still here

Saturday morning I played in a golf scramble put on as a fund raiser for our church, The day was perfect weatherwise but not so good for me "golfwise". I played really, really lousy for the first few holes and am not sure why. The way a scramble works is all four members of the team tee off and you pick the best drive then the other three pick up their balls and all four hit again from that location. You keep picking the best shot each time until you "hole out". My only saving grace was my putter so I was able to help the team some early on. I did improve a little as we made our way around the course and we ended up taking 3rd place and I missed the individual award for "longest drive" by only 3 yards. Rudee helped in registration and traveled around the course taking some "action shots" for the church's flier. We both had a fun day and enjoyed catching up with our "church family".

Our original plan was to leave on Monday morning to head for South Dakota for our summer job at the Crazy Horse Memorial but the weather didn't sound too good with rain, wind and storms predicted. We decided to delay our start another day so Sunday we made plans with our good friends Steve and Trish to meet in Lebanon for lunch. We had a great time and lingered for quite awhile just talking and laughing about old times. :-)
Sunday evening Rudee had arranged for a few of her classmates to meet in Rockville, Indiana for supper. We all graduated from the same High School me in '77 and the rest in '78. One of her classmates couldn't attend because her husband was in the hospital :-( Get well soon Mike and we'll see you and Laura next time.
Here is a photo of the "gang"

We all laughed and shared stories for a long time, we even thought at one time that the restaurant had forgotten we were there, even with all the noise we were making, and had closed! :-)

Yesterday I started getting the motor home ready for travel while Rudee and Amanda went to visit her Mother. I got on the internet and double checked the weather for our route and found that South Dakota was under a Winter Weather Warning and some areas of the Black Hills were expecting up to 15" of snow! YIKES!
Here is the "viewing veranda" at Crazy Horse yesterday morning via their webcam

We decided another day "moochdocking" was in order and delayed our start one more day. So as of right now we will leave tomorrow morning to start our trek West. Our first day of work is Wednesday May 7th so we still have plenty of time if the weather makes another downturn but so far the forecast looks promising for a safe trip. Our thoughts are with our friends and fellow fulltimers who are in the southern states where there has been another tornado outbreak. We hope you all are safe and sound. I'll keep you posted.

time is flying by in Indiana

Happy Easter everyone! Hard to believe we are 2/3 of the way through April already. We have been running pretty hard since we have been back in Indiana "mooch docking" in our daughters driveway. Rudee's Mom was taken to the hospital a few days after we arrived and has since been moved into a rehabilitation facility. She is getting stronger everyday and they expect her to go home soon, I'm not sure if that will happen before we leave though.
Larry and Sue Hatton, whom we met at Amazon and have become good friends, stopped in to visit for a couple of days before finishing their trip to Michigan where they will start their very first camp hosting jobs. We had a great time showing them around our old stomping grounds. We visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indy 500, and we all enjoyed touring their museum.

Here is the actual trophy presented to the winning driver each year in victory lane. The winner gets a smaller replica to keep and their bust is etched onto this trophy for posterity.

The following day we toured Parke County Indiana which is the "Covered Bridge Capitol" where we took one of several driving tours to see the bridges. Here is Larry and Sue with the town of Bridgeton, Indiana in the background.

We had a fantastic couple of days with these great friends. 'We'll see ya at Amazon in the fall". :-)

Friday was a work day for me. I have written about our air conditioner woes and even after replacing all the capacitors we still could not get the compressors to run. We had two options at this point, repair what we have at an unknown cost or purchase a new unit to mount onto the roof in place of one of the vents. Putting a unit on top would require it to be hooked up to the breaker box that is mounted to the foot of our bed. I did some preliminary planning and felt like it would not be impossible to do the wiring run so we decided to give up on the old unit and ordered the new one and had it shipped here. We chose an Atwood 15,000 BTU non-ducted unit with heat pump and purchased it from Tweety's in Texas.

The unit was shipped very quickly and arrived in only a few days. Now to get busy and get it hooked up. The first thing was to "fish" the wire through the ceiling. I decided to use the existing air conditioning duct work as a wire run and, using a "fish tape" was able to feed that line across the roof inside the duct and then it goes down the back wall to a point I could access the duct work next to the basement air unit. I hooked two electrical wires to the fish tape and it was just a process of pulling the wires back up into the ceiling where I started from. I ran two wires so I could leave one "dead ended" near the bedroom vent for another roof unit that we can install later if we feel the need. The basement air is fed by two separate circuits from two individual circuit breakers so I just "unwired" the old a/c and tied the new wiring into the old feeds. All in all it was a pretty simple process getting the power up to the roof and we will just leave the breaker controlling the bedroom feed turned off for now. My good buddy Rob Runion came by after he got off work and together we were able to carry the 100 lb unit up onto the roof. Once that was done it was a pretty easy process of hooking up the wires and bolting the unit down.

Ahhhh cold air and no smoke or fire! :-)

We have one more week here and then will be heading to our summer job at Crazy Horse. So far we have at least a couple of motorcycle rides planned, a get together with friends from High School and our church is having a golf tournament Saturday where I will play and Rudee has volunteered to help with registration. Looks like there will be no slowing down for us! :-) I'll keep you posted.

back "home" again

We have been really busy the last several days catching up and doing "family" things. We arrived at our daughter and son in law's home Saturday afternoon and are all set up in their driveway. Rudee's Mom was not feeling well when we went to visit her and had been getting treatment for bronchitis from her doctor but did not seem to be getting better. Wednesday afternoon the doctor sent her to the local emergency room for some IV antibiotics and oxygen. Rudee met the ambulance there and after a couple of hours of treatment they decided to admit her. We have been visiting her each day since and her condition has improved quite a bit. Yesterday they transferred her to a rehabilitation facility to help get her back on her feet again. She has now been diagnosed with COPD caused by the many years of living with and around people who smoked. Rudee's Dad smoked heavily and passed away last year of lung cancer so she was exposed to all that second hand smoke for over 50 years that they were married. Her sister who lives next door to their Mother and helps her with a lot of her daily chores is also a heavy cigarette smoker. I know quitting is tough, I quit a two pack a day habit about 10 years ago, and I'm not going to judge someone who feels they cannot quit but, the simple fact is, Rudee's Mom can no longer tolerate anyone smoking around her so the days of simply "lighting one up" inside her house (or in her car) are over.

Yesterday afternoon our daughter and her neighbor had a combined birthday party for our grand daughter and two of the neighbors children who shared April birthdays. We had quite the garage full!

