Starting on Final Preperations

Monday

Beautiful sunny morning today.  It was cool but was warming up.  Once it got up into the 50's I headed out and started to work on the coach it was around 10:30.  I fired up the coach and moved it up toward the garage.

Time to de-winterize

First order of business was to fill the fresh water tank with chlorinated water to sanitize it.  I used that water to flush the RV Aniti-freeze out of all the water lines.  Then let it set for a few hours of "Contact Time" so it could do its job.  While that was working I reconnected the ice maker and made sure it was not leaking.  I also checked that the stove lit and that the refrigerator would light.

Then I took the cover off the transfer switch to check and tighten the connections.

Removed this coverage

All the connections were tightened a little

Loose electrical connections heat up and can cause fires.  So we should be in good shape for another year or so.  Then I checked out the water pump and the connections in there all was well.  I then added some coolant to the engine after I tested it and it looked good.  I also installed the Tire Pressure Monitors and checked them out.  All the air pressures were good except the one that always seems to leak a little so I topped it off.  I also topped off the battery water.

Finally time to drain the water tanks and fill them with fresh water.  While the tank was draining and refilling I started on another project.

I started draining the oil on the house generator.

Easy access to the engine.

I checked the air filter, changed the oil filter, and then refilled the oil.  Started it up and let it run to fill up the new filter and then shut it down and topped off the oil.  All set for another year or two.

Then back down to the coach the water tank was full.  I flushed the sanitizing water out of the water lines and buttoned things up.  We should be just about set to go.  We have to set up a few things and load up our personal books and clothes.

The tornados out West are hitting close to our Son and family they were in a shelter a while ago when I checked.  Seems the worst is over and just heard they are back home now.

Hopefully we can take it easy the rest of tonight.  We did get to rest up and I even ordered some small batteries I needed from Amazon.  Then I changed some reservations so we will have a longer stay in Howe, In. near the Amish.


Tuesday

The alarm woke me at 6am, whats that about.  Took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on.  It appears that the alarms inadvertently got turned on when Bonnie dusted yesterday.  I tossed and turned and listened to the wind outside.  So I gave up and got up.  Bonnie was up early also the wind woke her also.   Then the rain started.  It rained most of the day and the wind is still blowing tonight.

I headed down the hill to the post office and turned in our stop mail notice for next week.  Then I headed to Strykersville to get gas, and then closed one of my court accounts at the bank.  I have one more account to close and then I should be done with court matters.  Then I headed over to the hardware store to pick up some hooks to hang an organizer for Bonnie.  Then I headed home.  I discovered I had driven all around with the weeks trash from the house, so I dropped that at the road. Then at the Coach to hang the organizer.

Still raining and so we stayed in the rest of the day.  I worked on finances and checked over the chargecard bill and scheduled it and the electric bill.  Then about 1:30 our power went off, while we were watching TV, I suspect a tree took down some lines.  The generator came on line and the DISH receiver rebooted and we were back in business.  The internet was out so I called NYSEG and they estimated it would be 3 hours for restoration.  We are not sure but I think the power came back around 3:30.  The lights do not even blink when it comes back but I noticed the internet was working again.  So pretty much we were lazy the rest of the day.  Bonnie made hamburger and baked homemade sweet potato fries for supper.

My son is traveling and had a bumpily flight, storms are close to his family again so we are keeping track of them.  Lots of people have been affected by all the storms, keep them in your prayers.  More rain is forecast for tomorrow and the wind is still howling.

Looks like we will call it a night.

Wednesday

Raining and windy again this morning.  Blogger was working slowly last night but seems good this morning.  I have somethings on my to do list that I can do in the garage so I will try to get them done.  Looks like rain most of the day.  UPS was here early today and brought me some batteries and a wrench to remove the sewer covers in campgrounds.  It works on a lot of different covers

10 in 1 Tool

I am also trying to figure out the manufacture of the faucets in the coach.  They all leak a little and I would like to fix them.

Any ideas?

The battery also came for the tire inflator pressure gauge but the will wait for a dryer day.  I did drain the gas out of the snow blowers and then ran them to empty out the last little bit of gas.  Then I put them away for the summer.  Well maybe I will change the oil before winter.  Then I headed down to the gas station to get gas for the lawn tractor, so Elizabeth won't have to worry about that.

