On the Road Again - Fall 2020

In normal years Dorcas and I would leave home sometime early in the summer and wander around this great country of ours in our motor home, eventually landing in northern Minnesota for our annual trek into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW).  But these are not normal years.  As everyone knows we are experiencing a global pandemic, which has devastated many and turned normal living upside down.  Dorcas and I have been very fortunate.  None of loved ones have been effected and our livelihood is unchanged.   We have been merely inconvenienced.   

Our original plan this year had been to spend the summer in the Rocky Mountains, attending a rally in Rock Springs WY hosted by the Newmar Kountry Klub, the manufacturer's owners club for our new Newmar Dutch Star motorhome.  However, that rally was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving us to consider other options.  Early in the summer, most parks and campgrounds were shuttered, and it looked like we may be staying home.  However, we discovered that the US Forest Service was accepting reservations for entry into the BWCAW and for our favorite US Forest Service campground near Ely MN.  The National Park Service was also taking reservations for campgrounds in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and also in 2 other National Park units: the Buffalo National River in the Arkansas Ozark mountains and the Ozark National Scenic Riverways in southern Missouri.  

Thus we made a new plan.  We would do our customary wilderness canoe trip in the BWCAW in the late summer and travel to Minnesota via the Smokies, the Buffalo River in Arkansas and the Current River in Missouri.  Hopefully the pandemic would not worsen and force any of these parks to close in the meantime.

Our proposed route to Fall Lake MN

This would be the first extended trip in our new Dutch Star which we bought just before Christmas after the destruction of our beloved Country Coach Allure.  We spent much of July and early August tweaking and prepping the Dutch Star for the trip.  Finally on August 14 we left home.  Our first stop was in Morganton, my home town, where we lunched with our friend Donna.  Donna's husband Bob was a dear friend and passed in December.  Donna and Dorcas had being talking regularly, but we had not seen Donna since before Bob's death.  We met Donna at the Subway in Morganton, just off the interstate, and enjoyed a 3-hour lunch in the coach.  After lunch we continued westward and checked in on site F14 at Smokemont Campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park just outside Cherokee.  

The most visited US National Park

None of the campgrounds in the Smokies have electrical power at the sites, so we could enjoy the experience of boondocking in our new coach.  Unlike our old Allure, this coach is "all electric" meaning we have no propane tank and have a residential style refrigerator and cook top, which run on standard household 120VAC power.  When not connected to 120V power they run off the batteries via an invertor which converts 12VDC to 120VAC.  We have 400 watts of solar, as we did in the Allure, but our site at Smokemont received little direct sunlight.  Thus we had to run the generator 3-4 hours per day to keep the batteries charged and the beer cold.  Thankfully the cool mountain weather was comfortable, so we felt no need to run the air conditioners.

Our home at Smokemont Campground

Even the wildlife is COVID-aware

Elk were originally native to the Smokies but were hunted to extinction in the mid 1800s.  In 2001 the NPS  began reintroducing elk to the park.  There are currently over 200 elk in the park, most in the Cataloochee area, but a few reside in the Oconaluftee River valley outside Cherokee. We saw a few cows grazing along the road near camp but were unable to pull over and get a closer look.

Elk near Cherokee

One day we spent some time in the Museum of the Cherokee Indian.  A big part of the museum consisted of walk-through exhibits depicting the history, culture and persecution of the Cherokee.

Native Americans are also COVID-aware

Native Cherokee weaving

The Cherokee syllabary was invented by Sequoyah in the late 1810s and early 1820s to write the Cherokee language. His creation of the syllabary is particularly noteworthy as he was illiterate.

There was also a large exhibit with an extensive collection of traditional carved ceremonial masks.

Raven mask

Rattlesnake mask

Masks representing the Seven Clans of the Cherokee

Another day we visited Cades Cove.  A word of wisdom: never visit Cades Cove on a nice early fall weekend.

Solace in Cades Cove

Cable Mill in Cades Cove

Cades Cove

A cantilever barn in Cades Cove

Mill race at Cable Mill in Cades Cove

Old mill stones at Cable Mill

The trail head parking lot for the Chimney Tops trail and the Alum Cave Trail were filled to overflowing and hundreds of cars were parked haphazardly along the road for 1/2 mile in both directions at each trailhead.  Another reason not to visit the Smokies on a fine fall weekend.