The guys had other work to do before and after the party. Our daughter's house in in the country and they have a well for water. Saturday morning they woke up and no water! We checked everything we could before deciding to pull the in ground pump as it looked like that may be the issue. Son in Law Ryan borrowed a nearby back hoe to make the job easier and we got the pump removed in about an hour. He found that the well casing was leaking at one of the connections and the pump had injected a bunch of clay ruining it. We made a trip to town after the party and got a new pump and all the parts needed to make the repair. Their well pump only goes down about 50' and it looks like they will need to go deeper to get a consistent supply of water but at least they have some flow again. Here is our son Matt and son in law Ryan inspecting the hole. :-)

The weather has been pretty decent the last several days and looks like it may continue with only a slight cool down for the coming week. We are looking forward to seeing some of our friends and of course keep up our spoiling duties! I'll keep you posted.

and they're off!

There is no nice way to say it .... living in an RV in the northern states in the winter SUCKS! This was the temperature that we woke to Friday morning.

Our hope was to hit the road by 9 am but there was no way I was going to risk traveling in that bitter cold weather. Instead I took Rudee out for breakfast where we met our good friend Jany at Flapjack's Restaurant in Brownsburg. Very slowly the temps started to rise and by 10:30 it was a virtual heatwave at 5 degrees so we decided to start packing up once we got back to the rig. I had turned the motor home's engine heater on the night before but was still nervous when I turned that key to the "on" position. I was relieved when that big Caterpillar fired up. Next step was to build up enough air pressure so we could operate safely. We have had an occasional issue building air in the past but it is very intermittent, unfortunately today was one of those days and our air gauges wouldn't move. I crawled under the motorhome and laid in the snow and messed with the air dryers some. This has worked in the past but I couldn't help but think something had to be frozen. I'm not sure what I did, or maybe it was the prayer Rudee said, but once I got back into the motorhome to check the gauges they were slowly starting to rise. :-)
The next hurdle was to get the jacks up so I turned the controls on and hit the store button. I went outside to make sure they were storing properly as well as pick up the boards they were sitting on. The front jacks were doing fine but the back ones hadn't budged .... hmmmmm. I thought they might be frozen to the ground because they had snow around the base so I got out a pry bar and mallet. I was able to break the bases free of the cold ground and they started rising. Whoo Hoo! Another hurdle conquered. The next test was to get the slides in. I was a little concerned that the temps might be too much for the new motor I had just installed but, with Rudee hitting the retract button inside the motorhome and me watching from the outside they closed just like they are supposed to.
I thought we were home free now, all I had to do was back off the boards the front wheels were sitting on. I got in the drivers seat, released the emergency brake, put her in gear and ...... nothing. I pressed the accelerator pedal a little more ..... nothing. Oh Oh, looks like the brakes are frozen to the hubs. Back out into the cold, get the mallet back out, crawl through the snow under the rig! I beat on the hubs a few times hoping to break them loose, of course there is no way to know if you are doing any good until you get back inside and try to move again so after smacking them a few times (as well as my finger once!) I crawled back out, brushed myself off (again!) and got back behind the wheel. This time I tried going forward, then back, then forward and finally tried backwards once more and with a loud "pop" they broke loose and we were free! With a final wave to the grand kids :-( we pulled out onto the highway for our trip south.
My plan was to stop for fuel once we were south of Indy, easier said then done. I heard on the radio that there had been a serious accident on the south side of Indianapolis and traffic in the area was at a stand still. We were able to detour around the wreck but this delayed us over an hour as well as gave me the opportunity to practice driving on snow packed side roads. :-o
We ended up getting back on the interstate about 30 miles further south and we both breathed a sigh of relief, "we're home free now". We actually made pretty good time and were soon seeing Louisville in our mirrors. With the delay getting started as well as the traffic tie up in Indy we didn't get as far south as we had hoped and ended up pulling in for the night at Singing Hills Campground in Cave City Kentucky. The park is about 2 miles off I-65 and decent enough for an overnight stay. We paid $18 for a full hook up site using our Passport America discount. One thing I needed to get done fairly quickly was to empty the black tank. The last time I had emptied it was just before leaving Campbellsville, Kentucky two weeks ago, needless to say it was time for a dump!

I got everything hooked up and gave the valve for the tank a good tug and ....... nothing. The valve was frozen shut! OK, get out an extension cord and borrow Rudee's hair dryer ( I didn't tell her what I needed it for, shhhhhhh) and start thawing out the valve. Well I got the rod that you pull to open the valve to move a little and figured with one more good pull I would get a nice big gush of "stuff" down the sewer hose. Wrong! I guess I gave it a little too much of a pull and the dadgum handle broke off the end of the rod slicing my hand along with it. See, told ya winter sucks! I gave up trying to use the hair dryer and got out the space heater. I put it inside the compartment and closed the door to let it "cook" for awhile. Rudee had supper ready by this time so I snuck her hair dryer back inside, wiped all the blood off it and sat down to eat. Once our meal was done I tried the  valve once again and it opened all the way this time! Yay! Wait a minute though, nothing is coming out the pipe! Oh no, it's blocked by frozen .... (well you can insert your favorite term here since my grand kids may read this). I shut everything back up and went back inside hoping the heater would thaw out the blockage soon. Another hour goes by and I'm back out there again, this time I was able to finally empty the tanks. Hooray! We can use our own bathroom again! :-)
On a side note, I don't think I will be able to eat another one of those frozen fudge bars again. Just doesn't bring up good images in my mind. :-)

On a happier note we have confirmed a site for the next month in Florida. We will be staying at Grove Ridge RV Park in Dade City for at least the first month. This is close to our rental property as well as being a central location to follow up on some of our job prospects. We hope to arrive there and get set up late Sunday afternoon, we are both ready for a break. I'll keep you posted.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! We spent our last days of 2013 visiting family and getting things ready to head back down the road.
We were able to spend an afternoon with our son and daughter in law. They had just returned after spending the holidays with her family in Pennsylvania so we were able to celebrate a slightly delayed Christmas with them. :-)

We decided earlier this week that Friday would be our departure day hoping to avoid a "possible" nasty winter storm that is supposed to hit early next week. Unfortunately we woke up this morning to this

We have about 2" on the ground and the temps are supposed to drop into single digits tonight. They are saying no more snow for a couple of days so we should have a window where we can safely leave as long as the rig isn't frozen to the driveway. :-o

With our departure looming there was one more project I wanted to get done and that was replacing the rear TV with a new flat screen. The install wasn't too difficult and I am going to finish out the interior cabinet so we can use it for additional storage.
Here is the original "boat anchor" TV

and the new "lightweight" flat screen

Our plan right now is to head to Florida for some warmth and sunshine. We are still looking for a couple of part time jobs to help slow the flow out of our savings account and have a couple of remote possibilities but no firm offers yet. We have a couple of small projects we want to do on our retirement home down there but then we'll be free to land just about anywhere. The work we have planned shouldn't take but a couple of days so even if we land a job elsewhere we can still get things done.

