MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS *C* Compartments, Lace and Pizza

I am going to start off the new year with posting three of our motorhome modifications at a time. I will post repairs, modifications, or neato things we have found for RVing.  I have lots of pics in my files so I will do them in alphabetical order.

Underneath that stuff, I will post my regular daily stuff..... kinda sorta fun, eh?

So here it goes, we are up to the letter C now!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER C

Compartments:

(this is a long one, so I will only do one *C* today instead of 3)

Actually that is a mis-nomer because our rig doesn't really have compartments like most motorhomes or trailers, it's one huge storage basement wide open from axle to axle and side to side. 

Some folks have asked me about how much storage we have or how we organize our basement compartment.  It seems their rigs never having enough room, or they are worrying about cargo carrying capacity weight issues.   When I tell them that is not an issue with us, they have a hard time believing it.  

While newer rigs have multiple slides, which are very weighty by themselves, they also have storage issues with the slide mechanisms taking up valuable space.  We don’t have the slides, so we have more than enough storage area in the basement of our rig, and weight is not a problem.  

Even with all our tanks full, (propane, fuel, fresh water and waste water) we have almost 6,000 pounds of cargo carrying capacity.   Being  aluminum exterior construction instead of fiberglass makes a big difference, plus wall and roof supports are all aluminum too.   We weigh in with full tanks at 22,000 pounds without our gear when we first bought the rig.   Our rating is  GVWR- 28,000    GCWR-32,000

I thought I would show you what we haul along in our rig. I had taken these pics for insurance purposes because most RV policies only carry $500 coverage on the personal contents, I kid you not!  So please check your policy and ask your agent.  We carry an additional rider for the rest of the possessions we carry above $500. 

There is a huge basement storage area with stainless steel doors all around the rig, which look impressive.  The basement is a wide open space, not separate little compartments.  It is a huge pass through space with doors that open up high on each side.  It is completely open side to side and front to rear between the front and rear axles.  We can load in quite a bit because our GCWR is 32,000 and we are well below that. 

Although we don’t have any slides, the floorplan we have allows for plenty of movement, 

storage and our rig is a “wide body” model which adds extra width.

DRIVER SIDE:  there are many compartment doors all along the entire length of the coach. It's open all of the way through to the other side!

Let’s start on the driver’s side.  All of our stainless steel compartment doors rise upwards on struts and when shut, they lock securely on both ends instead of one latch in the middle. 

I will go down the side from front to back, door by door. 

Here is door number 1. 

Whoda thunk of that space above the tank as a good spot to put a long tube for stowing the stinky slinky!   For those of you who do not know what a "Stinky Slinky"  is, it’s the flexible 3” hose used to dump the grey and black tanks…ewwwwwww   We don’t want to keep THAT hose in our carpeted storage basement area. 

On to the next door…..

We bought an assortment of these gray totes with heavy snap on lids.  They are made by HOMZ 

 http://www.homzproducts.com  and I see that Ace Hardware carries them.  

The large totes measure 30 inches long by 18 inches wide.

The smaller totes measure 18 inches long by 14 inches wide.  

We like them because they have a full handle on each side, not just a lip edge that you carry by the fingertips.   Also, the lid fits firmly over the top and comes way down on the sides, which does not allow anything to get into the tote.   We have more than enough totes, and keep swapping out sizes back and forth as we determine our needs in the future.  The extra totes we keep in our garage or my fiber storage room for now.  

In these matching big silver totes that fit perfectly, each one labeled for it’s contents:  dog stuff, lanterns/propane stuff, picnic table and patio lights, diesel filters oil and supplies, raingear and boots, freshwater supplies, wastewater supplies, etc. and of course my fiber toys!  At the far right is the plumbing compartment with all the manifold fittings for water areas in the rig and an outdoor shower.

In this next photo below, if you look close to the center of the rig, you will see a white poly 2x4 Cosco table and a larger 3x6 heavy black folding table.  Both tables slide in nicely under the space under the suspended fresh water tank.  We use them for eating and serving food when boondocking at places without picnic tables.  Also good for extra table space when working on crafts or doing some crazy things like canning pickles (see Runkle Lake campground review or Paint River Forks in my archives)   I can use these tables for an impromptu craft sale if we want while on the road at a campground too. 

