Fishing For Bacon

Yesterday, I spent several hours at Camping World while the awning motor on our patio slide was replaced. 

I was sitting in the lounge reading my Kindle when the service advisor came in.  He said the motor installation was completed but there was an issue that he needed to show me.  Uh oh.  I started to imagine more dollars flying out of my wallet.

He and I walked down to the shop where the technician had the control box for the awning open and all kinds of wires were hanging out.

The tech said there was a bad circuit board and solenoid in the box and the only way he could get the awning to come out was to bypass a circuit.  However, the switch worked to pull the awning in.  Hmm.

The service advisor went to look to see if they had a new box in stock and returned several minutes later with an upgraded model, evidently my control box was obsolete and replaced by the new model.

Of course the new model was completely different and a major rewiring would need to be done.  Sort of a square peg in a round hole issue.  I was told that warranty companies don’t usually cover this kind of a repair, it is considered an upgrade and I’d probably have to pick up the labor at $119 an hour.  I could see several hours of work to do that.

I told them to stop right at this point.  I would put in a call to Lichtsinn Motors, a Winnebago dealer one mile from the Winnebago factory where I buy my parts from.  My thoughts were since Winnebago buys parts by the thousands, they may still be able to procure the exact model control box that I had.  I decided that if the box was not available, I’d wait for a later time when we’d go the the factory in Iowa and have them replace the box with the upgraded unit.

I paid my portion of the $650 bill, $286, that the warranty did not cover.  I had to pay a $100 deductible, the shipping and part of the labor.  The warranty company would only cover one hour and the job took almost two so I had to pick up the difference.  I’m okay with that.  I’ve already had more repairs covered than I paid for the extended warranty. :c)

I drove the Journey back to the campground and Marti helped me get back in our site.  I told her what went on and opened the basement compartment to show her where the awning control box is.  Upon opening the basement door I heard a little whistling sound coming from the control box.  Now I’m scratching my head.  What’s going on?

I took out a screwdriver and took the faceplate off the control box, intending on disconnecting power to stop the noise.  As I started to back out the screws I found a little switch on the backside of the control box, where it was not visible from the outside.  Sorry for the picture quality.

I wondered what the switch was for, so I toggled it and the whistling stopped.  It is for the automatic wind sensor mounted on the roof that is supposed to close an open awning if the wind picks up too much.  Just for grins and giggles, I pressed the awning control switch and out came the awning.  Then I put it in, and out and it several more times.  It worked properly.  I’ll have to look up the switch in the owners manual to see all about it.  I’m glad it works properly now.  I learn something new all the time, and this was a free lesson.

Next time I’m in Camping World, I’ll have to tell the service advisor about what I found out.  In fairness to them, they work on all kinds of RVs and accessories and being able to know everything about all that would be almost humanly impossible. 

Now about fishing for bacon.  Marti cooked up some turkey bacon and eggs for breakfast.  As she was putting the bacon on a plate from the pan, one piece jumped out and fell down in the tiny space alongside the stove.

Can you see it hiding down there?

I dragged up my handy reaching tool and awning rod and went fishing.

Of course the bacon didn’t want to come out and broke into two pieces, making it a bigger challenge.  I don’t give up easy and won the battle (eventually). 

At least I had a tasty snack to celebrate my catch (not!).

Today is a special day, it is my bonnie bride, Marti’s 29th birthday (again).  Funny how those birthdays sneak up on you.  ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

PDD Exposed

Ever since my good friend Sherry hung this moniker on me, it has seemed to get around the RV blogging world.  PDD appears on other people's blogs and I often get emails and comments from folks asking me what "PDD" means.

PDD is an acronym for Paul Dahl Disorder, meaning that I drive way too many miles in a day in our Journey.

 

I think a little history is needed to explain how I came down with this "malady".  All my working life, I've had to travel some distances to get to work.  Only twice in my career was I close enough to walk to work, the rest of my career I put either some serious miles or time in cars getting to the job. 

 

I did one tour in Governors Island, NY (an island in New York Harbor where the Coast Guard had a base) where I had to drive 56 miles one way into the New York City, then catch a ferry to the island.  I read a lot of books during those travel days, usually went through a book a week just sitting in traffic in the Holland Tunnel.

