The Full Time Dream!

[Chester B. Stone, Jr.]

Clarke and Elaine, gosh you guys have had fun since leaving Spearfish. I'm envious.

[rellick]

Here it is Clarke, it was on the other site where you moved it, I dont see anywhere it says Ken started it here??:confused:


I'll continue a thread that I started on the other site. We are now in Raymond, WA, 27 miles south of Aberdeen, at Raymond RV Park smack dab on the shores of the Willapa River for $20/night full hookups.....had to drop my trailer because site #1 was taken......we were here 2.5 years ago in that site, and that site is the longest. No problem, though...we will be here parts of 3 days, so a minor issue having to drop the trailer.

You are correct, it is beautifull through Jasper and the ice fields, we were there in august. Stayed right at the glacier.

[chockwald]

Keith love your pictures of the same places we have been.....loved the Columbia Icefields....stayed there two nights in the parking lot.....I recognize those water falls.....somewhere north of the Icefields, and south of Jasper I believe.

We are now in Ogden, UT....have been slowly working our way south since leaving Sidney, MT and the sugar beet harvest. Spent 2 days at Fairmont Hot Springs, MT soaking in the hot pool, and getting massages. Got down to 22 degrees both nights....glad we had 50 amp hookup and sewer....no water as it is turned off for the winter. From there we headed south to Idaho Falls, ID and overnighted in the Walmart parking lot......the forecast was for a low of 35, however it got down to 25 degrees overnight. Glad we have the Suburban gas furnace to keep the water bay above freezing.

We left Idaho Falls Saturday and drove 177 miles south to Ogden, UT where the overnight lows are in the 40's.....almost balmy compared to Montana and Idaho! We'll move south about 60 miles to my brother's home where we will be doing some interior remodeling for about a week to 10 days. Life is good!

[chockwald]

The lights are on, but nobody seems to be home.

[express1]

:oDon't be the last, you will have to turn the light switch OFF!The lights are on, but nobody seems to be home.

[MrE]

The lights are on, but nobody seems to be home.

Probably my fault, made some posts that should have been PMs and based on misinformation, my apologies to all.

[chockwald]

Probably my fault, made some posts that should have been PMs and based on misinformation, my apologies to all.

Jon that's quite an admission......anybody else think they made any posts based on misinformation?

[MrE]

Jon that's quite an admission......anybody else think they made any posts based on misinformation?
Nice to get this off of my chest, watching the posts decline to nothing and knowing that I was a major contributor in the decline has made me feel really bad. I do still search the site for information, great collection, just not getting bigger.:bawling:

[khpaladin]

Clarke

It was great to read about your baptism into fulltiming. Since we have recently, as of May 1st, finished various
commitments we were involved in over the last 3-5 years, we are just now getting our act together to start
touring again. I will try to bring you and the board up to speed with us, and I will do it in several installs instead of all at once.

As you know, Wyn and I got our '81 Newell at Phoenix in '97, do to our work schedules we stored the coach at
a friend's in Phoenix and traveled back home to Fremont, CA. In late '98 our friend advised us that they were
selling their home. We flew down and drove the coach back to Fremont.

Since we wanted to get the coach checked mechanically from front to rear, and get some upgrades done, we took the coach to the best ranked DD/Allison shop in northern California. We had an in-frame overhaul of the 6V92TA engine, an overhaul of the MT654CR 5-speed auto transmission and the turbo, and a drain, flush, and refill of the Rockwell 3.70:1 differential. We then had them do a 'mated' dyno. We became good friends with the shop owner and he let us store the coach at his 2-acre shop and plug into to keep the batteries charged.

For Wyn's feeling of safety and convenience we made quite a few upgrades and modifications to our coach.
We upgraded all the sinks and faucets, replaced all the AGC fuse panels w/ATO fuse panels. replaced all the
copper plumbing lines with PEX. Replaced the 1kW inverter with a ProSine 2500 inverter/charger. After 11
years of use the ProSine gave up the ghost and I recently replaced it with a 2800 Magnum inverter/charger.
Replaced the pneumatic wipers with electric, add a CHMSL and DLR modules, and added additional marker
and turn signal to the side of the coach.

