Spring 2024 Travel Recap

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We left the Rio Grande Valley in Texas on March 3rd and arrived in Arlington Washington on March 21st. How’s that for a recap? JK

As usual, it was an interesting trip. We covered about 2700 miles without any truck problems or RV suspension problems. That visit to the trailer repair shop in Houston TX has paid off. I’m just now getting to the point where I’m not looking at each vehicle that passes us, checking to see if they’re pointing at something wrong behind me.

That’s not to say we didn’t have any issues at all. Our first stop was at an Army RV park in San Antonio. We’ve stayed there before. They have nice concrete pads and I’d planned on rotating the truck tires there instead of the gravel pad we had in the RGV. Apparently the truck tires are getting heavier or I’m getting older. That little task took a lot out of me and decided to extend our stay one extra night to rest a little more. When we left the RGV, I also noticed that the slide topper on the kitchen slide wasn’t rolling up smoothly when bringing in the slide. That’s the one that I recently replaced and pinned it incorrectly so the internal springs released all their tension. Carefree of Colorado has instructions on their website about how to re-tension the springs and I followed those to the letter but it wasn’t enough.

I’d been thinking about buying another taller ladder for some time so I took advantage of the extra day to do just that. I used my military discount at Lowe’s to get a 10 foot ladder ($25 off) and added an extra turn on the tension. It was a real pain with the topper still installed. And it turns out that wasn’t enough. So, I’ll remove the topper entirely over the summer and do it again from scratch. On the brighter side. the new ladder travels well on the truck racks that used to carry kayaks.

We continued westward with a couple of 1 night stays until we got to Tucson. I had planned 2 nights there before heading to Quartzsite but those plans quickly changed. We were only able to get a dry camp site. No power, no water, no sewer. I filled up the freshwater tank at their dump station and we started setting up on the site. I dragged our new generator out and got it fired up and connected. Mary started putting out the slides and we heard a terrible noise coming from the big living room slide. I’ve never heard that sound before but I’ve read countless posts on FB groups that told me it was most likely the gearbox. At that point it was Friday afternoon and I was tired and not looking forward to that repair, even though I had a spare gearbox and the proper tools. Mary started calling mobile RV repair shops. Besides the normal problems getting a tech quickly, we were once again on a military base. Some companies will not take calls on a military base simply because it’s a hassle for civilians to get cleared onto the base. The earliest appointment we could get was Tuesday morning. We agreed to that and told them we’d cancel if I got the work done prior to that. The next day we ran into a couple who had seen us in San Antonio a few days prior and the husband helped me get the slide fully extended. That was basically the 2 guys throwing themselves at the ends of the slideout while Mary held the ‘extend’ button. A few hours later I had the motor and gearbox replaced, the cables adjusted properly and the slideout operating normally. Again, I felt the effects of old age and extended our stay by 2 nights. Fortunately, our freshwater lasted the entire time. That was certainly helped by me taking showers in the nearby bath house.

It was a fairly short driving day from there to Quartzsite AZ. The plan was to stay in an RV park in town and just drive the truck into the desert to check on BLM camping sites. All of that happened as advertised. BLM camping in Quartzsite was an interesting sight. Everything from million dollar Prevost busses to tents and everything in between. We got the lay of the land and talked to a few people to figure out how they did things for an extended stay. We could’ve done it for a few nights but I’m not sure nearby campers would’ve appreciated our generator running 16 hours a day. Most folks who stay long term have solar panels and just use their gennys on cloudy days. We headed back into town for the RV park with all the amenities. And I realized that I had goofed on the reservations for our next stay at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas. They couldn’t change the reservation so we had to extend one more night in Q.

One of the reasons I picked this particular RV park in Q was because they are in the Passport America network. That’s a nationwide discount camping club. The participating parks all have their own conditions for using the discount. In this case, you could only use it for a 2 night stay, which is what I’d reserved. Now I needed to get one more night at their standard rate. Not a big deal except this park had a very strange policy. All the sites had an electric meter and you typically see those used for monthly stays. This park’s policy was that electric was include in your rate for a maximum of 2 days and if you stayed longer than that you would be charged for actual usage starting on your first day. When I booked the third night in the office, the lady explained all this. I told her I understood but it was the only time I’d seen a policy like that in 18 years of RVing all across the country. I saw their maintenance guy take the reading mid afternoon the day before we left. They were supposed to charge my card after we left for the actual usage but never got around to it.

