Folks,
Well we finally got the fiver (fiver=5th
wheel RV) registered. We had planned to be in Louisiana a week ago but the
delivery of the fiver the Saturday before Christmas left us with no one to install my hitch until the RV companies reopened
last Monday. So we are finally leaving Texas. Only detail left is to install tow mirrors on the truck Friday morning and pay the
RV park. Then we are off.
Bogart freaked the first time we left
him alone in the trailer. We forgot to leave him an open blind. He is calm if he can see out a window and look for us to come home.
He is really a well behaved, non-destructive dog, when we set him up with a way to "watch" for us. We screwed up and he chewed up a mini blind and then pawed through the bottom of the screen door screen
the first time we left him. Fortunately,
two new blinds came with the trailer, and, with a roll of screening material, we repaired the damage in about 20 minutes. He's been fine since then.
It's taken some time to get used to not
having to go to work . . . about 37 seconds! So far, retirement is great! But it has its problems too. For example:
I just can't seem to get the hang of sleeping in much past 9 or 10 in the morning. And
I have days to polish and detail my truck and fiver, instead of having to do it all in one day. And the stressful decisions I'm faced with daily like "should I grow a beard today"?, Those and several
other challenges confront me daily. Well, we all have our crosses to bear. ;-}
We are temporarily without a phone
or ISP so we will try to get this one out and retrieve email one last time before I'm turned off here. Be back online soon.
dg and lg
NL 9.
Jan. 1998
Folks,
We arrived in Louisiana,
in one piece, with the Trailer in tow last Saturday. My father-in-law owns a
small private trailer park and set us up with a free "pad" for however long we want to stay here. We arrived and it took three days to get the Power Company to come out and hook us up. The "pad" is actually a beautiful country setting . . .surrounded by mud due to the 3 inches of rain a
day that fell the first week we were here. The roof seals held, no leaks. But I discovered the joys of Ja-lousy (sp. intended) windows in winter. So we will be staying here for a little longer than expected as I do a major polarizing and remodeling
to the trailer. George (father-in-law), has a fully equipped 40X80 shop here
at his "property", 50 feet from my front door. He has completely remodeled all
of his trailers (Three), and used to be in building and remodeling. Now he just
does it for himself, and the odd son-in-law that brings his RV in. He'll be doing
all the Formica work and letting me use his shop for the rest. I used to help
him when assigned here for 15 years, so I'm no slouch either.
First, I'm removing all the Ja-lousy
windows and putting in double pane sliders. Then the remaining fixed windows
get double pane inside storm windows. All condensation and fogging will be eliminated.
Next, the entire underbelly gets removed,
lined with 1" Styrofoam insulation, and Urethane foam for fitted areas. Then
I'm extending the underbelly all the way to the edges of the trailer with the same insulation except, of course right under
the Propane, there it will have screening and be isolated from the rest)
Interior:
The booth and table in the kitchen goes and is replaced with an 18" breakfast counter (same height as current table)
and two chairs that effectively doubles the walking and counter space in the kitchen.
Where the booth extended into the living room the counter will widen to about 36" (current booth is 40"), providing
a place for my notebook and Brother MFC 7000. Office work will be done from living
room side, with enough cabinet space (using matching doors from booth ends) to store a couple of reams of paper, power controller,
and necessary CD-ROMs, manuals, etc. Black leather executive chair will replace
the two chairs in the living room, serving as both a living room chair and office chair (height adjustment).
Remember the two chairs at breakfast
counter are now more a part of the living room and will be comfortable as well as providing similar spacing between guests
and us as in a full size living room. The booth back is no longer blocking the
space.
The hardest decision was to replace
the sofa. But, since we are fulltiming, and the people who visit will live in
the towns we go to, and we are not vacationing with kids or friends, it will go into storage along with the two chairs, shrink-wrapped
in plastic, in case we change our minds about extra beds. The sofa will be replaced
by two leather incliners, with a small sofa cabinet between them.
In spite of all of the planned changes
we have already taken into account weights and balance and will actually increase weight by only 100 pounds or
so.