The Chimney Tops

No visit to the Smokies is complete without a visit to Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  On this day it was clear down below, but became increasingly cloudy as we climbed to the summit.

There were crowds at Clingmans Dome too

The observation tower at Clingmans Dome

It is a 1/2 mile walk with 500' elevation gain from the parking lot to the summit of Clingmans Dome.  That used to be an easy trot for us, but not so much any more.  But we made it and enjoyed the marvelous views.

Wonderful vistas from atop Clingmans Dome

Cow parsnip

Yellow Jewelweed

Who was that masked woman?  I wanted to thank her!

Mingus Mill is an historic grist mill built in 1886.  The mill is powered by a cast iron turbine as opposed to the more conventional water wheel.  

Mingus Mill

There are two mill stone sets and grinding operations at Mingus Mill, one for wheat which is a hard grain and one for corn which is relatively soft.  Each process uses a different style of stone and grinding settings. 

Inside Mingus Mill

A typical highway tunnel in the Smokies

 

After 3 relaxing days in the Smokies it was time to move along.  We planned an early departure, but fate had other plans.  Our new coach has air bag suspension and hydraulic leveling jacks.  When you park and level the coach, it is an automatic process.  I press a single button on the leveling control pad and first, the air bags are emptied, lowering the coach body to the frame, and then the jacks extend raising each corner of the coach until a state of levelness is achieved.  When preparing to travel I press a different button on the control panel and, first the jacks retract, and then the air bags are filled, raising the coach back to ride height.  Usually ....  On this day the air bags refused to fill.  I cycled the leveling and unleveling process a number of times but each time failed to air up the coach.  Thankfully, due to an onboard cellular booster and a barely usable cell signal, I was able to call Newmar, who patched Freightliner through on the line as well.  After about an hour and a half on the phone with all this technical expertise, we still could not air up the bags. We tried a number of things and cycled the leveling process a number of times.  The Freightliner tech believed that either the leveling control pad was not sending a signal to the air valve, or the air valve was not receiving the signal to raise the coach, or that the air bag valve had just plain failed.  That's good to know but not really helpful.  He directed me to the nearest Freightliner service center, about 40 miles away in Canton, and said they could provide mobile road service and get us on our way.  A call to Canton revealed they did not have mobile road service and that it would be 2 days maybe 3 before they could look at our coach, provided we could get a tow to their shop.  CRAP!

After having no success on the phone I decide to drive the coach a few hundred yards and see if that would un-stick the valve.  Believe me, if the valve could be unstuck, driving it with the body riding on the frame stops would likely do it.  Imagine driving your car with all four tires removed from the rims.  But that still didn't work.  I called once more and eventually talked to a Freightliner tech who was actually helpful.  She described a process to bypass the normal leveling logic and raise the coach manually.  She admitted she wasn't supposed to tell me this, because it involved crawling under the coach and activating one of two switches near the front axel. One switch would enable air to enter the bags, and one would release air from the bags. It is extremely dangerous go under a coach with air suspension and fiddle with the valves unless the coach is supported by hard jack stands.  Do the wrong thing and one could be crushed.  Well the coach was already down as far as it could go, so it was unable to drop any further.  In any case I was unable to get my body under the coach to reach the switch, in fact it was so low I couldn't even get my head under.  Luckily I had a 4-foot stick I used for a fireplace poker that was just long enough and just stiff enough that I could reach under and press the switch.  Remember, there are 2 switches, one that raises the coach and one that lowers the coach?  50/50 chance, right?  As you may well guess I first pressed the switch nearest the driver side: wrong.  I went to the other side and pressed the switch on the passenger side. VIOLA!  There was a pop and a hiss and the bags slowly began to fill.  Yea!!!!  After a few moments we were up to normal ride height and could safely drive the coach.  The tech had said that by performing this procedure it might clear the problem for good, but there was no way to know for sure until I leveled and then raised the coach again.  I had no desire to check that on this day, so we'll find out later if we still have a problem.  If it turns out the issue has not been corrected, hopefully I can repeat this manual leveling procedure until we can schedule service at a Freightliner facility.

