After enjoying several days of family fun and hugs, it was time to get Little House back on the road. We left Shepherdsville, Ky at 10:00 A.M. EST to continue our journey north and west. After enduring terrible road conditions on I-65 to Indianapolis, we continued west on I-74 -another bumpy ride. We arrived at Prairie Pines Campground in Rantoul, IL about 2 P.M. CST. We selected this campground because two couples that we met through RV-Dreams, Jim & Linda, and Mike & Terri, are staying here. The campground is on the site of the former Chanute Air Force Base and has spacious, level sites with good hookups and some shade.
Tonight we enjoyed pizza and conversation together. We'll stay here for a week before moving further north toward Wisconsin.
Our life on the highways and byways of America.
Friday, August 15, 2014
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
SHEPHERDSVILLE, KY: Family Time!
On Sunday we made the relatively short drive from Renfro Valley, KY. to Grandma's RV Park in Shepherdsville, south of Louisville, and enjoyed taking the non-interstate route. We've stayed at Grandma's before - a basic, well-kept campground with gravel sites, good hookups and so far pretty good Wi-fi signals. We'll be visiting with Joel and Jan, Mary Kay and Colleen, Carolyn and Sophie, Mary Kirk (Jan's mother) and a few other friends and family members while we're in the area.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
RENFRO VALLEY, KY: Moving On!
Yesterday, we said good-bye to the Tom Johnson management and employees and thanked them for all they had done for us.
Today, as Little House took us through the campground gate, we were glad to be moving on. We drove through some of the the Blue Ridge, Smokey and Cumberland Mountains before descending into the rolling hills of central Ky.....sometime in rain, sometimes in sunshine....before settling down for the night at the Renfro Valley RV Park. Our journey today took about 6 hours, including lunch and fuel stops. The park is nothing fancy, but it does have discounted rates and cable TV with lots of choices....a nice extra after watching nothing put public television for most of the last 3 months.
Tomorrow we'll finish our trip to the Louisville area.
Today, as Little House took us through the campground gate, we were glad to be moving on. We drove through some of the the Blue Ridge, Smokey and Cumberland Mountains before descending into the rolling hills of central Ky.....sometime in rain, sometimes in sunshine....before settling down for the night at the Renfro Valley RV Park. Our journey today took about 6 hours, including lunch and fuel stops. The park is nothing fancy, but it does have discounted rates and cable TV with lots of choices....a nice extra after watching nothing put public television for most of the last 3 months.
Tomorrow we'll finish our trip to the Louisville area.
Thursday, August 7, 2014
MARION, NC: A Productive Day
Today we delivered Little House to the Service Center at 8 A.M. so we had an early start to our day. Several items were on today's schedule:
Anyway - Our repair list is finally complete!! The only thing left is to pay the bill, but most of that is either covered as repairs covered by the dealer as part of the sale, or covered by our extended warranty.
We'll stay here until Sunday when we'll start our journey toward Wisconsin. Since our route takes us through Louisville, we'll spend a few days there visiting with family and friends. It will be wonderful to get these big wheels turning again.
- Finishing the installation of the new/old A/C which included reinstalling the condensate drain pump inside the roof-top unit, and fastening the remaining bolts inside securing the drop-down decorative ceiling plate which conceals the A/C cooling vents and access to the ducts.
- Removing the bedroom window treatment and restringing the day/night shade.
- Realignment of the patio awning arms and canvas, and securing some parts that had worked loose
- Replacing a turn signal control inside the steering column. This item was originally scheduled for tomorrow but parts arrived yesterday so they completed their work list today!
Anyway - Our repair list is finally complete!! The only thing left is to pay the bill, but most of that is either covered as repairs covered by the dealer as part of the sale, or covered by our extended warranty.
We'll stay here until Sunday when we'll start our journey toward Wisconsin. Since our route takes us through Louisville, we'll spend a few days there visiting with family and friends. It will be wonderful to get these big wheels turning again.
Friday, August 1, 2014
MARION, NC; Toby is Our Hero
Our weather is still nice and cool, and we haven't had as much rain as was predicted, The sun finally made an appearance late today, but now the clouds have rolled in once again. The forecast for the weekend includes decent rain chances and cooler-than-normal temperatures.
However, our mood is still sunny since the rear A/C continues to operate as it should. We found out today that one of the service technicians, Toby, came up with the solution on Tuesday to the puzzle that had so many others scratching their heads. We had a chance to talk with him this morning and we thanked him for what he did.
Another high point to our day was learning that the extended warranty company had approved all 3 items we had submitted for repair and parts have been ordered. You may remember that the warranty company we used for the Discovery was not always easy to work with. Due to the number of complaints received, the broker we purchased that warranty from no longer offer contracts from that company. This is the first time to file a claim with the warranty company covering the Tradition so we weren't sure how smooth the process might be. We were happy to find there were no problems with the claim. Repairs will be made as soon as the parts arrive, and we're still hoping to be back on the road sometime late next week.
Today, the Tom Johnson's Hitch Shop welded a receiver/mount in place for a low profile ham radio antenna that doesn't have to be taken down before driving the RV down the road.
However, our mood is still sunny since the rear A/C continues to operate as it should. We found out today that one of the service technicians, Toby, came up with the solution on Tuesday to the puzzle that had so many others scratching their heads. We had a chance to talk with him this morning and we thanked him for what he did.
