I picked South Dakota as my home state for several reasons, but the number one reason was because we would be passing through there on the first leg of our journey.

The other decision that had to be made after deciding on my state of residence, was who to use for mail forwarding and residency services.

There are several in South Dakota and I researched all of them that I could find.

The mailing service that had the most reasonable rates for the level of service was MyDakotaAddress.com. I chose their On Demand service where they send an email letting you know each piece of mail that came in for the day and who sent it. Then you can decide where and when you want your mail forwarded and just shoot an email back to let them know.

We prepaid for the entire year which waived the activation fee and gave us a month of service free.

I work with Terri Lund who is courteous and always available to answer questions and offer assistance when needed.

We signed up in April of 2007, a month before we got on the road, and have not been disappointed. They have lived up to all of their promises and have gone beyond at no extra charge.

I once needed a piece of mail immediately and Terri scanned it and sent it to me as a .pdf file so I could print it out. We also had a vendor who accidentally shipped a package to my South Dakota address and Terri was happy to repackage it and send it back.

We highly recommend Dakota International Services, LLC..

Before we left on our journey there were a lot of decisions to be made and research to be done. One of those decisions was how to connect to the internet while on the road.

I still have to work for a living and the internet is my lifeline to making income, so I needed something dependable at a reasonable cost.

I looked at a couple of possibilities. The first option I considered was Internet In Motion.

Internet In Motion is basically a reseller for cellular data services which they bundle with their own routers, amplifiers and high gain antennas. The idea of being connected while traveling down the road was a big plus, but the initial cost of their equipment seemed like a big investment to make for something that wasn’t bullet proof. If we’re not in an area that has high speed cellular service, like a major city or traveling the interstates, this system could end up being useless.

In the future as cellular providers improve internet service that could change, but since I had no idea where we might end up, I needed something we could use in the middle of nowhere now.

So I looked at my second option, satellite. I liked the idea of using a satellite dish because it would give us a little more control over where we could stay. Unlike cellular towers, satellite is always as close as the sky, as long as there are no trees in the way.

The perfect solution would be to use both, but the budget wouldn’t allow that so I had to make a choice.

Having decided on satellite, I started by doing a lot of research in the RV forums and on satellite provider’s and dealer’s websites. I also joined a Yahoo group RV Internet By Satellite which not only has a wealth of information, but a couple of satellite dealers hang out there as well.

The first choice I had to make was whether or not to get a roof mounted system or a tripod system. The advantage to the roof mounted system is that it practically points itself, but since we like to park under trees and the roof mounted systems costs about $3500 more, that was an easy decision to make.

The second choice I had to make was which satellite provider I wanted to use, Starband or Hughesnet. There were pros and cons to each provider and in the end the only reason I chose HughesNet was because at the time they offered a better variety of service agreements and they were offering a $100 rebate on the cost of equipment.

The final choice I had to make was who to use as a dealer. I could find and purchase all the equipment myself and climb that learning curve by myself, but I decided in the long run, the extra dollars I would spend to go through a dealer would be worth it. The dealers have already spent a lot time testing and using the systems they sell and are there for tech support when you need them.

There were many excellent dealers recommended by other satellite users on the forums, but when it came down to decision time, I chose Bill Brown and Point’nSurf.

I chose to go with Bill for a couple of reasons. First I liked the tripod system he sells, second his price was the best, third and actually the biggest reason, I felt I could trust him.

I went to Bill’s personal website, Bill & Susan’s Great Adventure and read their story. I felt that they were kindred spirits. Their story was ours as well.

I called Bill Brown and ordered the satellite equipment I wanted. He patiently explained everything and we made arrangements to commission my modem to a satellite at the end of March, two months before our scheduled departure date and the last day of the $100 rebate offer. That would give me a chance to set it up and use it a couple of times before we were actually on the road.

There was one problem, however. Because my home address was in Harrisburg, PA, the satellite HughesNet wanted to assign me to would not cover the northern most states and those states would be on the first leg of our journey.

Bill told me that once you’re placed on a satellite it’s difficult to be moved to another, so I was sweating it. He was willing to work with me to find a way to get me on a diferent satellite, but then at the last moment before my commissioning date, HughesNet changed me to the satellite G26 which covers the entire lower 48 states and into the southern most part of Canada and the northern most part of Mexico.

