A little R & R

We are camped at Pride RV Resort near Maggie Valley, North Carolina, just over the mountain from Cherokee, North Carolina. We are here to spend some down time before we get to Gaffney.

We are headed to Gaffney for chassis service and hopefully they will be able to find our fuel leak and get it fixed. It doesn't seem to be as bad as before, but it is really bad down in the basement.We have that pretty well unloaded so the techs can get in there and do their job. Hoping it will be a one day thing.

They also will have to change the module that goes with the coolant sensor that was putting us into limp mode all the time. We are sure that is a simple fix, since the CAT dealer in Ft. Wayne programmed it out of the system to keep us from getting hassled by it. That has worked and she's been running great with no alarms or errors. Once the work in Gaffney is done, we will be leaving and we aren't sure where we will be going at that point.

Yesterday we spent in Cherokee, looking at the various shops. I'm not sure why we bothered. Nothing but junk. Even the shops that boasted handmade Indian craft items just had junk for sale. Terry saw one sign that said, "Made in America" and on the bottom is said, "Made in China." We bought almost nothing, just one shirt, and that was it.

We had packed a picnic lunch, so we found a park on the river and sat down at a picnic table to eat. Everyone had the same idea and the park was really packed. The sun was out and the breeze was cool, so it was perfect. Afterwards we tried our luck at Harrah's Casino and I am happy to say that we did come out ahead. Not a lot, but enough!

Today we went into Waynesville, North Carolina, to the Farmer's Market. That was pretty cool. They had a lot of vendors set up and you could get fresh produce, baked goods, meat and fresh fish. We came away with quite a few vegetables. We also visited the Steeplechase Toffee shop right across the street. We bought a little bit, because after tasting it, I knew I would eat it till it was gone and I didn't need a lot!

Afterwards we shopped  in downtown Waynesville. There were many shops and the quality of the goods was much better than what we saw in Cherokee yesterday. We bought a few things there and felt like we got good value.

This area is very pretty with mountain views all around the campground. It's very relaxing and we are really enjoying our time here.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Gaffney here we come!

It appears we may get to Gaffney. The motorhome has always run well, but now we aren't getting any error messages so we are rolling. After a week of eating out almost daily, we have settled into the routine of cooking our own meals and that is going well. The dogs are settling into their routine of eating and sleeping on the road with plenty of walks to keep them exercised.

We are spending the night in Renfro Valley, Kentucky, tonight after getting in all our extra doctor appointments and veterinarian appointments, etc. Hopefully the trip down south goes well and we will be able to get everything taken care of. We are now experiencing problems with our dish antenna, but Terry seems to have it under control now. He also had to replace a water pump yesterday but he still thinks we will have to change some relays which he hasn't been able to find. He will have to order those on line but we have to be some place to get them.

We do seem to have some problems of late, but we have now had Phaeton Place for 10 years. It's hard to believe we have been on the road for 10 years. We bought her new and have really had very few problems overall. We have driven her over 108,000 miles over rough roads and all kinds of weather. . . even snow, although that was a freak storm! That has never been the plan! She has served us well and we hope to get many more years of enjoyment out of her.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Heading South. . .

Last Thursday we left Elkhart Campground. We still have not had any satisfaction on having spent a bundle of money on getting our fuel leak fixed only to have TWO leaks now that must be fixed. Once we decided to head to Gaffney, South Carolina, where our Freightliner custom chassis was born, we had a new problem arise that might prevent that. We were getting a low coolant error, but the coolant is not low. We changed the sensor, but nothing has changed and the module causing the problem is sending the coach into limp mode. So we visited MacAllister CAT in Fort Wayne. Those guys seem to know what they are doing. They downloaded the info off the engine computer and in ten years, the coolant error is the only thing showing. Since the sensor is new and the coolant is full, they believe the module is the problem and reprogrammed the computer to remove that module from the mix. So we no longer are getting the red lights or beeps or warnings about the engine. Whew. It won't prevent other failures to display if something happens, but the errant module won't be causing a problem.

After leaving Fort Wayne, we drove south and stopped for a few nights in Amishville, USA, outside of Berne. We always enjoy this area. T

he Amish here are different than in our part of the country. We visited some of the Amish stores and particularly one shop where I learned the lady's family has some celiacs and she makes gluten free products. She remembered me from the last time we were here and she gave me a sample of her egg noodles, gluten free, of course. When I was here last time, she had not tried any and she has now perfected them so I am anxious to try them. We visited some of the brat shops and bought some things for the freezer.

Saturday evening we went to dinner at the Back40 Junction in Decatur. We had been there years ago, but we both were disappointed with the food this time. There was not much of a selection of vegetables and the prime rib was tough and chewy. Probably won't go back. And to top it off, we had 90 degree heat with more humidity and the A/C in the restaurant was on the blink. Ugh. It made it uncomfortable.

