September Ends

We slept in this morning—very refreshing. After a late brunch we set out on a hike around one of the small lakes in the park. We found a few park benches along the lake shore that looked like great places to bring a lunch and relax.

Unfortunately, the trail was muddy in parts from the recent rain, so we later had the job of cleaning off all the red mud. My shoes needed cleaning anyhow.

We also installed our new LED lights replacing the halogen puck lights under the kitchen cabinets and over the sofa. The first challenge was figuring out how to remove the covers and lenses. After we discovered that the trick is to use something rubber to get a good grip, we were able to twist them off with little difficulty. Then we had the challenge of removing the halogen bulbs without touching them with bare fingers and then fitting the little wires of the LED’s into the bases.

We walked over to the heated pool and showered before slowly entering the water. After a bit we decided that the hot tub would be a better choice. Only a few people were at the pool, and they were sitting in the deck chairs—not swimming. After soaking in the hot water for a while, we sat and read for a bit.

This evening we watched the first episode of Call the Midwife, a BBC drama premiering in the US on PBS. It was quite engaging, so I think we'll plan to record the series. Afterwards Masterpiece Classic showed the first episode of the second season of Downton Abbey. Despite our having seen it before, we both enjoyed watching.

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Discouragement

As we walked around the fairgrounds this morning, we saw that people were gathering for the charity auction. We walked through two buildings full of stuff--everything from furniture and appliances to plastic containers to paperbacks to you name it. Most of it looked like the stuff you'd find at a church rummage sale. We found it hard to imagine how one auctioneer was going to handle sales of all this loose stuff. Most of it wasn't even in boxes or really grouped together by kind or anything.

We didn't stick around to find out. We pulled out before the auction started and headed on south. We were expecting the sun to come out for at least part of the day today and warm things up, but instead it was pretty much socked in, chilly, and rainy all day. That matched our experience. First we touched the bedrails on the way into a Dillon's parking lot. By the time we were extricated, we had swirls of scratches on the underside of our overhang.

Then we had the same problem pulling into a fuel station, so we pulled out and went on down the road. Just inside Oklahoma, we came to a large service station next to a casino where we were able to pull in and fuel up easily. But just a few hundred feet down the road, our tire pressure monitor warned us that a truck tire was losing air. We connected the compressor and refilled the tire, but it lost pressure rapidly again. Ken decided that the valve extension was probably leaking, so he took it out. That solved the leaky tire problem.

Then when we got on the Oklahoma Turnpike, after we were committed to enter, we saw that vehicles over 13' 6" were prohibited. We were told at the factory that we were 13' 5 1/2"--so we sweated it out to our exit. Breathing a sigh of relief, we pulled off the turnpike only to realize that we were smelling something burning. We stopped and looked around, but couldn't pinpoint the problem. However, we did see that the passenger side wheels on the trailer were covered with fine black stuff--maybe brake lining?

We were only a few miles from our campground, so we continued, but slowly. On the way into the campground, we touched the bedrails again. This time we added 20 lbs. of air to the hitch, which raised the trailer enough we could make it into the driveway, but on the skid wheels hard. When the skid wheels dropped off the highway and into a muddy patch on the driveway, the entire trailer sunk so that we cleared the ground in back by only a few inches.

At our site, we raised the trailer up on its leveling jacks and tried to spin all the trailer wheels. Unfortunately, we found that at least two of them, and possibly a third, are definitely making scraping noises and not spinning freely. We'll be calling for help on Monday. Meanwhile, we are very discouraged campers.
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Goodbye to Camp Horizons

Well, we are a bit disappointed, but also happy to be on our way again. The disappointment is that the exterior repairs (fixing some rock damage and such, nothing major) were not completed today. Also, our door problem (the remote and keypad will not lock the door) was not fixed. However, lots of other work has been accomplished.

We pulled out of New Horizons a little after 3:00 p.m. and headed south on US-77. Tonight we're being serenaded by very loud and frequent train horns, but we also have 50 amp electricity and water for $10 and a perfectly level site at the Winfield Fairgrounds. It's deja vu for us. We stayed here on our way north in 2008, when we were definitely novice full-timers. This is really a nice place to spend the night, and we don't usually let train noise interfere with getting a good night's sleep.

Tomorrow we'll be headed to a resort near Tulsa, OK, and then on to Thunderbird Lake near Norman, OK. The basic plan is to relax and enjoy sleeping in past 6:00 a.m. On Sunday we're due to arrive at Lake Lewisville.
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Life With Abby and Robbie

We've been sharing the customer lounge the last few days with fellow New Horizons owners Lynn and Stuart and their two rescue greyhounds, Abby and Robbie. The dogs have started to consider the lounge part of "home," so when strangers come to the door, they bark fiercely to protect their territory. Once they get to know someone, they are happy to be petted and made much of.

We have been saved from another potential disaster. Dan, one of the service employees, just happened to notice that the pin was missing from the connection between the hitch receiver and the bike rack. Eeks! The whole thing, bikes and all, could have fallen off anytime, becoming a major road hazard for any vehicles behind us. I found a hitch pin in our storage area, and Dan helped me install it. Thanks, Dan!

We decided that what we really need is a locking hitch pin, so we went to Walmart to pick one up. We found a really nice straight one that actually has a 3.5" clear space, wide enough to use in our F450 receiver to retain the inner sleeve. We've been looking for one for months now, to no avail, since Ford's 2.5" hitch is wider than standard. We were really happy to find one that will work. Now we'll go back and buy another for the bike rack.
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And Waiting . . . .

