Update on Drifting Jacks

I forgot to relate that we think we've finally fixed our drifting jacks problem. For the past year we've been having trouble with the two driver's side jacks drifting down while we're driving. Not good. We've had them "fixed" several times and have been advised by Lippert as to various ways to bleed, purge, tighten the valves, etc. At our last repair stop in San Antonio, we got the diagnosis that it wasn't the valves but the jacks themselves that were the problem.  OK...

So, because we were going to be in Kerrville, TX for awhile, we took the RV to LeMeilleur's Truck and RV to have the two faulty jacks replaced. It was not a huge job, and shouldn't have taken too long but... just after we pulled into one of their bays, the Level Up system wouldn't work. We all puzzled over that for awhile, with no results...because the solenoid was broken. That was a new problem. We had just used the system not 15 minutes before. So the jacks and slides were not moving until that was fixed, and of course they didn't have that solenoid in stock. And because the slides wouldn't open, we were unable to live in the RV while waiting for the part and the repair.

Off to the local motel with no clothes and no toiletries. Luckily the part was able to ship overnight and the repairs were all done by the following afternoon. We were very impressed with LeMeilleur's. They were efficient and communicative all along the way. Their shop was large, clean and orderly, with a very comfortable, well equipped waiting room.

Although we haven't had the chance to test the jacks on a long drive, they did stay up on the ride home from the shop, and haven't collapsed at all since we've been parked. So we're hopeful that it's finally fixed. We travel again soon, so we'll know for sure then.  Oh, and our extended warranty covered much of our costs. That was good news.

Although this all sounds like a giant pain-in-the-neck, we've gotten used to these unpredictable events and have learned to roll with what comes our way. It's all part of this full-time lifestyle, and it's all worth it (though we sure wouldn't miss this part).

Lancaster, PA: Pennsylvania Dutch Country

We've been having trouble with our hydraulic system since we were in Florida. The two driver's side rear jacks slip down when we travel. Yeah, really, not good. Rick has been strapping them up with two mega cable ties on each jack but lately they've even broken those. So we decided it was time to take it somewhere and get some help with them. We found a DRV dealer in Willow Street, PA, just south of Lancaster who could take us. That meant changing the itinerary a bit and finding a place to stay nearby.  Thus we had a day to spend in Pennsylvania Dutch country while overnighting at the Old Mill Stream Campground right next to Dutch Wonderland! Oh boy. This was our first campground in the shadow of a roller coaster. 

Lancaster PA could be anywhere in the US, with the same chains, outlet malls and congestion, except that the tourist traps have this bizarre Amish twist.  But get out of Lancaster and into the countryside and you encounter the real thing. So that's what I did that evening at sunset.

This was a lucky drive-by shot of a farmer's team of mules doing the haying.

The Amish, or Pennsylvania Dutch, have been in this part of the country since the early 1700's. They are as much Americans as anyone, but have chosen to remain apart, preserving the traditions and vocations of their culture. They are best known for being farmers, and they farm using methods far different from the rest of the farmers in the US. Despite not using "modern" agricultural technology, they are incredibly successful at what they do.  Do you think an Amish person could run for president if we asked nicely?

Their farms are absolutely beautiful and heartwarming. They are large, vibrant, solid, clean, well kept, and traditional. Very few of the Amish use electricity, but they do use gas generators and pneumatic (air) power in their barns and shops to run various kinds of tools and machinery. You can see some kind of motor going on the back of this farm implement, while it's being pulled by mules.  The Dutch embrace technology very slowly and with great consideration for how it will impact their families and their community. Decisions to incorporate a new method or tool are made by the elders of the community.

Families are intrinsic and necessary to the success of the Amish community.  Children work on the farms as soon as they can, doing jobs that are deemed age appropriate. They don't spend hours playing video games. Their parents don't spend hours watching television. What can we learn from that?

You can see activity everywhere on the farms: gardening, hanging out clothes, milking the cows, haying, feeding the chickens, putting the mules away, and on and on.

