Ouch!

Ouch, ouch, ouch!  That’s what I’ve got to say about our truck repair bill.

We’ve been debating over the last year or so whether we should get a new truck or pay for the maintenance our current truck was going to need.  We have a 1999 GMC 2500 Heavy Duty pick up truck with only a little over 60,000 miles on it.  We have used it almost exclusively for towing.

When we purchased our new camper in 2008, we knew we were at our weight limit with our current truck.  Kevin is a GM man.  The problem was that even the 3500 trucks didn’t have much more weight capacity than the truck we currently have.  The 2011 GM diesel truck has been revamped and has a much greater towing capacity. 

We were hesitant to purchase a new 2011 for two reasons.  New models sometimes have bugs to be worked out, and GM is not offering any decent rebates or incentives for their larger trucks.

So, we decided to keep the truck we have and do all necessary maintenance before we head west. That included four new tires, brakes and rotors, new spark plugs and filters and all the other tune up type stuff. 

Kevin was a service consultant at a GM dealer in his former life.  Even after a nice discount at his former work place, our bill was still $1,700.  OUCH!

I’ve been keeping very close track of our spending since we began fulltiming to try and figure out what our average monthly expenses will be.  So far, every month has had some large expense.  The first two months we had to buy items for the camper.  Last month was airline tickets for our boys to visit at Christmas, this month a large truck repair bill. 

I guess all those items have to be factored into the budget.  It will be interesting to see how our budget numbers look after a year.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

A Bad Day at Golf …

A bad day at golf is better than a good day at work.  That’s what Kevin said on Monday after our weekly round of golf.  He had a rough day.  I played my usual round of golf.  Some very good holes; some very bad holes.  Some beautiful shots; some terrible shots.  We still had a good time.  It was a good sign that we could laugh at ourselves at the end of the round.

We had an inch of rain last night.  The first thing I did this morning was check the floor next to the bed in the bedroom slide to see if the floor was wet.  Yippee, it was dry!  Next, I checked the window in the front slide next to the dinette.  The carpet was quite soaked :(   So, one leak seems to be fixed; the other still leaking.  The leak did seem to be better than before.  There was not as much water as we used to have.  But, there should be no water inside when it rains!!!!

Since we hadn’t heard from the dealer or factory regarding our bedroom slide repair, Kevin gave them a call today.  Of course, they blamed each other as to why we hadn’t gotten a call.  We are supposed to be getting a call from Roger at Jayco within the next 2 days to set up our appointment for service at the factory.  I will not be leaving their lot until they prove to me we no longer have a leak, and our bedroom slide is working properly!

Today my mom and her friend Richard came for a last visit before we leave.  Aren’t they a cute couple :)  My dad passed away four years ago.  I’m so happy for my mom that she has found such a great guy to spend time with.  We went to dinner at a diner in town called Apple Tree Family Restaurant.  We chose this place because the parking lot is always packed when we drive by around lunch time.  I figured the locals know a good place.  The prices were very reasonable, but the food was very average.  Oh well; we didn’t leave hungry :)

We received some good news today.  We were told that Dodge County will hire us next summer for a 24 hour a week park attendant position at Derge County Park in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.  We’re not sure where we’ll be camphosting yet.  If the camphosts at Derge don’t come back, we’ll be there.  That would be the ideal situation.  However, if they come back, we’ll be at Astico again next summer.  It’s about a 10 mile drive to Derge so we would just commute to do the job.  It’s lawn mowing, weed whacking and bathroom cleaning.  At least we know we’ll have a camphosting position and some income.

Today was the first day of school for most Wisconsin schools.  I was a school secretary in my former life, so I did some reflecting today.  No forms to process; no schedules to change; no parents to deal with; no crabby co-workers to tolerate!  I do not miss that life at all.  I’m so very happy we made this decision.  

I don’t miss my old life one bit.  There is only one thing I miss from our house.  It’s the dishwasher.  I’m fine doing laundry at the laundromat, but I sure miss the dishwasher.  I’ve heard some RVs are not being build with them, so that is on my wish list for the next camper :)

Kevin has subscribed to satellite radio.  He wanted to be able to hear all the Packer and Brewer games.  He’s been having fun today playing around with it.  He likes his new toy!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Bite Free – Almost!

For the past three mornings we have been able to take our daily walk without using bug spray!  I’ve had a few bites each morning, but nothing I can’t deal with.  It’s so nice to not have to lather up with greasy bug spray each day!!

I’m thinking I need to take my camera with me wherever I go.  You just never know what you will encounter.  Although, I think you will be glad I didn’t have it with me this morning.  I saw the oddest thing on our walk.  There was a pair of men’s dirty tidy whities hanging from a tree branch along the trail.  They were pretty high up in the tree.  Makes you wonder how they got up there :)  I’m guessing there may have been some alcohol involved!