Plenty of gas for while we are gone

Then back into the house.  I had to brought in the mail and so that got me going on the end of the month bills and while I was at that I did the first of the months too.  Bonnie made chili while I was outside working and it was ready.  We had a late lunch and enjoyed the chili.  Finally by late afternoon it was time to relax a little.

Bonnie headed out for the evening with a Thirty One activity, so I am on my own.  Looks like it is still raining so looks like it will be TV.  I will go ahead and post this and then I can sit back and enjoy the evening.  Hoping we get some dry weather the second half of the week so we can load up the coach.

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"If Your Dreams Don't Scare You, They Are Just Not Big Enough"

Hope the weather cooperates

Thursday

Cool and sunny this morning but bright sun and a little breeze.  Hopefully the yard will dry out some.  I hope to start picking up the tree this afternoon without tearing the yard all up.  Bonnie got a call from the dentist yesterday asking if she could come in this morning so she has headed over there.

The weather seems to be cooperating so we headed out to clean up the branches and bark from the cut down Maple tree.

At noon we had a pretty big mess

We worked steady and I know I wanted to quit but Bonnie kept me going.  I was hungry but she said keep going.

We even managed to smile throughout the afternoon.

We picked up branches, I cut up branches that were too long, and we raked up the smaller piece along with the bark.

Finally it was time to dump the last of 7 loads

The yard is really wet but the tires on the Ranger did not tear up the yard too much.  The brush pile is growing.

Seven new loads dumped today

Now as soon as the yard drys up some Bill can pick up his firewood.  He already split and stacked the tree he took home yesterday.  And of course the yard looks much neater now.

Looks a lot better now.

I have already had a quick nap, Bonnie made supper, I took and advil, and I have spread Sports Cream on my knees.  Now its time to relax for the evening.

Friday

Up at 6 this morning, today is our day in at the Mission this week.  It is also Volunteer Appreciation day there.  A small celebration called "Thanks A Latte" is scheduled for this afternoon.  Looks like it will be a nice sunny day today but rain is in the forecast for latter.

We had an easy drive into the Mission today nice light traffic.  We hit the ground running lots going on.  I worked on the volunteer statistics and Bonnie got the birthday cards ready.  Once a month they have a birthday celebration for the men at the mission.  Cards, Cake, and Ice Cream.  Today also was a Volunteer Appreciation Event and we helped get ready for that.  We went out and picked up one of the volunteers and 2 dozen balloons.  The event went smoothly and was very nice and it was nice to see so many of the volunteers and here from the Mission Staff.

It was raining by the time we headed home.  Boy am I glad that we got the yard cleaned up yesterday.  I was so tired and still a bit sore from the cleanup yesterday.  Bonnie made supper and we are going to sit back and take it easy tonight.

Saturday

Overcast and some rain this morning.  I would like to be able to work outside but its too cold and wet.  If it warms up a little I would like to set the air pressure on the coach tires and put the air pressure monitors on.  I like to do that at the recommended temperature which is around 65 degrees.

Well the weather never did cooperate today.  It rained off and on all day.  Bonnie made a trip over to her sisters and then to the farmers market in toward East Aurora.  I made a trip up to the court to pick up some mail and to say hello to all the folks up there.  I did not get to meet the new Judge yet as she was not there today.

Once back home I started on a project that I have been putting off for a long time.  I have a very old network hard drive I started moving all the files off of it onto a newer drive.  Once I finish I will retire the old drive and maybe replace it with a newer one.

Once the race from Richmond came on we started to watch it.  Looks like we will finish the race and then head for bed.  During the race I am still looking at routes and campgrounds that we could stay at.  It looks like Monday will be the nicest day of the coming week so will try to get a lot of outside stuff then.

Sunday

The alarm woke me this morning to get up and get ready for church.  I made coffee and oatmeal, as I sat down to eat I noticed it was snowing out.  Its time for that to end.  Then the phone rang, it was Elizabeth letting us know that she needed to go early today as she was serving in the nursery.  So we put our schedule into fast forward and managed to leave almost 30 minutes early and we got there in plenty of time.  The good news is that the snow had stopped.

