The Final Countdown

Really counting it down now.  Trying to get those last few things done, last few restaurants visited, and plans made for our ever-changing itinerary.   And speaking of that, when we did our brake light fiasco, we were reminded how bad our molded side panels are in the driver's area.  They were shabbily made as we've come to find out and have been shrinking and moving with all the years.  Hard to believe our coach is 14 years old.  But when I installed our new battery system and its new switch and then had to take the panel back out when messing with the brake light, it really made itself known how bad they looked, pulling away from the wall, and not supporting the switch panels, etc.  Then the lower sub panel is broken and getting worse.  All this started our minds working, always a bad thing:-)

You can really see the big gap between the lower panel and the main panel
and it is bad along the wall as well

This lower panel has been ordered new, as it is broken and we 
plan to modify it to make it shorter.
Also you can see the gap very clearly

The passenger panel is in much better shape, but we don't
use the cubbies or need the fire extinguisher mounted there

We talked about it some and let it fester in our brains for awhile, managed to get out to lunch a couple times with Tom, being full vaccinated now has certainly given us much more confidence in getting back closer to normal.  

We had fun making delicious homemade pizza one evening, it was yummy!

Then slowly a possible idea started to come to us, since we already had 2 weeks reserved in Missoula, MT, how far is that from Oregon, specifically Junction City where Scott and Amazing Creations are located.  Scott has done a lot of beautiful work for us in the past and we knew he was capable of reworking our panels in cherry that would be sturdy and good looking.  But could he, would he have time, would he have an opening in his schedule?????  So after a call and some pictures texted and some info back and forth, we are now going back to Oregon this year, who knew?!?

Jan found time to wash and wax the truck, and BIL Tom was tickled to be able to get his jab when Florida lowered their age requirement.  The weather has been up and down, really hot and humid, then glorious for awhile, back and forth, our daughter Kelly sent us some awesome insulated glasses for our cocktails that really come into their own when it's hot and humid, actually they are amazing!

Much nicer than fat plastic glasses and no sweating at all!

Then before we headed north to Brooksville, Fl to Stone Vos / TalinRV to get our awning fabric replaced, we met Tom for lunch in Sarasota, and after a great lunch we went to Walt's fish market and picked up some jumbo lump crabmeat for, you guessed it, crab cakes!

Almost gone before remembering a picture:-)

Then on Sunday we picked up and went to TalinRV, spent the night in anticipation of our awning appointment.

Our spot for a couple nights

And then to make the most of it, first cocktails and then an awesome shrimp salad Jan put together.

After a peaceful night, at about 9am our two techs, Dustin and Mike came out and started right in on our slide toppers.

Off comes the first slide topper fabric

On goes the new

First one done

We popped out for an early lunch and by the time we got back they were ready to tackle the window awnings.  We worked together on each one, I had the job to press the button to operate the awnings in or out when they needed it.  

Opened all the way to get the old fabric off

Pulling the new fabric on

As the day wound down they had completed everything except for the last window awning and the door awning, and told us they would be back first thing in the morning to take care of those.  Jan took the time to make a delicious pot roast as it had been a cool day.

Delicious!

They were concerned they might get there too early and I explained we were very early risers and there was no chance they could be there too early:-)  So right at 7am, almost still dark they showed and by 9am, they were done!

Last one

I just want to say if you need awnings, awning fabric, or any quality work done on your coach, we can't recommend TalinRV and Stone Vos any higher.  From the first contact through the estimates, appointment setup, and the entire installation, the communication was frequent, clear, and concise, and the attention to detail by these techs was wonderful and refreshing.  There are few shops all across this country that provide quality service and this is one of them!

Back to Nokomis for our last week.  

K.I.S.S. Principle and Down to Two Weeks

I guess since I was complaining so much about the weather, we got a reprieve.  It has been glorious this last week or so, highs in the high 70's and windows open sleeping at night.  Who knows, maybe the squeaky wheel does get some oil:-)

The KISS principle, maybe you are familiar with it already, it simply means when something goes wrong, always "Keep It Simple Stupid", and it is actually something we try to do, although sometimes it takes a great effort when my brain starts jumping to all sorts of conclusions.  We had a real case in point with this over the last week or so.