We have also decided to take the Harley south with us. We were torn and had almost decided to leave it here in Indiana and pick it up next spring. The kicker was the fact that if only one of us gets a job or we get jobs at separate locations it would be nice to have two modes of transportation. Well that and Rudee got tired of finding me out in the cargo trailer sitting on the bike going "Vrooom, Vroooom" with a sad look in my eyes. :-)

We are both looking forward to a great 2014. We are hoping the challenges we experienced in 2013 are behind us, we need the break! :-) I'll keep you posted.

not slowing down much

Thursday morning I made a few more calls trying to find the motor I needed to fix the slide outs and jacks. None of the RV dealers here in central Indiana carried them but they all offered to order one for me. :-(
I took my search back to the internet and after trying several search phrases stumbled across a company in Fort Wayne, In. who boasted of having a large warehouse full of hard to find items for hydraulic systems. I knew it would be a long shot but gave them a call anyway. Sure enough they could order one but had none on the shelf. The guy asked me what I needed it for so I explained our situation, full time RVer's visiting family for the holidays and trying to live in a leaning, skinny motor home. I left out the part about not having any underwear, it didn't seem like appropriate "guy" talk. :-)
He told me they actually manufacture hydraulic systems to sell and said he would check the systems they had built to see if any had the motor I needed already installed on them and would call me back. I didn't hold out much hope for him to even call back much less luck out and they actually have the motor but sure enough, about 30 minutes later, he called and said he had not one but two motors! I told him I could be there shortly after noon and he said he would remove it and have it ready to go for me. Now all I had to do was get Rudee out of bed and convince her that driving 3 hours (one way!) was a good idea. :-)
She was a good sport about it though and we were soon headed North, I guess she was as ready to get back to normal living as I was.
The drive was a long one but I finally got my hands on a brand new replacement motor! We made it back to the motor home about 3:30 pm and I got it installed about 10 minutes later. Here is a photo, the new motor is behind all those bundles of wires and relays. I still have another motor being shipped to us and we'll hang onto that one for a spare so we are not in this predicament again.

ahhh, now we're living! I never realized blue jeans were so ...... scratchy. :-)

Friday I decided to tackle another project. One of the advantages of working at Amazon is the 10% employee discount on their products. We took advantage of it by purchasing two new flat screen TV's. Our motor home is a 2002 so the TV's in it are pre-digital, large, heavy monstrosities. We decided to tackle the living room first. The old TV was removed along with the DVD player and the separate VCR.

I moved our Dish Network receiver to sit below the new TV instead of in the cabinet beside it. I also ran the cables for the new Blue Ray Disk player Rudee got me for Christmas which will sit in the right side cabinet where the VCR used to be. Once all that was done I attached the swing arm mount to the side of the steel TV "box" that serves as the framework for our entertainment console above the dash. Next it was time to hook everything up and see if we could get it all to work right. I guess I measured pretty good because the TV fits perfectly and we even get a picture on it! :-)

Looks pretty good up there. We still have to figure something out to fill the space between the bottom of the TV and the satellite box. We are thinking of just covering some cardboard material with black cloth and attaching it to the cabinet but I may look for a "sound bar" that would fit so we can blast away on those Blue Ray movies. :-)
We still have the bedroom TV to replace but I'm hoping it will not be as intimidating as the front one was. I'll keep you posted.

family time

We wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. One of the biggest reasons we worked for Amazon this year was to have the opportunity to spend the holidays with our family. We have been really busy the last couple of days. Monday evening I kicked Rudee out of the kitchen and made two large batches of noodles. She had finally finished her baking and candy making so I really didn't have to push her too hard, she was tired. :-)
Tuesday morning we were out the door early and, along with daughter Amanda and grandson Nicholas, headed toward Rudee's Mom's house to get things ready for dinner and family time. We spent all day cooking, cleaning and setting up tables, chairs etc. Her family all live within a few miles of each other and have the tradition of gathering at the old home place on Christmas eve. Over the years, as her family grew, we moved the gathering from the living and dining room to the attached two car garage. Rudee's Mom is in her 80's and not able to do all the work needed to host such a large event so we were thankful we were able to get everything ready for the rest of her family to enjoy. Just another advantage of this full time RV lifestyle. :-)

Christmas morning was spent inside our daughters house watching the grandkids open their presents. Amanda made a nice breakfast for us and we had a great time with them. That afternoon we gathered everyone up and drove over to our son in law Ryan's brothers home where we had another nice meal. We had a great time and it sure made working those weeks at Amazon worth all the aches and pains. :-)

I am getting closer to getting our slideouts and jacks fixed. We initially thought we were going to have to take it to an RV repair place to have it replaced but I did a little more research on the internet and it didn't look too hard. I decided to give it a go, so Monday morning I got the tools back out and removed the motor. I then called an alternator/starter repair place in nearby Crawfordsville, Indiana and they said they would take a look at it. We made it a family event and loaded up the grandkids and headed out. We dropped the motor off and they did a quick test, yep it's bad. They don't have that type of motor but said they would try and fix it for me so I left it with them. We did some shopping and were eating lunch when the shop called me and said it was ready. They took it apart and it was "full of rust" so they cleaned it up and got it working again. We finished lunch, picked up the motor ($32.00) and headed home. I quickly got the new motor installed and then headed inside where I nervously pressed the button for the living room slideout. The motor started but only ran for a couple of seconds and quit again :-( RATS!
I checked all the wiring again and we had power to everything so I took the motor back off again. Ryan was home from work by this time so we tested the motor using a battery charger for power and got it working again. We installed it on the motorhome once again but it still would run when under the load of turning the hydraulic pump even though we can turn both shafts by hand. I decided to order a brand new motor and have it shipped here so we are still living with the slideouts in. The motor we removed was an aftermarket one made in Slovenia so this part is apparently a replacement for a past failure of the original part. I think carrying a spare one might be in our future rather then having to wait for one to be shipped because I have yet to find one on a shelf at any of the local places.

