Living Our Dream

Montgomery, AL Part IV - Motor Home Project - Replace Spark Plugs and Wires

Montgomery, AL - Events of Thursday, October 18 to Monday, October 22, 2012

On our last few travel days, we noticed a slight mis-fire in the engine of our motor home. The 8.1 liter GM engine used in our motor home is notorious for burning spark plug wires because of the high heat caused by heavy loads. The internal parts of the engine are cooled by water circulating through the engine and radiator. However, heavy loads can also cause external parts of the engine to run hot. Although there haven't been many reported problems with Tiffin's gas-powered motor homes, many manufacturers do not provide large enough grill openings to allow sufficient air flow around the outside of the engine to dissipate heat. Heat causes the insulation on the spark plug wires to deteriorate over time. The deterioration of the insulation causes electrical leakage, which in turn causes the spark plug to mis-fire.

On our last stop in Chattanooga, Paul climbed under the motor home and took a look at the plug wires, but he didn't see any signs of deterioration. On our drive to Montgomery, the mis-fire seemed to be a little worse, so Paul got more serious about checking things out. This time, he removed several of the spark plug wires and checked the resistance with his volt-ohm meter. One of the wires had resistance that was higher than the others. High resistance is a sign that the wire has deteriorated, so Paul decided to bite the bullet and replace all the wires.

While he had the wires off for testing, Paul also pulled out one spark plug to check it out. The spark plugs are platinum-tipped and are supposed to be good for 100,000 miles, and our motor home only has about 69,000 miles on it. The spark plug Paul removed didn't look that bad, but the electrodes were somewhat worn. Therefore, Paul decided to replace the plugs while he was at it since he was going to have all the wires off anyway.

Old spark plug - note rounding of center electrode

Unlike the special exhaust gasket Paul had to track down a few weeks ago, the 8.1 liter engine in the motor home uses the same spark plugs and wires as the GM pickup trucks. Paul's online research indicated O'Reilly's Auto Parts a few miles up the road had the wires and plugs for a Chevy pickup in stock. Gotta love the internet. We stopped to pick them up on Thursday on the way to Walmart.

As soon as we got back to the motor home, Paul got to work removing the old plug wires and plugs. If you turn the front wheels of the motor home all the way to the right, you can climb up behind the left front tire and work on that side of the engine. Turn the wheels to the left to work on the right side.

Old plug wires on the left side of the engine

Once you wiggle your way up in there, there is enough room to sit upright or kneel and reach all the plugs without too much difficulty. It is, however, pretty dirty under there with road grime on every surface, black brake dust on the sidewalls of the tires and greasy steering linkage that is hard to avoid leaning against.

Paul working on the left-side spark plugs

After Paul removed all the wires, he did a visual inspection. None of them looked that bad. There was no visible cracking of the insulation and no signs of carbon-tracking that would indicate electrical leakage. Then he checked the resistance to confirm his previous findings. The resistance of two of them was indeed higher than the rest. One was about 3,000 ohms, and one was about 13,000 ohms while the rest were all around 1,100. Paul's research indicated normal resistance for plug wires the length of ours should not exceed about 2,500 ohms. The resistance of the all the new wires was about 500 ohms.

Paul didn't mark where the old wires came from when he took them off, but he thinks the one with the highest resistance was from the #7 cylinder (rear cylinder on the drivers side), which is also the spark plug that is adjacent to the broken exhaust manifold stud that we had repaired a several months ago in Kentucky. It is possible the heat from the exhaust leak at the broken stud caused that wire to deteriorate.

Old plugs and wires from one side of the engine (left) and new

The metal cylinders at the top of the photo above are the heat shields that go over the boots at the ends of the wires where they fit over the spark plugs.

After a repair like this, Paul always likes to take the vehicle for a test drive, but that wasn't practical with the motor home. After replacing the spark plugs and wires, the engine started and ran fine at idle and when revved. Therefore, Paul decided to just keep his fingers crossed and wait until we left Montgomery a few days later to see how the engine ran under load rather than pack everything up for a test drive.

We hung out around the motor home over the weekend and left Monday morning for our next destination of Summerdale, AL. We're happy to report the motor home engine purred like a kitten and the mis-fire in the engine was completely gone. In fact, the engine ran more smoothly and felt stronger than it has all summer. Our gas mileage had also dropped about 6% this summer, so it will be interesting to see if it improves with the new plugs and wires.

