Home Is Where We Park It:  Talin RV

81

January 9, 2021

Temperature 52 Degrees

Done

Well, we’re going to try this again.  I originally published, or so I thought, this post yesterday but for some reason it never showed up.

Early Friday morning it was time to finally take off the old patio awning and install the new one.

And this is the reason why the old one had to go.  At the back end it was ripped and coming off the roller tube.

The first order of business was to remove the roller tube from the arms.

Then it was all hands on deck – Jason, Amy, Daniel, Dustin – and time to remove the guard – to which the awning is attached – with the awning from the channel rail on the rig.

It is now down and off to the shop so that the old awning can be removed from the guard and the new one installed.

Daniel on his way to the dumpster with the old awning.

The new awning attached to the guard and ready to be reinstalled.

Once again all hands on deck as the guard with the new awning is now reattached to the channel rail on the rig.  Anyone who thinks that this is a simple DIY project, I would suggest giving it some more thought.  It involves a lot more than I ever imagined.

Somewhere under there you’ll find Dustin and Jason.

The guard and the awning are now reattached to the channel rail.  This awning is also a linen tweed which is the same color and design as the window and door awning.  Like all the other awnings and slide toppers it has a 10 year warranty.  Suffice to say, it will probably be around long after I have stopped living on the road.

Time now to attach the awning to the roller tube.

Finally, the roller tube with the awning is reattaced to the arms.

Our new patio awning.  Once installed Dustin then sent the better part of the next hour making minor adjustments until he was competely satisfied with the fit and finish.

We had one more minor project to attend to.

We had received an email informing us that our new mattress was waiting for us back at the park.  What to do with the old one?  It just so happened that Dustin’s kids were in need of a spare mattress.  So Daniel and I pulled it out of the rig and Dustin later took it on home.

Our new mattress.  It has a coil spring foundation with several layers of different types of foam on top of that.  It is oh so comfortable.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  We’re now back home and settled.  Our week has definitely been a productive one.  Our time at Talin/Stone Voss was a fantastic one.  We were treated like family from the very beginning, going back oh so many months ago when we first placed our order.  The quality of customer service and the work performed from beginning to end was over the top.  Dustin, our tech was exceptional.  He really was a perfectionist.  We have worked with many techs over the last several years but he was definitely the best of the best.  I’m going to miss him.

Thanks for checking in with us today.  We always appreciate your company, your comments, and your suggestions. Keep safe, keep healthy, live to the fullest the days that God gives you.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

Home Is Where We Park It:  Talin RV

83

January 7, 2021

Temperature 71 Degrees

Almost Done

Ah, another morning in the parking lot.  Tiny Tim is keeping us warm.  Coffee and muffin in hand I’m ready to face another new day.

Yup, we’re still here.  I honestly didn’t expect to be here this long.  But then again it is partially my fault.  What I mean is, going with Plan B in terms of the new patio awning left us with a substantial credit on our account.  Sure, I could have put the money back on my credit card.  But not me, instead my first thought was let me see what else could we possibly fix, repair or upgrade.

First up, stipping all of the old silicone caulking out of every seam on both sides of the coach and recaulking them with the proper caulk.  This alone took a full day.

Next up was replacing the old sewer vent caps with new ones.

This is where we got a bit of a surprise.  Mike discovered that the one sewer vent cap was definitely sitting on top of a vent stack.  But the second one, it was just screwed to the roof with no vent stack beneath it!  Did someone forget to drill the hole in the roof for access to the vent stack?  Not sure but since we’ve never had a smell inside nor any issues with dumping the tanks Dustin didn’t believe it would be wise to go drilling a hole just to find out.  I’m with him.

Then there was the slide seal on the front passenger side slide.  It was ripped and torn in several spots.  This is the old that was pulled out.

The new one back in place.  An examination of all the other slide seals revealed no tears or rips so this was the only one replaced.  The key is a liberal dose of 303 every month to keep them flexible.  I can do that.

On to the beltline.  This is the seam where the roof meets the side wall.  All the old caulking was scrapped out and then it was recaulked.  Thankfully, there was no separation anywhere so no further action was necessary.

Then it was time to replace the slide rollers on the drivers side slide.  Ever time I moved it in or out I kept finding ball bearings on the floor.  Not a good sign.  Dustin put a jack under the slide, lifted it ever so slightly and that was just enough to get to them.  The first two that he removed came out in pieces.  The bearings were completely gone and the rollers themselves looked like someone had been chewing on them.  The last two were not much better.  As for the rollers on the other slide, no issues yet but I’ll keep my eyes on them for sure.  No rollers on the back slides so don’t have to worry about them.

One more item to address, the real reason that led us here in the first place, replacement of the patio awning.  Tomorrow, tomorrow, you are only a day away.

As for lunch, we decided to treat everyone to pizza.  Oh boy was it good.  We must have been thanked a hundred times by all the techs and employees in the shop.  Just our small way of saying thank you for the wonderful way they’ve been treating us and the quality of work that they’re doing.

That was our day on The Road of Retirment.  Tomorrow morning the patio awning will be installed – if the weather cooperates.  As for tonight, Mexican Train and another book to read.  I mean, does it really matter whether we do that here or back at Paradise?  Not really.  So we’ll just put our warm PJ’s on and enjoy the evening.

