One more stop!

The end of our trip begins tomorrow. After 48 hours of torrential rain, thunder, and lightning, the weather is finally clearing up. High winds will end tonight and we will make our way to Virginia. By the end of the week we will be arriving in Pennsylvania. A few weeks there (hopefully) and we will make our way to Old Cedar in Monroeville, NJ, our final stop on this trip.

Then, on September 1st, we will begin The Big Trip, heading to the mid- and Northwest to see some of our country's great parks. And anything else along the way that catches our fancy. 

All fixed!

Last week we were in Red Bay getting RV things taken care of. We had made an appointment to get our satellite dish repaired. Last November a lightning strike nearby killed our ability to watch satellite TV. We knew the strike was close, but had no idea how close. Close enough as it turned out;  it shut down our dish. I replaced a part on the roof, but that didn't correct the problem. 

Our appointment wasn't until Tuesday evening, so on Monday, I started calling people to clear up our list: we had tree scratches down both sides of the rv from a wrong direction heading from our GPS; our door was extremely difficult to open (Nancy could not get it open, and I would have to bang the bottom across from the hinge with my knee to open it); we had some scheduled engine maintenance to get done; we needed the armrests of our chairs fixed as metal corners of the frames were threatening to rip through the fabric; we had a leak somewhere on the roof that had water coming through one of our medicine cabinets; and although our main awning was replaced in December after being torn apart during a storm in August, we could not get it to open. Only the satellite and engine work were scheduled ahead of time. It's not good planning to just show up and request to be put on the schedule, but we tried anyway. We were lucky. I was able to schedule Wednesday morning at a shop to check our door and awning, and got a maybe from a paint shop for the scratches. I stopped several times at a custom shop and finally got someone to come down and see our armrests. The guy took the armrests off and suggested what we needed to do, then left. I was able to do what was suggested, and got the armrests back in place. No mean feat, let me tell you!

While we were at Marjorie's in Texas we had mail-ordered some rugs to cover our tile floor, but one needed to be cut and trimmed to fit around our cabinets. So we laid out the rugs and marked them, then took them to this shop where they cut them and bound the cut edges. Perfection! And from the scrap they made us a mat for in front of the galley sink. We liked the results so much we had new entryway rugs and step covers made to coordinate with the new rugs.  

On Tuesday afternoon we went to the satellite shop. Even the technician had difficulties finding out what was wrong, but he eventually did. In the process we upgraded our system. He also looked at our cable system and found out why our cable TV would not work. Apparently several years ago when the manufacturer replaced the floor of the water bay (under warranty) where the cable connection is made, they had done a shoddy job of fastening the internal connection to the cable. So he tightened that up for us.

Wednesday morning we went to the other shop and in about an hour our door and awning worked like new. We went back to the rv park and waited till our appointment in the afternoon for our engine work. There they replaced all the fluids and discovered the coolant reservoir had numerous internal cracks in it 

which needed to be replaced or the internal pressure might have caused it to leak or possibly fall apart. Our luck it would be when we were on the road. In the process, several bolts on the frame broke from rust and a part of the frame needed to be replaced. All legitimate because I watched all their work and witnessed everything.

While this all occurred, the Tornado warning siren in town went off.  We had been expecting violent storms in the area, but when that happened,  I made reservations for an overnight stay at a guest house so the mechanics could get to their homes and get make whatever preparations they required, and we headed to the storm shelter. There were actually 2 funnel clouds about 3 blocks away, but they never touched down.

After that excitement we headed to the guest house where we spent a comfortable night. 

Thursday morning was taken up by the completion of the engine work,  then we headed back to the rv park. I spoke to the paint specialist i had spoken to on Monday, and he cleared Saturday morning for the work on the scratches.

Friday was a relax day, then very early Saturday morning we had the paintwork done. The scratches, some deep, were only in the clearcoat. They were sanded out, buffed and polished, and it now looks great! He also found and repaired the leak on the roof (we hope). All this took most of the day, so then we went back to the rv park.

Sunday, Nancy did laundry. I don't think we did anything else that day. Monday morning we left Red Bay and drove over 6 hours to Sevierville, Tennessee. We set up our rv, then headed to Big Daddy's for pizza. The best we have ever had! We were there last year and just loved it. 

Yesterday we went to Smoky Mountain Knives, a shop that bills itself as the world's largest knife shop. It has four floors of every knife you can imagine. It also has a newly enlarged gun shop where I saw a handgun I liked very much. We returned from there and one of our sinks drained extremely slowly, so I took the pipes apart and unclogged and cleaned them. I also reversed the hot and cold connections as they needed to be switched to keep up to standard. Today I went back to the gun shop and purchased the handgun, which I can get when we get back east, as it has to be sent to a Federal Firearms Licensed dealer first.

We are going to relax the rest of the week. We are expecting bad storms and possible tornadoes tomorrow, but the rest of the week will be fine. We will leave sometime next week, stopping in Virginia, then heading to Pennsylvania, where we have to move our stuff out of our daughter's basement to a storage facility, as she is moving out of the house. We will get to Monroeville,  NJ, hopefully by mid-april.

And now you are caught up!

Did I really say "Once a week"?

Okay, it's been more than a week. More like eight or nine. But we're back on-line. Hope this finds everyone well! We have been busy "workcamping" at Marjorie's, lol!

Lasr weekend as we were getting the RV ready for our departure Friday morning, we had wanted to disinfect our fresh water system as it been 2 years since the last time it was done (it's supposed to be done every 6 months). In doing so, we discovered our water filter canister had cracked after freezing during the winter storms we had here. We would not be able to have any flowing water until fixed, but we had to wait until Monday to overnight order one. All the dealers in Texas were out of them, as many RV owners had the same problem. We had to order it from our Rv manufacturer here in Alabama.

We received it Tuesday afternoon and quickly completed the work. But in the process found another filter housing that had developed a hairline crack and was leaking. Fortunately we had a spare on hand, replaced it and was able to complete the fresh water tank sanitizing.

Before we left Marjorie provided us with a list she had compiled showing that we had completed at least 65 projects. From small size to large. We are glad to have assisted, but they are already compiling a list for our next visit. On the more positive side, we did get both of our Covid shots, so we are good to go. And go we did.

We left Friday morning and drove 333 miles north, and east of Dallas, to an overnight campground named Shady Lake in Sulphur Springs. Just an overnight stop.  Saturday morning we drove another 183 miles to Downtown Riverside RV Park in North Little Rock,  Arkansas, right on the Arkansas River. Then today we drove to Memphis, TN, through Mississippi, and finally arrived at our destination in Red Bay, Alabama. Hopefully some of the workmen will return our calls and we can get our repair list completed. Nothing to do tomorrow but relax. Tuesday we get our satellite system repaired, Wednesday the RV fluids changed and our tires rotated, and the rest of the week waiting to fit in the other workers.

So I'll update this blog as things occur. Stay tuned!