5th Wheel RV for Sale near Albuquerque w Datastorm Internet Satellite Dish

Our friend, Joline, calls her RV ‘Brightwing’ and I have a special place in my memory for Brightwing as it was the first RV I ever saw with a Datastorm Internet Satellite dish.  Joline was way ahead of her time!  A single woman, traveling alone, she wanted to stay connected, and in 2002 a Datastorm was the only way to do it.  She’s upgraded several times since then.  A working Datastorm is still on Brightwing’s roof.

Joline knew my Mom and took Mom and me on an RV trip to the Florida Keys back in January 2003.  I was so impressed with Joline’s independent lifestyle!  Brightwing helped point the way to Jim’s and my life on the road!  Now Joline is hanging up the keys, and I’d love to help find Brightwing a new home. If you’re interested, please leave a comment to this post – I’ll make sure she gets it.

Brightwing and ‘Oh Boy’ have met up several times over the years.
Here’s the details:
TRAILER, a Titanium 5th Wheel, Model # 24E29, Year 2002. with one daveno slide made by Glendale Recreational Vehicles, Ontario, Canada,  6500 (not a typo) pounds dry weight, including hitch weight.  Twin beds, central vacuum, two 30-pound propane bottles (actual total 14 gallons) sewage tank flush system,  huge underbed storage capacity, holding tank capacities:  Fresh 48; Gray 41; Sewage 41, exterior rinse shower, tinted thermopane solar reflective glass windows, exterior sound center, dinette with dropleaf with 2 upholstered chairs, ceramic flush toilet, plus usual appliances:  3 burner gas stove with oven (never used), large 2-way refrigerator-freezer, furnace, water heater, microwave, A/C.

    A number of items were upgrades by the manufacturer.
Original Upgrades:  2 Fantastic Fans, extra folding dining chair, living room chair and ottoman, 19' A&E awning motorized, motorized rear jacks, Onan 2500 W. generator, solar system (runs everything but A/C for 5-7 hours at end of day, including electronics; built in stereo radio/10 disk CD player, bathroom folding towel rack mounted on tub wall, bedroom oak bookshelves made to order; another made to order oak railing for top of refrigerator, where I carry my toaster oven.
OTHER ADD-ONS:    truck bedliner, automatic steps to get in/out of truck, towing mirrors, truck-trailer brakes, tire step (a device that fits over a rear tire so I can stand on it and reach into the back of the truck to hook up and unhook), Husky 5th wheel hitch. 
TRUCK -   2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 (diesel) 4 X 4 extended cab LT, shortbed with Allison transmission, towing package, leather seats, heated seats in winter, tinted windows, 3 power outlets, Sirius satellite radio (added after), Onstar (not available after 2007), surround sound plus separate CD & tape player, 107,000 miles.
Location: Belen, NM
Price: $22,500
Here are pictures of the interior.  Click on the slideshow to go to full size on the web album.

Please leave a comment if you’re interested.
Good Luck Joline!  See ya next time we’re out Albuquerque way.

Saturday Fun

Yesterday was the last day for the Heartland Vendor Mart, so we broke down the booth and drove over to Wally World to get some fine box wine for dinner.  The pork chop meal was good and conversation with our table-mates was great.  After dessert, the entertainment was Dueling Pianos.  They did a bunch of familiar tunes and had everyone laughing with their antics and audience participation.

Chris scheduled an Asian Reflexology massage this morning with Jean Damon, so her husband Dave and I took a walk over to where a Soap Box Derby track was set up at the fairgrounds.  These are local trials in preparation for the finals held in Akron, Ohio every July.  The kids were having a blast!  This is serious business for some.

Goshen Soap Box Derby

 

The Heartland Rally attendees were all invited to a factory tour and luncheon today followed by a visit to the RV/MH Hall of Fame and Museum.  Our friend Al Hesselbart, the historian there asked Chris and me to help out when all the Heartlanders toured the museum.  We were glad to do it.  If you get the chance, it is a great place to visit in the Elkhart area.  Don’t wait too long though, if they don’t get some serious industry support soon, they may have to close their doors as early as September.  That would be a real shame.

Back at the fairgrounds, we joined the Heartland Owners Club members for another catered dinner.  The entertainment tonight was a hypnotist/comedian, but we didn’t stay long.  The PA system sounded bad where we were sitting.  Besides, we were beat from being on our feet all afternoon.  All in all, a very satisfying day.

Before I forget, Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there.  Most especially my own wonderful dad in Fort Lauderdale. I love you.  For my son, Devon, Happy Fathers day too, father to my grandkids.  And to Chris’ dad, Tom Van in Dunnellon, a very happy day.

I now return control of this blog to Chris.

Yes, Please

 

Projects

Why would we want to stay at a county fairgrounds for a month, you ask?  We ask the same question.  It's not for the natural setting, fresh air, and neighbors:

The ambiance (and aroma) of staying at a fairgrounds

However, as it turns out, we do have some wonderful neighbors: Walter and Amy Cannon of RV SEF, Howard and Linda of RV-Dreams, and just yesterday Bill and Janet Adams of Internet Anywhere.

Jim, Linda and Howard -Walter hiding and Amy out of sight!  They took us out for ice cream.  Does this look like an ice cream place to you? The evening will now be known as the Hunt for Rocket Science Ice cream.

