October 23, 2924 - October 26, 2024 — Final Leg of Trip and Days at Erin’s in Tracy, California.

My Blog Reflection

You don’t get older, you get better.

Shirley Bassey

October 23rd:

After a nice breakfast at Dennys we headed to Tracy, California, our first destination - Erin’s house. It was a beautiful drive through Donner Pass. We stopped in Truckee, California, to tour the “Donner Museum”. There was a nice video and many displays explaining what happened to the Donner party wagon train going over Donner Pass in 1846. There is a beautiful monument there which depicts a family headed West. The sculpture is bronze and it was brought to the site in several pieces. Here is a picture and an explanation.

We arrived at Erin’s on a sunny afternoon and visited until the boys got home. It was so great to see them. Erin made a pot of rice, beans, and pork for supper, which was delicious.

Three year old Free is a character. At one point he decided to demonstrate how Grandma gets off the couch. It was hilarious. 

I was up early so tallied up my gas receipts to see what kind of mileage the truck got on this long haul. 15.9 mpg. I was a little disappointed. I would have thought it would have done a little better.

Erin had to work so we took Free for the day. A few things were needed so a trip to Walmart was in order. Free got a pair of rubber boots, a new bike helmet, and new PJs. Erin needed a crock pot so we bought one. Back at the house Kelly put the ingredients needed for a chicken noodle for supper in the new crock pot. While she was doing that I followed Free around the block on his scooter with his boots and new helmet. His scooter went much faster than grandpa. 

We then took Free to lunch at the Black Bear Diner. Here is a picture of Free and Kelly out in front.

After lunch we drove about eight miles to a pumpkin patch farm. It cost $21.00 each to get in with no discount for kids nor seniors. The place was a major ripoff in my opinion.  As we walked in there were several large puddles. With his new boots on Free was eager to jump and splash. He jumped and splashed for several minutes until he got his pants wet. He didn’t like that. There were long slides and tubes to slide down. After going down kids had to walk a long way around to get to the steps to go again. Free went down twice and had enough of that. There was a “Teeny Town” of children sized buildings. Free roamed through each building but mostly he liked the Italian Restaurant where he cooked us pizza and served it up in the booth.

He also liked the firehouse and held tight his position as the fire truck driver as other kids walked in and out. Here is a picture.

They had pony rides for an extra $10.00 and it was $5.00 to ride the carousel. Tight Grandma and Grandpa said “no” to both. They had a large jumping pillow, which he enjoyed. When finished jumping he wouldn’t walk back to get his boots because he didn’t want to get sand on his socks. The worker was kind enough to retrieve him, carry him to us, and fetch his boots. Jeez, three year olds. When walking back to the truck he told us that he had a great time so I guess it was worth the exhorbitant price.

Erin’s back yard is all concrete and all back yards in subdivisions in California are surrounded by a six foot solid fence. In one area in the back of her yard the concrete has settled and water pools up all the time. I brought my hammer drill and drilled a couple half inch holes to hopefully drain the area.

October 25, 2024

We went to Stockton to check on some things for Erin. From there we went back to her house to meet a friend, Scott, who was going to help get Erin’s Ford Cmax started. I had put a 6 amp charger on it for two days and it did nothing. It is a hybrid but needs the 12 volt battery to start. Scott’s jumper box started it right up but it wouldn’t stay running. We did some checking and found the 12 volt starting battery in the back only had 3 volts. The battery had a 2023 sticker on it and Scott recognized it as an O’Reilly battery.  We pulled it out and headed there. The battery was replaced and still has two years left on the warranty. Everything is good. Erin now just needs to get it licensed and insured.  Then she will not have to rely on Kellen’s car. 

After the car issue was resolved we picked up pumpkins to decorate and a flower for Kellen’s girlfriend, Sabrina. It was her seventeenth birthday so we all had dinner together. Here is a picture of Kellen and Sabrina.

Here is a picture Erin took of us outside. I love Free’s little grin.

Back at the house we painted pumpkins and put them out in front. Lots of talent in this family. LOL I’ll let you guess which one I did.

October 26, 2024 

In the afternoon we went to Kellen’s marching band competition. His school hopes to do a sweep this year and win all competitions. Last year they came in first in all but one competition. In that one they came in second. Today they came in first in all categories except band director which got second. Cousins, Violet and Wren, made posters to cheer Kellen on. Nice work for a seven year old and a four year old.