In Las Vegas we were woken up in the middle of the night by the propane/carbon monoxide detector going off. It had reached the end of its useful life and was beeping to let us know. We were there on the weekend and I couldn’t find a nearby RV dealer with the correct replacement so I cut one of the wires to silence it for the rest of the trip. On our arrival in WA, I ordered a new one from Amazon and had it the next day.

Somewhere between NV and WA we also had a problem with our drop down lights over the dinette table (something like this https://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Pendent-Brushed-Decorative-Dinette/dp/B073RQM81C/ref=asc_df_B073RQM81C/ ) One of them had come loose while traveling and swung into the other one, shattering the glass. I disconnected the one that came loose and stowed it in the truck for the remainder of the trip. After arrival in WA, I removed the one with the shattered glass and used a part from it to reinstall the other light. We’ll go light shopping at some point in the near future.

But wait! There’s more! When we stopped for the night at a Love’s RV Stop in Bliss ID, the bedroom slide started making noises. They didn’t sound exactly like the noises from the living room slide but were still concerning. The next morning I moved a picnic table under the bedroom slide and pushed on it while Mary was hitting the retract button. We got it fully retracted and decided not to use the bedroom slide again until we got to our final destination (only 2 days).

So, on March 21st we pulled into our home for the summer. It’s a fairly small park, but agreeably close to the Amazon fulfillment center where I’ll be working. We’re starting off on a water and electric site until a full hookup site opens up next month. All the slides are out and I have time to figure out the bedroom slide problem. The park has some donated totes which I’ve been using to empty the gray tanks into and pull to the dump station. We’re close enough to the dump station that I decided yesterday to buy a cheap 100 foot hose for dumping the gray tanks. I’ll still have to use the tote for the black tank although I hope to only have to do that chore once before we move.

The ‘eyes’ have it

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Just for reference, I’m writing this article in my late 60s.

Way back when I was a teenaged Airman First Class in the Air Force I underwent an eye exam as part of my annual physical. I already knew I was partially color blind but this time they wrote a prescription because my distance vision was just slightly sub-par. Within a week I was issued a pair of Air Force issue spectacles, fondly nicknamed ‘birth control glasses’. I tried them on once, didn’t notice any real difference in my vision and tossed them in a drawer, never to be worn again.

For the rest of my time in the service, they never tried to give me another pair. Whatever state I was stationed in, I passed the DMV vision test without problem. I also qualified on a few different firearms without the use of corrective lenses. After my service time, I started working in the computer field and that’s when my vision finally got bad enough to get my attention.

At first, it was just near vision that I could easily correct with readers from WalMart. I routinely kept a pair at my workstation but otherwise didn’t need them. After getting out of computers and into workamping I came to rely on them more. While working as a piler operator at the sugar beet harvest I needed to carry a pair with me just to read numbers off a machine operating time counter at the beginning and end of every shift. When working for Amazon, the readers came in very handy to read the fine print on my hand held scanner. At this point I still didn’t think my distance vision was too bad although I could tell it was getting a little worse.

During my last stint with Amazon I was a traditional employee instead of a CamperForce seasonal temp. I still only planned on working for about 3 months so during new hire orientation I signed up for the vision insurance. I found a local optometrist and almost walked out of the exam room in the first two minutes. My distance vision was much worse than I expected and seeing blurry letters was not comforting. I got my new prescription and found an eyeglass store covered by my insurance. I was pleasantly surprised that I could choose from any frames in the store and progressive lenses were covered for 2 pair. I got one clear pair and one pair of sunglasses – and almost immediately regretted it. Several people told me that it would take awhile to get used to the progressives. Well, I gave it a few months and never did like them, mostly because of the intermediate parts of the lenses.

By now, I was convinced that I needed to wear corrective lenses but I no longer had vision insurance so I started looking for stores with deals. I found one with a BOGO in effect and got two pair of lined bifocals, both clear, one with slightly more area for distance. I wore those for a few weeks and still had problems with my eyes drifting into the wrong area. Back to the store, hopefully for the final time. I still had my readers scattered around the RV so I opted for single vision (distance) glasses, clear and sunglasses. I’ve been much happier with those. I’ll hang onto the bifocals just in case I work at an Amazon warehouse in the future where I use a scanner.

