Making More RV Memories

October seems to be a fun month in the RV world.  Folks are making plans or even already traveling south for the warmer weather.  I love this time of year.

We are also making plans for camping in Florida this winter, but I’ll save that for another time.  I was struck how fun it has been the last few weeks seeing RV friends.  First we had the pleasure of meeting up with Bruce and Gabe and we also got to spend some time with George and Marge.  Fun fun fun.  We talk about our times together and figure a way to meet up again in the future.

Our new RV memories happened this time with Gabe and Bruce.  We met them while on a Habitat for Humanity projects in Macon Georgia.  I believe we first met in November 2014.  It was so much fun with the group we had that we tried to repeat and all signed up for another gig in 2016.  Over the years we have kept in touch but never managed to hook up again until this recent visit.

They are living in Georgia but had lived on the Eastern shore and also spend time in Richmond raising their family.  We got together this time for a few minutes at First Landing State Park where they were staying and we also had them over to see our new digs.

They left and saw friends on the eastern shore but we found we still had one more chance to see them on their way back from the Eastern shore.  They were pulling their trailer so we found a convenient shopping center where they could park it for a couple of hours while we all went to lunch.

We arrived at the appointed location on time and they were locking things up.  I pulled up in the truck which were taking to lunch and Pam pulled up in the Honda, having spent the morning with Kelly working on a project.

Our F-150 has a push button start thing with a FOB which I keep in the tray.  The great thing about that is one doesn’t have to worry about pulling out your keys to start the truck.  Also, the truck beeps if I leave the FOB in it so I never have to worry about locking it in the truck.

So I drove up, left the truck running, locked over to see that Gabe and Bruce were finished up, got out of the truck when Pam drove up.  The truck was still running and she parked and locked the car (can you guess where this is heading ???) and then put her purse (with her truck FOB) in the truck, closed the door and locked the truck.

Then realized the truck locked.  With the engine running.  What?? No -- wait a minute, it never locks with the FOB in there.  Not possible.  Or is it??

With two FOBs in the truck apparently so!  😳  Now what?  Hmmm.  There must be a way out of this.  I noticed the keyless entry on the driver side of the truck and though, “I sure wish I had set that up.  It would come in handy at a time like this!!”

Hmmm.  Maybe the Ford dealer had the keyless door code.  I called them and they did not.  Hmmm.  Maybe CarMax had the info and I called them.

Nope.  Did I mention the truck was still running?  I had the thought that we could probably go to lunch and get back in an hour and it might be still running since it has a 35 gallon+ gas tank.  It was an option but not a good one.

I asked CarMax about our service warranty and if it covered towing and they put me in touch with the service people.  I went through my long sad story of locking my keys(FOB) in the truck and they said no problem, we can help.  After another 10 minutes or so I had the presence of mind to ask if this was free or was there a charge and how much?

The lady said I had $100 toward the cost of the service to unlock the truck and she did not know how much the vendor charged.  Hmmm -- that did not sound like a good option either and I knew we were covered with USAA.

I thanked the lady and said I had made a mistake and should have asked earlier but we had a free service with USAA and were going to call them.

I contacted USAA and it was all automated.  I never actually talked to a person, but I got a service call scheduled and verified our location on a map.  Then the wait began.

We decided even if we got the situation solved quickly, by now the lunch hour was in full swing and we didn’t want to hold up Bruce and Gabe from continuing on their trip.  There was a Subway in the shopping center and Bruce and I went over and brought back lunch.  They opened one of their slides on the travel trailer and a we sat down to eat our lunch there.

Not exactly what we had planned but it worked out great.  Before we knew it, a car pulled up and they ran  their tool down the window and unlocked the car in about 30 seconds.  That was a little scary to think all one needs is the tool to gain access to all our stuff.

We were elated to get it open, turn off the truck and that was that.  No charge and I realized I should have called USAA first.  From the time I hung up with the automated system to the folks arriving on the scene was 16 minutes.  Timely service indeed!

We were well satisfied.  I made a mental note to get the keyless entry set up (and did that two days later after going back to CarMax and have them extract the factory code from the vehicle).

We continued on with lunch and had another nice time with Bruce and Gabe.  And we added another episode to our RV memories!  And it wasn’t even our RV... 🙂

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner (less) Chronicles!

Quick Week Gone in Sioux Falls

We finished up our first week at the Greater Sioux Falls Habitat for Humanity Care-A-Vanner build last week and are already half way intoour second week!  It has flown by.  The affiliate has three houses currently under construction and we have worked at two.

