The Sandcastle

I recently saw this amazing video on how to quickly make perfect corn-on-the-cob and had to share it. I know, I’m not supposed to eat corn but I am absolutely going to try this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnBF6bv4Oe4

TTYL,

Linda

 

Winnebago found a leak! That’s good. Because if they can’t find it they can’t fix it. But find one they did. So they applied some sealant then waited for it to dry so they could test again.

Found another one! So they applied sealant to it. But their work day was ending and the sealant wasn’t dry yet so they came to ask us if we wanted to leave in hopes that it was fixed or stay another night so they could test it tomorrow. We decided to stay.

So the next day they tested that fix and it worked. But, they found a third leak! So they sealed that one, waited for it to dry and tested again. No leak! No more need to put a bowl under the corner of the bedroom slide to catch the rain! Yay!

But, it was once again late afternoon so we stayed one more night then hit the road.

Whoa! Windy! Too windy to be comfortable out here. It was supposed to be mostly a tail wind which we thought might be OK but it was more like passenger-side rear quarter gusts. So, we only drove two hours instead of the four hours we usually do and wound up in Story City, Iowa.

Which turns out to be a good place. Our park is right beside the highway but we picked a spot in it sort of down in a hollow so had very little road noise. Dave said he heard one train during the night but I never heard any. The winds are still blowing but we are not rocking; still we’ll stay here a second night to let the winds die down before getting back on the road south.

We ate a late lunch at the Happy Chef here. They had so many good things on the menu we may go back today. More than once. But, it is not a good stop-on-the-way-with-your-rig place. It has a big sign at the entrance stating the lot’s weight limit. The McDonald’s across the street has truck parking, though, in case you need to stop in this area sometime.

A truck that passed us on the way here said “liquid chicken” on the side of it. Eggs? Chicken broth? What’s your guess?

TTYL,

Linda

One of the things I love about going to the factory for service is they do updates we didn’t know we were in line for. Apparently we are getting a new door lock even though we’ve had no trouble with ours. We have friends who’ve been locked in or out of their RVs when their lock failed but our unit did not show up on the recall list so we did not think we were at risk. Now, for sure, we are not.

As you all know, one the things I don’t like about the factory is that they start at 7 am! I don’t. But, I did today. So when I felt ready for lunch I checked the time and it said 9:30 am! I managed to wait until 11 but I sure blew my eating plan today. And yesterday. And the day before. I’m going to have some remedial work to do here.

The good news, I think, is that they have been able to replicate the leak of our slide. The reason I’m not sure that’s a good thing is that they are now on their second day of trying to stop that leak. I think they have the head slide guy working on it today. I hope that bodes well for a fix.

Although, I’m not sure what we’ll do if they do get it fixed today. Forecasts for the next couple of days is for gusty winds during which we prefer not to be on the road. So, I’m doing my research on lots of potential places to stop. Right now the next storm headed right at us is currently in Des Moines which is the direction we are supposed to head when we leave here. It looks like, if we wait that one out here, we should at least be able to avoid today’s thunderstorms while traveling.

Wish us luck.

TTYL,

Linda

Today started as most of my days do–with me dawdling in bed until my body finally said, “Enough is enough. Get up already!” Soon I was settled into my recliner with my iPad doing my morning weather check which said today’s forecast was sunny with light breezes but tomorrow’s forecast was for thunderstorms with winds gusting to 25 mph. So, I said to Dave that the weather seem to be saying we should go today instead of tomorrow. He said, “Probably,” then added a comment about it being rather late in the day to start since we hadn’t finished the prep work yet.

So, I ate breakfast. He went out and got the car’s hitch from the basement bay where we store it while parked longterm and put it back on the car. Then I did a few things to prepare for moving. And Dave did a few more things to prepare for moving.

