Gettin' Things Fixed

Last fall, we purchased a stacking washer-dryer from Lowe's for our winter home. The washer has always worked fine, but the dryer wasn't right. I could get the clothes dry if I used a timed setting--60 or 90 minutes. But none of the automatic settings worked right, leaving the clothes very damp. Several people said I should get it fixed.

Finally, I called Lowe's and requested service on the dryer. I was told they would schedule a repair person and get back to me. A couple of days later, I received a call saying Frigidaire had decided to replace the unit, rather than trying to repair it. What? That's unusual. However, it was fine with me. I imagine my problem wasn't at all unusual and they knew it couldn't be repaired. It took about 3 weeks, but here is my new washer-dryer. It is identical to the original one.

Soon, we will begin our summer travels. After looking at the truck tires, we decided it would be a good idea to get some new ones. They had 40,000 miles on them and the front tires, at least, looked worn. When John took it in to Big O tires, they made a disconcerting discovery. While removing one of the front tires, one of the bolts broke. And they found another broken bolt inside the hub cap! Can you imagine how dangerous that could be? The front wheel could have come off while we towed the trailer in the coming months!

Here are the two broken bolts:

And here are our new tires:

The tire company also suggested we have new shocks installed. That will happen in a couple of days. Since we tow and live in a 5th wheel trailer weighing 19,000 pounds during the summer, we want the truck to be in excellent condition at all times. It's better to be safe than sorry.

Holiday Weekend

As all full-timer RVers know, it is important to plan ahead for holiday weekends, especially Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day.  These holidays are very popular with recreational RVers and campers, as well as those of us who live on the road.  We made reservations in March for the July 4 weekend.  I knew we would be in Ohio, where we are doing more genealogy research.  We decided on Delaware State Park north of Columbus, a park we had stayed in several years ago.

The park gave us access to the Columbus Public Library, which has a large genealogy and local history section.

They even have rental bicycles out front.  The cost is $6 an hour.  We didn’t take the time to bike around downtown Columbus, though it looked as interesting as Cincinnati.

On the 4th, we needed to do laundry.  We hadn’t been to a laundromat for 10 days, so the supply of clean clothes was about exhausted.  We found one in the nearby town of Delaware.  As we drove down the main street, it was lined with chairs.  Obviously, the town had a parade.  After washing and drying our clothes, we ended up in a line of cars stopped for the parade.

We saw a few parade entries, before making a u-turn and making our way out of town.

Surprisingly, we have heard absolutely no fireworks over the weekend.  We didn’t see any information about local fireworks shows and there wasn’t any here in the state park.  The campground is completely full, but it has been very quiet.

Yesterday, we visited two cemeteries.  On the way, we drove through the town of Mechanicsburg.  Since the local Chevrolet dealer was open, we had the truck serviced.  While the work was being done, we walked around the pretty small town.  There were lots of neat old houses.  Almost every one had a great front porch.

 

One impressive house didn’t have a front porch, but we enjoyed looking at it.

In the downtown area, we saw a small park with this nice gazebo.  The building next door had a pretty mural..

Each of the downtown buildings had interesting fronts and roof lines.

Waiting

Monday, we took our truck to Maxair in Colorado Springs to have a spray-in bed liner applied. When that was completed, they installed our toolbox. We carry a lot of stuff in that toolbox and we are glad to have it back in place. We had to take all that stuff out and stow it away in our RV and in the RV basement so it could be removed from the old truck and moved to the new truck. For a week, we have been living in the midst of a crowded mess.

Since the work on the truck was going to take 7 to 9 hours, we had a lot of time to fill. The truck is our only vehicle so Maxair dropped us off at The Citadel Shopping Center for the day. What do you do for a full day at the mall? First, we used the mall halls to get 3 miles of walking. We had to stop and look at the puppies in the pet store.



Next, we went to the food court where we ate some cookies and read our kindles. By then, the Verizon store was open and John was able to upgrade his phone. All day on our hands, John bought an iPhone! We have both joined the 21st century--at least where our phones are concerned. I tried to buy some tops, but couldn't find anything I liked.

We checked out some free-standing stores around the mall, then had lunch at IHOP. Then we settled into some comfortable couches to do more reading.



Finally, about 3:30 they picked us up and we had our truck back. Doesn't the truck bed look nice?



Today, we put all the stuff back in the tool box. Yea! Next week, we have another long day of waiting at Maxair while they install a hitch and some other add-ons. That day, we plan to go to a movie.

At 14,114 ft, Pikes Peak dominates the skyline in southeastern Colorado, no matter where you are. Named for Zebulon Pike, probably the first American to sight the peak in 1806, it is a landmark to everyone traveling in this part of the state. This is the view we have from Mueller State Park.



This is what it looks like when we drive on a road near St. David's Episcopal Church in Woodland Park, where we have been worshiping.



We could clearly see it from Colorado Springs, as well.

New Wheels

Sometime in the next year, we plan to buy a new 5th wheel-trailer. We have been in this one full-time for about 4 1/2 years, including a trip to the east coast and another to Alaska. We think the next RV will be our last and should be good for more years--if we choose--because we won't be traveling as much. Our current truck has no trouble pulling our 2009 Montana, but if we get a heavier trailer, we decided we will need a different truck.

