Kirk W

We were full time in a motorhome with the F53/V10 for 12 years and owned it for 14 years. When we sold it the mileage was 88k and the buyer sent an email to update us after he had it for 3 more years and at 101k miles and he was still happy with it. But 38k in 17 years is very low so I'd suspect that it has sat unused for an extended period. It very likely still has the original tires so they probably need to be replaced. It might be a real prize but unless you are a motorhome expert, you should have it professionally inspected before you put any money down. 

1 hour ago, Chalkie said:

My difficulty is convincing the wife that if it does not come up as a known contact to just let it go to voicemail.

I have the same issue.   🙄

For me, it has always been a red letter event when I would complete any significant repair ater only 1 trip to Lowe's or Home Depot! That seemed to hold true for most RV repairs as well. 

12 minutes ago, lappir said:

I also make sure I don't use the word "Yes" very often and will expand that to other affirmative words

Yup,  rodger,  gotcha, okey-dokey, 

1 hour ago, Chalkie said:

Got a call last night the spouse answered thinking it was someone we knew as it was from the same area code as our phones (719). 

The scammers just clone a phone number to match your area code to make it look that way. One nice feature of cell phones is that we still have the area code where we were when we got our phones but no longer know or do business with anyone in that area code so that makes a sure sign that we don't want the call. 

This thread got me to thinking about how we managed before there were cell phones! We thought that it was wonderful when we finally got an answering machine! 

14 hours ago, Danfreda1 said:

You should find out the hospitals and urgent care places every time you move locations in case of an emergency,why wouldn’t you do that with pets too?

Are telling us that you do that at every stop when traveling? We did always locate emergency medical care and hospitals when we stopped for an extended period, but only then. For pet care we have only needed a vet on 3 occasions that I can think of over more than 40 years of RV travels. On those occasions we got recommendations from local people and only 1 time was it an emergency visit. All 3 were while in an area for an extended period of more than a month. Over those same years, I had my wife to an emergency room twice for stitches and to a "doc in a box" clinic for illness twice. 

I think that I would agree that we should do those things but wonder how many of us do them? Should we do so at each 1 night stop, each 1 week stop, or for what period? I think that perhaps we were very lucky as we traveled with our children and didn't do that.

10 hours ago, gypsydan said:

. I think I got the info I was looking for, s

Did you see one and take the picture here in the USA?

57 minutes ago, aztex said:

About half unknown numbers are not scams but business related.

What makes things even more difficult is the fact that spammers can now clone the source of the call as well. The caller ID of the two calls that I was posting about both did have the caller ID of  WellCare, but we were still cautious as one must be. Also, I never use an imbed link anymore as those are especially risky in either email or text. 

It might be a wise thing for any pet owner to spend some time researching the pet emergency services facilities, before the need arises. We didn't even think of that until our dog needed it and then it was truly emergency surgery. Our regular vet does a lot of surgeries but we were told he needed surgery immediately or be put-down. Under the circumstances we went to the facility that his vet recommended. We took him in on Friday afternoon and he saw a vet shortly after arrival and then had a consult by another. His surgery was at 7am on Saturday. We were not prepared for the price involved and I'm not sure what the decision would have been if we had an accurate estimate of cost. Our vet did warn us that the price would be at least $3500 and probably more, but it was a lot more. Once there and the prepay was $6000, we had to choose if our cash or our dog were more important. There was no time to do price comparisons when our dog in trouble. 

We should probably ask things like, is there a vet on duty 24/7? Is surgery performed at night or on weekends? What sort of pet recovery services after surgery or other emergency treatment? Is there a minimum cost? Do they accept pet health insurance (if you have that). What veterinary specialists are on staff? I'm sure that there are other questions to ask. 

11 hours ago, Jinx & Wayne said:

Don't answer any calls from unknown parties

The call that I was posting about was from our insurance carrier. 

