Installation of the Lift and Travel

Sunday night we had positioned ourselves a little over an hour from Life Essentials, the place we are having the lift installed.  Skruffy and I woke up early....err, with the time change I guess we woke up at a normal time, bright-eyed and busy tailed......hey Skruffy, you are suppose to be the navigator...you cannot navigate with your eyes shut!

 No, I did not post the same picture twice...these pictures are actually hours apart.  One in the morning, one if the afternoon.  Thank goodness I got a GPS, because Skruffy isn't cutting the mustard as a "guide dog".

We got to Life Essentials around 8:30, which is 7:30 for you Central Time Zone folks (and for my brain).  It took four hours to install, and here are just a few pictures of the action.

The guys from Life Essentials were great.  They knew this was our "home on wheels" and they respected it as such.  They first installed a metal frame to hold the lift.  This required four holes drilled through the motor home, but little to no mess in doing so.  First they had to remove a handle which had a light in it.  They covered the hole with a metal plate which is hidden by the lift, and the wire for the light is right behind the plate if we ever need it again.  They then installed the lift, ran some wire from the batteries which is way in the back (did not show pictures of that since all you would see are two butts hanging out from under the motor home), and bingo, the lift was ready for a test drive.  The last picture shows how high it will get.  There is a cover which came with the motor home, and with a press of a button, it covers the wheel well (see one of Skruffy's pictures above and you can see the cover over the stairs by the door.)  The handle, which includes a up and down control, and the metal stand are easily removed and stored during travel.  If the door was not so close to the wheel, the stand would actually rotate under the motor home for travel, but with our set-up, that just won't work.  But I was amazed at how light, yet sturdy, the stand is.

Of course, someone had to supervise the installation, and with all that sleep, she was up for this job (along with barking at the 3-4 dogs and the many chickens running around all the time.)

Well, we got on the road around 1:00 pm eastern time, and made it to within 60 miles of Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Tomorrow, with a little luck, I will be in Palm Harbor, just in time because Marcia will be out of Re-hab Tuesday, and she will need me...I mean, she will need my help.  :)

And I figured out what put Skruffy to sleep....she was watching these things go around and around and around and around....There were many of these up in the wind-swept area of Northern Indiana.

Indiana Rest Stop

After getting a good night sleep at the Flying J in Missouri, I woke up and took Skruffy for her early morning walk around 6:30 a.m.  After a few barks and squats, I put her back into the RV and went into Flying J to get some coffee, and to sign up for their RV rewards program.  They have excellent service for RVers.  They have separate pumps for the RVs from the cars and the trucks, along with dump stations for the waste, and you can also fill up with propane.  With the reward program, you get a few cents off the cash price of fuel, and every penny helps when you have a 100 gallon tank.  You also pay for 5 coffees, and get the sixth cup for free, as long as you scan your RV reward card that you get when you sign up.  They also offer discounts on some items in the store with your card, but I have not seen any signs letting you know what gets a discount and what does not.  You also get a discount at Denny's which are attached to a Flying J.

Today's travel was fairly easy for most of the day, but in the middle of Illinois, they shut down all but one northbound lane, much like they do when you go from Little Rock to Memphis.  It caused a large backup until everyone gets down to the one lane, then it moves fairly well.  But it took over an hour to go just a few miles before it opened up again.

About 2 weeks ago I purchases a Rand McNally TripMaker RVND 5510 5-Inch RV GPS from Amazon.  I like it, it tells you if you are speeding, it tells you when you are coming to a lower speed limit.  It is easy to use, and so far, very accurate.  Of course, not "everyone" likes the GPS, because somebody thinks that they are the navigator....

As I got close to Champaign / Urbana, the GPS had me turn east on Hwy 36, and then north on Hwy 49.  It was shorter,  very peaceful, a quiet way to go....very little traffic, very little of anything, as shown below.

 Of course, if there is farm land, that means that there are farm houses and barns.  These next two shots are for my fellow Rotarian Joe, who loves to take pictures of barns and old farm houses.  Of course, he does not take them out the window while going 50 mph down the highway....Joe, when you run out of farms in Arkansas, you will find a bunch of them up north. I missed the shot of the best one...but I did not want to block the highway stopping so that could run back and get it...a real old barn but it was in good condition.  Sorry Joe...I will try harder next time.

 

Finally we made it to Indiana, staying at a Rest Area.  Now when you have a large RV like this, you stay where the big trucks stay...and they like to keep their motors running all night long.  So I have found that what you want to do is park next to some landscaping, or at the very first or last spot, so that you won't have stereo engines running in your ears all night.  Tonight we have found a very nice spot....we will get a good nights sleep without a problem.

Tomorrow the lift gets installed, and then the drive down to Florida.  As long as I can get through the big cities when it isn't rush hour, it should go fairly well.