Seat Covers!!!

We have been working on getting our captain chairs recovered for many months -- I had posted about the beginning of the process to get them re-covered at the end of August in 2022: (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/08/monday-to-illinois.html)...

They were in pretty tough shape... the passenger seat was particularly bad - peeling at the headrest...

on both arm rests...

... on the front of the seat...

... on the other arm rest.

The driver's seat wasn't quite as bad... a little on the front...

... and on the arm rest...

... and on the head rest.

We had heard that Bauer Upholstery in Dubuque was the place to get them redone. We had stopped by there back in 2022 and picked out the fabric that we wanted (we wanted a darker color than what we had originally). Delays were not due to Bauer -- we were supposed to go back there in the fall of 2022, but Carl and I caught a bug and decided we would wait until we were back in the area in 2023. Then, this summer, we heard from Lisa Bauer that they were going to be at the International Rally, so we decided to get them installed during the week of the rally...

We had seen them set up on the grounds...

... they had brought their materials to be able to do the installs...

... working on the furniture out in the sun...

... maybe we're not supposed to be taking pictures?!?!?

We were just waiting for their call when they would be coming to pick up the chairs. Lisa contacted me on Thursday morning and let me know that they were ready to take our chairs... so Carl drove back to the campground and met them at Gracie...

They removed the chairs...

... they, of course, knew exactly how to do it...

... put the chairs on their truck to take back to their work area...

They also took apart our seat bases and replaced the bushings on the swivel mechanism -- he said ours were pretty much shot...

... this will make our seats revolve (turn from facing front when we're driving to facing backward when we are stopped and want more seating) more easily.

"Honey, someone took our chairs!"

Just a few hours later, Lisa called again and said that they were done! This time, I met them at Gracie and they came in to install our newly covered captain's chairs!

Driver's seat

Passenger seat

They look so nice! We are so glad to have this completed!!!

One of the RV renovation sessions that I went to explained why so much of the RV furniture is experiencing this peeling epidemic -- RV manufacturers had been using Ultraleather and it was a good product, but expensive. A cheaper product was brought in by Chinese fabric manufacturers -- supposedly with test results showing that it lasted as well as Ultraleather -- and all the major manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon. However, within a few years, it was seen not to last well -- the word from the fabric manufacturer was: "it was just a bad batch, we've got it fixed" -- well, it wasn't just a bad batch, it was a bad product. In the meantime, Ultraleather came out with a product to compete with the Chinese product, UF2, which some RV manufacturers switched to, but it also peeled. Ultraleather does not peel, and RV manufacturers have gone back to it, but there were multiple years (2010(?)-2018) when the furniture was covered with a fabric that would peel -- if it isn't peeling yet, it will be peeling eventually.

Flexsteel was the manufacturer of a lot of RV furniture -- even though they were just producing what the RV companies contracted them to do, they got the reputation of providing a poor product for RVs and eventually went out of production of RV furniture altogether. One of their employees, Lisa Bauer, with an entrepreneurial spirit, acquired the patterns for the covers and now has a great business covering these pieces of RV furniture with Ultraleather coverings (https://bauerrvupholstery.com/about/).

Tuesday at the NKK Rally

The Newmar Kountry Klub Rally continued on Tuesday...

Breakfast was provided on Tuesday morning...

... quite a spread!

The sessions in the morning were not of particular interest to us (either we had seen them at previous rallies, or had all the information about the topic that we needed / could absorb, or were about components that are not installed on our coach), so we decided to go to see the new coaches on display.

This was the Supreme Aire -- what Carl and I call a "super-duper C" (a super-C - truck front - with a tag axle) -- I was looking at what underneath (bay) storage they have...

The answer is, not a lot. When we looked at the Freightliner exposed chassis for a Super C at the Tampa RV Super Show, what we noticed was that the truck rails would make the underbay storage very limited -- and we found that to be the case when we looked under this Supreme Aire. (https://www.newmarcorp.com/super-c-motor-coaches/) The only real storage is behind the tag axle and it is limited in height by the truck rails.

In the afternoon, I went to another session on customizing your RV -- this one by Wood Design, who is also located in Nappanee, Indiana. Just some interesting ideas they shared (not that we are planning to do any of this!):

Having a fireplace (simulator) in a rig is a feature that many people like -- the fireplaces are just 5-6" deep, so you can then have storage behind them.

This was an example showing added storage on the side of the box that the bed sits on.