When we pulled out of the campground I found out we had another problem.  The Dutch Star is equipped with a proprietary steering assist system known as Comfort Drive.  Comfort Drive is a computer controlled motor mounted to the steering column that assists the normal power steering function.  It reduces steering effort, helps to control the coach in cross winds and automatically returns the steering wheel to center.  While trying to resolve the air bag issue, one thing I had done was to disconnect the chassis battery.  That apparently bewildered the Comfort Drive computer such that it would not function.  This was not a show stopper; I still had normal power steering function, but it was one more thing I would need to deal with.  I later learned there is a procedure to reset the Comfort Drive, but I would need to deal with that later.

About 1:00 pm on August 17 we were off like a herd of turtles, 5 hours after our originally scheduled departure time.  But at least we were rolling.

Life is good again.

This guy has two flat tires. And I thought we had all the bad luck

Stay tuned for our next installment.

Farewell to an Old 6-Wheeled Friend

Part 1:  Mother Nature Strikes a Blow

Faithful readers will remember that during our fall 2019 trip we had a number of calamities.  After returning from the Boundary Waters we found the the coach batteries dead and much of the food in the fridge had spoiled.  Just before crossing into Canada we had a close encounter with a parked car and mangled the passenger side of the Pilot from stem to stern.  I cracked a tooth and had it extracted in Thunder Bay ON CA,  The coach tail pipe and muffler flange separated from the rest of the muffler resulting in a hot exhaust leak and finally, somewhere in Massachusetts, we blew a rear air bag necessitating a repair at a large truck service facility.  This photo summarizes our mis-adventures.

By the time we were finally rolling toward home, in a fit of frustration, I was making noises about getting a much smaller motor home and/or quitting our travels altogether.  Shortly after arriving at home, we finalized repairs and were feeling a lot better about the coach and our lifestyle.  However, the Gods were listening and our fate was sealed.  Tuesday November 12 was a clear and windy day, following a day of heavy rain.  About 3:00 PM I heard a crash outside the house.  When I looked out the window I saw that a large red oak tree had blown over and fallen on the coach.  CRAP!!!!  

Ouch!!!

It was immediately obvious that the damage was significant.  There was extensive damage to the roof and coach superstructure.  Other exterior damage included broken sidewall panels, crushed slide out, broken bedroom awning, broken skylight and broken ladder. I later learned that the coach superstructure was no longer square, but was now racked in the shape of a rhomboid. Interior damage included broken woodwork, framing and cabinetry in multiple places, broken shower enclosure and broken floor tiles.  The bedroom slide out was immobile and wouldn't extend. 

Roof damage as seen after tree removal

It is especially unfortunate that if the tree had fallen almost any other time of the year the coach would not have been parked at home, as we typically are traveling in the coach about 9 months of the year.  Also, if it had fallen only about 10 degrees more to the south it might have missed the coach altogether. Such was our luck this fall.

Bent ceiling and broken woodwork

Okay, now what.  We were scheduled to leave for Florida in about a week, but those plans would clearly need to be postponed.  The insurance company told me to get an estimate for repairs.  I could find no RV repair facility that would come to my house, and I had no way of knowing if the coach could still be driven, even after the tree had been removed.  They did authorize me to contact a tree removal service and submit an estimate for the tree removal.  Ultimately we contacted Lusk Tree Service.  The insurance company approved their quote of $2900 to remove the tree.  On November 15, just 3 days after the incident, Lusk was on site with an army that included 6 men, 4 trucks, a wood grinder, a  rubber tired skid loader, a rubber track cherry picker and a truck mounted crane.

Early on, David Lusk asked if the coach could be moved.  If it could, that would simplify the process of removing the tree.  They could lift the tree off the coach and then move the coach away to prevent causing additional damage.  It turned out that the coach did start and could move, so that's what we did. 

Just prior to moving the coach

Kinda looks like a huge alien spider

Grinding the debris. This sucker can eat an 18" log!