We have a M&G braking system on our truck when we tow.  It is an excellent product, it gives proportional braking to the truck when we are braking in the motorhome, it has a breakaway feature that should the truck become unhooked from the motorhome, a cord pulls a plug/switch which then applies strong braking to stop the truck as a final safety factor, and it has a alert light that is mounted by the driver's seat to tell me when the truck brakes are being applied.  It is easy to hook up, an air line, normal electrical cord, and the cable for the breakaway, and it is totally seamless and invisible when just driving the truck.  So to start this story, several times this last year, when we would be idling out of a campground, when checking the alert light, it wasn't working.  I would stop and the 5 amp fuse on that line in the truck was blown, I'd replace the fuse and all would be good for weeks or maybe months, and then it would repeat.  The switch that controls the light lives out in the open in the front of the engine compartment of the truck, so I just figured with the rain, dust, dirt, etc, it would short and blow the fuse periodically.  Well, on our last leg down here to Florida from Atlanta, the alert light didn't work, I checked the fuse, it was fine, so we made sure that the braking system was still working and it was so we pressed on back to Florida.  I called M&G and they immediately said they'd send a new switch, for free, as if this was a common issue.  All right, when the switch arrived we replaced it.  

The air actuated switch in question

When the campsite behind us opened up, I figured it would be a good idea to make sure the alert light was working, so I pulled the truck up behind the coach, hooked up the electrical and air lines, started the coach, got the air up and pressed on the brakes, and..................no light!  Check the fuse and it's fine!  So that got my mind working, unfortunately:-)

I pulled up what info I had on the alert portion of the system, thought a lot about the best way to troubleshoot, or would we have to alter our plans slightly and stop in Athens, TX, home of M&G to have it fixed.  I let it fester for a day or so, and after a toss and turn night, the method for testing it came to me.  First I had to ascertain there was power to the switch, so the diesel mechanic crawled under with one end of my meter and I grounded my end while she found power to one side of the switch, step one, good.  Then I switched the meter to continuity and while she held one probe on the dead side of the switch, I searched for the pin in the plug on the front of the truck that sends the signal forward into the motorhome.  Again all good, and I mark the pin.  So at this point, all is good in the truck, except we haven't proven the new switch is good, but we assume it is.  Then I mark the associated receptacle on the 7 wire cord that goes from the truck to the coach and mark the same connection, plug the cord into the coach, and send 12 volts to that pin so the light will light, making sure all the connections and the wire we ran from the rear of the coach to the light is good, and............no light!  Now what?  

The indicator light by the driver

So I decide to pull out the panel by the driver seat and make sure all the connections are good.  A pain by the way, and they are all good, hmmmmm.  So now I am going to check for continuity from the rear of the coach to the light, and find it is good?!?!  Weird.  This is an LED light, it couldn't be bad, could it?  We try holding the leads for it across a D cell battery and get no where, so I take it out and jump it across a real battery, and.........no light.  Oh man, the light is burnt out, and we have done all the rest of this????????  So after getting a new light, that turned out to be a blinking light, couldn't stand that, and then getting a new non blinking light, we reinstalled the light, buttoned up the panel, and when the site became empty again, well you get the idea, and yeah, the light works now.  This folks is exactly how NOT to follow the KISS principle:-)

So now that we have definitely cancelled our Maine plans, we thought we would bring Maine to us.  There is a lobster place here in Sarasota that flies in fresh Maine lobsters all year long, so we decided to get a few chickens steamed up, pick them and make our own lobster rolls, and in fact they were so good, we added another one to them and had them two nights in a row!  Absolutely delicious, although we would have preferred to go to Maine.

Lots of Lobster!

Soft, toasted buttered buns

No stingy rolls here

DELICIOUS!

We have almost all our projects done now.  Next week we go and get our awning fabric replaced a couple hours north of us, and then one more week after that and we are on our way.

Quick Post About Cell Coverage and Our Decision

 I have had a couple comments and questions as to why we picked Verizon and AT&T for our cell and internet coverage.  Part of it is just comfort, we've been with AT&T forever back to the Cellular One days, and they have always given us decent customer service, we're used to them.  As I said we use a Verizon hot spot for most of our internet on the road, and because of it we are able to monitor when we have Verizon coverage and through our phones determine AT&T's coverage.  We use and subscribe to The Mobile Internet Resource Center run by a couple that work with internet and phone service specifically for RVer's and Boater's, and the nomadic lifestyle.  Through info from them, studying the coverage maps, and our own observations over the years, we felt we could get the most bang for our buck by splitting between AT&T and Verizon.  When we get back after another year of travel, we will be better able to evaluate that.  Here are the coverage maps we used.

It turned out that most of the aggravation we experienced in the switchover was the obviously bad SIM card we received at the Verizon store.  It's on them, but I think an unfortunate mistake.

Update With Only 3 Weeks To Go

We have been busy catching up on the few, at last, projects to get done before we leave.  The weather for us anyway, has not been cooperating.  It has been seriously hot and humid, it's always bothered me, but it has even been getting to Jan this year.  Maybe we need to go north for the winter:-)

Jan wanted to get the roof cleaned before we planned to wash and wax the coach.  It is always a mess here as we park under live oak trees.  The leaves drop the whole time we are here and unfortunately stain horribly.  We bought a new attachment for the pressure washer this year and were anxious to try it out, an orbital surface washer.  We can report it works like a champ!