All the equipment arrived intact and came with a User Manual and a Video that walked me through the process of setting up the dish and pointing it to the satellite. The instruction booklet was very easy to follow and the video helped alot. Watching a visual of the step by step process made it a breeze to set the satellite dish up myself.

The first time I pointed to the satellite it took me all afternoon before I was online. I’m one of those people who refuse to call tech support until I’ve exhausted every avenue. I did end up calling Bill to help me finish setting up the first time. Now I am usually set up and online in less than 15 minutes.

We’ve been in a couple of places where we had no cell phone connection, but only once since we’ve been on the road did I give up on the satellite dish. That was in Monroe, WA where the trees were so tall and thick that I just couldn’t find a hole to point the satellite dish through. That week we used the campground WiFi.

I’ve only had to contact Bill two other times since that first setup and he has always been helpful and polite. I once left my Align-A-Site and my Outdoor Pointing Interface sitting on top of our bike covers hitched to the back of the coach and thought I lost them on the highway somewhere while driving down the road. Bill went out of his way to ship new ones the very same day I called and told him about my loss.

We highly recommend Point’nSurf.

When we were staying at Rushmore Shadows in Rapid City, SD we met Garry & Gerri Olson. Their RV was parked across the road from us and so was their van with the RV Sunshade Company logo on it. Gerri had the back of the van open and she was sitting behind it using a big industrial sewing machine working on sunshades for their neighbor and Garry was up on a ladder installing them on the windows of their neighbor’s RV.

Parry and I used to joke about people who used the sunshades but after spending the summer dodging the heat, began to wonder if they might be worth the investment.

We decided to stop by to introduce ourselves and ask Garry & Gerri some questions about the shades.

The RV Sunshades are attached to the outside of the coach with snaps. Parry was concerned about the snaps being installed on the coach’s body. He wanted to know if there was a possibility of water seeping in or the snaps rusting.

We also wanted to know if the RV Sunshades would eventually start to wrinkle and sag like other sunshades we’ve seen and if the they came in different colors so we could match the coach colors.

Garry explained that the snaps are made from a noncorrosive material and they are sealed tight. He said the RV Sunshades are custom fit for our coach and the material they use would stay tight and not sag.

He also said that he only sells the RV Sunshades in black because the black color holds. He pointed out an RV down the street that had plum shades which looked faded and said he used to do colors, but learned the hard way that the colors don’t last.

Ray Smith, the neighbor who was having the RV Sunshades installed, invited me into his coach to see how they appeared from the inside looking out.

From outside Ray’s coach I was unable to see in, but from the inside they looked similar to tinted windows. I could see out with no problem.

This was a big selling point for me because the cats love to look out the big front windows of our coach. Before, we had to close our curtains when were away, but with the RV Sunshades the cats can spend their day looking out the windows without anyone being able to see in.

Another selling point for me was that the RV Sunshades block 98% of UV rays so our interior fabric and vinyl would be protected. They also block the heat of the sun from coming into the coach.

Parry asked about cleaning them and wondered if interior shades might be better. Garry explained that the RV Sunshades are easy to clean, just hose them down. He said the exterior shades worked better than the interior ones to keep the heat out. With interior shades the heat has already entered the coach through the window long before it ever hits the shades.

We decided to have our front and driver/passenger side windows covered. Garry & Gerri installed the RV Sunshades the next day, August 27, 2007, and did a beautiful job. As of today, , they still look terrific.

RV Sunshade Company offers a ten year warranty, so we hope to enjoy them for many more years.

Working with Garry & Gerri Olson was great too. They are fun people who live the fulltime RV lifestyle and are a pleasure to be around.

We highly recommend RV Sunshade Company.

When we were still in the planning stages of our journey, one of my concerns was the cat’s safety. The scenario that kept playing in my mind was this:

We’re staying at a campground during the hot summer months and decide to leave for the day to go photographing. We turn the air conditioners on for the cats, then lock all the doors and windows for security.

While we’re away the electricity goes out at the campground and the air conditioners shut down. The coach heats up like an oven and our beloved Benny and Buddy perish from heat exhaustion.

What we needed was something that would monitor the temperature in the coach while we were away and alert us if it got too hot or too cold. I did a lot of research on the internet and in the RV forums and found a company named Guardian Wireless who seemed to have the perfect solution, the Global RV Guardian an RV satellite security system.

