First trip ! The good, the bad and the ugly

Friday I took off of work to go get our tag from the tag office. I walk out 80 dollars lighter in the wallet. I then run by Wally world and get some last minute supplies. Come hold load the coach and the mail lady stops with the new toilet valve. Yay! I get the new valve installed. The PO had left us with some black water in the tank and it smelled horrible. The fridge is cooling down nicely, got most everything loaded so I believe we are set. Saturday I get up feeling pretty good and excited to get started. Wife says head to the campground and get set up, we will meet you there in a little bit. The place we decided to stay was only 20 miles from the house.

I head out and crank the coach to let the air and suspension build up. I back up and onto a grassy part of our yard and the coach instantly sinks and spins tires. Lucky for me my neighbor has a big 4 wheel drive tractor and he proceeded to pull me out. No damage done and almost 1 1/2  hour later I am on my way. I get there and lower the jacks and get her set up. I drain and flush the smelly tanks the PO had left. The family had a great time, we BBQ'd and went fishing. My 2 year old son loves being outside so he was in heaven. Great news is everything worked, the fridge, the ice maker, the coach heaters, hot water heater, the washer dryer.

Sunday morning I got up and got a cup of coffee and enjoyed the sunrise over the lake. We cooked breakfast and then started packing up. I drained and flushed the tanks again. The awning has a cracked end piece and when I was trying to roll it back in it got all jacked up. I bungee corded it to side of the coach to get home and will be replacing that cap. The campground did not have cable so we ended up watching 20 hours of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

We all had a great time! Our first big road trip is June or July to the beach so I feel good that there should be minimal issues. Still gives me time to do some upgrades like a digital tv antenna and maybe a new sat dish.

It's a great life! Glad you got those few things sorted and enjoyed the trip. Here's to many more! 8)

Sounds like all was well except getting stuck in the yard, kinda funny like you were making a comedy movie. :

For about $28 I added a Winegard RV-WING Wingman UHF RV TV Antenna Booster for the Winegard Sensar Batwing (Digital RV TV Antenna, Easy Installation, Increases Digital UHF TV

I put this on my 1994 rig in 2012 and used it 6 years (until rig sold). Worked remarkably well. It attached to the existing analog antenna.

Bought mine at amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001U2DPUE

On a flip note, my friend bought one of those flat indoor antennas you can stick on the wall or window for his Class B camper van. He was visiting me at the time. We tested it in my rig. First we counted the channels I was getting with my roof antenna. Then we took the cable off from my tv roof antenna, screwed on his flat digital antenna cable, then stuck the antenna indoors in a high window over the cab bunk. In your case, maybe you can stick it high up on the windshield when parked.

We did the channel re-scan and amazingly it picked up the same number of channels at my roof antenna.

The end result... I mostly listen to music and enjoy the outdoors.  8)  But when weather is bad or I am sick, being able to cozy up to a movie or show is kind of fun. Before I installed mine, the analog antenna was pixalating and buzzing, the digital antenna seemed to bring in more stations and they were much clearer.

Just a quick note about antennas: There are no digital antennas, nor are there HD antennas. They are all analog, by the very nature of radio waves. However, with the advent of digital TV, a large number of stations moved from VHF (Very High Freq), which is the forte of the batwing antenna, to UHF (Ultra High Freq), which is where the Wingman addition to the batwing shines, as it is optimized for UHF, and its design makes it somewhat directional, thus effectively increasing its apparent received signal (this is very simplified John) when pointed at the station's antenna.

MissMermaid, that "flat" antenna received the same chennels as your batwing because you were relatively close to the stations. It would have been different if a lot further away from the stations. Nicely done experiment, though.

Larry just saved me a bunch of typing!

When it comes to Antennas. Height is might.

Next time you do that A/B antenna thing.. Take a note of the SIGNAL STRENGTH on 2 or 3 channels

My Sensar did ok, added the wingman and saw an increase added the Sensar pro and .... Well I get TOO MUCH Tv now, can't watch it all, have had to off-load and transfer to storage media on many movies. about 400 horus worth.

Nice write-up Chief <Salute!>.  The bad and ugly wasn't so bad, and it sounds like the good trumped it.  Which is what it is all about.  The second trip should be even better.  Have fun!

I too tried one of those flat antenna's.  About 40 miles from the stations.
got 0 channels...  Batwing on the roof... picked up 22 channels..
The only way the flat antenna worked was at home, where we were only 5 miles
from the nearest TV stations.. I threw the flat antenna away..

Bob

Had to laugh when I read your report. Sounds like a normal trip to me.

I start to get nervous if nothing goes wrong by the second day. 

I've sunk my class A up to the axles too, mud is still on them. Never a dull moment!

I wish the campground had cable so I could make sure we get it cable inside the coach. I will rig a dvd player to the coach input and test it out that way. Sad that my roof mounted dish is too old but upgrading that will have to wait for now since we are going on a cruise for our daughters 18th birthday next month. The good outweighed the bad and we all enjoined the weekend break. I feel confident now about the trip to the beach this summer. Another thing we realized is the mattress is as hard as a rock so we will either get a topper or a new mattress.