Today was overcast and rainy again. During the night we heard lots of rain and some repeated rubbing sounds, which we are conjecturing may have been from our rubber slide toppers being moved about in the wind. On our walk this morning, we wore our Tilley hats, which are supposed to repel rain. They did protect our faces from the rain, but they were soaked by the time we finished. I wore my rain jacket, but the front of my pants legs also got soaked. We hung our wet things on the hall tree in the lobby and hunkered down in the customer lounge to dry off--and to wait.

Our home was moved into the service bay shortly after 7:00 a.m. We were able to go in for lunch from 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. Some nice hot soup sounded good. I put some in our bowls and put the bowls in the microwave, as usual. However, what happened when I opened the microwave door was definitely not usual. The soup bowls had tilted into the front corner near the hinges, and our nice creamy roasted red pepper tomato soup poured out on the cooktop below an splashed on the fridge and the floor.

Even though the stove burners are sealed, cleaning out the soup from the parts of the high speed burner was quite a chore, not to mention soaking up all that soup from the microwave and cooktop and floor. Another lesson learned: if the coach is not level, turn the microwave turntable off. Evidently the combination of being unlevel and the centripetal force of the spinning turntable sent the bowls careening on their way.

The contents of the cargo bay were taken out again, to permit the SeeLevel strips on the black and gray tanks to be replaced. Of course we took the opportunity to reorganize. Tony had installed our second sewage hose storage tube, so that meant one large hose was no longer being stored in the cargo bay. We also moved our outside fire extinguisher to our bonus storage area, which we plan to keep unlocked so that the extinguisher will be more readily available in an emergency (as Mac the Fire Guy recommended).
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Laundry and Waiting

We were up and out of our home by 7:00 a.m. After our morning walk, we went to the customer lounge, where we joined Lynn and Stuart and Abby and Robbie, also patiently waiting for work to be done on our their coach.

I went to Laundry Land to do the laundry while Ken stayed around to keep tabs on the work and in case any questions came up. When I walked out of the laundry taking clean clothes to the truck, I immediately recognized the little Smart Car parked by the door. It was Steve and Donna, of course, and we chatted for a while. Then I stopped by the NAPA Auto Parts store to ask about getting some longer mud flaps, but they didn't have any to fit.

I went to the DAV Thrift Shop and the Goodwill, just browsing, and found a couple of nice outfits. After lunch, we talked with Tony and Kylie who were working on our issues. Kylie installed a new water pump, so now we have better water pressure when we're using our fresh water tank. She has also been working on getting the air conditioning in the kitchen/living area to put out more cold air. Tony refinished some of our woodwork. Things are shaping up, and Ken U. says he hopes to have us out of here by the end of the week.

Lynn and Stuart have had a rather hectic couple of weeks. When they leave here on Saturday morning, they will rush to Livingston in two days to arrive October 1 for their month of volunteering at CARE. They will definitely be ready for some downtime in the RGV this winter.

We talked with Ken U. about our work, and about his experiences as a full-time RVer. He was a military contractor for four years, moving from base to base and living in a small travel trailer. He regaled us with some real tales of his travel experiences.
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New Neighbors

We got up early, and Ken went to talk with Ken U. Of course they weren't ready to work on our rig, but Ken said "in a couple of hours." Meanwhile, we checked over the truck again and discovered that our problem was a tire after all. The steel braided tire extension on one of the inner duallies had torn away, taking a pressure/temperature sensor with it and breaking off the steel valve stem to boot. Of course all the air was gone, but the outer dually took over for its work. We took the truck to a tire place, but they didn't have a steel valve stem to fit it. They suggested the Ford dealer.

We talked to someone in service, who checked with their parts department. They did not have a valve stem, but they knew the part number and where to order one. We ordered an extra to have on hand. We sat in the customer lounge while they installed the valve stem. We wanted to chat with our sales rep, Gary Floyd, but it turned out that he had left ("to take care of the farm").

When we got back to New Horizons around 2:00 p.m., Ernie came by with the fork lift and moved our rig over outside the service building. This was progress, but not much was done today, since the workers generally leave at 3:20 p.m.

We have some new neighbors. Their 39' Majestic was pulled in next to ours in front of the service building. We introduced ourselves to Steve and Donna Jones and their cocker spaniel Pistol. They have an HDT and a Smart Car, and they invited us to watch them unload it.

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Brown vs. Board of Education

Today we visited the Brown vs. Board of Education National Historic Site, which is located in Monroe Elementary School, an African American segregated school where the Brown children went to school. Their parents joined several other families in filing lawsuits challenging segregation. In 1954, the Supreme Court in Brown vs Board of Education declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

When we pulled into the visitor parking lot, ours was only the second vehicle in the lot. We assumed there must be other parking and more visitors, but evidently not. We were met by a park ranger at the door. He told us about the exhibits and pointed us to the introductory film. We actually learned some things we hadn't known, as well as being moved and inspired by the many people who worked for justice and equality. For example, we hadn't been aware that a black woman astronaut had flown aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor or that five separate cases from different states were combined under the title "Brown vs. Board of Education Topeka."

