Thursday, October 07, 2010

KELLY TAKES THE MOTOR HOME FOR A SPIN

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NICE AUTUMN DAY FOR ORGANIZING THE RIG

Some of you folks may remember my post a couple months ago, 'some days are diamonds & some days are stones.'  Well, I had myself a  bit of stone day on Wednesday & by the time I got to the computer I just didn't have enough creative spark left in me to pull a post out of myself.  Nothing serious, just another one of those days some of us realistic thinking people have.  I even broke my hat!!  I was so frustrated with myself.  I couldn't get the Jeep hood open no matter how hard I tried so in a fit of frustration I whipped off my hat & threw it on the ground.  No, I didn't jump on it but the metal clasp at the back of my hat did break & I ended up having to cut the useless strap off with a scissors.  Hat still fits fine but now I have to go around strapless:((  And yes, I did manage to finally get the Jeep hood open & no, nothing wrong with the Jeep......just me:((

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BUSTED HAT & THESE ARE THE 3D GLASSES KELLY & WORE TO WATCH 'AVATAR' IN SIERRA VISTA ARIZONA LAST WINTER.  My review of that movie is here ..... AVATAR
We had a beautiful fall day going on & Kelly had some time off so figured it was a good time to acquaint her with the driver's seat in the Motor Home.  Kelly has driven school buses as long or longer than our rig so I
knew it wouldn't be much of a problem for her to drive the Motor Home.  Gas was low in the rig so we headed off for Goderich to pick up some fuel.  I am not a good passenger in anybodies vehicle regardless of who is driving so it's always a challenge for me to keep myself from screaming.  I have always
been a driver & not a co-pilot.  In fact I have habit of always hogging the steering wheel & doing all the driving.  I once had two friends physically remove me from behind the wheel of a pick truck on a Pennsylvania turnpike
because I was hogging the wheel & wouldn't let either one of them drive!!  
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HEY LADY, THAT CELL PHONE STUFF IS ILLEGAL HERE IN ONTARIO!!!!

A couple of the roads we took today were very narrow with skinny shoulders so needless to say, I had my moments.  But Kelly did fine just as I knew she would.  We filled up the rigs propane tank & threw a hundred dollars into the gas tank.  I knew that would be enough to get us the 10 miles or so back to Bayfield:))

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HEY, QUIT LOOKING OVER MY SHOULDER BUDDY!!

I spent the rest of the fine afternoon vacuuming the rigs bins & scrubbing them out with soap & water.  Did a lot of rearranging again  & decided to get rid of a lot of stuff we've been carrying around & never seemed to use.  Would you
believe I had a bag with 33 bungee cords in it & I had enough various ropes stored away to outfit a full blown 3 master sailing ship.

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WHAT THE HECK'S WITH ALL THOSE ROPESDSC_8691              DSC_8690
The two tires we had put on Wednesday are BFG's (BFGoodrich) & I understand BFG is a division or is owned by Michelin.  Quite a difference in tread depth between the old & new tires.  The tire guys said our back tires will be just fine for another season.  Personally, I would have liked to replace
them as well but at nearly $400 a tire it was too cost prohibitive this year.

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THE OLD GOODYEAR & THE NEW BFG

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Our Motor Home is built on a Workhorse Chassis which means it has a Chevrolet V-8, 8.1 Vortec gasoline engine coupled with an Allison transmission.  As I understand it, the Workhorse chassis is a slight step up from the more traditional Ford V-10 cylinder engines with the Vortec having more power etc.  Anyway, there has been problems with the Workhorse Chassis brakes & a huge confusing recall has been going on for the past couple of years.  Within the last month & the last couple weeks it has finally become organized to the point where we can finally get our rig into a Canadian facility & have our potential Workhorse brake problem fixed.  We have never had a problem with the brakes but apparently they can fail without warning.  Kelly phoned a Workhorse authorized dealer in Sarnia Ontario this afternoon & the wheels are in motion for me to take the rig to Sarnia in a couple weeks to get the work done.  We've been worrying about those brakes ever since we heard about the recall so it will be nice to finally get that worry behind us.  The fix is free so that is a much appreciated bonus.
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THINK I'LL TAKE A DIP, OOOH WATERS TOO COLD....I'M OUGHTA HERE!! 

Welcome to blog supporter JOE64  Nice to have you aboard Joe.  I don't understand the German language but I do get the gist of your site & I did recognize photos of Ontario.