I have already replaced all of the
plastic exterior vents, doors, and screws that were weather damaged or rusty. I
have also ordered new vinyl trim for all exterior moldings. The last project
is removing the sun damaged stripe and replacing with one that matches the burgundy in my two tone truck.
So, whaddya think? I'm having a blast. Remember I haven't had time to remodel
a house (done two), or have access to my own workshop, (well, borrowing this one) since 1989 when we went overseas.
The whole thing works out perfectly. We are here for the birth of our second granddaughter anyway. We will just stay an extra month or three, until we are ready for the northern climes. And I get to keep busy working on "our home". Remember, we
have been forced to live in overseas Govt. quarters from 1990-97, and leased all last year.
We owned our own homes everywhere else from 1973-1990. We are not the
rental types at all.
Boy, this turned out to be a novella. Anyway, the fun (really) continues.
dg
NL 10.
Final Prep
April 1998
Folks,
We are finally close to getting this show on the road! I finally found
the 3/8" hole in the roof (under the A/C unit) after totally removing it. Got
the A/C working without pouring all the condensate into the ceiling. This week
is going to be really busy. Monday we take off the tie-downs and take the coach
to the Goodyear Truck center to have all the tires replaced.
Then Tuesday (Lynn's
last day at her job), we go to Dallas in the evening and spend the night. Wednesday morning we have an appointment at the Denton Camping World store to install
our new 3-way fridge. That way it runs off the truck’s alternator when
we are on the road and avoids the danger of our propane pilot light igniting fumes when refueling the truck.
I will have the chance to finish the paperwork
on the Luger I imported and have it sent to me the next week. (Brady Bill). It's been at the importer’s in Dallas
since Jan. of 97. Haven't had the time until now.
In fact I don't know how I ever found the time, before I retired, to go to a job every day!
The weather forecast looks really
bad but since the fridge is on the fritz, we will go no matter what the weather. Well,
except for tornadoes and gale winds-I'm not that crazy. If it's really bad on
Tuesday, we can always wait till Wed early, but I don't want to fight the morning rush hour and be late. Gonna have to relearn how to drive this rig, because it's been here three months!
Everybody here is amazed we are driving
it that far. ;>> I have to keep reminding them that that's what it's made for!
This trip should have less chance for anything to go wrong as we've been through every system. Knock on wood!
Today, Sunday, is our second granddaughter's
(Bailey) christening. We have to be there in 45 min so I have to make this shorter
than usual. This is the first time I will wear dressy clothes in three months. Been sneakers jeans and T-shirts every day.
The water here is adversely affecting
my clothes! It seems every time Lynn
washes them they shrink a little more. It can't be all that beer I've been drinking-LOL!
We should have our initial itinerary
worked out by the second week in May and leave NLT the third week in May. It's
been a great visit but we're ready.
dg
******************Home is now where
we park it!****************
NL 11
May 1998
Hey!
I hope this letter finds everyone in health
and at peace. I'm not. My whole
world has been turned upside down emotionally. Don't worry, it's great! (mostly)
But the last 48 hours drained all of my reserves.
It started with a phone call to my
son early Thursday, from a woman in New York who said she was with a search
service and was looking for me. My son took her name and number and forwarded
to me. On reaching her I found that a dear friend from my childhood was wondering
whatever happened to me, but she would not tell me who. The catch, just one. The search was only conducted free of charge if the reunion, by phone, took place
live, on the most popular New York City radio station's morning show. Being the shy type you all have come
to know I of course immediately agreed.
Time?
“0-Dark-Thirty" my time on Friday. Whoa! I have to get up an hour before I need to be coherent and drink a pot of coffee, before even Lynn
can get a recognizable word out of me. So I knew it had to be an AM wake-up and
try to sound excited (I was) and coherent.
