A Call To Laura and A Call From Denny

DeBary, FL.

50 deg. overcast, light mist, no wind.

Forecast = Mostly sunny. Highs around 75°F. Northeast wind 3 to 7 MPH.


Nothing too exciting happened yesterday. After lunch, Jim and Linda took CLT (Cute Little Truck), and headed to Walgreen's to pick up some much needed items and then went to Win Dixie and bought a few groceries that they were out of.

Oh, Linda called Laura and asked her if she would help do some painting and decorating over at the house. It probably would have been better to get that stuff done before getting the furniture, but sometimes you just can't make everything happen in just the right order.

Anyway, Laura said that she'd be glad to help and in fact, I think that today, she may come over and "survey the situation" to see what paint and supplies will be needed.

Later in the day, Denny, (one of the Illinois Bunch), called. He and Bev are at Denny's sister's house in Lakeland right now and are on their way to Thonotosassa for the month of February. They were fooling around with a computer and Denny was wanting to know the address of the house so that they could look up the location.

The way things stand right now, we won't be able to get down to Thonotosassa while they're there, so they are trying to figure out a way that they could stop by here for a day or so when they leave there and start their return trip back to Illinois.

That would be great!!! I hope they can work it out!!! : )

Jim called the Insurance Agent yesterday and he told them that he still hadn't heard back from the insurance company. So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  still more waiting on that issue.  : (

Did you know that on this date in 1949, the first Emmys were presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club?

Waiting

DeBary, FL.

54 deg. clear, N. wind @ 8 mph.

Forecast = Partly cloudy. Highs around 68°F. North northeast wind 11 to 15 MPH.


It's been awhile since my last post so I thought I'd bring you up to date on what's been happening.

WAITING!!!!!!

Yep. waiting on inspectors, insurance agents and insurance companies. Right now, the ball is in the insurance companies court and by Wednesday or Thursday, Jim and Linda should know for sure what they're going to do. Their agent seems pretty confident that everything will go through, but if it doesn't, Jim and Linda now have developed a back-up plan. (Just in case.)

Sunday, Laura, Lindsey and Ashley met Jim and Linda over at the house. CLT, (Cute Little Truck), says that  from what he heard, it sounded like they really liked it. They spent an hour or so looking at things and Laura had some good suggestions as to how to arrange furniture etc., when they do finally buy some.

Jim and Linda have also started moving a few things out of me and into the house. Yesterday, Jim took a few totes out of my basement and CLT says that he took some stuff out of the back of him and put it into the storage shed.

One other thing they have done is to start making lists of items they need to purchase, such as cleaning supplies, light bulbs and paper products. (Especially TP)  ; )  They also started a list of a few food and drink items they want to take over there so that they can have a snack and a drink.

I'm sure there will be more lists and items on them, but this is a start. : )

Today, I expect that they will take a few more items over to the house. Linda's getting real "itchy" to go looking at furniture so they may do some of that too.

Did you know that on this date in 1947 - KTLA, Channel 5, in Hollywood, CA, began operation as the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River?

Fort Stockton to Van Horn, Still A Blowin’ and Big Problems

Van Horn TX.

34 Deg., overcast, NE wind @ 6 mph.

Forecast = Mostly cloudy, high temp. 52 deg, a 20% chance of rain, East wind @ 10 to 15 mph.

Just before we pulled out of the Fort Stockton RV park at 8:40 Thursday morning, the wind started to blow again. It wasn't blowing too hard, so I thought it would be OK. As we were heading to the next exit where there was a gas station, I thought the wind may be picking up a bit, but it still wasn't too bad.

Well, by the time Jim had filled my tank with good old #2 diesel and we headed back out onto Westbound I-10, I knew it was going to be a tough travel day. You see, the wind had switched to the NE and was hitting me pretty much broadside at about 20 to 30 mph with higher gusts!!!  : O  

Now, I’m pretty heavy and wind doesn't bother me a real lot, but Jim had to “stay on the ball” to keep me from wandering off course, which meant that he couldn't really relax at all.

We stopped at one rest area and one picnic area along the way. Once to just relax a bit and the other time to relax and check tires and tow bar. So, with getting fuel and stopping the 2 times, it took us 2 hours and 40 minutes to travel the 123 miles here to the Eagle's Nest RV Park in Van Horn, TX.

This is a pretty nice park with fairly large pull-through sites and full hook-ups, with some sites having 50 amp electric. There wasn't anyone in the office when we pulled in, so Jim did the "self registration" thing and soon I was parked in site #3.

Yesterday morning, the wind had died down some, so Jim and Linda thought they'd get an early start. Well, as you know, the best laid plans don't always work. 

