Preventive Maintains on Truck

This morning I took the truck into the shop for some more preventive maintain's on the truck.  Back in 2010 I had the clutch replaced on the truck and at that time we had 157,000 miles on the truck.  The shop that did it is called Pessemier's Complete Automotive in the Fredrickson area.  They did a real good job last time and the truck is getting close to having 300,000 miles on it.  We are planning a lot of driving this summer and next fall so I figured it was time to replace it and be better off with a new clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing, and a refaced the flywheel.  The way I look at it, a little preventive maintains goes a long way.
They called this afternoon and said every thing was going good and will have it done tomorrow, they need to replace the hydraulic clutch that is something common when doing this, but it is coming from Portland and will be in tomorrow.  So tomorrow afternoon we will have the truck back and we can give out daughter back her car, which we really appreciate her letting us use it.  
We have pretty much finished calling all of our guest on the 59 Day Alaska trip that we are doing this summer.  We only have one more to talk to, so we are hoping to finish that tomorrow.  Then it is time to start planning menus and other things that we need to do, it is all part of showing them a great time.
If the weather holds true by late Wednesday it will start to clear up and I might get started on replacing all of the bolts on the springs with grease able bolts and brass bushing.  This will help make them last a few more miles longer.  OK, I got my chores set, now to try and get them done, one other thing while home this time we are going to try and lighten the load a little bit more.

Wiring Shop

The last week we have been doing a lot of nothing, in between the rain showers and great sunny days we have been having.  It is amazing how the weather is changing and the flowers are blooming.  It is hard to believe the daffodil's are already bloomed and looking great.  They say the Skagit Valley flowers are staring to show themselves also.  Years ago we were lucky to see them by the end of March, not the first of March.  The mountain was showing it self a lot this last week.

We have also been a little busy talking to all of our guest on our 59 Day Alaska Tour.  We are under 100 days before we start the trip to Alaska.  I think we only have 4 more couples to talk to and everybody has been contacted.  They all sound very positive and looking forward to starting the trip. This will be our 6th trip to Alaska for Adventure Caravan and we are looking forward to a great trip.
We are currently staying at our God-Daughters house and they have been busy building a shop and I have been helping them wiring it.

 Years ago I use to work with my brother-in-law wiring house's and it is one of those skills that I am glad I learned.  We have got the shop done in just over 8 hours of work, two weekends because we can't work all day.  Being a no-union shop we take a lot of breaks.

 We have all of the outlets installed and ready for the rough in inspection.  Now all the kids have to do is call for the inspection.

Tyler is there oldest son and he has been a lot of help.  He did all of the over head work so I didn't have, here he is running the wire for the over head lights and doing a great job.  After we finished everything Saturday, it was time to sit back and relax a little.
Sunday was another day of not doing much, we did talk to another guest today so the last couple of guest we hope to hear from in the next few days.
We are not really doing a lot lately so I will post when ever something pop's up that I can write about, have a great day and enjoy life, because we are doing our best to enjoy life to its fullest.

Truck Repair

This morning I was up early, 7:30 AM so I could make it to Van Cleve Ford in Morton.  My appointment was for 9:00 AM and they were waiting for me when I showed up at 8:45 AM.  After checking over the bill from Fiesta Ford in California.  We found out that everything they replaced were Ford parts but for the Calipers, they came from Auto Zone, so I was up a creek without a paddle.  So we looked over everything and they did me OK.  The rotor was OK, which was good.  This time I got Ford Calipers, which I thought I was getting when south.  James & Patty the service writers here in Morton did me right, out the door for only $200.00.  A lot cheaper that what Les Shwab wanted almost $1000.00 because they had to replace everything on the front end.  Anyway I am happy and on my way home by 10:30 AM, not bad.
On my way out of town I stopped and got my tabs for the truck, they are due in the next month and it is a lot less problems getting them up here were the truck is licensed.
Today we are getting hit with a pretty good storm so a good day to sit back and start getting things together for our Alaska trip.  I need to build a e-mail list of all of our guest so that it makes it a lot easier to send everyone a note at once.  One of the major things we have to do is start calling all of our guest in the next week.  So we will be busy with that the next few days, hoping we can catch up with everyone by phone.  I have gotten a few calls the last few days from a few guest, they must be starting to get excited about going.  This is our 6th trip and we are really looking forward to another trip to Alaska.
Cyndy has been busy getting here sewing room set back up and going through all of her tread and getting it set the way she likes.  She has found some nice trays that they keep them in some kind of order.