The bad part was that the fridge in
the coach gave up the ghost on Wed and I was in the middle of running every test in my RV manual to no avail. And I had just arranged for a 50 buck house call as I couldn't get it going again. In the meantime I had lost everything in the fridge and transferred everything else to a spare fridge in
the workshop. This was serious because RVs use special fridges that work on 12
volt, gas, and propane, and cost $1200 bucks. There are no used ones available
because, like mine, when they finally go, they're gone.
The tech was great but after two hours,
when he opened his toolkit, began to sprinkle oil all over the fridge, and began chanting prayers for the dead- I knew it
was over.
He did say that eight years is more than
most people get out of them. And now for the part that some of you will get a
kick out of. Now that I'm retired and on a fixed income until I get on the road
and start my wireless Internet business, I AM ON A BUDGET! So I may even have to get a (gasp)job! Since all the CEO jobs
here are taken, I'm wondering how I'd look in one of those McDonalds hats. For
those new to us let me explain. For years Lynn and I could go anywhere, or pick
up anything on just a whim because our kids were grown and gone . . .while our friends had to budget cause their kids were
all still at home and they didn't run a business on the side . . .so some of my best friends, in the best way, get a real
giggle out of hearing me say that! LOL!
So we might have to stay here an extra month,
but we don't want this happening on the road, so, as usual, it's really a good thing to happen now. If I say that enough, maybe I'll feel it. ;-}
In addition to the search call, another
dear friend got back in touch and was doing great! All in the middle of the fridge,
reunion, the service call, and trying to get out to dinner with Devin, my youngest son.
Great evening.
Emotional roller coaster. Way up, way down, way up, etc.
So I get up for the reunion radio show,
and realize It's gonna take two pots of coffee, as I ate way too much, of way too rich food, the night before with my son. The station keeps calling me and delaying the time from 4
AM to 5 to 6. Then they
finally called at 0630. I get two words out and twenty folks in the studio drown
out everything and within 20 sec, we were suddenly disconnected! I can't wait
for the tape to arrive. So, expecting them to call back, I wait 45 minutes and
then the phone rings. It's my old friend!
It seems she wasn't in the studio either, and was waiting for them too. They
never called but we talked and got a chance to reminisce about things I remember fondly (friends, places, and events). But I also realized that I have absolutely no memory of others! Talk about having my memories come back in a rush! This was
a good thing. At this significant crossroads in my life, I get back all the joys
of remembering my earliest friends. Thank you!
Even if the show part was a bust, with a little prompting some things came back.
I've heard that if you remember the
60's, you didn't live them. I now know just what they mean! <wink>
dg
NL12
May 1998
Hi People!
We're leaving as soon as our leather
recliners arrive. We've been sitting in our folding lawn chairs for six days!
Our fault! We were convinced we could find a solution at a local furniture
store-NOT! So we finally had to break down and order from the supplier that sells
to HitchHiker. If you own one, and are referred to them by HitchHiker, you get
it at HitchHiker's prices. I am more impressed with this company at every contact. Wouldn't you know that the workers own it. We
sold all of our old RV furniture at a yard sale we had at Steve's old place of business, as well as all of our remaining stuff
that was too big, or too heavy for the fiver. One item I'll miss is the D1S surround
sound receiver.
First stop on our itinerary is Livingston
Texas, to see if they can benefit from our newer technologies. The week after next I'll leave Lynn and Bogart there for a week while I fly up to Webley corporate HQ in
Chicago, to finalize my training.
I'm busier than ever! I start at 0800 and don't get off email and the phone until after 5 PM! Now one of our guys is setting up a solution for small and large businesses that don't
want to crash on Jan 1, 2000. This
guy has a full accounting service that's 2000 compliant/adjustable, to keep their businesses from losing all of their accounts,
invoices etc. And it's real time Internet!
Solutions are required and few are working it. If you know of anyone needing
it email me-I'll put them in touch.
The real reason for this email is
to give y'all our contact data. We're not dropping off the face of the earth
when we go mobile. But since I have to wait for a couple of months for the FM
unit, I'll probably have to use some other drop-in services for a short while. I'm
back at Silyn-tek.de for mail on Gene's new server! He has expanded his POP sites
to Trier and Wittlich. Way to go
Gene!