We packed up reluctantly to leave the peaceful lake and go back to the factory in Junction City. It was only a 74 mile drive, so we didn't leave until after 5:00 p.m. Just six miles short of our goal, we were startled to hear a loud noise and hissing. We thought we might have blown a tire. Instead it turned out to be the air bags on the Hensley hitch that had blown a hole and all the air had come hissing out. We decided it was safe to go on to the factory, but Ken drove slowly.

At New Horizons, we discovered that the Corams are still here, and that unexpectedly, so are Lynn and Stuart Jeffries. They had run into a post of some sort and cause widespread damage to the side of their rig, including tearing out a window. Ouch! That's what we have insurance for, but it's no fun to be going to the factory for repairs instead of on to further travels.
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Lake Shawnee Trail

We spent the morning on some chores. This afternoon we took a bike ride around the lake on the paved Lake Shawnee Trail. The ride was just over six miles and definitely included some challenging hills. An unexpected treat was finding the Ted Ensley Garden, with lovely plantings, streams, fountains and waterfalls. We heard music and found a wedding in progress. Another wedding party was taking pictures in another part of the garden.

The trail runs all the way around the lake, passing beaches, the campground, marina, golf course, picnic areas, playgrounds, ball fields, and so on. All is beautifully maintained. What a great resource for the city.

Tonight we sat out at our picnic table and watched the setting sun. It wasn't as spectacular as some sunsets, but still suffused the western sky with pink light.

We met one of our fellow campers this morning. He showed some interest, so we invited him in to show off our New Horizons. He invited us to stop by and see his Country Coach, which we did this evening. He was especially proud of the custom cabinetry that he and his wife had had installed. They purchased the coach when it was one year old and had only 4,500 miles on it. The quality of the workmanship and the creative ideas of the owners made this motorhome stand out.
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Movin' On

Our first mission today, after packing up to move, was to get our entire rig "smart weighed." We drove over to the large parking area where the Smart Weigh team was set up. They very efficiently weighed each axle and each side of the axle, ten weights altogether. We also have the weights from yesterday when we had just the truck weighed. They had two lines going, and their goal was to weigh four rigs each 15 minutes.

The results weren't quite as good as we had hoped. The overall weights were fine, but the front axle on the trailer is carrying less than its share of the load. They told us that this mal-distribution could cause uneven tire wear and poor handling. The suggestion is that we need to lower the hitch by an inch and a half, or else raise the rear by that same amount. We're planning to talk with Ken U. about this, but we figure that the long-term solution is going to involve changing out the truck bed.

We pulled out of Sedalia and headed west along US 50 toward Kansas City, where we picked up I-70. Our destination was Lake Shawnee Campground, just outside of Topeka. It's a city park, and the campground is one of the nicest city campgrounds we've ever been to. Most of the sites are along the lake.  We have a nice view of the lake and the setting sun outside our windows. Oh, and lots of contrails. The sky was criss-crossed with them. In the evening, they took on the pink cast of the sunset.

Of course we walked around the campground to check out our neighbors. We actually have an unusual New Horizons fifth wheel parked nearby, although we haven't seen anyone around it.

We're hoping to have some time tomorrow to get some chores done. We're also planning to get out on the bikes. There's a really nice paved multipurpose trail, which one reviewer said is an eight-mile trail around the lake.

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Katy Trail

We got up early this morning to be first in line for flu shots at 8:00 a.m. We wanted to get the Fluzone High Dose vaccine, and only a limited number of doses were available. Then we hurried to attend a seminar on Preventive Maintenance. We got some good tips. The final seminar we attended was on RV safety, presented by a law enforcement professional. One of the things he recommended was a motion sensor security light.

We went home to have a salad before going to the first annual chili cookoff for CARE. Lots of folks had cooked up a crockpot full of their favorite chili recipes. You could "vote" for one by pitching into a donation bucket for CARE. We tried at least a dozen different kinds, plus some cornbread. It was a great way to eat lunch and help CARE. We're betting this isn't the last chili cookoff.

Witchy Chili

Jammers

Chili tasting--yum!

Lynn, Ken, and Lee: Utah Rocks!

Someone had put a card for a free haircut at Cost Cutters up on the bulletin board. Presumably they won it as a door prize but couldn't use it. So I got my hair cut today. I was hoping for a nice trim but ended up with very short hair. Good thing it grows out!

We skipped the closing ceremonies of the Escapade to go for a bike ride on the Katy Trail. It's a Rails to Trails trail with a twist: it's also a state park, a very long narrow one indeed. We rode for only thirteen miles, but we got some flavor of this excellent trail. It's hard pack gravel, except for a detour along city streets in Sedalia.

Out in the country

Whimsical display

We stopped at the Depot, a restored train station, where we found a very nice bike shop. My seat post has been loose, and we haven't been able to get the seat tight, which is very inconvenient! The owner cheerfully agreed to have a look at it. He fixed it good as new for free. It turned out that the clamp had gotten a bit rusty and stiff and just needed some lubrication to set it right. It's sure nice to deal with friendly small town folks!

Historical Depot

After dinner we had two New Horizons couples over for a visit: Lynn and Stuart Jeffries, whom we had met in the Valley, and Lynn and David Cross, whom we had met at Camp Horizons. We had a good chat about our experiences with our new Majestics. Lynn and Stuart are headed to Livingston to volunteer at CARE this October--exactly what we did in October 2010. Lynn and David will also travel to Livingston for a few days. They're on a mission to visit all the Escapees parks. Then they'll head to Arizona, or possibly to their lot at Park Sierra in Coarsegold.

