Take Me To The Fair

But before we begin, let's have a word about our host. This blog is hosted by Blogger, a Google product. They've left this site become rather outdated in that the format is fixed. If you view it on a larger screen device like a computer or tablet, it looks like it should. Anything smaller, like a phone or small tablet and it breaks down completely. Pictures don't scale down, (and pictures are a a fundamental component of the post,) and text doesn't reformat. That makes it really crappy to read on the go. The software does give me the ability to code in HTML, but, do I really wanna do that? If I wanted to do programming, I'd a kept working. Perhaps over the winter I'll experiment with a different host or two. Maybe I'll buy a case of 32 oz energy drinks and write a template.

Another item I'd like to address deals with comment. Time was, if a reader left me a comment, I'd be notified. Today... NOPE, no mas. I'm pretty PO'd about that. Now I have to go out and view my own posts to see if anyone commented, so I apologize if I don't respond to your comments in a timely fashion. LAME!

Now back to our regularly scheduled program...

One of the reasons we like staying off the interstates, preferring instead state and county roads, is that we get to experience a lot of the real America that just isn’t very abundant along the fast lane. We route completely around cities whenever we can. 

One of many small, local businesses; gone forever 

Small towns and rural communities are an endangered species. Life is slower, people are friendly, conversations are easy. We wanna experience these unique places before they disappear. 

There’s a lot of character that you find when you get away from the urban sprawl dominated by national fast food and eatery chains, big box retailers, lube, muffler and brake franchises, and tract home subdivisions. 

We spent a night in such a small town, one that has a municipal fairground where you can rent an RV campsite with full hookups. You just go to the township office, pay a nominal fee and go to the campground. If the office isn’t open, there’s a guy who’ll come along at some point and you pay him. If he don’t come along there’s a dropbox you can put your fee in. Total honor system.

Not a McDonalds in sight

When we got into town, the office was closed. Everyone must have gone to the new Mexican restaurant that was scheduled to open that day. We’d learned about that during our ½ hour conversation we had with a gal in the township office when we called to make our reservation. Like I said earlier, people are friendly and conversations are easy… 

Great River Road Campground

Anyway, we proceeded to the campground, where there was a row of campsites to choose from, all of them empty. 

We began setting up, and were nearly done when an older man on an ATV came by. This was the guy who collects the fee for the campsite. I bet we shot the breeze for an hour! We talked about the campground, the fairground, the kinds of events that took place there, and some of the campers he’s met over the years including one guy who comes every October in his truck camper for the whole hunting season. He stays till Christmas. We talked about Texas, his original home state, and Illinois where we currently were. It was a really nice time.

The grain elevators were busy day and night... Harvest 

This was one of a series of one-nighters that we planned to get us out of the cold and into warmer Southwest Missouri, but what a great example of why we like to travel the smaller highways and byways of this great land we call The United States of America.

Slidin' into First

Our first stop was to be at Clinton Lake State Recreation Area in Central Illinois. We had planned for two nights just in case we had to shed more weight, which we didn't, or had something go wrong, which we did. (If you missed that, see the previous post.) That left us with a one night stay, and we were back on schedule. 

We're new to parking a fifth-wheel, so that in itself is a learning experience, but add to that, Illinois, in its wisdom, angled the campsites so that you have to back in on the blind side. After a half-hour of trying, trying again, and again, and again... we were in and straight.

Ah yes, backing in on the blind side at 90-degrees

Did I mention the hitch? No, don' think I did... Our truck has a 6.5-foot bed which means if we turn really sharp, like close to 90-degrees, the trailer's nose could hit the rear of the truck's cab. That would be bad. And expensive. We required a sliding hitch. When towing on the road, the hitch needs to be positioned forward, in order for the the trailer's kingpin, and all the weight it carries, to be over the rear axle. When needing to maneuver in really, really tight places, like many gas stations or having to perform a 90-degree back-in to a campsite, the hitch needs to be in its rearward position in order for the trailer to clear the truck's cab. 

There are two kinds of sliding hitches available. The first kind requires you to get out of the truck and pull a handle to release the slide. Then you get back in the truck, lock the trailer brakes and drive forward so the hitch can slide back. Then, you get get back out of the truck and pull the handle again to re-lock it in the rearward position. Then you can perform your maneuver. When you're ready to drive on again, you reverse the whole process. If you forget to do this, well... $$$$$$$. The second kind is an auto-slider. No getting in and out to unlock the slider; it does everything all on its own. OH, and no forgetting...

We got the automatic kind. With the most common gas station design these days having the fuel pumps perpendicular to the store and parking places, maneuvering around can be a challenge. Lots of tight turns and squeezes. Also we're finding there are a lot of campgrounds that require the 90-degree back-in. And of course, there's those senior moments.... 

It works great for us.

There is, however, a serious drawback to this system. The device works on a cam principal, so there is a rectangular key that fits into a matching slot. In order to hitch or unhitch the  components must be within ten-degrees of dead-on-balls-straight, ("it's an industry term"...). That complicates the parking considerably, (not to mention the adapter plate has to be removed to tow with a conventional hitch). 

Of course, as it often is in life, once you've bought something, it either goes on sale, or the new-and-improved version comes out. In the case of our hitch, there's now an auto-slider that doesn't require any adapter. When the kingpin locks into place, the hitch simply clamps onto the pin-plate at whatever angle the two just happen to be at. Grrrrrrrrrr!!!

