Member Spotlight

Michael Canode
Columbus, Ohio

FMCA membership number:  F13059S

I joined FMCA in: 2000 (rejoined after a job setback cost me my coach)

Chapter memberships:
Ohio Nomads. Also belong to Chapter Webmasters’ Group, composed of Web-site administrators for FMCA chapters and area associations. It meets through the “chat-room” domain at Yahoo.

Current motorhome:  1997 Airstream 190. It’s my third Class B coach.

I decided to buy a motorhome because:
I'd been reinfected with the RV bug by taking a two-week motor-coach trip in New Zealand.

Current occupation:  Technical support representative with a computer-store chain.

Children, grandchildren:  None -- I'm a single coach owner.

The best thing about motorhoming is:
Talking with other RV families, seated under my coach's awning at a chapter rally.

When I'm not motorhoming, I'm:
Answering computer-configuration questions and managing my FMCA chapter's Web site on the side.

My all-time favorite motorhoming trip was:
Definitely, my two-week trip to New Zealand.

My favorite motorhoming destination is:
Yes, I know I'm repeating myself, but … New Zealand! The country is tailor-made for RV travel: small enough to not require long driving legs, and varied enough that you'll always find interesting people and places.

One of my fondest motorhoming memories is:
Visiting a small park with a few primitive campsites and hiking through a magnificent fern-studded forest, complete with "my own personal waterfall,” near the old gold-mining town of Lyell. And yes, that's Lyell, New Zealand!

My "dream" motorhoming trip would be:
Four weeks in Aotearoa. (You thought I was going to say New Zealand, eh? I did! That's the Polynesian name for the country -- Land of the Long White Cloud).

The best thing about my motorhome is:
I've always owned Class B coaches, because they fit in my driveway, and they've been the best choice for the kind of trips I usually take. I've been to three FMCA area rallies since rejoining FMCA, and I always look for the other Class-B coaching families when I'm there.

Something I know now about motorhoming that I didn't know when I started is:
How to distinguish between what I need to pack before starting out and what I can obtain while under way. Walking between a rally venue and some nearby store is also good exercise!

If I could change one thing about my motor coach, it would be:
That's a tough question, because I just traded up from my last coach. Perhaps the addition of a satellite-based Internet access port.

The best alteration or addition I've made to my motor coach is:
Back when I had my first motor coach, I added two small 12-volt fans to the air space above, and a grille to let air in below, the coach's compressor-cooled refrigerator. Getting the warm air away from the refrigerator's condenser coils really cut its energy drain on the coach's house battery.

My favorite thing about FMCA is:
The Web sites. The chapter's sites in particular, because there is so much information available and so many opportunities to contact other FMCA people. The only problem is, around 90 percent of our FMCA chapters and area associations don't yet have a Web site. That's my "mission outreach" in FMCA -- to get more chapters on the Web.

A motorhoming trip hint I'd like to share with others is:
Get a new or used notebook computer and a digital camera. "Developing" your own pictures is a big cost savings in the long run, and you can include the photos in e-mail to your family and friends.

My favorite book(s):  The Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

My hobbies / interests are:  Trivia-question games, personal computing

When FMCA families visit Ohio, my home state, I'd recommend they see:
Old Man's Cave State Park in Logan, the Airstream factory tour in Jackson Center and the annual Troy Strawberry Festival (held May 31 to June 2, 2002).

FMCA members can reach me at: webmaster@ohionomads.com

Happy “Cybercamping.”