Shades, Friends and Direct TV

Yesterday we dropped Kelly's car off at the garage. Then I drove her to the train station so she could get on her way to work in Dallas.

Afterwards, we had the pleasure of meeting Mike and Gerri Jones who are currently in McKinney, TX. It took about an hour for us to get their from Kelly's house and we met them at MCD Innovations.

They were getting some shades installed in their RV and were parked on the lot. MCD has full hookups for customers which is a nice feature.

Mike and Gerri have been RVers for a few years and they invited us into their Dutchstar motorhome. They have it set up really nice and it is a beautiful home. We talked for a while and shared some stories. Both of us are regular readers and fans of Howard and Linda Payne's RV-Dreams Journal.

We have been following Gerri and Mike's Journal "The RV Life/Mike and Gerri's Journey" and it was great to meet them.

Mike and Gerri introduced us to Bobbi at MCD who talked to us about their shades and how they work. We thought about getting our done, but our frugal minds won't let us follow through. At this point, our shades work fine and the new ones would cost several thousand dollars to install. So, while we would like to do it, we can not justify it at this point in our new RV life.

Later we returned to the Roadrunner and spent some time working on getting a DirectTV signal. We are parked under a tree and figured that might be the problem.

We got a tutorial from the KingDome technician a couple of days ago on how to re-calibrate the system.

We moved a about 10 feet forward on our RV site and vola! It worked. Now we can pick up both cable and local TV. Just in time for the final games of the NLCS and ALCS playoffs!

After that, we went over to a haircutter and Pam got her hair done.

Then we went over to Kelly's, picked her car up from the garage, picked her up from the train and Pam fixed dinner. We returned to the Roadrunner well before the 10:00 curfew and finished up the evening watching the Dodgers win and Angels win.

That wraps it up today for the Roadrunner Chronicles. Thanks so much for stopping by.

Justin, Lazy Sunday and Ping Pong

We picked up Kelly and one of her roommates Shea and went to church at Watermark Community Church in Dallas. The whole congregation is twenty or thirty somethings.They are building a new auditorium and are adding to their downtown campus. It is quite impressive and a very large church. Most of all the worship and message were great. The pastor Todd Wagner spoke in the series: The Big Twelve (church doctrine and why it is important.)After church, Pam and I joined Kelly and some of her friends at Bread Winners Cafe. It had a great brunch menu.The cafe was open and spacious, well decorated and the food was excellent.
A highlight of the time there was seeing one of my favorite PGA golfers: Justin Leonard. His wife Amanda was nice enough to take our picture.Leonard has been on the tour since 1994 and done quite well. He has 12 PGA tour wins including the 1997 British Open Championship. He and his wife were very gracious. I imagine fans introduce themselves all the time. The price of fame.

Next, we went to Kelly's house, hung out for the afternoon, had dinner and played some ping pong. I used to love playing ping pong growing up. Pam joined in and gave Kelly a run for her money. Pam and I left about 8:00 and made it back to the campground in plenty of time. Curfew is 10:00. That sums up another day with the Roadrunner Chronicles.

Thanks for viewing! Feel free to leave a comment and hope to see you next time.

Fort Worth and Back

Saturday we visited Brad and Sue.  First we drove into Dallas and picked up Kelly, then went over to Fort Worth.  We ran into some high speed chase activity on the same freeway.  The police apprehended their man and had him handcuffed on the ground.   We took some short cuts that may have been long cuts and finally got to Fort Worth.  We started out east of Dallas and it took about three hours to get there.

We found Brad mowing his lawn.  Sue had some burgers on the grill for lunch.  That was awful nice of her.

After lunch we hung around and chilled for a while.  Then we went over to Sam's Club to return and item and on to Costco's to pick up a few items.

We got back to their place we were able to relax for a while.  One of the great things about this lifestyle is being able to see family and friends.  We have seen Brad and Sue twice now in the past five months.  That hasn't happened for years.  They let Kelly live with them for that last four months while she was looking for a job and place to live in Dallas.  That was very gracious and hospitable of them.