The Global RV Guardian had everything I wanted. To protect the RV from intruders, the system came with two intrusion sensors that were to be mounted on a window or door frame and an infrared intrusion sensor that detected movement but ignored small animals like cats. We could also add a loss of power sensor to let us know if the electricity went out and a temperature sensor that can be set to monitor any temperature both high and low.

The system uses a satellite antenna that sends a signal to the satellite, which in turn contacts Global Wireless, who then calls us on our cell phones to let us know that there is a problem and what the problem is.

The initial cost for the system was $1473.13 for the equipment and then $29.95 a month for the service.

It seemed like the perfect solution, until we put it into practice.

The first thing I noticed when I received my Global RV Guardian system, was that the window and door intrusion sensors could not be mounted on our door or windows. They were designed to fit a standard house door or window frame, not an RV door or window frame. I called Guardian Wireless and the person who answered the phone told me that the sales representative who sold me the system was no longer employed at Guardian Wireless. He said that he was the engineer who devised the system and he would try to help me, “Although,” he noted, “I don’t like to talk on the phone.”.

When I asked him about the door and window intrusion sensors, his question to me was “What do the windows and doors look like in an RV?”. Okay, I’m thinking, “You developed this for an RV and you don’t know what an RV door or window looks like?”. So I described to him what the frames of our RV door and windows look like. He had no solution. This was my first clue that maybe I couldn’t rely on this company.

We figured the motion sensor would take care of any intruders and decided not to install the door and window sensors, since installing them would involve customization on our part.

Then the real test came. We were in Joliet, IL in late July, early August 2007 and the temperatures were in the high 80’s to low 90’s. It was hot and humid.

We had the Global RV Guardian set up and logged into our account on the Global Wireless website to test it out. First we tested the motion sensor. Sure enough we got a phone call with an automated voice letting us know there was an intruder and it showed up on our activity logs on the website. I was happy. Then we tried a power outage test and again we received a phone call letting us know that the power went out and again the event showed up on our activity logs.

Next we tried high temperature. This time no phone call and nothing on the website. I called Guardian Wireless to find out why, but got an answering machine. I tried the Live Chat button on their website and received a “We’re Unavailable” message. I ran another test and again received no automated phone call and nothing showed up on our activity logs.

The next morning we drove into Chicago to do some photographing. I called Guardian Wireless as soon as they were open and got the same engineer. He told me that their Internet Service Provider was down and that my alarm tests were not being received on their end. He had no idea how long it would be before they would be back up and running.

About an hour later I received an automated phone call letting me know that the temperature was high, then another that the power was out. I called Guardian Wireless again and the engineer told me that their ISP was back up and these messages were probably not new, but from my tests the night before. He didn’t sound very convincing, so I called the Liesure Lake Resort office in Joliet to make sure everything was OK.

That night I ran another test and again we did not receive a phone call. The next morning we decided not to go back into Chicago until I found out what the problem was with the security system. I called Guardian Wireless and the engineer told me that their satellite provider in the UK was down and he had no idea when that would be remedied.

By this time I had lost all confidence in the Global RV Guardian. I was not only dependent on Guardian Wireless who were only available M-F from 9-5 CST, but also on their ISP and their satellite provider in the UK. There were just too many places where this system could break down and they had all broken down within the one week I needed them most.

I told the engineer how I felt and asked if I could just ship the whole thing back. He said he would have to talk to the owner. I didn’t hear back from him but the monthly charges stopped so I called back again and was told to package everything up and send it back for a full refund. What we received from Guardian Wireless was a check for $1178.50. They charged us a $294.63 restocking fee.

We do not recommend Guardian Wireless or the Global RV Guardian system.

When we had our coach weighed by WEIGH-IT, proprietor Stacey Frank showed us how to read the date stamp on our tires and pointed out that our tires were over 9 years old. We learned that riding on tires more than five years old greatly increases the risk of a blowout. Stacey suggested a couple of local tire dealers and we set out to find one that could help us.

The first thing we did was drive to each dealer and see which was closest and/or which was the easiest to maneuver our coach in and out of.

