The makeover of our coach

While we were at the FMCA Rally in Brooksville in Feb. we attended a seminar about remodeling you motor coach that was put on by Classic Coach of Lakeland, FL. After the seminar we stopped at their booth and visited with Dennis about some ideas we had for our coach. As most of you know our coach was really nice inside but to us it was never comfortable or user friendly. I always sat on the J-lounger and Nancy sat on the couch to watch the TV that was located at the front center over the windshield all in all not a very comfortable position for either of us. When we arrived at their facility in Lakeland Dennis introduced us to Emilee Rumore who is an interior designer that works for them. She visited with us about our ideas and told us what was possible and what was not. In working with the slide outs on both sides some things just aren't possible. We had them remove the light colored carpeting that was so hard to keep clean and install luxury vinyl maple floor covering in a diagonal pattern. We removed both the J-lounger and the couch. We also removed the TV that was in the front over the windows. We now have in place of the couch a beautiful Maple cabinet that has a place for the computer, printer, and a flat screen TV that rises up out of the top of the desk. It also has a file cabinet drawer as well as alot of other storage space. The J-lounger was replaced with two luxurious leather Stressless recliners. The TV space in the front was turned into more storage space. To finish it all off we had them install MCD day-night roller shades on all the windows. A week later as an after thought we asked them about replacing the TV in the bedroom and as a result we now have a 19 inch flat screen TV that is on a hinged door where the old one was. This has opened up a huge storage area over the washing machine that was taken up by the old TV. They had most of this completed before we went to the FMCA Rally in Perry, GA and we are very pleased with the way things turned out and we achieved our goal of making the coach more comfortable and user friendly. As you can see we are doing our part trying to help Obama stimulate the economy. Classic Coach was great to work with and did an outstanding job.

Buttonwood Bay

We arrived back at Buttonwood Bay last Fri. evening after enjoying 10 days at Perry, GA doing the FMCA Rallies. We have been enjoying 80 degree weather since our arrival back in FL. Nancy has recovered from the chest congestion that plagues here for 3 weeks. We are busy cleaning the house and preparing for our journey back to Hazen Bay. Last night we enjoyed steak and shrimp at the rec-hall fallowed by a 90 minute show featuring the New Dawn Singers.

FMCA last day

Today was the last day of the FMCA Rally. For us it was a day of volunteer duties. This afternoon starting at 2 PM we manned the Newmar FMCA Chapter booth in the Newmar exhibit area. Our purpose was to educate other Newmar owners about about our chapter and ask them if they would like to join. At 3:30 we started our 3 hour shift transporting handicapped as well as not so handicapped in the 6 passenger golf carts shown at left. There are a total of 13 carts that run from 6:30 AM until after the evening entertainment. These are manned entirely by volunteers working 3 hour shifts. After finishing our shift at 6:30 we went to the Reeves Arena for the evening show featuring a comedian. It was a so so show as far as comedians go at least it was clean comedy. In the morning we will head back toward Sebring a 400 mile trip so we should get home sometime in the evening.

FMCA Perry, GA

Today we travelled west on SR 127 to Marshallville and the north on SR 49 to the American Camellia Societies Massee Lane Gardens. There we viewed the many varieties of beautiful Camellia's. They bloom October to March so were nearing the end of the blooming season but they were still very beautiful. We didn't realise there were so many different varieties and colors. There is also a very large display of Boehn Porcelain's located in two buildings at the gardens. His work features birds, flowers and animals. It was all very beautiful, some were 1 of only a few made and others were from larger issues. After leaving there we traveled north on SR 49 to Fort Valley where we then travelled east about 5 miles to Lane Packing where they process pecans and peach's in season. This time of the year it is a large roadside stand and restaurant. We had lunch and enjoyed peach cobbler and peach ice cream for dessert. From there we drove another 50 miles just enjoying the many peach orchards that are in bloom along with many fields of huge pecan tree's. This evening we went to Reeves Arena here on the fair grounds and enjoyed the music of Restless Heart. This evening before the show they also recognised the 800 or so volunteers that help put this on. They also announced that there are between 33 & 3400 coaches here.

FMCA Perry, GA

After 2 days of rain we finally enjoyed sunny skies and warm temps today. Last evening I worked a shift on the handicapped golf carts from 6:30 PM until after the dance it rained the entire time. Today we went to a restaurant down town for a luncheon of the Spartan Chassis club of FMCA. This morning I attended a seminar about how to make your RV tax deductible and this afternoon we went through the vendor buildings. It seems to be the same vendors that were at the Tampa Super Show and also at the Brooksville Rally so it doesn't take to long to look things over. This evening we enjoyed an Irish show in the Arena. It featured a couple of Irish tenors along with 5 Irish dancers and an Irish comedian. It was a very good show and very fitting for this St, Patricks day.

FMCA International Con. Perry, GA

This morning 25 Newmar Motor homes caravened 3 or 4 miles from our pre rally location at Fair Harbor RV Park to our volunteer parking location at the Georgia State Fairgrounds. We have volunteered to help with the handicapped transportation using 6 passenger golf carts. We are scheduled to drive 7-9AM Sun. and 3:30-6:30 PM Thur. It is cool and cloudy here today so the early shift we have tomorrow morning is probably going to be really cool I hope it isn't raining. We had on orientation meeting this afternoon and then took the golf carts out so we could become familiar with the area we will operate in. The main days for activities are Tues-Thur. But Sun. and Mon. are the main check in days for attendees. From what we have heard they expect about 3000 motor coaches for the rally.

Perry, GA

It is time for me to quit procrastinating and get going on the blog again. When we first went back to Florida we were trying to use Tengointernet Wi-Fi in the park but the service was so slow and poor that it would kick you off line before you could get anything done. After Christmas I got an Alltel wireless card and have had no trouble since. We were at the Tampa Super Show Newmar rally in Jan. In Feb. we went to the South East area FMCA Rally in Brooksville, FL and also the Newmar Floida Sea Turtles Rally in Clermont. We are now at the Newmar FMCA pre Rally in Perry, Ga. having arrived here yesterday about noon. On Sat. morning we will move across the inter-state to the Georgia State Fair Grounds for the FMCA International spring Rally. While there we have volunteered to help with the handicapped transportation. In spite of all of our traveling we have also managed to remodel both bedrooms and bathrooms of our house at Sebring.