I saw this picture on the Escapee Facebook as posted by someone who is there. It was about 8 am on Thursday morning. That is TX 146.

While it is true that the safety inspections end anther this year, but on the counties that have smog checks, those will continue for smog only.

4 hours ago, Randyretired said:

I received a call yesterday from my health insurance and they started the call with we need to confirm who you are and asked for my birthday and so on.  I told them first I need to confirm who you are. 

We had that very experience just 2 days ago and we each got the same call. It started with a computer that asked if I was available and the other asked Pam the same thing. The first time it happened we both declined to speak to them but about 24 hours later it happened again. Mine came in first and so I said yes and shortly a person came on the line. At that point she asked me to verify who I am and I responded that I would only do so after I had verification that she was who she claimed to be. After some stuttering, she agreed to give me the customer number she was calling about. When it was mine I then gave her my birthdate. 

22 minutes ago, MizzMarzBar said:

Veterinary Emergency Group

Link added. 

33 minutes ago, Fancyface said:

It didn’t have any power to it.

I'm wondering how you determined this? Did you measure with a volt/ohm meter and found 0V? Tell as more about the generator, as in what make and model is it? We need more information to be of much help.

38 minutes ago, Fancyface said:

We took our motorhome to camping world and asked them to go through everything,

I wish that you had come here before you did that. There are some very good RV techs around but very few of them work at CW. In general, you usually get better service from an RV shop or mobil service that only does service work and has no sales department. 

If you are in the Dallas area and need emergency health care for a dog or cat, there is an exceptionally good and well equipped facility called MedVet.  They do not do routine care only emergencies and veterinarian referrals. The hospital is on a par with the best of the human hospitals and they have at least 1 veterinarian and 2 licensed vet techs on duty 24/7 with other veterinarian specialists on call as needed. As you may surmise, they are expensive but the care is pretty much the same as you would get at any major hospital. 

Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners

I must admit that I don't remember ever checking for a veterinarian's license or any type of clinic accreditation when choosing a vet. I can say that not all vet clinics look the same here in Texas or probably any other state. On the occasions that we needed a veterinarian when we were on the road we did always get a recommendation for someone locally and the same has been true even here in Texas. Our current vet clinic was recommended by 3 of our neighbors who also have dogs and 2 of them went there after being less that satisfied at another clinic. The cost of veterinarian services has risen markedly over the years and very often the cost of needed medical care is such that a pet is put-down (a nicer way to say killed) because one can't afford necessary care. As a result, the level of care and of veterinary clinics varies widely in an effort to make such care affordable. I remember back when our youngest son spent a day with a vet as part of a HS career day, the vet he was with told him that the reason vets weren't making what medical doctors do is because of health insurance. The rise of pet insurance may well be part of the current prices. 

Just over a year ago we adopted a dog who needed to be rehomed at 7 years old. He had not had regular health care and the owners had only occasionally visited a vet shot clinic in a parking lot and nothing else. Tyson (our dog) was taken to our current vet care facility and we had him completely examined which resulting in him having 14 teeth removed, 7 of which were impacted, for a cost of $2800. He did much better after that and so things went well for the next several months. One evening when I took him out before bed he would try to pee and start crying in obvious pain. After several attempts he did finally relieve himself but the next morning he was back to see the vet. X-rays showed that he had 3 bladder stones in his urethra and several more in the bladder. Our vet said that the needed emergency surgery was more than his facility could do and that our choice was an emergency surgery clinic or put Tyson down. He recommended MedVet, Dallas and cautioned that the cost would be at least $3500, possibly more. I swallowed hard but he was a significant part of Pam's happiness and even I had become attached so off we went to get emergency surgery. The cost turned out to be $6000 but while I didn't really want to spend that much, how can you say no if you can afford to do otherwise? MedVet Dallas is an emergency hospital that is on a par with most hospitals for humans. There is at least 1 vet and 2 licensed vet techs on duty there 24/7 and they have a staff of about 20 vets or pretty much every specialty that there is. The recovery room after surgery has a vet tech for every 4 patients and the facility has all of the same equipment for pets that you find in any major hospital. They do not do routine care and are emergency or veterinarian referral only.  Had I known a year ago what Tyson was going to cost, I'd never have agreed to adopt him but what do you do once his is in the family? If you ever need emergency care for a dog or cat in the Dallas area there is none better than MedVet but it is probably also the most expensive. Tyson has turned out to be by far the most expensive pet we have ever had, and he was given to us free!