We have also had some other issues. The temperatures have been really cold here with the lows in single digits. Before leaving Kentucky we filled the water tank up since we knew we would not be able to hook up a hose to their house since it is a couple of hundred feet from the spigot to our rig. Tuesday morning we woke up and a water line had frozen somewhere so now we had no water flowing! I had prepared for the cold by placing an electric heater into our "wet" bay and our wireless remote thermometer said it was almost 40 degrees in the bays. Since we had such a busy day planned I didn't have time to search out the problem and the temps were not going to warm up much anyway. Once we got home Christmas eve I checked the wet bay and, even though I thought it wasn't needed, I turned the electric heater up a notch to see if that helped. The last thing I did was move a hose that was attached to the water filter so I could close the compartment door and it was frozen! That hose is what I hook the outside hose to when using an outside water source. This way the water passes through a filter before entering the coach. I had left the other end hooked up to the outlet into the rig and it was also frozen. Hmmmm, I think I might have found the problem. I unhooked the hose, crossed my fingers and shut everything up again.
Sure enough sometime during the night things thawed enough to let the water flow again and we have not had any other problems! :-)
Our plans for the rest of the week will be pretty laid back. I have two TV's to replace here in the motorhome and hope to get those projects completed and of course the new pump motor will need installed (I'm getting pretty fast doing that!). Besides the good news of being able to take a shower again Santa Clause was nice enough to leave me a package of underwear under the tree. Life is good again! I'll keep you posted.

Packing up

We have been in a whirlwind the last couple of days. We have made final visits with friends and family saying our "so longs". Today we had lunch with our son and daughter in law at a Cracker Barrel in Lafayette, Indiana. Tonight we are having an early birthday dinner for our Grandson Nicholas since we will be gone on his actual birthday next month.
We are leaving the motorcycle and trailer here at our daughters home so I attached the trickle charger and made sure it was set to handle the winter storage. Then I gave it one last look before shutting and locking the door. :-(
I also got the motorhome ready to roll. I topped off the air in all the tires, put away the few things we had outside and greased the arms of our tow bar. We are planning to stop tomorrow at a Speedco just outside Indianapolis and have the oil and all the filters changed. Speaking of leaving, we are planning on pulling out mid morning tomorrow. We have a little over 200 miles to travel so it will, hopefully, be an easy travel day.
Our first "official" Amazon duty will be a meet and greet function Monday afternoon. We will get our photos taken for our name badges and find out what department we will be working in as well as our schedule. We are both looking forward to this new adventure but, as always, it's hard to say goodbye. I'll keep you posted.

one last project and then back to work

The hail storm last month really did a number on our slide out awnings and they needed replaced.
Here are just some of the impacts from the hail on one of awnings.

I did some research on various RV forums and the internet and decided to do the project myself, with a little help from Rudee of course. While doing the research I was referred to Tough Top Awnings. Their website had video (plus written) instructions on how to measure and order the replacement material. I measured our slideouts and entered the dimensions on their quote form on the website. Within a couple of hours I had a quote back and placed the order. The toppers arrived in a week and we were ready to begin. I viewed the installation video several times and it didn't sound too hard ..... famous last words. :-)
I gathered up the tools and got the ladders out of my son in laws garage. We started with the living room slide since it would probably be the hardest since it was the longest of the two. I followed the directions and removed the hardware they recommended, unrolled the excess awning around the roller tube and pulled it off. No turning back now!

The next job was threading the awning back onto the rail mounted on the motor home and at the same time feeding it into the slot in the roller tube. This is where I needed help and as luck would have it the school bus stopped and dropped off my Grandson right at the right time. :-) While I guided the new fabric into the rails Rudee and Nicholas held it high above their heads to keep it from catching.

We gently pulled and tugged the awning back into place and gave it a test run before I re-attached the hardware. Success! Looks really good too!

Now for the bedroom slide. I did the same process as on the living room and it did prove to be easier then the front. The entire job took us a little over an hour and saved us a ton of $$'s over an RV dealership doing the job. I can't say enough about Tough Top Awnings. Their replacement fabric is heavier then the OEM and it fit our slide out measurements perfectly. The videos they have on their website were top notch and gave me the confidence to do the job.

Yesterday we got our start date at Amazon as November 4th and they said they would contact us if they had any earlier openings. This morning we had an email from them asking if we wanted to start next Monday! Holy Smoke! That's only a few days away! We decided to take them up on their offer so are preparing to leave for Kentucky this week end. I guess the projects will be on hold for awhile while we head out on our next adventure. I'll keep you posted.

more changes

With the new couch installed our attention was drawn to the opposite side of the motorhome to the old, dilapidated, stained recliner which I'm sure was original to the coach when it was built in 2002. The chair would even "leak" small pieces of foam while you sat in it!
Tuesday, with a new chair on our minds, we headed north to the Elkhart, Indiana area to check out some of the RV surplus business'. We didn't start out until almost noon and it is a 2 1/2 hour drive so we got there a little late. Luckily two of the stores were just over the state line into Michigan and were on Central time so we gained an hour. :-)
We looked at several models of chairs and the quality was all across the board, we all know that there are a lot of "cheap" furniture they put into RVs but there are also some high quality, long lasting brands as well. The latter is what we were shopping for.
We looked at (and sat in) chair after chair in several of the shops and were about to give up and head for a Lazy Boy store when I spotted a nice looking Euro Recliner at RV Surplus Salvage. I have not been a huge fan of these style of chairs but this one was very comfortable and was made by Flexsteel who have a good reputation for quality in the RV community. I sat in it for quite a while and liked it plus it's dimensions matched our old chair. There was no price tag on the chair so we inquired and their response sealed the deal. $275 for the chair and ottoman and they would even load it in the back of our truck ...... SOLD! So we did another "out with old and in with new" once we got home.
old chair:

new chair:

Makes a big difference and we are very happy with our decision.

This week end we moved to a local campground, White River Park, to camp with our motorcycle buddies. This is an annual event corresponding with the parks Halloween celebration and is always a fun time. We drove over Friday morning towing the Dakota behind the motorhome. After getting settled in Rudee looked around the coach and announced our next project! Our window valances were old, outdated and didn't match our "new" look so she decided we would recover them with new fabric. Her and Jany Runion jumped in our truck and off to Walmart they went telling Rob and I to "get busy" while they were gone. Our shower skylight was broken by the hail storm in South Dakota and I had patched it up with some duct tape and silicone to keep it from leaking. I received the new skylight a few days ago from the UPS man and it needed installed so I got out the ladder and tools. Rob and I changed out the skylight pretty quickly and sealed everything up with self leveling "goo". We were even done before the girls got back. :-)
Rudee picked out a dark gray material and Saturday morning we got started. The hardest part of this job was getting the valances off and then back on again. We had 5 valances to do and, with Rob's help, made steady progress but it still took the majority of the day to finish the job. Here is the before and after pictures.

