Anderson, South Carolina was an experience that we will never forget!

Last Friday morning I drove the 15 miles to town and visited the Electric City-Anderson Rotary Club at the local Golden Corral. What a breakfast! That place served a meal that lasted almost all day long. The Rotary group was small, but very outgoing. They made me feel as though I was a real part of their group. In the group I met Lt. Lou Clarkson (no relation, Andy!) and he offered me a “nickel tour” of their facility after the Rotary meeting. I accepted the offer, spent a short time with him, and walked away with a shoulder patch from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office. With the shoulder patch from the Anderson Police Dept. I need to make a shadow box to display these two patches appropriately.

We had the privilege of spending the first 4 nights with Fred & Dee vonRacklinhausen, members of the Parking Committee for Monaco International. Fred is a retired Merchant Marine captain who worked on the East Coast most of his life. I have gotten to know Fred after working the Pre-Rally in Macon. On Friday night the two couples sent in to Anderson to the Elks Lodge in hopes of finding an all-you-can-eat fish dinner. Unfortunately they were serving BBQ ribs that night - golly, gee, they were absolutely delicious! We met the ER of the Lodge and had a great chat with him. One of the members (who wanted to remain anonymous) bought us all drinks before dinner. We had a great time and learned a little more about the area from the ER.

On Sunday we drove about 35 miles to the Anderson Jockey Flea Market. It was a HUGE complex of covered warehouses that consisted of a myriad of small businesses and outside were the typical booths of private vendors. There was almost everything imaginable there. We walked for over two hours to look at all the merchandise. It was a good way to spend some time together on Sunday. We didn’t make any purchases, but it was an interesting afternoon.

Carolina Landing Thousand Trails is an older park that is situated on rolling hillsides. It reminded us of Idyllwild and the mountainous terrain. It is a beautiful park that would be fun to visit in the summer time when the park is probably full most of the time. I had a good talk with the Manager, a young fellow named Josh. All of the regulars that we talked to were very enthusiastic about what Josh has accomplished in the park. We look forward to returning in a few years and visiting this park again.

On Tuesday morning we left Carolina Landing and traveled northeast on I-85 into North Carolina and the Forest Lakes Thousand Trails. We drove through Greenville and Spartanburg, SC and Charlotte, NC before we got near Lexington. It was interesting to see all the billboards and signs relating to NASCAR as we drove through Charlotte.

Forest Lakes is located NW of Lexington and south of Winston-Salem. All the news channels break the state into three areas: the mountains, the Piedmont, and the coast. We’re located in the Piedmont in an area referred to as the Triad - Winston-Salem, Lexington, and Greensboro. It’s a beautiful area, but seems heavily populated. We have found the Sam’s Club, the Costco, and three of the Super Wal-Marts.

Our weather finally dropped some rain on us on Wednesday night. We really needed it - the pollen count has hit record highs here since all the trees are starting to bloom in the warm weather. Everything has had a green dust on it. It’s impossible to keep a car clean with the yellow-green dust in the air. Now that the weekend is upon us, the park is starting to get filled up. Families with kids have been arriving all day long and the good sites near the Activity Lodge are all occupied. It’s fun seeing kids and grandkids having fun in spite of not many activities scheduled yet.

We will leave on Tuesday morning and drive west to the next Thousand Trails park, Natchez Trace. It’ll take us three days to get there - we’ll be stopping at an Elks Lodge in Waynesville, NC, Breckenridge Lake (a park in Tennessee), and arrive at Natchez Trace TTN after driving through Nashville next Thursday.

H’lo dere - from the shores of beautiful Hartwell Lake and Carolina Landing Thousand Trails preserve! It’s been all too long in bringing you up to date on what we’re doing, where we’ve been, and how much fun all of you are missing.

Let me go back to Macon and over a week ago. We had been working with the Layout Crew for Monaco International, our club of Monaco owners. We had arrived a week before all the attendees arrived and we marked the whole parking of the Macon Centreplex. In my last update I related how Dottie and I had a free day on Saturday, the 10th. One of my tasks was to find a local computer repair business that could fix my laptop. The Fujitsu computer I bought a while back has no DC power cord. I have used an AC power cord continuously and I thought the pin on the plug portion of the computer had failed so the computer would not charge or operate on AC power. We found a local computer repair shop and took the laptop to their business location. After they looked at the computer they determined that the pin was fine, but the charger had gone bad and wasn‘t providing enough voltage. For the nominal charge of $60+ we walked out of the business with a working computer. We also found the Macon Mall and walked around looking at the numerous stores.

