etrippe1

Thanks for the suggestions, Linda, park has no honey wagon but I will be contacting the manager to see who they use for pota potti pump outs and get a price. I will also call other porti potti and septic pump out companies for prices. As far as minimal driving, what I've always gone w/ is as long as you get the fluids up to operation temps, all is well.People do it in Q all the time. When visiting my brother in CA I've been pumped out and it cost $50 a pump out. Pretty expensive when you are trying to safe a few dollars. But there I dump the grey water onto the ground and only pump out every other week. Paul, the park rules say NO GREY water pump out on the ground. Believe me, I've thought about it. Daughter is due any day so we are busy w/ her. Once the kid comes out we will do a little more investigating of the dumping situation here. Until then, drive over and let it rip.

Paul you are right about that, luckily we have the kids house for the loooong showers. I told Karla that she can take a shopping trip once a week and I'll do the dump thing, actually it will be good for the MH to start it up, drive it and run the slides in on a weekly basis. Now to pick the right day of week. uhmmmmm glyn thought of it but too many issues that make that not a good plan, like to cost to buy the blue boy and then having to transport it to the dump station (we have a car w/ no trailer hitch) and then if you buy it, where do you store it when travelling and will we ever need it again. thanks for the input, but like I said too many negatives.

And it is. Nice large sites, right on Lake MI, 1 hr N of Chicago and close to kids and grand kids. And we only have to volunteer 2, 7 hour shifts a week. The only draw back is that it isn't full hookup. Water is a hose length away, 30 amp electric and we will have to drive and dump. I know, wa, wa , big tears and everything.

Made it to our summer home, IL. Beach State Park. Started to learn the computer check-in program yesterday, I think we are still trainable. Of the three campers that checked in, one said the amount we charged was twice what the website said and opened up his smart phone to show us. (he was looking at a wrong column in the list) The second, after paying for three nights left and after 10 minutes came back in and said his wife changed her mind and only wanted to stay for two. We learned and explained the no cash return policy, gave him the form to fill out and where to take it and a check will be mailed. This is gonna be a interesting summer.

made it safely to MI. We had a nice stop over in Dalton GA to visit w/ Jerry and Janice. Thanks guys!. It was nice to see you again.

I sent you guys an email re: us passing thru. And we do plan on an overnight there again, since you offered. It will be nice to see you guys again. eric "My memory of that park is being locked out when we went into town to see a Cinerama movie. Would have been a long walk from the gate to the campground but people from another vehicle called someone to come unlock the gate. I must have been 11 or 12 or so." Linda Sand Hi Linda, we stayed there last fall and didn't have any issues w/ locked gates. We even asked before we headed off to visit the kids. eric

Happy Easter everybody. Hope all is well with you and family. Today is my last day of "working" this season here in FL. Mon and Tues we pack up and Wed we head North to MI. I have looked at the weather and it is getting warmer with no below freezing temps forecasted after mid week. I was getting scared that we were leaving too early, but it will be fine. We will be parked at our usual MI spot, full hookup, friends driveway on Portage Lake, Pinckney MI. Looking forward to seeing some friends and getting Dentists and Dr appointments out of the way. We will only there till the end of the month and then we will be volunteer camp hosting at Illinois Beach State Park, on Lake MI just north of Chicago for the summer. Our 2nd grandchild is due May 4th. later

I just sent you a PM w/ our contact info.

AND HOW WAS YOUR WEEK? I had a birthday, and turned 60 on Sunday. So my week has been............. good. I worked all day and nothing broke in the CG, so even work was good. And then we had a party after I got off. Karla ordered pizza and a great cake and a good time was had by all. However, once the sun went down it got mighty cold and the party was cut a little short. A few of us stuck it out for a few hours longer, partly due to the Crown Royal taste testing that we did. The Black was voted best (I think) Sorry to hear all that went on with you guys but it sounds like everything is turning out ok, (for the most part). Especially with your Dad.

Happy Anniversary (belated) And glad to read you've gotten on the water. The Gulf is a great place.

Maybe you should all be here in SW FL. It has been warm w/ a little off shore breeze to keep you comfortable. We have been kayaking and swimming on a regular basis. Only problem is we are using our AC's a lot this winter. Hope you all stay warm!