12 hours ago, kb0zke said:

and near Green River, WY.

Ultimate Guide to Take an RV into Flaming Gorge

It has been a few years since we were last there but this guide seems to be pretty accurate.

In a thread currently running on the fulltime forum, one of our newer forum members, LiiveWorkDream has given some information that to me is so important that it needs to be shared where it will be read by as many members as possible.  I am quoting the information he has shared below.

Quote

I work with the veterinary industry, and you really want to look for an AAHA-accredited vet clinic. These clinics are the only ones guaranteed to follow the highest standards of care available (unlike human hospitals, vet practices are not required to undergo any inspections from an accreditation organization. Only AAHA clinics voluntarily go through it to ensure that pets get the highest and safest levels of care).

I may be the only reader who didn't know this but since I suspect that it isn't common knowledge, am repeating it here as I believe that it is important for us to know. We are not currently traveling but we have traveled with a dog on most of our RV travels as well as when traveling by car. I also just checked to see if the vet clinic we use at present is so accredited and it is!  😊

12 hours ago, lappir said:

But do they participate on this forum?

I would say that the answer to that is pretty obvious? There is a very active Escapee Facebook page and while don't know how active it is, there is also an Xscapers Facebook page which I suspect is active as well. For some reason, even though there are still many new Escapee members who are retired and thus might be less than 60 years of age and most would be under 70, yet the number of active participants in this forum continue to dwindle. If half of the active members have responded to this poll, that means that we are down to 120 members still active. When I first joined this forum I don't know how many participants there were but I do know that there were 50 or more posts per day and now we seldom have more than 5.

I know why the number of participants of age 70 and above are declining as I know or have known many of them and most that have left have stopped RVing and more than a few are deceased. What I haven't been able to figure out is why we don't seem to attract the newly retired RV folks and what we can to about it.  I wish that I knew an answer!  

4 hours ago, Steven@146 said:

Younger folks are not thinking full time and so are not interested in Escapee's yet, and a lot of people older than 80 are hanging up the keys because of health or mobility issues.

While that was once true, have you never heard of the Xscapers Group, which is for the still working Escapee member? That is currently the fastest growing part of the Escapees RV club. When Escapees was created in 1978, most of the membership was still working and 60% of them were under the age of 50. When we first attended an Escapade about 20 years ago there were a few children there and by 2010 when Travis Carr joined the business there were almost none. But today the Xscapers are the most rapidly growing segment of the club and Escapade now has Kids Scapade specifically for children and each year since it's inception is had gotten bigger. There continue to be many retired or retiring folks joining the club but the average age of the membership is declining. That is probably a very good thing for the future of the club, even if it does leave some of us out of the mainstream today. 

That is a Blue Sea systems, single circuit switch and as the previous post states, it most likely there to isolate the coach battery. In your picture it appears to be mounted on the wall and if it is near the exit door then it ia pretty sure to be for the coach battery. If we are correct, the switch should be in the on position when you are using your coach and turned off when you put it into storage. In the off position you should not have any lights or 12V appliances. 

That can happen even if the pet is not elderly. The mini Schnauzer that we took on the road with us developed pancreatitis after only 2 years on the road and at the age of 9. Saying goodbye to her was one of the most difficult things that we experienced while on the road. 

39 minutes ago, trailertraveler said:

Looks like a Unicat 

Looks pretty close.