August 7th - 8th, 2023 Access Panel Revision - Passenger Door Lock Fix - Next Trip

ACCESS PANEL REVISION:

When we purchased Homer he had his original 12-volt charger/converter from 1993. It was a beast with a transformer in it larger than my fist. While it worked properly, it hummed quite loudly all the time when plugged up. I knew I was not going to be able to tolerate the loud humming. I also knew that this charger/converter was a "dumb" charger, meaning it charged all the time. These old chargers were known for overcharging the batteries causing them to boil out battery acid on occasion. Homer's batteries are in a really difficult location to service, so I was not interested in having that problem. I decided to upgrade and purchased a new "smart" charger. A smart charger charges the batteries at various voltages as needed and then goes into a "float" mode. The batteries do not get overcharged and the charger does not hum! 

The converter was located in a space under the wardrobe next to the refrigerator. I could not access it but I could see it through a 10-inch by 10-inch door under the refrigerator, which opened for access to the 12-volt fuse panel. There was no way I could reach the screws holding the charger/converter down to remove it.  On the wall as you enter there was a screen vent which allowed ventilation for the charger/converter. Here is a picture. 

The wooden frame and wire mesh were stapled in place at the factory. Upon removing it the opening still was not large enough to pull the charger/converter out. I guess they assumed it would never need to be replaced. To get it out and replace it I had to make an access panel where the screen vent was located. After pulling off the factory vent frame I carefully cut the paneling so I could use the piece I cut-out to make an access panel door that would match the wall paneling. I made a new frame with some molding I had on hand. This is what it looked like when finished.

I didn't want to staple the panel back on and I didn't want any screws holding it on showing. I used some old cabinet catches I had on hand to hold the access panel in place. 

While the catches worked, whenever the panel was removed it was quite challenging to blindly line up each catch with the accompanying screws on each side of the access panel. If the screws did not fit in the catch properly the door would fall off. This last trip the panel fell off. It was time for an improved access panel mounting system.

I decided to use magnetic catches. The magnetic catches, however, required more mounting surface so I had to add a block of wood on each side. Here is a picture of each block being glued on and held in place with clamps.

After letting the glue set overnight and installing the magnetic catches, I put the access panel in place and it is holding nicely. Mission accomplished.

PASSENGER DOOR LOCK FIX:

Next, I moved to addressing the issue of the passenger side door not unlocking with the fob. It would unlock with the key but not with the fob. This is what the interior door lock knob looks like when locked.

This is what the door lock knob looked like after I pushed the unlock button on the fob. 

The knob moved up considerably as you can see. I could hear the electric actuator working as the lock knob went up. It just did not raise the door lock knob high enough to unlock the door. A quick turn of the key and the door lock knob would go up another 1/4 inch and the door would unlock. 

I took the door panel off to investigate.  I worked the locking mechanism a number of times while looking for any areas where the rods may have been binding or for another cause of this problem. I initially thought the electric actuator may be weak and need to be replaced, but it seemed to push the rod its maximum length with no trouble. Sticking my head in the door best I could, I decided to just soak the entire lock mechanism inside the door with PB Blaster, which is a rust remover and lubricant. After about ten good squirts from various angles, and twenty locking and unlocking sequences, it appeared to me all was working as it should with the fob. The door unlocked each time. I put everything back together and crossed my fingers. If it didn't work any further fix was probably beyond my limited capacity to diagnose and repair. Once the door panel was reinstalled, I tried the fob several times and it unlocked and locked each time. Another mission accomplished. It will be interesting to seek how long this lubrication fix lasts.

NEXT TRIP:

We head out Monday for three separate trips:  

The first is a four-day RV club campout at Lincoln Trails State Park in Illinois. 

The second is a weekend of mooch camping in our friends' driveway in Fort Wayne, Indiana. 

The third is a trip to Clear Water Campground in Ortonville, MI, to spend a week camping with our Michigan friends. 

Wi-Fi access will be limited so there will no blog until we return home.

July 31st - August 4th, 2023 - Midwest RV Club Rally - Topeka, Illinois

Well, grandpa's GPS got us to another rally and back home again.

This car compas came with Homer. I've kept it mounted on the dashboard as a nostalgic piece. Homer is a 1993 model. The compas reminds me of just how much technology has changed in the last 30 years. I also keep an Atlas in Homer (even older technology). In truth I relied on "Google Maps" to make the trip.

