Another Marathon Day...

Continuing our Prevost Preview, we spent most of Wednesday morning learning some of the secrets known only to a chosen few, interesting answers to questions like "Where do Prevosts go at night?"

Marian, being vertically challenged, was especially impressed by this, her first view of her heart's desire, and kept muttering "It's so big!" as her eyes slowly glazed over. Observations concerning poor fuel economy, no Smart Wheel, manual leveling system, no Aladdin, poor visibility and so on, were powerless in breaking the spell

Moving round the coach things got even worse. "It's so long and so pretty!" I heard her murmur and, for a brief moment, feared she would have to be sedated before an indictable offense was committed

Thankfully, the wily salesman, Fred, who had seen such behavior before, quickly opened the door and ushered her inside. Like magic, the lush and inviting interior worked it's charm and relaxed her almost to unconsciousness. Wonderful, thought I, with any luck she'll remember nothing when she comes round again

The bedroom only served to deepen this state of stupor as she absently fondled the bed cover, cooed about the lovely nightstands and gazed longingly at the manly array of AV equipment glowing eerily in the wardrobe
Then , disaster. That scheming Fred gently steered her to the cockpit and sat her in the drivers seat. Off we went again - "Oh, it's so comfortable" she cried and instantly regained full animation. Things were looking bad

Imagine then, her complete ecstasy when she discovered that she would have her own room. Without more ado, she scampered inside and demanded a cup of tea. The time for action had arrived. Administering a sharp rap up the side of the head, I dispatched her to the Monaco, explained to the hapless Fred that she had to be back at the clinic by noon and promptly fled
So, for a while at least, we will continue enjoying Black Bess, the little coach that could.

Girl, that was easy!

Used to be that having kids was a big deal, sometimes amounting to days of inconvenience while momma got her act together and caught up with the socks and shorts duty.
Then came grandkids - so much less intrusive - rather like grocery shopping compared to farming. A bunch of flowers, a bit of blubbering and life is back on track with scarcely a bump. Even better are grand nephews and nieces, especially when they are three thousand miles away. Technology has streamlined their arrival to a quick email from a smitten parent or grandparent and that's all she wrote. No anxious pacing, no required visits, no diaper danger - in short, no responsibility whatsoever. Feels just right.
So it was last Sunday. One of Marians nieces popped her first one, about which we are jubilant but otherwise wonderfully uncommitted. We may get to see the little varmint in a month or two by which time it will be cleaned and partly trained. Better yet, a few Oohs and Aahs later, we can take our leave and proceed on our hedonistic way. Of course, the backward Brits haven't yet figured out how to send a picture so we'll just have to imagine that small detail for the time being!
By the way, ever wondered how the stork got involved in this birthing thing? Turns out that there are numerous "authentic" sources of the various myths, including Ancient Egypt, the Hebrew language, Greek Mythology, Early Christianity and Norse Mythology. However, the one I like best is the Victorian English version. Here, the fabrication that newborn deliveries are made by a stork avoids potentially awkward questions connecting birthing with begetting. Pretty clever, eh?
Check out this paranoid stork family found on the net. They have cunningly turned technology to their advantage in protecting this oversize nest with a 32,000 volt, industrial strength, electric fence.

RV attacked by gang of thieves or Why RVers should stay in doors

Some RVers cling to the notion that RVing is about the outdoor life, back to nature and all that, without a care for the dangers of natures ravages. A case in point. The folk in this story were of this mind and routinely set up tons of stuff on their patio without a second thought. Keeping close to nature, they liked to cook over an open fire but, when fire-lighting time came around they realized they were fresh out of napalm. Unphased, they jumped into their SUV and ran to the store to get some more.
That was when the crooks moved in.

First, a scout looked over the possible spoils and identified a getaway vehicleNext, a lookout was posted The cracksman got busy breaking into various containers

Once the the loot was safely stowed the leader leaped onto the escape vehicle

And the driver took off

All over in a flash and the RVers never new what hit them. The moral of this story? Never put stuff on your patio, stay in doors and the crooks will think you are on vacation.