 As you can see she is getting them all in a row, like little ducks!!!  But she did find one that was going nuts on her,  After about 2 minutes I thought she was going to cut it out, but no she got it straightened out and everything back in its place.

 She need a couple more trays, so tomorrow we get to go to more Jo-Anns looking for trays.  SOunds like fun to me, I will have my book with me!!!!

Sewing Weekend

I know it has been a week since my last post, but when nothing exciting is happening I just can't find much to write about.  I am really trying to come up with things and this weekend was worth writing about.  This weekend was a trip up to our good friends Dick & Rose for Cyndy to get some embroidering classes from Rose.  It was a long drive, 40 miles and we were at our favorite camp ground in Mineral, Washington.
We got their Friday afternoon and the classes start right away.  The only problem is Cyndy didn't use her machine, she used Rose's nice "BIG" Brother machine.

All I know is they are using two or three different computers, and these BIG embroidery machines of Rose's.  It looks like the machine is doing everything and they just watch it go around making these great projects.  These are some of the things Cyndy did this weekend, great job.

This is kind of a coaster or just a saying to put in a wall frame.

This is called a Mug Rug!!!

 These can be little purse's on coin purse's, on what ever.

These are some of the things that Rose made this weekend.

We had a great weekend and I know the girls had a lot of fun.  We will have to plan another weekend very soon.
I always say that when the truck needs work done, I need to take it to a Ford Dealer so that if something goes wrong with a repair I can take it to any Ford Dealer and get it fixed.  Well Friday we had a right front brake stick and it got pretty hot, but after I stopped and tapped on the brake peddle it broke free.  So I went to Les Shwab, hoping they could maybe fix it, but they wanted to replace both front brake calipers and rotors for just under $1000.00. They said the brakes still had over 85% brakes left, something isn't right here.  So I looked back at when I had these brakes done, and it was just over 4 months ago and less that 10,000 miles.  So I called my favorite Ford Dealer in Morton, WA, total them my problem and they said they could get me in Tuesday of this next week and it would be covered under warranty.  YEAH!!!!!  So after we got the trailer hooked up Friday we didn't have any problems with the brakes all the way up to Dick & Rose's and almost all the way back.  Just 4 miles away from where we are staying it started to stick again, but as we got closer it freed itself again.  Now if it will just stay that way untell I get back to Morton on Tuesday!!!  Well keep you informed on what happens.

State Wrestling Match

The last few days we have been doing a lot of just running around and getting things done that we need to do.  Nothing of much importance, other than helping get our grand son off to school in the morning.  Speaking of our Grand Son, this weekend it was State Wrestling Matches at the Tacoma Dome, Saturday was High School state finals.  Today was Youth or Peewees (5 to 12 year old's) State Wrestling Tournament for the Puget Sound Area, with the top 40 kids in each weight class. Jared made it from his team, but he gained a little weight and wrestled in the 70 to 75 lb class.

Here he is in the black suit getting started in his first match.  At the Tacoma Dome there was 24 mats and a lot of wrestlers.

 He was beat in his first match by 1 point, he really put his heart into it.  Now most of these kids have been wrestling for years and Jared has been doing it for just 2 years and I think he is doing real good.  Keep it up JR!!!
He really did a great job but his second match he got pinned and was not very happy.  So this wrestling day end fast this morning and we were on our way home before 10:00 AM, better luck next year Jared.  He really like's wrestling and I know he will keep at it all year long.  They practice two days a week after wrestling season is over.
So the rest of the day I watched 40 cars race around the track at Daytona, it was a good race and a few smashed up cars, but all in all a great finish with Hamlin winning by .001 over Truex, Jr.
We are kind of hanging out here in the Northwest tell we head to Great Falls, Montana in June.  We are planning a trip to Long Beach for a couple of weeks the first of April.  Other than that we are just hanging out doing a lot of nothing and maintenance on the coach, nothing major just little things. I am hoping in May to have disk brakes put on the coach, I am going to change out the shackle bolts on springs for wet ones so that I can get some grease to them and that should help them last a lot longer.

