My family is notorious for taking the most ridiculous vacations on earth.  Imagine Chevy Chase with Grandma strapped to the roof and you are almost there.  This particular year, my mother hooked up with these strangers who camped as a large group with their RVs.  My boyfriend UTBH stood arguing for 10 minutes as they loaded our RV about whether Dad needed to purchase new tires.  Bro #1 agreed, need new tires ASAP.  Dad told us all we were ridiculous.  I now have a special affection for HWY 395.  See, I sat on the side of it for 6 hours, with the kids complaining the entire time, because we blew out a tire and the handy dandy CHP did not have the correct jack to change the tire, (of course Dad didn’t) and he accidently forgot to radio in our situation, for 5 1/2 hours.  Nice.

We arrived at the Camp Ground.  This vacation went down in the history of our family as simply being referred to as “MOO.”  My mother’s friend failed to mention the campground happened to be in the middle of a cow pasture.  Come to learn, cows have a lot to say and they converse all night long.  Imagine sleeping amongst an entire herd which not only smelled lovely but would not shut up, despite our repeatitively mooing in return.  About 2 hours into the vacation, we were all asking to please, please, please let us go home!!!  Yes, another brilliant family vacation this would be.

The kids were delivered by the idea of going fishing.  Another clear source of false advertising.  The “huge” pond turned out to be the Cow’s watering hole, with a few frogs and minnows habitating the entire 2 feet deep of water.  Wow.  By morning, as a group, we revolted and refused to speak to my mother any longer.  We had been tricked.

The only redemption lie in the fact that I brought my dirtbike.  The babies were not allowed to ride theirs at the campsite because of the whole, “don’t scare the Cows with your dirtbikes,” rule the camp ground suddenly invented.  Some strangers really arrogant son advised us there was a turn off down the road where we could check out an amazing trail.  However, he made a huge deal to warn us that “She cannot ride there.”  Uh, why not?  Arrogant man replied that only a Pro could ride the trail and I was a girl.  (Up until this moment, I was a little confused about my sex, thanks for clarifying it for me meathead.)  I smiled at him as we rode away.  

After a few attempts, UTBH and I located the entrance to the trail several miles away.  Literally, this trail started with about a 200 foot straight up, (and I mean straight up – no exaggeration here) hill covered in 20 pound large rocks, (no gravel, no dirt, just huge rocks.)  We are very close to Mammoth so this is forest terrain.  I began the climb.  This is the sort of hill that if you stop, or lose momentum, even once, you are going to slide several hundred feet straight down with your bike competing to beat you there.  To this moment, I stand in awe of the fact that I did it so easily.  There were only 1-2 moments were I thought I was going down to break some bone I hadn’t fractured quite yet.  (I have broken 19 bones and yes, many on my dirt bike.)

At the top, there is a trail which is literally about 2 feet wide, cut out of the side of a cliff and we were again, several hundred feet above the mountain floor.  Parts of the trail were muddy and made it so dangerous that one wrong move and you were not going to slide down, you were going to fall to your demise.  Each time that we approached another rider, we both had to turn our dirt bike’s engine off, (thank God for electric start on that bike,) and hug one another against the cliff side to pass.  Yes, with total strangers I did this about 5 times, trusting each other with our lives.

After about 5 miles of this slow going madness, we reached the most incredible water fall.  As I took off my helmet to sit down next to a group of men who hiked in on foot, I am suddenly surrounded.  These men could not believe I made it back there on my bike.  We returned back to the camp and barely made it back to Moo Moo Spot 19 before sunset. 

Arrogant man saunters up to us, “so, where did you guys head instead, just up the rode?”  UTBH smirks back.  “No, my girlfriend and I just left the waterfall, shame she didn’t bring her camera.”  Enough said.  This man was clearly astounded but did admit that he stood corrected.  He told my parents repeatedly over camp fire beers that night that he just could not believe that a female made that ride.  I will continue to Blog about some of the incredible places my bike took me and a lot of our adventures.  From El Mirage, to Beaumont, to Pismo Dunes, to Gorman, to Razor, to Vegas, to Barstow, to Utah, to Denver to the Rocky Mountains…I have ridden a lot of bikes in a lot of different locations and terrains with a lot of different people.  I give it up to history that this ride was by far the most challenging skill level that I ever completed.  Certainly not the most memorable, but the one where I challenged my strengths to the utmost to prove this ignorant man wrong.