Paging Dr. Google

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Reliable, quality health care and RVing don’t often go hand in hand. Health care can be tough even if you’re in a ‘normal’ life situation: living in one place and getting health care from your employer. Factor in the different ways people RV and it gets much trickier.

Let’s start with the (relatively) easy ones. There are fulltime RVers on Medicare, or working remotely with company health insurance, who keep their primary care providers. They either don’t wander far or plan their travels to swing through their home base for scheduled and routine appointments. Sure, they have to worry about something happening away from home but other than that they have one doctor who is a known quantity and they are a known quantity with the doctor. Now let’s visit the other end of the spectrum.

It seems like the fulltime RVing life has become more popular to younger people in recent years. I see them all the time in the workamping groups. Many are families with young children. They think life will pass them by if they don’t do it now. Or they have terrible jobs. Or high house payments. Or they’re just getting out of a terrible relationship. Take your pick for the reason, but they’re out there. Usually with no health care or, at best, catastrophic coverage. This would terrify me, especially with children. They’re basically rolling the dice, hoping that everyone stays healthy, hoping that there are no undetected conditions lurking inside. Their medical plan is basically whatever emergency room happens to be closest when illness or injury strikes. This is also the group most likely to declare medical bankruptcy or start a Go Fund Me page to pay for a necessary procedure or medications.

Now let’s talk about my group, the ones in the middle. We have decent health insurance with national coverage but no home base and no primary care provider. It used to be pretty easy visiting a new doctor. Prior surgeries? One or two. Medications? One. As I age, the list of both gets longer and I realize that the doctor is at a definite disadvantage not knowing my medical history. But sometimes that doesn’t really matter. Finding a good doctor can be tough. Imagine landing in a city with 500 doctors and you don’t know a single one. You can ask your neighbors and they’ll recommend someone, say they’re the greatest, without any knowledge of the other doctors. You can check Google reviews but the same applies there. It’s mostly folks who only have experience with the one doctor they’re rating. All this is leading up to my latest medical rant.

Mary needed reconstructive foot surgery. We checked with neighbors for recommendations. She checked Google reviews for specialists who accepted her insurance. She went in and had the surgery. I guess time will tell how successful it was but during that process I developed a foot problem and made an appointment with the same doctor. My problem was not easily diagnosable, even with X-rays. On the first visit he was very confident that all I needed was an insert. On the next visit, when he was going to provide the insert, we talked a little more and he revised his diagnosis. He thought the problem was caused by nerves from 2 very specific spinal discs and suggested I consult my regular doctor. Well, since he was very specific about spinal discs I made an appointment with a chiropractor. They weren’t very confident in his diagnosis but still thought they could help. After 2 appointments, I decided they couldn’t help and were just wasting my time and money (since they weren’t covered by insurance). So, more research and an appointment with a different podiatrist. He took his own X-rays and listened to my description of the problem, along with a physical exam. He actually said some things that made sense to me. My problem started shortly after I left Amazon last summer. While I was working at Amazon I was wearing composite toe shoes and from previous experience wearing them in a warehouse environment, I got a wider width than usual. After leaving there, I went back to wearing my regular width running shoes. He measured my feet and I found out the problem foot was slightly wider than the other foot. Three different doctors – four different opinions. We’ll see if the problem clears up with wider shoes.

So, why the title about Dr. Google? I know the medical community generally frowns on the use of Google to research your own medical issues. But sometimes you get a much better consensus from Google than actually visiting doctors, in much less time and no cost. As a functioning adult I can order labs just about anywhere in the country from Quest Diagnostics. As a travelling RVer, I can get many medications without a prescription and at low cost across the border in MX. Sure, I have to do a little more homework and get follow up labs at some point but that’s usually easier than trying to get a doctor appointment if you’re not already an established patient. Of course, none of this applies to emergency conditions or serious injuries. I really don’t feel like setting and splinting a broken bone on my own. But for everything else, Dr. Google is my first stop.

Who to trust on the Internet?

