DEPARTURE PREPARATIONS

Thursday, August 28 – Our preparations for departure at the end of the month are keeping us busy. Paul's moving his tools, the generator, clothes, and his other belongings from the house to the RV. Marsha is getting the kitchen back to normal and moving her belongings to the RV, as well.

We try to have duplicates of most items so moving isn't necessary, but there are some things just too expensive to afford doubles.

Then we both have hobby material to load. Marsha has multiple hobbies requiring more loading…..ha ha!

Paul installed the tire pressure monitor system this evening. He purchased additional sensors for the Pressure Pro monitor system from a fellow Escapee. Paul posted a notice on the Escapee Forum and an acquaintance we met in Quartzsite back in 2010, contacted him with a Pressure Pro for sale. Paul received the unit in the mail today and installed it this evening. Now all 10 tires of the truck and RV have tire pressure monitors. That's a good thing!

Most of the jobs to close up the house are completed or on schedule for an end of the week departure. We've got several family members frequently checking the house for problems, neighbors will watch for moving vans removing all our belongings, and the local police will check for unsavory visitors on every shift (That's 3-times per day...WOW!).

Our last adventure before pulling out is our traditional visit to the Stark County Fair this Thursday, August 29. We're meeting Marsha's dad at the hog barn (How many of you have had an appointment like that.... :-) ) and will spend most of the day at the fair. This is pretty much an annual event when we're in Ohio. 

So it won't be long till we hitch up and head West. Stop back and travel with us!

One last big event happened in Marsha's family. Her brother, Mark, 55, got married for the first time. He has been dating Christina for the past four years. They got married a few weeks ago. Marsha's dad was his best man. Marsha's brothers and sister had a big party for them this past Sunday. Congratulations to Mark and welcome to the family Christina.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

WINTER TRAVEL PLANS

Wednesday, August 21 -  We are still very busy here in Ohio. We had the wonderful opportunity to meet up with our friends, Louise and Duane, for lunch. They are full-timers and enjoy riding their new Harley. They are in the Cleveland area visiting family.

We met for a delicious lunch and lots of catching up. Safe travels dear friends.

Marsha, Paul, Duane, Louise

We had our second annual wine tasting get together. Dave and Kelly served the 15 bottles of Texas wine we brought back this year. We put the bottles in brown bags and did not let the participates know what they were about to taste. We then ranked each wine. Everyone had a great time. No one left thirsty.

Dave describing the wine the participants just tasted.

Kelly getting the next bottle ready for tasting.

The overall winner of Texas wines.

Just a few of the very happy participants.

We have plans of hitting the road on Saturday, August 31. We're heading to Southern Utah to spend 6-8 weeks visiting Moab, Arches NP, Capital Reef NP, Bryce Canyon NP, Zion NP, Lake Powell, Monument Valley, and other places. Wish we could spend the whole winter there but unfortunately it gets COLD!

We'll then head to Mission, Texas, and Progresso, MX, for a couple weeks. Our Ohio dentist says we both need some crown work. His estimate was about $1500 each. Our dentist in Mexico says it will be approximately $600 for BOTH of us. Reason enough to spend a couple weeks in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. This will also give us an opportunity to visit our many friends in Mission, TX.

We then will head to Houston to spend Thanksgiving with our daughter, Carrie. We'll be there till after Christmas with plans of flying to Ohio for the Christmas holidays. Marsha will be spending several weeks in Ohio. Paul only about a week. There's SNOW there in December, you know!

After the holidays, we'll head West again. We've been wanting to return to Quartzsite for the RV Show and a little desert boondocking. We'll meet up with some Escapee friends in Arizona and do some winter traveling around the Southwest U.S.

That should keep us out of the cold for another winter. Come spring, we'll begin our migration back towards Ohio for the summer.

What's your plans for this winter? Maybe our paths will cross!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

 

PREPARATIONS TO PULL-OUT!

