Truly On The Move

With our change of plans, we zeroed in on the itinerary and made the appropriate reservations for our trip to Texas.  Then of course a few last minute errands to include several cases of bourbon and Canadian whiskey to offset some of the really high prices in the northeast.  After all we'll be in Maine for 3 months:-)  We had several nice lunches and visits with Karen and Tom.  A very nice final lunch followed by a longer visit with Ray and Linda.

Our dear friend Ray

Later we had a wonderful lunch and visit with Debbie and Harold, and their son, Scott. to say good bye for the season.

Jan, Moi, Harold, Scott, and Deb

Jan played her last Mahjong, and then a last get together with Karen and Tom until we see them later in Maine.

Then we tore down our site, Jan washed and waxed the truck, and then we packed up the truck which was no easy feat as in addition to all the stuff that fills the bed, we were also carrying 10 gallons of oil for our upcoming oil change, the baseplate, numerous new plants, and perhaps a case of booze that we couldn't fit in the coach:-)

We even got a good bye from an eagle that landed right behind our site.

Anyway with everything done we left Sunday afternoon and went to Detroit Diesel in Ocala to spend the night for our service the next morning.  It was a nice evening so we made the most of it.

They jumped right on us first thing in the morning and we took off for an exceptional breakfast at Waffle House, killed a bit time running around, and came back.  After a while once they finished, they started it up, and it idled beautifully for 2 minutes, shuddered several times and then died, they lost the prime again!  This had happened to us 3 years ago and we sure thought it was behind us.  I'm sure they hoped the same thing.  The first time it happened I only had about a quarter tank of fuel so we thought that was the problem.  They run it into their garage up a big slope so it is easy to get underneath, but with the fuel tank way, way up front, it is asking for a long pull from the tank to the engine in the back.  So fast forward, 2 1/2 hours later, priming the filter, and putting air pressure on the tank, they finally got it started.  So our quick and easy oil service turned into 4 hours.  Good we were only going 125 miles down the road to Madison, FL.

Getting ready to put air pressure on the tank

Priming

We can absolutely say we will never let them put the coach in the back on the slope again!

After a pleasant evening in Madison, FL, we had 2 long days, about 430 miles each day to get to Athens, TX, made even longer as we had to drive separately.  We stopped the first night in Hattiesburg, MS, and arrived just before that huge weather system moved through, thankfully it wasn't too bad right where we were.  Then on to Chandler, TX to a not so nice campground that got us within 25 miles of M&G Braking Systems for our appointment.  Right now we are sitting outside in the coach while they are installing our baseplate hoping it will warm up from the 34 degrees we woke up to.  After the baseplate and making sure everything works we will head over to Weatherford, TX on the west side of Fort Worth to get in position to visit our daughter Kelly and Brian for a few days before we head back east.

One hour and the baseplate is done!  Amazing service, made sure everything worked well and it did so we are now on the road.

Disappointing, New Plans, and Good News

As I said we had one more big project ahead of us, and that was installing the baseplate on our new truck.  The baseplate is what the tow bar connects to so you are able to tow it.  Jan and I reflected and found that we have installed at least 10 of these before, so no big deal.  We got the truck raised up as much as the suspension allowed and ran it up on blocks to have access.  We mapped out our plan and arranged the tools needed for the install.

First step was removing the wheel well liner, no problem.

Next step was to remove the bumper, and that's where it all came to a halt.  Without the truck up on a lift we had no way that we could get a tool on the 3 big nuts on each side to remove the bumper.  A very disappointing situation, and totally unexpected, so we buttoned it all up and threw in the towel.  But before we put the tools away we replaced the air cleaner on the coach, so at least one thing was accomplished.

So now what?  When we bought the truck we went up to M&G Braking in Athens, TX to have them install the braking system and the wiring harness, and had planned to have them do the baseplate as well, but the baseplate hadn't been developed yet for our new model truck.  So we are now heading back to Athens, TX to have them install it. It will mean we will have to leave earlier than we had planned, no big deal.  And since we will be close to our daughter Kelly's new house, we will have an opportunity to visit she and Brian after the baseplate.  New plans make the world go round:-)

We had a nice get together lunch with Ray and Linda, and Karen and Tom joined us.

Karen, Tom, Linda, Ray, and Jan

Jan and I drove up to St Pete for a very good lunch at Crabby Bill's, Jason and Joanne had given us a gift certificate for Christmas we wanted to use, thank you!  It was a little cool and windy so we ate inside but still had a nice view of the gulf.

We had a veritable feast to include what we think might be the best onion rings outside of New England.

Grouper bites

And the amazing onion rings!

The good news.  As I mentioned we have been talking to people and getting some rough estimates on repairing the clear coat in several places on our coach, 17 years sitting in the sun and weather has taken its toll.  We thought we would maybe have to make a sortie to the west coast to a paint shop we had used previously.  And after a very high estimate from a shop in Utah, we almost committed to Oregon, but decided to try one more highly recommended place outside of Elkhart, IN, and they hit the mark.  We are planning to see them after we leave Maine and New England in mid August to have them take care of us.  There will be much more on this subject to follow.  Now we just have to figure out what to do for the 10 days or so while we have to stay out of the coach.

So now we are down to just a bit more than a week, a few more visits, a few more lunches, docs are all done and good, almost time to go.