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There are many subjects that I’m fairly knowledgeable about, and a few that I have a great deal of knowledge about. There are also some subjects that I’m pretty clueless about. Like many others, my first stop for answers is usually the Internet, either Google or a Facebook post. While I’ve gotten some very good answers, there are also some stinkers lurking out there, often cleverly disguised as very authoritative. I’ll give a couple of recent examples I’ve seen.

First, there was a FB post about the dangers of RV travel with the propane on. The accompanying video, however, showed a burning RV parked among other RVs (probably on BLM land in AZ). I immediately disputed the premise of the post since it showed only stationary RVs. One lady actually tried a novel, but stupid, argument. None of the RVs had simply materialized in that spot so you should certainly blame travel. The guy who started the post responded and we traded comments. Along with my common sense and RV experience, I also included a link to a very authoritative article on RV propane systems. To his credit, he read the article and revised his position. He was also preparing a video on RV propane safety and asked permission to include my name in the video as a credit. No prob bro, but I didn’t write the article.

Another post was written by a FB group admin. She was warning people about travel in high wind conditions expected at the time on the east coast. Her sole piece of advice was to ‘tuck in behind a semi’. A few other people pointed out that was a very dangerous practice before I got involved. She merely edited her original post to state that she was NOT advocating tailgating. That wasn’t good enough for me. Reading through some of the other comments, there were other group members who thought she was an authoritative source simply because she was the group admin. I sent her a private message asking her to remove her comment since some people would see only that and take her terrible advice. She declined. So I posted a link (as a comment) to another source that discussed what to do as an RVer during windy conditions. None of their suggestions included tucking in behind a semi. Not surprisingly, she couldn’t let that go so we started trading comments publicly. She asked if I wanted to moderate the group since I apparently had the time. I responded that I really didn’t have the time but thought the topic of saving lives was important enough to make the time for this subject. I fully expected to be booted from the group but was very surprised that she actually removed her post.

I could go on with other examples but I think y’all get the point. Even well intentioned people on the Internet can be wrong, sometimes dead wrong. You need to do your own due diligence, apply some common sense and make up your own mind. Sometimes you should maybe even pay an expert in the field for a professional opinion.

Another Amazon Recap (possibly the last one)

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This one may be lengthy as I try to recap my entire Amazon experience which started in 2012. To quote Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon, “I’m getting too old for this shit.”  On my last shift, during an all too brief lull in the action, the guy across the lane from me asked how I was doing. I replied, honestly, that it was killing me. He responded that he knew exactly how I felt. I looked at him and said “No you don’t. How old are you?”. He actually had to think for a few seconds before he said “27”. When I told him I had 40 years on him, he thought again and said 28. Well, don’t that make all the difference?

I just finished an almost 3-month gig in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee (MQY1), just east of Nashville and had lots of time to reflect on the sum total of my Amazon work. It now covers time spent in 3 different departments – picking, packing and ship dock.

I started as a picker in 2012 in Campbellsville KY (SDF1), a non-robotics facility. That was under a program (since discontinued) called CamperForce. I actually talked to the program manager on the phone before taking the job. The program was very well run at that time. We got actual training, including in lab areas where we could scan products and deal with problems. We had mentors who checked in on us after the official training period ended. Senior staff periodically gathered at the exit doors at end of shift to thank us. It’s the only Amazon Fulfillment Center where I felt like they really wanted me to succeed. In my humble opinion, SDF1 set the gold standard for Amazon jobs.

If you want to work for Amazon now you have to go through the regular hiring process, often referred to as blue badge by former CamperForce workers. They have 2 different websites to search for jobs. If you’re just looking for hourly grunt work, look here: https://hiring.amazon.com/#/  If you’re looking for Operations, IT or Support Engineering, you can look here: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/job_categories/operations-it-support-engineering

Amazon has changed quite a bit in the 11 years since then. At that time, you could request the job and the shift you wanted. Now you’re allowed to select the shift but not the job. All Amazon wants now is a warm body in the spots they need. That would explain why 90 pound weaklings are assigned to physically demanding jobs and weightlifters are put in jobs that only require the ability to count stuff. I worked with one guy in Murfreesboro, TN. He was about my age and had a similar history with Amazon, except he had been a stower at his previous jobs. That time around Amazon forced him to be a picker. Totally different physical requirements (another non-robotic facility) and he quit after only a few weeks.