We finished up our time (there is lots more work to be done) at our first house with some work in the basement,

finishing off the house painting and

some work on the front porch deck.

On Monday morning, we moved over to our second house and put a coat of paint on it. First we had to assemble the scaffolding on the side of the house.

 We did a lot of painting from ladders also.

 After the second coat of paint went on the house today, we started on the soffit under the eves.

 It helps when you have a major league soffit cutting tool.

We paused for a group picture mid-afternoon and then finished up the soffit on the back side of the house.

We are enjoying the work and getting to know our fellow Care-A-Vanners.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles.

A Different Kind of Day with the Care-A-Vanners

We have been thoroughly enjoying our time in Sioux Falls.  We have completed day two of our Habitat for Humanity build and working on some fun tasks and learning a lot.

This morning during our devotions,

David was using a framing hammer for an object lesson.  I never knew that a framing hammer is exactly 16" long - the same distance as the standard distance between studs.  So I can use my hammer to take a quick check.

Also this has been a unique build (they are all a little different) in that we have been furnished breakfast, coffee, lunch and water from the local Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bakery store here in town.  So a big shoutout to them!  Thank you very much!!

Jessica, our Volunteer Coordinator and Point of Contact for our time here has been on site every morning to greet us, make sure all our paperwork is squared away (sign-in sheets, waivers etc) and generally be there in case we have items.

After two days we've finished the siding on the garage on three sides and are going to paint tomorrow.

As we were eating our lunch, Dan arrived.  He is a reporter for local CBS affiliate in Sioux Falls.  He spoke with quite a few of us.

Later in the day, he posted his report on the 5 o'clock news:

It's not every day things turn out this way, but it was a lot of fun.  Back to work tomorrow and painting the garage and maybe we will get started on building the front deck and porch.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Kicking it Off in Sioux Falls

We had our 'Meet and Greet' meeting with some of the local Sioux Falls Habitat for Humanity staff.  Our Care-A-Vanner group consists of four couples and all four are full-timer RVers.
We have two couples whose domicile and mail service center is here in Sioux Falls and two whose address and mail forwarding service is located in Green Cove Springs FL.

One never knows what to expect and each build is a little different.  Our meeting was held at the Bracco Restaurant and it was great!

We got a chance to meet the Executive Director - Patty Brooks, the Volunteer Coordinator - Jessica Shulte plus more folks on their team as well as their spouses and Paul Johnson - Construction Supervisor.

Other Habitat supporters were there and it was a very nice couple of hours to meet and get to know the people on our end of the table.  It was a lot of fun and the affiliate was very generous to host us their for dinner.

We got a group photo before we started, heard about the work we will be doing (outside siding for starters).

We are off to a great start and looking forward to the week.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

2017 Summer Travels and Beyond

We've pulled out the eraser and pencil and updated our plans for travel when we leave here the middle of June.  Here's a some things we've jotted down:

June 2017

• Chesapeake VA: Stewart Campground (military campground where we currently are parked) 
• Maynardville TN:  Roadrunner RV Resort and Campground
• Red Bay AL:  RV maintenance and repairs

July 2017

• Maynardville TN: Roadrunner RV Resort and Campground (private)
• Williamstown KY: Noah's Ark
• Columbus OH:  State Capitol
• Indianapolis IN: State Capitol/ Indy Brickyard
• Lansing MI: Habitat for Humanity Care-A-Vanner Build
• Port Huron MI: See Bakers across the border in Petrolia Ontario

August 2017

• Sioux Falls SD: Habitat for Humanity Care-A-Vanner Build
• Seneca KS:  Solar Eclipse viewing

September 2017

• Haymarket VA:  near Fairfax, Habitat for Adam and Melissa
• Richmond VA:  Pocahontas State Park, Civil War museums and historical sites
• Williamsburg VA: Chetham Annex (military campground)

October 2017

• Virginia Beach VA: appointments (Ocean Pines military campground)

November 2017

• Coca Beach FL:  Patrick AFB FL Manatee Cove Campground (military campground)
• Florida County Parks?

December 2017

• Mayport FL:  Pelican Roost Campground (military campground)
• Pensacola FL:  Ocean Grove Campground (military campground

January 2018

• Florida?

February 2018

• Tucson AZ

March 2018

• Tucson AZ

April 2018

• Albuquerque NM: Kirkland AFB (military campground)

May 2018

• Virginia Beach VA

June 2018

• Virginia Beach VA

Like always, some of these are locations and dates are more settled than others.  

