Quote of The Week:

"Retirement life is a game. Happy people are the players. Unhappy people are the spectators. Which would you like to be?
from Ernie Zelinski's How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free"

— Ernie J. Zelinski

We were supposed to leave Coos Bay toady and head over to Diamond Lake. Please note the use of the word S U P P O S E D.

We're still in Coos Bay. :(

We got all packed up this morning, got everything put away, I jumped into the drivers seat, turned the key......and nothing. Nada. Zip. As in no startee the engine.

It didn't turn over, it didn't chug once or twice, it didn't DO ANYTHING!!

O.K. O.K. Think this through. There must be something we overlooked. So I checked both slides to make sure they were in, because the engine won't start with them out. I even ran them out and back in. The levelor jacks were all raised into the stored position. Nothing was running that wasn't supposed to be. Actually, nothing was running period!

So we pull out the manual and do a little reading. If the engine won't start, it's probably one of 3 things. 1) low or dead engine batteries. 2) Low fuel (meaning out of). 3) The wiring harness to the transmission has a plug that has loosened or fallen out.

1 - I religiously check my batteries every month, including cleaning battery posts as needed. They have always been full of water, so I really do not believe this is the problem. However, just in case, I fired up the generator to charge them. (after a few minutes I tried starting the engine again, but still nothing. :( :(

2 - We have 1/4 tank of fuel. I know that this is more than enough to disallow this possibility.

3 - Wiring harness. I examined the manual, and quickly determined that even if I could find it, which I doubted, I couldn't even begin to get under the coach to where I think it should be to try to fix it.  that would definitely have been a situation where I would probably do more damage than repair.

So, Jenny gets on the phone and calls Good Sam Emergency Road Service.  After explaining everything that had happened, we were told that someone would call us back "shortly" to let us know when we'd see the service call person show up.

About an hour later, we get an automated message that is telling us how long it will be before the repairman gets here.  But before we hear the amount of time, we lose the phone signal.  Fortunately, someone on the other end realized this and called back.  Clyde's Towing Service would be here in about 40 minutes to give us a jump start.

About 25 minutes later, in pulls a small tow truck.  A nice fellow climbs out and says, "I'm not towing that thing!"   Nothing like getting a friendly, Hi, how ya doing??  I told him that I didn't figure he would be towing it, at least not with that thing!

He said he'd see if he could give us s jump start.  I was still running the generator, and he hooked up to his truck and I tried starting the MH again.  Nothing.  So he climbed under it to see what he could see.  He really did somewhat knowledgeable, but he was unable to find anything wrong.  But there was no way with the generator running AND having his cables hooked up too, that that engine shouldn't have been at least turning over.  Me thinks there is more amiss than just low batteries.

So I thanked him and he went on his way.  While I had been running around with the tow truck guy, Jenny had found an ad in the RV park's brochure for a truck/rv repair service that made emergency service calls 24/7 and specialized in electrical problems.  So we called them.  A young man showed up within an hour.

Within 5 minutes of checking, he stated that the problem was with our Allison transmission.  After another 15 minutes, he said that he had determined that there were no blown fuses and that all of the relays appeared to be working properly.  This means that it's probably a minor wiring problem.  The only problem would be in tracking it down.  He was nice enough to explain that he wasn't experienced enough to find the problem himself, but that his boss, who had specialized in Allsion transmissions his whole life, could probably find it fairly quickly.  If they all came out today to get it fixed, they would be charging $125.00 an hour.  If we could wait until tomorrow, his boss would come out firt thing in the morning, and they wouldn't be charging the Sunday rates.  I quickly agreed that they should come out in the morning.  We had already paid for another night here and canceled our first night at Diamond Lake, so we were going to be here anyway.

So if we're lucky, they'll get here around 8:30 and won't take too long to find and fix the problem.  We hope. 