We are always interested in getting additional storage! A Newmar owner on Facebook recently shared how he has added storage under the bed:

Currently, those boxes under our bed are about 6-8" deep. This fellow made a modification so a roll of paper towels can stand up in the storage area!!! I really would like to get this modification made -- maybe when we are in Mesa this winter we can give it a try (we have access to a wood shop there).

Additional information shared by the folks at Wood Design -- the presenter called this "Mother Miller's Cleaner". I thought this might be helpful for folks in sticks-and-bricks houses too!

While I was in sessions, Carl stayed at Gracie and it turned out he was there when the Newmar Service folks came to work on the lock on our front door. They were able to make some adjustments to it, and assure us that, even though it seems that we are slamming it overly hard, that the slam that we are doing is the correct thing to do. Newmar will do up to 1 hour of service at the rally for no charge, so we got that adjustment and assurance for no cost.

We were provided the evening meal on Tuesday also!

Again, quite the spread!

It seemed that almost all of the participants came out for the meal!

Kenny Ray Horton was the entertainer for the night. We had heard him at the FMCA Perry Convention, and enjoyed hearing him again.

Altogether, an informative, productive, and enjoyable day!

Monday at the NKK Rally

Monday, the seminars started at the Newmar Kountry Klub (NKK) Rally.

First though, a couple of pictures from the sunset on Sunday evening...

Gracie at sunset (another rig just beyond)

Sunset and a windmill on the left side of the picture

Another drone picture from Facebook of the rigs in the camping area -- Gracie with red arrow pointing to her.

 So... we started going to sessions on Monday...

Carl went to one on "How RV Solar Boondocking Really Works" by Solar Energy Systems in Nappanee -- these are the folks who fixed our inverter back in September of 2021 (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2021/09/another-service-center.html). One of the things that was presented was that their entire operation there in Nappanee is powered by their solar arrays, batteries, charge controllers, and inverters - using the same technologies as we use in our RVs - they are "off the grid" electrically.

Meanwhile, I was in a session on Tire Safety...

The presentation was put on by OTR (On The Road), the "on-the-road" company associated with NIRVC (able to do business in places where NIRVC does not have a facility). They were presenting about Rettrobands - supposed to give you more control of your vehicle in case of a front blowout. If you're interested in more information, there is a pretty informative video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbWi2s7PXKo

Carl and I had decided to drive the Jeep over to the fairgrounds on Monday morning because we were expecting to get a call from both Newmar and from Bauer Upholstery -- both of whom are scheduled to do service on things on our rig. When they call, one of us will need to get back to Gracie, so we thought that having the Jeep nearby would be helpful. When we got to the large open lot, no one else was yet parked there, so we parked next to a power pole, Carl saying, "We'll set the standard and everyone else will follow!" Sure enough, when I got out of my first session, I took this picture that shows that 3 other vehicles had parked right along beside the Jeep!

There are a number of vendors here at the show -- Carl visited with this one who has their booth set up outside and he got some information about additional options we might have on our internet hookups.

I attended other sessions on Driving Your RV Safely where they shared good general guidance on safe driving of a big rig, and RV Renovation and Upgrades where I learned about various modifications that the particular company (Classic Coach Works) has done. Carl attended a session on Generator Use and Maintenance which was a repeat from what he had attended before, but we always learn more. 

We both attended a session on Online Trip Planning with AdventureGenie -- I had attended their session during the FMCA convention in March (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2023/03/happy-st-patricks-day-fmca-day-3.html), but had not been able to try it out during their beta program. They went live in May and update their product about every 2 weeks! It is a web based planning tool, and I have signed up for a 7 day trial. So far, I like it a lot, and since they are new, they are more amenable to "It sure would be nice if it did..." types of requests!

Monday evening was the Opening Ceremonies that included welcomes by local and club officials and representation by all the regions and states in attendance.

We're enjoying what we are learning and looking forward to the remainder of the week!

Sunday at the NKK Rally

Sunday was another day without much scheduled at the rally...

We joined the worship service in the morning...

There was a short devotion and a nice choir that led our singing.

In the afternoon, we joined a session for "First Timers" -- since this is our first NKK International Rally. We learned some about the organization of the Newmar Kountry Klub, were introduced to regional and international directors, and then broke up into smaller regional groups. We went to the smaller group gathering with the Full Timers chapter and got to hear about some of their activities.