My motocross moto was always, “don’t tell me what I cannot do.”  If you scroll to the next posting of pictures, the one where I am standing on a yellow bike, with a red sweater and a black jacket, (it was cold there,) this was taken right before I completed my radest ride ever.     

On the eve of this Thanksgiving, we’re especially aware of the blessings we enjoy. Here are just a few:

Pumpkins decorate the staircase of a home in Savannah's Historic District

• Friends and family who enrich our lives in countless ways, from telling rib-tickling stories to giving a consoling hug.
• The silly antics, affection and companionship of our dog Sonya.
• Doing what we love.
• The gorgeous landscapes of this country.
• The power of a smile to brighten another’s day.
• Interacting with so many wonderful people, for a few minutes, a couple hours or a lifetime.
• Our cozy, comfortable “home/office on wheels.”
• A dependable RV and car.
• Good health and strong bodies.
• Our abiding love and joy-filled life together.
• Ice cream, popcorn and chocolate!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Elvis and BB King that is.

Oct 14 found us in Memphis – birthplace of the blues and home to the famous Irish Diving Goats. We are doing our Beale Street tour in the afternoon as the forecast for this evening is for more rain. So it’s on to the trolley and away we go. OK- the goat wasn’t diving ,but here it is anyway.

Note: To save bandwidth I am cutting back on pictures. Click on the “more photos” and go to the travel 2009/10 set.

Beale St. should definitely be visited at night, nevertheless we did enjoy our time. We stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe for a drink and took in their extensive collection of music memorabilia. Needless to say a lot of the items were Elvis and Graceland related. We were considering going to Graceland, but everything we saw, and had previously read, convinced us that Graceland was a little over the top on the tacky scale. We decided to take it off our tour list.

We had made arrangements to have supper with some full time Rving friends of ours at Tom Sawyer campgrounds in West Memphis – so it was off to see Tom and Ellen Jones for supper. Their park was on the banks of the Mississippi and was easy to see the results of all the rain that had fallen over the last few weeks. The river was muddy, running fast, and full of floating trees and debris.

After a delightful supper we retired for the night at our friendly Wal Mart and listened to Dr. Doom the weather man. The long range forecast for northern Arkansas was not good so we decided to head for the Hot Springs area and possibly go digging for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park.

Author: Lisa M. Cottrell-Bentley               
Illustrator: Tanja Bauerle
Published date: August 2009
ISBN-13: 978-0-9824829-0-2
LCCN: 2009928001
100 pages, 5.25″ x 8″, paperback
Children’s Chapter Book, Ages 5-12+
Retail price: $12.99

Publisher Wright On Time Books

Wright on Time is fun learning book for kids.  My son and I sat and read a chapter or two a night together.  Sometimes He’ll read the right side of the page and I’ll read the left side.  It make it more fun.  This book had a lot of information about, gems, minerals, bats, and caves in general.

My son was especially excited over the tools the kids had to go exploring such as the hard hats and lights.  He learned a lot of new words and something about another place in the USA besides home.

I highly recommend this book to not just homeschooling parents and children but as a good family read.  We really enjoyed reading Wright on Time together and the bonding time is priceless.

Wright on Time Books is also available from Amazon.

“This is a Mama Buzz review. The product was provided by: Wright On Time Books

This is always a sad time for me.  It means that the camping season is over, and I will have to wait five or so months before the weather turns nice again. Unless of course you are one of the fortunate ones that go south before the weather turns cold. If you intend to store your RV through periods of sub-freezing weather, you will need to winterize the water system and if you don’t, damage to the water system components will occur.

Here are a few steps you need to do to your water system so it is ready to endure the cold winter temperatures.

First you need to level your unit for good drainage. Make sure your waste tanks are empty. See previous blog article. Turn your water pump off. Open all the faucets, including the outside shower if you have one and remove the drain plug on your water heater. Also open the water heater tank pop off valve to minimize the risk of an air lock and allow for fast complete tank drainage. Open all low point drains on the water lines along with the valve or plug on your fresh water tank. When all lines and tanks are drained, close your low point drain lines and turn the water heater bypass valves to the bypass position, usually vertical to the floor, and close all faucets. Don’t forget about your shower head faucet. If you forget to close your low point drains like I did during my first water system winterization, you will quickly go through a gallon of RV Antifreeze and it will all end up being on the ground! If your water heater tank does not have a by-pass kit, you can purchase one from our parts store. www.modernrv.com  Otherwise you will go through approximately 6 to 12 gallons of RV Antifreeze just to fill the water heater tank!

