A Little Work, A Little Play

Tuesday we arrived at our campground and we were given a full hook up site for the first time in our many stays at this campground. However, a couple of very sweaty hours later (it was 91 degrees with a LOT of humidity) we gave up trying to get our Internet satellite dish up because of the trees that sat to the rear of our site. Yes, we have full hook ups and yes, we have a nice view of the "swimming hole" but we are relying on the campground's wi-fi which apparently doesn't have a booster antenna so our signal drops every few minutes to every few seconds. Gah! We'll put up with that nonsense for a week while we visit our oldest son, his wife and our grandkids. But the next time, we'll take one of the larger, less heavily treed water and electric only sites.Wednesday first thing we had to locate a new tire for the one that blew out as we crossed the Pennsylvania border from Ohio. The good news is, our tire pressure monitors work great! We heard a big bang as we were driving but it just so happened that we were driving in a construction zone amid a great number of heavy duty trucks and diggers and we thought the bang was a bucket dropping on one of the front end loaders. But then the alarm went off on the pressure monitor and we knew it was a tire. Naturally, being in a construction zone meant there were no shoulders wide enough to pull off onto since we were on the interstate, so we had to limp two miles down the road to the rest area. Our flat tire was smoking by the time we finally we able to pull off out of the way (because of course it was not only a rest stop, it was a truck weigh station also.) An hour and a half later we were on our way thanks to the assistance provided by our road service but we had to find a new spare tire as quickly as possible. Our tires are heavy duty due to the weight of the trailer, so the local Goodyear store had to order a tire for us and since we're only here a week, they are having it shipped overnight. That's still cheaper than buying one outright from the local wholesaler who had one in stock because the wholesalers don't deal with making adjustments on the bad tire through Goodyear. They just stock and sell tires flat out. So getting the adjustment saves us $200 even though we're paying for the special shipping. Once the tire arrives, Denny will put it on the trailer and we'll have our spare back.

Since we got that out of the way, we treated ourselves to a trip to the casino in Niagara Falls. We don't have the luck of friends Don and Vicki, but we did have an enjoyable few hours at the penny slots before we headed back home to soak up a little sunshine. Denny does have one more project while we're; we are going to install an adapter on our air bag king pin hitch which is supposed to eliminate some of the chucking movement we get while pulling The Beast. He will have the help of our son Steve in installing the part because just the new piece alone weighs 135 pounds. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to get rid of to allow for that much new weight on the trailer! I guess I'd better start my diet sooner rather than later!

Thus, a little work and a little play for us this week, along with a few good visits with family. Coupled with the cool front that arrived to cool the temperatures down, it will be a good stay. Notice how optimistic I'm being that the king pin job will go smoothly and well. ;-)