Hoover, AL: Moving Day (but not far)

Our first week in central Alabama has flown by.  We arrived on Dec. 23, Mike came in very early on Dec. 24, and Karen and her family arrived on Dec. 28. Carolyn and Sophie are due in late this evening.  David and Heather hope to be here on New Year's Eve.

Today we're moving to a friend's property, not far from Kathy's house.  With the departure and setup routines, as well as a stop to fill the propane tank, it will be a busy day for us after being stationary for the past week.

HOOVER, AL: More Family Fun Ahead!!

Our time in Louisville was wonderful with lots of visiting, much laughter and abundant delicious food! We shared time with Joel (Selene's brother) and Jan (his wife), Mary Kay (Selene's sister) and her daughter Colleen, Carolyn (Joel's daughter) and her daughter Sophie, Jean (Joel's daughter), Chris (Joel's son) and girlfriend Leslie and her children, Mary Kirk (Jan's mother),  Mary ( Hank's cousin) and her husband Jan, and Sister Marilyn (Hank's cousin). The days of our visit passed too quickly, and once again, it was time to head down the road.

This morning (Monday) we left Shepherdsville about 10:30, and stopped in Radcliff, Ky to have lunch with Leon, a ham radio friend (N4TFK) who we had never met in person. After a quick stop at Skagg's RV Country in Elizabethtown so that Hank could add some hydraulic fluid to leveling jacks system, we headed south on I-65 through Kentucky and Tennessee, stopped in north Birmingham, AL for fuel, and ended up at the Hoover RV Park south of Birmingham about 6 P.M.

We will be here until January 6th while we spend the holidays with our 5 children and 11 grandchildren, as well as many friends.  Every year, we look forward to this visit and the  decorations, music, games, food and frequent laughter.

SHEPHERDSVILLE, KY: Let the Christmas Fun Begin!!

After a cold night in northern Alabama (28 degrees), we left Northgate RV Park about 11 A.M.  CST. We stopped for fuel and to fix a sandwich at the Flying J in Franklin, Ky., and were right on track to make the 6 P.M.  EST dinner at the Redle Inn (Selene's brother's home).  However, a construction delay north of Horse Cave, KY meant 45 minutes of stopped and inching forward traffic for about 10 miles,  which put us behind schedule.

We pulled into Grandma's RV Camping about 5:45 P.M.  We stayed at this park last January. It has gravel sites with full hookups, concrete patios, free wi-fi and clean bath houses - nothing fancy, but just fine for our needs.  We quickly set up with just an electric hookup (possible freezing temperatures while we're here) and extended the slides.

It was great to finally get hugs from Joel & Jan (Selene's brother and sister-in-law), Mary Kay (Selene's sister) and Skeeter (Joel & Jan's neighbor).  Well, we didn't get a hug from Skeeter, but a warm hello anyway!. We enjoyed a delicious dinner and catching up on some of the family news and making plans for the days to come.

We'll be here until Monday, December 23rd.  Our Christmas holidays have officially begun!

ATHENS, AL; Overnight Stop and Visit

Yesterday (Tuesday) as we were starting our departure routine in Hoover, AL, we received a nice surprise.  A knock on the door let us know that Joe and Carolyn (Joe's Journey), who we met in April of 2011 at an RV Dreams rally, were also staying at the Hoover RV Park. They have been full-timers for 2 years, and we spent some time quickly getting caught up on what had happened since the rally.  We look forwaard to seeing them again down the road.

We left Hoover at 12:45 P.M. for the two hour drive north on I-65 to the Northgate RV Park.  We stayed at this park a few years back.  It's a very basic campground on a farm with good hookups, level sites and a very nice owner.  This location also gave us the chance to have a nice visit with David, Heather and Madison, who live nearby. We hope to see them again when we return to Alabama next week.

HOOVER, AL: Little House is Whole Again!

Well....until the next thing breaks! But that's the way it is in the RV world.

We last left you in our waiting room hoping for the made-to-order slide part to arrive on Friday as promised, which it did,  right on time.   Jay, the RV Connections slide specialist, started his work after lunch to replace the rail that had damaged rollers, then the welder replaced the panel that had been removed to provide access to the damaged slide rail.