Next locate your water pump winterization hose. Shut the valve below the hose that goes into the fresh water tank. Open the valve to the winterization hose and place it into the RV Antifreeze bottle. Turn the pump on, then go to the faucet farthest from the tank and open it until RV Antifreeze flows out and appears non-diluted. Make sure to do both hot and cold faucets. Close the faucet and follow the same procedure at each faucet, (including the toilet) till RV Antifreeze flows non-diluted from each, including the outside shower if you have one. When complete turn your water pump off, remove the RV Antifreeze pump hose and turn off the hose valve. 

Make sure you fill the p-traps (sink drains etc.) with approximately 1 cup of non-diluted RV Antifreeze. If you do not have a RV Antifreeze pump hose located on your pump you will then need to manually pump the RV Antifreeze in usually through the outside fresh water hose connection.  If you are concerned about extreme cold temperatures you may want to blow the water lines out with low pressure compressed air before you pump in the RV Antifreeze. Don’t just rely on blowing the water lines out with compressed air and call it a day. It is highly recommended that you use RV Antifreeze through out the water system.

The RV Antifreeze hand pump and RV Antifreeze can be purchased in our parts store. www.modernrv.com/Parts.html Be sure to use a good RV/Marine Antifreeze with superior corrosion inhibitor. This will protect the pump and drain seals.

If you don’t want to hassle with all that, then feel free to contact our service department at: service@modernrv.com

Well, it seems like only yesterday we pulled the rig into our winter home site… oh yes, it was only yesterday!

After a very very busy summer and a rather exciting haul to Texas, I find myself falling behind in everything from silly forwards clogging the inbox to posting here. I apologize to those who emailed me with “Where are you?” and “Did you give up RVing?” emails. It’s just been a rather busy year. Quite frankly, I’m surprised we are already headed for December and 2010!

So I promise to post more in the weeks ahead. After all, you need to know about our crazy search for RV tires, our disappointment in Camping World (the one in Roanoke), tropical storm Ida and all the latest campground news!

I also will try to get caught up on campground reviews and posting photos. And for those who wanted more “inside” information on workamping – I’ll be sure to post more pieces regarding the lifestyle.

Meanwhile, I wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving holiday!

Since the early 90’s, Grammy nominated remixer/ producer Richard Vission continues to rock dance floors around the world with his remixes of major artists like David Bowie and Lady Gaga (to name a few), as well as his hot new original release ‘I Like That’ with Static Revenger and Luciana on vocals. Over the last decade, Vission consistently ranks as one of the Top 30 DJs in the U.S. His label ‘Solmatic Records’ has grown from releasing some of the top underground bangers of the year to chart busting releases with a roster of high profile artists.

Vission has amassed an extensive résumé of remixes and original productions to his credit, many of which have charted well on the U.S. dance charts. In addition, he was a member of dance music acts ‘The Movement’ and ‘Pure Sugar’. Richard also co-hosts a weekly radio show in L.A. with Swedish Egil entitled ‘The Power Tools Mix Show’ on KPWR (Power 106). His accomplishments in the dance music scene seem endless; even with a hectic schedule, Vission was kind enough to let us unmix his past, present and future.

CD: Richard, you were solely responsible for introducing me to dance music back in the early 90’s. How did you first get introduced into this genre?
RV: I went and heard Frankie Bones in the early 90’s and that night changed my life. My mind was blown away with all this music I had never heard before. I went to the record store the next day and said, “I want some house music”. They gave me ‘I’ll House You’ – Jungle Brothers, ‘Can You Feel It’ - Todd Terry and ‘This Is Acid’ – Maurice Joshua.

CD: You were born in Toronto, Ontario and raised in the LA area, what were you into as a kid?
RV: I was a Bee Gees and Kiss fan. I’ve always had my foot in both doors. My mom, who is a piano and flute teacher, listened to a lot of Jazz, so I learned to appreciate artist like Miles Davis at an early age.

CD: You helped bring dance music to the LA airwaves with the introduction of Power Tools on Power 106 back in 1992; are you still
part of the line-up?
RV: Yes! yes! We do Powertools every week on Power 106 in Los Angeles. We are starting to syndicate it to a few different cities. I mix the first hour and we have guest DJ’s for the 2nd hour. Swedish Egil and I host the show.

