Monday April 28, 2014-Paradise Lake Resort, Nacogdoches TX

We watched the weather last night with interest, since we were on the fringe of the storm areas, but we lucked out and only had some rain and strong winds. Our heart goes out to those in Oklahoma and Arkansas that suffered. We will be driving through Mayflower Ark. one of the areas hit very hard, and should be able to take some good but heartbreaking photos as we travel to the Arkansas rally in Mountain View.

When we stayed at Rayford Crossing, several of the guys and I wanted to take a day trip to Nac to visit the Foretravel factory, so since I am here and have nothing better to do, I took the tour this morning with two other men that are looking to buy one. Not me! I wanted to look but am not changing to a motorhome!

First of all, I never knew the name Foretravel meant anything other than the brand name. The Fore family actually founded the company in 1967 and one of Mr. Fore's grandsons still works here as a salesman. The family has sold out and no longer owns any interest in the company. There are still a few employees working here from the early days. 

Everything built here is custom built to order and no two MH's are alike. The IH series is the top of the line and below that are the Phenix and Nimbus models. All of these are built on chassis' that are built in-house. They are now building one unit for a customer on a Spartan chassis, which is the first one that we looked at. 

That's a big 'ol motor in the rear of this thing. Remember that this is a diesel pusher, so this is looking toward the front. Note also the large receiver hitch on the back, rated for 20,000#. They have customers that tow 30' trailers behind with large, heavy cars and trucks inside.

This is the engine/transmission that is waiting to be installed into a frame. I don't think either will fit into my Ram pickup! 

The hydraulic-operated tag axle.  This is the Spartan chassis that they are building now. It uses traditional jacks for leveling and stabilizing instead of air bags on the Foretravel units.

One of the slide-out units being readied to be installed. Note all of the wires hanging throughout the slide. Each wiring harness has a part number making it much easier to find a replacement part.

One of the air bags used to level and stabilize. Since these motorhomes will weigh in excess of 50,000 pounds when completed and loaded by the customer, these bags are very heavy duty. 

More wiring. You would have to be a pretty good electrician to wire up one of these units. They are all electric, but propane can be added if the customer wishes. 

Waste water is handled through conventional PVC pipes. I noticed that all wiring is bundled together with tie wraps and is very neat and clean. 

A roof, ready to be installed. They mold aluminum for the base and after openings and raceways for wiring and ductwork for heating is run, the roof is covered with fiberglass. I have no experience with a fiberglass roof and can't comment. 

Here is a roof without the fiberglass cap installed. Again, everything is neat and clean. 

A rear cap ready to be installed. Our guide showed us how light the rear cap is, but the fiberglass is very heavy and can withstand a lot of impact. 

Notice the rounded edges for the slide. Also, no cover on the opening between the slide and the body of the coach. The guide told me that there is an air bladder that seals this opening that cannot be seen. It does look nice!

 There is an electric reel for the heavy electric cord and a retractable water hose. I've also seen those very heavy-duty sewer hoses being used and know that they are deluxe and virtually leak proof.

The painted stripes extend onto the slides to make a continuous stripe. This has always been a pet peeve of mine because it makes the unit so much more "finished". 

A residential refrigerator is used, as are other residential fixtures in the kitchen. 

A nicely finished shower. This unit had a bath and a half, which is nice for guests to use. And then, no one has to come into our bedroom to see that Stella hasn't put away my dirty clothes or made up the bed. 

The windshield has no gasket but is actually glued in. No removing the glass to replace appliances or furniture on this baby!

Overall, I was impressed with the construction of Foretravel but then remember, we were told that it takes about 6 months to get one built from the initial ordering to completion. They only produce approximately 30 units a year! And at a starting cost of $1.2 million for an IH model, I'll never own one!  

I was disappointed to hear that they use laminated wood for their cabinets. The guide said that this allows customers to have a nice shiny surface for all surfaces and that they use walnut for construction. I noticed that they used plywood for a shelf in one of the cabinets. I guess they make some plywood out of walnut...