More than you ever wanted to know... - corrected

A while back, while enjoying the hospitality of Camp Monaco, Vicki Leith posted this picture, snapped in the Monaco Nature Reserve while looking out for the unwelcome attention of alligators. The hanging material is Spanish moss, sometimes call Florida moss with the official name of Tillandsia usneoides.
But wait - there's more! This plant is harvested, packed and sold in those epicenters of excitement like Joannes Fabrics and Hancock Fabrics. Current uses include floral arrangements, mulch and packaging. In the past, this scintillating epiphyte had even more exciting applications. Click here for the full story!

Crystal River with my Sweetheart

Today was bright and sunny with a cloudless sky - perfect except for an overnight hard frost and a daytime high of 55! Undaunted, we courageously set off to find out what makes Crystal River tick.
The Suncoast Highway runs through Crystal River giving it the appearance of a busy and bustling city while, in fact, there are only about 3,500 inhabitants - a pretty small city by most standards. However, being that Florida is the state of the Newly Weds and Nearly Deads, there is both a Walgreens pharmacy and a CVS pharmacy doling out drugs to the Wrinklies. An important statistic proudly promoted by the city is that the number of resident manatees averages 43.
West of town is West Fort Island. With such a romantic name this had to be worth a visit and indeed it was, even though there is no evidence that a fort ever existed there and no sign of an island either. Nonetheless, being a brisk winter day it was close to deserted and offered a boat ramp, some parking, a view of the Crystal River Nuclear Power Station and a couple of observation decks - plenty of things for nitwits like us to gawk at including Porpoises, Herring Gulls and Black Skimmers.

Next, a brilliant get rich quick scheme was born and died within a few hours of our arrival. The plan was for Marian, disguised as a mermaid, to sing her siren song and lure a treasure laden ship to founder on the rocks, at which we could make off with salvaged jewels and things. No ships came by and then Marian got cramp in her butt so we decided to eat our marmalade sandwiches instead.

On the road to the phantom fort is the Crystal River Shrimp Company with a small fleet of shrimp boats and a similar fleet of refrigerated trucks. There are also several bird watching trails leading off into the swampy land either side of the road. Anyway, we stomped around the area for a while, took a few pictures and pretty soon it was sunset. Could anyone ask for a better day?

A Prevost Prelude?

Gee, I hope not, but we are going back on Tuesday =:o(
If you are familiar with the children's story called Toad of Toad Hall you will know what happened to Mr. Toad every time he saw a new toy. He just had to have it!
Well, Marian has seen a couple of Prevosts which, as yet I have failed to discredit sufficiently. Like the three bears story, the settees are "just right" as is the bed, the kitchen and even the color schemes.
Here she is plotting against me with the scheming salesman, forewarning him of every thrust and parry but, perhaps most serious of all, in the final picture she has that vacant Mr. Toad look on her face...
I have to come up with something really BIG before Tuesday!

What a massacre!

A true Valentine's Day Massacre in fact.
Rod Bahnson, Mr. Largesse himself, arranged this Valentines Day dinner, comprising filet mignon with garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli flowers followed by vanilla mousse and fresh strawberries for these two lovely ladies. With an additional flourish, he also purloined two roses which he graciously presented to the adoring ladies during their meal. What a guy!
Just hope the girls never discover that this whole affair was leveraged on the princely sum of $1.00! No wonder he seems so gleeful, this has to be his cheapest triumph since he bought me a donut at the rally last week.

