Waiting for HWH and others

Monday September 26, 2011
Winnebago
Forest City, Iowa

 

Today is Day 5 of Waiting.

Yesterday, Sunday, we went out to lunch at Scoopy Doos

 

with Dennis and Holly Ann Rogers
who will be leaving tomorrow to go on their merry way!

 

It’s a cute place with wonderful ice cream choices
including a small malt for $2.85.
More to come in future posts on that.

My lunch was so filling
that I actually skipped the ice cream.
CAN you believe that??
But I’ll obviously have plenty of time for a return trip
though Bill so don’t you worry.

 

Today, Monday,
we were up and over in the Service parking lot at 7am.
Along with a LOT of other folks.
We were there to get the second hood latch put on.
Like the part for the slide, it wasn’t in stock so
the only one Mitch could put on for us on Friday
was the one we had brought with us.
But he had ordered the part which,
unlike the slide part, did not
have to be made before it could be shipped
It would be in today we had been told
be here at 7am.

So we were expecting this to be a one or two hour deal.

 

So we went back to Sally’s

 

to try breakfast which we ate
before I thought to get a shot of it.

 

 

 

Looks like a breakfast club meets here.

 

 

Now I do have to say that Sally’s is sweet and
a real home town place and has great prices
but we have now had both the meals she offers,
breakfast and lunch.
I recommend you just go for pie.

 

We were back at Winnebago by 9:30
and waited some more. 

 

 

 

Here is what the 4 leggeds who were also waiting did.

  

 

Are you a “soda” or a “pop” drinker??
Hadn’t seen this since I moved out of the
midwest of my childhood to go away to college.

 

 

 

At 1:00, 6 hours after we had come in,
they finally decided to update us on with the fact
that the part had not come in on the first shipment.

And so we waited some more.
They close at 3:30. 

At 3:10 Mitch informed us the part finally did come in
and he’d put it on the hood but the glue wasn’t dry.
But of course they close at 3:30.

He could put the hood back on but he
didn’t advise it until the glue dried.
Of course it was raining now and is
predicted to rain today, tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night.

SO we brought Winnona back over to the parking lot
for the night and since it is raining and windy
I insisted that David put plastic over the gaping hole
in the front.

Now we sit and wait for HWH to
make the part we need for the slide
and send it to Winnebago.
The part was ordered last Thursday
we were told.   It might take a
week to make it and get it to us from
Moscow Iowa we were told.

In truth, all of our problems with Winnona
have been due to HWH parts.
Jacks and slides.
Anyone have any idea why Winnebago still
uses them as a supplier?
Is there no one else?
Do all coaches have HWH hydraulics??

Maybe tomorrow we’ll do something other than wait.
Like go eat ice cream!!

Stuck in Lodi again

Saturday September 24, 2001
Winnebago Visitors Center
Forest City, Iowa

Our night in free parking was not so hot.
It seems we are on the corner of a 4 way stop
and there are apparently no auto inspections in Iowa,
or muffler laws or noise ordinances.

So at 4am the boys started coming to
work and stopping here and then taking
off again with mufflers blaring.
Must be some sort of competition.
We thought we’d only have this one night
and be on our way this afternoon
so oh well………..

Unfortunately, not so.
The minor troubles turned into major troubles
when we took the RV in at 7:15 AM on Friday morning
and handed it over to Mitch who was
to put on the hood latch which fell off
and replace and install the second one
that bounced across the highway. 
And also check the slide leak which we thought was
a hose, and a couple other minor things.

 

He took her into the shop.

Like in any good hospital,
the family went to the waiting room.
While there I struck up a conversation with
some very interesting full timers
Holly Ann and Dennis Rogers.
They have quite a story of 3 rigs and
being on the road, coming back for a great job offer
and then going back out.  Selling 2 different houses
to do that and all in the last 4 years.
Actually Holly Ann and I wore Dennis out and
he went back to his book.

Mitch came back about 6 hours later with one
latch installed, a lube job done,
2 minor things accomplished
and the news that the hydraulic slide cylinder
will have to be replaced for much more money
than I had even thought of
AND
that the part won’t even be in for a week.

To drown our sorrows,
We took ourselves out to lunch at
Sally’s where I had a BLT on whole wheat for $3.25
and David had a breaded pork sandwich for $3.75
We then had two pieces of the pie for which Sally
is famous.  There were 6 kinds.
We chose Rhubarb and Peanut butter $2.50 each.  
Pies change daily so in all our free time,
we’ll have to come back.
But she’s only open Monday-Friday 6 to 2pm
and Saturday 6 to 11.
Closed on Sundays
Cute little home town restaurant.

