lazy Sunday

I woke up Sunday and just could not get motivated. The 5th wheel was cool inside since it got down into the upper 40's so I turned on our portable heater we have in the bedroom for Rudee and left her to sleep in and headed for the coffee pot. I surfed the web and drank most of a pot of coffee. Rudee was up around 9am and she was in the same mood I was in. I guess we both needed a "do nothing" day.

We recently joined Netflix and had gotten our first movie so we watched it. Netflix works pretty slick. We have a list of movies we want to watch on their website and have them in the order we would prefer to watch them. They send us a movie out and we can keep it as long as want. Once we watch it we seal it back into the prepaid return envelope and drop it back into the mail to them. When the movie arrives back to them they send us another one on our list. We pay just under $9.00 per month and can have unlimited movies one at time. They also have movies and TV episodes that you can watch on your computer (streaming video) for free. I have not played around with that feature yet.

Kadinger's called us shortly after 4pm and we drove the semi over to his shop. Mike and Penny met us there and we had the winch cable cut off and everything back to normal in about 15 minutes. We decided that Steak and Shake needed some business tonight so we followed them over where we had a nice visit and meal.

Steak and Shake is near the super Wal Mart so we drove over to check on the price of diesel fuel. The truck holds 280 gallons (two 140 gallon tanks) and the last time we filled it up was in Kentucky on our way home from Florida in January. The gauge still showed 1/2 a tank but we figured it was time to get it a little closer to being full. Of course we have to do a little shopping while we're there. Rudee headed in to pick up a few things and I went to the service desk and bought a $200.00 gift card. By using the gift card at the fuel pump you save .03 per gallon. The truck ended up taking about 65 gallons to fill the drivers side tank and I turned the truck around and finished off the card on the passenger tank.
I showed 760 miles driven since the last fill up but since I didn't fill it all the way I couldn't figure the mpg this time. We usually get around 9 miles per gallon. We have driven more this year than I thought. We have had several week end camp outs and went to the Indiana GWRRA rally last May. I guess it all adds up quick but it's pretty sweet to fill the truck up and it lasts all year!

We are planning on going to play BINGO tonight in Lebanon, wish us luck. I'll keep you posted.

Goody shopping.

We were up and rolling early Saturday morning. Niles had invited us to ride along with them to the big truck chrome shop about 60 miles north of here. Niles and Deb own LC Trucking and have 3 semi trucks one of which Niles drives. He does a lot of agricultural work hauling soy beans and corn. He needed to pick up some new chrome goodies for one of their trucks and I thought maybe Rudee would let me do some shopping too.

We met at our favorite breakfast spot, Flapjacks in Lebanon. Rudee and I shared a small breakfast as usual and we all jumped into my company car and headed out. I have to pay around $80 every paycheck for use of the company car. I rarely use it for personal travel in the summer because we are on the bike a lot. We use it more in the winter months and it's a nice benefit of the job.

The chrome shop has all kinds of "stuff" to dress up big trucks and you can spend a lot of money. I bought new hub caps and some chrome rings to outline the gauges on the dash. Niles spent a little more than me so I didn't feel too bad. He tried to get me to trade him bills but "no thanks, Niles!" :-).

They rode back home with us and the girls took off to the mall or wherever it is women go to when the guys have a project to work on.

I moved the semi into the empty spot beside us and started my winch project. I was pleasantly surprised to find out the winch was not a hard replacement at all. We had the old one off and the new one on in about 30 minutes. We did a quick test and all seemed well so I pulled the bike over and we loaded it up onto the truck. The new winch works well with one exception. They loaded the spool up with wire cable to the point that when we get the bike up on the truck and it is pulling it the last foot or so into position the cable starts to bind on the spool. I'm not sure why they did this but I wont need 1/2 the cable on the thing. We decided to try some re-engineering and put a pulley on to give it more pulling power. A quick trip to the hardware for supplies and a couple of turns with the wrenches and we tried again.

The pulley gave us some more pulling power but we still had the too much cable issue. I called Mike Kadinger who has about every tool imaginable and lives here in Crawfordsville. He was out of town but said he would call me Sunday when he got home and we could take care of shortening the cable in short order.

The good news is we are back in business with the bike ramp and should have all the issues resolved before our holiday campout next week end.

I decided to put the new chrome on the truck since I was in a "workin" mood. This is where things went south in a hurry. No matter how I lined up the baby moon hubcaps on the rear wheels they just wouldn't go on! I even got the rubber mallet out and did some "persuading" on them to no avail :-( I was not a happy camper. I decided to move to the front wheels and do those. Well guess what? The ones I bought for the front wouldn't work on my truck! Things were not working out. Remember the gauge bezels I bought? I pulled these out and realized I had only bought 6 and needed 8! Durn durn durn!! I decided it was time to put the tools away and go to lunch :-).