We arrived today in New Castle. I have a doctor appointment tomorrow and Butterscotch has a doctor appointment tomorrow afternoon. Then Tuesday Terry will be in Indianapolis getting a pulmonary test since he is on the drug amiodorone. Over time, it can affect the lungs, so they want to check that and it may result in a change in his dose. We got in around 2 and after setting up went to Hagerstown to eat at Willie and Red's. This is the restaurant formerly known as Welliver's. It was good, but the food wasn't as outstanding as I remembered it. And now if you want shrimp or crab legs, you must pay extra for it. I understand that and they actually have cut the price of the buffet. The food was better than we had last night and we enjoy the nicely cooled restaurant!

Why are we eating out so much? Well, today was my birthday! I wanted to celebrate and. . . not cook! So that's what we did. Now we are not planning on eating for the next week. LOL

Till next time. . .

Dale

More family time. . .

Jocelyn and the kids left just before the 4th because they wanted to spend the 4th watching fireworks from their favorite site in Charlottesville. I got the house cleaned and ready for the next "wave" of kids to come.

After they left we were able to squeeze in a closing on another duplex! Whoo hoo! Three down, one to go. The fourth is actually under contract and we have a closing date of September 14, so life is good. We are keeping the "storage condo" for now because it provides a nice place for the kids and their families to stay when they come to visit other family.

Thursday, July 9, we picked up Brandon, Megan, and Brynlee at the Fort Wayne Airport in the evening. We had a cup of coffee while waiting for their plane and once we retrieved their luggage, we headed for Goshen. We got them all situated in the house and then we left for the campground.

We spent the next few days visiting with them and helping Brynlee celebrate her birthday. Since her birthday is later in the month and we won't be able to be there, we decided to give her our gifts so we could watch her unwrap them. I got her quite a few clothes because I found some really cute things on sale and we also got her a kids' Kindle. It is quite versatile. . . not quite a I-pad, but much cheaper and is able to hold a lot of kids' movies and books and things that they like to look at. She is also quite adept at "2" at maneuvering her way around an I-phone, so the Kindle will be a breeze. Aenea is good at that too. Brandon had made the suggestion because when they travel, Brynlee is always wanting to use their devices, so now she will have her very own. I think she really liked it. Brandon showed her how to do some things on it and it didn't take long before she was using it on her own. We enjoyed getting to see her open her gifts.

We really enjoy having the little ones in the house, but the dogs seem to enjoy the peace and quiet of the motorhome after we leave the house! In some cases, Butterscotch can be found on somebody's lap, safely out of reach of toddler hands. Most often, Duchess is hiding under the desk in the kitchen!

The kids are here because cousin Kellie married Tommy on May 8 and is having a reception on Saturday the 11th. We are taking our little motorhome down to the woods at Nita's and staying there with our dogs. The kids got a hotel room. This one picture is of Mom, Dad, Brandon and Brad. They are the only grandsons and are 10 months apart in age.

They got to spend some time with Mom and Dad before and after the event and we got some great pictures. The kids have always enjoyed spending time with Mom and Dad and my parents appreciate the time the grandkids make to visit with them.

Here are a couple of pix with Mom and Brynlee, ages 90 and 2 and Dad and Brynlee, ages almost 91 and 2.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Some of my favorites!

As I reminisce on the last week and look back over pictures, I am enjoying the love and comfort my family gives me. Surround yourselves with your loved ones while you can.

Ronan and Grandma Dale going for a ride. His one word he used multiple times to describe the ride was "AWESOME!"

My 90 year old Mom and Aenea at 3, her great grandaughter, 87 years difference in their ages.

My Dad, also 90.

Butterscotch and Duchess, both 9 years old.

 

The love of my life, Terry.

 Till next time. . .

Dale

Alone again. . . naturally!

The grandkids left on Wednesday. Sniff, sniff. I miss them already. I so enjoyed having them here and getting to include them in my day. . . and me in theirs. They are both sweet kids and I love them dearly. They made the trip back to Virginia in two days, so that was a little easier on Jocelyn, I'm sure. I spent the rest of the day cleaning the house because son Brandon and his family are to arrive this next week. I am so glad I went ahead and got most of it done then because I don't have it hanging over my head now. I finished it up on Thursday and later in the day we went back over to the motorhome at Elkhart Campground. Our friends Tab and Deanna were due into the camp in the afternoon and they got in about 3:30. They wanted to spend some time relaxing this weekend and I have to say that we all did that rather well.

The camp was really full this weekend and still there was a lot of movement in and out. We had campfires twice. It was warm during the days and got chillier during the evenings, so it was perfect for having a fire. But we have had so much rain here, over 4 inches in June, that we now have a healthy population of hungry mosquitoes. So as soon as it started getting dark, they were out looking for food and we were looking to go inside.

I did try out my new Butterfinger Pie on them. Tab and Deanna are "dessert connoisseurs" and I thought they would like it. It was a big hit! One of the relatives brought one to the family reunion and we all liked it, so I made one. It was very easy and was very good. Not at all good FOR us, but delicious nonetheless.

Today Tab and Deanna left for home in Ohio and we are once alone again. . . naturally.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Grandkids time!

