August 22nd - 26th - Club Campout in Chatham, Illinois, and Homer Repairs

Our RV club campout for August was hosted by Don and Ruth Ann at the Double J Campground in Chatham, Illinois, just South of Springfield. We had been to this campground before for camp outs. It was superb in every way except there was no Wi-Fi signal in the row we were assigned to for the week. Seven rigs made the trip, which is a great turnout considering our dwindling number of club members. 

Monday evening supper was “Sloppy Joes” provided by the hosts with other members being assigned to bring buns, chips, dessert, etc. We had a great meal. As the sun went down Don started a campfire. Often in August it is far too hot for a fire, but we were fortunate to have cool weather all week.

Tuesday we all traveled for lunch to “Cozy Dog Restaurant” in Springfield for original corn dogs or other delectable items of your choice. This restaurant was a throwback to the old Route 66 days. It was a fun place for lunch. We then headed back to the campground where the men played “Giant Jenga” and the women played “Pegs n Jokers”. Here are a couple of pictures.

I believe Ruth Ann won “Pegs n Jokers” but I KNOW Mike won “Giant Jenna”, beating out Lawrence, Wayne, Bill, and Don, for the prize of a bottle of wine.

For supper we went to “Mario’s Restaurant” in Chatham. The food was great. Everyone needed a take home box except me.  I ate all my salad and Lasagna. Winning made me hungry!

Wednesday morning the hosts provided fresh-baked donuts for all. The donuts were great and thankfully not fattening! We then had a short club meeting. Our only business nowadays is getting volunteers to host upcoming camp outs. We have hosts for June, August, and September of 2023. We skip July because of the heat, and no one has volunteered for May.

We like to eat, so for lunch we headed to “Motorheads Bar & Grill - Museum”.

After a really filling lunch, we toured the museum next door. It was quite an eclectic collection of automotive objects. Here Iam in front of a VW bus in the outside bar area.

As I said, we like to eat so we then headed to “Scoop Du Jour Ice Cream Shop” in Chatham for dessert. To walk off the ice cream we browsed around the Goodwill Store down the mall. I got a good deal on a brand-new insulated mug for a dollar. For $2.00 Kelly got a nice seat cushion to sit on when at the picnic table playing cards. Supper was on our own. We were both so stuffed we skipped supper. Pam provided a homemade dessert later in the evening. Everyone enjoyed it.

We invited past club members for a lunch on Thursday of fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, chips, slaw, and dessert. As I said, we like to eat. During and after lunch we all had a nice visit with former campers - Margi, Irv, Myrl, and Linda. It was good seeing them again. Supper was on our own. Due to the huge lunch no one was really hungry, so we just had a cheese and sausage plate and leftover desserts.

We always say our goodbyes on Thursday evening because people pull out at different times on Friday morning. Some of the folks we will see this winter in Florida, some go to Texas for the winter, and some we will not see until next summer. It was a great week.

Repairs:

As usual, we cannot have an RV trip without an issue or two. Wednesday morning I jumped in the shower early while Kelly was still in bed. I turned on the water, then, as I usually do, I turned the showerhead off while I lathered up all over. I pushed the button on the showerhead to rinse off and nothing. No water. The shutoff button had broken. No amount of pushing one way or the other allowed any water to come out. Here is a picture of the offending showerhead with the shutoff button just below the swivel head. This unit was only a year old and it malfunctioned!

I was soaped up all over and had soap running into my eyes. Kelly was sound asleep up in the cab over at the other end of Homer so she could not be of any help. With soap burning my eyes I tried to get the showerhead off the hose so I could use the hose to rinse off. With soapy hands I couldn’t get a grip. Luckily, I was able to reach a towel and after wrapping it around the connecting nut to the hose I was able to unscrew the showerhead and rinse myself off - garden hose style. I dried off and got dressed. 

I knew Kelly would not be happy if she would have to use the hose for her shower. It then struck me that I may have left the old showerhead in the cabinet when I put this one on a few months ago. I opened the cabinet under the sink and there laid the old shower head with a shutoff valve attached. Here is a picture of the old head reinstalled just in time for Kelly’s shower.

The old showerhead has a separate, heavy-duty shutoff valve so this problem will ever happen again! I hope. I wouldn’t normally carry around an old showerhead but for whatever reason I did this time and it saved the day.

The trip home was a nice drive on a sunny day. We arrived home at twelve noon and unloaded everything. I was cleaning the refrigerator when I noticed a repair I had made to one of the door shelves in the past had broken. These old refrigerator parts aren’t readily available so I fix them if I can. Here is a picture of the door shelve and the broken piece of plastic that I found on the floor. I had used JB Weld for the last repair but it didn’t hold. I don’t think I used enough.

I took the shelf to my shop, scraped off the old Superglue which was used to hold the broken piece in place on the last repair. I also broke off all the loose JB Weld. I then Superglued the broken piece back on again. A small corner piece was missing. I had to mold that area. To do this I wadded up a piece of wax paper, stuffed it in the corner, taped it in place, and then added a thick layer of JB Weld over the entire area. Here is a picture of the JB Weld curing.

After the JB Weld cured overnight, I shaped it up a little with a file and tested it for fit on the refrigerator door. It fit fine so I spray painted it white to have it match the door a little better.

Here is a picture of the door shelf reinstalled. I think this repair will last much longer because the JB Weld is much thicker and wider. The line isn't a crack, it is just an area where the JB Weld begins and the paint did not stick.

I put this shelf on the top of the door which gets less weight and stress on the repair. 

Improvement:

Did you ever finally fix something that was so simple, but you just never got around to doing it for some reason? That is the case with the shelf height for the small cabinet on the end of Homer’s kitchen base cabinet. In the picture below the shelves above the freezer bags were too close together. This made it difficult to wiggle canned goods in and out. Here is a "before" picture. 

The shelves are all adjustable so there was no reason not to make them fit what we normally store there. I adjusted the brackets and shelves and moved the freezer bags down low since they aren’t often accessed. Here is an "after" picture. I don’t know why I didn’t do this years ago.

With this improvement Homer is ready for his next adventure, which is unknown at this time.