New Carpeting!

With new carpeting being installed, we were officially homeless. With all of our furniture unbolted from the floor, we had to pack our bags and move into the local “Baymont Inn and Suites” in Decatur. (Note- the “Suites” part isn’t really a true “suite”—all you get is a bigger bathroom and a Jacuzzi tub). But, they did have free breakfast and wireless internet, so we managed to stay sane for the 3 day ordeal. At the end of the day, we’d check on the progress. It’s hard to imagine the amount of work involved in replacing carpeting in this tiny space. It was a bit like walking into one of those HGTV shows where everything is completely gutted. Newmar doesn’t make it easy either. Rather than install the carpeting after the cabinetry is in, they take the easy way (for them) and install the carpeting first- then install all of the sofas/cabinetry on top.

We did learn an awful lot about carpet and tile care from the folks at Habegger. First, we realized that you really want to have someone who’s done this kind of work before to deal with any carpet replacement in a motorhome. But we also learned that for carpet care:
1. An annual cleaning is absolutely essential. And, it should be a hot water heat extraction cleaning process- not a dry cleaning. It actually re-sets the fibers in the carpet.
2. Once cleaned, it’s best to let it dry for at least 24 hours before walking on it (a little difficult when you’re full-time)
3. Find a reputable cleaner- the chain cleaners may not be your best bet.
4. With any carpet cleaning- even spot cleaning, the most important thing Is to make sure you remove all of the cleaner from the carpet. The residue, if left on the carpet, becomes a dirt magnet.
5. When you remove your shoes at the door and walk on the carpet in bare feet, you’re probably doing more harm. The oils on your feet are worse than the dirt from your shoes!
6. The best thing to do is leave your shoes at the door and wear socks or slippers. (Oh, are we going to become those horribly obnoxious people with a box of slippers at the door for our guests?) Well, at least for a while we are!
7. One of the absolute worst surfaces is asphalt – it will leave a residue on carpet and tile that actually causes a chemical reaction.

After 3 days, we came back to a brand new motorhome. It truly looks better than it did when we bought it new! The folks at Habegger did a great job. Of course, once we got the new carpet in, it was begging for a new area rug. And, wouldn’t you know, they had a beautiful oriental in their showroom. One of the major problems with our small space has been finding the right size oriental – they’re either too big or too small. With Habegger’s facilities, they were able to size the rug to “just right”.

Motorhome Madness!

We had planned to spend just a few days doing some basic maintenance, but the list seemed to grow daily. The missing button on the sofa meant a trip to Villa in Elkhart. A call from Spartan (the chassis manufacturer) required a trip to Charlotte, Michigan for a “recall on the recall from last year”. (Although, they never call them “recalls” anymore- they simply request that you come in at your earliest convenience – suggesting that- ‘for your safety’- sooner rather than later is better.) A visit to Monroeville to get our steering wheel aligned. And then, to pacify my “grout fetish” (as John calls it), we drove to Decatur to get our grout cleaned, re-stained and sealed. With a full day out of the motorhome again- we scoped out all the changes in Decatur (new Super WalMart, new restaurant downtown), had lunch at Arnold’s (a real 50’s drive-in complete with cute little waitresses on roller skates serving you at your car—ala the old A&W’s) and still had time on our hands.

Hanging around Habegger’s Abbey Floors while they finished the grout work, we decided to look at carpeting. With the grout now looking SO good, the carpet was looking SO bad. When we found out that the carpeting that we loved was actually in stock, we were signing on for 3 more days – this time really out of our motorhome. Replacing carpet in a motorhome is not an easy task. All of the sofas/cabinetry needs to be unbolted from the floor and removed. Needless to say, this was not going to be an inexpensive upgrade. With labor costs of $1200 and 3 days out of the motorhome, you want to make sure that you get a good quality carpet – so on top of the horrendous labor charges, you’ve got a whopping bill for the mere 366 SF of space we occupy.

With our 3 day carpet install scheduled, we had an insane day on Thursday starting in Monroeville at 7:30 A.M. for our steering wheel alignment. From there, we beat feet back to Nappanee to get the dash A/C repaired. We got there at 10:30 and weren’t out until 2:30 – holding our breath that they’d get the work done that day- since they’re on a 4 day work week and any delay would have meant a Friday-Sunday stay in Nappanee. Chloe did have a great time playing with her two new Maltese friends. Amazingly, two other Newmar owners were there with their Maltese puppies, Odie and Bijou. The 3 hour play date made for a quiet dog on the ride to Charlotte, Michigan that afternoon. We got into Charlotte about 6:30 and were in bed by 9. We were absolutely exhausted – and facing another day out of the motorhome on Friday.

