Test trip

The first part of this week I had to go to that once-a-year ritual event of United Methodists called "Annual Conference." Here in Wisconsin it is a four day business/connecting/worshiping/eating endurance contest of seeing how long you can sit on your backside in a mass meeting.

I took the RV over to La Crosse, WI, the site of the extravaganza and camped at the Pettibone RV Resort just across the Mississippi River from the La Crosse Center where we were meeting. Since I don't have a dolly yet so I can tow a dinghy, I hoofed it from the campground to the conference meetings, about a mile and one-half walk. Not too bad at all. Got some good exercise that way. And if we were meeting late into the night, I could find friends with cars to take me back to the coach.

Mary joined me for a couple of the days and that was lots of fun.

The coach worked well. It is not a smooth riding luxury vehicle. The ride is pretty rough, like a truck, which it is, I suppose, in a sense, being built on a truck chassis (the Workhorse chassis). There are NO air bag suspensions on this Fleetwood Fiesta 26Q!!! The drive to La Crosse went well. I even managed to back into the campsite with only a minor adjustment of position after I backed in to the site. The Pettibone Resort is nice, the staff were very pleasant, and if I'm in the La Crosse area again, I'd gladly camp there. Our site was right on one of the channels of the Mississippi River.

Everything I tried in the coach worked. I did have an electrical issue but that was solved when I discovered that the ground-fault outlet in the bathroom also controlled the outlet on the kitchen cabinet and in the bedroom. Once it was reset all was well. Tank dumping at the end of the stay still is a place I can improve my technique, but I seemed to get it done. Ah, well, experience will teach me more, I'm sure.

This was a good trial run for the long trip that is due to start soon, Friday, June 25. We'll head for southern Illinois where on Sat. we will go to the DuQuoin State Fair Campground for the Fleetwood Motorhome Association's rally. Hope we learn some things from other Fleetwood owners.

Well, enough for now. I'm off to the first of the three weekend services where I will preach my "last" sermon for each service. The other two are Sunday morning.