The tree guys.  David Lusk, owner, is not shown.

Okay, the tree is gone, The coach is free, so what next?  Of course I continue to talk to the insurance company.  They will not authorize a mobile estimator to come, even if I could locate one.  They insist I drive the coach to an RV service facility and specifically recommend Camping World AKA Gander RV of Statesville about 50 miles away, notwithstanding that it is unknown if the coach can be driven on the highway.  Frankly, I would not take my roller skate to a Camping World for repair.  I do find two repair centers that will review some photos and provide some feedback on the cost of repair.  Both suggest repairs might be on the order of $70,000.  Insurance says if the cost to repair is more than about 70% of the fair market value, the coach will be declared a total loss.  I figure fair market value is between $70K and $80K, so it is likely the coach will be totaled. So, what remains is to acquire a qualified estimate and negotiate a value for fair market value. Simple, right?  Au contraire.

Since I know the coach will start and move, we take it on a road trip to see if it is highway worthy.  We drive on some county roads then hit US 52 north towards Mt Airy, where we get it up to about 65 mph.  The coach seems to drive well, notwithstanding the wind noise from the big hole in the roof, the broken skylight and the rear slide out protruding about 2 inches from the side of the coach.  Consequently I call Eagle's Pride, which is a full service RV repair and sales center located inside our resort at The Great Outdoors, where we spend our winters.  They can provide a qualified repair estimate if we can get to them, in fact they will come out to our site and inspect it there.  Such are the perks of living in a large RV resort with a full service RV repair facility within our gated community.

So we pack up our stuff, apply several rolls of duct tape and 6 mil plastic sheeting to the roof, sides and slide out on the coach.  On November 26, only about a week behind schedule, we depart for our winter home.  Along the way we spend 2 nights with my brother and his family in Angier NC and 2 nights with friends in their cul de sac near Savannah GA.  We arrive safely at TGO on November 30, and some of the duct tape is even still intact!

Part 2:  Marking Time

Our site at the TGO has a 50' x 25' port and 2 outbuildings tucked under the port.  One building has a laundry and bathroom facilities and the other has a living room and a sleeper sofa.  Unfortunately the rooms are not approved by Brevard County for overnight occupancy. This means, legally speaking, we must sleep in an RV.

Our winter home at The Great Outdoors

While our RV was habitable, it was far from comfortable.  The bedroom slide out would not extend.  This reduced access to the rear wardrobe and to most of our clothing drawers. We could not walk around the bed and Dorcas had to crawl over to get into bed and to access the wardrobe.  The wardrobe doors were bound such that we had to remove them to access our clothes. But we had escaped to sunny Florida, and we began to consider our options.

Remember way back when when I suggested we would downsize?  Seems like the perfect opportunity to do so now, right?  But now we are not so sure.  If we wanted to continue to live on our site in TGO we would need to buy an RV to sleep in.  While we had considered a smaller unit, such as a van conversion Class B, that was not an appealing choice for living in for half the year.  We looked locally for 5th wheel trailers, travel trailers, cottages and Class A motor homes, to buy as a temporary and/or permanent solution, but couldn't seem to make any decision.  We searched high and low for a comparable short Country Coach, but none was to be found anywhere in the US.  We had enough cash on hand to buy whatever we wanted, even before settling with the insurance company, but we couldn't decide what we wanted to do.  I spent hours on the internet researching all kinds of units for sale.  All the while marking time sleeping in the Allure.  Thankfully, we are in our happy place and the coach is under cover and safe from the elements.

Part 3:   Our New Home on Wheels

Our Country Coach Allure 33' is a 2004 model with 124K miles. When we bought it in 2006 it was 2 years old and had about 8,000 miles.  While we did not willingly choose to give it up, we certainly did get our money's worth out of it, and eventually tried to consider this event as an opportunity.  Ultimately, we began looking for something as close to our crunched Allure as we could find, namely a short high-end luxury diesel pusher.  Searches for similar Country Coaches, which ceased production in 2010, were non-existent.   Longer models, 40' to 45' were out there, but they did not fit our camping style, and would represent a significant challenge to park at our home in NC.  Tiffin and Newmar make some fine coaches similar in quality to our Allure, but the shortest length we could find in these lines was 37', which, while longer than our Allure, was still a relatively short luxury pusher.  

