Replaced Shelf with Slide Out. Love, Love, Love It!

Another inconvenience we had was the cabinet under the stove. Here we stored pots and pans but we had to get down on our hands and knees to retrieve whatever we needed for cooking. Seems like much of the time what we needed was way in the back.
We went back to Lowe's and purchased Rev-A-Shelf, a double shelf that has sliding trays. It seems to be of great quality and it was not hard to install. I did have to remove the one permanent shelf in the original cabinet, but it was not a big deal. Basic hand tools and a cordless drill made it pretty simple. A short time later we ended up with the project completed and it is so much easier to slide the shelf out and retrieve whatever you need. Happy Camping!

Now with the drawers extended.

Loaded with our pots and pans and it works great!

Refrigerator upgrade project.

We decided to come back to Tucson, AZ and do another stint as workampers at the Tucson/ Lazydays KOA. Once again Kathy is very busy in the reservation office with many customers and all the issues that come along. While we are here we decided to do a upgrade to our refrigerator and change it to a residential style since there are so many issues with the original Norcold RV unit . We found the one that would fit in our current space at Lowes and purchased it. It's a Whirlpool with no frills, just a basic black unit but it will give us a couple of extra cubic feet of storage space. Liberty RV Service got the job for the conversion and they did a great job. We had to remove the driver side window to get the new refrigerator in since our entry door opening is too small. But we also had an issue with that window fogging up all the time, we decided this is the perfect time to get it repaired also. Little bit of a bumpy start with National Auto Glass but they did finally pick up the window that Liberty RV had already removed. The new refrigerator fit great, and so far we are very pleased. I am really tired of the inefficient operations of the Norcold RV refrigerator. They don't work very well in warm climates and it was always so frustrating.
The last part of the project was trimming out around the refrigerator. We bought trim from Lowe's, Kathy applied the black stain, and we nailed it up. Turned out pretty nice if we can say so ourselves. This project ended up costing much less than we anticipated, so yes, we are more than happy.

This foggy driver side window was removed for repair and to install the new fridge.

The old Norcold 1210IM RV refrigerator

The new Whirlpool residential refrigerator is in place!

Kathy applying the black stain to the trim.

The finished project!

2015 NE Tour to Maine

Well we spent a few months on the road and went all the way to Maine. The area is beautiful and we so enjoyed the Bar Harbor area and all it has to offer, including eating the Maine lobster! We headed south down the east coast and did our best to avoid places like New York City, Boston, Washington DC, etc. That part of the country is a challenge for sure in a 40' motorhome. The toll charges alone were scary enough! It cost us $24.75 just to cross the Tappan Zee bridge in New York, and then $16 here, $12, there, etc. It was crazy. And then we had to watch for the many exits that were marked "No Trucks" or something to that effect. If the road can't accommodate trucks, it's probably not good for us either.      
                                          This is a real nice lighthouse on the Maine coast.

On a water tour of the coast and islands

A real live Maine lobster

Beautiful Bar Harbor, Maine

Holmes County, Ohio - Amish Country

What a wonderful week it has been in Berlin, Ohio at the Scenic Hills RV Park!  The park has a nice layout with a mixture of pull through and back in sites in 3 different sections. We are in site 39 which is close to the office. The wifi has been pretty good except the usual busy time of 6-8 pm. There is no cable, but full hookups other than that. The sites are packed gravel with some having grass between the sites. Ours had decorative rock and landscaping. Thanks so much to Julia and Eugene for telling us about this area and RV park!

The township of Berlin is very quaint but touristy. There is only one road through town so there are many big trucks going down Main Street. It would  be nice if they had a bypass for them.  There are a lot of Amish and Mennonites in the area with many of the ladies working in the shops. We had lunch at the historic Boyd and Wurthmann's Restaurant. Their website has an interesting story about their beginning. We had the pleasure of having a great waitress, Vicki, who was very attentive and personable. We didn't take pictures so I used their website pictures. Of course, we had to try their pies :-)

Another day we took a loop drive starting east on highway 39. 

1. Walnut Creek at Coblentz Chocolates which has a window to watch the chocolates being made. I love how you can buy them individually or prepackaged. We also drove through our first covered bridge there!
   
2. The next stop was in Sugarcreek. What an adorable little town! Home of the largest cuckoo clock. After going through several of the shops we walked a couple of blocks off the main street to pick up our free 1/3 lb cheese from Swiss Village Foods and purchased some pepperoni to go with it. As we were leaving town I saw Bags Pub so we pulled in for a drink and to watch the local traffic. It is so interesting to watch people in different locales. We saw several families in horse drawn buggies and men driving tractors down Main Street. Next stop was Breitenbach Winery which was on a scenic little road just outside of Sugarcreek. Wine tasting .25 each so tried 4 of the wines. Decided on Roadhouse Red, which was a sweet red, and Blueberry. The barista was a very friendly girl that was interested in our travel lifestyle. 

   

   Sugarcreek's World's Largest Cuckcoo Clock

3. We had to backtrack to Sugarcreek to pick up 93 south then west on 557. The area is mostly Amish farms and most were pretty large and well kept. We encountered several horse and buggies along the route. 
   
