Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  We're near Birmingham, AL celebration Thanksgiving with family.  Hope everyone one has a great holiday and weekend.  Safe travels to all who move around this week.  We plan to be in Gulf Shores, AL on Sunday.  Thanks for dropping by!  David

Cave City, KY

Our new "We're Traveling" photo

We're free!  We've broken away from the Elkhart area and moved - as you'd guess -  south back into more snow - wintry mix - rainy weather.  Some would say it's like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.  It's really pretty much the way things work for us in the RV lifestyle.

We made it to Cave City, KY.  We came

This is how Elkhart treated us.

here because when we first planned our move south, this was the first area we could reach where we could get freshwater and temps would be above freezing.  Turns out temps are at freezing or just below freezing, and we can only get water during the day.  Amazing how fast that weather forecast changed in just a few days!

Anyway, we're out of Elkhart.  Donna is working like a busy bee cleaning the inside of the trailer.  We've more or less de-winterized and using water out of the freshwater tank as the campground shuts off freshwater at 5 PM each day.  So far we've got an intermittent left turn signal light on the door side of the trailer (only showing up when temps dropped below freezing), a hot water heater that only runs on propane (happened before - we'll get it fixed so it runs on electricity later), and we haven't tried the new washer/dryer combo.  Oh, and a new MCD shade that doesn't want to work properly.   Search on YouTube may help us get that solved.

I kinda keep track of how long we go after service with everything working.  Been a couple of years since we left service with everything working.  That's part of the reason we had an extended service this time as we're just trying to get things to work they way they were suppose to.  Looks like we get a big zero for this session, too.

We got the new suspension.  The new hitch and new suspension now have us competing for the world's tallest RV at 13 ft, 5 inches.  (That's obviously not true, but when you're use to 13 feet, 1 inch, it feels that way.)  The upside is that we can now travel off road in the deserts of Arizona without fear of the trailer hitch pin taking out one of the bed rails.  This new growth also required new steps so we could reach the door without having to pull out a step stool every time you wanted to enter or exit the trailer.  The new steps made the door now harder to open and close (these steps stow inside the door of the trailer).  Nothing like improvements, right!  But so far all that stuff works.  Just gotta get use to it.

So that's it for us.  As I close the weather radar says light snow.  If so, that's the hardest snow I've ever experienced.  It's raining and raining fairly hard.  Hopefully, it won't freeze!  It's too bad some of this weather can't slide west to help out with the fires.  Anyway, thanks for dropping by!  Until next week, David

Donna gets her cat

We're beginning to see the end of our 2018 fall service session.  It's been a long one as we got the trailer painted, and Donna got her cat as you can see here.  As I write this, the trailer is at Indiana Interstate Enterprises where some of the accessories removed for painting are being reinstalled, 4 new AGM batteries installed, holding tank valves are

replaced, and some troubleshooting to try to find a wayward ground fault is being done.  The trailer still remains winterized as the local weather is catching up to us.  Elkhart experiences it's first accumulation of snow this weekend.  Once, again, we've stayed north for too long! 

Our last appointment - we hope - is this coming Monday at MORryde where we

hope to have a new suspension installed. 

If you look closely at the third picture from the top, you can tell we don't have enough clearance between the bed rails and the "chin" of the trailer.  We've got about four inches of clearance at the tailgate.  Ideally, we should have five to seven inches between the bed rails and the "chin" of the trailer.  We had a new, taller hitch installed Monday evening at Dan's Hitch to get us that additional clearance.  Of course the trailer now travels too high in the front and we need that corrected so the trailer travels as level as possible for proper weight distribution over the trailer's axles.

Consequently, part of the plan with MORryde, besides the new suspension, is to add additional risers to help level the trailer when it's hitched to the truck, install new trailer steps that stow inside the door of the trailer, and put a storage box in the location where the old steps are stowed for travel.  As always that's the plan and may change depending on what really fits. 

Our plans to de-winterize the trailer here and ensure everything works before we leave have been destroyed with the weather predicted for this weekend and next week.  At one point, the Weather Channel was indicting the highs would not go above freezing until late next week.  That's changed a little, but we've realized that we need to just take our chances and head south as quickly as we can.  Hopefully, we'll be at Cave City, KY this time next week de-winterizing the trailer and fuzzing with appliances that don't want to work.  That's the new plan, anyway...until it changes!

