Cheers for Stuart's Service!

Auntie Violet has been feeling a bit cantankerous lately. She's let us know by pushing out the bedroom slide (slide #2) as we've traveled down the road. She doesn't push it very far, just about two inches. We stop after about an hour or so and push the button to put it back in, then she's usually pretty good about it until we get to our next location and by then it's out about two inches again...

Knowing she was having a bit of a problem, we deliberately scheduled a stop in Elkhart, Indiana so that we could visit STUART'S SERVICE, an authorized HWH repair shop. We had stopped there last October on our way through so that they could install some new hydraulic hoses for us.

We made an appointment for 10:30 this morning and headed to County Road 6 in the midst of scattered rain showers.

Chuck Stuart and his crew very quickly took Auntie Violet into the shop and found that she had a leaking valve. They very quickly adjusted it, then added more hydraulic fluid to replace what she had lost. They then kept her for a another 30 minutes to make sure that the valve would not leak again.

We cannot say enough positive about Stuart's Service. They know what they are doing and take care of things very professionally. We were charged for only one half hour of shop time plus the cost of the hydraulic fluid.

By noon we were back on the road. We took Interstate 80/90 across the remainder of Indiana and on into Illinois. There were ten lanes of traffic! There were a few times when we were hemmed in by semi trucks on both sides and in front and back -- not the most pleasant driving!

We are re-tracing a bit of our route from last fall, but will veer off in order to visit Iowa and Wisconsin which are two of the four states we have not yet covered in the "lower 48."

We settled in at the LaSalle/Peru KOA for the night. This is a very pretty nice little park near Utica, Illinois. We'd like to have stayed for a couple of nights, but they are booked solid for the weekend. We'll head on to N. Liberty, Iowa tomorrow.

Elkhart, Indiana -- 101 Degrees!

Oh, what a miserably hot day! We thought it was going to be cool and rainy -- a good traveling day as it was overcast this morning with an occasional drop of rain.

But, by the time we had everything packed up and put away and had the tanks dumped, the sky had cleared and it was beginning to get hot.We drove most of the way on Interstate 80/90 which is again a toll road in Ohio. ($14.75 to the Ohio Turnpike Commission) The corn and soybean fields were still quite green in Ohio, but the further west we drove, the more stressed they looked. Some of them really look dried out already...

I hope the price we paid for diesel today isn't an indication of what's going to be happening more as we go west. We paid  $3.959 a gallon today in Indiana; a full fifty cents more than we paid in New York just a week ago! And that's with the eight cents per gallon Pilot discount...

We drove back into Elkhart Campground (we were here last October) about 3:30 this afternoon. I debated whether to pay the extra $3 for a 50 amp site, but since we've been staying at 30 amp places the last couple of weeks, I decided to go ahead and splurge for the 50 amp. We're on the south side of the campground in a pull-through site. By the time I got the electric and water hooked up and Forry got the jack pads down, we were dripping wet. The thermometer read 101 degrees!

Thank goodness for 50 amps. We turned on BOTH air conditioners and just collapsed for a half hour or so. It's 10 PM and it's still 88 degrees outside.

We turned on the TV to watch the Mariners game a few minutes ago only to hear that Ichiro has been traded to the Yankees today! He's wearing a Yankee uniform for the game tonight!!! ;-(

Printing..?!

It was supposed to be a quiet day today. I was going to pack for my trip to Elkhart, Indiana tomorrow (I did the necessary laundry yesterday.) and print off the packet of materials that had been sent the meeting.

First Hurdle: The files were all sent .ftp! I haven't seen anything in that format for more than twenty years! We used to use it way back when before email to access the Internet. Of course, the directions that came with the files did not work! I finally went on line and downloaded FileZilla File and was able to figure out how to open the files so that I could print them.

Second Hurdle: Three pages printed and the black ink portions tapered off to grey! No problem, I had a spare cartridge in the cupboard. Oops, two color cartridges, but NO BLACK! I knew I had seen an office supply store in the shopping center just up the road by Publix. Oops, guess I saw one somewhere else?

OK, don't panic. Plug office supply store into the GPS. It found an Office Depot about nine miles away (it was actually more like twelve as the GPS seems to calculate "as the crow flies"!). Uh, oh, looks like the address that the GPS says is an Office Depot is now only an empty store! Try again. The GPS finds a Staples. It didn't look to be too far away. Turns out to be way over in Winter Haven! When we get there, we find another empty store and I FREAK! Fortunately, Forry remains calm and spots the Staples store on the other side of the highway!

We park. I go in; see the sign for ink; grab the correct cartridge; pay for it; and go back out to the car. NO Forry! (I thought he was staying in the car to plot the closest way back home on the GPS.) Evidently, he followed me into the store and was looking around... I go back in and find him, the clerk laughs at us as we leave...