4. Charm, Ohio was along the route but by the time we got there the stores were closed. Hope to go back there before we leave.

We took another day trip to The Warther Museum at the recommendation of our friend, Tom, who had been there before. His statement was "one of the best kept wonders of the world...you will thank me!"  And he was right! "Mooney" was a master at whittling and carving. With only a second grade education, he created some masterpiece to scale train models. He had the opportunity to make a lot of money off his work but said it would no longer be a hobby but a job. When offered $50,000 up front and $5,000 a year until he died, he also turned it down, saying, my roof's not leaking and we aren't hungry. You could tour their modest home and her "button" house for free. Frieda did some amazing works with her button collection. His livelihood was from making knives, which he learned from working in the steel mill. The knives are still produced there. 

Windshield Curtain Project

We really wanted to preserve our electric windshield shades, so we decided curtains can be used when we are parked for extended periods. Kathy found some nice cloth shower curtains that would match our colors at Big Lots for only $10 each and she bought two. At Lowes we bought a 10' piece of 3/4 inch PVC pipe, and three "J" hooks. She attached the "J" hooks with double sided tape and we hung the PVC pipe on them. We used light weight plastic shower curtain hooks from Walmart and hung the curtains over the windshield.

She installed the curtains, trimmed them to fit nicely, so for less than $30 we have a nice looking windshield with the curtains we close as needed.

New Tires!

Coming to Oklahoma was the perfect opportunity to do some maintenance to the coach. We already stopped in Texas for the paint repair, now it's time for new tires and a few other things. After a little research and some luck we got new Firestone FS560 Plus tires at a very good price. Do your research and compare prices! What I originally thought was a good deal at about $3600 turned out much better after I found a new distributor who got me a much better deal. I even put my old tires on craigslist and sold them for cash money instead of leaving them at the tire shop for disposal and paying the disposal fee!

Great work from L&L Tires in Lawton, Ok. I highly recommend them.

Thousand Trails

In 2015 we joined the Thousand Trails RV travel club. They boast all these wonderful resorts across the country that you can visit for a year after purchasing the membership. So now that we have joined  the club, we will be visiting these "resorts" in the southeast and northeast zones. The southeast basically is from Oklahoma/Texas all the way to the east coast from Florida up to Pennsylvania, and the northeast zone goes on up to Maine.
We recently stopped in Pipe Creek, TX for some paint repair and that put us very close to Lake Medina which is part of the Thousand Trails Texas resorts. We drove to Lake Medina to check it out for a later visit and were we very disappointed. First of all, the road to the park is very small, windy, and rough with many low hanging tree limbs. The area is not nice at all. Our 40' motorhome would have been a challenge but we would have made it as long as we didn't meet any oncoming larger RVs or trucks. The brochure shows Lake Medina as a pretty lake with boats and mountains in the background but this is what we found.
Here is the boat ramp to the lake, but where's the water? Locals told us the lake has been dry for 5 years.

Next we looked at the RV sites and what we found were a bunch of sites that have been neglected. Most sites were not level and had overgrown grass and weeds and had low hanging tree limbs that will damage your rig. If we would have driven the motorhome there, I would have been very upset.

They also have a "historic" building on the property that they are neglecting and it is rotting away. We would not ever return there at it's present condition, they would really have to clean the place up. Once you get there, there is nothing to do except swim in the pool.

Our next stop was Natchez Trace Campground in Hohenwald, TN. First of all you have to get to the park on narrow winding roads, then navigate around the 11 ft. bridge. Once you arrive at the park the check in was easy with very friendly staff at the office. Staff and management were very nice. Then it gets worse with the rough and very hilly roads that are in desperate need of repair. This picture does not do it justice, but my first words were "oh hell no!" when I saw this very steep grade. We had to disconnect our car before attempting the steep climb.

We made it to our site, number 314B and this is what we found. Broken concrete patios, rotten wood picnic tables, and only 30 amp hookups. I believe the electricity had issues, we could not run an air conditioner and have the hot water heater on without tripping a breaker. It was terribly hot and the one a/c unit struggled to keep the coach comfortable. No over the air tv service, no wifi and Verizon phone service was not available. My at&t was spotty,it would work occasionally. We would NOT ever return here.

The lake and the beach looked pretty nice, but when we wanted to rent a kayak they told us all boats were gone for the day.

In general, it was a run down neglected park in a pretty area by the Natchez Trace Parkway.

 The Diamond Caverns Thousand Trails Campground in Park City, KY was our next stop. This park is also an Encore Park. We stayed here using our Encore membership since Kentucky is not in our zone we purchased. This is a nice park that we would return to again. The staff was friendly and helpful and the park is well maintained. 50 amp service, and full hookups made it nice. The pool, fitness center and the spa area was nice and we enjoyed our 6 day stay.

Site A10 with 50 amps, water, and sewer and trees behind us was very nice. We enjoyed our stay here and would return. Lots to see and do in the area, you are only 20 miles or so from Bowling Green.