Florida Time!

We drove for three days, some longer days than normal for us, but we wanted to get to Florida and spend some time with Brandon. He had a couple days off while Megan was gone to a Plexus seminar, so we got to spend some rare time with him on a weekday. He wanted to attend an event on Saturday, so we got to babysit. That was soooo easy. They don't even have to sneak out of the house. They just tell Brynlee bye and that Grandma and Grandpa are staying with her while Daddy goes away for a bit and she's fine with that. I find that pretty remarkable for a two-year old!

I got to go to a swim lesson for Brynlee, but they wouldn't let me take pictures. She enjoyed the water and got to play with Megan in the pool. She's certainly not afraid of the water. I know Megan and Brandon want her to learn enough to save herself at this stage if she were to fall in the pool.


We had really good weather while we were there. It was sunny and temperatures were mild. But there was some wind for several days. No hurricanes or anything, but we went out to the beach one day to look at the surf and it was really wild. It was a little hard to even stand up. There were small craft warnings and, of course, no swimming or surfing. The waves were really big.

We camped at Wickham Park again. They have really made improvements in this park and we have come back to it after several years' hiatus. There were gypsies living in it years ago and they just took over the comfort stations and had derelict rigs and hardly ever followed the rules. It's been cleaned up a lot since then and we are enjoying camping there once again. The sites are so spacious it makes for a comfortable stay. This time they were in the process of putting up the Christmas lights and just about every night when we arrived back after dark, another section would be lit. They do that at night and then go around changing and adding bulbs. It's a lot easier to see them at night.

An extra special treat was seeing two eagles in the park. They were on light poles and were quite a ways from me, but I was able to snap a couple decent pix with my Sony. They were beautiful birds and I got to see one take off and soar around.

We babysat again for Brynlee while Brandon and Megan went out to eat. It was so much fun to be able to play with her and listen to her. She talks a lot and I was able to understand a lot of what she says, but not everything. But if I tell her I don't understand her, she doesn't get mad. She just goes on to something else. LOL

As usual, our time there ended way too soon and we found ourselves headed out of Florida toward cousin Gary and Jo's in Zachary, Louisiana.

Till next time. . .

Dale

More Pix

I found a couple more pictures from our visit to Virginia.

Aenea is enrolled in dance class and she is such a special little angel. Here she is in her dance clothes.

One day we went with Aenea and Jocelyn and visited a couple orchards to get apples. We were able to snap a picture of us with Aenea.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Kids, kids, and more kids!

It's hard to find time to blog when we are visiting the kids and grandkids in Charlottesville.

We are so busy with them during the day and then come evening, we tend to crash. Plus we do have the dogs as well, so they must be attended to and walked. I always try to spend time with them if we have left them alone for a bit. But they do very well and never get into anything. They are very patient with us and we love them dearly.

We spent the week taking in the grandkids routine. They each are in gymnastics and swimming classes and Aenea is also in a dance class. Both of them concentrate very hard and listen to the instructors. I had to laugh at Ronan's gymnastics class because he was about the only one listening intently to the teacher. The other kids were bouncing off the walls, doing what the teacher said NOT to do and running all over the room instead of listening. My grandkids are the best!

Aenea really likes her dance class. She didn't talk at all during her class, but she tried everything the
teacher taught her and when she got home, she was repeating things the teacher said and did little movements she had been taught. She is such a sweetie. I am thankful they are both such good listeners.

She is quite the artist. She loves to paint, so Jocelyn and Tom encourage her by keeping an easel up all the time. It sits in the kitchen and Aenea paints whenever she wants. She paints a lot. She is a creative little gal and I love to watch her intently concentrating on selected her next color.

Ronan likes to play on the PlayStation3. I think he and his friend Jack mostly play MineCraft. I never have found the interest in video games. I play some solitaire and sudoku. To each his own. While they are busy playing videogames, Pepper McPoodlepants is checking out the front yard. I think Jocelyn had gone out to the car and she is looking for her.

Terry and Tom worked on finishing up the door on Ronan's cabinet in his room. They have rearranged his room and added some storage items from IKEA. It looks very nice and there appears to be space for everything. 