Pretty soon it was time to head back out to our campsite.  We wanted to get back before dark.

The return trip didn't take nearly so long.  We took Kelly back to her place and she picked up some things and got her dog.  Ed was glad to spend the night with us again.  We all had dinner back at the Roadrunner, watched the Yankees and Angels and called it a night.

Not too much going on for the day, but some days are like that.  And that wraps up this entry for the Roadrunner Chronicles.  Thanks for checking in.

Lake Lavon and JFK in Dallas

We are staying on Lake Lavon at the East Fork Army Corps of Engineers (COE) campground near Wylie, TX. It is a beautiful place and we are near the water. We have some great views.
However, we have a tree to deal with and will have to move forward a feet on our campsite pad to get the DirectTV satellite working. We tried a few things yesterday and still had no signal. Finally we called King Dome and they helped us recalibrate the system. It should be working when we get out from under the tree.We were glad the American League Championship Series was broadcasted by Fox which comes in fine on our digital antenna. Too bad the Angels had so many errors.

We originally were going to see the State Fair but since it was after noon before we left, we decided to go downtown on the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART).Nice train and setup. We had a couple of hours before we were to meet Kelly (our daughter) so we walked a few blocks and to found the JFK museum. We walked past Market St and Elm St and then were right at the intersection at Dealey Plaza where it happened.
I thought it was in a more open area with quite a distance between freeway on ramps and intersections. But it was not that way at all. The Texas School Book Depository is now the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.
- There is a white X on the road (near the red truck in the picture) indicating where the fatal shot hit JFK.
- We walked around the area and saw a gentleman who was there the day (November 22, 1963). He was not an official guide but there to offer his thoughts and make a few tips.
- We went inside to the museum which was well worth the $11.50 per ticket (with a $2 discount). No pictures were allowed but you can see a lot by clicking on the link above.
- It reminded me a bit of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum. Another sad day in America.

After that it was time to go meet Kelly in her new office a few blocks away. Near by fans were cranking up the party for the Texas - Oklahoma game. The sign outside a local bar said 'Welcome Texas/Oklahoma Fans' but I didn't see any OU fans.
Kelly's new office is a couple of doors down from the bar.

She works for 5G_Studio Collaborative which is an interior design firm. It reminds me a lot of my brother Brad's architecture digs over the years.
She is enjoying her first few weeks there. Kelly's buiness card reads: Director of Marketing.She gave us a tour of the operation and it was very impressive. Looked like a lot of hard working people there. They have some large projects in Dallas (the new Dallas Omni) and some big contracts overseas in Vietnam and other parts of Asia.

After that we headed back to the campground. We were going to get some steaks to grill but saw some roasted chickens that looked great. Since it was late in the day, they were on sale at half price. We got those and had a great dinner while we watched some baseball.

That was it for another day out here in RV land. Thanks for reading the Roadrunner Chronicles. See you next time.

From the Oasis to East Fork

We had an uneventful night in the Roadrunner at Dallas Freightliner. We slept well and felt safe. We got up ready to get the coach fixed. About 8:45 Nick was assigned as the mechanic to our coach and it got pulled into the service bay. While that was being done I decided to replace the defective wiper blade. My duct-tape repair held up. It was a pretty easy fix. I shake my head over paying $72 to have blades special-ordered at the RV Service Center in Flint MI in July. A replacement blade directly from the factory cost $15.00. We are learning...I also took off the front wheels of our bikes and put everything in the back end of the Honda. The back seats fold down so we have a lot of space. The $60 bike bag we ordered from Camping World works pretty well but traveling down the highway at 60 mph gives it a pretty good beating.
Meahwhile, Nick pulled some codes off the diagnostic machine that indicated a faulty fuel pump (transfer pump). It is covered under Cummins warranty with a $100 deductible which is very good news. Apparently after a coach is two years old, you automatically get enrolled into a program with a $100 deductible.
We watched Nicked get the part off and install a new one but it was not easy. He had to crawl under the engine, take off the exhaust pipe and muffler and bust some knuckles to get to it. After gettting it back together he ran up the rpms and took it for a test drive. It all looked good.
While he was at it, he replaced a metal band around the air cleaner ($3.00 item).