We finished up some last minute cleaning and laundry because Jocelyn, Ronan and Aenea were due in on Tuesday or Wednesday. They actually got in very late Tuesday. We spent a lot of time visiting until we were all about dead from lack of sleep. We went to bed and we stayed there as well because I thought Jocelyn might need some help the next morning after such a long drive.

I can't remember what we did every day. . . they just blur one into the other, but I'm pretty sure Wednesday they just crashed and we enjoyed having them there and playing so we could be entertained! The kids got along great with the dogs but the dogs were seeking out the quiet corners before long. LOL

We all went down to Claypool one day, actually we went on two occasions, so my parents could see them. Jocelyn really wanted to see them as well. They are the only grandparents she has left and the only great-grandparents the kids have. Mom and Dad really enjoyed seeing them. My mom loves the little ones and she had a great time with Aenea. Nita and Kelly both came over too, so the kids got to see them as well. We had fun taking pictures and visiting.

One day Jocelyn, the kids and I went to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo. It's really a museum of planes and aviation. It's not very big, but it is geared to kids, with a few rides and some planes and cockpits they could sit in. Ronan enjoyed those as did Aenea. it was a bit of a ride up there, but we had a good time and the kids enjoyed it.

My niece Michelle and her daughers, Kirstin and Kira came over one evening to visit. I had seen them at their garage sale a few weeks ago. Butterscotch really took a liking to Kirstin and insisted on sitting on her lap. At least Kirstin didn't seem to mind!

It's hard to believe they were here a week, but they are gone already. They left on Wednesday before the 4th, because Jocelyn wanted to spend the 4th in Charlottesville. They have a routine for the holiday and they wanted to be back for that. I can't blame them for that.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Playing catchup!

Regretfully, I had not posted while we were gone. I was more engrossed in worry about the motorhome and not really wanting to write much. So I will be adding pictures once I am finished with the text and upload all my pictures.

When we left Jellystone in Sioux Falls, we had all the warnings bells and whistles doing their thing. The camp is right on I-80 and there are no frontage roads, so we had to get on the interstate. The lights would go out, then on, then out. We were now experiencing a derate in the engine which puts it in limp mode, so I am struggling along at 40 mph while traffic is whizzing past me at 80. The problems didn't last long. At about the two mile mark, the engine was up to 130 degrees, all the lights went out and we were soon rolling along at my 67 mph speed I seem to like. No problems the rest of the day. We stopped for lunch and continued on. The engine is still warm when we take these breaks, so we don't have anymore problems with it like when we start out with a cold engine.

At this point, I asked Terry how far it was to Goshen because I was to the point that I just wanted to get someplace familiar and safe and then find someone "ELSE" who could work on the motorhome. Can't trust Hill's in South Bend to do the work. They have left us with more problems than we started with. But it was way too far to drive in one day, so we stopped in Tama, Iowa, at an Indian casino for the night. This was a good stop. The lovely campground with 50 Amp electric was $20 a night. They had very nice restrooms and showers. So we took advantage of that. Nice and clean and big. They were actually three-piece bathrooms. There was a nice laundry area, but I was good there. We went into the casino and spent a little time and a little money, the emphasis on "little." Once again, we broke even, maybe a little to the good side.

When we left the next morning, our departure was delayed by storms. We had been watching storms all along the way and had been successful at skirting or avoiding them all together. We had a storm roll in just as we got everything ready to go, slides in, jacks up, awnings up, etc. Good thing, because we had some serious wind and HAIL! An RV'ers nightmare. It was about the size of mothballs, so we didn't have any damage. Whew! It was rather LOUD, though. We did have a safe place to go if need be, but we stayed in the motorhome and were fine.

We started out with the same problems as usual until we were up to that magic 130 degrees engine temperature, then we rolled. And roll we did for 450 miles till we pulled in to Elkhart Campground about 6:30 in the evening. It never looked so good. So we had traveled almost 3,000 miles with warnings lights and buzzers to make it back here safe and sound. Obviously, there isn't much wrong but it sure would be nice to find someone who KNOWS WHAT THEY'RE DOING and can fix it!

Till next time. . .

Dale

On our way

We left Piney Grove Sunday morning and the "low coolant error" continued to plague us. Terry even tried filling the tank and it is full enough that it won't take more. So it seems the problem is not the actual coolant level, but the sensor (we hope). The strange thing is that once the engine temperature comes up to about 130 degrees, all the lights and warnings go off and we can run all day without any problems. The engine temp goes up and down as we climb or coast, so we are quite confident it is some kind of sensor error. But we are getting a reading that indicates the computer has an "unknown failure" which is a little disconcerting, since those little devices are NOT cheap.

But we continued on and we drove without incident. We took several days to get to Sioux Falls. One night we spent at the casino in Sloan, Iowa. We stayed here one night on our way to Alaska with Tab and Deanna and it was as we remembered. They have decent electric sites and since it had been hot, it was good to have good power. There was a nice place to walk the dogs as well. We decided to try our hand in the casino and we didn't win anything big. We did just about break even which is what we hope for anymore. Hah.  We did try their soup and salad bar. It was $3.99. Two kinds of soup and a full salad bar. Can't beat that. Dinner for two for under $10? Score!

Every morning when we start up, the same warnings light up the dash. Occasionally we have a "engine protect" light that pops up but it hasn't caused much of a problem yet. That would indicate the engine is in "limp" mode and not able to go over 40 mph until it will eventually shut down to protect the engine from "low coolant" which is an error as we have plenty of coolant. Grrrrr. Since she runs good once she's warmed up, we will continue until we are dead in the water. At that point, they should be able to figure something out.

We got in to Sioux Falls, around 11 a.m. on Thursday morning, June 18th. We stayed at the Jellystone this time. We got all checked in and walked the dogs, then headed to the license bureau. Things have changed since last time and we no longer have to go downtown, so we followed the instructions to the new location. We stopped by our mail service on the way, which has moved. The new location is actually very easy to get to and we enjoyed meeting the people who get our mail to us. The experience at the license bureau was great. We walked in and were given a form to fill out. Before I had my name on the form, they called me to a window and by the time my form was finished, I had my new license. While I was doing that, they called Terry and when I finished up, I joined him and his was finished in short order. In and out in 20 minutes. Wow. That has to be a record. We had wanted to stay in the area and take a motorcycle course and test, but we decided not to do that this time. We did get information on getting that added to our license, but with the problems we are having with the motorhome and the fact that Jocelyn and the kids were due into Goshen next week, we decided just the basics now and we will do more later.

The next morning we wanted to visit the falls and so we packed a picnic lunch and headed out. The falls were beautiful as always and we truly enjoyed a relaxing picnic lunch and walked along the walkway at the edge of the river. I took lots of pictures. The pink granite of the falls is beautiful and even more so when the light shines on them. It creates lots of deep hues and colors that are beautiful.

After lunch we drove south to the Red Barn RV Park where ours friends George and Iris live for two months in the summer. He is our gas man in the valley and they bought a house in Enchanted Valley, right next to us. We sat out under their awning and visited for a while. They have family in the Sioux Falls area, but they no longer have a house here, so they stay in a travel trailer in the park for the two months they are there. Then they head back to Mission for the rest of the year. It was great seeing them and catching up with things in the valley.
 
On the way back, we saw these helicopters flying. They must have been from the air base.

We are heading out for northern Indiana tomorrow and plan for about three days of driving. But we continue to have those startup errors on the engine, so we don't know if we will go 2 miles or 200. Hoping for the best!

Till next time. . .

Dale

Time flies . . .

Time flies when you're having fun, right? So it must be doing the slow crawl for us. Motorhome problems continue to plague us and we are about at our wits' end.

On the way to Piney Grove, we stopped at our favorite rest area on the north side of the bridge over the Tennessee River on the Natchez Trace. This was just the day after picking the coach up again from Hill's Truck Service Center in South Bend, Indiana. We noticed after stopping and walking the dogs that we had what appeared to be a leak under the driver's area. Yep, it's a NEW fuel leak. It's not the one that continues to spew fumes into the basement and coach. . . this is a NEW leak created by the "mechanics" at Hill's. We never had any VISIBLE leak until they "fixed" it. Grrrrrr. Well, that still wouldn't keep us from moving so on we went. As soon as we pulled out of the rest area and approached the incline on the bridge the "Check Engine Light" came on. It continued and flashed "Low Coolant" before going out. Hmmmmm. Thanks, Hill's for checking and topping off the coolant. We thought we had finally found a place where we could take the rig up in northern Indiana for service and now are having to rethink that. We have had this before and normally have to add a bit of coolant. Terry runs the Silverleaf Diagnostic System on his laptop and it showed the engine temperature perfect, so we didn't worry about that. We drove on without incident and got into the camp expecting Gary and Jo to be already parked and waiting for us, since we were a day late.

Sad to say, Gary and Jo had cancelled their reservations and were staying at Shirley's. That's not a bad thing. Staying at his sister's is the best place for them since they don't see each other that often. We still got our favorite site and the camp was full. The neighbors camping in "Gary's" site came over and introduced themselves and invited us to share their screen tent and play cards and games. We thanked them. . . southern hospitality at its best. But after the problems we had getting here, we stuck to our site, walked the dogs and relaxed.

We had recently received information from the tax gurus in Texas that they were upping our assessment and taxes on our Texas property and so we filed an appeal. Unfortunately, instead of just making an adjustment, they scheduled a hearing for us. If we were not going to make the hearing, which at this point was 10 days away, we would have to hire a representative (too late to do that) or submit all our data and have it notarized, etc. So I spent the morning preparing the necessary forms and supporting materials. Terry called his cousin Cathy and she has a cousin on the other side of the family who works at a bank and is a notary public. So we went to visit Cathy and her husband Bill and then she drove us to downtown Baldwyn where we met her cousin and she notarized our paperwork. After that we were able to drop it in the mail. Whew. That's done. It required eight copies of everything so that each person on the appeals board could have their own documents. It probably won't even make a difference, but I had to try. Since then, we have talked with other owners in our park and were told of a lawyer who is helping a lot of the winter Texans there; so we will touch base with that attorney this year so that in future years, we will have someone who can help us by remote.