The "Midwest RV Summer Rally" was held at "Evening Star RV Resort" in Topeka, Illinois this past week. Last winter we met a couple at Adelaide Shores RV Park in Florida who were from Central Illinois and invited us to attend their summer rally as guests. So this week we did.

There were about twelve rigs and all the attendees were extremely friendly and welcoming. They all wear name tags all the time which really helped us with names. Through no fault of theirs, we were assigned a terrible site. Here are some pictures. Because of the neighbor's slide out, I literally had to shimmy out of the driver's door to get out. The sewer connection was at least ten feet in front of Homer. We were too far away to be able to hook up. This site was $50.00 per night! There were a lot of empty sites the next street over. I have no idea why they put us here, wedged in between a fifth wheel and a pickup truck. In the third picture you can see the white sewer pipe in front of Homer between the picnic table and the water connection. Our site didn't have a picnic table.

In addition to the site being the pits, setting up Homer for the week did not go well. Because of the distance to the water connection I had to attach a second water hose. No problem. I always have a second hose on board. I attached the cloth windup hose I have had for about ten years but rarely used.  Upon hooking it up it would not seal at the water bib. It needed a new washer. No big deal but I searched Homer and could not find one. (I'm in a learning curve as to where things are in Homer after spending months in Marge where I knew right where everything was stored.)  A neighbor was going to get me a new washer when I realized that I had another problem. This cloth hose had numerous pin holes in it and at the other end looked like a soaker hose in places. That wouldn't do. I took it off. Luckily, I also had an older white plastic hose. It was shorter and barely reached the water bib. Problem solved! Nope. This plastic hose leaked terribly at the crimped connection not under the washer. No amount of tightening would stop it. This hose was junk as well. Since I was now out of hoses, a club member immediately offered me a hose to use for the week. While all this was going on the group was sitting there watching me get my water hooked up like a rookie. Later that day I threw away the two old hoses and got online and ordered a new hose and a set of washers for next time.

Everyone arrived on Monday and the hosts provided pulled pork for a potluck supper in the campground's activities room. The room wasn't air conditioned, but the host brought a huge shop fan and that, along with the ceiling fans, made it tolerable and kept the flies at bay. The meal was great with lots of tasty desserts. Here is a picture of the building. Most people drove to it but it was an easy walk from our campsite.

The hosts provided breakfast each morning in the activities room. Donuts, coffee, and juice the first morning; eggs, biscuits and gravy, coffee, and juice, the second morning; and donuts, coffee, and juice the third morning. All were very good, even the coffee. (I'm particular about my coffee.) Everyone visited during and after breakfast. Breakfast was from 7:00 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. Too early for Kelly so she slept in each day. 

Lunch was on our own each day. On Tuesday we lined up at 1:00 p.m. and drove to the "Dickson Mounds Museum" a few miles away. The museum is operated by the Illinois Department of Natural Resouces on the grounds where Indian mounds have existed for thousands of years. It was quite informative. It is a smaller version of the Cahokia Mounds near Cahokia, Illinois, which we have visited several times.

We didn't tow Bart to the rally so each day we rode to events with Linda and Dave, the couple who invited us.

After the museum visit we headed to "Babe's" in Havana for supper. Upon arriving back at the campground everyone sat around and visited until dark. There were fire pits, but it was much too warm to even think about a campfire.

At l:00 p.m. on Wednesday we drove to "The Jack Wolf Memorial Fish Hatchery". I talked Kelly into posing for a picture.

We have been to fish hatcheries before but none this large and diverse. They hatch about sixty varieties of fish from salmon to alligator gar. I always thought alligator gar were a trash fish and never imagined they were hatched and distributed in the rivers. We were told they are very important to the food chain because they eat a lot of dead fish and keep the populations of other fishes in check. Here is a picture of a tank of fingerlings. Note the minnows just lying in the bottom waiting to be eaten.

This hatchery is huge compared to other hatcheries we have visited. They purchase minnows for food by the ton in addition to feeding tons of fish feed. Here is a picture of the main tank room.

This facility uses hundreds of thousands of gallons of fresh water each day. Fresh, clean water is essential to raising fish so all tanks are cleaned every day. They do this by pulling the plug at the bottom of each tank and using brooms to push the fish poop and leftover feed down the drain. Fresh water automatically enters the tanks as they do this to keep them full. Sometimes a fish will go down the drain during this process. Interestingly a fish can then live in the pipes below. In the pipes there is plenty of fresh water, leftover food, etc. One time they had an issue with a pipe. The maintenance man was working on it when he saw a tail and pulled it out. It was a 12-pound trout that had been down in the pipes for seven years. The crew had a fish fry. 