We left Redding right on time this morning. We knew it was going to be about 5 hours to Eugene, and we wanted to arrive in mid afternoon. So we were out of there by 10:00. We expected to run in to some rain, but at worst it was only partly cloudy. So it was a very pleasant drive, and we really enjoyed the mountains. Around 11:30 we decided to pull in to a rest area and fix lunch. Once I got the coach parked and fired up the generator (we needed to use the microwave, and we wanted to check out the Weather Channel), I went to the back to use the restroom. I suddenly realized that i could faintly hear the water pump running. ???? I looked around to see if Jenny was using any water, but then realized that she was out walking Bailey. Oh, OH! I turned the pump off and then turned it back on. It began running immediately. No matter what I tried, it would run constantly if we left it on. So I turned it off and broke the news to Jenny that it looked like the water pump finally went Kaplooee! We've had a feeling that it was going to go on us, but whenever we had the coach in for some other service, we'd either forget to have it checked, or the service department didn't have time beyond the reason we were there. So we left it turned off, and when we parked for the night at the Shamrock RV Park, we asked if they could recommend a service center. They gave us the card for a fellow who makes house calls! Hey, maybe a little good luck finally. We called, and no good luck. He was absolutely buried with work at the shop and he couldn't take any house calls tomorrow. But......(oooo, I like buts!), if we can bring it to him, he'll do the job first thing in the morning. That's alright, we can do that. So he gave us directions on how to get to him, and then we asked what he thought it might cost. He said typically about $160.00. Of course, it's below our deductible. Oh, I'm not complaining, because if we would be able to use our insurance, it would have cost us at least $500.00.

So after making those arrangements, I went back outside to finish getting set for the night. One thing I needed to do was to dump the balck tank, so after hooking everything up (and checking it twice!), I pulled the valve. Nothing. I closed it and opened it again. Still nothing. I know I had more than 2/3rds of a tank. It should be flowing nicely, except.........I wonder if then treatment I put in it is causing this? Our sensors had started to sporadically work or not work. So I figured that they needed to be cleaned. I checked some of the discussions on Escapees, and found that if I added some Borax to the tank with some water, it would act like an abrasive and help clean things up. So I did that a little over a week ago. Now I'm wondering if that might not have clogged up the drain pipe. I have to admit that I did add about a half a box, but I also added a good 10 gallons of water to make sure there was enough to slosh around.

So, tomorrow I get to see if i can talk the service man into fixing that too!

On Monday morning, we drove the coach over to the dealer who was going to work on getting rid of the leak that we have in the living room slideout. By the time we left to go over, it was raining pretty hard. I figured that this was O.K., because they'd be able to see exactly where the infiltration came from.

They got us in right on time, and our service advisor, Ramon, was very helpful and informative. We discussed what would be done, and I asked him to take a look at the bedroom slideout too, just to see if there were any needed adjustments. We'd not had any problems with it, but might as well have it looked at the same time. Once we finished talking, he gave us an estimate of what the job might cost based on the anticipated amount of work. It would be around $220.00. So I approved the work order, and we left.

Not having an idea of how long this might take, we were in kind of limbo as to what to do. To add to the problem, we of course had Bailey with us, but with the rain, we couldn't go to any parks or anywhere where we could take her. So we first went to a local restaurant and had breakfast. Purely by accident we found a nice little place, which we later found out was a chain in California. But they turned out a 10 breakfast. I guess I should explain that as kind of a joke, we rate the quality of breakfasts that we have. We (I) can do this because I always have the same breakfast, regardless of where we might be. I'll have 2 eggs (over easy), hash browns, bacon (very crisp!), and toast (on the dark side). Jenny usually has an omelet, but frequently will have something else. So I'm the one that started rating our breakfasts because it's very easy for me to make the comparisons. In this case, Jenny's breakfast was a 10 (she'll need to tell you why), but mine was a 9. It was a 9 because when it was first served, the bacon was a bit limp. They took it back and cooked a bit more and it was perfect when they brought it back. But the eggs were just a bit runny. So I could only give them a 9.

After breakfast, we drove back in to town to get the truck's left front tire fixed....AGAIN! Yup, when we came out to take the coach over to the dealer, the tire that I just had fixed last Saturday was half flat again! So while I was taking the coach to the dealer, Jenny stopped off at the truck stop to put air in the tire so that we could drive it in to town. I had called the tire dealer while we were having breakfast, and they said to bring it back and they'd take care of it. So we got over there, and a fellow came right out and went to work on it. Sure enough, he discovered that the patch that had been put on on Saturday was leaking, so he put a larger and better patch, and guranteed that it wouldn't leak. And they didn't charge for this repair. Although it's a pain to have to have things redone like this, it's nice to find a business that accepts responsibility for their work.

Once we got the tire fixed, we headed over to an outlet mall so that Jenny could find a pair of black shoes. Fortunately, the outside walkways were covered, so Bailey and I walked up and down until Jenny was finished. Actually, Bailey and I went back to the truck to sit inside with the heater on because it was so cold and damp. But that was O.K., because I'd found a great AM radio station (1230 for anyone interested) that played big band and swing music all day. When I turned it on, they were playing a bunch of Sammy Davis, Jr.'s songs and some interviews with him. It was great!