Once the new slide rail was in place the whole mechanism had to be re-calibrated.  This is a lengthy process that basically programs a computer to control each of the 3 independent motorized rack and pinion rails.  These must be in sync at all times or the slide will twist and bind - which is definitely not good!.  No motor can be out of sync by more than one gear tooth at any time.  And they must position the slide perfectly in order to seat the seals that keep out the cold and wet when the slide is fully extended or retracted.  The process involves extending and retracting the slide room many times making minute adjustments each time.  Eventually Jay was convinced that all parts were working like they should and as the sun went down, the doctors announced that Little House was once again ready to roll down the highway.

This morning, after paying our small portion of the bill, which was very reasonable, and being very thankful for the extended warranty which covered well over $1000 of the cost, as well as the great service that we received from RV Connections,  we hooked our little HHR to the back of Little House, just as the predicted rain moved in.  But we didn't mind because we were on the road again!

Our trip to Hoover, AL via US 231 and I-65 took 6 hours including 30 minutes for a lunch and fuel stop. We went through various amounts of rain, but the sun was breaking through as we pulled into the Hoover RV Park, where we've stayed many times.  This is a self-service paved campground on a paved plateau above The Met Baseball Park with full hookups, free cable and wi-fi, garbage pickup, and frequent security patrols but no bath house, pool, laundry, club house, or camp store....which we don't need anyway.  Most of the time, there's also plenty of peace and quiet.  We'll be here for 3 nights.

PANAMA CITY, FL: A Treatment Plan Comes Together

This morning dawned gray, warm and muggy, but changed after a cold front blew through.  Tonight it's clear and crisp with temperatures in the 40's.

This morning, the RV doctors got in touch with the organ bank, but there were no matches available.  However they found that Power Gear can manufacture the replacement parts to order and arrangements were made to have one delivered to the RV hospital on Friday, with surgery scheduled immediately upon arrival. 

This afternoon, the extended warranty company even changed their mind on a needed inspection in exchange for some lesser labor charges by the dealership and a little more out of pocket from us on the part - with the bottom line being they will forego the delay of an inspection at a cost to us of about $75 - a bargain since waiting for an inspection would extend our hospital stay beyond the weekend.

If the procedure is successful and the implant is not rejected, we should be able to head back to Summerale on Saturday morning.

Tonight, things are looking a lot brighter.

Panama City, FL: Little House Surgery

The system that extends and retracts our big slide out room has been unable to move the slide since last Wednesday so we took our coach to an RV Doctor last Thursday.  They determined that the problem was with one of the 3 rails that the room slides on.  The slide out room would need to be surgically removed from the motor home in order to perform the required operation, but they did not have the required equipment to perform the operation and referred us to a larger hospital several hours distant (RV Connections near Panama City, FL).  We called ahead to make arrangements and were scheduled for admission that day and pre-op was scheduled for Friday morning with possible surgery later that day.

Friday came and after some additional diagnosis the RV Surgeons were hesitant regarding the recommended procedure as they had not removed a slide room as large as this in the past and were not sure they had heavy enough equipment to handle the procedure.  They decided that consultation with higher authorities would be required but were unable to conference with them on Friday afternoon.  As a result planning any surgery was delayed for the weekend, but they let us use a vacant space for weekend accommodations.

Today the morning started with more attempts to reach Fleetwood, the manufacturer of our motor home, and Power Gear of US Inc, the manufacturer of the slide out system.   It was eventually determined that problem lay deep in the bowels of the slide system, the inaccessible belly of the motor home,  and the established procedure was to temporarily remove the room to expose the area where the problem lay.  

The doctors at RV Connection were still uneasy with doing this with their limited equipment and brain stormed with us to find a less drastic process.  It was eventually decided that if the problem rear end of the slide could be supported externally, then removal of a weld would allow extraction of the suspect subsystem for examination and repair.
      

So late this afternoon the back of the slide got a crutch (above left picture) to remove the load from the support structure, and surgery began by removing the weld of some support structure thereby creating an opening where the suspect slide rail (right picture) could be extracted.   The slide rail is the black 5' long square channel leaning against the wall above.  There are 2 rollers at the top edge that hold the weight of the slide as it is extended and retracted.

Here is a close-up of the support rollers on the end of the slide rail.  The rail is steel, but the rollers appear to be made of heavy black plastic.  You can see in the picture that large chunks of the plastic rollers have broken off.



The good news is that tomorrow the doctor can attempt to identify a source of replacement parts and contact our extended warranty company for approval to order the parts and do the reconstructive surgery.

The bad news is that we have heard horror stories about the wait for replacement parts from this manufacturer.


I have always said that my plan was to not know where I would be 2 weeks from today.  Well 2 weeks ago I sure wasn't planning to be here.  But while we ARE here, this RV hospital provides us with 24 hour access to our motor home making it a comfortable waiting room, and we are enjoying the local cuisine.