Two nights they all came out to the motorhome and sat around the campfire. One night Ronan brought his friend Jack. I was surprised we didn't have mosquitoes. It was a bit nippy, though, and we all had to put on jackets. We had nice fires and had fun roasting marshmallows. These are special times for sure.

We even went to the park a couple times. There was one birthday party and the kids got to whack a pinata. Fortunately they had filled it mostly with little trinkets and not too much candy, so that was good.

We met two men at the campground who were touring the U.S. on motorcycles. They were from Germany and both spoke very good English. This was not their first trip here and they were enjoying the territory they were seeing this time.

I hate leaving the family, but it was time to move on to Florida. Since we had been broken down for 5 days, we had to drive straight to Brandon's, so we had one very long day of driving and two shorter ones. It wasn't bad, and I'm glad we had the extra time built into the schedule to do this.

Till next time. . .

Dale

On down the road. . .

Can't believe we finally made it out of Gallipolis, Ohio. That's not a bad stop, so if you are ever traveling up 35 through Ohio, the camp is located at the fairgrounds. It is $20 for full hookup. The sites technically are not pull through, but if there aren't many in camp, you can drive through the back site into yours. We were also able to keep our toad behind us the entire time. There are over 100 campsites and there were just six of us there. All are FHU sites. There is a bathhouse which would be acceptable if it were ever cleaned. There used to always be a dozen campers when we would stop here, but not anymore. They did say that when the Bob Evans festival starts next week, just down the road, that they will be busy.

Now a word about the Campground Manager. There is and there isn't. Depends on what you expect in a campground manager. One would think they would take your money and give you a site. In an ideal world, that's what happens. The last time we were here, there were no cars at the manager's run down trailer and nothing to indicate it was open. We left. I later emailed the fairgrounds and they were mortified that we and another camper who had pulled in left because no manager was on site and NO rigs were in the camp. He assured me they were open all year and he would look into it.

So "Edna" was there when we arrived. We paid for one night, then parked. If you read my Facebook you know that we experienced a breakdown and could not move for several days. Each time I went to renew, there was a sign on the door to pick a site and someone would come to collect. I know that person would not be "Edna" because she can't really get around very well. One time when I went to renew, a young man whom I had seen there before went up to the door with what looked to be some food and he knocked on the door. Edna yelled from inside, "Go away, leave me alone." The young man talked with her and she opened the door, invited me in and wrote me a receipt, very cordially.

So, if you are ever there, my advice is to park and try later to pay or wait for someone to come around. If she's there and accepting visitors, no problem. And she was always very nice, never nasty. I'm not sure what her story is, but she is dealing with what appears to be an invalid family member as well.

I am glad to report that we have finally left the camp there and Phaeton Place is up and running. Very well in fact. There is so much that conspired to keep us there and to get us running. Too much to talk about. But we did get a mobile mechanic out who checked all the wiring front to back. He tested the voltage and for grounds. Tightened stuff down, etc. When he got to the front, he found a bad end on the main cable running power from the back to the front. It was on the firewall. He removed the wire and put a new end on it and crimped it good. Still, she wouldn't start, so he recommended a tow. A bit tricky because the jacks were down. Terry continued to ponder the dilemma. We stayed the weekend and Monday morning he started calling Tiffin again and waiting on call backs. He spent time on the phone with Chris Morrow at Bay Diesel going over the fuse block with him. Finally in the afternoon a chassis tech called back. He confirmed what Terry now concluded. The main problem we had was with the bad connection on the main power source coming from the back and terminating on the firewall. That's fixed. The second item was a fuse missing from the fuse block. If there was never a fuse there, why did it need one now? Turns out in digging around in the area under the dash, Terry found "the" green 30 amp fuse about 12 inches away from where it was supposed to be plugged in. How does a fuse that requires pliers to pull out jump out of it's socket? Strange but true. We're thinking that with all the service we have had this summer, perhaps someone in checking the fuses didn't get it plugged back in completely and when Terry popped off the cover, it got caught "just right" and flipped out. So we didn't know that there had ever been one there when in reality it had been there all the time. Fuse was still good, put it back in and all is well.

