Hanging Out in the Midwest Replacing the Refrigerator

Hello again. Our last chapter ended on Tuesday, August 4^th, when we left Lake Delton, near the Wisconsin Dells, and drove south into Northern Illinois and the Blackhawk Valley Campground in Rockford, Illinois. The two-day rally in Lake Delton was the last of our Summer 2015 rallies and we are now more or less traveling on our own again, although Gary and Ramona Wilson are following along with us for the next couple of stops because we are headed in the same general direction.

Wednesday, August 5^th, we had a stay at home day. I did some research on fridge's and tried to contact some RV shops. Late in the morning Howie and Pat Bates parked in the spot right next to the Wilson's. We knew that Pat and Howie were coming, they just stayed an extra day after the 3T's rally in Lake Delton ended. Pat and Howie are members of many of the same chapters we belong to and we have known them for years, meeting them on the road, sometimes several times a year. At 5:00 the six of us had cocktails and chatted and then we put the fish that Jackie and I caught in Manitowoc a couple of weeks ago on the BBQ. Everyone brought a little something and we had a wonderful fish dinner. The fish, all very large Rainbow Trout, tasted great and everyone had their fill and then some. It was like a little mini rally with friends. After we cleaned up everything we relaxed with the TV the rest of the night.

Thursday, August 6^th, we went out after lunch with Gary and Ramona to do some geocaching and shopping. We were able to get 13 new finds, and one DNF, in a couple of hours. After caching we stopped at several appliance stores so I could look at what types of residential refrigerators were on display and get an idea of what would fit. Although I found a lot of possibilities online, only Lowes actually had one of the 14 cubic foot refrigerators in stock that I could actually look at. I now feel much more comfortable that it will work in our coach. We then made a Walmart run and headed back to the park. We again had cocktails with the six of us about 5:00 and then had fish tacos and sandwiches with the left over trout from last night, as well as all the other leftovers. About 7:30 everyone headed back to their own coaches for the rest of the evening.

Friday, August 7^th, another travel day. We were packed up and heading out of the RV park about 10:00 and on the road, heading southeast towards Portage, Indiana, a small town near Gary, Indiana and just a little east of metro Chicago. The trip was fairly short, less than 140 miles, but all the routes went through at least part of the metro Chicago area. We had dense traffic, a lot of construction and most of the trip was on toll roads. We racked up almost $20 in tolls for a hundred miles through the Chicago area. Interstate 80, east out of Chicago and into Indiana was quite literally wall to wall trucks. We did 10 mph for twenty miles seeing almost nothing but big rigs.

We arrived at the Jellystone Park RV campground about 1:00, safe and sound, but frazzled. The Wilson's, who left Rockford the same time as us, arrived a few minutes after us. They took a slightly different route, closer to downtown Chicago, so they got a little delayed. We got set up and about 3:00 went out with the Wilson's to get something to eat. We are still without a refrigerator, so we are trying to keep our cooking to a minimum. We found a little Mexican taqueria and market that served pretty authentic Mexican food. I had some tacos and chili rellenos and they were very good. After our lunch/dinner we headed back to the coaches and finished getting set up.

At around 5:30 we had happy hour with the Wilson's and chatted until about 7:00. When we got back to the coach I spent about an hour and a half getting ready to pull the old refrigerator out of the coach. The unit is very heavy and I thought it would be best to get it out while I had Gary around to help. I did most of the prep work, taking off the doors, disconnecting everything in the back, and doing as much as I could short of pulling the unit out of the wall. After that work we relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Saturday, August 8^th. Today would have been my mother's 89^th birthday. About 10:30 Gary came over to our coach and the two of us began the process of removing the old refrigerator from the coach. I had the fridge pretty much ready to take out and within a few minutes we had the fridge out of the compartment and on the floor of the coach. To make it easier to get the thing out of the door of the coach we then removed the cooling unit from the back. I had watched the cooling unit be replaced a couple of times, so I had a pretty good idea of how to take it off. Within a half hour we had it stripped off of the box and out the door. Without the doors or the cooling unit, the actual refrigerator box was quite light and easy to handle and we quickly had it out on the lawn too.

We took a short break and then began the process of getting the carcass of the fridge into the back of our Jeep. The thing is too big to leave in a dumpster, and even if we could have, the park we were in had no public dumpsters, so I knew we would have to haul it somewhere. After I got the back of the Jeep cleaned out of all the stuff we usually carry we managed to get all of the fridge parts in the back and still get the back hatch closed. It was close, but we managed. That was the Job One for the day, so I cleaned up all the tools and the mess, took another shower and Jackie and I went out for a late lunch.

We found a local place called the Rosewood Family Restaurant in downtown Portage. This was a very nice, clean place with a great staff, nice menu selections and excellent food. I had the liver and onions, which was a huge slab of liver, mashed potatoes, veggies, soup and salad, and a dish of ice cream for desert, all for under $10. Jackie had a gyro that she said was better than what she gets at most Greek restaurants. All the food, and a beer for me, and the tab was a few cents over $20. This was a five star place for us in our Yelp review. After a very filling lunch we did a few local geocaches, getting four finds. We then went back to the coach and relaxed. We had cocktails with the Wilson's and then watched TV the rest of the evening.

Sunday, August 9^th, another travel day. We left Portage about 10:00 and headed southeast towards Fort Wayne, Indiana, a trip of about 130 miles. Once we left the northwest counties of Indiana we migrated into the Eastern Time Zone and lost an hour. We arrived at the Indian Creek Campground about 2:00 local time and got settled into our spot. It took a while to get parked in just the right place to get a satellite signal, something we didn't have for the two days we were in Portage. After we got parked and setup it was nearly 5:00 local time, so we just stayed in, did some chores and relaxed the rest of the day.

