Home at Fawn Lake

Our trip that began May 15 ended about 4:00 PM June 22 when we parked the motor home in its storage space here at Fawn Lake. We had an uneventful drive home along US 17. We were happy to avoid Sunday traffic on highway I-64. We did a bumper-to-bumper three mile stretch on I-95; that was more than enough.

We will be unpacking, sorting, cleaning and re-packing for several days. The next outing is likely the ODC camp out July 17. We will enjoy being home until then.

Grey's Point RV Park

This is really an upscale RV park. We were here last year, and it is good to see improvements are still being made. Sites were assigned when reservations were made, so we are a little scattered over several rows. The sites are open so that we can move about easily. The park erected a large tent canopy for us to use for meals, meetings, etc. This is an active summer weekend and the water park is particularly busy.

Friday was a rest day for us. By 'happy hour' (4:00 PM) most of the folks had arrived. We had a good crowd under the tent. It was good to see folks we had not seen since April. Two new couples have joined us for the weekend: Greg and Marianne and Gil and Rosemary are first timers with our group. We hope they will become members and regular attendees. We capped the day with dinner at a local seafood restaurant. The crab cakes were excellent. Thunderstorms came again Friday night.

The Trip Captains provided a terrific breakfast Saturday morning. The Second Annual ODC Hogs Motorcycle Ride began about 10:00 AM. We non-riders cheered the hogs on as they roared out of the park. Others spent the day at the pool and others went shopping. There were some of us who chose to do nothing. A perfect weather day made everyone's choice the right one. Happy Hour was followed by our business meeting and then a pot luck dinner. Rain began before dinner and continued through the meal, but we stayed dry under the canopy. We sure eat well.

Tomorrow morning we will have a 'gotta-go' breakfast when everyone is encouraged to bring left-over food items that 'gotta-go' before we go home. Most everyone will be gone by 11:30 AM. This has been a great weekend, but we will be happy to be going home. It's time!

Indiana to Virginia

Randy took the coach Monday morning and finished up the punch list. Janice had raised a question about some trim molding over the main slide. This piece had been replaced by the dealer. Randy took out the earlier replacement and expressed his disgust at such a sloppy repair.

Tuesday was paint day. The coach went to the paint shop for several 'fixes'. Fortunately, we did not have to go to a motel for the night, although we were packed and ready. The coach was returned by 3:00 PM. We tried to find Bud to see if we were done. We located him as he was quitting for the day; he said he would see us in the morning. The work is never finished until the paperwork is done.

We slept well Tuesday night believing we would be leaving on Wednesday. We awoke at the regular time and prepared the coach for travel. A problem arose as we were wrapping up travel preparations: the refrigerator was showing an error code. We called Bud, and he had Randy come over. Randy re-set the computer and wished us a safe trip.

We waited for Bud in the lounge. About 8:30 AM Bud said we could leave when ready. We said farewell to our fellow lounge lizards and headed out the door. We took the coach to the dump station one more time and kept going toward the open highway.

Wednesday was warm and sunny with no rain. We drove about nine hours and reached Charleston, WV before stopping at a Wal-Mart for the night. This was a good stop: plenty of parking room and quiet. We slept well.

Thursday we decided to go all the way to Grey's Point in Topping, VA. We arrived around 3:30 PM and were parked across from the Halsteads and Mathenys already here. Nine other ODC member rigs are scheduled to arrive tomorrow. It should be a great weekend, if the weather cooperates.

Soon after dinner (beans and franks at Halsteads), we had a thunderstorm. It was intense for about twenty minutes, then gone. The sunshine returned until dusk and we saw an amazing sight: a cloud with a silver lining. It was beautiful and most unusual. After dark, rain began again and continued most of the hours following. We should know by morning whether our leaks are all repaired. It is good to be back in Virginia with friends.

We are the last two ODC folks to return from the West Virginia Samboree. Remember? That is how this trip began May 15.

