Cold As A Witch's...

Halloween is drawing close fast as evidenced by the pre-departure weather at our Ohio base camp. The work we stayed back to complete with the vehicles did get accomplished, but only after the wrong parts were sent and we made some adjustments to things. But those temperatures! It was, as they say, "Cold as a witch's whatchamacallit." Our final morning there, the ground was white with a hard frost and the wind was whipping the brown leaves all over the place. It was nasty. I was glad to hear the rumble of the diesel as we warmed her up and headed her out.

A three day run for North Carolina was planned and at the end of day one we pulled into West Virginia to much milder weather. By morning though, the damp and cold had caught up to us and after a day of drizzle on day two, we arrived in the mountains of Virginia to full on rain and dismal cold. If weather were the only concern, I guess we wouldn't really have any - concerns that is. But somewhere in the last couple weeks we must have developed an alignment problem on the coach and we are putting undue wear on the front right tire. It's to the point where I think it must be addressed sooner rather than later so we're trying to line something up for as soon as we hit NC. I hope it won't be a big deal and involve a lot of time, but it's gotta get done and done right. There's a lot riding on those tires. Just so it doesn't take all our quality prospecting time away from our Vein Mountain stay. We need a good Michelin dealer with a lift big enough to do a front end alignment on the Dutchstar.

Two years ago, when we took delivery of the coach, there was a slash in one of the original tires. It took an act of Congress to locate a tire to make the exchange - that's how new the Michelin tire was at that point in time. But now it's two years later. They should be in stock everywhere. Only they are NOT. Why? I can't yet say. But not locating the tire you need when you need it does present a real issue- so hopefully we can dispense with this with all due haste. The ride is SOOOO much smoother when all 8 of the tires are in place.

And a while back I reported that we had to return a Garmin 7200 GPS for exchange. Seems it couldn't find the satellites right out of the box. The company it was purchased through is dragging its feet (and everything else it can drag) and still hasn't produced any measure of help at all. I sent the unit back to Garmin directly and they have received it, but so far they haven't done anything either. So much for no down time for a regular customer. I hope they come through soon. If not, the pen, if not the sword, will go to work. Actually, I have no sword....but I do have two machetes, if that's any help!

A further word about our overnight stop in West Virginia. Most of the campgrounds around the area where we needed to stop for the night are closed for the season. The one remaining choice was called Rippling Waters of God Campground. It sounded a bit extreme for an RV park but, hey, it was available. A large property actually, lakes, plenty of camp sites, a convention center, a large country church, an adorable little chapel on one of the lakes. And in fact it was a Church of God campground facility. Same rules as all other RV parks- but add no swearing, no smoking, no drinking, and no " a few other things." It's OK. After the day I had I wasn't looking to do any of those things anyhow. It was a good place to sleep! And while we didn't think the place lived up to its name, we can all agree that naming it "Putrefied Green Algae Bloom Lake Manor" would have been going too far in the opposite direction. Too many ducks is so not a good thing!