Body Damage Repair

During the flood in Destin, FL we had to make a quick exit to higher ground and I accidentally scraped a co-workers truck. Luckily I did no damage to his truck and all we got was a nasty scratch. For the time being I put one of those cheap plastic chrome emblems on to hide the worst part of the scratch until I can get it painted. Not too bad, but I hate damage to our home.

Here at the KOA in Tucson I saw a guy doing some body repair on my neighbor's truck so I just had to talk to him. Well, long story short, he was just a scam artist and I got duped out of a little money and he just sprayed some cheap primer on the damaged area. Here he is trying to look professional with the sander but he tried to hide the primer by covering it with wax. Even I knew that you don't wax a brand new paint job. I'm out a little money and I hurt my pride, but "getting even" would be illegal and finding him and taking him to court would be a challenge. Even if we got a court date it wouldn't be worth it to come back to Tucson for the hearing.

 People like him eventually get what they deserve.

Paybacks are a.......!

This is what the so called body man left me with.

 He didn't think I would notice that the paint didn't even come close to matching?

So now we have an appointment at Texas Custom Coach in Texas after we leave Arizona for our journey back east. This should occur in mid April 2015 and hopefully things go smooth and we can get the coach looking all good again. 

On Tuesday April 21st we arrived at Texas Custom Coach for the repairs and we were greeted by the nicest people. They got us parked by the shop and within 10 minutes John had already started working on the damage. John started sanding the door down to the metal and then started straightening the door. We got to stay in our coach on the property and that was a blessing since we are full time.

A short time later the door was as smooth as glass and had primer sprayed on it.

On Thursday April 23rd, the paint job was done and looking great! We were ready to leave but Dave told us we were welcome to stay another night since we would be driving into some bad weather if we left.

The end result was fantastic, the paint and body repair was superb, the price was more than reasonable and I will highly recommend Texas Custom Coach to anyone!

Spring Break With The Family

During spring break our daughter, son-in-law, and grandson came to visit us here at the Tucson KOA. Luckily we have cabins on site so they got to stay here at the park with us. They got some time to  relax and also enjoy some pool time. The highlight of the visit was our trip to the Grand Canyon and Sedona, AZ. Both places are beautiful and it was a very memorable trip.

The views of the canyon are simply spectacular.

Elk on the side of the road leaving the Grand Canyon.

After the Grand Canyon visit we spent the night in Flagstaff and then spent the next day in beautiful Sedona. The drive down hwy 89A to Sedona was very pretty with all the mountains and canyons.

Uptown Sedona on a nice warm day with plenty of tourists.

We had fun playing the percussion chime thingies in town, no talent...but fun.

The Chapel of the Holy Cross built into the rocks.

Nice mansion visible from the Church of the Holy Cross, wow,what a nice place!

RV & Car Attractions

Another benefit to the RV life is the opportunity to visit some museums, race tracks, and, automotive attractions. For example, I probably would have never had the opportunity to visit the I-80 Truck Stop in Iowa, which is billed as the world's largest truck stop if we weren't RVing.  Here you can fuel up, get your favorite snack, eat in a restaurant, get haircuts, dental work, get your dog groomed, visit the free truck museum, and even buy custom equipment for your truck or coach. Is this a great country or what? When in Iowa, check out the I-80 Truck Stop.

Beautiful trucks on display and check out the LED light display. I like lights!

Lots of antique trucks on display to enjoy.

One of my favorite stops was "Road America' racetrack in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Kathy and I got a worker job for the weekend of the big LeMans Series race. This was a first for us and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Actually got paid to help out and attend the race, seeing all the Corvette, Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes Benz, etc exotic race cars.

We still had our 5th wheel and here we go through the speedway tunnel.

Well, it wasn't all work. We had time to relax at the Tequila Patron vendor. Life is good.

The Indianapolis 500 Museum and speedway was another great place to see. Here we had the pleasure to meet a 92 year old retired police officer who volunteers at the museum. (well I guess it's a volunteer position).  He was so cool, he says to me "I showed them, I've been retired 44 years and still drawing my pension." What an interesting man to visit with.

Give me a photo op, and I'm there baby. Probably the only time I will feel the seat of an Indy race car.

The famous Sebring International Speedway in Florida was another cool place to see. Not too much in the museum department but a great historic speedway.

The "Shelby World Headquarters" and museum in Las Vegas, NV is a great place to visit. Free of charge and lots of neat Shelby automotive history to admire. It has lots of cars and plenty of gifts and memorabilia to purchase. Plus it is next door to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

A very valuable chrome Shelby Cobra and Kathy posing, now that is nice!

We even got to put our names on the large guest autograph wall in the shop area. You can photograph everywhere EXCEPT the shop, there they want to protect the customer's identity.

The National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY is a place all gear heads should see. Luckily we got to visit before the infamous sinkhole incident where something like 8 Corvettes were swallowed by the earth.

The Festival of Speed in St. Petersburg,FL attracted many nostalgic race cars plus every exotic beauty you can think of. Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, and Bentley were just a few of these exquisite works of art on display. We would love to return.

When in Elkhart, Indiana, the home of the RV industry, you need to visit the RV and Motorhome Hall of Fame. So many RV's from way back plus RV's that were owned by a celebrity or was used in the movies. It was a great experience.