Spending $$$ at the Rally

We had a good time in Perry at the FMCA rally. It stopped raining sometime in the wee hours of Tuesday morning and the sun was out for the remainder of the event. By the time we pulled out this morning the lots were dry and hard. With the sun out I could monitor the function of our new solar array. During this late winter season the sun just won't get directly overhead, but I was still seeing up to 24 amps DC, very close to the maximum output for the panels. I'm pleased.

We each attended 4-5 seminars each day on a variety of technical and educational topics. I also spent a great deal of time talking to component vendors, such as our refrigerator manufacturer, asking detailed technical questions. I scored a few free replacement parts and service. FanTastic Vent gave me a replacement switch for one of our roof-top fans. Roadmaster cleaned and lubed our tow bar and replaced a major component that was showing abnormal wear. We also spent a lot of time in the vendors booths. We bought a high quality12v portable fan, FanTastic Vent's Endless Breeze. It will be very useful for when we aren't on shore power and don't want to run the inverter. It is also very compact and easy to store. We also purchased a DeLorme PN-40 hand-held GPS. I had been wanting a good hand-held GPS for some time, but couldn't decide what to buy. I was leaning towards the DeLorme product because they have great technical support, lots of cheap or free downloadable maps, and our PC software and GPS are by DeLorme. DeLorme had a booth at the show and was offering the PN-40 for $100 off list. There was a lead technical guy at the booth, and I spent several hours talking with him. He spent time with me outdoors with my new handheld unit showing me some tricks.

We also made one major coach improvement purchase. As you know, our coach is relatively short and lacks some indoor storage features often found on larger coaches. For example, many larger coaches have a credenza on the wall behind the dinette and some sort of computer desk. We have neither. We spend a lot of time on the computer and must work with the PCs in our laps. When we need to print a document, we take the printer out of the wardrobe and set it up on the dinette table. We also have portable file boxes for our papers that we keep on the floor of the wardrobe. Not very convenient. At a rally in January we talked to Davis Cabinets a company in Oregon, specializing in cabinets for the RV industry. With the sour economy, many owners have decided to keep their coaches instead of trading up and are putting their $$$ into modifications and improvements. Just like us. For example, many coach owners are upgrading their TV cabinetry to fit new digital HD TVs. Davis Cabinets was taking orders for new cabinet projects at the Supershow in Tampa in January. They would take measurements in FL, fabricate the cabinets at their shop in Oregon, and deliver and install the cabinets at the rally in Perry GA. We decided to buy a combination dinette credenza/computer work station. On one side it would have a cabinet door and pullouts for a laptop, supplies and a printer. On the other side it would have office drawers and a lateral file drawer. In the center under the table, it would have two cabinet doors and adjustable shelves. 14" deep and almost 7' long. Davis said they could match our knobs, pulls, wood finish and Corian top. Perfect! Almost ..... After placing the order and talking with Shaun Davis a number of times over the last two months, we found he was having trouble identifying the pattern for our solid surface top. He checked sample chips from Corian, Avonite, Wilsonart, and several other manufacturers, but nothing matched. He shipped us chips, and we went to home improvement centers ourselves, but could find no exact match. He installed the cabinet on Monday, but we are currently without a top. Shaun took a sink cover representing our pattern back to Oregon with him. He is confident he can identify the pattern and ship the top to us in NC shortly. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

We moved about 200 miles north this afternoon to Fair Play, SC. We are parked at Thousand Trails Carolina Landing, on the shore of Lake Hartwell, just over the GA line. This is not the nicest of the TT parks, but is is OK for a short stop-over. Many of the sites are on hills, so level site are at premium and some are eroded. We did find a nice level site with good grass. The water level on Lake Hartwell is way down, so the dock is high and dry. We will stay here two or three nights, then drive to Morganton and spend a day or two with my mother. It's a good thing we are almost home in NC. The quart bottle of Texas Pete I packed is almost empty!