Camping? Emergencies..?

Just like Al up in Canada, my Freightliner shop along the interstate in Olathe, Ks is there for the truckers that break down on the road....  And they don't see us RVers as anything even worthy of requesting service...

The labor rate for trucks is $114.50 but if you have an RV.... suddenly it becomes $142.50 an hour....  Do you think they want to discourage us campers....??  At least that was what I was referred to...

So no my coach hadn't been worked upon even after being there a week and with the parts that came in in just a couple of days....  Not an emergency..

So I had to explain that it was mothers day and that we were going to the park, and I would be coming to get the rig  no matter what... Done or not....

See it was partly my fault, because I was nice, and said I didn't need the motorhome instantly the next day, and pitch a total *itch about it...  But those broken trucks... now they are real emergencies, you know...

So on Thursday I declared that I was now an Emergency....!  Still it was Friday noon...  And $1,250 later, for a $450 part from Freightliner, before I was out of there......

So I had to rush like crazy tossing stuff like food and toiletries and some of my clothes....  I am making a list right now to go into town and get the rest from Wal Mart...

We are in the State Park at Melvern Lake South of KC about 80 miles...  We had a campfire last night an I actually drank one beer....  Of course that is completely off the Doctor's list with my medications so I figured if I died in the middle of the night at least it wouldn't kill anyone else...

Its spring like out here in the state park with the trees leaving out and the wind off of the lake cool and fresh....  Its actually hot enough that I am running the AC....  Well sort of.. Only 1 AC..

I have 30 amps and water on a very un level camp site...  The front wheels are up on oodles of plastic ramps and even some wood planking..  And still the egg yoke ran all down to the corner of my plate with breakfast..

Retired Rod

Fatboy's Lunch...... LOL

We went for lunch up in Kearney, Missouri yesterday.... That is straight up I 35 thru downtown KC... By the time you get to Kearney you are well on your way into the country again.... It was about 50 miles up there...

Our fearless leader was taking pictures and managed to grab this one of me and some friends.... The goldwing is behind me with the yellow jacket over its windshield..

Here I am again in the dark shirt over in the corner... Head down working on a plate of wonderful lunch........  A big violation on diabetic eating.....!

This is a breaded pork tenderloin served hot beef style with mashed and a barrel full of chicken gravy..........  Makes me hungry all over again....

That makes riding 50 miles each way thru the heart of the city seem like a small price to pay....    Oh and it was the special of the day, so it was $6.49...  Ya gotta love Missouri....  Web site with all of the pictures... 

Be sure and see the pictures of the baby Budweiser Clydesdales and the Warm Springs barn down near the bottom of the Romeo web site....  There are hundreds of pictures linked on the above web site as they rode to all four corners of Missouri on a six day tour...  Then the Clydesdales on Sunday...

The rest of the time its work work work around here....  This morning it was the lawn again..... I just mowed it 6 days ago, but in the spring with rain all the time that's about how long you can go... Also we are to head back into a rainy period starting tomorrow morning....

If you don't time the mowings right, it will be too wet to mow for the rest of the week, and then when it dries out we'll be making hay again....

Retired Rod

Hiding at the Lake..

I didn't totally disappear, I am hiding out down at the Lake of the Ozarks...  I drove down here on Friday after spending most of the morning in the DMV...

Most of you have read my on going love for the Kansas DMV in Johnson county....  The office in Olathe is one of the worst offenders...  I only had to re license the utility trailer, but it comes due in February and I am in Arizona then....

So that causes me to resort to going in as the mail in time is expired....  Of course I had been putting this off because I knew how bad it always is...  And it didn't disappoint me this year either...  It was over a two hour wait..  When I checked in online they said 40 minutes so I messed around and went for a truck wash and errands....  But 40 minutes turned into an hour and 40 minutes...  For a $47 sticker to put on the license plate...

I then stopped by the Freightliner Shop to look into my worst fears....  As I mentioned before, my check engine light has come on intermittently giving an error for EGR valve....  I really don't care if I do a little polluting...  So I drive on....Its a diesel and has the fancy afterburner muffler, but that isn't enough...

