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. ;-)

This One's On Us

We're in Branson, Missouri this week and we'll be attending three shows while we're here, thanks to the Stormy Point Village sales staff. That's a story for another day, though. We'll do the shows rather than playing golf because even staying at a campground on the grounds of the golf resort doesn't give us enough of a discount to play. Tourist area, don'cha know?

But look what I discovered when I guided Denny into our site here in Branson:
Yep, that's an ouchy! The post is a modification Denny made to place our TV satellite dish near the roof line when we're parked. It saves him having to put the dish on a tripod, leveling that and pounding stakes into the ground to secure the tripod in high winds. He loves using his "roof mount" but somehow, somewhere on our journey here from Ashdown, Arkansas on Tuesday we had a low hanging branch or pole arm or something scrape down our roof and snag the pole which pulled one side of our ladder out and snapped it. Ouch, indeed.

We'll work on getting that replaced and install it ourselves once we in Ohio for three weeks where we have the time to get the ladder shipped to us. In the meantime, we're just wandering around Branson acclimating ourselves, playing tourist.

Shivering in Texas

Once again we're sitting here waiting for a RV repairman to show up. At 4:30 this morning I woke up and listened for the furnace. There was no sound of the blower going and the bedroom was cold. I laid there for a while and finally got up to see what was going on. I flipped the switch off, then on again. Nothing. So I dragged out our second little space heater and started it going in the bedroom for Denny while I went to the living room to turn on the space heater there. It was 23 degrees outside and 46 degrees inside the trailer. Cold, cold, cold.

I called a local rv dealer who also provided mobile repair service and a repairman finally showed up at 10:15AM. I explained I thought it might be the thermostat since we had plenty of propane (having filled one tank yesterday and tested our propane stove to see if it worked.) The repairman checked the thermostat wiring inside and then braved the cold to check the wiring outside at the furnace. Soon we heard the sound of the blower, which then went off. But it came back on and after a few moments the repairman came in to say our wire to the thermostat outside had come loose and actually was arcing on the ground wire. Sigh. Of course it was. However, he made short work of that, the furnace is running and hopefully it will soon be warmer inside the Beast. Which is certainly still living up to its sobriquet.

On another note, I was talking to SkippyMom on the phone this morning and told her about our visit to a local restaurant called the Big Fisherman. She thought it was worth passing on here on the blog so here it is.

The Big Fisherman is known locally for its Chicken Fried Steak Tuesday special; $2.25 for all you can eat chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, cole slaw and rolls. Add $1 margaritas to the mix and you have a restaurant that's busy from 11AM until the special ends at 4PM. I ordered the lunch special of fish and chips (5 large pieces of fried pollock) and so had fish to take home which I carried outside in a styrofoam container. I was met at the exit door of the restaurant by several cats and a medium sized black lab/shepherd mix that I petted. The dog followed us to our truck which was parked around the corner and across the street. The dog was continually looking to see if I was going to share my leftovers and when I simply climbed up into the truck he decided "well, p*ss on you!" Which is exactly what he did to our tire--just p*ssed all over it. I was climbing in and didn't see it but Denny could see the dog in our side view mirror and when he busted out laughing I couldn't figure out what I had done that was so funny. It took Denny several seconds to stop laughing enough that he could gasp out what the dog had done and all Denny could think was the dog thinking "okay, you won't feed me so p*ss on you!" And then Denny started laughing all over again. Maybe you had to have three of the $1 margaritas or maybe you just had to be there, but yes, it was funny.

Just another couple of days in the lives of the RV Vagabonds.

Deep In The Heart Of Texas--Kinda

We have arrived in Beaumont, Texas for the night. Last night our water lines almost froze, allowing just a trickle of water through for some scary moments before the water started running more freely. We're tired of the cold, but had to wait for a couple of special deliveries to the campground after a few things fried when we had the electrical problem in Robertsdale, Alabama. Tomorrow we'll head to Rockport, Texas for two weeks and we're hoping for slightly warmer temperatures and getting in a couple of trips to the Big Fisherman restaurant for their chicken fried steak and margarita specials and also getting a couple of things straightened out with our tires. We had a flat tire on the trailer this morning before we left and we're hoping it's a misplaced washer on our tire pressure monitor and not a nail or bad valve. Replacing the tire was an hour's delay to our departure, but that was an annoyance, not a disaster. And that's kind of a nice change of pace for us.