Thursday, August 15 - Paul took the 5^th wheel to Camping World to have the annual wheel bearing service. He's not a big fan of Camping World service department. He wasn't disappointed either. Upon returning home, we went to put the door-side slide out and it wouldn't work.....dang! Can't really blame them, but it just seems they sometimes cause more trouble then they solve.

While Paul was cussing and trying to find a solution to the problem, Marsha researched it on the Internet and found a couple possibilities. It's not a shear pin, not an electrical issue, hopefully not a stripped gear!

The possibility that makes the most sense is that the slide motor has become loose, and the gears are no longer meshing correctly. This is what it sounds like to Paul. When activating the switch, the slide only moves an inch or so and starts grinding.  A sound similar to when you grind the gears on an old stick-shift car. That's where Paul is going to concentrate first!

Paul found something interesting when he crawled under the 5^th wheel to reach the access panel for the slide motor. There was evidence that the under-belly material had been opened previously. This problem must have been addressed in the past prior to us buying this Cameo.

The Cameo forum did note that the curb-side slide motor has a tendency to come lose. Step-by-step, inch-by-inch it looks like Paul is getting closer to the problem – a loose slide motor!

Once Paul gained access to the motor, removed the gear box cover and shined his trouble light on the motor, it was pretty evident the gears on the motor were not meshed with the gears on the slide Sure enough, the slide motor was loose.

Notice the gears do not mesh.

After moving the motor to the correct position and tightening the bolts, Paul had Marsha carefully test the slide while he watched from underneath. Happy to report everything worked fine.

Paul thinks he may have found one of the problems with the loose motor. One of the bolts was stripped and wouldn't tighten properly. He ran to the hardware store to purchase a new longer bolt and it tightened right up.

Paul closed everything up with a smile on his face and whispered a little thank-you to the Man upstairs. He'll certainly keep an eye on these motor bolts and any sign of the slide beginning to slip.

Bella has been very busy around the house this summer. Here are just a few photos of her adventures.

As you can see, she has had a very busy summer.

Even though this has been a very unusual summer…too much rain, not enough sunshine…we have had some beautiful sunsets.

We are finalizing our travels plans and will share that with you in our next post.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

SOME FINAL PROJECTS

August 7, 2013 – Paul has been busy with some final project before we hit the road at the end of the month.

He installed a Progressive Industries EMS in the 5^th wheel. He installed the HW 50C model which is hard-wired into the RV's electrical system. The idea is to have the EMS detect a faulty electrical connection when plugging into a campground electrical pedestal. The EMS will then shut down the RV connection BEFORE any damage is done from high or low voltage, open grounds, and other potential damaging electrical situations. We had one on our motor home, and it frequently protected us from faulty campground electrical problems.

Another installation Paul completed was the addition of a Volt Minder. It is a precision electronic instrument to alert the RV owner that the battery bank is approaching a voltage that will not be sufficient to operate the desired D.C. voltage equipment to its fullest capabilities. Again, we had this reasonably priced unit on our motor home and were pleased with its service.

One of the items we felt a “must have” before heading on our extended winter of traveling is a Honda 2000i Generator. This generator will give us enough power to charge our batteries and enjoy some “creature comforts” while parking without electrical hookups. We plan on doing a little boondocking this fall and winter, so this addition was essential.

He also felt it was a good time to install an additional battery. Paul would have liked to install several additional batteries for a total of four along with an inverter, but that will have to wait for the money train to pull into the station. We now have two 12-volt batteries which along with the generator should allow us a little boondocking for a couple days.

While Paul had the batteries out of the storage area, it was a good time to install a Pro Fill battery watering system. This system connects the battery water reservoirs with a hand held pump allowing him to fill the batteries to the proper level with little mess or fuss. By sliding the filling tube into a gallon jug of distilled water and giving the pump a couple squeezes, the batteries are filled to the proper level.

We've both been doing a little hobby work too! Marsha continues to work on her baskets and Monks cloth projects, while Paul has revived his carving hobby.

A few projects in the works.

Some Swedish weaving Christmas placemats Marsha will be giving as gifts come this Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!