Surprise, Surprise!

Well I am sure some of you very observant readers have noticed I haven't announced our arrival in Florida as planned.  We have been caught up in a totally unexpected issue with our brand new truck.  We finished up our trip to get it as I shared last post and got it back here to Georgia where we were going to mount the roof rack and Rod Vault, repack the new truck and make our way to Florida a couple weeks ago.

We got the truck reloaded and really enjoyed our new multi-function tailgate which made it so much easier.

Weather here has definitely turned cold, so Jan dug out our very last quart of the fantastic seafood stew from the Red Barn in Maine for lunch, yummy.

We had ordered new glasses earlier and got a call that our glasses had come in and were ready for pickup, so we jumped in the truck Monday morning and headed down to Marietta.  On the way we didn't think things were right, the new truck wasn't maintaining speed on cruise control even up the little hills on the interstate and didn't seem to have any snot at all, and this was the truck that startled us how fast it was bringing it back?????  We picked up our glasses, had lunch and talked about what should we do?  We obviously are too far away from the dealer in Louisiana, will it make it to Florida, should we even consider that, were we making things worse, what should we do?

On a whim on the way back we stopped into CDJR of Woodstock, a Ram dealer and told a service person what we had going on, amazingly he said well let's take it for a ride and let me see what's up.  Well, we didn't even get out on the road when he said, wow, something is really wrong, no kidding.  Also, amazingly they took it right in to check several obvious things that could be causing the issue, we waited around a couple hours with them finding no answers, they suggested this should be escalated to the Chrysler engineers, and that I should contact Chrysler Customer Care to get a rental, and no, they said, you should not be driving it like this.  We started a claim, and decided to get a rental at least until we could figure things out.  So we drove back in this little itty bitty POS to get back to the motorhome.  We heard from Chrysler the next day with approval for a rental, so we drove back down and got a larger vehicle, stopped back at the dealer and they had no more info, but they had started going back and forth with the engineers to diagnose the problem.

Meanwhile we met friends, John and Diane, and Ted and Pattie for a nice lunch, then went over to Ted and Pattie's home where they surprised me for my birthday with pie and ice cream.  What a surprise and a wonderful time!

L-R, John, Diane, Jan, Pattie, Ted, and Moi

Happy Birthday to me!

After that we went back to John and Diane's for bourbon, cigars, dinner, and an overnight, a wonderful time was had by all.  We had a late breakfast in the morning, then left to go back, and decided to stop by the dealer, this made one full week.  They still had no answers after doing all kinds of testing.  One full week in with no info we had to make some decisions, we were supposed to be in Florida, so we decided we would extend here for a week, called Florida and told them we would be late arriving, so we had at least a week covered.

We switched rentals again to an even more comfortable vehicle and knew we had to make some serious plans, we sure didn't want to be double paying for a place here in Georgia and also the site in Florida.  So we called and talked to Florida, explained further our problem and the fact we had no estimate of when it would be fixed, and they were so nice.  They let us change our 4 month reservation into 3 months and set our new arrival to the beginning of January.  Then we extended here until the same time.  So at least we had things covered without paying double:-)

With all this down time we found a new to us restaurant in Cartersville, Maine Street Coastal Cuisine, fantastic seafood, great service, really great place.

Grilled catfish with salsa and homemade chips

Grilled haddock, caper butter sauce and grilled corn casserole

But on Wednesday, the phone rang, they found the problem!  It has two turbos and one of them had seized for some reason, now we had something to go on, the engineers had to get the part and they said they would let us know an ETA as soon as they got one.  What a relief, knowing the problem took a lot of the unknown mystery away.

Meanwhile we met John and Diane again for lunch to show them the new restaurant we had found, then after we went next door to a cool cigar bar, Old Havana and had a beer and cigars, and my phone rang, the dealer told me the turbo should arrive Monday or Tuesday, hurray!  This was Friday, two full weeks in.

So on Monday, the dealer called and told us the turbo arrived and was being installed and we should be able to pick up our truck on Tuesday!  What an ordeal, and so unexpected.  We are sure it is a fluke and all will be good from here, and we sure are happy we were able to contend with all this as well as we did, and it didn't happen on the road on the way back, anyway we are much relieved.  Another little silver lining is I have an appointment to have a dental implant the very beginning of January and had planned on driving up from Florida to get it done, now we will still be here for that saving me another round trip.

Anyway, we believe all is well now, quite a process.  See you in Florida.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope this Thanksgiving is a happy, thankful time filled with family and friends.

We just got back from an unexpected and whirlwind road trip and will celebrate the holiday with just the two of us relaxing and doing a few things to get ready to move down to Florida in 9 days.

We have been considering a new truck, believe it or not we've had our present truck almost 6 years and it has 94,000 miles on it, still running fine, but it was time.  It was pretty easy as we both wanted another Ram with a couple new things, a multi-function tailgate, that opens normally, but will also split in the middle and open like double doors so you can stand right up next to the truck's bed, it wasn't available when we bought out present truck, and Jan wanted a sun roof, and other that that it looks almost like a clone.  There was an enormous change that has been incorporated in the new truck which away with the standard Hemi V8 engine and replacing it with a twin turbo straight six that has a ton more horsepower and better fuel economy.  So after a lot of research and price shopping we decided to order a new one at a very attractive price from a high volume dealer in Louisiana, Mark Dodge, and we had worked it out with the representative that we would order at the very end of September that would have it arrive in Jan, Feb, or Mar, so we could go from Florida to pick it up.  So out of sight, out of mind, we thought we had a long time to worry about that.

