New Coach

We leave Wednesday to pick up our new coach on Friday.....We are excited! This memorial day weekend we have been shopping with the settlement we received. We are replacing things like the crock pot, toasters, bedding, towels, etc. etc. etc. Boy, is it easy to spend money....almost scary! While its always easy to spend money we usually haven't bought so many goodies all at once and while the settlement was fair I can foresee that the depreciation factor will show with the purchase of so many things. Not everything will be replaced immediately.

We will load the pickup with all these goodies and our plan is to go through Canada which is the more direct route to Bangor and a little shorter. The route will take us along the northern shore of Lake Ontario and even the St Lawrence Seaway. We will try and post some pictures of the trip along the way.

We are going to do more shopping in Bangor to stock the coach with food and other little items that will probably be determined once we settle in. While familiarizing ourselves with the coach we also plan on visiting Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor which is only 35 miles from where we pick up the coach. Everything we have read and heard from friends who have been there have told us not to pass up the opportunity while there.

As I said, we are anxious to be on the road again and of course we are looking forward to some normalcy to life once again without fires and the related issues with it. I haven't had anything really to photograph of late to post to this blog but below is a picture of a small souvenir....a melted piece of the radiator from out old coach that I thought unique. Thought maybe I would drill a hole in and attach it to some keys or a bracelet.
After Acadia we will come home to fully pack the coach and organize everything more completely.

New Coach

Well......we found our new coach!! This last week after perusing countless advertisements on the Internet, visiting dealers, and trying to find what is available out there.....we found our next coach in Maine of all places! Here it is.....Its a 2004 Diplomat made by Monaco with the all the bells and whistles including a transferable warranty period for three more years. We close on it the 1st of June. It has everything we had previously plus lots more and we think at the right price. The interior is maple instead of oak which makes the interior much lighter. It has two couches that face each other in living area, pretty much the same kitchen and is decorated a with a little more resemblance to a home to my way of thinking. Our plan is to pick it up in Bangor, Maine....outfit it with some of our things we plan on bringing from home, and then shopping for whatever else we need when we get there.
We also plan on visiting Bar Harbor for a few days and then heading back to Michigan to outfit it further. Needless to say, our settlements have come in and while we probably lost some money relative to the depreciated values, we are pleased that we came out as well as we did. We are especially happy to be able to continue traveling as we have in a motorhome seeing this wonderful United States.

Marge and I both read quite a bit and while in Bangor we had to go by Steven Kings home which was fun. Didn't really see much except a very nice house and a unique iron fence with gargoyles and dragons. The picture below is Marge in front of his house. Being a celebrity you may notice that the gates were locked although with the subject matter he writes about, we decided he probably wasn't bothered all that much by people. He is very popular with the local townsfolk and has done a lot for the community. They all seemed to know where he lived and had a story about him.
We can hardly wait for next week....we can plan again, make reservations and think about all the places we want to go.....again!!!

Insurance

Noticed on www.hitchitch.com that our blog was still on the "new list" because of the fire incident we had a few weeks ago. The webmaster mentioned that there was curiosity about how the insurance was handled. At this point, we are very pleased with what the adjusters have done with us and we were in my opinion very lucky to have changed insurance companies from GMAC to Progressive Insurance. Frankly, I was less than pleased with them a few years ago due to the increased insurance costs and had switched from them to the Good Sam insurance program. After 40%, 30% and 25% increases from the 1st year with Good Sam without explanation or claims or driving record changes, we had had it with GMAC. In shopping around, the most promising choice was Progressive and they were quite competitive. They also suggested that since the coach was 5 years old that we have it appraised and then insure it for that amount which we did. That particular advice has worked very well for us as the coach was a total loss there was no bickering about value. Actually, the fire was on the 19th and we had a check in hand on 7th of May for the coach only. It would have been sooner but a confirmation from the investigators that arson was not involved had to acquired. A pleasant surprise was that the company will pay or reimburse for the sales tax (in Michigan 6%) of the agreed amount towards the purchase of a new motorhome. I don't usually recommend insurance company's, but I do have to say that Mr. Jeff Jardine at Mason McBride (www.masonmcbride.com) led me through the process this past January and was most helpful. Obviously, he was looking out for me.