By about 8:30, Jim and Linda had everything ready go go, so Jim fired up my engine and it started right up and then promptly stopped!!!! He tried to start it again but it would crank over but not start!!!   : O

Now what to do???? He went out and checked to see of there was anything visible wrong but couldn't find anything, tried to start my engine again, but it still wouldn't run.  : (

So . . .. .  . A call to Road Service was in order.

After talking to the friendly and sympathetic people at Road Service for awhile and giving them a bunch of information, it was decided that the best thing to do was to send a tow truck out and have me towed to the nearest facility, which is about 100 miles away in El Paso.

After about an hour so so, they called back and said that they had found a towing service that could handle me, but it would be between 3:00 and 5:00 before they could get here. : ( 

So, , , , , nothing to do but wait, and if you know Jim, waiting for something like that is not one of his better attributes.  : (

Anyway, about 3:30, the phone rang and it was the Road Service telling Jim that the tow truck had problems and wouldn't be able to come and tow me to El Paso until Monday!!!!!  : ((

But, , , , , , , , , , Just after that call, the man from the tow truck company called, asked some questions about me and asked if anyone had looked at me? He was told that "No, the Road Service had determined that the thing to do was to tow me to the facility in El Paso". He said that since his tow truck service was in Van Horn, and he had some time, he wandered if it would be OK if he came over and had a look at me?

In about 10 minutes he arrived, checked a few thing out, and then he and Jim tried to start my engine. Again, it would not start, so the man got out some starting fluid and while Jim was trying to start me, he sprayed some into my engine air intake.

My engine fired up and in a short time was running fine on it's own!!!  : )

So, what's the problem? Well, he thinks that there is a small leak somewhere and my fuel system is loosing its prime. In another words, after sitting, the fuel runs out of my fuel lines and back into the tank and without a little help, the pump will not pull it back up.

I've noticed my engine running a little rough after starting a few times, but I just blamed it on the cold weather, as that seemed to be when it happened. But now, I've got an idea that there was a problem for some time now, and it finally showed up here when the temperature was down to near freezing.  

Being that it was too late to head to El Paso, it was decided that we'd stay here for the weekend. Jim called the Road Service and told them to cancel the tow and then called the repair facility in El Paso and arranged for me to go in to be checked out Monday.

Oh, and that man from the tow truck company? He wouldn't accept any money for stopping by and instead, apologized for having a problem with his tow truck and not being able to tow me.

But, you know what? I'm glad that he had a problem with his truck!!! I didn't really want to be towed and if Jim can get my engine started Monday morning, he can drive me  to El Paso to see what the problem is.

Did you know that Van Horn was named for Lt. James Judson Van Horn who commanded an army garrison at the Van Horn Wells beginning in 1859? Lt. Van Horn's command was relatively short-lived as the post was seized by Confederate forces in 1861 and Lt. Van Horn taken prisoner.

New DVD/VCR Unit and A Couple Little Glitches

DeBary, FL.

57 deg. clear, SE wind @ 5 mph.

Forecast = Partly sunny. Highs in the upper 50s. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph decreasing to 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon.


Jim called the Deland Truck Center yesterday morning to see of my new air filter had come in. Dennis, the parts manager, said that it hadn't come in yet, and he would call as soon as it did.

After making the call, Jim decided that he would tackle the installation of the new DVD/VCR machine in the overhead cabinet, over the driver's seat. It didn't take him long to get the old VCR out, but it took a little doing to get the new combination unit into the available space. The new unit is about 3 inches deeper and 4 inches wider than the old one so some wires had to be re-routed and a small modification made to the cabinet.

Once the unit was in the cabinet and hooked up, Jim turned it on and began the preliminary settings. Well, the opening screen didn't come up like it was supposed to and a message on the TV screen said "No Signal". : (  Well, Jim went back though all the connection instructions to make sure all the connections were correct and then started the settings again. It was at this time that he realized that one of the settings wasn't correct. After changing that setting, everything started working and now it's working as advertised.  : )

This is really a pretty neat unit. It's made by Panasonic and as I said, it's a VCR/DVD combination unit. You can record off of the TV onto either DVDs or VHS tapes, you can copy a VHS tape onto a DVD or copy a DVD to a tape. It can play CDs and has both USB and SD slots on the front, for among other things, looking at individual photos or watching them as a slide show.

So, the unit is installed and all that still needs to be done is to either modify the existing face panel or make a new one. In the meantime, when the cabinet door is closed, you can't even see the unit. So, everything is working, the unit is secure in the cabinet and we're good to go. : )

After lunch, CLT took Jim and Linda over to the bank so that they could get some cash. When traveling, (like we're going to be doing soon), they've learned that sometimes cash is the only thing accepted, so they make sure they have some on hand.