We had a great visit with Cathy and Bill in their "new" house. Her Dad, Uncle Bob, is the last Pace member of his generation. He is Terry's Dad's brother. He is in assisted living and suffers from Alzheimer's. When he moved out, Cathy and Bill moved into his house and have redecorated it. It is lovely and is a beautiful home. They are becoming more comfortable in it I think.

We drove over to Red Bay, always a highlight of our trips to Mississippi. We bought a few things in the camp store. We should have looked around more, because they have built a new customer lounge and we didn't even know it until after we left. But we do go every year, so we will manage to see it next time. 

Saturday we attended the family reunion in Marietta, Mississippi. It was a bit of a disappointment. Uncle Bob was not feeling well, so he didn't come. We had a total of 18 I think. The restaurant venue was actually quite good. The food was good and the family was great. We had hoped by having it at a restaurant and not requiring anyone to cook, there would be a bigger attendance. I hope that more attend next year and in the years to come because we always enjoy seeing everyone. So many have moved away that it is good to touch base with them once a year at least. Terry thinks we could send out invitations and I think that would be a good idea. As the family gets older, it is important for the younger ones to take interest in seeing that we make that contact at least every year.

After the reunion, we went back to camp and spent some time with the dogs and walked them. We headed back to Wheeler later and spent the evening visiting with cousin Shirley and family and cousin Gary and wife Jo. We had a great time visiting. It is always fun to visit with these cousins. Terry has fond memories of spending time in Mississippi when he was little. They always came back for vacations and family events, so he was quite close with these cousins and they remain very special to him.

So, tomorrow will be time to head out. Our plans are to head to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, as our drivers' licenses need to be renewed.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Family Time!

We had a busy end of May with a rally at the Goshen fairgrounds called the Glamarama. It is an FMCA chapter and used to always be held in Berrien Springs, Michigan. We were never able to go to it there, but when they moved it to Goshen, we decided to give it a try. This is the third one and we enjoyed the first two, but this one was a dud. Not a lot in the way of vendors. . . they used two buildings, but probably could have squeezed them into one. They normally give us each $5 worth of "vendor bucks" but this year just got one coupon. Seminars were not much and not as much for women. Usually I have lots of craft things to choose from and nothing interesting this year. The entertainment was good. . . we saw "The Marlins" who are four brothers who sing and play a variety of instruments. They are very good and the piano player is probably better than Jerry Lee Lewis. The last night's entertainment was Sarah Ghetto who is a blind woman with a degree in music education and travels the country doing concerts. She also is very good and sings and arranges all her own music. She plays piano and fiddle and flute. She is a very talented entertainer.

We, of course, got stuck in the infield again. At least it wasn't raining this time, but it had been in the forecast. We were parked all the way down to the end of the stage with no one around us because the power boxes in between us and the rest of the group supposedly didn't work. I found that hard to believe. One year we came in a day earlier and got in the infield. . .this time we came mid day of the parking day and got the infield. There were full hookup sites in the campground that went unused just so we could be in hell's little corner of the world. I asked about those empty sites. . . well, those are for handicapped attendees. Well, I'm not handicapped, but I have enough back problems it's difficult to walk over uneven terrain and very far, so it would have been nice to be closer. They do have golf cart shuttles, but they would look down the line and not even see our coach we were so far out. Often times they never came down to where we were so we would have to walk and hope to catch up with one later. It won't happen again, we aren't going next year.

We left last Sunday to go to Warsaw and see Mom and Dad before heading south for Terry's family reunion. I taught Nita how to make the mesh bags and she got one done. It's really cute. Naturally hers has a dog theme. I don't even have one to show people because I have made all mine for other people. I must get busy and make one for myself.

Before we left Warsaw on Monday, we tried our generator, which is the first time we had tried to start it since paying big bucks for repairs to the fuel lines going to it. It would not start. We didn't panic, thinking perhaps since we were down on fuel that was the problem. So we decided to head to South Bend where we had the work done and if taking on more fuel didn't solve the problem, we would see what they had to say.

We stopped at a truck stop to fuel and they had high-speed pumps. We almost always fuel using these, but this time Terry got a bath when the fuel WHOOSHED out at him. Great. . . we couldn't even take on fuel. He tried squeezing and releasing and managed to get three gallons in it before giving up. So now we know we are headed to South Bend because we won't be able to travel with no fuel. Terry gets on the phone to them and they insist they can't do anything that day and we should just "camp" for a few days till they can work us in. Terry was very diplomatic but insistent and finally got a commitment from a supervisor that he would see what he could do. We went over to Elkhart Campground to spend the time till we heard back. Later in the day we received a call that we were to have to coach to them by 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.