Tiffin, in reviewing everything Terry told them, felt confident that the major problem was the connection on the firewall stud and then secondary to that, the fuse missing which controls all the ignition, etc.

So we took off this morning, altered our route to not run down Sandstone Mountain, my arch nemesis, a 5 mile 7% grade with two 90 degree curves. Instead we drove south down I-77 into Virginia. There are some grades there almost as steep as on 64, but there are breaks in them and the drive was very nice with no scary moments on the descents. We arrived at our campground about 12:30, set up and had lunch. We had a great drive, beautiful scenery and Phaeton Place had nary a hiccup on the drive. She performed like the champ she is and we believe all those problems we had are behind us.

Our campground has hills all around it and there are cattle and sheep grazing on the hillside. The weather was warm this afternoon and has now cooled down. Beautiful weather. The campground was less than 50% filled when we got here, but has nearly filled up now with rigs continuing to come in after dark.

Tomorrow we get into Charlottesville and get to spend a week with the kids and grandkids. Can't wait!

Whoo hoo!

Till next time. . .

Dale

Beautiful day

Yes, it's a beautiful day here in southeastern Ohio. The rain has moved out taking the really cold temps with it. Today promises to be sunny and much warmer than the last two days. And . . . . here we sit. . .for the fourth day in a row.

Phaeton Place is sick. Over the past week, we have had three occurrences of temporarily losing power. . . I'm talking like 1/2 - 1 second in duration. While the engine and all systems are running, the dash module will flash, then go out, taking everything including the engine with it. Then the ABS light flashes on, then off, then everything comes back on including the engine. Always have to restart the radio. Gremlins for sure. It happens when she is running. The first time we were idling, about to pull out of the campsite in Warsaw. We drove on to New Castle, Indiana, with no other problems. But upon leaving NC and heading to Ohio, we had it happen twice on the road. . . always when we were running, but slowing, not out on the highway. When we pulled into our campsite in Gallipolis, Ohio, I turned her off as per usual and went in to register for one night. When we got back out, Terry turned the key and she was totally dead. . . . dead. . . dead. . . dead. Terry went out to the back and turned the battery disconnect on/off several times. We got her started back up and pulled into a campsite.

No idea what the problem is and as is always the case, once she's running again, no one is able to do much troubleshooting. If she's not acting up, there's nothing to check. But I'm thinking now that as we are poised to start the run through the West Virginia mountains, I am not ready to tackle the 7%, 5 mile downhill grade with two 90 degree turns with an engine that shuts off intermittently. Call me chicken. . . but that's the way it is.

The next morning we were getting ready to leave and she was up and running. We were checking the lights and when we got to the headlights, as I turned them on, everything including the engine shuts down completely. She would not restart. Me thinks. . . I am NOT supposed to go down that mountain. . . PERIOD! Terry starts troublshooting and calling Freightliner, Tiffin, etc., anyone who could offer help. He did all kinds of troubleshooting with techs on one end of the phone and him on the other trying to narrow down the problem. One thing we have discovered is that Tiffin (and all motorhome manufacturers) will re-route electronics from their original location on the chassis in order to accommodate what they want to accomplish. So Freightliner wonders why wires are here, there, or not here or not there when they think that is where they should be. We have had one diesel mechanic out here who has checked all the electronics and replaced a cable end on the firewall that was suspect. He has power through from the batteries to the ignition, but turning the ignition gets you nothing. However, using the auxiliary start button, we can start the engine. So the ignition switch is good. He has recommended a tow. Which we would do, but alas. . . the jacks are down. Can't tow with the jacks down and can't get them up without starting the engine. Oh, yeah, there is a manual way of lifting them, but unforunately, where we are, we are setting very low to the ground which would prohibit getting anything underneath to aid in raising the jacks.

So when the mechanic left, Terry starts working his magic again. Remember, he has talked with EVERYONE and tries to methodically sort through all the scenarios that could happen. He finally gets the engine to restart by plugging in an ignition fuse into the spot labeled as such. It works! Turning on the lights the engine stays lit! The problem????? There has NEVER IN TEN YEARS BEEN A FUSE IN THAT SPOT! Which means that Tiffin has rerouted the ignition system to be powered elsewhere. Will keeping a fuse in that location work? For how long? Will something else happen going down the road? We need answers. It does appear we will be able to get the jacks up. . . .keeping our fingers crossed. Probably still looking at a tow.