Home again (by now it's after 6 PM) and I put the new cartridge in the printer and print off all the pages. Looks like I should have bought another ream of paper while I was at Staples -- the stack is an inch high! Oh well, print off the Boarding Passes, write my blog and go pack. Tomorrow is another day!

Out and About

We were out and about today checking on how long it will take us to go from Mouse Mountain RV Park to Orlando International Airport for my flight to the Executive Board meeting in Elkhart, Indiana next week. It's a good thing we did as it took about a half hour longer than we had thought. My flight leaves at 5:30 AM on Thursday, so we're going to have to have a very early start!

We stopped on our way back for dinner at Crisper's, then picked up the tea bags and spot remover that I had forgotten to get when I got groceries last week. As we were driving home, we noticed that the magnolia trees are in bud --

These fat white buds sticking up so tall will open into beautiful flowers in a couple of days. I can hardly wait to see them --

As  we walked tonight, I did see a cactus plant -- and it had buds on it!

It looks as if it is a pretty old plant that has been in a pot for some time. There are several buds beginning to show --

We saw this Class C motorhome spinning in the breeze --

It has cooled down a great deal today. The thermometer read 77 degrees when we went out walking.

We Move and We See a NP

We were scheduled to leave Mouse Mountain RV Park today. Our month here in Lot 41C was up. We had been looking at maps and trying to decide where we should go. I was able to make a reservation for three nights at a park near St. Augustine (which I really want to visit), but after that they were full. We needed to find a city along the east coast with a fairly large airport. I have an Executive Board meeting in Elkhart, Indiana April 12-14th. The nearest airport is in South Bend and there are not a lot of flights...

We fussed about it for a while, checking out various places and finally decided it would be easier just to stay here and fly in and out of Orlando International. So yesterday we went to visit the office to see whether we could stay where we were. (Isn't this planter of vari-colored petunias outside the office pretty?)

It turned out that there was someone who had specifically requested Lot 41C coming in today... We were given our choice of a couple of other spots to move to and we chose to move to Lot H1. It's actually a pretty good spot. It's on a bit of a hill with a nice cross breeze. The park in St. Augustine was nice when I called to cancel, just said they hoped to see us when we moved on next month...

And since it's on the end of the row, we only have a neighbor on one side. It seems to be a pleasant neighborhood. We've already had a couple of people welcome us -- which is more than we ever had at 41C!

Last night I decided that if my throat was still sore today from the post-nasal drip, I was going to the Minit-Clinic at the nearby CVS Pharmacy. It's been almost two weeks and I figured it wasn't getting any better with tincture of time... The clinic has a delightful Nurse Practitioner named Cindy. She agreed that the post-nasal drip was bad and my ears were full of fluid. And she didn't like the sounds of my cough either. Then she heard Forry coughing out in the hallway and decided she should take a look at him as well. We both ended up walking out with prescriptions. Kind of a pricey afternoon, but I'm tired of not feeling good.

Blessings to Stuart's Service!

Up early and on the road; Forry's driving Auntie Violet; I'm following in the Toad.  We had scouted out the route yesterday afternoon, so it was an easy trip in spite of the early Monday morning traffic.  Our appointment was at 9:30 and we pulled in a few minutes early.  We had called the HWH factory early last week --

and they referred us to this authorized Master Service Center in Elkhart --

Chuck and his crew of two immediately got to work on Auntie Violet's hoses, so we took off and went to visit the RV/MH Hall of Fame, Museum and Library.

They have an incredible collection of old RVs.  Many of them were one of a kind, hand-crafted jobs like this one, The Tennessee Traveler --

Many of the early ones were just small trailers, but even then they had awnings --

You sure wouldn't miss this one going down the road --

We had barely gotten a good look around the museum when Chuck called and said that Auntie Violet was finished and ready to go.  We quickly went back and found that, indeed, she was!  They had replaced three hoses, one one-hundred inches and two one hundred and fourteen inches and added hydraulic fluid to replace all that we had lost. And they only charged us for two hours of shop time. All I can say, is that if anyone needs work done on their hydraulic systems, Stuart's Service is THE way to go!

We drove back over to Elkhart Campground and paid for another night.  It was SO nice to put the jacks down and let out the slides -- it's amazing how much room we have. And between the new batteries and the filled hydraulic reservoir, the slides just zipped in and out!


This evening we drove over to Middlebury to Das Dutchman Essenhaus for a wonderful dinner.  My former Mennonite Church Executive Board member colleague, Sue Miller and her family own this Amish-style complex.  I had chicken and Forry had sausage, but we had to get take-home boxes for part of it, so that we would have room for pie.  I had a red raspberry cream pie (my Sister Sherry's is better!) and Forry had a piece of chocolate, peanut butter, banana cream pie that he raved about. Nothing like returning home completely stuffed!