None of us are professional upholsterers but it's a passable job for a bunch of amateurs. :-)
Today we will pack up and move back to our spot in our daughters driveway. We are waiting to hear from Amazon with our start date and Rudee has been mentioning how old and grungy the day night shades look with the new valances. OH NO! :-)  I'll keep you posted.

out with old and in with new(er)

Yesterday we started our first "project". While in South Dakota I saw an ad on a RV Forum for a used leather sofa for sale that came out of the same model motor home as we have. I made contact with the owner and he was switching out the couch for recliners. They were also full timers and were in Indiana. We negotiated a price that made us both happy and the deal was done. I called my good friend Rob who agreed to go and pick up the couch. Since then the couch has been stored in the garage at Rudee's Mother's house.
Monday morning I started taking the old couch apart so we could get it out the door. The couches in these units are electric, reclining sofa beds. Needless to say they are bulky and heavy. I was able to separate the arm and foot board sections from the main frame and removed those first. Rudee and I then were able to carry the main section out the front door.

We had always planned on replacing the couch because the prior owners had a dog and didn't clean things up very well. The front of the couch had ground in stains where the dog would lay against it and there was always that "wet dog" smell in the cushions no matter how much we shampooed them. YUCK.

Once the couch was out Rudee started cleaning the carpet that was on the floor of the slideout. She was about half way through cleaning it when she made the comment we should really just replace it. Up it came and out the door it went! Our good buddy Rob came to our rescue once again when he rode up on his Goldwing. We made a quick run to Menards where we bought a brand new piece of carpet. Once back at the RV we cut the new carpet using the old piece as a template and had it installed in no time. Piece of cake!
Now we just had to lift a sleeper sofa over heads like Charles Atlas and then walk backwards up the steps into the motor home. :-o
I did not take the arms off the new one thinking that "they got it out that way" soooooo "it should go back in that way". :-)
The only problem with that theory is two young Amish guys carried it out and loaded it into Rob's truck. Here we are, two middle aged slightly pudgy (at least me) guys with bad backs trying to carry it back in!
Once we got it picked up and headed in the door things got "interesting". Rob was the one backing in because I was able to grab the "good end" first. :-) Somehow he ended up standing on the drivers seat with the coach lifted over his head while I had to climb over the passenger seat on my knees!
We got it in though and all it will cost me is a few chiropractor visits for Rob. :-)
The new coach is a little different in that it is a split model and the reclining mechanisms are seperate. This means there are two motors, with wiring, while our old one only had one. We had more wires then plugs. Out come the meters and we started figuring out what was what. One more run to the hardware store for some connectors and we got everything hooked up and working. Next job was to secure it to the floor of the slideout. This entails laying on your back (or belly) and reaching under the couch with your drill and driving screws through holes in the brackets that are all the way back against the slide out wall. With me laying under the coach and Rudee kneeling on the seat reaching over the back, we were able to line up all the screws and get them installed. I'm not sure if all furniture installers do it this way but with both of us crawling all over the couch together well, lets just say, I needed a cigarette after we got it all done! :-)
Here is the finished product.

Only two trips to the hardware store and nobody ended up at the Emergency Room. All in all a good day! Stay tuned for more "projects". I'll keep you posted.

we didn't let the grass grow

We finished our last shift at Crazy Horse, saying as many "so longs" as we could to all our friends and co-workers. We made a quick dash into Custer and picked up a pizza at our new found favorite pizza joint, Pizza Works. I also filled the Dakota's fuel tank up so we would be ready to roll bright and early.

Monday morning we were up before sunrise. I busied myself with dumping the tanks and rolling up the last of the cords and hoses. While I was working I heard an Elk bugling off in the distance. I ran to the door and told Rudee to hurry outside so she could hear it but by the time she came out he had stopped.
Maybe he was just coming by to tell us goodbye. :-)

We stopped our packing long enough to eat a quick breakfast and then gave out hugs to our neighbors Tom and Liz. There were even a few tears appearing as we said "see ya down the road" to these two special friends. We pulled out of our site at 7:45 am and headed for "home". We got our last glimpses of Paha Sapa (Lakota for Black Hills) in our mirrors as we headed East on I-90. We spent all morning just driving through South Dakota until finally turning to the south at Sioux Falls. On past trips we have continued on I-90 through Minnesota but decided to see some new scenery and take I-29 towards Omaha. The wind had picked up some and the crosswind was noticeable on this leg of our trip. Several miles North of Omaha we jumped on I-680 and this took us to I-80 and bypassed the hub bub of the city. The sun was sinking pretty fast but we both agreed that we were not ready to stop for the night yet, so on we drove setting our sights on Des Moines as a possible overnight spot. Seeing as it would already be dark when we stopped, paying for a night in a campground just didn't make sense so we started looking for a boondocking spot. My GPS showed there was a casino just off the interstate east of the city so I programmed it in after Rudee called them to get permission for us to park there. She talked to their security department and they were very helpful with directions and parking instructions.
We arrived at their parking lot shortly after 7 pm and picked a spot among the semis and RV's already there. After getting parked I hopped in the truck with Rudee and she drove us to a nearby Taco Bell where we picked up supper and brought it back to the RV. We ate and then headed for bed, what a long day, 645 miles with 12 hours behind the wheel. :-o
Tuesday morning we were up early again, or was it late? We had lost an hour going from Mountain Time into Central Time and were going to lose another hour later today when we crossed into Eastern Time. Our cell phones say it's one time, our watches say it's another and our body clocks say it's another. Jeez, this is so confusing! :-)
We hit another drive through for breakfast and then headed out for another day on the interstate. We were excited knowing that we would get to see the Grandkids today. :-)
While we rolled along Rudee and I would chat on the CB radio. Although it's not the same as her sitting beside me it's not that bad and the time passes quickly.
We passed through Iowa and headed into Illinois. One more state to go!
Traffic picked up in Illinois and there were quite a few more semi trucks traveling around us. I used the cruise control a lot on this leg of the trip since Illinois is mostly flat farmland and this helped the miles roll by.
We finally crossed the Indiana line late in the afternoon. We were on the homestretch now! We made one last stop at a truck stop where I unhooked the motorcycle trailer from the motor home and we hooked it onto the Dakota. Rudee pulled it the rest of the way because backing the motor home into our daughters driveway would be next to impossible with the trailer attached. We arrived at their home shortly after 4 pm and quickly got set up. Our trip today was "only" 460 miles. :-)
I know most of my fellow fulltimers cringe at the idea of traveling more then a couple of hundred miles a day. So why did we push ourselves so hard for this trip? I was asking myself this very question when the kids got home from school and they ran at us yelling "Papaw, Grandma" like it was Christmas morning. I knew then that the trip had been worth it. :-)

We have some catching up to do with family and friends while here in Indiana along with a couple of projects I've had in mind for the rig. I'll keep you posted.