I don’t know if Jeff Bezos will actually admit this, but the Amazon business model is predicated on an endless supply of unskilled labor. Their turnover rate must be astronomically high. When I onboarded here at MQY1, I was one of five people assigned to ship dock. Within 3 weeks, I was the only one left. IMHO, if Bezos changed his business practice to attract and retain quality people, he could be a trillionaire instead of just a billionaire.

So, after that brief digression, back to working conditions. Ship dock is HARD work, more so if you’re a palletizer. Boxes just fly down chutes all day long and you have to stack them on pallets or in carts. It was tougher still watching younger and fitter people doing less strenuous jobs. Minimal training was provided, mostly along the lines of this is how everything should work. Naturally, things didn’t always work as planned and we had to stop to find someone for help. I was told during orientation for this job that ship dock did not have a rate to meet. It was nice not having people constantly on my back to pick up the pace, but it also allowed slugs to keep their jobs. There weren’t many of them but they sure stuck out like a sore thumb. Then there are the couples. At this location, people are just assigned to general areas and told to move where the work is. This rarely happened with couples. They like to stay close, regardless of the amount of work. I estimate that Amazon got the productivity of 1.25 people for the pay and benefits of 2 people where couples were involved.

One of the things that has been more pronounced in recent years is the difference between classroom Amazon and warehouse Amazon. During the onboarding process, you’ll spend a few days in a classroom learning all about the executive approved way of doing things at Amazon. As soon as you start on the floor you learn that nobody really pays attention to that. A supervisor can be briefing a safety requirement at start of shift, with a dozen violations in plain sight, and just ignore them. The item was briefed; the box was checked. There is zero innovation in the warehouse. Everybody who could possibly make a difference is just keeping his or her head down and playing the game to keep a paycheck.

And speaking of paychecks, that is one of the main reasons to work for Amazon. They do pay well and on time. You can usually get as much overtime as you want (up to 60 total hours/week). I discovered something different this time around as a blue badge employee (instead of CamperForce). I initially hired on as a fulltime employee. The first couple of weeks weren’t too bad but then we had back-to-back mandatory overtime weeks that resulted in strained back muscles. I used up all my PTO and vacation time and swapped a couple of shifts to give it time to heal. The back healed but I was still very leery of injuring it again. I’d seen flyers about switching to Flex Part Time and gave it a shot. Under that program, you’re no longer eligible for benefits or vacation time but that was OK with me. You can work as little as 4 hours a week or as much as 60 hours a week. They advertise the coming week’s available shifts every Friday evening at 6 PM. Pick what you want. Sometimes they even offer increased hourly pay for certain hard to fill shifts. You still work in the same department, or any other department that you’ve been trained in. I did a few easy weeks, then remembered I was here to make money. My final full week was a 60 hour week. The timing was just right since the AC on my truck quit on my last day, so at least I’ll have money to fix that.

And last but not least, I never had a sense of accomplishment with Amazon. No matter how many items I picked, packed, or stacked, there were always more to take care of. At least at the sugar beet harvest, I could see the beet pile grow as we offloaded the constant stream of trucks. If the sugar beet harvest lasted 3 months instead of a few weeks, I would do that every year and take the rest of the year off.

A Very Painful Goodbye

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Back in May of 2007 I became acquainted with a stray cat at a campground in the middle of nowhere South Dakota. That cat came to be known as Dakota and crisscrossed the country several times with me. During her kitten phase, she would bite my toes while I was sleeping. She stopped that after only 2 or 3 flying lessons. During her adult phase, she would fearlessly walk up to strange dogs to introduce herself. She never once caught a squirrel but she never stopped trying. In the first 5th wheel, she would jump on the sink in the bedroom, in the middle of the night, and whine until I turned the cold tap on for her to drink out of. She outlasted 2 wives and a few serious relationships. When it was allowed, she was an outdoor cat, doing what outdoor cats love to do. When I discovered that she’d lost quite a few teeth, she became an indoor cat. Eventually, she even became a lap cat although I didn’t think that would ever happen. She crossed over the rainbow bridge peacefully the afternoon of 7/6/23. I may get another rescue cat in the future but I’m not sure I’ll ever have a better cat.