The weather has been delightful this weekend.  The campground is about 1/3 occupied.  We had a steady business of boat rentals.  Today is predicted to be back near 90 degrees with higher dew points.  It appears summer does not want to end.  At least it hasn’t rained much this month!

I had a question asking whether we got to tour the factory at Jelly Belly.  Our tour was around the warehouse.  They put you on a tram that stopped around various locations in the warehouse. Video screens told the story of the company and how the candy is made.  There were some displays of items used to make the candy, as well as memorabilia type items.   I believe the actual factory is in California, and the Wisconsin location is a warehouse only.  

Jelly beans that don’t meet quality control standards are called “belly flops”.  These are sold at a discount in the store.  Unfortunately, the day we visited the belly flops weren’t of a variety we liked.  I guess that was good for our budget.

The store had a sampling bar, but they only gave you one bean per sample.  It was kind of hard to get much of a taste with one small bean.  They also make candy corn, taffy, gummi candies, soda, and different types of chocolates.  I liked the taffy better than the jelly beans.  My favorite taffy was strawberry cheesecake.  When the company originally started, they only made candy corn.

On Friday morning the DirecTV repairman came and fixed our satellite TV.  When the dish fell over during the storm, it bent the actual dish.  It didn’t appear bent, but when the repairman showed us the bent dish next to a new one, the bent dish was off by about 4 inches.  It is up and running again, and all is well.  It did cost us $50 for the service call.  Kevin had hung two milk jugs full of water from it when he set it up, but didn’t stake it because we were only there for the weekend.  He thought the weight would be enough.  Lesson learned is always stake it down!

We’re still waiting to hear from Jayco regarding repairing our bedroom slide.  We’re hoping we don’t have to go to Indiana, and they’ll let the dealer in Wisconsin do the job.

On Friday we had a conversation with our boss regarding next summer.  They definitely would like us to come back.  I explained to him that we enjoyed the camphosting, but we also need to earn some income.  There is a possibility they may have something available for us in which we can camphost and work part-time earning some income.  I’m hoping it will work out!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

More Work Needed

We survived the night at the motel.  We chose to stay at a Knights Inn because it was only $50 a night, and was the least expensive place we could find near the RV dealer.  It seemed like an OK place.  Nothing fancy, but clean and would meet our needs just fine.  After all the news about bedbugs lately, I checked the mattress carefully.  No sign of any nasty bedbugs :)

At 2:30 a.m. there was a racquet outside as a number of young people came past our door.  It sounded like they were a few rooms down from us.  When they were in their room, I couldn’t hear them.  Unfortunately, some of them decided not to stay in the room.  A group of young men congregated at the end of the building 2 doors down from us. 

They spent about half an hour talking very loudly about people getting shot and spending time in jail even though they were innocent.  Every other word was f… or mother f…  I wanted to call the front desk or the police, but Kevin said let it go.  Finally, they went away, and I thought we were done.  I fell back asleep.  At 4:00 a.m. they were back.  Someone knocked on our door and tried to put a key in the door.  There was much laughing and carrying on and then I heard a bunch of cars drive off.  That was the end of it.  People can be so rude!!!

At the ball game the night before, there were four young men sitting behind us who also had a very limited vocabulary using the same f… and mother f… words.  No wonder many older people think all young people are hooligans.  I was pretty disgusted with the behaviors I witnessed.

This morning we got a call that our camper would be ready about 11:00 a.m.  The technician stayed until 11:00 p.m. last night to make sure he would get it fixed.  When we arrived to pick it up, we got some more bad news.

It appears our bedroom slide was installed completely wrong.  They used the wrong brackets and it is sitting too low.  When we slide it in, it rubs against the track and is causing the gasket to get all torn up.  The technician did attach the wall to the floor so we shouldn’t have any more water getting in.

They told us we would have to come back once Jayco determined what needed to be done to make our bedroom slide right.  This afternoon we got a call telling us Jayco now wants us to bring it to the factory in Indiana to get it fixed.

Since we’re headed to Colorado when we leave here, that would be quite an inconvenience for us.  If we have to, we’ll do it.  Believe me, Jayco will be getting an ear full from me.  I fully expect they will be paying for our gas and any other expenses we may have.

The technician told us that he’s been seeing more of this poor workmanship on all RVs.  With the economy being so poor, RV manufacturers have had to cut back on labor as well as quality.  He said it’s not just Jayco.  They’re all having problems.  What a shame.  We’ve been loyal Jayco owners since 1981.  I am really disappointed and frustrated. 

