We are finally on the road again! We would not be had it not been for the hard work and determination of Brad Kimball of Pine Plaza RV. He has been our saving grace from the start. Always positive, always helpful.
Finishing touches on a job well done!
When he was all done with the slide repair, he reattached the door closer, then caulked anywhere it needed it. At his suggestion we are using shims to brace the slide when it is closed to reduce wear from road vibration. Thanks for all of your help Brad! It has been a pleasure working with you! We also got a tour of his pet projects. Brad sells and repairs RV’s to earn a living, he remodels old RV’s for fun. We got a tour of 3 of his projects. The first is his mobile office, a converted Pace Arrow in which he has designed a fold-a-way bed to give access to his printer and file cabinets and added a geared slide out system along the lines of the one we have. The differences are it has steel rather than aluminum tracks and is chain driven rather than 2 little motors like ours. Here is a picture of the old 6 inch motor.
One of 2 motors each connected to a 6 ft long shaft that turns 3 gears to move our 2000 lb slide in and out.
The power source on Brad’s is a Genie garage door opener. He has another screw drive slide that uses a 3/4in drill to move the slide.
Brad managed to get one of the new slide rails installed yesterday and plans to finish tomorrow. With any luck we will be on the road in the afternoon. With 9:00pm sunsets we could get a couple hours travel time in. We are trying to get to Talkeetna, AK by the evening of July 7 so we can make our flight over Denali on the 8th. Almost 3100 miles between now and then. We do not plan on any sightseeing on our way across Canada. (Kayla, we are going through Edmonton now, not Calgary. I will keep you posted.)
We spent the morning hoping Brad would feel like finishing today. Since that did not happen we toured parts of town we had not visited before then went to see “Central Intelligence”. It is a silly movie. My favorite line was in the outtakes. I am glad we went. It will be a good Red Box choice.
It does not look like much, but those pieces of metal are a sight for our sore eyes. They are the 3 rail slide system we need to fix the long slide in the RV and get us back on the road to Alaska. We hope to meet up with our friends Don and Sandy Marohl by July 8th in Talkeetna, AK. Brad, our mechanic is almost as excited as we are to have them so we will bring them and the RV to his shop tomorrow so he can get started. We are sooooooo happy.
To put a little fun in our day we took a quick detour to Mall of America and rode the FlyoverAmerica ride there. It was very cool! You sit in a roller coaster like seat, surrounded by a concave screen with mist and wind effects making you feel like you are soaring above the countryside. Thanks for the recommendation John. We really enjoyed it. Rick has a great job!
We are heading back to the RV in Ottertail to pack up for an early morning departure back to Fergus Falls. I am not getting excited yet, I do not want to jinx repair success. Mr. Murphy and I are all too well acquainted to get my hopes up.
Our slide parts on waiting for us in St. Paul. I can not wait to get them in my hot little hands. Minnesota is a nice place to visit, but I am ready to not live here.
The morning started out cool and peaceful and then I called about the slide parts. Good news! They shipped yesterday as promised! Bad news %^&*! It was shipped LTL economy 5 business day transit time and not expected to get here until the 29th not the 24th as originally promised. I was hotter than hot!! Bob and I packed a bag, ready to head to the CEVA loading dock in Chicago (11 hours one way) to get our parts. We needed our mechanic, Brad, to allow CEVA to release the parts to us. By the time he final reached them the parts were already on a truck to “the Cities”, so tomorrow we get to drive to St. Paul (3 hours one way) and pick them up, rather than let them sit there for a few days. With parts in hand Brad will get started on the project bright and early Monday morning. I am not counting my chickens yet, but have fingers crossed that we are in North Dakota come Tuesday evening.
We fixed a lovely dinner of grilled shrimp and sweet potatoes with broccoli steamed in lemon juice and a pecan strawberry crisp. After waiting the obligatory hour we had an evening swim in the campground pool. I still think this is the only campground in the county with 1048 lakes that does not have lake frontage. It does have a panoramic view of corn fields and cattle. We feel very bucolic says Bob.
The locals all say we should visit the Runestone museum in Alexandria, MN so we may stop on our way to/from St. Paul tomorrow. The Mall of America is tempting only because it is there not because we have any real interest in shopping malls. They tend to make claustrophobic in my old age. These are all dependent on when we can get our hands on our new slide parts. That is the only thing we have to get done. My patience has worn so thin it has holes in it.
Today’s adventure took us north to Itasca State Park, home of the headwaters of the Mississippi.
Cora crossing the mighty Mississippi.
The water was down right cold!
Bob calculated it will take 90 days for this water to reach the Gulf of Mexico.Relations in Bemidji, MN.
We also visited Bemidji, MN. Does anyone remember a song with the lyric “Bemidji in the snow”? It has been bugging me all day. Bemidji is the home of Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox. They were busy with other tourists so we didn’t get to visit.
We did stop at the Bemidji Woolen Mill, where Bob got a great fleece lined wool vest. I got post cards.
I almost wet myself laughing when I read this sign.
Bob and I need to make an effort to lose the extra pounds we’ve put on since we left, but decided this restaurant’s menu may be too drastic.
