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I don’t even know where to begin. The good or the bad. Let’s start with the good...better way to begin the day. “Start Your Engines!” Set your time machine to Wednesday, May 22nd.
Work on PP is progressing nicely. We are awe-struck with the work that has been done! Our old Norcold refrigerator is out & our new residential Whirlpool refrigerator is in. WOW. It’s like we died and went to refrigerator heaven. It’s beautiful and SO big! It is a side by side with ice maker (on inside). The amount of room in it is like a walk-in industrial refrigerated cooler. When you open the door, the interior lights explode with brilliance. We have to shield our eyes and wear sunglasses to peer in. I’m squealing with delight thinking about ALL the groceries I can buy and stick in it. Costco here we come! They removed the old refrigerator and brought in this one through the big window behind the driver’s chair. The one directly behind the sleeper sofa. I thought they said the window next to the driver’s seat so we had not cleared our mountainous heap of “stuff” that we stored behind that couch. They got stuck
doing that. Amazing all the items they have found for us by removing our refrigerator, jackknife couch and now this big couch. Kind of like a lost and found experience. They even found a hook I lost under the big slide next to the refrigerator. Whew!
We now have two 40” Samsung Smart TV’s in our living area. Awesome! We haven’t had a chance to play with them but they look like they have everything plus. Our allotted space didn’t accommodate anything larger. We’re happy! They had to replace the motor to our roof top manual antenna. It squeaked real bad. It’s was toast.
Brannon was installing our new, heavy duty surge protector (built in). We have relied on the one that came with our rig. He said that was nothing more than a glorified ground unit. Thank you, God....you have kept PP safe all these years. Now, we shall actually have real protection. Jonathan is working on our outside stairs. He has removed all the rust and cracking paint. Will paint today (Thursday) and then put the protective covering on them. Of course, they’ll be lubricated and cleaned. They have done so much....many that aren’t actually visible.
Remember, I’ll make the list and post it once they are done. “Pretty Penny” will be called “Really Pretty Penny” (RPP) when we are done. It’s all looking so worth it. To be continued......
Lunch was at The Steakhouse. I had a Fried green tomato BLT. Cory had a normal one. It was okay...a one timer. I wore my sweater.....so cold inside, Brrrrr. My cough and general malaise are still with me. I loaded up on all our drugs. I’m here but not as rambunctious as before. I’ll survive. Pray for me. Lulu tends to worry when I’m dumpy. We stopped back in at Java and Jazz. Laura has hired someone to work here so they get a day off. My regular fancy frappé was good but not as good as usual. Not sure if we’ll still be around for the entertainment on Thursday evening with Billy Boyd on guitar. We are hoping we won’t (it’s time to leave) but sorry we’ll miss his performance.
Alright....let’s get into it the bad stuff now. Are you up to guessing what it may involve? Hint: we hate them! Bingo! You got it......our G-D levelers. Sorry about that but we really
hate them, now more than ever. Remember how we waited to use them until we got up to Brannon’s. Well, we used them first on Monday, the 20th. They worked fine but didn’t level the RV perfectly on automatic..... it sloped toward the right. Suck it up, Buttercup. We can just live with it. Next day, the same thing. Brannon showed Cory a short cut to “reset” them. Wednesday, while I wrote my blog in the Tiffin lounge, Cory looked up Brent in Bay 36. He’s the guy Cory has spoken with on the phone when we needed leveler advice. They have talked often! Nice to finally meet him in person. He told Cory just run them up & down a few times and they should be okay. Ok. If that doesn’t work, he gave Cory his phone# and said he worked on levelers during “after hours”. Good to know because we were going to need him! Rats and Rat Hills!
We are still on Wednesday....suppertime. We had set our RV up for the evening: water, electric, etc. Put the stupid levelers down. Still leaning towards driver side. Decided to redo them and go manual. Oh, noooooooo! They locked
up.... nothing new....that’s why we had them FIXED! Hah! I was ahead of myself when I thought that had been accomplished! Cory called Brent who came up to Brannon’s & our RV @ 5:30 pm. He’s a big guy, smokes heavily and the weather was hotter than He_ll, even at this time of day. He had to get under the rig and remove the front passenger leveler. Dave can relate to this agony. He did all four of our jacks plus one twice! We are forever grateful to him. Brent was sweating terribly. His wheezing was as loud as an elephant’s trumpet. I wondered how long it would take after calling 911 to bring help. I knew I could do CPR with gravel piercing my delicate knees. You do what you have to do! I kept giving him water as he worked into the night.....by several high beam flashlights. OMG. At one point, he left to get something. He brought back a new leveler, shorter and not made for our coach......but the motor was the same and that’s what he said we needed. He took our new leveler all apart down to some red gooey metal stem sticking out of
the post. He exchanged motors. Long story short: perfect! Worked perfectly! We tried them several times. He reprogrammed our system so the automatic leveling would work correctly. He set our air bags to dump. (Technical talk to me). Thank you, God, for Brent! He’s been doing this (levelers) for 42 years so he’s the guru of “Levelers”. We asked about the replaced module that they did at Bay Diesel. He was noncommittal as a professional should be. He said he didn’t know what our system was doing before but he knew that it was working right now! Merci beaucoup Mr. Leveler King! We paid him for the new leveler ( mainly the motor). His labor was too reasonable so Cory added more $$$ to that. He earned it. I think he almost died! He looked utterly worn out and rough after this terrible ordeal. He still agreed to pose with Lulu but insisted to hold her protected by a paper towel. So considerate! I told him she was used to being a “dirty girl” more times than not! We slept well this night...minus my new cough.