Here are some pictures of the competition. The first is one is of some band members with the trophies they won today. Well deserved. They practice two hours after school three days a week and for six hours every other Saturday.

Here is the band ready to take the field. Kellen is on the front row, far right.

Kellen is the one on the right of the three playing the baritone horn.

Here is a short video.

After the band competition we drove to Annie and Adam’s house in Mountain View, California, where Adam had a nice light supper ready for us.

October 27, 2024

Sunday morning, after a nice breakfast cooked by Adam, we unloaded the truck. We brought out a lot of stuff for this family. Then all of us except Adam carved pumpkins. Adam was busy making homemade Ravioli for supper. YUM!  I’ll let you guess which pumpkin I carved.

After cleaning up from the pumpkin carving we all settled in for a day of watching football.

October 19, 2024 - October 22, 2024 - The Drive Out to California

 MY BLOG REFLECTION

Friendship isn't a big thing - it's a million little things.

Paulo Coelho

October 19, 2024 - Homer Still in the Shop - Driving to California

Homer is still in the transmission shop in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They promised to keep him inside the shop so the water lines don't freeze as colder weather approaches. After a transmission rebuild they have a transmission shifting issue to resolve and hope to have it fixed by next week.

The truck is packed with items we are taking out to the daughters and grandchildren in California. A 2,100 mile road trip each way. 

October 20, 2024

At 8:00 am we left Perryville. We had clear sailing on a Sunday. There was no traffic anywhere but lots of highway construction. Thank you Biden! We arrived at Grand Island, Nebraska, at 6:00 p.m. We got a nice room at the Hampton Inn. 593 miles from Perryville. We went to bed early.

October 21, 2024

After breakfast at the hotel in Grand Island we headed West at 7:00 a.m. It was dark until 8:00 a.m. Five miles down the road there were narrow lanes due to roadwork and pouring rain. The driving trifecta -dark, rain, and road construction. It rained for a couple of hours then cleared up. The speed limit in Wyoming is 80 but 75 was plenty fast for me. Several long stretches of the highway had flashing signs advising of wind gusts up to 40 mph. We could see the wind affecting the bed cover and I could tell the wind hurt our fuel economy. We stopped at a rest stop where this memorial statue was erected to commemorate the Lincoln Highway. The head is made out of clay. It was probably 40 feet tall.

The story:

At the rest area I took the opportunity to stretch the bed cover tight and press the Velcro edges down tight. It did help.

We arrived in Evanston, Wyoming, at 5:00 p.m. 706 miles. We gained an hour. After checking in at the hotel we went to eat at Jodie’s Diner. It was diner food. What can I say? We then filled the gas tank and headed to Walmart to get some antibiotic cream for an infected spot on my hand. Back at the hotel we jammied up to watch the football game.

October 22, 2024

We only made it until halftime of the football game last night. After a crappy breakfast at the hotel we hit the road at 7:30 a.m. It was a nice day for a drive across Utah and Nevada. Here is a picture of the Bonneville Salt Flats that stretch for many miles in Utah.

We also spotted this along the road. We have no idea what it is but looks like it may have antennae on top.

We gained another hour. We checked while driving and the prices of hotels in Reno were outrageous. We stopped in Sparks, Nevada, about five miles outside Reno at 3:30 p.m. We got a room at the Western Village Hotel and Casino for $65.00! We ate supper in one of their restaurants. We each ordered Mahi Mahi with rice, veggies, fresh baked bread, and ice cream. All of this was $12.95. Kelly had to do a little gambling so the cheap price was increased but $20.00. Not bad. LOL. We drove 580 miles today. 

We are only about 200 miles from Erin’s house so a leisurely drive there tomorrow. Kelly wants to stop and visit the Donner Pass Museum before we head to California.

A new blog after we arrive.

September 6, 2024 - October 11, 2024 - Homer Repair and Florida Hurricanes

 My Blog Reflection

We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.

Calvin Coolidge

September 6, 2024:

The transmission shop finally got Homer to act up on a test drive. He has been to three transmission shops in the last last three years and this is the first time it has acted up while they were driving him. It is definitely an issue in the transmission. Time for a rebuild. This will not be cheap.