We're in touch, so you stay in touch! (Plagiarism is rampant!) LOL!
dg
******************Home is where we
park it! ****************
NL 13.
April 1998
Hey all!
We bought a used 1990 Hitchhiker 34.5
in December in excellent shape. I officially, retired from the Air Force 1 Feb,
and during terminal leave (not dying! - Military term for last leave before retirement)
in January took our first trip home. The following letter outlines some possibly
serious things that we managed to avoid. I've edited out the personal parts of
the following letter I sent to our "friends group".
Folks,
Everyone keeps asking how retirement is
going. I think that's one of those questions like "How's it going?" The correct response to both questions is "Fine!" Any real
answer is soooooo boring to the listener. However, since that's never stopped
me before, (both in person and print) I'll answer it.
Our coach is great to full-time in! (RVrs say coach to cover motorhome, trailer, etc.-It is better than trailer [visions
of pop-ups and mobile homes], and not as pretentious as luxury whatever) Lynn
and I have adapted to the lifestyle quite well. Our pup, Bogart, took a little
longer. He's not spoiled-he's spoiled rotten.
He's finally adapted to being left alone if we put a chair by the window for him to get up on to watch out the window
for us. It took four re-screenings of the window screens and many times with
no hot water (the electric switch for the heater is just below the window he looks out . . . he kept turning it off with his
paw) before we realized what he needed. Now we are all happy campers! And I'm no longer keeping rolls of screen material on hand.
The biggest change was realizing we could
take very little with us. Storage limitations are not the only driving factor;
weight on the axles is too.
As far as what I do with my days,
I'm as busy as before. Our coach came from the East Coast of Florida, so there
were a lot of metal parts that had corrosion and had to be refinished. Also we
had a lot of surprises after we successfully made our first trip from Texas
to here. Talk about luck!
But because we joined the RV consumers
group (www.rv.org) and the Escapees RV club (www.escapees.com/website/index2.htm), and read every letter in rvadvice.com,
we've come a long way fast! We found lifetime warranties and recalls on almost
every problem item we missed on original purchase!
For example: Two days after arriving
here with our rig, the diesel belt tensioner fell off! I just happened to notice
because the heat stopped and the engine temp started to climb fast. Why that
bolt didn't break while towing the coach here, I'll never know. It was cracked
all the way across except for a 1/16-inch edge that was the only thing holding it on!
Fortunately, the tensioner fell in the engine compartment and was undamaged.
Then we found that the hitch had several cracks in the most critical parts. They
looked like the result of being dropped at some time before I owned it. It turns
out that the manufacturer, RBW industries, has a million-mile warranty. So they
paid postage and completely rebuilt the hitch-head free. Then we found a letter
in the Escapees magazine about Goodyear marathon trailer tires blowing up on the highway!
In checking, I found that we had the defective tires on all four wheels and the spare!
One call to Goodyear confirmed the defective status of all of our tires. We
were told to bring the trailer in, and all five tires would be replaced with the new version of the marathon that has been
completely redesigned. There will be pro-rating by tread wear. In other words - nearly free replacement of all our tires.
The very expensive tranny in the dually
started acting up in the cold weather and fearing the worst we brought it to .
. .THE DEALER! Turns out our thermostat was stuck open and the shift temperature
sensor was shifting continuously because of that. $29.00 thermostat brought the
operating temp up which also increased our power, and mileage (5 MPG increase!) However,
the thermostat caused the engine to operate way too cold for a diesel (They must run hot or power, lubrication, and mileage
suffers, as well as causing rough running, AND THE ENGINE WILL SUSTAIN DAMAGE!) The
verdict? No damage! And the dually
runs like a banshee!