I'll probably whine about the wind once we arrive in Rockport, but we arrive in Texas knowing that it is going to be windy here. Very, very windy. It will be windier still in Harlingen, but Don, Vicki, Dan and Dee are already at the campground we've chosen so there will be dinners and happy hours and campfires and talking and golf and fun. It will be Myrtle Beach without the beach. And I'm ready for some fun after all the cold and rain and dreariness and stupid stuff going wrong with The Beast. Because isn't that the whole point to all of this--to have fun? As Denny and I like to say; "we deserve it." Heh.

So here's hoping for some more upbeat posts in the next few weeks. It's about time, don'cha think?

Oops, We Did It Again

Yep, it's deju vu all over again, as Yogi would say. Arrived in Robertsdale to spend one night en route to Louisiana; plugged in our 50 amp power cord, had power briefly, heard our voltage meter alarm go off, saw that it read "HI!!! as in TOO HIGH!!!!!" and the power went out. Called the campground manager, turned on the ceiling fan (battery operated) because of the horrible smell of burning wire/rubber/plastic coming from the area of the bathroom. The manager come over, checked the 50 amp outlet at the power box; all okay. He plugged in our cord directly to the power box, bypassing our surge protector and we had electric but when he tested the voltage in one of our outlets it read 220 volts. Not good in a 110 volt system. We immediately went outside and turned off the circuit breaker but the damage had been done; burned out--the bedroom DVR (again), the projector alarm clock (again), the Wii game console (again) and something new--the motor to Denny's electric powered recliner (yes, he's spoiled and maybe a little lazy.) Knock on wood, this time the central vac, the washer, the microwave and the TV made it through unscathed. We called in a professional who arrived within 30 minutes (thank goodness because it was cold outside and I didn't want to try to run the furnace on battery power until I knew what was going on with the rig.) After listening to our explanation of what happened, he went outside to the power box and checked our plug to our 50 amp power cord (the one that had been replaced when we had our power outage/loss of appliances in September of 2010). After taking it apart he showed us what he found; the copper wires had pulled away from the contacts they were supposed to be screwed into and while loose had made contact with each other, thus created a 220 volt charge. Wow! And did I mention that with the burning smell there was no smoke and therefore no alarm from the smoke detector? But there was obviously hot stuff going on inside? Yeowch! We watch the service tech reconnect the wires, tightening them down firmly and he warned Denny to be careful using the electric hose reel for the power cord as that can pull on the plug causing it to loosen the wires also. Great. But now we know. So, more money out of pocket from not-so-good workmanship by a Heartland dealer. More tension in the RV Vagabonds household. And quite frankly, I left messages with the kids letting them know where we were parked just in case we burned up in the rig overnight. This is not a fun way to live.

A day later and we're in Louisiana. Today our new DVR arrived (pretty impressive on the part of DISH network) and we picked up another Wii game console. The Amish folk that built our recliner will be sending a new transformer to see if that works, to be followed by a new motor if it doesn't. Another alarm clock has been ordered, there's no smell of burning wires and we haven't noticed any other problems with the electricity or appliances yet, although I haven't actually tried to do a load of clothes yet in the washing machine or dryer. Perhaps it's time for a betting pool on what will go wrong next with The Beast. What do you think?

Off to a Roaring Start

It's my fault. I did it. I responded to the comment of a friend on F*cebook, saying that all was well with The Beast. Yep, jinxed myself for the new year.

