We are on our pad in between Cushing and Yale, Oklahoma. Have been here since we left Texas in April. We are leaving tomorrow morning with the two youngest grandkids heading for Branson, Missouri. They will be with us for a little less than a week and then we will bring them over to Miami, Oklahoma where we will meet their mothers. We will then stay another 2 weeks in Branson before heading for Loveland, Colorado. We are scheduled to be in Loveland for 1 month starting the 21st of June.
Now this is part of the update, when we leave Loveland we will be driving to Eugene, Oregon. Why? Remember our broken window? We have finally found someone that says they can cut a piece of glass to replace the broken one. RV’s are crazy things. Since the window is an insulated window it uses 2 pieces of glass with a space between them just like any insulated window. The difference is the glass is safety glass since it is in a vehicle that travels down the road and the glass is not available to residential glass dealers or they don’t wish to get involved in finding it. So again if it says RV on it, hang on to your hat cause it’s going to cost you --- if and when you are lucky enough to find it.
The good news is that the same couple that went with us last Summer are going with us this Summer(Jack and Barbara Miller) and Oregon is a beautiful state.
Hope to see you down the road.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
Need to Rant a little
It has been quite a spring so far. First as many of you know we had to replace our refrigerator. What some of you might not know is they are evidently made out of gold. You see if it says RV on it then all’s fair game. I can remember my grandmother having a Servel Refrigerator when I was a kid. They ran on natural gas. Same principal as a RV Refrigerator which uses propane. Of course the RV refrigerator also runs on electric by using a heating coil instead of propane for the heat source. The point is this isn’t new technology. So what should this 60 to 70 year old technology cost? Would you believe $2000? What about $3000, how about $4070? Oh and then the cost to install it. The total bill came to $4733.77. Why? Because they can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Next I had to clean the seals on the toilet. Probably my favorite job. It didn’t cost me anything, well maybe a little dignity, but due to the design has to be done about every 6 months. Of course if you read the website for the toilet manufacture they say change the seal. That depending on where you buy them ranges from 35 to 45 dollars but hey for that you get two pieces of rubber about 7 inches in diameter and maybe 3/16” thick. I have no idea how they can make them so cheap!!!!
Third, the lawnmower threw a rock and broke one of the windows in our front slide. The park agreed to pay for it so no big deal. Wrong!!! These windows are not available at Lowes, in fact glass companies can’t even buy the glass to replace them. It is an insulated tinted window. One RV place contacted Gulf Stream, the manufacture of my motor home, and they said they didn’t have any windows and they couldn’t get them anymore. I guess the people that made them went broke during the great depression we are in. So did Gulf Stream arrange for another company to make them? No they didn’t, tough luck, see if you can find a company to make them for you. Let’s see will I ever buy another Gulf Stream? Nope guess not. Hopefully this will eventually get worked out but right now it’s up in the air. Luckily the glass didn’t fall out since it is safety glass but who knows what will happen when we move the coach back to Oklahoma.
Last, at least I hope it is last for now, I had a small leak at the ceiling vent in the kitchen. It only leaked when we had a downpour but it needed fixed. So up on the roof I went. I have Maxxair covers over all the ceiling vents in the coach. It would be a simple job, just remove the Maxxair covers, clean up the caulking, and add some new caulking. Again WRONG!!!!!!!! The installation of the Maxxair covers uses brackets that attach to the vents. It is really simple. You put a stainless steel carriage bolt up through a slot in the bracket, the carriage bolt fits in the slot and keeps the bolt from turning. Taking it off just reverse the process. Unless of course the people that installed the cover to start with used power tools to tighten the nut on the bolts. Guess what happens when you do that. The bolt spins in the slot and nothing holds the bolt. Now comes the poor fool (me) that has to take them off. Since they are carriage bolts they have a rounded cap on the bottom. Nothing to get ahold of. Long story short, I had to cut the bolt with a hacksaw to get them off.