It was a little anti-climatic as we waited for him to get it all done. We passed the time reading and logging on to my computer. Although this was a 9 hour job and Nick stayed late to get it done, it was a terrific experience at Dallas Freightliner. We had a nice place to hang out in the lounge at the Oasis and met some customers who were getting a tour of the three month old facility. Dallas Freightliner is working on a fleet of new Walmart trucks that were made in Mexico in addition to the medium truck area where our RV was serviced. There is also a dog kennel on the lot. Some drivers have dogs and need a place to put them while their rigs are getting worked on.

Back to the transfer pump replacement: we got out of there a little after 6:00 PM.

Recap: We 'broke down' for a little over 48 hours. We stayed one night at the Walmart in Hillsboro, TX. We got towed to the Dallas Freightliner Center in Dallas, TX. We spent one night on their gated/secured property in the Roadrunner.

Total cost to us including towing and service: $103.00

(Membership to CoachNet is $99/year. We also lost one night at our COE campground site which is $18/night.)

When we left, the sun was shining and the weather was looking pretty good. It took an hour to the campground. I didn't like the thought of hitting commuter traffic and setting up in the dark but I wanted to get on our way.
The East Fork US Army Corps of Engineers (COE) park is northeast of Dallas. It was the first time we have set up in the dark, but it worked out fine.

Kelly brought Ed (her dog) out and met us there while we were setting up. We had a late dinner and Kelly and Ed left about 9:30 PM. Pam and I talked for a while and hit the hay.

All in all, we are very pleased with how things turned out. We would not have been surprised if the bill was a really big $$number. It gave us some more experience in this lifestyle and we were able to learn some new things. We look forward to seeing what other adventures come our way. And you can be sure we will post them on the Roadrunner Chronicles.

Thanks for your interest!

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...

Not the Wall Mart we were planning on

It was a rainy drizzly day and I put in some hours with the non-profit company that I do some part-time work for. It is a great situation. While I was working most of the morning, Pam did the wash at the free laundry at the campground.Meanwhile, Ed was doing what he does best...We wanted to be at a Wall Mart near Kelly's place in Dallas for the night, so we headed out just before 1:00 PM. It was raining on and off. I used my duct-taped wiper a couple of times and was pleased that it held up.The replacement was sent from the factory and is waiting at Kelly's. We were making good time. First we stopped and filled up with diesel. Later, stopped in Waco at a truck stop and got our propane tanks filled since they were getting a little low. Then we moved on down the road.

Everything was fine until...the engine started chugging...and I was losing RPMs...and speed!
I was able to pull over along a tight section of the highway before the engine shut down!
Yikes! This is not good...

I called the Tiffin factory and left a message.
Next (at 3:45PM) I called CoachNet (sort of like AAA for RVs). They said it would take a while to find a wrecker and send one out.

So we waited and watched some TV and read and posted updates to our status on Twitter...
Marlin at Tiffin called back and said we needed to call Freightliner. I called them but it was past business hours so I will followup tomorrow with them. CoachNet indicated that we were going to be towed to Duncan Freightliner in Waco.

Marlin said I should request a reference number from Freightliner. He also gave me his personal number and told me to call him and let him know if he could help. Tiffin is the best! They couldn't send a tow truck-- but the gave me some help and a phone number and they care. At this point in the day I was glad for that.

Happiness (at 5:52 PM)is seeing one of those big boys back up along the side of the road for you! The driver was nice and helpful. He asked what kind of suspension we had. I explained to him (as I had done with CoachNet on the phone) that we have independent front wheel suspension. He was concerned and took a look underneath the front of the rig and confirmed his hunch.

