Gremlins and Doctor visits

Wow, another month has flown by in Texas!  Thankfully the temperatures have moderated considerably -- in fact, the high today is only 59 degrees but that is an anomaly.  We'll be back into the 70s and 80s tomorrow.  It it perfect weather to do some remaining "outside" Max work, but rain is a deterrent at least for a few days.  Thankfully our "before we hit the road again" TO DO list is finally getting shorter!

One big item accomplished is we have most of the annual doctor visits finished.  This process seemed a little more stressful to me this fall, probably because of the threat of having a medical problem interrupt our travel plans.  But so far so good :-)  We are also making some progress with our golf game and visiting friends in the area.

The best news is that we think we have finally found our electrical "gremlin".  Replacing just the water heater element did not fix things as we managed to throw breakers less than an hour after getting home from that repair -- so we spent a few weeks playing musical chairs with our wiring to try to remove possible causes.  This exercise did not bear fruit, but Jeffrey gently poking a wire behind the water heater caused a big POP, a burning smell, and blown breakers both on the coach and at the outside pedestal.  So back we go to the service place the next day and they pull out a clump of scorched wires that were hidden behind a cover -- all burned and with melted insulation that had clearly been unhappy for quite some time.  Not sure how they missed seeing this at the last service appointment... grrrrrr

At any rate, we are all fixed up and hope this is the final item in the chain of events that caused so much havoc.  Jeffrey is reluctant to install the new EMS until we are "sure", so we'll continue to run with the EMS disabled for a few more weeks and just manage our own power until we get back from west Texas. 

West Texas?  Yup!  We are taking a side trip this weekend and driving Max (pulling Moby the car) to the Fort Davis area.  We'll be part of a 5-day organized RV outing with 20 or so other RVs and will get to see all kinds of sights in that area -- McDonald Observatory, Marfa lights, etc.  We are hoping the U.S. government opens back up by the time it is over as we want to visit Big Bend National Park for a few days before we head back to Georgetown.  I promise my next post will have some pictures of this trip!

A Hot Time in Texas

My, how the last month has flown by.  We mistakenly thought that once we got back to Georgetown things would calm down considerably, but that was not to be!

We decided to dodge the Texas heat for a week and flew up to the nice cool NW to visit my Dad and Sheila in Washington state.  The 4 of us had a grand adventure ferrying over to and enjoying 3 days in the Cape Flattery and Hurricane Ridge areas.. absolutely beautiful parts of the U.S.A.  Also got to see my aunt Pat and Dad's cousin Ray and wife Carolyn.  Can't say enough about the nice weather though!  We always get lucky and have sunshine when we go up there.

Once back at Max, we braved 100+ degree days for the last week of August and successfully kicked off Gator football game watching parties with our Gator Club.  Unfortunately, Max's electrical woes took a new turn and we lost half the brains of our energy management system for some unknown reason.  Though we had plenty of power coming in, this EMS is responsible for making sure we don't overuse it, so part of its job is to monitor what devices are on and selectively turn lower priority things on/off if needed -- like water heater, engine heater, washer/dryer, etc. Generally is doesn't need to do much for us and we rarely notice it cycling things, but running our full compliment of air conditioners in the Texas heat can definitely kick it in.

Of course this issue happens over the Labor Day holiday weekend when we can't get to the service place in a timely fashion, so we have a few days to put our former-engineering heads together and diagnose what might be going on.  We are able to limp on one A/C in a VERY warm coach and to our great surprise, the company that makes the EMS is actually answering phones on Labor Day!  We come up with some ideas and get Max to service the next day where they confirm the problem and order a part that seems to fix us right up -- hooray!  (and hooray for extended warranties)

Deep breath of relief ensues as Jeffrey has decided he wants to celebrate his upcoming 50th birthday with a Carnival cruise out of Galveston over the Gator football "bye" week and Max is fixed just in time.  So Key West and the Bahamas, here we come!  It is always nice to just drive to a cruise ship and not have to deal with airline flights in and out. The cruise is terrific and we valiantly try not to over eat and try to get some exercise every day.  We return to only mid-90 degree heat in Texas, so the fall is starting to cool things down a little at least.

We are thrilled to find Max seemingly happy and with no obvious electrical issues when we get back -- and that lasts for only 2 days.  We wake up on Jeffrey's birthday expecting to give him a day of rest and relaxation and no errands :-)  and whammo... we have the same EMS problem again on the new part.  Sigh.  More research and several phone calls later and Jeffrey is getting more and more educated about how things work.  He is able to rig a way to temporarily bypass the EMS -- which means we just need to manage the power levels ourselves.  We also have a new clue as we heard the water heater breaker flip right before the problem.  In hindsight, this was happening "before" too.  So as I write this, we are sitting in service having the heater element replaced and hope we have finally tracked down our little electrical gremlin. 

Is this making us question full-time life in a motorhome?  Nope!  But it is definitely mentally challenging us more than we ever expected and keeping life exciting!