Between '98 and '03, Wyn retired and completed transfering our paperwork to digital and setting our
communications to cell phone and online access. I was tied up with back to back projects until early '03. We
decided on what to keep in storage, put as much of the take along stuff into the coach, what we were not taking
went to salvation army (a large panel truck) or trash (serveral pickup loads to the dump). We sold the
townhouse and in August of '03, over 3 days we moved what was left into the coach and headed down the
road.

Wyn & Ki Punilei
"Have Newell Will Travel"
'81 40' Newell Coach
'86 Honda Accord
"Squeak" the Feline Princess

[khpaladin]

Clarke, (Continued #2)

We initially travelled to Carson City, NV where we decided to keep the storage items, and continue
reorganizing. We decided to go to Rapid City, SD to get all of our domicile registration taken care of.
Unfortunatelly, 'Mother Nature' snowed us in for a week in Evenston, WY, after which we decided to head for
Denver, CO and see our daughter and grandson. Wyn has been to snow country but never where it came down
on her, so the winters of '03-'05 we spent Denver, and Colorado Springs, CO, sure glad we have the 'Winter
Demo Coach'.

In summer '04 we went to Rapid City, SD, did our registering, got some 'doctoring' done, and got DishNet
installed. In '05 & '06 we spent some time in Las Cruses and Demming, NM, and Benson, AZ areas. Since I
was still working projects, Wyn would pick a spot she wanted to stay at and we would setup the coach and I
would travel to where the project was and return, I completed my last project in late '06. We started touring for
about two years through TX, from Alpine to New Braunfels, and from Mission to Sherman.

We met a lot of great people along the way, have stayed in contact with most, and due to various problems we
stayed to help. We stayed in Sherman, TX to help a friend who had and died of cancer. At the park we stay at in
Denver, we helped the manager teaching people who were newbies, made electrical and plumbing repairs to
fixed income people rigs that could not afford the ecential repairs, and made repairs to park equipment.

When the manager/wife at the park in Cheyenne, WY had a stroke, Wyn and I went up there to help out and
ended up managing the park until she recovered, and it happened at 'Frontier Days', what a zoo. We have
never asked to host, but we have ended up being ask to do so for one reason or another.

At the park in Elephant Butte, NM, we were asked to replace a host couple that up and left, and we did. The
following winter we went there because of all the friends we had made, and were asked to host because the
park was short handed, and we did. The last 1.5 years we ended up staying there to host, train, and manage the
park, because they were short handed, all new hosts, and the manager/husband had kidney cancer and had to
have one removed.

We are now away from all that, stayed at Albuquerque, NM to have long overdue service on the coach, and
'doctoring' done. While here we replaced the dieing 11 gal Raritan water heater. We decided to go with a
Kenmore 10 gal residential, it was way cheaper, we rarely used the off-engine, and it works great. Moved to
Denver to see the daughter and (taller than grandma) grandson, get additional 'doctoring' done, have the
'towed' overdue service done, and start attacking the 'todo' list.

Wyn & Ki Punilei
"Have Newell Will Travel"
'81 40' Newell Coach
'86 Honda Accord
"Squeak" the Feline Princess

[khpaladin]

Clarke (Continued #3)

We will be here for anther 2-3 weeks, then go to Cheyenne, the last time we contacted the wife, she didn't
sound good, so we will go there to make sure, and do more 'todo' list and rest (we hope).

Clarke, we know we have been rather remiss in communicating on the board and with you and Elaine, we
apologise. Hopefully, we will be able to do more travelling and get more involve with the board, and hookup with
you two somewhere. Happy Fulltiming


Wyn & Ki Punilei
"Have Newell Will Travel"
'81 40' Newell Coach
'86 Honda Accord
"Squeak" the Feline Princess