We'll have a report on our arrival in Summerdale and on what we were up to during the first several days of our stay in our next post.

Romance, WV

Romance, WV - Events of Wednesday, October 3 to Sunday, October 7, 2012

As much as we hated leaving Berlin, OH, it was definitely time to start heading south since the cool days and nights were becoming more frequent. A possible freeze was even predicted for the following weekend. We pulled out of Scenic Hills about 10:00 AM on Wednesday, headed a few miles east to pick up I-77 in Dover, OH, then drove south to Rippling Waters Campground in Romance, WV near Charleston.

We have never stayed in West Virginia in our motor home because it is so close to Pittsburgh where we used to live. We always just passed right through on our way to or from Pittsburgh, so this time we made a point of stopping just so we could say we did...and so we could add it to our states visited map.

We stayed at Rippling Waters, which is a conference center and campground that is owned and operated by the Church of God. The RV campground has full-hookup sites for $25 a night, pop-up trailer sites with water and electric only for $20 a night and primitive tent sites for $15.

The campground is located about 3 miles from the interstate. Unfortunately, the road to the campground is narrow, winding and a bit rough; but once you arrive at Rippling Waters, it is nice and quiet.

The roads and pads are gravel, and there is grass between the sites. We got a site in the one area that has about 8 or 10 extra-long pull-throughs. The electric service, at least in the pull-through sites where we were located, is 30/50 amps. The site spacing isn't too bad for a private campground, but the sites feel a little closer together than they are because they are straight instead of at an angle. When the sites sit at an angle, they feel a little more spaceous because your RV isn't lined up directly with the one next to you.

Our site at Rippling Waters Campground

Distant view of some of the other pull-throughs in our area

The RV sites are located in several different areas. Although the pull-throughs seem to be used primarily for transients, many of the other areas have numerous seasonals. All the sites are well maintained.

Some of the many seasonal sites at Rippling Waters

On the way to Rippling Waters, we experienced a problem with our motor home. As we were climbing one of the many hills in southern Ohio, the sound of the exhaust suddenly got very loud. The noise was coming from the front, so we knew it wasn't a muffler. It also seemed to be coming from the side of the engine where we recently had the exhaust manifold studs and gasket replaced.

Fortunately, there was rest stop a short distance away, so we pulled off. Paul couldn't tell exactly where the leak was, but the exhaust manifold studs looked to be intact. There were also no holes in the exhaust pipe, so Paul suspected it was a problem with the gasket between the exhaust pipe and the exhaust manifold.

We started up our Verizon air card and searched for repair shops. There were none in the immediate area, so we decided to soldier on to Rippling Waters because if was the gasket as Paul suspected, he thought he could probably replace it himself.

As soon as we arrived at Rippling Waters and got set up, Paul put on his old clothes and climbed under the motor home. Sure enough, the gasket that was supposed to be between the exhaust pipe and the exhaust manifold had blown out and was completely gone.

The shop that repaired the broken manifold bolts had to disconnect the exhaust pipe from the manifold. When they reattached the exhaust pipe, they apparently either reused the old gasket, which may have had undetected damage, or the the new gasket they used was the wrong one.

Our motor home has a Workhorse chassis, so while Paul was removing the nuts that held the exhaust pipe to the manifold, Margery did an internet search for Workhorse service centers. Unfortunately, the closest one was about an hour and a half away in Kentucky.

The Workhorse chassis has an 8.1 liter GM engine, which was also used on heavy duty Chevrolet and GMC pickup trucks, so Paul hoped the exhaust gasket he needed was the same as the ones used in the pickups. The closest auto parts store was Advance Auto Parts about 20 minutes away in Sissonville, WV, and they had a gasket in stock.

To make a long story short, the exhaust gasket used for the pickups is different from what we needed. Paul was able to find a source for the correct replacement gasket through an online RV forum that he participates in called iRV2.com. The replacement gasket, which is available from Car Quest Auto Parts, is supposed to be even better than the original because it is a little thicker. Unfortunately, the closest Car Quest was over an hour away in Ohio, and they didn't have the gasket in stock. However, they were able to get it by the following morning.

We drove over to Ohio on Friday morning, and Paul was able to install the new gasket in the afternoon. There were also some wires from the generator start button that had melted because of the leaking, hot exhaust gas, so Paul had to cut out the melted section and splice in some new wires.