We also drove up to the RV Museum and Hall of Fame one day, grabbed Al Hesselbart and went to dinner at Lunkers.

I think this must be a 'Lunker'

The reason we're here is the Heartland rally this week, but we decided to pay the $450 to stay all month and get some projects done.  Although it's not the campground you dream about when you start RVing, it does have full hookup paved sites with 50amp electricity and free Wi-Fi, so we're all set to sit here and work.  We took our rig in to RV One for overall check-out and sealing the roof. They pointed out some pretty serious wood rot around the Fan in the kitchen area and gave Jim some suggestions for how to deal with it.  Water is an RVs worst enemy, and it appears that a bunch of it got into our roof over the years before we bought it.  That is a very worrisome thing and had us a bit depressed.  Then they cheered us up by saying that the slide-outs were in really *good* shape.  More solid than just about any they'd seen, and the mechanics of moving them out and in were also very smooth.  Never having had slides before, this was really good news.

So, Jim tore out the wood rot and quickly reached metal on one side and styrofoam on the other.  It looks as though the damage was contained just in one corner around the fan (wishful thinking?).  He treated the remaining wood according to RV One's instructions, then put up some new wood and put it all back together.  What was really impressive to me is that he appeared to enjoy the work!  :-)

After Jim cleared the bulk of the rotten wood out of the fan area.

As for me - I've been at the computer working on some new tutorial videos.  Click the link below and watch this one OK?  It's only 7 minutes long.  It's about Blogger and how you can build much more than a blog with it.  With Blogger's 'Pages' feature, you can make a regular website ... all Free - pretty cool.  The video shows you what a page is, how to create it, and how to make a menu with tabs at the top of your blog.  Then, you'll see a sample of a business website using Blogger - the one built by Devon with less than an hour instruction by me.

Show Me How: Blogger Pages for Websites

I'm leaving this video free as a 'Featured' video for a month or so.  Of course, if you want to see the other 29 videos on using Blogger, you need to become a member for $39/year!  And, we'd appreciate it if you did :-), that's how we make our living, and we love it!  Check out the Learning Library to see all the other topics we offer as well.

One other project that has been on my list is eyeglasses.  I haven't gotten new eyeglasses in over 4 years and I find myself squinting and going thru all sorts of contortions trying to read things lately.  When you're on the road, what do you do about these things?  We go to Walmart.  I was actually very impressed with the professionalism, and the equipment in the Walmart Vision Center.  They had several pieces of equipment for eye tests that I had never seen before.  And the price was also very nice.  $204 for eye exam, prescription, frames and progressive glasses using polycarbonate - the more expensive choice.  It was a long time ago, but I think my last pair of glasses were over $400.  It takes a week to get here but that's ok!  We'll still be here.  And then, my information will be in the Walmart computers so I can go to any one around the country from now on.

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Made in Indiana

.I've seen TV specials lately about how so little of the things found in an American home are made in America.  It would be interesting for them to take a look at a typical RV ... not only would they find most of the components made in America .. they're made in Indiana.  Elkhart county is known as the RV capital of the world.

We're here for the Heartland Owners Rally next week.  Heartland is a make of RV that is - you guessed it - made in Elkhart, Indiana.  And, as long as we're here - we're taking advantage of being in the RV heartland.  We stopped by Gulf Stream RV in Nappanee - where our motorhome was made. It's hard to see in this picture, but those are new chassis in the background waiting to have motorhomes constructed on them.  There is no factory tour here like at some other manufacturers, and there is no service center either.  We were disappointed at that, but we learned the reasons. 

 To withstand economic downturns, the company only makes motorhomes to order - so there isn't any inventory on hand to look at.  And, their service center was literally blown away a couple of years ago in a tornado that passed thru town.  We were hoping they had some kind of standard maintenance service procedure we could have done - they said 'good idea, but not here.'  Rather than rebuild their service center, they've identified other places around the country to recommend.  They did recommend a place called RV1 in Elkhart, just a short distance away.  So we called and made an appointment there.

Indiana is also the home of many Amish people.  Such an interesting sight to see horse and buggies in a  modern day parking lot.

The Amish are also known as fine craftspeople and we know many RVers who have had custom furniture made here.  Specifically, our friends Nick and Terry Russell of the Gypsy Journal RV nespaper, have discussed at length the wonderful work of a guy named Carlyle who is in Nappanee and has a business called Focal Wood Products.  Here's Nick's blog post and picture of the furniture Carlyle made for him.  And, here's another picture from the CoolRVers who had some furniture made by Carlyle.  (btw - if you want to read about traveling to Alaska, click the link to CoolRVers - they're doing that trip right now.)

Picture of custom table and computer desks in the CoolRVers motorhome.

So - we have ordered a dining room table and computer workstation as well as a computer workstation for Jim in the living room area.  It should be ready by the end of the month.  Oh Boy!

Right now we're parked in the Elkhart County Fairgrounds in Goshen, Indiana.  We were delighted to find that there are other people we know here as well.  Walter and Amy Cannon of RVSafety.com and Howard and Linda Payne of RV-Dreams.  This should be a great month of work, *and* fun.

Walter knows who's really in charge in this motorhome!

We had a fun evening with Howard and Linda who came over to the Geek Mansion :-) to play Wii

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