steved44

Ok ok, today is finished and what a day it was. It started out innocently enough. We parked at a gas station/burger king/subway/mini mart that was also a rv park last night. On interstate 39 in north Illinois is a place called Princess Winona Rv Oasis, just south of the Illinois river. Fuel, full hook-ups, and food, you can't go wrong. Well then we were going north around the main part of Milwaukee, and ran into the worst construction mess I've ever EVER driven through. It's right by the State fair park and it has all the baddies. Narrow concrete barriers, extremely rough pavement, very faint lane markers, and the signage was barely visible. And did I mention the traffic was heavy with big trucks on both sides. I don't know how we ever managed to get through there intact, but we did. I did open my eyes on the other side of it all. Then we finally arrived at Carol's sisters house and were in the process of parking in her front yard and got STUCK!! They have had just a little too much rain in the part week and the ground was still a little soft. I almost made it in, but hung up on the trailer hitch and it kept just enough weight off the trucks to start spinning and that was all she wrote. Fine finish to the day!! Well, Coach-net to the rescue, and they sent one of those monster wreckers to get us out. I think we had a 10 person peanut gallery during the process, but the wrecker driver really knew his business and finessed us out without breaking anything. Not being able to park where we thought we could, we looked around and there was an Elks club a couple of miles down the road. They had a spot with 15A, but hey, any old port in a storm they say. Finally got parked and an adult beverage in hand. No driving tomorrow!! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Never did like 5th wheels all that much and now I like them even less. The neighbor across from me (in a 5th wheel) pulled into his site and HIT MY BUS!! Another neighbor and I were sitting in lawn chairs beside my bus and this guy pulled in to his space (pull through). When he did his back end swiveled into me and busted the right mirror and scraped the paint on the front. The mirror was hanging by the wires in three pieces! I felt a little bad for him as he had just started full timing and this was his first real shake down cruise in his new rig. It took the left side rear window out of his unit and he never felt the hit. It made a really big bang and about 5 other neighbors came running over to see what happened. Bad thing is we were supposed to leave Monday for an event in Wisconsin on Thursday. At least he had good insurance and they are going to get me fixed up. They had a mirror assembly shipped from Tiffin and Branson Motorcoach is supposed to put it on Tuesday. I'll have to get the paint work done later, but at least I'll be able to drive the bus. A little fiberglass work and front cap painted and it should be none the worse for wear. It had to happen on Labor Day of course when everyone is closed. Mumble mumble Steve

Thanks Jeri, I wished it was better news, but I'm glad you were able to talk to his niece and give us an update. All we can do now is pray for him and his family. I hope his niece can tell him that we are all thinking about him and sending him virtual hugs. He is an inspiration to all of us! We love the old guy!! Steve

Nice view Linda, sounds like a great place too. Happy moving......in a couple of months. Steve

I'll check it out Jeff, thanks

I've been thinking about Lee too. Sure hope he's doing better. We made it to Branson yesterday. Nice drive I-40 East to Fort Smith, then up to Fayetteville where we spent the night at Walmart. It was a good driving day and now we are settled at the Turkey Creek SKP park for a week. Hard thing now is figuring out which show to go and see. Steve

Better give Willie a shot of cranberry juice to smooth over those discs. Sorry he's feeling bad. That steroid shot should help. Steve

Way to go! We would do cartwheels for you, but that could be dangerous!!

Well, I managed to get the recall done. It took them from 10:00 in the morning till about 5:30 to get it finished. The tech that was working on it said that it was a real bi*** to get off and going back with the new one was no picnic either. This was a bracket 200# that holds the steering gearbox to the frame. Need that I guess! Problem was we had a birthday party to go to and the people were picking us up at 6:30, and It was a 45 minute drive back in the bus. I had just finished parking when they showed up! Talk about "just in time" planning! Anyway we made it and had a good party and are now tying up loose ends getting ready to "blow this popsicle stand" on Sunday. They are clearing the RV area out for the upcoming fair, and we are the only one left on this line except for one class A that is abandoned. It will feel good to get on the road again. Steve

Hurry up and wait! I got up extra early this morning and headed out for freightliner. When I got there I was put in line behind a truck that was getting a rear main seal. That job was just finishing up so it didn't look like the wait would be too long. LOL!! Anyway I waited until 2:00 and it turns out the job ahead of me had problems so they wouldn't be able to get mine done before closing. Grrrrr While I was in the waiting room I met another couple that had a Monaco and they had a driveshaft fall out in New Mexico. That could be a problem!! They managed to get that fixed, but it must have bent the tag axle in the process because the tires were wearing out at an alarming rate. I told them I would probably see them tomorrow when I came back to get my job done. Always an adventure running around the country in these things. Steve

John, looks like they have a large bunch to provide replacements for so it should be interesting. They are supposed to be a more robust unit.

Right on Dave, now I got another recall from Tiffin about the windshield wiper arm assembly falling apart. Hmmmm I guess I can go to California where it doesn't rain! Oh well if the rain starts and the wipers fall off, and then the steering gearbox falls off, at least I won't know what's going on till it's all over.