Camp Monaco Revisited

Friday ended up being pretty much a “lounge” day. After Bud made his surprise visit and Randy came to pick up the coach, we scurried off to the Cock-A-Doodle Restaurant for a late nine o’clock breakfast. The place was packed with a totally different crowd than seen at 7:00 AM. We lingered over several extra cups of coffee before returning to the lounge to meet the current “lizard” denizens of Camp Monaco. Faces are different, pets are different, but stories are similar to the folks we met during our last visit. Our quiet day ended with a thunder storm that we hardly noticed; compared to the storms in Iowa, this was a non-event. We did enjoy the rain on the roof, and slept well Friday night.

A cloudless blue sky Saturday morning inspired us to get outside and be tourists. We set a course to two parks that make up Indiana Dunes: Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and the Indiana Dunes State Park on the shores of Lake Michigan. This area is a natural treasure for recreation in summer and winter: beach and water activities, hiking, golfing, education, and touring many unusual attractions. Our time there was brief because we only were able to drive through the area: parking lots were at capacity on this beautiful Saturday in June.

We drove along the beach as much as possible occasionally avoiding dead-end beach-front roads by turning inland. Michigan City, IN, at the north end of the Dunes, was disappointing. Earlier, we planned to stay there for several nights thinking it was a beach town. It isn’t that at all. We continued north to New Buffalo, MI which is a beach town.

New Buffalo, MI is, more accurately, a resort town for the wealthy. The streets are filled with Mercedes, BMW, and Lexus automobiles from Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and elsewhere. The marina has hundreds of boats from small to very large and waterfront condos that look very expensive. We ate lunch at The Stray Dog Bar & Grill. This waterfront restaurant has inside, patio, and roof top dining. The dog theme is carried throughout. The wait staff wears T-shirts with “Sit, Stay” emblazoned on the back. When Ralph asked directions to the restroom, the waitress said, “Go through that door until you get to the red hydrant.” She paused for effect effectively, and then added: “Men to the left, women to the right”. That’s a hoot! The food was good too.

We enjoyed seeing southern Michigan on our return trip. We were back in time for a nap before watching U.S. Open Golf on TV. The days are getting longer and the sun does not set here until after 9:00 PM. There were many folks walking the park and sitting outside. We did both before closing down for the night. It was a gorgeous day: no rain.

Sunday is a “sleep in” day at Camp Monaco, but there is always someone who cranks his diesel engine at 7:00 AM. Several coaches have departed and more will be arriving before the day is over. We have noticed that a few parking spaces remain empty throughout the week. Also, we are continually asked by the service writers, “Is there anything else you need done?” The technicians need work and the facility is not overcrowded. The assumption is: “Get as much billable work as possible from those here. We cannot be sure, when or if, there will be more”.

Two thunder storms passed through Sunday: Heavy winds set the stage early in the morning and were followed by drenching rain that pelted our coach for about an hour; A second storm came in the evening with dark skies, thunder, lightning and more rain. In between storms we had sunshine and blue skies. It was a strange day. We didn't know how strange until the 11:00 PM local news. We learned that baseball-size hail fell in Mishawaka about three miles from us. Automobiles were severely damaged by the hail. Imagine what that would have done to forty of Monaco's finest motor coaches all in one place.

Sunday was a TV remote holder's delight: NASCAR race in Michigan, U.S. Open golf in San Diego, and the NBA Finals in Los Angeles. Pretty exciting stuff, especially the Open.

Monday morning dawned bright, sunny and warm. We turned the coach over to Randy at 6:30 AM, had breakfast at the Cock-A-Doddle, and have settled into the lounge with other lizards. We hope to be out of here no later than Thursday morning.

Iowa to Indiana

It is Friday morning June 13, and it is raining. But, we are in Indiana, not Iowa. This rain is different because our circumstances are different. We are parked on asphalt, not grass and gravel. There are no floods around us, no high water, no closed roads and bridges, and no immediate threat of tornadoes. What a difference a day makes.

Folks at the Monaco rally made a lot of decisions Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Some left the campground early while others pulled in coach slides, pulled down curtains, and hunkered down. Some stayed awake to see the tornado they were sure was coming, and others went to bed with clothes and flashlights close by in case they had to evacuate during the night. Everyone had two choices to get out of Amana: north to Cedar Rapids or south to I-80 via SR 151.

The storm arrived about 5:00 AM with thunder, lightning, and torrential rain. Thankfully, we had no tornado. The storm was mostly over by 7:00 AM, but the rain lingered. Coaches began leaving at first light and the numbers increased as the hours passed. By 10:00 AM, when we left, the rain had subsided to sprinkles and campground roads were beginning to drain.