Finally, I asked, “Are we going today anyway?” Dave replied, “Probably.” Don’t you love how firmly we make decisions? 🙂

So, Dave called the people who needed to figure out our final electric bill and got that process started and I went on preparing to move. We left the park about 1:45 p.m. Which is not a typical departure time. Most of our RVing friends consider that a typical arrival time. But, we are definitely not typical.

We only made it as far south as Lakeville, Minnesota, which has now become a bedroom community for the Twin Cities, before making our first stop. There’s a Cracker Barrel there and we were ready for lunch. Then we headed on south. 

As we traveled down the road I saw a billboard for the Diamond Jo Casino saying it was 60 miles away. I read that as 60 miles to the Iowa Welcome Center. Have we driven this road a few times? Yes, we have. Enough to know for a fact that the Diamond Jo is right next door to the Welcome Center where there is good parking, free wifi, and a dump we didn’t need today. But we did stop there for a move-your-body break.

Our first, at least, overnight will be at the Winnebago factory for one last repair. “Wait,” you say. “Didn’t you stop there last spring on you way to Minneapolis?” “Yes, we did.” “Didn’t they fix everything while you were there?” “Yes, they did.” ” So why are you going there now? You’ve been parked all summer. Surely you did’t break anything while parked?” “Yes, we did.”

Here’s the story. First, some background. Our bedroom slide is on the patio side of the RV at my head height. It has corners that can do some nasty damage to heads if the owners of those heads aren’t paying enough attention when walking by. We hosted two picnics at our RV this summer with several of the guests being about my height. So we took a tip from other RVers and cut a swim noodle to make bumpers to wrap around those corners. So far, so good.

Then one night we were awakened during the night by a severe storm with lots of wind. Enough wind to make the bedroom slide bounce. So, still half-asleep, we decided we should pull that slide in. You got it! We forgot about the bumpers. So that slide needs readjusting. Which we feel a need to have done before selling the RV. So off to the factory’s service center we go. It sure has been nice having them so conveniently located for us.

We pulled in just in time to get parked and hook up our power to their 30 amp outlet before it got dark. 

Thus, ends the first day of our last trip as full timers.

TTYL,

Linda

Well maintained. One owner. (OK, there’s two of us but you know what I mean.) No smoking, no pets. Spacious.

This unit is on a Freightliner chassis and has a Cummins 340 engine and Allison transmission. We put about 20,000 miles on this RV in the year and a half we’ve owned it and never had any trouble getting to where we wanted to go including over the Rocky Mountains a few times. Plus, the almost 35-foot length means we fit into some campsites that 40-footers could not have gotten into.

We updated the electrical system including installing four LifeLine AGM house batteries (6v, 220AH), a Magnum pure sine wave inverter/charger (MS2012), a Trimetric battery monitor (TM 2025-RV) and a Progressive Industries Electrical Management System (LCHW50). The latter has saved us from damage that could have been done by either high or low power in various RV parks where we’ve stayed.  The circuits for the 110 volt outlets and the microwave were moved to a sub-panel which gets its power from the inverter/batteries when you are not on shore power or running the generator. But, we never tested that to see how long you could run things on just the batteries. We had that done to make it easy to upgrade to a solar system which we had planned to be this winter’s project.

The Onan diesel generator has quick start buttons on the dash as well as at the RV’s power management center which means we can start the generator from the cab area if we want to use the oven to make lunch while on the road so the generator has time to warm up a bit while we gather and prep whatever we plan to cook.

The air-conditioner is in the basement (lots of storage down there including a pass through compartment) and is a full-house system which is MUCH quieter than a roof A/C letting us actually talk with friends when it runs. Using the generator to run the A/C while driving makes for already comfortable living when you stop for the evening.

Automatic hydraulic jacks make leveling the rig very easy to do. The pads are large enough to not dig holes in asphalt when extended but we still choose to put pads under them sometimes to keep them from having to extend quite so far if the ground is very uneven. You get to keep our pads.

