September 28th - Homer to the Shop Tomorrow

Homer is headed to the shop tomorrow through no fault of his own. Squirrels got under him, tore up the insulation in the underside of the cab floor to make a nest and chewed a hose off that needs to be replaced. Here is a picture of the material I pulled out that was being made into a nest under the cab. 

Seeing a squirrel in the area and something hanging down under Homer the other day is what caused me to investigate.  Here is a picture of the chewed hose. 

It appears to be a braided gas line. I started the engine and no gas came out so I'm thinking it might be a breather line or a return line. In any event I don't have the knowledge or parts to fix it. While Homer is in the shop I'm having the parking break repaired as well. Sometimes it engages when pressed and sometimes it doesn't. The parking brake is important to use when Homer is stopped for the night and we are sleeping inside.

 

September 8, 2021 - Homer Waxed and the Rattle Fixed

Well, at long last, Homer has been cleaned and waxed from top to bottom on all sides. It is a four day project for this old man, one day on each side. Here are the pictures showing a nice shine on all sides. 

This time I purchased a ceramic coating to use in lieu of wax but I ended up only using it on the front and back caps. I put one coat on the back cap and two coats on the front cap but black streaks from dirt running down off the roof immediately appeared on both. This was VERY disappointing because black streaks are quite hard to get off. I may clean the two caps again and recoat them with the ceramic coating to see if more coats decreases the streaking. I am quite disheartened because, for this old man, the ceramic coating is much easier to apply than hand wax and it is much more expensive than wax.

Yesterday Homer's oil was changed and he was inspected for relicensing. He passed inspection with flying colors. This morning I bought two year license tabs so he is ready to roll anywhere we want to go. We may take him on a trip down the Natchez trace in late September.

When we were leaving in July for our trip up north we heard a significant rattle from the front passenger wheel. We stopped by my mechanic to get it checked out. He thought it was only the wheel simulator, took it off, and no more rattle. Not a safety issue so we headed out with a major rattle to ignore. I have never had a problem with these simulators rattling before and I guessed it was due to their reinstallation after the new tires were put on. I have learned over the years that guys who mount tires are not very careful about installing wheel simulators correctly. This morning I pulled the front simulators off, repositioned their mounting plates, and reinstalled them. No more rattling. It just takes a little extra effort.  Good to go.

August 10, 2021 - Maintenance and a Repair to Homer

On this nice hot morning I decided to do a little maintenance check on Homer's batteries. I checked the voltage at the batteries and they were 12.8 volts - fully charged. The inside meter only show 12.5 volts so I guess there is a little voltage loss in the wiring. I pulled the batteries out and checked the water level in each cell. The levels weren't low but I decided to add a small amount of  water in each cell before I reinstalled them because they are a pain in the neck to get out to check. 

Here is a picture of the side of Homer where the batteries are located. The red arrow points to the battery box door. The green arrow indicates where the lower part of the sidewall (blue paint) is attached to a bracket going up to the floor level (white paint). 

Upon closing the battery box door I found the lower sidewall between the generator door on the left and the battery door on the right to be loose and floppy. It is pretty important that this area be solid because the generator door lock clips in behind the area between the two doors to lock closed. I looked underneath and found that while there was a bolt in place the lower sidewall had broken loose from the plastic support bracket.  Here is a picture of the sidewall and the broken bracket after the bolt was removed.

Here is a picture of the plastic support bracket with the sidewall pulled away to show the out broken area which once held a bolt in place.

I can't believe they used plastic supports. Plastic always deteriorates over time. The plastic could not be repaired so in my junk metal pile I found this piece of lightweight metal to make a bracket to connect the plastic and the sidewall.

I cut off a piece and drilled it for the bolt hole and for two screws to go into the plastic bracket. The lower sidewall is fixed in place now and should outlast me.

I'm glad I found this issue before Homer's next trip. Nothing would have fallen off but it is never good to have things flopping around at 65 mph.

 

August 1st - 3rd - A Couple of Days at the Lake Lot

The weather cooled off on Sunday so we decided to head out to the lake for a few days. Here is Homer all set up for a couple of days of relaxation.

On Sunday and Monday I caught a couple of bass about 10 inches long but threw them back. A bigger one got away because my line broke. I think I need to put new string on the reels.  

Monday night it cooled off considerably so we didn't need the air-conditioning. In fact it was 65 degrees in Homer when I got up in the morning. Here is a picture of the steam rising from the lake as I walked out to fish. It was quite nice to see.

Across from where I was fishing there was a large heron doing a little fishing on the bank. He couldn't have cared less about me throwing a line out toward him. 

After he saw some activity along the shore, he flew off and landed down the way on a sunken tree to watch for fish. 

I never did see him catch anything but he clearly had more patience than me. I headed back to Homer for my second cup of coffee.  The nice thing about going to the lake is that it is only a 20 minute drive home. We headed home before it got too hot for unpacking. We need to do this again if the weather cooperates.

 

July 28th-29th - Homer Projects

Yesterday I drained the water tanks which had been sitting with bleach in them for a couple of days to get rid of the RV antifreeze taste. While doing that I noticed that the faucet strainers didn't seem to be at full flow. I took each one out. Both were BADLY blocked up.  The first picture is of the bathroom strainer. It not only had sandy grit in it but also two sizeable pieces of white plastic. I have no idea how they got in the water tank and lines.

The next picture is of the kitchen strainer. It too was blocked with sandy debris plus had a number of tiny pieces of white plastic in it as well.

Once the strainers were cleaned and reinstalled the water flowed as it should from each faucet. I have not used a water filter on Homer because he is rarely hooked to city water, only the tank filled. Maybe I need to consider using a filter.

The second project on Homer yesterday was to make an extension rod so that I could use a drill to raise and lower the back stabilizing jacks. I have never used them before because we move around frequently with Homer and I haven't been concerned with a little shaking as we walked around inside. I was quite surprised that the jacks were not seized up nor hard to crank down. My friend Gary gave me a 3/4 inch socket to use for the project. I welded it to a 14 inch long piece of rebar which chucks into my drill. It worked fine so I painted it silver to inhibit rust and to make it easy to see on the ground. Here is a picture of the finished project.

I'm waiting for the new fire/co alarm to arrive today so I can install it. With that Homer will be ready for the next adventure. I just wish it wasn't so danged hot to travel anywhere.

July 16th-24th - Fort Wayne, Indiana - Oxford, Michigan - Indianapolis, Indiana

On the 16th we headed to Fort Wayne Indiana for the first stop on a three-stop trip north. We driveway mooched at Jim and Marilyn's for three days. Jim and I were going to go to a car show on Saturday morning but Friday night it poured rain and the event was cancelled. We did get to go to the stock car races in Angola, Indiana, on Saturday night. It was a nice track and we had excellent weather. Sunday we all went to a winery in Fort Wayne. Here is a picture of Kelly, Marilyn and Jim at the winery. The wines were very good and we had a nice charcuterie board of meats and cheeses as well.

Monday Jim, Kelly and I visited the Fireman's Museum in downtown Fort Wayne. It was really interesting. Here is a picture of their oldest fire pumper in the process of being restored.

Here is a picture of how they hung the fabric hoses for them to dry between uses. The area is about three stories tall.

This is a picture of the museum, which is housed in the oldest firehouse in Fort Wayne. The section on the right was the original building, complete with stable areas for the horses. The firemen could be dressed and the horses hitched up in 90 seconds.

It is very nice museum with a number of old firetrucks and lots of firemen's memorabilia. I learned that even to this day the city does not provide food for the firemen who live there for days on end. The firemen weekly designate a "cook" for the week and he/she shops for food and divides the bill among the firemen. I also learned that the firemen provide their own bedding. They strip it at the end of their shift and take it home to wash it.

We had a nice visit with Jim and Marilyn and seeing some sites in Fort Wayne.

After three days in Fort Wayne we headed to Oxford, Michigan, to visit three of our Florida neighbors. They are three sisters and their husbands - Chris and Marj, Dave and Jean, and George and Janet. We circled the wagons in Chris's yard. It worked out well because the first night we had to take refuge in their basement rec room as a major wind, rain, and hail storm passed through. Here is a picture of the rain storm through the screen door. It was POURING HARD. Luckily the hail was only pea sized.

The next day they took us on a tour of the area and we went to a place in the Town of Metamora called Hoard House for lunch. Here is a picture of the plaque which describes it and a picture of the building.

The inside of the building was quite interesting. On the ground floor some of the flooring is made of sawed planks of wood carved to fit together to make a tight floor. Here is a picture.

Another part is made of slices of  tree trunks set in concrete. Here is a picture of a section of it.

Most interesting was the floor upstairs, which is the original floor from 1850, when the upstairs area was broken up into sleeping areas. You can see where the original walls were 170 years ago. It is now used as a dining hall. Here are a couple of pictures.

Here is a picture of the group waiting to order a marvelous lunch. They are on the left - Dave, Kelly, and Janet. On the right - George, Chris, Marj, and Jean. Great friends and a fun group.

After lunch we drove around the area which for decades encompassed dozens of huge gravel and rock pits. Most of these areas have now been turned into subdivisions with water filling in the old quarry holes to make private lakes. The area is now big horse country. There are huge horse farms throughout the area where horses are bred, boarded, traded, and ridden. Big money!

We left Michigan Friday morning and headed to Indianapolis for Kelly's nephew's delayed wedding reception on Saturday. Friday night Kelly's brother, Andy, smoked pork steaks and provided a nice meal for all the sisters and their husbands. 

Nephew Andrew and his wife Maggie were married during Covid and are now expecting a girl in November. Due to Covid the reception was postponed until this past Saturday night.  It was the first time all of the McKerrow siblings had been together in years. Here are a couple of pictures. The first is Maggie, Andrew, Andy, and Tana. 

These are the McKerrow siblings from left to right: Alexa, Nancy, Joan, Andy, Kelly, Mary, and Ann.

I can't remember the last time they were all together since they are from North Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, and Texas. It was a fun time.

Here is a picture of Homer at the campsite in Indianapolis. He's small and doesn't take up much space.

I thought the campground looked familiar when we pulled in and I later realized that is is where Jim and I camped when we went to the Indy 500 about seven years ago. I think we may have even been on the same site.

We had a nice trip home, arriving at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, and then did all the unloading of clothes and food. I had several things to fix on Homer once home. One was the shower hose. The stainless steel cover had just untwisted so it was an easy fix. The showerhead is a high pressure. After I screwed the hose back to it water would barely come out. What the heck? I took it apart, blew through it, and some little calcium deposits, or sand, came out. It then worked great again.  

Another project was to work on getting the RV anti-freeze taste out of the fresh water. When I de-winterized Homer I ran a lot of water through the system to get the anti-freeze out but it wasn't enough. Although the residual anti-freeze is not poisonous, it tastes bad. We didn't drink the water but even brushing our teeth with that water we had a bad taste. I drained the water tank and filled it again adding two cups of bleach. I then ran water through all the lines and I am letting it sit for a day. I will then drain it again and see how it tastes. 

Before leaving on the trip I put new batteries in the fire alarm/co detector but it didn't seem to work consistently when I tested it. I pulled it down and it was dated March of 2006 so I decided it was time to order a new one. It will arrive in a couple of days. It is identical to the old one so it will be a simple install. 

Our trip was 1412 miles and Homer ran like a top averaging 8.3 miles to the gallon at 65 mph with the AC on. I'm going to schedule him in for an oil change (only due to the length of time since the last oil change), a parking brake pedal adjustment, and a lubrication of the cruise control system, which stuck on me once.

