Manufacturer Visits

Tuesday we went to see the Carriage RV plant and see how they build the Carriage brand RVs, http://www.carriageinc.com/. They give tours Monday – Thursday at 9:30 am, you gather at the tour center located by their RV park. The RV park has about twenty sites, FHU, and you stay free the night before the tour. The tour was good in that you got a glimpse of how they build the campers but you don’t get to get up close and talk with the employees. In fact only one plant we went to allow this, two if we count Excel when we toured their plant. The Carriage plant is currently building 4-5 units per week, I don’t know if this is the number they maintain all the time or it is due to the economic times, I forgot to ask. All in all it is a good tour even though you don’t get up close, until the end of the tour, you do get a feel for the quality that goes into the units. Carriage does build their own frames, something I like. As with all the plants we toured they employ a number of Amish folks. We also toured the building where they make all their own seats, pillows etc. This building was air conditioned and big. They do all the upholstery work for all their divisions. It was interesting to see how fast the sewing machines could go and watching the ladies run the machines. I am sure I would be sewing my fingers to the fabric and I would not be able to keep up with the quota requirements.

Wednesday we went to the Jayco plant, http://www.jayco.com/php/products/fifth.wheels/trailer.php?id=248, this company was the biggest manufacturer we visited, They have a number of plants producing different makes in this one area, we toured the Pinnacle line. The  Pinnacle is Jayco’s high end fifth wheel, they have discontinued the Designer line of campers. This company has the nicest tour center, they even sell Jayco shirts, jackets and hats. They have a few of the camper models sitting at the center so you get an idea of what they make and the differences in them. You get on a tour bus and ride out to the plant, we were going to see the Pinnacle being made, they make one model at a time. Jayco’s frames are made at another company which is owned by the family who owns Jayco, they are brought in on a just in time basis. The company has enough components at the plant to build the units on the line for that day. The plant quota is to build seven campers per day and my understanding is the employee bonus is predicated on meeting this goal. I don’t much care for the incentive or piece work compensation when building a “high” end fifth wheel. We were able to go through the final product and it was nice but so far the Carriage was better.

I called a company called Forks RV in Shipshewana, http://forksrv.com/continental/, to see if they gave tours and the message said they were closed due to a death in the family. So I sent them an email asking if they gave tours and I received an answer this morning saying they do anytime between 10 and 2, so we headed over to see them. From their website I knew they build high end units and they build for overseas delivery also. We met with Jay Troyer, he is in sales and marketing, he gave us a nice overview of the company and then we went out to see the production. It takes them approximately 50 days to build a unit depending on the specifications. The model we looked at was the Continental Express, this is the entry level fifth wheel but beat all the others we had seen since being here. In all my research to find our fifth wheel I did not come across this company but they are worth a look at if you are looking for a well built unit. They will take your ideas and/or floorplans and put engineer them into a livable unit, within all safety standards. They had three units, two fifth wheels and a travel trailer, being built with the entry door on the left side of the camper, these units were going to England. The workmanship and quality in these units was very noticeable. They are updating their website soon to show more of the fifth wheel line for 2012. It was a good visit and I thank Jay for the tour and time he took to visit with us. If you are looking for a high end unit built with quality and class, this is the company. They are not cheap and the units reflect that throughout, here are pictures of what they build, go to the web site for more pictures and information:

Thursday, after our tour of Forks RV we got something to eat and then went to see how Heartland builds their units. Of course the GPS put us at the wrong building but after looking around we found the correct building. A nice young lady greeted us and we gave them our name etc. and had a seat. At three we, five of us, began the tour with a guy from marketing, I don’t remember his name. With the temperatures today in the 90s and heat index above a hundred they let the employees go home so the tour was sans noise but in some cases not much lighting either. It wasn’t the best tour I have ever been on. The Big Horn was the unit that was being built so we did get to see the different steps in the building process. It was interesting to see what goes into this process, it seemed to be better than the Jayco and about the same as the Carriage but far below the Continental’s process.

So after seeing these plants I would have to say if I were looking to buy now I would definitely look at the Continental, they have the quality and the care in the building process I looked for in a well built camper.

We are here for another week, leaving on the 31st.

Remember – Dreams Do Come True

Still in Elkhart, IN

We have been here a whole week and have accomplished quite a bit. If you are ever in Elkhart we recommend the Elkhart Campground, it is fairly reasonable about $28 per night FHU. I looked for lower rates and did find a couple but if you take into account the distance we would have to travel to our appointments etc. then this was the best fit for us.

