Planes, Bikes and Boats

Yesterday I had Pam at the Flint Bishop International Airport at 5:00AM for a 6:00 AM flight to Dallas.

She got there in plenty of time, had a brief layover in Chicago and got to DFW about 9:30 AM.   She is driving back up here to Michigan with Kelly and Ed (her dog).

I got back to the Roadrunner, had breakfast, went for a good run before I finished the wax job on the Roadrunner.

It is supposed to get 'Step 2' but it isn't going to happen in this heat...

After lunch I found a nearby bike trail 'Hudson Valley Trail' and went for a one of the longer rides I have had in a while.  I think I went about 12 miles and found another trail 'South Lyon Trail Head'.

I came back in time to heat up some 'chili mac' for dinner and ate on the banks of the lake.  I built a fire and sat in the shade and made some phone calls.

Pam and Kelly almost made it to Nashville last night before the checked into a motel.  They should be here tonite.

Before the sun went down, the boats were out on the lake.  I haven't seen so many here in the water at one time.

It was a bit warm so a boat ride was appealing.

I read some before I turned in and called it a night.  That was it for yesterday on the Roadrunner Chronicles.  Thanks for viewing!

Garage Doors at our NOMADS House

We got back in the saddle at our NOMADS house in Galveston.  I caught a ride with Jerry and Kit while Pam went back to the doctor for a followup.  She also got the tire repaired and did some other things before she joined us there too.

Pam found out they could not balance the tires because the tread on a front one is wearing too thin.  It is time for new tires.  ??  Really...after 16,000 miles?  We have to call our Honda dealer and check out that one.  I thought these were supposed to be good for 50,000 miles (or 30,000 at least...).

Kelly returned to Dallas with Ed(her dog).  The RV campground where we are staying at Island Community Church is about half empty.  More people left last weekend and we only have 10 people left on the project.  It closes down this week and resumes again in the fall.

My main task for the day was to get started on the garage doors.  They need to be replaced.

It was built with 1/4 inch plywood but we are replacing it with 3/4 inch.

The old doors are a bit twisted so, we are putting up cross braces inside the doors on these ones.

If the hinges hold on these HEAVY doors, they should last a while.

Inside, Jerry was fixing the bathtub fixtures and replacing an electrical outlet box while Kit and Fran were finishing off the trim around the laundry and closet doors.

Kit also finished painting the back door.  Quitting time came very quickly and we headed back to the campground after 4:00 PM.

In the evening I got caught up on emails and coordinated the final touches over the phone with our tax person at H and R Block.  That online approval and submission is pretty nifty.  We had a bit of a complicated return this year so it was great to have Mike get it done for us.  Good news ~ we get about $1700 back this year!

We are getting in the pack up and move mode.  Tonight after 'work' I will take off the tire covers and check the tire pressure, do some packing rearrange some things in the basement.

We will leave here on Friday morning for Red Bay AL to get some work done at the Tiffin factory.

Hope your week is going well and thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Tully's and a Flat Tire

After we saw Adam and Meghan, we found a Bed and Breakfast in Petrolia (Canada).  It was about the same price as a Super 8 Motel in Sarnia, 10 miles away.  Only a whole lot better!   Tully's was GREAT.

The old Victoria House was built in 1896 and served as the rectory for the Anglican Church (down the street).  It became available in 1988 when Gord and Betty Tully bought it.   It opened for business in 1992.  I has been completely restored and is a gem!

We arrived late in the afternoon and were greated by the Tully's.  Betty and Gord Tully love people and it was evident from the first moment we met them.

We got the third floor of the mansion.  Pam and I had a suite and Kelly had her own room.

We shared a small but very adequate toilet and shower.

The rooms and hallways are not real large but the house has tremendous personality and it has been restored with a lot of antique furniture, furnishings and other details.

Betty cooked a fantastic breakfast, complete with fresh fruit, homemade coffee cake,

maple bacon and scrambled eggs.

The other rooms in the house also had Victorian furniture (along with a Bose music system and speakers and a video/TV in the other room.)

We left the Tully's about 9:30 AM and went over to see Adam and Meghan.  We also spent time talking with Marg (her mom) before we had lunch.