We had planned to play tourist on Thursday and Friday in nearby Charleston and see the West Virginia State Capitol building and the West Virginia State Museum, but that obviously went out the window when we had to hunt down parts for the motor home and make repairs. We could have done our sightseeing over the weekend, but a cold front moved in Friday night and brought with it clouds and rain, plus Charleston was hosting three big events over the weekend - the World's Championship Chili Contest, the 7th Annual Rod Run and Doo Wop Car Show, and University of Charleston's Homecoming. All things considered, we decided to skip the sightseeing and just hang around the motor home and relax. That was fine with Paul since his muscles were a little sore from climbing under and back out from under the motor home for the better part of two and a half days. You know how that goes - climb under, need a different tool, climb back out to get the tool, then climb back under. Repeat dozens of times.

While we were relaxing, Margery had to take time out to repair one of Freeway's toys. He loves fabric toys, and he loves to try to pull them apart. We have bought several that we thought were going to be nice and strong, but they only lasted 10 minutes. His Krazy Kitty, however, has lasted a long time. Unfortunately, it was missing one leg and now it is missing an arm, too. Margery had previously cut off and sewn up one of the legs because it was dangling by a thread, and she did the same with the arm. Freeway was very concerned about his kitty.

Freeway watches intently while Margery repairs one of his toys.

With spending so much time tracking down parts and working on the motor home, the only sights Paul got to see were several auto parts stores and the underside of the motor home.

Advance Auto Parts - three stops

NAPA Auto Parts - two stops

Car Quest Auto Parts - finally the right part

Paul in an all too familiar pose

View of exhaust pipe disconnected from the manifold and ready for the new gasket

We did take time for a walk around Rippling Waters Conference Center and Campground before the clouds rolled in. The property is huge, and the facilities can easily accommodate several groups at the same time. There is a conference center, a couple of open-air pavilions, two dorm-style cottages and several groups of cabins.

Groups of cabins are arranged in circles.

The chapel across the lake is very picturesque.

Chapel at Rippling Waters

Swan on the lake

On Monday morning, we headed out to a new destination. Look for our next post to see where we ended up.

Nashville, TN to Frankfort, KY

Frankfort, KY - Events of Friday, July 27 to Wednesday, August 1, 2012

On Friday, we got moving relatively early because, not only did we have drive of over 4 hours to our next destination in Frankfort, KY, we would also lose an hour going from the Central Time Zone to Eastern. In addition to all that, we also had to hook up the car and then stop at the dump station on our way out of Lock A Campground.

By the time we hitched up, corrected a minor problem with one of the turn signals on the toad and dumped, it was after 9:30 when we got on the road. We didn't pull into Still Waters Campground in Frankfort until almost 3:00 PM by the time we also stopped for gas.

We stayed at Still Waters when we visited the Frankfort/Lexington, KY area back in 2010. Located about 10 miles north of Frankfort and about 30 miles from Lexington, Still Waters is a little out of the way; but it is a nice, quiet campground with full hookups on the RV sites, and with water and electric only on a couple dozen tent sites. The RV sites on the eastern side of the campground where we were located had 30/50-amp electric, but we think the sites on the western side have just 30 amps. The roads are gravel, and the RV pads are grass and gravel. The RV sites are all back ins, and they are fairly widely spaced.

Our site at Still Waters Campground

There are quite a few permanents at Still Waters, but most of the sites are neatly kept.

A mixture of permanent and transient sites at Still Waters Campground

Still Waters is located on the Kentucky River, which is a smaller river that is suitable for fishing and canoeing. The campground has canoe rentals and a van that will take paddlers and their canoes upstream. 

For the last few times we have been traveling (at least since we left Memphis), we have been hearing a noise from the engine of the motor home that sounded like an exhaust leak. Paul suspected a broken exhaust manifold stud, which not uncommon on the 8.1 liter gas engine we have. Paul had been under the motor home several times, but was unable to track the leak down. At Lock A with a relatively clean, paved pad, he was able to climb underneath and get a good look, and he finally found the broken bolt.

The engine used in our motor home was also used on some GM pickup trucks. Although a few Chevrolet and GMC dealers work on motor homes, most do not. Only those dealers who also sold GM medium duty trucks have the heavy-duty jacks, lifts and tools that are required for a lot of the work on larger vehicles. Therefore, Paul decided a Workhorse repair shop would be our best option for repair since Workhorse manufactured the chassis of our motor home. We found Bluegrass International Trucks in Georgetown, KY about 45 minutes from Still Waters was listed as a Workhorse repair facility, so we decided to bite the bullet and get the repair done while we were in Frankfort. Navistar, the parent company of International Trucks, apparently signed up some of their truck dealers to help expand the service network for Workhorse motor home chassis when they bought Workhorse a few years ago.