Last Tuesday we took the camper into MOR/ryde and they did their thing and we were out Wednesday afternoon with a MOR/ryde IS suspension. The drive to the campground didn’t show me if the suspension is that great but we’ll see once we get on the road. We did have some pictures we left standing behind the couch and they did not fall over so that is a good sign.

The front of the offices at MOR/ryde

This is the area you stay in the night before your unit is worked on, 30 amp only.

This is where we parked the truck while the unit was in the shop. The building has back in bays backed up to each other, our camper was on the other side of the building.I tried to get a picture of our camper but the fence blocks it a little bit.Our camper is in the second bay.

The folks here were very nice, they have muffins and pastries in the morning, the individual coffee do higgies, water, soda and tea, plus chips etc. They give you a choice of three restaurants to choose lunch from and they go get it and pay for it. We stayed in the camper Tuesday night with 30 amp and cable TV. We were very impressed by the desire to take care of the customer.

Wednesday we headed for the Elkhart Campground and our home for the next two weeks. We have a grass site they are all grass sites except for a couple of permanent sites and those folks probably had the pad poured themselves, that is probably 35’ wide and 70+’ long. The sites are grass and we have full hookups with 50 amp electric. The electric is being stretched quite a bit with this hot weather, my monitor is right on the green if not a bit of red, but in the morning I am in the middle of the green. All in all we are fine with it. We are within 15 minutes of our appointments and that is what I was looking for.

Yesterday we went to Pinnacle RV Service at 1011 Herman St, 574-522-2636, Jason Miller is the service manager. I include all of this information because if you are ever in Elkhart and need work done on your unit call Jason. He went out of his way to help us with our inverter/charger problem. I had called Xantrex, the maker of our inverter, and I was told to call Pinnacle, they handle all of Monaco’s inverter installations of the Xantrex inverter. Jason worked us in yesterday even with two employees out west at the Monaco Rally, in fact he handle our problem himself. He took the inverter out, took it to Xantrex and picked it up and reinstalled it in the camper. We were there a total of three hours. Excellent service from these folks call them if you need service in the Elkhart area.

One of the items Pinnacle installs are new seats and Jason was telling me about a new sofa they are going to be manufacturing. It is a hidabed couch that has a bunk bed attached to it. My understanding is the bunk is stored under the couch and is pulled out and goes above the couch and locked into place so the couch sleeps two and the bunk one. Interesting concept, Forest River is testing the idea in some of their campers.

Today we went to the Carriage RV plant. Carriage was one of the units I was looking at during my research. I dismissed them because the units we looked at had the entry door blocking the basement door, I didn’t like that. It was a very enlightening visit/tour. There were some interesting things they do to their units, a storage compartment in the rear of the camper, the roof is not rubber or fiberglass but another material which looked to me to be a big improvement over the rubber roof. However, I didn’t find anything to tell me I bought from the wrong manufacturer. Sarah and I both came away believing we made the right decision for us.

They we went to the Shipshewana Flea Market, there are over a thousand vendors at this thing. It is open Tuesday and Wednesday only, a three dollar charge to get in but when we left about two no one was taking money so I guess go later and save. We had lunch at the Auction Barn restaurant and it was delicious. Sarah wanted to see if she could find some beads and I was looking for a good leather belt and wallet but nothing jumped out at me nor did Sarah find anything to entice her to buy. So we went to the grocery store and picked up a few things and back to the camper. It is ninety degrees outside with a heat index of 150 trillion degrees or so it seems, we are inside and not wanting to go out.

We did go see the movie Larry Crowne with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, it is not Oscar caliber but a good movie never the less. As always the popcorn and large soda cost more than the admission.

Thursday we are going to the Jayco plant and see what there process looks like. I am hoping to see their new fifth wheel and see if I like it or not. We’ll see what other plants we get to next week.

I have been working on detailing the truck, I have the wheels and bed to do yet. I also have the sides of the camper to work on and hope to get to them next week or after we get to Wisconsin. I am very impressed with the Dri Wash product.

Until later remember – Dreams Do Come True.

Elkhart, IN

We left Mt. Pleasant last Sunday the 10th and had an uneventful drive to Joliet, IL, we camped at the Hollywood Casino RV park, more on that in a minute.

We had a great time in Mt. Pleasant, we were with Dave and Shari Frantz, the camp hosts. We have known them for over 35 years. It was fun being with them. I am not much of a dog or cat lover but Sarah got this picture of me and Moe, Dave & Shari’s dog.