We still were trying to figure out what else to do when we recalled that there was a casino near by. Since it was lunch time, we figured why not go there and have lunch at their buffet and spend a little time on the slots. We got over there and decided to wait on luch since we'd had a pretty large breakfast. So we said that we'd spend no more than an hour playing around. The time was just about up when the phone rang. It was Ramon calling to say that they would just be finishing up fixing the leak, but that we should come back so he could show us a different problem they'd discovered! Oh, Oh! So we drove back to the dealer and found Ramon. He took us out to the coach, and the service technician doing the work came along. First they explained that they had found where the leak was, which was not the slideout at all, but a seam along the ceiling line. They said it was a fairly common problem and an easy fix. They were applying a special kind of tape that made a permanent seal. But then Ramon told us what they'd found. They'd discovered that our kitchen cabinets were falling off of the wall! YIKES! Well, it wasn't quite as bad as it sounded. The cabinets had pulled away from the wall some, which was what was causing the scraping sound we always heard when the slideout was extended or retracted. The good news is that it will never get any worse than what it is right now. So we can continue to use them until we're someplace where we'll be for awhile to decide if we want to fix them. They said that to fix them would be a good 10 - 12 hour job, which would cost something in the neighborhood of $1,200 - $1,500! Fortunately, we don't need to have them fixed now, or in the immediate future, so we can plan for the repair a bit more. So they finished up fixing the leak, and the bill came to $137.00. WHEW! That was a relief. They did a great job, and I would highly recommend this dealership to anyone.

Once we got back to the RV park and got parked again, of course we kept watching the area all evening for any signs of a leak. It rained all evening and all night, and not a drop of water anywhere! HOORAY! at least we'll be dry when we're in Washington!

We were going to head out today towards Eugene, Oregon, but it's raining and even though the road condition reports for the mountains aren't talking about any snow or ice, we just decided to stay planted here for another day and head out tomorrow. We might go out in a bit to find some rain suits at a local outfitters we saw. We know that we're going to need rain suits for Washington!

We kept working in the lake every day. Eddie was cutting a keyway where the dam will go. The dam will ring the low side of the lake, and a keyway is a channel cut into the dirt about 4' deep and 24" wide. After opening up the keyway, you then fill it back in with a different kind of dirt. This is the dirt that I was piling up in the pictures you saw. When this dirt is placed into the keyway and then compacted, it "locks" it in place and provides a great deal of strength for the dam that will be built above it. Eventually, I used the backhoe to haul buckets of dirt to the keyway and fill it in.

Eddie had mentioned that he was working with the Tyler RV center in order to develop a relationship for when he opened his park. I decided that I should talk with them about a lingering water heater problem. Ever since we had the tanks freeze and then the subsequent repairs, we couldn't get very hot water out of of the water heater. We'd get a blast of hot water, and then it would turn it luke warm. Then we'd another short blast of hot water, and then it would turn luke warm again. So I stopped by one day and talked with a fellow there. As soon as I explained what was happening, he said that the thermostats were bad. He couldn't be sure which thermostats I needed, so I said I'd bring the manual in the next day so we could figure it out. The next day I came back, but the fellow wasn't there. I spoke with another young man who agreed that it was probably the thermostats. But he suggested "just to make sure", to go speak with the service manager. So I did, and he agreed too. So I bought the $26.00 thermostats and went back to the coach and installed them. When we tried the hot water, it was hot, then luke warm, then hot, then luke warm again! AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH! I'd read the manual 3 times, and couldn't figure out anything else that it could be. So we decided that we'd get it looked at while we were in Nevada for a konth, because even if we needed to leave the coach at a repair facility over night, my son extra room for us at his house. So we'll take luke warm showers for a few days, which is better than totally cold.........I guess.

Sunday evening, we made a spaghetti dinner for Eddie and Steph to thank them for their hospitality. We had a very pleasant evening, and Jenny outdid herself with the meal.

On Tuesday, after running in to town and getting the mail, we thanked Eddie for his hospitality and left, headed west towards our rendezvous in Quartzsite, Arizona.

