The little challenge

I mentioned a challenge in the last post and didn't want to keep you in suspense.  As you have probably figured out by now, if you have a motorhome things break or act up fairly often.  When you consider it's basically a house that bumps down the road it isn't that surprising although it does get a bit frustrating when it's one thing after another!

We have a sliding cargo tray in both of our basement compartments, the front one is powered, and the rear one is manual.  Our coach came that way from the factory.  Here is a picture of what a cargo tray or "Joey Bed" looks like.

This one is generic, and since it is raining right now it will have to suffice.  As I said the front tray is powered.  On the passenger side there is a hard wired switch that enables you to run the tray out towards you and then send it back in, and on the driver's side there is a small remote control that lets you do the same thing from that side.  So smart me left the basement door open in a hard rain and the remote didn't work, I figured I had fried it, but replaced the battery to see if that was the problem.  Still didn't work.  So I figured I would just get another, but when I found out it was more than $100, I decided I better be SURE it was no good.  I contacted the manufacturer and they said to reprogram the unit and see what happened, then if it didn't work I could be sure it was the remote. Well, at about the same time, we noticed that even with the switch it was reluctant to move sometimes?  So Jan crawled into the basement and pushed on the appropriate  button to initiate the programming and nothing happened???  Now what?  Back to the manufacturer, he says it sounds like your control box is the problem instead.  Not the rain afterall.  Oh great, but okay, we'll have to get another control box.  So I go to move the slide back into the middle or parked position with the switch and it goes the wrong way.  So I run it the other way and it runs right out to the limit towards me!  No good! Now on the powered slide, it is the motor and mechanism that locks the slide in place so it can't move when you are driving the coach.   There is a manual release so I crawl into the basement and pull this big lever to allow the tray to move freely, put it in the middle and realize I have no way to keep it there.  I figure no problem, I'll just release the lever and it will lock in place.  You have to understand that when the tray is in the middle it is tough to crawl in over all the stuff on the tray to get to the lever, anyway good to go I think, so I close the doors and I'm done until I get the part.

Not so fast.  We go to leave the motorhome to go up to the house and Jan yells something is very wrong!  I go out and there is the passenger basement door all bent out as evidently the tray is trying to come out even with the doors closed.  There is an interlock to prevent it, but with a bad box, who knows what is happening.  We look absolutely everywhere for the fuse or breaker for the tray and find nothing!  I can't kill the power to it.  And I can't open the basement door, so we run around to the driver's side, but with all my tools we can't reach the lever nor can we move the tray!  So after leaning all my weight on the sprung basement door we are able to pop it open.  We step back and relax when the motor on the tray starts running on its own again!  So now I grab a pair of dikes and reach in and with a big shower of sparks, cut the wire supplying the power, and finally kill it.

So I crawl in and pull the lever, we block the tray and I try to find the part.  After contacting no less than 10 suppliers, we find out it is a special order and it will take 2 weeks to get no matter who we order from.  We are leaving in a week......  Oh the joy!  Well now we have 2 problems, where to send it, pretty easy to solve, but how are we gonna keep the tray in place so when I go around a corner it doesn't try to come through the basement doors?  We end up rigging a locking system by drilling a couple holes and dropping a pin through to keep the tray in place, not too convenient, but it beats having it moving around damaging things. So now we are good to go until we get the new part in a couple weeks.

Off to New England next Sunday!

Great week, with one small challenge

We just had a super week.  I've been wanting to try a couple things I've never had, one is a Vietnamese sandwich called a Banh Mi, and the other is Vietnamese soup called Pho.  Karen heard of a little place in Louisville that is known for their sandwiches, so the four of us, Karen, Tom, Jan, and I went over to give it a whirl.  It is Banh Mi Hero  Tom was our resident expert as he recently spent a year in Vietnam.  He said it was authenic and good.  We all thought it was fantastic!  The sandwiches are different from anything we had before, they were bright, spicy, crispy, and best of all, delicious!  Now I have to find the Pho.

Then on Wednesday, our friends, John and Diane came in to visit.  A good time was had by all.  They arrived in their spiffy convertible on a beautiful day.  I shoudd mention the hot, hot weather has eased and it has been gorgeous, low humidity, high 70's in the day and windows open 60's at night!

We went to visit one of Kentucky's renowned bourbon distilleries, Maker's Mark.  It was a lot of fun and interesting.  We learned a few things about bourbon, it has to be at least 50% corn, has to be made in America, is aged in new oak barrels that have been charred on the inside and are only used once, there are more barrels of bourbon aging here in Kentucky than there are people and there are 4.3 million people here!  Neat stuff.  The distillery is in a beautiful little hollow that has an excellent source of limestone filtered water available.

Across the bridge

Along Whisky Creek

The distillery from the outside, all 5 stories

Inside view of the bottom

The sour mash

Aging barrels

Applying the signature wax, by hand!

And now on to the most anticipated part of the tour!  The tasting.

Yum, yum!

One of the things you can do in the gift shop is dip your own bottle in the wax, so we all had to do it!