Later in the afternoon, Dennis from the Deland Truck Center called back and said that he had called his supplier and found out that the air filter was back ordered, but was assured that it would be here for sure next Wednesday, the 18th. : (  Jim reminded him that we were leaving here on the 23rd of this month and he again assured Jim that it would be here.

For dinner, Jim cooked burgers on the grill and Linda put together salads inside. The evening was spent watching TV and reading.

Did you know that Friday the 13th will occur 3 times in 2012?

Rantoul To Utica and Proud Of Myself

Utica, IL.

65 Deg. partly cloudy, NE wind @ 6 mph.

Forecast = Partly cloudy. Highs in the lower 80s. Light and variable winds in the morning becoming east around 10 mph in the afternoon.


After what seemed like forever, we finally left Rantoul at about 20 minutes to 11:00. I had been waiting and waiting to get on the road but we didn't want to get to our destination before the 1:00 check-in time, so I had to be patient.

From Rantoul, we headed West on US 136 until we came to I-74. 74 took us up to Bloomington where we pick up I-55. 55 took us up and around to the North side of Normal where we tuned North on I-39. Once on 39 we followed it all the way up to I-80, (near LaSalle). After turning East on I-80, we took the first exit and after crossing over to the North side of the expressway, we followed a frontage road here to the Hickory Hollow Campground . 

Since we took our time and drove slow, it was 10 minutes after 1:00 when we pulled up in front of the office, so we traveled 118 miles in about 2 hours and 30 minutes.

How's that for a nice leisurely drive? ; )

But, you want to know what was the best part of all???? Well, after Jim pulled me into my site and had me positioned just where we wanted me, he shut off my engine and restarted it again. Twice!!!!  And, you know what? it started up perfectly both times!!!! Hot engine and all!!!!  ; ))

Phew!!! I was so relieved that I can't even describe how it felt. I was pretty sure that my starter problem was repaired, but you just never know until you get out on the road and test it under real conditions!

Oh, and one other thing. (and I'm going to pat myself on my roof here). Jim also said that he was very pleased with how I performed on our way here. He said that I never felt like I was straining or having problems merging onto the freeways. He also said that I was much easier to drive than any other Motorhome that he had driven and is looking forward to driving me many, many miles.

Wow!! What a nice complement!! ; )

After getting me settled onto my site, Jim took the camera and took a few pictures of the CG. He and Linda had been here many times in the past, so he didn't take a lot of them.

This first one is of the Office / Store,  viewed from near my site. (D-3)

This next one is of me in my site. Because Jim told them that he and Linda don't watch TV on satellite, they gave me a nice shady site.

This is a nice CG and if you come here during the week and you belong to Passport America, you can get a nice level full hook-up site with free wi-fi and 50 amp electric for only $17. (Cash only).

This morning, we'll be leaving here to head up to the Wisconsin Dells. Jim says we'll probably leave sometime between 10:00 and 10:30. If my calculations are correct, it should be about 180 miles up there.

Did you know that more than ten people a year are killed by vending machines?

Rantoul to Mahomet, Repairs, and A Talk With Myrddin

Mahomet, IL.
62 deg. overcast

Forecast = Mostly cloudy with scattered showers. Highs in the lower 70s. West winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts to around 25 mph. Chance of precipitation 40 percent.

After a slight delay, we left Prairie Pines CG yesterday morning and headed to R &S here in Mahomet. The delay was that Jim had to add some water to my radiator because of the Aqua Hot leak the other day. Then, there was one of my warning beepers going off after he started my engine and he couldn't figure out what was causing it.

I had no way of telling him that sometimes you just have to put me in drive and move me a few feet and the air system  beeper will stop, so we waited until he could call R & S and they told him about this little quirk.

It was 8:05 when we left the CG and after traveling 23 miles it was 8:45 when we pulled into the R & S parking lot.

When Justin went to pull me into the shop there was a problem with my starter, so along with the other things, that had to be looked at also.

Now, I'm sitting inside of the shop and waiting on parts. My Aqua Hot is repaired, (just a hose), the dump valve is replaced and so is the black water flush fitting. I'm waiting on my starter, (which is being rebuilt), and a part for my awning.

I don't know how long I'll be here. It could be as much as a couple days, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Oh, and I talked to Myrddin for awhile today, and he said not to worry because Jim and Linda were very understanding about RVs and understood that there would be some problems at first. He said that he had all kinds of problems when they first bought him.

And another thing, you ought to see Myrddin!! He all cleaned up and really looking spiffy!! : ) He said that they've been working on him for  a few days now.

I don't think he'll have any trouble finding a new owner. ; )

Did you know that Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors?