June 3rd - First Day Out

Here is a picture of the three of us on Sunday night with everything packed up, hooked up, and ready to roll at 4:00 a.m. Monday morning.

Like clockwork we pulled out at 4:05 a.m. Our first leg was 525 miles to Zanesville, Ohio. At the first fuel stop I noticed that the generator fuel tank access door was hanging open. The door lock had fallen off and the door was flopping in the breeze.  I have no idea why the lock fell off. I had filled up the gas tank on Friday and locked it but apparently something was loose that I didn't notice. Here is a picture.

At the second fuel stop I noticed that the black rubber strip which acts as a cushion behind the rear slide ear and the camper wall was hanging out and the slide seal at the top was all twisted. I climbed on the roof and pulled the black rubber strip out so I could glue it back on later.

We pulled into Woolfie's Campground in Zanesville, Ohio, at 3:00 p.m. Ten hours with two fuel stops and a stop for breakfast. (We lost an hour.)  Nice little campground well off the beaten path though. Here is a picture of Kellen by the sign and chilling out before supper.

While Kellen was chillin' I got to work on fixing the two problems. I first fixed the fuel access door. I had two old locks with me in my tool box. One didn't work at all and the other "sorta" worked. It will at least hold the door closed. Here is a picture of the temporary fix until I can order the right lock and install it sometime later.

Here is a picture of the twisted rear seal. I didn't notice this Sunday night when I pulled the slides in and I know the black cushion strip was not hanging out then as well. I guess highway wind created the problem today.

The black rubber strip is glued behind the white seal as a cushion between the two metals. I got on the roof and glued the white seal back in place with some double-sided foam tape I had with me. I then reattached the black rubber strip with the double-sided tape as well. Here is a picture of the black cushion strip. I hope both hold until we get home.

After supper we walked around the park and checked everything out. We thought on the way here that Kellen could swim but it is way too cold. It was only in the mid-sixties here at 4:00 p.m. Here is a picture of their pool. (With no one in it of course.)

Tomorrow we will head out about 7:00 a.m. for Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Only 428 miles. Each day the travel legs get a little shorter.

By the way. I did not have my tooth pulled this weekend. I went in on Saturday and after talking to the dentist, and telling him it was feeling a little better, we decided to wait until Sunday to see how it felt. We were giving the antibiotics a little more time to kick in. He said he would come in Sunday and pull the tooth if it didn't improve. We both wanted to avoid pulling the tooth if we could. Saturday it hurt off and on but with a little less intensity. Kelly and I decided to take a chance and not have it pulled. It didn't hurt as bad today. The dentist gave me another prescription for antibiotics to take after this round is over. Hopefully by then it will be healed up and I won't have any issues on the road. Dealing with a bad tooth is MUCH worse on the road than things breaking on the RV.