We left St. Louis on Thursday morning around 10:00 a.m. We would have gotten started a little earlier, but there seemed to be some problems with the communications to the shuttle bus. We waited for almost a half hour (after calling 3 times) before one finally showed up. We had a very pleasant drive, and we checked our Woodall’s directory looking for a nice RV park that had Wi-Fi to stop at for the night. We finally settled on the America’s Best Campground just outside of Memphis in Marion, TN. We got there early enough that it was still light (guess we have to leave AFTER 10:00 a.m. to get stopped early!), and so we decided to flush out our water system so that we could start using it again. Recall that it still had RV anti-freeze in all of the water lines.

So I hooked up the water lines to the faucet and started filling the tank so that I could flush out the anti-freeze. I quickly discovered water dripping from up under the panel that covers the tanks! AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!! I probed, I checked fittings, I unhooked everything and reattached the lines in hopes that the lines just didn’t seal properly. Nothing helped. We STILL had water leak problems!

I threw up my hands and went and used the campground shower. I figured that we’d have to call an RV repair shop the next morning to see if they could get us in for a repair. After I showered, I decided to get on line and see if I could locate a shop through the internet. I couldn’t get logged on. After repeated attempts, I called the provider service number listed on the campground’s brochure. According to the fellow I spoke with, the provider had canceled the service with that campground over a year ago. He even told me that another camper from this campground had called this evening asking the same thing. So no internet!

The next morning, I went down to the office to see if they could recommend any repair facilities that we could call. They gave me the name and number of 3 different shops. I mentioned to these folks what I had been told about the internet service, and they all but called me a liar. They said that they logged on to the internet every morning through the provider I had spoken with. I just ended the conversation by saying that as far as I was concerned, they were falsely advertising that they had internet service, and if I had known that they didn’t have it, I wouldn’t have stopped there.

Once I got back to the coach, I started going down the list calling these repair facilities. The first two would be happy to help me out……..in about 3 weeks! But the third said that I could come right over and they’d take a look for me. It happened that this place was in Horn’s Lake, Mississippi, which was about 20 miles outside of Memphis. The man I spoke with gave me directions, and I said we’d be there in about an hour.

The directions that I was given were absolutely perfect. We got there in just under an hour after speaking with them, and when I went in to talk with them, they put a guy on the job right away. The building was brand new, to the point that I could still smell the paint and they were still unpacking boxes. The name of the place is Southaven RV Center in Horn Lake, MS. After explaining what the problem was to the mechanic, and going over the history of our frozen water problems, he suggested that we go to get some lunch, and he should have an idea of what the problem is by the time we get back. So we did go to lunch, and when we got back, he told us that all he found was 3 loose clamps. He had tightened the clamps, and had the entire system under pressure with no leaks for better than a half hour. Leaks gone!!

I have to say that these guys were absolutely fantastic. They knew exactly what they were doing, and once they got started, they didn’t stop until the job was finished. If anyone ever needs road service on a motorhome while in the Memphi area, I would encourage you to call Southaven. You won’t go wrong.

We ended up spending only 2 hours at the service center, so we took off and headed for Little Rock.

Well, I finally have a chance to do some updates. While we were in Tyler, Eddie was great in offering us the use of his computer, but the one time I had a chance to try to do something, there were storms in the area and his satellite uplink kept getting interrupted.

Anyway, we're in an RV park in El Paso, Texas that has Wi-Fi. So I'll try to get caught up.

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We left Janesville on Wednesday, January 4th. We had a wonderful time while we were there, and we wish we would have had more time to see more of our friends. But we were also excited about getting moving again and getting to some warmer weather.

Before we really got going, we still needed to stop at Al’s in Rockford to have them take a look at the broken water line we had. Fortunately, we literally had to drive right past the dealership as we headed south, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. At least, that’s what we were hoping!

We got there around 10:00 a.m., and they took us in right away. They immediately figured out that the water line that was broken was a main hot water line to the kitchen. So they would need to replace the entire line. Fortunately, it didn’t take all that long. We figured out that the line broke because it was kinking when we would open and close the living room slideout, and it became brittle when it got frozen. But it didn’t break until after we were parked in Janesville, and we had to move the coach once a week to get propane. We, of course, had to open and close the slideouts to be able to drive the coach, and it probably broke one of those times. Sorry I wasn’t able to take any pictures of the process, but there was barely room for the mechanic doing the work, let alone some smuck trying to blind the guy with a flash camera.

But guess what!? We found something else that wasn’t right. I had checked the air pressure on all of the tires that morning, and I couldn’t get a reading on the right, inside dual. I had valve extensions installed on the inside duals so that I could easily check the air pressure, and I was thinking that the extension on the right, inside dual wasn’t seated properly. Now I realize that this sounds like I think I know what I’m talking about here, doesn’t it? Well, I do! I worked for a tire service when I was in high school. And I recall installing extensions, and if they didn’t go on just right, you couldn’t get air into the tire, but you might not even know it. Now there have been some wonderful advances in technology since my high schools, but trust me, they haven’t been in the valve stem extension field!

