Chairs Are Finally Back!

The big news is we got our captain's chairs back from the upholsterer.  We got a call and coordinated a time once Jan had her soft cast off, and ran up to get them.  We were able to get them both in the bed of the truck carefully and brought them back.   Thankfully both Harold and Tom were here to help get them out of the truck and into the coach.  The 3 of us managed to get them through the door and then Tom singlehandedly took them the rest of the way when Harold and I got pinned in the door:-)  Thanks again to both of you!  Jan and I then spent the next 4 1/2 hours getting them reinstalled.  The passenger seat was the easiest as far as wiring went, just a few connectors, but the bolts that hold them are almost completely inaccessible even for her small hands, but my seat's wiring was a nightmare.  When we took them out, I disconnected every connector I could find, but there were still several wires holding the seat, so in desperation as Tom and Jan were holding the seat up, I just cut the remaining wires.  My seat has many more features therefore many more wires, memory, heat, lumbar support, and the seat itself moved forward and back, so to get all the wires reconnected properly and splice the cut wires with the seat close enough to make it happen, well it was a challenge.  But now they are in.

Biggest challenge, getting them inside

Getting a bolt in

Rewiring

The diesel mechanic finishing up

Are we happy with the results?  Well, not quite as much as we wanted to be unfortunately.  About a 7.5 out of 10, so I am not going to share the name of the place we had it done at.  Some of the seams don't meet right, and a couple of spots are a bit questionable, but I think as we just accept the fact the seats are back and work fine, we won't notice the little details as much as we do right now.  No matter what they are one hell of a lot better now than they were.  Mark one more project off the list.

I can now say all the doctor appointments and even the joy of a colonoscopy are all out of the way for another year!

We've had several get togethers with friends and unfortunately Debbie had to go back home to attend to some family business, so we are missing her company.  Crossing our fingers that she'll be back before we leave in only a little over 2 weeks.  Hard to believe.

Me, with Scott showing me some photos, Tom, and Phil

Harold, of Debbie and Harold, Phil, moi, and Scott

So we are now in countdown mode, finishing up some of the last few projects, going out to lunches with Ray, visiting friends in the park before we bid adieux until next season.  It will feel very different when we come back as our site will be ours starting Oct 1st until the next Oct 1st as we were forced to go "annual", as did Tom and Karen and many others in the park.  Our park changed the rules that affect reservations, and by doing so actually kicked Tom and Karen off their site, which dominoes a bunch of other people to change their sites unwillingly as well.  We used to have a policy that when you rented your site "seasonally" you got to keep it 3, 4, 5, or 6 months, and since an annual has precedence and if someone wanted to take your site annually they would call and offer you first right of refusal, so you could keep your site by going annually, no more.  Tom found out he was bumped off without any call or notification whatsoever even though he had been on that site for 5 years!  This change in policy has frustrated many people here but management doesn't seem to care, and I guess the fact that they have over 200 people on a waiting list to get in, they don't feel any loyalty to long time customers.  It has really changed the attitude and complexion of the park.  When you take your site annually no one else can stay on it, and the park may not rent it out in your absence, also you can improve your site, put in pavers, plant shrubs or flowers, put up a more permanent pavilion, and even install a small shed, so I guess there are some advantages, but for us the importance of keeping our site, the site we have been on for 7 years is going to cost us $3500 or so more dollars for the same amount of time.  Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.  I will probably have one or two more posts before we hit the road, then on to future adventures.

Saw this guy with his dinner on one of our walks in the park.