Our next planned trip with Homer is to the "King Biscuit Blues Festival" in Helena, Arkansas, in October if it isn't ungodly hot. The venues are outside and Home sits out in a field in the sun all day. Last year we left early because the heat was so oppressive we couldn't enjoy ourselves either at the venues or sitting around Homer. Hopefully this year will be cooler weather. We've gone in the past when we needed blankets to sit out.

 

 

June 8 - 12, 2021 - Trip to Bemidji, Minnesota, a Little More Fishing, then Home.

On Tuesday we decided to take a trip into Bemidji, Minnesota. It is the largest town around with a population of about 15,000. We first went to the Visitors Center. Paul Bunyon and the Blue Ox are a big deal in Bemidji. Here are a couple of pictures of Kellen there. (You know Grandma and Grandpa made him do it.)

We then headed to the city's Science Center which was really nice but clearly low budget. Kellen got to hold a couple of the reptiles. This one is a large lizard. Notice the blue tongue.

This one is a legless Lizard from Europe, two thirds of its body is tail.

After checking out various exhibits we walked out to the nearby dock on Lake Bemidji. The Mississippi River flows from the headwaters into Lake Itaska. From there it flows North into Lake Bemidji. Here is where it enters Lake Bemidji.

The river crosses the lake and then flows South. Here are a couple of pictures of it heading out of the lake.

Unfortunately there was no place to pull off the road to view the Mississippi starting its flow South. It is certainly not "The Mighty Mississippi" up here.

Here is a picture of Kelly, John, and Carlene out fishing on Thursday. Unfortunately, not a single bite for Kelly or John. Carlene caught one. Just too hot.

We decided to leave on Friday, rather than Saturday, so we could get settled in at home before Kelly flies out to California on Tuesday to welcome the arrival of our second grandson. Kellen and I will later either drive out or fly out. 

Whenever we make trips there are things that break or need attention. I already posted about the emergency window bracket coming off allowing the window to flop. I fixed it today with a couple of pop rivets. Here are pictures of the project. The first is the "non-broken" side.

The second is the area of the window where the bracket is attached.

The third is the bracket pop riveted back on - good for another 15 years.

I then decided to pull apart the shower skylight because the plastic trim was breaking loose on the corners. The shower skylight has a shade over it. The shade has not worked since we bought the rig because the string had broken and someone retied it making it too short to open and close. It was permanently closed. Here is a picture of what it looks like now.

I replaced the strings that move the shade and it is good as new and ready to be reinstalled once the new trim piece arrives.  Here is a picture of the current trim piece. As you can see three of four corners are broken off. Plastic is just crap as it ages.

I thought maybe I could repair the corners but there are other cracks in the trim as well. A new one should be here in about three days from Amazon.

After getting home I found that the generator is still not running well even though it was worked on before we left by a local mechanic. I am going to find a place to have the carburetor boiled out and rebuilt. If upon reinstalling it the generator still does not run correctly I will bite the bullet, pull the generator out and buy a new one.  A new one will be nice and smaller, but it will not be built in and thus not nearly as convenient as a built-in generator has been. 

June 5th - 6th - Fish Fry and Window Issue

Saturday evening we had a fish fry to sample the Northern Pike and Walleye we have caught. It was excellent.

The lighter colored fish in the large pan is the Walleye.  John did a great job of frying the fish and potatoes. There wasn’t a bite left.

Yesterday was extremely windy almost all day. Kelly was in the RV and kept hearing a flapping noise. She  noticed that the front emergency exit window was flapping in the wind. Upon investigating we found that the locking bracket on the window had fallen off. Luckily it was laying there for a repair. The two mounting rivets had both pulled loose. Here is a picture of the window. The top portion is the emergency exit.

You can’t tell in the picture but the bottom right side is loose. We can’t drive home like this so duck tape to the rescue.

 

This fix works for NASCAR repairs so hopefully it will hold for us until I get home to make a repair. I never travel in the RV without duck tape and baling wire. I have used both on multiple occasions over the years.