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Kelly whooped up a big Thanksgiving turkey dinner tonight which was totally delicious.  We don't normally have big meals like that but my birthday today may have had something to do with it.  I generally try to keep it a low key day but it somehow squeaked out again.  A big thanks to all the Facebook folks & others for their best wishes.  Awwwww shucks..................

DSC_8672  SUMAC SHADOWS ON THE RIG >>>>>

 
GROANER'S CORNER:((  A man who'd just died is delivered to a local mortuary wearing an expensive, expertly tailored black suit.
The female blonde mortician asks the deceased's wife how she would like the body dressed. She points out that the man does look good in the black suit he is already wearing. 
The widow, however, says that she always thought her husband looked his best in blue, and that she wants him in a blue suit. She gives the Blonde mortician a blank check and says, 'I don't care what it costs, but please have my husband in a blue suit for the viewing.'  The woman returns the next day for the wake. To her delight, she finds her husband dressed in a gorgeous blue suit with a subtle chalk stripe; the suit fits him perfectly...  She says to the mortician, 'Whatever this cost, I'm very satisfied.. You did an excellent job and I'm very grateful. How much did you spend?'
To her astonishment, the blonde mortician presents her with the blank check. 'There's no charge,' she says.  'No, really, I must compensate you for the cost of that exquisite blue suit!' she says.  'Honestly, ma'am,' the blonde says, 'it cost nothing. You see, a deceased gentleman of about your husband's size was brought in shortly after you left yesterday, and he was wearing an attractive blue suit. I asked his wife if she minded him going to his grave wearing a black suit instead, and she said it made no difference as long as he looked nice.'
'So I just switched the heads.'

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16 comments:

  1. OMG! That groaner is awful! So, have you aged like fine wine? :)

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  2. Happy Birthday, Al..looks like Kelly got a present also!..getting to drive the motorhome!!

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  3. Happy Birthday to You
    Happy Birthday to You
    Happy Birthday dear Al
    Happy Birthday to You....and many more.

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  4. New tires and soon to be fixed Workhorse brakes! Wow, quite the birthday presents! Now, if you can get the whole deal on the road, it will all be complete.
    And I know exactly how you feel about wanting to drive when you are in a vehicle! I drive Loyce crazy, when she drives. So she doesn't offer to take over very often. I'm trying to work on those things though!

    Happy Birthday !!!

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  5. Happy birthday, Al. You're the man(for today, anyway)!

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  6. Happy birthday, Al!

    I always wondered if Kelly ever drove the MH, but I figured she could, and she looks very capable in that driver's seat.

    The difference in the new and old tires is really obvious, but if they tell you the old ones are fine I would go with that.

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  7. Happy Birthday Al! Turkey before Thanksgiving, you can't beat that!

    You should know though, that a guy can never have too many bungee cords. So, I'd think a bit before getting rid of those.

    Kelly looked like a pro behind the wheel of the MH. I could never get Paulette to drive our truck with the 5'er hooked up - no way!

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  8. Happy Birthday big guy. You are doing great for an old geezer. It is very smart to have Kelly as a back up driver, will come in handy some day. The groaners corner was a zinger today. I do wonder where you find all those jokes.

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  9. Happy Birthday Al....and many, many more! :-)

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  10. My darling husband has a thing for hoses....I don't know why we need so many! Nice to see Kelly behind the wheel doing such an excellent job! Happy B-day, Big guy!

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  11. Happy Birthday Al!

    The turkey dinner got my mouth watering for Thanksgiving dinner.

    Great job piloting the rig Kelly. I insist on knowing how to tow the RV, how to navigate the waters in our boat and everything there is to know about our toys of enjoyment. I drive often to sharpen my skills and generally do all the backing up. ;)

    If anything ever happened to Rod, I could get us home or to help for starters. Secondly. if anything ever happened to Rod, I will still go boating and RVing.

    Connie

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  12. Belated birthday wishes! Suzy does ALL the MH driving, while I'm the navigator and flight attendant. I'd love to share driving chores with her, but she has a very strong and acceptable reason for driving rather than sitting, so we'll leave it at that.

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  13. Happy Birthday Al and wishing you many more!

    I wondered if Kelly drove the MH - I can't reach the petals in ours so obviously haven't driven it. Wayne would have white knuckles sitting in the passenger seat and always looking over my shoulder too so I'm good with not driving.

    Have a great day!!

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  14. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOGGER AL!

    (catching up on reading blogs here, sorry this is so late!)

    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
    Karen and Steve
    (Our Blog) RVing: Small House... BIG Backyard
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/

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