Yesterday we visited another heavy equipment dealer in Jackson, Ohio, who works on RV's. He was recommended by the mechanic who came out. So we went there even though they were supposed to be closed on Saturday. Turns out they were open and Terry had a nice chat with the service guy. He talked about the modifications that manufacturers do and that he did have a guy who was very good with the motorhomes. And he said, you won't have to get towed up here. His "homework" for Terry was to talk with Tiffin first thing on Monday and get as much info as he can on those modifications for the ignition system and then he will send his guy out to us to help. I must say that the two places we have worked with here have been very helpful, very nice, and very willing to do what they can to steer us in the right direction.

So. . . we sit. At least we have full hookups at this campground. . . for $20/night. Whoo hoo!. All coach systems are working, so I am doing laundry, crocheting, etc. May get out the sewing machine today. Tomorrow Terry will call Tiffin and try to get some help, then touch back with Osborne's if we need more help.

All our fall appointments are done. . . we are being delayed getting to the kids, but they will be there when we can roll. Bummer, but we are safe and working through this as we can.

On a positive note, we had some visitors in the field down below the campground last evening. . .

 

If you're in the area, stop in and we'll chat!

Till next time. . .

Dale

Wow!

It's been awhile. . . what can I say.

We arrived back in northern Indiana to cooler temperatures for just about a week, then it turned hot, hot, hot. But we did manage to get a stint in at Shipshewana. Amish country is my favorite place to be. Everyone is so laid back, a much slower pace is found and the countryside is quiet. We arrived on a Sunday and left on Wednesday. I like to visit the shops in town and I found some beautiful quilts. I took pictures for my friends who are in to quilting.

Back at Elkhart Campground, there was a rally going on. There were so many rigs for the rally that we waited an extra week to get a spot. We could have gotten in earlier, but I wanted a 50 Amp spot since the weather was turning hot again. Can't seem to escape it.

We have been working on various projects, mainly getting stuff loaded back into the motorhome from the many repairs we were plagued with this summer. We also took our captain's chairs out and took them over to Shipshewana to have them recovered. That was about half the cost of buying new and we were assured the frames were still good, just bad foam. We got them back yesterday and are very pleased with them. I did go with a bit darker color that will look nicer a lot longer, I think.

We have been working at selling another duplex and we closed on it September 14. Whew. Four of the five have been sold. The only thing left is the condo and we are starting to work on it next year. Getting stuff cleared out of it, repainted inside, some new windows. . . and then who knows? We know we don't want to live in it. Terry absolutely cannot tolerate cold weather and since he has done so well healthwise in the last ten years, we know it's because he isn't exposed to cold temperatures. So we plan to keep it that way. With having sold all but one, we hope to be able to travel more in the summers.

Yesterday we had to go to Shipshewana and on the way back decided to find the "elusive" Eldridge Cemetery where many of my ancestors are buried. We had tried to find it when Jocelyn was here, but had to give up. We had been by it once years ago. It is on a county road, but one that dead ends and then actually starts up again. So you have to get on the right portion of that road which is only maybe a mile long. It is a quaint little cemetery that seems to be well kept. . .by whom I don't know. It doesn't appear to be used anymore. I took some pictures for the genealogy buffs in the family. The Schrock grave is my paternal great grandparents. I actually remember Carrie whom we called "Big Gramma." The one is not a relative, to my knowledge, but is the grave of a veteran of the Civil War.

Progress continues for our launch date of September 24. We start heading south and plan to visit each of the kids before finally landing in Texas.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Seeking cooler climes!

We did drive over to Tunica and spend a couple days there. They don't want us to come back apparently. We only seek to be entertained for a reasonable amount of time and that didn't happen, so we didn't hang around the casinos very long. And it was still so stinkin' hot down there. It was still close to 100* every day and once again, we spent a lot of time in the motorhome with the dogs. Kinda' hate to go away for too long.