The mechanic doing the work kind of thought the same thing, so he futzzed around with it and was able to finally get some air into it. We aired it up to the proper level of 90 lbs., and I drove the coach around in the dealership’s yard to see if we lost any air pressure. When we re-checked it, it had dropped to 85 lbs. Nuts! Luckily, the Goodyear dealership that had installed the extensions was only 2 blocks away, so we setteled up with Al’s (assured that our water problems were solved), and I drove over to Goodyear. I was lucky to bump into the fellow who actually remembered installing the extensions on our MH, so he said to pull it in and he’d check it out. The first thing he did was check the air pressure, and it registered 90 lbs.!! He did discover that the valve stem was a bit loose, so he tightened that up. Then he checked all the rest of my tires and found everything fine. He then went back and double checked the right inside dual, and it was till holding at 90 lbs. He said n o worries……and no charge! Wow! Thanks.

So finally off to St. Louis. And we were only about 2 hours behind schedule. Check the next update for our St. Louis stop.

We (Jenny, our daughter Lori, and I) were supposed to have dinner with my sister and brother-in-law last Friday, but thanks to some lovely Wisconsin weather (slush, freezing rain, ice), we had to postpone it until Sunday afternoon.

We went over after the Packers won - YES, THERE ARE MIRACLES! - and had a wonderful time. My sister prepared our mother's spagehtti recipe, which was a real treat. Very pleasant company and conversation. I've had a running joke with my sister about her fireplace, which I reference in one of the pictures. You see, we had an absolutely pathetic looking fireplace in the house we sold. Well, it wasn't the fireplace that was pathetic, it was the fire that was IN the fireplace that was pathetic. It was a gas fireplace, and I used to tell Jenny that it'd look better with two Bic lighters. Then my sister and BIL built their new home, and we went over to visit. We walk into the living room, and here's this GORGEOUS roaring fire in the fireplace. I even had to ask if it was gas, because it looked SOOOO good. When my sister told me it was a gas fireplace, I kind of lost it and yelled "That's a F _ _ _ ing GAS fire????" You have to understand, I NEVER use the "F" word. Ever since that day, they make it a point to have the F _ _ _ ing fire going whenever I walk in the door, regardless of how warm it is outside. And I always walk by and mumble, "There's that F _ _ _ ing fireplace!" Actually, I've toned it down to "There's that F'ing fireplace!"

Anyway, Dewey said that we had to make sure to have the F'ing fire in the pictures, and that's why the picture is kind of dark.

Here are a few pictures that we took during the evening. It might be awhile before we see them again, so we wanted to get some good shots of them........and the F'ing fireplace!

( One Final Dinner With My Sister )


After we got back to the MH, Jenny went in to the building to take a shower, and I changed my clothes. After I had changed, I was getting ready to do some work on the computer when I heard a strange noise. I looked around, and realized that the switch for the water pump was turned on. I looked down and saw this pink colored water seeping out from under the cabinet in the kitchen. I quickly turned off the switch, and figured that I must have bumped it on when I walked by to change. The pink water was the anti-freeze that had been put in the system to protect it from freezing. Somehow, the anti-freeze was leaking out of the water lines when the pump was on, which meant there was a busted line somewhere. About this time, Jenny got back from her shower, and while she quickly turned the pump on and off, I inspected under the cabinet and found the leaking line. Anti-freeze was squirting out of the end of what looked like a broken fitting every time the switch was turned on. We started cleaning things up, and now we're going to have see about getting this fixed by the time we leave on Wednesday. I guess we could be delayed a day or two, but we'd much rather stick to our schedule. So we'll have to see if we can get in to the shop tomorrow or Tuesday.

What a bummer!

We woke up this morning at about 6:15 and got ready to head out. The first thing we discovered was that the water pump for our interior water supply wasn’t working! We think it froze up over night because the actual temperature dropped down to - 1°. Also, our fresh water tank didn’t register anything in the tank. We’re not sure if that’s because the water is frozen or if because a water line froze and broke and all of the water leaked out.