I thought I better put a couple of pictures of Dave in also.

Larry & Kathy came out to see us and Dave grilled some steaks we had. He did a great job as usual. Larry loaned us his truck to use while we were in Mt Pleasant, it did help on the cost of driving around, especially after my previous fuel disaster. (The truck ran great coming over to IN.)

Thursday night Dave, Shari, Sarah and I went to Bryn Mawr to celebrate Sarah’s birthday and a belated celebration for Dave’s birthday. This is an excellent restaurant, http://www.brynmawrsteakhouse.com/contact-bryn-mawr-steakhouse-iowa-city-ia.htm, if you are in the area stop and have a great meal. Be aware if you like onion rings order the small if you are the only one to eat them, the medium order fed four of us nicely and the large would most likely feed a battalion.

Friday we made the tour of cemeteries in Burlington. We also visited with my aunts Mildred and Marcella, they have a great apartment. It was a very enjoyable visit and one we would repeat on the 5th because they had a bunch of pictures of grandma Ertz’s family and I wanted to scan them, which we did do.

Saturday we went to the cemetery Sarah’s parents are buried. We had planned on taking some beads we brought back from this year’s Mardi Gras but we forgot them. We did get a couple of small geodes to take to Daniel, he wants them for his garden.

Then is was off to Bette and Bob Coffman’s fiftieth anniversary party. Bette is Sarah’s cousin, it was fun Sarah got to see folks she hasn’t seen for a few years and I was able to renew some acquaintances also. We had a bit of trouble finding the restaurant. I input the address into the GPS and it took us to a place where there was no address so because I am a man I drove around trying to find it instead of stopping and asking someone for directions. Low and behold after a few minutes we did see the restaurant not far from where the GPS took us but we didn’t see it right away. It was a good time visiting with everyone.

As I mentioned in my last post I took on the position of an independent dealer for DWG International and their Dri Wash product. I spent three days using their products, Oxygone and the Dri Wash, getting the bugs off the front of the camper and tree sap off the back of it. Also, I did the same thing to the truck, I still have the chrome and the aluminum bed to clean up. The product worked as advertised and I am enthusiastic about it. Again if you are interested in it or want more information go to www.dwginternational.com and you can read all about it or call me and I will tell you about it.

After two weeks at Mt. Pleasant it was time to leave. We were on the road by 8:30 Sunday morning on our way to Joliet, IL. Our destination was the camp ground at the Hollywood Casino. I was surprised by the cost $24-34 for just water and electric. I had reserved a back in site but changed to a drive thru because after looking at things the back in sites were not that big, although I believe a couple of them would have been fine. So we kept the truck hooked up to the trailer and hooked up the electric and water. Then it was time to go to the casino and see how much we could loose. We both signed up for a casino card and later upon examining the cards we saw they were only good until the end of this month. I didn’t go back and ask about it because I don’t know when if ever we will be back.
I put a five dollar bill in a two cent slot machine and won a few cents, Sarah put two dollars in a machine and immediately won twelve dollars, so we stopped and went to eat. Neither of us are good at gambling so we never spend much money at a casino, but casino’s are usually good for camping. This casino campground is nice, over priced, and could be better if it had sewer hookups. We scheduled our stop here to see Tom & Cathy Gerdes, long time friends, but my timing wasn’t very good, they were in Las Vegas for their son’s wedding. We will see them another time.

Monday morning we were up by 7:30 with bright sunshine but by 8:30 we had cloudy dark skies and a huge storm heading our way. I watched the radar on TV and the computer, it seemed that the most damaging winds etc. would stay north of us and it did. We had a bit of wind, one brief moment we did get quite a gust of wind that rocked the camper for a minute or two. After that it rained hard for a brief time and then it was over.

Our trip to Elkhart was a rough one. I don’t remember I80 being that rough but I suppose that is why they are working on it. There is a lot of construction on 80 in the area from Joliet to the IN state line.

We arrived at the MOR/ryde facility about two in the afternoon, after visiting with Ben who gave us the low down on what was going to happen we parked in their camping area. They provide a free place to park and 30 amp electric service. I plugged in and noticed we were on the low side of good electric and after starting up the AC, TV, satellite and refrigerator the needle on my electric meter was just in the red so I put the fridge over to LP and this put the meter back in the green. It was a short night as they wanted the camper at seven in the morning.