The air-horn lets you please kids who stand by the road pumping their arms (we only did that once but it was fun) and the exhaust brakes stop you well on big downhills even if the neighbors don’t care for the noise.

There’s an outside shower so beach sand can be washed off before entering the house.

Extra security features include an automatic fire suppression system we installed behind the refrigerator and another one ready to install in the engine compartment. Plus we have various hand held extinguishers stashed around the rig in addition to all the standard alarm/monitoring systems.

All recalls have been done plus we did suspension/steering upgrades. And because we are compulsive, you can have the complete set of manuals and maintenance records we’ve accumulated.

We towed a 2010 Honda CR-V (which we could be talked into selling with the RV but are very willing to keep if you don’t want it) using a Roadmaster All-terrain towing bar which lets you hitch and unhitch the car without it having to be perfectly aligned with the RV. We also have an SMI Air Force One braking system for the car that runs off the air pressure of the motorhome. Hooking and unhooking the towed car is so easy even I can do it. The rear view camera let us keep an eye on the car while we were driving down the road.

Upper and lower pull-out pantries let you store an amazing amount of food. The four door refrigerator/freezer adds to that. Plus there are seven, count them seven, drawers in the kitchen in addition to the upper and lower cabinets.

The combination microwave/convection oven works well and there are instructions and cookbooks included to help you learn how to use the combination cooking feature.

We bought and had installed whole house MCD window shades which allow for full sun, solar blocking/privacy option, or light blocking night shades. Those that are hard to reach have powered remotes.

There are four TVs, two in the living area (we used the big powered retractable one which stores in the buffet to watch movies and the end one over the cab for Wii exercising), one in the bedroom, and one outside under the powered patio awning which makes for fun tailgating parties. There is a stereo system with CD/DVD in the bedroom in addition to the home theater sound system in the living room. The driver and passenger seats swivel and the passenger seat has a foot rest turning it into a recliner for watching movies. The powered queen-size sofa bed also has a reclining position for those who choose to watch TV from there.

There’s also a powered awning over the door, separate from the patio awning, to protect you when coming home in the rain.

The shower has a skylight that brings the outdoors in even in this private space. And the bathroom is large enough to let me store everything I want stored in there while still letting me move about comfortably–no bumping my elbows in this shower. In fact, I had a seat in the shower for awhile until I got strong enough again to stand through an entire shower. The two-height post with the hand-held upgraded shower head helped enormously during that time. Plus, of course, there is a ceiling vent fan to help dissipate the moisture that could otherwise build up in the room. There’s another vent fan in the kitchen area.

The dining table retracts to allow more space for movement in the RV or extends with a leaf to make it long enough to seat four people for dinner or game playing. Two folding chairs with upholstery that matches the other chairs complete the seating there but store in the closet when not needed.

The floor plan allows you access to everything except the dresser and back closet when all the slides are in. Yes, even for those like me who are wide loads. With at least one bedroom slide out there is room to walk all the way around the queen-sized bed. There is a cupboard plumbed for a washer/dryer unit in the bedroom but we chose to go to laundromats so as to be able to do all our wash at once. We did make use of the dirty clothes hamper next to that cupboard, though, and installed a cup hook in it so my bag of delicates would stop migrating to the bottom of the hamper.

For those of you who want to camp out in the boonies here’s what you need to know about capacities: 90 gallon diesel fuel, 92 gallon fresh water, 81 gallon grey water, 57 gallon black water, 28 gallon LPG, and 440 amp hours due to our battery upgrade.

Pictures? You bet we have pictures.

                

What else do you need to know? Price? Well, we turned the RV over to PPL Motor Homes in Houston, Texas, today so you’ll have to wait a couple days for them to get it listed on their website to see what’s happening now. Their website is http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/ and our RV will be listed as unit D135.

We loved living in this RV but it is time for us to move back home to be near friends, family, and our doctors. I like to think whoever buys this RV will enjoy it as much as we have.

TTYL,

Linda