In 2018 Newmar introduced their New Aire which is a luxury diesel offered in a 33' floor plan.  When the New Aire was introduced we said we would give it a very hard look if we ever bought another coach.  And we did spend time going through a few models and driving several before leaving NC and again in Florida.  One problem however is that we did not want to buy a brand new coach.  New coaches always have a high number of issues from the factory and require a lot of time in the shop.  We just didn't want to deal with that. Also the original owner of a new coach takes a huge depreciation hit.  We had promised ourselves many years ago we would never buy a coach less than 2 years old.  Used New Aires were nowhere to be found.  Also we learned there were significant improvements in the 2019 and 2020 models, including a 35' floor plan and a larger engine.  If we wanted to buy a New Aire we would need to buy new, spend big bucks and deal with the manufacturing defects.  We decided to consider other options.

Finally, I found a used 2018 Newmar 3718 online that we liked a lot. It was just less than 2 years old and had only 7,700 miles, had an interesting and unique floor plan and the price was right.  The only problem was that it was located in Garfield MN, 2 1/2 hours northwest of Minneapolis, practically in Fargo ND, about 1800 miles away.

2018 Newmar Dutch Star 3718

There were a lot of photos online, and the coach appeared to be in excellent condition.  We contacted the salesman at Steinbring Motorcoach and learned that they had sold the unit new to the original owners.  Shortly thereafter the husband had become ill and died, and Steinbring was selling the coach on consignment for the widow.  The salesman gave us a virtual FaceTime tour of the coach lasting almost 2 hours, ending only when his iPhone battery failed.  We made an offer, and it was accepted by the widow.  It looks like we have a new home!

It was decided that I would fly to Garfield MN, take delivery of the coach and drive it home to Titusville Florida.  Dorcas would stay home and take care of Matilda.  A little research took us to Sun Country Airline, which offers non-stop service from Orlando to Minneapolis one way for $44.  Sometime about this time Dorcas decided she should go too, so we booked 2 seats.  Several of our good friends at TGO would take care of Matilda while we were gone.  Packing for the flight was a challenge.  We were traveling from sunny central Florida where the temperatures were in the 70s and 80s to NW Minnesota with high temps in the single digits.  In addition to needing all the usual necessities, we would be returning in a motor home with no cookware, cutlery or bedding.  Sun Country, being a deep discount airline charged an extra fee for each piece of overhead or checked baggage.  We managed to get everything we needed in 2  tote bags (free) and one overhead bag ($30 fee) borrowed from a friend.  On December 18 our friends Hank and Kathy drove us 39 miles to Orlando International Airport to start our great winter adventure.

Are you shitting me???  That's freaking cold!

The frozen upper midwest in late December

After landing in Minneapolis we located our driver who drove us 150 miles north and west to Garfield where we spent the night in our soon-to-be new coach.  Over the next 2 days we explored the coach and its features with the help of Steinbring technicians, took it for a spin and eventually signed the papers. Steinbring made a company Jeep available to us, and we used it to drive to town to buy groceries and supplies.

BRRRR!!!!

I hope they are all winterized!

Our first look at our new coach

Steinbring Motorcoach indoor showroom

Steinbring Motorcoach claims to have been in business since 1917.  That is actually when three Steinbring brothers opened their Chevrolet dealership in nearby Hancock MN.  They began selling Newmar coaches in 2003, and have earned the best ever Newmar Customer Service score.  Click HERE to read about the history of Steinbring Motorcoach. 

The customer lounge at Steinbring Motorcoach

We spent 2 nights in our coach in the Steinbring showroom, during which time employees showed us the ropes on our new coach.  We departed Garfield MN shortly after lunch on December 20.  We had hoped to get an earlier start, but we stayed for a Christmas luncheon for the employees and whatever guests happened to be there.   We spent 3 nights on the road parking overnight in Tomah WI, Whittington IL and Perry GA, arriving at TGO mid-day on December 23, after driving a total of 1869 miles.  That's moving on!