That would be fun so give us a call. I work Sat. and Sun. during the day and Wed afternoon /evening. eric

Happy New Year to all of you. We are going to stay here in Ft Myers Beach, FL for the balance of the winter. We came here knowing that I was hired for Nov and Dec, but I was asked to stay for the balance of the season. I have a pretty nice work gig here, so it is hard to say no. Everybody stay safe in your travels. And if you are in the area, let us know. The weather here has been great! eric and karla Kora is well also

Hi everybody. We are safe and sound and in S Lake Tahoe CA. The park is down a few workampers/employees from last year so I'm still workin' 40 hrs a week. Karla is doing well and running the weekend pancake breakfasts here in the park. No complaints here about the weather, 70/80's in the day and 40's at night. Haven't used the AC yet, even the furnace came on the other night. Glad to here from you posters that all is well. We will be here till Sept and then travelling back to MI and Chicago, then onto FL for the winter (we think). enjoy you summer

Sandie, We are happy to hear about the good news on Jim. We continue to put him in our thoughts. Today we drove up and over the mountain and landed in S Lake Tahoe. Mountain driving is always so much fun. NOT ! I did "short cut" by mistake. Luckily we made it out and onto the correct road without any issues. Karla and Kora both kept their eyes closed however. So we are at Tahoe Valley CG in S Lake Tahoe which is just off Hwy 50 till Sept. If anybody is in the area, give us a call and we can meet up.

Jim and Sandie, our thoughts and prayers are there with you

we just took our mh in to have the main slide motor and all the attachment pieces replaced. It cost $ 1,400, but our service contract carrier covered it all. oh happy day! hopefully this will take care of the problem we have been having w/ the slide, ie. shear pins breaking. i had figured out how to replace them and it was a pain. glad to have the assembly all new. eric

we parked overnight in a rest stop once, worst night of sleep ever, ended up parked between two trucks they ran there engines all night. very noisy and dirty, and w/ no slides out it made for a tight fit. also tried a Travel America truck stop once, parked next to another mh, leaving some space between us and the next truck on the other side. And with in minutes another truck squeezed in between us and the truck. It was so close that we could only open our door about 1/4. I started up the mh and asked Karla to find a park, drove 3 miles,, paid $20, plugged in, ran out the slides, set up the satelite, made a cocktail, talked / the neighbors and realized how much I enjoyed living in a mh and travelling. best $20 spent! will try to stay away from spending the night in a truck stop and rest area again.

We received the call at 3;30 am last night that my daughter Kai was in labor and at the hospital. We packed up the car and drove over to the hospital in Chicago. Grant Matthew Drury was born at 7;30 am today. Weighing in at 9lbs 10 oz and with a total length of 22 in and a full head of hair all is well. Kai and Mike is doing well and we are all tired. We are babysitting their dog while they are still in the hospital. eric and karla

I need to change our pin location. We are in MI now and will be here till Thanksgiving. Then FL and west. Hope to see you again in our travels. My daughter is due Sept 29 and we needed to get here for that. Sorry we missed ya. We were snowed out from going over to Grand Lake in RMNP. We made it to the restroom stop at just under 11,000 ft. eric

boy, we just missed you. we were at River View RV Park outside Loveland for 4 nites. We went into RMNP yesterday and made it up to the rest stop at just over 2 miles above sea level, and then the road was closed due to the snow above 11,000 ft. We wanted to go to Grand Lake and visit the places we were married at. But it wasn't meant to be, next time. The rv park we were in had no wifi and no cell coverage so it made it hard to stay in touch. Hopefully the weather clears and you can see the entire park. it is a great place and w/ plenty of elk to watch. We are in Nebraska tonight on our way to MI. eric

AHHHHHHHHH.......moving again, feels good. We landed In Winnemucca NV for a night then tomorrow Wells, Salt lake city and I don't know yet and then into Loveland CO for a few days before heading back to MI. We should get back there by Sept 20.

google "Healing Back Pain Naturally" by Art Brownstien, it is available at amazon, used and new, lots of exersizes and stretches to help get you thru this. I swear by the book, good luck

Lee, sorry to hear about your back. I have had back trouble all my life, with surgery once and pt many times. All that keeps me going now is daily stretching and occasionaly 800ml ibeprophin. Hope you find relieve soon. Wow Jim and Sandie, another rig! You are going to need a sales license soon with all your mh/car/truck changes. Hope everybody else is doing well and has had a great summer. And summer is winding down. As always plans are changing for us. And thats a good thing. We decided to stay in MI and Chicago till after Thanksgiving, to be w/ new the grandchild and my kids which put us into Mesa AZ early Dec. Well, the tiki bar needs to be fully staffed by Nov 1, so we are out of the tiki bar business. No big deal, more important to be w/ family and able to do what WE want to do. So we have no plans yet for the winter, thinking FL? TX? Tuscon? S CA? Hope to see some of you down the road as we are going to be movin' again soon. safe travel and enjoy the ride eric/karla

For us, the current winter (Dec-March) plan is to be back in Mesa AZ doing the workamp bartender thing. We spent Feb 2010 in Port Aransas, thats why we went to AZ last winter. We plan on going back to MI right after Labor Day and staying till Thanksgiving. Then high-tailing it right on out of there before any measurable amounts of snow. But with this crazy weather we are all experiencing who knows what to expect.