Friday, June 29. 2007
After spending a couple of weeks visiting with John’s nephew Jason Hiester, darling wife, and family, we brought the coach to the motorhome capital of the world, Elkhart, Indiana. Bill’s RV was recommended to us by Dometic for our awning replacement since they do a lot of warranty work here in Elkhart and the awnings are manufactured near here.
If you have been keeping up with our travels, you will remember our episode at Grayson Highlands State Park a few weeks ago where our big electrically-operated patio awning broke under the weight of rain from a sudden thunderstorm. The awning, according to the advertising, is not supposed to do this, so thanks to a very good friend at Winnebago service administration, our awning was replaced under warranty by Dometic, the manufacturer. This saved us probably at least $2,000 so we are extremely grateful for our friend’s assistance. The replacement went well after four guys worked on it for three hours – it was a big job and although I am a DIY-type guy, this was one I could never ever hope to do myself or even with a helper!
While we were in Elkhart, we toured the Travel Supreme (NOTE – 2009 – bankrupt) and Monaco (2009 bankrupt but revived ) motorhome factories. Travel Supreme is a very high-end coach builder – $350,000 and up and Monaco is somewhat like Winnebago (the manufacturer of our coach) where they have a product for every budget from around $150,000 to maybe $500,000. (Winnebago decided to abandon the higher end of the market in 2004 and ceased production of their Ultimate Advantage and Ultimate Freedom which was a step up from our coach. Now ours is the currently most expensive model Winnebago produces.) NOTE: 1/2010 – Winnie dropped the Vectra/Horizon upper end models with their very desirable side radiators and Independent Front Suspension while moving the Tour and Ellipse into the top spots. The Tour and Ellipse have reclaimed the price point point the Vectra/Horizon previously had. You still get a good coach, but you pay the same amount of money like you would have paid three or four years ago for a Vectra/Horizon – but your new unit will have a rear radiator (not the best) and a straight-axle front suspension.
John has always been dissatisfied with the driver’s chair and the passenger’s chair comfort, so we visited Bradd and Hall who are major dealers for Flexsteel and Villa, major RV and marine furniture manufacturers. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we both found a chair model that we like and one that is
a major step up in comfort. Our existing chairs are Ultraleather which are great looking but one of the cats has punctured the material with her claws. So instead of real leather or Ultraleather, we have chosen a fabric replacement. The chairs will be built to order, so on our way to New York (from Branson, our next major stop) to visit Erik and Karen (my nephew and his darling wife and baby) we will stop in Elkhart to get our new chairs installed.
Oh yes – Poison Ivy – we were Geocaching recently in Ohio when John came into contact with Poison Ivy for the first time ever in his life. After a few days, his inside left arm was really ugly looking with large angry looking red welts and it also popped up on his stomach and right arm. Needless to say we quickly did some Internet searching on what Poison Ivy looks like. The worst is now past and the itching has subsided, thank goodness!
We are off tomorrow for Fisherman’s Corner in Hampton, Illnois which is an Army Corp of Engineers park on the Mississippi River. We hope to have a good time here celebrating our country’s birthday!