Completing trip #1!

Well, we survived the drive through Shreveport, LA, and the roads were no problem at all. Sure wish they would fix I-10 on their south edge though -- at least before we drive it again this December!  We even survived our first drive past the Dallas area, though we did cheat a little and pick roads that skirted east of the city so we could miss the worst of the traffic.  We have also learned to avoid rush hour.

We next enjoyed a fabulous 3+ day visit with friends, Mike & Lori Brindle, who live in Lake Kiowa, TX, which is just south of the Oklahoma border.  Their gated neighborhood even had a small campground with full hookups for Max, so we weren't too far away from them. Unfortunately, we were now fully engulfed in the dry Texas heat, so enjoying their golf course was not a good option.  We did, however, venture away from their little paradise to check out a nearby zoo and amazing casino right over the Oklahoma border.

Unfortunately, Max took issue with the heat (or maybe it was the huge power requirements to almost constantly run his 3 air conditioners) and started to suffer some mysterious power outages. It didn't take long to spot an unhappy breaker in his power panel.  The bad luck is that it was one of the uncommon ones and had to be ordered, so we were forced to limp back to our Georgetown RV park with only 1 A/C in order to get to a service place that could patch us up. We will now add an extra $40 breaker to our "spare parts" box :-)

In the end, we got back and organized in time for the annual SEC Picnic where our beloved Lone Star Gator Club gathers with the other alumni clubs to kick off the upcoming college football season (in the picture below, we are the ones in the funny tan hats on the right next to the blow-up "Albert" mascot). We sure had a lot to share and catch up on with them! It was great being back to our "Fall" home where we can enjoy our Austin friends and eat some truly wonderful BBQ and Tex-mex food for a few months!

Westward bound

After spending a final week near Gainesville seeing Jeffrey's parents, we began our trek westbound -- the goal being  to get back to Texas in time for the SEC picnic mid-August with our beloved Lone Star Gator Club.  Lucky for us, Jeffrey's brother and sis-in-law Susan live in Pensacola FL, so they are a very nice place to stop and hang out for a few days.  On our drive over, we stopped at a Pilot to fill Max with diesel and found ourselves the lucky recipients of a freezer full of Haagen-Daz ice cream from a trucker who was going to have to throw it away because the outside box was damaged.  Lucky for us, the single-serving containers of chocolate fudge brownie were totally fine!

We also enjoyed our final days on the nice Florida highways as we have found the southern states further west to be BUMPY... at least in a motorhome.  We have learned to "batten down the hatches" on rough roads, including putting rubber bands around the silverware so they don't clink-clink-clink.  As a result of our bumpy trip over I-10 when we came east last December, we decided to detour up to I-20 and see if it was any smoother.  It also gave us a perfect opportunity to visit my cousin Peyton and her family who had just moved to Jackson, Mississippi.  Jackson also has a zoo (see pictures below) and, while it was so-so, we pretty much had it all to ourselves (as well as the planetarium in town).  Found a few more folks in the local art museum, but the real crowds were at one of the local indoor malls keeping cool!

As I write this update, we have plodded further west to Mindon, Louisiana just for a night stop and will do another 1-day drive to Terrell, Texas tomorrow.  As it turns out, the worst of I-20 was at Jackson and it has been better as we go west -- though we have been warned that the road out of Shreveport may be bumpy too.  Guess I better keep the rubber bands on!

Back to the Sunshine State

My, how time flies!  Hard to believe it is almost the end of July.  We wrapped up June by sliding back down I95 into Florida, stopping for a few days in Jacksonville before cutting over to the Gainesville area for a week.  We had offered to help re-supply our Austin-based Lone Star Gator Club with some Gator raffle/halftime prizes and had fun going to flea markets and area stores for great deals to save them money.  No surprise that it is much easier to find this stuff in Florida than Texas :-)  Now we just have to find a place in Max to stow it all for the trip back to Austin!

As scheduled, we arrived for our big "fix the floor" service appointment at Lazydays on July 8th. We managed to add a few more things to the "needs fixing" list over the last few months, the most inconvenient being a clothes washer leak. While the floor and other items were being addressed, we entertained ourselves in the nice customer lounge watching golf, working on puzzles, doing some computer work, etc. Only had to stay in a hotel one night while the new grout was curing... and even then, we had Best Western points so it was a freebie. 

Sidenote: the campground at Lazydays has the most advanced laundry facility that we have ever seen.  You can pay for your wash/dry machines with a credit card and then get a text message when your load is done.  Pretty cool.

