Archive for the ‘RV Adventures’ Category
Passing People By On Skyline Drive
Posted by: Michael R. Hicks in Fitness Blog, RV Adventures on October 12th, 2010
We enjoyed a nice little trek along the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park last weekend (Sunday, 10 October 2010). It’s another one of those “must-see” things to put on your list!
While the scenery in general and the overlooking views are spectacular, I have to say that one of the most interesting things we happened to see was the map at one of the rest stops that showed Stonewall Jackson’s various battles in the Shenandoah Valley: talk about a lot of marching!
We also stopped to take a walk down the Dark Hollow Falls trail. Like the rest of the Blue Ridge Mountain area, it was beautiful. But as we were going down the trail, it struck me just how much so many people were struggling. Yes, it’s fairly steep, if not very long – about 2 miles round trip.
But you’d think some of these folks were halfway through the Bataan Death March…on the way down. It was sort of shocking: Jan and I were just toodling down the trail, even with my right leg still causing me some problems (shinsplints, probably made worse by the car accident we were in a couple weeks ago), passing people by right and left. We weren’t in a race, obviously, but the farther we went, the more it struck me how two people who are closing in on fifty (or just departing forty-five?) were doing so much better than almost everyone, including people who were thirty or more years younger.
Once we got down to the bottom of the falls, we stopped for a few minutes to have some water and enjoy the view, then we started back up the same way we’d come, heading back toward the visitor center. We were moving at a pace that got our heart rates up a bit (mine moreso than Jan’s, because I haven’t done much exercise since the car accident), but not all that much compared to a good cardio workout. Yet we were overtaking people who had been on their way up when we were going down!
One of the most telling things was when we passed a father who was probably at least five years (if not more) younger than me, explaining to his young boy what “health” meant, as he puffed and struggled up the trail. He tried to put it simply, saying that “Health was the opposite of being sick.” I wanted to tell him no, it’s much more than that: you can be “not sick” and yet still not be healthy, and he was living proof. There were so many people who were trying to get out to see some of the outdoors and spend time with their families, but who were clearly having a miserable time because their bodies were so terribly out of shape.
If that sounds like you, I just wanted to let you know that you don’t have to feel that way, or let physical exertion (or your cholesterol, blood pressure, type II diabetes, etc.) get the best of you. You don’t have to transform yourself into a star athlete, but you also don’t have to endure the frustration of not being able to keep up with your kids, or be miserable any time you have to do something requiring physical effort: exercise and healthy eating can and will work if you do a few simple things every day.
For us success came through Beachbody exercise programs and Shakeology. My wife Jan and I are living proof, and living is the key word. I want to be around for a long time for Jan and our boys, and doing a few simple things every day – exercising and eating well – will help keep me truly healthy for many years to come.
Luray Caverns
Posted by: Michael R. Hicks in RV Adventures on October 10th, 2010
On our RV trip this weekend to Luray, Virginia, we had two main attractions in mind: the Luray Caverns and Skyline Drive. On Saturday, we went to the Caverns, and planned to do the Skyline Drive on Sunday. Tickets are $20 (save yourself some time and see if your hotel or campground offers them at the front desk), and well worth the money.
The trip through the caverns is about one and a quarter miles of walking along paved, lighted paths. There are a few steep stretches, but overall it’s not bad at all (and easy as pie if you’re a P90X-er – LOL!), and they also have wheelchair access, which is cool.
For a writer with an active imagination, this is a great place to get inspiration! I came up with ideas for two stories while we were wandering through the depths of the caverns – now if I can only get the time to write them, on top of the other novels I’ve got queued up!
I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about the caverns themselves, as there’s tons of information on the web and at the official Luray Caverns web site. But this is definitely a place I’d put on your “must-see” list!
Starting Out With RV Living
Posted by: Michael R. Hicks in RV Adventures on October 9th, 2010
Back in August 2010 (two months ago as I write this), we decided to take the plunge and buy an RV. My wife Jan and I had been thinking about this for some time, as we had figured on buying one when we retired so we could toodle around the country as part of the Snowbird crowd.
But then we started thinking about how little of the country the boys have seen, and we really haven’t seen much ourselves since we got married and did the whole “settling down” thing. After what to most folks would have seemed an amazingly brief discussion on the matter – because we’re so totally on the same wavelength about most things – we decided to go ahead and get one.
If you’re thinking about buying an RV (a.k.a. motorhome or motor coach), let me first say that I had absolutely no idea there were so many choices out there! Once I started researching, my head just about exploded with the different manufacturers and all the different models they offer. But all of them boil down to three main types: Class A, which have a bus-type front; Class B, which look like hyper-modified vans, and Class C, which typically have a cabover-type arrangement and a truck-style front. For the Class A type, there are two major sub-types: gas and diesel pushers (gas Class As have the engine up front; pushers have them in the back).
Past that, it’s all craziness, sorting out the floorplans, features, and whatnot that you feel are in your price range. Plus, not all RVs are readily available in all parts of the country: manufacturers tend to be regional, and don’t typically ship new RVs all over the place. So if you have something specific in mind, you may not be able to get it locally, but may have to take a trip to get it!
Of course, you can also buy new or used. There are some real bargains out there in the used market, but you need to know what you’re looking for and be prepared to deal with any bugaboos that may (or may not!) come with a used vehicle. A new RV will also have its share of issues, but in our case, we opted to pay the extra money for an extended warranty that covers everything from the tires up for seven years, figuring that we’ll be ready to upgrade again in about that time.
We finally settled on a new Damon Daybreak 3211. We liked the floorplan, and it was in our price range. I also was impressed with Damon’s construction, but again, all that is totally up to your personal preference and desires. We bought ours at Leo’s Vacation Center in Gambrills, MD, and had a really good experience there.
We bought it on 6 August and took several trips in it, the first being to a local KOA near the dealer where we bought it to check things out.
On 6 October, believe it or not, we traded it in for a Daybreak 35BD! Call us lunatics, but we found that the 3211, while great for two people, was going to be a real hassle on longer trips with the boys (we’re planning on two to three week outings during the summer): they would have to sleep in the main living area where the kitchen, etc., was, essentially leaving Jan and me trapped in the back bedroom, as we stay up later and get up earlier than the boys.
The Daybreak 35BD, or “bunkhouse,” has two bunk beds in a second slide. That slide also gave us something that was another irritation in the 3211: storage and walk-around space in the bedroom. The upgrade wasn’t cheap, as we had to eat a fair amount of negative equity on our first loan, but the new loan wasn’t all that much more (okay, so we have to eat more peanut butter!), and I think in the long run the 35BD will be worth it. I’d also like to give another shout out to the folks at Leo’s Vacation Center: they gave us what I thought was a really good deal both on the 35BD and the trade-in on the 3211, and also worked with us over some bumps in the road on the financing side of things.
On a side note, comparing the two vehicles, as far as I’m aware the suspension for the two is supposed to be identical, although the 35BD is three feet longer (36′) than the 3211 (33′). The ride, however, is totally different! The 3211 shook our teeth out going over bumps and was extremely touchy to steer, but the 35BD provides a really smooth ride and seems to not need so much steering input, which greatly reduces driver fatigue.
Anyway, the morals of the story here are to really give some thought to how you plan to live in your dream RV before you buy. Also, we made some decisions for our first buy purely on price, and in retrospect, the monthly amount that we had to pay wasn’t all that much more to get a considerably improved vehicle. So, be smart and don’t break your piggy bank, but don’t shortchange yourself, either!