We're a strange lot

Here, courtesy of Rick Stone, one of the MCOA rally sub-group, is an aerial view of last week's FMCA rally. Check out the scale of the layout by clicking on the picture. Now, the point of the post is that it seems RV'ers will go to almost any length to save a dollar or obtain anything that could loosely be described as "free food". Some examples from the rally.
Every morning, a thousand or so otherwise rational campers rose early, dressed warmly for 35 degree temperatures, left the comfort of their RVs, trudged half a mile each way to the Calorie Court by the Vendor Tent or waited mindlessly for one of the trams to loom out of the fog and ferry them there, and for what? To stand in line for a further twenty minutes to collect a utility style donut and a cup of fluid from a canteen style urn. Yummy - but it was free!
Even stranger is the case of the Ice Cream Social. Most of the time, our normally thoughtful camper can be expected to guard personal information, such as email addresses, phone numbers and so on, quite carefully. But, mention "free ice cream" and the combined impact of gastric turmoil and SFNS (Something For Nothing Syndrome) causes all caution to be thrown to the wind. Like lemmings, 1500 or so rally attendees immediately scribbled all of their personal information on a strip of paper, journeyed again to Cholesterol Canyon and practically climbed over one another to trade these sensitive details for a cheesy ice cream cookie. Is that strange, or what?
The ultimate parsimony however, was reserved for the last day of the rally. With SNFS apparently firmly in control, a group of creative campers came up with an incredible scheme involving the local Golden Trough. The scheme, like all great ideas, was deceptively simple. By going to dinner at 3:30 in the afternoon and eating salad for an hour and a half, it would be possible to claim a senior discount and save an entire dollar! An entire dollar for just the cost of an afternoon! It's outrageous out-of-the-box thinking like this that makes this country so great!

The effluent society

We finally decided to take the plunge and attempt to join the effluent society. Thus it was we found ourselves in Camping World amid the bewildering array of Rhinos, Self-clamping, Clamp Free, Heavy Duty, Super Heavy Duty, Plug-n-Play and Ultimate accessories for effluents. There are aisles of fun for the discerning camper to revel in.
It can be difficult for the newcomer to determine whether this is a science or an art, however. With the plethora of plastic plumbing parts displayed in primary colors and soft pastels it is hard for a guy to know which color is best and why? There are left hand hoses, right hand hoses, red, blue, green, fluorescent orange and black hoses, Standard ("For occasional camping"), Heavy Duty, Ultimate and Lifetime Warranty hoses in 5ft, 10ft, 12ft, 15ft, 20ft and 25ft lengths.
For the sophisticates, there are support systems in various colors that, sadly, are not well co-ordinated with hose colors but are triumphs of technology for the mechanically inclined or the erector set deprived amongst us.
In our view, the fact that there are already specialist events such as Freightliner Rallies and FMCA Red Hat Chapters, we believe that the time has come for a Sewer Hose International Training rally. Such an event would provide formal recognition of the importance of those that deal with these issues on an ongoing basis with special awards for Most Colorful or Most Ingenious for example. There would also be a Technology Prize for the first person to successfully join two hoses of different manufacture together, without a serious leak.
Finally, a little known technical breakthrough that occurred recently, offers a whole new gamut of thrills for the more adventurous effluent care givers. It is now possible to witness, first hand, the result of all of the effort lovingly put into these systems. Transparent plumbing parts are now available at your local camping store - see picture - offering entirely new insights into the world of effluents. Trust me, this is not for the faint of heart and children should be kept from the area whenever these devices are in use!
Now, having debunked the whole effluent thing, I'm working on additional storage to house the hundreds of feet of hose now cluttering the coach. Any ideas?

A walk in the park

Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park to be more precise.
Five couples decided to take a break from the serious business of retirement and goof off for a day in the park. This particular park is like a casual zoo with loosely structured exhibits comfortably blending into each other. From its origins as a manatee rescue and rehabilitation center, manatees remain a key feature of this compact attraction which is actually built on a spring-fed spur of the Homosassa river. The manatee pictured here lives in the Homosassa river, not in the park, and sadly bears the tell tale scars of being run over by a motor boat some time in the past.
Following a delightful morning strolling among the critters and playing photographers, Marian and I detoured via Weeki Wachee - curious demographics - and Bayport to take even more snaps. A fitting end to a wonderful day was meeting up with everyone else at Pizza Hut and replenishing our cholesterol.
For more pictures of creepy crawlies and other strange lifeforms, click here. To see more details of the pictures on this page, just click on them.

