Our RV Adventures

Jan and I were up this morning about 7:30 to have time for coffee before we headed over to the Cam-Plex for the opening of the Vendor area. Jan wanted to sign up for some of the limited-size craft classes before they filled up, and I wanted to be at the Blue Ox booth when they opened so I could sign up to have my Aventa LX tow bar serviced. The tow bar is what connects the RV to the Dodge Dakota truck we tow behind us. We bought our Aventa at the beginning of 2008 and we’ve put over 56,000 miles on it since then. So it was about time to have it serviced.

I had tried at a couple of other rallies where the Blue Ox guys were present, but always got to the booth too late. But today I was the first person to sign up.

The charge for the service was only $25, but a phone call about 10:15 magically jumped that up to $225. Brian, the service guy, was already at the rig and was calling to tell me that my hitch connector, the now-shiny part that you see below, needed to be completely replaced. I had already noticed a lot of ‘loosey-goosey’ movement in the ball joint that had slowly appeared on the years, but it has always worked with no problems. But if the ball joint came apart, the safety cables would be the only thing still connecting the truck to the rig. Not a good thing.

I was happy to find out that the new ball joint connector will not wear out near as quickly as this one did, And since this one lasted over 5 years, hopefully we won’t have to do this again.

For lunch Jan heated up her left-over pizza from Old Chicago last night, and I had the last of my BBQ from Big Hole BBQ last week in Victor, ID. Both still very good.

A little before 3pm Jan and I drove back over to the Cam-Plex for the opening ceremonies for the Escapade. But I think the real reason to be there was the fact that they were having a drawing to give away two $500 gift cards. Neither of which we won, unfortunately.

By the time everything was over, it was getting to be time to go eat. So about 5pm we all headed out to have dinner. After finding our first choice Chinese restaurant closed on Sunday, we headed over to Humphrey’s, a place we had eaten at when we were here 3 years ago. Our meal was good, but when Jan ordered her burger well-done, we all got ours well-done, whether we wanted it that way or not.

I’m more of a medium / medium-rare kind of guy myself. But we had a good time, anyway.

Getting back to the rigs, we again sat outside for a hour or so until the sun went down and it started to cool off quickly. Then it was in for the night.

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Thought for the Day:

"Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform." – Mark Twain

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Since we wanted to be sure to be at the Gillette Cam-Plex by 2pm, I was up at 6am to start getting us ready to roll by 8am. If we get there after 2 then we won’t get parked until Sunday morning.

I woke up Sleeping Beauty at 6:30, and after coffee and breakfast sandwiches, we were ready to pull out a little before 8, but then had a problem. The slide did not want to pull in. It would start up, move in two or third inches, and then stall. We then tried going out and in several times while I was pulling on it at the same time with no luck.

Then, although I done it a few months ago, I once again sprayed the slide rails with silicone lube, and while Jan hit the ‘In’ button, I pushed from the outside. The slide once again moved in a couple of inches, and when it stopped, I gave a big shove. The slide hesitated a bit and then started moving in with no problems. It seemed like something may have been on the track, and once it was cleared, it was all OK.

We pulled out of the park a couple of minutes after 8am with Jan following in the truck, and first headed down to the Sam’s Club to top off the diesel tank. A couple of days ago diesel there was $3.71. Today, just my luck, it was up to $3.75. Bummer. Of course, at 71 gallons, it’s only $2.84.

But it’s the principle of the thing.

While I was topping off, I added a quart of Diesel Kleen, something that was recommended to me by several truck drivers while we were gate guarding.

After fueling up, I pulled over to the side and Jan parked behind me so I could hook up the toad. I was happy to see that my somewhat-temporary solution to my towing lights problem seemed to be working fine.

I ended up wiring the taillights and the turn signals straight through, without any taillight converter, and they worked fine that way. As far as the brakes lights, I just upped the sensitivity on my Brake Buddy and let it provide the brake light function.

This should hold things until I can design and build my own converter.

We pulled out of the Sam’s parking lot and hit the road about 8:45 for 240 mile trip to Gillette, WY. The trip was smooth, with the only problem was a total of about 50 miles of one-lane construction zones. But with the very light traffic, and the fact that, though reduced, the speed limit stayed high enough that we weren’t slowed down all that much.

We pulled into the Cam-Plex about 1:30 and were quickly directed to our parking area.. In fact we’re parked right across the row from where we were parked in June 2010 when were were here for the American Coach Rally. Even better, we’re parked right next to Nick and Terry.

Life is good.

About 4:30 the four of us headed out for dinner at Old Chicago Pizza which turned out to be very, very good. Jan and I had salads and personal pizzas, Terry had a Caesar Salad, and Nick had his obligatory Pepperoni Pizza with Extra Cheese. Terry said it was the best salad she’d ever had. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to go back before we leave.

Getting back to the rigs, we put our chairs outside under Nick and Terry’s big awning, and along with Mister to protect us from marauding dogs, sat around for a while catching up with things since we were last together the end of April in Apache Junction.

Tomorrow the vendor area opens at 9am and Jan wants to sign up for some of the craft classes so we’ll be there early.

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Thought for the Day:

Too much democracy is fatal to any republic.

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