Focht Family Blog

I cannot say enough nice things about the service department at Newmar. The level of service you receive here is well worth the drive to Indiana, even in the snow :)

Now, that being said I really didn’t want to get up this morning and take the kids outside since it was in negative numbers with the wind chill. The RV is renewed. We added an automatic generator starter that will make the generator turn on if the batteries get down to a certain level or if the RV gets too warm so the AC can run. The generator will automatically start and will run long enough to charge the batteries or cool down the RV and then it will turn off again. We took a picture of our new controller.

We also had them replace the wet batteries with gel batteries. Because of how much electricity we use on a regular basis we were being very hard on the wet batteries and we were already getting some corrosion in our battery compartment. The gel batteries do not have water levels to check so they are good for ignoring. Nathan is very happy with his new toys. Here is a picture of the new batteries.

We also looked at new brochures while here. We are seriously looking at floorplans for what our next RV will be. We love the versatility of the All-Star line. We found a new floorplan that has what is planned as an office space where the garage would be on a toy hauler. We are looking at this as an option and making the office area into a second bedroom. This way we could have Newmar install triple bunks so each child would have their own bed. We won’t be buying for another year or two but it is nice to look ahead.

We are staying here until Sunday morning and then we will head to Cummins in Ft. Wayne, IN to have the oil leak looked at.

We made it to Newmar Tuesday night. We took Misty out once we got parked and she decided to make mastiff angels in the snow.

In other words, Misty had all four legs come out from under her and she went splat! She was very happy to get back into the RV. The next morning Nathan went in to the office to let them know we were there. The children were happy to play in the snow again so we bundled them up and I took them for a walk. Here is a picture of the RV sitting in the snow.

Here is a picture of the Newmar service office covered in snow as well as the parking lot full of snow.

And for the last of the snow (seeing a theme?) here is a picture of Samantha and Timmy will shovels full of snow. They were digging in the snow.

Joshua decided that watching Dora in the warmth of our bed was a better idea than playing in the snow. Wednesday we took the RV to the laundromat and ended up with $40 worth of laundry! But all the beds are cleaned now and the whole RV got a scouring from one end to the other. We cleaned so much that when I went to bed last night my eyes were burning from all of the bleach. I told Nathan it was my Valentines gift to him.

I made Nathan find a place we could get some lumber and asked for him to make Joshua a bed that looked like it belonged rather than a mattress in the middle of the hallway. So his Valentines gift to me was a finished bed for Joshua. We had his crib mattress between the other two beds but Joshua fell down the stairs twice in the middle of the night so we needed to come up with another solution. Here is what being married to an engineer gets you. I love it and Joshua slept the whole night in HIS bed last night without us being woken to the crying of him bumping into walls.

When we left Seattle we thought we would stay out of the cold weather but apparently that was very short lived. We decided that we wanted a few upgrades to the All-Star so we are headed to Newmar. We are currently in the last leg of the journey. We left Manteca, CA on Saturday morning and we have crossed into Indiana from Illinois already.

Unfortunately I found out the hard way that my camera has decided to die. Apparently the blurriness from the last picture wasn’t water on the lens. Last night we stopped for the night at a Walmart in Springfield, MO because the roads were becoming too icy and we were afraid we would have to end up pulling off where there was no safe place to stop. It was amazing driving into the parking lot and seeing the ice everywhere. I tried to take a picture of one of the cart returns where ice was hanging off of every piece of metal and where the road crew had piled ice/snow up against the side. Here is how it ended up looking.

I figured it was just the problems that I have already had with the flash and darkness so I tried again this morning near St. Louis when we stopped for gas. I took a picture of the windshield washing bucket frozen into a large ice cube.

So I started looking online as to what a new camera was going to cost me. Nathan reminded me that the nice, expensive video camera that he bought me for Christmas also takes pictures so I started playing around with it in the RV. I decided to take a picture out of the windshield so everyone in the south can feel warmer. This is I-80 in Indiana right after we crossed the Illinois border.

The water running down the windshield is ice that keeps coming off of the roof. We have changed our course a few times today because I keep checking the DOT websites to figure out which roads are cleared and safe for travel. Although we are driving pretty slow right now we are still planning on making it into Camp Newmar tonight. Tomorrow is going to be a HUGE cleaning day. We are going to drive to the laundromat and strip all of the beds and then scrub from top to bottom. We have let it go too long and things are looking gross.

Anyways, I will be a better wife and start carrying the larger camera so I can get decent pictures. That is the only downside to the video camera. My digital camera fits into a pocket in my purse. The video camera does not.