We decided to head north since it was 20 degrees cooler back in northern Indiana and since we were headed that way, why not go now? We stopped the first night in Dover, Tennessee, and drove around this little town. It was named Dover because of its resemblance to the "white cliffs of Dover" in England. We looked up and down the river and only saw one small rock formation which looked to be limestone along the river. Nothing at all like the white cliffs of Dover, but I guess someone thought so.

There is a Civil War Battlefield here on the site of Fort Donelson. The fort was an "earthenworks" fort so it was hard to see the definition. There were a lot of trenches dug and still there. There was also some artillery and a few monuments. In the museum was a picture of the ironclad "Cairo" which is in Vicksburg. We have seen that ship. There was a display that showed the ironclads that were engaged in a battle on the Cumberland River here and played a strategic part in the outcome. It was quite interesting.

While we were driving through the battlefield there were signs indicated "eagle nesting areas" and we were lucky enough to see a juvenile up in a tree. I had a hard time getting a good picture that wasn't blurry. . . I need to work at getting my settings right on my camera. But he was huge. It is hard to believe how quickly they grow.

We left Dover the next morning and traveled a long day to Cincinnati to the FMCA campground. We had full hookups there and a nice yard for the dogs. We met some nice people. . . most are just passing through, but are very friendly.

We moved on Friday to St. Paris, Ohio, and spent two nights while we were visiting Tab and Deanna, our Alaska companions. We had a great time with them. We went to the golf course restaurant for dinner that night and their special was prime rib. It was delicious and I brought half of it home.

On Saturday we all went to Springfield. They were having a "food truck" event. It was in one of the parks and there were dozens of food trucks there and offering their wares for sale. They had everything from hot dogs to pizza to BBQ, etc. One even had kosher Jewish food. We found one we wanted to try, so we got something to eat. It was very good. It came in a styrofoam and was layered with BBQ and mashed potatoes. There were several kinds of meat, each layer separated by mashed potatoes. Terry and I split one. There was entertainment as well. Several musical groups played, a different one every hour. They were good as well. We really enjoyed our visit.

From there Tab drove us by his neighborhood where he was raised. Down the street from his home was a "rock garden" built by a man who lived there. He has a little city built out of stones. It is called the Hartman Rock Garden and is free of charge. They do accept donations. We walked around and looked at all the little creations and marveled at the work and time the man took for this labor of love. No trip to Tab and Deanna's would be complete without ice cream, so we stopped off at Young's Dairy for some ice cream before heading home.

We left there this morning, Sunday morning, and drove to Shipshewana. We are here for three nights. We plan to visit the town shops tomorrow, and the flea market on Tuesday and Wednesday before heading to Goshen. Terry needs to do some work on the motorhome so he wants to do that before we head over to the campground.

Till next time. . .

Dale

A little R&R

We all need a little R&R and now seemed like a good time. We left Red Bay on Wednesday afternoon and drove to Tupelo to the CAT dealer. We had spent some time at Bay Diesel and he changed out the coolant sensor module which is what the first CAT dealer thought was wrong. But since Bay Diesel is not CAT certified they didn't have the software to activate it, so they sent us to Tupelo. They were waiting on us and when we got there they flashed that module. The problem is that reactivating that new module did not work. The problem of "low coolant" and "check engine" lights continues. A fairly long discussion ensued with the tech at Thompson CAT about the feasibility of tracking down the problem. The engine computer has plug-ins on two sides. One is the CAT side and everything that plugs in there is necessary to the operation of the engine. The modules that Freightliner plugs in to the other side of the main computer are interfaces that are there to inform you when something with the chassis has a problem. But those are not necessary to the operation of the engine. He likened them to tire pressure sensors. We use those too. We normally don't even check our tires anymore because we plug in the monitor and it tells us what our tire pressure is in each tire. But if a battery goes dead, that tire monitor will beep a warning, but the tire is still okay and will continue to be okay. So that's kind of the problem with this module. It's telling us we have low coolant, but we don't. We run the Silverleaf Engine Diagnostics program on a laptop which Terry watches as we go down the road. He can read the engine temps. So we know all is well. But if we leave the module "on," it will actually de-rate and eventually halt the engine, which we don't want. So we chose to keep the module deactivated. The tech said the message he's getting is indicative of an open ground. Tracing down a wire on that engine and wiring harness could cost thousands of dollars and be a twenty-five cent part. He wasn't very optimistic that it would be easy to find. I don't know. . . maybe he didn't want to do it. But at any rate, he made a good case for not tracking it down and we decided not to at this point.

