We Joined The FMCA

 It's been 10 years since we were members, we'll see how well they stack up in 2024 now that they allow towable's in to bolster membership. 

I can post but not comment, thanks Blogger

Either something is messed up with my Google account or who knows what but once again I am unable to comment outside of my own blog. Use Incognito or Inprivate clear cache etc... NADA so I can't comment on my favorite blogs... 😣

Say Bye Bye to the Flair 29T and hello to the Tiffin Allegro Breeze 32BR

 We took the Flair out a few times this Spring only to have to deal with water systems issues and black tank problems. I was able to get them resolved but we didn't want to deal with continuous issues and the bathroom size was really bothering both of us. We had made a mistake buying this Fleetwood, it's a beautiful RV but being F53 rides like a UPS truck and you take a beating when going for more than 30 minutes at a time. Ronda got to hating the bathroom, I was getting there, we could figure no way to improve the situation, the RV simply had no space to make adjustments and improvements to the ride would have cost way too much. The difference between ride quality compared to our old Endeavor was also stark but the Endeavor did weigh about 10k more than the Flair, calls to chassis companies ended with it's not worth it on a 29ft Class A.

So a month ago we saw a Tiffin Allegro Breeze 32BR diesel pusher that is 33.8ft long and has dual opposing slides and a huge bathroom. It's also on air and has 600ftlbs of torque and has an Allison 6spd transmission and a compound dual turbo engine that should average 14 to 15 mpg instead of 5 to 7 in the gasser. 

Ronda has named the rig Odysseus! We picked it up on Thursday 7/11/24 and took it to Paul Wolff and like Sept last year, our first time out had an epic amount of rain fall, I mean this rain was at an epic amount and lasted the better part of a day. If the rig had leaks, we would have found them Saturday!! 

So far so good, we enjoyed driving it home, the air ride is incredible and the bathroom/shower is incredible. I'll post more pictures when we have the inside stuff put away. 

Saying Goodbye To Blackhawk Valley Campground

 We said goodbye to our favorite campground yesterday. We found Blackhawk Valley Campground as a place to stay the weekend 09/30/2011 - 10/02/2011 when Ronda's dad was in the hospital. We had never heard of it prior to this weekend so we were pretty blown away when we walked around the campground for the first time, it was huge, clean and friendly!

We were on site # 105 and the campground was getting ready for their annual Halloween celebration. Why does it feel like this was so long ago? I guess because so much has changed, so many have passed since this day, all of our lives have changed a lot since then and now big changes are happening again.

After this trip we decided to make it one of our frequent weekend getaways and in 2012, towards the end of the season we decided to look into getting a permanent site and we bounced from site to site until we ended up at site # 131.

June 2nd of 2012 we stayed in site # 83 and Ronda ordered the bucket load of wood, not the milk crate so the owner, Mark Springer drove over the bucket load and I asked him who that was for and he said you. The picture of wood in this post is the day after I burned wood most of the night. It took the rest of the day to burn the rest of it.

I included the site that had a train track set up every year we were there, the kids loved going by there and checking it out. Today it's gone.

On June 3rd 2012 we pulled the trigger on a permanent site and the site dance began! So site #84 it is, wait, no back to #83 and then back to #84... we were offered site #79 but that was on Packer Drive... yeah nope, couldn't do it. The next weekend Mark had done some work to site #129 so we moved there...

The last weekend of June 2012 for 9 days I decided to vacation in the rig. It was an average of 105 to 112 that week. I used comforters to block the windows so the AC could try and keep up. The site was 30 amp so we couldn't run both AC units and some guy in a rig with 3 AC units kept blowing the power out, drove Mark crazy.

Later in the season site #85 became available, starting the next year site 145 or 86 would be available. Because of the size of site #86 and no neighbor on the passenger side we took it!

Fast forward to April 21 2013 and we are now in site #86 and suddenly I get a call from Mark saying you need to get out here. The storm is flooding the Kishwaukee river and the water is getting into the campground fast. Long story short I got there in time to get the rig moved to higher ground. For some reason moving to a different site seemed like a good idea after spending the better part of a week cleaning up after the flood.