And so it went. We spent the day doing laundry and going out to eat since we didn't have any food with us. Terry checked in around 2 only to discover they didn't know anything. Later they called and said they couldn't find the fuel lines for the generator. A+ mechanics there, I tell you. And this is a Freightliner Service Center. So he told them to call the Onan service center in Elkhart and gave them the number. We didn't have much hope we would see the coach that day, but they are open till 11 p.m. We went out to dinner and on the way back they called and said it was done at 6:30. So off we went again. Well, the generator started and they had steamed off the fuel tanks. Said that when they dropped them the first time and put them back up, they had kinked both fuel inlet hoses and the generator hoses had popped off. So every time we tried to start the generator, fuel would spew out those loose lines.

We took off and spent the night at Potato Creek State Park. This is a lovely park, but I have to tell the state of Indiana that your parks won't get our business anymore. They charge $9 ($7 for in-state) for out of state visitors just to go through the gate and another $24 to camp for 30 Amp electric. . . making that a total of $33 a night to camp with a little bit of power. This is way above the norm and I contend that if you waived that gate fee for campers you would be much fuller every night. Now we KNEW about the gate fee, but we really didn't have a choice that night because we didn't want to drive on at 8:30 at night.

We were up early Wednesday morning and on the road by 7:30. We did fuel quickly and all worked well. We drove 450 miles and spent the night in Lebanon, Tennessee, at Shady Acres, which was another dumpy campground. But we got to camp at the front and had 50 Amp FHU for $24. . . hear that Indiana? We left there yesterday morning and drove on down to Piney Grove Camp in Mississippi. This is always a great stop and we have good power for $11 a night. The dogs like it here, walking and hunting squirrels at the same time.

Today will be a relaxing day. Tomorrow is the reunion and we are anxious to see everyone. We are having the event at a restaurant this year instead of having a carry in. Hope more people show up!

We hope the coach is fixed. We still had to wash the car due to fuel blowing back on it. Hope that is just residue from the earlier problems, but will reserve judgment till we are sure.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Time with friends!

We have watched the campground fill up the last week in anticipation of the Memorial Day holiday weekend. It is fun watching the different rigs come in. We also saw four brand new rental units arrive and park together. At first we thought they might be transporters as a lot of them use this campground as a staging ground. But it was obvious when we greeted them that they were from some FOREIGN country. They were Aussies from "the land down under." Would love to have talked to them but they were busy getting everything hooked up before dark and then they had to fix their dinner. They were sitting outside at 10 p.m. eating by battery light! They left fairly early in the morning. I did chat long enough to find out they had just picked up the new rigs and were headed to Orlando to DisneyWorld. Hope they have a good trip. They are in the states for three weeks.

Tab and Deanna arrived at Elkhart Campground on Thursday afternoon. They come up here once or twice a year and we always enjoy seeing them. On Friday we hit the RV surplus places and got a few things for the motorhome. Also found some things we need for MinnieMee, but we will have to take her with us next time to make sure we get the right items. On our way back to the campground we stopped at Essenhaus in Middlebury to have lunch. It was very good. We always enjoy that experience.

On Saturday after lunch we drove over to Goshen's newest city park, Fidler Pond. They have put in a walking path of 1.5 miles around the entire pond which is quite nice. All out in the open and a flat easy walk. They have also constructed a pavilion with picnic tables and there is a rental barn where you can rent kayaks, canoes and a paddle boat. Tab had brought two of his kayaks and he and I launched them and paddled around the pond for about an hour and a half. It was great. The water, while deep, is very clear and when you get close to the bank, you can see down in the water. We saw some very large fish. The pond is supposedly 172 feet deep at the shallow end and they don't know how deep it is. Whoo hoo! That would be deep. They do not allow swimming because of the depth and no motorized boats, which is good. It is a small pond, but adequate for kayaking, etc. We had a great time, it was a beautiful day with little wind. Terry walked the trail around and took pictures of us on the water. When we got back, we built a campfire and enjoyed visiting. Andie and Roger joined us, so we had some good conversation.

Yesterday we went over to the RV Hall of Fame museum to a gun show. I hadn't been to a gun show in probably 40 years. It was interesting and we did make some purchases. I bought hand cream from the Avon lady, some hats, a phone cord and a game. Not bad! Hahahahaha.

We haven't decided what to do today. The park is clearing out which is a little scary because we are having some pretty strong winds. Tab and Deanna are not leaving today and I'm glad they aren't going in this wind. So we may do something. We are talking about a little ride up to Lunker's in Edwardsburg. Whatever we do, it will be fun with friends!

Till next time. . .

Dale

More repairs. . .

We use service people in Elkhart for most of our motorhome needs and that is why we spend time up here getting things fixed. We have a place to stay while she's in the shop and it makes it easier for us and the dogs.

