome

Gabi helping navigate

Bye Gabi, we miss you so much...  

Belle Isle State Park, Lancaster, VA

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After a rainy week at Beth Paige with our Carriage/Lifestyle friends, we needed a week to unwind.  We were looking for a new campground to spend some time before our hookup with our friends when we realized we were very close to Belle Isle SP.  We had stayed there last year and so decision was an easy one.

Located on the Northern Neck, Belle Isle SP is one of those hidden gems in the Virginia State Park System.  The Northern Neck is located between the Potomac River to the north and the Rappahannock River to the south, is amongst the earliest areas of English settlement in America and the birthplace of Robert E. Lee.  Today, it is a a largely rural area that is still home to farming and waterman.  

Belle Isle State Park was once a large estate and the estate home still exists.  The house is available to rent and would be a excellent location for weddings and large fetes.  To make it more interesting, you can arrive by carriage or boat.  

Belle Isle manor house.  Notice the nice carriage road in the front.

House dock 

Overall the park is pretty flat but it has good roads and, at this time of year, very few people using the park.  Biking is great between the roads and trails.  The campground has everything you need - 20/30/50 amp electrical and water connections.  No sewer but a dump station.  Restrooms and showers are spotless.  

Sites are large enough to take just about any size rig.  Satellite reception is tough because tree cover is heavy.  We managed to get our Trav'ller Dish to lock onto all of the Dish satellites but reception on 129 (very low in the sky here in the East) is iffy.  A new cell tower in the area means that you can actually get a phone signal (last fall you couldn't).  We get a 4G signal with Verizon that varies from 2-3 bars with a booster antenna which mean we have internet as well.  

We have at least another 40' to the back of our lot.  That's a big site!

Tent campers haven't been ignored either.  The park provides large gravel pads with each site that makes it easy to pitch a tent and anchor it.  More than half the sites this weekend are occupied by tent campers.

River views and lots of space.  What else could you ask for.

We are off to the Shenandoah Valley on Sunday for a campout with our friends Bruce and Carol from Aylett, VA.

The Wedding

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Haven't updated in a while as we have been waiting for the event of our adult lives - our son's marriage.  

We travelled from Tupelo, MS to College Park, MD and have been staying at Cherry Hill Campground in College Park.  This was the coach's first big trip and it did well.  We came early to help the kids clean out their apartment and remove the stuff we had stored there.  We also spent some time helping them get organized for their wedding.

We've already started to sort through and get rid stuff we don't need with more to come over the next month or so.  This Monday (Oct 7) we are off to a Carriage 5th wheel local chapter rally to see all of our friends from our former fifth wheel life.

The wedding was held on a beautiful, warm early Fall day at Gambrill State Park in Frederick, MD.  The park sits on top of the Catoctin Ridge which runs from the Potomac River to Camp David on into the Gettysburg area.  The wedding was held in the Tea Room which was built by the CCC in the 1930's.

 Great views into the Monocacy River Valley (City of Frederick) and the Middletown Valley.  

Like all weddings, there were things forgotten, uninvited visitors, things off schedule and so on - like our son Brian who left his dress shoes at home (saved by his friend who picked up a pair of shoes for him on his way to the wedding).  

And Molly who couldn't find her laptop which had all of the music on it.  But it showed up with the help of her Dad, so off we went.

  Anyway, at 11 am +/- the ceremony got underway and Brian Charles Baird and Molly Christine McMahon were united in marriage.  Yeah!

Uninvited guests were a bit too numerous to count.  After a down year last year, the brown stink bug has surged back.  Thank you China for another "gift".

Afterwards we all set around, stuffed our faces, shoed the bugs away and congratulated the couple.  

All things considered, a wonderful day and happy parents on both sides.

It's Here or Birth of a Phaeton - Part 11

On Thursday, September 12th, we completed the purchase of our new home.  What a relief.  Did we start moving in right away?  Nooo, we took off to Jasper, AL to visit our bank to get the certified check we needed to pay the tag transfer fees and new vehicle tax for South Dakota.  Only a 200 mile roundtrip commute from Sherman, MS.

It's got the same sticker as the one we followed through the plant.
I guess it must be ours then.

In position for final cleaning by the Sherman RV staff.

The motorhome had actually arrived late Monday afternoon and Sherman called us Tuesday AM.  We had Sherman do several add ons for us because we knew that Brannon Hutchinson at Custom RV was swamped with work and shorthanded.  The two photos above were taken Wednesday AM.  We found the ladder we had Tiffin delete.  They hadn't installed it but they put it in the storage bay.  Another spare ladder for Sherman's inventory, I guess.

After our Thursday walk through and test drive, we noted a few things, and wrote the big check.  The real work began Friday (the 13th if you are superstitious) with us transferring the interior contents from our 32CA over to the 36GH.

We were kind of parked nose to nose which made transfer easier.

We did the interior fairly quick as the 32 had less interior storage than the 36.  By Friday night, we were living in the 36 with everything moved on the "first floor".  Saturday was reserved for exterior storage as we finally had a break in the weather and the temperature and humidity dropped to something a lot more comfortable.

Saturday started off kind of poor.  I was taking Gabi out for her pre-breakfast walk and she came flying out the door, went behind me, and cut my legs out from under me.  Boom, down I went on the concrete apron and left a good size patch of skin from my knee on the concrete. Thanks, dog.

Guess what?  We had more exterior storage space in the 32 than the 36.  We ended up with four extra plastic tubs and some stuff to get rid of.  We also decided that we really didn't want the coffee table and donated that to the Sherman Staff as well.  The extra interior space we had was soon filled up with former basement stuff.  Now we were filled up.

