September 11, 2001

           A Day Of Remembrance

  

   

We will never forget….

The Bang!

The bang was the door slamming shut behind me.  The carpet then had a new wet spot from me .  OK, now I’m in the neighbor’s room with dim lights. I feel like a burglar about to get shot and no I did not have my camera! I SLOWLY moved more into the room inch by inch with my eyeballs about to pop out of my head.  I was very wide awake needless to say.  I probably won’t sleep for days after this.  One bed was neat and tidy. The other was ruffled with no bodies dead or alive.  The room key was laying on the table.  Nobody is in the friggin room.  I turned off the TV and exited quickly.  I did not look under the beds nor move the shower curtains.  I’ve seen too many movies for that I my heart wouldn’t have taken it anymore.  Besides my underwear was full.

I went back to the front desk and told them what I did.  They had that you did what look.  We figured that it was a rendezvous meeting of lust.  I went back to room and bed.  It took another hour for my blood pressure to drop to it’s normal “high.” The rest of the night was quiet.

We get a phone call about 7:20 AM saying our rig will be out at noon. We checked out of the room at 11 AM and go to Newmar just down the street.  Noon comes and goes. I call the tech about 1:30. Where’s our rig?  It’s blocked in and we will get it out soon.  About 2:15 it comes rolling out.  The tech leaves very quickly after telling me the paperwork is on the dash.  I read it and hit the roof just about literally. It said that my sat and solar panels caused a roof water leak which was completely false.  I called the tech and burnt his ear off.  The repair order will be rewritten Tuesday correctly and I requested to see the high muckku muckka guy then also.  I’m doing this now because down the road if the roof leaks they will repair it free – period.  I’m laying the foundation for repair work to be done down the road if it’s not repaired properly now under warranty. Nothing less, nothing more.  I hold all manufactures responsible for their workmanship – nothing more nothing less.  WE as RVers have too! The total bill now appears to be about $11K and covered under warranty.  I wonder if Newmar will call Spartan/Cummins and tell them to watch out for me….I hope so…smile…smile…

OK that shot Friday.  What about today Saturday.  We decided to go up to Michigan on business.  It gets us away from Newmar and do a little business at the same time.

Hopkins, Michigan is a nice little town with a great RV park, Hidden RV Resort.  Resort means it starts at $40 bucks and goes up.  Good Sam is $35 and that’s what we got the $35.10 pull into sight with cement pad and lots of nice green grass on a big site.  We had a business dinner which was nice.

This blog was posted on the morning of nine eleven.  I know we all have thought about that day.  Keep thinking about it especially today.  We need not to forget the day that changed the way we think about terrorism.

See ya…..

Hotel Room & A Bang!

OK, we’re in a hotel room and you can just about expect disturbances.  Our neighbor in the room next to us must be just about deaf.  Their TV was loud.  If we had ours on then theirs wasn’t hardly heard. Come about 12:30 AM I couldn’t sleep because of their TV. I complained to management. They called them no answer. They knocked on their door with no answer.  I banged on the wall no results.  Now it’s about 2 AM and it’s still turned up all the way.  I pleaded with the front office in person to do something and they said they couldn’t. They did offer us another room but I declined.  Why the hell should we move when we weren’t doing anything.  I went back to our room. Then I went to the neighbor’s door and tried the handle. It was unlocked. What should I do? I opened the door very slow.  No one could here me because of the loud TV.  I peeked in around the door.  It was dark. I saw the TV setting on the dresser.  I couldn’t really see much more.  The dim light in the room hallway was on.  the only other light was from the TV.  The bathroom was dim and appeared to be empty.  I figured I would just go in and turn down the TV.  The entrance door was an automatic type that would close behind you. No thanks! I held the door open and stretched as far as I could with my arm extended. I still could only see about half the room. I was really stretching out to see more when it happened. BANG!

To be continued………

Did Nothing

We’re at the hotel paid by Newmar.  To bad they don’t have room service here.   I slept in until about 6 AM.  What can I say. We did the “What If” game.  What if the Beast isn’t ready tomorrow then what? Do we go to Baltimore mid week when they would probably finish or do we stick around here until the Gypsy Journal Rally.  If we stick around here we can get the windshield replaced and even go up to Michigan to Spartan to have the chassis checked out/adjusted. If the Beast is ready by COB (close of business) tomorrow (Friday) we will head for Baltimore and stay just shy of two weeks. Then we go to the Gypsy Journal Rally  back in Ohio.  Then take care of the windshield & Spartan afterwards.  That means about early October we will be ready to roll where ever.