Before we left Nashville, we made an appointment at Bluegrass International Trucks for the Tuesday after we arrived in Frankfort. We got up early on Tuesday morning and drove to Georgetown. Unfortunately, when we got to the repair shop at 8:00 AM, they had no record of our appointment. They were backed up, but agreed to squeeze us in.

Bluegrass International Trucks

They pulled us into a service bay in fairly short order. As you can see in the photo below, there were school buses on both sides of us. There were about two dozen more school buses parked all around the lot. Most were new and were being prepped for delivery to the various school districts. There were also some older buses that were being serviced to get ready for the upcoming school year, which starts in just a few weeks here in the South. All those school buses was the reason Bluegrass Trucks was so busy.

Our motor home was surrounded by school busses

In order to remove a broken exhaust manifold stud, you first have to remove the entire exhaust manifold. Unfortunately, additional studs usually break when you try to remove the manifold because the studs and nuts get quite rusted because of all the heat. We knew getting the motor home repair completed in one day was iffy, but we were hoping they would allow us to stay in the motor home in the parking lot if they had to keep the rig overnight. 

Unfortunately, it wasn't getting the old studs out that was the biggest problem. The 8.1 liter GM engine used on the Workhorse chassis uses longer manifold studs than those used in the GM pickup trucks, and no one in the area had a new stud kit for the motor home version of the engine in stock. The shop couldn't get the parts until the following morning. And once they got the old manifold off, they couldn't move the motor home out of the service bay, so we weren't able to stay in it.

There are numerous motels in the area, but after watching episodes of the Travel Channel's Hotel Impossible, we have become really wary of staying in a motel. The program features Anthony Melchiorri, known as "The Hotel Fixer," who helps struggling hotels and motels uncover their problems in order to become more competitive and improve their businesses. The TV program is an excellent marketing resource for RV sales because of all the hidden problems and behind the scenes deficiencies it reveals in many hotels and motels!

We did some checking online at Hotels Guides and searched for pet-friendly accommodations. We decided on the Best Western a few miles away. We could have gotten a less expensive room, but we chose a motel that was rated very high by verified guests and at a price point we could manage. 

We stopped in the motor home and packed our overnight bags and grabbed computers and reading material. By the time we left the repair shop a little after noon, they had not only removed the old manifold, but they had gotten all but one of the old studs out. That one had not broken, and they were probably waiting for the penetrating oil to do its work.

View of the left side of the engine through the wheel well

Except for going out for a quick dinner, we spent the afternoon and evening at the motel. We watched the Olympics, read and played on the computer. We took along our Verizon modem, but the motel had free Wi-Fi, and it was pretty fast. Freeway adapted well and not only enjoyed all the new smells, but didn't find anything objectionable under the bed. LOL

The motel turned out to be very nice. The room was clean and up to date, and the bed was fairly comfortable. They had cookies and popcorn from 6:00 to 8:00 in the evening (the chocolate chip cookies were excellent), and they had a hot breakfast buffet in the morning. The breakfast buffet wasn't nearly as good as the one at Der Dutchman in Berlin, OH; but it wasn't bad, and it certainly was convenient. There were scrambled eggs (they weren't even rubbery), sausage patties, sausage gravy and biscuits, cereal (hot and cold), fresh waffles, sweet rolls, muffins and fresh fruit (bananas and apples).

When we called Bluegrass Trucks on Wednesday morning, they told us the parts had come in as scheduled, and they were busy putting things back together. We checked out of the motel a little before the 11:00 AM check out time and headed a few miles up the road to Bluegrass Trucks to wait. A little before noon, we saw the motor home being pulled out of the shop for its test drive. It took about 45 minutes to get the paperwork squared away. Apparently, someone with the authority to add up all the charges must have been at lunch. The price was around $600, which, according to one of the RV forums Paul participates in, was very reasonable. After we paid the bill, we were were finally on our way.

We commend Bluegrass Trucks for their excellent service. Even though our appointment somehow got lost, they bent over backwards to accommodate us. They made every effort to meet our needs and were pleasant and professional. We highly recommend them.

It was great driving the motor home with a quiet engine again. We got back to Still Waters and got set up in time to finally have lunch in the middle of the afternoon.

We love our home on wheels, but we didn't realize how much until we had to spend a night without it. We really enjoy being home again. We're taking it easy for a couple of days. Margery isn't feeling her best, but we're sure to get into a little something. Stay tuned.

Memphis Miscellaneous

West Memphis, AR - Events of Friday, June 29 to Saturday, June 30, 2012

On Friday, the high temperature was predicted to be 104º, so we decide sightseeing wasn't a good idea. Instead, we thought we would run some errands, then maybe stop somewhere afterward for lupper.

As we prepared to depart to run our errands, we noticed it felt warmer inside the motor home than usual. Even with the sun shades in place and the curtains drawn, the front tends to be warmer than the rear; but this time it was 91º inside, which was much warmer than it should have been even with a higher temperature outside. Both air conditioners were running, but the air coming out of the vents in the front wasn't cold. Paul turned the front AC off then back on. After the usual two-minute delay, we didn't hear the compressor start. Uh-oh.

It was after noon on Friday, and if we were going to get the air conditioner fixed before the weekend, we needed to act fast. We did an online search, but the only nearby mobile repair service we could find got very poor reviews. Margery called the campground office, and they recommended Rikard & Sons a few miles away in West Memphis. They couldn't send anyone to our site because all their techs were out on service calls, but they said they would take a look at the AC if we took the motor home to them.

We quickly packed up and unhooked the utilities. Margery decided to stay with Freeway at the campground while Paul drove over to Rikard & Sons. To make a long story short, about an hour and a half and $75 later, we had two working air conditioners once again.

The problem was debris on the condenser coils causing the compressor to work too hard in the 100º heat and to overheat and shut down. Most of the debris looked like the "fluff" that comes from cottonwood trees.

Debris blocking air flow to the condenser coils

Paul checked all the coils and the drain holes in the pans under the air conditioners last fall when he removed the covers to paint them, and everything looked clean. However, the side of the coils that collects the dirt is hidden from view. An additional metal cover under the shroud has to be removed to do the cleaning.

Cleaning is done with a gentle spray from a water hose. The spray needs to be gentle enough to not bend or distort the thin, aluminum cooling fins.

Cleaning the coils with a gentle spray from the hose

We were pleased with the work done by Rikard & Sons. Their place of business isn't fancy. They are not an RV dealer, but an RV and mobile home repair shop. Paul assumed it was the owner who worked on our air conditioner, and he was very knowledgeable. He seemed to know exactly what the problem was because he went straight to it. He worked for almost an hour on the roof of the motor home in the hot sun and an outside temperature of over 100º.

We're extremely grateful the air conditioner didn't need parts and that we were able to get it fixed quickly. Since it was mid Friday afternoon, if the AC had needed parts, we probably wouldn't have been able to get them until at least Monday. With triple-digit temperatures predicted all weekend, we would have been very warm with only one working air conditioner. To try to avoid a repeat of the problem, Paul has added cleaning the AC coils at least once a year to his maintenance list.

Saturday isn't our favorite day to run shopping errands because of heavier traffic, but we decided to try again after having to postpone on Friday. We had several stops to make, and after completing them went to Qdoba for our favorite burrito, Poblano Pesto. Qdobas are few and far between in our travels so we were excited to find one in Memphis.

HORRORS! They had taken our favorite, the Poblano Pesto Burrito, off their menu. We were told it was only for the summer, so we'll have to check back with them from time to time. We were so disappointed at not being able to get our favorite burrito at Qdoba, we decided to go to a nearby On the Border for lupper instead.

On the Border

On the Border is a chain of Mexican-style restaurants. We first went to On the Border several years ago when we met Lora and J. Michael in Charlotte to attend the fall NASCAR race there. We rarely get to eat at On the Border, so we decided to go there when Qdoba didn't work out since On the Border was located very close by.

We both chose the New Mexico combo from the dinner menu. The combo includes a chile relleno, a pulled pork enchilada, rice and a choice of black or refried beans for $8.49. Lunches run about $6 to $9, and dinners range in price from around $8 to $16.

New Mexico combo - chile relleno, rice, pork enchilada and refried beans

The food was yummy! We especially liked the chile relleno. It was stuffed with cheese, and the pepper was coated with tempura batter rather than the usual egg batter. The tempura batter did not overpower the pepper even though the coating was relatively thick, and the tempura was deliciously crunchy.

We enjoyed our meals at On the Border.

After lupper, we headed back to the motor home to watch the Saturday evening NASCAR race. We're taking things easy because of the heat, but we hope to get in a little sightseeing before we leave, so stay tuned.