Bad news for us --- he said he was afraid he was going to mess up the tie rods? or something, because his tow truck would likely damage the square tubular something underneath our RV. He couldn't tow us.Sadness is watching what you thought was the solution pulling away and leaving us...

So we called CoachNet again (at 6:03PM) and started the whole process over. CoachNet said they would find someone else. We knew it was going to be a while, so Pam fixed dinner. Right now a couple of frozen dinners (pasta and Mexican) tasted pretty good.Later, I tried starting the engine since it had been a couple of hours. It worked! We decided to slowly move about 3/4 mile down the road to the first exit and pull off the highway into a small truck stop.
At 6:47PM I called CoachNet to let them know where we were. This place was better, but there were no RVs at the truck stop and lots of noise and lots of trucks.
At 7:53PM CoachNet called us back and said they could not find a tow truck tonight but that someone would be here by 10:00 AM tomorrow. So we made plans for the night.

We saw a Wall Mart across the highway and checked it out. It was a much better option so went back and got the Roadrunner and drove over there. We called CoachNet to update our location.

We went inside for some retail therapy (as Pam calls it) and bought some bread and milk and diet Dr Pepper. Then we went back to the Roadrunner and read some more before we turned in.

And with that we will see what the new day brings. Another day in the life of the Roadrunner Chronicles. Thanks for following.

Saying Good-bye and Back on the Road

The RV-Dreams Rally came to a close with a catered breakfast in the red barn at Buckhorn Lake Resort. We had a chance to exchange some handshakes and hugs and said so-long to many new friends.

They have a tradition of playing Rascall Flatt's song: 'My Wish' at the close of the rally. If you've never heard it, you might want to click on the link. It is a great song that says,

"My wish for you is that this life becomes all you want it to...
That your dreams stay big and your worries stay small..."

It was a perfect song and almost a tear jerker [but then I am a emotional guy. I am not the only one. Howard was going to say a few more words after that and thought he better not attempt it... :-)]
We got a photo with Howard and Linda. They did a GREAT job with the rally. If you have never been to one (last year was their first, this was number two), I highly recommend you make plans to attend. It was well worth it.While others were hitching up and pulling out, we had our RV service by RV Mobile Lube. We had an appointment and John came by to change oil filters, top off hydraulic fluids and he checked out our air cleaner. We did not need a new one so he blew it out with an air hose and we save some big $$.
Next we had him service the generator since it had just gone over 200 hours and needed it. What a great way to get RV service! He was prompt, knew his stuff and recommended ways for us to save some money. We did not get an oil change since it had been done in March and he said the air cleaner did not need to be replaced--it still looked like it had 10,000 - 15,000 miles left in it.

It is nice when you don't feel like mechanics take advantage of you for doing more than needs to be done. As a result, we saved a whole lot of money on the budget and our finances will go a little farther this month. More importantly, we will give them our business again. They have three locations/areas in Texas so I am sure we will be seeing them again.

It was a misty, drizzly drive to Berryville RV Park near Round Rock Texas. It took us about three hours and I was glad the rain was not heavy since I don't want to test our makeshift wiper blade. But it had rained hard in the campground.

We have made good use of the wading boots Kelly got us before we started full timing. A reader asked for more pix of Ed, so Bill---there he is, helping me set up in the puddles.
We made our way over to Terry and Joanne's house and waited for their son Josh to get off work before we went out to dinner at The Salt Lick. What a great place. Great atmosphere, interesting, and great food at a reasonable price.

Terry and Joanne moved to Albuquerque in the late 1980's when we were living there and we attended the same church. We became good friends and have golfed and camped with them over the years. When they moved to Round Rock-Texas, Kelly was not far from them while she was at Baylor University in Waco-Texas.

One of the great things about this lifestyle is seeing friends around the country. They are doing great and we enjoyed some more fellowship at their place over coffee and some of Joanne's great apple pie.

Then we headed back to the Roadrunner and got called it an evening. That about it for now, hope to see you next time on the Roadrunner Chronicles!