Now for the unexpected.  If you find yourself sitting in a great service place, it is only natural that you start thinking of any other things you'd like to do -- not "fix it" stuff but "nicer" stuff.  We calculated that we were under budget on fuel and campground fees for the year so perhaps we could indulge ourselves and get the better satellite system. The one that came with Max was tossed on as a "deal sweetener" by the dealership where we bought him, but turned out to be an older model that was very finicky and getting more problematic as time went on.  We were tired of spending 30 minutes to an hour getting the darn thing pointed and happy every time we moved to a new place.  Ergo, we splurged to get a Winegard Traveler.  Unfortunately, after that money was committed, we discovered that our "house" batteries were pretty fried and just past the NAPA 3-year date.  Kaching!  Did you know that RV batteries cost almost $300 each?  well, we need 4... sigh.  Guess the RV maintenance budget line item needs to be a bit bigger next year.

Below is a picture of Max with his new roof satellite dish  :-)

The end of a wonderful spring

By the time we left Cancun, Mexico, tropical storm Andrea (yes, it was bad enough to actually get a formal name) had made its way out of the gulf, actually dumping a bunch of rain on lonely Max in Raleigh as it went on its NE track.  Our last few days at the "Grand Mayan" were actually nice -- so long as you watched the sky carefully for the occasional shower.  Funny enough, we found this to be the case when we got back to Raleigh too.  Guess it is that time of year when thunderstorms break out randomly many days.  Reminds me of my years living in south Florida!  Anyhow, before we flew back to the U.S., we snapped some cute photos of local wildlife at the Grand Mayan resort (see bottom of post).  Gator friends, it is a crocodile, not an alligator :-)

Once back to Max in Raleigh, we helped celebrate our nephew, Karl's, high school graduation. His parents (my dear college friend, Mary, and Jeffrey's brother David -- they met at our wedding), threw him a fabulous BBQ party at home ahead of his formal graduation ceremony.  So amazing to witness this milestone in a young man I once held in my arms shortly after he was born almost 18 years ago!  AGH!  Where has the time gone?  Needless to say, it was with a heavy heart that we left NC yesterday as we continue our "just the two of us" journey south.

Our first stop was Gaffney, SC, where we had an appointment to get Max aligned and inspected -- which we deemed a worthwhile expense after our first major jaunt on bumpy roads these last months.  Lucky for us, there were no issues... just a few minor adjustment and we were on our way.  Once again, the "chassis" part of our coach has been almost bulletproof.  The "house" part will get its time in the service bay next month when we finally buckle down and get the floor grout fixed in Florida next month.  Oh Joy... probably should have our heads examined for choosing hurricane season to do this!

Weather to stay or go?

After a day visit with our final Connecticut friends, Guy & Joan Clark, we started our 5 day run back to Raleigh.  Guy and Joan had fattened us up with a fabulous dinner the night before we left, so we were energized for a few long days of driving.  By the way, "long" is relative in this lifestyle.  Four hours in a car is no big deal, but motorhome travel is a little more intense.  There is a lot more to watch out for, you generally go at a slower speed, and a small "bump in the road" is really amplified.  We still haven't gotten to a level of comfort that we even listen to the radio when driving.

Anyhow, stormy weather showed up on the forecast for the entire week, so we opted to leave our options open and not make firm park reservations until the day before or even the morning of.  Day 1 was the road back to Pennsylvania -- which sure seemed rougher than the same road to drive east on a few weeks earlier. Day 2 storms held off in the morning, so we high-tailed it over 250 miles and managed to pass through the rest of PA, a corner of Maryland, West Virginia, and finally stopped in Winchester Virginia.  Jeffrey thought this was a great accomplishment -- being in 4 states in one day. 

While Winchester looked like a really neat town and we wanted to stay an extra night to have a day to explore, the RV park we picked (Candy Hill) was a not a good experience.  It was nice enough, but it was right beside a major freeway with loud trucks cruising by at all hours.  Instead, we outran the afternoon storms again and made a run for Richmond on Day 3.  Since we only needed 1 more driving day to get back to Raleigh, we had 2 full days to explore Richmond a bit, even though it rained on us most of the time.

Our final driving day was uneventful but rainy through Virginia, finally drying out once we hit the North Carolina border. The upside is that Max had a nice exterior wash and looked pretty clean after a dirty trek to parts north.  We got settled in to our RV park near Raleigh and enjoyed a week's worth of visiting with Jeffrey's two local brothers and their families.  One casualty of our recent rough road driving appears to be our washing machine which has sprung a small leak underneath somewhere.  Lucky for us, our family in Raleigh have extended the use of their in-house laundry facilities, so our washer repair can be added to the list to be fixed at our next service appointment (at Lazydays in Florida in July).

I write this blog entry from near Cancun, Mexico where we are enjoying a pre-25th wedding anniversary visit to our "timeshare". We arrived by plane (Max was left to rest in Raleigh) and unfortunately, the wet weather has followed us once again and we managed to land right in the middle of the first gulf tropical depression.  We have had wet stuff every day and some of it torrential, but it is still a lovely part of the world.

We will return this weekend just in time to help celebrate our nephew Karl's graduation from High School.  Crossing our fingers that the rain doesn't follow us home!