Spiffin’ Up The Joint

It’s been a while, actually, too long, since I gave my aluminum wheels on the Journey some TLC.  And as a result, they showed it.

The wheels were looking as dull as reading the IRS tax code (sorry Sandie).  So what to do?  Off to Walmart for some supplies.

Mothers makes some polishing balls (about $20, each) as well as polishing compound.  The balls attach to my cordless drill.

Have I even mentioned cordless drills are one of mankind’s greatest inventions?

I removed the lug nut covers with special pliers, available at Camping World.

And I popped out the center hubcap.  It makes it easier to polish.

I smeared some polish around the wheel and went at it with the drill.

 

After about ten minutes of running the polishing balls around, I wiped off the wheel with a couple of clean rags and then gave it a light buffing by hand.  Looks pretty darn good.

Before putting the hubcap back on, I checked the fluid in my oil filled front hubs.  You folks that attended Camp Freightliner may remember this.

Yep, all good here.

Then I reinstalled the lugnut covers, giving each one a light tap with my rubber mallet.

Finally, the hubcap.  Make sure to line up the hubcap properly with the grooves in the hug or it won’t fit right.  They cost $35 if you lose one.

On to the rear wheel.

Rear wheels have a hubcap held on by a large nut.  You can remove the nut with a special wrench that Freightliner sells, or with a large pair of slip joint (water pump pliers for us old timers) being careful not to squeeze too hard to mar the nut.

Now a tricky part.  On the right (passenger side) wheel, the nut is a “righty tighty, lefty loosey”.  On the left (driver side wheel), it is exactly opposite: “LEFTY TIGHTY, RIGHTY LOOSEY!!!”  Just so you know.  Did they teach that at Camp Freightliner?

With the hubcap off, you’ll see this:

This is what the nut screws into for attaching the hubcap.

After that, you can polish away.  Then wipe, hand buff and reinstall the hubcap and lugnut covers. 

Wow, now I can see myself! 

Scary, isn’t it?  :c)

Clean up is easy, just spin the balls in a bucket of hot water and dry with a rag.

I spent about two hours, start to finish, taking my time.  I should do this again in a couple of months.  I’m a little (okay a lot) embarrassed that I let my wheels look so dingy. 

Now that I’m in a polishing mood, I think I’ll go brush my teeth.  :cD

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What Child Labor Laws?

Can you be held responsible for violating child labor laws if said child volunteers to help?  Keep reading.

We did a non stop, 750 mile drive in our car from Anabelle’s NJ home, where we stayed for ten days, to our own home in South Carolina, our Winnebago Journey.  It sure looked good to see it, a welcome sight.

We have been using our car to travel back and forth to PA and NJ this summer because we’re in a monthly site here in SC.  We don’t want to pay here and then drive the Journey to PA and NJ and pay for another campground, that would be budget busting.  Plus, it’s always nice to stay with our kids and enjoy their company.

Originally, we planned on breaking the return trip up into two days, but a situation came up that required us to drive straight through.  Nothing serious, grandson Andrew was going on a trip to camp for the week and his leader’s kids got sick, so mom Heather jumped in to take over the leader spot.  Because SIL Brian was traveling this week for his work, there was no one to stay with Owie.  How could we not step up and have Owie stay with us?

Our grandsons are not ones to just sit around and play video games, they love to learn about things and help.  They both have a fascination with the workings of the Journey and always pitch in to help with cleaning and maintaining things.  Owie wanted to know what things needed his help to complete.

How could I turn down a willing helper, excited to learn new things?  So much for child labor laws, after all, he volunteered?

Off we went, first doing the gooky stuff, I showed Owie how to dump the tanks and then we spent a good half hour rinsing and re-dumping the black tank to get it sparkling clean.

Then it was on to the water filter replacement.  First the outside one in the wet bay.

He learned how to put on the filter housing wrench and which way to turn it to remove and then re-install it with a new filter cartridge.

Then it was on to the interior one, always fun to get at because it is way under the kitchen sink.

Our refrigerator needs to have the freezer defrosted periodically.  Out came my heat gun and Owie got it done, after a careful bit of instruction on how to use it.  He did great!

 

Then it was on to refilling our hummingbird feeders, the birds drank them dry while we were away.  After filling them, the birds were at them in no time.  Owie wanted to take their picture, he did pretty good considering this was the first time he used my camera.

Remember, now, he asked to help, so please don’t send the Child Labor Law Police after me!  :c)

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Keeping Up With Anabelle

It was a wonderful visit this past week up in New Jersey with our granddaughter, Anabelle.  Hard to believe she’s 16 months old already and she has the energy of a couple of nuclear power plants.

We visited my brother Gordy’s house for a cookout.  Anabelle was enthralled by all his flowers.

She even got a chance to work on her bucket list.

Cake?  Red Velvet cake?  How can a young lady pass that up?

She even took Gordy’s dog, Diesel, for a test ride.

She gets lots of riding practice by using her rocking horse.  JB would be impressed.  ;c)

We went out for a birthday dinner for Anabelle’s mommy Amanda.  She certainly loves whipped cream!

With all that fun we’ve had with her this past week, sometimes she even wears herself out! 

