From Your Local Campground Host

Sorry about not blog lately. I am working as a camp ground host with my wife. We are looking for new friends like the awesome Dukes, and their baby puppy Daisy. I hope to post a lot of what I see as a camp ground host and as you read it you may find that everyone’s trip could be better if we follow some simple rules.
So what is the first thought…
Well we had a bear on the campground and well that really is nothing new. My wife posted something about getting rid of the beards and I would like to add some of what my research has found.
How to avoid them
• Keep trash away from you.
• Lock up your food; leave it in your car.
• Bathe before you go to bed, take your cloths and put them a far away from you as you can. (Bears can smell the food and odor on your cloths). You don’t want to smell like bacon before you go to bed in bear country.

If you see them
• Don’t run. They are fast and will catch the slowest person in your group.
• I have hear that you stand up wave your hand a make a lot of noise.
• Consider Trash Cans with bucket of ammonia cut with water, near the can Bears hate that smell.
• You can use Pepper Spray meant for a bear.
Look forward to talk with you next week. I have a recipe for you.

Camp Site review site

Well I just thought I would bounce this in real quick I just saw that the new camp site review page I posted a month or two ago put up a review that I submitted. I did this sorta as a test. I wanted to make sure that they posted all reviews, not just the positive ones. Check it out.

 

http://campgroundreport.com/campground_detail.php?number=1857&name=Arrowhead%20Point%20Camping%20Resort

 

What you Must Know about 5th Wheels

Oh my gosh there are so many things. I am not sure where to start. I can assure you that this has been a learning curve for me. We intended to head out this weekend however our son got sick. So through the course of getting the truck hitched, and the overwhelming length of driving the 5^th wheel. I have learned a few things. I will start with the front and move my way back.

I was talking to a friend of mine who is a big gear head. He was telling me that diesel engines face a big problem today with the gas that they run. He mentioned that the fuel is at the worst quality that it has been at in years. He mentioned that all the truckers that are running diesel are using a fuel additive called Power Service I believe.

In the summer we should run the silver additive in our fuel, this will help on the gas mileage and keeping the engine clean. However it’s the winter that bothers me. It is my understanding that Diesel fuel will actually start to gel around 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Now living in Colorado that is a pretty big deal in the winter, so in the winter I will be running the White bottle.

The last thing that I want to mention today is that I have found two good sources for information for all my questions. First is outbakers.com. This is a website that is made for people who own an Outback. The second is a company that I am know sure I will use for all my trailer work. The companies name is Turbo’s, they are located in Monument Colorado. You can find them here. I had a number of questions and one of the owners sat and chatted with me for at least an hour, he made sure that all my questions were answered.

The Market Today and Motor Homes

 

You know they are saying that Motor Home sales are just down in the dumps, many companies are in bankruptcy and I have been warned by many local dealers to make sure that if you get a coach of any kind make sure the company is not in trouble. I can tell you from my week of looking at an assorted set of used coaches to brand new that there are a ton of discounts. I found one at Camping world that I think was nearly 40% off. But here lays the problem. If you buy a new coach at camping world they were more than happy to short change me on my trade in. I am not talking just a grand or two, but more like 60%. So this left a serious bad taste in my mouth. So here is the way it went down…

I have a 92 Bay Cruiser that I would say for a 92 would be ranked a 9 out of 10 and only because of the sun beat down. The owner prior to me had a great love for this rig and took excellent care of it. He converted the floors, the table added a CB and a number of custom items to work with today’s technology. This guy was great, and he really took pride in his work. We carried on his care for the rig and only added about 3000 miles to it in about 2 years. So why did we want a new one? Well the wife and I plan to spend a lot more time in it and she wanted the slide outs.

