August 2004

This month, let’s get the kids cooking indoors and out, learning as they go. Here are several simple, safe recipes they can tackle for starters, along with your help.

Oregon has a major problem when it comes to offering scenic views: it has too many. A visitor can quickly go into panorama overload.
Where do you go? What do you see? Crater Lake? Mount Hood? Silver Falls? The Columbia River Gorge? (You can insert dozens more locales here.) What about the coastline? Even that can be a formidable exercise, for it’s not just “the coast.” It’s the North Coast, the Central Coast, and the South Coast.
The coast arguably may be the best choice.

This is the second installment in FMC’s three-part series highlighting the major diesel engine manufacturers — Caterpillar, Cummins, and Detroit Diesel — that supply power plants for the ever-growing type A diesel-pusher motorhome market.

Take the grandkids to New York City on their summer vacation? Some of our RVing friends questioned our sanity.
We’ll admit, the campground we stayed at wasn’t exactly in New York. Liberty Harbor Marina and RV Park is in Jersey City, New Jersey, but directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan.

A small child might use a simple word to describe southern Oregon’s Crater Lake: “blue.” Artists might portray the color as cobalt, sapphire, or indigo. Scientists might concentrate on the facts behind the brilliant shade.

Whether installed as original or aftermarket equipment, many motorhome accessories add to the quality of life on the road. One of the best examples is an RV patio awning.

A convenient way to keep the rubber gloves you use to empty the holding tanks handy and dry is to clip them together with a spring binder clamp. The clamped glove then can be hung from a screw placed into a wall or door of an outside storage or utilities compartment.

Mary Moppins Cleaning System offers Advantage, a waterless wash and protectant that does not contain petroleum distillates. According to product literature, Advantage works on a variety of surfaces, leaving them clean and protected.

Creative Mobile Interiors, C9705, a coach conversion company based in Grove City, Ohio, has successfully entered the type B coach conversion market with the Sprinter PLV (personal luxury vehicle).

The 21.6-foot motorhome is built on DaimlerChrysler’s Sprinter chassis, which is supplied through Freightliner Custom Chassis, C1905. It is powered by a Mercedes-Benz 2.7-liter turbocharged five-cylinder diesel engine that is said to deliver up to 27 mpg.
Like many other high-quality coach conversions, the Sprinter PLV can be equipped with a wide range of amenities depending on the owner’s preferences.

The Xtreme is the latest type B coach from Xplorer Motor Homes. Xplorer, founded in 1967 and located in Brown City, Michigan (a town that lays claim to being the birthplace of the modern motorhome), specializes in custom-built coaches.

Winnipeg, Manitoba, is more than the namesake of Winnie the bear, who was made famous in books by A.A. Milne and now is a popular Disney character.

FMCA’s Executive Board and standing committees recently completed two weeks of May meetings in Cincinnati. It is amazing to see how well the elected officers and committee members from across North America gather and work with the Cincinnati staff to get our business completed.
We all arrive excited to see each other and eager to get to work on FMCA business.

More and more young families are living full-time in an RV these days, working as they go, and homeschooling the kids. Whether children are part of your full-timer’s life all the time or are just occasional visitors, here are ways to make the roving life happier, safer, and more educational for kids of all ages.
RadioShack offers all types of electronic fun for restless passengers, as well as electronic toys the entire family can use at the campsite.

Those who live or have traveled in the Deep South have, no doubt, seen kudzu. Some would insist that you don’t have to seek out this plant, but just look out the window while cruising down the highway.

I (Kaye) have been a committed do-it-yourself, make-it-yourself person for many years. So, when I decided to focus this month’s column on creative uses for vinegar, the filing cabinet and my computer’s hard drive were already crammed with ideas — more than 70 of them.

Convention Committee Chairman/National Senior Vice President
Conventions play a significant role in the success of the Family Motor Coach Association. FMCA president R.G.

Motorhome owners are not typically known for carrying many extras on the road, for obvious storage reasons. But on board coaches in the GMC Cascaders chapter, you can expect to find a variety of extra essentials.

After serving for eight years as the governor of Maine, Angus King became “king of the road.”
The day after he left office in January 2003, Mr. King; his wife, Mary Herman; and their two children — Ben, 12, and Molly, 9 — hit the road in a new 40-foot Newmar Dutch Star motorhome to see America.

Q: I remember reading an article on how to safely check air pressure and properly inflate the tires on a motorhome. The article recommended the use of an air hose extension of some six feet or so that would keep a person out of harm’s way in the event that a tire blew while being inflated.

An article about wireless Internet access in the June 2004 issue (page 82) inaccurately stated that Kbps stands for kilobytes per second. The correct definition is kilobits per second.
In addition, part of a sentence was missing from the text of the article on page 86.

Each year we review the participation of the FMCA membership in the various events that FMCA sponsors. FMCA’s leaders are always looking for ways to increase the number of members who participate in association activities.
Membership in FMCA now exceeds 129,000 families.

For 2004, Tiffin Motorhomes has added an attractive new floor plan to its popular Allegro Bus line: the new 40 QDP. Built on a Freightliner XC-Series chassis, this very comfortable 40-foot diesel pusher boasts striking graphics, four roomy slideouts, and plenty of power.