Monday, August 10^th, we left the coach about 11:00 and headed to a small town called Auburn, about five miles northwest of the RV park. I had found a scrap yard and recycling company there that advertised that they took refrigerators. I have learned that, given all the environmental rules and regulations in effect now, most landfills will not accept appliances, especially refrigerators. We found the scrap yard, but were told that they do not take RV reefers because they have ammonia as the cooling gas. They gave us the name of another scrap yard in Fort Wayne that might take it. Getting rid of this carcass seems to be becoming a major issue.

While we were in Auburn we stopped for a burger for lunch. Turns out that Auburn is where the Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg were made back in the 30's and 40's. They have a big museum there in town. Too bad we are so busy and can't take the time to visit. After lunch we stopped at an appliance store in Auburn, but didn't find anything promising. We got on the freeway and headed south to Fort Wayne. We found the second scrap yard and this time there were no issues and I got the thing unloaded from the back of the car, with the help of some of the guys there, dumped in on the pile and we were on our way with no more RV refrigerator. Yea!

Now that we had one major chore done we checked out an RV park right in Fort Wayne, in one of the city parks. Turns out to be a very nice campground and we were able to make reservations there for a week, starting on Wednesday when we leave the campground we are in now. It will be a lot easier to get a refrigerator if we are in the city rather than 15 miles out of town. We then stopped at a major appliance dealer, HH Gregg, and our good luck for the day held out. They had a 14.6 cubic foot Hotpoint refrigerator that was the perfect size for our application. Plus, they can get it in black and delivered in a couple of days rather than a week or two like Best Buy and Lowes. We didn't order it yet, but as soon as we move on Wednesday I think we will get it ordered so we can install it while we are parked in Fort Wayne.

Once we had our important chores done for the day we visited with my niece, Raquel Disch and her new baby Malakai. Raquel is the daughter of my brother Russ, who lives in Las Vegas. She moved out to Indiana about four years ago wher

e her mother, Russ's ex-wife, lives. Her brother Russ III also lives there. Visiting Raquel was the reason we headed for Fort Wayne after the rallies. We found Raquel’s house in an older part of Fort Wayne and had a great visit with her and her boyfriend Ron, the father of the baby. We spent a couple of hours catching up with Raquel, whom we had not seen since my mom died in 2009. She was excited that we were going to be in the area for another week. We left about 4:00 and walked out into a torrential downpour. We only had to drive a few miles north and the weather cleared up, but it was sure raining hard downtown. After a stop at Lowe's to look at fridges, we headed back to the RV park and relaxed the rest of the night after a very successful and fun day.

Tuesday, August 11^th, we left the coach about noon and drove up to the little town of Garret, Indiana, about five miles north of the campground. We went there specifically to try and get one of the geocaches in town that is rated a five difficulty, the highest rating for a cache. There is an on-going challenge on the caching website to find certain types of caches before September and one of the challenges is to find a cache with a five rating, either in difficulty or terrain. We certainly aren't about to try a five terrain, but we could try a five difficulty. This one was located on an old passenger train car at a museum in Garret. We looked and crawled around under the train for 45 minutes but came up empty. I guess we will have to find another five rated cache. We then got one other cache before driving over to Walmart in Auburn where we grabbed a quick lunch at Subway and got a few items we needed. After our shopping we headed back down to the coach and spent the rest of the day doing chores and relaxing.

Wednesday, August 12^th, another moving day. We had the coach packed up and ready to roll about 10:30. We are only going about 15 miles south to Fort Wayne, so Jackie just drove the Jeep and followed me. Within a half hour we were parked at the Johnny Appleseed City Park in Fort Wayne. We have a nice, big, paved site with 50 amp and water. No sewer, but we can manage that for a week. We spent a little while getting the basics of setting up done before leaving and driving to the HH Gregg Appliance store where we saw the fridge we want. The store is only a few blocks from the campground. Within a half hour we had the new Hotpoint refrigerator on order and the delivery was scheduled for Friday. Once that was done we grabbed some quick lunch and went back to the coach to finish setting up.

Once we were done setting up I went to Lowes and bought all of the stuff I thought I would need to get the old refrigerator space set up to take the new refrigerator, as well as what I thought I needed to fix the leaking propane connection from the old fridge. I needed a new plywood platform and the hardware to hold the platform in place and then to fasten the refrigerator to the new platform so it can't move around. The old refrigerator was heavy, about 250 pounds, and had no wheels or “feet” on the bottom. It just sat flat on the floor of the compartment, making it unlikely to move. A household fridge has rollers and a higher center of gravity, so it needs to be anchored well so it won't move when we drive. Once I had all my stuff I went back to the coach and worked on the propane connection, finally getting the old fitting properly capped and not leaking. Yea! We then relaxed the rest of the evening.

Thursday, August 13^th, I spent the entire day working on the refrigerator compartment. We did go out for lunch, and did three geocaches that were in the parking lot of the restaurant, but other than that and a quick ice run to re-ice the coolers we are using to keep our food in, I did nothing but work on the platform. I was very happy at the end of the day to have all the work done and the compartment ready to hold the new refrigerator. We watched TV the rest of the evening.

Friday, August 14^th, we woke up anxious to receive the new refrigerator. I spent some time in the morning taking the grab bars that are in the coach step well off, removing the screen door and fixing everything to we had the maximum width available at our front door so as to be able to bring the new fridge in the door. Otherwise the only way to bring big stuff in the coach is to remove windows, something I couldn't do on my own. The store had called us last night and told us that delivery would be between 12:30 and 3:30, so we went out for a quick lunch about noon.

