Ready to Roll…well, almost

This has been my “go to place” for oil changes ever since I moved to the area back in 2011/12.  You drive in, and for around $24 the HHR would get done, and for around $30 the motorhome would get done...you don't even get out of your vehicle.  Well on Monday I drive by and see no cars, no garage open…pull in and see a note on the window that it was not open anymore, and they recommend a place in the town of Dunedin to the south called “take 5 oil change”.  Thank goodness I was in the HHR and just happened to be driving along because on Tuesday I had plans to get the oil changed in the Motorhome.  Back home I call ‘Take 5’ and yes, they can do the motorhome.  So Tuesday I drive to the motorhome, take it to Dunedin, and pull into ‘Take 5’.  Wow, this is going to be a tight fit…

‘Take 5’ bought out the ‘Havoline Xpress’ in the area.  This Havoline is now a Take 5.  You enter to the right, drive around,and enter the “pit” from the rear.  All is well except, with ‘Take 5’ comes a bunch of new equipment.  Also, look at that tight turn when I exit if I enter the far left bay in the picture.  Yep, this is going to be a very tight fit. 

They have me enter the bay in the middle of the building…that helps.  The new “Take 5” prices don’t help…it is going to cost more like $40 instead of the $30 I have been paying.  EXCEPT, they got me on the transmission service.  It has been about 35,000 miles since the transmission was serviced in Sacramento after we first bought the Dynamax.  So for a mere $120 more, they will essentially pull the transmission fluid out and replace it with fresh fluid.  There is a machine they have which does this, takes about 20 minutes.  In a sense since there is some of the old fluid still in there, it is more like a refreshing of the fluid.  But I still feel it is worth it. They offer a $15 discount on the entire oil and transmission change, so for $138, it is a deal.  Instead of pulling through when finished, I offer to back out, which is a good option.  45 minutes later, I am on the way back to the RV Storage area.

I guess this is a good place to mention that one of the motorhome tires was a bit flat.  Instead of 80 psi, it was down to 35 psi…not good .  It was the driver inner dully again…the one we had fixed in lower Tennessee last October.  The nearest Discount Tire is in Orlando…but I think someone must have played with the tire because I just can’t believe the same tire went flat…but it could be a nail.  I drive slowly over to the Take 5, keeping an eye on the tire pressure and the tire temp.  Going 30 MPH, and with the motorhome pretty much empty, I make it fine.  They fill up the tire while there.  It drops 3 psi on the way back, not sure if that is good or bad.  The next day, it is down to 55 psi…not good at all.  There is a Goodyear store less than a mile from the RV storage, and I stop by on Wednesday to see if they can look at it on Thursday…they can….9 am.  YUK!  I hate early appointments.

It is your typical Goodyear store.  He tells me to pull around back, which shares a driveway with Publix Grocery Store’s 18 wheel truck deliveries…but I get back there and parked without a problem.  Marcia follows me with the HHR, and after we drop the motorhome off,  we take her cousin Mary out to breakfast to a new to us Restaurant called Spirou's Cookhouse & Desserts, a now new favorite place which we will have to try out many times next time we are home.  The menu is simple.  The food is fresh and delicious.  The service was wonderful.  The company (cousin Mary) was outstanding.  And the desserts they have laid out on the counter…well, it was very difficult, but we did not touch them…much like Jimmy Carter never touched that female that he said he lusted after when he was President.  Only in our hearts and dreams….  Ya, they looked that good.

2 hours later, Goodyear is done.  Yes, the tire’s valve stem was bad.  The guy said it couldn’t have been changed six months ago.  THAT’S when I remember…when the tire went bad in Tennessee, we pulled into a Cracker Barrel.  Called our road service, guy comes out and puts the spare on the inner driver’s side, and we drive on until we came to a town with a Discount Tire store.  We spent the night in a Cracker Barrel there, then went to Discount Tire where they fixed the valve stem the next morning. They ask me if I want it back on the driver’s side dully, or on the spare…I tell them to make it the spare.  Hence, the same tire bad now is not the same tire as then…just the same location.  This stem, put on a few years ago outside of El Paso Texas, just did not set right.  All is well…and I verified that the tire pressure sensor system is now working on all ten tires. 

Sunday after church I will bring the motorhome over the RV-Mobile Home park next to us (bottom left red mark).  Our condo is located up in the upper red mark area.  Yes, it is that close.  It is too bad they don’t have any winter parking for motorhomes, because that would just be too convenient.  I turned the refrigerator on today, so tomorrow I will run the generator for an hour or so while I take clothing and a few other things over to it.  Sunday we can get the stuff in the fridge, and essentially take anything we wish over to it since it will be so close.  Monday we will wake up, take long, very long, showers (anyone who travels in an RV gets that one) by noon we need to pull out of the RV park, load the rest of the stuff up while it sits in the condo driveway, eventually we will be off and running.