On Sunday, the 11th, the early arrivals began to show up. At 8AM we had 8 coaches parked in the entrance driveway prepared to be parked. The day saw a steady flow of early arrivals and by 5PM we had parked over 250 coaches - there were only 416 that had pre-registered! Most of our traveling friends arrived that day, but weren’t together so they weren’t parked together. It was fun parking the arrivals and seeing all the various driving skills. Usually we place two cones on the ground on the driver’s side of the coach so we can get the tires lined up correctly. The disadvantage to that is that many folks watch the cones and ignore our parking instructions. I’ve found that by kicking the cones out of the way the drivers have to listen to my instructions as I walk beside their driver’s window giving them instructions to turn the wheel to get parked. It was a long, tiring day but we had no accidents and successfully parked all the coaches before we closed the gates for the night. Monday and Tuesday we had a few coaches arrive but not like the rush on Sunday. In the experienced Monaco circle it is known that if you arrive after the “early arrival date”, you’re already too late.

The Rally actually started on Tuesday with the catered breakfasts and dinners, seminars, and new coach displays. We ate VERY well since Scott of International Catering provided all the meals. OF course there was a Happy Hour every night from 5PM to 6PM, but the lines at the bar were noticeably shorter. At this Rally arrangements had been made for a salad bar and people were eating more salad and visiting rather than drinking. It was a pleasant change from the normal boozing that takes place.

As usual, the Monaco Service Techs were there to fix two items on each coach. I actually had to look to find two things wrong with our coach, but finally submitted a couple of items. We had a vacuum breaker in the bathroom that was not sealing properly resulting in a foul odor. We also had a water valve on our toilet that had a very slow drip. The Techs fixed both of those in about 15 minutes and asked if we had anything else. We couldn’t think of anything, but got a supply of plastic latches for our doors and drawers. The other advantage to these rallies is the opportunity to have one-on-one talks with the Monaco corporate folks and talk about their coaches. We've gotten to know several of the VPs closely and can share experiences with them. They also know us and joke with us about our "old " coach! Looks like it's time to consider a new one - NOT!!!

The week passed with a lot of assistance to folks who arrived with no water, or had to dump their tanks. We gave help to get out of the parking area and back to their spots. It was a lot of fun working with the Parking Committee and we made some great new friends.

Sunday morning we were up early to get all the folks out of the parking lot that were going to caravan the 35 miles down to Perry for the FMCA International Convention. I was in my usual uniform of shorts and golf shirt with the reflective vest. Each of us on the Parking Committee had an assigned area - I was the “floater”, the one who they’d call if help was needed. Each of the caravanners had a card in their windshield designating their parking area at Perry. We cleaned out the parking lots based on the different categories of the cards. Surprisingly, everything went very smoothly. We were able to get the 150+ coaches out in a short time and fairly organized. Dottie and I watched most of our friends depart and said our goodbyes. Once we got all the coaches out, we went back to our coach to prepare for our departure. We got packed, hooked up the Kia, and drove to the front of the parking lot to wait for Don & Vicki Leith (who were going to accompany us) and the rest of our group.

Bob & Dorothy Larson (the Parking Committee leader) offered us the opportunity to join them at the old Warner Robins County Fairground. The Fairground used to be a viable operation until the Perry Agri-Plex opened and took all the business from the Fairground. It closed in 2000, but the manager kept the grounds open to a limited number of people for parking their motor homes temporarily. We had 30-amp electric and water hook-ups for $15/night. We could run our gray water out on the ground. There were six of us that went there and had a wonderful place to park that was quiet, peaceful, and relaxing. We stayed there for four nights and enjoyed each other’s company and the chance to unwind after the Pre-Rally. We went out to eat a couple of nights and I was able to attend the Centerville Rotary Club on Tuesday morning. We found the local Super Wal-Mart and restocked our supplies. On Tuesday, after Rotary, The Leiths and I drove over to the Perry Agri-Plex to check all the vendors at the FMCA Convention. I was able to buy a few items that I needed and check out the other vendors and their wares. These conventions present the chance to get all the things we just can’t live without.

On Tuesday night we found Stevie-B’s Pizza Buffet. We paid less than $12 for both of us to eat and gorged ourselves on all the different pizzas that were available. It was quite a feast at an extremely reasonable price!

Wednesday morning saw us packing again and preparing to leave Central Georgia. We pulled out of the campground after saying goodbye to all our friends and headed north and east. This was the final goodbye to our traveling friends and it was a tough farewell. We’ve traveled with the Leiths since early January and have enjoyed their company. They will head back to California for the Baker-to-Vegas Race in April.