The truck showed up a little after 1:00 and the two delivery unpacked the fridge and got it ready to bring in by taking the doors off. When they had the fridge unpacked they noticed a small dent in one top corner of the fridge. They said they could arrange for a new fridge, to be delivered next week, or take $50 off of our purchase price. We elected for the refund since the dent is small and won't be noticed once the fridge is installed. The two delivery guys did get the fridge into the coach through the front door, but once they got it in they couldn't move it to the middle of the coach because of the passenger seat being in the way. They took the fridge back outside and while they installed the ice maker in the freezer compartment I took the passenger seat off it's mount and moved it out of the way. They then got the fridge back in the coach and were able to get it back to the kitchen area. They lifted it into the opening and it fit into my new platform just perfectly. Yea, we now have a refrigerator again.

We plugged in the fridge to let it cool down and did a few chores around the house. I re-installed all the stuff I had to move to get the fridge in. About 6:00 the fridge had cooled enough to let us clean out the coolers and move all the stuff into the new fridge. Yea, no more ice chests! After that we relaxed with the TV the rest of the evening.

Saturday, August 15^th, I was up and headed back to Lowes in the morning to get what I needed to fasten the fridge down. When I came back we went out for lunch at Panera Bread. This was our first visit to that store and it was OK, but a little pricey and the food was average at best. After lunch we did a couple of geocaches and then did a Walmart run for some of the stuff that we had to throw away because the coolers didn't keep everything as good as we would have liked. We then went back to the coach and I spent the rest of the afternoon working on securing the new refrigerator so it won't move. By 5:30 I was done with my work and had everything cleaned up so we could have cocktails. We then had dinner and relaxed with the TV the rest of the evening. Although I still need to make it look pretty, we now have a fully functioning and stocked fridge again. Yea!

Sunday, August 16^th, for the first time in a couple weeks we had a relaxing Sunday morning with the paper and our coffee. We did a few chores around the coach and at about 3:00 my niece Raquel, her boyfriend Ron and their baby Malakai, came over for a visit and BBQ. We sat talked and enjoyed spending time with family. About 5:30 I went out to cook some burgers on the BBQ and the skies opened up. We weren't expecting rain this afternoon, but in the summer in the Midwest expectations mean nothing with regard to weather. Luckily, I had put the big awning down and the BBQ was under it. I did it to hide from the sun, but it worked for the rain just as well. I got the burgers cooked and in the house without getting wet. It rained really hard for about an hour, which brought our pesky leak in the bathroom back in play. I have been on the roof twice trying to fix that leak, but I guess I have to go up one more time. We had a great visit with Raquel and her family and were really happy they were able to come see us while we are here. They left about 7:30 and we cleaned up and then relaxed the rest of the evening.

Monday, August 17^th, we had lunch and then headed out on a couple of specific missions for the day. Our first stop was to find and log a nearby cache that was a Mystery Cache. For the non cachers reading this, there are a number of types of caches. The most common is the regular cache, a container with a paper log. There are also virtual caches, an old type that had no container, only a location where you went to gather information used to verify you found the location. There are earth caches, a newer type, similar to a virtual cache, but tied to some natural phenomenon, geology, biology, etc. Mystery caches are usually puzzles, where you have to solve a puzzle of some sort to reveal the cache coordinates, or sometimes a challenge. The one we were after today was a challenge. To get credit for the cache you had to have found at least one geocache on each of the 366 possible calendar dates. We actually achieved that goal a couple of years ago, the last leap year.

The reason we wanted a mystery cache was that Groundspeak, the “headquarters” for geocaching, was having a contest in which cachers have to find five different types of caches in the month of August. A regular cache with more than 10 favorite points, points given by people who find the cache and admire the way it was hidden or cammoed. We achieved that a couple weeks ago. A mystery cache, the type we are after today. An earth cache, we are still working on that one. A regular cache with a five difficulty or terrain rating, one like we tried to get a few days ago on the train car. And, an event cache, another one we are still working on. The mystery cache was not too far from the campground and we were able to find and log it pretty quickly.

Our next goal was to head back up to Garret to take another shot at the train car cache with the five difficulty rating. After we logged our DNF a few days back we got a hint from another cacher who had found the cache. With the new information we were pretty sure we would be able to get the cache. We drove up to Garret and within a few minutes we had the cache found, signed and logged and had the third of the finds we needed for the challenge. We then made a stop at Home Depot, looking for something we could use on the new refrigerator to keep the doors from swinging open when we drive. Like most household refrigerators our new one has magnetic door latches rather than the positive latching types on RV refrigerators. We bought some latches used to child-proof appliances, hopefully they will work OK.

We then stopped at Walmart for a few items, then headed back down to Fort Wayne and the Costco store. Indiana is the last state we will be in for a couple months that allows liquor sales in grocery stores, so we wanted to stock up since the price is much higher in states that require spirits to be sold in liquor stores only. While we were in Costco we heard another torrential downpour start, you could hear the rain on the tin roof. By the time we checked out and got outside it was subsiding and we were able to get the stuff in the car without getting wet. When we got back to the campground, only about four miles away, we found that it had not rained there at all. Weather is weird back here. After we got home we did a few chores, had cocktails and dinner and relaxed the rest of the night.

Tuesday, August 18^th, we had lunch at the coach then headed out to do some geocaching and a few chores. We had experimented last night with the child latches for the refrigerator, but we decided it probably wasn't going to work as we would like, so we will take those back. In the midst of our geocaching in Fort Wayne we stopped at Menard's, another home improvement store, and they had the two inch black heavy duty Velcro that I had originally thought would work best on the refrigerator. We bought a roll of the Velcro and will try it for keeping the doors closed. We had a good caching afternoon, getting nine new finds, including our number 7,300, another milestone. After caching we headed back to the coach and BBQed some nice steaks on the grill for dinner.

