Departure – Imminent!

Any day now we’ll be leaving.  Big Guy is ready. The remodel is done. Tire pressure is good.  Oil levels are OK.  Plenty of coolant.  Fuel tanks full. Now all we have to do is load the RV and close up the house. 

Here are some  pictures before the remodel.

And here are some pictures after the remodel.

   

The new layout has much more room even with the slide retracted.  We can entertain 6, have four for dinner, but it only sleeps two, just the way we like it.

Here is the anticipated route.  This is just an outline and will be modified on a random basis.  We’re easily side tracked.

Now you see it, then you don’t!

In our last post we mentioned getting rid of the old crt TV set was the reason for Big Guys’ remodel.  It bugged me that the TV was mounted above the dashboard.  The only chair that faced that way was the recliner which then begged the question “who gets the recliner?”.  The couch was pointed at a 90 degree angle to the TV which meant severe neck cramps if you wanted to watch TV.  The other thing that bugged me about the old TV was that it hung down from the ceiling making a convenient target for my head

So, being an engineer, I wanted a more elegant solution.  Now you see it…Going, going.. 

Now you don’t….

That was fun!

We got started on the doors and drawer fronts today.  A couple more days and they should be ready to install.  Then we can get serious about loading our stuff and hitting the trail.

Schedule…schmedule.

We haven’t even left on our summer trip yet and we’ve already blown the schedule.  “Big Guy” (so named because in comparison to our previous motorhome, “Roadie”, it is a lot bigger) has been having a major refit to its interior.  It’s hard to say what precipitated the redo, but I think it started with replacing to the old crt TV with a LED flat screen and morphed into a new reclining loveseat, new flooring, and new cabinetry.  That coupled with my inability to predict how long any particular phase will take has made a  mockery of our initial departure date.  For our friends and neighbors that carve departure and arrival dates in stone, this is driving them nuts.  “You said you were leaving on the 15th.  Why are you still here?”

The counter top should be installed tomorrow.  I still have to figure out how to attach the floating counter piece to the hidden TV.  Then it’ll be on to building drawer fronts and cabinet doors.

Along with all this, we’re trying to get wills and Durable Power of Attorneys written in case things go awry this summer.  We’ve put his off for years now, but it’s time to put it to rest.  It’s easy to say “Hey we’ll be dead, it won’t be our problem!” but that’s not fair to the friends and family members that will survive us.  This, too, should be wrapped up in the next few days.

As for the schedule, who knows?  Maybe next week sometime we’ll actually be on the road again.

Texas Bound Shocks August 3, 2010

The journey to San Angelo has not been without moments of exictment surrounded by hours of uneventful driving.

The first was near Robertsdale, Alabama when we pulled in to buy diesel and had to pay $3.04 a gallon. Quite a shock when we had been paying $2.70 to $2.84 a gallon.

The second was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Frank was getting tired, "Big Guy" needed a fuel stop and we needed to get up and stretch some to get the kinks out. So while we were in that really relaxed state looking for a filling station there was a big "WHAM". We had just been clobbered by a Fed EX truck. Actually he ran into the drivers side mirror. EJ and I were sitting at a traffic light minding our own business when the incident occurred. Because of the shock of having our peaceful reverie interrupted, the crash sounded much worse than it really was. Turns out there was no damage, but the Fed Ex guy never apologized. He swore that he never left his lane. Funny how a 24,00 pound motorhome can be at a standstill, jump in front of a Fed Ex truck, get hit, then jump back into it's own lane and nobody notices. Needless to say, with all that adrenalin pumping,Frank was no longer tired.

The further west we drove that hotter it got. We were seeing temps well into the 100's. Looks like that repaired generator is going to get a workout on this trip.

We arrived at Bill's(Frank's Dad) place about 5:45pm and Terry (Frank's brother), Joy, and Bill came out to see the RV. It was the first time they had seen it in person.

A Sad Texas Journey August 1, 2010

It's a sad trip we begin. Frank's mother passed away on July 19, 2010 and we are on our way to be with his Dad and prepare for the memorial service. Her health had been failing for the last several months partially brought on by a series of mini-strokes. She passed away in her sleep that night. The service is to be held August 5th so that gives 3 days to get to San Angelo and 1 day to prepare for the service. We have pictures to prepare, scrapbooks to assemble, and speeches to write. Even though we had been mentally preparing for this since May, you're still not prepared when it actually happens.

