Dorothy Jane “Dottie” Pierce, L57064, who served as FMCA’s national president from 1995 to 1998, died on September 24, 2007, in Clearwater, Florida, after an eight-year battle with colon cancer. She was 79.
Dottie was born August 21, 1928, in Wilmington, Delaware, one of nine children raised by her parents, Emmer and Ida Cloud.

One of my favorite “duties” as FMCA president is attending the various area rallies held throughout the year. Since I have fewer responsibilities and commitments at an area rally than I do at an international convention, these rallies allow me more opportunities to visit with members and talk with them about FMCA.

At its August 2007 meeting in Redmond, Oregon, the FMCA Governing Board approved a proposal to eliminate the membership listings from the January directory/member benefits issue of Family Motor Coaching magazine. This decision was based on the size of these listings and the associated costs (paper, printing, postage), as well as the fact that this information now is available online at FMCA.com.
In the recent past, the January directory issue included two listings of family members, one by membership number and the other by name.

When J.C. and Inez Ware inspected the site for their new home in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, in 1971, they made an amazing discovery.

When it comes to great ship museums, San Diego has two of the best in the United States — the Maritime Museum of San Diego and the USS Midway Museum. Between them they provide an opportunity to tour eight treasured vessels.

Making an entry into the world of luxury motorhomes is no small task. Not only must the manufacturer be on the cusp of coach-building technology, but it also must have a dealer network.

In 1848 gold was found in a creek near Sacramento, California. Once word got back to the rest of the civilized world, a large migration west ensued.

If you have owned a gasoline-powered and a diesel-powered motorhome, you don’t need to be convinced of the advantages of the diesel engine. Most RVers know that diesel engines produce more torque at much lower rpm than the equivalent gasoline engine, offer enhanced fuel economy, and have a longer service life.

Despite the flurry of activity that surrounds the holidays, the opportunity to share a moment with family and friends, or a good laugh, remains. These FMCA members provide three distinct answers to this month’s question: Describe your favorite holiday memory involving your motorhome.
I grew up in the Boca Grande Lighthouse on Gasparilla Island, Florida.

To keep ants and other pests from crawling into your motorhome through an access hole, treat an old towel with some insecticide and stuff it around the hole.
Deanie Hendrix, F761S,
Erie, Colorado
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Border Décor
My new motorhome needed something to spruce up the walls. I went to a wallpaper store and looked through tons of wallpaper border books.

The Attach-A-Table from Crazy Creek Products Inc. is a convenient swiveling table that is said to attach and detach easily from most framed chairs and can hold food, drinks, and other small items.
The table folds up and down, swings out, and can be adjusted to different height positions.

Newmar Corporation, based in Nappanee, Indiana, hopes to cater to tailgating enthusiasts with its newest floor plan, the 4258 All Star, which includes two kitchens, two bathrooms, and numerous other tailgating amenities.

he new All Star tailgate floor plan is built exclusively on a Spartan Mountain Master ME (mid-engine) chassis.

Pull out these recipes when a hungry crowd gathers under your awning.
When you’re in a cooking mood, prepare one or more of these group recipes. Then serve these super-size dishes to a large gathering or freeze them in smaller batches to suit your needs.
Fried Rice For A Crowd
When you freeze the basic fried rice in smaller batches, you’ve written yourself a blank check for future feasts.

Even though it happened more than a decade ago, the memory is still fresh. With our motorhome’s fuel tanks full, food loaded, and the family aboard, I headed out of a Santa Clarita, California, fuel stop.

The heart of the Aqua-Hot and Hydro-Hot hydronic heating systems (now the Aqua-Hot 600-D and Aqua-Hot 450-D, respectively) is a diesel burner unit manufactured by Webasto. This European supplier makes and markets its units to several industries, among them the RV industry, primarily through Aqua-Hot Heating Systems Inc.

These aquatic emporiums take landlubbers underwater to view the wetter side of nature.
Seeing an aquarium on television can’t compare with viewing it in person. Here you can learn about underwater creatures firsthand.

These desert-dwellers may not sound particularly tuneful, but they’re quite content making their home in the arid environment.
Out in the desert, long before the sun peeks over the horizon, the sounds of birds enter the open vent in our motorhome, providing our wake-up call as the avian community greets the new day. We try to identify each new melody as it appears, waiting for the familiar voice, gradually leaving sleep behind.

Putting medical, financial, and estate matters in order; adopting a pet.

Death and taxes aren’t the only unavoidable matters that full-timers have to tangle with. Unlike people who live in one place, you have to deal with your “home” state, the state you’re in at the moment, and any states where you have assets.

FMCA has held five international conventions at the Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter (GNFA) in Perry, but a current law would make it impractical to hold a sixth confab in the Peach State.
The legislation, enacted in August 2005, prohibits out-of-state dealers from selling a new RV in Georgia unless they have a franchise dealership agreement to do so.
In late April 2007, the General Assembly passed HB 117, which would have allowed certain franchise agreement exemptions for rallies or conventions involving more than 2,500 RVs. Attendance at FMCA conventions typically exceeds 3,000 motorhomes, so HB 117 would have paved the way for out-of-state RV dealers to sell at these events.
Governor Sonny Perdue, on May 30, vetoed HB 117.

This Country Coach owners chapter caters to “snowbirds” of the southeastern United States.
FMCA has plenty of chapters made up of people who all own the same brand of motorhome. Often, the motorhome manufacturer sets up the FMCA chapter for customers, which is the case with Country Coach Inc.’s Country Coach International chapter.

James “Jim” Jennings, F94845, who served FMCA as national secretary from 1998 to 2000, passed away on July 21, 2007, after a brief battle with lung cancer.
Jim was born on October 15, 1935, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He attended Comstock High School, where he met his future wife, Shirley, when both were in the ninth grade.

I have an Onan generator located at the rear of a 38-foot type A coach. Each year I’m required to have the armature cleaned and new brushes installed, as the generator fails to produce power.

Have you seen FMC’s newest column? “Rear View” appears each month on the last page of the magazine. Readers share their thoughts on specific topics — their favorite travel sites, restaurants, activities, etc.
We’d like to hear from you, too.

Editor’s note: Mr. Eversmann presented the following report to the FMCA Governing Board during its meeting in Redmond, Oregon, this past August.

I am pleased to share with you an update on the Family Motor Coach Association and activities that have been occurring related to its operation since we last met.

For all who participated in Family Motor Coach Association’s Governing Board meeting in Redmond, Oregon, this past August, I thank you for taking part in the governance of FMCA and bestowing on me the honor and opportunity to serve as national president for the next two years. I accept the responsibility with humility and vow to serve all the members with the dedication and commitment expected of the office.

When you visit southern Florida and the Naples area, be sure to include a trip to the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. It has been called the crown jewel of the Audubon sanctuary system, and one visit will confirm all the accolades.

FMCA’s Executive Board is made up of four nationally elected officers — the national president, senior vice president, secretary, and treasurer — and the 10 national area vice presidents, who are elected by their respective areas. (The immediate past national president also serves as a non-voting member.) As a result of changes in the FMCA Bylaws that instituted two-year terms, five of the 10 areas hold national vice president elections in odd-numbered years, and the other five areas hold elections in even-numbered years.
Following are abbreviated resumes for the national vice presidents recently elected.

Several niches within the RV market beg to be served. For example, some motorhome buyers prefer a vehicle that has a midcoach entry instead of a front bus-style entry.

Brilliant blue skies, warm summer temperatures, and rugged high-desert beauty, with snowcapped mountain peaks in the distance, greeted FMCA members who followed the highways and byways to Central Oregon for FMCA’s 78th International Convention — dubbed “Rediscover Redmond.”
For some this was indeed a time of rediscovery, as FMCA made a return visit to the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center, having held conventions there in 2001 and 2004. For others it was a time of discovery, as they experienced the magic and majesty of this Northwest setting for the first time, or even attended their very first FMCA convention.

Toolbox slide-out using drawer slidesI had a problem getting into my three-drawer toolbox, which is located in one of the exterior bins of my type C motorhome. So I designed a simple slide-out to solve the problem.
My toolbox weighs 56 pounds loaded, so I went to the neighborhood home improvement store and purchased a pair of cabinet drawer slides designed to handle 100 pounds.

Spray ‘N’ Seal Leak Repair from Permatex Inc.Spray ‘N’ Seal Leak Repair from Permatex Inc. is said to seal low-pressure leaks in minutes without the need to disassemble or remove parts.
The aerosol spray provides a durable rubber barrier to repair leaks in numerous automotive applications.

Jayco Inc., touted as the largest privately owned RV manufacturer in North America, will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2008.
The company, which began on a farm in Middlebury, Indiana, in 1968, initially produced a single-model fold-down camper with the help of 15 employees. Today Jayco operates manufacturing plants in Middlebury and Twin Falls, Idaho, building several types of RVs under 15 different brand names, and employing more than 1,700 people.

The sun had yet to crack the eastern horizon on a crisp March morning in Perry, Georgia, during FMCA’s 77th International Convention, but already the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter was alive. Emerging from the darkness, in all directions folks converged — first in trickles, then in streams — on a large, open-air building to grab a cup of coffee and a couple of doughnuts during the association’s traditional wake-up gathering.
Handshakes were exchanged, backs were slapped, and laughter could be heard above the music being played by the Frustrated Maestros.

Keep these recipes in mind when your guest list grows unexpectedly.
It’s fun to round up an impromptu meal for new campground friends, but sometimes it takes some imagination and a lot of stretching. How can you extend a small meal or fancy up the plain-Jane dinner you had planned to serve? Here are recipes to keep up your sleeve.

Corny Quiche
This is a quickie that bakes in a pie shell, transforming a simple casserole into a party meal for six.

I’m now on my third digital camera, so I have, at the click of a mouse, thousands of photos stored on my computer and archived on CDs. Like many of you I have travel photos, wildflower photos, shots of sunsets and sunrises, and family events, such as reunions, graduations, and birthdays.

And perhaps like many of you, I often wondered what I should do with all the photos I’ve taken.

Many of our traveling friends have created Web home pages or travel blogs on which they display their photos.

This reptile with the notorious reputation would rather use its telltale tail to scare you away than fight.
Rattlesnakes are normally quiet creatures, usually staying out of sight and minding their own business. That business, in large part, is keeping the rodent population in check.

Head to the western United States, where you’ll have your altitude adjusted by these lofty peaks.
As lifelong mountain lovers, we decided to investigate the tallest mountains in the United States. If we were altitude purists, our focus would be limited to just Alaska, which boasts the 16 highest peaks in the country.

Scooters; identity theft; tips for selecting a full-timing coach.
Each day we make hundreds of decisions, most of them of little consequence. But then there are times when we’re faced with a bigger decision, one that requires considerable thought and discussion.

This close-knit group is based near a local landmark from which it takes its name.
Gateway Piasas is an unusual name for a chapter of motorhome owners. But then again, the word “Piasa” represents an unusual thing.
The Piasa Bird, pronounced “pie saw,” is a mythical creature of American Indian lore.

E komo mai (Welcome)! All the grass-skirted wahines (women) and tom-tom-tummied kanes (men) had a ball doing the hula down by the kai (seashore). They lazed under the ersatz palm trees and thatched parasols.

Dear RV Doctor:
I own a 36-foot Holiday Rambler Ambassador. The day before we left on our last trip, the temperature here dipped to about 16 degrees Fahrenheit, so I kept the heater on in the coach and placed a small space heater in the bay where all the water lines are.
The morning we left, all was fine.

I have attempted to find the answer to the question of lightning strikes to motorhomes or travel trailers. Manufacturers don’t seem to have information to offer.

Dear Editor:
As we write this, we are on a caravan through the Holiday Rambler club, touring Newfoundland and Labrador. We have 15 RVs in the group, and when we travel from one campground to another, we drive in groups of three.

Quite often as families join FMCA, they are on the verge of making that once-in-a-lifetime whirlwind tour of the United States and possibly even Canada or Mexico. These motorhome owners very quickly find out that unless they have a family member who will periodically forward their mail, they are at a loss to stay on top of their correspondence, and especially their bills.

By the time you read this article in the September issue of Family Motor Coaching magazine, I will have completed my two-year term as president of FMCA. As of this writing, no one knows who the new president will be, because the election will be held in mid-August just prior to the start of the Redmond, Oregon, convention.
Writing the President’s Message has been challenging for me.

Chugging through the Appalachian Mountains of eastern West Virginia, belching smoke and emitting an occasional loud whistle, the Cass Railroad has become a popular excursion train. While the railroad is the highlight at Cass Scenic Railroad State Park, visitors also discover the public buildings and homes of a company town that existed from 1900 to 1960.

Investing a few minutes each month could double your RV battery’s life. However, batteries seem to be one of those things RVers commonly overlook until a problem arises.

Creative and important developments are continually added to today’s motorhomes, and among those leading the charge is a coach builder that has made type Bs since 1974. Roadtrek Motorhomes (formerly Home & Park), of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, introduced the type B SS-Agile in October 2006, and it’s one of two models the company builds on the Sprinter 2500 van chassis.

Bigfoot Industries is a family-owned company based in the beautiful Okanagan Valley in Armstrong, British Columbia, Canada, that has been manufacturing recreation vehicles for 30 years. The company has a reputation as a maker of slide-in truck campers and travel trailers, and these still compose a major portion of its business.

Imagine driving down a steep, winding, two-lane road. The early-morning sunshine highlights the beautiful scenery bordering the route.