 

We also went to Bill’s Family Foods
for some groceries.  I think there is
another grocery in town but I haven’t seen it. 
But there must be, there are 4000 people in
Forest City.

Mitch kindly filled our water tank and dumped the black and gray.
Once Winnona was returned, we took her across the street and she
is now hooked up to an electric outlet in the parking lot of the Winnebago Visitors Center and is
Waiting for Monday.

Here we are like Duck’s in a row waiting for our hospital appointments.

And speaking of Ducks,
here’s Duckie’s scenic view

On Monday we get to arise again, at VERY DARK O’CLOCK
in the morning, unhook, unlevel etc, and
have her over there for the 2nd hood latch install at 7am.  
Then we’ll bring her back and re level and re -  etc
and wait until Thursday while we
hope the part only takes a week to get here.

Today, Saturday, we got up after a
very nice night’s sleep beside US 69
which was more like a regular road
than a drag strip.

Had a pancake breakfast

We had good intentions but some how
the day got away from us and we basically did
nothing but look into all the required fluid changes
and their intervals and other regular maintenance
to see if there is anything else that should be done here
since we have to be here so long.

Although at $100 an hour
(which is actually, from my reading, on the low side)
David will probably do most of this himself.

It is a riot to read what the Winnebago manual says,
and something different in the workhorse manual
and a 3rd set of intervals in the Allison manual.
Who’s right?
I wrote to the  RV Dreams forum and asked what they do.
Would love to hear from any and all of you.

How often do you change your rig’s oil?
Do you use synthetic oil?
How often the transmission fluid?
Do you change the brake fluid?
How often do you have it lubed???

I also worked some on “and then where do we go?”
Any suggestions for where to go in Iowa or Illinois?

 

It was a cloudy day and would have been a
good one to take Winnona into the car wash
(no water here) and then do some waxing.
But neither of us could get ourselves motivated
to do much of anything.

About 5:00 David took the boats and bikes
off of Ruby and took her into the car wash.
Less take down for Ruby.  :-)
So she looks very nice and I’m sure she feels better too.

That’s about it from here in exciting Forest City Iowa.
Guess I should have titled this
Stuck in Forest City again but that doesn’t
have a nice tune you can get stuck in your head.
:-)

Minor Troubles - Luckily

Thursday September 22, 2011
Winnebago Industries
Forest City, Iowa

 

Let me start with a note to all my nurses out there. 
First I so appreciate your concern and your comments.
Thanks for being out there.
Here’s the scoop -
The orthopedic Surgeon in Kalispell, Montana
said that it “appeared” from the 3 side x-ray
as though I had re “fractured” an old injury.
But because of the old injury, she could not tell
if it was a complete break or a crack.
She congratulated me on my icing to excess
for days and was amazed at the decrease in swelling
after only 4 days.
Her advice was to use crutches for around 3 weeks or until
my leg felt ok with weight bearing.  But that
I should be doing some weight bearing by 3 weeks.
And begin those rubber band stretching exercises
at that point.   That would have been today.
  I was doing my short bit of no assistance
walking in the Badlands,
3 days early on the 19th with little complaint from
my ankle as long as I didn’t go faster than
a snail’s pace.  Not sure how to know else is
important, other than to listen to the ankle,
without some sort of further tests which
no one last time or this time seemed to think
was necessary.   They just kept taking x-rays and
they all looked exactly the same even though the ankle was
clearly showing less and less signs of injury on the outside at least.
Marti, I’m going to email you
about your break and see if it was similar to mine
and what you did.   
Thanks so much to all for your concerns.
I feel very warm and fuzzy.

On to what’s happenin’
We arrived in Mitchell South Dakota on
Tuesday, afternoon
after a long and difficult drive.

We were awakened about midnight on Monday
with the wind blowing the coach all around
I checked with Weather bug and it said
45 –60 mph winds all night
The way the coach was rocking I’d say it was mostly 60.

We brought in both slides
and took down the cradle point antenna.
Not sure how David kept from being blown away doing that
given what he weighs. 

The coach still shook and I
could hear things being blown around outside
and flying down the campground road.
I found out the next morning that
Terri Young had called at 11 PM
, she and Mike are camped across from us,
to see what we were doing she was so worried about the winds.
I’d turned my cell phone off for the night because
I had been getting unsolicited calls
from East Coast marketers at 7am East Coast time
which is 5AM mountain time.

 

The winds continued into the morning
although they had quieted down SOME. 
I called Terri back and they hadn’t decided whether
to stay in the Badlands Campground or go.
They were headed further west so they’d be
going into the winds.