I have to thank my buddy Rick for posting such a great picture of me on  his blog the other day.  I heard it made a few people run for the Rolaids.  If you haven’t seen it, good for you.  Just wait Rick, one day you’ll be looking like that after a week of baby duty with little Mason!

When I’m not on baby duty, I do look slightly more civilized.  :c)

      THE END(S)

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Rick To The Rescue

I really like computers.  They are so handy for email, bill paying and keeping in touch with friends and family.  The Internet is a wondrous thing that you can access with your computer.  I’ve traveled the world and found all kinds of interesting things to learn about without leaving the comfort of my RV couch.  It makes you wonder how we ever lived before computers.

Computers, however, don’t like me.  At all.  In fact they go out of their way to make me cRaZy.  Seems like when I try to do even a simple thing, it turns into a gut twisting, nail biting ordeal.  I sometimes think that I have some kind of aura about me that makes computers so uncooperative.  I used to drive my IT guy up the wall at work, he swore I could wipe a hard drive simply by walking by the server.

I’m pretty happy with Google’s Blogger program.  After first being introduced to it several years back by the Geeks on Tour, I began using it to document our RV lifestyle, as well as learn about other RV folks out there traveling around.  Over the years, I became friends with many other bloggers, and have met many of them in person on the road.

Then in comes the “fun”.  Google introduces Google+.  The new program that in a way competes with FaceBook as a social site.  No big problem for me, I didn’t see the need to join.  Until other folks joined Google+ and I found I was unable to leave comments on their blogs. 

I finally broke down and decided that I had to join Google+ and modernize.  Except that Google+ didn’t want to join with me.

I spent several hours trying to join, getting all kinds of error messages and notices that I violated Google’s polices on this and that. 

It became an arm twisting, body slamming ordeal.  All of that done to me, by my computer.

Finally, when I exhausted everything in my (very limited) bag of tricks, I reached out for the Shaman of Google, none other than that wonderful guy, Rick Doyle.

Rick looked into my dilemma, noted a problem and tried to direct me into a resolution.  I still couldn’t get things right.  Is that a surprise?

Rick saved the day, though.  He sent me a program to download so he could access my computer and set up Google+ for me.  After a couple of false starts, he logged on to my computer and in no time had me as the newest member of Google+.  He even opened up a virtual chat window, called a “Google Hangout” and we talked face-to-face live and in person while living on opposite sides of the North American continent.

I have to give Rick a hearty THANK YOU!  He’s a great guy and it was very nice of him to spend some time helping me out.  It takes a special person with all kinds of patience to help me through computer issues.

  There are many great people in this world and Rick is one that occupies a position on the top of the heap.

Plus his beard looks pretty good live and in person.  ;c)

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Stuck In The Past

Just a test post to see what’s going on with our blog.  It seems frozen and not updating any posts from the blogs we follow.

I want to see if this unfreezes it and updates to today.  I’ve already tried a computer reboot and no luck.

I may get desperate and send an “S-O-S” to the all knowing Shaman of Google (aka Rick) if it doesn’t work.

Please stand by while these technical difficulties are resolved.  Don’t worry, I still have more fun (?) things to write about.  :c)

Just an update:  This Blogger problem has resolved itself.  I guess just putting up a post with Rick’s picture was enough to get Blogger and my computer to behave.  Rick is one powerful computer guru! 

Guest Writer

Hi again!  It’s me, Anabelle.  Pa said it was okay for me to write today’s post, because Pa and Mimi are visiting and watching me.  For some reason, they say they are pretty tired from keeping up with me.

Pa says I’m a multi-tasker because I can type and watch Sesame Street at the same time.

 

Yesterday was “Visit Your Parents At Work Day”.  We drove to Mommy’s work and met her for lunch.  Pa calls me the “Super Streak” because I move so fast, his camera can’t always keep up.

Where is our server?

Finally, some food!  I’m a two fisted eater!

Mommy made sure I looked pretty for visiting her work.  She made sure my hair was neat.  Mommy is a scientist who works for a large cosmetic company. 

After seeing all Mommy’s coworkers and exploring all around her office, we hopped in the car and visited Daddy.

Daddy is a service manager at a Honda car dealership.  He was busy but that didn’t keep me from sitting with him…

and helping him do his paperwork.  He said I did good!  :c)

While we were there, Mimi looked at some new cars.  She said she like this one…

but she said this is the car she can afford.

Because I was such a good girl, Mimi and Pa took me to an ice cream stand on our way home.  My vanilla cone tasted so good!

But Pa’s chocolate cone looked even better.  How come I didn’t get chocolate?

I have a big back yard at my house, with all kinds of toys.  I have a really neat climb on play house.  It is so much fun to climb on it,

and under it!

Cooper, my best buddy, loves to chase balls in the backyard.  Even though it was so hot out, he ran and ran.

We have a little pool for Cooper to lay in when he gets too hot. 

He’s always happy to share it with me.

I’d better wrap this up for now, it’s my nap time.  I think Mimi and Pa are going to take a nap, too, for some strange reason! 

34gj9i[4KVkgf3 34mghs6\j psdjmg! (Bye for now!).

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