Here it is loaded up,  each one labeled for it’s contents:  dog stuff, lanterns/propane stuff, picnic table and patio lights, diesel filters oil and supplies, raingear and boots, freshwater supplies, wastewater supplies, etc. and of course all of my fiber supplies and toys! When we travel for a longer length of time, I have to have storage for my fiber supplies and inventory.  This is "My Space" for storage.

At the far right is the plumbing compartment with all the manifold fittings for water areas in the rig and an outdoor shower.

This door is kinda a half access on the front, but behind the water manifold section is the water pump, expansion tank and some extra plumbing.  It used to be walled off, but Steveio removed the wall piece for better access.  Nice to have access to that mechanical stuff instead of it being buried behind a wall.   You can see the daylight from right through to the open compartment on the other side of the rig. Steve usually lays his fishing rods in this area, plus the awning rod, which is reachable from the other side. 

The next door behind the axle area is our power compartment... behind this stuff, we have a wired-in Progressive Industries electric management protection system to cover us for dangerous power surges or brown-outs.

We recently replaced the inverter from the old Freedom 2000W Heart (which burned out) over to this Tripplite 1500W. We also have a wired in Progressive Industries unit for surge and brownout protection. 

In front of the things in the photo above, we store the power cords and adaptors for 50 amp to 30 or 20 amp if need be. Sometimes the cords get dirty from being on the ground, and it's nice to have this compartment separate from the clean carpeted center basement of the rig. 

In the last compartment on the driver's side is our generator.  We don't use it often enough because of now having 500 watts of solar panels on the roof. We have to remember to exercise it monthly with a load on it to keep it in tip top shape.  We didn't always do that and had a very costly repair.  Now it's a priority to take care of it.

 It looks a little crooked in this photo because it was snapped when we were putting the generator back into place after having the rotor rebuilt.  Rest assured, it is firmly bolted back into place now and works just fine.  LOL  

We don’t use the generator too often, but we have to run it from time to time under a full load to exercise it.  Great to have in an emergency, or to run one of the roof AC units as we are driving down the road if need be during hot summer temps.  But we really appreciate the peace and quiet when camping and don’t like to run it at all.  So if you are a genny-fanatic, please park far far away from us? 

PASSENGER SIDE:

Now on to the passenger side compartments:

These are the two most used doors near the passenger front between the side entry door and the front of the rig.   We kinda packed them full, huh?

Someone asked on the blog about how does Steve fix stuff while we are on the road?  Rest assured, he has ALL his tools along, even a vice that can clamp into the back hitch to work on items like an outdoor workshop. 

This one is Steve’s favorite compartment:

Steveio filled one door space with his tool box area… where he carries all of his tools in a handy dandy toolbox he made from an old shop desk.

Stacked on top of the totes are our camping signs, picnic table cloth, kneeling foam pad  and whatever else don’t get stowed away properly as we break camp the time before. 

We carry along our two zero gravity recliners, and four folding chairs for company and our two macreme lawn chairs, a few little wooden tv trays for coffee clutching too.  It all fits along with some room for the patio mat behind the chairs. And Steve's big air compressor alongside the chairs.

Yes, Steve puts the large air compressor right into this compartment too. It's used for his air tools, and also in case of a low tire, it's capable of going to the 110 pounds needed for our tires.   It slides in and kind of curves back underneath the stairs in an open space usually not accessible.  By just reaching in to flip the lever on, and grabbing the long air hose, he is in business!    (of course when boondocking, we have to fire up the generator first to get the power to make this run) 

Now we can move to the rear half of the passenger side.

The two interior entry steps into the rig to reach the main floor are the only things taking up any square footage in the basement storage area. 

We also carry a folding table, extra leveling blocks, fishing gear and an air compressor.  Our Safari does not have air bags, instead it has a special suspension on its Magnum chassis, made by BF Goodrich called Torsiliastic (sp?) which is comprised of rubber wedges and rubber fittings that give it a *Velvetride* …. yes, veryyyy smooth.   So we need an on-board air compressor for Steve’s air tools and emergency tire filling.

This door number 3 is located at the left of the entry door.  In here, we have the big solar controller for the solar panels on the roof. There is also a big pull out fuse to disconnect the whole system for repairs.  I like that we have an outdoor tv antenna jack here. Sometimes we carry out the inside tv to watch packer games under the awning.  There are both DC and AC electrical outlets and a little light to see what we are looking for in the dark too. We also stow the 6 large planks for under the tires for leveling the rig.  (not in the pic) 

In this next compartment, we stow the planks we use as pads under the hydraulic levelers, and also sometimes driving up the wheels on to get more level.  Our solar controller unit and breaker box are also in this compartment, along with Steve's fishing poles, pudgy pie makers and the ever-coveted awning pull down rod!

