We decided it was so nice at Grand Oaks, we would dawdle a little before our appointments in Atlanta, then my dentist appt got changed, so we weren't under pressure at all. Here's a few more pictures of how idyllic it was.
So we really took our time getting to Atlanta, and along the way decided we would probably cut our time a little shorter. When we did arrive, the place was a zoo, can you say party central?!
I should explain a bit about our ever-changing outlook as to campgrounds. People like us who full time and have for as long as we have, almost 17 years now, evaluate campgrounds a little differently from folks who are "camping". We aren't on vacation, we enjoy doing various things where we are, but by and large we are just living life. I explained in previous posts that this pandemic changed things drastically in the RV world. Tons and tons of folks bought RV's for the first time, filled up the campgrounds, and know literally nothing about RVing, campground etiquette, etc, and since the schools are closed for a good part, there are tons of kids everywhere. Now don't get the wrong idea, we like kids, but we don't like screaming kids running through our campsite with no supervision, the parents figure the entire campground is their playground and since they themselves don't understand the etiquette of not going through other campsites, they don't know any better. In Florida at our winter park you rarely see kids, maybe grandkids come to visit now and then, but this year at least 10 families were in the park all the time with kids everywhere, very unusual for our "old folks" park:-) Another Covid phenomenon. Well when we pulled in here to Allatoona Landing, we had to wait for 4 kids to move so we could park, and the place was full. This place which we have been coming to now for more than 20 years is becoming on a par with a state park, smoldering fires all over the park, kids everywhere, large gatherings of family and friends, noise into the night, etc. Yes, I know I sound like a curmudgeon. But we go to great lengths when picking campgrounds that appeal to our desires, like anyone would. One of the problems here in Atlanta is there are very few campgrounds in the entire area let alone where we need to be, so it is disheartening that each time we come, we want to get in and out as soon as we can. So we did. We cut our time to an absolute minimum, will go up to NC and Tenn for a while, then head west. Change, remember? Okay enough of the whining.
So I mentioned that our truck windshield got broken somehow getting to Josam's, but we managed to get an appt to have that replaced, but Murphy wasn't done with us just yet. We were getting ready to leave Grand Oaks finally, and our routine is to start the coach, let it come up on the air, and meanwhile I unhook the water, sewer, and electric, when I finish, it is usually up and ready for the slides to come in, I signal and Jan brings them in. Well when I unhook the water, the water keeps flowing out of our hose, this is an indication of a check valve failure, it happens with some regularity, sometime it goes a month, 6 months, or 2 weeks, you never know, but I carry half a dozen of these cheap plastic valves and it literally takes me less than 5 minutes to replace it with no tools needed, so I signaled to Jan to shut it off, and when she did I heard, what an air leak?!?!? After all our time at Josam's, there is an air leak?!? We track it down, it is really loud, so we find it easily, it is our tag axle regulator, a valve that sets the amount of down pressure and therefore the weight the tag axle carries. It isn't critical for the drive as we can produce plenty of air to make up for the leak, but it has to be fixed soon.
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| The bad valve |
I went onto a couple of the forums I frequent to see if anyone knew the part number or where to get one, we couldn't see any indication of numbers on our very dirty valve. Sure enough I got some quick info and ordered the one that seemed correct. It came in in two days, picked it up, and went to install it. We didn't pull the old one first as we didn't want there to be NO air in the tag, and what do we find, our new part isn't correct, it is about twice the size of ours, and no way to install it, so now what? Since the old valve is now off, I take it and run to NAPA to see if they have something similar, they do although it's very light duty, bring it back, install it and all the fittings leak like a sieve. Okay, slow down, we clean the old valve up and do find part numbers, find out that we can get the correct part in 2 days, so we order it, then I go to NAPA and buy all new fittings and even some extra air line just in case. They took back the wrong one, and we got the correct OEM one. We had to wait one more day to get the mounting nut for the regulator, why isn't that included? Any way all in now and done.
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| New valve, no leaks |
Then, of course, one more thing that is driving Jan and I crazy.
So some back ground, back in this post, http://billjansexcellentadventure.blogspot.com/2021/03/update-with-only-3-weeks-to-go.html I talk about recaulking the top of the windshield and how this year I put the absolute minimum amount of caulk in the gap to see if it would hold up better. Now this is where it gets a little crazy, we drove up to Talin RV to have our awning fabric replaced after I caulked the windshield, all the way up and all the way back all good. Then when we went to Josam's we experienced a whistle that seems to be coming from the right top of the windshield, it seemed to only be there between 45 and 55 mph and especially when in a right turn, hmmmm. By the time we stopped in Americus on the way north, the whistle was worse, almost constant. We racked our brains to try to figure what was different, we even stopped along the road and Jan went up on the roof to see if something was loose, no. I look very carefully and do find what I think could be the problem, when I pulled off our windshield cover one of the snaps had broken leaving a piece of the snap behind, so I convinced myself that was the cause of the whistle, I smugly told Jan that was the end of our noise. Ha, if anything getting here to Atlanta it was even worse!
So thinking it just had to do with the minimal caulking job, I got out the ladder and caulked it again, this time the way I used to do it. We'll see what happens.
So Murphy, what else is lurking for us???
Meanwhile we got our dentist appointments taken care of, and our doctor appointments, and even got the truck windshield replaced.
Now we are wrapping things up and will soon head north. We got to see some friends which we didn't last spring with the Covid.
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| Nice lunch and visit with Brett and Sandra |
It's wonderful that things are getting back to normal. Northward bound, I'll let you know how the whistle works out:-)
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