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More Escapade Adventures

Today we went over to the market to make some purchases, since today was the last day for the vendors to be open. We bought some LED lights from Jirah.

We also talked with the SeeLevel and WiFi Ranger representatives. I showed our gray and black tank reading records to the SeeLevel person, who verified that our gauges are not reporting as accurately as they should. He suggested some things to look at, including the placement of the sensors on the tanks.

Ken talked with the WiFi Ranger folks again. He had talked with them before and followed their instructions to check whether or not the WiFi Ranger Boost was powered. It was not. One of the reps offered to go to our rig with Ken to check things out. He found that one of the connections had been made incorrectly and another one just hadn't been made at all. After those two cables were correctly connected, our boost now works like a charm. We can now see a long list of nearby WiFi signals that were invisible before--and that's with the batwing down!

We attended a seminar presented by Mark Nemeth entitled "The 12 Volt Side of Life." It was quite informative. We like Mark and enjoy his technical insights. We also went to a seminar on volunteering in federal and state and non-profit agencies. The couple who presented it had several years of experience as volunteers, mainly in Wildlife Management Areas, and had lots of good suggestions.

Later we stopped to talk with the Truck Systems Technologies reps about some problems we've had with our tire pressure monitors. They were very helpful and gave us some extra O rings and some advice.

They also sell a central vac system. It was time for the booths to close, and the woman was running a vac. I commented on the nice long hose she was using. We have a Eureka Yellow Jacket with a too short hose. When it's stretched to its limits to reach the front of the bedroom and the rear of the living room, it screams like a jet engine taking off. I mentioned this problem, and they said they had a 40' hose that would work with the Eureka vac we have. It was $49 plus tax and they had one right there. Now I am the new owner of a hose that actually reaches all the parts of our coach. Yay!

After lunch we went to the Row for the Row Party and Open House. It didn't look much different than before, but we looked around and got some Tootsie Rolls. One interesting table was the Geocaching BOF, which had a sampling of ingenious cache hiding devices, some of them really wicked hard to figure out. One was a coax cable connection that had been adapted to hold a cache log wrapped tightly around a toothpick and stuck into a cavity where the wire had been removed! Even though I knew the cable had to contain a cache, I was totally unable to find it until the guy sitting in the booth told me the secret.

This evening we went to the pavilion in the campground at 5:00 p.m. to attend the Boomer social hour. Only it turned out that the group at the pavilion was not the Boomers, but the Florida group. They graciously invited us to stay, but we decided to hunt for the Boomers. As we walked along with our chairs and snacks, a golf cart driver picked us up. When we said we were hunting for the Boomers, he said he thought he had an idea where to look. It turned out that he is a Boomer and the gathering was at the rig next door to his. Are we lucky or what?

We talked to several people--all friendly and fun. We chatted most with Dave and Sherrie De Armand. When we mentioned that we were square dancers, his eyes lighted up. He learned to dance from Dee Dee Dougherty many years ago. He remembers Randy as a young caller in Minnesota and his even younger sister at 14 just learning to call. They are thinking they might come down to the Valley for a couple of weeks this winter. They are also interested in birding in the kind of amateur way that we are, so they had heard of Bentsen Palm.

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Catch Up

We're getting a chance to catch up and breathe a bit today. This morning we started out with a seminar on RVing in Mexico. The presenter, who works with Adventure Caravans, spoke glowingly of the scenery and people of Mexico. However, after half an hour, he told the group that ULSD (ultra low sulphur diesel), which is required for diesel vehicles manufactured from 2007 on, is not available in Mexico. We were joined by some other folks who left the seminar at that point. Until ULSD is available, we certainly won't be driving into Mexico.

We walked through the vendor area again, hoping to get some things we were interested in, but all the vendors we wanted to see were busy. We did talk with Ron and Barb Bergquist at their booth offering waterless car wash products. It turned out that they are Retama owners who have just recently moved up to a coach house from their RV lot. They know Dick and Karleen Karsten, square dancing friends who pointed us to their lot in Bentsen Palm Village when they bought at Retama.

Our next seminar was on RV Space Saving Ideas. That's a topic all RVers are interested in, but the presenter unfortunately was rather disorganized and mainly promoted products her company was selling.

We ate our sandwiches in the hospitality room and then went to check out "the Row." We said hi to Lynn Cross, who was staffing one of the booths.

Next, Ken attended a seminar on digital photography while I went to one on detailing your RV in one hour "using hypo-allergenic items from your kitchen cupboard." It was presented by one of the owners of Heavenly Microfiber, so a lot of the suggestions involved using microfiber cloths. The best part of this session is that I won a collapsible RV brush bucket with a long oval shape which will accommodate a 16" brush--or it can be used as an ice chest to chill drinks for parties.

At 3:00 p.m. I planned to attend a seminar titled "Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda" promising tips on things RVers wish they had known from the start. So many people were interested that it was standing room only, so I joined Ken in the RV Geeks seminar on photo sharing. We ended up leaving early to go to the Sedalia Farmer's Market. That was not easy to find, since we had conflicting information about where it was located.

When we found it (just inside Gate 12 of the Fairgrounds), we saw that it was very small. We did find a few things--a few apples and tomatoes and squash. Then we went to Bing's supermarket, stopping first at a health food store. That also was very small, but I did find some almonds.