The other thing that Bay Diesel did for us was find the source of our fumes. Two men crawled into the belly or basement of the coach and found diesel fuel in the electrical chaseway running front to back in the basement! No one else had thought to look there. . . instead they looked into the fuel lines raceway and it was clean. There also is a hatch in the underbelly that allows access into the fuel tank and one man climbed up on top of the tank and said he observed where fuel had spilled at one time. He said he believed it had sprayed into that raceway and coated all the wires with fuel. So what they did was remove the "loom" which is the corrugated plastic housing that goes around the wires. The loom was full of fuel and there is no cleaning that. It doesn't really do anything other than protects the wires during the building of the coach, according to Chris the owner. So it was removed and the bundled wires were wiped off. The box the wires were in was wiped down as well. We still have some smell. . . there is probably no way to remove it all, and we still smell diesel when we stop. It does seem to dissipate quickly in the coach. There still is a strong smell in the basement yet, but we are hoping that will eventually subside. We know there are no more leaks because the mechanics looked it over well, so hopefully we can put this behind us as well.

So when we left Thompson CAT, we didn't want to go far. We have never found many campgrounds around Tupelo that we liked, but we found the "Trace Lake State Park" about six miles from town and headed over there. It was a great find. Our site here was probably 80 feet long and paved, with full hook ups and on a lake! We spent two days there and had some pretty intense thunderstorms. Nothing dangerous, but so much rain! During the night Butterscotch got restless and decided she wanted to go out. I was a bit confused till I heard what I'm sure was a bobcat. It was screaming like cats do during the night, but it was much louder, so I'm sure that's what it was. We have seen them in the wild here before and we were in a forest. There were a lot of deer here as well. We saw some everytime we drove on the park roads. Needless to say, Butterscotch stayed in and safe.

From there we drove over to Sardis. This is a lake where Terry used to fish with his Uncle and his cousin Gary when he was young. It is a large reservoir.  I had always wanted to see it, so we drove over. We were only about 60 miles away, so it was a short drive. This is beautiful over here. The lake is really nice and there are a couple campground on it. We are parked below the dam in the John Kyle State Park. We again have full hookups. . . I'm seeing a trend here I think. The Mississippi state parks are often full hookup with 50 amp and if you are 65 or older or disabled you can get $10 off. So the sites are $24 and you pay $14. That's the real deal!

There are dozens of hummingbirds surrounding the feeders at the check-in station here in the park. I can't get good pictures. . . need to check the settings on my camera, but they are so much fun to watch!

We are leaving here tomorrow and headed to Tunica. I can really relax there, particularly if I win anything! LOL Oh well, even if I don't it will be okay. We plan then to head for Indiana. It has been in the high 90's the entire time we have been south and the heat index is in the red zone everyday. We spend a lot of time inside with the dogs. The weather in northern Indiana has been better, so we plan to head back up there soon.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Gaffney was a bust.

Well, we had great hopes from Gaffney and were sorely disappointed. The people were nice enough and they didn't charge us a dime after the first day. But after four days working on the motorhome, we did not get the two repairs made. Those would be the diesel leak fumes in the coach and the "check engine" "low coolant" errors.

They could not find the source for the diesel fumes. They pressurized the fuel tank for three hours and never found any leaks. They inspected and did not find any residue from previous leaks, etc. Diesel fuel does not evaporate, so wherever it drips or leaks will remain forever and eventually gather dust and dirt and grime which is what they look for when trying to find a leak. They searched everywhere, but never found it. I am convinced they didn't look "everywhere" because we still have the fumes and after running all afternoon when we left Gaffney, we had a strong odor in the coach again. It has to be coming from somewhere. . . we are not imagining it. They just didn't look in the right place or do the right test. But they tried everything they knew to do, so they left it at that.