Wednesday, August 19^th, another travel day. Our week long travel delay for the refrigerator has concluded and we are back on the road again. We left Fort Wayne about 10:30 and headed east into Ohio to the little town of Wapakoneta. Wapakoneta has a population of about 10,000 and is mostly a center for agricultural support and a rail stop. It's biggest claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. There is a Neil Armstrong museum in town and the airport is also named after the astronaut. We settled into the KOA about 1:00 and after we got set up we went into town and found a laundromat. After finishing our laundry we headed back to the coach for cocktails, dinner, and a relaxing night with the TV. The good news is that the refrigerator survived it's first trip without moving. The Velcro worked on the doors and the curtain rods we put inside kept everything on it's proper shelf. All is good. Yea!

Since it has been about two weeks since the last time we posted, this marks a good place to get this new chapter online. Stayed tuned to this channel as we continue our travels and we will try to get another episode up in a couple weeks. Until next time, it seems appropriate to quote Astronaut Neil Armstrong. “Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand.” Never lose your appreciation for mystery and a sense of wonder. See ya next time.

The Summer 2015 RV Rally Circuit

Hi there, welcome back to our story. Our last episode ended on Sunday, July 19^th, when we moved from the Wisconsin Dells area east to the city of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, for the Monaco International Chapter rally, the first of three rallies this summer in Wisconsin. We traveled to to Manitowoc with our friends Gary and Ramona Wilson, who surprised us by showing up in Wisconsin for the rallies. We thought they were still work camping in Colorado, but they decided they had had enough and headed out to enjoy their new, to them anyway, motor home. After we got setup at the Monaco rally on the fairgrounds in Manitowoc, we went to a volunteer dinner and then home to relax.

Monday, July 20^th, we were, believe it or not, up at 5:30, yes a.m., and out the door by 7:30, heading for the shore of Lake Michigan to go on a five hour sport fishing trip. We both enjoy fishing, but don't do much of it because of the requirement to always get out of state licenses wherever we travel. We rarely stay in a state long enough to make it worth while to pay the fees. This trip had been setup by the wagon masters for the Monaco Rally and there were six of us from the rally that showed up to go out for the trip.

We were on a 28 foot sport fisher called the “Willie Bee” with the captain and his mate. They provided everything but the license, and Wisconsin is very reasonable with a two day license for just $14. The captain told us that other charter operators had said the fishing was good just off shore, so we never went more than a half mile or so off shore, and we just went back and forth across the mouth of one of the rivers flowing into Lake Michigan. We were fishing for trout and salmon and we were fortunate to be able to catch six big rainbow trout, each in the 12 to 14 pound range, one brown trout of about 12 pounds, and a big, 16 pound king salmon. The weather was OK, although by the time we came in at 1:30 there was a storm brewing and the waves were getting rough.  

Each of the six of us manged to land at least one fish, and there were several that got away. I lost two before I was able to get one into the boat. The captain said it was one of the better days he has had in the last couple months and we were very happy too. After they cleaned and filleted the fish for us, we walked away with about 10 or 12 pounds of very good looking fish to eat. After fishing we went back to the coach to rest for a while. We went out to dinner with the Wilson's about 6:00, but were too tired to visit with anyone. We were in bed by 9:30. The Mexican restaurant we went to was OK, but not the best. It had all Mexican staff, but the food was what I called a Wisconsin resident's idea of what Mexican food should be, Taco Bell lite. I guess being 2,000 miles from Mexico it shouldn't surprise us to find the food not quite up to our expectations.

Tuesday, July 21^st, we had a free day. Some parts of the rally started today, but there were no seminars or other obligations during the day. We had lunch at the coach and then went out with the Wilson's to do some geocaching. We ended up with eleven new finds and one DNF for a couple hours of caching. After caching we stopped at Walmart for some supplies before heading back to the fairgrounds. At 5:30 they had a beer and BBQ dinner at the pavilion, sponsored by one of the coach dealerships that brought some of their new coaches for display. They had hamburgers and brats, along with the fixings, all made by the same catering company, Festival, as we had for the volunteer dinner. Everything was great. About 7:00 the festivities were done and we went back to the coach and watched TV for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, July 22^nd, the first full day of the Monaco International Chapter rally. We were up and out early for an 8:30 meeting, in fact, we were early enough to surprise our friends and show up for breakfast at 8:00. At the Monaco rallies they provide breakfast and dinner for the four days when there is rally activity. We rarely make breakfast, but this morning we did enjoy our eggs and sausage. After breakfast we went to a meeting of the volunteer mentors. One of the features of Monaco International is that they arrange for volunteer members to serve as mentors to first time rally attendees. We were mentored at our first rally in Ashville, North Carolina back in 2006 and thought it a great idea. We have served as mentors for almost every Monaco rally since.

After the brief mentors meeting we got to meet our “mentees” at the First Timers meeting which followed. Ours is a couple somewhat younger than us that are from San Jose, California. They only travel for a few months at a time as they still have a teenager at home. They are a very nice couple, very outgoing and talkative, which we enjoy. We talked to them for a while before the meeting broke up and Jackie had to go to her Board meeting. Jackie is one of the Regional Directors for Monaco International. She is one of the two Regional Directors for Region 2, which is California, Nevada and Arizona. Her job is to contact new members of Monaco International whose home base in the region and welcome them to the club, and also serve as their point of contact to the Executive Board of MI. While Jackie was in that meeting I went back to the coach for a while.

When I got back to the coach I noticed that there were several people gathered around the large industrial generator that is posted next to our coach. For most of these motorhome rallies electric power is provided by generators rented by the rally and setup to provide 30 amp electric to the coaches. In this case our generator was acting up, the voltage going up and down and the engine surging. This kind of activity is not good for the electrical systems of our coaches, so most people, including me, chose to unplug from this “shore” power source and turn on our own generators until they could get it fixed.