In no time it was time to say goodbye and we headed back across the bridge to Port Huron.

The weather was nice and the sky was blue as we approached the checkpoint at the bridge into Port Huron.  From their it was a little over 60 miles to Detroit and another 15 miles to the airport.

We flew from Detroit, made a connecting flight to Houston and caught the shuttle bus out to where our car was parked.  We loaded the bags and started out of the parking lot.  Uh oh...

I had a flat tire. I pulled it over under the bright lights.  And our ace mechanic/tire changer jumped into action.

Kelly was determined to show us her prowess.  In 15 minutes we were done and on our way.  What a daughter!

We picked up Ed (her dog) at cousin Mark's and drove to Galveston to the Roadrunner.  We got into bed shortly after 12:00 AM.

Please continue to pray for Meghan and Adam and her family and ours.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles.  We are very glad you stopped by...

From Hanging Doors to a Talent Show

It was my turn to lead devotions and I took focused on a portion of scripture out of Nehemiah.  One of the themes of that book is how Nehemiah planned, prepared and executing the rebuilding of the walls in Jerusalem.  The point of the devotion was to see how and how much Nehemiah prayed to Almighty God which has direct application to our NOMADS house rebuilding projects.

We had a rain storm Wednesday night that left the campground a little soggy.

But it cleared up and it was another beautiful day

I have mixed emotions about Thursdays.  With our NOMADS team, it is the last day of the work week.  It is also the time we say goodbye to some couples.  Russ and Nancy are leaving Friday but not before Joe, our project lead, presented Russ with a picture of his plumbing.

The plumbing requirements on some houses here in Galveston have been interesting.  Russ had one of those that probably unlike any other he will have to deal with anytime soon.

We had the same team back at Johnnie's House.

Joe helped us hang our first door to the laundry room.

It opens and closes beautifully.  I love learning how to do new things like this.

Jerry and Kit and I were then able to hang a closet door in the back bedroom.

Now all we have to do is put up trim and replace the baseboard and those two projects will be done.

Pam finished installing the drywall in the front aquarium closet.

That was a beast--hard to get to and a few non-standard cuts to fit into the space.

Pat cleaned out old drywall and prepared a space in the kitchen under the counter where the dishwasher was.

Outside, Norm was building a screen for the non-standard window.

He even built a cross piece for support.  Those rivet guns come in handy.

After we finished for the day, we got cleaned up and went over to Moody Memorial United Methodist Church.  They were have their first annual fund raiser for their after-school program.  They had a silent auction,a loaded bake potato dinner and a talent show to raise money.

We had the whole NOMADS group there at three tables.

Our own fellow NOMADS Carol Stoner did a comedy routine with a take off on Minnie Pearl.

It was all well done and successful event.

Kelly went to Houston to leave her dog Ed with cousin Mark and had an interview.  She thought it went well so we will see how it goes in a couple of weeks.  A move from Dallas to Houston could be in the works.

She is spending the night with us in Galveston, then the three of us will drive back to Houston and hop on a plane to fly to Detroit.  Adam and Meghan are getting married on Sunday in nearby Petrolia, Canada, right across the border.  We are excited for them!

Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles!  And for signing up to 'Follow'...we are very close to our goal of 100 but need a few more to get there...

Repairs Day

While Pam and Kelly ran errands and did some shopping in Fort Worth, I got a couple of repairs done; namely Pam's bike and my laptop. I also had time to do some other chores around the Roadrunner back at the Army Corps of Engineers campground.

Early in the morning I got a call from the Dell Technician who was going to replace my hard drive. He said he'd be there after noon.

That gave me some time to work on the bikes. Pam's bike needed a new inner tube so I replaced it.

That didn't take too long and I pumped hers and mine up to the proper psi and put it aside for a while.

Next, since it was such a nice day I decided to get some work done on the Apple outside. A little while later Ray, the Dell technician called. I directed him to our campsite and he was ready to go.

He swapped out the hard drive in about 5 minutes and then spent about 25 minutes doing the paper work so he could ship parts back to Dell. I am pretty impressed with how their repair process works.