8-8-08 – an “auspicious day” according to the Chinese, who were kicking off the Summer Olympics today. We, on the other hand, were driving around Charlotte at 7 A.M. realizing that by 7:30, we had seen it all. The motorhome crowd at the Spartan factory was fairly sparse, but the military business was going great guns (no pun intended). They make the military armored personnel carriers here in Charlotte. As we parked our VW Jetta in the parking lot, we realized that we were the only non-American car in the lot. There was nothing but Fords and Chevrolet’s for miles.

Nappanee, Indiana "Embrace the Pace"

We arrived in Nappanee for our factory service on Sunday night after a very long drive from Minneapolis. Normally, the parking lot is jam packed with motorhomes arriving for Monday A.M. service. In the past, we’d even seen heated conversations with people vying for the same spot. We pulled in at 7 P.M. to find the lot virtually empty. We knew that things were tough at Newmar (and the entire motorhome industry) since we were getting in for factory service during the summer- typically only warranty work is done during the summer months. Non-warranty work was relegated to those brave souls willing to come to Indiana from November to March. But, this year, they were taking anyone willing to make the trip with $4.50 diesel prices.

The next morning we got the standard 6 A.M. knock on the door and after running through our list, we were homeless on the streets of Nappanee. There’s nothing quite like facing the prospect of 8 hours with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Before the lovely Chloe entered our life, we’d head to the “County Table” for a leisurely breakfast. There’s nothing like a huge egg, sausage and toast breakfast to get you ready for a day in the “Big Nap” (where, of course, there are no Naps!). This year, it was the McDonald’s drive through for an Egg McMuffin. So, by 7 A.M., we had had our fill of coffee and a full breakfast. Only 7 more hours to go! John reminded me that we constantly talk about how time flies as we get older –except in Nappanee, the only place where the hours seem endless and the days never end.

We took a drive north to Elkhart (home of the RV Hall of Fame). Heading north on Highway 19, you pass through Wakarusa. This little town used to have two active motorhome manufacturers – Travel Supreme and one of the Monaco factories. Both have been closed - even the Camping World store had closed. Back in Nappanee, we got a sense of how bad things really are. The production line for Newmar is down to 3 days a week. The maintenance group took a 12% pay cut a few months ago. This month, they took another 10% cut in pay and had their work week cut to 4 days. The guys were talking about the challenges of trying to make it with 40% less in their paychecks.

With the entire region centered on the motorhome industry, not only are the mainline manufacturers hurting- all of the suppliers are facing layoffs and possible closings. After our maintenance work at Newmar, we took the coach to Villa, the supplier of the sofas and chairs. We had a button that had come off of our sofa and they offered to replace it. We drove into a factory the size of a football field and were met by 5 workers. The plant was barely operating. The offices were dark, there were a few Mexican workers assembling furniture. We had two guys working on our sofa for an hour – at no charge.

We did get a chance to visit our favorite hangout in Nappanee (one of the only places in town), the Hunters Hideaway. We missed our favorite waitress, Miriam, but did get to have one of their amazing “olive burgers”. And, as usual, we drank their entire supply of white wine (a total of 4 airline size bottles of Sutter Home Chardonnay). White wine isn’t the drink of choice for these beer drinking, cigarette smoking factory workers. With another 6 A.M. start in the morning, we headed to bed early on Monday night. At 11:00, we jerked out of bed to the sound of tornado sirens everywhere. We quickly threw on some clothes, grabbed the dog and ran to the front of the motorhome. People around us were running from their coaches to the little visitor lobby next to us. We knew that it wasn’t a tornado shelter – and we didn’t have time to try to find the closest church (the local churches open up their basements as tornado shelters). In John’s FMCA seminar, they said that the best thing to do is to turn your driver and passenger chairs around- away from the huge glass windshield and, as John yelled to me – “Strap yourself in and hold onto the dog”. Visions of Dorothy and Toto flashed in my mind – John, Chloe and me in the eye of the tornado whirling around strapped to our motorhome chairs. The fact that we were sitting in the middle of farm fields surrounded by motorhomes (the closest thing to the typical trailer park that tornados seem to seek out)- didn’t provide much comfort. The sky was frightening- pitch black with constant bolts of jagged lightening. The lightening wasn’t just single bolts to the ground, but multiple bolts joining together and lighting the sky like fireworks. With the weather radio blasting tornado warnings for Elkhart county, police cars regularly driving through the parking lot, and the thunder and lightening, we spent a tense hour strapped into our chairs, peering into the skies around us. At last, the warning was over and we headed to bed—only 5 hours till the alarm. The next day, the news reported major tornado touchdowns just northwest of us. (Poster by W.w.Denslow)