Jackie finished her meeting and came back to the coach for a while and about 12:30 we headed back over to the building to attend a presentation by Mike Snell, the President of the Monaco Division of Allied Specialty Vehicles, the company that now owns Monaco. Mike has been with Monaco for over 20 years, surviving good times, bad times, the bankruptcy, and two changes of ownership, always bouncing back as the guy in charge. Mike talked for a half hour or 45 minutes about what was going on with Monaco, the problems with the company in the past and their plans for the near future and beyond. It was interesting, but not anything we didn't know at least a little about.

After Mike's presentation Jackie went to another presentation by Mike that he puts on for women only. The idea is to get the woman's perspective on coach design and appointment. He does the same with men only tomorrow. After that we had some down time, so we picked up our mail, which we had sent to the rally, and then spent a couple hours at the coach relaxing and doing a few chores. About 3:30 they had fixed the generator, so I switched back over to their power. It seemed to be working OK and we went over to the Keg party at the pavilion where the new coach display was. We chatted and visited with people until about 4:00 when we walked over to the dining hall to help setup the bar. Once they let people in at 4:30, Jackie went to our table to talk to the people we are mentoring and I worked behind the bar. The mentors always sit with their people on the first night's dinner and entertainment.

After the bar closed I got my salad and went over to the table, only to have to leave for a bit because the word was passed that the bad generator was acting up again. I went back to the coach, disconnected again and started our generator. I then went back to dinner. They started the evening by introducing all the dignitaries and officers of MI, then they had a very nice Military Tribute, honoring all the branches of service. Then dinner was served. Tonight was pulled pork and chicken with a raspberry sauce. Both were very good. They also had scalloped potatoes and corn on the cob. This caterer is outstanding and has really good food. After dinner they started the entertainment, which was a local country and western band. They were OK, but not outstanding and we got tired of it pretty quickly. We left after about a half hour and headed back to the coach where we relaxed until bedtime. They finally got the generator fixed again about bedtime, so I switched back to shore power again.

Thursday, July 23^rd, I went down to the events center about 10:30 for a seminar put on for men only by Mike Snell of Monaco. There wasn't anything new or surprising presented. After Mike's presentation we had the rest of the afternoon off, so we had some lunch and then went out in the car for some more exploring. We drove downtown and looked around some, then decided that we would go see if we could find the Elks Lodge. There was some conflicting information online about the lodge. The State Association web site indicated that there was a lodge here in Manitowoc, but some other websites talked about it as closed. We went to the address listed and found an old, abandoned golf club. The clubhouse was there, and you could see where the golf course had been, but it was all grown over and full of weeds. There was nothing on the building to indicate it was an Elks Lodge and it looked empty, but the picture on the State Association website showed that same building. We finally came to the conclusion that this had been the Elks, but it was now closed.

We did some more exploring, found one geocache just for fun, and then went to a couple of stores looking for coffee and a couple of other things that we couldn't find at Walmart the other day. Once we were done with our running around we went back to the coach and relaxed for a bit. About 4:30 we went over to the dining hall and helped get the bar set up. We worked the bar for happy hour and then sat down for dinner. 

We sat at a table with Gary and Ramona, as well as some first timers, one couple of which were also geocachers. The meal was wonderful again, with roast beef and baked cod, along with potatoes and veggies. After dinner they had a group called the Riverside Swing Band and they were outstanding. The majority of the audience stayed until the end of the show at 9:00. They did 40's and 50's music with lots of horns. They had a drummer and an upright bass, and the guitarist was the lead singer. They also had three horn players, sax, trumpet and trombone. They played a mix of early rock and roll and swing music and everyone really enjoyed them. After the show we went back to the coach and watched TV until bed.

Friday, July 24^th, we left the coach about 10:00 and went over to the events center to set up the room for our geocaching seminar. We put on a caching seminar at the Monaco rally in Pahrump earlier this year and they asked us back. We had about twenty people in the room, although most of them were geocachers already, there were still a couple of people there who were just interested in learning about the hobby. We put on an hour long seminar and it went pretty well. After the seminar we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while. We had lunch and then about 1:00 the Monaco service tech arrived to attempt some repairs on the coach. One of the great things about the Monaco International Rallies is that Monaco almost always sends a few service techs and a support truck, and also a parts trailer, to the rally. You have to pay for any parts, but the service labor is free. I had the guy adjust the front door on our coach, which has been giving us issues for a while. He also gave me a pretty good idea of what the problem with one of our slides is. It hesitates coming in and he told me it was most likely just the actual switch on the wall, given the symptoms I described. He didn't have any switches with him, but I can order one from Monaco parts and put that in myself.

At 4:00 we went down to the dining hall and helped set up the bar for the evening. At 5:00 everyone came in for happy hour and we had good time at the bar serving everyone. The bar is one of the fun jobs to volunteer for because you are always dealing with happy people. Free booze will do that. Dinner tonight was Wellington beef, but there was no bread coating like you normally expect on a Wellington. It was still very good. They also had sliced pork roast, potatoes and veggies. The entertainment tonight was an Elvis tribute group, Art Kistler and the EP Boulevard Show band. Art was a bit of hookey looking Elvis impersonator, he didn't look anything like Elvis and the wig was a bit over the top. However, he was a great singer and if you just listened to the music and not his silly impersonation moves, it was a great show. He was very personable and came out in the audience and walked around, flirting with the women, while he sang. Jackie got one of the dozen little teddy bears when he walked around singing “I just want to be your teddy bear.” We will save that for my new great grandson Josiah when we see him in September. About two thirds of the audience, including us and the Wilson's, stayed until the end of the show at 9:30. That is a really good indicator of a good show at these rallies where a lot of the people have an early bedtime and are not afraid of just leaving if the music is bad, too loud, or not their style. We went back to the coach, relaxed for a bit and went to bed.