Church was awesome.  After worship we headed to East Aurora and made a stop to deposit some checks.  Then a quick stop at the farmers market to pick up some tomatoes.  We dropped off the girls and put in an order for Pizza and Wings.  The girls were coming out for the afternoon.

We picked up the food and the girls got to the house right after us.  I gave them a quick indoctrination on how the riding mower works since they are going to cut the grass while we are gone.  We ran through the operation and safety and topped off the tires.

The pizza and wings were good and did not last long.  Then the girls put a movie on that did not interest me and I napped.  I worked on both of their computers and got them working right.  Elizabeth worked on here school work and then they headed home.

Bonnie and I took the swatches from MCD out and verified that we had ordered the right color shades.  Thats about it for today.  We leave in a week, so we have lots of packing and sorting to do this week.  Tomorrow is supposed to be nice so I will try to get the outside things done.

Another good week in the books

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"If Your Dreams Don't Scare You, They Are Just Not Big Enough"

Time to shift gears-Then the snow came back

Monday

Beautiful sunny morning.  About two weeks until our first trip of the year.  The UPS truck was here around 10am and picked up the scanner going back to Amazon, the new one should be here tomorrow.  We got ready and headed out to pick up the brush Bonnie pulled out of the flower beds and some of the branches around the yard.  On the way out I grabbed the window screen for Bonnie's window and put it in.  We got busy picking up the brush.

Getting started

We picked up and dumped 3 loads of brush and branches.  I also started the generator and it ran perfectly.

Bonnie calls these Snow Drops, first flower in the spring

 We also have daffodils blooming.  This Maple Tree is dead.  I posted a picture of it as free firewood and I think our friend Bill is coming to get it on Thursday.

Free Firewood

After we dumped the last load we decided to check out the woods.  Lots of down trees but only a couple across the road.  We stopped and moved the ones we could.  We made it back to 2 foot sluice pipe.  It was partly blocked and we could see where the water had run over the road.

Almost completely blocked

 I jumped down to see if I could clear it, usually there a branches that block the opening.

Pulling out branches

 I was able to pull out quite a few branches and get the water running good again.

All clear of branches

The next good rain we have should clear the pipe out.  I shower and took it easy the rest of the day.  I guess its part of aging but my knees and hips are really sore from not much work.  I talked to MCD today and decided to hold up on our order, there is not time to get them made and shipped here.  Looks like we will order them in a week or so and have them shipped to the Escapade.  They should be easy to install.  So I will put the valances back up in the coach and wait.


Tuesday

Its raining, has been since before I got up, not hard but steady.  The forecast is for rain until this afternoon.  Thats ok we are headed to Batavia.  I have a dermatologist appointment for a routine check.  Then we are having lunch with our friends Bob and Caroline, they just bought a new Honda CR-V to tow.  We also need to go to Walmart to return the battery and then to TOPS for gas as Bonnie has earned 60 cents a gallon savings.  We are also on standby to pick up our GD after a track meet (I hope the rain stops by then).

Well it rained all the way up to Batavia.  I was in and out of the DR pretty quick.  She froze a few spots near my eye, on my cheek, and on top of my head.  Still raining when we left.  Then we headed to the Sweet Ecstasy Bakery and Bistro to meet our friends for lunch.  This was located in one of the oldest buildings in Batavia.  It was a bank at one time and then used as the home of the Batavia Club, a mens club.  The food and ambiance was really good.  Caroline also brought me a gift of some pastry like desserts that I had admired in her blog some time back.

After lunch we went over to Tops and fueled up, then over to Walmart to turn in the battery and pick up some oil to change the oil in the house generator.  Then a quick stop at BJs to pick up a new card.  We then beat feet toward Elizabeth's to pick up Alexus.  She came home after school and needed a ride back to a track meet.  She called when we were halfway there and decided she was going to be to late for her event.  So we slowed down and headed home.

We carried in the groceries and took out the trash for tomorrows pick up.  While we were out FedEx delivered my replacement scanner.

Took a picture in case I have to repack this one again

I hooked up the scanner and it works just like it is supposed to.  I tried scanning a few things and so far so good.  We are on our way to being paperless.