Further down on the passenger side is the battery compartment.  Since we installed the 500 watts of solar on the roof, these four 6v batteries store all the power created by the panels.  link to our Solar Installation blog post   We can comfortably use lights, tv's, computers, coffee maker and other various electrical things and quietly solar recharge again the next day.

 I talked about them more in depth a few blogs back. They are located behind the rear wheels. It is open around the sides and bottom for ventilation.   There are 6 batteries in there now, but we can later move the 2 chassis (driving) batteries into a new rack in the engine compartment that Steveio made.  Then we could increase the bank of coach (camping) batteries to a total of six 6volt golf cart batteries if we wish.  Although with our five 100 watt solar panels that we installed, we may never need six batteries… four might be enough.

Now this last door is the cool stuff that you do not see on gas engine motorhomes.  This is Steve's Control Central! He finds out all kinds of  diagnostic stuff in this compartment. He can even start the engine from in here if the key is in the ignition. Pretty cool! 

For those Techy Kinda Guys, here is the new head piece he re-vamped to fit the newer Fleetgard FS 1212 fuel filters that are available for our engine, now that the Racor Win 200/200 ones were discontinued. 

Now let's move across the front of the rig. 

Inside the front compartment are all the electronic fuse boxes and grounds etc.  

I had to cut and paste a few pics of it, as it won’t all fit in one picture.

In here we also have a large fire extinguisher with access in emergency because this compartment does not lock.  Hope we never have to use it, but it's a great location.  If we are ever needing to help on an emergency on the road, it's easy to grab. 

Yes we carry FIVE fire extinguishers in our motorhome: 

Just stop and think for a minute.  If you are asleep in your bedroom of your camper, and wake up to a fire in the middle of the rig, you probably have to bail out a window or emergency exit.  The extinguisher is usually located up near the door which is locked from the inside.  So even if you bailed out, you can’t even get back into your camper to get to it.  Of course, they do burn up fast and sometimes there is nothing you can do to save it.  But having a few around, plus an external one in an unlocked compartment is a real smart thing to do.  Locating one at the far end of your rig, like your bedroom, where you might be trapped is a good idea too.    Having one in an outside compartment means you can access it and quick blast at say a fire on the brakes or tire, or at a campfire that is spreading  etc. 

(keeping a hidden door key outside somewhere is a very smart idea, not just for a fire but for any time you might get locked out or lose your keys)

So.. that completes the tour of our storage compartments and how we organize them.  In the future we see ourselves adding a few more totes of clothes (in vacuum sealed space bags)  some supplies of my craft stuff, and perhaps my table loom when not in use. The loom folds up somewhat and fits in drivers side number 3 quite well.  

Otherwise we are pretty well set for full timing, and more than adequate space inside the rig for the personal items we take along regularly and keep our kitchen fully stocked as well as the clothing and bathroom gear.   So our weight load will not change much, right now fully loaded we are about 3,000 pounds under our CCC limit, so that is a good thing.  We still have 4,000 towing capacity on top of that too.  We currently tow a Geo Tracker that only weighs 2,200 pounds