Thanks for checking in with us today.  We always appreciate your company, your comments, and your suggestions. Keep safe, keep healthy, live to the fullest the days that God gives you.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

 

 

Home Is Where We Park It:  Talin RV

84

January 6, 2021

Temperature 65 Degrees

Never in my life did I ever think I would see a day like this in Washington, DC

I believe President elect Joe Bidan said it best in his speech today, excerpts from it below:

To storm the Capitol, to smash windows, to occupy offices, and to threaten the safety of duly elected officials is not protest.  It is insurrection.

Today is a reminder, a painful one, that democracy is fragile.  To preserve it requires people of good will, leaders with the courage to stand up, who are devoted not to pursuit of power and personal interest at any cost, but to the common good.

Our way is plain here, too. It is the way of democracy, of lawfulness, and of honor — respect for each other, and for our nation.  Notwithstanding what we’ve seen today, I remain optimistic about the incredible opportunities.  There has never been anything we can’t do when we do it together. And this God-awful display today is bringing home to every Republican, Democrat, and Independent in the nation that we must step up.

May God Bless America.

As for us, yup we are still here.  The guy behind us is literally driving the guys here crazy with one request after another.  Then throw in an emergency repair that takes a few hours in the morning and . . . well you get the picture.   So, we’re being patient and just kicking back and taking it easy.  Sort of like we do every day.

Now how about that, no matter where we go we often end up close to a set of train tracks.  The tracks here are no more than 50 feet from our front door.   This bad boy came through late this morning with a very loud horn.  Now, here is the funny thing a train similar to this one came through last night at around 1 am.  But I never heard it! Ms Barbara told me about it when I got up this morning.  I guess I must have been really tired to sleep so deeply.

One thing did get done today.  They cleaned all the old caulking out of the beltline in preparation for a new bead of caulk.  I did this myself the last time on Graybeard and I said I would never do it again.  To me letting someone else do it is money well spent.

Yes, patience has its benefits.  Our Chinese lunch today was on the house.  No arguments from either of us.  Thank you very much.

That was our day on The Day of Retirement.  Tomorrow is another day.  They finished our patio awning today so that will definitely be installed tomorrow.  Hopefully, they’ll be no more emergency repairs nor little requests from the guy behind us and they can then focus on our coach.  We can hope.  Ah well, life is good so we’ll take it as it comes.  Sleep well.

Thanks for joining us again today.  We always appreciate your company, your comments, and your suggestions. Keep safe, keep healthy, live to the fullest the days that God gives you.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

Home Is Where We Park It:  Talin RV

85

January 5, 2021

Temperature 68 Degrees

Yup we’re still here.

Last night was a bit on the chilly side, like down to 38 degrees.  The question was How could we keep warm?  Being on 30 amps I had to be careful what I left on.  One heat pump but no more for sure.  But I wanted to experiement and so . . .

Tiny Tim to the rescue!  This little 14 inch ceramic heater continues to amaze us.  We decided to set it up by the cockpit seats and leave all dividing doors open.  It did the job never letting the temperature dip below 70 degrees in the front and 60 degrees in the back.  Amazing

First item on the schedule.

It did not want to go easily.  It took the better part of two hours to get it apart without breaking 15 year old plastic caps – which look so bad they will have to be replaced anyway.

Finally, it was off.

This awning, the window awning and the pato awning fabric are of a light brown tweed.  All edges are double stiched and I dare you to try and rip them.  They gave me a sample, which they cut part way through with a pair of scissors and told me to rip it further.  No matter how hard I tried I simply could not rip it any further.  This is some strong fabric.  The slide toppers are no different.

This is Dustin our tech.  He has been doing this type of work for over ten years.  He definitely knows what he is doing and as I watched him I realized very quickly he is also a perfectionist.

 He took our new awning back to the shop a couple of times because he didn’t like the way it looked and fitted.  Then once he was satisfied and it was on he massaged it for a good thirty minutes  more until he was absolutely satisfied with the way it fit and how it rolled up.  Looking good indeed.

Moving on. . .

The last of the slide toppers came off.  It was so brittle and full of holes that when I picked it up, it fell apart in my hands.  I wonder how it even lasted this long.

The new one going back on.  We picked a light tan color for all the slide toppers since we felt that white was too boring!  Like everything else it is all double stiched and tough as can be.  How tough?  Dustin told me four years ago they had a customer pressure wash one of their slide toppers with acetone and it still looks like new today.  I have no doubt that what we are having installed will be around long after I’m finished RV’ing.

Once again Dustin spent considerable time also getting this one just right.  

Progress is being made if somewhat slower than I expected.  However, in their defense they had a patio awning replacement this morning.  The couple had left their awning open and gone out for the day.  When they returned it was ripped in half and on top of their coach.  They were supposed to be here four weeks ago but COVID-19 got in the way and so today was the first day they could make it.  In addition, the coach behind us is still being worked on.  But no complaints from us because we know everything is being done right.  And, afterall,  we have no where to go.

They finished making the pato awning today.  It should go on either tomorrow or the next day.  The beltline still has to be repaired.  And I’m sure we’ll find a dozen other items that should be addressed.  This is the last major upgrade for this season so we want to make sure everything that needs to be addressed is taken care of.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  We’re keeping warm.  We’re keeping busy reading books and playing Mexican Train.  Ms Barbara has done a little shopping.  Life is good in so many ways.  Thank you Lord for looking after us as always.

Thanks for joining us again today.  We always appreciate your company, your comments, and your suggestions. Keep safe, keep healthy, live to the fullest the days that God gives you.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!