~Monday, April 5, 2021~
Day 295
An early morning as we had to take “Hank” in for his scheduled 30,000 mile service. I know….amazing it’s already been 30,000 miles and we just bought it in February of 2020. But we’ve packed a lot of roads in that timeframe with much more to go before finding the ideal place to settle down. I don’t want to jinx anything but have to say the truck has performed really well since the transmission issue at the beginning of the trip. There have been a few other minor things like the 4-wheel drive not engaging. Our thoughts were maybe it was related to when they were installing the new transmission. Anyway, we’re having that checked out as well as the driver side door not locking properly. The navigation screen also tends to black out on occasion which also makes us think it’s a connectivity issue. It was the perfect opportunity to get work done on the truck while we had other transportation options visiting the kids in Illinois. Let’s hope things aren’t too serious and we can resume our travels next week (though having an extra 3 weeks with family would be awesome!). With the truck in good hands, we borrowed Hannah’s car for the day so managed to get in a few errands…..firewood, groceries, the usual. And since the kids were letting us borrow their car, I thought I’d detail it for them. With 2 kids and the move, they just haven’t had time for beautifying the CR-V.
With all of the packages delivered to Hannah’s the last few weeks, we had quite a few “presents” to open and install on the rig. New shelf in the door for the fridge (it fits!!), the stainless steel fridge panel (install later), new blind hopefully cut straight (install later), new water filter for the rig, new exterior fun illumination (hope to put up under the awning if the winds calm down), and a little something personal…..Jeff’s new Salomon trail runners! When we were in Greenville, we visited their local REI (Jeff’s favorite store), and the shoes that Jeff wanted weren’t available in his size. With their awesome customer service, the shoes would be mailed at no charge…..so problem solved! Oh, and we finally gave in to joining the rest of the RV gang and purchased a vinyl U.S. map for the side of the rig. We decided to place it on the side of the slide (see video). But, we thought we could use a little helper to assist us with filling in the states by shape. And it would be a great geography lesson to boot!
Later in the day we got a call from Ford that everything was done with the exception of the door lock mechanism that had to be sent from another dealership. They assured us the part would be sent and installed by tomorrow afternoon. Yeah. And our instincts were correct. They said with everything that had to be reassembled when installing the new transmission back in July, the navigation and 4-wheel drive wires were not connected properly. Whew! Nothing major.
Hannah and Devin really needed the day to recover after throwing such a great party, so we didn’t meet up with them until later in the day after they returned from Devin’s brother’s football game. Every moment is precious with our family since we likely won’t be together again until August when we’re on our way from Wisconsin to New York. Any task that needs to be done with those precious little ones, we are on it…….change a diaper, storytime, bathtime! Takin’ it ALL in! Looking forward to our hike together tomorrow.