Saturday, July 25^th, the last full day of the Monaco Rally. We were out of the coach about 10:30 and in the dining hall for the business meeting of the Monaco International Chapter. That meeting went for about 90 minutes and then they had a short meeting for those planning to caravan together from Manitowoc to Madison for the FMCA rally on Sunday. We are going to go with the caravan, so I stayed for that meeting. Jackie then had a meeting of Regional Directors and I went back to the coach and began to take down decorations and the screens in preparation for travel tomorrow. We have to be ready to leave with the caravan by 8:00, so I wanted to get as much done as possible today.

We had lunch at the coach and didn't do much in the afternoon after we got most things put away for travel. At 4:00 we went to the dining hall to help set up the bar and at 5:00 we were bartenders again. Dinner tonight was very good, it was prime rib, baked potatoes and veggies. The prime rib was outstanding. I can't say enough about the good food we had at this rally. There was no entertainment tonight, they just had some closing remarks and a few door prizes, none of which were won by anyone at our table. We were back home by 7:30 and watched TV the rest of the evening.

Sunday, July 26^th, we were up early and had the coach packed up and running by 8:00. We left our parking space and were directed to the caravan area by the parkers and lined up according to what kind of parking we had at FMCA. FMCA has electric, non-electric, volunteers, governing board, handicap and several other parking categories. The caravan pulled out of the fairgrounds right at 9:00 and had some assistance going through town from the Manitowoc Police Department. There were 31 coaches in the caravan, which makes an impressive line, but nothing like the 300 we had years back when the group went from Lancaster, California to Pomona. The caravan went pretty well, no accidents and not too much spreading out except at the very back where they had trouble matching speed. We were right in the middle of the group and it went OK. We had some help in a couple of the small towns and right angle turns from local police and sheriff's. The first half of the route was on two lane highway with lots of little towns and turns. Once we reached about half way the road turned into a limited access four lane divided road.

We arrived at the FMCA rally, being held at the Allient Energy Center grounds in Madison, Wisconsin, about noon. The parking people were supposed to have known we were coming, but they put us in a holding area where we sat for three hours before they finally figured out what to do with everyone. We finally got parked in our spot about 3:00. We seem to have a good spot, a paved parking lot quite near the activity areas. We have electric, but they won't run the generators until Tuesday morning, so we have to go with our own on-board generators today and Monday.

After we got the minimal stuff set up we drove into downtown to get something to eat. We had not had breakfast or lunch and we were starved. We found a nice bar and grill right across the street from the Capitol Building called D-Lux. We both had hamburgers and fries, but they were very much gourmet burgers. Mine was green chili, Jackie had one with wine sauteed onions. The food was very good, as was the service. After eating we went back to the coach and finished setting up. We had some new friends, Riley and Karen Caton, come over to chat, but they didn't stay too long. The Caton's were first timers at the Monaco Rally and they were geocachers, so we immediately had something in common. We sat together most meals and found them to be very nice people. After the Caton's left we watched TV and went to bed early because of our early start.

Monday, July 27^th, an early parking day at the FMCA Rally in Madison with no scheduled rally activities yet. About 11:30 we were visited by two of my cousins from Milwaukee. Bill and Barbara Benish drove in to visit us. One of my mother's sisters, whose nickname was Puss, and her husband Leo, had three kids, Bill, Richard, and Roger. Roger was the youngest and was the same age as me. When we still lived in Milwaukee, prior to 1960, Roger was my best friend and we spent a lot of time together. Roger was the youngest, Bill was seven years older and Rich was nine years older. Needless to say, we didn't spend much time with Bill and Rich at the time as they were teenagers when we were little grade school kids. Roger always had health issues and died 25 years ago. Rich died about a year and a half ago. Barbara was Rich's wife, in fact, Roger and I were ushers at their wedding in 1959. Bill's wife Karen died about a year ago. Barbara and Rich are the only members of the family still living.

I “rediscovered” Bill on Facebook a couple years ago, and other than my cousin Arleen I talked about earlier in this chapter, they are the only relatives from Milwaukee that I am in contact with. When Bill learned that we were going to be in Madison he told me that he would try to come to see us and bring his sister in law Barbara with him. The last time I saw Bill was back in the late 70's when my ex and I made a trip back to Wisconsin with my parents. Bill and Barbara sat and visited with us for a couple of hours before they decided they needed to get on the road to beat traffic. We talked a lot about family, some of whom I remembered, some names that sounded familiar, and some I didn't remember at all. It was a great visit and it was fun to see some old relatives again. Barbara has done a lot of ancestry work on the family and she is going to send me some of the family tree information.

After Bill and Barbara left we went out and got a late lunch at a Mexican restaurant called El Pastor. It had decent ratings on Yelp, but the food was mediocre at best and not very authentic. The service wasn't so hot either and I wouldn't recommend the place at all. We then stopped so Jackie could get a haircut and then we were off to Costco for a supply run. It has been a couple months since we were near a Costco, so we had a lot of stuff on the list. After we got back and put our frozen food away we drove over to the handicap parking lot and visited with Gary and Ramona for a while. We just stayed for a cocktail before heading back to our coach for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, July 28^th, the power from the outside generator came online just after 8:00, so now we should be able to run off of the external power for the rest of the rally. Before lunch we walked up to the events area just to look around. This is still considered an early parking day, so the only thing open was the information booth and after a few minutes we went back to the coach and ate lunch. After lunch we went out to do some exploring and geocaching. We drove around, looking at neighborhoods, downtown, and the University of Wisconsin campus. The campus here is huge, running for miles along a lake shore. We were able to get six new finds, and one DNF. We finally quit caching because the heat was in the 80's and the humidity was about 100 percent. We went to Walmart for some supplies and then headed back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, July 29^th, the first “official” day of the FMCA rally here in Madison. We went down to the events center about 11:00 or so to pick up our rally pins and let Jackie check out the crafts to see if she wanted to participate in any of them this year. She decided she didn't, so we walked back to the coach and had lunch. We went back to the events area again for our first seminar at 1:30. It was on beginning genealogy. I had done a little bit of genealogy on my family a few years back, but ran into some roadblocks and kind of dropped the project. Reconnecting with my cousins spurred my interest again, so we went to this seminar. It was very interesting and very helpful and I think that I am going to give it another try. The seminar sort of reinvigorated my interest and curiosity about “where I come from” again. After that seminar we came back to the coach and hung around until about 5:00 when we left to go to the Elks Lodge. We were planning on meeting the Wilson's and the Baron's there for cocktails and dinner.