There wasn’t much we could do about it at that time, so we fired up the coach so that we could get moving. I noticed that the low coolant light didn’t go out after a few minutes, and I began to worry about it. After about 10 minutes, when there wasn’t any heat coming out of the defrosters, I started to realize that maybe we had a frozen radiator too. Yikes! It took forever to get the windshield defrosted so that I could use the outside mirrors, but finally I was able to move. I drove over to the campground office, because we still had to pay for our spot for the night. I asked the owner if she knew of any RV centers that I could contact, but she said there were none close by. She suggested that I go across the street to an automotive repair facility that she had sent other RV’ers too. So we went over there, and we pulled up just as they opened up. I went in and explained our problem to the owner, and he said he’d have his mechanic take a look at it as soon as he got there. A few minutes later the mechanic, Dave, showed up and suggested that I pull into their garage. I needed to drive around the block to get situated so that I could pull straight in, and just as I was turning into the driveway, the low coolant light went out and the hot engine light came on! I stopped outside the door and shut the engine down. Dave and I decided to let the engine cool down before bringing the coach into the garage, especially since we needed to figure out if it would fit through their overhead door. They got out a huge step ladder, and while I inched the coach forward, Dave was on the ladder keeping an eye on the clearances. We got it in, but he said that the solar panel actually nudged the door up just a touch!

Once the engine cooled down, Dave checked the coolant level and found out that there was no anti-freeze in the system AT ALL! I couldn’t believe it, especially after I had been assured by the previous owner that everything had been checked and was in proper condition. So Dave drained the entire system and then added half the capacity with anti-freeze and the other with distilled water. The whole process would have only taken an hour or so, but right in the middle of the work, the building lost all electrical power! Even if he had completed the job, we probably wouldn’t be able to get the overhead doors open enough to get out! Great! Fortunately, the power came back on about an hour later, and the job was finished by about 11:00 a.m. This little mishap only cost us about $180.00! Geesh!

We finally hit the road, with some very nice heat coming from the engine and with no apparent damage to the engine. I was kind of hoping that while the coach was in the heated garage, the water pump would thaw out and we’d be able to use it again. No such luck. I think that once we get back to Janesville, I’ll put a 100 watt work light in the compartment right by the water pump and a halogen work lamp right under the holding tank to see if the heat from these lights might thaw them out. If not, we’ll have to run the coach down to the dealer in Rockford to have them check it out. Keep your fingers crossed for us!


( In The Shop! )

In the last episode……

We were waiting to hear from “Mike” about helping us out with our leveler jack problems. When I got back from the coffee shop hot spot (Port City Java – highly recommended!!), Jenny told me that she had called him again. This time he was there and she was able to speak with him. When she asked him why he hadn’t come out that morning like he said he would, he said he never said that he would come out. He said that all he had said was that he might call by mid morning. Then he asked her, “What’s the problem? You’re there until December 5th, aren’t you? I’m doing YOU a favor, because I don’t normally do this kind of work.”

I believe that it was at this point that Jenny pretty much told “Mike” exactly what she thought about his attitude and that we wouldn’t be needing his services.

So on Wednesday morning I called some of the other RV dealers in the area. All of them have service departments that don’t make service calls. They’d be happy to help us out if I bring the coach to them. Well DUH! Don’t they think I’d do that IF I COULD?!?!?! Finally one of them gave me the name of another smaller dealer that he thought might be able to help me out. So I called Rex’s RV Dealer and spoke with Wayne. He explained that they don’t make service calls either, but after I explained the problem to him, he said that it would be fairly easy for me to fix. All I need to do is while Jenny activates the retract button on the controls, I use a pry bar to raise the rams. He said that once I got the rams up, it would be fairly simple to get the baseplates back under the rams. Soooooo, I guess I’ll try to do that on Friday. I’m fairly confident that I should be able to do this. I may need to borrow some tools from the maintenance guys here, but that shouldn’t be a problem. And Wayne said that if I can get the baseplates back under the rams, and if they extend and retract the normal way after that, he doesn’t even think it will be necessary to bring it in for an inspection.

Yesterday (Friday), we tackled fixing our leveler jacks. I explained and demonstrated to Jenny exactly how to operate the control panel, and then I went out and dug out my pry bar from my tool box. I rounded up some pieces of firewood that I might be able to use as a fulcrum, and I crawled under the coach. There are some pictures posted. I went after the left side first because it was easier to get to. I figured if I could get that one fixed, I’d learn something to make fixing the right side easier. I signaled to Jenny to operate the retract button, and I started prying. My firewood idea ended up being a great idea. I was able to keep shoving the wood further under the ram and keep prying it up. It was slow going because it was so cold here today, but I was gaining on it. I finally reached a point where I couldn’t pry any further with the piece of firewood I had, so I dragged the 4X4 post under the coach and placed the firewood under it. I pryed some more, and suddenly Jenny yelled that it was all the way up (there’s a light on the dash that goes out when the ram is all the way retracted). So, over to the right side. There was less room on the right side, and the ram was extended all the way out with one of the springs loose from the base plate. This one took a bit longer, but I finally got it retracted all the way too! YIPPEE!

