back at the Martin Manor

We backed in a little after lunch time so just had our travel type lunch snack in the trailer before beginning the unloading of dirty clothes and such.  This was a little different kind of trip with a lot of service shop time but it ended well and I feel more comfortable with pulling our "motel on wheels" around for another several years.

We are here now for the next three weeks leaving on Oct. 14th for two weeks of "camping" in a couple of national campgrounds in Oklahoma.  I'm calling it "camping" because we don't have plans for excursions and may just relax at the campsite for those two weeks.  After that we will stop by the NuWa factory for annual routine maintenance on our trailer.

See you then!

back on track

We're back on the planned trip and headed toward the Manor.  Tonight we are in Casey, IL in a small KOA with a big corn field on one side and a large bean field on the other.  This is our 4th time at this campground and the family that run it are great folks.

The good news is that we are back in our comfortable time zone.  I don't like the eastern time zone and the way that it effects the television schedules.

back and forth

This morning we got up early as we had an 8:00 appointment at the shop that made our automatic leveling system, Quadra Big Foot.  They updated our system and repaired some non-working switches (at no charge).  Then as we were getting ready to leave they saw a puddle of brake fluid under one of our trailer tires.  When they got onto a creeper and rolled under they saw that it was coming from one of our brake connections.  I got on the phone and called the shop that worked on our wheels over the past couple of days and they told us to bring it back to their shop so they could make the necessary repairs.  Since we didn't have any brakes on the trailer I was glad that this part of the country is relatively flat with no mountains to make a down grade.  On the drive back the 20+/_ miles with just the truck brakes it was still difficult to stop so I had to drive slow enough and give myself enough time to slow down for stop lights.

They made the necessary repairs (at no charge) and by noon we were on our way back to our campground.  Now we will rest for the remainder of the day and tomorrow morning head toward Missouri with one overnight stop in Casey, IL.

finished early

It was a different experience being in the shop last night.  They forgot to tell us that we would be inside a manufacturing facility that worked three shifts so we had loud hammering, air tool buzzes, grinders, and equipment noise.all night long.  Shortly after 6:00 am lights began to come on and workers started in the service bays where we were.  By 6:30 our mechanic was getting ready to start just as we were finishing our breakfast and closing up our slides so he could get at our work.  We then went to the customer lounge for coffee and television.  About 8:00 they came to tell us that our work was done and we needed to pull our trailer out of their shop so they could move another one in.  After we paid our bill they gave us two tee-shirts with the company logo and we were on our way.

We called the campground that we had reserved for this evening and found that our site would be available early so we drove the 20 miles and are now going to enjoy a relaxing day.  Tomorrow we have an appointment with another RV service shop just a few miles north of here in White Pigeon, MI which should only take a few hours so we will be back in this campground tomorrow night.

an evening in the shop

And I mean "in the shop" because they came to us at closing time and gave us a key to the shop so we could occupy our trailer for the evening.  They had this work scheduled for two days and I assumed that they would do half (one axle) today and the other half tomorrow so we could pull the trailer out and hook up to their campground facilities.  The workers are all gone now and we have moved in.  We do have an electric connection so the microwave will work but there will be no television tonight.  Like last night we will use our on board water supply.  After the work is finished tomorrow we can move to a campground with full hookups and a potential for a shower.

a day in the shop

They took our trailer into the shop at 7:00 this morning and we moved into their customer lounge.  They have coffee, soda, water, and a few snacks along with television and free wifi.  They even took our lunch order and brought it to us for free.  They are a good bunch of folks to have working on our trailer and I'm sure that we will pay for our lunch and snacks when we get the bill.