Still hoping the parts shipped today, we are supposed to get shipping confirmation when it goes. We will keep you posted.
I had had a tough time last week staying positive. Self pity is a lonely party. In the midst of my wallowing fellow campers invited us to join them at a local cafe to listen to some traditional fiddle tunes. I jumped at the chance, Bob said “sure, anything to get her out of this mood”, so off we went. The musicians are from Scandinavia, Vidar Skrede, from Norway and Topi Korhonen, from Finland. They were wonderful! I danced in my seat the whole time. I hope they can make some connections on the east coast. Here is a link to Vidar’s youtube page. https://www.youtube.com/user/vidarskrede. I have not found any good links to Topi’s music. I borrowed this picture from the Stillwater Gazette.
We spent the weekend puttering, reading and sightseeing. We finally stopped at a local park and took these pictures of an egret and cormorant roost.
Adam’s Park, Fergus Falls, MN Egrets & CormorantsDinner Time!Saying Goodbye to Delagoon.
It was time to leave Delagoon campground, they have a maximum stay and we had used it up, and moved back toward Battle Lake to a brand new campground. Unlike every other one we have seen it is not next to a lake, but in the middle of rolling farm country. It is beautiful. Here’s a picture.
View from Homestead Campground, Ottertail, MN
Tomorrow we are headed to Itasca State Park to see the headwaters of the Mississippi.
Not much to tell. We expect the parts to fix the RV to be here by the end of the week. We will not know what it will take to fix it until we see what parts they send. It sounds like they are sending a new slide unit. We hope it is just the rails and motors. We will see.
The weather has been mostly rainy this week. We have had a couple of nice evenings and we got to visit with fellow campers and swap stories. Everyone we meet is friendly and interesting. Even the dogs are nice.
I do not have much to say so here are some pictures.
These were taken on my walk last week at Delagoon Park, Fergus Falls, MN.
Well, instead of hiking in Banff for my birthday yesterday, we spent it in the HOT parking lot of our wonderful mechanic, Brad. He is Pine Plaza RV Center. He has been a God send. We will love him even more when we get to wave goodbye. It seems that THOR RV parts are made by a variety of manufactures that are then assembled at the THOR plant and each unit is custom built. This makes in neigh unto impossible to get replacement parts off the shelf. We spent the better part of yesterday afternoon calling and emailing customer service and tech reps at THOR to get the information we needed to tell the manufacturer of the parts we need to fix the slide. We did muddy the waters by asking to retrofit our 2014 2 rail slide system with the sturdier 2016 3 rail slide system. It is just adding a third rail in the middle of the wall, no big deal. Right? Wrong! They need the distance we want to put the slide from the bottom rail before they can assign a part number which is required before they can process the order and start making the parts. I would understand if we currently had a third rail and existing backing, but we do not and they know that because they told we would have to add it. We told them 36.5 inches. The middle of the wall. We did not hear back from them before they closed at 4:00pm today so I will call in the morning as will Brad. He believes in double teaming them. Fingers crossed and good mojo are appreciated.
After that afternoon, yesterday, I made Bob take me out to dinner. I had no enthusiasm to cook and clean up. I needed a little something for my birthday. For those of you who wished me a happy birthday, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Those little bits of love got me through the day. It is weird to say, but Facebook was a sanity saver. We ate at Mable Murphy’s. It is a home style restaurant with grilled, fried or broiled anything. I had broiled Walleye. It was delicious!
I had been pondering how I would post about our situation. I could not think of anything to say that was not pitiful and discouraging which was exactly how I felt. All I could think about was being stranded. I just to wanted go home then remembered that the RV is my home. Carley and Jimmy are moving into the farm. Holy crap! So instead of ranting and raving and feeling sorry for myself I walked down to the lake at our new campsite, sat on the dock and watched the world be. The water was calm and the sunset reflected off the surface. I watched at least a dozen turtles dotted around the dock come up for air making delicate ripples on the surface sending the sunlight out in circles and the circles would intersect reminding me we are all connected. We merge and disperse, merge and disperse. Life.
I had been laying down on the dock checking out the fish when I heard the voices of 2 young girls, their mother and her mother at the end of the dock. The 2 girls wanted to walk down but the adults did not want to disturb me. I motioned for them to come. They did and we had a lovely chat about the lake, family, travel and dreams. We were joined by their father and grandfather. Grandma & Grandpa own a cottage at the campsite/resort and have been coming here for 30 years. Independence day is their favorite holiday on the lake. There are fireworks all around the shore and the reflections double the fun. I told them about the summer I got to go to Dobsis and watch the meteor showers reflected in the lake. They recommended going to Glendalough State Park to rent canoes and tour the lake. I had hoped to go today, but it rained all day. It is a good thing, the area needs the rain, the RV parts people needed prodding and work kept me on my toes too. I am very fortunate to have a job that allows me this flexibility and even more fortunate to have an employer who does too. Mark Wetherell, you are the bomb.
I walked back to my traveling home feeling more peaceful and ready for a good nights sleep.
Today hasn’t been nearly so eventful. Rain, soft, sometimes thundering, chiming email notifications, hoping this is the one that says the parts are ordered and under production. Not yet. Maybe tomorrow.
It has been 3 days since my last post. I finally added the windmill pictures to it. I am becoming Bob’s relief driver. I got the rush hour through Dayton shift on the 8th and then rush hour/construction through Chicago the next day. We hadn’t planned on going through the city, but I let a driver win at chicken and missed the exit to take us around. Chicago has an interesting skyline, I am sure I saw Bob Newhart’s old apartment building.
The campground in New Lisbon looked like we were it’s first non-resident guests in a long time. Most of the grassy area was mowed, but trash bags were left in large piles around the office which was under renovation. It looked like that project had been put on hold for a long while. It was quiet, convenient and had water and power so it sufficed, but I don’t expect to visit again.
The next leg was to Prairie Cove Campground in Ashby, MN. The state motto “Land of 10,000 Lakes” is spot on. Everywhere you look there is water in a low spot. We’ve met several people who “live on the lake”. It took me awhile to realize how easy that is to do here. “The Lake” is everywhere you turn.
The Prairie Cove overlooked two lakes. Here is a picture of one of them.
Perhaps it was the beautiful view or maybe the friendly folks we met the night before that set the tone, but when the long slide on the RV failed to retract on Friday morning we didn’t panic. Here is picture of the problem. You can see that the top and bottom of the slide are not moving at the same rate. This ain’t a good thing.
It took 3 guys 4 hours to retract the slide. Patience and perseverance were the keys to their success.
Bob put on his engineer hat and set off with the “team” to get the slide closed, I set out to find some place to get it fixed. Foolishly I thought that would not be too hard considering all of the RV dealers and service centers we passed on the way here. After 7 calls all saying they were booked through late July I was ready to wrap the RV in duct tape to secure the slide and head home. I was losing hope until I called Pine Plaza RV Service Center just 20 miles away in the right direction. Brad could look at as long as we were there by 5:30. The campground owner gave us his number saying he had helped out another one of their campers several years ago. I was a little reluctant to call him as our slide track style is not typical. I wanted a THOR dealer but that was not a viable option so we cautiously left the campground making sure to go very slowly especially around right curves in case the 2 2 x 12’s wedged between the interior body of the cabin and the lip of the slide slipped allowing the slide to do just that right out of the vehicle. Bob drove the RV and I followed in the car. Those were a long 20 miles.
The directions Pine Plaza were to take the highway west until we saw the big signs for Arby’s and Wal-Mart in Fergus Falls, follow that road just a bit until we saw Fleet’s and Pine Plaza would be across the road. I misjudged his idea of just a bit and inverted right and left, but we found the parking lot. That wasn’t hard. It was full of RV’s. The real challenge was finding the door to the RV Center. We walked in what appeared to be the entry to be greeted by an appliance store, we wandered around looking for some guidance and came upon a quilter’s supply store, the woman there introduced me to Brad who was in the midst of helping two other customers so Bob looked at appliances and I looked at quilt fabric. I was tempted by all the great colors and patterns, but remembered the quilt squares I made in high school that were still hiding in some storage box. Brad buzzed by saying he needed to pick up something and would meet us at the RV. Even with a few minute head start he managed to beat us. “This guy wants to buy this RV. Let me open it for him and I will be right back.” He was having a busy Friday afternoon. It did not take him long to review the situation, place an order for the parts and help us find a place to camp. He expects the parts to be in on Tuesday and it to take 5 or so hours to fix. With any luck we will be back on the road Wednesday morning. After closing up shop, Brad led us to the town lake which offers tent, dry and water/power hook- camping. It is a lovely place with friendly neighbors. This weekend is Fergus Falls annual summer fair so the town and campground are busy. Some of the campers are participating in a men’s softball tournament that is taking place in the many fields that are part of the park.
I met one of the player’s son this morning down by the boat launch. The 10ish year old boy was casting a twin treble barbed hula popper lure fishing for bass. We chatted, watched a big snapping turtle come up for air a few times then saw some fish movement, he launched two nice casts and boom, a hard strike and he was reeling in a large mouth bass!
With that mean lure he needed some help releasing the fish, so while he held the top hook out of the way, I held the fish and wiggled the second one lose. Just minutes later he landed a second; this one flipped himself off the hook, saving us the trouble. The boy added the second fish to his stringer. His mother reminded him to make sure he did not lose the fish this time. Last week he lost 9 keepers because he had not secured the stringer. With that I sinched his stringer to a cleat on the dock and headed back to the RV. When I left him he was casting for a third. My guess is he and his family are having bass for dinner tonight. His granddad was on the way and would help him clean and filet them.
That’s about all I have to say for now. I love and miss my family and appreciate the calls, texts and emails.
but trash bags were left in large piles around the office which was under renovation. It looked like that project had been put on hold for a long while. It was quiet, convenient and had water and power so it sufficed, but I don’t expect to visit again.
g was to Prairie Cove Campground in Ashby, MN. The state motto “Land of 10,000 Lakes” is spot on. Everywhere you look there is water in a low spot. We’ve met several people who “live on the lake”. It took me awhile to realize how easy that is to do here. “The Lake” is everywhere you turn.