Honey Bear Hollow Campground

BAM, BAM, BANG!! I'm sure I jumped a mile at the sound of acorns bouncing off of Auntie Violet's metal roof last night!  We were parked underneath an oak tree at Honey Bear Hollow Campground near Peru, Indiana.  It was a gorgeous place, but who knew that acorns could be so loud!  They didn't fall singly either.  There would be a rain of half a dozen at a time ricocheting off the roof.  I looked for squirrels, didn't see any, so don't know why a bunch would come down all at once?

This was the gorgeous view we had looking out Auntie Violet's front window last evening --

Toni, one of the owners of Honey Bear Hollow, made us a wonderful pizza for dinner last night.  We were able to order it when we arrived, then walked over to the office at 5:30 to pick it up.

With the broken hydraulic line, we were unable to put the jacks down nor put any of the slides out without oil pouring out, so we spent last night -- and will again tonight -- with everything closed up.  Forry can sit nice and close in the passenger seat to watch TV and we cleared off a corner of the couch for me. I sure will be happier when we can spread out again!

We left a little after noon and headed north again on State Highway 31 towards Elkhart.  It was an absolutely beautiful drive --

I think I'm going to have to do some shopping and see if I can find a filter for my camera that will bring out the reds better.  These pictures just do not do justice to some of the colorful foliage.

We are parked tonight in the middle of a grassy area at Elkhart Campground.  We unhitched Toad and drove over to check out the route to Stuart's Service where we have a 9:30 AM appointment.  We also took a look at where Daughter Dawn and Todd lived while he was going to seminary at AMBS and saw the new building that will be offices for Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Mission Network and Mennonite Education Agency.

Auntie Violet Gets New Batteries

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8. 2011

(I was unable to get an Internet connection last night where we were staying at Honey Bear Hollow RV Camp, so am posting this on Sunday.)

Auntie Violet was anxious to make her stop this morning at Interstate Batteries on our way out of Indianapolis --

 Her bank of 6 volt house batteries was exhausted and worn out --

It was already in the high eighties when we got to  the shop and Forry quickly decided that the $75 charge for removing the old batteries and installing the new ones was well worth it --

The tech brought out a cart load of shiny new batteries --

And was Auntie Violet ever happy when they were all safely installed in her battery bay --

While we were at the Interstate Battery store, I also got a new battery installed in my watch!  I saw this on the wall of the shop when I went in to pay for it --

It took about two hours to get the whole job done.  From there we headed out via State Highway 31 towards our Monday appointment in Elkhart.

On the Road Again -- NOT!

We were making pretty good progress this morning, getting ready to leave Indy Lakes.  I had taken the garbage up to the dumpster; put the mail in the mailbox; traded the gate opener to the office manager for my $20 deposit back; and loaded the lavender plant and the doorstep into the Toad. We had put all the pictures, smoke detector. calendar, etc. away on the bed.  We pulled in the slide on the driver's side with no problem, but when we went to pull in the one on the passenger side -- nothing!  It raised up, but then wouldn't come in. Now, we can travel with the bedroom slide cattywampus and out a bit in the back, but not with the living room slide all the way out!

Stuart's Service in Elkhart where we have an appointment on Monday is not open on Fridays, so we could not even call them for advice.  We called Camper World who gave up the name of a mobile RV tech, who didn't answer the phone.  Forry went up to the office to tell them we would be staying another day.  They did NOT recommend the mobile tech we had called, saying that people here had many complaints about him.  But they did recommend we call a local RV dealer and ask for Jack.  While the dealer did not do off-site work, Jack did after hours.

Sure enough about 4:45, there was a knock on the door.  Jack had a few ideas about what we might be able to do to get the slide to go back in --

Finally he and Forry worked there way around to the back where Forry had seen quite a bit of oil leaking from the area of the bedroom slide near the radiator --

Jack ended up isolating and crimping off the leaky hose long enough for us to get the slide to go back in.  It looks like all of these hydraulic line hoses are bad and will need to be replaced when we get to Elkhart!

It was a $100 service call (plus a $20 tip), but worth every penny! We'll try again to head north in the morning...

A VERY, VERY Lazy Day!

I was SO tired today!  We didn't get up until almost nine, I ate my yogurt, granola and blueberries; then fell asleep sitting on the sofa drinking my coffee...

I finally gave up and went back and laid on the bed and took a morning nap.  So you can imagine how much day there wasn't left by the time I was awake and functioning again.  I did get a couple of loads of laundry done, but it was starting to get dark when I was hanging the second load up.

I spent a bit of time on the computer looking for a recommendation from HWH on where to get the back slide fixed.  They are actually based in Moscow, Iowa. We were thinking if all else failed, we could go to the factory, but they gave us the name of a place they highly recommend in Elkhart. Indiana.  Stuart Service is only about a day's drive from here.  By the time we had gotten that figured out, it was too late to chat with them as they close at 3 PM Central time.  We'll do that first thing in the morning.

I did have a chance this afternoon to chat on the telephone with Sister Sherry.  My niece Daphne and her boys are there from Virginia visiting at the Touchet farm.  It was sure good to visit with her. I am so impressed with the delightful young women my nieces have become.