It started simply enough; it was time to change the water filter to the ice maker/water dispenser in the refrigerator. That sounds relatively easy, but it entails removing half the contents of our basement storage bin (very large space indeed), removing a large panel and then Denny has to crawl inside the bin to access the water filter (which is actually a whole house type filter.) He finished that job, turned the water back on and realized he had a sizable leak in the compartment. Not from the water filter, but from somewhere along the water lines. After a couple of minutes, Denny discovered the leak was coming from the water heater bypass valve. Taking it apart, he discovered that one hose nib had been glued/screwed in, leading us to believe that the factory installers over tightened the piece when screwing it in and instead of taking the entire piece out, they just glued it. We weren't sure that it wasn't the brass water bypass valve itself, so I called the nearest RV parts dealer which was 35 miles away in Panama City. The lady wasn't sure she had our part, but thought they did. Of course, once we drove all the way down there we discovered they didn't have the bypass valve, but they did have the plastic hose nib, so we bought that. The service techs were kind enough to dig out the old plastic part for us since Denny didn't have the taps to do it and back we went. Fifteen minutes later the water bypass valve was back in place and psshhhh! Water everywhere. It seems one of the other plastic nibs had a crack. By now it was too late to go back to Panama City so we went waterless for the evening. And before you ask, yes, we have a water pump and water in the fresh water tank but using the water pump was the same as using fresh water from the hose; it sent water gushing out of the leaking plastic part all over the storage bin, soaking the floor and who knows what underneath the flooring. So it was buckets and water heated on the stove for the rest of the evening and this morning. Roughing it.

This morning entailed yet another 60+ mile round trip to Panama City to the hardware store to buy the plastic parts (several, this time) and return home to install them. Denny put it all together, I turned on the water, we held our breath. No leak. Yay! I crawled into the bin, sopped up all the water from last night, Denny put all our "stuff" back into the storage bin and we came inside where we crossed our fingers that this would be the last of the "what nows?" for a while. Because that was the fourth leak in the fourth different place in this rig so far. Not that I'm counting. *sigh*

Another Week Gone

I realize I've been MIA here at the blog this week. It's been a bit stormy at The Beast; not just the actual weather but our tempers have become a bit frayed after dealing with the folks at HeartlessHeartland. They have decided, contrary to the opinion of two certified and experienced rv service technicians, that the company is not at fault in building a shoddy product and therefore they are not replacing all of our burned out appliances. And so Denny and I have spent the week comparison pricing and shopping, trying to find comparable appliances to replace those that burned out. Of course, Heartland used discontinued models on some of the items so we've upgraded a bit on the washing machine and microwave/convection oven. Our insurance company will be investigating the matter because they do not cover "power surges" which is what Heartland claims happened to our rig, despite all evidence to the contrary. It may turn out that Denny and I have to eat the expense, but at least we are close to having the rig back to where it was when we bought it. Or better.

Thank goodness for the company of friends. Evenings are spent together at happy hour, noshing hors d 'oeuvres and speaking "of many things, like shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings. And why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings."* We've shared meals and memories and many a laugh which has eased the whole electrical/burned appliances/dealing with idiots thing.

And of course, there are always beautiful sunrises here at the beach.
* quote from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass.

Do Not Pass Go

Luckily for me, the message didn't come through until after we had finished having lunch with our friends. Because I might have made a bit of a scene.

Our customer service rep from HeartlessHeartland called to say that he had all of our appliances lined up to be shipped to our agreed upon service location...but. Yeah, there was a but. It seems our customer service rep's supervisor has spoken and we now have to wait for the RV service center that fixed our electrical issue in Ohio to send the bad piece of our plug/cord to the original manufacturer of said plug/cord to see if the part was defective or damaged. Defective and the company pays for it. Damaged (how?) and we have to pay for all the appliances and labor costs. WHAT??? Yeah.

I probably could have dealt with all that better if the issue had been brought up right from the get-go. We need our washing machine, TV, microwave/convection oven and central vac replaced regardless. What would have happened if the original service center had thrown out the part after cutting off the end and replacing it with a new plug? Would they have refused us our repairs out of hand? And how long is it going to take for this third party to get the old part, check it out and notify Heartland so that they can authorize shipping out all the appliance which will take time to get here and get us scheduled into the shop before we're due to leave here?

Not a happy camper right now. Nope, not happy at all.

Good Timing

Sometimes life is all about timing.

This morning Denny decided to check and fill the air in the truck and trailer tires since we'll be moving on to newer pastures on Monday. This meant he had to remove several items from our large basement storage bin to get out the pancake air compressor and it was at that time that he saw the puddle. Which was on its way to becoming a lake. In the bottom of the storage bin. Not good.

