Saturday, July 13, 2013

We're On Vacation

 Thursday Night (7/11/13) - It's my oldest son's birthday so a big happy birthday to you Chad.  John is home from work and officially started his vacation.  So to kick it off I dropped a very sharp knife in the top of my foot!  Yikes!  It did bleed and I thought I had done something much worse than it really was.  After lots of pressure and keeping the foot raised the bleeding finally stopped so no trip to urgent care thank goodness.  I am such a baby with those kinds of things and get light headed and all that. 

Friday night (7-12-13) - It's my youngest son's birthday so a big happy birthday to you Erik.  We are about as ready as we are going to be for our first day on the road tomorrow.  We started our day by heading to Camping World to get some valve stem extenders for our inside rear tires.  While there we had to check out the doggie section and sure enough found a cute new toy for April.  Bailey doesn't play with them much and April had torn up a few so it was time for something new.  We gave it to her to see if she was interested in it and she carried it around the store and to the checkout counter.  So cute.  The cashier tore off the tag and gave it back to her and the two of them started playing with it together.  Bailey would get it and tear off with it and April would catch her and take it away.  Then they would roll on the floor together with it.  The customers were thoroughly enjoying them play. 
 
In the afternoon, while working in the RV, I suddenly heard a loud hissing noise which didn't sound good.  I truly hoped John was drilling something but had a sinking feeling he was not. I raced outside to find him standing by the back tires saying "this is not good"!  Ugh.  While trying to put one of the valve stem extenders on he busted the valve stem off and yes, that loud hissing sound was the inside rear tire losing all its air!  As usual, I had my 'what are we going to do' moment which usually involves a lot of emotion.  So we called the Good Sam Roadside Assistance folks and they saved the day and sent us a very very nice young man from a truck tire service.  He was so pleased to see we were parked under a canopy where it was much cooler in the 100 deg heat.  He had us fixed up in a very short time and put a valve stem extender on that tire at no charge.  He also gave us one for the other side but told us to have it put on next time we were at a tire store.

So I hoped that was the extent of our events for this trip.
 
Saturday (7/13/13) - After a good night's sleep we were up at 6 am and all hooked up and ready to go by 8:15 am.  We tow a car and motorcycle behind our rig as you can see from the picture I posted.  The heat and humidity was rising steadily as we were hooking up so John was glad not to have to drive the front half of the trip so he could cool down and relax. 
 
We stopped in Newton, NE at a truck center to gas up and grab lunch.  We had planned to fire up the generator and turn on the AC so we could eat in the restaurant and leave the girls in the RV as it was now in the low 90's.  The generator fired up just fine but the AC didn't seem to want to come on.  So I told John I would go get lunch to go so we could eat in the RV with the engine running so we at least had AC from the dash.  While waiting on our to go order John showed up and said he got the AC on.  It just took a bit for it to make the connection.  Not sure why but it was on.  After lunch we got ready to go and now the engine won't start.  It turned over just fine but even stranger, we could take our hands off the key in the ignition and it just stayed where it was and kept cranking the engine over.  Ugh!  Now what is wrong.  John tried several times and to no avail.  So I headed back into the service center to see if there was anybody in there that could assist us.  Just as I started to talk to one of their technicians, John called to say he got it started - thank goodness!!  We are guessing it was fully in park as he pulled the gear shift to neutral and then back to park and it started right up.  Needless, to say we didn't turn it off until we arrived at the KOA in Grand Island and just hope it starts right up in the morning.
 
For the last three hours of the trip we finally kicked on the generator and ran the main AC to knock the heat down a bit as it was getting pretty toasty.  But all in all, it was a nice smooth trip.  The girls slept most of the trip and travelled very well.  April wanted to be in our lap the entire time but she travelled well.
 
Upon arrival at the KOA around 5:30 pm we pulled into our site, left the car/bike hooked up, got the rig setup for the night and hit the pool.  It wasn't heated which was perfect.  Very refreshing!  They were serving steaks, baked potatoes, garlic bread, corn on the cob, and salad for $10 so we indulged.  It was way too hot to cook.  We met several nice people in the short time were have been here from Massachusetts, Maryland, Missouri, and California.  The girls also made friends with a cute little dog named Sadie.  You meet so many nice people when you are in RV parks. 
 
Tomorrow we are off to Cheyenne for our next stop. 

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