At this point I decided to completely remove all the old caulking and re-caulk with new. This is what the old caulk looked like with new in the bottom picture.
I went back with regular bolts with a hex head on them that I could get a wrench on. I’m really glad the guy that installed them was able to use his power tools and get the job done quick. I really look forward to ever having to take the other two covers off the other vents. I thought the final product looked pretty good when I got through.
OK, one more thing. We had a bunch of 8 mm cassettes and even some reel to reel tapes from home movies and such. We didn’t have any way to play them so we took them to Walgreens to get them put on DVD’s. They said they would be back by the 4th of April. No problem, even if they were a little late we planned on leaving the 15th. We got two of the three orders but the last order is a problem. We had called to get them to put a rush on the order and they did, but why is there always a but, they finished them on the 11th and they shipped on the 12th ------- by pony express ---- they sent them by UPS ground. They are scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday the 17th. We are now planning on leaving the morning of the 18th.
I guess I will try taping the broken window and hopefully it won’t fall out.
Next I had to clean the seals on the toilet. Probably my favorite job. It didn’t cost me anything, well maybe a little dignity, but due to the design has to be done about every 6 months. Of course if you read the website for the toilet manufacture they say change the seal. That depending on where you buy them ranges from 35 to 45 dollars but hey for that you get two pieces of rubber about 7 inches in diameter and maybe 3/16” thick. I have no idea how they can make them so cheap!!!!
Third, the lawnmower threw a rock and broke one of the windows in our front slide. The park agreed to pay for it so no big deal. Wrong!!! These windows are not available at Lowes, in fact glass companies can’t even buy the glass to replace them. It is an insulated tinted window. One RV place contacted Gulf Stream, the manufacture of my motor home, and they said they didn’t have any windows and they couldn’t get them anymore. I guess the people that made them went broke during the great depression we are in. So did Gulf Stream arrange for another company to make them? No they didn’t, tough luck, see if you can find a company to make them for you. Let’s see will I ever buy another Gulf Stream? Nope guess not. Hopefully this will eventually get worked out but right now it’s up in the air. Luckily the glass didn’t fall out since it is safety glass but who knows what will happen when we move the coach back to Oklahoma.
Last, at least I hope it is last for now, I had a small leak at the ceiling vent in the kitchen. It only leaked when we had a downpour but it needed fixed. So up on the roof I went. I have Maxxair covers over all the ceiling vents in the coach. It would be a simple job, just remove the Maxxair covers, clean up the caulking, and add some new caulking. Again WRONG!!!!!!!! The installation of the Maxxair covers uses brackets that attach to the vents. It is really simple. You put a stainless steel carriage bolt up through a slot in the bracket, the carriage bolt fits in the slot and keeps the bolt from turning. Taking it off just reverse the process. Unless of course the people that installed the cover to start with used power tools to tighten the nut on the bolts. Guess what happens when you do that. The bolt spins in the slot and nothing holds the bolt. Now comes the poor fool (me) that has to take them off. Since they are carriage bolts they have a rounded cap on the bottom. Nothing to get ahold of. Long story short, I had to cut the bolt with a hacksaw to get them off.
At this point I decided to completely remove all the old caulking and re-caulk with new. This is what the old caulk looked like with new in the bottom picture.
I went back with regular bolts with a hex head on them that I could get a wrench on. I’m really glad the guy that installed them was able to use his power tools and get the job done quick. I really look forward to ever having to take the other two covers off the other vents. I thought the final product looked pretty good when I got through.
OK, one more thing. We had a bunch of 8 mm cassettes and even some reel to reel tapes from home movies and such. We didn’t have any way to play them so we took them to Walgreens to get them put on DVD’s. They said they would be back by the 4th of April. No problem, even if they were a little late we planned on leaving the 15th. We got two of the three orders but the last order is a problem. We had called to get them to put a rush on the order and they did, but why is there always a but, they finished them on the 11th and they shipped on the 12th ------- by pony express ---- they sent them by UPS ground. They are scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday the 17th. We are now planning on leaving the morning of the 18th.