So it was "fetch this, get that" to me while he took out more "stuff" to access the water lines behind the screwed down access panel. A couple more "I need thises" and he had the panel off and we found the source of two leaks; the water pump and the water line to the outdoor faucets/shower head. The valves were tightened, the storage bin was totally emptied out, the laminated pressed wood panels that we lined the bin floor with were removed to air dry and the bin area was swabbed dry with a fistful of towels. There was a time limit to all of this because the campground turns on the watering system at 3:30PM and we never know which day they are going to do it despite the typed out schedule that they don't follow. The last thing we needed was to have all the items that were stored in the bin to be drenched because we had the stuff sitting out all around our campsite. The heat and intense sunshine took care of the drying out process in fairly short order and Denny soon had everything back in its place. Whew.

In the meantime, I've been creating a list of items we'll need for our two week vacation to Alaska. What I've decided is that traveling by RV is much less hassle than having to pack up the toiletries, vitamins, hats, coats, umbrellas, binoculars, clothes, blah, blah, blah, as when you travel by plane and boat. When you travel by RV you already have all those things at your fingertips without having to worry if you forgot something. Because it's right there. Always. How easy is that? Don't get me wrong--I am SO excited about this cruise. I just know I'm going to forget something major simply because I'm out of the habit of packing for a trip. But YAY! We're going on a vacation! Which to me simply means no cooking, cleaning or planning anything once we're on that plane. Just enjoy the moment every day for 14 days. I'm ready.

Poo On You

One of the differences between living in a stick built home and a RV is that in a RV sometimes you get up close and personal with stuff you'd rather leave alone.  And that stuff would be in the sewage tank in the RV.

The set up of the toilet system in a RV goes something like this; the toilet flushes into a big square box that fastened underneath the floor of the RV.  It has an outlet leading to the outside of the RV, controlled by a push valve/gate system.  You attach a 4 inch accordion pleated hose to the gate valve and the other end goes into the campground's sewer system in the ground. Once a week or so, one needs to empty the "black water" (that stuff you flush down the toilet) into the campground's sewer system.  A simple process normally.

Not so for us this week; when Denny pulled the gate valve, very little came out of the black water tank, meaning something was blocking the hole leading out of the tank.  Sigh.  Stories have been told of plugs of plastic/flooring/whatever being drilled out and dropped down into tanks to be left there, free to float around and jam themselves into the exit hole.  Okay.  We have a spray wand that is inserted down into the toilet that helps to flush out debris and clean the tank, so I started trying to flush out the tank but it didn't seem to be working.  That's when Denny shoved the wand WAY down the tank and got it stuck.  Really, really stuck.  Like the only way to get it out was cutting the sewer pipe OF OUR TWO MONTH OLD TRAILER stuck.

So that's what we did.  Two 16 mile round trips to the hardware store because ABS pipe cement sets up faster than I believed possible so I didn't get the pipe shoved down into place soon enough so Denny had to saw the repair apart and do it again.  Five hours later the sewer wand was out and the black tank water was flowing, albeit less than we expected.  What I'm not mentioning was the efforts to go in backwards up the system with whatever long pointy things we could find which necessitated placing a large empty container outside the gate valve to catch whatever would flow out the black water tank should the obstruction clear.  This is not a pleasant process folks!  We'll know next week how the fix worked when it's time to dump again.

Man, we know how to have fun here at the RV Vagabond's house!

Not in the Mood

The notice came up this week for the renewal of my website; the poor thing has been sadly neglected the past two years while Denny and I sat in one place working at our parents' homes. It's hard to keep up a travel website and blog when you are not traveling. I also just haven't been in the mood; a lingering bit of depression/grief? Who knows? But I haven't had much to say.

Yesterday was a sociable day for Denny and I; we went with a group of folks to see Avatar at the Imax, although poor Denny sat with his eyes closed through most of it. He gets nauseous on amusement park rides and the movie is one, big, long ride. Afterwards friends Barb and Rene hosted a chili dinner followed by an evening of Mexican Train (big with RVers). Much tippling and laughter ensued.

Today we'll work on finishing the new shelving that Denny built. I have to take some of the weight out of the cupboard on one of the slideouts as it's throwing off the alignment of the slideout. Since I need to coat the shelves with polyurethane I have to do it today; the dreaded thunderstorms/major flooding/impending doom are coming tomorrow.

That's the agenda for now.