Tuesday we were up early and had everything ready for Tony, he was going to do the work on our camper, he came out to the camper and explained what he was going to do. First he took a lot of measurements, then he backed the unit into the bay where he was going to do the work and they put the camper on scales and got the weight on each wheel. He said he would have to raise the back of the camper by about two inches. They want the unit as level as possible when hooked to the truck. Tony did a great job of backing the camper into his work bay, I would probably still be trying to get it in, you could tell he has done this numerous times.

He explained what he was going to do and answered my questions, we were told we could stay in the camper last night which saved on motel costs. The company provides a 30 amp electric and cable TV service so we plugged into both and enjoyed the evening in our camper.

More about our visit later.

Remember – Dreams Do Come True.

It’s HOT

We are in Mt Pleasant, IA at Crossroads RV Park, a nice little park and not crowded at all. Friends, Dave & Shari Frantz, are the camp host and it is the only full hook up park close to Burlington. We will be here until the 10th.

We left Centerville last Thursday after I made a HUGE mistake. I went to put fuel in the truck, back tank only, at a BP station. I mistakenly put gasoline in the tank to the tune of 19 gals. I switched tanks as soon as I discovered my mistake and after berating myself about it I figured I would wait until morning and see what could be done to correct it. Long story short we came to Mt. Pleasant and the Dodge dealer across the street from the campground took care of the truck. They siphoned the fuel, dropped the tank and cleaned it. I had them changed the fuel filters and then I put diesel back in the tank, 40 gals. Needless to say this was a very costly mistake and one I pray I do not repeat. Sarah wasn’t with me at the time I did this so maybe if she had been I wouldn’t have done it, I doubt that but I’ll never know. As I said it was a costly mistake on my part.

Then on the way over here I didn’t think the AC was working the way it should, so we will wait until we are closer to a Ford dealer and have them check it out. I also discovered a slow leak in the front fuel tank, the Dodge dealer checked and said that is what it was, so I will have to look into fixing or replacing the tank.

I have been looking for something to get the bugs off the front of the camper and I believe I found the product, in fact I took on the product to sell and be a dealer for it. It is called Dri Wash n Guard, http://www.dwginternational.com/WebSite/index.htm, if you want to purchase some go to this web site and put in my number, 288973, and give it a try. I used it on the front of the camper and the bugs came off better than anything I have tried before. Now when we get to Indiana all I have to do is wipe the bugs off with a wet cloth. It works great on windshields too. If anyone would like more information give me a call or email me, I will be happy to show you the product or answer any questions about it.

Yesterday afternoon I was in the camp office talking to Dave and Sarah comes in and says we don’t have any power. So we tried all sorts of things and finally called an electrician. It seemed my Inverter quit working or something went wrong with it. I don’t know anything about the inverter but I will learn. So I called Excel and the guy who installs them in the units wasn’t in so they suggested the electrician. He came out and like I said we made sure there was power coming into the coach, so I had him wire the breaker box, which had a wire coming out of the inverter to our 50 amp breaker, we pulled that wire and replaced it with the live wire coming from the shore power. It is very confusing and difficult to explain but suffice it to say we have power in the camper but the inverter is not in use. So today after talking with Excel, the inverter is still under warranty, I called Xantrex and got the phone number of their facility in Elkhart and I will call them to schedule a time to take the unit to them to check it out. I will then learn all I can about the unit.

Last night Larry & Kathy came out and we had a great meal, Dave cooked and we ate. Larry graciously loaned us his truck while we are here, we are very grateful for that gesture. This weekend we are going to Sarah’s cousin Betty’s 50th wedding anniversary party in Keokuk. We will also be making the rounds of the cemeteries and visiting friends and relatives.

We are going out tonight for Sarah’s birthday, it is today, with Dave & Shari.

I’ll let you all know about that at a later date.

Remember – Dreams Do Come True

Merriam, KS

We left Omaha last Wednesday for Merriam, KS via I29. The news was saying I29 could be closed at anytime, we decided on I29 and knew we may have to detour but decided to see what happened. When we got to Hamburg, IA the water on the west side of the road went as far as we could see.

Water every where.

This farm is now an island.

The new levee is built on the shoulder of the north bound lane of I29.

We found at a rest stop south of Hamburg I29 had been closed, we were very lucky to have gotten through.