So we head down to Camping World one of the places I love to go we found a very nice upgrade for 45 k. I was thinking I could get 10k for mine on Craig’s list and they would be motivated to sell a used coach. So If I put an added 10 grand down and assume that they give me 8 k for min I would be right in my price range. Well after talking to the sales guy we were pretty excited, he seemed to think that we had a good deal going. Just to find out 2 hours later from the finance guy that well, they were only going to give me 2k for my rig and they wanted another 20k down. This was before they even ran my credit score. So in short they wanted 50% of the cost of the rig up front. I was appalled and was left speechless. I simply got up and mentioned that we were nowhere close to what where thought we would be and just walked out. I was willing to put 25% down in cash and my rig on top and they were not even close to making a deal.

Then we headed over to Intermountain Coach is I believe the name of the place, all the rigs they had were just so so. But when the sales man approached us the first thing he asked me if the cost of a 30k rig was affordable for me. Now I am all for not wasting anyone’s time. But the tone of his voice said it all. We hurried back to my new charger and hurried off the lot. I was offended that the way he qualified me was to ask if I could afford it.

We headed over to the place that I hold a lot of respect for Pikes Peak Motor Homes (I may be off on the name). We talked at length with Mike but we just did not see a rig that we liked. We started to lose any hope of an upgrade. But as we were getting ready to leave the lot, my wife suggested that we look at a fifth wheel. And we found quickly that you pay about a third of the cost for the same features, there are some benefits and some negatives to owning a fifth wheel so we started to look around again, this time skipping Camping World. We did find a number that were really close to what we like and what we wanted. We saw a Cougar, and many others that were really nice. And at a fraction of the price even brand new. After looking at some private owners we found Sun City Travel Trailers. And after our first pass though the lot we found that there was a brand new fifth wheel that was perfect for us. And the next best thing was the price. It was around 25k. This was for a Keystone – Outback Sydney edition. One the best fifth wheels have ever seen. So after thinking about it we thought, hey we could finance this over 20 years like we were planning with the first rig, but this time it would be at 20 k less. It took 3 days for a bank to turn us down. After talking to many people it appears that the banks have money but they are afraid to make the loan. It was Friday afternoon and I lost all hope. The I thought I have one last idea, I will call ENT the credit union I have used for the last 15 years and just see if they can do the loan. 17 min. later I kid you not we were approved. Within 3 hours we had the check in hand and were buy our first fifth wheel.

That just left us one problem, ok well 2 problems, now I still have a motor home, my 10 K cash down and no truck. So the truck hunt begins… I have to say that many dealers were the same as always, price on the window does not included all the added fees and to top it off, the ones that claim they take motor homes would only offer me 3 k. By the way, my motor home had only 60k thousand miles on it. I was back to square one but now needing a truck. I decided that I would sell our rig on Craig’s list at a slightly lower price than other rigs my size type and mileage and take the 10k I got and go with my 10k and get a truck. Well again a company that we have done business with for years came through for us. See I found a privately owned 96 Gas Powered Dodge Ram with 70k miles on it and they wanted on 5 k. After a inspection by my mechanic I found out it needed about a grand worth of work. Well the company that I have done business with for the last 10 years called me. I told them what I found and they said they would call me back in a couple hours and they did.

They found a 95 diesel Ford 250 with 77k miles on it and they wanted 12 grand for it. However they agreed to take my motor home on trade for $7200. This brought the price down to around 5 k after taxes. Well today I drove it and bought it. So what is the point?

Dealers… you want to know why you are not selling stuff, cause we are tired of being ripped off. You make a deal and if it matches the numbers on the final paperwork I think you will find many more like me that are willing to purchase your goods. I am still debating if I will go back to Camping World. But what I can tell you:

• If you finance check with your bank first. They know you and are willing to do a lot more then you realize.
• Don’t settle, keep looking for the perfect coach.
• It’s a long road to find a good deal. If you want a good truck call mike and Phil Long Ford. They will work with your budget and they are honest guys and gals.
• Don’t give up and if the deal is not right don’t take it.