After dinner we walked around the campground. We saw lots of RVs, including surprisingly a New Horizons Majestic. We knocked on the door, and Pete and Diana Wisneski graciously invited us in. Theirs is a 2010 Majestic, the third one ordered. Pete is a Chevron engineer and still working in Houston. They're planning to be in Kerrville for the NHOG rally next April.
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Mac, the Fire Guy

This morning Ken attended a session on suspension systems. Stuart was there also. Lee meanwhile went to a session on space and safety solutions--largely a pitch for products sold by the presenter.

Afterwards we walked over to the vendors area. Ken talked with the folks in the WiFi Ranger booth. They were extremely helpful and even went out to the rig with Ken to check out--and fix--our problems. I went to a session on LED lighting.

After lunch we toured some of the RVs on display and visited vendors before attending a great session by Mac the Fire Guy on fire safety in RVs. He had some pretty scary stories but also some great suggestions and hands on practice using fire extinguishers.

After dinner we hurried back over to get a good seat for the evening show. George Dyer was voted male vocalist of the year for his Branson show, and the audience here certainly enjoyed his singing.

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Escapade Begins

We were one of the last rigs to arrive at the fairgrounds in Sedalia, so our site is in the extreme southwest area of the campground. We had some trouble getting in to the site. We were turning a curve and nearly had bedrail contact, so we had to back up and try a different approach. We had problems in our site, too, since the grass isn't entirely level.

We went over to pick up our welcome packets and to check out the vendors, since they were scheduled to close down at 2:00 p.m. today.  We got our name badges and "goody bag," which included lots of ads and coupons as well as our programs and a map of the facilities.

While we were in the registration/hospitality building, we signed up to have our rig weighed by the Escapees Smart Weigh team next Friday before we leave.

We walked around the rigs in the near camping area, usually reserved for handicap access, but now also holding those who came early for the Escapees RV Boot Camp. We spotted Stuart and Lynn's Majestic and stopped to visit with them.

After dinner we walked over to the Matheson Bldg. for the entertainment, thinking we were early since the show was scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. It turned out that there were announcements and door prizes at 7:00 p.m., so we found seats at the far rear of the audience. Fortunately, we were able to move up near the front because a couple left before the show started.

Escapade staff on stage

We were happy to have good seats for the Yakov Smirnoff show. He was funny, of course, and we laughed a lot, but we also learned some interesting things about Smirnoff's early life in Soviet Russia and his family's move to America when he was in his twenties. He earned a master's degree in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and is now presenting a show called "Happily Ever Laughter" on the power of laughter to heal relationships and bridge communication gaps.

I really envied him the ability to talk to a large crowd about neuroscience and gender differences in the corpus callosum and have them transfixed.

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On to Odessa

This morning we met Bruce and Mary Sue and Rebecca on our walk. They were returning from the undeveloped loop we like to walk just as we were headed over to walk it. We said goodbye again.

Our trip today took us through the Flint Hills of Kansas, some very interesting terrain. We didn't even know that Kansas had hills--most of it seems to be windswept prairies.

We stopped for lunch and groceries at Bonner Springs. As we drove through Kansas City and crossed the river, we didn't notice any "Welcome to Missouri" signs. We stopped in Odessa, KS, at the  Country Gardens RV Park and One Good Taste Country Store, where Stuart and Lynn had stayed on their way to Sedalia.

Our pull-through site was level, and the owners were very friendly. However on our evening walk we found outselves next to a very scummy and smelly pond--yuck!

We decided to do a couple of loads of laundry, but it took longer than usual because only one of the two washers in the laundry room was working. That did give us a chance to play some pool on a small pool table in an adjacent hall.

DirecTV still doesn't have much programming info. I think the storm must have wiped it out.

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Brake Test

We were up bright and early and out of our rig so that the workers could put it in the service bay at 7:00 a.m. After our walk, it was back to the customer lounge. We shared the lounge with Willis and Rebecca and Blayde most of the day. Bruce and Mary Sue came over too, and we all chatted. We made plans to get dinner together and go out to West Rolling Hills to walk around the campground this evening.

Meanwhile, Ken U. sent us out with an IR temp sensor to test our brakes and record the temperatures of the rotors. First we did some normal braking. They we did some more aggressive braking. Finally we did some really aggressive braking (although definitely no panic stopping). After each run, we recorded temps. The bottom line is that all of the numbers seemed to be pretty much in line.

When I opened the door after our return, I was shocked to see that our dining table had fallen and rolled partially past the island by the door. Some other things had fallen too. Clearly we've never done any seriously hard braking! Very fortunately, the table had not suffered any visible damage, and we couldn't see any damage to the island or floor or nearby woodwork. Whew!
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Rainy Day

We were up and out of our trailer by 7:00 this morning. Today was the day to work on our top priority: our brakes. It was cold and rainy, so once they moved our rig into the shop, they closed the door, so we really couldn't tell what was being done. On our morning walk we wore our Tilley hats and jackets. At that point it wasn't raining too hard. We walked over to Owl's Nest and saw Bruce and Mary Sue's home snug in a nice pull-thru. We didn't want to disturb them, so we walked on by, checking out the park. It looks like most spaces are occupied by long-term renters.

We spent lots of time in the customer lounge today. Chris was working on her laptop, and we chatted for a while about some of the issues she is dealing with educating employees about changes in their retirement plans and new procedures for accruing time off for holidays, vacations, and sick pay. She has worked in the nonprofit sector largely because she believed in the mission of the organizations she has worked for and with.