Diane suiting up

John getting ready

John dipping

Diane about to wax her bottle

Yours truly moving in

Success!

We had a good time, learned a bunch on a beautiful day, and got to taste some excellent bourbon!

And after our long grueling day we had to relax a bit in the evening as a couple hot air balloons floated by.

Trying to relax :-)

Diane taking a picture of the balloons

I'll tell you about our cargo tray that has a mind of its own later.  I don't want it to start acting up again.

Happy, happy, happy!

We got to Louisville on Sunday and pulled into all new paved campsites after negotiating the new widened paved driveway entrance into our top rated "campground" here at the Windenskye farm.  Thank you so much Karen and Tom!

The coach drove fantastic with the new drag link, alignment and new Koni shocks.  Quite a difference!  It's beautiful here in Kentucky right now.  They have had quite a bit of rain so everything is green and lush.  Got my mowing fix in with about 10 hours of mowing already.  Now I need to share with Steve so we each can get our fixes.

We need to do a couple minor things on the coach, get rid of an annoying little rattle from the new front TV, actually the mount that we had to alter when we put up the new TV, put in a 12 volt receptacle near the driver's seat, and a couple other little nitnoy things before we pull up stakes with Karen and head for New England.  Funny how with sitting for as long as we did, you don't notice these little things :-)  We also have a couple items on Karen's rig to take care of.

Our friends, John and Diane, are planning to come up to visit next week and get to meet Karen and Tom and see the farm, then later Kelly and the grandkids are going to try to visit as well.

So all in all, as we settle into our gorgeous campsite, enjoy Karen and Tom's, and Steve and Bobbie's company, bask in the beautiful weather and surroundings, be thankful we are back "on the road", look forward to more adventures, we are, as Phil would say, "happy, happy, happy!"

Made it!

If you thought you heard a big boom, like a sonic boom and a bunch of loud screaming, yelling, and cheering at approximately 3:51:36.34971197pm yesterday, it was us blasting through the Florida force field into Georgia!

That's right, we made it out!

The Florida hold is strong!

So we roll into Josam, the shop that is going to replace the drag link right at 1000am, get the Jeep unhooked, walk inside and find out UPS hasn't come yet.  Okay still 30 mins to go.  An hour later and no UPS, so back on the phone I go to find out what is going on?  Wonderful, the part that was promised to be sent, wasn't sent at all!  And the company that makes it, isn't exactly pleasant on the phone.  They want to know why I'm bugging them!?!?!?!  They tell me they have 3 weeks to build the part and why don't I talk to Monaco like I'm supposed to?  Well, I ask why they didn't ship a part after it was confirmed and promised?  No real answer, so we both calm down.  I explain again how this part has me at a standstill until it is replaced and how we live in our motorhome, and how if it doesn't get here by Friday, we have to kill yet another weekend waiting.  So they promise again to ship it Thursday, I pony up a ton of money for next day air, and we wait for the shipping number....

Now just so it stays complicated, we had a 0700am appointment in Ocala at Detroit Diesel to have our transmission serviced.  Can't make that now, so as I am talking to Ocala on the phone they ask why don't I try to see if their shop in Orlando can help me instead?  Turns out the Orlando division is a mile from where we are!!  So we are headed over there at 0730am this morning, and they say we will be done in a couple hours so we can come back and meet the part which WILL be here by 1030am confirmed by a shipping number this time!  Josam very nicely offers to let us stay overnight in their lot, even gives us a key to the gate so we can get in and out if we need to.  So with a couple burps, it looks like it's coming together.

Our campsite for the night

Now I would like to thank my government for looking out for me and protecting me in every way.  Let me explain.  We obviously didn't plan for this chain of events, so our fuel in the motorhome was at about 1/4 full as we were planning to fuel near Ocala on our way north.  Well since it is so hot, we have had to run the generator nonstop to keep the ACs going.  The catch is this.  There is a stand pipe in the fuel tank that prevents the generator from running you out of fuel.  The generator will only get fuel down to about 1/4 full right where we are!  So I get thinking, not necessarily a good thing, it would not be good to have the genny quit in the middle of the night.  So we run out to Wally World and buy 2-5 gallon gas cans, fill them up and try to put the fuel in the motorhome.  This is where Big Brother comes in.  It's been awhile since we bought a gas can, so we were not aware of the "safety" measures built into the can.  It took literally 15 minutes per can to pour the diesel into the tank!!  So our 20 minute job took 2 hours, but we did manage to put about 18 gallons into the tank with two trips to the gas station.  Gave us peace of mind that the genny wouldn't quit overnight.

So today is a new day, the sun is shining or it will in an hour or so:-)  Wish us luck, and keep your fingers crossed that we can finally escape the Florida tractor beam!

Is that a light at the end of the tunnel?