Big Guy Gets a Checkup - July 9 to 15 2010

Big Guy is due for a checkup.  Having just bought our motorhome in March of 2010 we had not had a chance to go over the mechanical systems like we wanted to. We knew the second owner had been good about annual oil changes and filters but we had no knowledge of how Big Guy had been treated by the first owner as there were no records available.

Frank wanted to take him to Gaffney, South Carolina as that is the source for Frieghtliner motorhome chassis which Big Guy has.  Briefly motorhome chassis consist of everything that makes the motorhome go and stop.  So appointments were made, budgets were established (more on that later), and packing was accomplished.

We left Orange Park on July 9 headed towards Blue Ridge, Georgia to see friends Jim and Shelley Ward and their new mountain cabin.  The Putnam's and the Ward's had consulted their respective calendars and determined that this one weekend was probebly the only weekend we would be able to get together until November or December.

Naturally the night before we left, Big Guy developed a problem.  The hydraulic system for the slides and stabilizer jacks decided to go on strike.  Frank worked on the problem until the wee hours of the morning with limited success.

We arrived in Blue Ridge late in the day because several stops were made in an attempt to get several rv dealers to work on the hydraulics.  Every where we stopped the service departments were full and they
couldn't take time to look at our problem.  Oh well, when we bought Big Guy we knew there would be times when we would have to spend a night or two with the slides in so we'd just deal with it.

We stayed at the Mineral Springs RV Park in Blue Ridge.  It was kinda rustic but it had all the amenities.  As we were setting up, Frank decided to take a chance and put the slides out.  By golly, they worked.  We called Jim and Shelley and invited them over to take a look at the new (to us) motorhome.



The next morning we got to see their new cabin and were we surprised. The "cabin" was huge and beautiful.  The deck space at the cabin was bigger than our condo in Orange Park. 

We spent the day exploring and enjoying the house.  They also took us on a tour of the Blue Ridge area and we also looked at RV Parks for future visits.  That evening we cooked out and enjoyed catching up since we hadn't seen each other in a long time.

The next morning we returned to Jim and Shelley's and had a great breakfast to prep us for the trip to Gaffney.


After breakfast we returned to the RV to get ready to get underway for South Carolina.  One of the last items is to retract the slides and guess what?  They chose this particular moment to go on strike again.  Knowing that this situation might arise, Frank had studied the manual and determined it was possible for two people to manually retract the slides.  After much head scratching and grunting we managed to get them back in and off we went.

Our course to Gaffney took us over some pretty twisty roads and we noticed the bedroom slide was working it's way out.  That's not a good thing to have happened when you're cruising down the road.  So we found a place to pull over where there was a car already parked and managed to push the slide back again.  Frank tweaked the hydraulic solenoid valves one more time and we crossed our fingers.

Due to all the delays, we arrived in Gaffney late and then ended up going to the wrong place.  We went to the Frieghtliner factory instead of the Service Center.  However the guard at the factory gate was used to this happening and had directions printed up to hand out for lost souls like us.  We arrived at the Service Center at about 6pm and there was only one space left in their campground.  It was #13.  Frank had read some forums that said arrive early or you may not get a spot.  We were lucky.

We were prepared for Big Guy being in the shop for all of Monday and part of Tuesday as we had enrolled in Camp Frieghtliner.  This was a 2 day class that taught you about your motorhome chassis.  It was very informative and fun.  We learned about things we didn't even know we had.  The cool thing about having service done here is that they come get your motorhome ar 8am in the morning and bring it it back by 5pm.

Part way through the second day, the service people told us they were going to need to keep Big Guy for a third day.  Turns out, the maintenance that had been previously preformed on Big Guy had been superficial at best.  Just like the generator, the diesel engine cooling system was a mess.  And the radiator was a mess, and they found the right front wheel hub was leaking which explained some funny odors we had been smelling.  The list goes on.  Needless to say our carefull budget planning was out the window.

We spent the third day that Big Guy was in the shop touring the Frieghtliner factory.  We got to go out on the shop floor and watch them building several motorhome chassis.  At their peak several years ago, they were building 150 motorhome chassis a month.  Now they are building about 9 a week.

We spent Wednesday night at the Frieghtliner Service Center and headed home to Orange Park on Thursday.  And believe it or not, Big Guy performed like a new motorhome.  The service was expensive, but it was complete and it was necessary.  We now feel confident that we are ready for the big summer trip.

We’ve been a little delinquent in providing updates about life on the road.  A lot has happened since our last real update in January.  So here is a brief synopsis beginning May 2010.

