Fixing Howard

Throughout our trip we have fixed several things on Howard ourselves, and we have had a few repair jobs done by the dealer or a service contractor as well. I am surprised by how many things we have been able to tackle by using some common sense and researching the internet!

We originally purchased Howard from Terry Town in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We took him back there last fall before our standard one year warranty was up and they fixed a few things for us. We did purchase the extended warranty on the major items when we purchased the motorhome, and a couple of those things had some issues so we stopped in again to the dealer on our way out of Cadillac.

I can say we are not sure if the extended warranty was such a great idea since mostly they either did not have time to fix something (our stove), an item was covered but not that particular part (one of the slide-outs) or the part needed to be mailed to the manufacturer (the control for the jacks). So the jury is still out. Supposedly we can take it to any dealer who will work with our warranty company. We did contact Big Foot about our control box for the jacks which is having issues and they gave us the address to mail it to them, so we are hopeful this will be fixed! And we got our slide out fixed, but it cost us about $60.

Being in Grand Rapids for the day without our home always puts us a little out of sorts. We did get to have lunch with a friend who I used to work with in Roanoke, Jon Allen. He and his family now reside in the Grand Rapids area, so we had a nice time catching up and sharing all of our adventures with him.

We stayed the Woodchip Campground in nearby Byron Center, Michigan after we picked Howard back up.

Staff - 8 - Staff was nice enough.

Natural surroundings - 7 - Nice and quiet neighborhood.

Roominess - 8 - Normal sized lots.

Facility Fun - 7 - Playground, outdoor pool (not open until Memorial Day), 

Facility usefulness - 9 - Laundry, dog run, propane, picnic table, fire ring and grill at each site, free wifi.

Bathrooms - 8 - Nothing to complain about here.

Cleanliness - 8 - Nice and tidy.

Nearby attractions - 7 - Close to Grand Rapids.

Value - 9 - Paid $18 a night for a pull-through site with full hook-ups. Used Passport America.

Overall - 8 - Clean park, and the right price with PA discount.