Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We're still here having a good time at Gulf State Park.  Been an exciting week for us.  We got in two movies: "The Book Thief" & "Saving Mr. Banks".  "Saving Mr. Banks" gets 4 thumbs-up from us.  We continue to find a half dozen or so ants every other day or so.  We spray and wait for the next "showing".  We've got a good barrier around the outside of the trailer, so they can't leave.  Donna continues to ride with the "Folks-with-Spokes" gang.  We also got in a meal at Steamers.

Our weekly draining of the truck's fuel/water separator still shows we've got nice, beautiful, light-blue diesel (reminds me of aviation 100LL) - just like the last 5 years.  Also, we've bought all we're told we need to change out the hydraulic fluid (in the reservoir) for the trailer's legs & slides.     May try that tomorrow.  May not.

We went to the Gulf Shores United Methodist's contemporary Christmas Eve service.  Nice service.  Some of these people down here can sing.  Did a great job on "My Heart is Bethlehem " - as good any any studio backup singers would do.  Christmas dinner/potluck was held at the state park's activities by a local group.  We volunteered as "servers" and ate at the noon setting on Christmas Day.  Probably had 80 or so at the noon serving.

There's a reason Microsoft is doing poorly as a company.  We've confirmed it's Windows 8.1.  This change over was not something we did willingly. Our laptop came apart Monday night...that's right...it came apart. You could still use it, but it looked like something you'd see on a Borg ship in a Star Trek Next Generation episode.  The screen (top) literally came apart and broke at the hinges.  Not something you'd really want to use on a day-to-day basis.

So off we go, Tuesday, to Spanish Fort to mingle with the last-minute, Christmas-present-buying crowd and get a cheap laptop.  Unfortunately, only Windows 8.1 is available for us Windows users.  You get a "quick start" guide and an owner's manual for the laptop.  Nothing on how to use Windows 8.1.  If you're use to a iPad, you may like Windows 8.1 or at least may be able to use it.  If you're familiar with an iPhone or with an Android smartphone, then you're kinda familiar and can make your way around.  If your a Windows 7 user (that'd be me), then welcome to hell!

Luckily for us, we've experienced a previous laptop and external hard-drive failure, so we've learned to keep everything duplicated and on thumb drives/external backup drive plus any software we may need with us.   You lose Windows 7 functionality, so I've had to learn to work around that.  About half of my installs quit about midway through the install process.  You don't know why.  You can't check the internet connection to see if it needs - and lost - internet connectivity (that is you can't check to see if data is transferring.)  You can't tell if you need to do something like answer a question from the install wizard.  You can't pull up two drives side-by-side to manage files or move pictures from your smartphone to the computer or external hard-drive.  Our printer and scanner work, but the computer sill doesn't list them as available hardware when these two items are connected to the computer.  Loading iTunes was another nightmare.  And this is just the second day...  Oh, and after a day of "playing with the computer", Malwarebytes found 189 items of malware on the computer.

We plan to go get me a Windows 8.1 for Senior Dummies this afternoon.  At least that's the plan.

Enjoy your New Year's!  Later, David

A Visit to Long Beach, MS

We've survived our first week here in Gulf State Park.  No temps below freezing, so that's good.  More eating out, now.  Good food, but not good for our health.  Donna's found a gym, and she's riding her bicycle with the "Folks on Spokes" gang here in the park.  We got in a viewing of "Frozen", too.  We've gotten over to Pensacola to "renew" our military IDs (these news ones are ugly and don't look like us).  Also got over to Long Beach, MS to visit Bill & Debra.   We're still fighting ants from Pelham, AL.  They still pop-up from time-to-time. And we've found we have an exhaust leak on the truck. (OK, maybe that should be "smelled"?) Looks like the cab will come off, again, after the new year.

So, lots of highlights last week, but I'll point out Bill & Debra's decorations.  A lot of times when we're in this part of the country, we'll pass by Fort Wilderness (Walt Disney World) and get our fix of Christmas decorations.  (Though, according to the Fort Fiends forum, the Fort's decorations aren't as good this year.)

 Either way, we not only got our dog fix in, but our Christmas decorations viewing in, too.  In many ways, it looked like Disney at Bill & Debra's house.  Plus they took us to see Christmas lights before we left (which made them late to hear live Christmas music at their church - Sorry!)  So we got a good viewing of Christmas decorations in for this year.  I don't

know about other people, but we're impressed.  Photos here of just a few of the items placed inside and outside their house.  I thought you might enjoy them, too.

Later, David

Your truck is ready, but there's a couple of things not working...

Finally!  We've made it to Gulf State Park near Gulf Shores, AL.  Only a few weeks late.  Many folks are already here though the state park looks a little sparse of people.  During a brief walk around the state park campground this afternoon, we found many sites still available.  We still got ants, and our current site is full of ant hills. So we've put out a barrier of Comet around anything of the trailer that touches the ground.  Donna's now spraying clear ammonia inside the trailer as it's a little more environmentally friendly.  We continue to get an ant attack about every other day though the quantities of ants are dwindling.

We finally got away from B'ham, yesterday.  Town & Country Ford, Bessemer, AL called Monday saying the truck was ready, but there were a couple of things not working....wait a minute!  Didn't you just say the truck was ready?  Hope their mechanics are better than their management's communication skills!  Anyway, they found an electrical problem on reassembly.  Got that done and we had the truck back just after noon on Tuesday.  We completed as detailed of tests as we could with everything on the truck before we left the dealership. Transferflow tank status indicated it was OK, but we couldn't test a transfer of fuel.  Also, no good place to check the 4-wheel drive. Everything checked out, so off we went.  One word of advice:  never call Donna and tell her the truck is ready, but there's a "couple things not working".  