PANAMA CITY, FL: A Waiting Game

Our day started early yesterday as we moved things inside, and out of, Little House in case the full wall slide had to be removed. RV Connections began the process of  diagnosing Little House's slide problem when they opened at 8 A.M.  This inovlved paperwork, a slide technician's evalutation, calls to Fleetwood (RV manufacturer..no help), calls to slide manufacturer (no reply), and more research by the technician.  At the end of the day, a plan was made for us to stay here over the weekend since the slide specialist wasn't working today (Saturday), and on Monday he'll remove part of the slide mechanism to access the possible problem point, and hopefully be able to repair or replace as needed. 

To pass our time out of the RV yesterday, we spent part of yesterday touring around Panama City, nearby beaches and woodlands.  Today and tomorrow, we'll just relax in the RV and try to be patient as we wait for more work to be done on Monday.  At least the weather here is warm!

PANAMA CITY, FL: Change of Plans

When we planned our stay at the Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale, AL, we intended our visit to be 13 days of relaxation, visiting with friends, some organized activities, and plenty  of time for Hank to play pool.  Yesterday's big slide problem changed those plans, at least for the time being.  After an evaluation this morning,  it was determined our slide problem was too big of a job for the local repair facility since the full wall slide has to be removed in order to find the solution. The suggestion was to go to the closest dealership  where the proper equipment and manpower would be available to  take care of the problem.  After a phone call to RV Connections in Panama City, we decided to follow that advice.  We arrived at the facility at 4:30 P.M. and were parked in a site with electric and water hookups so we'd be ready for work to start in the morning.  If the needed parts are on hand, they may have us ready to roll by the end of the day.  If parts need to be ordered, or warranty questions arise, we may be here a few days. 

We can live in the RV with the big slide closed, still accessing every feature except the second tv and the washer/dryer, but it's a not a comfortable way to live long-term.  We were lucky to find a dealer who could help us right away, and we hope to be back at Rainbow Plantation before too long.

SUMMERDALE, AL: One of Those Days!

The day started with dense fog all along the Florida panhandle, and our location in Quincy, FL was no exception.  We knew we had plenty of time to make the drive to Summerdale, AL with the time change, so we didn't plan to leave until about 10 A.M.  However, when we tried to pull the full wall slide in, there were some ominous noises and the back end  of the slide wouldn't move in.  We had a similar problem in October 2013, and can't move unless the slides are in, so a call to our Roadside Assistance plan sent a mobile tech to our aid.  After  one failed attempt, he was able to help get the slide in so we could travel.

We pulled away about 12:30 P.M. EST, stopped for lunch and fuel,  and arrived at Rainbow Plantation near Summerdale, AL around 4 P.M. CST.  Rainbow Plantation is an Escapees campground, with many full-time residents in homes and RV's on deeded lots, as well as space for transient campers. The sites are large with good hookups, and everyone is very friendly.  We stayed here last February and have friends who live here sll year, including one who loves to play pool as much as Hank does.  During the winter season, the facility's busiest time,  there are lots of organized activities, so there's plenty of things to do if you want to participate. Hank will chalk up his cue stick tonight!

We have an appointment at the local RV repair shop tomorrow morning to get a diagnosis on  Little House's slide problem.  We'll be staying here until Dec. 17 when we'll head toward Kentucky.

QUINCY, FL: Just an Overnight Stop

Our departure from Jacksonville was delayed about 30 minutes since our choice of roads to I-295 was blocked, but we still made it to Beaver Lake Campground, near Quincy, FL  about 20 miles west of Tallahassee by 4:30 P.M..  The location is just off of I-10 in a field with full hookups and very close parking, but it fills our needs for an overnight stop and we got a 50 % discount on the rate, cash only.  There are rest rooms and a laundry facility available as well as a gas station and convenient store on the edge of the property. 

Tomorrow we head further west to Summerdale, AL. 

JACKSONVILLE, FL: Time to Leave

It's been a great week of visiting with Karen and her family, celebrating Thanksgiving, and getting into the Christmas spirit.  I now have a Nexus 7 tablet thanks to a Walmart sale, and Karen was my tutor as she helped me get it set up and learn some of the ways to use it. 

Once again, it's time to move on to another destination.  Today, we hope to make it to Quincy, FL, just west of Tallahassee, for an overnight stop on our way to Summerdale in southern Alabama..