These are the types of situations that full timers get into and not by choice necessary.  Sometimes we want to get “stuff” taken care of so we can go where we want when we want fully.  We are still bringing the Beast up to par so that does play a part of our “should do now” schedule.  When we go to Baltimore we will get the Beast serviced by Carol’s bro.  He’s a diesel mechanic at Freightliner Baltimore. He’s an outstanding mechanic and an RVer.

Anyhow, we just pigged out today.  Went to a Chinese all you can eat buffet for $5 bucks.  Then a take out pizza from Pizza Hut for $10 bucks for dinner.  We also stopped at the Dollar Store and got some cheap snacks for tonight.  Of course we ate most of them between lunch and dinner.

Oh and the rain came today off and on.

Not much of anything today just vegging..

See ya……

6 AM Hello

“Hello, I’m here to pick up your RV.”   That’s how we were greeted at 6AM.  I asked this person why nothing on my steering wheel worked (wipers, cruise, etc). He said he didn’t know, “I’m just the driver.” He got the tech who in turn would check it out.  I think they blew a fuse yesterday when checking on one of the air gauges that quite working.  The tech also said he would ensure that we would get a room for two nights and for us to check in with service office when they open at 8 AM.  Ok, we can do that.

8 AM we are at the service office.  We were told that they got us a room for two nights and that we would have to pay the $25 for pets.  Grumble, grumble…. then we were told that we couldn’t check in until 3 PM.  I was pissed and they knew it.  How dumb!  OH well – we have limited choices about now and it’s kinda free.

We have two cats and a dog in our car.  Thank goodness it was cool (60s) outside. First we went to Menards to look around. Then we went to Dollar Tree and picked up some ORANGE items for our January get together in Quartzsite.  Of course Walmart was next.  I needed some shoes because I think I wore out my shoes at Gillette.  My shoes weren’t made for walking and I found that out.  Now I got some Old Fart Shoes.  You know, Dr Scholls, solid black and very plain looking. During this delicate process I got a call from our Newmar Tech.  He said it would cost $2,700 to replace our cracked windshield and couldn’t get the windshield in until next week.  I tried to explain to him it would be an insurance claim but it just didn’t click.  I told him not to order it and I would be back next month.  I said just go ahead and fix the listed items. He said probably Friday. I’m thinking  at close of business they bring the coach out and immediately take off for the weekend.  That’s what Tiffin did to us one time and it was a mistake.  We had a major problem that they didn’t do an operational check on and it failed when I did. I called Bob Tiffin at home and told him what I thought of his workers. Too bad it was on his voice mail.  Monday 1st thing we had them waiting in line to fix our couch.

Anyhow…….back to today. 

OK, now what.  Hey lets go see Nick & Terry.  It’s after 12 o’clock and they should be up & awake and they were.  Our dog had to take a poo anyhow.  I visited Greg & Jan while Carol visited Nick & Terry.  Then I went over with Carol.  Barbara and Tye Dye husband Tom came over. We swapped stories until we couldn’t make them up anymore.  It was great – thanks guys.

We found a church with a big lot and let the animals out on leash. Then we headed back to Nappanee to our motel.  We checked in.  They gave us a room very far from their main lobby.  If we were any further from it we would have to set up a tent.  Now get this.  The room came with ear plugs because the motel is across the street from an active train tracks.  “Now that there is funny I don’t care what you say.” I’m not sure, but our TV might be a tube type.

The animals really enjoy running around the large room, Carol too! Good thing they had twin doubles.  One for me and one for Carol and the animals?!

Tomorrow we will…….sleep in…

See ya….

6:15 AM Knock Knock

Yep, that’s what time a Newmar tech knocked on our door.  We were ready.  Nothing new about the early bird tech at Newmar. They prepare you ahead of time by sending you paperwork stating just that.  So we went over our warranty list.  About 15 minutes later we packed up the animals and left.

We headed for Shipshewana Market about 35 miles away after stopping at Mickey D’s for breakfast.  We got to the Market just as they were opening.  No problem getting in or parking.  We walked every isle of that flea market.  If you have ever been there you know exactly what I’m talking about.  My feet ended up hurting along with my ankles, my hips and my wallet. We collected a lot of orange things for our January Quartzsite gathering.  These are fun gifts (cheap).  Then we found a nice community park on our way to Elkhart.  We got the cats and dog out on leashes. They had some walking and investigation time, even Carol.  We left there and ended up at the Taco Bell in Elkhart fro lunch.

We then headed for the RV Surplus store.  Nothing there for us.  Then we went down the road a couple of blocks to the other surplus store.  Nothing there but they did give me a big bag of popcorn.  About now I get a call from the Newmar tech.  He said they took care of the ceiling light outages, touch up some outside paint and checked the roof.  He said the roof wrap needs to be replaced and then painted.  I said go for it.  He said they would need the coach for two days and would put all of us up in a hotel.