Done!

Friday was a big day for us. We finished up Rudee's radiation treatments and are cleared to travel. They wanted to do follow up appointments in three months but we explained we are going out of state and not due to return until after October 1st. All the doctors said that would be fine and we have appointments set up with her Oncologist, Surgeon and Radiologist all on the same day.
We can finally start to "get back to normal".

The weather has not been the greatest the last several days, very grey and gloomy. The holiday week end forecast is for more of the same. They are saying the rain should hold off long enough to get the race in Sunday. We ventured out enough on Saturday to buy Rudee a new motorcycle helmet. I bought me one last week end when I rode to Illinois. We both needed new helmets but each one is a little different and you really need to try them on before buying. Riding buddy, Rob Runion, told me about a local Yamaha dealer that had some really nice flip style helmets on close out so we drove over and checked them out. Rudee likes the modular (flip up) helmet which is a combination open face with a drop down "chin bar" that converts the helmet to a full face style. Our old helmets were like this but were both at least 6 years old and pretty worn out. My new one is a 3/4 open face with a drop down shield to use when raining, I rarely rode with the old one in "full face" mode and didn't see the point investing in another one. I do like to have the face shield when we get caught in the rain or when it is cold. Rudee, on the other hand, keeps her chin bar dropped in place most of the time but likes to be able to raise it occasionally when she gets too hot.
We checked out the helmets and Rudee tried several on. We ended up buying her one that had been over $300 and was marked down to $99. They only had 5 of the modular ones left and we lucked out that one was the same color as my new one and was also Rudee's size. :-)

Sunday morning our son in law Ryan and I fired up his grille. We put a pork roast and a large slab of ribs on and slow roasted them for several hours. The girls fixed up some side dishes and I taught our grand daughter Avalynn where good ice cream comes from. :-)

In the Indianapolis area the race is blacked out on TV so it has been a tradition to gather around the radio and listen to the broadcast. Later tonight the local ABC station airs the taped telecast and we usually watch it then, of course we already know who won but it is still fun.
We gathered under our awning to listen, eat and just be together. I had a ball! :-)

Tomorrow we will start our preparations to leave. We have a lot of packing up to do since it has been almost two months since we have done any traveling. We are more then ready but it will be sad to say goodbye to the kids and grand kids. I'll keep you posted.,

beginning to make plans

Rudee has started her radiation and we are spending our days on the far east side of Indianapolis. She has her first treatment shortly after 8am. She is done by 9 and then we find a place for breakfast and start killing time. We have ran some errands and went to a shopping mall and spent some time window shopping. The time goes by pretty quickly and at 2pm we are back at the hospital for her second treatment that lasts until around 3pm when we get to head back to the motor home. Only 3 more days of this and we'll be done! :-)

Yesterday we had a phone interview for another work camping job. The interview went really well and we were expecting a call back today with a possible offer. That call came in at 11:30 this morning and we accepted the positions! We are going to be working in Custer, South Dakota at the Crazy Horse Memorial! We are both excited to once again be headed to the Black Hills. We start on June 5th but can arrive as early as June 1st at the employee campground which is just up the road from our jobs. We are starting to get excited again and it feels great to actually start making travel plans! We are heading back on the road!! :-)

Several of you have emailed or called us with job leads and we just wanted to say thank you, thank you, thank you. We have not actually met a lot of you face to face but feel like we know you by reading your blogs and communicating over the internet. Your messages of healing, hope, faith and love have seen us through this turbulent time in our lives and I don't know how I can ever thank you all enough. One thing is for sure, you all have a chair and a shady spot to sit under our awning anytime you need it! I'll keep you posted.

still looking

We have been busy the last few days looking to replace our Mt. Rushmore summer gig. We thought we had a strong possibility working at Custer State Park for the concessionaire there.  We were starting to get excited about living and working there and were just about ready to commit when, after getting a little more specific about the contract, we found out they take $240 out of your check for "housing and meals". Since we would be staying in the employee RV park we assumed the housing fee would only be taken out of one of our checks. Not so says the nice HR guy, the fee is taken out of both of our checks for a total of $960 per month taken from our wages. We both felt like this was an excessive amount and have decided to look elsewhere.
We would eventually like to do some volunteering for a free site sometime in the future. I know several of you do this and it is a great way to visit an area and get a free site in exchange for a little labor. Not a bad deal in our eyes. Right now though we are feeling like we need to make some $$'s. Our insurance (thank goodness we bought that policy last fall!) is a high deductible 80/20 plan and our savings account is going to take a big hit. We are not destitute (close, but still treading water! LOL) but we do want to replace that small cushion in case we have another big bill pop up on us.
We do have some other options and one that looks very promising right now. We will hopefully know a little more tomorrow afternoon.

Speaking of tomorrow, Rudee has her first two (of ten) radiation treatments. Last Friday we were at her surgeons office to have a catheter device inserted for the radiation, is is called Mammosite Treatment. The procedure was a tough one on Rudee but she was a trooper and we hope the worst is behind her. We will be spending our days at or near the hospital for the next week since they do one treatment first thing in the morning and then have to wait six hours to do the second one. The hospital is about 50 miles one way to the east side of Indy so we are going to take a picnic lunch and find things to do to occupy days between treatments. Friday will be liberation day and they will remove the catheter after her afternoon treatment and we will be done! You all have heard of VE day, well this is our VC day, Victory over Cancer! She, of course, will have follow up appointments and tests to make sure there is no return of the cancer but we should be ready to travel after the Memorial Day week end. Hopefully I can start writing about interesting things we are seeing and doing rather then all this boring medical stuff. I'll keep you posted.

the calm before the storm?