On a positive note, we do have a 2 year warranty.  Most other RVs only have a 1 year.  And, Jayco has been very good about fixing all of our problems.  It’s just so unfortunate we had to have the problems in the first place.

Tomorrow the DirecTV repairman comes.  I’m really hoping he can get the satellite working again.  Kevin couldn’t watch the Packer game tonight because it’s on ESPN; no local TV coverage.  This man needs his football :)

I expected our new life to be full of adventures.  These were not the type I was expecting.  I’m looking forward to the other types of adventures soon!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Warranty Day

I’m writing to you tonight from a motel room in Racine, Wisconsin.  Does that tell you how our day at the RV dealer went?

Several times this summer we have had water leak into the camper in two different places; in the bedroom slide and in the big slide with the dinette and couch.  It doesn’t happen every time it rains, but the floor has been soaked a few times when it rained heavily.

Our warranty expires at the end of October so we really wanted to get this taken care of before we leave in a few weeks.  We also had to have our awning fabric replaced as it developed a tear in early June.  It took some doing to get the awning fabric ordered and schedule an appointment.  I’ve been working on getting this appointment since June. 

When I called yesterday to confirm, the service advisor told me she only had us down to replace the awning fabric, and they wouldn’t have time to look at the windows.  I called back and asked for the service manager.  After explaining my situation, he assured me they would look at our windows and see if they could figure out where the leaks were coming from and hopefully fix them.

We were there when they opened.  At 2:00 pm we got a call asking us if we had a place we could stay tonight.  The good news was that the dinette window leak was fixed.  The factory had installed the sealing strip incorrectly.  It had “rolled over” and water was getting in.  They took out the window and replaced all sealing strips and sealed it shut.  The awning fabric was also being replaced.

The problem came in the bedroom.  When the camper was built, the factory didn’t attach the slide wall to the floor on one side.  That’s where water was leaking in.  In order to fix it, they have to pull the entire slide out and remove the bed.  The factory couldn’t tell them how to get the bed out.  What’s up with that!  Glenn, the technician, told us he would figure it out and would make sure it was properly fixed and better than new.  The job was estimated to take 6 to 8 hours.  So, here we are in a motel room.  They expect to have it done by tomorrow afternoon.

We’re fortunate our camp host employers are so understanding.  They were very gracious about our being gone most of this week getting this taken care of.  I just hope it will all be fixed properly, and we are done dealing with it!

In other news, the weather has been absolutely perfect the last few days.  Highs between 75 and 80 with low humidity and sunshine.

We had tickets for a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game last night.  We went with our son, Eric, and his friend.  We had a very nice time even though the team lost.  It hasn’t been a very good year for them. 

For many years Kevin and Eric had a 20 game season ticket package.  This is the first year they didn’t renew.  The tickets last night were free from the club as an incentive to try to get them to buy season tickets next year.  In this new life, that’s one thing Kevin has let go.  We don’t know where we’ll be next summer.

Yesterday we found a path at the campground that led to Lake Michigan.  It was a nice walk with a beautiful view.

While we were waiting for the camper to be repaired today, we went on a tour at the Jelly Belly Factory.  Jelly Belly’s are gourmet jelly beans.  The tour was free, and it was interesting to learn how they make the candy.  Of course, the free samples at the end were fantastic.  I forgot my memory card for the camera, so the picture I took is in the internal memory of the camera.  The cord is in the camper so no picture tonight.  We didn’t buy anything.  $9 a pound for candy isn’t in our budget :)

Hopefully, tomorrow brings some very good news about the camper.  Then, its on to the task of getting the satellite dish fixed.  We have an appointment with DirecTV to come out Friday morning and take a look.

All of this still beats going to work :)

Hope everyone is enjoying the fabulous full moon tonight!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Quite a Storm

Welcome new followers Randy and Pam!  Also, thanks for the many birthday wishes and the comments regarding my magic mushroom post.  You made me laugh!!  I was in grade school in the 60s so am not familiar with those types of mushrooms :)

Last week, we had two wonderful days of visiting with our son, Korey, and his girlfriend, Cathryn.  On Thursday the four of us played 9 holes of golf.  Cathryn has just started playing this year, and she did great.  The rest of us didn’t have the best of rounds.  I blame it on the heat and humidity. 

That night we had dinner at my mom’s house with the rest of the family.  It was a great day.  I haven’t had my boys together since April.  A mom can’t ask for much more :)

On Friday we headed to Lakeview Campground in Chilton, Wisconsin to camp with our camping club.  The campground is near Lake Winnebago and has some very nice views.