News reports were discouraging. Fifteen miles to our north, Cedar Rapids, IA was flooded. A railroad bridge across the Cedar River had collapsed and rail cars were in the water. Only one bridge for cars was open through town, and authorities were telling people to stay out of Cedar Rapids. To the south, the Iowa River overflow was across Route 151, but the road was still open. East-West Route 220 connecting the Amana Colonies was closed by high water.

We chose to go south on Route 151 to I-80. The first half hour was tense, as we did not know when the road might be closed. A delay occurred exiting the campground. A coach in front of us was crossing a flooded road when it suddenly stopped. The driver sloshed through the water to his tow vehicle and began working the tow bar. While he played in the water, a long line of coaches had formed behind him with no way to pass. Finally, this water soaked driver pulled away only to stop again outside the park for more repairs. We were able to pass by and continue southward.

Route 151 had one to two feet of water across it. DOT workmen were on both sides of the 200-yard breach when we arrived. They were prepared to close the road or to assist a driver who stalled in the water. We crossed with care and only relaxed when we reached I-80 later.

Rain showers stayed with us to Davenport, IA. The passenger side windshield wiper quit working during that part of the trip. Just what we needed: another item for the repair list. Our trip across Illinois and into Indiana was dry with sunshine and blue skies. We changed plans en route and decided to go directly to Elkhart rather than find a campground near Chicago.

Fuel makes the wheels go round, and we wanted a full tank when we docked. Indiana has tax-exempt (TE) fuel pumps for truck drivers; RV drivers do not qualify for this 40-cent per gallon discount. Some stations allow RV use of the TE pump, but at the non-TE price; other stations do not. We had to use an auto-diesel, non-TE pump. The small nozzle took a long 15-minutes to fill the top half of the tank. Only a few seconds were needed to smell the cargo in a truck fueling in the next lane. The trailer was filled with pigs: snorting, stinking, fat pigs. The pigs were still there when we left, but the odor lingered with us for several miles.

We arrived at Camp Monaco around 6:00 PM and settled into familiar surroundings. Several folks that we left here a week ago are still here. Some apparently are homesteading here and have no interest in leaving. Dinner at Hiennie's Restaurant was relaxing and good.

This morning we registered for our Monday appointment. To our surprise, Bud, our service writer, came to the coach early and had the techs working on it today. Hopefully, this will shorten our stay next week. We have another paint shop visit scheduled, and that could take two days.

A sad sign of the times in Elkhart was evident on SR 19 this morning. Two weeks ago Sun Coast RV had a lot full of motor homes and other vehicles. Today, this Monaco dealer is no more: the lot is empty and the office is closed. In Elkhart, the economy is a very big issue.

The weekend is ahead, and we are not sure what we will be doing. We'll make it up as we go along.

Severe Weather Again

The rally that brought us to Iowa ended about an hour ago with a performance by Ron and Kay Rivoli who provided a great conclusion to an exciting rally. This couple is a favorite of Monaco America. They gave us three different and enjoyable concerts this week. We hope to see them again down the road.

Tonight we are under another tornado watch until 2:00 AM. Heavy rains are falling to the west and flooding is everywhere. It is all heading this way. Waterloo and Cedar Rapids have both ordered mandatory evacuations and curfews. The Whirlpool plant here in Amana is still open, but their parking lots are under water. Employees have been parking their cars on a road around our RV park. The workers are shuttled to and from the plant by school buses. Forecasters are predicting 2-6 inches of rain could fall tonight. In the morning we will re-assess our situation and decide whether to head east or stay here.

We will pull in the slides tonight and button everything down. Local TV is our best information source. We'll be watching.

Wraping Up

Tuesday was a remarkable day: no rain and much sunshine. Iowa can be beautiful with cloudless blue skies from horizon to horizon. Sunglasses and happy smiles were a welcomed change.

Rally activities kept us busy all day Tuesday. The meals continue to be excellent with breakfast portions sufficient until dinner. We attended seminars most of the day, each to one's interest. Both of us heard about travel to the Canadian Maritimes and to Alaska. We met two couples that leave here for Alaska.