Now I had to get the baseplates positioned under the rams. I was already under the right side, so it was the first one. It was fairly easy to hook the spring back up, but then the plate was at such a severe angle to the ram, that I couldn’t pry the plate under the ram. So I decided to unhook one spring and position the plate under the ram. This worked well, but I couldn’t hold the plate in place AND pull the spring down with two hands to reconnect it. Luckily, Jenny’s a real trooper and offered to help. So she crawled under the coach with me, and I showed her what position to hold the plate in (which was no mean feat by itself!). Once she got it there, I slipped the pry bar through the loop of the spring and pulled with everything I had to stretch the spring far enough to hook it onto the plate. It took 3 tries, but we finally got it! The left side was even easier once we figured out what technique we needed to use. WE DID IT!!

I posted a few pictures so you can see what these things are supposed to look like.

( The Fix Is In! )

Well, we had what might be a major mishap yesterday. It was time to go visit the dump station to empty our grey holding tank. This is the tank that water from the sinks and the shower goes into. Jenny and I have become very adept at this process. We can get the coach totally ready to move, move it, and get it back and leveled in under 1/2 hour.

We went through all of our normal procedures, backed out of the campsite and up to the dump station. After emptying the tank, I decided to drive around the camp once just to let the engine warm up a bit and to "loosen" things up. We got back to the campsite and Jenny got out and directed me in to position. I parked the coach and extended the leveler jacks. Because of the slope of this particualr site, we've been positioning 4X4 timbers under the rear jacks to give us more height and a better level position. Jenny positioned the timbers and came back in to the coach to check the level with a water level that we use. There are also little lights on the dash that indicate what side of the coach is unlevel (or level), so between the two methods, it works pretty well. She called up to me that the rear needed to come up just a bit. So, I extended the jacks just a bit more. She said that was perfect, and I began shutting down. All of a sudden there was a huge crash, and the back end of the coach dropped really hard. I instantly knew that the jacks had slipped off the timbers. I told Jenny to go out and look at them while I started retracting them again. The front two jacks came up perfectly, but the rear jacks weren't coming up at all. She came back up front and told me that the base plates had come off of the rams. So I got out and took a look. Each base plate is held in place with two HUGE springs on each side of the ram. This is what actually pulls the rams up when you retract the levelers. Without the base plates under the rams, they won't go up.

We figured that because of the terrific amount of rain we'd had the previous day and that morning (over 3"), the sand was loose and sloppy from getting washed out some, and when the weight of the coach came down on the timbers, the sand shifted out from under them.

Fortunately, we have Good Sam Emergency Road Service. So we called them, but we couldn't get through. We called for over an hour, and then we called the main number. We did find out that they were having phone problems (Yeah, like the checks in the mail!), but once we started talking with them, they kept telling us that we didn't have Road Service! To make a long story short, we spent about 3 hours on the phone getting that straightened out before we even had a chance to find someone to come out and fix the problem. We finally talked with "Mike" who said he knew exactly what the problem was and how to get the rams raised up. We might have to take the coach in to the shop to be examined, but at least we'd be able to drive it in and not have it towed. Mike said he'd call us this morning and let us know when he'd be out. Luckily, today is one of our days off, and although we did have plans, we figured we could get the repairs started and then go off and do our thing.

Mike never called. We called a couple of times, and once he was out on a call and the next time he was at a doctor's appointment. We still hadn't heard from him at 3:30 when I came over here. So we still don't know what we need to do and if there is any more damage. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Here are a couple of pictures that show the base plates off of the rams. Hopefully, there is no other damage and once the plates are remounted, the levelers will work normally. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

	Left Side Leveler Jack You can see the base plate for the ram off to the side. It needs to be under vthe ram so that when the jacks are retracted, it pulls the ram up.
	Right Side Leveler Jack This one has the same problem that the left one has.

