Lone Star FMCA Camping Group - Part 2

We arrived home at about 11:00AM today from our weekend with the Lone Star FMCA group. We officially joined them, and sent off for our creditials. However, due to some previous committments, we won't make their next two scheduled outings. We will, however, meet with them at the FMCA six state rally in North Little Rock in late September.

Saturday morning at the rally started out with a taquito breakfast. They were brought in from a local restaurant, and were very good. After breakfast, Patsy and I went into to town to buy a bag of ice, but ended up visiting the 'tourist' area and walked the streets and shops. I even found a shop where Patsy was able to buy a pair of the sandals that she had been looking for on Friday in Aransas Pass.

On Saturday night, we had another catered meal.......... chicken, green beans, potatoes, salad and dessert. It was good, even though it was chicken!!! After dinner, we played "card bingo", and I never knew about playing bingo with a deck of playing cards! It was fun, but Patsy won one pot out of eight games, and I did not win any!!

We did, however, win one of the nicest door prices........ it was a donation to the rally from the Rockport Chamber of Commerce. It was a basket of gifts that included two T-shirts (an XL and 2XL, that actually fit us!), two bottles of an alcoholic beverage from Seagrams, two bottles of hand cleaner, a key chain, deck of playing cards, a ceramic fish, a wind chime, and a nice pair of binoculars. Here's a picture:

After the bingo game, everybody broke into smaller groups and played games. I found a good poker group, and had a very good night. I won enough to cover the cost of weekend, including Patsy's sandals! Nice night!!

As soon as we got home today, we had to wash the motorhome. We had hundreds of 'love bugs' smeared all over the front of the Bus.

We will be at home for a few days, and then we will meet up with our Lousiana friends, Mark and Sue Didelot, and head to the weekend camping outing with the Gulf Coast RV Group at the Country Place campground in Cut'n'Shoot, TX.

Lone Star FMCA Camping Group - Part 1

Since we have been members of the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) since 1993, we decided to check out a local chapter club. We are camped with them at the Lagoon RV Resort campground in Rockport, TX. The campout was scheduled for Thursday through Sunday, but we showed up Wednesday and most of them were already here!

On Wednesday, we met several people from the club. Also, the Stampers, Wayne and Marynell, whom we had met at Red Bay during our Bus building (they were watching their Phaeton final finish), and also saw at Red Bay on our last visit, are also here. Marynell was the one who gave us some information on this group. Wednesday evening, we went out to eat dinner with the Stampers at the local favorite restaurant, The Big Fisherman.



On Thursday, we met more folks, and spent time lounging around the campground. On Thursday night, the club had a catered 'lasagna' dinner catered. Afterwards, we participated in some games.... Patsy in LCR, and I managed to find a poker group. Since the Stampers and us were new members, we got to go through the line first. Here we are:


On Friday, Patsy and I took the car, and took the ferry across to Mustang Island at Aransas Pass. We drove quite a ways down the beach until we ran out of road!! We also visited the Mustang Island state park, and the Pioneer Campground. On our way back, Patsy confessed to me that she really just wanted to go to Aransas Pass to buy a pair of sandals that she had seen someone else wearing at the rally! We looked, but they did not have her size..... I was really saddened!!

Patsy did shoot a pelican while on the ferry ride back (with a camera, of course!!). She also got a seagull:

On Friday evening, we both had Bar-b-que for dinner. Patsy stayed at the rally and had it catered at the campground. I drove to Port Lavaca, and had it with the ALCOA 25-year club meeting.

Bus Modifications While at Home

While we are at home, in between trips, we have been busy cleaning up the house, yard and the Bus. We have also been making some modifications to the Bus.


Changing Laundry Hamper into a Closet

While we were at Red Bay, I removed the laundry hamper, took the 'box' part of the hamper off the door, and had the service center carpenter shop to install hinges on the door. I then re-installed the door with the hinges and added a clasp.

When we got home, I cut a board to install on the side to separate the area from the drawers to the left of the hamper location. Here are the pictures (note that I left the drawer pull 'handle' in the top middle to avoid drilling another hole. It works just fine as is):

Picture of opening before separator board installed:



Picture of separator board installed. This is also the amount of 'stuff' that had filled the previous hamper box:


Here'e the picture with the door closed........ looks like it always did!!

Additional lights over the drawers/counter at foot of bed in bedroom

Every since we've had the Bus, we thought that Tiffin forgot to light a part of the bedroom. While at Red Bay, I purchased two lights that were the same as the ones over the head of the bed, and a brown rectangular light switch to match the other light switches in the Bus. We found 12volt power in the bottom of the drawer area, and had to route it up to the top. Here's the finished product.

The area without new lighting:

The same area with the new lighting:

Note that the light switch is located on the bottom side of the TV cabinet. Here's a closeup of the switch and a light fixture:

We will hitting the road again later this month.......... and we are ready!

Little Rock & Home!!

As a followup to my previous post on weighing the Bus, here are some of the numbers:

Act Weights Bus GVWR
Front Axle 12500 14600
Rear Axle 19980 20000
Total 32520 34600

Side Weights

DR Side 16060
PS Side 16060

Individual Wheel Positions

DF 6660
PF 6680
DR 9780
PR 10440

Conditions:

Fresh Tank 58%
Black Tank 0%
Gray Tank 0%
LPG Tank 94%
Fuel 120 gal (150gal tank)

We were fairly well loaded with personal stuff plus Patsy and I were in it. We also had a lot of food, plus we had winter and summer clothing with extra bedding for cold weather.

On the way home, we visited Deanne in Little Rock. We got there on Sunday evening and left Tuesday at about noon. Here are up to date pictures of Deanne and her sheltie, Izzy:

We got home at 7:00PM on Wednesday. It is nice to be home, but we have a lot of yard work to get done. We are also ready to hit the road again in a few weeks. We plan to attend a rally with the Lone Star FMCA group at the Lagoons RV Resort in Rockport, TX on April 24, and a campout with the Gulf Coast RV Group on May 2.