My wife said you know if we didn't have little man I could see us doing long trips in this thing. She never camped in our old RV and the slide in this one made a huge difference in space.

Mattress... mine came with a hard as rock mattress and I did a ton research before replacing it.

First I tried a topper and that just didn't help me. I have joint pain and discovered wool would be the best bed for achy joints but the price is frightening.

Finally I switched to a luxurious talay latex mattress  which is naturally anti-microbial, hypo-allergenic, weightless, buoyant, feather-like-feel, pressure relieving, breathable, supremely comfortable, resists mold, mildew and bed bugs. It isn't hot nor cold. It has no awful inner springs to poke me in the ribs.

I bought mine from DreamFoam mattress mail order because the stores don't seem to carry them since they can be built in 10 or more different types of softness.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CP85T2Y

My first one was custom built and built to the softest they had ever made. There were phone calls and emails back and forth, there was no surcharge for the custom build. I put it in my Class C and never regretted it. Suddenly I had the best sleep ever and my joint pain immediately went away when I laid or lounged on it.

Sadly I had to sell it with my motorhome but the new owner was in love with it when she laid on it. By then it was 6 years old and still looked new with no sags or rips or stains. I had slept like a kitten curled up to mama cat and was sad to see it go.

Over the years, I had checked underneath the mattress to vacuum and so on. Found some dog lost treats that worked their way between mattress and wall plus I found hair pins, hair ties and *ahem* a few cashews from munching in bed while lounging around watching TV. There was never any moisture or mold or mildew in spite of my mattress being surrounded by 3 windows.

I bought a used 5th wheel that came with the dreaded hard as rocks inner spring mattress. I bought another latex mattress from DreamFoam.

Heaven on earth!

In both cases the mattress came airless, shrink wrapped and rolled up in a box. I was able to remove the old mattress, then wrestle the shrink wrapped mattress to the bedroom. Then I carefully removed the wrapping and watched my bed spring to life. I would say it was about 90-95% full in a few minutes and by 24 hours it was completely decompressed.

I also used a mattress warmer on both beds because when temps plummet, I like to be toasty warm in bed. In my motorhome, the bed was located over a drafty basement locker, in the 5th wheel, it's located over a slide out.

Thanks for the tip! I will have to look into those. That was really the only thing my wife complained about. I noticed that it was very hard and uncomfortable. It's a work in progress to get it the way we want it.

Chief-

Glad you had a successful outing and, more important, glad your better half has caught the fever. 

On the mattress, before shopping make sure you confirm the measurements of the existing mattress to ensure it is a standard size.  Some RVs have a "RV Queen" (or king) size mattress that is shorter than a conventional queen size.  I imagine your American would have standard size, but double check.  Fortunately, the prior owner of ours replaced the mattress with a real nice conventional pillow top mattress.  It is sooo nice, much nicer than the one in the house.  We've talked about just swapping, but will probably get a new mattress for the house.

I don't know if she caught the fever but I'm working on it. The last 2 motel rooms she booked for us did not go so good. One smelled like pot and I swear the people in the room next door were dealing. The other was not so clean and we found drug scales and coke spoons under the mattress. With this coach I know who slept in that bed last night and I put an end to the 2 main reasons we stop during our trips, I'm hungry and I have to go to the bathroom. It's going to be interesting to see how they do on a long road trip in the coach. They never rode in the last RV and only a 30 minute ride when we brought this one home.

I finally got the wife/ daughter to decide on when we go on our beach trip last night so we can make reservations. We have decided to stay at the Emerald Coast RV Beach Resort in Panama City the 6th thru the 8th of July.  If it would quit raining on the weekends I could mount the base plate and run the light kit on the Hummer. I promised pics and will post them this weekend when I get around to downsizing them.

When you get to Panama City, I suggest a breakfast and/or lunch at Andy's Flour Power Cafe & Bakery.

Stephen S. said:

When you get to Panama City, I suggest a breakfast and/or lunch at Andy's Flour Power Cafe & Bakery.

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Thanks! We will have to check it out. Our favorite place is Shuckums Oyster Pub & Seafood Grill. A combat buddy owns Bubba's Pizza so it is always a stop for us too.

ChiefM said:

Thanks! We will have to check it out. Our favorite place is Shuckums Oyster Pub & Seafood Grill. A combat buddy owns Bubba's Pizza so it is always a stop for us too.

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Panama City Beach.  Try Finn's Food truck.  Best blackened redfish tacos I've ever had.  Will be back down there in about a month.

We usually go the end of April for our daughters birthday, Going on a cruise this year since she will be turning 18. The daughter likes the beach, I think the wife and I go more for the food! Secured our reservations at the http://www.rvresort.com/Default.aspx I had to send them outside pics of the coach and wait for them to approve us since they have a 10 yr rule.

I measured the mattress in the coach and it turned out to be a regular queen. So I removed the original Fleetwood mattress and put we put in a Serta prefect sleeper mattress, Oh my what a difference! I also replaced the rubber and Teflon seals on the toilet. If it would ever quit raining on the weekends I could change the oil and fuel filter in the generator.