Member Spotlight

Duane and Rosalie Pindell
Cheyenne, Wyo.

FMCA membership number:
F105443 (we joined FMCA in 1988)

FMCA chapter memberships:
High Plains Drifters, Cowboy Ambassadors, Arizona, Rocky Mountain Coaches for Christ, Frustrated Maestros Rocky Mountain Rockers

Our current motorhome: A 2003 Winnebago Adventurer

Other motorhomes we’ve owned:
A 1992 Holiday Rambler Imperial
A 1986 Champion
A 1979 Coachman Leprechaun

We decided to buy a motorhome because:
Someone said it was easier to tow a car than to drive a large truck or van everywhere after you arrived at your destination. Made sense and they were right.

Three words that best describe our current motorhome:
Livable, convenient, practical

The best thing about our motorhome:
The Workhorse chassis

A unique feature of our motorhome:
We have an extra closet that is deep enough to have shelves behind the clothes bar. It comes in handy for coats in Wyoming.

If we could change one thing about our motorhome:
We'd like to have a shower instead of a bathtub.

The best addition we’ve made to our motorhome:
A computer desk for our laptop computer.

Occupations:
Duane retired in 1996 as chief of maintenance for a school district. Rosalie retired from the Internal Revenue Service as an appeals aide.

The best thing about motorhoming:
We always have our own space wherever we go or whomever we visit.

Children/grandchildren:
We have three children, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

We travel in the motorhome approximately:
Six months per year. When we’re not motorhoming we’re visiting our children, grandchildren and other relatives. We’re also doing upkeep on our house and yard in Cheyenne.

Our favorite motorhoming destination:
Lake Guernsey State Park, Wyoming — especially with our extended family.

Our all-time favorite motorhome trip:
After the FMCA convention in Brunswick, Maine, in 2000, we traveled through the eastern Canadian Maritimes and Newfoundland.

One of our fondest motorhoming memories:
When we took our four grandchildren (ages 4, 6, 8 and 10) to Colorado Springs and the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park in Canon City.

Our “dream” motorhome trip:
A summer of wandering through Alaska.

Our perfect day of motorhome travel:
A leisurely breakfast, travel over a smooth road to lunch at a nice rest area, all with interesting scenery, and stopping early at a clean, friendly RV resort.

Our worst motorhoming experience:
The day we dropped the curb side of the motorhome into an irrigation ditch that was hidden by weeds and almost turned over. Two of our grandsons, then ages 10 and 12, were with us, and it’s the only part of the week-long trip they remember.

Our motorhoming pet peeve:
Inconsiderate people who let pets run or do not clean up after them.

Something motorhoming has taught us about life:
The more you reach out to people, the more friends you make.

Something about motorhoming that we know now but didn’t know when we started:
That it would be so much fun belonging to RV groups and traveling with others.

When driving the motorhome, the most important thing to remember:
The unit is long. When passing anyone in traffic, give the other guy room!

Our favorite thing about FMCA:
We have friends all over North America and everyone is willing to share all kinds of information about traveling.

Advice we’d like to share with other motorhome owners:
Get as much information as possible from the Internet, library or travel bureau before going into a new area.

Our advice to new motorhome owners:
Don’t buy a smaller motorhome than you can be comfortable in, or you may give up the RVing lifestyle without giving it a real chance.

Our hobbies:
We spend most of our spare time doing FMCA things since Duane has been Rocky Mountain Area Vice President. Rosalie works on genealogy when she can.

Our favorite way to exercise: Walking

Favorite movie:
Eight Below (2006) about sled dogs that had to be left on their own in the Antarctic.

Favorite book:
“The Ride of Our Lives” by Mike Leonard. We took a similar trip with Rosalie’s parents 15 years ago. However, we were experienced RVers.

Favorite singer: Alan Jackson

Favorite restaurant: Olive Garden

If we were given a free shopping spree at any store, the store we’d choose:
Rosalie: Lands' End catalog online for quality casual clothes and home furnishings. Duane: Home Depot for tools, etc.

Favorite campground: Hacienda RV Resort in Las Cruces, N.M.

When motorhomers visit our hometown, they should be sure to see:
Cheyenne Frontier Days the last full week of July.

Item that is always in our motorhome’s refrigerator: Milk

Behind our motorhome, we tow: A 2001 Saturn SL with a tow bar

Our favorite activity to do inside the motorhome:
Solve Sudoku puzzles while watching television.

A technical tip or RVing lifestyle tip we’d like to share with other motorhome owners:
Keep the tire pressure correct and replace the coach batteries regularly.

Other FMCA members may contact us via e-mail:
DuanePindell@aol.com

Other comments:
We believe that FMCA, motorhoming and the RV lifestyle have added tremendous excitement to our retirement years. We are so glad to be involved.