Here is a picture of the tanks where they segregate the males and females for egg and sperm harvest. The process is all done by hand by manipulating each fish. I never thought about people doing this for a living before.

Once the eggs and sperm are harvested the two are mixed and put in trays called incubators. The water is the trays is closely regulated for temperature to get the eggs to hatch based on the species. Here is a picture of one tray. You can see the multitude of trays in the background.

Once the eggs hatch they are called "fry". The fry are then moved into cylinders called "McDonalds" (fries) (Get it?) where they grow until they are large enough to be put in the tanks.

We had a great tour guide. He was a biologist who truly loved his work at the hatchery.

After that tour we headed to "The Shed" for supper. It had been arranged for them to open early to accommodate us. The place was previously a "biker bar" but had been remodeled into a nice restaurant sort of in the middle of nowhere. The food menu was outstanding and the amount of food with each entree was huge. Kelly and I should have split a plate. (We always say that after we see the size of the meal.) We each ordered catfish nuggets. They were delicious but the amount was so large that we brought an entire plateful home. Once again back at the campground many sat around and visited. It was a good time for us to get to know people.

Thursday at 1:30 p.m. we headed for a tour of "O'Heirn Feed Lot" and "Nature's Grace and Wellness" marijuana growing facility. The owner has raised cattle all of his life and branched into marijuana production in 2015. Here he is telling us about this cattle feed lot operation (he has several others in Missouri and Illinois). It was the neatest, cleanest, well-maintained farm I had ever been on. One of his sons manages it.

This facility is licensed for 6,000 head. It was interesting to learn about the science of how to design the buildings for animal comfort, how they handle the waste, and how they feed and keep the animals healthy in confinement. His herds are 90% black angus. He buys the calves from out of state and feeds them out to about 1,500 lbs. They were a little leery of us and huddled in the back until we walked away. 

In 2015 he obtained a license to grow marijuana and process it on this farm. We next toured that facility. No pictures are allowed inside the facility but here is a picture of the outside of the facility taken from the corporate office building.

For us to enter the facility we each had to be cleared ahead of time by the Department of Agriculture. We had all submitted our names about two weeks ago for approval. The facility was expanded in 2018 and is absolutely huge. The marijuana is not only grown and harvested for smoking, but the majority of the operation is to reduce the marijuana to oil for various products and for infusion into candy bars, gummies, vaping, etc. In the picture above you can see a white fence on the left. This is an enclosed outside area where 16,000 plants are growing. They get about ten feet tall and are then fed into a woodchipper. The pulp that comes out is "cooked" into cannabis oil. In one room he showed us a gallon jar of crude cannabis oil. He said that jar was worth about $30,000. There was a wall of cabinets in that room full of these jars.

The tax on cannabis in Illinois is 36% and in Missouri 6%. He is only allowed to sell his product in Illinois. He has 80% of the infusion market in the State of Illinois. (He has obtained a Missouri license after suing Missouri over the licensing process.) His product can only be delivered to Illinois retailers by his employees. Two employees must deliver each shipment. He said this is crazy because pharmacies can send much stronger drugs through the mail to people. 

He clearly has tens of millions of dollars invested in this marijuana operation. In one room they were rolling joints by hand for sale in a "five pack". They recently purchased a rolling machine for a half of million dollars. It can roll so many joints so fast that it paid for itself in two months.

All employees must be cleared by the government and must change into pocketless scrubs before entering the facility. Interestingly, most of the employees are employed to keep the place clean. Any kind of mites or other contamination are disastrous. Only the employees actually attending the plants are allowed in the growing rooms. Once the plants are moved out of a growing room, before a new batch is moved in, the entire room floor to ceiling is scrubbed down with bleach. We had to have our shoes sprayed with alcohol before we entered the growing rooms. In the growing rooms the plants are kept under 24 hour per day light so that they do not produce flowers. The lights are very intense sodium lights. He said each light uses as much electricity as the average house. There were hundreds of them. I can't imagine his electric bill for these lights and the entire air-conditioned facility.

This is big business like I never imagined. I envisioned seeing some plants growing in pots and getting harvested for sale to roll joints. That is the smallest part of the business. Most of the product is CBD oil, infused products, and vaped products. They infuse candy bars, gummies, etc. I can't imagine how much money is invested in this operation and I can't imagine the profits. What a learning experience.