And last but not least, Dakota the watch cat.

5th Wheel Suspension

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For those of you unfamiliar with heavy 5th wheel trailers, it’s not uncommon for spring hangers and leaf springs to break while you’re traveling. This usually results in an axle getting skewed and tires rubbing together. Since 2006, I’ve had it happen several times and it typically involves a mobile welder on the side of the road, followed by new tires.

I was getting real tired of this so before we left Houston, I found a trailer repair shop to beef up my suspension. They welded in cross members and V clips to avoid future spring hanger failure. While they were doing that, they also noticed some flattened springs and advised me of wear percentage on the brakes. Since I was flush with cash from my Amazon gig, I got new leaf springs and 4 new brake assemblies. I’m certain I got a much better deal than an RV dealer, plus they had all the parts on hand so it was a one day job.

I’ve never been real impressed with the braking on either of my 5th wheels. This guy warned me that it might take about 100 miles for the brakes to reach max effectiveness. Well, we traveled from Houston to the RGV and I didn’t notice much difference. Just before we started our northward spring trip I considered jacking up all the trailer tires and manually adjusting them but somehow that didn’t get done. On the way north, we spent a few nights at a park on a large cement pad. Bingo!

The morning we left I pulled far forward, then backed up quickly and hit the brakes hard. I did this a couple of times, then left the park. Ever since then, the brakes have been golden. So has the rest of the suspension. Over 2000 miles on the new parts/welds and everything is staying right where it’s supposed to be.

Another “exciting” trip

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It was nice leaving the RGV without a strict timetable. I had stops planned for a nice, leisurely drive up to Indiana. Our first stop was just outside Austin TX, checking a new possible winter destination. And that’s where things started to go wrong.

The campground was waaaay off the beaten path. During the last mile of the drive to the gate there was a narrow section of road with trees close on either side, and a pickup truck coming from the other direction. Silly me. I assumed that the trees would’ve been trimmed properly for big RVs. We didn’t feel or hear anything during that 50 yard stretch. After registering at the campground, I stood on their porch and looked down at the RV and thought ‘Why is my antenna upside down and 20 feet back from where it should be?’

We pulled into the site and got set up before I ventured onto the roof. The King Jack antenna would need to be replaced, along with 2 vent caps. Fortunately, the air conditioning shrouds and the exhaust vent covers were all OK. I didn’t see any other damage on the walk around so I felt pretty good that it was so minor and I could do all the repairs. There was an RV dealer nearby that had an antenna but it was much more expensive than what I’d seen online so we lived without live TV for a few days.

On to our next stop for a 2 night stay and I discover another issue. The main awning won’t go out. Oh! The motor cover got torn off by that nasty group of trees and all the wires were disconnected. After looking at it for awhile I could tell something else was missing but was able to connect the power wires and get the awning to extend. Of course, I had to reverse the wires to retract it. Back online for more research and found the missing part. Unfortunately, it wasn’t something typically stocked by RV dealers so that would have to go on the back burner for a few days. But there was one other bonus. As I’m walking around the RV I notice a crack in the corner of the kitchen slideout box. Wonderful! This is the very heavy slide so that’s just not good news.

We decide to keep driving and just extend the kitchen slide partially until repairs can be made. Driving through Arkansas we bypass a planned stop so we can spend an extra day camped on the Mississippi River. Enroute we stop at a Camping World just outside of Little Rock for a replacement antenna. It listed for $199 in the store but at the register I showed them their online advertised price of $140 and they honored that price. We spent 3 nights on the shores of the Mississippi River, watching barges go up and down the river and visiting with one of Mary’s old friends. Oh, and making repairs on the roof. At least the weather was nice while we were there and we found a nearby Dairy Queen.

On to our last stop before visiting family in Indiana. It was a very small RV park in the middle of Illinois and I don’t think they ever decided what kind of park they wanted to be. From the name and size, they were just supposed to be an unattended, overnight, no frills stop. Then they started adding amenities and a rule that you had to change sites after 2 weeks. Either way, it was convenient.