Stacey highly recommended Leslie Tire on Executive Drive in Harrison Township, MI. As it turned out Leslie Tire was the easiest for us to manuever our coach into, so we stopped and made an appointment with the owner, Tracy Leslie. It was Monday and we asked for an appointment that Wednesday, two days later, because that was the day we were leaving St Clair, MI to go to Kalamazoo, MI. Arranging an appointment on such short notice was not a problem.

Tracy recommended Sumitomo tires as the best choice for a motorhome. He even mentioned that a local motorhome dealer would only use Sumitomo tires on his own motorcoach. I don’t know what the markup is on particular brands of tires but the Sumitomo’s were much less expensive than any of the usual name brand tires. My first thought was that if Tracy wasn’t trying to sell us the most expensive tires in his warehouse, maybe he did have our best interests in mind.

Still, having been ripped off a couple of times, I’m always a bit suspicious. So I did some research on the tires when we got back to the coach. The Sumitomo Tire website had this to say about the ST-718 tire Tracy recommended:

“An excellent commercial grade tire for urban and metro fleet operations.”

• All Steel Casing - helps retreadability and resists failures from road hazards.
• Steel Breakers - controls tread squirm, and resists cuts.
• Patented Tread Compound - resists effect of scuffing from sharp turns, gives long mileage.

I looked in all the RV forums and could not find a single negative comment about Sumitomo tires, so we decided to go ahead and take Tracy’s recommendation.

We arrived early Wednesday morning for our appointment at Leslie Tire. The first thing we did was ask to see the date stamps on the tires. We wanted to make sure they had not been sitting on a warehouse shelf for a while. Once we were satisfied with the dates, Parry backed the coach in and the tire replacements began.

We were hoping to get out early as we still had over 200 miles to go to get to our next destination, but a fire truck came in for an emergency tire change and they took priority. As it was, we still left at a decent time.

Once we were back on the road, the first thing we noticed was the difference in our ride. We were definitely riding smoother than before.

As of today, November 4th, 2007, after driving over 1800 miles, the tires are holding their pressure and looking good.

We recommend Leslie Tire.

When we were staying at Thousand Trails in St Clair, MI we met Stacey Frank. He was driving by as I was setting up my HughesNet satellite and being a HughesNet user himself, stopped to chat about it.

I noticed his company logo, WEIGH-IT, on his truck and asked him about it. He said he offered a service where using portable rv scales he could weight our coach right on site.

Parry and I were both concerned that our coach might be overweight but hadn’t done anything about it. We intended to weigh our motorhome at a truck stop before we left Harrisburg, PA, but had to wait until we moved everything into it first. We were so busy the month before our departure date getting ready for ArtsFest that we just ran out of time to get the weighing done.

I talked to Parry about WEIGH-IT and we decided to go ahead and have the coach weighed. We made an appointment and Stacey and his wife Gale came over with their scales the following Sunday.

First thing they wanted to know was how full our fuel tank and all of our holding tanks were. Then they placed the scales in front of our tires and had us move about six inches onto the scales. We didn’t have to unhook the water, electricity, sewer or satellite cables and we didn’t have to pack anything away. We did need to bring our slides in however.

What we found out is that our coach and all it’s contents were 400 lbs. underweight. It’s a close margin so we have to watch taking on any new cargo, but we were relieved that we weren’t overweight. Stacey was also able to tell us about the distribution of our weight on each axle. We were within an acceptable range of weight difference for all axles. If one of the axles was carrying too heavy of a load, we would have had to redistribute our load to make things more even. Thankfully we didn’t have to do that either. The way things are packed and stored it would be difficult to rearrange them.

He also took our tire pressures and told us what the best pressure was for each tire to carry the load we have. And he pointed out that our tires were dated 1998 and were probably the original tires that came with the coach. The tires looked fine to us, but we learned that tires deteriorate with age and riding on tires more than five years old greatly increases the risk of a blowout. We just finished traveling over 1,000 miles on tires that were over 9 years old and we still had a long way to go.

Stacey made a couple of recommendations for places close by where we could shop for new tires.

The whole process was supposed to take 30-45 minutes but Stacey ended up spending at least 45 minutes more educating us. His fee for this service at the time - $35.00. Definitely worth every penny and more.

Thank you Stacey & Gale.

We highly recommend WEIGH-IT.

I ordered products from RVToyOutlet.com on three separate occasions. Each time my credit card was charged immediately. I’m not sure what the law is in other states, but in PA a vendor can place a hold on your credit card for the funds for 10 days, but cannot charge your credit card until the item is shipped.