Walnut Grove RV Park in Merriam, KS is not very big and the sites are very close together. I had been warned by our neighbors at Griff’s, Dick and Judy, so I called and visited with someone at the park. We reserved a double wide site and she assured me we could get into the site. A gentleman checked us in and took us to the site and helped me get the camper parked. It was a back in site and the nose of the camper was with in two feet of the street. Since it was a double wide site we were able to park next to the camper. The only problem with the site was no satellite accessibility due to a tree, so we only had the stations we could get on the TV antenna.

We had a great time visiting with Steve, Lynne, Zack, Allison and Nick.

Steve took Thursday and Friday off because Allison and Lynne had girl scout camp and Steve picked up Zack and Nick from summer bible school, then Zack headed for basketball camp. Thursday we went to Peachwave ice cream store. It is a self serve ice cream store, you choose from about eight different flavors, you can mix the flavors, then you put whatever toppings on the ice cream and they you pay by the weight. Friday night we went to the Vacation Bible School picnic and watched the kids put on a program about what they learned the past week. Saturday night we went out to eat at a new place called “The Rub” it is a bar-b-que restaurant, www.therubbarbque.com. The food was very good, it is set up as fast, casual dining, you order and take it to your seat. The food was very good and the portions were generous. My only suggestion to the owners was another choice of sauce, they make their own, because the sauce on the table was a bit spicy. The ribs are served dry and you add sauce to taste.

Sunday night Steve, Lynne, Sarah and I went to see the Green Lantern at the AMC theaters, http://www.amctheatres.com/Studio/, I had never been to cinema suites theater before. The theater was different, http://www.amctheatres.com/dinein/cinemasuites/. It was a great evening except for one minor incident, the server spilled Sarah’s soda on her. Over all it was a fun evening and the food was good.

Back thirty or forty years ago a show called Dr. Who was on TV, I saw a couple of episodes then and thought what a stupid show. Steve is a huge fan of Dr. Who and I started watching episodes from the last five years and really enjoyed them, he loaned me his collection so I can watch them myself. I really did enjoy the episodes we watched.

We left Merriam today about 8:30, it seems we always leave about the same time, and headed for Honey Creek State Park at Lake Rathbun arriving here about 1:30.

More later.

Dreams Do Come True.

Omaha, NE

Our time here in Omaha is almost done. We have had a great time being with the kids. The little ones are growing up so fast. We have spent as much time as possible without making ourselves a nuisance. I bought an IPad and loaded the game Angry Birds on it, the girls are constantly wanting to play the game. It is fun to watch how they approach their turns. Isabel, the youngest of the two girls, is always trying to do the same as Emily. Sometimes she gets it right and does better than Emily. Eli is still to young to care about these types of games but I will bet money when he gets older he will give his sisters a run for the money.

Marie, the kids, Sarah and I met Daniel for lunch one day and then went shopping. Well, Sarah and Marie wanted to go shopping, I reluctantly tagged along. Sarah was looking for a pair of shoes, she didn’t find any, we were at Younkers. We ended upstairs in the kids and men’s departments. One of the girls needed to go to the bathroom so Sarah headed off in search for the facilities, I continued looking at t-shirts, tried on a couple, they fit so I thought about buying them until….I found the shirt. I liked the material and it fit, so I bought three of them. Sarah came back and Emily was saying she wanted a stuffed animal, a cat. I wonder why the stores put the restrooms in the kids area? It must be for the convenience of the mother’s shopping with kids. Anyway, Marie joined us, she had been looking for something else, and she put the end to the cat wanting and directed Isabel and Emily to clothes. In the end after some cajoling Marie was able to get Emily to decide on a dress. So with all the decisions made I went to the counter and waited my turn to pay for the items. The clerk was anxious to point out all the money I saved because of the sales going on. That brought to mind what one of my bosses use to say about saving money on purchases, “even though you saved a hundred dollars on a two hundred dollar item, you STILL spent a hundred dollars”. This shopping spree took place on Friday the 3rd, fast forward to yesterday and we were at the kids house when Emily said she still wanted the cat. Now I don’t know about you but I sometimes have a difficult time remembering what I wanted to do after getting off my chair and here Emily is remembering what she wanted from over a week ago.

Now to really put the icing on the cake, so to speak, Marie wanted to return an item she bought at the mall, so her and Daniel took off while the grandparents baby sat the kids. When they returned they had bought Emily her cat and bought a dog for Isabel. Emily say the dog and wanted the dog so she traded with Isabel and all were happy. Go figure the mind of a women regardless of the age.