Yesterday was also election day for our club. Several officers were re-elected, but many of the positions will have new people for the coming year. Volunteers make the club and its rallies work, and we have some dedicated folks. One big issue at the business meeting was how to get folks to attend the fall rally in Lodi, CA. A special mailing to members in the western states will be done in coming weeks. The responses will determine whether the rally can be held. Distance and fuel costs are big factors.

Between seminars yesterday, we went to town to the Amana Meat Market and Chocolate Shop. These are two "must visit" places, and we left some money at each. We also had an ice cream social at the coach display area and a pet parade for all the four-legged critters that travel in motor homes. Our entertainer last night was Sarah Getto, an amazing story of an extremely talented girl who has overcome major handicaps to bring joy to many people.

Today, Wednesday, is the last day of the rally. Most of us will be on the road tomorrow. Rain is in the forecast for today and tomorrow. What little inconvenience the weather has cause us is nothing. There are communities all around us with major flooding and damage from wind and tornadoes. We have been fortunate, and we are thankful. Tomorrow we all begin a new adventure.

Rain, Rain, Rain

Friday was dry, but that all ended during the night and Saturday morning was wet indeed. We are having record rain, thunder storms, and tornadoes too close for comfort. We understand now, through this experience, what defines "severe weather". Many of us pull in our slides at night and during the day, if the forecast merits it. This reduces the rocking the coach, reduces the wear on the slide awnings, and provides a better seal to keep the rain outside.

We keep an ear to the radio for tornado watches, warnings, and general weather developments.Cedar Rapids, 16 miles north, has major flooding. A tornado touched down 20 miles to our west and another one was on the ground 20 miles to our north. This made for an exciting weekend. There is a Jeep across from our site that has a bright yellow canoe strapped to its roof. If the rain keeps up, we may be using the canoe for transport.

Yesterday, Sunday, began with a worship service here at the facility. Three members organized and led some singing, a devotional, and testimony time that was very nice. We had planned to attend a gospel music concert in the afternoon, but we were preempted by a Monaco tech who came to fix a kitchen faucet leak. He made a project out of it by replacing the entire assembly. This required cutting a larger hole in the Corian and three trips back to the trailer for tools, parts, etc. Janice claimed he took his time because we had the NASCAR race on TV. Once done, we like the result. The technicians all came here from Elkhart. We recognized some, and will likely see them again next week.

Amana has several restaurants that offer traditional German food. We elected to try the Brick Haus yesterday for a late lunch/early dinner. We ate far more than necessary, and it was so good. One meal like this is sufficient for the whole day.

Last evening, the official rally welcome brought us all together in the Morton building. This is a large metal building where we eat our meals, hold seminars, see performances, etc. Soon after we assembled, the storms hit. Wind and rain, thunder and lightning cascaded and roared about the building. It was an unsettling experience and especially so when the electricity went off. Darkness inside made the electrical display outside even more dramatic. There was a collective cheer when the lights were restored.

The rally is going well today with meals, seminars, vendors, and visiting ongoing. Everyone seems to take the weather in stride even as we try to walk without sinking ankle deep into puddles and wet grass. There is a vendor washing coaches, and he is getting many more customers than one might expect. Strange.

We seem to have an excellent caterer here. Breakfast was good this morning, and we have been promised an array of German meals through the week. Two of the entertainers have a long relationship with this group. We heard them in Tucson, AZ in 2006, and they are excellent. This week is off to a good start. Tomorrow is election day when we select leaders for the coming year. There will be several changes, but the core group will remain in place.

More later.

Wind , Wind, Wind

"The Nerd" was a lot of fun last night. The theater is within walking distance of the park even though it is outside the park. The cast was excellent and our group probably outnumbered all others in the audience.

The wind continues to whip across the campground, but we have been dry...no rain since Friday AM. It is hot here, but not like back in Virginia. Temperature and humidity are high. The wind gives relief from the heat, but it is strong enough to make walking difficult. More severe weather is forecast to our west. We could see rain later tonight.

We drove through the villages of the Amanas (Amana, Middle Amana, High Amana, West Amana, and South Amana) today to see what is available. We saw the Whirlpool factory where Amana appliances are made and the beautiful farm country characteristic of this region. It was a most pleasant drive.