CD: We’ve been seeing and hearing a lot of collaboration between hip hop and dance music artists lately; being in the mix, where did you see this collaboration start?
RV: This type of collaboration was happening in the early 90’s with artist like Jungle Brothers, Technotronic, Monie Love and Snap rapping over house beats. We are seeing a lot more of this now because I think there’s a great appreciation for dance music in the U.S. again, and thus peeps like LMFAO, BEP’s and Luciana are doing there thing now.

CD: As a Grammy nominated remixer/producer you remixed everyone under the sun from David Bowie to Lady Gaga. Who’s next?
RV: This week I finished Blackeye Peas – ‘Meet Me Halfway’, Lady Gaga – ‘Bad Romance‘, Aoki -’I’m In The House‘, JamX Beam – ‘Vace ‘Pressure‘ which is coming out on Solmatic.

CD: You have been consistently ranking within the Top 30 DJ lists for the last 10 plus years, what’s your secret?
RV: Honestly, I don’t really care about lists; they are not important to me. I love what I do. I work hard at what I do and more importantly, I care about what I do.

CD: Earlier this summer you released “I Like That” through your label Solmatic Records. You got to work with Luciana who was the vocal star behind Bodyrox – Yeah Yeah. How was it working with Luciana?
RV: Luciana is f#cking amazing! We’ve written a few other songs with her…she is sick! We might get her out to LA for 2 months and knock out another album.

CD: Who wrote the words to “I Like That”? Was it you or Static Revenger?
RV: I had written a few ideas that I thought weren’t very good and sent them over to Static Revenger and he keyed in on one of the phrases and said, “this is it”! I thought he was f#ckin with me – after I heard how he wanted to use it, it was cool. If it wasn’t for him, we could’ve had a song called, “why did you give her your number” – not as cool.

CD: How much acclaim has this single received by the not only the dance community but the industry?
RV: It’s crazy how peeps have responded to it. It’s being released by EMI Europe in 23 different countries and by Vicious in Australia. We have some sick remixes coming from Angger Dimas, David Garcia and Ant Brookes. It will be on a major label in the U.S. come January 2010.

CD: The video for “I Like That” is fun, what were you going for in the direction of that video?
RV: Static Revenger directed the video. It was all his vision. He is an amazing director. He just did a killer video for my artist Vassy as well. What’s cool about the ‘I Like That’ video is that it was shot here and in London. We never met Luciana til she came to LA a couple months ago, after we had done a song and video. It’s almost like having sex with someone and then an hour later saying, “whats your name?” Weird, but kinda cool.

CD: What would your dream performance be?
RV: I think playing at a small club while having U2’s Bono sing over some of my beats, Prince playing his guitar over the breakdowns and Gene Simmons stand next to me, sticking out his tongue every time I mixed. This could happen…hellooo

CD: What can we expect from Richard Vission in 2010?
RV: There will be a follow up to ‘I Like That’ – possibly a whole album. I have a few singles I’ll be releasing as well called: ‘Never Be Alone’, ‘Get Down’ and ‘Far Away’. I will also be producing and co-writing Vassy’s album (myspace.com/vassymusic) which is coming out on Ultra records…thats more on the pop tip. I’m sure there will be a couple of remixes sprinkled in there somewhere.

READ MORE at www.clubdistrict.com/blog/p2

I am obviously going to have to pick up the pace of posting in order to get more or less up to date. So I will zoom from Chatham, Ontario to Dayton, Ohio and the United States Air Force Museum.

The museum was better than the favourable comments we had read. It contains over 200 airplanes and if you count the missiles you will see about 300 displays. Just to put this in context for Canadian readers – the RCAF has 333 operational aircraft. It has everything from the Wright Bros. to Stealth fighters and even the Lunar Lander Command Module. My only problem was taking hand held photos without a powerful flash.

The two planes that stuck in my mind were JFK’s Air Force One that flew him to Dallas and the super fortress “Bockscar” that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and ended WW2.

Our next major stop was to be Lexington Kentucky, however our RV park of choice was not renting any sites. They were afraid customers would get stuck. That damned rain keeps following us. So it was on to the Bourbon trail.

We stopped at the Heavenly Hills Museum of Bourbon. A lengthy and informative tour was followed by a free tasting of 7 and 13 year old bourbon. Jane does not like bourbon so a drank her samples – I did not want to offend our host.