Sarah has me drinking this Vitarain from Costco, it is a way to get the public to pay more for water. It doesn’t taste to bad so we bought some, it costs about the same as soda, which I drink to much of so if I can drink more of this Vitarain it should be healthier for me. We’ll see how it goes.

Yesterday was Marie’s birthday, we went out to eat at Firebirds. I called for reservations for 10 people, I thought there would be a lot of people there but the place was not busy at all. The food was very good, the service was slow, especially when we were done eating and wanted our check. We have eaten at this restaurant several times and I do recommend it, this was the first time it was so slow. I believe the slowness was due to having two servers waiting on us and each thought the other was taking care of items.

Today is laundry day in preparation for our move Wednesday to Merriam, KS, I am apprehensive about this campground because it is in town and a friend of ours said he had somewhat of a difficult time getting into his site there. I called the campground and they assured me I would be able to get in, they have reserved me what they call a double wide spot, so we will see when we get there. I want to stay at this campground because of the proximity to Steven’s, nephew, house.

Well that is enough for today, I’ll show a couple of pictures of the kids.

Eli, being able to grab his feet, something I haven’t been able to do for years.

The girls on the miniature golf course.

I am not sure how well they did but they had fun.

Time seems to go by so fast now, but I am enjoying every minute of it.

Dreams Do Come True

Des Moines, IA Visit

As stated previously I was hesitant about the spot we chose at Cherry Glen Campground, this is a Corps park and a nice one, anyway this has turned out to be great. We have been here 9 days and have enjoyed every minute of it.

I finally got the unit level, I think, all of the indicators say we are level but I still have a feeling we are leaning to the street side a bit but I am living with that. I couldn’t get the satellite dish to hook onto the satellites so we have watched only the local channels off the regular TV antennae. It wasn’t bad but I do like my satellite dish.

Up until yesterday we have had cool weather and then it hi 87 yesterday. We sat outside all day and read. I have finished one book and half of another. One thing I have noticed is for some reason I don’t read as fast as I did when I was younger. I am not sure why but I guess I will deal with it.

Sunday was Bryon’s graduation from High School. The first of the seven grandkids to do so, the next one isn’t for twelve years so we have a while to wait. It was a very nice ceremony. Nevada High School isn’t big but they did a nice job in honoring the students. They gave out about fifteen scholarships, two of them $1,000 for four years, I was impressed by the community backing. Here are some pictures from the ceremony;

The stage is set.

Mat in the orange shirt, Tiffany next to him and Alexa next to Tiffany and long time family friend Ron next to Alexa.

Bryon second from the right.

Bryon receiving his diploma and it was signed, I checked.

Bryon after getting his diploma.

LR; Tiffany, Bryon, Alexa and Matt.

After the graduation we went to Applebee’s for dinner, Bryon had his choice of restaurant, the meal was very good and we enjoyed visiting with the kids. We were in the parking lot saying our goodbyes and the security fob on my key ring fell of the ring and crashed to the ground breaking apart. I thought I picked up all the pieces but later found out I am missing one piece. Since I thought it was broke I used the key to open the truck and this set off the alarm. I began pushing places on the circuit board and the siren would quit for a few seconds and then begin again, also the truck would not start, the system had disabled the ability to start the truck. Every time the alarm would go off I started pushing on the circuit board and for some reason a miracle happened the truck started, I thought great now we can go home. We finished our good byes and began to drive off. I didn’t get more than five feet out of the parking lot and the alarm started again, but the truck continued to run, so I pulled into another lot and removed the battery from the case. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before but I didn’t and now I use the keyless fob that came with the truck. I am going to contact Viper and see about a replacement if they aren’t too expensive.

Yesterday we sat outside all day and read. Well we did take a couple of walks down to the lake and watch the boaters battle 30 mph winds while trying to launch or remove their boats in the lake. There were a lot of jet skis on the lake and a couple boats with, what sounded like, pretty hefty motors in them. It was warm so there were a few sun worshipers out, on of them look like she was ninety and had leather like skin. I don’t understand why anyone would do that to themselves. We also took a couple of laps around the park and by evening it was nice and quite in the park. Right now there is only one other camper in our loop. I have the windows open and the birds are singing and it is great.

Tomorrow we are headed to Omaha for a couple of weeks, but we are stopping at Bob & Joe’s to have them check the propane system. Our alarm has been going off once in a while and we don’t know why, plus I smell propane when I open the doors to the propane tanks. The weather is suppose to be good tomorrow so we should have a good day of traveling.

Until later, Dreams Do Come True.