I am looking forward to what I hope is a long camping season and many posts to come. If you have good things to say about companies please let me know. Add a comment, I would love to see them

Well I am Looking at Buying a New Rig

There is a ton of questions that surround us as we start to look at what we should and should not look for. The first question we should have answered before we headed to the lot was, what do we want? Currently we are in a Class A because of the back bedroom. My wife is not much for the over the cab sleepers. But the more we look we have found that there is a number of Class C’s that has rear sleepers as well. We started to look at a few that really caught our eye, but after talking to the dealers we were really surprised on how much they were not willing to negotiate in the price. To be honest I was floored. So over the next couple weeks maybe months I am documenting on what we are looking at.

First off we stumbled onto a 5^th wheel. The original idea was that the option would be just way out of the budget. The trailers are nice, but what are you supposed to do if you don’t already own the truck you need to pull it. After doing our math we have found that we may be able to look into one of these. I will walk though what we have and have not like about our choices and go from there. As I was surfing tonight for information I found a great website that has helped me a lot in what I should look for. The site is located here:

http://www.happyvagabonds.com/OtherRV/how_to_buy_a_used_rv.htm

The list is a partial and I have added a few items that I think are of importance. I am reposting the list, but will be using this as a guideline over the next few weeks.

1. Does the trailer jack work?

2. Do the propane bottles need updating and inspection? This can be costly if the bottles need to be replaced. Generally, if an RV propane tank is older than twelve years, it will have to be re-inspected every five years. Also, it is mandatory that the propane tank have an OPD valve. If you don’t know what an OPD valve is, the official description is “Overfilling Protection Device”. If the top of the valve doesn’t look like this picture, it will have to be replaced.

3. Check the hoses leading away from the propane bottle for cracks and splits. You do not want a leaking propane connection. Check the nut that screws into the propane tank. Is it worn? If so, it may need to be replaced.

4. The LP Gas regulator is usually located just a few inches away from the propane tanks. You’ll see the hoses leading from the propane tanks into a device with one pipe at the bottom of it that runs beneath the RV. Regulators begin to leak when they are approximately ten years old. For your information, leaking propane is not a good thing. Don’t hesitate to replace the regulator if it is leaking.

5. Batteries are often dead, or not too far from dead, in an older RV. Check and make sure it still works. If the bulbs inside burn bright, the battery(s) may still be in decent condition.

6. Does the converter still work? What’s a converter? Well, it is a device that recharges your battery and converts regular household electrical current from AC to DC allowing your 12-Volt fixtures and appliances to operate. Test this by plugging in the electrical cord and unhooking the battery (unhook the battery before you plug in the RV power cord to prevent electrocution). If the 12-Volt lights and water pump still work, the converter is still working.

7. Do the stabilizers beneath the trailer still let up and down? You’ll be glad to have stabilizers when you park in an area with constant wind gusts like the south Texas coast.

8. Are the tires still in good condition? Check for cracks and splits and look at tread depth on all tires.

9. It is absolutely mandatory that you understand the condition of the braking system. Have the owner hook up the RV and allow you to tow for a short distance and test test the brakes. Brake repairs are expensive. Your life and the safety of your vehicle and RV depend on the RV brakes functioning properly every time.

10. Does the door step let up and down easily?

11. Can you open and close all outside compartments easily? Do the gaskets need to be replaced? Worn or missing gaskets permit air and moisture to penetrate the RV.

12. Make sure that all the windows open and close easily. latches can rust shut. Are the screens on the windows and vents rusted or torn?

13. Open and close roof vents and make sure that vent fans run properly.

14. Fire up the hot water heater and make sure it works.

15 Test the refrigerator on both the gas and electric settings. Repairs can be expensive and you are going to want to use both the gas and electric options. Watch for frost beginning to form in the freezer to confirm that it is cooling properly. Make sure the door will latch and lock securely. When you are on the road, you don’t want the fridge contents strewn through your RV.