After lunch the Emersons came in to say goodbye. Their Summit was hitched up and they were ready to pull out. We're hoping to see them in Kerrville at the New Horizons Owners Group rally next April.

Jerry and Chris also went on their way in their new Majestic. They planned to drive pretty much straight through to the Outer Banks to salvage as much of their vacation as possible. We're hoping to see them again somewhere down the road.

Ken U. talked with us about the problems they found with the brakes. They fixed everything, but are still puzzled about how the brake failures could have occurred. One rather rare possibility is that the brake pads just separated from the metal and fell off. Ken U. is filing a claim with Dexter.

We went out this evening with Bruce and Mary Sue and Willis and Rebecca to Cracker Barrel for dinner. The food was good, the company even better. After dinner we had fun clowning around in the store, trying on the funny hats and checking out the 80% off tables. Then we came back to our Majestic to give Bruce and Mary Sue the grand tour. They were gracious in complimenting us on our home. In fact, they may decide to get some of the MCD shades like we have to replace the worn out pleated shades in their unit. We all sat around and talked some more. What a nice way to spend an evening.
[photos later]
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Day Three

Today is our third day in the service department. We got up early to be ready for repairs at 7:30 a.m., but when we talked to Ken U., he said that the service department was very busy and they might not have time to work on our rig today, but that tomorrow there will be a big push.

We did talk about the bedrail clearance problem, and Ken U. asked us to hitch up so he could look at the situation. He suggested some possibilities, like adding spacers under the rails attaching our hitch to our truck bed, which might raise up possibly 2", but at the cost of making our already tall rig even taller--and lowering the already very low rear.

He showed us a way that the rubber springs on each axle could be raised maybe less than an inch. He pointed out the possibility of adding some to the bottom of the frame, which would be an extremely major job. None of these suggestions seemed likely to really deal with our problems effectively, so we are more convinced than ever that modifying our truck bed is the way to go.

Our trailer was pulled into the service bay after lunch, but we're really not sure what all was done. Ernie did come to us at one point to say that he'd have to order a replacement MCD shade that wouldn't be in until September 25, but he came back a bit later to say that he'd found a shade we could use--yay. Tony sanded and refinished an area on one cabinet door that had some strange white spots on it.

During the day we talked with our fellow New Horizons owners. We chatted with Jerry and Chris, who were waiting for new tires and for some other adjustments on their new Majestic. They are hoping to leave soon for their vacation in the Outer Banks. Jerry is retired, but Chris is still working. They have lots of miles to drive between here and the North Carolina coast. Jerry plans to drive way more miles per day than we would ever consider when towing.

Jerry and Chris also told us lots of stories of their previous RV "adventures," involving things like the frame parts of a previous trailer just falling off as they drove along.

Bob Emerson came by and said that he had a grease gun full of grease he wouldn't be using and offered it to anyone who wanted to inject some grease into the zerk fittings on our Hensley hitches. Several people took him up on the offer, including us. We watched the process closely so that we'll be able to do it in the future. It turns out that our MORryde axles also have zerk fittings and need grease at least annually.

When our rig was pulled back out of the service bay and we went to go in, we found ourselves completely unable to open the door. Kylie and Ernie and Ken U. all came to look at it and work on it. We are now able to get in and out, but they've promised to actually fix it tomorrow.

As I was responding to an email from Bruce and Mary Sue, who said that they planned to arrive at the factory tomorrow, we heard a knock on the door. It was Bruce. They had decided to drive 300 miles today to avoid driving in the forecast rain tomorrow. They are staying at Owl's Nest, a Passport America park nearby. We walked with Bruce over to Willis and Rebecca's Summit and found them just arriving home from a shopping trip in Manhattan. They went to Best Buy there to pick up a 32" flat panel LED TV to replace the old one in their RV.

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Another Day in the Customer Lounge

We have a new ceiling fan! And some of our living room air conditioner vents seem to be putting out some cool air. Our rig was in the service bay all day today, but we're not sure what else happened.

We did get a chance to talk with other owners, like Pat, who had his pin box lowered to increase his bedrail clearance. He says he's now 13' 7", but he has more clearance . . . . Worth checking out. We talked with Jerry and Bob about their experiences with Classy Chassis, which does truck customization, including hauler bodies.

We also got a chance to say hi to Rebecca and Willis, friends from the Rio Grande Valley, who bought a used New Horizons Summit this past year and are here to get some things worked on. Their trailer sat unused in the Arizona sun for a while before they adopted it. One problem they've had is that the seal for their main slide is deteriorated. It was great to have a chanbce to visit with them again.

The customer lounge is okay, but it's not home. We'll be glad when our repairs are completed and we can move on. We'll be going to Odessa, MO, on Saturday, and Sedalia, MO, on Sunday for the Escapade. If our work isn't finished, we may need to return to Junction City the following week.

Here we are in the service bay
 

That's us in the middle.

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Work Starts

We got up early this morning so that we could be packed up and ready for work to begin on our rig, but it wasn't until a bit later in the morning that Ken U. came by with the fork lift and moved our coach around to the back of the service area.

We walked around with Ken U., pointing out areas of concern, and he tagged each with some tape. Kylie worked on the cabinets and windows. She replaced the two bedside windows, so now both of them are working--and even better, both of them now open far enough to actually get some ventilation. She put up the new MCD shade over the dining table and worked on the wood finish issues.

