Nightmares of Rig Repair

April 14, 2018 – April 20, 2018

HA!! Sunny today they said! Clear today, they said. No snow today, they said! Lies, all lies!! One again, we had blowing snow on and off all day, and freezing temps! In spite of all of that, we did manage to make it to the Cross RV Repair Shop.

We had everything set to have the seals around all the slides, and the slide toppers replaced. Also, we were supposed to have the refer replaced, and everything went well up to that point. Turns out the new refer isn’t plumbed for an ice maker. After much discussion back and forth, we decided to just swap the doors out. So, they did that, then moved the rig back outside so we could stay in it overnight. At that point, we had to put everything back into the freezer and refer. It was all in freezer bags all day, but seemed to be mostly frozen, or cold as the case may be. By this time, the refer is reading 54* and we couldn’t get the electric or propane selections to work. We are NOT happy!! Fortunately, the guys are still there, moving rigs around. They came out and worked on it for about another hour and finally got it fixed. My happy customer meter is slowly falling.

The next day, the rig goes back into the bay to finish the seals and toppers. That only took a couple of hours. In the meantime, they have confirmed Phil’s fears that the hitch bar, the piece at the front end of the rig that connects to the receiver in the bed of the truck, has up to 5” of flex in it. This is a welded piece of steel that shouldn’t be moving at all. Since the frame is made by a company called Lippert, it is decided that Lippert is who should be welding this back together. BUT, Lippert can’t get a guy out to work on it until April 30^th!! Thank God we have built time for repairs into our schedule or we would be in real trouble now. To add to our stress, it turns out that the front cap of the rig will have to be removed for the welding guy to have access to what he needs. That means that we will have to spend the night of the 29^th in a motel. This repair must be done or it could eventually come apart while we are going down the road.

So, we have found a new Mobile Home Park here in LaGrange that has 5 RV spots set aside. Here is where we will stay for the next 10 or so days.

After we are all set up and settled in for the night, we discover that the furnace isn’t working! Supposed to be 28* overnight and we have no furnace?? Can you believe this. We do have the fireplace that does a decent job at keeping the rig warm but does nothing for the underbelly where the holding tanks are. So, we called the shop this morning and they set up an appointment with a heat and air guy, but he wouldn’t come here, we had to unhook and go back to the shop. Turns out it was a little control board, took about half an hour and we were back on the road to the MH Park.

So, here we will sit, with fingers and toes crossed that nothing else breaks. We have decided that this will be a good opportunity to work on the Alaska Caravan that we are leading in 2019. Are we crazy or what?????? If you can believe the weather people, it is supposed to warm up, so maybe Spring is on it’s way up here.

Lebanon, TN

April 9, 2018

We got a good start this morning…for us…left the campground at 10:00 this morning. Temperature was about 42 with bright sunshine.

Almost as soon as we got back onto I-40 we ran into heavy traffic, the GPS and my WAZE app both said there would be a delay due to an accident. We came upon the accident site after most of the vehicle was towed away, but it was obvious that it was an 18-wheeler, because the tractor back wheels were still on the site, as was the clean up crew. We guessed that the tractor must have been sheered off by the line of trees by the force of the impact. A few miles down the road we passed two tow trucks, one towing the trailer, with top and side panels flapping in the wind, the other with just the chassis of the tractor. It didn’t look like a survivable accident. When you spend as much time on the road traveling as we do, we have seen lots of these types of sites. Always gives us pause, and for awhile, Phil is good and behaves himself, but that quickly passes.

On a lighter side, how would you like to live in Bucksnort?? We passed it today!

We arrived safely at the Agri Center in Lebanon, TN about 3:00 this afternoon. We will be here for a week for the South Central Regional Muster for our SMART organization. We always enjoy these events as they give us the opportunity to catch up with old friends.

April 12, 2018

We have had a busy couple of days, out and about, and here in the campground.

On Tuesday, we headed into Nashville as we had tickets to board the General Jackson steam paddle boat for a short cruise down the river. Well, we got there only to find out the boat had a fuel leak and they couldn’t figure out where it was. So, we decided that we didn’t want to sit at the pier and listen to a band, so we went to lunch.

Right across the street from the General Jackson is the Nashville Mills Mall, and there we found a highly recommended German Restaurant, so that’s where we decided to go. It was very good, and we spent at least an hour or so there, as other SMART friends came in right after we did.

Wednesday was the official opening of the Muster, so we had opening ceremonies and then a catered dinner, which wasn’t bad. After that Phil went back to the rig and I played cards with some of the girls.

Today (Thursday) we had luncheons for the ladies and the guys. Afterwards we had our Hand and Foot Tournament (This is a card game that all of us SMART people love playing). The cards were not in my universe today, I think I may win the prize for lowest score. Oh well.

We went to dinner tonight with three other couples, good food and had a great time visiting. Tonight we are vegging in the rig with our feet up.

2018 Taylor Travels

April 8, 2018

We are on the road again!! On our way to Lebanon, TN for a SMART Regional Muster.

We started the day with the finishing touches on packing the rig…it was sleeting!!! And cold!! Spring was just popping up around Little Rock, but I’m sure the freeze we had last night made quick work of that!

We managed to get on the road by 11:00, but we only had to go as far as Millington, TN, so it wasn’t a long day, tonight we are camped at the NAS Mid-South, Midway RV Park. This use to be a mobile home park, so the spaces have some distance to them, with nice level pads.

Tomorrow we head out for Lebanon.