One of the other participants in the rally took this picture of the parking area with his drone-- the red arrow points to where Gracie is. It is about a half mile walk to the building where all our sessions so far have been... and I think further to where the vendors and seminars will be starting on Monday. So far, though, there have been golf carts available to take us almost every time we've started walking! We've only walked the whole way once!

I also recently shared on Facebook our travel plans for the remainder of the year -- this shows most of our stops (at least those for longer than overnight):

If you want to look at the map in more detail, I think this link will work: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1d1qRi5ni0-iA3cJiQLU3G8oOxOGY6_4&usp=sharing

We're going to be busy learning this week!

Newmar Kountry Klub International Rally

As Newmar owners, we are eligible to join the Newmar Kountry Klub - a group for Newmar owners. In addition to having a magazine (hardcopy or softcopy) and various Newmar clothing items, they also schedule events like rallies throughout the year. In January, we joined a Newmar Kountry Klub Rally at the Tampa Supershow. On Friday, we drove to Sedalia and the Missouri State Fairgrounds for the Newmar Kountry Klub International Rally.

We were planning to boondock at the fairgrounds on Friday night before our check-in for parking on Saturday morning, but Missouri is having unseasonably warm weather, so we were grateful that there is an open access campground (not being used by the rally) on the fairgrounds, and we stayed there Friday night.

Saturday morning, we got going a little before 9am (our assigned check-in time for the rally was 9-11am), and headed across the road to the parking for the rally.

They were very organized and took us straight in to the parking area and to a site where we could park.

We then drove over to the fairgrounds (did I mention it is hot? so we did not walk...)...

... and got checked in for the rally.

Lots of information... 

...and things that we could sign up for.

Gracie in her site

At most of these large national rallies or conventions (Escapade, FMCA), there are choices on what kind of parking you want to sign up for, and we usually sign up for "no hookups". We don't have a problem boondocking -- unless it is hot -- have I mentioned that it is hot here in Missouri? - oh yes, I think I did... For the Newmar Kountry Klub International Rally, all the sites are full hookup 50A (these are not folks who are interested in "roughing it"!) -- and I very grateful that is the case since we are very grateful to have 50A power this week -- or at least through Wednesday -- with temperatures predicted to be above 90F each day!

Saturday evening was the first event on the schedule - ice cream social and a concert by Julia Neville. The ice cream hit the spot...

... and we enjoyed Julia's concert.

Her style is "Country Rock" == we had not heard most of the songs that she sang (I guess they are more recent hits?) but we still enjoyed it.

We have started meeting a few folks from the Newmar Kountry Klub - always good to meet new people!

Onwards into Missouri!

On Thursday afternoon, we left the Living History Farms and continued on our way south into Missouri. If you look at our map on the blog site, you'll see that Missouri is now colored in! The map is a record of the states that we have visited together with Gracie -- this is the first time we've been in Missouri *with* Gracie -- we had stopped in Missouri in the car when we went to Indiana for Carl's surgery in March, 2021. We're getting close to having them all covered!

"Missouri Welcomes You"

We were heading to another Harvest Host location - Aerial View Farm. The host had been great, communicating with us about a road that was closed (which we were planning to use on our way in) and recommending an alternative route.

It was a beautiful spot -- with the harvest moon rising in the east beyond Gracie.

We enjoyed sitting out at their gazebo (made out of a grain bin, as we had seen with the Safe T House by Sukup at the Living History Farms).

Another shot of Gracie and the moon

... and yet another!

Enjoying the quiet and the sunset

Jerry, the owner, came out and chatted with us for a while. He and his wife are part-time RVers, looking forward to his retirement and the ability to go RVing whenever they want!

Jerry took a picture in the morning...

Sunrise over Gracie! Beautiful!

Jerry was working on this support for a grill over the firepit at the gazebo, and sent us pictures after we left showing his progress -- wow!

Isn't that pretty!

Jerry and his wife were great hosts and we had such a restful night's sleep. Normally we boondock (no hookups) at Harvest Host locations, but it is unseasonably warm in Missouri and we gratefully used their 50A hookup! We were only a short distance from Hamilton, Missouri, where the Missouri Star Quilt Company is... I know several of my friends and family will be appalled that we were so close and did not visit... but we are on our way to the Newmar Kountry Klub rally in Sedalia, Missouri, so needed to move on. Thank you to Aerial View Farms for such a nice stay.