We spent most of the day in the customer lounge. New Horizons was a busy place today. Jim and Sue Coram showed up in their brand new HDT to pick up their coach. Another new owner, Jerry Schmidt, came in towing his Grand Teton. It had been sold, and the buyers came in early, so Jerry was removing everything from the Teton and putting it in his truck, where he was planning to sleep tonight.

We met Eddie, who is considering buying one of the used Summits, and Lynn and David, who picked up their new coach in May and have returned for some work. We talked again with Bob and Judy. Tomorrow Rebecca and Willis will be arriving. Some couples came through to tour the plant, including one husband and wife who both use walkers. They're asking about lifts and other modifications to accommodate their needs.

Jeffrey came by to talk with us about our plumbing and to show us how to remove our Watts water pressure regulator. We were glad to know that all incoming city water flows through our filters, although any water we siphon into the tank does not. We'll have to be sure to purify that water if there's any question. Fortunately, we don't often have a need to siphon water. That only happens if we're boondocking for an extended period and need to replenish our water tank.

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Hiking the Riverwalk Trail

When Ken asked how I'd like to celebrate my birthday this year, of course I immediately thought of a good hike. We looked to see what trails are around Milford Lake and decided that the Riverwalk Trail along the Republican River would be a good choice. It's about ten miles round trip, and we thought we could visit the Milford Lake Nature Center.

We did get to see some views of the river, but mainly it's a nulti-use trail. We passed or were passed by joggers and cyclists and some parents with small children in strollers. We saw a few signs labeling trees, and several signs warning that we were walking through an area with unexploded ordnance. Wait, did I mention that the trail runs through and along the edge of Fort Riley?

It got hotter as the day went on, so we were very happy to find some water at the Outlet Park where we turned around. We did not find the Milford Nature Center, unfortunately.

A shady section of the trail looks inviting on this hot day

After dinner it was time to pack up and move back to the New Horizons factory. We had a problem: the turnaround on Loop A is extremely tight, and there's a tree in the middle. We had a plan to back into one of the last campsites with a wide driveway so that we could pull out and turn around without going around the tree.

The first part of the plan worked fine. We backed into the site and congratulated ourselves on doing such a good job. Then Ken turned the wheel and pulled to the left. Good move, until the edge of the trailer rear camera mount, which extends from the pin box, hit the edge of the pickup box. We jockeyed around a bit, but nothing was working.

The friendly host came by in his golf cart and suggested that the grass was dry enough that we could drive the rig onto it. Ken made a wide looping turn and then backed the rig up so he could pull out. Finally we were on our way out, but we had to stop at the dump station. By the time we got back to the factory, it was on the verge of getting dark, and I was pretty much running out of reserves.

While all this was going on, I was cheered up by getting several nice birthday phone calls, and even some renditions of "Happy Birthday to You!" When we got settled for the night, Ken and I shared some chocolate ice cream before heading for bed.
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Around the Lake

We drove around the lake today, checking out other parks and campgrounds. The bottom line is that we like West Rolling Hills, where we are now, the best. Many of the others are older and have rough or narrow interior roads and short sites. Some would have sites we could fit, but they're closer together or don't have such nice views.

Here's Ken's photo of the panoramic view of the lake out our windows:

Tomorrow is my birthday. Ken says I should enjoy being 66 while I still can. Of course he beat me to 67 by almost four months.

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Out to Milford Lake Again

We decided to move out to the lake for the weekend, since work on our punch list won't start until Monday morning at 7:30 a.m. Just as we were getting ready to hitch up, the 50% chance of rain came through. It read pretty steadily for a while, but then let up and became just a light shower. It was still overcast and windy, but we figured the weather would improve through the day, so we headed out.

We were lucky to get into site #A3. It's a 50 amp site with a great view of the lake.

Looking out our living room window

We walked around the campground this evening. We're in Loop A; Loop B has 30 amp electricity and more sites, including three pull-thrus. We stayed in one of those on our maiden outing in April.

I called my Uncle Jesse to wish him a happy birthday today. He's 82 this year and still doing pretty well. He's looking forward to bow hunting season. He says that Essie Lee is doing well, and it's been four months since Billy was in the hospital with his diabetes. Billy sees the doctor every day.

I called Aunt Helene too. She's ten years older than Jesse and will celebrate her 82nd birthday in October. She says she is doing okay, but that she's given up driving. I think that was a wise decision, since she is having trouble with her eye sight.

Chris called. The call was on speaker phone, which always makes it a bit difficult for me to make out, and it's even more fun when there are other people moving into and out of the conversation. Anara had a great time at Kumoricon last weekend, and Chris and Shawn had fun at the coast. Their friends Michael and Kathryn drove over to visit with them too. The big news is that Shawn has a firm job offer with Clackamass County. It will require a longer commute (to Oregon City), but she likes the people and is looking forward to the job.
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Pizza Party

We met with Ken Ullmer this morning to talk about our punchlist items. We're on the schedule for next Monday morning, but we wanted to go over at least some of the items on the list beforehand.

It was hot, hot, hot here today--and muggy--the kind of weather that makes you think you need a shower after you've been outside ten minutes. We walked south on Spring Valley this morning because we figured there were at least some trees in that direction. This afternoon we went out to do some shopping.