This motorhome modification post is long enough,

 so I will do more on the letter C tomorrow

~~~~~~~~

I think both Steve and I have been feeling cooped up from cabin fever.  Usually we are "go go go" type people, but since I was sick for so long, I have not left the house much.  He was feeling a bit under the weather as well.  When we have gone to the store, even for picking up meds, we slather ourselves with antibacterial hand sanitizer and hope we ward off any flu bugs floating around.

On Sunday, we got the dogs out for a walk... only about 3 blocks, but it was enough to get some fresh air and the sidewalks were all clear and free of ice and snow. A few snowflakes were wafting down, but not enough to accumulate.

Steve saw an ad that a NEW Godfathers Pizza opened up in Sheboygan, about 33 miles away.  We have been SO sad that the ones in Green Bay and Freedom closed up last year.  We don't often go out to eat, and rarely ever for pizza.  But I make the exception for Godfathers Classic Combo pizza.  That is the only type we order from there, and love that it is the very same taste and crust etc no matter which Godfathers you patronize.

Soooo he said "Let's Go" !!!

We hopped in the car, and along the way I wanted to stop at this little thrift shop that I had heard about.  It benefits hospice. Richardson Hospice Resale Store

It is a very nice resale shop, 

with quality items and nicely arranged. 

My bargain "score" was a hunk of Heritage brand window lace!  This is very expensive lace and this big hunk was at one time $19.99 a yard. Currently it sells for $44.00 a yard!!! It is probably 35 years old, but still unused with the drapery store tag still on it.  I bought the entire piece for THREE dollars!

It is an exact match for the Heritage Lace I already own.  I started buying mine back in 1985 when I got my first home in Green Bay. It was so expensive back then, I could only buy one window's worth at a time. It had to be ordered a piece at a time, from a fancy drapery store in downtown Green Bay. 

Saving my pennies, I could only purchase a window's worth a month from the household budget.  I have swags, valances, and panels. I think back then I was paying about $60-70 a window arrangement of 2 swags and a center scalloped valance piece.  When we moved to Oconto, that lace came along with me.  I had it hung in all of the windows of our log house, much to Steve's chagrin.  LOL   And now with our 104 year old home in Chilton, the lace blends in beautifully! 

I have my lace in the kitchen... 

and more in the livingroom, the back hall, 

some of the bedrooms, 

and even in my laundry room! 

I am not sure where I am going to use this long panel of valance lace I got, but for THREE DOLLARS I could NOT pass it up!!!! Steve found a few things as well, and we plan to go back. We also signed up for their mailing list.

Oh, while in the parking lot, we saw this next to us. 

How adorable??? 

Now it was time to go to the Godfather's Pizza, the purpose of our journey.  We slathered with our hand sanitizer and headed across town to 1006 Geele Ave https://godfathers.com/   

Like I said, we always order the Classic Combo:  On a thick crust, it has Pepperoni, Beef, Sausage, Onions, Black Olives, Mushrooms & Mozzarella Cheese.  We ordered two large and waited for them to be prepared.  This nice gal Shirley chatted with us in between customers.  This is an express location combined with a gas station in a residential neighborhood. It was fun to hear her chatting with the regulars who come and go.  They only took on the Godfathers franchise a few weeks ago, so many folks are coming in to try out a slice from the front hot case by the registers.  We buy two large pizzas and freeze the rest to heat up a slice or two at a time in the oven (so the crust doesn't get mushy) instead of the microwave. 

Here is Shirley, 

with our pizzas! 

Again, we slathered with our hand sanitizer and proceeded to 

gobble down a slice right there in the parking lot!!!

Can't you just smell it? 

That was the extent of our great journey out and about for a Sunday afternoon.  Of course, when we got back home, we managed to each eat another slice for supper. LOL.   The rest went into ziplock freezer bags, destined to be lunches or snacks during the next few weeks.  I think trips to Sheboygan for the resale shop and Godfathers is going to be monthly thing from now on? 

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS *C* CCC at Cat Scale, Camping Signs, Carpeting and Memory Foam Mattress

Ok, I am going to interrupt my regularly scheduled letter C Motorhome Modifications Posts with a NEW modification we did yesterday! 

Back in April we invested in a Serta Memory Foam Mattress for our king sized bed in the house.  We really, really love it. It has three layers, of which the top layer is a cooling layer comprised of some material that keeps you from overheating and sweating like some memory foam mattresses.  We gave it a try and sure enough,  we get better sleep, less pressure points, and more comfort than our traditional innerspring mattress.  

So with our grown kids' help, back in April, we put the innerspring mattress into the motorhome, replacing the dated one in there.  After all, it was only 4 years old and in great shape.  Fine and dandy. 

But..... this week we found a good deal on another memory foam mattress the same as our first one and we splurged on it.  We hauled it home on Thursday evening and stored it in the garage overnight.  While the weather was so nice on Friday afternoon, Steve and I managed to move the innerspring off the bed, through the doors of the bathroom and into the living area of the motorhome.  

