On Our Way to Durango, CO...

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Brent & Ashley's

Lyla & Brent

We are finally on our way.  Spent a few days at Brent & Ashley's so we could see the grandkids (and Brandon, Brent & Ashley too).


Cayden & Tyler

Diane, Ashley, Brent, Chris & Frank

 

We got to Crestview, FL Sunday night.  We already planned to spend Monday there getting our Driver's Licenses changed & registering to vote.  As most know you have to take 2 pieces of mail with your address on it in order to do these things.
If you want Florida to be your residence (or Texas or South Dakota) but don't have a "residence" most full-time RV'ers use a mail service as an address.  This can be used as our legal address.  All our mail goes here.  We can check what mail came daily.  If we are stationary for a week or more we can have it sent to us.  If we're traveling, they'll scan it if we want them to.  This all comes at a price but it's very fair for what they do & the convenience.
 

 

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Left Crestview at 7:45 am.

Tunnel in Arkansas

There was a tunnel...in Arkansas!  A tunnel!  WTF!  We hadn't gone through a tunnel before.  We think it went under the water.  Georgie was a little nervous.  It was kind of creepy really.

Pretty uneventful until...we hit Jackson, MS!  I-40 W...what a bitch of a road!  That part of I-40 will jar your teeth loose!

Oh...and on top of that...we were just getting through Jackson when all of a sudden we couldn't maintain our speed! Georgie said, "Somethings wrong".  What I ask.  He said he wasn't sure.  On the interstate, in heavy traffic we weren't really moving too fast, just over a hump, he pulled over...way over.  Got out of the truck to see what he could find.  Low & behold...this road was so bad it jiggled the plug to the emergency trailer brakes loose.  He jumped in the bed of the truck & pushed that plug in so hard it won't ever come out.  He said it must not have been in as tight as it should have been even though it looked like it was.  MAJOR EVENT AVERTED!  My hero! (Sunday night it came out when we forgot to disconnect it from the hitch.  If that happens you just push it back in.)

We were back on the road in about 15 minutes.

Ended our day at Frog Hollow RV Park at 5:10 pm.  Too long of a day.  Our asses were dragging!  572 miles, pulling a 40' 5th wheel that weighs about 15,000 lbs.

Tori & Annie

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

On the road at 7:30 am.  Weather was nice, roads were decent.  Nothing too much going on.

Annie the Copilot

We entered Tennessee at 9 am.  Into Arkansas at 9:15 am...in the middle of some old, rickety bridge on I-40 W.

Expert park job!

Georgie said, "Now I'm scared!"  There was an 18 wheeler right next to us in the left lane.  The bridge was 2 lanes.  It was so narrow he could have reached out & touched it.

That was it, our excitement for the day.  We decided that yesterday was too long of a day.  We were going to stop earlier.  We found what appeared to be a nice KOA just off the road in Checotah, OK.  Called an hour ahead & made reservations.  We pulled in.  Very nice...except the pool looked green & the wifi was down.  OK.  We'll just get the air cranked up (since it was 97 outside at 4 pm).  

It took us 15 minutes to get set up.  Both air conditioners were cranking, 3 fans on.  Georgie was sweating his balls off.  If I had them I'd be sweating mine off too.  Everything shuts off!  Georgie went outside to the electrical box we were plugged into & flipped the breaker.  Everything came back on. 

In an RV it takes a while for things to cool off.  The a/c doesn't work the same as residential ones. 

Anyway, in 10 short minutes the temperature inside climbed 2 degrees.

20 minutes later...the breaker again.  15 minutes later...again with the breaker!

We didn't want to move to another site.  We'd have to start over.  Unhook the water & electric.  Get the slides in.  Etc, etc, etc. 

We switched the fridge from electric to propane for now.  Several hours later all is good...so far.  Fingers crossed.  It's still 81 degrees in the rig after 4 hours but that's better than 95...where it started.

 
 

 

OMG! Glad we weren't...on the road...

 

What started as an easy night...

 

George made a huge pot of his famous spaghetti sauce.  Going to have dinner with Brandon, Tyler & Cayden, Brent, Ashley & Lyla.

 

All the dogs, Zoe & Emma (Brent & Ashley's Goldens) Tori & Annie (ours) were out in the yard running around, playing & racing about 7 pm.  Brent & Brandon were in the yard watching the dogs play, I was in back of the rig showing Tyler the garage ramp.  He was curious as to how we were going to get the Harley's out.

 

At 7:05 pm this horrible screaming was coming from one of the dogs.  I ran around to the side of the rig.  It was Annie!  She was screaming!  Blood all over the front of her. 

 

When I first saw her it looked like a lot of blood coming from her mouth.  I thought she hit her face on the steps to the rig.  The boys were right there with her trying to pick her up.  All I heard was, "She ran into that thing!"  That thing...I thought it was the side of the steps.  I quickly picked her up.  She was all curled up screaming.   I carried her into the rig & put her in the kitchen sink.  She stopped screaming & was just whimpering.

 

As I was trying to see what happened to her face the boys kept saying, "It's not her face, it's her leg!  Her leg!  It's her leg!" 

 

It took me a few seconds to hear what they were saying.  I tried to look at her leg.  All she would do was cry & pull her leg away.  After about 30 seconds she let me look at it.  So much blood.

 

Brent had grabbed some clean rags from his garage.  We put one on her leg & kept pressure on it to try to stop the bleeding.

 

Brandon said he thought she broke her leg.  He said she was running so fast she ran right into the front leveling jack, the L shaped thing that adjusts the legs up or down.  He said, "Mom, she was racing around with the other dogs.  She was running so fast.  She ran into that thing & just started screaming!"