Early morning tomorrow so I am off to bed.  Bill is coming to cut the maple tree down and turn it into fire wood.

Wednesday

Up at 7am and had some oatmeal and coffee.  Looked out and its snowing.

Snow in the air mixed with rain

Bill pulled in a little after 8am and we started on the tree.  I got on the tractor and took it up and used the bucket to put a little pressure on the tree in the direction we wanted it to go. Bill had trouble with his saw and I went down and got mine.  The tree was down in no time and an hour later it was all cut up, Bill did the saw work.

One big dead Maple tree all cut up, Bill made quick work of it

It continued to rain and snow and we were soaked.  The yard was way to wet and muddy to move all the wood down to the truck so we will have to wait a few days for it to dry out some.  Bill did cut up the maple that fell down along the side of the driveway and was able to load it in the truck and take it home.

I got a call, a friend needed help with his Yahoo mail account.  Once in the house I got dry clothes on and called him back.  It took about 30 minutes but we got everything reset and working.

Hot coffee and soup for lunch but I am still chilled.  Guess we will watch Deadliest Catch and try to warm up.  After I count out my medicine for the next month.

All set for a few weeks

I just can't get warm we turned up the heat, I put on a fleece jacket, and went out and got the mail to get my blood moving.

Bonnie made baked chicken wings for supper an they were really good.  The oven warmed up the house and I am nice and toasty again.  The snow and rain stopped and the sun actually came out for a few minutes and we had blue skies.  I did go out to the coach and put the valances back up in the bedroom.  I think we will order the shades from MCD tomorrow and then have them delivered to us at the Escapade.

Time now to post this and relax a bit.


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"If Your Dreams Don't Scare You, They Are Just Not Big Enough"

A nice warm up

Thursday

Sunny and cold this morning but it is to warm up nicely today.  After breakfast and our devotions we headed outside to the coach.  Bonnie has an organizer she wants to mount somewhere in the coach.  So we took a look and it looks like we found a spot.  I also mounted the clock and thermometer I got for Christmas.  I took the fire extinguishers out of the basement and put them back in the coach.

Then I spent about 2 hours trying to get the LED lights I bought to fit into the puck lights we have.  No go, I bent the leads, and then added some wires still the cover would not fit back on.  So back to the drawing board.

While I worked on the lights Bonnie started cleaning out the flower beds.  Finally around 2pm we booth came in and I had some lunch.  Now to relax a little.  Later I have Worship Team practice at church.

Did not get home from practice till after 10pm,  Heated up my dinner and soon went to bed.

Friday

Nice and sunny again and should get into the 60s today.  I was reading email when UPS came.  Bonnie was gone with her parents for DR visits.  UPS brought my new scanner so we can try to be paperless.  After 3 hours the last being online with Fitjitsu, they decided it was bad.  So I packed it all back up and let Amazon know it was defective.  They will arrange for a new one to be sent and UPS to pick up the bad one on Monday.

Then a few phone calls to friends and a bit of TV recordings.  Tonight we are headed to church for the Good Friday services.

Bonnie got home a little after 5 and was able to relax for a few minutes and have a bite to eat.  Then about 6:20 we left to pick up the girls and head for church.  We had a very nice Good Friday Service and it was very well attended.  Now home again.  I am going to set up the garmin GPS to update while I sleep.  Actually I just need to get it started.  I updated the maps on the older one last night.

Saturday

Overcast today and did not hit 50 till noon.  Bonnie is off to the produce stand in East Aurora, I think we will wash cars and clean the insides when she gets back.

I headed out around noon to get started and Bonnie soon pulled in.  She brought the mail and no swatches from MCD.

Sure sign of Spring the hoses are hung outside

We opened up the cars and vacuumed out the insides and washed the inside windows.

Cleaning the insides

Hard at work

I scrubbed the mats and put them out to dry.

All nice and clean

Drying in the sun

Then we switched to the outside and washed and dried both cars.

Big smile almost done

I drained and rolled up the hoses, buckets and brushes.  Then I switched gears and got some tools out to work on the coach.  I wanted to change the fitting for the air hose in the back since the old one was not allowing me to insert the air fitting.