Another high point to our day was learning that the extended warranty company had approved all 3 items we had submitted for repair and parts have been ordered. You may remember that the warranty company we used for the Discovery was not always easy to work with. Due to the number of complaints received, the broker we purchased that warranty from no longer offer contracts from that company. This is the first time to file a claim with the warranty company covering the Tradition so we weren't sure how smooth the process might be. We were happy to find there were no problems with the claim. Repairs will be made as soon as the parts arrive, and we're still hoping to be back on the road sometime late next week.
Today, the Tom Johnson's Hitch Shop welded a receiver/mount in place for a low profile ham radio antenna that doesn't have to be taken down before driving the RV down the road.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
MARION, NC: Keepng Our Fingers Crossed
After the blog post on Tuesday morning, we got the call to bring Little House to the service center once again so it would be available for surgery when the conference call was over.
Once in the operating room, Little House had a vent cover installed over the Fantastic Fan Air Vent for the water closet. The cover will allow the vent to be left open when it rains. Some weather sealant was also replaced on the awning attachment.
Little House was returned to it's berth late Tuesday afternoon with yet another brand new rear air conditioner, but this time they had installed on older model air conditioner. The Assistant Manager of the service department has been doing the most recent work personally. He had found that the newer model air conditioner they had installed had a duct configuration different than the older model. The newer model does not align correctly with the roof ducts which resulted in a restricted air flow. Luckily they still had a new air conditioner in stock of the older model which is now sitting on top of Little House to see if it will solve our problem.
That new old-stock air conditioner has been working perfectly for almost 2 days now!
Since then, we've been in a testing mode to see if everything is working as it should. So far so good. In a day or so, when we're satisfied that everything is working, the A/C installation will be finished up. We have a couple of minor repairs we want addressed before we leave, hopefully through our extended warranty, but we hope that will be done within the next week.
The cooler weather is still with us with the addition of heavy rain predicted over the next two days. We plan to stay here until sometime next week.
Once in the operating room, Little House had a vent cover installed over the Fantastic Fan Air Vent for the water closet. The cover will allow the vent to be left open when it rains. Some weather sealant was also replaced on the awning attachment.
Little House was returned to it's berth late Tuesday afternoon with yet another brand new rear air conditioner, but this time they had installed on older model air conditioner. The Assistant Manager of the service department has been doing the most recent work personally. He had found that the newer model air conditioner they had installed had a duct configuration different than the older model. The newer model does not align correctly with the roof ducts which resulted in a restricted air flow. Luckily they still had a new air conditioner in stock of the older model which is now sitting on top of Little House to see if it will solve our problem.
That new old-stock air conditioner has been working perfectly for almost 2 days now!
Since then, we've been in a testing mode to see if everything is working as it should. So far so good. In a day or so, when we're satisfied that everything is working, the A/C installation will be finished up. We have a couple of minor repairs we want addressed before we leave, hopefully through our extended warranty, but we hope that will be done within the next week.
The cooler weather is still with us with the addition of heavy rain predicted over the next two days. We plan to stay here until sometime next week.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
MARION, NC: Nothing New
Although there's been a few days of activity in and on top of, Little
House, not much has changed in the status of our puzzle. The efforts to
solve the problem have not been successful. There will be another
conference call this morning (Tuesday) with those involved to come up with the
next step.
In the meantime, new friends Kathy and John left last Wednesday, and JF and Carolyn left on Sunday, so now we're meeting new people and sharing stories once again. Sunday, we drove to Asheville to meet up with a couple who were hosts at the Anderson, SC KOA for several years, where we stopped overnight on the trips between NC and AL. Kathy and Lacy are both ham radio operators, and are now working at a KOA near Greenville, SC. When we first met several years ago, we hit it off right away,, and yesterday we enjoyed catching up with since our last meeting in 2012. On our return trip to Marion, we took the "scenic route" on two-lane mountain roads instead of I-40.
Overall, the recent weather has been hot with a couple of rain showers thrown in for cooling. Sunday night , we had two rounds of thunderstorms, but the severe weather stayed west of us. Yesterday was a lot less humid with a steady breeze, and this morning, the low was 59.....a very nice change! It should be cooler most of this week.
We hope that this week will bring a successful solution for our situation.
In the meantime, new friends Kathy and John left last Wednesday, and JF and Carolyn left on Sunday, so now we're meeting new people and sharing stories once again. Sunday, we drove to Asheville to meet up with a couple who were hosts at the Anderson, SC KOA for several years, where we stopped overnight on the trips between NC and AL. Kathy and Lacy are both ham radio operators, and are now working at a KOA near Greenville, SC. When we first met several years ago, we hit it off right away,, and yesterday we enjoyed catching up with since our last meeting in 2012. On our return trip to Marion, we took the "scenic route" on two-lane mountain roads instead of I-40.
Overall, the recent weather has been hot with a couple of rain showers thrown in for cooling. Sunday night , we had two rounds of thunderstorms, but the severe weather stayed west of us. Yesterday was a lot less humid with a steady breeze, and this morning, the low was 59.....a very nice change! It should be cooler most of this week.
We hope that this week will bring a successful solution for our situation.
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