It was a nice site after all was said and done...

At any rate, it's fun for the other campers to watch us getting into our spot. On to the next stop. See you there.

Launch Aborted

October 7th. We finally left Blackhawk Valley Campground for our slow leisurely meander to Texas. We got about 35 miles away and the truck started smoking. We pulled over right away and had a look. I (Paul) noticed what appeared to be transmission fluid leaking from a fitting at the bottom of the radiator. Last month we had the radiator replaced and apparently one of the lines popped off and transmission fluid came shooting out and spraying all over the drive train and exhaust! That was what caused the smoke. 

Fortunately, we have Good Sam emergency road assistance. Unfortunately it is not worth a damn! They said they'd line up a tow truck to take the truck and the trailer to a repair center capable of doing this kind of repair, and that they'd call back in 15 minutes with info, but an hour and a half later we still didn't hear from them. When Good Sam finally did get back to us, they told us that the only tow truck they had could only tow the truck. The trailer would have to stay on the shoulder of the interstate. WTF is THAT?! They're supposed to be an RV road service provider. What a crock of $h!t! 

In the mean-time, I called Kurt's Auto who installed the radiator. I spoke with Nathan, one of the owners, who asked for pictures of the suspected leak, and the puddle of fluid. After seeing the pics, he devised a plan. Nathan drove about 40 miles to where we were with 6 quarts of transmission fluid. He popped the line back on, and noticed it didn't feel like it was seating the way it should. He put the fluid in, and then drove with us back to the shop to make repairs the following day. On the way, Nathan arranged to have new Ford lines and another radiator delivered first thing in the morning, so they could get us back on our way ASAP. 

That's a LOT of tranny fluid

They gave us a spot to park the trailer for the night. So there we were, camping in the parking lot at Kurt's Auto Lube and Service.

 

Camping at Kurt's Auto Lube and Service

Quite an inauspicious start to our new life!

Turns out, the radiator was still fine, but the installed lines were machined slightly different than the ones from Ford. At highway speed the buildup of heat and pressure on the transmission lines, was more than the other brand of lines could bear, and one of them unseated, causing the fluid leak. Nathan put the new lines on and they snapped right in securely. Just to be extra sure they couldn't fail again, he also installed new locks on the line fittings.

We were back on the road that afternoon!

The roadside service trip, the fluid, the parts, and all the labor was covered by Kurt's warranty on the previous work. Talk about above and beyond! (Nathan also contacted the manufacturer of the failed line to explain the defect, and how to resolve it.)

Oh, almost forgot, Good Sam called back while we were driving back to Kurt's. I told them to F__ck Off!

That's it for now; we're almost caught up...       Oh yeah, we made weight, but just barely...

Who doesn’t love a good plan?

 First a little recap...

When last we wrote, we shared that we traded in our travel trailer for a 33’ fifth wheel trailer.

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow us to introduce Thurston, our third HOW.

We had also bought a 1 bed, 1 bath park model (stationary) trailer in Mission TX where we spent most of last winter, enjoying time with old friends and new, and learning some new hobbies.  

Aren’t plans great?  We planned to head back to Illinois in March to begin the process of selling our house.  I, Penny, had all of our doctor and dental appointments made well in advance so that we could jump right on them in April.  I felt like the queen of organization!  

Then came covid 19.  We ‘sheltered in place’ in Texas.  Thought it’d be for a few weeks, then a few more, and a few more, just like everyone in the country, or in the world for that matter.  As time went by, the virus seemed to be spreading far more  in Illinois than in TX, so we stayed in TX.  We rescheduled appointments, then rescheduled again, then finally just cancelled them cuz who knew when we’d be home, or when Illinois would open back up.  I’ll say no more, except that we stayed healthy.  Thank you Lord.

We finally made the long avoided trip to Illinois at the end of May.  Three nights in hotels, where we wiped down each room with Lysol wipes, removed the blankets and pillows and replaced them with the ones we brought with us, and used copious amounts of hand sanitizer.  Just call me neurotic, I can take it, but I never want to travel anywhere without our HOW again.

Fast forward to August.  After eight weeks of thinning out our possessions, holding a garage sale, painting the inside of our house, generally sprucing up the outside (and catching up on those doctor & dentist appointments!),  we were ready to call a realtor that was highly recommended by a friend.   We liked him very much and hired him on a Friday.  He had his first showing the next morning, and by that afternoon he had a cash buyer for us.  That evening we signed the sales contract, and closed on August 28th.  Woosh, just like that!

Well, it was a really nice house...

Preparing for take-off!   Did I mention something about ‘thinning out our possessions’ earlier?  We’ve gone through our ‘stuff’ and purged so many times, and still we have 3 boxes of who-knows-what in the RV.  And the car is packed to the gills.  And there’s more stuff in the back seat of the truck.  Hello, our names are Paul and Penny, and we are pack rats.  Now I know the true meaning of  ‘you can never be too thin’.  It refers to how much weight  is in the RV.  The RV can only handle so many pounds safely, and the truck can only tow so many pounds safely, and the car can only weigh so many pounds safely.  

In about 8 days, (actually on Oct 7), we’ll begin our journey.  Our first stop will be the CAT scales at the truck stop to see if we made weight or have to purge once again.  

Until then, be safe & healthy!