After the tour we headed back to their corporate offices for a catered meal of brisket, ribs, mini meatloaf, pulled pork, smashed potatoes, corn bread, mac and cheese, slaw, dessert, beer, water, and soda. It was all outstanding. We helped the hosts load up all the leftovers. Once back at the campground bags were provided for attendees to take whatever they wanted. I got some pulled pork, potatoes, and brisket. It will make a couple of nice lunches this week.

Friday everyone headed home on their own time schedule. This was our first rally with this club, and we hit a home run. It was forecast to rain several of the days, but it did not. The weather cooperated, the members were exceptionally welcoming, and the tours were most informative. Now we have to decide if we want to join the club.  Their next rally is in the Amana Colonies in September. We can't attend because it is the same week as the Carri-Yals RV Club Rally in Jefferson City, Missouri. If there wasn't a scheduling conflict we would go because it has been about ten years since we were there.

As with any RV trip there is something to fix on Homer. It is a minor "redo" of a prior "improvement" I made years ago. I'm in the process of making that modification and will save that for the next blog.

 

July 17th-29th, 2023 - One of Our California Families Here for an Extended Visit

On the 17th of July our Wiseman family arrived from California to spend two weeks at our house. The plan was for mom and dad to work online during the day while grandma and grandpa kept the six-year-old, Violet, and the three-year-old, Wren, entertained.

Coming up with things to keep them busy eight hours a day proved challenging but we rose to the task. We couldn't hang around the house because the girls would bother mom and dad, who were on video meetings, on a regular basis. The following is not in chronological order, I lost track of what day we did what.

We spent one day at Lake Perry where the girls swam while I cut the grass and later entertained themselves at the lake lot. Violet with a little frog and the girls entertaining themselves with the pool noodles.

We spent another day at the Perry Park Center where half of the gym floor was set up with activities for 3 - 7-year-olds. Very nice and well-done.

We had a pool set up in the backyard and they enjoyed it on several days enduring our hot Missouri weather. We loved it as grandma and grandpa could just sit around and watch with a fan blowing on us. LOL

One day we had chalk painting on the sidewalk. They had a ball and thoroughly enjoyed getting paint all over themselves and then getting squirted off before being allowed inside.

One day we went to the movie. It was Wren's first movie and Violet's second. They enjoyed it and were really well-behaved.  A nice lunch followed. 

Another morning we went to the playground equipment on French Lane but it was just too hot. All the equipment was too hot to play on and there was no shade. We put their suits on in the car and went to the kids' water park just down the street. Luckily there was a little shade for grandma and grandpa making it tolerable. The girls certainly kept cool as they ran from one water feature to another.

On another day the Dinosaur Museum in Ste. Genevieve had scheduled activities for kids, so we took them. They colored and cut out a Triceratops to wear as a crown as they walked around to look at all the exhibits. Great fun and a great museum. I highly recommend it.

We also took them to the Discovery Museum in Cape Girardeau one day. It was a really big hit. It is in an old building downtown with two floors of play areas - a "construction area", a play house, a beauty salon, a stage to perform on, etc. They were really busy the whole time and were worn out.

One afternoon Aunt Alexa showed them how to do Avocado and Honey Facials. They applied the "goo" to each other, to Aunt Alexa, and to grandma. Grandpa got his hands done.

Saturday the 29th the visit ended. We thoroughly enjoyed having them for an extended visit since we see seldom see them. 

While in St. Louis earlier in the month, Annie purchased a brand-new car. It needed to get to California so Tuesday Adam left to drive it home. He was able to take a lot of their stuff so that at the airport Annie only had to deal with one suitcase, one car seat, and the girls. 

We took the three of them to the airport in St. Louis on Saturday morning to find the parking garage full. They sent us to a $20.00 per day lot but when we got there it was full as well. The plan changed. Kelly would drop us all off with the luggage and I would help Annie get the luggage checked while Kelly drove around until I came out to be picked up. 

I don't know what was going on but the terminal was crazy. There was a crowd at the Southwest terminal like we've never seen before. The lines to check in at the kiosks were out the door and down the sidewalk. The entire inside of the terminal was packed with people from one end to the other. After checking in at the kiosk we had at least a fifteen-to-twenty-minute wait before we could drop off the checked luggage. They must have been shorthanded because the luggage conveyor stayed full most of the time and they wouldn't accept more luggage until it cleared off completely. After the luggage was dropped off I said goodbye and called Kelly to come pick me up. 

The three of them got through security rather quickly and had time to grab some lunch before boarding. It is always fun to entertain young children in an airport but to make matters worse after they got on the plane it did not take off for over an hour as they waited for a crew to arrive. Absolutely crazy. They did all arrive home safely Saturday evening and called to let us know.

Sad to see them go but now we must get ready for a campout that begins in Illinois on Monday. Busy, busy, busy!

P.S. I need your input. Some people, maybe all, are notified that a new blog has posted. I send an email reminder. Some have told me they don't need the email reminder. Please let me know if you are notified by Blogspot or if you need the email to know a new one had posted.

Mike

July 10 - 16, 2023 - Washing and Waxing Homer; Fox; Needed Repair, New Battery; New Solenoid and Starter

For me, the absolute worst part about owning an RV is trying to keep it clean and shiny. The fifth wheel was the worst because of its size and height. It would take me five full days, one for the roof and one for each side. Two years ago in Florida I paid to have it washed and ceramic coated. The ceramic coating held up pretty well until we sold it. 

Homer needed the annual cleaning treatment. I got him out of the storage shed on Monday to begin cleaning him up for the camping season. I worked most of the day cleaning the roof. At one time in his distant past, Homer received a good amount of hail damage on his roof. All of the hail divots gather dirt that doesn't wash off the roof with rains. The entire roof was much dirtier than I expected but the divots were the worst. After washing the entire roof with a soft brush, I had to get on my hands and knees with a hard, natural bristle brush and scrub out each divot. The process took most of the day. With the hot weather it was all I wanted to tackle in one day. 

I didn't work on Homer on Tuesday. Wednesday I began cleaning the front and back caps. They are fiberglass and fiberglass is porous and it oxidizes. These two characteristics allow black streaks to form as dirt is regularly carried off the roof. Holiday Rambler is a well-made rig but for whatever reason they did not install gutters to channel the dirty water away. The fifth wheel had gutters.  

Because the hood sticks out, the only way I can reach the front cap on Homer to wash and wax it is to use a scaffold I made several years ago. Here is a picture of my scaffold after I set it up to work on the back cap.

The scaffold board is a twelve foot long 2 x 10 with a 2 x 4 attached to each side to keep it from bowing when I walk on it.  While it is quite sturdy, it is REALLY HEAVY! When not in us it sits out in the back yard on a brick pile. By leaving it there I don't have to carry it too far to use it. Once I get it in place it is another chore to get it on the ladder rungs by myself.

Regular washing, like washing a car, does not touch the black streaks. Since fiberglass is porous the black streaks actually penetrate the fiberglass. They have to be scrubbed out a little at a time. Regular soap will not work. I have found the best cleaner for this job is "Awesome" from the Dollar Tree. I have to be careful with it though because it can remove paint. (Don't ask how I learned that little fact.) With a LOT of elbow grease, I got the front and back caps cleaned and virtually all black streaks removed for another year. It was critical to get the black streaks out, not only for appearance, but because instead of waxing the caps this year I decided to use a product called "Polyglow". Polyglow is a clear polymer product developed to maintain fiberglass boats.  It seals the surface with a plastic-like coating. Any dirt on the surface is encapsulated until the Polyglow is chemically removed or wears off in time. The product really makes the fiberglass shine and is much more durable than wax. It is a liquid and just wipes on with an applicator. It is suggested to wipe on four to six coats. I applied six coats on each cap. I had used this product several times over the years on the front and back caps of the fifth wheel. I was very pleased with how it held up compared to wax. It is so much easier to apply than the "wax on, wax off" method. For whatever reason, until now, I never used it on Homer. 

I worked all day Wednesday on cleaning and applying Polyglow to the front and back caps. Wednesday it was 89 degrees with a "feels like" 99 degrees. I drank a lot of water and worked in the shade but the heat still wore me down after about four hours. I am happy with the "Polyglowed" caps. This protection will hold up much better than wax and should slow down the black streaks penetrating the fiberglass and making the rig look dingy.  Here are pictures of the back and front caps.

I still had the sides to do. Thursday, after my noon Rotary meeting, I got ambitious and washed the driver side of Homer. The black streaks are an issue on the sides as well. The sides are not fiberglass but painted aluminum. Black streaks are everywhere down the sides because there is no gutter to direct the dirty roof water away from the surface. Fortunately, the black streaks are easier to rub out of the aluminum paint.  It was really hot but I got the side done before I melted. Here's a section before. It is hard to get a good picture of the extent of the streaks.

Friday morning I started early on washing the passenger side.  Washing the passenger side went quicker because there is a patio awning on that side. The awning extends down most of the length of the side. It catches the dirt from the roof and directs it to each end, rather than down the side of the rig as it does on the driver side. Once completed I took a break and went to lunch with a friend.