The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful

As a family growing up we did not go to the movies that often.  I remember some of them…Bambi (yep, cried during that one), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Hallelujah Trail, The Trouble with Angels to name a few…and then there was the time that Dad took Roger, Sandy and I to see The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at the Drive-in theater in West Sacramento I believe...perhaps all the way to Davis.  (of course, all the drive-in theaters are pretty much gone now…and younger readers might need this link to see what I am talking about.)  I like that old movie, and I like most of Clint's other movies too.  Anyway, today's blog post is more like The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful.


The Good

Today I got the oil changed on the RV…when I say “got”, I mean that I did it this time.  It had been many years since I changed the oil on a vehicle…I think the last one was my 1996 Ford F-250 Powerstroke Turbo Diesel…did that once, made a huge mess because finding a oil pan which can hold 12+ quarts of oil is hard to find and filling two 7 quart pans is messy.  Anyway, “I got err done” today, was fairly easy except that raising the front end of the motorhome made it difficult to get out all the oil out.  Oh well, nice to know I can do it and I have all the materials I need to get the job done.  Another good thing here is Sacramento is that they will pick up your old oil on “Recycle Garbage Day”, which happened to be today, and I got it out there before they picked up.  Last time I had to run the old oil by Walmart…and I think it sat in the back of my truck for a few weeks.


The Bad

Mom had a biopsy last week…word came down yesterday that she has breast cancer and it looks like they will be operating on her in 3-5 weeks from now.  Of the breast cancers one could have, this is the best type.  At 85 years old, she does not want Chemo or Radiation, and who could blame her.  Twenty or so years ago she had Stage II, Low Grade Lymphoma, which you can read about HERE when she cut my hair for her 82nd birthday.  They told her back then that she would have a recurrence within 5-7 years…which did not happen.  Going through Chemo 20 years ago was hard enough…which is one reason she is not doing it again.

We are a family who believes in prayer…prayer to heal, if it be God’s will…prayer for strength and comfort for Mom, for Dad and all of our family.  She meets with the surgeon in two weeks and we will know more about her treatment after that.  Marcia and I are still headed north along the coast on Monday, but we may cut our trip short if hey operate sooner than we think they will.  Of course Mom would like us to stay with our schedule…but we will be here for the surgery.


The Beautiful 

Yesterday a lot of clouds came over from the outer arms of former Hurricane Dolores which is off the coast of Southern California.  It created a pretty picture at sunset, that’s for sure.

Did you see that up there in the middle?

A nice end to the day…that’s for sure.  

We leave Monday the 27th, and we will hit the road hard the first day, perhaps all 500 miles to Coos Bay.   After that, we will slow it down.  I'm excited to get out of this heat and over to the coast where it is going to be cool.

Our Next Trip is a Coastal Escape

Working on our next trip…looks like we are headed up the Oregon and Washington Coasts with a day trip to Victoria to see Butchart Gardens.  We can leave on Monday the 27th when our family activities are over.  Figure we can be in Coos Bay Tuesday night, and then we will slow down a bit until we get into Washington…we have been up he Oregon Coast before, and we love it...but we will really slow down the Washington Coast is an area we have not explored before.  Figure we will be back around August 22nd, give or take a few days, and travel around 2,000+ miles.

This last Sunday our trip back to the Sacramento area was fairly uneventful until we pulled into Arny and Sandy’s backyard.  It was a sunny, slightly cloudy day.  We went to church in Truckee again, and got a couple burgers to go from Burger Me…we were on the road by 12:45 for Sacramento.

When we got into the backyard, Arny was opening our house door from the outside (to let the dogs out) at the same time Marcia tried to unlock it … which jammed the mechanism inside the door.  This happened last year when I was unlocking it and opening at the same time to let the dogs out for their morning run. 

   

Above is an illustration of the door when it is locked…if you look at the red arrow, that little metal piece is to the left of the brass piece.  When you try to open the door, it does not move the brass piece, and the door remains latched (shut).

   

In these pictures above the door is unlocked. The metal piece has now slide under the brass piece—which is the movement of unlocking the door.  Now when you move the handle, it moves the brass piece and opens the latch.  What was happening was that this little metal piece was sliding into the hole of the brass piece, and sticking when the door lock was being moved to the unlock position AND the door was being opened at the same time.  In that position, it would not move the latch, requiring the door access panel be removed and then easily pry the latch open by freeing up this metal piece from the hole.  To fix it, we bent the brass piece back..so there is no way for the metal piece to slide into the hole.  Should have thought about that last time, instead I just avoided opening the door right as it was being unlocked. An easy fix, but it sure was frustrating trying to get the door open when it was locked close.

Before we leave in 12 days I will need to change the oil in the motorhome, and give it another bath.  Other than that, I think we are in good shape for a bit longer trip.  Of course, I will give things a good look over, including all the previously loose battery and power connections, and we will top off the tires which, over time, loose a little pressure as you drive along.  It is nice to have the troubles behind us, and we are looking forward to seeing Washington and little bit of Vancouver Island.  For now, we will enjoy our family time, and get a few things done.