Today we left Bowling Green, Ohio, for the FMCA Headquarters Campground outside Cincinnati, Ohio. If you are a member of Family Motor Coach Association then you may or may not know that part of your membership includes two free nights per month at their campground, located at the shipping and receiving building on Round Bottom Rd. So, since we were going that way to begin with, we figured we’d check it out and get our two nights for November.

On the way, we needed to do a little maintenance, though, so we stopped at the Speedco in Beaver Dam, Ohio, right off I-75 to get our oil changed. We had originally planned on doing this task ourselves, but since we had extra work at our work camping job due to employees leaving early, we never found the time. Then we were thinking we’d have it done at the local Pomp’s in Montgomery, Illinois, when we got our tires changed. Plans are never set in stone, and these changed when we discovered we could combine a visit up to Richard’s sister in Wisconsin with getting new tires (at a cheaper rate!). Long story short (too late) we ended up having to leave Big Rock without having the oil changed.

We’d already bought the filters through Filter Barn. Richard spent many hours researching the best filters, then finding those best filters at the cheapest price available. He settled on Filter Barn, which is an online company based out of Wisconsin. We were also able to obtain seven gallons (yikes!) of Valvoline Premium Blue for diesel engines at Rural King on sale for a great price.

We called ahead to Speedco, and asked if they would do the oil change with our filters. They agreed, but we didn’t want to carry the oil with us so we put it in our climate controlled storage unit before we left. We’ll use it when we change the oil next year. We’re happy with changing the oil once a year, though Richard will probably get an oil analysis done before we do so, in case we can push it to longer. So we used their oil.

We pulled into the Speedco and were treated well, even though they usually cater to semis. They had us pull into the garage from the opposite side than the one the semis use because our engine is in the back. They allowed Richard to watch the entire procedure, which is great since at some point we plan to do this ourselves. I sat inside with Chloe to keep her from barking. Their filters were included with the price ($199 with chassis lube, plus the cost of the oil analysis), so now we have another set of filters for next time.

It’s a good idea when walking around one of these places to watch your step, or you’ll track oil or some other fluid into the coach. We were both very careful. To our surprise the oil analysis showed that the oil was still quite good, which is a good sign for the overall health of the engine.

We were both pleased with our experience at Speedco, I must say. We were happy and back on the road to FMCA in no time.

Travel Data

• 404 – Oops! I guess I forgot to write down most of the travel data for today.
• Cost of one night at FMCA Headquarters Cincinnati: Free! ($20 a night after 2 free nights a month)