We left the campground about 9am
and had to wait behind 2 others to use the dump.
That made me feel a “little” better about going anywhere. 
I wasn’t too keen on going in this weather
but we needed to do about 200 miles
to make it to Forest City Iowa and Winnebago by Thursday. 
David thought we would give it a try on I 90
since we would have the wind at our backs.  
I drove the car so it wouldn’t wag behind Winnona. 

 

Driving wasn’t too bad since I 90 is a straight
no need to shift road.

 

Just after we crossed the Missouri River
and determined that we couldn’t afford the
time to stop at the Rest Stop/Information Center
about Lewis & Clark that Mike and Terri
had recommended.
(see river in rear view)

 

 

David noticed that the slide topper
was coming loose.  
Of course with the wind, it was impossible
to go up on the roof see what was wrong. 
We stopped in some teeny weeny
sketchy looking Casino truck stop
off of I 90 and called Winnebago. 

When he went outside to check
the topper, David also noticed that
the only other hood latch had broken off. 
And the hood was hanging open.
I’d called him on the walkie talkie 20 or so miles back
to say that some rather large metal thing
had just bounced across the highway and I had hit it.  

He said he thought it had probably come from
the semi that just passed him. 
But it turned out it was our only hood latch,
the other had come off back at Jim and Mary’s in Missoula.

So now we had to tie up both the hood
and the topper with ropes.

So that’s what he did without going up on the roof
thank goodness.

 

 

 

 

Here is Ms Winnona with her mouth tied shut.
She has a matching set of “braces”.

 

 

We made it to R & R Campground in Mitchell, South Dakota
where they are into their winter rates
which are $15 for full hook ups and self serve. 
We got there about 3:00 and by 5:30 the place was full.
Word must be out.

When we got there David informed me
that he thought he had the flu
and when we took his temperature it was 101.4. 
So on the couch he went with covers and a cold compress. 
I told him to take 2 aspirin to help bring down
the fever but he insisted on taking Naproxen Sodium
which did no good so a couple hours later
when the fever had gone over 102 he agreed to the aspirin.
Sorry, too busy for pictures of the patient.

 

I got us leveled, hooked up, got dinner
and took care of the patient. 
I used the crutches but luckily my ankle is much improved
and I can stand on it with no complaints and
do some walking on it especially inside the coach. 
Not sure what we’d have done if he had the flu
and I was still totally on crutches.

 

But we managed it all including the winds
which continued to roar and strip the leaves off
of the trees at R&R.

 

Next morning, Wednesday, was the miraculous cure. 
He felt fine. 
24 hour bug that wasn’t intestinal.
AMAZING! 
TERRIFIC!! 

 

We took our time leaving
so it wasn’t until about noon that we set out
for another nearly 200 mile drive to Welcome, Minnesota.

We were welcomed to Minnesota before
we got to Welcome.

 

 

But once there, we set up at Checkers Welcome Campground
a Passport America stop, 30 amp full hook ups
for $14.  Just off I 90 but far enough that there
was little traffic noise.  There was one train which
must also go through Peter D’s in Great Falls since
at 4am he drove through blowing his horn twice
long and loud.

 

 

Up this morning and on the road for a short drive
to Forest City Iowa (77 miles) and only 3 turns.

First section of our trip, about 20 miles, was on I 90
where we could see that Minnesota farmers have
gotten the message about wind power and
are seeing that they can generate income from the
air and the soil.

 

BUT the next route 169 was THE WORST road
we have been on in nearly half a year. 
Talk about taking your home through an earthquake.  
We had to slow down to 25 mph just to keep
the rattling down to slightly below deafening.  

After the longest 20 miles ever driven,
the rest of the roads were the usual 2 lane.

We pulled into the big town of Forest City Iowa
(population 4000) about 11 am and went
in to talk to the folks at Winnebago Service
about our list of things to be checked and done.

We want to keep the bill under $1000 hopefully
so some of these things may revert back to David.
But at least we can buy the parts here and not have
to figure out where they can be shipped to us.

He’s now at the Winnebago Factory Tour which started
at 1:00 and I’m trying to catch up with the blog
posts.  He didn’t decide to go until 12:30 and
dashed out grabbing a quick sandwich as his lunch.

I’m not THAT interested in the tour although
I might go tomorrow while he waits with Winnona.
He seems to think he has to be there every second
while they are working on her and tomorrow is
Friday so it was today or tomorrow or Monday.
We hope we won’t be here on Monday.

Winnona is now parked in one of their “free” spaces
with 30 amp electric, no water, no dump
until our appointment at
SEVEN FIFTEEN AM tomorrow.

Guess we’ll be getting up before the sun rises and
potentially having breakfast out although I’m not sure
this one horse industry town has a restaurant
that isn’t a Kwik Stop.
Guess I’d better check the place out thoroughly
before being so hard on them.

Thanks for checking in on us.