Allstate Motor Club has been in business since 1961 and is affiliated with Allstate Insurance Company. They are one of the most trusted companies for roadside benefits. With your membership you will enjoy reimbursement for towing and roadside service, trip planning, an arrest bond certificate, theft reward, Accidental Death Insurance and payment for legal services. In recent years they have made some upgrades to there membership programs that include nationwide dispatch services and there customer service center. Now members can manage there membership 24 hours a day online with there new website.  For new members it’s easy to join right online and start immediately earning the benefits Allstate has to offer. They have five plans to choose from, Platinum Elite, Deluxe, Roadside Advantage, Road Security and RV Roadhelp Plans. With these plans you don’t have to worry if you get locked out of your vehicle, need a tow, tires are low on air, out of gas, need a jump start or if you are just stuck far from home. Wherever you are going you will always feel safe knowing you have Allstate to call.

Used for RVsdone

I’m giving my kudos to PayPal, or rather the creator of PayPal.  I do not have many “good” experience’s in the customer service department, I don’t expect too much, just help, tell me where the walnut oil is, you don’t even have to take me to the isle, just tell me what isle it’s in.  Don’t tell me you’re not sure if you carry it unless you’re going to follow that up with actually finding out if the store carries it.  Just an example, I could go on, but I’m sure you either know what I’m talking about because of your own experience or you have mastered the customer “no” service yourself.  I ordered a patch repair kit for our camper.  Of course I needed for a trip to the coast so I, preparing ahead of time, looked for it a month ahead of the trip.  I’m organized like that.  First placed I ordered from failed to mention they only sell in bulk & canceled my order.  Why oh why then can you ORDER only one then?  One week down.  Next place, they won’t sell the small patch size I need, so I order the smallest they sell, 4″x5′.  Long story short, I don’t get the usual emails from the company saying , order submitted, order shipped, here’s your tracking number, etc.  So I contact them asking for a tracking number.  No response.  I email again, this time with a “HELLO?”.  No response.  So one more time telling them I will have to contact PayPal if I don’t hear back by the end of the next business day.  No response.  I reported it to PayPal, they took care of everything, the day after I reported it to PayPal the company had shipped my patch.  Not getting it until the day after we got back from our trip & the fact that my “one” patch is actually SIX 4″x60″ patches, does not change the fact that without PayPal that place would have just screwed me over.  I guess now I can sell all the extra patches on ebay & be ensured I’ll get payment from people through PayPal.  Yay!

By the way, don’t use these guys.  http://www.anythingrv.com/

By the last week in Sept we were developing a severe case of “hitch itch” or the class C motor home equivalent. It’s possible the weather wasn’t as bad as I make out, but this had become an all to familiar sight:

Flocks of confused gulls wondering why these mini lakes kept appearing and disappearing . So the decision was made – move on in search of better fall weather.

Unfortunately we never found it. Kingston, Peterborough, Goderich, Sarnia, Wallaceburg, – either raining when we arrived or shortly after. You don’t really live in a 24’ class c you live out of it. So sunshine is always appreciated – rain isn’t. We did, however, have a few nice days. One of them was when we passed through Napanee and stopped at the municipal park for lunch:

Stop and see the Peterborough lift locks if you are travelling in the area , especially if you are interested in large mechanical things:

Wikipedia has a good explanation of it’s operation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterborough_Lift_Lock

By mid Oct. we were in Chatham and after studying our maps and listening to the weather reports it was decided to move on.

It’s the time of year to get that RV back in shape for some winter camping trips!! Here are some general tips that will help to steer you towards a stress-free season on the road:

1. Clean it up and air it out:  Open all roof vents and windows and then remove any pest control items you may have placed during storage.
2. Check for damage: Look for deterioration of seals around doors, roof vents and windows and reseal as necessary.
3. Check all lights. Make sure headlights, taillights, brake lights and turn signals are all functioning properly.
4. Examine the hitch system for wear, loose bolts and cracks.
5. Inspect the tires. Check for cracks, worn treads and correct tire pressure.
6. Inspect the engine. Change the engine oil, spark plugs, and filters.
7. Check the battery.
8. Drain and flush the entire system of the nontoxic antifreeze you used before placing the RV into storage and replace with the proper coolant.
9. Check for cracks in hoses and fan belts and replace if necessary.
10. Flush the water system.