I guess I will try taping the broken window and hopefully it won’t fall out.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Looking ahead
Wow! I just looked and couldn’t believe it has been so long since I last posted. The 9th of October 2011 at Albuquerque, but the truth is we are just living an everyday life. We are in our Winter “abode” in Aransas Pass, Texas with our friends. Yeh, we are enjoying it but it isn’t very exciting. We go to the clubhouse and play games 3 nights a week and go out to eat several times during the week. But I don’t see how describing what we eat is anything anyone would be interested in.
We haven’t even decided what we will do this Summer. I know it will be temperature driven but haven’t decided on an area yet. Maybe back to Montana? It is just too hot to stay in Oklahoma unless we have the motorhome in the shade and our pad isn’t shaded. With that said, we are planning something exciting. Last Summer I was checking on a website called “Vacations to Go” which is a cruise ship booking website. I found a cruise leaving the port of Rome on the 2nd of November 2012. It is a 16 night cruise that ends up in Galveston, Texas and at that time it was only $659 plus taxes per person. It actually ended up being $768.24 per person. I talked to several members of our Good Sam Chapter and ended up with 2 other couples going with us. This will actually be the third time Twila and I have done this. We went from Galveston to Italy in 2006 with Gary and Mattie House and then flew over to Barcelona, Spain in 2008 and cruised back. Our plan this time is to fly from Tulsa, Oklahoma on the 11th of October into Milan, Italy and then take the train to Brescia, Italy where we will stay in a hotel for one week. From Brescia we will go to Venice for at least 2 days returning each day to the hotel. This will all be by train. Italy has a very efficient train system (if it isn’t on strike). We will also visit other cities chose to Brescia such as Milan and Bergamo but we haven’t planned all of that yet. The hotel is only about 150 feet from the train station.
After one week we will again board the train and go to Florence where we have booked an apartment for 2 weeks. Our plan there is again to use the train to visit Rome, Pisa, the 5 fishing villages called the “Cinque Terre”. This is a link to a website for the villages. http://cinqueterreonline.com/ After the 2 weeks are up we will take the train to the cruise ship port and head for Galveston. It looks like we should be able to do the entire 5 weeks for under $6000 per couple.
We haven’t even decided what we will do this Summer. I know it will be temperature driven but haven’t decided on an area yet. Maybe back to Montana? It is just too hot to stay in Oklahoma unless we have the motorhome in the shade and our pad isn’t shaded. With that said, we are planning something exciting. Last Summer I was checking on a website called “Vacations to Go” which is a cruise ship booking website. I found a cruise leaving the port of Rome on the 2nd of November 2012. It is a 16 night cruise that ends up in Galveston, Texas and at that time it was only $659 plus taxes per person. It actually ended up being $768.24 per person. I talked to several members of our Good Sam Chapter and ended up with 2 other couples going with us. This will actually be the third time Twila and I have done this. We went from Galveston to Italy in 2006 with Gary and Mattie House and then flew over to Barcelona, Spain in 2008 and cruised back. Our plan this time is to fly from Tulsa, Oklahoma on the 11th of October into Milan, Italy and then take the train to Brescia, Italy where we will stay in a hotel for one week. From Brescia we will go to Venice for at least 2 days returning each day to the hotel. This will all be by train. Italy has a very efficient train system (if it isn’t on strike). We will also visit other cities chose to Brescia such as Milan and Bergamo but we haven’t planned all of that yet. The hotel is only about 150 feet from the train station.
After one week we will again board the train and go to Florence where we have booked an apartment for 2 weeks. Our plan there is again to use the train to visit Rome, Pisa, the 5 fishing villages called the “Cinque Terre”. This is a link to a website for the villages. http://cinqueterreonline.com/ After the 2 weeks are up we will take the train to the cruise ship port and head for Galveston. It looks like we should be able to do the entire 5 weeks for under $6000 per couple.
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