On all three orders, two or more of the items were out of stock and had to be back ordered. Several weeks after each order was placed, I would receive an email letting me know that the item would not be shipped and my credit card would be credited for the amount of purchase.

The last order was the one that really ended it for me. Among other things, I ordered a 10.5 ft Xtend & Climb Ladder. I placed the order on April 16th, six weeks before we were scheduled to leave Harrisburg, PA to begin our journey.

I received an email a few days later telling me the ladder and another item I ordered were back ordered.

A week before our departure, I called RVToyOutlet.com to find out the status of my order. I was told the ladder was still out of stock. I told them we would be on the road after June 3rd and asked them to call or email me when the ladder came in and I would give them an address to ship it to.

Three weeks went by and I called again. This time they told me that the ladder came in several times since my last call but no one notified me. They apologized and said that more ladders would be arriving within the next week and they would ship one to me.

A week later I received another email telling me that the ladder was unavailable and they had credited my account. Fine, I figured I would buy the ladder elsewhere. By this time they had my money for over two months.

I waited for the credit to appear on my account. It never did. So I called them back again. They told me they did make the credit and I would have to call my credit card company to find out why it was not appearing. To make a long story short, it took until September 19th to finally get my money back. Needless to say they didn’t pay any interest for the use of my money for those 5 months.

We do not recommend purchasing products from RVToyOutlet.com.

The months prior to our departure where busy and hectic. We had a lot to accomplish in very little time. Not only did we have a house and most of our belongings to sell, but we had to get the coach ready for the trip as well.

We had three different service companies we needed to use and we had a month to have everything completed. We went to Grumbine’s first because they were usually the slowest. As it turned out, we had to push them a bit to meet our deadline.

Maguire’s Ford of Hershey was second. We had not used them before, they were recommended to us by Grumbine’s. We wanted our engine air conditioner fixed, summer was approaching and we knew we’d need it. This was before we learned that we could turn on our generator and run our roof air conditioners while driving down the road. This method of cooling the coach puts less strain on the engine and uses less gas in the long run.

Nevertheless, we had a three day window to get the work done before the coach needed to be at Chris Bolt’s RV Service in Jonestown. Maguire’s surprised us by having the work done in one day. They had no problem accepting our FreedomCare warranty. They were courteous, knowledgeable and professional.

We recommend Maguire’s Ford of Hershey.

When we purchased our 1999 Winnebago Chieftain from Meyer’s RV Superstore in Syracuse, NY, they offered us an extended warranty product from FreedomRoads called FredomCare.

I’m not a big believer in extended warranties. I figure if the retail outlet thinks the product they’re selling needs an extended warranty, they must not have much confidence in it; so why are they selling the product in the first place?

However, we were buying a motorhome that was already five years old and it was a big investment. I feared if there was anything major wrong with it, we would be strapped to pay for repairs. It added $4,600.00 to our loan but gave us some peace of mind.

The warranty is for 4 years or 48,000 miles, whichever comes first and has a $50.00 deductible. Since we purchased the warranty, we’ve used it 3 times. We’ve had two of our hydraulics replaced and our engine air conditioner compressor replaced. In all instances FreedomCare covered parts and labor with no delay.

As of 10/27/07 we have either one year or 12,000 miles left before the warranty expires. So far FreedomCare made out in the deal, but who knows what the future holds.

I’m not necessarily recommending an extended warranty, but if you are interested in purchasing one for your motorhome, then we recommend FreedomCare as a viable option.

In 2006 we were staying at our Thousand Trails home park in Hershey, PA when something happened that caused our power cord to fuse to the 30 amp receptacle coming into our 1999 Winnebago Chieftain. Unless we wanted to drive down the street with our cord trailing behind us, we were stuck.

We mentioned our plight to the ranger at the ranger station and he gave us a card for Chris Boltz’s RV Service in Jonestown, PA. He said that Chris had worked on several rigs in the park and he never heard a complaint. So I gave Chris a call and made arrangements to meet him at the coach.

Chris arrived as scheduled and attempted to get the cord out of the receptacle. He finally told me the only way to get it out was to force it out. I didn’t want him to be responsible for damaging our coach, so I told him I would pull it myself.

