"Camp" Freightliner

This morning I drove to the home of the Freightliner Chassis, Gaffney, SC.  It was only about 100 miles from where we were staying near daughter Heather's house.  Having never been to Gaffney before but having heard nothing but good things about it, I was optimistic.

Of course, the alarm whistle from the Journey's dash was still there, but I defeated it.  No, not with ear plugs, but a Bee Gees CD, cranked up.  Tunes from "Stayin' Alive" and "How Deep is Your Love" defeated the whistle, at times with a little help from my vocal chords.  Good thing I was by myself...

It was very easy to find Gaffney Freightliner and I pulled in.  The facility has six service bays.

Some rocking chairs were waiting for customers on the porch.

Inside is a very nice lounge for customers to wait while their motorhomes are being serviced, with free WiFi. :c)

There is a dump station and water faucet on the way into the parking yard.

There are 20 electric only sites (30 and 50 amp).  There were three other motorhomes in the parking area, so I moved way down to be away from them.  I took site number 7 (for good luck).

A couple of hours later, my luck ran out.  16 open sites and a guy in a motorhome comes in and parks right next to me.  Figures.

After I registered with the service writer for my 8 am appointment tomorrow, I went outside the shop to look at a bare Freightliner chassis that is used for the "Know Your Chassis" course that is put on here a couple of times a year.  It was good to study the chassis to increase my own knowledge.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a success and the dash problem will not take too long.  I'm sure they've seen this problem before and have all the computer testing equipment to track it down.  While I'm here, I'm having the Journey's annual service done, too.  Since we retired and hit the road last December 5th, we've driven the Journey over six thousand miles.  It's due for a little bit of mechanical pampering.

One more thing, if you're a member of FMCA, it is to your benefit to join the Freightliner Chassis Owners Club.  Membership will give you significant discounts on parts and labor when you get work done by a Freightliner service facility.  It is $10 a year and is money well spent.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Won One, Can I Make It Two?

A few weeks back, our Element toad started dripping antifreeze.  I put a little stop leak in and topped off the coolant and the leak stopped.  We decided to nurse it along until we got to our daughter's house in South Carolina and then take it in to her favorite repair shop.

Dropped it off this morning expecting a big repair bill because radiator's are not cheap.  This afternoon, got the call, the radiator was fine, just a loose hose clamp on the lower radiator hose.  The best part was we were only charged for a new hose clamp and a half hour of labor.  We won one.

Tomorrow I'm heading up to the Freightliner Service Center in Gaffeny, SC for the Journey's dashboard computer repair appointment on Wednesday.  Marti is staying behind at our daughter's house to spend time with grandsons Andrew and Owie. 

Here's hoping that the Journey's repair will be just as simple, I'd love to win another one.  Stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Planes, Planes and More Planes

Some more Presidential aircraft at the National Naval Aviation Museum.  A helicopter know as "Marine One".  This helicopter was used by both Presidents Nixon and Ford.

Pretty nice, functional interior, obviously not designed by an RV manufacturer.

Another Presidential aircraft.

Huh?  What's so special about it?  This:

This is the plane that then President George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln to deliver his famous "Mission Accomplished" speech, announcing the end of combat operations in Iraq.

In the next building at the museum, they have housed a great collection of...Coast Guard aircraft.

This particular aircraft brought back memories.

It is a Sikorsky HH-52.  They were used from the 1960s to around the mid 1980s when they were phased out and replaced by a new helicopter.

The HH-52 was unique because it could be landed on the water and drive over to rescue mariners in distress.  The airframe is shaped like a boat and the pontoons on each side kept it stable on the water.

During rescues where it was too rough to land on the water, the helicopter crew would lower a basket to the person in distress and winch the person up into the helo.

Thus, my story about how I nearly took a dive out of one of these helicopters without a parachute.

Mid 1980s, I was part of a team of Coasties performing helicopter demonstrations at a large boating festival.  I was in the water off the beach where we were performing a helicopter basket hoist.  The helo was about 100 feet over my head and lowered the basket.  I climbed into the basket and was winched upward toward the helo.  Just as the basket was almost to the door, a gust of wind blew me and the basket into the pontoon.  Before the winch operator could stop the winch, the edge of the basket hooked on the pontoon and tipped the basket, almost throwing me out.  Fortunately I was able to grab the basket (with a death grip) with one hand and kept myself from being pitched all the way out of the basket.  The basket ripped open the pontoon and broke free, then the winch operator was able to pull me and the basket into the helicopter.  A little too close for comfort.  It's funny now but at the time...

If you can find the time to visit the National Naval Aviation Museum, do it.  And wear comfortable shoes.  ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.