Weekly Update

We're in the middle of our trailer's service period.  We hope to get it back this afternoon, complete our temporary move out of it, and move it to paint Monday morning.  Should be there 4-5 weeks.  That's the plan, anyway.  Head to Virginia on Tuesday if all goes well.

Otherwise, we're hanging out in the Howe, IN - Sturgis, MI area (aka Michiana).  Been walking more of the Pumpkinvine Trail and parts of the bicycle trail that takes you from Goshen to Elkhart.  Done a lot of driving going back & forth, too.  Did get a factory tour of Newmar motor homes in last week.  Got one stop in at Ben's Pretzels.  Spent too much time at the Blue Gate Restaurant desert bar, too.

That's been our week.  Not a lot of excitement - which is good, for once.  Thanks for dropping by!  Later, David

...and the service rodeo begins

It's an RV.  That, by definition, means you need your own technician!

So our semiannual trailer service began today.  So far, so good.  I think preventive maintenance is so foreign to RV techs - RVs in general - that when you arrive and that's what you want, you've actually caught them off guard.  It's not that they don't believe in preventative maintenance.  It's just they don't see people doing that, I guess.  And, believe it or not, Lippert Service Center was not busy today.  Usually, it's crowded, busy as heck, maintenance vehicles going in & out, people scurrying everywhere. Not today.  One gentleman in for an emergency repair on a Class C motor home and us. Three service bays and only us two there to occupy them.  Very unusual!

Yes, I'm a glass-half-full kinda guy.  And while most stuff on our trailer actually works, so much doesn't work that you tend to forget what works.  And for once, it looks like we might just get in to Indiana Interstate Enterprises on Monday without an emergency repair that keeps us from getting other needed repairs completed.  Have you every had a plumber come to your house to make needed plumbing repairs, work on your house all day fixing several things that needed to be repaired, and yet not fix the two items that you requested to be repaired when you made the original plumbing appointment?  Well, I have and that's how our trailer service appointments have been going over the last couple of years.  And it's gettin' pretty darn old!

So we're sitting for the weekend at Shipshewana.  Originally tried to get into Elkhart Fairgrounds so we'd be close to Lippert, but a Montana owners rally had that place booked.  Ben's Pretzels still good.  Road shoulders still covered in horse poop.  US 20 closed between Shipshewana & Lagrange.  Got a chance to eat lunch with Chris.  He stayed late so he could eat with us.  Sorry he got home late, Emily!

Been a little warm, but we've got thunderstorms this evening & tomorrow.  Weather people saying that'll cool things off and get the area back to "normal".  We still think we're doing OK.  Still planning to be in Virginia early October.  Remember - it's just a plan!

So that's it for us this week.  Thanks for dropping by and checking in on us.  Until next week, David

Bud's Body Shop, May 2018

 

Amana Colonies 2018

Amana Colonies (summer of 2010)

We've finally gotten back up on the road.  We left Monday as planned with overnight stops at Cabela's in Sidney, NE; Kearney, NE; and Greenwood, NE.  Other than shopping at Cabela's, there's nothing that we'd consider a destination stop.  And even though Cabela's RV park in Sidney doesn't get very high reviews, it was probably the best RV park we stopped at over those three nights.   Doesn't make the others bad, but there's nothing to draw us back to any of these RV parks.

After four days of traveling, we're spending the weekend at Amana RV Park just outside the Amana Colonies historic area (near Amana, IA).  We were here back in 2010.  Hot then; hot now. 

Plans are to move further east Sunday.  If all goes well, we'll be back in Shipshewana and start the trailer service rodeo on the 20th.  Head to Virginia on Oct 2nd if there are no surprises with the trailer (or truck, our health, etc).  That's the plan (and we've had a lot of revisions to plans over the last couple of years).

Anyway, we're fine.  Of particular note, I finally gave in and bought a yearly subscription to an online RV travel planning site.  I've resisted this for years as we don't normally have a good internet connection as we travel the country.  Hard to use an online travel planning site when you don't have consistent internet connection.  But I had to as my offline software was so old and the RV parks listing was so outdated, that I was planning with both a laptop and the smart phone (when internet connection was working), anyway.  I would have moved earlier if they'd done something similar to US Military Campground Directory where they download software on your computer so that you can use it even when you're offline.  I'll still keep the old travel software in use, though.  It's turns out that it's our most reliable historical document of where we've been and how many miles we've put on the trailer.

That's it for this week.  Thank's for dropping in and checking on us.  Until next week, David

Laramie, WY

Natl Big Horn Sheep Museum

Wind River Canyon

Well, we're not at Kearney, NE as planned.  A lot has happened (or maybe not happened depending on your point of view) since last week.  Let's talk about what we've done, anyway.