I didn’t realize how long it had been since I updated. Sorry. So this one will be a bit long. After we left Seattle we drove down 101 (coast) through Oregon. It was raining and overcast but we pulled over to take some pictures of the ocean.

It is rather scary driving along the coast and going past many areas where the road has fallen in. We actually had to stop and wait for construction crews in a coupe of areas where there was no road in one lane. I’m glad none of the road decided to cave in while we were driving on it. We spent a couple of nights among the redwoods in northern California.

Driving down the coast in CA the weather was a little better so we stopped again and got some more pictures of the ocean and took the family out for a picture. It had just started raining so I think it is blurry because water may have been on the lens.

Next we headed down a little further for a few days in a town called Manteca. It was a relatively central location for Nathan to visit with some customers. Nathan stopped at Making It Big, a place that sells clothes for larger women and also at Artisan Sweets, a candy store that sells specialty candies. They gave us some caramels as well as some natural candies for the kids. Everything was delicious. These were both stops on the way into the campground.

The next day we went out and Nathan stopped in at Wild Horses 4×4. This took a bit longer because they sell off road equipment for broncos. Nathan is missing his Jeep. After he was done with customer visits, we went to lunch at an Old Spaghetti Factory and sat in the trolley car. It wasn’t as good as I remembered from when I was young but I still enjoyed the spumoni ice cream. :)

We spent the rest of the week riding bikes at the campground and fixing and cleaning. We also had a visit with one of mom’s friends who moved to California. On Saturday we checked out and put 10 hours of driving on the road. We made it to Kingman, AZ so we were officially out of CA. Unfortunately the Walmart there does not allow overnight but we got some groceries and called the Cracker Barrel down the street. They gave us permission.

We were up early this morning because we didn’t want to block all the spaces for Sunday morning diners so we were back on the road by 7:00 this morning and we will be stopping in Albuquerque where this whole adventure started to pick up an antennae that we lost somewhere at Aloha RV where we purchased our Newmar All-Star. We are making tracks for Indiana. We are taking the All-Star back to Newmar to get some things added. They do discounted work during this time of the year because this is their slow time. We are going to have gel batteries put in since they have more charge time plus you don’t have to check the water or worry about rust. We are also going to have the slide repaired where I caught Nathan’s jacket in it.

Originally we were planning on staying the night at a Walmart in Albuquerque but since we are making good time Nathan is thinking about trying to get to Amarillo, TX before we stop. It is going to be a long few days on the road putting at least 10 hours of driving in a day. I am looking forward to stopping in Indiana and relaxing for a bit. Since Newmar doesn’t have laundry facilities we need to go to a laundromat while there anyways so I plan on stripping all of the beds and washing comforters (cannot fit in most machines at campgrounds). I am also looking forward to going to lunch at the little cafe a few blocks away. They had great homemade soups. Samantha is looking forward to going back to reading time at the library and also going to the large playground they have in town. Hopefully there will be no tornadoes this time around. :)

Our last day in Seattle and our last day with Barbara we decided to take a cruise of the Locks. It was very cold and windy. The water was very choppy. I was a bit worried because I didn’t now if any of our kids would get seasick or not. We ate lunch just before the cruise and the boat was rocking quite a bit while we waited for them to start. By the time we pulled away from the dock Samantha wasn’t feeling too good. I too her to the restroom and then bought her some popcorn and coke on the way back up to settle her stomach.

One of the first pictures I took was of one of the ferries that takes cars across the water.

Next we went by the port where the large cranes were that load containers on boats.

While we were near the port we got to see tugboats at work.

We also went by a few of the marinas that were absolutely full with sailboats.

The locks were the most interesting part of the cruise. Nathan said he used to go down to the locks in NY and fish from them but he never experienced going through one. We came into the locks on the salt water side in Puget Sound, they closed doors behind the boat and the water level started rising. We had to rise 16 feet up to the fresh water level of Lake Washington. Once we were at the right level they open the doors in front of you so you can continue on your journey. The next three pictures are of us coming into the lock.

The last picture I took was of all of the kids sitting with Barbara on the boat. They enjoyed having the chance to visit with her and were sad to see her go.

After the cruise we walked to Pikes Market and walked around. I had a chance to sample a chocolate covered cherry from one of Nathan’s customers that had a store there. It is Chukar Cherries. The cherries were so good I bought a bag! :)

We were lucky enough that the roads were reasonably clear on Wednesday and since they were forecasting a LOT more snow coming towards us we left while we could. We have stopped for a couple of days in Eugene, OR. Nathan has a customer he is visiting tomorrow and we have developed a couple of small problems. There is a Newmar dealer here so we are going to see if they can fix them tomorrow before we head out towards CA.