 

My last tour I traveled 165 miles to work (one way) every day for over three years.  Yes, I know that was nuts, but it was better than selling the house and moving when the housing market was at the bottom of the barrel.  If we had sold the house then, it would have been the end for our fulltime RV life, so the sacrifice was worth it. 

 

So some of this extreme travel has transitioned over to our RV life.  Before I retired, we'd often take trips in our RVs that covered great distances.  One trip we took in 2002 was out west from our Virginia home to the Grand Canyon, Vegas and Carlsbad Caverns, places that Marti had never been to.  We did it in 12 days, because that was all the time we had.  It was a great trip despite the distances we had to drive every day and almost all our pictures were through the windshield.  It was on that trip that I set my all time record for a day's travel:  758 miles.

 

In later years, it was not uncommon for us to drive several hundred miles on a weekend.  We did a number of trips from Northern Virginia to Disney World in Florida in two days (861 miles).  We wanted to make the most of our limited time at our destination.

 

In 2008, I drove my son Ryan and his family from Virginia to Astoria, Oregon to his new Coast Guard duty station in twelve days.  Ryan helped with the driving and we actually stopped and saw some things along the way.  My dad flew out to Oregon to ride back with me for the return trip as Marti was working. 

 

Unfortunately, I got a call from my Coast Guard unit that I had to be back earlier that originally planned for an important meeting that had been scheduled.  So PDD kicked in and we covered the distance from the Oregon coast back to my home in Virginia in five and a half days (about 3000 miles).  It just seemed that all I did was put diesel fuel in the tank and drive.  My dad got some great naps in, though. 

 

  

Of course the "important" meeting turned out to be a bust.  Figures.

 

We started our full time travels in the dead of winter with our destination being back to our  Oregon son's family in  time for Christmas while traveling across the Northern states.  We were going to stop in South Dakota to register our vehicles and get our licenses when our plans changed.  An alternator failure knocked three days off our travel time and we had to kick PDD in again to make it to Oregon in time for Christmas, all the way being chase by or dodging winter weather.

 

We tend to be destination travelers at this point.  We'll put long travel days in (using Walmarts or Flying Js to overnight) to get where we want to be so we'll have more time to enjoy our stays.  We've found that being retired does not slow down your life, it speeds it up.  Our calender is filling up just like it always had and we wonder how we ever did things when we both were working full time.

 

Right now, we're slowed down a bit.  We're here in South Carolina for a month, with a car trip North to Pennsylvania mid month for our Coast Guard son's promotion ceremony and party.  We're going to have to hotel it a night each way (yuk) but it is more cost effective than taking the Journey into the colder winter weather.

 

We may be extending our stay longer due to some medical issues that I'm working with at the Veteran's Hospital here.  Right now I'm at Camping World having the broken awning motor repaired, it is 8 miles from our campground and it felt good to be behind the wheel again.  :c)

 

Hopefully, this new year will find us not traveling as many miles as last year (18,500).  That calender may be filling up, but the destinations are closer together.  Maybe all those oil companies that earned a windfall profit last year from all the diesel fuel I bought will see a dip in their earnings.

 

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

 

 

The Rockets Red Glare

New Year’s Eve celebrations certainly vary from place to place, each has its own way of welcoming in the New Year.

When we lived in New York City years ago, we never went to Times Square to see the ball drop with a million of our closest friends.

Now that we’re retired and have the time, we still don’t go anywhere near there.  A million people!   Can you imagine how long the lines must be for a bathroom, if you can find one?

Down in Key West, they have a unique way of celebrating the New Year.  We visited a few years back on New Year’s Eve.  Over at Sloppy Joe’s Café, they have a special tradition.  Like the Times Square ball drop, they do a drop at midnight too, but no ball is used.  Instead, they drop a Conch Shell.  What better way to celebrate in the Conch Republic?

Here in South Carolina, I was unaware of how they welcome the New Year.  I long ago gave up staying awake to see the New Year in.  I went to bed early and was enjoying some sweet dreams when it happened…

I found myself awake in mid air where I had jumped.  I wasn’t sure if I was back in a war zone or I suddenly found myself in the middle of a Fourth of July celebration.  The fireworks were exploding all around us, shaking the Journey and rattling my teeth.

Yep, they like their fireworks here in South Carolina!

Next year, I have to remember ear plugs!

Happy New Year!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment!