The Best Laid Plans Often Go Astray

I meant well, I really did.  I got everything started right.  I took Marti to her favorite breakfast  place, Mimi's Cafe.

It was nice to gaze into the eyes of my bonnie bride while we waited for our food.

Then it was off to the house for the Journey's oil change and grease job.

I started the oil draining and removed the oil filter.  In case you're wondering, diesel oil always looks very black and even new oil turns black very quickly, but it's just fine.

I filled the new filter with fresh oil, it took 2 quarts.  I always do this so when I start the engine after the oil change, the engine's oil pump picks up oil and circulates it right away.  If the filter is not filled, it can take 30-60 seconds or more to get the oil circulating, so basically the engine is running with no oil...not good.

As I crawled back under the Journey to install the new oil filter,

Zoe, the Wonder Dog (as in I wonder who she's going to bark at this time?) sat tied on the front lawn and supervised me.

After the oil filter was installed and all the old oil drained out, I put in the new oil, Shell Rotella T 15-40 heavy duty diesel oil, some of the best oil on the market.  Marti helped me.  It's a three hand job, two for the oil jug and one for the funnel.

With the oil changed, I crawled back under and greased the chassis.  There are a lot of grease fittings and I got every one, including one on the drive shaft slip joint that is very hard to reach.  Sometimes I swear I can hear it laughing at me...

I started the engine up, checked to make sure there were no leaks and then I shut it down, grabbed by handy can of silicone spray and climbed up on the roof.

I lubed my crank up TV antenna.  A little preventive maintenance.

I inspected all the caulking and found a little problem with my awning, one of the screws had backed out and the end of the awning that attaches to the roof pulled up about an inch.  I temporarily put some sealant on it but I have to take care of it right away.  Looks like a Lowe's run tomorrow for some stainless steel screws slightly larger to fix it.

After all that was done, I noticed the Journey needed a good washing, I like to keep it clean.  Out came my cleaning gear and soap.

In no time I was washing those "blues" away.

I want to point out a little something that can cause big trouble.  On many RV windows are these little slits in the bottom of the window frame.

The slits are water drains and they often can get plugged up with dirt, keeping the water from draining.  Guess where that water can go?  Inside your RV wall, leading to delamination and rot if it isn't caught.

The simple solution is to make sure you rinse them out when you wash your RV, you'd be surprised how much dirt can come out of them.

When I got the wash job done, I stepped back to look at the Journey, it looked great, all clean and shiny!

Then I looked at my watch...4:30 pm!  Oops, so much for heading out tonight.  Well, we did head out...to dinner, somehow I missed lunch.  Have to spend some of that money I saved doing it myself. ;c)

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