So today, we traded in our old, much-loved and reliable 2008 Chevy 2500HD diesel



for a 2013 Chevy 3500 diesel.



When we started this process, be planned on special ordering just what we wanted, like we did last time. However, the Chevy factory is not accepting any new truck build orders because they are refitting the factory for the 2014s. We queried several dealers online to look for already-built trucks and ended up dealing with Emich Chevrolet on Wadsworth in Lakewood. There aren't a lot of 3500s sitting on lots. And even fewer extended cab models than crew cab models. Once we checked out a crew cab and learned it isn't much longer than what we have now, we decided on that.

Today we picked up our 3500 diesel single rear wheel, 4-wheel drive pickup with more bells and whistles than we ever would have ordered. But we got a really good deal and we love it! Now, we just have to add the bed liner, 5th wheel hitch and a few other after-market mods and we will be set to go. But, until we get that hitch, there is no chance we can move our house on wheels.

Alaska -- Day 26

Today we took advantage of being in BC's fourth largest city, Prince George, and took the truck to have the tires rotated at Kal-Tire, a Firestone dealer, and the oil changed at the local Chevy dealer. We passed through Prince George twice on our first trip to Alaska, and obviously, we had the truck serviced one of those times. We were already a customer in the Chevy dealer's system, even though our address has changed and we have a different truck.

The rest of the day, John rested. He doesn't feel good and is having sinus problems. I spent time on the computer, went for a walk, and signed us up for another day. Either we will explore Prince George tomorrow, or John will rest some more to get well. We talked to the neighbors, who also are going to Alaska.

Tonight, it is raining. We have enjoyed the sunshine of the past two days. We discovered the rain in Jasper leaked into the bedroom slide. Hopefully, this rain won't last as long and the leak won't return.

A Little Hail...A Lot of Headaches

This morning we took the truck in for a new windshield.  Mission accomplished.  Then we stopped at a Dent Medic place.  They looked at the dents in the hood, looked at the rest of the truck, and said we had $1375 worth of damage.  We said we would think about it, then asked how soon they could fix it.  Not till the first or second week of May.  We leave May 1.

We returned to the RV and John looked closely at the roof of the trailer.  The cover on the skylight above the shower is broken.  So I called to get estimates on that repair.  All of this also required that I carefully read our insurance policies.  Not something that I really enjoy doing.  

Then I called our auto insurance company to report the truck body damage.  That was a 15 minute phone call.  We will get an inspection of the damage done when we go through Colorado on our way to Alaska.  Then they will issue a check, less our $500 deductible.  

I guess we are lucky.  No broken windows and the RV roof is intact.

But who would have guessed that our brief hailstorm would result in at least $2,000 of damage?  I guess that is why we carry insurance.

Why?

At about 1 this afternoon, we loaded some things in the truck and started driving to San Antonio. Not what we planned when we woke up this morning. John took the truck to Ogden Chevrolet in McAllen for servicing. That was a fiasco. After being there two and a half hours, they had done nothing. Finally, he got a lube and oil change.

One big item on the list was an emissions test. Our Colorado license plates expire at the end of March. I sent in the renewal form and check, but they sent it back. We need an emissions test. The windshield sports a sticker that says the truck is exempt from those tests. Unfortunately, that is only true for the first four years. Now it needs the test. The good news was, we can get the test done in Texas. But today, the bad new was, it can only be done in one of the Texas counties that require emissions test. Hidalgo County, where we are staying, isn't one of those. As a matter of fact, Austin, Galveston or Houston are the closest places we can get the test--all over 300 miles away. And if we don't mail in the renewal form before the end of March, we can only renew the license plates in person. That would mean we would be driving with expired plates till some time in May.

So, here we are in San Antonio. We arrived about 5:30. We drove 300+ miles so we could be in the center of a severe thunderstorm warning area for the night. Tomorrow, we will drive to Austin for the test, then decide whether we want to be tourists there for another day, or drive back to the refuge.

Just one of those issues when we live on the road in our RV.

What Happened?

It isn't supposed to look like this, is it?



That jagged line across the middle where air and water can get in? And I know this is not what it is supposed to look like.



How can we see through that plastic?

How did this happen? We have a 2009 10th Anniversary Edition Montana 5th wheel. The front end cap is shaped so we can make a 90 degree turn without hurting the truck. We have checked several times on tight back-ins and the trailer never touches the back window of the truck. But never say never, because today John was backing the trailer into a site in the Red Tail Campground in Medora, ND, and "pop", we both looked and saw the corner of the trailer had hit the rear truck window. It looked to me like the window was only dented--until we got parked and I looked more closely. Oops!

It could be worse. There is no damage to the trailer and none to the truck except the window. So we are lucky. And thank heavens for plastic and duck tape. Hopefully, we are OK till either Wyoming or Colorado, when we can get the window repaired. But have you ever had to clean up safety glass? It was everywhere!