September 25, 2024:

I had to go to BJC Hospital in St. Louis for a bone scan and CT scan. Upon leaving the hospital parking garage, at the pay booth I accidentally hit the button to roll down the back passenger window rather than the driver window. The window went down but would not roll back up. After getting out of the garage I pulled over and tried to get the window up from the rear door switch but it wouldn't work either. We had to drive home with the window down. Luckily it wasn't raining. For a long time I have had trouble with the master driver window switch not activating a couple of windows properly so I ordered a new switch for $29.00.

September 26, 2024:

I called the transmission shop and the transmission is out of Homer and on the bench for a rebuild. There are three transmissions in front of him so I was told it will probably be another week to week and a half before it is rebuilt and reinstalled. UGGGH!

We anxiously watched the news to see how Hurricane Helene might impact our home in Florida. Thankfully, it appeared to be going Northeast but we would still get lots of wind, rain, and flooding. 

September 27, 2024:

Hurricane Helene hit land in Florida with a vengeance. Luckily for us it hit in the Big Bend area of Florida North of us. A neighbor reported that we did not receive any visible damage. A couple of homes in our park lost parts of their roofs.

October 4, 2024:

John and I took apart the passenger door panel  on the HHR to diagnose the power window problem. On occasion we were able to get the window to go up and down. We concluded the problem was the switch, not the motor. The window on the rear passenger side acted up at times as well so I ordered two new switches. They were $9.95 each and came the next day. 

Upon receiving the switches I installed then and both windows work fine now. The master window switch on the driver's door hadn't arrived yet from a different vendor.

October 7, 2024:

The window master switch arrived for the driver's door. I got to work taking the door panel off and installing the switch. I'm an old hand at getting the door panels off now but getting this switch out of the armrest was a major pain. I was only able to get it out after breaking it in half, prying on the tabs, and breaking the plastic mounting in several spots. Once the new switch was installed and tested, it did not appear that the broken mounting spots on the armrest were bad enough for the switch to not stay in place. Now all window switches work perfectly. They should outlast me.

October 9-10, 2024:

Hurricane Number Two - Milton.

Hurricane Milton was predicted to hit land in the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday. Our home is in Pinellas Park, which adjoins St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg is on one side of Tampa Bay. A major hurricane had not hit Tampa Bay for 100 years and it was predicted this one would be the worst hurricane ever to hit Florida. 

We could do nothing but watch and wait. Landfall was pushed back until after midnight on Wednesday. Our agony was prolonged. When we went to bed we didn't know if we would have a place in Florida when we woke up. Storm surges were predicted to be a record fifteen feet high followed by 100 mph hour wind, and unprecedented heavy rainfall. If the surge didn't get you, and the wind didn't get you, the flooding would. As luck would have it the eye turned to the South and hit the Siesta Key area, about sixty miles to our South. The predicted storm surge of fifteen feet was only three feet. What a relief!!! Nonetheless, being on the outer edge of the hurricane our area endured 100 mph winds and received eighteen inches of rain in a little over an hour. None of this is good for anyone, much less those with mobile homes.  While still dark Thursday night my neighbor left the shelter and drove back to the park. He found that the streets were flooded and he could not get to his home. 

After daylight some of our park residents returned from shelters to assess the damage. By this time the flood waters had receded but the electric was out. One lady was kind enough to spend the afternoon driving around in her golf cart and videoing all the homes so people could see if their place was damaged. Probably 90% of the park residents are winter residents only like us. They come to Florida from all over the Eastern U.S. and Canada. Thus checking on your property is not easy.

The lady posted the videos on the park's Facebook page for all to see. In watching the videos it appeared to me that at least twenty homes had awnings and carports torn off, etc. In the meantime our neighbor, John, called me and advised that he couldn't see any damage to our place. He had no damage either. What a relief! He said we lost two palm trees. His comment was interesting because we only had one palm tree. Apparently if it fell we were lucky it didn't hit the house. I think he was confused on that. It remains to be seen if there was any interior water damage. Last year during a small hurricane a downspout became blocked and water backed up the wall and caused the wood paneling to bubble out in living room wall in a two-foot area. I called the roofing company and hopefully they fixed it so that it didn't happen again this time.