A "pot luck" tonight kicks off the rally's social schedule. We officially begin tomorrow evening, but this dinner is for the early birds. We sleep; we eat; we repeat. Whatta life!!!

Closing Up & Moving On

Tuesday and Wednesday were productive days. The techs got serious about solving the problems confirmed during their test drive with us. Tuesday they discovered the headlight problem was caused by an improperly wired fix done previously. The sloshing water took extraordinary measures (finally) to locate the water. It was in a tube in the frame and was located by drilling test holes until water was discovered. Once found a pump was attached and more than a half gallon was removed. Please don't ask how the water got into the tube.

Four items remain unresolved: Tri-Mark door system does not do what it is supposed to do; the Weldex system still goes out after continuous operation; the Power Gear leveling system needs new sensors (on order);and, a crack has appeared in the metal trim around the main slide. These will all be addressed when we return June 16.

Current work was finished Wednesday afternoon when the techs ran it through the rain tunnel one more time to check for leaks. Kim needed more time to finish the paperwork and asked us to come in at 9:30 AM Thursday.

By 9:00 AM Thursday, the car was hooked to the coach and we were ready to leave. There is a truism at Camp Monaco that all customers recite, “You aren’t finished until the paperwork is done”. The service writer goes over, in detail, every item discussed and/or worked on during your visit, collects any money due, and gives you a copy of all the paper. Before you know it, you are released from Camp Monaco and are on your way to another adventure. We were away at 10:00 AM en route to a refueling station.

Interstate highways are in poor condition. We find this true wherever we go, and I-80 is no exception. We were shaken, rattled, and bumped about periodically as we traveled. There are sections of smooth road that give hope of eventual improvement, but these only tease the senses and quickly give way to broken and rutted pavement.
It was apparent, as we neared our destination, that we had terrible directions to the campground. Miss Garmin was confused by the street address, registration papers did not have directions, and we resorted to the directions in the Trailer Life Directory. These were worse. After several wrong turns, we called the campground for help. That worked. We arrived about 6:00 PM EDT. Parking was an experience.

We got an education about parking in a field at West Virginia’s Samboree. We vowed that if offered field parking here, we would decline. Iowa has been having major rain, tornadoes, and severe weather for a week. At registration, Janice was told, “The site we had reserved for you is under water. We need to find another”. After several minutes, site P-8 was selected. The “parking committee” led us in and directed us into a gravel (newly filled) site. After the “committee” left, we repositioned the coach so that all six wheels were on the gravel. The grass all around is saturated with water, and more is expected.

The late evening weather forecast had tornadoes and severe weather on the ground in the Des Moines area, about 100-miles west of our location. We expected more rain, and it came about 2:00 AM this morning. We had closed the main slide before going to bed and closed the two bedroom slides when we awoke to the wind rocking the coach. The rain was wind driven and pelting the coach from all directions. This morning the sky is blue, yet the wind continues to blow. No tornadoes, but who needs that?

The rally has 93 coaches registered with about a third already here. The official start day is Sunday, but folks come early to make the travel more worthwhile. (Diesel was $4.85 per gallon in Indiana) We are going to the Creamery Theater tonight to see a show “The Nerd”. We have no idea what it is, but many of the early arrivals here will be going. It should be fun. We’ll tell you about it later.

Closing the Deal ... Still

We returned to the campground Monday around 2:30 PM expecting our coach to be parked among the other rigs. It wasn't. We learned it had gone to the paint shop and would be returned later. By 4:00 PM, it was delivered. The paint shop was necessary to repair three damaged spots caused when the tech's tools had slipped while the awnings were being repaired.

We decided to take a test drive that evening since we had not driven the coach since May 21, and we wanted to check out some of the repair work before we left Camp Monaco in the morning. The test drive did not go well. The 'antenna up' dash light came on as we drove in the campground; it flashed on and off throughout the trip. As we exited the parking area, we heard the water sloshing overhead. These items were supposed to have been corrected over a week ago.