Of course there are the ubiquitous buggies being pulled along all the streets by the carriage horses. Now the local Dutch have found a way to meet the needs of curious tourists - buggy rides! I saw lots of advertisements for them, and young men hanging out with their buggies waiting to provide the tours.  This was another lucky drive-by shot.

I didn't take a ride, but I did have a great time driving around the farmland, getting pictures when I could. I felt a little awkward and voyeuristic, but did find a few places to get pictures where I didn't feel too intrusive.  See the happy Amish cows?

By the way, we are still having trouble with our jacks, even after getting some part replaced and bleeding the hydraulic system. If we repeat the bleeding procedure and retighten all the hydraulic valves each time before we travel, we seem to be okay. Rick has been trying to get a hold of Lippert to ask them what they think is wrong, but is hasn't been easy. He is still strapping them up with mega cable ties. Don't be caught without them.

Two macros of my life

We are now in Georgia, for two weeks at the Pine Mountain RV Resort, in the town of the same name. I'll write more about it when I have more pictures. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and we just hung out and relaxed. We both feel so relieved that our RV is in working order again.  I didn't realize how tense we'd been about it until it was all over.  I don't even want to write about it.  I'll just say that the bill was small, as it was a mistake the RV repair shop made, and our extended warrantee actually covered some of an additional repair issue.  Phew.

I explored the town of Pine Mountain a bit. It's only about a mile up the road. It has about a block of the kinds of stores women stereotypically like to shop in: antiques, clothes, kitchen stuff, interior decor, etc. I don't know what the men who visit this town do. I saw a few stereotypically sitting outside the stores on benches. Poor guys. 

Today it's raining, so I did some experimenting with the Sony Alpha 65 camera. I'm trying to learn about the various features, slowly. I was working with the macro option.  Here's my dear subject.

I wandered around our home looking for other things to take macro shots of.  It's interesting to see in a new way the objects you put your hands on or use in some fashion every day that you take no notice of. This is the pin of the "5th wheel" that goes into the hitch in the bed of the truck. 

Georgia is a lot prettier than I expected. We're in a real spring here in the western hills, in contrast to Florida where there is so much green all year round, that spring kind of sneaks in after their 15 minutes of winter. The leaves here are about half out, and the dogwoods and azaleas are in bloom. As soon as we get a nice day we're going to Callaway Gardens and FDR State Park. Will post about those places next probably.

Motel Limbo Redux

FYI, none of the pictures in this post have anything to do with the content. I took them early one morning at Ellie Ray's RV Resort and I'm sharing them with you because the actual content is such a drag.  If you don't want the news, just look at the pictures. It's good to have choices. 

In our blog stats there is this entry from before we actually started traveling, entitled Motel Limbo, and it is one of the most popular posts ever, for no clear reason. I'm thinking it's just the name. Does it sound like pornography? Is that why it gets so many hits? Well, it's a pretty dull, short post with no photos, so don't bother checking it out. But, here we are again, in a motel, playing limbo. How low can we go? Probably not much worse than this particular Days Inn.

We're back in Titusville at this Days Inn because our RV is once again in the shop, and this is the closest motel that will allow us to have Kona with us for a reasonable fee. (Now there's a pet peeve tangent I could go off on but won't.)  Some readers may recall that we had an issue with our bedroom slide that required a very time consuming fix for a little problem. Well it looks like they did not put the slide back with all the hatches properly battened, and various hoses and wires are hanging down into our hydraulic slide compartment in a way that they shouldn't. As a result, every time we open and close the slide all those hoses and wires are being pinched, pushed and pulled into odd places and angles. There may even be some kind of water leak in the area from a smooshed hose.

We're trying to be good sports and recognize that this is all just part of the full time RV life.  But on top of this issue we also have (or had) a fresh water plumbing leak into our undercarriage and one of our furnaces wasn't working this morning. We have no idea how long these repairs will take. So we're hanging out in this poor excuse for a motel for who knows how many days, eating at Cracker Barrel, watching TV with all the commercials (sans Tivo) and basically breathing through it.  It's not that bad and certainly could be a lot worse.