Old one on the left

 The other fittings are the air tank drains.  It came off easy and the new one went in easy.

Nice new shinny air hose fitting

 Then to keep it clean I wrapped plastic around it and used a garbage bag tie to secure it

All weatherproofed now

Next I was looking for a place to mount the outside temperature sensor four the new clock and thermometer.  Boy did I get a surprise.  On the bottom of a blank panel on the side I saw two clasps.  I snapped them open and the panel swung open.

Surprise access to a compartment

Wow I had wondered where all these aladdin modules were.  This is the back side of the wet bay.  The three tanks are in here as well as the Solar charger, a heater, and lots of water lines.  I am so happy I found this.  I even found a place to mount the temperature sensor.

Tank and power modules

The solar charger

So we ended up having a very productive day and Bonnie has a pork roast in the crockpot for dinner. Its been a great Saturday.

All the fresh air has me tired I am headed for bed.

Sunday

Up before sunrise this morning and we headed for church.  Just the Worship Team was there the parking lot was pretty empty.  Practice went well and we had some last minute changes that we were still making when the service started.  But in the end it all worked out.

Then we headed home for a few minutes before going back in to have a ham dinner at Elizabeth's.  Everything was delicious.  While we waited for dinner we watch the second half of Frozen

Intent on watching Frozen

After we ate and relaxed a bit we headed home as Elizabeth had some online school work to do.  I was also for a quiet afternoon.  Then the power went out.  No problem the generator will start, nope its quiet out.  Bonnie suggested it might have something to do with the NYSEG truck we saw up the road.  I went out to see what the problem was.  There was an over crank alarm again like we had back in November.  Same problem the chock was stuck closed.  I moved that, cleared the alarm and it started right up.  The DISH reconnected and we watched a little TV.  The power came back on in about 30 minutes.  So I Googled the problem and seems others have had this problem also.  So the most suggested fix was to lengthen the choke linkage.  I did that by bending it a little.

Our generator

Under the cover

The choke assembly

I tested it and got an overspeed alarm but then it started working properly.  I will check it again tomorrow.  I closed that up made a note to change the oil and filters and then noticed the siding that had come loose during the winter and some that Bonnie pulled loose removing grapevines.

The loose siding

The siding actually moves a lot between winter and summer temperatures.  The brush we use for washing the coach on a telescoping pole worked perfectly, no ladder necessary.

Finally I can relax, but first I did a little research online on parts and manuals for the generator and sent them to Evernote.

We had bought some Salsa dry mix at the Hershey RV show last year and I mixed some of that up tonight and we just had chips and Salsa for supper.   Now to post the blog and relax.

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"If Your Dreams Don't Scare You, They Are Just Not Big Enough"

Preparation

Monday

Where has the day gone.  We got up to a sunny morning but as the day went on it got cloudy and finally rained and rained hard.  Bonnie started the wash and took off for Warsaw.  So I tried to keep it going and went out to the coach several times to carry out some of our stuff and do some measurements.

We have been wanting to replace some of the pleated day night shades with MCD shades.  I did a lot of research, measuring, and called them today.  I even chatted on line to John Huggins, I knew he had replaced some of his shades recently.  After talking to him I went out and tried to take down the valances over the windows.  It was easier than I thought.  Four screws and the unit came off as a single piece.  That made it easy to measure and it will be easy to install the new shades.

There are two of these at the head of the bed

This is the other window over the dresser

This is the inside of the unit came off easy

I talked to MCD and they are sending fabric swatches so we can match them with the coach.  They say they will ship units within 7 days of us ordering them so we should have them installed by the start of the trip.

I also had to work on the garden way cart.  The handle pulled out when she was bringing in the groceries today.  Bonnie did a beef roast in the crockpot for supper and we had it with snow peas.
Then we settled down to watch some programs.

Tuesday

Still dark when the alarm went off this morning.  We are headed to the Mission today for a day of volunteering.  Its raining and yesterdays high of 76 is gone.  Its 35 out now and it is to get colder and perhaps the rain will turn white again.