And my worst fears have been realized... A new EGR valve is on order....  And will cost thousands to replace...  Rving has become a tad more expensive this month....

So hiding at the lake cabin seemed in order....  But then this place hasn't been used all winter, so today and several of the next few days will be spent in a domestic mode...  I'm still cleaning up after last Labor Day's holiday...  Normally we would have returned in September to catch up on house cleaning and the orderly closing of the cabin...  But with Loyce's unexpected passing, this place went to full stop..

I had to deal with the vacuum grave yard today..  It seems that every old or unused machine that we have had in the last 20 years has ended up down here.... And as I tried to resurrect  one of them into a working machine things went from bad to worse...  They were all worn out....  So a trip to Wal Mart was in order...

So Biscuit has another brand new Hoover upright machine of terror..  When I brought in the big box she came excitedly to see the new toy...  And it came out of the box in pieces, so she didn't recognize what it was right off....  But as I put on the handle and the cleaning canister, it became another noisy cleaning monster...  And no I didn't bring the Roomba down here...  We need serious cleaning, beyond Roomba's ability..  Biscuit hid in the bedroom for most of the afternoon to get away from the terror...

Maybe I can get started on the leaves outside tomorrow......  Oh Joy...

Retired Rod

Towing the Honda home....

When I arrived at the Wichita airport, I had thought about pulling the CRV with the Jeep for the entire day and had worked myself up into some worry that things wouldn't work out right.....

Why do we do that in our mind...?

Mainly what I was worried about was airport security...  Would they actually let me hook things together along the road way...?  There is a cell phone parking lot along the air freight building that is head in angled parking...

So as I arrived, I parked there and sat in the car for a while just to see if anyone was checking on things....   The sign clearly was marked no unattended vehicles...

No one seemed to pay any attention to me, and there were only a couple more folks in the lot...  So I abruptly got out of the Jeep and walked away...  It was only about a block over to the dead storage lot and I walked there quickly....

The lot has no attendant, only a machine that you put your parking card in an then your credit card....  If it doesn't go thru for some reason, the gate won't open...  But I got out without a hitch...

So then I parked the Honda next to the Jeep...  Still no one checking the lot for unattended vehicles...  Security did drive thru but went right past without even a look see....

Since they had just gone by, I jumped out and installed the tow bar from the Honda on the back of the Jeep...  Then I pulled the Jeep out crossways to the parking stalls...    It took me a couple of tries, but eventually the Honda was lined up and the pins were in the tow bar arms...  Still no security people...

After hooking up the safety cables and the light wires, I put the car in neutral and killed the engine... I always check for certain that the key lock  on the steering column is not locked and that the wheels are free to turn from side to side...

I have read stories about folks that have left their cars in gear, forcing the engine to run even though it isn't turned on....  Or dragging the steering around corners when the wheel is locked in the straight position...  Both of these mistakes are costly in repairs...

I had to pull the car thru the departure lane in front of the airport terminal because the short cut thru the parking lot was blocked off with construction... But this allowed me to watch the front tires as they turned to follow the Jeep...  You can't see that happening when its behind the motorhome...

I went directly thru downtown Wichita on US 54...  I was going slow trying to get the feel of this lash up....  It wasn't the best...

I got onto the turnpike for KC, but only drove the 40 mph minimum for a while as the wind was blowing me all over the place...  Eventually I settled on 55 with the cruise control...

The Honda weighs 3400 pounds, and the Jeep about 4200.... And the Jeep isn't enough heavier that it pulls the car very well...  And with the wind whipping the Honda around in 40 MPH gusts, I had my hands full...  It didn't make for a pleasant driving experience.... The Jeeps new pentistar engine had no trouble with power, and never slowed down any on the hills....

I had to be really careful not to fish tail the car as it would oscillate back and forth with the play in the tow bar...   With the motorhome the car has no choice but to follow, as it doesn't effect the steering of the motorhome...  But it did sway the back end of the Jeep...  It was a long 200 miles back to the house in Overland Park...

And as I arrived here, we were having a torrential rain squall.    We got an inch and a half of rain in less than half an hour...

Needless to say, I sat in somewhat of a stupor as I enjoyed my recliner for the rest of the evening........