There are two camping sections.  One is in the woods, and the other is wide open.  Many of the sites in the woods would be very difficult to get into, and the roads in there are not very wide.  Our group of 15 units were camped in the wide open area.  This is a new area.  They have planted some trees, so in about ten years it should be a very nice camping area.  For a private campground, the sites were quite spacious. 

They had 50 amp service with water, but no sewer.  The cost was $31 a night.  We’re the 2nd from the left.  There was a very nice office building with a small restaurant attached.  I heard the fish fry was very good.  There was also a nice pool behind the office.

On Friday afternoon, a group of us were sitting around enjoying a cocktail before dinner.  We knew there was a possibility of some thunderstorms, but we weren’t expecting what came next.  There were some dark clouds overhead, no rain, no thunder, no lightening.  Within seconds, the strongest winds I have ever encountered were upon us.  Everything was flying.  Awnings were standing straight up in the air.  We later heard on the news that these were 50 to 70 MPH straight line winds.

Kevin and I ran to our awning.  We have an electric awning so it does not get staked down.  It was literally straight up in the air and possibly over the top of the roof.  It happened so quickly, I’m not sure how far back it went.  Kevin grabbed onto the arm next to the door, and I ran inside and began pushing the button.  We were able to get it rolled up without any damage.  The literature for the awning says it can withstand up to 50 MPH winds.  We now have proof that they are telling the truth!

Next, we ran to our neighbor.  He also had an electric awning.  He was alone, and couldn’t get it rolled up.  He was literally hanging from the middle of it.  He and Kevin grabbed the arms, and I pushed the button.  We also got his rolled up without any damage.  Every camper was able to get their awnings up without damage.  It was truly a miracle.  As we were running around finding the stuff that had blown away; windsocks, flags, tablecloths, etc, the heavy rains came.  We lost power for about four hours.

We were actually very lucky.  There were a number of nearby areas in Wisconsin that had severe damage and flooding, including one tornado.

We did suffer a casualty, however.  Kevin had set up our satellite dish so he could tape the Packer game Friday night.  The wind knocked it over, even though he had 20 pounds of weight attached to the tripod.  Now it doesn’t work.  Luckily, we purchased the extended warranty for it.

Sunday afternoon we headed to Cliffside County Park in Racine, Wisconsin.  We are staying here because it is close to Burlington RV where we have an appointment for warranty service on Wednesday.  This is a very nice county park with water and electric sites.  Some sites are 30 amp and some 50.  The sites have many nice mature trees for shade, but it’s not so shaded that it feels dark all the time.  The cost is $23 a night.

We ran some errands today.  While we were out, we drove along the shore of Lake Michigan for a while.  There sure are some beautiful views.  I forgot my camera so no pictures.

I’ve noticed something that is kind of sad.  Both Milwaukee and Racine have serious problems with crime.  Each city has this beautiful natural resource called Lake Michigan.  As you drive along the lake in both cities, you see huge, expensive homes.  In parts of both cities, just a mile or so inland, the neighborhoods become run down and dangerous.  Crime, drugs, murders are every day occurrences.  These parts of the city are dangerous to drive through to get to the lake.

I’ve lived within 20 miles of Milwaukee and the lake all my life.  We rarely went there because it just didn’t seem like a safe place to go.  What a shame!!!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Mushroom Magic

With all the rain, heat and humidity this summer, I have noticed some very unusual mushrooms growing in the park. 

A few days ago, this one was a very orange color.  I had forgotten my camera that day.  When I finally remembered to bring it, the mushroom didn’t look quite as magical anymore.  I still think it’s a very interested specimen.  I’ve never seen one like this.

These look like fuzzy stones to me.  The first one is older and looks like it is turning into a petrified rock.  The second one appears to be fuzzy on the top.  These little finds get me all excited:)

On another note, we finally have a working DVD player again.  A few weeks ago I told you how ours wasn’t working anymore.  Our camper is still under warranty, so I contacted the dealer.  Jayco is no longer using our type of DVD player, so they offered us up to $200 to find our own replacement. 

This was easier said than done.  The problem was that it is the surround sound receiver as well as a DVD player.  We went to several retailers and couldn’t find one that would work.  We tried Camping World with no luck.  Kevin did all kinds of research online and finally found an RCA model that he thought would work.  It turns out Wal-Mart sold them online.  We ordered it, and Kevin installed it today.  It took a few hours, plus a trip to Radio Shack for different cables; but it works!!!  My husband is a genius.  I have no idea how he figured out how to get it all to work.

Today was my birthday, and I had a great day doing not much of anything.  We did go to Dairy Queen yesterday for my free birthday Blizzard and Culver’s today for my free birthday sundae.  I love the internet.  All these places sending out coupons. 

I’m looking forward to Korey and Cathryn coming tomorrow and dinner at my mom’s on Thursday with my whole family!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!