We drove on back roads east of Atlanta to I-85, and then to Fair Play, SC and the Carolina Landing Thousand Trails park. The park is an old NACO park and is smaller than many of the TTN parks. It is set in the beautiful mountains (760’ - yep, they call these mountains around here) of South Carolina. We are parked among the trees, but still have a great view of the sky for satellite reception. The water pressure is terrific resulting in our using an additional water pressure regulator. We were joined by another member of the Parking Committee and have enjoyed spending some time with them. The park was not designed for big rigs like ours, but a little care can be used in getting into the sites. It would be interesting for big rigs with apprehensive drivers. Our cell phone reception is good so we can have internet and email reception after 8PM.

We drove in to Anderson, SC today to check some of the historical sights. We stopped at the Anderson Police Dept. and managed to get a shoulder patch from them. I mean, an Anderson with an Anderson Police Dept. patch - it had to be done!! They were great about it and the Capt. I spoke to was very accommodating and took the time to talk to us. We found the two Super Wal-Marts and the Sam’s Club so we’re ready for the next few days. I’ll visit the Electric City-Anderson Rotary club in the morning and learn a little more about the city. It’s known as the Electric City since it was one of the first cities in the U.S. to have electric power. Anderson sits on the shores of Hartwell Reservoir and has a lot of businesses that focus on the water sports industry.

We have had superb weather throughout our stay in the Southeast. The next week looks like more of the same and we are loving it! Both of us have enjoyed our stay here and will treasure the great memories we’ll have of this trip.

We left Friday morning to drive to Melbourne. Instead of driving on the main highways, we took the more direct, less traffic’s roadways and enjoyed the scenery along the back roads. We arrived at the Melbourne Elks Lodge a little before 2PM. We got set up and checked in with the Lodge. We had 15amp electric and a level spot. A little later in the afternoon we had another coach arrive and take another spot close to us.

On Friday night Brother Bill wanted to take us out to dinner, so we drove over to their house. We all loaded into his van and went to a terrific restaurant out on the island adjoining Patrick AFB and had a meal of rock shrimp. It was really tasty! Rock shrimp are large shrimp that are cooked like a lobster and served with melted butter. The meal was superb and we enjoyed the chance to spend some more time with them.

On Saturday, we went to the Strawberry Festival in the park located less than a mile from Bill’s house. We bought half a flat of strawberries and walked around the festival for about an hour. Then we went back to the coach and did some cleaning. That evening we drove back to Bill’s for a home-cooked dinner. Muffy and I had the chance to take a bicycle ride around the neighborhood and see the beautiful homes. Dinner was again delicious and we left early since Bill still had some preparation for his church services the next morning.

On Sunday morning we went to church. This was the first Sunday for two services and we went to the 8:30 service. We packed the coach, hitched up the car, and drove it to the church. Once the service was over we departed from the church headed north.

My plan was to drive to Jacksonville (about 200 miles) and spend the night at the Elks Lodge. We decided to continue to the Flying J, dump the holding tanks and refuel, then drive on toward Macon. We targeted a Wal-Mart in Eastman, GA, but arrived and couldn’t find the store. So we drove on to Cochran, GA and a Passport America park, the Hillside Bluegrass RV Park. With our PA discount, we paid only $10 for electric/water/sewer connections. We drove 371 miles that day and were tired when we arrived. The next day we were up early to drive the 47 miles to Macon and the Centreplex where the rally was being held.

We arrived before 9AM, got parked with the other committee members in an area with electric and water. I got my equipment (reflective vest, radio, etc.) and we started to work laying out the parking areas. I’m working with a great bunch of guys who are extremely helpful and willing to pass on their knowledge. We worked all day and most of Tuesday marking all the parking areas. We were completed earlier than expected, so we’ve been doing other preparation for the arrival of the participants on Sunday. In the meantime more of the Committee members have arrived and we’ve been parking them. There are about 50 Committee members expected and some were told not arrive before Wednesday or Friday. (Some don’t listen very well!)

It’s interesting to be around the politics of the organization - the different personalities have been exposed and it’s fascinating to watch the interaction. So far, there are only seven of us on the Parking Committee and it’s a tight group. We all work together well and have a good time while we’re working. Our big rush will hit us on Sunday when the early arrivals will start coming in. We have four of our wives that will be driving “Follow Me” golf carts and bringing the arrivals to us to park. It should be a lot of fun since some of these folks think they can park themselves and don’t need our help. The “old hands” have given us some clues on handling those drivers and been mentoring the three newbies on how to deal with those types of drivers. They told me they don’t expect I’ll have any problems with my police background - I have such a patient temperament, y’know.