This afternoon Jo and I took a short drive to the RV & Motor-home hall of fame and museum.  It had exhibits of RVs from the beginning of time and it was quite interesting.  Some of the early house-cars were very unusual.

heart of the RV industry

Tonight we are in Elkhart, IN which is in the heart of the RV manufacturing industry.  It would be safe to say that an extremely large percentage of all RVs are manufactured in this area of Indiana.  We are parked in a side lot of Mor/Ryde industries where we have service scheduled for tomorrow and Thursday on our suspension system.  What we have now on our trailer is this companies product that was installed by our trailer manufacture.  The reason for this service is to replace the bearings.  The bearings we now have are known to have defects and cause problems and we are having them replaced with a more serviceable bearing.  To fix both axles will take two days but we will have our trailer out of the shop each evening for us to stay in.

Grrrr I-70 traffic

We have confirmed our decision to not use I-70 for our trips to Baltimore.  Our route using I-64 has much lighter traffic especially trucks and is more scenic.  Since we are headed to northern Indiana this had to be the way.  Tomorrow after we get around Columbus, OH we head across country (non Interstate) toward Ft Wayne and then Elkhart.  Wednesday and Thursday our trailer will be in the shop but we will have it back to spend out nights in our bed.  We'll have to see what mischief we can get into during those two days.

a good day

It was another very nice visit with both of our daughters.  We met Tammy (Phyllis' best friend and our adopted second daughter) for lunch.  After lunch it was another card game with both Jo and Phyllis letting me win one.  After a bit of playing with the kitten it was time to head back to the campground.  Tomorrow we head back eastward.

nice visit

Today was a very nice visit with Phyllis and our grandkits.  This morning we helped her take her bicycle to a repair shop and then did some grocery shopping for our stay.  Jo had put together a large pot of soup this morning in the trailer and that went well for lunch.  This afternoon we had a couple of games of cards and Phyllis was so mean to her folks that she didn't let us win either one.

One of her favorite meals when ever we are around is Missouri Ozarks deep fried cornmeal catfish.  We had brought the fish from home and Jo also brought her baby fryer to do them in.  The menu for this evening was home made coleslaw with dressing, cooked kale, catfish, and honey dew melon, yum.

Here are a couple of pictures of the grandkits.  The first one shows them together and Phyllis said that this is the first time that they have taken naps this close to each other.  The second picture is Jo getting real acquainted with the new kitty.  They are both rescue kittens.  Rosie was apparently abused as a kitten which is why she is shy around strangers.  Louise is so cute and full of kitten liveliness.

hello kitty

We got to meet our newest grandkit this afternoon.  We made it to our campground around 3:00 this afternoon and then after getting the trailer all set-up headed to see Phyllis and her cats.  4:00 pm on a Friday is definitely not the time to drive the highways around Baltimore with two factors, number one it was quitting time for the worker bees and number two was that the Baltimore Orioles had a game this evening against the NY Yankies.  It took us over an hour to drive that 20+/- miles.

It was a good brief visit with plans for more time tomorrow.

familier route

We have made this exact route so many times (this is our 14th visit to this campground) that Jo didn't pull out a map until I took a detour near Louisville.  This morning as we were getting close to L'ville we came around a curve to find all red tail-lights ahead in both lanes, "oh no, how long will this delay be?"  It just happened that as we slowed down I saw an exit to the left for I-265 which I knew would take us to I-65 south into L'ville and then on to I-64 and back on track.  At least we kept moving and missed all the aggravation that an accident delay can cause.

We have experienced off and on showers all day just about like yesterday and also our GWF was still by our side with help during all stops, breaking camp, and setting up here tonight.  Settled in now, watching tv, and making this post while it is raining outside.  Thank you GWF!

heading East

Left the Martin Manor this morning on our way for a visit with Phyllis.  When we leave her house next Monday we are headed toward Elkhart, IN for some work on the trailer.

Today we passed a milestone in our trailer travels as somewhere around St. Louis this morning we rolled over 150,000 miles with a trailer in tow.  Also our GWF was doing her good deeds today.  It had rained during the night at home but was not while we were packing the final items for travel.  We weren't gone 10 miles until I needed to turn on the wipers and they were on until we crossed the Indiana border.  She also caused a pause in the hard rains whenever we pulled in for a pit stop or for lunch.  Thank you GWF!