Remember the movie "Fargo"?  It's all real.

When we closed on the new coach Chase Steinbring, the business manager at Steinbring Motorcoach had called our insurance agent and started coverage on our rig.  All was good, or so we thought.  While driving home our second day on the road, we get a call from our insurance agent saying Foremost will not cover the Dutch Star.  Our agent said that they were legally bound to cover the unit, at least as far as liability was concerned, per North Carolina law.  But the company was saying we were not insured, so what do you do?  There would certainly be a big legal fight if we had a claim; they might claim we were not covered while NC law said we were.  Our agent signed us up with another carrier as we spoke, so all is well.  

Our first overnight near Tomah WI

After arriving at TGO we had one final adventure.  The vertical clearance for our port is exactly 13' 0".  The specifications for our coach in the Newmar literature states the Dutch Star is "approximately", 12' 10".  Approximately????  What the heck does that mean?  With variables such as manufacturing tolerances, height variability due to tire pressure and ride height settings for an air bag suspension coach, the actual height could be anything.  So, the $64,000 question is "Would it fit?"  When we arrived at TGO I parked the coach on our rental site, which would be vacant for another week.  After such a long drive I wanted some time to rest and to plan the move to the port.  The next morning we began parking the coach in the port.  Dorcas drove the coach, I ran all around dictating directions to her on the phone while my buddy Hank stood on a ladder to keep a giraffe's eye view on our clearance.  As it turned out we did have about 2" of clearance.  Even if it had not fit, plan B would have been to dump the air in the bags reducing the height of the coach about 6".  I'm glad we didn't need to do that.  If we had to dump the air every time we backed into or pulled out of the port, eventually I would make an error with dire consequences.  

Part 4:   Tying Up Loose Ends

Remember back on November 12, when this whole mis-adventure began?  Well it is now late January and we have still not settled with the insurance company on the Allure.  There were 2 primary delays 1) submitting an acceptable estimate to the insurance company and 2) determining the fair market value of the Allure.  

Eagle's Pride had provided an estimate that was submitted to Foremost Insurance Group in a timely manner, however Foremost had some issues with that estimate.  Apparently there were some discrepancies between the estimate and the photos, and Foremost wanted clarification.  Ultimately they paid to send another estimator, Mark Elbrecht, owner, Fountain RV in Lakeland, 84 miles away to look at the coach and take more photos of the damage.  Remember way back when, when they wouldn't authorize an on-site estimator in NC?  Go figure.  Apparently the new estimate/clarification was acceptable.  Subsequently I submitted a ton of information about the coach, its condition, options and upgrades etc. to help establish actual market value.  Eventually they offered a settlement value which I deemed unacceptable. When I asked if that figure was negotiable, they stated the value was not negotiable, but it could be "adjusted" if I could provide information supporting the adjustment.  Determining the value of a 15 year old coach that has not been manufactured in almost 10 years is hard enough, but considering it was an uncommon model/floor plan from a relatively small manufacturer makes it even more difficult.  I have been told by different sources that there were between 15 and 30 2004 Country Coach Allure 33' models produced.  Also,  ironically, the smaller floor plans are more desirable and consequently tend to hold their value better.  I did a lot of research on sales of comparable models and found actual sale data on 3 identical models, all of which supported a higher actual cash value than Foremost had originally offered.  In the end Foremost increased their original settlement offer by over $4000.  About the end of January we made a deal, and the only thing left was for them to pick up the coach and send us a check.

In the meantime, since Christmas we have been blessed with owning 2 coach.  That's fine, but while our new Dutch Star is parked in our port, where do we park the Allure until the insurance company can tow it away?  RV parking in our community is at a premium during the winter.  First we moved it back to our rental lot, but that site is not covered and we had renters coming in January 1.  We were able to play musical chairs with it for a while, parking it in various neighbors' ports while they were away, eventually finding it a place at the home of a good friend who had an RV port but no RV.

Our friend Lynn let us park the Allure at her house until the tow truck came.

 Finally, on February 10, our Allure took its final ride.

Thus ends the saga.  Good bye, old Paint.