Question: How to fit 3000 people in a tent?

Answer: Get a really big tent!
The one shown here is the entertainment tent at the FMCA Rally and is set up to seat about 2,500 people with room at the rear for several hundred more, standing only. Notice that there are no internal supports (poles or pillars) for this large structure - quite a feat. The stage area is at left in the middle of the long side of the tent.
Over the next several evenings there will be much loud talking, music and, hopefully, laughter in here - an excellent time, it would seem, to do some chores :-)
By the way, being creatures of feeble ambition, this morning we measured the length of the row of coaches we looked at yesterday and also counted them (this is really exciting isn't it?). Turns out that the line is actually just about a mile in length and, with the three rows now all filled, this accounts for a little over 500 coaches. Not a lot of people know this!

Rally News

The South Eastern Area FMCA Rally does not start officially until tomorrow but, by 9:00am today, Tuesday, there were over a thousand coaches here. We are with a small gang of other Monaco coach owners and share the common bond of the universal love-hate relationship that seems inevitable from coach owners to coach manufacturers. An interesting item spied among the numerous coaches, is what may be the Monaco Corporate Jet, carelessly crafted by unhurried hands in Wakarusa, Indiana.
If, like us, you wonder what 1,000 or so coaches in one place look like, here is three-quarters of a mile of them parked three deep down one of the runways. As usual click on any picture to see a larger version.In the meantime, coaches continue to pour in, filling the central area and beginning on the second runway that we were put on yesterday. Overall, the entire event appears to be very well organized and, after the kick-off tomorrow, there are several seminars that we will visit, a large variety of display coaches for more tire kicking and a huge marquee full of purveyors of useless articles.
For more people pictures, click here.

Well, that was rally easy!

Last night we circled the wagons at the Brooksville Elks Lodge to prepare for the final push to the rally venue. Originally eight in number, adversity triumphed over technology and reduced our ranks to seven with a moribund refrigerator knocking out the Stone's coach which was immediately dispatched to the Wildwood Witchdoctors. To settle our nerves, the rest of us took refuge in the bar to watch the Super Bowl and bolster our courage. This morale booster certainly seemed to work for Bob Rea and Rod Bahnson seen here as Indiana pulled ahead.
This morning, under the able command of wagonmeister Lew Anderson, we set forth in stealth mode toward our objective and, after an exciting dash through downtown Brooksville, arrived without further losses. Another calamity, a failed generator this time, nearly knocked out the Bahnson's coach but they bravely soldiered on and even the Leith's Detroit Diesel completed the eight mile trip without incident. Once inside the perimeter, the coaches were boldly displayed for all to see. Let the adventures begin!

Seen at Lazy Days

We have spent best part of a week at Lazy Days and, all things considered, have accomplished exactly nothing - a splendid result and one that feels exactly right! An enjoyable pursuit we discovered here is following the highs and lows of other peoples coach buying experiences. With more twists and turns than many a soap opera, it is vicarious living at its best - observing the roller coaster of emotions as a major purchase flip-flops between the best thing ever and the worst thing ever. Such an interesting glimpse of the human condition. Anyone who has previously owned a coach knows, with absolute certainty, that they are about to commit a large sum of money to another bucket of worms but there seems no force in creation that can hold them back. What fools we mortals are! Shown here, each caught in a fleeting moment of euphoria, are four such buyers, Greta and Mike from Boston at top in their Tradition and Ralph and Cindy from Cincinnati moving into their new Signature. We wish them all the Best of Luck!
In addition to the delightful folk above, we also met a number of members of various lists that we follow on the Internet. One such couple are Alvin and Marie of Wisconsin who spend their winters in Florida in their Dynasty coach. Next week, they too will be at the rally in Brookesville, and we look forward to seeing them there.