Saturday morning, before 7:00 a.m., I started back on the project.  I was lucky to have cloud cover most of the day. I got the driver side waxed by mid-morning with the intent of waxing the passenger side on Sunday. After taking an hour break, I decided that, since I had cloud cover, I should trudge on and wax the passenger side. Saturday afternoon Homer was all washed and waxed. Yippee!

Here are pictures of the waxed sides. They shine but not like the caps. Apparently, the blue paint at the bottom was not clear coated from the factory. It has faded and even with waxing doesn't shine much. Next time I am going to Polyglow the blue painted sections as well.

Sunday morning, I washed the windows to complete the project. I am glad this task is over for another year. I wish I could find someone locally who would clean and wax Homer to my satisfaction. I would like to just sit back and watch for a change. LOL 

While working on the front cap I heard this odd sound coming from the woods behind our house. It was like no animal sound I ever heard before. I looked several times but saw nothing. Later I was standing by the ladder and heard the sound again. When I looked to the woods this is what I saw less than fifty feet away from me.

He was looking at me and making a "barking" sound. The sound wasn't like a dog bark but more like a guttural sound. He continued this "barking" until I moved around the ladder toward him. He then ran into the woods but stopped and watched me a little longer. In twenty-nine years of living here I have never seen a gray fox before. He was considerably larger than the brown fox we see on occasion when walking in the City Park in the mornings. Kelly looked it up and the males make a "barking" sound while the females make a sound like a woman screaming. So Cool! We have deer in the yard almost daily but never before a gray fox in the open like this. I wish I had videoed him. If I see him again and he "barks" I will definitely get it on video. 

While working on the back cap, I noticed that another one of the ladder mounts was pulling loose from the wall.  Here is a picture. They are just riveted on to the fiberglass cap. This picture shows how it has pulled loose compared to the one on the left.

The other two mounts on that side of the ladder came loose at various times in the past. I repaired each with a mount used to mount stainless steel handrails on larger boats. This mount is much heavier duty than the factory mount and requires much larger mounting screws, not just rivets. In fact, in prior repairs the mounting screws wouldn't hold at all. I had to drill larger holes and use toggle bolts. Here is a picture of one of the replacements I installed sometime back. It has stayed tight and has worked perfectly. I now get to install another.

It is a pain to make this repair. The hardest part is getting the horizonal bar free from the ladder. The mounting "nuts" inside the ladder tube are metal and rust. As a result the screw won't break loose. Removing the screw without damaging the ladder tubing is a challenge. It is critical that the ladder stays well-affixed to the camper as I climb up and down it periodically to clean the roof, inspect it, etc. I looked up the receipt for the last stainless-steel mount I purchased. Upon getting online to order another I found that in a few years the price has gone up 50% and the cost of shipping has gone up 30%. I should have bought an extra last time. Hindsight is always 20-20.

Since I have had Homer here at the house, I noticed that the chassis battery was not holding a good charge. My load tester indicated that the battery was "weak". I pulled out my paperwork and found out that I had just replaced this battery last August. The battery replaced last year was from AutoZone and was six years old. I was happy with that, so I went back to AutoZone last year to buy the same battery with a three-year warranty. On Thursday afternoon I pulled out the battery and took it in to AutoZone. They tested it and it showed "good" but only 52% charged. I told them that my load tester showed it was "weak" and after sitting overnight the battery would only be at 12.1 volts. They finally agreed to give me a new battery and suggested I bring Homer by so that they could test the charging system. 

Friday, after finishing the washing process, I took Homer to Autozone. They tested the charging system and everything passed. While good to go on the battery I had another issue. Recently when turning the key to start Homer it often would just click. After turning the ignition off and back on the starter would engage. In my experience this would be the starter solenoid going bad. While out I stopped by the repair shop. My mechanic agreed it was probably the starter solenoid but he said now there is a second solenoid on the starter and it could be that solenoid. To my knowledge the starter is the original. We decided that it would be best to install a new solenoid and a new starter. Doing this now would be much better than having an issue on the road. I made an appointment so it will be fixed before we head out for our trips in August.

Sunday is a well-earned day of rest. Our Wiseman family from California are coming here to stay for two weeks. Kelly and I will entertain granddaughters, Violet and Wren, ages six and three, every day while mom and dad work online. We are anxious to get to spend this extended time with them, but it may end up more tiring for this old man than washing and waxing Homer. LOL