We made it to Cedar Lake IN the next day. This would be a water/electric site for a week but a very short drive to visit Mom and sis so we dealt with the shower house. First stop was for Chicago hot dogs. Man they tasted good after so long without. Italian beef sandwiches and gyros were a couple of days later. It was also time to make reservations at https://shipshewanatradingplace.com/rv I’d visited them a few years ago with slide cable issues and they fixed me up right on my site. This time I was already thinking something more catastrophic that would require us to drop the RV off for weeks.

We arrived at Shipshewana and the RV tech came out to look at the crack before we parked. Remarkably, he remembered me from my previous visit. Not my name, but my face and the problem. He thought it was more cosmetic than structural but also noticed a broken cable. OK, I thought, I’ve replaced those myself. We got setup on the site with 2 slides extended and I got a better look at the broken cable, and the wall around it. At that point I was back to thinking major, very expensive repair. Stopped at the office and their service schedule was booked out at least a couple of weeks. I couldn’t stay on my site that long due to previous bookings for Memorial Day and rallies. They talked to the tech again and he came to the site for another look. It was bad but not catastrophic. He could come out after hours (Friday) and start reinforcing that corner. Whew! We started running into problems with the cable replacement and he called a stop for the night, and also called a factory rep to assist him the next morning. The Norco/BAL factory rep was a real wizard with cables. We both learned a lot from him. That left a few more minor issues, which were taken care of in the bay on Monday. While waiting for that, I finished repairs on the awning with parts that had just arrived the day before. All told, we didn’t miss a night of sleep in the RV and the repairs were under $1k.

We also got to visit the RV museum in Elkhart and a number of Amish shops right here in Shipshewana. It seems like the Amish are embracing E-bikes. They’re not as prevalent as the buggies and horses but still noticeable. It really is an interesting area and we’ll have to come back sometime when we don’t need repairs.

While all the repairs were going on, I was also looking for my next Amazon job. I really didn’t expect to have any problems with this since they have such a high turnover rate. The first place I wanted ran out of openings AND had ridiculously high RV site rents nearby. Second place had no openings. I expanded my search and found another possibility that I applied for. The first appointment would require us to leave here 2 days early but, again, we couldn’t find a monthly site nearby. I withdrew that application and applied elsewhere. Almost had to withdraw that one but finally found a park with monthlies. Hopefully, this will work out for a few months to replenish the bank account.

Inside water pressure

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One of the common complaints voiced by RVers is low water pressure coming out of one or more inside faucets. We had that problem recently at the kitchen faucet. All other faucets were great. Swapped out aerator with no change. Thought about just ordering a new faucet head but decided to try one more thing. Removed the faucet head and soaked it in a cup of CLR for several hours. GF greatly assisted the process. She noticed that one end of the faucet head had a valve that didn’t appear to be open. As it was sitting in the CLR she poked at it with one of her kitchen gadgets. Each time she poked a few bubbles came up. After reconnecting and using the faucet for half a day, the pressure is back to normal.

Slide Toppers

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Those of you who have slide toppers already know that they get beat up pretty bad – either driving down the highway or setup in camp during high winds. They typically start tearing at the edges. So you get out the old awning tape or Gorilla tape and seal it up, until the tape dries out. Or the stitching around the poly cord comes undone and you have to resew it. You can extend the life of the topper that way but what you typically don’t see (until you actually remove the topper) are the hundreds of pinholes that have magically appeared.

I’m not sure how much it would cost a mobile tech to replace a slide topper but I was fortunate enough to have one replaced as part of an insurance claim. I took it to an independent repair shop and watched very closely while they were doing it. Turns out it’s not that difficult but an extra set of hands really helps. Just pin the roller tube with a cotter pin so you don’t have to re-tension the spring. About 6 screws later, you’re pulling out the old topper, and seeing all the pinholes.

I also found a great source for new topper material here in the Rio Grande Valley. The material is heavier than the OEM slide topper, the poly cord sewing is top notch and I got it in white instead of the heat absorbing black. I can’t really compare prices but it cost me $104 (in 2023) for a 146″ X 46″ slide topper. If you’re in the market for slide toppers or awnings, check out The Shade Shoppe in Don Wes Flea Market. They can also do the installation although I’m not sure what they charge for that.