Why get the trailer painted?  Our trailer's exterior was gel coat with painted graphics and decals for the large D & Mobile Suites emblems.  The gel coat was beginning to deteriorate and we could no longer make it look good and clean after washing.  The decals had faded.   DRV gave us (via Indiana Interstate Enterprises)  the proper paint color codes to match the 2011 Mobile Suites colors.  I wanted the trailer to look as original as possible  (being it's a 2011 model), but knew that was unlikely.  What you now see is a trailer painted by Mike's Custom Painting (Bremen, IN) with the 2011 Mobile Suites model colors.  The graphics are different, but give us the general appearance of a 2011 model trailer.  The emblems are now painted on (all in gold) and using the current DRV fonts.  The white is Mike's Custom Painting's basic white (Donna's choice) vice the white DRV recommended.  Luckily for us, no delamination was found.  That made the painting process go a little quicker and at a little lower cost.  For comparison, I've posted a few of the pictures of the trailer when it was new at the bottom of this post.  Take a look and see what ya think.  We think they did great job trying to make it look original!

OK, it's been a longer than usual post.  I'll let you go.  Thanks for dropping by and checking on us!  We're doing fine, and Donna can't wait to be back in her house.  She was excited just to tow the thing from Dan's Hitch in Elkhart over to Indiana Interstate Enterprises in Lagrange Monday evening in the dark.

Until next week, David

Louisville, KY

Cherokee Park

We're in Louisville, KY to meet up with a couple of friends - Gary & Debbie and Bill & Debra.  Didn't hurt that Louisville's just over halfway between Homewood, AL and Elkhart, IN, either!

We got here Monday.  Walked some of Cherokee Park Tuesday morning and got in a visit with Gary & Debbie and their new home near here that afternoon.  Rain came in around noon as the weather people predicted, but we got a walk in around the Oxmoor area before the rains set in.  If all goes well, we'll visit with Bill & Debra tomorrow.

So we're headed to Elkhart.  Plan to leave Louisville Saturday.  Painters have sent us a text message telling us the trailer will be done Friday.  Plans are to pick it up next Monday,  have a new hitch installed in the truck on Tuesday (to give us more clearance over the truck's bed rails), then move the trailer back to Lagrange, IN to finish the fall service. We then move the trailer to MORryde the following Monday to have a new suspension installed.  Head to Alabama after that.  That's the plan, anyway.  We'll see how it goes.

So we're fine.  We've enjoyed seeing everyone.  But it's raining and that means it's time - for the moment - to be back in Indiana!  Thanks for dropping by!  Until next week, David

Birmingham, AL

Walking trail near Samford University

Sorry we're a little late with this week's post. We're back in B'ham for my Dad's birthday this week.  He got his birthday wish - a quiet day.  Dad & Anna seem to be doing well.  Cousins come to visit this weekend, so we're all excited about that.

In other news, leaves are beginning to change in this part of the country.  Seems a little late, but we have to remember that we're early.  We're normally not here until Thanksgiving week.  Leaves usually gone by then.  Donna got a new "smart" phone this week.  She's spending the vast majority of her time learning to use it.

Well, that's it for this week.  We plan to move to Louisville, KY Monday for a few days.  We're suppose to be back in the Elkhart area November 5th to pick up the trailer and start the second round of trailer maintenance.  As always, that's the plan...until it changes!

Thanks for dropping by.  Until next week, David

High Point, NC

Just a quick update.  We left Fredericksburg, VA this morning and drove down to High Point, NC to visit with friends for the evening.  We're on our way Atlanta to visit Doug & Louise for the weekend.  It appears we could not have gotten better weather for traveling.  High Point is always a good break between Atlanta & Fredericksburg (VA). 

We enjoyed our stay at Fredericksburg - just as we always do.  Good to see everyone.  Ate too much - easy to do when we're living in hotels.  Doc visits went well.  They all have stamped their approval for us to go for another year.

This time next week we expect to be in Birmingham visiting with my Dad & step mother as well as the rest of the family.  May get to see a cousin or two, too!

No news on the trailer, so we're taking that as if all is going well with it.  It's got about three more weeks of work before we need to be back to move to its next location for work.  We miss it terribly!  It's home.  If all goes well, we should be able to at least move back in by November 9th.  There'll still be another few days of work to do on it, but it least we can stay in it at night.  That's the plan, anyway.

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

Fredericksburg, VA

Surprisingly, the trailer got to Mike's Custom Painting (Bremen, IN) on Monday as planned -  something that became too hard to do last year as we had to deal with the hydraulics issue & then the cracked frame.

Since we got the trailer in on time, we were able to leave & arrive as planned on Tuesday for Fredericksburg.  Doc appointments started immediately the next day (Wednesday).  As always with most visits here, Donna's got her rental car, so she's out visiting as much as possible.  I hang out at the hotel or walk the local mail.  So far it's our typical Fredericksburg, VA visit.  Plans are to stay for a couple of weeks before continuing our visits further south.

As always, that's the plan - subject to change.  We'll see how it goes.  Thanks for dropping by!  Until next week, David