I went online with Dell Support on Monday night. They determined I had a hard drive failure and sent parts to Ray. He called Friday morning and set up an appointment with me and I am all set up. Hopefully in the next few days I can get my old laptop fixed up with all my software.

After Kelly and Pam got back by mid afternoon so I decided to clean Kelly's car. It was pretty dirty and I used The Solution. It took about an hour to clean it up and looks great, so she was pleased.

While Pam was cooking some lasagna for dinner, I went for a short bike ride around the campground.

The campground has some hills and goes along Benbrook Lake . I see a number of groups of cyclists every day riding through the campground. My ride was only about 30 minutes and I needed to get back so we could go over to Brad and Sue's.

We had a nice dinner and watched some TV for a while. We saw a portion of The Proposal but the DVD player messed up. It was about time for us to go back to the campground so we said good byes and returned home.

We watched the remainder of the movie back at the Roadrunner. The coach has 'Surround Sound' and we enjoyed the movie. It was a late night for us and we headed to bed after 11:30.

We had a good day of getting some things done and enjoying the day. Pam and Kelly made their way through some stores on Black Friday and picked up a couple of bargains.

That's about it for now. Hope you are having a good weekend. Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles! Hope to have you stop by again!

They Got it Wrong Before They Got it Right!

ted
We spent a comfortable and safe night in the WalMart parking lot. The tow truck was supposed to be there around 10:00AM.The tow truck showed up about 11:10. It had to drive from Fort Worth which was about 55 miles away. Yikes!
As he approached the truck seemed to look a lot like the one the COULD NOT tow us yesterday. After a brief conversation, the driver confirmed it and headed back to Fort Worth.I called CoachNet again and we started over. About 90 minutes they called back to say they located a bigger tow truck with air suspension, a Low Boy and/or a wheel lift system. Sounds good but we'll see...Meanwhile, I called Duncan Freightliner in Waco to see if they were going to be able to get to us today. Thought I would set expectations. I also wanted to confirm we could stay in the lot over night as CoachNet told us. Uh oh... no can do???

I called CoachNet and they spoke with the same Service Manager I did. The Service manager told them the tow truck could drop us outside the gate and they would move us into the yard first thing in the morning.

Not acceptable! Have you ever been to the outskirts of Waco? Not the safest looking place I have seen.
I wanted to speak with a CoachNet Manager. We were now into 20+ hours of waiting to be towed to the 'nearest qualified Freightliner service' which was in the opposite direction we are headed.

I told him after two attempts and now this new information I wanted no part of Duncan Freightiner. I was civil but we went at it for a bit. He said the cost to tow to Dallas would cost me the difference. What? After all CoachNet has NOT done right?? Where is the SERVICE in Customer Service. He said he'd call Dallas Freightliner.

I expected another round with him after he called Dallas Freightliner to say that it would cost us $$ yada yada yada.

To my surprise CoachNet said were were scheduled at Dallas Freightliner, no cost to me. Hallelujah! I have no idea what changed his mind. Now we were gettting some where...

This right equipment showed up they Dale and Kelly took their time to get things hooked up correctly. They took out the bolts securing the driveshaft, secured front wheels and tied up the mud flap.Then we followed them and the Roadrunner to Dallas.
Dale (the driver) and Kelly called us after we got on the road and said to give them a quick call if we saw any thing that did not look right.

We pulled into the three-month old facility without incident. The security guard checked us in and we talked to the Service Manager. We are on the schedule when they open up at 8:00 AM.We thanked Dale and Kelly for their attention to detail and the careful handling of the Roadrunner, then plugged the coach into 50 amp service.

Then we headed to Kelly's place. Ed checked out his new digs. Kelly prepared dinner for us and we had a very nice evening.We got to meet her roomates, Shea, Meesh and two other friends, Amanda and Becca (hope I spelled that night.)Her place is about 10 miles from Dallas Freightliner. We returned to the Roadrunner and called it a day.

We are grateful for being here. More tomorrow on what they find out about the sick engine. We'll keep you posted. (I am also on Twitter at RandyWarner.)

Thanks for checking in. Hope to see you next time on the Roadrunner Chronicles. The journey continues...