Last Wednesday we unhooked all the hoses and cords from the motor home, hooked up the cargo trailer and loaded the bike inside. We were headed "down the road". No, we are not leaving central Indiana just yet, we still have some more treatments to do. Instead of skedaddling up the highway (like we both really wanted to do!) we made the short trip to the fairgrounds in Lebanon. That is where the state rally for the Gold Wing Road Riders Assoc. was holding their rally. We have belonged to this organization for over 20 years and enjoy attending the functions even if we don't ride a Goldwing anymore.
Our riding buddies had an area saved for us and several others. We got ourselves situated pretty quickly and settled in to enjoy the fun. The weather didn't want to cooperate much though and it was rainy and cold everyday. We did manage to take a couple of rides between the showers and even had a campfire one night.
Sunday came pretty quickly and we all packed up and went our separate ways. We are back at our daughters house being squatters in her drive way. :-)

Monday we mostly stayed inside and gathered the necessary paperwork to get our vehicles registered in South Dakota. We had decided to change our residency several months ago and our plan was to take care of all the paperwork in the days prior to starting work at Mt. Rushmore. That little plan was changed with Rudee's diagnoses so we are doing as much as we can by email, fax and snail mail.

Today we had plans to go to the Indy 500 track and watch practice for the big race. Shortly after our daughter dropped the grand kids off at school she received a call that our grand son was not feeling well and needed to be picked up. We made the short trip to the school and he was really disappointed because today was a "field trip" day and he didn't feel well enough to go. Rudee agreed to stay home with him and I hopped on the bike and went to the track solo.
There were quite a few cars on the track today and I stayed until shortly after 2pm watching the drivers trying to "get up to speed". While I was sitting in the bleachers an elderly couple (I'm guessing late 70's) climbed up the steep steps to the very top and sat down next to me. I listened in as they talked about their favorite drivers and who they each were routing for. They were both almost giddy with excitement. I finally asked them if this was their first race because they both looked like wide eyed little kids. The lady said "no, this is my 57th Indy 500 and my friends 61st". Wow! Can you imagine all the changes they have seen at this historic track? Their first races were in the early to mid 50's when front engine cars were all the rage. They saw Roger Ward, Parnelli Jones and a rookie named AJ Foyt qualify and then run (and win!) the big race. They witnessed the start of the Andretti and Unser dynasties as well as watching Rick Mears dominate in his Roger Penske owned car. They saw the cars go from large front engine models with skinny tires to winged, rear engine, rocket ships. They saw Tom Sneva be the first to break the 200 MPH barrier as well as Janet Guthrie be the first woman to qualify and race there. All of that and yet here they were just as excited as they must have been the very first time they climbed the bleachers to watch the cars. Talking to her (he was busy watching the track!) she told me she was from here but had moved to Tennessee several years ago and he was from Saint Louis. They had been friends for years, both had lost their spouses and they enjoyed getting together once a year, here in Indy, to share their love for racing. I couldn't help but smile, they were inspiring and a joy to meet and talk to. :-)

We have two more days to "recuperate" before Rudee's appointment Friday. They have already told us it will be a long day at the doctors office. Once we are done there she will be ready for her radiation treatments to start. She will have two treatments per day starting Monday and ending on Friday. I'll keeep you posted.

busy day

Yesterday we had an appointment for a consultation with a different surgeon for Rudee. Her original surgeon set up the appointment in order to explore our options of a different type of radiation therapy that is only available (in the Indy area anyway) at this surgeons hospital. We showed up at noon and met with the "team" and learned the radiation is a one time treatment done during the operation. The procedure is not new but the equipment needed is not available at all hospitals. The surgeon thought we would be a good fit for it and after our consultation with him we met with an oncologist for final approval. The oncologist did not feel that it would be best for us however. He went into a lot more detail of the procedures available and the fact no hard research had been done on the "one and done" radiation for Rudee's particular type of cancer cells. We decided not to be the test case. :-)
We did however make great strides in getting her surgery on the schedule. We decided to change to this hospital and surgeon for a number of reasons. The first is he is widely regarded as one of the best cancer surgeons in the area. The hospital is associated with the MD Anderson Cancer Network and they are, in my opinion, the very best in the USA for cancer treatment. Last and probably the least important is the fact they can treat us fairly quickly. Once our consultations were over we asked them to move us onto the surgery schedule and we were able to get all the pre-op tests done. Surgery day will be next Tuesday followed by a 1 week recovery and follow up appointment. At her f/u appointment the oncologist will insert a fairly large catheter that is used for the radiation and this will be left in for 7-10 days. She will then have radiation treatments two times per day for five days (6 hours apart), the catheter is removed and then she will be done.
We finally left the hospital around 6pm. Wow that was a long day but now we can relax for a few days instead of having appointments everyday. :-)

Leaving the hospital we decided to check out a trailer place nearby and ended up making a purchase. :-)

We decided to get a white one this time. No real reason for that except that the trailers they had on hand were discounted because they had some hail damage on them and the hail dents were less noticeable on the white versus the black. This trailer is a little better built then our old one and has some nicer features so we decided we could live with a few dents to get a better trailer, plus it was a few hundred $'s less than replacing our flooded one. :-)

We made a stop for something to eat on the way home since we were both starving and finally made it home shortly before 9pm. We will be keeping busy getting our new trailer ready to haul a motorcycle that we will hopefully be shopping for soon. I'll keep you posted.

a walk on the wild side

A couple of weeks ago Rudee took a day trip with some of the "motorcycle ladies". They drove to Cincinnati and went shopping  at Ikea and a grocery store called Jungle Jim's. Our daughter Amanda went along as well and they came home with these.

We breaded and fried the alligator using a cajun seasoning and it was really good. The elk and kangaroo were made into patties and grilled. The results were pretty mixed. The alligator was a big hit, the kangaroo not so much. :-)

Now here is my idea of cooking out.

This was dinner last night with our son in law Ryan manning the grille. Our son Matthew and his wife Mandio were visiting and we all had a great time just sitting around the table eating and talking. Ryan even pounded some stakes in the ground and we pitched some horseshoes. Thanks Guys! I have needed a night like that for a long time!

The appointments for Rudee's treatments have started. They are looking at surgery as early as next week and we have 3 more appointments between now and Friday. We are anxious to get the treatments started and get rid of this cancer, it just doesn't fit our lifestyle and has to go!

