Thursday, October 29, 2009

Taking Care of Business

Yesterday was a beautiful day with sunshine and warm temperatures.  So, Mark headed out to clean the motor home and wait for any sign of a service tech that might be roaming the campground.

My chore for the morning was the ironing.  Several have made comment that with this lifestyle they don’t or didn’t plan to have to iron.  I guess I missed out on that thought because I iron almost everything, even T-Shirts.  It’s all my mom’s fault, she made me iron handkerchiefs and pillow cases when I was a little girl.  I just learned that you ironed everything.

Soon I heard Mark talking with one of the service techs.  It was Brent, and he had come to see about our jacks.  Recently, we have had a hard time getting them to level correctly.  Plus, the front jacks don’t always extend properly.  Brent indicated that they just needed to be zeroed out and something about a memory.

So, he manually leveled the coach with a 2’ level.  Then he manipulated the control panel resetting the brain.  He told Mark to retract and reset the jacks a few times over the next several days while we are waiting to get into a bay.  Just see what happens and  then then next week they would check them out on the level service bay floor.

While Mark continued to wait for the call from another service tech.  I made a grocery run into town.  No call, but…

We finished the day with a nice quite dinner for two here at the motor home.  Grilled chicken and a spinach, tomato, and pasta side dish.  We topped that off with an ice cream from The Cardinal, which is Red Bay’s answer to Sonic.

Then on a sad note…late last night we received a phone call from our daughter, Karen, who was in tears.  Their dog, Lily, had gotten out and ran out onto the farm road.  She was hit by a car and killed instantly.  We were saddened with that news as we were all very attached to her.  She will be missed.

After a restless night, we were waken this morning by the pitter patter of rain on the roof.  Oh, no not again.  Oh, well, it was time to get up anyway.  When here at Camp Red Bay, you never know when they might call you to come to the service center, so you have to get up and dressed early as they start to work at 7:00.  By 10:00, Mark had been to the Camp Store and picked up an order for Jim and been to see what he could find out about service for today.  Upon his return, it didn’t appear that they would be calling us today, so we decided to take care of a little business away from the campground.

One of the things we wanted to have done while here was the 12 month routine maintenance for the motor home.  So, we made a trip to

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Bay Diesel.  Here, Mark talked to them about all that needed to be done, plus having the oil changed.  He was in agreement about everything they suggested and made an appointment for tomorrow at 11:30.  They will…

Change the engine oil, lube the chassis, change all the fuel filters, change the generator oil and filters, change the rear end fluids, adjust brakes, ride height, and do a computerized check on engine.  In addition they will do a Freightliner and Cummins 12 month check.  No transmission maintenance due for another 65,000 miles.  This nice little job will take about 3 hours and will cost $500 - $600.  Glad it doesn’t have to been done real often. LOL

Well, with that taken care of, we were off to

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Custom RV to talk to Brandon about installing our trucker antenna.  This is an item we purchased a while back to help boost our air card for the computers.

  Brandon presented us with an idea different to what we had in mind.  But…it meant that we would have to get a different antenna.  We discussed his idea and decided that we like what he proposed.  We then drove back into town to the Camp Store, purchased the antenna, picked up the motor home and drove back out to Brandon’s

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where we waited our turn.  While waiting, we enjoyed visiting with the couple who had a Phaeton similar to ours.  They too were having Brandon do a couple of upgrades.

Finally, we pulled into the bay and Brandon

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took his drill and up on the roof he went.  This was the part Mark didn’t want to watch, the drilling of the hole in his motor home. LOL

With the help of

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Greg, they set the antenna in place.  Now, all that was left was to pull the wires to the cabinet below.  Which by the way, is the cabinet just over the front door.  In addition, I ask Brandon to relocate my IPod docking station to the same cabinet, which will make it easier to use.  No problem.  It was just a few minutes later that both items

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were in their new home.

Thanks Brandon for another job well done.  I would like to add that this young man does an excellent job of adding nice extras items to your motor home.  And, he works on more than just Tiffin coaches.  You can see him and his work at www.customrvinc.com

We headed

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back into town to the campground.  Once, we were settled, we went to pick up Glynn and Sylvia for dinner.  Tomorrow is Sylvia’s birthday so we went to the Mexican food restaurant  for an early celebration.

After the oil change tomorrow, and when we are sure the service center won’t be calling us, Mark and I will be making a trip to Birmingham.  We are looking forward to a weekend visit with my brother and his family. 

6 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, what a shock to read about Lily! So much life and love, we know how much the family will miss her. Please extend our sympathy to Karen and the rest of the family. We're so very sorry.

    Hugs

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  2. So sorry to hear about Lilly. They are family and probably your best friend. Tell Karen and Ken we too are sadden by their loss.

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  3. Oh no, so sorry to hear about Lilly.
    Glad you get the chance to get out and about. Hope your work gets done real soon..

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  4. I am so sorry to hear about Lily! I lost my special friend, Molly, in August. She was just a few months shy of 18 years old. Tell Karen and Ken I am thinking about them (and you guys also).
    I think Mike talked to Brandon about putting new carpet (or some flooring) in our Dutch Star. Mike was impressed just talking with him.
    Take care

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  5. So sorry to hear about Lily--it hurts so much to lose a pet!
    I bet Mark wasn't too happy when those guys started drilling holes in his coach!
    We are off to try out the little car some more today!

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  6. So sorry to hear about your daughters little dog... How sad & I know that she will be missed terribly. I know your glad to have all that work behind you and on your way once again... Have a safe trip and above all have fun!!!

    Happy Halloween
    (((HUGS)))
    Donna

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