The HANDFUL

The theme this week was to rest up. Hahahaha hahahaha, well, at least we tried. Lots went ahead and happened after the departure of daughter and family and so much more needs to be done. We are knee deep in summer projects and have a looooong list still on our "to-do" list. It would help if we stopped acquiring new projects. 

Had a very nice 4th of July celebrating with friends and family...

Family Celebration #1

Family Celebration #2

Annual Stonegate Parade...

Impromptu swimming party with the cousins on 4th of July!

Our new flagpole!

That's just the highlights folks...it's been a challenging week and yet a good news week. Though the challenges seem to be coming fast and furious. We've popped up some BIG bucks for new RV batteries, yes, plural as there are F.O.U.R. and those little puppies aren't cheap. Hope we get at least as long out of the new ones as we did the old ones. They were the originals and we have had ROADA an unbelievable 7 years now! It's all good in the big scheme of things and hoping to be out driving and seeing the our country soon.

UnFOURgettably 4 Friday!

A day we will always be reminded of. A day to never forget. A day we cannot erase from our memory, where we were, what we were doing...a memory that I will always remember. 

I would encourage you to try and get to the memorial in NYC. It is incredibly moving. Someday I would like to visit the field in Pennsylvania. I have also been to the Pentagon but it is just not as impressive as the one in NYC.

Oh, and stay safe, stay well!

UnFOURgettably 4 Friday!

WOW...can you say day by day. This COVID-19 has certainly turned the world upside down. We are just going day by day and living "safer at home" I have been to the grocery store twice since the 12th of March. I have timed my visits early before the crowds hit. Thankfully, we are okay on most provisions that are out of stock (TP, flour, hand sanitizer, etc). I have been running in only for produce, dairy and bread. I have to say that on my first trip the produce section was sadly low and what they did have was not so fresh. On my most recent trip it was exactly opposite. Lots of good choices and fresh. However, I did notice that the paper goods aisle was still empty, along with most of the baking aisle. Come on you can only use so much TP and how much baking are you doing that all the flour, salt and sugar are GONE! There are people truly in need; don't be a hoarder or over buy needlessly.

I do know one thing, I AM THANKFUL for faith. I have hope. I know God has this. Is it tough? YES, but I know, I know the One in control. I have had anxious moments, mostly about my parents and granddaughter. But I know what I know and I know God has this. I don't need to be anxious and worry needlessly. I am staying educated, washing my hands more, social distancing and for sure staying at home much of the time. I will admit we do take an afternoon or evening drive every day or two but we do not interact with others. It's a nice distraction.

So stay safe out there... because it is not safe nor cool if you are not adhering to the guidance that has been put out. It's not safe for you or the others you might come into contact with. It isn't all about you, it's about anyone you may come in contact with, so play it safe, stay home! 

Wild & Three Thursday!

Tuesday, it was Tuesday before we had water again. That whole we will be here hopefully tomorrow thing didn't work out. And, well, you know Monday WAS a holiday, so they showed up around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. We managed being waterless just fine, with grabbing showers at families houses and then wagging some jugs for water to do the necessary things.

You would think the excitement was in having water service restored AND it was but the other excitement was the THREE lines that were cut during the repair. The backhoe had been on sight less then 30 minutes when it was sparks flying and work stoppage. The line locater guy showed back up as well as a lineman for KCPL as well as the owner of the company doing the repair work for us. Yeah, it was exciting. Then KCPL spent their afternoon with us in the hole repairing the cut lines. But hey we DID have water again!

Can't even wait until the repair bill shows up...seriously, should there even have been repairs needed when the house is just 2 years old? I am somewhat happy that we did not go ahead and DIY this fix as the utility lines in the area are ALL OVER the place. It's a mine field literally, hence the THREE cut lines!

But, thankfully, we have water again! 

Wild & Three Thursday!

PROGRESS...that is the word of the week! We are so excited to the see work on our back patio begin. Materials were delivered yesterday and bright and early this morning there was a crew on sight to start the job! Seriously, this is so EXCITING! 

The other progress that is such a relief is the clearing of the culvert...now to commence on the fix whatever that may be. We are exploring several different thoughts and options. But it is now clear of the crushed/mangled/broken black corrugated plastic and that is the progress we are extremely relieved to have. While not completely fixed it's a BIG relief to have this part done. Let's just say redneck ingenuity and patience played a HUGE roll. Putting that  grinder on a a pipe as I mentioned last week was the biggest help of all and we finished it off by pulling a log through with SMARTie! Of course we tried a few other methods that didn't pan out before resorting to the old log trick. 

That's daylight in that cleared culvert which is a beautiful sight!!!

Wild & Three Thursday!

UGH, it's been a week. The good is that the Vernon County Youth Fair started this week. We took our turn in the "pop shack" and have been cruising in and out attending the many, many activities going on. The exhibit hall is in the "new" building which was fun to see. The Little Britches Rodeo saw a whole host of new generation cousins giving mutton busting a go. What a hoot! Then strolling through the barns looking for names of kids we know. Fun, for sure and we still have two more days!

It's not the bad, but it's the OMG ugly of the week in that we are finally getting serious about our broken culvert that runs under our driveway. Shame on the builder (JJ Curtis) and city inspector for this. So we have slowly tried different things to "help" this situation but it is definitely in need of a real fix. We think we are onto that now...

 Using a grinder wheel to cut the broken plastic away.

 Using a sledge and small pipe to bust through MORE broken plastic.

Finally, power spraying through the debris, after "plunging" it wth the larger plastic pipe, too. And nudging said pipe through with the lawnmower for more muscle.

We are now waiting on sore muscles to recede as well as the power spraying water! Then we will try cutting away more of the broken plastic (which is from the mangled culvert). We believe this mess is a result of a crushed culvert that resulted when cement/work trucks drove over it causing it to collapse, which is turn makes it where cement, rock caved in around it. Thereby making it impossible for water to flow through which makes our ditch flood. Pretty much contractor incompetence in my book. House was sold that way to original owner. THAT my friends is a BIG party foul! In conversation with builder (JJ Curtis) he is not willing to correct the situation, so here we are trying to get it resolved with redneck ingenuity and brute force! BTW he's a real peach and building more homes on our street! 

Twotti Fruitti Tuesday

Do you Remember?

I do...

We were in Alabama and I was on the phone with my cousin yakking away oblivious to the destruction happening in my country. My neighbor rang the doorbell to see if I was okay and that's when I became glued to the TV for the rest of the day. It's one of those moments in time I don't think I will ever forget. And while I would like to think that nothing like this will ever happen again I honestly can't say that I feel that is the case. 

We have been fortunate to visit the Pentagon Memorial and the WTC Memorial in NYC. I would encourage you to try and visit them both. Extremely moving, especially the NYC site. Someday we hope to make it to the Pennsylvania field sight. 

That's a ZIPPER...

When your ulna nerve is grossly enlarged (like 4Xs what it should be) you try to deal with it for awhile, then the tingling, numbness and pain becomes more then you are wanting to live with so you go to the doc again. Which in this case is a good thing because it was not known to us that once the damage has been done it is irreversible. Surgery was the next course of action to stop further damage. Thankfully, it was schedule quickly and there were no complications. Hoping for just as good of outcome on the next go round. Oh, yes, this is on both elbows so we will be doing this again in a few weeks. Stay tuned, there's more, but let's get through the elbows before we move on...nice thing about it is we are house sitting for the next 10 days or so and have a little more space to recover in!

He's marked and ready to go, really did it matter as long as they did the correct surgery? No, cause before it's all over both elbows will be done, he just starting with the left!

He looks like he is ready to mess with a working K9!

WOW, honestly, I think we were both surprised when the bulky bandage came off and the scare was as big as it was...from the surgery consult  with the doc and all that the PA told us we were expecting a smaller cut. Anyway it is our hope and prayer that he is done with being bothered by this and that the cubital tunnel release was a success!!!

That's his zipper!

Kudos to the KC VA Hospital even though things ran behind it was a smooth day!

Looking back at our first year with Roada..

When we made the decision to downsize from Sunny, our 2002 31.5 foot class A, to Roada, a brand new 22.9 foot class B I NEVER dreamed it would be so dramatic. We are full timers and knew it would be a BIG change; however, our family motto has always been "adapt and overcome" so we thought no biggie. I, for one, was NOT at all prepared for the headache of new rig ownership. Sunny was an oldie and a goodie, she had never been kept overnight for service, a major plus for a full timer. Roada has been in the shop 70+ days since ownership, we were displaced 65 of those days. This was not at all what I expected and many nights I went to bed thinking what in the world have we done??

We did not take moving to a Roadtrek lightly, it was a long, hard decision not to mention a huge financial outlay for us. We had been researching smaller rigs since our trip up the East coast when we found ourselves unhooking our toad and day tripping a lot. So one fall day we took the plunge and ordered a 2015 RT CS Adventurous with 4 AGM batteries, 240 watts of solar and an Onan generator that uses propane. On 20 October the dealer called to say our new home had been delivered, so we arranged the PU for a few days later...keep in mind we had been back and forth we this dealer and this deal with several pop up adds to the price not to mention they tell us the week before we take delivery they will not take an out of state check. Yes, we were paying cash (check) for about half of this new rider and would have the loan check for the other half. Both were being drawn on out of state banks. Finally, they agree to take the loan check since it was from a major issuer (USAA) but getting our part was still posing quite a challenge. Finally, settle on them doing an electronic draw...which they could not figure out and reluctantly allow us to bring a check. Oi vey!

After a 12 hour drive to pick up our rig, late salesman for our p/u appointment and  a comedy of errors on the paperwork (no temp tags in the entire dealership, waiting 3 hours for someone to go to the DMV to get one) we were feeling extremely unamused. Our walk-thru was not at all what we expected and turned into a question and vague answer session with the tech...why is this screw coming out of the overhead compartment?, why is this panel not aligned like on the driver's side?, should this panel by bent like this?, why won't this light won't shut off on the first try, on and on and my personal favorite, why doesn't the water pump shut off? That answer takes the cake, "we have you hooked to city water and the tank hasn't filled yet, it will shut off when the tanks full" hmmmm, okay. We had a 12 hour drive ahead of us so I admit we were anxious to get on the road.

Looking back, we should have just walked away from this unit...but we didn't.

So anyway, we stopped for the night, turn on water pump, guess what? It still does not shut off. Head on to MO and what I like to call the real cost of new ownership begins. Issues continue and more pop up. The water pump will not shut off even with some over the phone factory troubleshooting, our AC unit is dead upon first attempt at using and we are still sorting out the misaligned rear quarter panel as well as the broken panel in the overhead compartment. To say we are slightly annoyed would be an understatement. Purchasing dealer will not ever return our phone calls, sympathetic ears from RT but not much action seen. I honestly feel we have blown a wad of money on a rig that is going to take a lot of our time to fix. Oh yes, it's all warranty work, but it's our time and money to drive it to closer servicing warranty dealer.

The closer dealer agrees to take us on and attempt to work all fixes which have increased in number again to include a non usable ALDE due to not being top offed with glycol (found after opening the floor valves), to toilet that won't hold water (bad seal), to refrigerator that won't work properly on 12V just to name a few. Thankfully, the MB mechanical side of the house seems all systems go.

We continue to be plagued by the sinking feeling of this  will never be resolved. And, yes, some of these things may seem trivial but after having so many things, some bigger than others, every little wrong just exacerbates the feeling of what have we gotten ourselves in to. Purchasing dealer support was nonexistent, factory support was slow going and not a lot of conscientious follow up or leaning forward. I feel like we were literally fighting for everything we needed to be resolved with lots of talking to even the higher ups and direction given but little action from those tagged to "get it done". We hope this was a rare exception but the entire experience has left a bitter taste in our mouth even at the year mark.

We do enjoy our lifestyle on wheels. Would we buy new again? Probably not, would we buy RT again? Can't say for certain on that. RT is touted as the best Class B around but we are not a good overall judge of their product since our experience was not at all what one would expect.

We hope it was an off day/week at the factory when our unit was produced as too much came to us that should we feel should have been caught by a good QC department. We know there will be issues with anything new, we aren't that naive; we just never expected so many or the ordeal of getting fixes or permission for fixes or parts that had nothing to do with our ownership/usership. We believe we took delivery of a rig that should never have left the factory the way it did. The "it happens" happened a lot on our unit and no one wanted to or did take responsibility for this. It was/is frustrating and that's why that bitter taste is still there in our mouths. We are scheduled back in the shop for an indeterminate amount of days next week, I feel like yelling, "when will it ever end" but then realize it won't do any good.