Maybe we can make another trip up here with the guys from Rayford. I'd make the trip again!

So long.

Thursday April 24, 2014-Paradise Lake RV Resort, Nacogdoches TX

We had a very nice day today but it started out too soon. My leg was bothering me and I woke very early from the pain, but soon after getting up and going into the living room, I was back asleep in my chair. 

We are going back over to Center this evening to have supper with Janie and Gail and were being joined by my cousin Linda and her husband Doug who were coming over from Tyler. The four of them were going on a weekend trip to Houston and Dallas so this was my chance to see all of them.

Stella needed to go to the store, so we went to Wal Mart, where I happened to know that there are a lot of Munzees. It's been awhile since I've really played the game and I thought that this will be a good chance to start playing again.

We made the pretty drive to Center and had a very nice visit with Janie and Gail before Doug and Linda arrived. They own a marketing business in Tyler and couldn't leave until after work, but as soon as they arrived, we sat down and had a great meal of barbecued ribs and a pork loin with veggies that was prepared by Janie. The meal was very good but the conversation was even better. It's been a long time since we've been able to sit down to a meal with this part of the family. Our traveling lifestyle is a lot of the cause of this, and I plan to do as much as I can to spend more time with family. 

Janie asked me why I was awake and sending her messages at 4 AM. I told her about my leg issues, and that got me in trouble with her (in a nice way) about not going to a doctor. She reminded me several times during the evening to go get it checked out, and I will when I can, but then when I got home tonight, my leg didn't bother me and I slept through the night with no further pain. I hope it lasts! It's miserable to wake to the pain and not be able to find a comfortable position.

So long.

Wednesday April 23, 2014-Moving day-Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park to Paradise Lake RV Resort, Nacogdoches

We were up by 7 AM and drinking our coffee before starting to get ready to leave. It wasn't long before we were hooking the truck to the trailer and pulled out about 9:30. We like these short driving days and only made one quick pit stop, arriving here in Nacogdoches (Nac from now on!).

After a pretty quick set-up I called my Aunt Janie to let them know that we had arrived and made arrangements to go over to Center where they live for supper. We sat outside on their patio and after a glass of wine, we drove down to the square to eat at Margarita's restaurant. 

We returned to Janie's house to continue our visit and had lots of great conversation about family and friends. It was so nice to chat, but the time seemed to fly by and we had to come back over to Nac to take care of our pups. We are planning to spend more time tomorrow with Janie and family. Should be fun!

So long.

Monday April 21, 2014-Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park, Terrell TX

Today we met Tony and Erika and Dave and Nancy at the Panda Buffet in downtown Terrell. Tony only got about 50 minutes to eat-he's the high school band director- but the rest of us stayed and talked for about 3 hours! 

We discussed the tee shirts that Erika has been working on for us to review and talked about colors and designs. She is going to work on them some more and submit some new ones soon. We talked about the rally itself and got some good input from Dave and Nancy.

We compared notes and discovered that Dave and Nancy will be going to the same rallies that we will be attending, so we tentatively made plans to travel together. I think it could be fun to caravan to several rallies. 

We came home to find that there was severe weather forecast for our area this evening. It began to rain lightly but luckily we never got the heavy weather that had been predicted. We missed Ian's ball game because of the weather. I'm sure they got rained out but we haven't talk to them to verify.

We have decided to stay here for another day to get our schedule back on track. We have been working on our travel plans and will get them completed in another day or so. Then we can share it with Dave and Nancy and make some plans. This is shaping up to be a good summer.

So long.

Saturday April 19, 2014-Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park, Terrell TX

It's still chilly enough to use the fireplace in the morning, but I can tell that warm weather will be here soon. When we left Durant a couple of days ago, I work my jeans while packing up to leave but as soon as we arrived here in Terrell, I pulled them off and put on shorts and have worn shorts outside since then. 