We got word yesterday, actually, only with phone call after phone call did I finally get word that our part, the drag link we've been waiting on, should be done and shipped today.  In order to make it work, we are having it overnighted to Josam, the alignment shop in Orlando.  It cost some extra money, but the alternative was to push through yet another weekend before leaving Florida.  So right now the part and us are to arrive at the shop tomorrow morning at 1000am.  It shouldn't take too long for it to be installed and we'll be on our way.  But only up to Ocala where we have an appointment with Detroit Diesel/Allison to have our transmission filters and fluid changed.  We wanted to get this item done before our trip to Alaska next summer.  The filter change is good for 3 years and the fluid should be good for 6 years.

So we got everything done once again;-)  The scooter is put to bed in the storage unit along with Jan's kayak.  She went back and forth about taking it with us, but decided with such a late start the chances of her using it this summer were remote, so it stays here.  I hope this post doesn't jinx us, as our part is supposed to ship at 330pm today!

So one more walk this morning in the humidity, grab the mail, and we should be off in the am!

Chomping at the bit

We now officially feel trapped here in Florida.  No word on the part yet, hopefully Monday will bring some news.  It has rained 6 inches in the last week, absolutely poured. It is truly hot and humid now.  It takes both of us almost an hour to really cool off after our morning walks.  That way I don't continue to sweat like a pig even after I get out of the shower.

We just extended with the campground for another week.  I think the wheels are sinking deeper each day.  

We got the scooter registered and insured.  Ordered two helmets and a cover, just in time to put it in storage for the rest of the summer.  Hopefully Jason will get a chance to ride it a bit before we get back.  Jan is still a little nervous on it, but improving each day she gets a chance to ride it in between the raindrops.

Stir crazy that we are, we have been working a couple of new projects for the motorhome, never ends, right?

Keep your fingers crossed for us that the part gets here and we get to leave this week!

Chilling and a new "toy"

We decided with this unexpected delay, Jan would fly to Texas to see Kelly, Todd, and our grandchildren.  She had an uneventful trip and has been "enjoying" herself helping Kelly do a ton of landscaping and gardening.  It's hot there but Jan says the difference in humidity as compared to Florida is delightful.  It has really become uncomfortable here these last few weeks.  When I do my 3 mile walk it literally takes me 45 minutes to cool down enough to take a shower!

Jason has been keeping me company most evenings, and this weekend we managed to get a few things done.  He bought a couch for his new place, sorely needed, and is actually making it a nice place to live.  Overlooking a golf course isn't too bad:-)  We recharged the dash AC system on the motorhome.  It hadn't been blowing as cool as it normally does, so after 5 cans of freon, it is so cold now!

We changed out our modem we had been using for internet.  I had mentioned back in the summer we had gotten a modem from Millenicom that interfaced with our WiFi Ranger, our amplified external antenna WiFi and wireless router system that used the Verizon network.  It has worked great so far, but as our quest for speed has increased, its 3G capability has been lacking.  So we traded for a 4G/3G MiFi that also works on the Verizon network.  It is really fast!  Millenicom is an interesting company that offers internet service with no contract and allows large amounts of data each month all the way up to unlimited.  Our plan is 20GB which is plenty adequate for us.  The MiFi is pretty cool, it's about the size of a small pack of cards, and it wirelessly connects with up to 10 devices.

Now to the "toy".  As Jan and I sat for all this time here in Florida, there were often times when we wished we had some other transportation.  She or I had the Jeep which pretty much stranded the other person except for a bicycle.  This is not a problem as we travel as we spend most of our time together, but here in Florida, it does prove challenging now and then.  Jan and I talked about maybe getting a scooter for next season and left it at that.  Well..........Jason and I had nothing better to do so we went to learn something about scooters.  Started at a little scooter store in Venice to learn something about them.  Seems there is a 50cc threshold that below which you don't need a motorcycle endorsement on your license, no problem, both Jan and I have endorsements anyway, and the 50cc ones only go about 30 mph.  Which could make you an impediment to traffic in my opinion.  The next threshold is 125/150cc which will go about 60 mph, much better, still small and maneuverable but can run with traffic.  This store only sold Chinese units and although inexpensive, they didn't look too robust or necessarily reliable.  JMHO.  There was a Honda store nearby so we walked over to to see what they had.  Honda builds a couple, a tiny 50cc retro model and a PCX, a 150cc model that is pretty cool looking, but still a scooter.  I should say not as retro as most that you see on the roads.  It was neat but they only had new ones.

Then we went to a Vespa/Piaggio dealer to see what they looked like.  Vespa has been around forever and is considered THE scooter, very retro, all metal, pretty robust.  Turns out Piaggio owns Vespa and they make under their badge a more modern looking scooter than the Vespa.  They were pretty nice as well, but fairly pricey.  To make a long story a little longer, we looked on Craig's list for grins, since we were waiting until next winter season anyway and found a 2011 Honda PCX that looked brand new with only 1400 miles on it for less than half what a new one cost!  Took a look and a ride and decided it was a hell of a deal so...............

Here's our "new" scooter.  Should be a lot of fun.  Jason took one for the team yesterday driving it back 20 miles to the campground in the steady and sometimes pouring rain.  Oh yeah, it gets 102 mpg!