A Quick Post Before Florida

As I said we arrived in Atlanta with no problems and our new alternator worked like a champ!  We had a few items to do here and already things have changed.  We both were scheduled for some dental work, but on reflection of the latest info on Covid, I elected to postpone my work until spring when we come through again.  Famous last words, hopefully things will be a little better then.  We had hoped to get together with friends here, but again the virus put a kibosh on that, so instead we are sitting here for a lot longer than we wanted to and accomplishing little, treading water you might say.  But the weather has been beautiful, crisp and clear with cool nights.

The site we sit on here at Allatoona Landing Campground is tipped a lot to the right side, so when we are in and leveled we have a lot of clearance under our entry step.  Perfect for trying to figure out why it isn't working.  We raised the front up even higher for better access and the diesel mechanic, Jan went underneath and found an absolutely disgusting, dirty, oily caked up mess!  We had a very slight leak on a fitting on our slide pump which is directly above the step, and we evidently overfilled the hydraulic jack reservoir which is right in front of the step, so with the transmission fluid dripping combined with the dirt and dust of gravel campgrounds and the road it was atrocious.  

This gives you an idea of how bad it was,
the grooved piece on the top is the gear that runs the step in and out

An hour of work scraping and 3 cans of brake cleaner, she managed to get it pretty cleaned up.  We were able to get it in and out a few times without blowing the fuse.  So we got more brake cleaner, another 3 cans and we cleaned and moved the step in and out to the point we think it will continue to work.  When we get to Florida we will use high pressure washer to see if we can blast some of the grit out of the slides so it will run even smoother, then use a dry lubricant on them and see where we are, all much better than needing parts.  So hopefully this is solved.

Part way through, getting better

And much, much better

We have been taking advantage of take out food nearby, you knew I had to include a few food pictures:-)

We have an incredible Cajun restaurant, Henry's in nearby Acworth
Jan had a Bayou cake, think crab cake but with crawfish and shrimp,
I had the shrimp PoBoy, and although the picture doesn't do it justice
the most amazing bread pudding you have ever put in your mouth!

Then we took a ride up to beautiful Blue Ridge, GA in the northern part of the state
and found this fabulous Cuban, maybe the best I've ever had at
the Rum Cake Lady Cuban Cafe!
And we picked up a delicious mini rum cake, sssshhh.

So we have been keeping busy walking and doing some errands, and taking a few drives, interrupted by quite an event a day ago.  I was doing some computer work inside when I heard an incredible crash!  Now it's fairly cool out so the windows and doors are closed, so when I heard it I knew it wasn't good.  I ran outside just as my neighbor in a 5th wheel came flying out also, then I heard some screaming.  I didn't see anything until I went a little farther up the hill, and here is about a 42' motorhome sitting catty-corner on the dump site against my neighbors 5th!  Not a good day for anyone involved.  Amazingly enough it did little damage which surprised all of us after hearing the crash we thought it was catastrophic.  It put a small dent in the motorhome and broke one end of a slide out awning topper on the 5th.  But the problem was the left drive wheels on the motorhome were in the soft dirt on an uphill angle and although he could pull away from the 5th, he could not get out.

A bad day in mudville

The driver was very upset as you can imagine, and fairly new at having a large motorhome, only a few months.  He was mortified, but had tried to pull into what is an easy site without any guidance from anyone including his wife and made a terrible misjudgment.  What made it even worse was it took a huge tow truck to extricate him from his predicament.  It is a teaching moment, whenever possible be sure to have someone direct and spot you when backing up, and for gosh sakes if you have to do it yourself, then move a little and then get out, evaluate, and then a little more, don't just blast in.  As you can see it's not just embarrassing, it's expensive.