Meanwhile we still had dermatologist, dentist, oral surgeon, eye doctor, glasses, and hearing aid appointments to complete, and an upcoming visit from our son Jason and DIL Joanne for an early Thanksgiving. And we still needed to fix that coolant leak, turned out we couldn't, I couldn't even begin to turn the fitting.  We might have to get a real mechanic to do it in Florida.  And we even managed to fit in a Guinness lunch on our errands:-)

Jason and Joanne arrived and we met them in Canton for BBQ, then drove back up to Ellijay together, then they went to check in a their very cool, very remote AirB&B which even though it was officially in Ellijay, it was 15 miles away on a very windy narrow road that took every bit of 30 minutes to drive.  All worth it though as it was wonderful.

We visited a bunch and went out to several restaurants, but mostly it was hanging out having dinners at the cabin, including our early Thanksgiving dinner.

Cigars around the outside fire

Sitting around the fireplace inside

So with all this going on we were extremely surprised to get a call that our new truck was delivered to the lot near the dealer, a full 1 1/2 months before we expected it at its earliest!  Since we were trading in our old truck we had to get pictures taken, info swapped to get a trade-in value, but mostly we had to decide how to handle this unexpected situation.  We studied the map and to our surprise we found out it was 100 miles shorter from GA to LA instead of from FL. We have a braking system on the truck while we tow it that I have mentioned many times made by M&G Brake Systems which is in Athens, TX, which is 250 miles from the dealer, hmm.  So a plan started to come together, we agreed on a fair trade-in value, then put the rest together.  This dealer, Mark Dodge, we can't recommend them enough, is a high volume operation that usually ships vehicles all over the United States as well as delivers vehicles right at their facility.  Everything is completed on a Zoom call and online, all paperwork, all payments, and any other arrangements so when you get there you basically swap keys and you're done.  Amazing and Painless!  Meanwhile since Jason was here, he helped us get the roof rack and Rod Vault off the roof.  It was a very windy day, and as I was standing in the driver's side doorway, a gust of wind slammed the door into my arm, it really hurt, but seemed okay after a few minutes, we got the rack off, stowed, and then since our friends John and Dianne were coming for dinner and to see Jason and meet Joanne, they took off to get ready there and Jan and I packed up dinner for the evening.  I said let me wash my hands so I took off my coat and rolled up my sleeve and found I was covered in blood and had knot on my forearm the size of a golf ball.  Not good.  So Jan and I looked at each other thinking what should we do, it really looked like it might burst so we said we ought to go to Urgent Care.  We iced it and off we went,  the Doc deemed it okay, bandaged it up and we headed over, late now to the cabin.

The ice much reduced the swelling

John and Diane actually ended up following us in to the cabin which was fortuitous since their GPS would not have gotten them there, and we had a wonderful visit, dinner and evening.

Jason, Joanne, John, Diane, and Moi

So we said goodbye to all and then needed to make plans for our new truck.  We decided to leave Sunday very early and drive all the way to Lake Charles, LA, spend the night and pick up the truck in the morning, then drive up to Athens, TX, spend the night, and have the brake system installed on the new truck, then drive back.  About 1800 miles in 4 days.

But before we could leave we needed to get the brake system off our truck.  M&G has a great program that if you bring your present system to them they will install a new system for a nominal fee, but you need to get to Athens, TX.  We figured if we were that close we should get it done.

I disconnected the wires and the top of the system, and the diesel mechanic went underneath to unhook the rest.

Bright and early we took off, actually not bright at all, it was way before sunrise:-)  It actually came up while we went through Gadsden, AL.

It was uneventful, just long, but we were even able to find a place for a cigar and drink at the hotel.

And after an awesome Waffle House breakfast, over to the dealer we went.

They are enormous, but so well organized, incredible, and we would have been out of there in an hour or so, but we added a chore for them, we wanted them to take the tires off our old truck and put them on the new one, and the new truck's tires on the old truck, that's a lot of mounting and balancing, but we have off road tires that we only bought a little while ago and wanted to keep them.  With that all done and getting checked out on the new truck, we took off for Athens, TX.  Checked out is a very loose term, there is so much amazing electronic technology on this new one that it will probably take us a month or two to master it all:-)  Spent the night there and over to M&G in the morning.  They jumped right on us and then asked if we wanted them to wire the lights up also, we said yes.  They have a cool adapter to mount the light connection, air connection for the brakes, and breakaway switch.

We had initially planned to have them mount the base plate for the tow bar as well, but in our research we found that no base plates are available yet for this 2025 truck, so we will do that later in Florida when they come out.  So Jan will have to drive the truck down to Florida this time rather than tow it, NBD.

So now we have to mount the roof rack and Rod Vault, load up all our stuff that lives in the bed, lash the ladder on, get through a very cold series of days, highs in the 40's and lows in the teens, and then off to our new digs in Florida, but we don't have to worry about a trip to Louisiana anymore:-)