We drove south on SR 19 listening for the door squeak: thankfully, no squeak. Rain began falling so we turned on windshield wipers and headlight; both worked. We drove to US 20 Bypass for a different road surface. The headlights went out unexpectedly about 20 minutes in the trip. The Weldex cameras and monitor became useless as water blurred out the images before the system shut down and had no picture. All these items were on our original punch and had been reported as repaired. We returned to the campground frustrated and discouraged.

Rain continued through the night. We did not sleep well thinking about what we would face Tuesday morning. We didn't know how bad it would be. Remember, we had a major leak over the dinette window when we arrived. The window had been removed, resealed, and re-installed. This morning the water had puddled on the table-side shelf under that window.

Kim came by early and was incredulous to hear our story. The tech's arrived a short time later. We thought they were picking up the coach, and we prepared to leave. Dirk and John asked us to stay and take a test drive with them. We drove the same route that we had taken the night before with exactly the same results, except the Weldex system did not fail. It was not raining. They couldn't believe everything we had told them was true. Back to the shop for more work.

We will not be leaving today; we may not leave tomorrow. We are frustrated, but not angry. We have met other owners, fellow lounge lizards, who are in similar circumstances. We have invested two weeks of time here, and we expect better results. We will 'hang in' for a couple more days. We do not want to go down the road and come right back.

Closing the Deal

Friday turned out to be an eventful day. We met with Kim early to go over the punch list. It was reduced to a few items to work and several questions yet to be answered. The shop foreman, Rich, told us they would finish Friday; Kim told us it would be Monday at the earliest. The coach was returned at the usual time. The techs must have been in a hurry to get to happy hour, because they left a drop-cloth under the steering wheel.

We had an early dinner at a Texas Roadhouse near I-80/I-90. Storm warnings were everywhere. The weather channel had shown possible tornadoes in Iowa heading to Illinois and then Indiana. By early evening, the tornadoes were to our south, but we were in the path of severe weather. It arrived soon after Ralph went to the lounge to solve a communication problem on the computer. Janice was in the coach as the winds roared through and the rain came in torrents. She tried to call Ralph to tell him to come back, but he was on the phone to Direct TV. His call lasted over 40 minutes, and when he finished, the storm had passed. Good news: through the wind and rain, the coach did not leak.

Saturday was a sleep-in day, and we also wanted to drive to South Bend to see the Notre Dame University campus. We enjoyed excellent weather as we made the 16-mile trip. Miss Garmin took us into the back side of the city. We went through some rundown sections before the beauty of the campus came into view. This was Reunion Weekend on campus and there were many alumni walking the campus. We drove those roads we could; the interior roadways are ‘pedestrian only’. We saw the stadium, the “Touchdown Jesus” mural, and the “Golden Dome” on the administration building.

Downtown South Bend is a typical college town with many bars, restaurants, and businesses that support the university and students. Additionally, the community is home to the College Football Hall of Fame. We spent about 90-minutes touring the museum. The tour was excellent in every way. The quality of the museum is impressive and any football fan would enjoy this place.

We had planned to take the coach on a test drive to check out the squeaky front door. We needed to dump the holding tanks as a prelude to travel. When we closed the coach slides, the awning over one of the bedroom slides failed to retract; it rolled up on the roof. We emptied the tanks, but canceled the test ride.

Sunday dawned as another beautiful blue sky day. It seemed a perfect day to wash the coach. We still had mud from West Virginia on tires and under wheel wells and a lot of dust and dirt on windows and side panels. Lots of folks came by to invite us to wash their rigs, but we declined. A new couple arrived and told us they had been in South Dakota on Wednesday and had 3-inches of snow; they need a wash also. Both of us worked several hours to clean the coach, and then rested watching the NASCAR race.

We celebrated our daughter Amy's birthday Sunday evening with dinner at Papa Vino’s. This is a must visit place for anyone in this area. It is in Mishawaka about 10-miles west of Elkhart. Everything about the place is remarkable: service, food quality, and price. We highly recommend it.

This morning, Monday, is another great weather day. Ralph saw Kim walking the campground at 6:30 AM and told her about the awning problem. She immediately called Rich who sent Dirk to the coach. Dirk told us we were not scheduled for service today; we were finished on Friday. This is a surprise to us, and we have asked Kim for a meeting. Dirk did take the coach in to repair the awning. So we wait.