Okay....time to bring your time machine setting to today - Thursday. We are
just about done and will be waving goodbye to Brannon & Red Bay today. What time??
Started our day as routine as always. Coffee & peach slushee at McDonald’s. We’re regulars now. Have our own table and greet the same old men who gather there each morning for coffee. Cory dropped me at the Tiffin lounge so I could work on this blog. May take longer cause I’m sick. He went to see the guy we bought the original new leveler through. Complete refund and we still get to keep the leveler....have to: it’s on & being used! Out to Bay Diesel to ask about money back there since levelers were’t really fixed. We brought the leveler with us so he could only refund us the labor spent working on it. Fair enough. They still said that the original module wasn’t working so we didn’t argue that. Brent called it a control module....had no idea what I was talking about when I said “auto control dump module”. He’s the guru, ‘member.
Still today, Thursday. An older fellow and his wife were in the lounge. They had the normal RV repair stress syndrome. She wanted to go somewhere but
he said he didn’t feel up to it. My eyes flashed onto him. He said he felt so weak & tired! Had a stent put in the “widow maker” a month ago. Color: pale. No SOB (shortness of breath). I introduced myself as nurse Sandy and checked his pulse: 68 and irregular. Says that’s normal for him. He’s not diaphoretic (cold & clammy). I asked if he’s felt like this at anytime since the stent had been in. “Yeah....occasionally. I’m just tired from all this waiting around and stress that goes with it...not sleeping well.” Possible. Why are you resting your hand over your heart? Pain? Nope. I suggested to just check in at the local ER that was very close by. Better safe than sorry (2 of his siblings just had massive heart attacks) ....“Nah” was his response...typical. Said he was just going to sleep in the big comfy chair....if he felt worse, he’d tell me. I located the defibrillator on the wall....just in case. We left before them so I’m hoping he was just tired and nothing more.
Back to Brannon’s for a review and payment. First, I noticed our outside steps. Don’t they look great? They
look new but they aren’t. Jonathan cleaned and scraped them down, repainted them and put the safety tape on them. Our wrap around covers were shot. Probably will buy more someday.
There was a sweet pup lying next to our RV when we arrived. A little shy but warmed up easily. Brannon said someone probably dropped it off....happens all the time. I asked what would happen to it. He shrugged and said it would just walk away and find another place to hang out. I asked that he give it water...he said he would. It tore at my heartstrings ....of course, I would take him in a flash. He had fleas....oh, dear. It breaks my heart thinking about it. But we just can’t do it.
We went through our entire list plus a few more add on’s.....they did them all! Fantastic. They couldn’t hook up our new “used” satellite box (it didn’t even power up) so Cory will have to send that back to the seller and get our $$ back. We’ll try to get another somewhere. Our bill was a “pretty penny” but we had a lot of expensive things done plus all the many more items
finished on our list. By paying cash, the sales tax was removed. We were surprised it wasn’t more! We are very happy with everything. He met our expectations and then went above them! We highly recommend him if ever you are thinking about doing something like this. He works on all brands of RV’s. His work is excellent. Brannon and Jonathan are skilled craftsmen and perfectionists. Maybe tomorrow, I can put our list together so you can see everything we had done both here and Bay Diesel and the paint shop. It all went smoothly and easier than expected. 12:15 and we left Brannon’s. Went to the Bunkhouse trying to find some arms rests for our captain chairs. Ours are starting to wear just a tad. Found one matching pair but they were worse than ours. You want something for your RV? This is the place to go....and this is just their furniture building! There’s lots more stuff in another gargantuan building. Had to stop back at Tiffin & Bay Diesel and we were done.
2:35 pm....we’re “gittin otta tound” (my new Southern accent- like it?). So long, Red Bay. It’s been a good visit but it’s time for
us to go. And we’re off, again. Cory is very pleased with the new SafeTplus. He doesn’t feel anything when a big semi passes him. A wind gust came up and he didn’t even notice it. Good!
We sailed along without a care in the world. Well, maybe my cold I’m burdened with. I feel weak and tired just like the guy in the lounge. But I’m pushing on...need to get this blog published. Oh, that reminds me. Yesterday’s blog got screwed up somehow. A few of you notified me you had received the blog notice but couldn’t open it. Not sure what was going on so I republished it....nope. I contacted my blog site but haven’t heard back from them. Just a few minutes ago, I tried republishing it again and viola! This time it went through. Hallelujah. So, if some of you received several copies of this massive narrative....that’s why.
As we cruised along, traffic slowed for an accident. It had just happened.Somehow a boat was thrown off its trailer into the grass. It landed on its side but it looked like it had rolled over first. Glad no one was hurt. We ended today’s excursion
in Cornersville, Tennessee. We are at a small, tidy campground called Texas T campground....$30. Pull thru with full hook ups & free WiFi. I took a couple pictures. Lulu posed in front of a couple feral cats resting in the driveway. Look at the old travel trailer someone uses....cool.
Turn off your time machines. I think we are good to go back on schedule now. Thanks for your cooperation. I know it’s not that comfortable sitting in those machines for such a long period of time. Get a good rest tonight and “bottoms up”. That will bring life back into your tush.
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deanne
non-member comment
not again
Safe travels-I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!!!!!! Happy Memorial Day!!!!!