23 May 2024 - Shopping & New Love Seat

 

This morning we headed into town and did a bit of shopping.  We planned to visit an RV furniture store just to look around, and we drove there but they did not open until after noon.  On a Thursday.  OK, I guess...!   I should have verified their hours before we went.  So on the way back from our failed trip we stopped at Meijer and replenished some fresh produce items.  

After lunch we drove back to the RV furniture store, again, planning to just look.  Yeah, right!  The store we visited is Bradd and Hall.  They are one of the largest retail RV furniture dealers in Elkhart area,  Their furniture is Amish-made and that translates to quality.  They have a showroom with many models and colors on display.

After sitting in an amazing love seat and an amazing sleeper sofa,  we consummated the deal!  Unfortunately they did not have a sleeper sofa in the color we liked, but they did have the love seat.  So we took it with us back to the campground, saving their $250 installation fee and opted to have them build a sleeper sofa for us.  They did not charge us for it and offered to ship it ahead of our travels this summer, but instead when we return next year they will install it and dispose of our old one.  

We returned to the campground with the love seat and with the help of George, Michael and Ralph we removed the OEM love seat and installed the new one.  It was a snug fit but it will work fine!

Ralph and Michael demo'ing the old love seat.

Ralph and I getting the position just right!

This installation itself is pretty straight forward but the positioning is fairly critical.  To the rear we needed clearance for the love seat away from the wall as it reclines.  To the front we needed clearance for the love seat as the slide-out retracts as it comes very close to the kitchen island,  So we split the difference and it should work fine.

The new love seat with one of the foot rests extended.  It is so comfortable!  The foot rest adjusts.  The headrest adjusts,  There are USB ports on both sides and there will be a pop-up USB inductive charger with three USB ports on the armrest in the center!

Storage in the base of the section that divides the two seats.  It has pockets for remote controls.  As soon as we installed it I moved all of our charging cords, USB cords, network cords, my iPad and other items there!

That is about it for today.  We skipped the bon fire tonight as we were finishing cleaning up after the install and we were both tired.  Tomorrow Liberty is getting a spa day here at the campground with one of our Ally's who does pet washing and grooming.  So Doreen will stay here while I travel to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Elkhart.  Tomorrow the Alliance owners are volunteering their time and expertise to help this great organization with a variety of tasks.  It is an honor to give back to the community here.

22 May 2024 - Rally Prep and Dinner with Jennifer

 

This morning I had to have the big ol brown truck at the Ram dealer to address a "water in the fuel" error message.  As explained previously I drained the fuel/water separator filter and the error cleared, but I opted to have them change both fuel filters just on general principles.  They got me right in as promised at 0700 hrs and I was back in the campground by 0900 hrs.  

Later in the morning we headed into Alliance RV Headquarters, better known as the "Mother Ship" to start working on the Alliance Rally preparation.  We assembled hundreds of lanyards and inserted name cards that the Rally attendees will wear.  Our group was also alphabetizing the welcome bags and grouping and sorting the Rally t-shirts. 

Photo credit George and Donna Walker

Photo credit George and Donna Walker

This afternoon Doreen and I drove north into Michigan and had dinner with daughter Jennifer and her husband James.  We met at Rooster's Wing Shack in Three Rivers MI, which is located on Main Street.  The Main Street of Three Rivers could be the main street of many towns in the Midwest.  They all have a very similar look. 

Our dinner was very good.   Unfortunately both of our grandkids had to stay home because this week is finals and they needed to study.  Lindsey had final tests in both Physics and Spanish tomorrow.  We hope to get together with them this weekend. 

We finished up the evening around the campfire again meeting with and talking to Ally's from all over the USA.  Good times!

No firm plans for tomorrow yet.  Things are going to start getting very busy as the weekend approaches when we move to the Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds for the Rally.

21 May 2024 - Second Day of Repairs and Storms in Iowa

 

While we travel the United States we are well-connected with home.  We have extensive telemetry, cameras and sensors throughout our "sticks and bricks" house, plus our son is the deputy fire chief in our town.  He stops over regularly to check on the house and we are very appreciative of that.  He also keeps us appraised of impending weather that might impact our house.  