16. Check the furnace. Does it blow hot air? Don’t wait until it’s thirty degrees outside to find out.

17. Crank up the air conditioner. Does it blow cold air? If it has a heating element does that work as well?

18. Turn on the water tap without being hooked up to city water. Does the water pump work?

19. Check out the toilet. Does it flush properly.

20. Hook up the city water. Check for leaks inside and outside the RV.

21. Inquire about the condition of the waste water valves. Better yet, if the RV is hooked up to a sewer drain, open and close the valves to make sure they work.

22. Check the cooking range and oven. Do all burners function? Does the oven burner function?

23. Do all interior cabinets and drawers open and then latch securely? If not, you may have your belongings scattered throughout your RV when you are in transit.

24. Check for soft spots on the floor, particularly in the bathroom area. The plywood may be rotted through.

25. Is the flooring in good condition? How about interior walls?

26. Make sure curtains are not dry rotted. Can they be easily cleaned? Are the blinds still in good condition?

27. External lights – Test the external running lights. If you tow at night, and it is very likely that you will, you’ll want to make sure that the rear tail lights are operable. Simply hook up to the tow vehicle and turn on the headlights. You’ll also want to make sure that the brake lights work, that the right and left turn signal lights work, and that the backup lights work. If there is a problem, it could be a faulty bulb, or the bulb fixture simply needs cleaning. Otherwise, you may be faced with an electrical problem.

28. Test exhaust vent fans to make sure they work. Typically you will find them in the living area, over the cooking range, and in the bathroom.

29. Does the TV antenna crank up and down easily?

30. If TV is important are the screens new, is the rig digital ready?

31. Does the owner have all the past paperwork like maintenance records and manuals for add on gear?

32. Is the bed in a condition that you can use it, my back is bad and I need some extra materials?

33. What are they including in the transaction? Dish, Hoses, Wires, wheel covers…

34. Do they have winterizing instructions?

35. Do they know the history of the vehicle?

36. Do the pull out beds work?

37. Does the rig have a comfortable table, does it lay down and make a bed and if so does it matter for your use.

38. Does the sensors for Clean and Black water work, how about the other sensors?

Over the next few days I will post on why we picked what class we did and what our motivation factors were. If you think of something to add to the list please let me know.

 

Unborn

**Warning Spoiler but you may want to read**

Well I am not sure how a piece of junk movie like this has ever been made. Who in their right mind thought of this? I think that my wife and I could sit down in 30 min’s and come up with a better scary movie then this hunk of crap. The worst part is the acting was great, the photography was great, and the direction was awesome. The Story just out right sucked. The true name of this movie should be… Dyson, Great looks, Great commercial, and could suck the carpet off your floor. So that is how I really feel. Let me see if I get this right. There was a TV episode on what show I don’t recall but the execs were sitting around talking about what has to be in the movie for it to be a block buster. Well let’s see if they had them all.

1. There was a teenage star.
2. There was a shower seen (no nudity)
3. There was a number of Boo moments. (Where everyone jumps)
4. There was a freaky kid chasing everyone
5. There was a love scene
6. There was a best friend who we knew would be one of the first to go.
7. The lights in this movie seem to not have the ability to stay on.
8. The always loved climax chased scene
9. Then the ever inevitable star running into a room with no escape.
10. Oh we can not forget the Super Natural feeling there.
11. And that stupid Dad that likes to head out on business trips when his daughter is having a breakdown.
12. The Mirror is the real way to travel to other worlds.

Well I think we hit 10 of what they may have needed to make this a great movie, but someone over there at the studio should tell Michael Bay that this movie has already been made did he just take small parts from other movies. Let’s see there was The Ring, The Grudge, The Exorcist, Omen, and the smart mouthed kid calling people an A-Hole. And a movie made in the 80’s I think about the bad guy jumping around and taking over other peoples bodies.

One other side note that I just had to mention here. There is a picture in the movie that was dated to 1988 when the star was still in the womb, she find old film from when her mother committed suicide that looked to me like the old history films I watched back in 1970. Here is what I don’t understand, I remember 1988 I was in high school then, we had VCR’s, and shoulder held cameras to film, not this old 8mm junk no one used that back in 88.