The Madison Elks Lodge is nothing short of spectacular. It is a few blocks from the Capitol in downtown, right on the shore of Lake Monona, only about ten minutes from the fairgrounds. The building has a large bar and restaurant upstairs, with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the lake. Downstairs they have a big ballroom, also with windows overlooking the lake and going out onto a large, lakeside lawn. One of the trusties of the lodge came over and greeted us and took a few of us on a little tour. He said that they had a wedding booked almost every weekend because of the great location and views.

The Lodge, #410, was chartered in 1898 and up until the mid 60's had a big building downtown. The City of Madison approached them and traded the downtown land for the lake front land,which they had just acquired, and in 1965 the lodge moved into their current building. The trustee told us it is one of the most valuable non-governmental pieces of property in town. We had a couple of cocktails and were joined by a few other people from the rally before the six of us headed in for dinner. The lodge had a dinner special of a half rack of ribs, potato and soup or salad for $10 and that is what five of the six of us ordered. The ribs were wonderful, very meaty and tender. It was quite a deal and very good. We all left and headed back to the fairgrounds about 8:00 and we stayed in and watched TV the rest of the night.

Thursday, July 30^th, we got out of the coach and up to the events area by 9:45 for the Full Timers Seminar, which is always put on by the Full Timers Chapter. This was the first time in a couple of years that I was able to be in the audience and not on the panel. I finished my two one-year terms of office as President of the Chapter this spring and the new president had to put the seminar together. The seminar went well and afterward we moved to another room for a business meeting of the Chapter. That meeting was well attended and we visited with several Chapter members we had not seen in a while.

After the business meeting we went down to the cafeteria they had set up downstairs and had lunch. The food was very good, although a little pricey, but we didn't have to go all the way back to our coach for lunch. After lunch we spent some time in the vendor area, which just opened this morning. We didn't buy much today, but did see a couple of things that I want to think about. After touring the vendors for the first time we went to a meeting of the Military Veteran's Chapter. That meeting lasted an hour or so and then we went back to the coach.

We made some cocktails and took our lawn chairs over to the Baron's coach where we had a small group of Full Timers Chapter friends gather for cocktails. We ended up across the street under a tree so we would have shade. We spent an hour or so with the group before getting in the car and heading back to the downtown area for an off-site event. Everyone who had registered for the FMCA rally got an email invite to an evening of food, drink and entertainment put on by the Entegra Coach company. Entegra is a new brand of luxury coach that emerged a few years back during the tough years of RV companies going out of business and merging.

The event was held at a place called Monona Terrace, which is a city owned conference and event center which was designed and built by Frank Loyd Wright back in the 50's Wright, who was a Wisconsin native, had been trying to get the city to build this place for twenty years before it was finally finished. There were about 250 or 300 people at the event, including the Wilson's, Baron's and several other couples we know. They had an open wine and beer bar and some very nice appetizer type foods like fried chicken, meatballs, egg rolls and other items. The food was excellent and we ate our fill and visited with some folks for an hour or so. They were also offering tours of the facility and there were a number of docents located at several places in this very large building to talk about the facility and Wright. After the tour we were shepherded back to the ballroom where Entegra put on a half hour presentation about their company and products. They then brought out a comic who put on an hour long show for the group. The comic, John DeVoer, was very funny and had everyone in the room laughing. I had seen him once on the TV show Last Comic Standing and remembered the name. The event ended about 9:00 and by 9:30 we were back in the coach to watch a little TV, ironically an episode of this season's Last Comic Standing, before going off to bed.

Friday, July 31^st, we didn't have any early seminar commitments, so we were able to relax with our coffee. About 11:30 we went down to the events area and attended the second genealogy session, put on by the same guy. Again, we picked up a lot of hints and ideas and are getting excited about restarting my genealogy project. After that session we went to another building to help with the ice cream social. The Full Timer's Chapter is always tasked with staffing the ice cream social at FMCA rallies, and for the last two rallies Jackie and I have been in charge. It was nice today to just go over, help out where needed and not have to make decisions or worry about setting things up.

After the ice cream, where we gave 3,000 people an ice cream sandwich in about 15 minutes, Jackie went to a woman's social and I went back to the coach, picked up my guitar, and came back to the arena for a jam session. It was kind of small, just four other performers, but it was a lot of fun. After a bit of practice playing with each other we had sessions where each of us got up and did two songs. If the other players were familiar, or could follow along, they would play too. We did this twice, so I got four songs in. There was an audience of about a hundred people and they were very nice and gracious, despite the fact that none of us were exceptional musicians.

After the jam session I went back to the coach, as did Jackie, and we relaxed for a bit. About 5:30 Gary and Ramona came over for cocktails. Gary and I went out and picked up a pizza from a local joint and we had cocktails and pizza for dinner. We chatted for a while and a little before 7:00 we went over to the arena for the evening entertainment. Tonight was a group called New Odyssey, which I know has played at a number of other FMCA events, but I don't think we ever went to see them. It is just three guys who have 30 different instruments on stage, and at one time or another each of them plays all of them. They have a wide variety of horns, including a tuba, banjos, guitars, a harmonica, even an accordion. They also throw in some comedy and they are an outstanding group, great music and great fun. We finally got back to the coach about 9:30, watched and little TV and then went to bed.