Ford's advice to us is to now drain the water separator after every two tank fulls of diesel (originally once per month and is one of the most unbelievable pain-in-the-butt things to do) and continue to change the fuel filters every 8-10,000 miles - which we had been doing.  I take that as "We at Ford built and sold you a truck that there's no physical way you can protect it from water or contaminated fuel.  Since it has over 100,000 miles - meaning Donna & I, as owners, actually use the darn thing - we, at Ford, won't cover or reimburse any of the $10,000 you just spent to repair the thing even though our maintenance schedule and procedures are totally inadequate & incapable of protecting the truck because, if they had, you wouldn't have needed to spend $10,000 to fix your truck. Oh, and please use our fuel additive at each fill up of fuel even though there's no convenient place to carry a bottle of it in the truck, and you can't pour it into the tank without spilling it all over you and your truck.  We appreciate your business.  Oh, and there's a two year parts & labor warranty on the parts installed on your truck.  Just don't count on us honoring that warranty, either."

So the clock begins ticking down to the next major tear down.  At least we were able to transfer fuel on the way down.  We'll try to check the 4-wheel drive when we go over to visit Bill & Debra Sunday.

Now wait until you hear the news we got after getting here (actually the discussions started while we were in Pelham.)  It appears these problems are happening everywhere.  While we set in Pelham, AL we noticed several motor homes having a mobile tech visiting them before the motor homes left. Way more than normal.  Now it seems there's a rash of people who are buying new trucks once they get here at Gulf Shores after experiencing major issues with their previous truck.  And poor Greg & Judy, after taking two weeks to get a new toilet installed a month or so ago, their frig quit last night. (And they have a new truck.)  I think they're all just trying to make Donna and I feel better!  (it isn't working)

So that's our welcoming committee to Gulf Shores, AL.  Man it's hard not to eat out at least once a day here!  And we've only been here one full day!

Later, David   

Delete the word "Durable"...

Next time ya got nothin' to do, go read the Ford website about it's Superduty trucks:  "Guys who own work own Ford Trucks" or "Built Ford Tough".  Do you see the words "reliable" or "durable" there?  I don't.  You know why?  Because they're not "reliable" or "durable."  

According to the Progressive Commercial truck adjuster (we filed a claim so they'd look at the truck for us as an independent representative) , we fell victim to an extended exposure of water to the High Pressure Fuel Pump (HPFP). Most likely due to water condensation in the fuel tank over time. This pump rusted and at almost five years of ownership, rust flakes finally broke free - probably the Monday before Thanksgiving - and started plugging the fuel injectors.  This means the monthly draining of fuel from the water/fuel separator and the changing of both fuel filters every 8-10,000 miles as recommended by the Ford Diesel Supplement and service writers at Bozeman Ford (Bozeman, MT) were insufficient to protect our fuel system from water ingestion from the first day we drove the truck off the lot at Purvis Ford in Fredericksburg, VA.

I'm guessing this really all began when we experienced a momentary "green wrench" when returning from a weekend of camping in Shenandoah Nat'l Park during September 2009.  After dropping the trailer off  at storage, we took the truck home, took all our personal stuff out of it, and gave it to Purvis's  service department.  They found no codes, and changed the oil and all the oil and fuel filters as a "just-in-case".  I figure from that day on, we never stood a chance.  That 200,000 mile engine warranty we bought is really just a very expensive piece of paper.  We wasted our money buying that thing.  And when we - hopefully - pull away from Town & Country Ford next week with a completely new fuel injection system at our expense ($9,000 plus a rental car for just over two weeks), the clock starts ticking on the next high pressure fuel pump failure.  It's inevitable.  From here on out, every time I pull up to a diesel pump, it'll be like playing Russian Roulette.  But instead of a gun, it's a diesel nozzle.  Instead of bullets it's the opportunity to spend another $9,000 to get the fuel injection system replaced.

...and wouldn't it be a hoot if after doing all this, the truck still experiences drivability issues when they drive it next week?

In other news:

 - It's wet & humid here.  So the ants decided to move into the trailer just to get dry.  They hit pay dirt when they found an opened roll of Momentos in Donna's purse.  We've now got a perimeter of Comet and Home Defender Ant Killer around the trailer and utility connections, and we've sprayed the ant's "conga" lines throughout the trailer.  Donna's cleaned all the cabinets and sprayed any that were occupied by the ants.  All open food has been thrown out in addition to any containers the ants took a liking to - whether open or not. We're confident there's still a group hidden behind one wall - probably in some insulation where I can't reach them with the ant spray, but they're surrounded.

- Our thunderbolt "smart" phone finally refused to open one time too many while in a weak signal zone when trying to answer an incoming phone call from Ford.  We now have a new Droid Maxx.  We're counting on the better (stronger?) antennae to help us out in those weak signal areas and a longer battery life before needing to recharge the battery.  So far it's a good phone.  One word to the wise: learn how to answer the phone before leaving the store.

-  We understand we're missing out on a lot of shrimp at Gulf Shores, AL.  We're told there may not be any left by the time we get there.  Stupid Ford.  Maybe there's a Dodge in our future?  (Someday, I'll have to tell you why it won't be a GM product.)

Man, I just cannot get into the mood to fill out & mail Christmas cards this week.  Wonder why?

Later, David