Still Hangin' Around

Bushnell, FL - Events of Tuesday, Jan. 17 to Friday, Jan 21, 2012

Paul always likes to pull the motor home off the site once or twice during the winter and take it for a drive to get the motor up to operating temperature and to get all the lubrication flowing. We decided to do that last week. Paul does all the motor home driving when we're traveling, but Margery took the opportunity of last week's more leisurely drive to practice her motor home driving skills. She has only driven the motor home a few times, but she really has the hang of it.

Before we left on our short drive, Paul took a few photos in the morning sun of the parerwhite narcissus (or is that narcissi?) that Lora and J. Michael gave him for Christmas. They came as a kit preplanted in a decorative container. All Paul had to do was water them and put them in a bright location to get them going.

Paul used to force several types of spring bulbs to bloom in the dead of winter when we had a stick house up north so it would seem like we were having an earlier spring. Most spring bulbs have to undergo a period of about 90 days at temperatures below 40º in order for them to bloom. Paul used to pot up hyacinth and daffodil bulbs in the fall and put them in the spare refrigerator in our garage. Starting in January, we would take a new pot out of the refrigerator about every two weeks so we would have an almost constant succession of blooms indoors all the way until the spring flowers started blooming outside on their own.

Paperwhites are an exception and don't need the cold period, so they are perfect for us since we have no spare refrigerator and since we spend our winters in Florida where it is warm. The paperwhites Paul got for Christmas bloomed in only about three weeks, and their heady fragrance fills the whole motor home. Leave it to our thoughtful daughter to think of a perfect gift for her dad.

Speaking of Christmas, RVs have been steadily flowing into Blueberry Hill since we returned after spending Christmas in Pittsburgh. There are some empty sites, but the occupancy rate is higher than last year. People may be getting used to the "new normal" of high unemployment rates and are wanting to get on with their lives. Reduction of prices at Blueberry Hill to 2009 levels seems to have helped, too.

When we returned from Pittsburgh, we learned that Blueberry Hill had been sold to new owners, Sun RV Resorts. Although the sale won't be final until sometime around the end of January, the early word is that Sun is not planning any major changes. Sun also operates numerous manufactured home communities, but they reportedly want to increase the number of RV parks they own. It's possible they may bring in a few park model RVs (there already are several of those here), but we think they will keep Blueberry Hill pretty much the way it is. The old owners of Blueberry Hill, Morgan RV Resorts, caused a lot of bad feelings because there were so many inconsistencies in their policies, so we're hoping new ownership will be a change for the better.

A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about the brake problem we had with our car and about how the brake shop diagnosed a long-time, off-and-on whistling noise we had been hearing from somewhere under the car. The brake shop determined the noise was coming from the carrier bearing for the rear drive shaft for our all-wheel drive. They sprayed lubrication into the bearing, and the noise stopped. As they said it might, the noise came back the very next day, so Paul made an appointment to have the bearing replaced even though the noise quit again the day after that.

Chevrolet is doing the repairs on Saturns now that the GM has discontinued the Saturn line, so Paul called the closest Chevrolet dealer, George Nehaus Chevrolet in Wildwood, FL. Since our Saturn Vue is all-wheel-drive, and since very few of the smaller SUVs sold here in Florida are all-wheel-drive, Paul was surprised they had the bearing in stock. Unfortunately, they had to send the drive shaft out after they took it off the car to have the old bearing removed and the new bearing pressed on, so the repair ended up taking two days.

Paul was pleased to find out Nehaus Chevrolet has a courtesy car and driver who does little else all day but shuttle customers back and forth. The driver took Paul back to the motor home and picked him up again the next day after the car was done. The repair was expensive, but now we don't have to listen to the annoying whistling noise, and we don't have to worry about the bearing seizing up somewhere down the road. Needless to say, two expensive repairs within a few weeks ensures we'll be keeping the Vue a little longer.

We've really enjoyed having Pat and Mike as neighbors at Blueberry Hill this year. This past Friday, we went with them for an early dinner at Catfish Johnny's which is a few miles to the northwest of Bushnell.

Mike and Margery had catfish fingers (strips of fried catfish) while Pat and Paul tried beer batter shrimp, which is a new menu item. We all enjoyed our food. Although the shrimp was good, we thought the batter coating was a just a little too thick. 

We have several irons in the fire. Look for our next post to see which one gets hot first.