(this is the innerspring one) 

Then we dragged the memory foam one out to the motorhome on a tarp, and sadly got a bit of wet moisture on the bottom.  We hoisted it into the motorhome.  Whew!  It was awkward and floppy.  We didn't dare plop it into place until the bottom dried off. We let it dry overnight with a fan aiming at the back side to take care of the wet spot. It was only about 10-12" across.

Saturday morning we went back out to the rig and decided to get it moved into place if it was dry.  We sure didn't want mold or something growing underneath it.  Yayyy it was completely dry! 

We stood it on end and slid it back into the bedroom area. A king sized mattress is just the height of our ceilings inside, so it barely fit under the bathroom pocket doorway ledges along the top of the ceiling. It was very floppy and awkward! 

See Steve in there pulling it? 

I know I have been weak from being under the weather for three weeks... and this took it's toll.  But I have to help along because Steve was trying to do it himself, of course!  

We had to be careful along the sharp corner of the bed pedestal box (which contains our diesel engine) and had to bend the mattress around the corner to get it into the room.  Realizing the corner was sharp and could tear the mattress, I put a big plastic bowl on it to slide the mattress past it. Just as we were almost past that point, I heard a *CRACK* sound.  hahahha look what happened to our bowl! 

Glad we didn't wreck the mattress----

We got the mattress safely past that point and we flopped it into place!!! 

SUCCESS!!!

Last summer, on the wall behind the bed, we removed the full size mirror and didn't get all of the adhesive circles off yet.  I have been removing them one at a time with a heat gun, and need to finish that up.  In an small area down low, I tried all kinds of adhesive removers that will destroy the wood stain behind it. So through trial and error, I found that the heat gun aimed at it for 12 seconds to soften it and then it peels up in chunks.  It is slow going and I need to get back out there and remove the rest of it. 

Here is the blog post about when we removed the mirror last year: 

Removing back wall mirror in the motorhome

We have a lovely print to hang up once we are done... and it blends well with the quilt and window treatments I had made.  It is by a Wisconsin Photographer by the name of Nick Bristol.  

His web site is at: http://www.nickbristolphotography.com/home.html

I loved this print from the moment I bought it. 

 It looked so familiar to me??? 

After contacting the artist, 

I found out that this particular image IS from 

a campground called Council Lake 

in the U.P. of Michigan,  just south of Munising. 

 Yup! Been there! 

Steve helped me make up the new bed with the quilt and pillows... see how they match the fabric I covered over the lambrequins and valances?  

I call this my Copper Log Cabin Batik Quilt. 

If the adhesive circles don't come off right, or if the new stain doesn't cover them well, I have enough fabric left from the quilt, I may make some quilted panels as a headboard to cover the wall? 

Now the next step was to get the innerspring out of the motorhome living area, onto a tarp on the wet muddy grass alongside of the motorhome!   I have no idea how our son and soninlaw got it in there last April.  We had to really flex it and push hard to get it out.  Whew! We did it!  

See how we don't have ANY snow left in our yard anymore?

We wrapped it in the tarp 

and strapped it to our little trailer behind the Tracker. 

Yesterday afternoon we took a little journey 70 miles north with the mattress.  We delivered it our daughter and soninlaw who will get some use out of it.  They have our old king sized mattress from our old house in Oconto and are due for a new one. It's a nice mattress, pillow top, and only five years old with five more years left on it's warranty as well. 



Okay... now back to our regularly scheduled program of 3 Motorhome Modifications with the letter *C*:


I am going to start off the new year with posting three of our motorhome modifications at a time. I will post repairs, modifications, or neato things we have found for RVing.  I have lots of pics in my files so I will do them in alphabetical order.

Underneath that stuff, I will post my regular daily stuff..... kinda sorta fun, eh?

So here it goes, we are up to the letter C now!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER C

Cat Scale and CCC Cargo Carrying Capacity:

This pic is kinda sorta funny.  12 years ago, right after we bought our Safari, we went to a Cat Scale to weigh our rig. Steve told me to go inside and find out how to use the Cat Scale.  I went inside and she said just hit the button.  So, I went to find the button.  Well.... the button is situated up high for semi drivers to reach!  What did I know, it was the first time we were ever weighing our rig!    And Steve just happened to snap a pic of me trying to figure it out! 

Our UVH rating is 18,600 (Unloaded Vehicle Weight)
Our GVWR rating is 28,000 (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating)
Our GCWR-32,000 (Gross Combined Weight Rating)


And...
We weigh in with full water, fuel, and propane tanks and 2 people at 22,000 pounds without our gear when we first bought the rig.

We have about 8,500 pound capacity available from empty. Even with all our tanks full, (propane, fuel, fresh water and waste water) we still have around 6,000 pounds of CCC cargo carrying capacity above that.  It is very important to never overload your rig. Your chassis, handling, tire inflation and most of all, the brakes depend on you not overloading your rig.