 

The boys were calling their vets.  One answered & said they were closed but referred us to an Emergency Vet in Kissimmee, Dr. Barnett.  Off we went...racing to the vet, Tori in tow.  She wasn't letting us take Annie anywhere without her. 

 

Tori, Annie, Emma & Zoe

Spent about an hour at the vet.  They were wonderful!  Because the laceration was so bad they had to put her under to do the surgery.  Surgery would take about 90 minutes.  We were allowed to carry her into the operation room & stay with her until the put the IV in.  They had to stitch her nerve, stitch her muscle & then stitch her skin.  It was pretty bad.  They said it might take a couple of months for her to get back to normal and even then, if the nerve doesn't heal right she may have a limp.  Her aspirations for being a Show Dog just went down the drain...LOL!

 

We left Annie and took a drive around town.  We had lived in Kissimmee 20+ years ago so we thought we'd just drive around and see if we recognized anything.  We didn't see a lot that looked familiar anymore.

 

We got back to the vet at 10:15 pm.  Annie started barking as soon as she heard our voices.  Tori wasn't waiting, she had to see her Sis.  We walked back.  There was Annie, standing, barking & growling a little.  She was ready to go home!

 

We headed home.  Both the girls were happy to be together...again!

 

We got home about 11 pm.  Annie jumped out of the car & tried to run around the yard.  Tori stuck with her...she knew things weren't quite right with her Sis.

 

Oh...and as an added bonus, when Brent was trying to pick her up she bit him.  She bit him so hard that one of her baby teeth was stuck in his hand.  He put peroxide on it & will be ok. 

 

And on and on....



 

 

Trying to calm her down & stop the bleeding

At the Emergency Vet

Waiting....



The injury

Tori eating Dairy Queen while waiting for Annie

On the way home



Feels better laying next to Sis...

The culprit...front leveling jack

Had to wear a tshirt so she wouldn't bite her stitches



Next morning...close to Sis

Here we are...parked at Brent & Ashley's

Slight Delay....

These are our old brakes on the rig.  We were planning on heading out July 1, however….we had an appointment to have the brakes & bearings checked on Monday June 26….just to make sure all was good BEFORE we started towards Colorado.  Well….we needed all 6 brakes replaced as well as backing plates, magnets & drums.  They are Dexter never-lube (sealed bearings).  So….they had to order them from Indiana.  Since it was coming up on a holiday weekend….you guessed it!

We had an appointment today, Wednesday July 6, to have the new ones put on.  A 4-5 hour job.  We took it in at 8 am.  Picked it up at 1:30 pm.

Oh, then we had to get the refrigerator fixed.  It stopped cooling Thursday June 29.  Again with the holiday!

Anyway, they came at 2 pm today and fixed that….a 2 hour job.

So NOW we are almost 2 hours into our road trip!

First stop is in St. Cloud, FL to see the boys & their families for a few days.  Going to have a couple of the grandkids stay with us one night.

Getting the Harley's Strapped Down...

Well...we must be just plain stupid!  We had strapped our bikes in the garage several times.  Each time George's bike would tilt even though it was tied down tight each time...or so we thought!

As you know, it's possible to find anything & everything on YouTube.  I watched tons of video's on "How to load & tie down a bike".  They were all basically the same and appeared to be the same way we were loading & tying down. 

Then I started watching video's on "How to use ratchet straps".  (George wouldn't watch them.  He said, "you watch them & tell me what they said")  We could get them tight but when it came time to loosen them...that was a whole different story.  We just couldn't!

I found DirtFarmerJay's video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r16xOkVJZQ.  He shows how to use ratchet straps & how to loosen them.  Viola!  We did EXACTLY what he said to do.  Those bikes aren't going anywhere!

We put 2 strips of ETrack  down for George's bike.  It weighs about 875 lbs.  This would give us more options to secure his bike.  Mine only weighs about 525 lbs so the D Rings on the floor worked fine.

Live and learn...again!

Alley...watching everything we're doing.
She's ready to go for a ride!

Oh NO! The Harley's!

The bikes...

We've been in the same place for 7 months.  We're getting ready to head out to Colorado in a few days then on to Pennsylvania to visit our daughter & 2 grandaughters for a few weeks.

We will be gone for 3 months.

Anyway on to the Harley's.

We had the garage ready to put the bikes in.  Ramp was down.  George was on my bike.  The ramp looked like it was on a somewhat steep angle but not too steep.  Boy were we wrong!

George got up the ramp but as soon as he got to the top the bike caught on the ramp floor & stopped dead.  He started to roll back with me chasing him.  I didn't want him to fall over...on MY bike!

When he got to the end of the ramp..over he went!  Bike was racing...on it's left side!  George was on the ground.  Unfortunately for him I was more concerned about my bike at the moment.

He was fine..just a little blood where he ripped his hand open but I knew he would live.

Lesson learned!  We decided we'll have to wait until we pull out & are on level ground before we load the bikes from now on.

The ramp....

The dip...the BIG problem!

             
                     
                 

A little kitchen update...

Had an hour to kill so I painted this area, let it dry then put up these tiles. Only took 8 tile sections. I like it. Not sure what to do with the top edge, if anything. Need to get some spackling to fill in the seam. Will touch up then.  Love Benjamin Moore Aura Paint!  Paint & primer in one.  Covers in one coat.  Dries in 20 minutes.   Absolutely no odor.

 

Headed out!

Headed out in a week to 10 days. Headed to Colorado then who knows where!