The morning we were to leave Medoc Mountain, I discovered that my left rear tire on the Colorado was half flat. So I drove down to the park maintenance facility to see if they could put a plug in for me. Both Rangers, Phil and Ed, tried putting plugs in. We discovered that I had picked up a fence staple (a BIG one!), and it had cut a jagged hole in the tread. At one point, we actually had 4 plugs in the hole and it still leaked. We did discover that if I drove on it, the hole sealed. But as soon as I stopped, it would start leaking again. So, Jenny got in the truck and I got in the coach, and I followed her to Rocky Mount in search of a tire dealer that could fix the tire for us. I wanted to follow her so that I could keep an eye on the tire.

The first place we stopped was at a Chevrolet dealership. While I was trying to find a place to park the coach, Jenny drove up to the service area. I bet I had 3 salesmen come up to me to see if I wanted to trade in the coach on anew Cadillac! When I finally got over to Jenny, I found out that they couldn't help us but they had given her directions to a near by tire place. So we drove over there. The guys there were terrific. They said they could have the tire fixed in about 45 minutes. Great!

So jenny and I went and grabbed some lunch. When we were walking back about an hour later, I noticed the truck was still sitting in the service bay. Uh, Oh! I told Jenny that meant that they either hadn't finished the job yet, or they found more things wrong they wanted to show us. It turned out to be the latter. The mechanic showed us where the right front tire had worn through to the steel belting in the inside edge of the tread. That means the front end was out or alignment AND that we needed a new tire! Oh well!

So, about 2 hours later and +$180.00 broker, we were finally on our way. Now we weren't sure that we could get to Carolina Beach before 6:00p.m. when they closed. So we called ahead, and the Ranger we talked to gave us instructions on how to get into the park after they were closed. (It's a secret way, so I can't tell you how to do it, or I'd have to kill you!) But we made it before they closed anyway.

Last Tuesday and Wednesday were our "official" days off, so on Tuesday we went into Wilmington to see the historic district and to visit the battleship North Carolina. I've posted some pictures of the battleship and some others of the park. I've got more pictures to post in another update. On Wednesday, we went down to Myrtle Beach to pick up some things we needed at Camping world and to go to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Calabashes. Great seafood buffet with all you can eat crab legs! MMMM, MMMM, good!

I tried putting these pictures in some kind of sensible order, but when I post them, they're all changed around! Sorry! I'll post some more pics in the next update.

( More Carolina Pictures )

We got to Coulmbus at about 4:30 today, after spending 2 days in Elkhart, IN.  Boy, did we get a surprise when we arrived in Elkhart.  We checked into the Elkhart/Middlebury KOA campground.  We had found it using Woodall's Camprground Directory.  I guess I would'nt be a very good Woodall's campground inspector, because I certainly would have not rated it as highly as Woodall's did.  Anyway, we started to do everything that needs to get done to live comfortably.  While I was outside hooking up the eletrical cord and water line, and getting some stuff ourt of the basement, Jenny was inside re-arranging from "flight" mode to stationary mode.  All of a sudden I hear a bit of gasp, or maybe it really was a SHRIEK.  I went inside to see what was wrong, and I found Jenny looking at our closet with all of our clothes on the floor of the closet.  The track that holds all of the hangers had pulled right out of the ceiling, screws and all!  The track was all bent up, and we thought for sure that we'd ned to get another one.  But we were supposed to leave first thing Monday.  Oh well, we ARE in the RV capital of the world, right?  So On Monday we head into Elkhart to find a replacement track.  We went to one of the largets parts distributors in the country - no luck.  We went to an RV salvage business - no luck.  We went to Camping World - no luck.  Not only could no one find one, they couldn't even tell me where I could find one.  So O.K., I call the manufacturer of my MH.  They've got to have one, right?  NOT!  They didn't use those kind anymore.  I explained that I really didn't care what the darned thing looked like, or even which manufacturer it came from.  I mean, all of the manufacturers install these things in their closets, don't they?  I finally spoke with Don in the Parts Department.  He thought he could order me a track.  Well, uh, thanks, but I'm gone after today.  So he said that he'd try to round one up and he'd give me a call.  Jenny and I left to go back to take care of Bailey, and I finally said that I was going to fix the darn thing myself.  So when we got back tot the MH, I took the bent up track and sat at the picnic table straightening it out with a pair if vice grips.  Then I drilled all new holes (with a few extra just to make sure!) and screwed the thing in to the ceiling with some slightly larger screws than before.  And hey, it's still holding real nice.

 

And I'm still waiting for that call from Don in Parts!

 

Got to go for now.  Lori and Rachel just arrived !