We drove over to Jennifer and Jay's house in Garland for some burgers this afternoon. Jay has done a good job of remodeling the house, taking his time and doing things right. He added a large covered deck on the back that we put to good use today. 

 Here is a picture of me and the kids. In our traveling lifestyle we don't get to spend enough time with family but we do the best we can.

Ian with his Pop. My maternal grandfather was called Pop by everyone and Stella's Dad was called Poppy. Tyler and Cameron call me PePaw, so I answer to either name. I'm glad that Jennifer chose to tell Ian to call me Pop because I want to preserve the name in our family. I have asked Tyler and Cam to change what they call me and they do when they remember to, but most of the time they revert to PePaw and I am good with that.

Jennifer made us some beer Margaritas that we had never tried before. They are made with only four ingredients, 12 oz. limeade, 12 oz. beer (she used Dos Equis but any brand should work), 12 oz. 7-Up and although the recipe calls for 12 oz. Tequila, she used less. Add some salt (to taste) around the rim of the glass and this makes a very good Margarita. Even with less tequila, I could feel the effect of one drink, so be careful. After finishing my drink, we ate our burgers and then sat around visiting for a couple of hours to make sure that the alcohol was gone before driving home-ever the cop!!

We had a very nice visit with them, reliving some of the stories of our past and their childhood and we all had a lot of laughs. 

So long.

Friday April 18, 2014-Moving day-Choctaw KOA, Durant OK to Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park, Terrell TX

My back has been bothering me for the last week or so, but it was better last night. It was just a dull ache all day but at night, when I tried to sleep, it kicked into high gear. It became impossible to sleep because I couldn't find a comfortable position. I tried everything, including taking a large dose of Tylenol but nothing really helped. I usually got a couple of hours sleep early in the morning, but it wasn't very restful. I got more sleep last night than any other since I've been down. 

We were up before 7, having some coffee on our last morning here in Durant. We really weren't in a big hurry because we are just going to Terrell. We changed parks from the Plantation Place in Sunnyvale to the Bluebonnet Ridge in Terrell. We went by Sunnyvale the other day when we went to watch Ian play ball and found that the park is on a very narrow and windy road with low tree branches and very tight spaces at the park. Sunnyvale must be an upscale area, judging by the big houses and manicured lawns. 

We pulled out right about 10AM and made good time all the way into Plano where we found more road construction and had a brief slowdown. The only problem with the construction zone is that they have very narrow lanes but we made it through without problem and soon we turned off onto the big loop (IH-635) and then soon onto I-20. We arrived at the park just after noon, for approximately a 2 hour drive. We made good time because we didn't have to stop!

We did have a bit of a problem here with the park. When Stella called to get our reservation, they took the credit card number and promised that it was just to have it on record. Stella alertly checked our account and found that they had charged the entire bill. It was only yesterday that all this happened, so we weren't too concerned about it but when we got here, she found that they had kept the original charge and made another one. They explained that they are using a new software program and will get it straightened out as soon as they can. We'll see...

We have stayed here several times before and we like the park. We especially liked the way they found us a site, and hopefully this billing problem will be taken care of. We'll see...

So long.

Tuesday April 15, 2014-Choctaw KOA, Durant OK

It's still cold up here in Oklahoma, although it's not freezing or snowing. We heard from one couple that was here for the rally that went to Missouri and got snowed on, another couple went home to Oklahoma City and were hailed on, and heard from two friends in Michigan that are getting snowed on. 

We went to Garland to watch Ian play T-ball this evening.

He's a really good batter. Every time he was at bat he hit the ball into the outfield. 

 He is a pretty good fielder too. He stops the ball well and throws well also.

It's a lot of fun to watch these 6 year olds play T-ball. They don't play all that well yet, but they have a lot of enthusiasm and love to play. 

Jennifer and Jay took us to a Mexican restaurant for a late supper. The food was good but not great but we enjoyed our time with the kids and Ian most of all. We'll be spending more time with them this weekend and look forward to it.

So long.