We took the motorhome in Wednesday to get the washer/dryer fixed. We thought the belt was broken. The serviceman concurred, but when he got it out of the cabinet and opened up, the belt laid there in one piece. He examined it and said it was perfectly fine, no cracks, etc. So he put it back on the machine and then started her up. That's when he found the problem. The main bearing the drum rides on is dry and squealing. Tech said it would last two months tops and probably not that long. The good news is he can fix it, the bad news is with labor, it would cost more than a new machine. And if it's fixed, I would still have a 10-year old motor and pump, etc. So the recommendation was to buy a new unit. We have an extended warranty and they will help out with a new one. We have to work out the details yet and they want a repair estimate from the w/d guy which I'm sure he will give them. It will be cheaper to go new, so that's what we are working toward. It will be next week before that happens, but mine is working for the time being.

It's working, but last night we discovered a wet spot on the carpet. As usual, Terry blamed it on the dogs, but when I tried to clean it, I knew it was a leak of some kind. Something about dabbing at a spot and it grows instantly. . . . So I threw a towel on it and we went to bed. When I got up this morning, the towel was sopping wet and we had more wet carpet. So we drug out the towels and started soaking it up. Eventually Terry found the leak. It was one of the valves going to the washer. He thought it was cracked, but he was able to get it tightened up and the leak stopped. Apparently when the w/d guys put the w/d back in the cabinet, they knocked into those valves and loosened one. Oh happy day! Just what we needed. We got the shop vac out and sucked up as much as we could. We've had a fan on it all day and it's drying out nicely.

In other news. . . I haven't been able to wear my wedding rings for three years. I had to have them made larger to wear for Brandon and Megan's wedding, but my joints have really gotten gnarly and the ring finger joint in particular, I manage to injure periodically. I had researched various systems for making rings slip over joints and I knew there was a custom jeweler here in town that does them. So last week Terry and I went to Images Jewelers in Elkhart and talked with them. It is expensive, that's for sure. But I have a beautiful wedding set that means a lot to me. It's unusual and I want to wear it. I figured with my finger joints all enlarging I will probably not get to wear other rings, so I at least wanted to be able to fix my wedding rings so I could continue to wear them. They fitted my ring with a Superfit shank. It's actually an entire ring on the inside of my ring. The last time I had it repaired, the jeweler did a bad job of it and I showed this jeweler what had been done wrong. They were really just going to put the new shank on it, but when I got it back, they had fixed the problems and my ring once again looks like it should. The Superfit shank has a finely machined hinge in it. When it is closed, you cannot even see the hinge. The clasp to open it requires a stylus that you press into an indentation. It's quite unique. So, yes it was expensive, but I will be able to wear my wedding rings now no matter what my joints do and it opens up to go around my finger, then clasps shut.

Terry told me that was my birthday present, anniversary present, Christmas present and Valentine's present (next year). LOL That's okay. I love getting to wear my rings again.

Till next time. . . 

Dale

Goshen for the time being. . .

We landed in Goshen last week and on Monday took Phaeton Place over to Hill's Truck Service in South Bend. She has a fuel leak and we want it fixed. We get a good dose of raw diesel fumes inside the coach, most prevalent when we stop for the night. We have been opening the basement bay doors and airing it out when we get to camp.

Yesterday, one week later, we picked her up and hope they have the leak fixed. It wasn't where we thought it should be, but they did find a leak. When we first took it there, they got to the oil change and noticed a leak in the rear differential, so they set to work tracking that down. We actually have had that leak for several years and have had it "fixed" a couple times, including once at this same shop. All to no avail, as it has continued to leak. This time they ordered parts, a couple seals, etc. They also found a loose belt at the water pump and I think they had to tighten up the water pump itself. Good that they found that, for sure. When we called a couple days later, Terry reminded them of the fuel leak and alas, they thought the rear differential leak was what we were talking about. Ugh, no! So they set to work tracking down the fuel leak. They finally dropped the fuel tank (not a cheap process) and found a leak at the supply line to the generator. Again, not where we thought it would be since we get fumes 35 feet back in the bedroom. But they thought this leak could cause the fumes where we complained of them. We shall see. They have been great in fixing things for us before, so we are hoping they have her fixed this time. It will take some time to find out, as we are staying at the campground in Elkhart through the end of the month. It won't be till later when we take off for a bit.

Now comes the task of putting everything back in the basement. We had removed everything from there including the two slide trays (man are they heavy) so they could get to the fuel lines raceway, which we don't think they even checked! Ugh. Today has turned very cold and windy, so not sure we will be doing that job today. We still need to get the washer/dryer fixed before we head to the camp. We took MinnieMee over there yesterday rather than back to storage because it was raining and Terry needs to dump the tanks before going to storage. Also, hate to take her in the building when she is dripping wet.

On Saturday we took MinnieMee down to Nita's woods and camped overnight. We took the girls with us. We enjoyed visiting with family including Mom and Dad. There was a cookout Saturday night and we all pitched in and it was delicious. Then on Sunday we all drove down to Wabash to the Honeywell Center for Mother's Day brunch. It was wonderful as usual. We have been going down there for several years now and it is always good. I think I ate my weight in prime rib. It was delicious and cooked to perfection. The girls enjoyed seeing Mom and Dad again. They hadn't seen them since we left Texas, and Grandma didn't disappoint them. . . she had treats!