To sum up:
We took our first 500-mile trip, in the middle of winter, in the pouring rain, through the middle of nowhere, at night,
GOING 60 mph, with a broken hitch, tires that could blow up at any moment, a severed belt tensioner bolt, the thermostat stuck
open, and to top it all off, I later found that the trailer brakes were not working because of corrosion in the connectors
on the truck!!!!! (remember I had no experience towing a large rig, or driving a diesel and the dealer in Texas
missed the thermostat problem) TALK ABOUT HAVING A GUARDIAN ANGEL!!!! (for you more secular folks read "could fall in a pile
of **** and come out smelling like a rose)
So I've been busy researching, repairing,
and modifying the coach every day. I wanted to take the first trip, find out
any showstoppers for the big trip, and do some mods to the coach to customize it for us.
The biggest part of that has been getting rid of the stock kitchen booth that seems to come in every RV. You know, the one with the tiny counter that turns into a "bed".
And has two bench seats that the brochure says "seats four". When actually
the person on the aisle has one cheek hanging off. And it took up most of the
kitchen area. So I ripped it out and installed a counter with an office space
on one end. It came out great! I
used a Grey matrix Formica for the top and matched the frame with the rest of the coach.
It doubled the kitchen space and gave me a place to put the notebook, and multi-function machine.
I used to have a shop with compressors and
table saws etc. (before we went to Europe for seven years in 1990) that I used to remodel our house
and customize my cars. This is the first time I've been able to build or remodel
anything since then. It's sooooo relaxing and a lot of fun. I didn't realize how much I missed building things!
Now I'm running out of things to prepare
for the trip and have begun to set up my business. I am a distributor for a company
that will be providing wireless Internet for the RV market. As well, we will
be providing dial in numbers for the rest of you out there (we have 500 at this moment) for 19.95 a month that will give very
high-speed connections and more, using our proprietary software.
I'm now looking at inverters and tankless
hot water heater. It just so happens I'm in the market for both but am budget-challenged. (OK . . .I said it . . .I am now on a budget ....can't go out and pick up whatever
I want anymore - only drawback to retirement!)
Lynn got a job at one of the casinos here so she can, as she says, "keep me in the manner to which I'm accustomed." She
is having a blast.
We still are a long way from the "big" power
mods for the diesel and the coach. Just an inverter/solar or generator setup
is over three grand. In checking around, it seems all the CEO jobs here are taken, So I'm wondering what I'd look like in those McD's hats? hmmmmmmm . . .NOT!
We’re leaving for a years travel
in May. OEM low-tech stuff will have to do.
We look forward to seeing y'all
dg and Lynn
: ******************* Home is where
we park it! *********************
dg
The below is an email to RVadvice
a website that publishes RV info, and adds some more to the above newsletter.
Dear RVadvice,
Glad you liked it. Yes it was a very "interesting" first trip. Being the careful
type, everything in the letter should have been caught by the "experts" I hired to replace or repair as necessary before we
left. As for me, this is my first pickup, (we were van people), first diesel,
first trailer. And they are both in excellent shape and look and perform like
new. I had taken the diesel to the dealership for a complete inspection before
purchase, including: complete disassembly and inspection of the brakes, rear-end, tranny, engine and electrics. They found bad brake drums on rear, bad belt, and bad shock bushings.
All were replaced by the seller. It already had new tires all around. Beyond that I changed oil/filter, lubed it , K&N Air Filter, and ran it for two
months before we bought the coach. I had the coach inspected and the hitch that
came with it installed by a "reputable" RV dealership in San Antonio who never
mentioned the cracks in the hitch head.
I had an experienced RV friend pull the
trailer around the loop and it was pronounced wonderful with good brakes and straight tracking. He said it towed much better than his new Travel Supreme.
So I was a "newbie" but took all the right
steps to insure a safe trip. The trailer brakes I missed because I had done the
research to match my trailer weight with the truck. My trailer loaded weighed
in at just over 10,600 lbs. So the truck was able to stop it as if the trailer
brakes were there. The only lead in the umbilical that wasn't working was the
brakes - the visible signals were OK. I've since replaced the connectors and
tested from both ends. The only thing that couldn't have been found before the
trip was the mostly sheared bolt on the serpentine belt tensioner.
So even when 'ya do all the right
stuff, you can still get into trouble. Hey does this mean that you published
it? (note: they did)
dg