It's a Jungle out there!

On Tuesday, we left the sanctuary of Lazy Days and ventured into the world of Central Florida in January for a couple of days. It was frightening! Traffic everywhere, crowded parking lots, lines at restaurants and people, people, people. Fort Wayne this isn't! We did find a very pleasant Walmart and overnighted there after a hard day at the mall but, shopping therapy can only go so far. Can't wait to head back to Seffner and slip into the comfort of Rally Park with it's well groomed grounds, pleasant walks and three squares a day courtesy of the Crown Club. Reality can really suck!

Breakfast with Bahnson

Our first destination in Florida was Rally Park, the huge RV park maintained by Lazy Days. Lazy Days is arguably the world's largest retailer of RVs of all classes, fifth wheels, caravans and related mobile accommodation and claims to sell about 1,000 units per month during the first quarter of each year.
Our plan in stopping here was to regroup, do our periodic chores in 70 degree weather rather than 7 degrees and then think about what we would do next. We met up with Rod Bahnson (shown here in his best suit) and his lovely bride Jean at breakfast, and have subsequently and unofficially assigned Rod as our mentor in the skills of long term and relaxed RVing. Rod and Jean have "full-timed" at this point for half-a-dozen years or so and appear to be succeeding mightily. Full timing means no regular house - just living and traveling permanently in their rig.
Rod is the "knower of all things". Whether it's where to go (or not go) when to go and why, he always comes up with sound advice. For long-term (not full time) tyros such as ourselves it has been a valuable association. We also met Bob and Maribel Clerc who long-time rather than full-time, and became convinced that we ought to give a major rally a shot. Thus, we are now destined to attend the South East FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) Rally in Brooksville, Florida next week. To date, there are more than 1,500 coaches booked to attend with more than 2,000 family units overall. We have low expectations and therefore are unlikely to be disappointed :-))
Another great (but slightly risky) activity at Lazy Days is to check out all of the new coaches to confirm that there are none that hold a candle to ours. This was working pretty well for the first two days but then an up and coming manufacturer, Tiffin, caught Marian's eye. This is the risky part. Another day was spent investigating this parvenu and there is even some desire to "stop by the factory" on the way home. Thus, a self image enhancing experience that "we did the right thing" when we bought Black Bess, could rapidly turn into a gut-wrenching case of deja-vu as we restart the entire process. Hopefully, a couple of glasses of Merlot and some flowers for Valentines day will vanquish such notions from her mind.

A narrow escape

Having finally dispelled the last of the contractors and enjoyed a brief family get together, we decided to get out Dodge while the going was good. The weather was pretty much in the twenties and we had had a little snow as the picture here, on our day of departure, shows. So we hitched up the toad and fled south as fast as the speed limits would carry us!
With frosts snapping at our heels for a day or two we bravely soldiered on. In the meantime, the weather in Fort Wayne steadily deteriorated, getting colder and colder with occasional snow. This morning it was 1 degree Fahrenheit and heading toward negative numbers for the weekend. Meanwhile, in central Florida, today is going to be a raw 65 degrees and we have to wait until tomorrow for some high seventies. Bring it on!

Excellent Adventure #3

Over Christmas and the New Year we went on Excellent Adventure #3 - three weeks in the United Kingdom checking out friends and relations old and new. All told, we visited with almost fifty people, had a great time and accomplished just about everything we set out to do. With so many varied activities and such a large number of visits the trip is summarized in diary format here.
Para-gliding, seaside resorts, ancient ruins were part of the things to see while previously unknown relatives and new acquaintances were among people we met.

The weather was very English - a couple of days of sun, generous portions of rain and five days of airport-closing fog. Guess that's about right for England. Driving on the left, we covered around 1700 miles and paid a mere $6.70 to $7.00 per gallon for gas. Visit the diary to see how far 1700 miles takes a person in England.