I treated Niles to lunch at Uncle Smiley's to thank him for his help. We had a nice lunch and when we got back to the 5er we watched the 2nd half of the Colts game on TV. They ended up losing to a late 4th quarter touchdown but it is "only" pre-season right?

The girls made it back from their shopping trip and Rudee had only a small bag with some make up. She is not a real "shop-a-holic" but does enjoy a shopping trip now and then.

We drove Deb and Niles back to Lebanon and dropped them back at their car. They had to get home to "rescue" Tucker their black Lab. He had been in all day and was probably sitting waiting on them with his legs crossed!

Leaving Lebanon we talked to Steve and Trish Suter on the cell phone. They have their 5th wheel parked in a seasonal lot in Thorntown about 8 miles from Lebanon. They were heading there when we talked and invited us over. We sat and visited under their awning for a while and since it was time for supper the four of us headed to Stookey's in Thorntown to eat. This has been a longtime favorite restaurant of ours. They have really good steaks and catfish. The place is family owned and are in their second generation. I decided to go "light" tonight and had a grilled chicken salad and Rudee had a ham steak dinner. She ended up bringing over 1/2 of her dinner home since we didn't share. I see a big pot of ham and beans in my future!

Back at Suter's 5er Steve built a fire and we talked, laughed, drank a glass of wine and roasted some marshmallows. The yawns finally took over and we called it a night and headed home. It was a nice topper to a good day. Here is a picture of Steve and Trish from a recent bike ride.

The weather has taken a turn this week end. We have had the portable heater on both mornings to take the chill off. I read on the Montana Owners Forum that one of the members was in Wisconsin and the lows were expected to be in the low 30's there. Yikes, where did the summer go! The highs today are supposed to be in the high 60's so doubt if we will do any motorcycling but who knows. The only thing we have planned so far is to finish up the winch. I'll keep you posted.

we have a winch!!

Rudee and I drove to Brownsburg to the UPS store (our "home address") and picked up our mail. They also had a package waiting for us. Yep the long awaited winch had arrived!

I took a quick look inside the box before we drove off and it is a brand spanking new 4,000 lb'er. The guy said it would bolt into the same holes that the existing one uses so I'm hoping it will not be an ordeal swapping it out. I guess I'll find out this week end. Stay tuned for "that" story.

We have been pretty happy with the UPS store that serves as our mail service provider. They have been very good at notifying us when we get a package. We have it set up to forward our mail every Tuesday and have money in our account to pay for the postage and packaging of our normal mail. We have it sent here to the KOA where we have our own little cubby hole where the staff puts our mail. The forwarded mail usually gets her Wednesday or Thursday. Of course whenever I'm close to Brownsburg I'll stop in and pick up the mail myself since it saves on the forwarding $$.

Rudee was having a Mexican food withdrawal so on our way back home we stopped at Little Mexico here in Crawfordsville. We had a nice meal and then had to make a grocery run. There was a big tent set up in the grocery store parking lot and I though maybe they were having a big sale. Turns out there was some kind if outfit that had a free zoo set up. We walked through it and saw a Llama, kangaroo, monkey, python (Rudee didn't get too close to that!!), and a big tiger. There was another section where you could pay $1.00 and see a leopard and a lion. We stuck with the free stuff. They also had a camel they used to give rides, it was a two humper :-).

We headed home after the safari and the shopping. Rudee has been watching TV and I have been surfing the web. I did find a nice deal advertised on the Escapees forum, a lot in the Yuma foothills that has been developed with 2 RV sites. The place has a nice patio and full hook ups and looks like it would be a great place to spend the winters. The price is "only" $105,000.00. Would be nice to have a lot somewhere but we're not ready for that yet, heck fire we want to travel some first and still are a few years away from doing that :-).


I had to appear in court yesterday for work. I wrote the estimate on a car and there was a lawsuit filed because the insurance companies were all fighting over who was at fault. I had to drive 2 hours up there, sat for 1 1/2 hours waiting only to get on the stand and they asked me three whole questions! I took the stand at 3:00pm and walked out of the courtroom at 3:03 pm only to have to drive the 2 hours back home. What a pain.


No real plans this week end except to get the winch replaced. We may even get to take a bike ride if all goes well, keep your fingers crossed. I'll keep you posted.