On the insurance front, the trailer has been totaled and we received a very fair offer. The bike, on the other hand, is moving at a slower pace. They were supposed to call yesterday to give me an update but, as usual, no one called. Geico has yet to fulfill even one expectation they have set for themselves and I find this very disappointing. When I called and reported the claim they told me I would be contacted in 2-3 business days, I ended up calling them on  business day #4 because no one had called. The adjuster then told me he would call me by 10am the next day, never happened. When I called him the following day he was full of excuses, "3rd largest insurance company in the Nation", "busy with lots of storm related claims" etc. I really didn't care to listen to his excuses, he set the expectation, he needs to live up to it! They finally decided the motorcycle was totaled and are due at some point to go and evaluate it for a settlement offer. I have been told this should occur by tomorrow but have my doubts since I didn't get the call yesterday, communication and follow through have been non-existent on their part. I do still have some contacts in the insurance business so I can "shake a few trees" if I have too. :-)

Yesterday on our way back home from the doctors office we stopped and did some mushroom hunting. I love Morel mushrooms! Blame my Dad, he taught me to mushroom hunt as soon as I could walk! Eagle Creek Park is a really nice city park on the northwest side of Indianapolis. The park is more like a State Park then a city park and has a large woods surrounding a reservoir where we could try our luck. We hunted a couple of areas but the ground was still really soggy with some areas of standing water. Moving to higher ground we spotted a good looking area and started walking into the woods when Rudee yelled "snake"! Needless to say that ended our day of mushroom hunting! Snake 1 Mushrooms 0. :-)

We will be busy with Rudee's appointments for the next several days, but maybe I can coax her back into the woods to look for some more mushrooms. I'll keep you posted.

and the hits just keep on coming!

We have been set up here in our daughters driveway for the last few nights. Howard and Linda from RV Dreams refer to it as "mooch docking". :-)
Our plan was to leave here tomorrow and head for South Dakota for our summer work camping job. We have enjoyed our time back "home" visiting our relatives, spending time with friends and spoiling our grand kids. I could have done with out the flood but that is just small potatoes in the bigger picture of life. We have also been busy doing our annual routine medical exams while we are nearby our family doctor. We got our prescriptions renewed for another year and Rudee took care of those "female" exams and xrays. She had to go back for an additional, more extensive, mammogram. This has happened several times before because the normal screening just does not provide a clear enough view. The day before the flood we drove to the appointment in Indianapolis for the additional exam. This time they called us back into a consultation room after reading the test results. They saw an abnormality and wanted to do a biopsy. They assured us that 85-90% of these type of abnormalities were benign. We were both concerned about this but Rudee wanted to keep it to ourselves, "no need worrying people when there is only a 10% chance of it turning out bad".
Monday was the day for the biopsy and it went very well. The tests results on the removed tissue would take 2-3 days to return, again they kept emphasizing that 85-90% of the time nothing was found but we were still uneasy. We anxiously waited for Wednesday to come so we could actually start planning our trip west except that no word came on Wednesday, and we could not get an answer Thursday either. First thing this morning Rudee did get in touch with the right person and her results were in. Breast cancer! :-o The words hit us like a two by four to the forehead!
We are both two very scared people right now.The cancer was caught very, very early, in fact they are calling it "stage 0" and her prognosis is extremely positive. We have an appointment with the oncologist Monday morning to schedule surgery and lay out a game plane for her treatment.
In the meantime, we have talked to our boss in South Dakota and she is very supportive. We may still be able to work there, arriving later then planned, but it all depends on Rudee's length of treatment. We were both really looking forward to working at Mt. Rushmore and are disappointed things are not working out for us to do that like we planned.
Rather then just sitting around I may be able to pick up some "diesel fuel money" working for the local Ag supplier here. Our son in law, Ryan, works there. He talked to the boss and they may be able to use me some this spring to drive a truck delivering product to the guys using the sprayers and spreaders in the field. They are well aware of our situation and are willing to work with me on scheduling and availability.

In other news, both the cargo trailer and the motorcycle have been "officially" totaled by their respective insurance companies. We are still waiting for the offers on both but are hoping we can get them settled by this time next week. I'll keep you posted.

hurry up and wait

Man oh man, what a week we have had. We did get moved back into our home on Sunday. The weather cooperated with my efforts to get the basement compartments cleaned out. I removed all of our "stuff" from the basement storage and rinsed all the mud out that was left behind by the flood. I used our small space heater to dry the indoor/outdoor carpet that lines the compartments. By Monday afternoon I had them all cleaned out, dried out and all the stuff put back where it goes.

Tuesday morning the insurance adjuster for the cargo trailer arrived (right on time!) to look at the damage. He took some photos and gathered some information but said he would have to pass it on to a specialist to resolve it. I understood, after all most of the adjusters out there are trained to look at cars and trucks. Cargo trailers are something they don't see a lot of.
Later in the afternoon I received a call from the specialist who went over the coverage's  deductible and what was and was not covered by our policy. He did say the trailer would be a total loss and he would call me back before the end of the week with the settlement amount.
The motorcycle, on the other hand, is still sitting and I have not heard a thing from the adjuster assigned to handle it. When I called I was told it would be 2-3 business days before someone would contact me to schedule an inspection. I think 2-3 days is a little long to wait for just a phone call and I'm not real happy with the service right out of the box. I guess we'll have to wait and see how it goes.

Tuesday afternoon we drove to Lafayette to our son, Matthew's, home. He had purchased a new grille and asked for help putting it together. When we arrived he had started the job already. I quickly found out this was not an ordinary grille. The directions to put this "Nasa Space Shuttle" size grille together was a small novel. There were 34 steps to the assembly and the directions were all pictures, no words at all!
Matthew was on step #3, only 31 more to go. :-)
We worked most of the afternoon and got the grille together and working fine. Pretty cool, no trips to the emergency room and only one screw left over!
While we were working the rain started. Rudee and I are both pretty tuned in to rain fall right about now. I knew they were predicting some light showers but as the day wore on the rain got heavier and heavier. Oh No!
We made it back to the motor home right as it was getting dark. I did a quick survey of the water level in and around the campground making a mental note of the height. The rain not only continued but got even heavier! By 10pm I was on my 3rd trip around the campground and it was obvious the water was rising! :-o
We decided we were not going get caught in it again and started packing up. I got soaked but we found out we can go from completely set up to road ready in 20 minutes! I don't recommend it but it can be done! :-)
We pulled out of the campground and headed towards the Wal Mart in Brownsburg about 15 miles away. Once we arrived I changed my mind and decided to move to the Lowes right up the road. The Wal Mart was a 24 hour store and was in a busier area then Lowes. We got parked and were both happy to be away from the flood risk. We could hear the rain hitting the roof most of the night so we are sure we made a good decision to leave. I'll keep you posted.