How NOT to meet your neighbours

The trip from Sikeston Missouri to Enid Lake Mississippi was just like the day before. Head on into high winds and rain, mostly the whole way.
We settled into Wallace Creek Campground and started watching a movie. Solo, if you were asking.
About half way through a tornado alert came over the cell phone. We gathered up our passports, donned our rain coats, and headed to the nearby tornado shelter...a.k.a. the women's washroom. Behold, there were all our nearby fellow campers.

    What a way get get to meet people!

We all headed back to our respective RVs after about an hour, all relieved to have eluded possible disaster.

Tenth Trip Underway

After a somewhat near disastrous Thanksgiving weekend in Sarnia, we have embarked on our tenth trip south. Hard to believe but time does fly.


While going down the 401, west of Kitchener, we heard/felt a bang/thump. We looked at each other and said "What was that?". A half second later told the tale. Steering got really heavy, and the alternator light came on. Yup the serpentine belt broke. Then temp started rising. We drove on the shoulder about a half kilometer to the exit, now with steam from underneath. The short version...we got fixed up at the Volvo Truck centre in Ayr and only lost two hours. Sarnia Thanksgiving turned into a great family get together.


We started the trip south as usual after the neighborhood kids did their Trick or Treat visits. We stayed over in London at the Flying J and crossed into the US the following morning.
The first stop was for free camping in my brothers driveway in La Porte Indiana.
Friday was sis-in-law Mary's Big Birthday. She was mightily impressed as all her grandkids from 3 to 23 attended and we all had a great dinner out.


We left La Porte on Sunday morning November 4th, overnighted at a  Walmart in Sikeston Missouri, and are now south of Memphis at a wonderful Corp of Engineers park on Enid Lake. Such a great campground and it cost us only $10, with 50 amp power, water, and sewer connections.
In a couple of days we will be in Houston for our Space Center VIP tour. Standby for the story to follow.

Windshield Replaced at last!

We arrived home after our winter away on April 18th to cold weather, with lots snow and ice on our driveway. We were three days late due to icy roads and very iffy driving conditions for motorhomes towing a car. Thankfully we were nestled in with brother Don and Mary in Indiana.
We waited for the weather to warm and then about another 5 weeks for a replacement windshield to be shipped to Ontario.  A date was set in mid June for us to go to a Speedy Glass location close to where we store our motorhome to have the windshield installed.  Not to be.  On the scheduled day the store called to say they did not have a big enough bay to handle our 37' motorhome.  The windshield would have to be shipped to one of their other locations in Toronto.  We waited another 5 weeks for an appointment at the alternate location.  Finally on July 24th we were able to deliver our motorhome for the work to be done.  By then the crack in the windshield had traveled all the way from the bottom to the top of the windshield. On July 26th we picked up the motorhome.  During the drive north to the storage lot we drove through strong winds and heavy rain --- a test to prove the windshield had been installed properly --- no whistling or water drops! Thankfully our insurance paid the bill for the windshield -- the estimate was $5,000.

The motorhome is back safely in storage with the solar panel connected to trickle charge the batteries.

In Summary:

Total miles traveled 5,874 from Oct 31st to Apr 18th.


RV Fuel $4,098.41 Propane $151.75 Camping* $3,423.47 Tolls $623.58

Total$8,423.47 CAD
* campground fees includes electric (which was $162 CAD for 3 1/2 months in Mexico -- mainly running our air conditioner, water heater, TV)

And in just two and a half months, we will hit the road again. How fast time flies! 

Stuck in Indiana

Note: The previous few posts have been updated. They were accidentally published before the story was completed.  You may want to review the chair and headlight replacement posts.

THE TRIP HOME

We started our trip home on April 7th. About an hour into the trip there was a loud crack like something hit the windshield. But there was no one in front of us. A 6 inch crack appeared on the bottom of the windshield, on the passenger side. Within a minute, it had grown to 12 inches, then to 18 and now is over 2 feet. And this is the windshield we replaced just 2 years ago!

We love Texas in the spring for the wildflowers on the sides and medians of the highways.

Bluebonnets line the highway

White blossom in Illinois and windshield crack.

White blossoms look like snow.

We arrived in Indiana without incident after overnight stop-overs in Lockhart Texas for our favorite smoked brisket BBQ. Then onward, staying at a Corp of Engineer Park east of Dallas, and Walmart in Forrest City Arkansas. The weather was getting colder overnight so we decided to stay in a closed campground outside Effingham Illinois. The owner said the power was on, water was available (but not on camp site) and the dump station was open. How did that work out? Great! It was cheap, and very quiet. We were the only ones there.
 
We contacted the insurance company and started a claim for the windshield, hoping to get the job done before it was time to head across the border and home. Well, that didn't work out very well. While there are 17 windshields in stock in the local Elkhart warehouse, nobody is available to do the job in the short term. We just have to defer it to November or get it done around home.

We were supposed to leave today (15th) but the weather onward from here is filled with freezing rain, ice pellets, snow...bleh. All of southern Ontario is under a winter storm alert. With the freezing rain and high winds, power outages are very likely. We will snuggle in here and head out on Tuesday after things warm up a bit.