I thanked him and asked how much I owed him for his time and he said nothing. There were a couple of other small jobs I knew we needed done, so I told him about them and asked if he would be interested. He said sure.

We ended up using Chris’s services several times for jobs both large and small. His rates are reasonable and since he has low overhead, he’s much less expensive than larger service centers.

We still call him today and he’s always very helpful and stands behind the work he’s completed. Truth is he’s just a pleasant guy to be around and is always accommodating.

We highly recommend Chris Boltz’s RV Service.

After we brought our 1999 Winnebago Chieftain home, we made an appointment at Grumbine’s RV in Harrisburg, PA to have all the unfinished repairs completed. These fixes were supposed to be done by Meyer’s RV Superstore in Syracuse, NY where we purchased our motorhome, but Meyer’s failed to follow through and dumped the work on Grumbine’s.

When we talked with the service person at Grumbine’s, we discovered that Meyer’s had never even contacted them about our situation. Grumbine’s had to telephone Meyer’s to get the scoop on what needed to be completed.

Unfortunately for us, Grumbine’s was dependent on Meyer’s to ship parts for the job and Meyer’s took their time doing that. Grumbine’s was very gracious through the whole experience. They even fixed things we found later that were not on the original list, free of charge.

Grumbine’s also ran a leak test for us and found several places that needed to be sealed, including a cracked skylight in the bathroom. We discovered this was the culprit for that brown stain on the ceiling that the salesman from Meyer’s tried to hide.

Sadly, Grumbine’s was not able to get it fixed before a big rainstorm caused that brown stain to grow exponentially. We had a real mess inside. I used OxiClean which removed most of the stain, but there are still traces of it visible.

We continued to go to Grumbine’s for service for the next two and half years until we left Harrisburg, PA to begin our journey. Jeff at Grumbine’s was always helpful and eager to please. Grumbine’s service center did a good job on every project we gave them and stood by their work.

Our only complaint with Grumbine’s is that it usually took them several weeks to complete a project and we’d be without our coach during times we would rather have been using it.

We recommend Grumbine’s RV.

We bought our 1999 Winnebago Chieftain at Meyer’s RV Superstore in Syracuse, NY during Thanksgiving weekend of 2004. We had gone to many RV shows over the years, so we had a good idea what we wanted. One of the reasons we went to Meyer’s was because of a salesman we met at one of the RV shows we attended. He was eager to share his knowledge and not pushy. We felt comfortable with him and asked for him the day we arrived at Meyer’s to shop, but were told he was off that day.

The salesman who did work with us, Tim, was a nice enough guy but in retrospect he was more interested in making the sale than in helping us get a good buy.

Tim waved away a brownish stain on the ceiling that he had to know was a current water leak and not an old one that had been fixed. He also made a lot of promises. He promised us that the latch on the door would be fixed, the backup camera would be fixed, the outside retracting stairs would be fixed and the blower for the engine heating system would be fixed. He also told us they would clean the coach up and vacuum out the heating ducts which were filled with crud.

We didn’t get a great deal from Meyer’s, but we did pay fair market value for that make and model year. The coach had just about everything we were looking for, so we signed the paperwork to purchase. Since it was a holiday we weren’t able to secure a loan that day, so we headed back to Harrisburg, PA and waited.

We received a phone call from Meyer’s two days later telling us that we secured the loan and the coach was ours. They said they couldn’t deliver it, so we asked them to call us when the coach was ready and we’d make arrangements to come pick it up.

One week later we get a letter in the mail telling us that we need to pick the coach up by a certain date or Meyer’s would start charging us for storage. We bought two one-way bus tickets and headed up a few days later.

When we arrived the coach was sitting in the parking lot untouched. Meyer’s never made any of the repairs and they never cleaned it, there were still coffee stains on the dash. Parry and I were livid. Tim, our salesman, was off for the day.

The service manager comes out, inspects the coach and tells us he doesn’t have a service person he can spare to do the repairs. We tell him we can’t hang around, we have to get back to Harrisburg. He says that their parent company FreedomRoads just purchased Grumbine’s RV in Harrisburg, PA and he would arrange for them to make the repairs. He doesn’t follow through on that promise either. He does send a workman out to jimmy rig the entrance door so it would at least stay closed on our drive back.