Now I must admit there were some really good parts to this so called movie. See we were sitting there in the first row of the stadium sitting in a room full of kids no where close to 17, and no adult (But who cares, if this gives them nightmares they really need some help). So this on kid all of 14 thought that he would add some of his own action to the movie, He snuck up behind a bunch of girls during a dark scene and was more then happy to grab her on the shoulder. That was the loudest scream I heard all night, followed by the theater filled with laughter.

Mr. Bay, if you were to somehow read this and I doubt you will, please thing of some of your own stuff, you have made some great movies, heck I even liked Pearl Harbor. But as I look at what you have either in production or in the works, I believe I see only one that is not going to be either a remake or a sequel. Please tell me you did not jump the shark just yet. Have you been sitting around with M. Night kicking back some brews? How could you make this junk? I am looking forward to seeing the next Friday the 13^th, but I know what to expect, and from the preview this will be an awesome flick. Please don’t leave us now, I believe you have much more in you then this piece of junk.

Odette Yustman, you have some talent. Keep it up. But please check the script better; you know what just read the script, I was staring to think this was the next “Scary Movie” the movie spoofs.

So the final call on this one, folks if you like a good Boo scare, rent this in a month when it hits the shelves, turn out the lights and enjoy otherwise. Skip it. It’s not even on my rent list.

Tell me what you think.

 

The Day the Earth Stood Still Review

Well here is my last movie review for a little while, then again maybe not…

Well for those of us that did not know this is a remake from a 1951 movie that did rather well. From what I understand the movie did well because of the time it was released. The new one I saw a couple of days ago left me thinking about how the heck something like this got all the press that it did. Did people not see the many movies about the end of the world before, Lets see off the top of my head I can think of Deep Impact, or the Day After Tomorrow, or even War of the Worlds.

The special effects were good and well the lead actor was Keanu Reeves. I really do like Keanu Reeves, I remember watching him in Bill and Teds Excellent adventure, but after the remarkable success The Matrix we just are not seeing this man act. I am not sure we really have, I would never consider attacking an actor on a personal level but I have to wonder if this is the way he holds himself everyday. Its that so relaxing “we are here to save the planet”… yes the part required him to have little emotion but we are seeing this time and time again from him.

Jaden Smith plays a son of a fallen soldier that is now living with his Step Mom and you can tell that there is some pressure in that situation; however I really started to get annoyed by his characters roll. I just kept thinking that no child would talk and behave like that with me. I can be sympathetic towards a bad situation. It can not be easy but enough is enough. As far as the acting that Jaden did… What a great job. He has really taken on acting with flair like his father. Mr. Smith you have a lot to be proud of.

Now I must say that I am the only one in my family that did not like this movie. Maybe saying that I did not like it was not fair at all, see I judge a movie by how many times I look at my watch to see how long it will be until the movie is over, I did not do that once. So it did have my attention. I just think with all the hype I would have liked to see a little more. What would I have like to see, well I am not sure, if I knew I would be writing movie scripts and sending them in. So to wrap this up I would have to say that I am going to call it like I see it, wait for the DVD to come out, I am not sure I would even buy the DVD, rent it or put it on your Net Flix list.

Movie Review of Valkyrie

***Warning Not Camper Related***

It’s a little hard for me to go camping when the weather is like this, however I do wish that I would have not winterized my motor home so soon, November was a great weather month.

This is a movie review that I just do for me sometimes. I love to watch movies and today I did a Double Feature, well I paid for both movies, but they were back to back. Look tomorrow if you care to see what I though about the other one. As far as a Spoiler goes this will not ruin anything for those who know about the death of Hitler, or the assassination attempts. I mean it would sort of be like me telling you that at the end of Titanic that the ship sinks…

First I would like to say, I am not a huge fan at all of movies that usually end up winning or are nominated for Academy awards. There have been some that have been really good but for the most part I look at what they have up and they just look to, well I don’t know how to say it. I go to the movies for entertainment, if that means bombs, booms, or a good slasher flick I am there. This movie however caught my attention, I love to study and watch movies about WWII. I like the history and I think that many people forget about things that happened not to long ago. Anyway, I was not disappointed.