But this serves as 'peek' into our planning.  We hope that if we can meet any of you along the way we can work something out to say, 'Hi'.  It's one of the great joys of this lifestyle -- meeting friends and family along the way.

Also - I have updated our Google Calendar on the sidebar of the blog so you can also check out our latest plans.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

The Chamber Pot is OK But...

I rather have the toilet back.
Our toilet broke a few weeks ago.

I've thought a lot about what to name this and Pam decided maybe you could come up with a better title than I could....  so if you have an appropriate name/title that would fit this blog post --- please give it to us in the comments below!

We have a Dometic 4310 electric toilet.  I pushed the handle down like normal and it would not flush.  Thankfully I was just taking a leak so to speak and it all eventually drained down to the black tank.

This little episode has been full of twists and turns.  It really all started before July 2014.  That was the date of the purchase order when I got two seals to replace the ones that were shot in the toilet.  The seals are large rubber gaskets that keep water in the toilet after it flushes and fills up.  The toilet bowl was not retaining water after I flushed it so I knew I needed to replace to the seals.

But I lacked the courage.  I didn't want to make things worse.  Every felt like that?  Others I have known have jumped right in and fixed their toilets.  I wasn't too sure about it all.  I was really afraid, I'd unscrew the thing from the bathroom floor, pull it up and take it outside to look at it and break something.  Yikes!  Then what would I do.

The toilet was still functional and seemed to work fine.  Except that it no longer held water in the toilet bowl.  But that was OK.  Everything else worked fine.   Frankly, I was intimidated by it all.  So we let it set and let well enough alone.

Until last week.  When I pushed the handle down it wound up and whined and that released a big 'Crack!'.  I did that a couple of times before I decided something was terribly wrong and I might really break something.  It was then that I pulled out my paperwork, looked the model number up online and finally called Dometic.

Dometic diagnosed it and said yes, -- it is probably this part and that part.  I found the parts manual and schematic online and identified the part numbers he was talked about and ordered them.  In fact, I paid for overnight delivery so we wouldn't have to deal with a broken toilet any longer that we had to.

I expected them the next day, but didn't get both parts until 4 and 5 days later.  Each part was mailed separately.  I addressed them correctly but they went to the warehouse, floated around a few days until one ended up in the office (where it should have been delivered originally).  The second piece got picked up and landed in the construction manager's office.  Good thing I caught the right guy at 6:30 AM in the warehouse who helped me tracked down the second part.

Next thing we did was turn off the water, drain the tank, unscrew the bolts, clip the wires lift the porcelain toilet and carry it outside.  

I turned it over and it was fairly clean with no poop but a lot of water calcification and crusty toilet water with toilet paper.  Kind of like cemented paper mache.  This model had no wax seal and I was able to clean the downspout into the black tank pretty well with a long handle screwdriver and wire brush

 It took me only a few minutes to determine that I had no broken parts.

The two pieces I got were really not necessary.  It was over an hour to chip away and use the wire brush, a long screwdriver and plenty of elbow grease to get it all clean.  The gears and shafts and linkages that were bound up and 'frozen' were free again and working smoothly.

I took the toilet back inside the bathroom, Pam rewired the electric switch/handle, we hooked up the water and ......success!!

It  worked again and didn't make the frightening !Crack! sound and everything went smoothly.  The water in the bowl however, leaked out.  Even with the two new seals it still would not hold water in the bowl.  Hmm.

I called back the salesman (who obviously was also a very good technician).  He suggested I may have not put the seal gaskets on correctly.  Which way is 'Right Side Up' when you have the toilet upside down and are working on it that way....?  I turned one of them over, we got more wire, Pam did the rewiring again and we put it back, hooked up the water, etc etc.  This time the water held!

After a couple of years of thinking about it, and more recently a long week of using the Home Depot 5 gallon bucket sitting inside of a broken toilet during nighttime trips to the bathroom -- we got it fixed.

Over the course of the week, we found we could survive and do fine using our 'Chamber Pot'.

We didn't like the sharp edges of the top of the bucket and had to modify ours with some comfort pads.

 Worked much better.

So that is the saga of the broken toilet that got fixed.  There were many lessons learned on this one but a few were:
- Don't wait to fix something, it doesn't get better over time.
- Don't trouble shoot something over the phone without first trying to look at it yourself.
- If you pay for overnight shipping, it is no guarantee it will get there.
- Be thankful -- (If we hadn't been through this we'd never understand the notion of 'Chamber Pot'.  Now we can imagine how our forefathers lived.
- Remember -- It ALL an adventure and provides more fodder for those 'around the campfire stories in the live of an RVer.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

North Fort Myers Habitat Build

We spent two weeks in North Fort Myers as team leads for the Care-A-Vanner Habitat build.