Ok Ok another recall?? I got a recall notice about a steering gear bracket the other day. This is from Spartan and involves a new bracket that holds the steering gear in place Called Freightliner (also Spartan) in OKC and they knew about it and set me up with an appointment next Tuesday. He said the part weighs 200# and it would take about 4 hours to replace. I sure don't want the steering gear to fall off going down the road. It seems that on some units the bracket would start cracking and would eventually fail if let go long enough. At least Spartan had the part and were able to ship it to OKC quickly, so maybe we will be still on track to leave on the 28th. Just when I thought I had everything done! I guess that doesn't ever happen.

Boy! sounds like you were in the right place at the right time. Sure was nice of him to be able to help you guys. How special!

Okay, today was maintenance day. I pulled up the jacks and headed out to Speedco on the west side of OKC. I got there about 10:00 and had only one rig ahead of me. Everything went fine until the mechanic was getting the secondary fuel filter off. It was really tight and when it finally gave, his wrench hit one of the fuel lines going into the filter and broke it right off. Well, it was a 6' fuel line and it seemed no one in OKC had one. Freightliner, no, all of the Cummins places and RV places NO!! It looked like we were going to have to push the bus outside and overnight one from Dallas. How come Dallas always has the parts. Does anyone ever brake down in Dallas?? Hmmmmm Anyway just as we were going to have to resort to that, one of the Speedco people found a small hose shop in South OKC that could make one up. Hurray!! They made it up and installed it by 4:00 and I was done. The Speedco people were really good about it, and gave me a $40 off coupon that I can use the next time. I felt sorry for the mechanic as it was something any one of us could have done (he must have apologized at least 10 times) and since I used to run a large automotive shop I know how things like that can (and do) happen. The one thing that got me was that I had to open the bedroom access panel so they could get to the other end of the hose. I had never done that in this bus before and was not sure I even could. Turns out it was not that bad and I didn't even have to get the piano out of the way. (that's another story). I got out of there and had an easy drive back to the fairgrounds, but when I got here it was farmers market night and I had to plow through the crowd to get back into my spot. Managed to do that and now I'm hooked again and ready for anything. Whew! That's all I know...........................Steve

Jeff, there is a great Elks Club in Coeur d' Alene. They are electric and water with no dump on site, but the place is really nice. There is a dump not too far from there. Steve

Gosh Jeri, four birthdays??? You can't say you're not getting older now! Ha ha! I know they are not all yours, but it sure sounds funny. Then the big bust in the new vehicle. Hmmm you guys are busy that's for sure. That glacier run sounds like a great idea, we sure liked it over there. I hope Terry can get a handle on his allergies, that's no fun, of course if it gets him a new truck....hmmmm! Jeff, are you trying to upstage Robin Williams in RVII?? Lee, if you read this, I'm not quite ready to tell you where the ice cream machine is yet. You're going to have to get better so you can grill me about the location!! That should give you some incentive to keep the rehab going. Just know that you are in our thoughts every day and wish you the best. Steve

Great to see that Lee is getting settled and in therapy. Sure hope he can get back on track and able to communicate. I'm sure it is frustrating to him not to be able to communicate. When I talked to him he said he could still think fine, but he couldn't get it out. All we can do is pray he will recover to some good place that he can deal with. I don't know about this getting old stuff, but it sure isn't for sissies!!

Too bad Linda, you're part of us!! No getting out of this group! :)

Ah the spaghetti virus is spreading!!

Arrrrgggghhh! No lobstah!! Maybe it's the drawn butter, I've heard you can put it on most anything. Hmmmmmm possum with drawn butter!!

You could always use the hot tub to cook lobsters in

Happy Birthday Linda, hope you have a fun time hiding from the thunderstorms!! We'll tilt a glass in your honor. Steve & Carol

Now today is farmers market day. The whole parking lot is full of cars and the people watching is great. We are the first RV in the park so the market is right next to us. A steady stream of watermelon seekers are going past between 7:00AM and 12 noon. They have another one on Tuesday evening, so at least we won't starve while parked here. Just maybe I can open a crepe stand and take advantage of this. Our son came over last night with the grandkids, so we went biking (nice paved trails around here), and managed to make a pile of chicken disappear. They are 5 and 7, so "really active" doesn't even start to describe them. I finally got all the switches in the MH back to where they were before they got here. Looks like another hot day here, but some weathercaster promised a little rainstorm tomorrow. We'll see how that one goes. Looks like the escapade is kicking off up in Vermont. That would be the place to be right now. Oh well! Happy Travels.............. Steve

I guess I finally got in touch with the right windshield person. They are shipping the windshield to Norman Oklahoma (where we are parked) and have a glass shop here that does bus windows. They won't do a mobile install on a single windshield, but they are just a couple of miles from where we are parked so it's probably high time I exercise the bus anyway. That will give the generator some exercise anyway because it will have to run the three A/C units all day in this 100 degree heat. I guess you could fry eggs on the windshield ha ha, hmmm maybe if you threw a crepe mix on the windshield and spread it with the wipers, you would have breakfast!! I'll work on that one. Steve