The other problem is the "check engine" light which goes on when we get a "low coolant" warning. We had them change the coolant. We had it last changed at a Cummins shop and they didn't put in CAT coolant. There is a difference we found out, but that did not make the error we are having. The engine eventually goes into "limp" mode and then will shut down the engine. They worked for three more days to try and get it fixed. They again changed the sensor, put in a different module, ran new wires to the sensor, etc. Nothing worked, so they eventually gave up on that as well. On Friday they went into the computer and deactivated that sensor, which is what CAT in Ft. Wayne had done. That removes that sensor from the lineup and we were able to run again without that pesky warning. Still needs to be fixed, but we have to find someone who knows what to do.

It was extremely disappointing because we were certain this service center could do it all. We have a different opinion now. Don't get me wrong. . . the people there are very, very nice and they were very accommodating. But we don't think they do much with diagnostics and solving complex problems. They are very good on the various services you might want performed and cheaper than what we have paid before, but when it comes to our problems, they really didn't know what to do.

So where are we now? Red Bay, Alabama, where Phaeton Place was born. This, also, is not the place to fix our two major items, but we developed another problem they can fix, so we came here. When our large kitchen slide is out, we see a tear on the underneath side of the slide floor. It is fiberglas and we don't want it to get worse. It could be damaged more if not repaired, plus bugs could get in there. When Terry called them, they were very much aware of the exact problem and have a fix ready to go. So we have to wait here till our service number comes up and we will be all set. We thought while we are here we are going to ask around about the other two problems and see who is recommended for us to go to. We have heard of a shop in Decatur, Alabama. They are both a Freightliner shop and a CAT dealer, so they should be able to do both.

The ride over here was uneventful and long. We left Gaffney Friday afternoon around 4 p.m. We drove a couple hours but stopped before we got to Atlanta, not wanting to drive through there during rush hour on Friday night. We got up yesterday, Saturday morning, and drove over 300 miles, which is a long, long day for me behind the wheel, especially since we went through both Atlanta and Birmingham. I told Terry lucky for him I was having a lot of back pain cause that kept me awake on the longer than normal drive. LOL On the way over we saw an Oscar Meyer "Weinermobile" heading eastbound on I-22. Pretty cool!

So now we are in Camp Red Bay and already meeting new people which happens every time we come. It's been a few years though.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Freightliner Service Center, Gaffney, South Carolina

There was a time when I didn't think we would ever get anywhere. . . and here we are in Gaffney, South Carolina, at the Freightliner Service Center. We noticed last winter we were smelling diesel fuel in the undercarriage of the motorhome. It didn't affect the running of the rig, so we planned to get it looked at when we were in northern Indiana. Since that time, we have run about 5,000 miles and still have the fuel leak. But it has gotten progressively worse and we get fumes into the coach.

We did make one attempt at having it repaired in South Bend. Not only did they NOT fix it, but they kinked all the fuel hoses and disconnected the generator, so that had to be fixed. Once they fixed that, they left us with the "still not fixed" fuel leak and another very visible fuel leak. We figured we would decide later what to do because that outfit will not correct their mistakes anymore and we don't want to pay someone who doesn't know what they're doing.

So onward we went with other things we had planned. That stopped short when we developed an apparent problem with a sensor or a module, etc. We were getting a "low coolant" warning, but we were not low on coolant and, in fact, could not put anymore in as it was filled to the top. Grrrrr. We did manage to travel several hundred miles with those warnings because as soon as the engine warmed up, all the lights went out and we could run.

Eventually we made our way to the CAT dealer in Ft. Wayne who reprogrammed our computer to bypass that module to eliminate the warning lights and buzzers. That did the trick as far as running and we have been able to run since then without a problem. We have a Silverleaf Engine Monitoring System that keeps us apprised of the engine diagnostics, so we are comfortable watching that closely for engine activity.

We arrived today in Gaffney, thankful we made it here without a problem and anxious to get the fuel leak and the sensor module fixed. The people here are very nice and we are in a site with 50Amp in their service center parking lot. We have good company around us, other RVers including some fulltimers who are all here for service on their chassis. Our work starts at 8 a.m. tomorrow! Whoo hoo!

Till next time. . .

Dale