Happy trails, hope your road is less bumpy than our last year has been...any if you read to the end and think I'm whining, so be it, but it's my blog :) Also, I didn't bore you with ALL the issues we had I hit the high points, yeah, so you have that to be thankful for, your welcome!

#Roadtrek
#arbogastNEVERagain

Latest...

Goodness, time certainly never crawls when you are living life...been doing that lately; no doubt about it!

Football, birthdays, burn piles, cheer, a chicken, err I mean rooster and steri-strips round out this weeks happenings unless I forgot something which is entirely possible but these are the highlights!

We started off with a clear, pleasant mild day perfect for burning, so we did just that; after obtaining permission ,of course, as this burn was inside the city limits! It was a pretty good pile and we just kept adding to it throughout the day. Things continue to look really nice around the Tower homestead!

 

We have of course have had football and there was also a little cheer to go with that football this week! Go Team Go! Keeping our chin up after suffering our first loss. There's always ext week!

#61 and our cheerer doing their thing...

Then there was that little minor accident that was totally freak... It could have been so much worse but as it was it was pretty darn crummy. Thankfully the sink stopper was in when MiRV reached across the sink to retrieve his wallet. The cover was down and exploded underneath the very little weight of his arm. He had a nice couple of cuts that we cleaned up and steri-stripped and moved on. A vacuum made the clean up easier but it was still a mess, a big one; however, as I mentioned the sink stopper being in place helped tremendously as we know none of the glass went down the drain and will not be a concern of messing the macerator up when we dump!

 UGHhhhhh~

Not that we are looking for a new pet as we aren't really pet people but there is a Rhode Island Red roaming around my folks neighborhood. It's been there for a few weeks now with no apparent home and seems to have taken up residence mostly in their area. Littles originally named said chicken Lucy but we have since renamed to Ricky since MiRV (and google) did confirm it is a he not a she. Much to my parents dismay he's quite the crower, too.

Ricky The Rooster!

We rounded out the weekend with a birthday dinner and cake. YUM! Love the Big Buzz and french fries at the local BBQ joint, always good. Enjoyed coconut cake afterwards that was really a treat. Happy, happy to the birthday girl!

Birthday Girl!

#freakaccidents

#birthdays

Wednesday Words - Burroughs

I don't know about you but my life is often messy. Doesn't matter who you are or really how you live; there is more to real life then what you see. I really liked this and the visual that it brought along with it. The words are from Augusten Burroughs.


 

Oops!

So it started out as a somewhat gloomy day, we had gone to the library to internet, hit up the grocery store and then since the sun had come out we decided to head on over to the beach to see if there were waves. There were, we unloaded, I was good on the beach with a book, MiRV took the board and hit the waves. All was good, it was a decent afternoon, little bit of sun was playing peekaboo in and out of the clouds and it was not real hot with a great breeze, okay it might have been a tad windy but I wasn't complaining, I was on the beach after all with a good book!

 On the beach prior to the oops moment...

After a couple hours and catching a few good waves MiRV headed in. As he approached the shore he washed through some pretty heavy whitewater that whipped his board up in the air where it came down smackdab on his nose. Blood, lots of blood, MiRV is pretty sure it's broken. This happened one other time, it was not but there was lots of blood that time as well. 

We head to the ER...

Waiting, waiting, waiting, name of the ER game; we know the drill!

Yep, b.r.o.k.e.n. but no deviated septum, just fractured across the bridge. Oy vey!

 
 
Yep, it's swollen a little and more then a little tender!

The ER visit was pretty non eventful, we arrive, give info, go back for prelim and vitals, get settled in a room, see nurse, see doctor who orders x-rays, get x-rays, it's BROKEN, get referral, pay co-pay, drive home. Three hours later, it's all good...well sort of, it's still bleeding and he has to sleep in the upright position, but it's really going to be okay we think so it's all good.

The hurdles started the next day when we work through reporting the ER visit to our doctor and getting the referral approved, referral is to a specialist who deals with noses and does surgery, going to be interesting to see where this goes. Couldn't just see an ENT due to the fact he's had nasal surgery before so seeing a more detailed surgeon.

I think he's looking pretty good just 24 hours later! Thought he might been have worse with more bruising and black eyes but really he looks pretty darn good for having a broken nose!!! Now to see what the specialist says tomorrow morning!

#brokennosewhilesurfing