Contents are a little bit different, but the same in some ways. First with us it is covered by our home owners insurance ...not the motorhome insurance. In our case Allstate Insurance. We claim those items lost at our cost when purchased. That cost is depreciated to get an actual cash value. That plus the sales tax payed at purchase is reimbursed to us. Beyond that our policy allows for reimbursement cost coverage. To qualify, I must first repair, rebuild, or replace the damaged property item and present receipts for same with in 180 days. This covers the difference between actual cash value and replacement cost. They are giving me actual cash value and if I replace the item or items, they will pay the difference.

Insurance is certainly strange and we were lucky...mostly that "things" were involved not people. We had just come back from a 5 month trip and were not in the motorhome at the time. These past few weeks have gone by so quickly and we have been fortunate enough that they have gone well for us. If you have a motorhome or coach and are not sure about your insurance it might be a good thing to check you policies. Oh and another simple little thing... take your camera video, digital, whatever and record your property ......and store it somewhere with children or safe deposit boxes away from your coach.

Once again thankyour for all the interest and concern...were looking for a coach now and hope to be back on the road soon.

Motorhome quest

After a lot of thought ....well maybe not that much thought....we have decided to replace the old motorhome with something new (or used) and we have been looking to see what is out there. Motorhoming has been such a part of our lives since 1974 that we decided we can't give it up yet. We both think that if we can, we want to get another Monaco product. We had such good luck with everything on our old coach that its hard not to replace it with something similar. It was the first of any of the coaches (7) we have owned that actually got 10 mpg (not always, but for one 2500 mile stretch). Our average since we have owned it was 9.1. Mind you. we have slowed down considerably to achieve that goal, but these days its nice to know it can be achieved. We also had very few problems from day one, which we think is indicative of the manufacturing at Wakarusa, Indiana where both the Diplomat and Endeavor among others are made side by side. Yes, we did have a fire, but from everything we have determined it was a bit of a fluke with something simply shorting out that shouldn't have. I do think that the Roadmaster Chassis is one of the best.
We have spent a little time traveling to see whats available and this next week we plan to go east to check out something that looks very promising near Boston. Last week we were at the plant in Indiana. Strange not to be moving around like this without a motorhome. We have even found a new ...never titled ....2004 unit on the west coast that looks good. I know ....no pictures....but we will post some soon.....maybe a new coach!
We will post in a week or so to let you know whats up.

Goodby old coach

Where to begin....

This past week or so we have had insurance investigators on all sides here trying to figure out the cause of the fire. I think we have had no less than 10 representatives of insurance companies as well as experts , engineers and specialists that do this for a living .....looking and digging through the mess from the fire. The smell just does not go away and we have had to keep an old pair of clothes and shoes for when we are anywhere near the coach or the area around it.

At this point, it appears that somewhere in the coach some heavy wiring shorted out and eventually heated to the point of combustion or at least provided the heat for something nearby to combust. The experts poked around and picked up pieces of wiring and anything else that might point to a more distinct cause and of course took all kinds of pictures to document everything. They all were interesting to watch with everyone dictating into portable recorders marking things etc.
How they determine anything from a mess like above is beyond me but they seemed to conclude that it was indeed a short in something in the coach that led to the fire. After they left we were finally given the ok to get what we could out of the coach, but other than the outside compartments down low most everything was destroyed. We were able to get silverware and some of the pots and pans cleaned up and they will be used again, but all the books, maps campground guides and other treasures were gone or destroyed.
.The wrecker arrived and spent quite a bit of time preparing it for its last trip. It was slowly pulled out of the parking area with a great deal of squealing and noise. Like it didn't want to go.
They wrapped it pretty good with tarps to prevent debris from flying off while being towed
Backing down the street on its last trip.

Not sure what happens next, but we are starting to look for a replacement and everyone should know that we have no qualms about looking at another Monaco product. We both think they make an excellent product and would buy one again. This fire from all the discussion appears to be a bit of a fluke....the investigators said that most fires in motorhomes have been caused by refrigerators or kitchen fires.

We have had lots of emails from friends and even complete strangers from all over which we certainly appreciate. We thank you for your concern, but things will get back to normal soon!!