So, let's all be grateful for the rays of light and love in our lives, even during the dark and dreary times. 

And breathe.

Our new location at TGO

We've moved to our new site at The Great Outdoors. Just to compare with our last one, here's the street view:

And the side view:

and the view from what we have of a backyard. Rick counted 12 trees on this little site!

So as you can imagine, it feels a little dark and tight compared to our last site. I think that in the summer this shade must be very welcome.  We'll be here for three weeks, but on Tuesday we move the RV to the shop to have the slide fixed. It's estimated to be a 20 hour job for a very minor repair. They have to take the bedroom slide (and that includes the bed and the washer/dryer) out completely in order to fasten down a teflon strip that has come loose under the slide. 

While the RV is in the shop we'll load up Ms. Subaru and head over to a little cottage in Astor, FL on the St. Johns River so that we can take a long kayak paddle on the Juniper Springs Run. Really looking forward to that.

Wheels and Tires Rodeo

Readers who may be unfamiliar with full-time RV life may look at this blog and think that all we do is go from one glorious location to the next grand adventure. It's true, we do that, but interspersed is a surprising amount of mundane chores, maintenance, and repairs necessary to keep our home on the road. Most of the chores are universal, like laundry, grocery shopping, paying bills, cooking, cleaning house, washing the car and walking the dog. Some are more unique to RV life, like route planning, emptying the black and grey tanks, refilling propane tanks and climbing on top of the rig to wash the roof and the solar panels.

We've also had our share of minor repairs and other bothers that have required some sweat and ingenuity, mostly from Rick. I just chip in with an occasional bright idea.  (Here's a little fix I made on the drill-like tool we use to lower the spare tire. I added the tennis ball to make it easier to hold and add pressure as needed without slippage. Brilliant, if I do say so myself.)

Since we've been here at The Great Outdoors, in Titusville, FL, we've been attending to some long needed repairs and other kinds of critical problems that just recently came to our attention.

First, we had a small insulated window that fogged up about eight months ago, that we've been trying to replace since then. It was covered by our original warranty, so DRV (that's the company that made our Mobile Suite fifth wheel trailer) sent us a replacement window, but not quickly. We missed opportunities to replace it earlier, and finally got it taken care of at Eagles Pride RV Repair right here at The Great Outdoors. A very nice repairman came right to our site and popped out the old window (shattered glass all over the place - oops) and popped in the new one with just a little problem. It seems that the rivets that hold the window in are not accessible without removing or cutting out the wood trim from the inside of the window (who engineered that?) - a big deal that he didn't have the right tools for. So he said he'd come back first thing on Monday with the right tools.  Monday came, the morning passing, and no repairman. But in the meantime Rick put his mind to it and came up with the perfect solution. Cable ties! It would be a little too complicated to explain just how, but here are a few pictures. The two skinny black lines are the cable ties threaded through the rivet holes, with the excess ends still on.

Here the excess is cut off, leaving just the snug little loops holding the window in place.

And here's how it looks with the screen back in. Perfect!

This is not the first time he's used cable ties to solve repair problems. They are an indispensable tool to have around, and I highly recommend them to anyone who is traveling without them. Better than duct tape in many situations. We like electrical tape too.

Now, the "Wheels and Tires Rodeo," as Rick dubbed it. We've had trouble with our tires' valve stems since the beginning, resulting in a few surprise flats while parked at campgrounds (thank goodness), and occasional low pressure. Several months ago Rick talked with Tredit Tire, the supplier of the tires to DRV, and they sent us new heavy duty brass valves to replace all five of our old leaky ones, at no cost to us. So this week Rick changed out every tire, taking them off one by one, wrangling them into the back of the Subaru and driving them to a tire shop in Cocoa Beach to replace the valves. Now let me just say, these are not your everyday tires - they are massive compared to those you know from your car.  Now this is all taken care of and we hope we'll have no more trouble with air loss.  Thank you cowboy Rick.