When you think of Tom Cruise you may think of him dancing in his underwear, or hanging off a cliff in Mission Impossible. I think this has got to be one of my favorite movies that he has ever done. I was a little caught off guard when the film started to roll that there was not a huge “Go Tom” moment, yes there was a little, but more for the history then the Hey I am TC and I am so cool. This movie reminds us that every side of the war had impacts, there were people in Germany that we would have looked down upon for all they did. But there were people there that were seeing that the country was not being run like it should be, or at least not the way they think it should be.

The only complaints that I had about the movie were the actor David Bamber did not look like Hitler to me, and I am not sure that I took away from it how difficult it must have been to plan something like this.

The acting was great, and from what I know it was pretty close to an accurate account of what happened. This is not a sit on the end of your seat thriller but if you want to see something that will open your eyes and at the same time entertain then I would have to recommend this movie to you. It was all that I expected and more. I knew growing up that there were attempts to kill Hitler, and I knew about this one. But I did not know what happened to get them to that point or what happened afterwards. Maybe I did not pay enough attention in History or maybe I got one paragraph on something that almost turned that country in a different direction.

For what its worth if this is up for an award, I hope it wins, the cast was awesome and it showed WWII in a different light, just like Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan among many others.

Quick Tip

 

Well here is a quick tip for you, if you are winterizing your rig already then I am sorry that you can not make it out for at least one more weekend. I am going to try to next weekend. The nice thing about this time of year is the campgrounds are not empty; many of them have changed over for the off season rates and you can spend some quality time with who ever you choose.

But if you are going to winterize your rig I would make a suggestion that maybe not a lot of people have heard. One of the last things that I do when I am putting my rig away for the winter is to cover the floor with 100 sheets of dryer sheets. I would recommend that you use the kind that have a good strong smell to them. Cover the floor, cover the insides of your basements and make sure where you have your electrical has 10 or 20 in there. Why might you ask… well it keeps the rodents out. I use this tip last year and I store my Rig out east where are the little creepy boogers live. There are a number of other tips and tricks that I have for you but for those of you who winterize early this is going to give you a hand.

Second tip just in case you are locking up shop for the winter, I would make sure that you stop by about once every 4 to 6 weeks and give that motor a turn. Many people will putt the batteries out, but I found last year that as long as I was starting her on a regular basis I never had a problem. I did also start the generator.

If you have any tips that you would like to share I would love to see them posted.

The Winter is on its way

Sorry for the short note today. I have been flying back and forth to Tucson and enjoying the wonderful weather down there. Well completely unknown to me the Gazette looks like the printed my blog on my Barbecue sauce. I was really excited to hear that it got picked up, I wish I knew what date it was printed so I could have a copy for my scrap book.

Well as I sign off I am curious as to who is starting to winterize their motor homes. I know a good camping friend of mine that will soon be moving away did something really cool last year. What he did rather than winterize his rig was to take it up to Tiger Run in Breckenridge. He would rent the site by the month and just backed right in. He then spent some time making sure that he had the bottom of his rig surrounded by some insulation foam and if I remember correctly he also turned on a heater to keep the rig and below area at 60 degrees so the pipes would not freeze up on him.

I think he cleared the roof off a couple of times through the winter and then just kept up with the maintenance, but never really moved the rig. When he pulled out Easter weekend, he mentioned the snow was many feet deep but really didn’t have any problems.

After was all said and done he ended up with a great place to stay when he went skiing, celebrate the new year and just to get away for the weekend. I do travel a lot to Tucson so I have debated taking my rig down to Tucson just to park it for the winter and I would have a place to stay when I was down there. Do you have ideas like this? I would love to hear what your winter plans are for your rig. Soon I will post what I do to winterize my rig. But I hope to get out at least one more time before the snow comes.