Replacement headlights

Like many vehicles 10 years old or so, the headlights are no longer clear and shiny. The faces are foggy and yellow. 

There are several ways to fix this and many products that can help but most are just temporary and the problem will return in near future. What to do? Replace the headlights. The cost is not much more than trying to clean them up properly. 

eBay is a wondrous place to find stuff and amazingly there was a listing for 2006 Monaco Monarch. Not really so amazing when you consider that Monaco simply used an existing headlight from another car or truck. I bought the complete headlight assembly that included the marker/turn lights.

We did the same thing for the HHR in November and it worked out great.

Monaco modifies the original assembly to fit into their opening so I had to cut of some mounting tabs. I simply copied what Monaco had done. The picture below shows the new passenger side headlight and the original on the driver's side. Click to zoom to see the difference.

Old and new

A new shiny clear headlight.

An old faded, yellow original

The final step to re-aim the new lights.

Replacing a chair ain't easy UPDATED

 This is an updated post of what was intended to be a draft.

Our motorhome is aging (just like us) and just like the floor in the previous post, the original tub chair needs replacement. The fabric is faded and showing signs of wear. The arms can't be cleaned anymore because we are afraid the fabric will disintegrate.

Sad looking tub chair.

The fabric is worn.

This chair is comfy so we want something similar which means a swivel glider tub chair. The replacement chair was found on Walmart online for a very good price. $60 cheaper than the next lowest price. All we needed to do was pick it up at a nearby Walmart about a week later.

PROBLEM

The old chair's smallest dimension is 28 inches. The new chair is 29". The doorway into the motorhome is 24 inches. They just won't fit in through the door. How did the factory do it?
You take out the window. Seems like a formidable job but not so much. There is an inside aluminum frame and the window itself. Step 1, remove the caulking on the outside. Step 2, remove 22 screws from the inside frame. Step 3, remove frame. Step 4, remove window. And don't drop it!

Taking out the window.

Get some help from the guys in the park. Take out the original chair through the window opening. Insert the new replacement chair. Re-install the window and the 22 screws. Caulk the the window. Total time about 2 hours, which a pro would do in 1. 😏

The new chair. $199 at Walmart

Bev Loves It   😍

Well, I'm just floored! 😕

After 12 years, the carpet in the MH is long past its BBD. It is well worn and the under-padding is no longer padding. The laminate in the kitchen/hall shows signs of swelling due to water seepage. Time to get FLOORED.

This floor is done for.

Step 2 (Step 1 was deciding to get floored.) was choosing the flooring. It was almost bewildering. We has ideas of colour and pattern. We wanted a wood look that was light in colour and easy to maintain. Luxury vinyl planking was the obvious choice and we started looking in earnest in November past just in case we got ambitious for when we returned to Texas in the Spring. We had decided on a product from Lowes but while on the way we stopped at Home Depot (it is much closer). Ultimately we chose this product as it was more in line of what we wanted, it was cheaper, and it was closer.

Hey ! Only a buck 99 per square foot. US that is. Still a very good price.

Rip out the old carpet and remove the laminate. Sounds easy. Right? It is a messy sweaty  dirty job. The old carpet backing has turned to powder and seeped through the under-padding. At first you think it is very fine sand, but it is mostly the dried out backing. Here is the carpet removed, showing the under-padding below.

The underpad

 From a small area in front of the dinette, we gathered up about 2 cups of the backing.

The filth

Under the neath...
Under the old flooring is a particleboard subfloor.

And finally the carpet and laminate is gone. I did not mention how to get the laminate out. Note that when the MH was built, the floor went in first so the kitchen cabinets etc. are all mounted on top of the laminate and carpet. But I don't want to remove all the cabinets just to replace the floor. Then again the laminate needs to be cut close to the wall so the floor will go wall to wall. A special saw is needed to cut close to the wall and to be able to reach under the kitchen cabinet toe kick area. Amazingly, it is called a Toe Kick Saw and I bought one at Harbor Freight. It does the job perfectly.

The bare floor.

Driver foot area

The driver's foot area is a mix of metal plate, aluminum strips, and particle board. A new sub-floor is needed to even out all differing levels.

Dog house base is about quarter inch thick

The Bathroom

Initially, we included the bathroom in our project. Due to the complexity of the layout, the need to remove the toilet, etc., the laminate stays put.



Next step was to install a new 1/4 inch plywood sub-floor. Note that the chair and desk are shown on the driver's side. These had to be moved multiple times as it wasn't practical to move them out of the motorhome.

Good progress on the new sub-floor

Underlay

Over the sub-floor we install a cushioning underlay that adds noise abatement and insulation. We did not skimp on cost and bought the best that Home Depot had in stock.

Underlay

The new floor finally starts to appear. Here is the first row of planking ready to slide under the slideout.

The first row

First half is done. Only 90% more to go.

Cut out for the driver's seat

And now we wait. The floor is mostly complete except for the trim. The trim pieces were special ordered  (HD does not stock the quarter round, etc.). It arrives in about a week.

Trim pieces needed

The job restarts when the quarter round, transition, and stair nose arrive. First the

stairwell needs to be completed before the stair nose can be added.

 Working on the stairwell

PROJECT DONE!

Entry steps (I forgot face of 1st step)