Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Doing a little catch up

July 17th. Wrap up of the last few weeks. For those of you asking where we are located.
Currently sitting right about here: Link Location or just copy and paste into a browser: 41.642859,-88.624134 .

We have found this to be an ideal location for visiting family
Things have been quite around the family so, on July 10th, we headed to Indianapolis for an overnight stay, than go in on Tuesday into the Indiana Fair Grounds. The FMCA rally started on July 12th to the 15th with leaving the fair grounds on Sunday the 16th.

We found the FMCA rally to be fun and provide a good source of information. We learned of the various programs FMCA has made available to us, the RVer on the road. Whether we full time or part time, FMCA has something for you.

Now while we were there, we knew our awning would not last, and due to the placement of the slide rail water was pooling on top of the slide out, making it necessary to retract the slide during the rain.

Reading the installation manual I notice instructions for the location of the slide rail. Manual says min., 2 inches above the top of the awning roller; this provides the angle for the water to run down and off the side of the slide out. Ours was even; this allowed the pooling of water on the material.

I saw a Shade Pro truck, and ask the gentleman to come over and quote and look at the angle. He notice right away the incorrect angle. With Susan in charge, she indicated she wanted similar material as on our main awning and color. Cole showed her the same material and color, which she agreed to, he gave us a rough price of $800 to $900, and said he could do it the next day.

At around 10am Cole arrived and I help remove and install new side rails (310 inches long) at a new height and material. The slide awning material is now tight and at a good angle for the water to run down and off, keeping most if not all the water off the roof of the awning. I just want to state, that we, Rver's do not need to keep the same vinyl on our awning. The new awning material matches our current awning material and color.
When all was said and done the total cost was $785 complete. 


Also while we were traveling down the road, the usual happen in a town called  Forest, Il., or right at this address: 899 N Center St, Forrest, IL 61741.

Susan pulled over to allow the girls to take a walk and switch drivers, as we went outside, we both heard this noise, well Susan heard it, but I did something about it. Shutting down the engine. After a few minutes of looking, I saw a shredded serpentine belt, or at least 4 ribs of the belt was missing. As luck would have it, a business called TCS trucks was 50 yards away. So, off I went to talk to them and see what could be done. Do you know, even though they did not have a belt, they worked until they found a belt 10 minutes away at a NAPA store. Who cares that NAPA is the most expensive place to buy one, they worked hard to help out.

So, off we went, bought 2 different sizes, 1 smaller - 1 larger than the size called out, and back we went. Once back, they made room for me to back up into a bay and 35 minutes later and $55, less, we were back on the road. Now of course, the Horton Fan Clutch cable got broken, but hey all that does is continue to run at high speed.

Sorry for no photos but hey were we off and Susan asked me did you ever order the spare items you needed?  Well I had to say no. You see the belt from NAPA was over $75, and the belts she ordered was $10 each. But hey she got to do the happy dance. 

Oh before I forget, that week was the most expensive week we ever had, and why ? 
Well we picked up a 2015 Ford F-150 with less than 15,000 miles, 


and then we needed to set it up for towing:









So, all in all it was very costly for Susan, just so I could have a new toy, to play with.

Anyway, here are a few additional photos of our time at the FMCA rally:












Safe Travels fro Dakota, Tilly, Susan and me.















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