AND, while emptying our tanks at our last location I noticed that one of our tires was dramatically worn on the two inside treads. This sent us into problem solving mode again.

This kind of uneven tire wear is usually an indication of an alignment problem. After much research and many phone calls to DRV, Lippert (who makes the axles), our extended warranty company and several repair shops, Rick made an appointment at Josam in Orlando, who seem to be THE pros for this kind of work. Field trip!

Josam assessed our axles and discovered that ALL our wheels and axles were wonky. Their hypothesis for the cause is that Lippert makes these axles in a standard manner, to be used on many kinds of vehicles: trucks, busses, RVs, and they are supposed to be adjusted for each vehicle, which fifth wheel manufacturers evidently don't do.

Josam adjusted both axles, with a unique heating and cooling process, and now the camber and toe on all the wheels are correct. I know there was more to it, but I'm not versed in vehicle mechanics language. Josam suggested we have them checked annually and have them realigned as necessary.  And, of course, we needed to buy a new humongous tire to replace the worn one.  Cha-ching. Well we're lucky we didn't need to replace more, and that we found out about the problem before there was more damage done. None of it was covered by our extended warranty by the way - "Normal wear and tear."  Well that's what this post is all about after all.

RV Repairs, Lockhart and Wimberley, TX

We've been planning an RV repair day for awhile and the day finally came, but it turned out to be a  surprising one. There were three things we needed to get done: replace one small window pane that is fogged up, check out what seems to be a hydraulic fluid leak in one of the slides, and figure out why the propane water heater doesn't seem to heat up.  So we drove to Kyle, TX and dropped off the RV for the day at Explorer RV, and did a little local exploring ourselves.

First we did a bit of shopping for a few little things and found all we needed at a nearby H-E-B, the Texas super grocery store. Easy peasy.

Then we headed for Lockhart, "The BBQ Capitol of Texas" for some lunch. Of the four BBQ places in Lockhart, we chose Kreuz Market based on a very thorough, fun and scientific review I found online.

Kreuz is a German style BBQ with a small menu and very basic delivery.  As you can see on the menu board below; "No BBQ Sauce - No Forks - No Kidding." This is not your sweet sticky gloppy stuff. Just pure smoked meat. The review I read had identified the brisket as the best of all, so that's what we tried. 

To order, you enter right into the smoke house - a dark, warm, smokey, cavernous building where six huge wood fired ovens are smoking the meats.

The folks behind the counter and working the smokers take your order, carve off what you want, weigh it, and plop it on butcher paper. You pay and move on to the dining room.

Drinks and sides are purchased at the counter in the dining room, a basic family style place.

Two servings of brisket, four slices of white bread, two cole slaws, one side of German potatoes and two huge drinks cost us about $12.00.  What a deal!  The brisket was indeed great - juicy, with the predicted salty-smokey crust. The sides were just okay. 

We took a little spin around the town square and got a picture of the court house.  The downtown area was lively and functional - not touristy or trendy. 

About a thirty minute drive away is the town of Wimberley, recommended by my cousin's wife as a cute town to walk around. When we were almost in Wimberley, we crossed a river and were so struck with it's clarity that we had to track it down. So we found River Rd. on Google Maps (our constant companion on these adventures) and drove along the Blanco River as far as we could. There was absolutely no access to it, not even a pull over to take pictures, but the road did follow along river with private property on both sides. We got a good enough view to take a few drive by shootings.

Once in town, we parked by Cypress Creek, which feeds into the Blanco and is just as beautiful, but more heavily wooded with... you guessed it... cypress trees. I didn't realize we were already in cypress country. 

Walking through the little artsy town of Wimberley was kind of interesting, but not as much as walking along the creek.  The stores were mostly women's lacy clothing, home decor, Texas stuff of all sorts, and a little art.  You know, when you have no room for things in your home, it kind of changes your approach to shopping, but it gave us something to do. Some of the art on the street was cool. This is kind of a wheel chair crossed with something else, but what??? A race car? 