We decided to take the CRV today since it is all will drive.  When I opened the car door no light, when I turned the key not even a click.  I checked the battery and it was dead.  We switched cars and headed out.  By the time we got town it was beginning to snow.  We were both busy all day.  Bonnie did scanning and I worked on statistics and did a little instructing on MS Word and how to do labels.  The day was over quickly and we headed home.  Not snowing down town as we headed to WalMart.  We needed a battery and Elizabeth needed ginger.  I got my battery but no ginger at WalMart.  So we headed across the street to Wegmans paid twice as much but got the ginger.

Once we got out in the hills it was still snowing but not sticking on the roads.  We went in and collected the trash, then I changed and headed out with the trash to the garage.  First order of business was to change the battery, the fifth one this week.  The change out was easy and went quickly.

New one is all strapped down just need to hook it up

Once hooked up I started the car and let it run a while to charge up the battery a little.  While it was running I ran the trash out to the highway.  Then I looked up the anti theft code on My Honda link site so that I could enter it into the radio and get it working again.  I was happy to see that the radio presets were saved.  A quick measurement and the battery seems to be charging so I think the battery just gave up the ghost on its own.

Bonnie had supper ready when I came in and it was good.  I have been trying to catch up on blogs and emails and still have a ways to go.   Going to relax a bit and then head to bed.

Wednesday

Nice and sunny but cold today, it never got out of the 30's.  I went out and checked the voltage on the new battery and it was good after setting all night.  Then I ran out and got the mail.  The rest of the day I was on the computer or watching you tubes on some things I was researching.

Water dripped off the roof and froze on this bush

Then we headed to church to celebrate a Passover or Seder meal.  It was very interesting and I think we learned a lot.

Parts of the Seder Meal

I got a text from Elizabeth while we were at church asking us to stop on the way home.  She was having trouble hooking up a printer.  We stopped and we were able to get it hooked up and working.

Finally home time to post this and get some rest.  Hoping for some warmer weather.

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"If Your Dreams Don't Scare You, They Are Just Not Big Enough"

Home Coming

Thursday

Nice this morning sunny and warming up nicely.  We had breakfast a phone call or so and then we headed to Gainesville to pick up the Coach from Copeland's Storage.  Doug was not there but the coach was out of the building and sitting outside waiting for us.  We went in and let them know we were there to pick her up.  Then out to do a quick check before we drove off.  I knew the pressure in at least tire would be low so I fired up the generator, which started right up.  Then out to check the tires.  My right rear outer tire has always leaked a little and it was down to 48psi.  The rest were all just over 100 where they should be.

My little SEARS compressor did a good jump of getting the tire up to 101psi.

It took a little while but the tire came right up to pressure.  The big CAT engine fired right up and we were ready to roll.  Bonnie occupied her time by picking up cans to turn in out by the road.  She had quite a haul.  I had a couple warning lights on but they went away as soon as I started to pull out so all seemed good.  The Aladdin monitor blinked some so I might have a loose connection somewhere so I will have to chase that down.  No other problems heading home and I backed it in the driveway right onto the parking pad.

Good to look out and see this view

 I checked the engine coolant and couple other things then headed into the house.  We still have another couple cold days and nights in the forecast so I will wait to de-winterize the water system.

Lots of branches down in the yard again

 The yard is still way to wet to get out on and pick up branches and maybe a few leaves.
Also there is still a lot of snow hanging on.

Still piles of snow

I went back out to the coach after dark to check out some of the lights.  All was well except one of the keypads was not working.  I unplugged the 12volts for the multiplex controller for about 30 seconds and then plugged it back in.  All seems to be working now.

Thats about it for today.

Friday

Bonnie was up early today and headed out to a seminar with her Mother and Sister.  Its not as warm and not as sunny as yesterday but its all good as the snow continues to melt.  I finally decided it was as warm as it was going to get.  So I headed out to top off the water in the batteries in the coach.

Something does not look quite right.

The batteries did not look quite right.  Thats when the problems started.

Looks like the batteries froze

I checked and all four of the house batteries are blown out.  They are heavy duty 6 volt batteries like are used in golf carts.  It appears that they discharged and froze.  Charged batteries are not supposed to freeze.  So far the two engine batteries seem to be ok.  So once I get batteries I will have to check and make sure the charging circuits are working properly.

In preparation for the replacement I took a picture of the wiring.  This is called a series-parallel set up.  The result is 12 volts at twice the capacity as two 12 volt batteries.