Once we loaded up all of our belongings, when we were ready to live full time in our rig in 2012, we weighed our rig again. This time it was only at 25,650 so we are well below our gross, and our little Tracker is only 2,600 lbs so we well below our combined. 

Carpet Cleaning:

I know many folks do not like carpeting in their RV.

I do.  I like taking my shoes off at the door and walking in stockings or bare feet. I like warm comfortable floors when it is damp and icky and cold outside.  I like getting out of bed and walking around in my jammies and bare feet and not have to put on slippers. That is just me.

And I try really really hard to keep our 22 year old carpeting in good condition in our motorhome. Yup, 22 years old.  It is a grey and blue and cream berber and has held up really well, with people, dogs, and grandkids.  And cleaning.

Twice a year I use our big steam cleaner on it. It is a big round extractor canister type, with a good amount of suction to not leave a lot of moisture behind.  Besides a bit of carpet shampoo, I also I use a couple glug-glugs of a cleaning product called Nature's Miracle Stain Remover and a packet of Oxyclean.  Nature's Miracle is available at our local Piggly Wiggly grocery store in the pet aisle or also at the Petco chain stores.       http://www.naturemakesitwork.com/home/index.php

Although we didn't have any pet stains, I find it to be a great all around cleaner and stain remover. It took out a big coffee/creamer stain from a spilled cup that I did not see until it was all soaked in. It works great on clothes too so I keep a bottle with a sprayer by the washing machine and use it as a pretreatment. Takes out old stains that normal detergent or Shout won't even touch.

With such light colored carpeting in our rig, we try hard to keep it nice and never wear shoes inside.  Even for Steve when he is driving, he removes his shoes as he comes in the door and puts on soft soled moccasins that are never worn outside, especially at fuel stations etc.  Otherwise spilled diesel fuel in the truckers lanes at stations get tracked in on carpeting and will never come off.  He also wears leather gloves when fueling up, so he never has stinky oily diesel fuel on his hands when coming back in or touching the steering wheel.

Here is a pic from the kitchen facing to the front of the rig....

I lift up the dining chairs and end table and coffee table to put them 

on the loveseat out of the way 

until everything is dry the next day. 

I think it will hold up for a few more years. If Steve had his way, it would all be ripped out and new laminate or vinyl planks would be put all the way through.  Nope... no thanks. 

Just this last year I put this oriental runner rug in here. It does help with trapping the dog hair and some of the dirt catches in it until it is vacced up.  Mainly I put it in here because I bought a different pattern for the house and this rug had nowhere else to go. hahaha

Camping Signs:

Many people like to put out camping signs when at a campground.  We do too.  I know some folks say that perhaps that opens up an invitation for someone to go to your house and rob it, knowing you are gone.  Oh well, that is what our alarm system is for I guess and we live 2 blocks from the police dept. and 4 blocks from the sheriff dept. and we have two wonderful widow neighbor ladies on each side of us who notice every little thing.  

Many years ago, in Steve's first marriage, his parents gave them a custom sign with the name Pfundtner on it.  It was just about the only thing Steve got out of his divorce (besides two wonderful sons!)   Hmmmm  she didn't want the sign as much as she didn't want the guy?  Her loss, my gain!

I touched up the paint, added our first names together, and added new stain and some coats of polyurethane.  I made it OUR SIGN, and cherish it.  I was thinking about adding the state, Wisconsin to ours. Maybe next time it needs new paint?

It usually hangs from the front of our rig over the spare tire cover with two American Flags holding it up to the tire mounting bracket.  Sometimes we hang it from the numbered post in the campground if it is close enough.

Our daughter Erin gave us this one for a present one year. I hang it from our awning and it rotates in the breeze.  Kinda purty, dontcha think?

We like walking around the campground and seeing people's signs and sometimes where they are from.  It is sometimes an ice breaker to chit chat a bit.  People usually like to try to pronounce our name, and usually murder it. haha! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, it is Sunday morning.  I tried to write this blog last night, but I got too tired and hit the bed early.  So sorry I didn't get it posted last night.  Today is good enough--- I suppose better late than never.

The sun is out a bit this morning, we but we are heading into a cooling trend and perhaps our weather will get back to normal for Wisconsin in January. Not that I am complaining about the wonderful warm spurts we have had, but it just doesn't seem right.  We are not having the heavier winters of years past, and we are lacking in the snow that we had when we were children.  This pic was taken about 80 miles south of where we live now. They barely get any snow any more there.  sigh.

That is our Camper Bus in the background.  See?  I have had camping ingrained into me ever since I was a little child.  My dad converted two school buses into campers, and sold one to pay for the costs of converting both of them!