May 28, 2014
After leaving Florida in February,
we made a brief stop back at our home base in Huntsville, for a
visit with our son. We also did a little wrap up on address changes,
re-registered our vehicles, then headed to Texas. We were "On
the Road Again".
We spent a month in the Dallas area
visiting Jo's sister's family, then an extra week there trying to
get our satellite dish to work properly. The best we could do was
get the dish down manually, but it was still not properly stowed.
Deciding to move on to Oklahoma City, we thought we could get some
help with the dish there. Upon arriving in OKC, we immediately began
calling Winegard certified shops, only to find that all the RV repair
facilities were in the middle of spring maintenance, and were booked
up for 3 weeks, longer than we had planned to stay.
After a great visit with Jo's family, we drove on to Searcy Arkansas for window defogging. RV shops there had the same story; "We can get to the satellite dish next month." All during these times we tried everything we could think of to get the dish going again.
After a great visit with Jo's family, we drove on to Searcy Arkansas for window defogging. RV shops there had the same story; "We can get to the satellite dish next month." All during these times we tried everything we could think of to get the dish going again.
The nice
folks at RVFogDoctor tried to get it going, even though it was
outside of their area of expertise. They too were unsuccessful. We
decided to start learning to do without satellite TV (not so bad an
experience. It's much more fun to sit outside by a campfire or visit
with other RVers.)
We had another delay in Searcy due
to the extent to which our windows had become etched, waiting for
tempering of new glass.
We were pleased with the window results, so
we put the satellite dish on hold again and headed back toward
Alabama for Mother's Day. On the way our generator started acting
up. It would only run a short while before stopping. The blinking
codes seemed to indicate a thermal type of shutdown
and indeed we seemed to have a small radiator leak. Fortunately the
weather was not too hot, so we stayed cool enough with the in-dash
AC, and could leave the genset off.
Upon arrival at the Rocket City, we
called our favorite RV repair facility only to learn that another 2
week delay would be necessary. "We are booked solid!"
Delays – Blessings in Disguise
Two days before our scheduled time
to hit the road again, and 3 days before our scheduled appointment
for service to the genset and satellite dish, we had some horrible
news of a death in the family of two of our best friend's.
The news almost crushed us, but the
thoughts of being far away, as we no doubt would have been without
our our delays, would have made it so much worse. We couldn't even
imagine not being able to get back in time to be with our friends
during their unimaginable loss. So for the first time since our
delays began, we were able to thank God for all those delays. (Now
why didn't I just do that all along, insted of whining about the
delays??) Insted of being thousands of miles away, we were able to
simply drop off our motorhome and head for our friend's home in our
Jeep.
We are so thankful that we were
able to be with them during this time.
When we arrived back at Huntsville
to pick up the motorhome, the small leak in the genset radiator had
been repaired (covered under warranty) and the satellite dish "just
started working normally" while the technician was checking it
out. It goes up and down as if nothing had ever happened and the
generator purrs like a kitten.
Almost Ready for Willie Nelson
So with lessons learned, and
everything working again, and after a great extended visit with our
son, (another blessing) we hope to be "On the Road Again" soon. Maybe we will
have something new to blog about also.