Will use this to hook new batteries up properly

Not much else to do so I went in and tried to find the best price for the size batteries I need.  Looks like I will be headed to SAMS Club in the near future.  Bonnie made it home, her phone was dead so now we have to figure out why her battery in not lasting.  She had me go out to the car and carry this in for her.

She guessed the exact number (5462) of Jelly Beans in this jar...WOW!

Thats about it for this evening.

Saturday

Sunny this morning it should warm up quickly.  I am still researching where to get my batteries.
Well looks like it will be SAMS Club just can not beat their price for the same size battery.  They have the GC2 215 AH battery for $84.  The ones I am taking out were 190 AH.  Time to get busy.

I headed out to the garage and gathered my tools and the ladder.  I needed the ladder to get up to the solar panel and cover it with a blanket to stop it from trying to charge the batteries while I unhooked them.

Three of the Four Coach batteries removed

Once I got the batteries out I could see that the Engine batteries still looked good.  I had taken pictures of the wiring and I discovered that the cables were color coded for positive and negative.

All loaded up

The trip into Sams went well and I dropped off the batteries at the tire shop.  The guys there were nice and even carried them in for me.  Then over to the main store.  They had lots of batteries and the sales man gave me a lifting strap after he used it to load the batteries in the cart.  He told me to check out at customer service and they would credit me the core charge for turning in the old batteries.  That had some interesting twists, but I will save those stories for a campfire sometime.

Finally out of the store a little poorer but headed home

I stopped to pickup some things from Elizabeth and then headed home.  Back home I mixed up some backing soda water and washed down the battery compartment.  Then headed into the house to have some lunch.  Bonnie headed out a while later to volunteer at the Ronald McDonald house and I headed out to the Coach.  I cleaned up the battery try and primed and painted it.

Bonnie with her Thirty-One Group at the Ronald McDonald House

I talked to my sister about the HeartBleed security issue, she had a couple accounts compromised.  Then returned a call to my buddy Don from Virginia.  He called to give me a fuel report from Pennsylvania and said it was a lot more expensive there than in Virginia.  I remember hearing they added a bunch of tax.  Then I started to install the new batteries.

All ready to put the new batteries in

The batteries went in no problem the pictures I took helped a lot.  I also reinstalled my battery water fill system.  I checked the battery voltage and then pulled the blanket off the solar panel, the charge voltage increased.  I plugged the coach back in and it the charge came up to normal, good to see that the charger worked.  The charger went into bulk charge like it should, then about 30 minutes later I checked and it was in the absorption mode.

All done just need to close the door and put the tools away.

Before I went in to shower and clean up I checked on the small mowing tractor and it started right up so thats a good sign.  Boy is it muddy everywhere in the yard water is still coming out of the ground as we are on the side of a hill.  Then snow is melting fast should be gone in a week.

I cleaned up took some Advil and put on some Bio Freeze.  I am not use to hauling 68lb batteries, I will say that the strap the guy gave me at Sams sure helped a lot.

I waited a couple hours and checked one more time, it was in float charge so the batteries were close to fully charged when I put them in.

Bonnie got home after 6 so we missed our couple study but she did make some fried ham and broccoli for supper.  The race is on from Darlington so I am going to sit back and enjoy it.

Sunday

What a beautiful day sunny and in the 70s.  Tomorrow should be nice also then some cooler weather. We were up this morning and left for Castile Baptist Church.  We were invited out to church and to a missions dinner.  The Palm Sunday church service was very nice and the dinner was delicious.  There was also a short program that the Mission Team that is going to the Dominican Dominion was also very good.

After the dinner we visited a couple hours with Doug and Christa's family in Gainesville.  On the way home we decided it would Wing Night again at the Jae's.  So we called ahead to Praller's and ordered a double order of wings.

So we are fed, happy and comfortable.  I did go out and check the coach, it had settled in the front some and I leveled it again.  The batteries seem to have charged nicely so I think we are in good shape in that department.

Now to relax and watch the Sunday evening shows.

Thanks For Checking In!  Its been a good week.

"If Your Dreams Don't Scare You, They Are Just Not Big Enough"