Homecoming or Not

Monday

It rained overnight and was overcast this morning.  I woke up and fired up the Bradley Smoker to do the loin for Elizabeth.  After a quick breakfast I headed to East Aurora for a routine Dr. appointment.  All was well and my next visit is in February.  I also was able to to get my Flu Shot.  Back home and checked on the smoker all looks well, six more hours.

Smokes On!

The rain stopped and the sun came out for a while.  I checked the smoker every now and then all is looking well.  Elizabeth is off today so I told her to come and pick up the loin around 5 which will have given it around 8 hours in the smoker.  The pork was up to 175 when she came to get it.  We wrapped it in foil and put it in an insulated cooler so the internal temperature will continue to increase.  Later tonight it will be ready to pull.

Ready to come out of the smoker

Double wrap it for a few hours

I changed and headed up to court.  Only had a couple show up as it was a holiday.  I caught up on paperwork and then got home early.  Not much else happened today.  Bonnie did some shopping but did not bring home much.

I did hear from Jeff and he thinks if they do not run into any problems tomorrow the coach will be ready.

Tuesday

Nice and sunny this morning.  Will today be the day the coach is ready, heavy rain forecast for tomorrow, you choose which day.  I have some running around to do for court this morning so had better get busy.  Just as I got to court I got a text from Jeff at Colton that the coach would be ready for sure on Wednesday morning.  So I got in touch with him and we have reservations to stay in the campground at Colton tomorrow night to make sure all systems are working properly.  So we are ready to spend the night there tomorrow night.  This will be our last night in the coach before we winterize it. We wanted to get in one more trip but it just will not work out.  Just got it back to late and too much going on.  In fact our camping buddy winterized his yesterday.

Once I got home we watched some recorded TV.  Elizabeth called and invited us for supper with pulled pork and other goodies.  So we headed over there.  But first I took the trash out to the road  Bonnie finished the last load of wash.

Today was Nick Russell's birthday and I got a surprise in the mail.  My Medicare card came.  I still have 4 months till I am 65 but I have to make decisions now on what coverage I want to pay extra for.

Supper was great and we are home again and watching a little TV.  I started working on our travel plans for the November trip.  So far we know we are spending a few days with friends in Spotsylvania.  We were friends when we lived there and we both have RVs now.  In fact they are at the Rally in Atlanta right now.  We are excited and looking forward to seeing them.  Also hoping to see some friends we made when we were in the Navy.  They still live in the Norfolk area.  They camp also, in fact they are Camp Hosting in Southern Virginia right now.  Well off to bed soon as we are still Volunteering at the Mission for half a day tomorrow.

Wednesday

We are up and heading to the mission, its raining hope it moves past quickly.  The rain had stopped by the time we got downtown.  I let them know we were planning to leave at noon.  Shortly after that I got a message that the coach would not be done at noon but should be ready by 4pm.  So we stayed and worked until 3pm, then headed for Colton RV .  Well when we got there they were just about ready to put the coolant in it.  About an hour later we had a problem but they had a fix.  Seems the stir pump was broken in shipment.  They called Roger Berke, he is sending a new one but they are moving the pump from the old unit to the new one and it should work fine.

Broken Pump

So they swapped the pumps and filled the coolant.  The burner fired right up but the unit is not sending coolant to the heating loops.  Maybe the new control board is bad.  So by now it is well past closing time.  The guys were willing to stay but I used to be a tech and you can only troubleshoot so long in a given day.  I said please just quit and get a good nights sleep and start over in the morning.  I said we would just head home and take the pressure off them to fix it tonight.  I want them to take their time and fix it right.

So we headed home in the pouring rain.  We were hungry and stopped at Wendy's for a quick meal.  Then back on the road, hard to see with the rain and spray from the cars on the highway.  We made it home safely just after 8PM.  I got soaked getting the mail and recycle bin.  But finally we can relax and hope they figure out the coach in the next day or two.  I emailed the service manual to them and the users manual.  Dealers are slammed this time of year, everyone is trying to winterize, etc.  So we want to do that also once the hydro-hot is fixed.

We did get to visit with both the owners and some of the other people there that we know from when Elizabeth worked there.  Owning a RV dealership seems like a high stress job to me, glad I don't have to do it.  Somedays like today being a RV owner is also stressful, if they had made me decent offer I may have sold it to them, but its a beautiful coach and it will get fixed.

So I am disappointed that its not fixed but I try to be understanding.  Well thats about it for today.

Thanks For Checking In.