The accommodations were a small field the affiliate turned into an RV campground with 30/50 amp service, sewer and water at no charge. I didn't get a good picture of our RV area until after Tom and Carol had left.  Barry's rig is at the end and the Roadrunner is in the foreground.

Mavis was on the other side of us in her Roadtrek.

After a few days in the corner of the 'yard' next to a large tree (and hence no satellite TV)  Roger and his 40' fifth wheel, Volvo Heavy Duty Truck and Smart car - moved out and found a commercial campground near the work site.

Our excellent volunteer coordinator at the Lee and Hendry Habitat for Humanity was Elisha.  She has only been in the job but has a lot of experience working with people in her previous jobs.  She met us on her day off (Monday) and had snacks and drinks for the Orientation Meeting.  We meet in the affiliate offices and got a tour of the facilities.  

This affiliate is one of the largest in the nation and builds over 50 homes a year!

Here's a photo of the group after devotions at the campsite before we headed out to the job site.

 Our build site was Majorca Palms and we worked on three single family houses and six duplexes.

Mavis worked on painting/getting the primer coat on one of the houses.  She also worked on shelving and worked quite a few days in the Habitat Restore near our RVs.  She has volunteered at Habitat for many years but this was her first Care-A-Vanner build.

 Barry did a lot of things.  He has spent over 8 weeks at the site participating in a number of builds as the Care-A-Vanners came and went after the normal two week stint.

 This was Carol's first Habitat build and she did a number of things including flooring and caulking.

Tom and I did a lot of re-hanging closet doors and putting in 'wire' shelving.  

 Roger is a former millworker and cabinet maker and he spent a lot of time putting in kitchen countertops and cabinets.

 Pam spent a lot of time with a putty knife and joint compound and a caulking gun.

The guy on site that kept us all moving and going in the right direction was Eduardo.  'Eddie' was one of the best guys we have worked with an a pure delight.  He has a heart of gold and has been doing Habitat for 17 years.  He also is very generous and bought us lunch from a food truck on Fridays.

 Elisha came out to the job site and brought lunch one day.  She is very good at what she does.  She and Eddie are two of the best we have worked with and real positive influences at the affiliate.

 We went out to eat as a group one night and ended up at Ford's Garage in downtown Fort Myers.

 It was a good two weeks in North Fort Myers and they have a lot of work going on with a very good system.  We didn't have to wait on supplies or wonder was was next after we finished up one task.  They kept us busy which we appreciate.

That's a recap of our time on the Care-A-Vanner build...Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles.

Week 2 Complete at our Habitat Build

We finished up our second and final week of work at the Lynmore Estates in Macon as part of the Care-A-Vanner build with Habitat for Humanity.

We had to finish up some areas and put on exterior 'blueboard' in high places around the house.  Blueboard was already up around the house from the foundation to 8 feet up.  We had to finish under the gables and soffit.

 One of our goals for the week was to start siding all the way around the house so volunteers over the weekend and in coming weeks could continue it to completion.  First we had to get it over to the house from the warehouse where it was stored.

 Jerry had to angle it through the doorways of the warehouse on the forklift since it was about 8 inches wider than the door.  He took a couple of runs at it but managed easily.

The cement fiber board (also know as Hardy board) went up pretty easily after we got going.

 It really looks great after it is up and painted.

Bruce can do about anything and here he is on the chop saw.

You have to get the corner pieces on correctly and Gabe and Andy are taking care of that one.

As we rounded out our week, we said good bye to Gabe and Bruce.  They are from the Columbus GA area and we've had the pleasure of working with them here before.

 Colleen and Pam and I worked on the siding on the back of the house.

 At the end of the day and a busy two week, Jim (the Business Developer and Volunteer Coordinator) stopped by.  He's one of those one of a kind guys, great at what he does and one of the most personable people you'd ever want to know.

 We've been to Macon three times now and he keeps the ball rolling and always spearheading upgrades and improvements for the RVers and the facility we get to use.  He also was responsible for lining up some donors so we could enjoy a three meals with folks at the church and at two eating establishments.  Very nice of him to do that!

Our last night there, we went with Barbara and Ross (can't believe we didn't get a picture of them!! - ugh) and some other folks to Yoder's Mennonite Restaurant out in the country (Montezuma, GA).

 It was a great meal followed by a picture with Janet, Andy and Dot.  It was the end of another memorable couple of weeks in Macon.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!