Then site #131 became available. It was a large site but had a problem and that problem is what was keeping the premium spot open. Who ever chooses this lot has to buy the shed and deck, we talked it over and bought them and proceeded to move in and we were there from 2013 until 2023! Man how that time just flew by.

We began working in the store during the 2014 season and continued until this year. We decided at the end of 2022 we were going to try and get back onto the road so we could visit places but we also decided to work the store one more season and then give notice we would be out next year. In August we found out that the campground had been sold to a resort which worked out for us time wise but what about the rest of the folks who have been here, heck some for over 30 years?

In the end change happens, for everybody good or bad. We hope everybody finds a place that they can make memories at and for us this is a new chapter as well. We traded in the Montana for a new to us Class A and next season we will start searching for new places to visit, Spring can't get here soon enough.

We said goodbye to our favorite campground yesterday. We found Blackhawk Valley Campground as a place to stay the weekend 09/30/2011 - 10/02/2011 when Ronda's dad was in the hospital. We had never heard of it prior to this weekend so we were pretty blown away when we walked around the campground for the first time, it was huge, clean and friendly!

We were on site # 105 and the campground was getting ready for their annual Halloween celebration. Why does it feel like this was so long ago? I guess because so much has changed, so many have passed since this day, all of our lives have changed a lot since then and now big changes are happening again.

After this trip we decided to make it one of our frequent weekend getaways and in 2012, towards the end of the season we decided to look into getting a permanent site and we bounced from site to site until we ended up at site # 131.

June 2nd of 2012 we stayed in site # 83 and Ronda ordered the bucket load of wood, not the milk crate so the owner, Mark Springer drove over the bucket load and I asked him who that was for and he said you. The picture of wood in this post is the day after I burned wood most of the night. It took the rest of the day to burn the rest of it.

I included the site that had a train track set up every year we were there, the kids loved going by there and checking it out. Today it's gone.

On June 3rd 2012 we pulled the trigger on a permanent site and the site dance began! So site #84 it is, wait, no back to #83 and then back to #84... we were offered site #79 but that was on Packer Drive... yeah nope, couldn't do it. The next weekend Mark had done some work to site #129 so we moved there...

The last weekend of June 2012 for 9 days I decided to vacation in the rig. It was an average of 105 to 112 that week. I used comforters to block the windows so the AC could try and keep up. The site was 30 amp so we couldn't run both AC units and some guy in a rig with 3 AC units kept blowing the power out, drove Mark crazy.

Later in the season site #85 became available, starting the next year site 145 or 86 would be available. Because of the size of site #86 and no neighbor on the passenger side we took it!

Fast forward to April 21 2013 and we are now in site #86 and suddenly I get a call from Mark saying you need to get out here. The storm is flooding the Kishwaukee river and the water is getting into the campground fast. Long story short I got there in time to get the rig moved to higher ground. For some reason moving to a different site seemed like a good idea after spending the better part of a week cleaning up after the flood.

Then site #131 became available. It was a large site but had a problem and that problem is what was keeping the premium spot open. Who ever chooses this lot has to buy the shed and deck, we talked it over and bought them and proceeded to move in and we were there from 2013 until 2023! Man how that time just flew by.

We began working in the store during the 2014 season and continued until this year. We decided at the end of 2022 we were going to try and get back onto the road so we could visit places but we also decided to work the store one more season and then give notice we would be out next year. In August we found out that the campground had been sold to a resort which worked out for us time wise but what about the rest of the folks who have been here, heck some for over 30 years?

In the end change happens, for everybody good or bad. We hope everybody finds a place that they can make memories at and for us this is a new chapter as well. We traded in the Montana for a new to us Class A and next season we will start searching for new places to visit, Spring can't get here soon enough.

Not Something You See Every Day

 Saw this rig when I dropped ours off for slide and furnace repairs on Sunday. She definitely made it her own.