Several hours after our arrival, with a complimentary sewer hose and a half a tank of gas, Meyer’s sends us on our way.

Forty miles down the road it starts to rain. Parry is driving and he turns on the windshield wipers. They spring to life for a couple of sweeps and then die. We’re forced to pull over. We call Meyer’s and tell them our predicament. They say they can’t send anyone to help us, we’ll have to drive back in the rain with no wipers.

We slowly make our way back and Parry is fuming by now. Meyer’s fixes the wipers and Parry insists that they fill our gas tank as well. We end up driving home at night and arriving late and tired.

Grumbine’s RV eventually makes all of the repairs and we do get the leak fixed before any major damage is done to our roof, but that’s another story.

We may not have bought a brand new coach, but we spent quite a chunk of change on our Winnebago (more than we spent on our sticks and bricks house). We deserved better service and better treatment than we received from Meyer’s.

We love our coach and don’t regret buying it, but we will never shop at Meyer’s RV Superstore again nor will we suggest anyone does.

This section of the site is about the vendors and service providers we encounter along our way. We do this in hopes of promoting those that offer a good product or service and helping others avoid those that do not.

Tom Reider - Wanderer

I’ve lived in several places, traveled to a few, but feel most at home in Harrisburg, PA. I’ve spent over half my life there and although I’ve left several times, I’ve always ended up back there again. It’s a good place to dig in.

I’ve come to realize that in my life it’s sometimes best to plant roots and other times better to spread my wings. Right now it’s time for me to fly again.

My partner Parry and I are on a trek across the country in a 36′ Winnebago Motorhome - a.k.a. the Talisman. We sold our house, our furniture, most of our possessions and my car, gambling it all to reach for a dream. Some people say we’re courageous, some say we’re crazy, most offer to come with us.

The dream is about discovery and it’s about freedom.

Parry Pannozo - Kindred Spirit

I met Parry at a campground in the Endless Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. We’ve been partners for nearly 15 years. Parry is originally from Syracuse, NY.

Parry makes me laugh and he makes me angry. His honesty is often disarming and his exaggerations sometimes beyond belief. He brings out the best in me and also the worse - and I love him for it.

Buddy - Tough Cookie

Buddy was scooped up from the middle of Paxton Street during rush hour in Harrisburg, PA. The neighbor who rescued her, Liz, brought her to our house hoping for an adoption. It was my birthday and I took it as a sign that she was a gift from the cosmos and was meant to be part of our lives.

We thought Buddy was a boy until we took her to get “fixed”, thus the name.

Buddy can be sweet and loveable, but don’t mess with her. She’s a ferocious defender of her territory and she’s been known to bite.

Benny - Brave Adventurer

The night before Benny arrived, both Parry and I dreamt that he was coming. He showed up the next afternoon looking for a place to stay so we let him in for the night. He’s been with us ever since.

Benny is the smart one. You can see it in his eyes. He loves exploring the outdoors, loves to hunt snakes and bugs and loves to cuddle.

Flat Stanley - World Famous International Traveler

Flat Stanley hitched a ride with us on June 10, 2007. He arrived via snail mail from our friend Diane who is a school teacher in the Washington DC area. Her students will follow Flat Stanley as he travels across the United States with us.

Flat Stanley is a curious little fellow. He loves to see new places and make new friends. We’re not sure how long he’ll hang out with us, but he’s welcome to tag along for as long as he likes.

Talisman - Home on Wheels

OK, I have weird dreams but… in November of 2004 we were in Syracuse visiting Parry’s family for Thanksgiving. While we were in the area, we thought we would run over to Meyer’s RV Superstore, just to take a look.

Thanksgiving night I dreamt about looking at a blueprint. The blueprint was of a structure that had everything I needed but not everything I wanted.

Black Friday arrived and we went shopping. We started the day looking at Class C motorhomes, but while we were browsing around the lot, we noticed that a brand new Class C motorhome was around the same price as a used Class A. So we changed direction and began looking at used Class A’s. That’s when we saw the Talisman - a 1999, 36′ Winnebago Chieftain with two slideouts. We bought it.

Since then we’ve gone to a couple of big RV shows and looked at many of the new coaches. We haven’t found anything that solves all of our living space needs like the Talisman. She was the top of the line in her day and although she may not be as sexy as the brand new Class A’s, she’s still an elegant lady.