First visit while in Dubois, WY was the Natl Bighorn Sheep Museum in Dubois.  We had no idea there were so many variations of bighorn sheep through the world.  Top Picture is of the main four variations found in the US.

Wyoming Dinosaur Center - Something Interesting dig site

Next was our trip over to Thermopolis, WY to visit to drive through the Wind River Canyon.  Yep, drove two hours one-way just to drive through 4+/- miles of a canyon.  Worth a visit if you're near the Thermopolis area.

Next visit - while in Thermopolis - was the Wyoming Dinosaur Center.  Pictures here are of the active dig site called SI (Something Interesting).  This

Something Interesting dig site

dig is believed to be an ancient lake bed that dinosaurs walked through to cool off and, as you might expect, some died.  As they are researching the lake bed, they've identified different types of dinosaurs and a possible kill site by predators.

We left Dubois, WY on Labor Day and traveled down to Rawlins, WY for the night.  When we leveled the trailer

Snowy Mtn Range, Medicine Bow Natl Forest

we started getting errors with the Lippert hydraulic system.  Figures.  We're on I-80 now, and I-80 has never been kind to our 5th wheel trailers.  We've lost more pieces off of and broken more things traveling I-80 than any other highway we've traveled in the US.  Well, we could level and get the slides out, and we've already got a service appointment at Lippert later in the month.  We'll be OK.

Lewis Lake, Snowy Mtn Range

Then the surge guard starts vibrating for some unknown reason.  Adjust where it sits and that stops.  Everything seems fine.  Until the following morning.  Slides don't want to come in.  Acts like the batteries are drained.  Check the batteries and they read fully charged.  Put a charger to them, and it says they're fully charged.  Trailer controller says the batteries are fine and, oh wait a minute, it says it's

Yep, that's our lunch view today

putting 14.4 volts on the batteries.  14.4 volts???  Batteries are cooking!  We may have a converter problem.

Called an RV tech 100 miles away in Laramie who says he can be there by 4:30 that afternoon.  OK, fine.  While we wait, let's see if I can get the batteries to take a charge.  Low and behold, we do!  Takes a couple of hours, but we get enough charge in there to get the slides all in, trailer hooked to the truck and leveling legs all up so we can travel.  Call the RV tech back, tell him we're on our way to Laramie to meet him.

Luckily, there's a spot available at the local KOA.  We get there, but the batteries are totally shot.  So we're looking at 4 new batteries and probably a new converter.  And we can't get the trailer off the truck.  Fine.  There's a Best Western across the street we can walk to.

Tech arrives and the trouble shooting starts.  He's having to learn the trailer's wiring on the fly and as he checks stuff, it's all confusing to him.  Eventually, he determines the controller is fine, so he starts trying to identify which battery is dead.  As he's doing that, our trailer reverts to its "I've got a ground fault" and the surge-guard shuts the trailer electrical down - hard.  No amount of "try this, try that" will let the power pass to the converter.  For the 12th time in the last 8 years, I've determined I've had enough of this crappy equipment the RV Industry builds and sells to the public.  I need a few gallons of gasoline.  I'm gonna put this trailer out of everyone's misery!  Maybe I'll get lucky just like that guy with his Lincoln Continental back in late 70s and I'll make the news, spend some time in jail, pay a huge fine, but just maybe the RV Industry will see the error of its ways and improved its products.  Nah, never happen!

Anyway, the RV tech, with his decades of experience looks at one battery and says, "I think this one is the problem."  So he isolates that bank of batteries and, bless his heart, the surge guard thinks everything is great and power can now flow to the converter.  Too bad though, all batteries are dead.  But there's just enough recovery ability left in the remaining two batteries to get the front legs to extend and get the trailer off the truck.  The RV tech tells us where to go to get new batteries and goes to his next challenge.  We go get 4 new batteries and a room at the Best Western.  8 AM Wednesday morning we meet the RV tech at the trailer, install the batteries - it takes two people to lift them and get them on the trailer - and once hooked up, we can level and extend the slides.

We're now back up and can travel, but it's cut into an already aggressive travel schedule for us to get to the F-O-S Gulf Shores Rally in Streetsboro, OH.  We decide to stick around, let the batteries charge, and based on the RV tech's recommendation, check out the Medicine Bow Natl Forest/Snowy Mountain Range.  We're just gonna miss this year's F-O-S rally.

And what a gem the RV tech suggested to us!  We've visited the Medicine bow Natl Forest area Wednesday and today & have decided to stay here until Monday.  The 3 bottom photos give you an idea of what we're seeing.  We go back tomorrow, and we've decided to stay in Laramie through Sunday.

So that's our plan - leave here Monday.  Maybe.  Maybe I-80 will give us a break.  Maybe.  Check back later and see! Thanks for dropping in and checking on us! David