Truck Repair Day

Today after dropping Jared off at school we headed up to Morton to Van Cleve Ford to get some work done to the truck.  I really like this Ford Dealer and they are very honest and really try and save you money where they can.  Anyway back to heading up to Morton we made a stop by some good friends Dick & Rose's place in Mineral, so that Cyndy and Rose could play with the sewing machines. I picked up Dick and we head on into Morton for the work on the truck.

I have been hearing a strange noise when ever we use the defrosters, so I thought it was something to do with the air conditioner pump.  While being their I might as well have them change the oil while checking out the pump.  When I gave them a call about the problem I got a quote of $1200.00 for replacing pump and refilling the air conditioner with all of its stuff.  Anyway as I said they do a good job, after having oil changed, air filter changed, fuel filter changed, pump fixed and also a new alternator (the pulley was real sloppy on the alternator) the final bill was $1095.00.  Not bad, I felt they did a great job, so if you ever need anything done on your Ford and you are close to Morton, WA stop by Van Cleve's for repairs.  I also wanted to say I made a appointment for 10:30 AM and they took the truck in before 10:30 to start working on it.  You don't get that in big towns.  

Now a little bit about Cyndy's day, Rose told here she didn't need to bring her maching, because she could use one of Roses.  Rose you a spoiling that girl.

This is the machine Cyndy was using today, Rose said she need to practice on it because in May when she goes to the class on embroidering she will be using a machine like this one.

  She did this on it and one more thing.

 She also made this small hand bag, Cyndy had a great time today and enjoyed herself while we were up waiting on the truck.  It sounds like the girls had a lot of fun.

Rose has big dinning room table, so this is where she sets up her machines.  I am glad they had a great time.  It looks like on the 26th we will move our house up here for the weekend so the girls can play on the machines.  I know Dick and I will keep busy doing something if it is nothing.

Done with Paperwork

Today we finished up all of the paperwork from the Seattle RV Show.

We had a pretty good show,  We did 9 Seminars, 4 on Alaska, 2 on Mexico, 1 on Maritime, 1 on Great River Road, and the last one was on Guided RV Tours.  We talked to a lot of people that had never heard of RV Caravan Company's before and I hope we enlightened them on how much fun they can be. We did not have any sales, but just talking to all the people and giving out over 350 catalogs, I figured we have planted a few seeds and hopefully in the future they will book a trip with us.
We have been watching our Grandson in the mornings before school.

 Yesterday he spent the night because he had no school for Presidents Day.  I think the boy's enjoy having him around.  They will sit by him for hours.  Today he went and spent the night with his other grand parents, but tomorrow morning he will be dropped off at about 5:30 AM for us to take him to school.  He comes right in and falls right back a sleep on the couch, with at least one of the boy sleeping with him.
Tomorrow after we drop him off, we are heading up to Morton to get some work done on the truck. The compressor motor is going out and the oil is due to be chanced.  I will drop Cyndy off at Dick & Rose's place so that Rose and Cyndy can get some sewing done, while I take the truck up to Morton.  It should take about 2 hours so we will see how that goes.
I am still trying to find a good price on having disk brakes put on the trailer.  I have gotten prices from $3150.00 up to over $8000.00.  So I have a couple of people I talked to up at the RV show so I am waiting for them to get back to me on a price.  The gentleman I talked to in Quartzsite got a hold of me and will be up in Oregon in May.  So we will just see how that works out.  I am also looking at have heavy duty wet Mor Ride suspension added to the coach, at the same time I have the brakes done by a company in Kent.  Right now my shackles are dry and would like to be able to grease them, they will last a lot longer with a lot less problems.