We are Here.

                        Unfortunately, I don’t have that much to report to you.

                        (Or any pretty photos to share, as this is a Boring Post)

As of the last post from Michigan, we decided to just high tail it back to Jersey and start are “Visitation Schedule” as the summer here will be just a little shorter in time than what we normally spend. As reported earlier, we will be vacating the East Coast by the beginning of August (rather than the beginning of September) so that we can get to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the mountains of Montana before the onset of their winter which seems like it starts in early September! Plus we’re pushing on to Oregon which takes us about as far west as we can go until the Optional Pontoons arrive from Amazon so we can take this thing to Hawaii!

We did not get to visit the scheduled stops on our Proposed Itinerary that lay between Michigan and New Jersey. That was a conscious decision to just get us back “Home” and see everyone, plus we need to have some Scheduled Maintenance done on Miss Biggie at our favorite Freightliner Service Center which (luckily) is about ten minutes from our parking spot at Yetter’s Diner.

This round of “Fixings” turned out to be a little more involved (read: expensive) than what we expected, but necessary it all was, so gotten it did get! Several oldish issues that we’ve had for awhile were finally figured out (like the big ‘CLUNK’ when the brakes were applied) so now we stop nicely and without that annoying sensation. That’s a good thing because at 28,000 pounds or so, stopping is mandatory. Add in a leaky crankcase gasket (not too bad at $48.00, but it takes two-plus hours to change it…. Ca-Ching!!! ) a gigantic air filter, ($150.00) and you can get an idea how this normal, scheduled maintenance of an oil change (usually about $650.00) turned into an over $2000.00 repair bill.

But we are not complaining!

To persectiveize our situation, we do not have the expenses of property taxes, utility bills, rent or mortgage, property maintenance, etc. I will admit that our Traveling Fuel tab is larger than most, but we get to have our home with us wherever we go! Just imagine if you wanted to take your home with you when you traveled….. just cutting all of your wires and getting the house jacked up and on a trailer would take forever! (Never mind the DOT permits needed to close the roads that you need to travel on!) So, we are definitely not complaining!

While we are here we will take advantage of one of the only spots in the country that specializes in RV exterior repair and bodywork. No, we do not need any dents fixed (we did that last year!) What we need done is strictly cosmetic in nature.

The Backstory:

Most of the Motorhomes that we pass are just gorgeously shiny things that whiz by in all of their glory. Only a small (very!) handful of these are lived in, or driven, Full Time. That means that they stay in the garage (yes, some, especially the really expensive ones are fitted into a giant indoor storage!) or safely in the driveway where chips and dents from rock-throwing roadway incidents cannot do any damage.

Hence the Motorhome Queen status of looking resplendent!

Ours, try as I might, gets it face blasted every time that we venture out. And we are now at the ten-year old mark which is the cut-off point for some campgrounds and our eligibility for entrance. This is an attempt to not have the Beverly Hillbillies chug their way into that respectable RV Resort and squat until the Law catches up with them. This “age requirement” can be exceptioned by pleading with the Resort Operators, usually with a photo proving that your ride is ‘worthy’ of admittance, albeit a tad older than the rules allow.

That’s just one part.

For me, it’s the embarrassment of not having that pristine, shiny, looking-like-new, gorgeous motorhome that everyone else seems to have!

The work that needs to be accomplished is something of a quandary because the initial intent of what we’re having done was to alleviate the need for the work that we’re having done!

Confused? Yup, me too!

If someone had done their homework they would have realized that the “Clear Protective Vinyl Applied Covering” on the front of the motorhome would eventually deteriorate.

And that it did!

Along with the fact that mold grows under this “clear” vinyl protection which makes it impossible to alleviate as you cannot get to it unless you remove it! So we’ve got these ugly blemishes all in the front that there isn’t a blessed thing I can do except take that vinyl covering off. This is where this RV specialist comes in. When I regaled them with my tale of woe, their quick response was, “Yea… we do that job all the time.”  That is reassuring on one level, but quite disturbing on another as apparently we are not the only ones experiencing this issue!

Just to put this into your perspective, this is the front of our house. Just imagine how you would feel if the front of your house had stains, peeling paint, and other unsightly blemishes on it!

Ok, I take back what I said before about property maintenance, I guess that this does fall under that category under these circumstances!

And…. I lied 😊

Here are a few representative photos of today’s dilemma!