Saturday, August 1^st, another month in the record books. Today is the last full day of the FMCA Rally here in Madison. I got up and out early for the 9:45 Annual Membership Meeting of FMCA. Jackie didn't want to go. The meeting lasted about an hour, after which I went to vendors and bought some LED replacements for some of our kitchen fluorescent lights. I made one more pass through the vendors, but wasn't able to come up with anything more to buy.

We had lunch at the events center and then went to an afternoon meeting of the INTO Area of FMCA. Most of the chapters we belong to are part of the International Area, or INTO, so that is the Area meeting we try to attend. After the INTO meeting we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while. I took down the screens and outside decorations, getting ready to leave tomorrow. We had an early dinner and about 7:00 went over to the coliseum for the entertainment. Tonight was William Florian, a guitar player who used to be with the New Christy Minstrels and who is now out on his own with a drummer and bass player. We saw him last summer in Redmond at the FMCA Rally and he put on a good show. The show tonight was very much the same, but we still enjoyed it. We were done and back at the coach by 9:00 and watched TV until bedtime.

Sunday, August 2^nd, we noticed the coaches started leaving about 7:00 a.m. We were not in a big hurry because we were only going about 60 miles north, back up to the Wisconsin Dells for the last rally of this cycle, the two day 3T's rally. By the time we were packed up and ready to leave at 10:30 the parking lot was nearly empty. We arrived at the Country Roads RV park in Lake Delton at noon. Lake Delton is right next door to Wisconsin Dells, and not far from Baraboo, where we were two weeks ago. We got checked in and set up pretty quickly, but it was really hot. We decided to just stay home and try to stay cool. This 3T's rally is held after every FMCA Rally and gives the members two days to calm down after a busy rally. The 3T's are for To dump, To rest, and To do laundry.

There were fifteen rigs, 30 people, here for the rally and we met for cocktail hour at 4:00. A lot of our friends are in this chapter, including the Baron's and the Wilson's, both of whom came to the rally. About 5:30 we all got in our cars and went to a nearby restaurant for dinner. We went to Sprechers, which is a German style restaurant with locations in several Wisconsin cities. I had the wurst platter, which had three different kinds of wurst along with red cabbage and spetzel, a German pasta. It was excellent. Jackie had jambalaya, which doesn't seem German, but was one of their specialties. She said it was very good as well. With 30 people it was hard to visit with anyone except the people right on either side of you, but we had a great time anyway. After dinner we went back to the park and the Wilson's and Baron's stopped over for a drink before everyone headed to their own coaches. We relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Monday, August 3^rd, we actually got up to go have breakfast. Jackie had been charged with baking some of the biscuits for the biscuits and gravy, so we just stayed for breakfast with everyone after delivering the biscuits. After breakfast we had a business meeting for the Chapter, which included voting in new officers. After the meeting we had the rest of the day off. We thought about doing laundry, but decided to let it go for another day and relax.

I spent part of the day playing around with our refrigerator. Our motor home is ten years old and we
have had problems, on and off, with the refrigerator since we bought the coach. In the first year we were in the shop three times getting the thing fixed. Each time they had to replace the cooling unit on the back of the fridge. This meant having to take it out of the hole, laying it down on the floor and changing the guts in the back. The fridge weighs about 250 pounds, so it is not an easy task to take it out and then put it back. The last time it went out was in February of 2010. The refrigerator was out of warranty from the manufacturer, so our extended warranty paid for the repair, less the deductible. Since it was not a factory repair the service guy installed an after market cooling unit that he said was much better than the factory units. It did go five years, but it is on it's way out now. The fridge is barely cooling and I fear we are about to be fixing it again, or replacing it with a residential refrigerator. That is a direction that a lot of people have gone, for the reliability and the fact that the RV refrigerator pose a fire hazard from overheating. There have been a lot of RV fires over the years started by a malfunctioning refrigerator.

At 4:30 we met with the group for cocktails and at 6:00 we had a nice pot luck dinner in the pavilion at the RV park. The rally hosts cooked some chicken breasts and everyone else brought a dish to share. The meal was very good and everyone had a great time. After dinner we went back to our coach and relaxed in front of the TV for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, August 4^th, the rallies are over for this summer. We met everyone for coffee and breakfast at 8:00. They were making waffles too, but we don't eat breakfast and didn't have any waffles. After saying goodbye to everyone we went back to our coach and packed it up for travel. We left the RV park around 10:30, headed south to Rockford, Illinois, about 130 miles or so. We were traveling with the Wilson's and they were going to stay at the same park with us for three days.

We arrived at the Blackhawk Valley Campground around 1:00 or so and got set up in an hour or so. We are parked right next to the Wilson's. The phone service is terrible, but they have decent WiFi, so we will be able to stay in touch. We were lucky to get a spot with a hole in the tree cover just big enough for us to get a satellite feed. The Wilson's were not so lucky. As soon as we got set up we loaded the car with our laundry and headed to a laundromat. We also stopped for a burger at a local place called Beef-a-Roo. The food was pretty decent, way better than the chain stuff. We got our laundry done and were back at the campgrounds by 5:30, but we were whipped, so we had a cocktail and relaxed the rest of the evening. The refrigerator has officially died and I am working out some alternatives in my head.

This ends the two-plus weeks of rallies and marks a good spot to close this chapter. We are making every effort to deal with our dead refrigerator without panic or worry. Until the next time, remember the words of author and therapist, Virginia Satir. Life is not the way it's supposed to be. It's the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference. As the English say, Keep Calm and Carry On. See ya soon.