And this is a rusty Texas armadillo.

Rick took a little rest in the park while Kona and I explored the creek some more.  The needles were falling off the cypress trees and covering the creek so completely in places that it looked like a road rather than water. 

Kona did find a place to swim where we could see through the needles into the water. It was pretty deep and crystal clear. We could see big fish swimming down there. I think she was a little spooked by all the needles and didn't stay in too long. 

Behind the town, in the deep shade of the creek banks there were old stone walls providing private swimming and boating access to the deep, clear green water.  Geese, ducks and turtles were swimming around, but no people. We were the only ones there.  Oh, and the mosquitos.

At about 4:00 we finally got a call from Explorer RV to tell us our rig was done.  So what was the surprising upshot of the repairs?  No window repair, as they hadn't yet received the replacement pane. (We actually already knew that.) No hydraulic fluid leak. It seems that during construction there must have been a spill or a leak that the manufacturers sopped up with a pile of sawdust that was still there. The sawdust was saturated and slowly leaking fluid down through the basement ceiling. But there was no current leakage.  Now wouldn't you think the manufacturer would have cleaned up that pile of sawdust???? And finally, the propane water heater seemed to be working fine. Another mystery. So our bill was just for one hours worth of labor to diagnose the non-problems.  Could have been a lot worse.

Tomorrow I think we're driving west to Enchanted Rock State Park, and then I'll be going to the Alamo Drafthouse (an Austin original) in the evening with a friend to see Life of Pi in 3D!  OMG!

Big Horn Mountains

We drove all day, making a loop around and through the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. I'm bushed and I wasn't even driving. Very sunny, dry and high altitudes. Saw two young moose trot across the road (they are impossibly tall!), two marmots, about twenty or more prong horned antelopes. No pictures of any of those unfortunately. Couldn't get them to smile.

Some spectacular scenery in the various canyons and on the high plans.

Shell Canyon Falls

In Buffalo, there was a Basque festival this weekend. Evidently the area was settled at one point by many Basques who were sheep herders. We did see several really huge herds of sheep along Rt. 14 in the high plains.

Wyoming is an amazing place. It's my father's home state so I feel a connection to it. He was born and raised in Cheyenne. Wish we were staying here longer, but we're meeting a friend in Montana before she leaves the state. I think we'll be back in the future. On to Billings tomorrow.

And just for those of you who may think this life is carefree. Well, of course it is in many ways, but we've got our share of pains in the ***.  Today Rick discovered a leak in our second fuel tank. We still have a leak under the kitchen sink. We can't get the mudflaps on the truck, and our spiffy TV that elevates up out of the desk hasn't elevated for days. "Cotton" from the cottonwoods keeps sticking to our shoes and tracking in all over the place. Seems like there's always something that needs fixing, and it often falls to Rick to fix it. It's not his favorite thing to do, but while he struggles with these things I read in the shade, take a pictures, blog a little and offer support and advice. What would I do without him? What would he do without me?

NOT Thomas the Tank Engine

Great Bon Voyage party Saturday night. Some sweet quality time around the camp fire. Lots of good bratwursts. I think seeing our new home put some folks' minds at ease. Now they know we're not heading out into the world in a tin broom closet.

Next day we rode our bikes to the Illinois Railroad Museum in Union. Perfect ride in the country. Among other things, the museum's got some monster train engines housed in this huge, long, dark, scary, kind of stinky building. They look like something out of Dr. Who. Perhaps they inspired the Daleks, only MUCH bigger, blacker and nastier. Very steampunk. Eight wheels that are taller than a tall person. Thousands of rivets sticking out of the tank. Baroque constructions of pipes, boxes, cylinders, gears, towers...Nothing at all like Thomas the Tank Engine.

On the home front, we're having trouble with two of our slides. They're stuck and won't slide back in. So we're in Union IL at the KOA until we resolve the problem.