October 10, 2024:

I once again called the transmission shop in Indiana about Homer and the response I got was that they were working on him. He has been there since August! I am concerned about getting him home and winterized before the weather turns cold and pipes freeze. While he is there he is inside the shop so that is good. 

October 11, 2024:

As of now we are on track to head to California in the truck on the 20th to deliver some items to the girls and grandkids. Our plan is to stay and enjoy Halloween with them and then head back on the 1st. It's 2,000 miles out there so it makes for three long days of driving each way.  About November 15th we will head to Florida, two more days of driving. LOL

  

August 26- 31, 2024 - Homer Transmission Woes Plus a Brake Problem and Exciting Time for Kelly

 My Blog Reflection

Law of Physical Displacement:

Sometimes you are the dog.

Sometimes you are the hydrant.

August 26, 2024:

I called the transmission shop in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Homer had been there for a week. They said they had time to look at him and that he is fixed and had been test driven three times. They said when the new transmission module and switch were installed at the shop in Leopold, Missouri, last fall, they did not clear out the codes. The computer still thought there was a problem with the neutral switch. I hoped they were right and this is all behind us. 

The shop foreman said that while test driving Homer the right front caliper was sticking and heating up. This caliper has been fixed three times since we've owned Homer, as well as a new brake lines installed. This will be the fourth time. I don't understand why this one caliper keeps sticking. In any event, they said that if I found a place that could repair the caliper they would take it over there for me. What a great service! I called Jim and he stopped by the Meineke Shop he deals with near his home. They said they could fix it and had time. I then called Russ Moore Transmission and told them where to take Homer for the brake repair. I asked if I could pay the bill over the phone with my credit card. They said "NO CHARGE". Really? They diagnosed a problem, test drove it three times, then delivered it Meineke for the brake repair. Unbelievable.

August 28, 2024: 

Wednesday Jim picked up Homer and brought him back to his house until we could get him. The transmission was fine when he drove but I now had a $806.00 bill for the brake repair. 

August 29, 2024:

I now must digress.

We couldn't head to Fort Wayne on Thursday to retrieve Homer because "The New York Times" was doing a photo shoot of Kelly! 

Several weeks ago a "New York Times" reporter, Michael Wines, contacted Kelly about a piece he is doing regarding the lack of contested races in rural areas. Kelly is the Democratic Chair for Perry County, which is overwhelmingly Republican, so he sought her out. Pretty exciting stuff! I'm telling you it doesn't get much bigger than "The New York Times"! Mr. Wines came to the house and interviewed Kelly for an hour. Upon leaving he said that she would be contacted by the photo editor about scheduling a photo shoot. A week later Kelly received an email stating that a photographer would be contacting her. 

The contact was made and the photo shoot took place Thursday, the 28th. The photographer took some photos in front of the big window in our bedroom because he liked the light. I took some pictures of him taking pictures. Here are a couple.

He then wanted to go outside and get a few more pictures. For all the pictures Kelly was instructed not to smile. He said "these aren't wedding photos". Again, I took a couple pictures of him taking pictures.

This was so cool. I hope the piece runs and that we can get copies of it.

August 30, 2024:

Now, back to Homer. 

Friday morning we headed out early for Fort Wayne. We spent the night in Homer in Jim's driveway and got up early Saturday to head home. I drove five miles to a filling station and the transmission was fine. I got back on the highway and before I could get up to full speed it dropped into neutral and was very stubborn about dropping back into gear. I coasted and moved toward the side of the road to get out of any traffic. I dropped it into second gear and it caught. I drove about 1,000 feet and put it back in "Drive" and it shifted into high gear. We went back to Jim's house, picked up Jim, and headed to the transmission shop. I was on the Interstate a couple of miles when it quickly dropped into neutral and back into gear two times. It acted fine the rest of the way to the shop. We dropped Jim back off at his house and headed home. I will call the shop on Tuesday and let them know what happened. Three different transmission shops have test driven Homer and it never acts up for them. Maybe it is just me!  It is not my imagination because Kelly has been with me numerous times when this happened. I sincerely hope they can find the problem.

August 12 - 23, 2024 - Homer Door Adjustment - Campout Trip - Headlight Lenses Restored - Battery Replacement

I noticed that it was becoming necessary to slam Homer's entry door to get it to catch properly. Upon investigating I found that the door was sagging a bit, causing the door latch prongs to hit the door jam striker plate. The slamming action would lift the door into the striker plate slots. The latch prongs and striker plate slots should be even so the door latches without a lot of effort.

To address the problem I made aluminum shims and placed three under the lower hinge and two under the middle hinge. Here is a picture of one set of shims. The arrow points to the shims. I also found one of the screws on the middle hinge had broken off so I replaced it.

The shims moved the bottom of the door toward the lock side of the frame but the striker plate on the jam was still too low. Here is a picture of the lock guides hitting the striker plate on the top and bottom. Sorry for the poor picture quality.

The striker plate needed to be adjusted down by loosening the two Philllips head bolts in the picture below. 

These bolts had probably never been moved and I soon found that I could not budge them with a screwdriver. Luckily, last winter, at a garage sale in Florida, for $5.00 I purchased a screw impact tool.  Here is what the set looks like.

This is a tool I will rarely use but when it is needed, like now, it is worth its weight in gold. How it works it that you put the appropriate bit in the tool, place it in the screw or bolt head, and then strike the tool with a hammer several times. The impact action slightly turns the bit, thus loosening the screw or bolt. I put the Phillips bit in the tool and hit it several times with a hammer. Both bolts loosened allowing me to adjust the striker plate down. Money well spent! Success. The door shuts much better now.

August 17, 2024

At 6:00 a.m. we headed out in Homer for a campout with friends in Ortonville, Michigan, and then an RV club campout in Pierre Marquette State Park in Illinois.

On our way we were stopping overnight in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to visit friends Jim and Marilyn. We mooch camp in their driveway. 

Last fall we spent $1,800.00 getting the transmission fixed on Homer and thought everything was well. We made a four hundred mile trip, no problem, a five hundred mile trip, no problem. We got three hundred miles to Terre Haute, Indiana, and the transmission acted up again, the same problem as before. We were able to make it to Fort Wayne, Indiana. 

August 18, 2024:

We spent the night at Jim and Marilyn's and decided to head back home early in the morning to get Homer back to the transmission shop. Upon leaving their place the transmission acted up immediately. We headed back to their driveway to spend another night until we could call a transmission shop on Monday.

August 19, 2024:

First thing in the morning we got a recommendation for a transmission shop and Jim drove me over there to discuss the problem. We were told they could work on it but that they couldn't look at it for a couple of days. I then contacted my towing insurance who sent out a wrecker. Here is a picture of Homer being hooked up and a video of him being towed off for the first time ever.

While waiting for the tow truck Jim drove me to the airport, about fifteen minutes away, to rent a car to get home. We borrowed coolers to hold our cold food and bagged the other groceries and our clothes in trash bags. We left at noon and got home at 7:00 p.m. Quite a disappointment. The transmission folks asked for copies of the invoices for the transmission work done last fall so they could start from there. I got those emailed. I hope they can find the problem this time.

August 20, 2024:

We had to have the rental car back by 11:30 a.m. so we took a quick trip to Cape Girardeau to get that done. 

August 21, 2024:

Not planning on being home this week, and with time on my hands, I decided to polish the yellowed and foggy headlight lenses on the truck. The truck was recently detailed but apparently that was not part of what I paid for.

I opened the door to the truck to back it out and immediately found the battery totally dead. This has happened several times over the past year. The truck was in the shop last month trying to find a phantom draw on the battery. They could not find one but did find that the second Walmart battery I had put in this year was bad. It was still under warranty so I took it back to Walmart for a third battery. 

The truck sat for about a week and again a completely dead battery.  I called my mechanic to schedule an appointment to find the battery draw. I think the odds of getting three bad batteries from Walmart in a year is astronomical but my mechanic thinks otherwise. He had me come to the shop the next day to get a battery of the brand they install and try it for a month before they start spending time and money looking for a draw on the battery. 

Once the truck was charged up I got it out of the garage and began to work on the headlight lenses. I neglected to take a picture of the headlight lenses, which were foggy and yellowed. Both polished up nicely using cleaner wax and a buffer. I did, however, take a picture of the fog lights, which clearly had never been cleaned before. Here is a before and after picture.

While polishing the fog lights one light appeared loose so I crawled under to see what that was about. As I crawled under I found that one of the bolts that holds on the metal skid plate under the engine was broken off. This was allowing the plate to vibrate a little. Not good. 

I got busy drilling the broken bolt out. Pushing the drill up while laying on your back is a pain. With the help of about five different drill bits I finally got the broken bolt drilled out. I then took another bolt out and went to Buchheit's to get a matching bolt. I have hundreds of similarly sized bolts but none of them are metric. Once home the bolts were reinstalled and the skid plate is secure. Ready for a trip to California in October!

 

August 22, 2024:

When I went to start the truck in the morning to get the new battery, it did not have enough charge to start even though I charged it the night before. I charged it up, picked up the new battery, and installed it. We will see how this battery lasts. Actually, I hope my mechanic is right that the Walmart batteries are junk! This would be a cheap fix.

Late afternoon Kelly came home from a meeting and told me that there was a rock chip in the middle of the windshield of her 2021 Acura. Great! I called the insurance company because they will pay for a chip repair. I then called Liberty Glass in town and they scheduled me in for an appointment at 9:00 a.m. the next day.

August 23, 2014:

By 9:15 a.m. the chip was repaired. Hopefully no more vehicle issues this month!

 

 

August 7 - 11, 2024 - Getting Homer Ready for Trip to Indiana-Michigan-Illinois and a Flatbed Trailer Project

 MY BLOG REFLECTION

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

Mark Twain

August 7, 2024  -  Homer Out of Storage and Ready for a Trip

We got Homer out of storage unit. We arrived and ended up having to call the owner of the storage facility to get the code to get in. I'm not sure if I forgot it or if he changed it. I do like this added security installed last year. 

The only issue with Homer so far is the solenoid for the internal battery charger not working (again). I thought maybe the house batteries were too low to energize the solenoid so I hooked up an external charger for a couple of hours. Once the batteries were charged the internal battery charger was still not charging the batteries. It was operating correctly but there was no charge getting to the batteries. I hit the solenoid in the battery compartment with a hammer handle a couple of times and it is now working. Tis happened on our last trip to Cuba, Missouri, earlier this summer. I now carry an external charger just in case this happens again. I purchased a new solenoid but since this one is now working, and it is such a pain to change out, I will wait and see how it does on this trip.

August 8, 2024 - Flatbed Trailer Floor Replacement

The deck boards on our flatbed trailer needed to be replaced. This trailer is primarily used to haul our lawn mower out to the lake lot to cut the grass. The trailer is only about three years old but the decking boards totally rotted out. Here is a picture.

The individual boards were much worse than I envisioned. The ends literally crumbled as I pulled them out and the rot in the middle became much more apparent.

 

To save money the trailer manufacturer did not use treated 2 x 8s. I can see why. I purchased eleven treated replacement boards and they cost $212.00. The young man at the lumber yard did a wonderful job of picking out "decent" boards for this project. At his suggestion I laid the boards out in the shade to dry for two days. The boards were quite wet with the chemical they soak them in to treat them. He said laying them out in the sun would cause warping.

Once the boards were removed it was clear I needed to paint the surface area of the framework before installing new boards, especially since the new boards are treated wood. The wood treatment chemical is known to attack unpainted metal. 

Twelve foot long treated 2 x 8s were heavy for this old man to handle. I cut and fitted each board in place then removed them so I could paint the metal frame. I won't paint the boards.

August 10, 2024 - Frame Painted

The Rustoleum product that I ordered, which encapsulates the rust and protects the surface, arrived. I sprayed the entire can. It covered the areas of the frame I wanted but it was not a very thick coat. I decided to buy two more cans of regular paint and sprayed it on top to further protect the steel frame. Here is a picture of the surface area of the frame painted. I didn't worry about the areas of the frame that do not touch the wood. The black paint I sprayed on looked brown until it dried.

August 11, 2024 - Deck Boards Installed and Bolted Down

After church I reinstalled all the new boards. Better than new. They will outlast me. 

The next couple of days I will finish checking some items on Homer and load him for the trip. We leave on Saturday for two weeks. I hope the weather stays cool.