This is about our second of three trips to Texas this year.  The first trip, in January, we covered pretty thoroughly in an earlier blog.  The next event was that we acquired a 34 foot diesel powered Class “A” motorhome.  Quite a step up from a 19 foot Roadtrek Class “B”.  A year’s search had finally yielded the motorhome we had been looking for.  It’s a Winnebago Itasca 34H with 2 slideouts.  It’s so big after being used to a 19 footer for 4 years.  Since our creative juices have not yet produced a satisfactory name for the new motorhome, we’re using “Big Guy”

This trip to Texas, which took place in May and June, was primarily focused on making sure Mom and Dad’s finances were in order.  Much time was spent learning Texas rules on assets, income and trusts.But Frank and EJ with the help of Frank's brother Terry and his wife Joy managed to successfully get everything into place to satisfy Texas.  Actually it was a pleasure working with the agencies here in Texas.  Everyone was very helpful.

By the time we pretty well had that wrapped up, we had endured all the 100+ degree weather we could and it was time to head to a cooler location.  Mom’s health was such that we didn’t want to travel more than a day’s drive away.  So we drew a circle around San Angelo to locate all of the mountains within a days drive.

There was no use checking North, East or South as there are no mountains or cool weather in those directions. So we checked out Ft. Davis, Tx and found it was not high enough .  The temperatures were still to hot.  The only direction left with mountains of any size were the Sacramento mountains which are West NorthWest of San Angelo.

Things were looking promising because Cloudcroft is over 8000 feet and the Solar observatory in Sunspot is over 9000 foot.  Things we’re looking good.  Temperature checks yielded figures near 80 degrees for highs and high 40’s low 50’s for overnight lows.  Destination locked in….off we go.

Ooops, side track.  In the last half hour of our trip to San Angelo we realized we had a serious generator problem.  The thing that makes 110v electricity for the coach.  It was overheating but we didn’t worry too much because we had a place to plug in at Dad’s.

They had to lift Big Guy to get the generator out - twice!!

I wanted to get it fixed before we headed off to the mountains because I wasn’t real sure where we were going to stay and we might even be boondocking.  The nearest authorized service center was Midland/Odessa where we made an appointment for noon on Thusday and off we went.  Long story shorter, everything the generator needed had to be delivered from somewhere else and always took at least overnight to get to Odessa.  5 days, and many new parts later, we were back on the road.  We still weren’t 100 percent positive the problem was fixed, but it looked promising.  (We’ve since put over a 100 hundred hours on the generator and are convinced Cummins Southern Plains in Odessa knew what they were doing)

Side track over, we’re back in search of cooler temperatures.  As we were heading up into the Sacramento Mountains, we kept checking the elevation and the temperature.  At 7000 feet things weren’t looking good.  Temperatures were still in the low 90’s.  On to 8000 feet.  Hmmmm….a little better.  Temperatures were now in the upper 80’s.  Well, on to 8663 feet, the elevation of Cloudcroft.  Temperatures were now near 80 degrees at about 5pm.  I guess this will have to do.  The campground was a little rustic but it quickly grew on us.

We had wifi, a beautiful view of the lake, a view of an open field and lots of humming birds.  This was the first time we had heard humming birds chirp constantly.

Their favorite trick was to soar way up into the sky, do a hammerhead stall, and dive bomb you. The campground office and several of the campers had hummingbird feeders out for the little guys.

And the best part, as the sun got lower in the sky it cooled off real fast.  At about sundown you needed a light jacket or sweater if you were sitting outside.

Playing tourist, we visited the Space museum in Alamagordo , a winery, the solar observatory in Sunspot, an old wooden railroad trestle just outside of Cloudcroft, the Lodge in Cloudcroft (very fancy for the area), the local cherry festival,  Inn of the Mountain Gods Casino  and Resort, a Civilian Conservation Corps fire tower, Ruidoso Downs, the Apache casino and more.  There’s plenty to do and see around the Cloudcroft area.

The first observatory at Sunspot was ordered from Sears and Roebuck.  It was a modified grain bin.

A week in the mountains was over all ready and it was time to head back to San Angelo.  We wanted to check in on Mom and Dad before we headed home.  Unfortunately, Mom had a stroke the 2nd day we were back and she had to go to the hospital again.  Another battery of tests and still no definitive answers.  Human bodies need on board computers you could plug into and read the error codes like you can with automobiles.  Although we did learn she had already had several ministrokes in the near past.  We stayed to help Dad out some more and finally we needed to head back to Orange Park.