We went on to where we thought  Camping World was which was at Hart RVs.  Ooops..both were not only closed but gone gone.

We got back to Newmar and they had already moved our Beast backed to it’s sight. They left a note saying to have the coach ready at 6 AM again.

I just don’t think they will have us out of here by close of business Thursday as they originally planned.  I did hear we will try by Friday close of business.  Not sure if we want to wait the weekend for a windshield on Monday.

See ya….

Hydro Hot & Repacking

Love that Hydro Hot. Last night it got down to 52 degrees. I was up at 4 AM local time which is east coast time here in Indiana. I’m still use to the west coast time which is 6 AM.  So, I’m not sure if I’m an early bird or what.  Anyhow, I put the electric side of the hydro hot system on and turned on the furnace (Hydro Hot). About a half hour later the front part of the rig was at 70 degrees.  Love that 50 AMP.  If it gets down into the mid/low 40s the electric side of the hydro hot can’t keep up.  Then I just turn on the diesel side and it works very fine in any temp so far.

Thanks to those that told me about NASCAR. Tuesday AM?

Today I washed the car at the local car wash. Then I unloaded our show stuff from it.  We put it in the car after we tore down our booth at the Escapade Rally.  Now I had to find space underneath for that stuff plus the new PA system we got at Sam’s the other day. Hopefully it will do everything that Carol wants it to do for line dancing.  If not then it goes back to Sam’s.  The guy at Sam’s we got 90 days to check it out and if we don’t like it we can return it to any Sam’s in any state.  Well, I got it all underneath.  I can get to the grill real easy, the stand for it real easy and our two chairs real easy.  Everything else stuff has to be moved for now.  Doing this type of packing is not unusual for a full timer.  Sometimes we get jammed up but we eventually work it out.  Pun intended

Monaco is returning here to Nappanee .  Here is their main Hq building. That they closed down several years ago. They expect to be moved from Oregon and up and running within 90 days I was told.

Here is the transport company that I worked for several years.  They are just down the street from Monaco. They will be glad that Monaco is returning.

Tomorrow we see a tech at 6 AM then they take our rig inside the building and we don’t see it until 3 PM.  Now you know why I emptied the car out.  Carol,  me, one dog and two cats are stuck together for 9 hours.

See ya……

Camp Newmar

We went 330 miles today because I wanted to watch NASCAR. It was rained out. Oh well.

We stopped to get fuel twice but I just refused to pay $3.99 to BP.  Finally found one In Madison, WI at $3.87 a gallon.  We took on 125 gallons so that’s a savings of $15 bucks.  That paid for our Cracker Barrel breakfast.  And I had at least 15 gallons of useable fuel left.  Went 900 miles which I like the ability to go that far.  Didn’t like the almost $500 to fill it up.

No rain and the sun was out.  I stopped at Blue Beacon and got the Beast washed for $35.  I also got the RainX spray for $12 more.  They do an OK job for $47 especially since I’m out of time to wash it. I asked for a second rinse using the excuse that in the past I get heavy soap streaking.  Almost none this time.

Here’s where we spent last night. Cracker Barrel at WI Dells.  It’s the best overnight parking at Cracker Barrel we ever have had.  Plenty of space and nobody there. Plus we had breakfast there in the morning.

 

OK, how did they do that?   

Not as big as Tiffin’s campground but I guess Newmar doesn’t need a big campground for repairs…slam dunk! Plus these are free and Tiffin aren’t anymore.  Newmar scheduled us for three days.  I don’t think we need three. I will add a few more little things on the list to keep them busy.

I think we are the oldest rig here.  

Does anybody know what channel/time the NASCAR is Monday?

See ya………….

Corn Palace

We left about 8:30 today. Our first stop was the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. 

 

They were still doing some repair work on it.

Carol took all the pics below….

 

This is for all of you Spam lovers……

Rainy must of the day if the wind wasn’t blowing side ways.

525 miles today..gotto go..

See ya……..

Escapade Over & We Are Gone

We went to dinner to Applebee’s last night with the Orrs’ and the Forbes’.  It was a hoot.  Thanks guys. Last night was the farewell dance and I even attended.  Didn’t really dance much because it ain’t my bag.  Carol and a bunch of others had a blast.  Good…..

We were slow to leave this morning. No rush, no reservations, no stop in mind, just head east.

We went 342 miles and ended up at a less used rest area in front of Al’s Oasis in Oacoma, SD, exit 260 I-90.

Remember to click on a pic to make it bigger. 

We stopped at Target, Sam’s, Wall Drug, & Pioneer Auto Museum (Murdo, SD).

        

See ya……