We have a couple rallies planned for this summer and I always enjoy those. One is coming up the end of May.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Finishing up with doctors!

Fortunately, we are about to finish up with doctors today. We will be leaving for Indy in another hour or so and seeing Terry's primary cardiologist. We don't anticipate any problems as everything has been going well and he has been doing fine since the implantation of his new ICD in Houston in December.

Yesterday afternoon we headed to Muncie with the girls and visited with friends Dave and Mark and Baxter, their Scottish Terrier! The girls get along well with him. They don't really interact much but the girls love roaming the yard sniffing out squirrels. They were so busy checking everything out, I really didn't get many Kodak moments but did get a shot of Butterscotch sniffing around.

After it got too cool to sit outside, we moved indoors and had a really good dinner. We had chicken pot pie and Cesar salad with sugar cream pie for dessert. Yum yum! Thanks guys! It was a great evening!
 
This morning we had a beautiful sunrise. Hard to photograph it, but it was gorgeous!

Till next time. . .

Dale

Found this!

I took some movies of Aenea jumping on the trampoline. Pepper the poodle likes to get on the trampoline when the kids are playing. She lays her toys on it and wants the kids to throw them. It is so cute. Then she will lay on it and bounce along with the kids! Haha. This was taken last week in Charlottesville.

Till next time. . .

Dale

More grandkid time!

One of the reasons we were in Charlottesville was to help grandson Ronan celebrate his eighth birthday! It just doesn't seem possible that he is eight years old. He is growing up so fast and is a very pleasant lad to be around. For his birthday he was able to ask some friends over on Sunday for a play date. They celebrated with cake and ice cream. Since he is eight, all we grandparents got to see of him was when they would run through the room on their way out the back, the front, or to his room. Tom and Sharon, his other grandparents were there, so we spent the day visiting and catching up with them.

His birthday was actually on Tuesday, but I let him unwrap his presents from us on Monday so he could kind of drag out the excitement. We got him a video game and some legos and another game. He really liked everything and was happy to start playing with it all right away.

On his birthday we all went to the park where the homeschoolers were having a get together and he got to play with even more friends. That was Tuesday and since we were leaving on Wednesday we all met back at their house so we could say our goodbyes. I love them all so much and it is very hard to leave. Especially the little ones. Aenea seems to really love having grandparents around and it is hard to say goodbye.

I did get to go to Aenea's gymnastics class. She has a lot of fun there. She walks on the balance beam like Brynlee does and did a head stand as well. It was fun to see her interacting with other kids.

Our time there was too short and it was soon time to leave. We left Wednesday morning amid rain and wind and cold temperatures. We are going to have to plan that better next time. The weather got pretty bad around Lewisburg, West Virginia, so we stopped in a Lowe's parking lot and had lunch. After we had waited awhile the storm passed and we drove on. We really had pretty smooth sailing then. When we leave Charlottesville, we always plan to go all the way through West Virginia because there are very few flat spots to park a big rig, so we drove to our usual night spot at Gallipolis, Ohio. We stay at the fairgrounds there which is normally open all year. However, there were no campers in the park and the campground manager's office had been moved into the campground and no one was there. It was quite strange and we didn't know if we should stay or not, so we moved on. We stopped at another place along the way, but his small camp was overcrowded and it would have been difficult to get our rig in. We drove on and had no idea where we would stop. That's not a good feeling. A Walmart was starting to look good and we don't do those. But we may be desperate. Terry had tried calling the Ross County Fairgrounds at Chllicothe, Ohio, but never got an answer. We decided to try anyway. We got there and the gate was open and there was a residence at the gate. Terry knocked on the door and a very nice woman answered and said we definitely could stay the night. We paid the fee and found a site away from other activities going on and had a quiet restful night.

The next day we drove on to the factory shops in Jeffersonville, Ohio. We used to shop here frequently when we lived in central Indiana. It was a fun stop and I found a couple things. Then we moved on to Buck Creek State Park in Springfield, Ohio. Another of our haunts in our younger years. It was a pleasant stay as well. From there we drove on to our friends in St. Paris, Ohio. Tab and Deanna were the friends we went to Alaska with and we always try to stop and see them. We stayed two nights and had a good visit.

Today we drove to New Lisbon and we are all settled in camp. We are here for the week for doctor appointments. The dogs also have to see their vet and we have an appointment with our tax person as well. We wish the weather was better. It is cold and until today, it was raining a lot. It was sunny today and our furnaces have a break. When the sun heats up the coach we stay plenty warm.

When we leave here, we have to go to Elkhart and empty the basement of the motorhome. Phaeton Place has developed a fuel leak apparently in a return fuel line and it's getting worse. So we want to get it fixed first thing.

Till next time. . .

Dale