Finally on the road, we think!

Hi, everyone.  Mary’s writing today’s blog while Bill drives.  This is our second day on the road.  It was supposed to be our third, but as usual with RV’ing, there is a story!  When we left Lazydays last week, after the coach had been there 2 weeks for some warranty work (over a week was waiting for a part), an issue developed with the electrical system.  Being very pressed for time, we called a dealer in Wildwood, to have the issue diagnosed and corrected while we were in the area for a couple of social functions.

We had been invited to a block party with Bill’s former neighbors in The Villages, so we had made plans to attend that on Wednesday evening.  The second was an event called "Muster" that Texas A & M Alumni have every year on April 21^st to gather wherever they are to honor their school heritage, their past days at Texas A&M and their former classmates who have fallen during the previous year. This was originally an all-military university and continues its long-steeped military traditions. Muster was formally made a tradition when the A&M Alumni serving in battle in Corregedor risked their lives to celebrate the tradition from their foxholes and trenches, even knowing that they may not make it past that day. That day is still celebrated every April 21st with Aggies within 100 miles of another gathering together in celebration of the Aggie Spirit which lives on and with it every past member (Alum) is remembered symbolically as an Aggie present responds "Here!" when the names of the fallen alumnus is called at Muster. Bill helped charter the Texas A&M Club in The Villages which has grown tremendously since he left so he was glad to meet with them again to continue to share in Spirit, that which makes all Aggies... Brothers and Sisters.It was a great time.  One of the men there graduated from A & M the year I was born!  Finally, someone waaaaaaaaaaay older than me!

But I digress.  The issue with the electrical system was one that had the Technician, Senior Technical Advisor and the Manufacturer’s Technical person flummoxed.  After a day of poking and prodding on the coach, they identified that one of the coach’s four house batteries had a bad cell and was wreaking havoc with the entire system.  In the meantime we had determined that the faucet in the shower leaked and needed repair, of course the part had to be ordered.  So we had to wait a day for it to come in (Note: 1 day, not 8 like the previous dealer!).  The Dealer has a small campground that we stayed in while waiting for the part and we had access to the Technician who was very willing to answer our questions about how some of the coach’s systems work.  That access combined with our many last minute errands provided us with the ability to make good use of the wait time.  Finally, on Friday afternoon, the coach was pronounced in perfect running condition.  And it seemed to be true, the house batteries were charging and we relied on them overnight with no issues.  So, we left Wildwood on Saturday morning to begin our journey.

 

But wait, there is MORE!  When we stopped for the night and turned on the generator to run the air conditioning, the breaker on the generator kept tripping.  We finally gave up on air conditioning.  Fortunately, it was cool and the vent fans and room fan were able to keep us cool and we were able to get some sleep.  This morning Bill had an epiphany about what was causing to breaker on the generator to trip.  We NOW know, that we can charge the house batteries or run the air conditioning, but not both at the same time.  The things one learns the hard way! Now, as we begin day 2, we are wiser and are bit by frustrating bit, learning all of the ins and outs of how our coach works.  Well, it is 8:30am here in Alabama, so we shall see what this day has in store for 'roughingitgently'. Here are some photos from these last few days.