Some of the keys to successfully parking the coaches are to force them to slow down, watch us instead of the orange cones we have placed to mark the driver’s side of the coach when it’s parked, and to stop the drivers if they aren’t paying attention. It’s amazing to watch some of the “senior drivers” who fancy themselves as competent and kick the front cone out of the way when they aren’t keeping their eyes on us. It really works!! Moreover, we can always slow them way down which helps us to judge their wheel position so we can keep consistent spacing between coaches. So far, we’ve had a real fun time parking the committee members who have arrived. We’re all looking forward to Sunday.

We’re parked in a perfectly flat, level area. We have a huge generator providing us with 30amp electric, the water hoses have been stretched so we can keep our fresh water tank full, and we have already had one free trip from the portable sanitary dump truck. The Committee gets a sandwich lunch provided each day along with donuts around 10AM for a coffee break. It gets almost embarrassing that we’re able to receive these benefits, but then we’re working some long hours each day in exchange. The Layout/Parking Crew is taken care of very well! We’ll be working every day until next Saturday when we help the caravan leave for the FMCA Rally in Perry, about 35 miles south of here.

Tomorrow we have an easy day and Dottie and I will get out and check out the local Sam’s and Super Wally. We enjoyed a seafood buffet this evening at a local restaurant and it was a pleasant change. Dottie has been able to get out, but I haven’t left the grounds yet. I’ve had fun meeting some of the local police officers and comparing working conditions. In this town of about 100,000 people, the black Mayor has managed to deplete the funds to where the officers haven’t had any raises for the last five years. They’re frustrated with their average pay of nearly $12.50/hour. They have had problems similar to San Diego in that officers are bailing out and moving to other agencies with higher pay scales and better equipment. I’ve met a group of great guys and they are all fascinated with our RV lifestyle.

From the Peace River Thousand Trails park, we are resting after a wild two-week ride in Dade City. The Habitat for Humanity build was a success with the construction of two houses - one that is on a home site and the other was built in the middle of a street in downtown Dade City during the bicycle race. We are exhausted, but proud of the effort and the fun with had with Don & Vicki Leith, who accompanied us to Dade City.

On the last Saturday while the girls were at the Pasco County Fair tending the HfH booth, I worked with another of the volunteers setting up the batter boards and foundation for the next two houses. It was a slow process measuring out the foundation and setting up a string line to show the elevation and slope of the floors. On Sunday, we rested and took things easy. Monday we were right back to it and trying to finish the roof of the House #43, the home for the mother with the eight children.

We were planning to visit The Keys, but things are constantly changing in our plans. I received an email from Bob Larson, the head of the Monaco International Parking Committee, asking us to be in Macon, GA on Monday, the 5th. This is an invitation that is valuable - the Parking Committee is tough to get on and to be invited by Bob Larson is something special. So, we left Tuesday morning headed for Peace River Thousand Trails park for a few days of rest. When we left Dade City, it was raining hard and lasted for about an hour. By the time we got to Plant City the rain had subsided and the roads were beginning to dry.

We arrived at Peace River, only 70 miles away, to dry roads and high clouds. The park is one of the newest acquisitions to the Thousand Trails system. It’s a pretty park with half the sites being only water and electricity. We got one of those sites, leveled up, and settled in. It’s been fun watching the “campsite shuffle” as people check each day to move to a sewer site with 50-amp electric. We’ve had new neighbors each day and they only last a day before they move. Geesh, is it something I said?? In the meantime, I’ve managed to get the whole outside of the coach washed and waxed, completed some minor repairs on the coach, and got all the interior wood oiled.

One of the novelties of the park is Jake, a four-foot alligator that lives in an overflow pond. The pond is connected by an underground drainage culvert that travels the length of the park. Jake apparently navigates to the north end of the park for his chow (gators only eat every three or four days) and suns himself on the south end of the park in the overflow pond. Everybody says to keep your distance from Jake, but he draws a lot of lookers to see if he is still there.
This park is full of Yankees (mostly Canadians and New Yorkers) and some of them are really obnoxious in their behavior. I have yet to find the attraction of Florida and the humidity. Enduring this humid weather has revived some memories of 40 years ago when I was first stationed in Selma, AL while in the USAF. I remember the mugginess in the air and the sticky feeling during the days. We are experiencing the same feelings the last three days here in Central Florida. I’ve finally given in to the elements and just sit outside under the awning as long as there’s a slight breeze. A little country music, a tall glass of ice water, and my recliner - it makes things almost bearable. Dottie prefers to stay in the coach where I have the air conditioner running - as long as the electricity stays high enough. With everybody running their air conditioners on 30-amp circuits, the voltage takes a drop in the middle of the day. Thank goodness for my Autoformer and EMS - they keep the systems up and running.

We leave Friday morning and drive 135 miles to Melbourne to spend some more time with brother Bill and his family. We hope to be able to attend Sunday church service at Bill’s church and then hit the road north toward Macon to arrive early Monday morning.