I headed out really early this morning to go to Canada to say good bye to my Dad and I had gone about a third of the way (250 miles) and my sister called to say that my dear daddy was gone. Oh how I will miss him. He was a wonderful man.
BURNARD JAMES DAWE 1916 - 2009
I turned around and came back home since the funeral will not be for a week. Now I just need to get my husband back from Iraq. He just arrived back there Thursday and now he needs to turn around again.
I’m off to Canada in the morning to say my final goodbyes to my dear sweet 92 year old Daddy. We don’t expect he will last much longer so I want to see him and love him one last time.
Yeah! We’re here at the family reunion and ready to play, But first we need to move the motor home to a better place than where we just landed the night before. Soooo… I start it up and it squeals and smells funny so up goes the hood again and we check the oil. Down three quarts. What the heck???? Totally weird. And… Roy thinks the alternator is bad and that is allot of the problem .
So out it comes and we borrow our nephews car to go into the city to have it tested. I drive and we’re just going along having a nice time getting reacquainted and then he reminded me that this is where he got his ticket a year ago so I start to slow down but too late! Yup, I got a ticket.
53 in a 35. Of course the policeman waited till it went from 40 to 35 before he clocked me so he could add 5 more mph onto my ticket. I was probably 50 feet into the 35. AURRRGH $165.00. So I took my medicine like a real woman and off we went. A few miles down the road I just busted up. This was all becoming too funny. (Welcome home from Iraq honey and welcome to my normal!)
Well we had the alternator tested and of course it was bad so $85.00 later we headed back. I think I forgot to mention in my other post that at Scipio the oil cost me $6.99 a quart! Can you believe it? So I bought a 5 quart container in town for $7.99.
We made it back, put in the new alternator and it started up like a charm and things are really looking up. Wahoo, lets play with these guys….
Just a few minor things to come for the next few days…..
Josh had a 6:30 AM flight to Peru. He is studying physical anthropology and goes down there every year to dig up skulls and skeletons and stuff. Since Roy was still on Iraq time, he was awake and took him to the airport while I sort of slept, (They always say that the 3rd day after an accident or surgery is the worse and boy are they right!)
Now it is time to head off to Cedar City for a big family reunion. So we finished loading up the motor home and hooked on the trailer with the 4X4 and scooter and toys. It was 11:00 AM. Roy was too sleepy to drive and I was fine driving because fortunately it didn’t hurt to sit, so off we went.
We figured it was about a 6 hour drive because we only go about 60 MPH in old Bessie here. Everything was fine and dandy and I made it through Salt Lake and Provo and all the traffic and then…..
Believe it or not , THE BACK DRIVER’S SIDE WHEELS CAME OFF!!! and I watched one of them roll right past me and down the freeway and then over to the side where there was a guy working in a trackhoe. Now there was nothing for miles on the side of the freeway but of course my tire had to hit and damage the only thing there was. (Boy did I ever wake up that guy) The other tire just stopped in the outside lane so poor Roy had to run back and retrieve it out of traffic. I just sort of pulled over to the side of the road and said a giant prayer of thanks that we were okay.
Now I know we tightened those puppies up really tight. I have no idea why they came loose. Here is my resident grease monkey tightening them so I have proof… We have a book all about the specifications and we torqued them down good and tight.
Anyway, before we knew it we had the Highway Patrol and Incident Management there to help us. Roy was really impressed at how efficient they were and he now wants a cordless pneumatic drill.
(So do I!)
They put our spare tire on and we gathered up my wheels and I apologized to the trackhoe driver for the millionth time and we limped into Springville where we spent several hours trying to find a new rim and new studs and other things to the tune of $286.48.
Of course they never could find us a new rim because older motor homes have an odd size. So we just used the one off the spare tire. Here’s what I did to it…
So by now it is 6:30 PM and we had only gone 100 miles but our adventure is not over yet. We carried on and made it to Scipio. (It’s in the middle of nowhere and if you blink you miss it.) We stopped because the engine was making a very funny noise. Roy checked the oil and it was dry! We added 6 quarts!!!!!! I had checked the levels the day before and it was full. Very weird because it has never used oil like this before.
Then it wouldn’t start but I got out and gave it a really good talking to and hit the starter with a wrench and it actually started. So off we went again.
Somewhere around 10:00 PM it started to run funny again so we pulled off in the middle of nowhere and added two more quarts of oil. We finally pulled into Cedar City at 11:00 PM. Twelve hours to go 300 miles. But of course the troubles aren’t over yet, Day 4 brings more…….
Ever hear the expression “I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck”? Well I felt like I’d been run over by a motor home. The Dr. in the emergency room would not give me any pain pills. She said that my arthritis medicine would be enough. HAH!!! I wanted to run over her with my motor home to see how she would handle the pain.
In her defense though, I can understand her thinking. I was in greasy dirty clothes and looked a wreak. My neighbor, who was in the accident as well, looked even worse. (They love to work on cars and are covered in grease and oil constantly). My son Josh came in with me. Now Josh is the sweetest most caring person on the planet and I love him dearly, but this sweet child of mine has decided to get tatoos all over himself and he looks rather scary at times. So I am sitting in the emergency room with this odd bunch and I’m sure the Dr. thought I had done this on purpose just to get drugs.
Anyhow, I took 4 Tylenol and hobbled to the car and drove to the airport to pick up my husband who had just spent 4 days trying to get home from Iraq. Can you imagine my dread of the big bear hug I knew was coming? He knew nothing yet. OUCH!
At least this time he came home looking like this…………
Not this……
Last time he came home it was Halloween and he thought he was pretty funny and I though he was pretty creepy!
So all in all it was a wonderful reunion even though it hurt. A great day compared to what had happened the day before and what was about to happen the next day. Stay tuned for day 3…..
DAY 1
I was having so much fun. Then….
The day before my hubby got home from Iraq, I decided to do one last thing to my Motor home. My neighbor boy is my local mechanic and all I was supposed to do was hold a part while he unbolted it. We have been working on it for a month and were always so careful to block the tires and jack it just right but we were in a hurry and forgot.
We’re okay but it really put a damper on things. My ribs still hurt but were not broken. My back got pretty beat up and I have some wonderful bruises.
This was only the beginning of the fun times. Remember my mantra… “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth over doing.” Well, there’s more to come.