We stopped in at the Pizza Hut to order pizzas for dinner tonight. Of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity to stop in at the nearby Goodwill, too. I got a cute sleeveless knit shirt and a pan lid. We have two pans about the same size, but only one of them has a lid. Then we went to Dillons to pick up some groceries so we'll be ready for the weekend. We're planning to move out to Lake Milford in the morning and return Sunday in time for our Monday morning appointment.

We had invited Bob and Judy to come over for pizza this evening, but our living room a/c hasn't been working well. We couldn't run both a/c's without tripping the breaker, so we ended up getting permission to have our pizza party in the customer lounge, which worked really well. Ernie in shipping was planning to be around this evening, so he left one of the doors open for us and kept an eye out.

We had a great time enjoying the pizza and salad and watermelon with Bob and Judy--and of course enjoying getting to know them and sharing some of our RV adventures. They haven't been out to Lake Milford, so they might come out to check it out and maybe visit us this weekend.

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Back at Camp Horizon

Our Majestic is back home--we're at Camp Horizon in Junction City, ready to get some warranty work done.

We talked with Ken Ullmer when we arrived and emailed him an updated list of our concerns tonight. We'll get together with him tomorrow morning to talk over the list. He already has the MCD shade and ceiling fan that need to be replaced, so that's a good sign.

We met another couple who are also staying here while their Summit is being repaired. Their names are Bob and Judy Emerson. The New Horizons family is rather small, so I guess it's no surprise that we have friends in common. They met Stuart and Lynn Jeffries on a previous visit. Bob and Judy are actually staying in a service bay, because they're having their slides worked on.

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Seibert, CO, to Ellis, KS

Today was another travel day. We needed to respond to our truck's warning that we were low on DEF. We had an unopened 2.5 gallon container, which we poured into the DEF reservoir. The truck continued to warn us each time we restarted that we were close to running out of DEF. Evidently it did not get the message that DEF had been added. We stopped at a truck stop and found a DEF pump--the first one we have used. It was simple to add DEF--just like refueling--and much cheaper than buying the DEF in plastic containers (not to mention more environmentally sound).

We also decided to stop at the Blue Beacon in Oakley, KS. We talked with the manager in advance about not using too high a pressure on the front end cap, because we were worried about the possibility of disturbing the graphics. We had no problem, and the truck and trailer were shining bright and clean. So of course the next thing we saw was a huge dark storm approaching!

We stopped in Ellis, KS, for the night, at a very nice city campground: Lakeside Campground. The "lake" is a wide spot in what appears to be a creek. The sites are very nice--and a real bargain at $15 for 50 amp electricity and water. We got set up and headed out for our walk--but we took our raincoats along. Good thing, because we did get some rain for a while. Not enough to have any effect on the drought, just enough to spatter the truck and trailer a bit.

A friendly police officer stopped by in the evening to collect the fee.

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Labor Day Work Day

We had a long list of things to accomplish today. We did accomplish some of them. One of the most time and energy consuming was testing our tank levels.

We spent some more time walking around town. This morning we discovered that there is actually another business in town besides the grocery store--and it actually has a neon sign. Yup, Seibert has a liquor store. It also has the Hi Plains High School. A web search shows up lots of sports sites. The town has a large sign with panels for each sports championship the students have won. Elementary students go to the nearby town of Vona, where the Hi-Plains Elementary School is located.

 Across the plains, we see many ways of bundling hay, but not this close up. This roll is wrapped in black plastic mesh.

This area has been suffering from a drought. We had some showers last night and a few sprinkles today, but not enough to actually wet the dusty earth.

The friendly owner of Shady Grove Campground was building new picnic tables today. We chatted for a bit. We stopped in the small grocery store this morning and were pleasantly surprised to find a reasonable stock of fresh produce, including some cut watermelon that I picked up in honor of the Labor Day holiday

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Small Town

We're actually still in Colorado tonight and tomorrow night. We're in Shady Grove Campground in Seibert, CO, to be exact. Seibert almost redefines the phrase "walk around the town." It's so small that we had to walk some streets twice. Most are unpaved hard pack gravel. The town boasts one small food market. Period. No restaurants or other retail that we could see.

We parked next to a friendly younger couple with a Shih Tzu puppy and a brand new fifth wheel. They were happy to show us around their new home and curious to see ours. He is a welder, and they travel from job to job. They bought their Chapparral at an RV show. It has some interesting features, like an outdoor kitchen/entertainment center.

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Colorado for a Day

After our walk this morning we stopped to say goodbye to Dave and Renee and to get some photos of them and their home. We suspect we'll meet again, at "Camp Horizons" if not elsewhere.

We drove from Rawlins, WY, to Fort Collins, CO, today. On the way we passed Laramie and Cheyenne, names that embody the myth of the old west for us. We are spending the night at a large rest area which is adjacent to the Colorado Welcome Center. It's an unusual welcome center because it also includes such things as an environmental education program of the University of Colorado.

A sculpture of a horse stands out front--a "painted" horse, with images of rodeo cowboys.

Ken took this photo of the Majestic pretty much alone in the large parking area, but later in the evening we were joined by trucks running their generators, so it's far less peaceful.

We walked along a trail through a wildlife preserve behind the welcome center. A sign suggested tht we might see deer and herons and black headed and red winged blackbirds. We actually saw a rabbit and some geese flying overhead, but it was a nice place to walk. We saw mountain peaks along the skyline. One of the shirts the welcome center had for sale included the quotation from John Muir: "The mountains are calling, and I must go."
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