Sunday afternoon, Sam is safely stored as well.

By staying at Sherman over the weekend, we had a chance to test out just about everything except the propane furnaces.  It was cool enough to run the heat pumps but not cool enough to fire up furnaces.  We had a couple of nagging electronics issues.  The new TV antenna (still a MiniState) uses a wireless remote which only worked from about 6" away.  The IR repeater (also a new, wireless design) above the front TV only worked some of the time. Other issues:  The solar shade by the dining room table had a scratch/tear in it, the shower drain was really slow, the refrigerator freezer handle had a dent in it, the front electrical bay door didn't fit well, paint marks on last two doors on driver's side, and the black tank didn't register on the SeaLevel gauge.

Resolutions:

• MiniState control unit was bad and replaced.
• IR repeater was bad and replaced
• Solar shade was replaced
• Shower drain slow - this appears to be a drain strainer design issue.  It's gotten a little better over time.
• Freezer handle replaced
• Door realigned
• Doors buffed out
• Black tank level - seems like 3 days of use didn't produce enough waste to register.  More #1 and #2 contributions are needed.

Pretty minor stuff and all fixed before we left for the CAT scales and Barnes Crossing were we are waiting for our paperwork (registration & title) to catch up to us.  

Birth of a Phaeton - Part 10

8/14 - 9/1

(Want more detail?  Click on image to enlarge)

Final Assembly and the Wait Begins

We didn't see our coach go through getting it's steps, handles, slide toppers, awnings, ladder, etc. but we did take some pictures of others.  When we walked through the area Mary started talking to one of the young women working there.  We found out we could delete our ladder (hadn't thought about it) but couldn't find the person we need to speak to.  We didn't think much about it at the time but later that day Danny Inman tracked us down and we were able to modify the order.  We caught up with her the next day and told her what happened and she told us what she had done - she tracked down the coach while it was in base coat (that was the only thing we had told her along with the model), called Danny with the information and he took it from there.  Unusual to see that level of followup anywhere these days.

Belmont Final Assembly.  

All of the "stuff" on the outside of the coach gets added here.  

Bubble test station.
The big blower adds pressure to the coach and every opening is then checked for leaks.

Some final assembly takes place in Red Bay as well.  Rework/testing/re-testing is also performed in Red Bay.  We caught up with our coach one last time before it went to final inspection.

It's Shiny!  And it looks good without the ladder.

Side view

Diamond Shield install

And this was the last we saw of the coach...  We know that there at least 4 things left to be fixed - 2 windows needed new seals, a surround sound speaker needed to be replaced, and a trim piece around the central ceiling fixture was the wrong wood finish.

After this, it was scheduled to go back to Belmont for final inspection and then they had up to 7 additional days for rework prior to shipping.  And so we wait in Tupelo, MS at The Campground at Barnes Crossing.  Really not a bad place to stay as we are close to everything.  Every store you can imagine is within 2 miles of this location.  And so we wait...

Birth of a Phaeton - Part 9

8/14 - 9/1

(Want more detail?  Click on image to enlarge)

Last day in paint.

New to the paint process is Super Clear.  This new finish is apparently a special clear coat with a hardener added to the mix.  Whatever it is, it come out shiny, really shiny.  Has Tiffin gotten rid of the need to was your coach?  Time will tell I guess and I'll let you know next Spring before we hit the road.

The traditional clear coat is sanded first and then the Super Clear is applied and baked.  Here's ours going through the process.

Sanding

Wiping with solvent and tack rags

Prepped and ready

Super Clear being applied

Done but not baked

Into the bake booth for an hour

After the bake booth, all of the masking tape is removed and the coach driven out of the building to a que area for final assembly.

Birth of a Phaeton - Part 8

8/14 - 9/1

(Want more detail?  Click on image to enlarge)

We caught up with the coach again after lunch.  It was at the Belmont facility.  Belmont is huge compared to the Main Assembly area and it is hopping.  I used to think of Belmont as the Paint Facility, but in reality, it serves many more functions.  Also located in Belmont is the Tile Shop (floors), Final Assembly (awnings, toppers, ladders, etc.), Leak Testing, Fueling, and so on.  

The Paint Shop is the largest part of the operation.  Coaches are sanded, masked, base coated, striped, touched up, clear coated, baked, sanded again, and clear coated with something new for 2014, Super Clear.  There a large number of people involved in the painting process.  This is not work that is done by robo spray equipment.  All of it is a process that requires hands.  You'll notice in the following pictures that there are teams of people working on the coaches at any given time.  I've compressed the time here a bit.  What the pictures represent is a three day process.

First up, the Sanding Shop

Every square inch gets sanded.  There are four stations in this building.
This is our coach at Station 1.

After sanding, the coaches are prepped for the base coat of paint.  This is a 40' Phaeton being readied for its base coat.

This is our coach going into base coat.
This was about 24 hours after its arrival at Belmont.

Base coat being applied.  Not much to see but there are usually four painters working at one time.  Two spray the lower area and two the upper area.

After the base coat has cured, the stripe team gets on it.  The stripe masking material comes in rolls specific for the model being painted.  

  

The next day, ours had been painted and was in an area known as Strip Repair.  Areas that hadn't passed inspection were re-masked and re-sprayed.  

Masking done and ready to roll back into the spray booth.

Paint and stripe touch up is very much an individual
process and it takes a bit of time to complete.

 After the stripes were repaired and the paint cured, the coach came back out of the spray booth and all of the masking tape was removed, and the paint gone over by a couple of young ladies with razor blades.  They would feel along the edges of the stripes and use the razor blades to take off any high points between colors.  All of this was done prior to the first coat of clear.

 First clear coat application