Leaves galore, and you can see the staining

Yes that surface cleaner works!

Looking good

With our electrical problems and rewiring and installing the new charging system, it came to our attention our chassis batteries had given up the ghost, so after a week or so we got a call they had arrived so we got those replaced.

An easy job except for the fact they each weigh 69 pounds.

We washed the coach and I prepared to address the messed up caulking above the windshield. The manufacturer had installed a rain gutter just above the windshield gasket, and then heavily caulked it.  It never lasts more than a season, so I am trying a new tactic this year.

I had always used a lot of sealant and it turns out like this

I got it all cleaned up, a couple hours worth, and then decided to just barely fill the gap, we'll see how that fares this year.

All cleaned up and ready for caulk,
and dumb me forgot to take a picture of the finished product:-(

While I worked on the windshield Jan tackled the huge job of waxing the coach, she spread it out over two days and it looks awesome now. 

With the hot weather Jan made a fantastic dinner of pasta with marinated tomatoes and shrimp, perfect on a hot and humid day.

Delicious!

I mentioned in my last post that the water valve for our toilet was slowly giving up the ghost.  It was becoming very unnerving as after a flush, the water would just keep on rising, and rising, and rising before finally shutting off.  We were absolutely dreading the thought of when and if it wouldn't stop, but the part arrived for the rescue.  We decided we would try to replace it without completely pulling the toilet out.  It was a good plan, but we found out pretty quickly I just couldn't get my big hands in there enough to get it reconnected, so the diesel mechanic, Jan saved the day, as always.

Getting the old bad valve out

Jan saving the day by getting the new one installed

After a little back and forth with Karen and Tom, we have definitely cancelled our Maine trip this year.  We felt the extraordinary Covid quarantine and testing requirements were too much.  We have successfully for the most part been able to push our reservations and deposits forward to yet another year.  We haven't quite finished making our alternative plans yet, but believe it will be basically a straight shot west to AZ and then a loop up and around to reconnect with our previous plans later in the summer.  More on that will follow.

Another thing we have been researching and talking about is our cell and data plans while we travel.  Right now we have 2 iPhones and an iPad on AT&T, and our mifi or hotspot on Verizon.  For the most part since we have been tracking it, Verizon is usually superior in coverage to AT&T out west, but every once in a while the Verizon craps out and AT&T is strong.  So we felt splitting our plans would be best.  We moved Jan's phone over to Verizon, and I and the iPad will stay on AT&T, that way we should almost always be able to make and receive calls and get data by making a phone a hotspot if necessary, couple that with wireless calling, we should be covered at least 98% of the time if we have any kind of signal.  The surprising part though, was the effort and hassle we experienced making that "easy" change.  She wanted to keep her phone number, so first you have to port your number from AT&T to Verizon, but then you find out you need an account, but that is difficult if you don't have a phone, so kind of like the chicken and the egg.  It took 3 hours, and 3 representatives all on a conference call to make that happen.  Then further credit checks and identity verification before your number is ported.  But understand once the number is ported then she had no phone on AT&T any more, and wouldn't have her phone on Verizon unless we went and got a SIM card.  This was set up with Verizon and we were assured that all we had to do was walk into the Verizon store and it would be waiting for us, no waiting, ha!  The closest one was 30 minutes away, so off we went and, of course, when we got there we were told we had to wait at least 30-45 minutes, okay we went and did some errands.  We picked up the SIM card after a bunch of obvious problems the guy in the store was having, went back and stuck it in Jan's phone and..................no activation.  Back on the phone for 1 1/2 hours, with 3 different departments and finally tech support and got nowhere.  WOW.  So I mentioned that Jan was planning to get a new iPhone soon and would that make any difference?  Sure the tech said, get the new phone, insert the SIM card, and you should be good to go.  Okay, we order the phone, have to wait 2 days, Jan has no phone now.  The new phone arrived yesterday, we stuck in the SIM card and...............no activation.  Too late to call now.  So this am, I call Verizon and find out customer service has hours, not 24/7, hmmmm.  So at 8:00 when they open, I reach a tech and he tries, no luck either, so I mention that the new iPhone came with a Verizon SIM card already in it, could we activate based on that SIM card instead of the obviously bad one we got at the Verizon store?  Of course he says, and he does, so finally now, after 4 days and lots of time and effort Jan now has a new iPhone on Verizon.

So what to do, go out to lunch, and we did.

Our delicious Asian lunch, thank you again Jason

Then one more thing.  We got our second vaccine shot yesterday, so far no side effects or extra appendages.  Seriously, we feel it gets us closer to normalcy, and are very thankful we were able to get them while still here in Florida!