So today we had a wild weather day at home in Iowa.  There were a series of storms that moved through this morning and then another cell that moved through later this afternoon.  I lowered my flag to half staff to lessen the load on the flag pole and that makes a big difference.  My flag pole is not a commercial pole but rather a lighter weight consumer-grade aluminum pole.  Lowering it saved the pole without a doubt.  Even lowering it, the pole still took a beating.  Check out this video!:

Communities in Iowa were really impacted by the storms.  We watched some storm chasers travel into Greenfield Iowa where there was widespread devastation with at least four deaths.  We heard that the hospital was taken offline also.  Western central Iowa where Greenfield is also has a lot of wind generators.  The videos showed many of them laying in a pile burning! 

The same storm that clobbered Greenfield made it's way across to central Iowa and hit our town of Ankeny.  We watched live video as storm chasers reported.  My neighbors help keep an eye on our place when we are gone and we got a phone call from my neighbor Scott that our neighborhood had been hit pretty hard.  He walked around our house and it seemed OK, but other neighbors had downed trees and damage.  Our street was blocked with trees.  

Our adjacent street blocked by downed trees

More downed trees

So we dodged a bullet again.  No damage to our house.  Sounds like no damage to my son's house.  With all the rain we have received my sump pump is running once every minutes, but that keeps our basement dry so that is a good thing!

 

Sense monitor show how frequently all of our electrical devices run, how long they runs, 

and whether they are increasing or decreasing. This is the primary sump pump. 

Back at the Elkhart Campground this was day two of the repair teams.  One team came back and worked on my front cap decal with a heat gun.  Another team from Dexter Axle came and analyzed some unusual tire wear I was having on my front axle.  They verified the axles and spindles were not bent and my frame camber was good.  They determined it was likely due to the original tires being out of balance.  I replaced my tires with a new set before we departed this spring, since this would have been season five on them and they had over 25,000 miles on them.  The new ones are balanced!

Tonight we had a huge gathering around the campfire where we met and talked with Ally's from all over the United States.  Today Doreen and I walked all around the campground and we counted 74 Alliance coaches here, and more rolling in every day.  Keep in mind this is the "pre-rally"!  The actual Alliance Rally does not start until Wednesday of next week!  What a blast!

Tomorrow I have an appointment at the RAM dealer at 0700 hrs to get my fuel filters changed due to some water in the fuel along the way somewhere.  Later we will be assembling the 400+ welcome bags for the Rally.  Tomorrow night we will meet our daughter Jennifer, her husband James and our grandkids Lucas and Lindsey at a restaurant in Three Rivers Michigan.  It will be great to see them! 

So speaking of weather, here is a report from my Weatherflow Tempest weather device here on my RV of the freak storm we had that took out my flagpole, and the resulting damage.  I temporarily patched it up with some epoxy, but a replacement will be here tomorrow via Amazon!

Wind speed spike

Snapped it off

Repaired with epoxy

20 May 2024 - First Day of Alliance Repairs

 

We are here in Elkhart IN at the Elkhart Campground ahead of the Alliance National Rally which is held at the Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds in Goshen IN, not far away. We arrived earlier that normal this year so we could go fishing with our grandson and see our daughter Jennifer and her family.  We also arrive early to spend time with our Alliance friends we have met from all over the United States and Canada since attending out first Alliance Rally in August 2020.  The Elkhart Campground is where the 2020 and 2021 Alliance Rally's were held, and we attended. The first year we only had about 40 RV's here! Since then the Rally attendance has grown to over 400 RV's.  Therefore in 2022 Alliance outgrew the Elkhart Campground and the event was moved to the Fairgrounds in Goshen.  But the Elkhart Campground where we are now still serves as the staging area, or the "pre-rally" location.  There are campfires in the evenings and everyone is encouraged to socialize and make new friends.  

One of the Alliance factory trucks full of repair parts and tools.

Starting back in 2020 at the first Rally, those who register for the Alliance Rally were allowed to submit three items in advance that they wanted to have repaired.  This was exclusive of the status of their warranty and free of charge, so that in itself is a huge incentive to attend the Rally.  That benefit continues today, and I submitted my three items earlier this year after we registered for the Rally.  To be honest I struggled to identify three items.  That is a good thing!  So fast-forward to today.  We have an estimated 100 Alliance coaches here for the pre-rally!  So Alliance sends teams of technicians and truck-loads of parts here to start repairing items on the coaches that arrive early.  That frees up the technicians for repairs once everyone arrives at the fairgrounds.  

Tag-teaming my decal.  It has been on there since Feb 2020, 

so it is baked on pretty good!

This morning Alliance technicians arrived in force and started making their way around the campground.  Shortly after noon they arrived at our campsite to address my issues.  One was a damaged front cap decal, pictured above.  Another set of technicians checked my bedroom slide-out operation and determined it was working good.  They also checked my hydraulic levelers and found the front left jack leaking hydraulic fluid.  This item is being referred to Lippert, the manufacturer of the hydraulic leveling system,  for their repair.

Decal replaced and looking good!

Tomorrow Dexter, the manufacturer of the axles on my coach will be out to analyze some abnormal tire wear on my front axle. Bent axles or bent spindles is fairly common due to the deteriorated condition of our roads and bridges...! 

While all this is going on Ally's are helping Ally's with other repairs and upgrades throughout the campground.  Others are relacing, exercising, socializing and later even a bit of partying!!  So we were sitting around our site tonight with the Walker's from Florida, the Lowther's from Georgia, the Pizzi's from South Carolina and the Jankevicius' crew from Texas. All of a sudden a storm rolled in.  Doreen and I had stepped inside our coach for a few minutes and before I could get my shoes on and get outside, the wind ripped my flagpole down!  The bottom mount broke, but I believe the pole itself is intact.  Unknown the status of the two lights I have on it.  I will order a new mount and check out the lights tomorrow.  It could have been worse.

19 May 2024 - Grandson's Baseball, Pizzi's Arrive, It's a Small World!!

 

Beautiful day at the Elkhart Campground today.  The Alliance coaches continued to roll in for the Rally.  The campground is getting full of Alliance Valor's, Paradigm's, Delta's and Avenue's!  This morning we headed into Meijer and restocked the fridge and pantry a bit.  When we returned, Doreen used her Instant Pot and cooked Liberty some chicken ahead for the next couple weeks.  

Our Ankeny grandson's Daniel Jr and Calvin had baseball tournaments all weekend so we used the Game Changer app and tuned into live feeds of their games.  We had some games that went into extra innings, and overall the boys did really great!  

Daniel's team, the Iowa Prospects Blue 13U

Daniel and his tournament ring (they don't use trophies any more)

Daniel's team went undefeated throughout the weekend (7-6, 7-2, 7-6, 12-11) winning the tournament.  Daniel batted 0.667 with 8 hits including singles, doubles and triples.  He is a very versatile player so he saw time at shortstop, catcher and pitcher.  On the mound he faced 26 batters striking out 7.  

Calvin and his Ankeny Titans 11U team

He is front row left as you look at the picture

Calvin's team had a great weekend also losing their first game, winning the next two games both 11-7 and tying the last game 10-10 in extra innings.  Overall Calvin batted 0.643 with 9 hits, 9 RBI's with 14 at bats. One of his double's was just 4 feet short of going over the fence!   He is a solid catcher, pitcher and about any other position he is assigned!

Although we could not watch our grand daughter Lindsey, they played a volleyball tournament in Grand Rapids MI this weekend.  We hope to see Lindsey, Lucas, Jennifer and James on Wednesday evening for dinner! 

We are so thankful for technology that allows us to stay connected with our kids and grandkids as we travel.

This afternoon Mike and Donna Pizzi, our Alliance friends from Murrell's Inlet South Carolina arrived here in the campground.  They were unable to attend last year's rally so it is great to see them back!  Tomorrow more friends arrive.  It is like a big family reunion!

So Doreen was sitting with Mike and Donna Pizzi catching up with them a bit and I headed over to the dumpster to deposit a bag of trash.  While I was gone, a lady we had seen running the streets of the campground stopped by and asked if I had served in the Iowa Air National Guard! Doreen responded "yes he did!" and so when  I returned I quickly recognized a Soldier I had worked with in Iowa and run with back in my running days, COL Monica Hock Radke!  Wow, I had not seen her since probably 2013. I recognized her right away!  She served in the Army Reserve in Des Moines when I was State Command Chief of the Iowa Air National Guard.  As the State Senior Enlisted, we reached out to all of the branches of the military.  Monica moved to the Washington DC area to serve a tour there and I retired in 2015, so we had lost connection a bit.  She was here in the Elkhart area getting her RV repaired!  What a small world!

18 May 2024 - Fishing with Grandson Lucas

 

Rarely do I get to spend much time with my grandson Lucas who lives in Battle Creek MI, but our visit to Elkhart provided a great opportunity.  Lucas is a high school junior preparing for finals week, a talented hockey goalie in between seasons and working a job in the evenings, so he is a very busy guy.  He is also an avid fisherman!  Luckily we caught him with a free day so we hired a guide and arranged a fishing trip in southern Michigan - reasonable driving distance from here in Elkhart, and also from Battle Creek.  

Absolutely gorgeous morning as the sun rises above the lake

We arrived at the prearranged meeting point which is a public boat ramp in Constantine MI.  We planned to meet about 0630 hrs at the boat launch so it was a very early morning for all of us!  There is a dam on the St Joe River which forms a lake above the dam.  The lake/river looked like a piece of glass this morning.  The sky was clear and the temperature was warming.   Soon thereafter my daughter Jennifer arrived with grandson Lucas and our guide Derek Weurding arrived with his boat,.

 

Derek is an elementary school teacher that guides fishing trips in his spare time all over southern Michigan. Soon he launched the boat, we loaded up and were headed upriver.  

Along the way we saw water foul of all sorts and some beautiful cottages along the shore.  There were very few other boats out.  

Fishing and boating have evolved with technology like everything else.  Derek used his larger outboard motor to get us up the river and once there used his trolling motor to maneuver us.  There is nothing magical about that, but what is pretty cool is the trolling motor's wireless remote control he has hanging around his neck on a lanyard and the fact that it is GPS-enabled.  Our guide pushed a button on the remote, and the trolling motor will keep us in one spot, based on our GPS coordinates!  How awesome!

So we headed up river, stopping at a few spots and tried various lures fishing mostly for small mouth bass.  Our guide varied our lures and coached us on some different styles of presentation. It was not long before Lucas hauled in the first catch of the day, a large mouth bass. We released all of the bass that were caught. 

 

We continued to fish and Lucas seemed to have the touch.  The guide did not fish but kept Lucas and I well equipped, switching our rods with different lures to try and also operated the trolling motor to put us in good position relative to the lily pads and shore.  We switched from fishing for small mouth bass to fishing for blue gills which Lucas wanted to keep.  They started to bite and we were hauling them in, and some nice sized ones too!

We alternated between fishing for bass and fishing for blue gills and Lucas caught another bass.  But before we knew it the morning had clicked by and it was time to head back to the boat ramp.  

Once the boat was back on the trailer our guide set up a portable cleaning station to clean Lucas's blue gills to take home.  He carries this in the back of his pickup and it is simple but effective.  

We had a great day fishing and some quality time with Lucas.  We are so proud of this young man.  He recently almost "aced" his ASVAB tests for qualification in the military.  His goal is to be a aerial gunner/combat flight engineer in the United States Air Force like his dad was,  He also plans to start his electrician apprenticeship this summer as another skill set.

  

While we were headed back to dock I received a text from Jennifer that she had driven to Elkhart and picked up Doreen at the campground, then headed to Zimmy's Tavern in Union MI for lunch.  So Lucas and I headed there to meet up with them.   We had a great lunch and then said goodbye to them.  We hope to see them Wednesday night for dinner when our son-in-law James and grand daughter Lindsey will be able to join us.  Today Lindz had a volleyball tournament in Grand Rapids and James was with her.

Back at the campground we relaxed a bit, took Liberty for a walk and greeted many of the newly arriving Ally's.  The "south 40" area of the campground is really filling up!  More and more each day.  No big plans for tomorrow other than maybe a run to the store.